What, No "Someone Who Loves Me Went to the Mass Atrocity Zone and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt"?

With Christmas and Chanukah fast approaching, you may want to consider some spiffy "human rights" items from Canada's "human rights" museum gift shop:

SHOPPING for a Christmas gift that's just Rights? How about a pair of sterling silver cufflinks extolling the virtues of human rights or a shiny green water bottle indicating you've taken the pledge not to use disposable plastic water bottles anymore? 

They're both part of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights collection available by email or at four Winnipeg retailers. 

There are seven different T-shirts and sweatshirts available, including a children's shirt with a chalkboard front on which kids can write their own messages. The shirt comes with chalk and there is even a little pocket sewn into it to carry the chalk at all times. 

There are also tote and shoulder bags, jewelry, a coffee mug, a gel pen and a box of fair-trade chocolate truffles from Winnipeg chocolatier Constance Popp. 

Angela Cassie, director of communications for the CMHR, said the museum has been trying out merchandise as it prepares to open a boutique when the museum finally opens in 2014. 

"It's an opportunity for us to start testing products," she said. "We've seen some interesting uptake."...

"Uptake"? Um, I don't know what that means exactly, but the idea of pricey chocolate truffles, fair trade or no fair trade, being offered for sale at a museum that harbours a Mass Atrocity Zone makes me want to--you should pardon the expression--upchuck.