When Mom and Dad are off to war, kids get the next "best" thing; cardboard cutouts. If you truly think this is a stupid idea, remember that politicians might essentially be the same thing in office.

I think this idea should extend to those Fundamentalist Christian Conservative Republicans (FCCR), who support the "War of Terror" but simply are too busy to either fight it themselves, or ensure there children serve. They could send cardboard cut-outs of themselves, which interestingly, mirror their world view. No, generally half of 'Murica. Unfortunately, the FCCR crowd is playing the willing victim.

I guess the real travesty is both can be easily shredded to ribbons.

From the Boston Globe: Guard families cope in two dimensions

Maine National Guard members in Iraq and Afghanistan are never far from the thoughts of their loved ones.

But now, thanks to a popular family-support program, they're even closer.

Welcome to the `Flat Daddy" and `Flat Mommy" phenomenon, in which life-size cutouts of deployed service members are given by the Maine National Guard to spouses, children, and relatives back home.

The Flat Daddies ride in cars, sit at the dinner table, visit the dentist, and even are brought to confession, according to their significant others on the home front.

`I prop him up in a chair, or sometimes put him on the couch and cover him up with a blanket," said Kay Judkins of Caribou, whose husband, Jim, is a minesweeper mechanic in Afghanistan. `The cat will curl up on the blanket, and it looks kind of weird. I've tricked several people by that. They think he's home again."

CNN has the video of "Flat Daddies."

This appears to be a "Cut and Paste" response to Iraq. 

Sick shit.