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| Silly String donation drive |
| 2006-12-06 |
| Edited for brevity. In an age of multimillion-dollar high-tech weapons systems, sometimes it's the simplest ideas that can save lives. Which is why a New Jersey mother is organizing a drive to send cans of Silly String to Iraq. American troops use the stuff to detect trip wires around bombs, as Marcelle Shriver learned from her son, a soldier in Iraq. Before entering a building, troops squirt the plastic goo, which can shoot strands about 10 to 12 feet, across the room. If it falls to the ground, no trip wires. If it hangs in the air, they know they have a problem. The wires are otherwise nearly invisible. Now, 1,000 cans of the neon-colored plastic goop are packed into Shriver's one-car garage in this town outside Philadelphia, ready to be shipped to the Middle East thanks to two churches and a pilot who heard about the drive. The maker of the Silly String brand, Just for Kicks Inc. of Watertown, N.Y., has contacted the Shrivers about donating some. Marcelle Shriver said that since the string comes in an aerosol can, it is considered a hazardous material, meaning the Postal Service will not ship it by air. But a private pilot who heard about her campaign has agreed to fly the cans to Kuwait - most likely in January - where they will then be taken to Iraq. |
| Posted by:Dar |
| #6 Sticky foam? Lol. |
| Posted by: .com 2006-12-06 20:45 |
| #5 Indeed, grom. Soldiers improvising creative solutions is neat to hear about, but SOP. What floors me is that creative solutions are required in the first place due to the enemy's Geneva violations and war crimes -- as is the case here -- and that aspect goes completely unremarked upon by the press. As if it's the white man's burden, so to speak, to just take barbaric, perfidious, illegal tactics in stride. And, find a way around their own government's st00pid regulations in the process. Argh. Anyway, I don't see why this couldn't be scaled up. Perhaps the ISG will recommend Silly-Stringing the whole friggin joint. Tie em all up good and tight, then tell em we'll be back after all the task forces, investigations, committee hearings, studies, reviews, and blue ribbon panels figure out what to do. Heh. |
| Posted by: exJAG 2006-12-06 20:39 |
| #4 The war between those who are eager to die for Allan, and those who want to live for themselves has some very strange aspects. |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2006-12-06 20:02 |
| #3 Damn. That's ingenious. Does John Fn Kerry know about this? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2006-12-06 19:39 |
| #2 As usual, the solution is right there, but pinheads stand in the way. |
| Posted by: gorb 2006-12-06 17:59 |
| #1 Brilliant! |
| Posted by: Mark E. 2006-12-06 17:47 |