The founder of the Toys for Tots program was Director of Public Relations for Warner Brothers Studios. A propagandist Marine Reservist, in other words. He sure knew his stuff.

The frenzy of the Toys for Tots "giving to the needy" is truly just a disguise for more capitalist greed wrapped up in seasonal sentimentality. The message is clear: buy, buy, buy "for the sake of the needy children".

Another subject that came up was the Target boycott by Christian fundamentalists and their allies, for Target's decision to discontinue the Salvation Army's seasonal fundraising begging on their doorsteps. Target, very wisely in my opinion, studied the history of the Salvation Army's poor record of much too a high a proportion of donations and funds raised going to administrative costs, and decided that many charities do a much better job of managing than the Salvation Army does.

But you can see how out of control this whole thing when that sort of serious decision making about the best use of charitable giving dollars gets politicized like the Target/Salvation Army controversy has.