And now for something (not entirely) new and different...

James Quinn is quoted as stating: "Our whole American way of life is a great war of ideas, and librarians are the arms dealers selling weapons to both sides." In a country that seems to embrace all things warlike with such abandon, it should be no surprise that GI Joe and his brethren combat action figures have been joined by the most dangerous purveyor of revolutionary tools...ideas.

A wonderful company called McPhee (whose products are made by "magic pixies") debuted the Nancy Pearl, Librarian, action figure in 2003. Ms. Pearl was the author of Book Lust (a fun, "so you need something to read???" book). Mind you, it was not met without opposition to its perceived revolutionary nature (ok, people were really just whining about the "Amazing Shushing Action"). The protesters have not succeeded in suppressing this fun (abet, dangerously radical) action figure...McPhee relatively recently released, "The Deluxe Librarian Action Figure" (with more books, a library cart and desktop computer for even more revolutionary idea spreading fun). BUT THAT'S NOT ALL. You can bolster your Librarian's strike force power by adding support from the likes of:

Jane Austen - "Nothing amuses me more than the easy manner with which everybody settles the abundance of those who have a great deal less than themselves." (Mansfield Park)
Charles Dickens - "Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery." (David Copperfield)
Oscar Wilde - "Disobedience, in the eyes of any one who has read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and rebellion." (The Soul of Man under Socialism)
Edgar Allen Poe - "It may well be doubted whether human ingenuity can construct an enigma...which human ingenuity may not, by proper application, resolve." (The Gold Bug)
Sherlock Holmes - "...when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?" (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four)
Albert Einstein - "Great spirits have always encountered opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly." (quoted in New York Times, March 13, 1940)

Mind you, McPhee also has a wonderful collection of other bits of this and that (including a personal favorite). It should also be no surprise that they have a wide selection of other, less threatening action figures. I know where all our holiday presents for everyone we know are coming from this year...

One last quotation for this morning, making clear why librarians (and, more broadly, the press) are far greater threats than we have been lead to believe:

Why should freedom of speech and freedom of the press be allowed? Why should a government which is doing what it believes to be right allow itself to be criticized? It would not allow opposition by lethal weapons. Ideas are much more fatal things than guns. Why should a man be allowed to buy a printing press and disseminate pernicious opinions calculated to embarrass the government?

Vladimir Lenin may have been a bit off on the whole political thing, but he certainly knew where the threat to a government rests...