The Terrorist Rubik's Cube 

The Department of Homeland Security raised the Terror Alert Warning Level to Orange yesterday for Oregon when it was discovered that a toy store in St. Helen's had a suspicious toy on display.

When the two agents arrived at the store, the lead agent asked Cox whether she carried a toy called the Magic Cube, which he said was an illegal copy of the Rubik's Cube, one of the most popular toys of all time.

He told her to remove the Magic Cube from her shelves, and he watched to make sure she complied.

After the agents left, Cox called the manufacturer of the Magic Cube, the Toysmith Group, which is based in Auburn, Wash. A representative told her that Rubik's Cube patent had expired, and the Magic Cube did not infringe on the rival toy's trademark.

Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said agents went to Pufferbelly based on a trademark infringement complaint filed in the agency's intellectual property rights center in Washington, D.C.

"One of the things that our agency's responsible for doing is protecting the integrity of the economy and our nation's financial systems and obviously trademark infringement does have significant economic implications," she said.

Excuse me? Why does the Dept. of Homeland Security have an Intellectual Property Rights Center in the first place? The last time I checked, trademark and patent disputes were actually a matter for civil courts. Are we honestly afraid that the next terrorist attack will be shadily constructed Hasbro toy look a likes being air dropped across our cities? Think small government George... small... tiny... miniscule.

Side note... they didn't actually raise the terror alert level.