With all of the current toy recalls my wife and I have been pondering what to do about toys, and even other products, for Christmas for the kids this year.

It’s not that I’m overly paranoid that the Chinese are out to kill and/or harm us all, but it is certainly a concern. Especially since it appears that every toy that is/was made in China toy is being recalled, but they’re just taking it in stages. (Is that paranoid or make me sound like some conspiracy nut?) And who has the time to purchase toys that have to be returned? Can you even imagine how much worse the exchange lines will be after Christmas this year if this continues?

So we looked through all of the kids current toys and haven’t found much of anything that isn’t made in China (and good luck finding many “Made in the USA” toys at the major retailers). And this also includes all of the “kids meal” related toys for the various fast food restaurants.

So this has lead to the start of yet another Surge Bucket Media blog, Just Not China, which will showcase products that you can buy that are indeed, “Not Made in China”. (If someone has a positive phrasing idea for that, please let me know.) While there are a few major companies that we hope to get on board, the vast majority of the products will not be available many places beyond online websites and catalog sales. But that is great as you’ll be helping the “little man” and be purchasing products that most people don’t even know about.

We quickly put this up today, based on this blog’s theme, so bear with us as it gets built out and products are listed. It may take a few weeks to get rolling, but we hope to have some products listed well before Christmas. So please bookmark the site and subscribe to the RSS feed. And if you have anything to add, please contact us.

Trolley Dodgers #51 and Trolley Dodgers #52 are now available. Spend 40 minutes with myself and Jeff getting caught up on the sports happenings from the past few weeks.

Trolley Dodgers #50 is now available. Get caught up on the sports happenings from the past week.

Utter Oddcast #35 is now available.

On this episode of Utter Oddcast we discuss A Pensylnania woman cussing her toilet, Chinese drivers kick up stink about “WC” car plates, a naked man breaching Vatican security, a man walking plank in his undies (again), a NYC woman finding a python in the toilet, Hardee’s 920-calorie breakfast burrito, and the Pepsi vs. Coke throwdown at Wal-Mart.

Utter Oddcast #34 (a.k.a. October Oddness 2007 #4) is now available. Check it out for another dose of Halloween related oddness.