Of all the ideas...

Over the course of my lifetime it has been my... pleasure?... to come across many strange ideas that have been turned into products and sold to the unsuspecting masses. Most of these take the form of trendy things that people must have if they are to be cool (think pet rocks, mood rings, friendship bracelets, anything featuring an American Flag in the post 9/11-era), but some are more insidious. We have already mentioned some of these in our posts, including bumper stickers that advertise the lack of intelligence of the buyer, but this is the first time we are taking on the subject directly.

The reason it came up today was a catalog from a place called Terry's Village featuring patriotic accouterments for today's patriotic Americans. One of the items was "patriotic toilet paper." While your first reaction might be "what's wrong with patriotic toilet paper?" we hope your next reaction is "why would you want to do that to something that represents our country?" At the GNU Public Dictatorship we are nothing if not patriotic, but we have to rank this one right up there with the outdoor display of an American Flag printed in obviously-not-indelible ink with a caption that reads "These colors don't run." The irony is delicious.