You'll shoot your eye out with that thing kid!
Posted on 12/22/2005 6:37:05 AM PST by Hadean
For kids, Christmas means toys. For boys in particular, the hottest toys often have a martial theme — BB guns, army men, light sabers and the like.
But this Christmas season, some parents trudging to the malls for G.I. Joes have had to meet the politically correct platoons now infiltrating the local Toys R' Us.
Code Pink, a leftist women's outfit that's a fixture at antiwar rallies, is taking a break from protesting real conflict in Iraq to campaign against so-called "war toys." As the Pink website warns: "Every holiday season manufactures prey on our children with pro-war propaganda disguised as innocent toys. Don't let your child be a victim of G.I. Joe!"
I feel compelled to note that the gracefully aging ladies of Code Pink obviously never have watched an actual G.I. Joe cartoon since the Real American Hero's enemies are famous for rolling, flying, or parachuting their way out of danger. The Teletubbies have a better kill rate than Joe and his comrades.
Nevertheless, Code Pink is calling for parents to boycott purveyors of pretend weaponry. Fair enough, I suppose. If American parents really think that a cowboy hat and plastic six shooter will turn their little darling into a senseless killer, then by all means: Send a message by buying "The Rainforest Playset" or "Sensitivity: The Boardgame" instead. Voting with your dollars — it's the free market at work. Code Pinkers horrified by a foam ninja throwing stars or a water gun can avoid these things and argue that others should too.
Yet Code Pink goes way beyond the venerable boycott. While the group urges activists to don pink camouflage and distribute sidewalk propaganda on the evils of war toys, it also instructs would-be peace warriors to pursue their campaign inside stores.
One suggested tactic is the "buy and return." The idea is for activists themselves to purchase war toys and then head straight to customer service. There they return the offending products while engaging in a verbal strike — imploring managers to take "violent" toys off the shelves and pestering fellow customers about war toys' dangers. (Certainly, there's no better way to win converts than to gum up the return and exchange lines during the holiday rush.) Code Pink suggests pre-arranging local media to cover the impending ruckus.
At least Code Pink's "buy and return" silliness is probably legal. Operation "Stick It To 'Em," however, encourages activists to deface private property by placing surgeon general-style warning labels on offending toys. The Code Pink website includes helpful samples that, they explain, are easily printed on sticky mailing labels. One sums up the heart of the campaign: "Violent Toys=Violent Boys."
That equation just doesn't add up. Clearly, not all toys are virtuous or appropriate for children. Video games like Grand Theft Audio, in which players can decapitate police officers (or alternatively, set them on fire or brutalize them with a chainsaw), are unhealthy for children — and probably for everyone else. Some toys have few redeeming values.
Yet there's a big difference between GTA: Vice City and G.I. Joe, plastic army men, or Super Soakers. As Code Pink says, wars — real wars — aren't games. But the reverse also is true: Games aren't wars. Neither research nor common sense supports quashing the natural tendency of little boys to play soldier, cowboy, or cop. And like it or not, violence is a reality in the world and soldiers and policemen aren't villains to most Americans. These professions embody the discipline, responsibility, and self-sacrifice that most parents want to nurture in their children. What better way for kids to express admiration and explore these virtues than through games and make believe?
Sometimes games turn ugly. Rough-and-tumble play can lead to bruised egos as well as bruised knees and elbows. Parents should set limits and exercise supervision to ensure that games and play don't go too far. Such parental involvement — teaching limits and under what circumstances aggressive behavior is appropriate — will do far more to shape boys into honorable young men than costumed whining at toy stores.
These biddies must hate me. Next week I have the privelege of helping my buddy take his 11yr. old grandson on his first deer hunt. WV has a 1 or 2 day 'Youth Hunt Season.' I'll be helping by driving and know that I'll be sore for a week after.
There was a Lib on WRKO once who tried that experiment on his daughter. He bought her two fire trucks. She called them Mommie Truck and baby Truck.
LOL, I did that!
Hell, in the late 60's we had show & tell at school and one of my classmates brought his quite impressive NAZI guns and flags to show which his veteran Dad had collected during the war.
We only had fist fights in school back then. No one even bothered to use their pocketknives. Imagine that!
When were ya there? I just spent 9 days in disney with Jr... the only "game" we played the entire time, was the shooting range in frontierland... he impressed me.
S'okay. There's been thousands upon thousands of passholders descending upon the Theme Parks during the last weekend when I was there myself.
Case-in-point: You're only missing the loooooooong lines, crowded walkways, nippy cold (yes!!!)....and ,of course, all the Disney Magic.
If you put a boy in a room for 20 minutes with nothing but 2 hangers, he's going to exit the room with a Car and a Gun.
That’s great, good luck with that, but if you don’t want you children play certain video games then DON’T BUY THEM.
No all forms of media need to be consumable by the youngest children.
I was there for a week early November. Epcot and Magic Kingdom are my daughter's favorites, so that was it for the parks. The rest of the time we checked out Downtown Disney for Wolfgang Puck's and Virgin Records. The weather was absolutely perfect and the crowds were the lowest I've ever seen.
Want to really tick em off? Need a sign that says:
"Nagging Hags = Violent Boys"
My brothers and I played cowboys and Indians with our six-shooters, decked out in our cowboy/girl attire.
Who was the liberal talker on RKO?
Great story!
We were there from Thanksgiving day through the following week.
I don't really play "games" at amusement parks... work to hard for my money.. but the shooting range is the one exception, and that's not a "game" anyway.. no prize to win other than hitting the target.
So Jr and I did go through some quarters in Frontier Land.
The Left does not believe in individual freedom, even if nobody else is harmed, unless of course it relates to sex in any way, then they are for as much freedom as possible.
Under-reported: as violent video games proliferate, rates of actual violence decrease.
One of my greatest Christmas gifts to myself would be to have the oppportunity to find a bunch of these traitors and taunt them loudly in public.
I even have a group of friends, including a couple of gulf war 1 vets who would help me.
Alas, they don't seem to show their nasty, disease riddled, commie butts in my neck of the woods in West Virginia.
I've never seen that firing range but will definitely seek it out next time we're there. My daughter could use some target practice.
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