{"id":3968,"date":"2003-03-05T14:54:42","date_gmt":"2003-03-05T19:54:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=3968"},"modified":"2003-03-05T14:54:42","modified_gmt":"2003-03-05T19:54:42","slug":"basket_cases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/03\/05\/basket_cases.html","title":{"rendered":"Basket cases"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve never quite gotten the pre-packaged Easter Baskets that seem to infest supermarkets these days around Easter time.<\/p>\n

But nobody <\/i>seems to get the latest trend in Easter Baskets: toy soldier-themed baskets<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At the Astor Place Kmart, the encampment is on display just inside the main entrance. A camouflaged sandy-haired soldier with an American-flag arm patch stands alert in a teal, pink, and yellow basket beneath a pretty green-and-purple bow. Within a doll-arm’s reach are a machine gun, rifle, hand grenade, large knife, pistol, and round of ammunition. In the next basket a buzz-cut blond with a snazzy dress uniform hawks over homeland security, an American eagle shield on his arm, and a machine gun, pistol, Bowie knife, two grenades, truncheon, and handcuffs at the ready.<\/p>\n

Yeesh.<\/p>\n

Religious and <\/i>military spokesfolk are more than a bit put off. Episcopal Bishop George Packard, who ministers to the military, calls it “really, really bizarre. It’s a crass embrace of the far end of a range of options for parents to provide their kids. Easter baskets have been deteriorating for a long time, but they’ve really gone over the edge. I am so disturbed, I am so confounded by this bad taste.” <\/p>\n

As long as they sell, though, the retailers seem immune to concerns. <\/p>\n

“There was no intention on our part to offer up a violent Easter basket. We’re very conscious of what will and what will not offend our customers. It was meant to be a lighthearted and fun gift,” says Kmart spokesperson Abigail Jacobs. “It’s in my opinion a harmless toy included in an Easter basket.”<\/p>\n

Sh’yeah, right.<\/p>\n

I have no objections to toy soldiers, or toy guns, or anything like that, per se<\/i>. But I don’t see it as something that belongs anywhere near something associated with Easter, no matter how secularized the holiday gets.<\/p>\n

(via BoingBoing<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve never quite gotten the pre-packaged Easter Baskets that seem to infest supermarkets these days around Easter time. But nobody seems to get the latest trend in Easter Baskets: toy…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5289,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/04\/12\/were_going_to_n.html","url_meta":{"origin":3968,"position":0},"title":"We’re going to need better hiding places …","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 12-Apr-04 8:35am","format":false,"excerpt":"For the last three years, here's how Easter works: The Easter Bunny hits the house the night before and hides Easter eggs (chocolate) about the living room and entry hall....","rel":"","context":"In "Parenting"","block_context":{"text":"Parenting","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/personal\/parenting"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8781,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/04\/16\/get_it_got_it_g.html","url_meta":{"origin":3968,"position":1},"title":"Get it? Got it! Good.","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 16-Apr-06 7:22pm","format":false,"excerpt":"We're reading Easter cards sent by various parental units. \"If I got an Easter Egg for every time I thought about you ...\" Kitten reads (with a bit of prompting),...","rel":"","context":"In "Parenting"","block_context":{"text":"Parenting","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/personal\/parenting"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17034,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/04\/04\/easter-morning-and-evening.html","url_meta":{"origin":3968,"position":2},"title":"Easter, morning and evening","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 4-Apr-10 8:30pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Easter Morning ... We're usually not big Easter Sunday attendees, largely because of the pomp, circumstance, and crowds.\u00a0 However, due to various (self-volunteering) circumstances, we ended up all serving in the mid-morning Easter Mass at our church -- Margie and I both as eucharistic (chalice) ministers and lectors, and Katherine\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Food & Drink"","block_context":{"text":"Food & Drink","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/food-drink"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":42538,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/12\/gun-totintude.html","url_meta":{"origin":3968,"position":3},"title":"Gun-Totintude","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 12-Jun-14 6:31pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A post I was reading earlier today got me thinking about carrying of guns. I can imagine some (very limited) circumstances where someone could argue that they need to do concealed-carry. The number of cases where someone has an actual need to open-carry a pistol ... well, I struggle with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/1192ckCOMIC-open-carry-patriots%5B1%5D.png.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":131182,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/08\/02\/when-is-a-gun-not-a-gun-emoji-edition.html","url_meta":{"origin":3968,"position":4},"title":"When is a gun not a gun? (Emoji Edition)","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 2-Aug-16 7:14am","format":false,"excerpt":"Some interesting discussion on the implications of Apple changing the gun emoji on its platforms from an actual pistol to a water pistol. While I can understand the sentiment of not having a tool of violence pop up visually on the emoji screen all the time, unilaterally making that change\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":44047,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/08\/01\/marvel-movie-easter-eggs.html","url_meta":{"origin":3968,"position":5},"title":"Marvel Movie Easter Eggs","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 1-Aug-14 11:51am","format":false,"excerpt":"Finally had a chance to watch this after seeing it flash through my stream a few times. \u00a0Not bad, though it (a) stretches the term \"Easter Egg\" a bit in places, (b) has a few minor flaws (Arnim Zola does not have a giant head in the comics, but a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3968\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}