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Christmas Cheer

Children Turn On Santa 176

nullspace writes "I know this is a little late for Christmas, but in Chile several children stoned Santa when he refused to throw them candy from a truck. In the end the children climbed on the truck and stole several toys from Santa's bag. The story is found on Yahoo!. "
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Children Turn On Santa

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  • by Skeezix ( 14602 ) <jamin@pubcrawler.org> on Tuesday December 28, 1999 @02:33PM (#1437503) Homepage
    you know, that subject could be misconstrued...
    ----
  • I suppose that perhaps the childern are raised differnetly, but they should be taught the spirit of Christmas!

    ---
  • Apparently, these children never got the point of Christmas... And the Santa missed it, too.

    What kind of a Santa ignores a child?

    What kind of child then gangs up and beats Santa into submission, and then steals toys and candy?

    This is a case where everybody was in the wrong. heck, Santa even used some kind of caustic glue for his fake beard! (not to bright, eh?)
  • I didn't realize that the United States' no-holds-barred attitude about the Christmas season had spread that far...
  • OK I don't know of anything to say except "That's messed up." That's it. I think anyone who would attack a santa-claus guy is just messed up, I don't care if they're kids and don't know any better.

  • That story gives me the creeps. What sort of a holiday has this turned into? It's all about consumption and greed for some apparently. These kids seem to have learned their own meanings at an early age.

    I hope the little brats get punished but good.

    I noticed some posts blaming the "Santa". That's absurd.

  • ....different from the "Rodney King LA riots" how???

    Diggs

  • by taniwha ( 70410 ) on Tuesday December 28, 1999 @02:40PM (#1437512) Homepage Journal
    How about this one this one where santa is taken away by security guards [sfgate.com] - although I can't say I blame him - I think the mom was evil ....
  • In this day and age, nothing suprises me. I think this sets a precedent we should uphold though. I ordered toys for my children through Toys'RUs and EToys and neither of my orders made it in time for Christmas. Therefore, I believe we should stone the CEOS to death, or barring that, stone (ie, DoS attack) their websites to death. Everybody get your Mac OS 9 systems ready!

  • And, umm, what were you thinking :-) (Granted, I wasn't thinking "stoning" either.)
  • There was an article in the local newspaper
    (really local, it covers maybe 10 sq miles), about
    a santa being stoned by youths. Eventually they
    abandoned the 'tour' of the area, and hid in the
    truck.. IIRC, a couple people were injured in it.
    --
    David Taylor
    davidt-sd@xfiles.nildram.spam.co.uk
    [To e-mail me: s/\.spam//]
    1. The 300-pound Parenti was heading to a neighborhood in Tocopilla, 960 miles north of Santiago...
    Was that the nearest city they could point out on a map? Gez. That makes it sound like Santa had one hell of a road-trip ahead of him.
  • by @d1nf1n1tum ( 128563 ) on Tuesday December 28, 1999 @02:49PM (#1437519)
    Ok, this story is amusing and sad, but does is it really entitled to such passionate responses?

    IMHO these kids are merely reacting in a manner consistant with what I call the "the Spirit of Xmas" (Christmas without Christ) that is consistant with the level of commercialism attached to this season of oh-so-many-dollars-spent.

    While I realize that the anti-religous zealots may be offended by my association of Jesus w/ Christmas *boggle*, the "spirit of christmas" spoken of in most of the previous posts died long ago...

    -@d
  • I know - at first, that's what I was thinking.
  • Maybe they had Christmas and Halloween mixed up?
  • He always seemed kinda creepy! What is he hiding behind that big beard & red suit? Why is always so keen to have little kids sit on his knee? What does he have to be so jolly about?

    Now we know.

    Maybe I should have read past the headline before posting... naaah.

  • by quadong ( 52475 ) on Tuesday December 28, 1999 @02:54PM (#1437524) Homepage
    So, here are your options:
    a)Ignore articles you don't feel fulfill the mission of slashdot.
    b)Ignore article posters that you don't like (You have to be logged in to do this, but hey... that has a lot of other benifits too)
    c)petition rob to change the title of the main page to "Slashdot:News for Nerds And Other Stuff that Matters."
  • actually i would think a children should be taught more than the spirit of christmas, like not to be a jackass.

  • The 300-pound Parenti was heading to a neighborhood in Tocopilla, 960 miles north of Santiago, to deliver boxes of candies that the local government planned to give out later.

    300 lbs, and 960 miles in the back of a truck, wearing a Santa suit? Whats wrong with this picture? Can you imagine how bad he would have looked when he finally arrived? Would have scared the little ones half to death!

    Damn glad I dont live in Chile.

  • by dvorsd ( 122811 )
    I was not really paying too much attention and at first I thought the article was talking about Santa getting stoned...
    Though the whole story sounds like something that you would hear about on Jerry Springer. I've got this mental image of the big bald headed security holding back Santa as he tries to charge at one of the kids...
    I don't think I've been getting enough sleep lately.

    -dvorsd

  • by Digital_Fiend ( 41244 ) on Tuesday December 28, 1999 @03:02PM (#1437529) Journal
    I went to some frisbee throwing tournament in San Diego (where I live) in '92.. some radio station that had a big Penguin as their mascot (I have to wonder about their inspiration :) attracted the attention of several 6 year old kids... They started kicking the Penguin and stuff.. one of em kept spitting on the little mesh screen that the guy in the suit was breathing through.. At the time it seemed funny.

    Of course, it must have been Doom's fault. :D

    -Warren
  • ...serves the bastard right for screwing me [slashdot.org] this year. I think I'll throw that Packard Bell monstrosity at the next reindeer I see :)
  • OK, you got me there :)

    ---
  • by Anonymous Coward
    Could there be some sub-conscience influence affecting Hemo's choice of wording ;-)
  • Dude, that was what i thought at first. I also thought long and hard about the stoning also. You can get some pretty funny mental images off this. Howabout Vendetta II: Children turn on Santa :)

    ---
  • Why does everyone think this is so strange. We all thought it was just hilarious when Jay & Silent Bob put the smack down on the Easter Bunny's bitch ass, but now that it's Santa it's SO wrong. This just goes to prove what people want presents, not eggs.

    DOWN WITH HOLIDAY MASCOTS!!!!!!
    They will be the first against the wall in the revolution!


  • The first and only good Southpark episode. Get a copy here [killfile.org] and teach your children the true meaning of christmas.
  • by slashdot-terminal ( 83882 ) on Tuesday December 28, 1999 @03:12PM (#1437537) Homepage
    Apparently, these children never got the point of Christmas... And the Santa missed it, too.


    Well I have always had a difference of opinion about that. Christians believe that Christ was born that night citing the bible on that. I just this year decided to call it gift day. I mean if you don't have any family at all or anyone you really care about dosn't buying presents for yourself seem rather silly? Don't holidays just get rather superficial?

    What kind of a Santa ignores a child?


    Ever seen Married with Children? They had an episode on once where Al was ropped in to getting presents for his wife and children by them singing him up for odd jobs for 12 days before christhmas. The last was a Santa. Basically children are rude and usually not that interesting to be around.

    What kind of child then gangs up and beats Santa into submission, and then steals toys and candy?


    A child who was gipped by santa and then decided to get revenge. A great deal of the problems we have as a society can be attributed to jealousy and revenge.

    This is a case where everybody was in the wrong. heck, Santa even used some kind of caustic glue for his fake beard! (not to bright, eh?)


    Maybe so but I think that anyone who works with children and individuals who plan such events should have strategically placed "elves" to deal with such problems.
  • Well, Santiago is the _only_ city in Chile that I'm familiar with, and I bet that many non-Chilean readers wouldn't even know that much. Plus it's the nation's capital. So in only makes sense to use that as a geographical reference.

    In addition, the country is a coastal strip 2700 miles long and only 125 miles wide, so any randomly picked town in Chile is probably a good distance from Santiago, which is right about in the middle.
  • Yup, I'd have to say that was pretty poorly worded...
    First thing that popped into my head was "Come here little boy, and sit on my lap...".

    Ewwww...

    --Kevin

    =-=-=-=-=-=
    "HELLO SMALL CHILD! WHO IS BACK! I HAVE THE RENEGADE MASTER WITH ME!"
  • That story gives me the creeps. What sort of a holiday has this turned into? It's all about consumption and greed for some apparently. These kids seem to have learned their own meanings at an early age.


    I do not believe that many holidays are almost anything with material components. Social interactions are nice but when it comes to something interesting material want is quite nice. The material want assuages the need of the moment and then allows for whatever form of advancement to occur in the form of tradition and ritual. I mean what would Christhmas morning be without presents? How many of you slashdotters out there had many childhood memories of anticipation and desire about christhmas morning. The addition of wrapping paper also enhances the experience and allows for more interest and immagination.
  • I'm not an anti-religous zealot, but Christmas isn't *REALLY* about Jesus.

    It was originally a pagan holiday. Jesus was born on January 6th (somewhere around there). The church said "well, if we want to convert these people, we best tie our holidays together. So, December 25th (The pagan winter fest thing) is the birth of christ (Christmas), and Easter (The pagan celebration of a new season, new life etc) was when jesus rose again. When did he arise? I don't know and lets not get into whether he did or not.

    It can be anybody's holiday my friend, not just those who believe in Christ.
  • Oh, and I think race had something to do with it too...
  • Since most early Christians were put to death, celebrating Christ's coming in an open way was suicide. So they celebrated his coming at the same time another celebration occured. The "church" as you know and refer to didn't exist per se during the time the first Christmases were celebrated.
  • >While I realize that the anti-religous zealots may be offended by my association of Jesus w/ Christmas *boggle*,

    Weel, technically, Christmas originally didn't have Christ in it. The church is responsible for that.
    Ever wonder why Christmas is co close to the winter solstice?


    Well if I remember correctly the birth of christ was another date and just biggybacked on some holiday for the roman goddess saturn or greek demeter I may be incorrect. Christ is a good association I guess if you are a christian because its a good date and starts the cycle of increasing light (winter solstice) with a number of positive emotions that humans have need of. Dispair is quite nice for most of the year but on christhmas and surrounding winter time people have need to banish some of these things. Although I did spend most of my time playing Shadow Man for the N64 so I guess I invited it in.
  • IMHO these kids are merely reacting in a manner consistant with what I call the "the Spirit of Xmas" (Christmas without Christ) that is consistant with the level of commercialism attached to this season of oh-so-many-dollars-spent.

    "The Spirit of Xmas" is only "Christmas without Christ" if you ignore the fact that the Greek spelling of Christ starts with a Greek letter that looks suspiciously like an X.

    While I realize that the anti-religous zealots may be offended by my association of Jesus w/ Christmas *boggle*, the "spirit of christmas" spoken of in most of the previous posts died long ago...

    I'm not an "anti-religious zealot," but I'm offended by your half-assed troll disguise job.

  • those kids got coal that christmas.

  • by AME ( 49105 )
    what I call the "the Spirit of Xmas" (Christmas without Christ)

    Please excuse this (short) off-topic detour. You may be interested to know that "Xmas" is actually an ancient reverent form of the word. It turns out that the first letter of the word "Christ" is, in fact, "X" in Greek (or maybe it was Latin; can't recall off the top of my head, and I don't really know either language). "Xmas" was originally used by the religious zealots. I remember all this because I got it wrong in some trivia quiz when I was a kid.

  • I have this picture of a 6' tall man with brass knuckles, wearing an Elf suit...
  • Santa getting assulted is not new. By kids yes but he gets mugged at least a couple times every christmas and last year in St. Paul MN, a santa ringing a salvation army bell was jumped and had the money stolen by a couple of teenagers. (I can't find the article)

    Santa or what he stands for is not prevailent in all parts of the world also because not everyone is religous or celebrates Christmas. It is possible that these kids did not know what Santa stood for given the fact they were in a 3rd world country. Also Y is this on /.?
  • Oh, and I think race had something to do with it too...


    In most areas of the world race is usually not revelent. In the United States we have problems of that sort a great deal more than other places. The only exception would be the Middle east or maybe parts of Central Africa.
  • You ordered your gifts through EToys and you're willing to admit it on Slashdot!

    You're a braver man than I am Gunga Din [bartleby.com].

    Step in line for that DOS attack. It seems like it's been tried and failed. (Funny, you just don't here people complaining about bandwith limitations anymore...)

  • 2 gig? I have more mp3's than that!
  • It can be anybody's holiday my friend, not just those who believe in Christ.


    Humans commonly associate with what they are most familar with; this is a basic survival instinct and is the best thing that one can do to survive in any environment where the new and interesting is usually a very bad thing. (ex. wow look at this tasty looking plant with purple leaves I wonder what it would taste like? might make a good stew!)
  • by AME ( 49105 ) on Tuesday December 28, 1999 @03:33PM (#1437558) Homepage
    Perhaps these kids are just being practical. Santa only gives toys to the nice boys and girls, or so the legend goes. If these kids were, in fact, naughty (as the evidence would seem to suggest) then this is the only way that they are getting any toys from Santa this Christmas.

    These kids might be smarter than we give them credit for.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Santa: And what would you like under the tree this year little one??

    Kid: 40,000 US dollars, used and unmarked.

    Santa: 40,000 US?? Why not a nice football?

    Kid: Look here fat guy, you drop 40,000 US under my tree or I'm going to tell my mom that you have your thumb up my ass.

  • Okay... maybe I'm going over the top here, but I see all of the political corectness that is being shoved down our throats starting to rear it's ugly head. I'm pretty sure it's not why these little ingrates stoned the big fat icon of capitalism, but I'm going to expound anyways.

    I think that by forcing people to think in politically correct terms we are actually forcing people to be repressed "programmed" people, just waiting to blow. Mark my words, in 5-10 years we are going to have this society of human robots filled with rage, blowing up all over the place.


    Why can't we call a spade a spade, I think it leads to better mental health.
  • Yeah Santa back in my home time got pelted with water balloons, and had to be taken to hospital for an eye operation. (I never realised they could be so dangerous).

    I don't think this kind of thing is terribly uncommon.
  • Is everyone ignoring the obvious fact that Hemos didn't choose the title, and that nullspace is the pedophile?
    --
  • I'll bet the real reason the kids threw rocks at him was he was trying to give them Windows 98 for Christmas.

    [gd&r]
  • Why don't you explain why you hate GNU so much instead of all these assinine posts? Sounds like it is personal if I had to guess.
  • What kind of Santa ignores a child? He didn't ignore them - he refused to toss candy to them that someone else had paid for. That's a big difference in my book. Santa's just a person, after all. Either way, you don't stone him.
  • You're forgetting many parts of Europe, Australia, etc.
  • It's on /. because it's funny. "News for Nerds", right? This is a nerdy thing, in a way. Nerds/geeks like to laugh as much as the next guy. Who said anything about it having to be technology-related? Is there a /. RFC taht I've not read?! :)

    -------
    CAIMLAS

  • Wow! And I thought _I_ had a good Christmas! :)~ Man, getting rid of those annoying Santa people would be great. But ya still have to feel sorry for the guy. He was one of the only few that wasn't doing it for the money. Boy, that would have been humiliating.

    -------
    CAIMLAS

  • If Santa can't handle the little bastards, then you can always send in the clowns [geocities.com]. Now those are professionals who know how to handle their own, and while a bunch of six-year-olds may be able to subdue one overweight bearded man in a suit, they surely can't subdue a legion of goulish fiends in warpaint and attack shoes. Remember Poltergeist [imdb.com]? I thought so.
  • You may or may not care, but if you want your signature to be the Latin for "I don't give a rat's ass", try:

    Non do anus ratti (conversational) or Ego non do anus ratti (emphatic).

    Cheers.

  • I think I found a bug in slashdot. When I click on #include's user info, my user info page is loaded. I experimented a little bit and it appears that

    http://slashdot.org/users.pl?op=userinfo&nick=#

    followed by anything after the # loads up my user page. I'm assuming that it will load other people's user page as well? Can anyone verify this?
  • I doubt if little kids in Chile are having big loads of Political Correctness shoveled over them. That's a North American phenomenon.
  • Jesus was born on January 6th

    Really? Then how come there were newborn lambs for the shepherds' gifts? Lambs are born in the spring I believe.

    If the "official" date is Jan 6 regardless of the above, is that why we have 12 days of Christmas (culimating with the supposedly actual night of his birth)?

    Consciousness is not what it thinks it is
    Thought exists only as an abstraction
  • Yeah, but it doesn't really count cause I never got them. I have since cancelled the orders and believe me they are on my permanent shit list (along with buy.com).
  • Christ was the first Icon for CHRISTmas, which is the the day we celebrate his birth (reguardless of the actual day of the event)

    A few years after the initial event the people he came here for (israel) turned on him and had him killed.

    now we have an addition icon for christmas, santa claus. and now the people he's was created for (childern) are turning on him....

  • Verified, responded-to, and fix suggested (in private email to billybob and CmdrTaco).
  • Well, I'm not really sure what the weather is like in Bethlehem. But, I'm willing to guess that they could have newborn lambs there in January for the same reason that Australians never have a white Christmas. Seasons aren't linked to the months. (e.g. June is a Winter month in Australia and other countries on the other side of the planet from you).
  • Obviously the Santa impersonator did not have to travel 960 miles in the back of a truck. They are giving the relative location of the town in relation to something that Americans can associate with. Chile is a very long and narrow country, so one big city in the country leaves many miles on either side to be accounted for. Please read more carefully before you make and ignorant statement.
  • You know, I'm not surprised. Actually, yeah, I am. Next thing that happenes is Santa (or some equally important children's figure) will be shot by marauding todlers as he or she rolls by on vehicle of choice. I wonder why the kids opted for for rock and pebbles instead of uzis and m60s. More affordable and more quickly attainable? No waiting period for a bunch of rocks? Why aren't our gangs armed with stones instead?

  • Why say you that? How about Patrick Naughton [slashdot.org] instead?
  • When I was a Senior in High School I was our school mascot, Wally Wolverine (although I really think it was a cheap chipmunk costume because they couldn't find a wolverine). At the pep rally, once people realized that it was I under the costume, they (my friends and enemies) started to beat the crap out of me, thinking it was funny and that their punches did not hurt. However, I could really feel their fists through the foam and it really hurt. I retired after the pep rally and this really annoying girl took over, but of course because she was a girl nobody beat her up, even though she might have deserved it.

    Ben
  • Race?

    I guess you mean the part about Reginald Denny getting his brains bashed in by a hoodlum just because he was white and driving through the "wrong part of town."

    Race?

    You mean the other black guy riding in the car with Rodney "Can't we all just get along" King? Yeah, the one that did not attack any officers after a high speed chase? The one that did not get beaten up because he did what he was told to do? The one that did not make it on every freakin' news show like his saintly friend, Sir Rodney?

    No, I was talking about the part of the riots where jackasses burned down the businesses in their own community (or at least tried to - some were stopped by armed citizens since the police ran and hid). Then they bitched and moaned about "No one wants to invest in our community." BOO-HOO-HOO!

    That is what I meant by my comparison. The kids wanted some Christmas presents, but they forgot what Christmas is about.

    Diggs

  • When I was small I believed in Santa Claus
    Though I knew it was my dad
    And I would hang up my stocking at Christmas
    Open my presents and I'd be glad

    But the last time I played Father Christmas
    I stood outside a department store
    A gang of kids came over and mugged me
    And knocked my reindeer to the floor

    They said:
    Father Christmas, give us some money
    Don't mess around with those silly toys.
    We'll beat you up if you don't hand it over
    We want your bread so don't make us annoyed
    Give all the toys to the little rich boys
    ...
  • Christ was the first Icon for CHRISTmas, which is the the day we celebrate his birth reguardless of the actual day of the event)

    The winter solstice was the original reason for a celebration around this time. The Christians "converted" the holiday when they tried to wipe out the pagans.

    now we have an addition icon for christmas, santa claus. and now the people he's was created for (childern) are turning on him....

    Santa has a very long and complex history, but he was originally invented in Europe and was evil.

    Basically everything about Christmas is just ripped off cultural icons and events. And commercialism. Can't forget that.
  • I used to love to turn on the plastic santa that we put out in the yard at Christmas, doesn't everyone?
  • This is very sad. They say the kids here are bad.
  • You dignified my stupid remark with a comment. All I have to say is: I have seen some pretty crappy countries and I am GLAD to be an american. This is just one example of that. It isn't this one incident that led me to this opinion. I have seen adults beat up children for food in Somalia, and petty arguments destroy millions of dollars worth of military work in Haiti. So don't be too quick to judge. I think it's terrible that CHILDREN would act this way preiod. Thier parents should be ashamed. But it has been my experience that parents of kids who would act this way, are shit too.
  • Usually I don't respond to flames, but when someone has no sense of humor I kind of think it is pathetic. The story is of course true, but I told it tongue and cheek hoping someone would get a laugh out of it, I do everytime I tell it. But you obviously took it seriously, thinking I was someone that needed a shrink. That is pretty funny in itself. And as for your comment on my physical attributes, I am 6'3, 200 lbs....and I am dating a blond...not to be a braggard or anything. Lighten up.

    Ben
  • This sounds just like a South Park episode, doesn't it?
  • Don't worry about it. At least you've mastered the art of the shift key.

    - Jeff A. Campbell
    - VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com [velocinews.com])
  • Not even close. The decision to have Xmas be on December 25th was a purely political decision on the part of Constantine, the first christian emperor of Rome. He chose to have December 25th be xmas because a competing belief system, Mithraism, had its god's birthday as December 25th. Mithra was also said to have died and been reborn to save mankind, along with a lot of other thing that people attribute to Christ. Many Roman senators were followers of Mithra, so this was a way of taking power away from them.

    Evil Overlord X.
    Coming to a third world country near you!
  • by coyote-san ( 38515 ) on Tuesday December 28, 1999 @06:38PM (#1437622)
    IIRC, December 25th was the start of the Roman Saturnalia, a holiday that was deliberately set a few days after the solstice and notorious for its "debauchery" since it was a brief period when certain laws were not enforced. So, it acted as a pressure release valve by allowing the controlled violation of certain morality laws.

    In Christianity, it goes without saying that God never blinks and a Saturnalia isn't permitted. Like all zero-tolerance laws, you can make a strong argument that it's been a disaster. (E.g., is it better to suffer adultery one week per year, but otherwise have a solid marriage, or have a sham marriage because the straying spouse figures that Hell won't get any hotter if the marriage vows are broken 1000 times instead of just once?) But our "secular" society is still so chi-centric that most people look at you like you have truly lost your mind if you suggest that there's historical precedence for a one-week "get drunk, get stoned, get laid, gamble, lie and cheat!" break from the normal rules of society.

    Finally, your "Jesus was born on the sixth of January" sounds like a very odd distortion of the Orthodox Church's calendar. The Catholic and Protestant churches follow the Gregorian calendar, but the Orthodox and Coptic(?) churches still follow the Julian calendar. The difference is almost 2 weeks, so 25 December (Julian) = 6 January (Gregorian). That's also why the Russian "October Revolution" occured in early November - Czarist Russia was Orthodox, but atheist communists ultimately switched to the Gregorian calendar.
  • Thank you for enlightening me and my rampant ignorance.
  • You can't blame on DOOM. DOOM shareware didn't come out until December 10, 1993 [grin].

    Blame it on Wolfenstein 3D [grin]. :)

  • How many of you slashdotters out there had many childhood memories of anticipation and desire about christhmas morning. The addition of wrapping paper also enhances the experience and allows for more interest and immagination.

    I remember one Christmas morning, when I was 10 or 11. I'd wanted a pellet rifle. I got up around 5:30, and slipped quietly out to the living room, where the presents were left. I groped around in the dark, and I found an oblong box among my gifts. "My pellet gun!", I thought. I knew my parents wouldn't be ready to get up, so I went back to bed, warm and happy in the knowledge I'd gotten what I wanted.

    A couple of hours later, everyone got up, and we started opening gifts. It was then that I discovered that the oblong box contained... a tent.

    I still haven't recovered from the disappointment. As far as I'm concerned, those kids gave Santa just what he deserved.

  • Seems to me you posted that comment specifically to get a rise out of someone, so that you could flame them.

    'Flamebait', indeed.

    - Jeff A. Campbell
    - VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com [velocinews.com])
  • by Anonymous Coward
    hi there! my name is cindy, and you can see me and my closest girlfriends sensously writing erotic perl code at www.perlpr0n.com! see you there!
  • I was raised on a sheep farm. We raised 400-500 head and as strange as it may seem they are born in the winter. I remember going out at all hours of the night to check on the sheep that looked like they were ready to lamb. If you didn't find them shortly after their birth you had lamb popsicles on your hands and I for one think they taste foul.
  • You are naive.

    When you're surviving because you were spared a job, you dont let some angry kids threaten your opertunity. If your not even provided with the materials to do your job, you use the materials you have. Something tells me Santa didnt have one hundred of varients of glue to chose from like us spoiled americans.

    When your a lil squot kiddie who is beginning to recognize the damn hypocritical government neglects everyone around, you stand up against it. Try growing up in a broken world and see what it does to you.

    You wouldnt think there was a point to christmas if you saw the world closer to how it is.

    "This is a case where everybody was in the wrong."
    Not much in this world is right.
    You so easily say "Goodwill towards humanity". Without any action, your shallow.
  • you know, kids are just doing what we're telling to do, which is: 'take matters in your own hands' :)
    in today's society we expect our youngsters to do well, getting a good job, etc. not a big surprise if they start early. maybe it's not making the big bucks in a private business, but they're starting early - by taking care of what santa owes them :)
  • Tom Christensen is a pretty prolific poster here, he likes Perl (and I'm reading "Learning Perl" right now, he's a co-author).. Apparently a lot of people have something against him, I don't know why. Your typical flamers. . .
  • Santa doesn't quite have a woody... (I know, I know)

    posted without shame

  • Christ was the first Icon for CHRISTmas, which is the the day we celebrate his birth reguardless of the actual day of the event)

    Bugger off. Everyone celebrates Newtonmas now. It's better that way (HHOS).
    --
    "HORSE."

  • I suppose that perhaps the childern are raised differnetly

    Just because they are from some other country doesn't mean they are "raised to stone people".. My guess is that the "children" where 14 or 15 years old. Imagine a bounch of teenagers asking santa for candy..

    Is there a link to the story on that newpaper? (I can read spanish..)

    --

  • IHS or JHS is from an incomplete transliteration of the Greek spelling 'IHSOYS (The Ss should be sigmas) into Latin. Since the Greek H makes a long E sound, it should read IES. But that's not what tradition did. They transliterated the Sigma into S, but left the Eta looking like an H.
  • ...santas like the one in Futurama. After being stoned by a group of chillian kids, I can almost guarantee total evil santa..
  • A few things to note:
    Santa has candy, kids don't.
    Santa could have just given them some candy.
    These kids are undoubtedly poor. By North American standards quite poor -> think Appalachia 60 years ago.
    Poor people with time on their hands often (not always) = violence.
    I doubt that there was very much under the tree for any of them. Think about it.
    I been there, I seen it, I know.
  • Most (educated) people today understand that the stories about the miracles etc. are most probably exaggerated if not outright fiction. But you only make yourself look foolish by claiming he didn't exist.

    Ieshua ben-Iussef (known to us today as Jesus Christ) was almost certainly a real person; He was written about by a contemporary Roman historian by the name of Josephus.

    I haven't read Josephus' writing myself but I'm told it wasn't very flattering (he said Jesus was a hunchback whose eyebrows met in the middle). It's likely the piece was politically motivated, since as we all know the Roman government fought a continual war against cultism and particularly Christianity.

    The point is, if the Roman authorites at the time could have gotten away with claiming he didn't exist they most certainly would have done so. But any attempts to that effect were stymied by the fact that their own political commentators had already put him on the record.

    If further evidence is required, please refer to the Bethlehem census data for 4BC ;o)

    Consciousness is not what it thinks it is
    Thought exists only as an abstraction
  • dont u think ur taking it alittle out of context? and taking what was once a fun tradition for little kids, into the Michael Jackson scandel of the year. and maybe people should look at the fact that America always needs some sort of icon for everything. Santa is nothing more than the act of giving to others. thats what he should be seen as. just like God is for good, and the Devil is for evil. if we taught this to our kids, instead of just telling them its some big jolly fat guy who likes to give ya presents, maybe those kids wouldnt of stoned him.
  • Okay all you parents out there -- it's time to consider this whole Santa thing.

    We teach our kids, from birth, to believe in a "Jolly Old Elf" who will bring them presents on Christmas morning. Allegedly, this "Elf" only brings presents to good girls and boys, but since I always got something I can attest to the fact that he is not very observant.

    Then, when the kid turns 7 or so and figures out that it's all humbug, we enlist them in the conspiracy to fool their younger relatives and subject them to dire threats if they fail to lie to their younger siblings.

    Am I the only one who sees how absurd this is?

  • This always makes me laugh. Sure, it's really easy to argue back and forth if the person we know as Jesus of Nazareth was really the son of God, but to claim that he never existed at all...

    That would be a great trick indeed, the pinnacle of scams to completely invent his existance to the point that Constantine and most of the anglo world was converted to a religeon based on someone that never even existed. Think about it. Our world-wide calendar is based on the date of birth of an individual that was never born. *boggle*
  • No offense meant, but haven't you been paying the least bit attention to stories posted to slashdot? After etoys.com used judicial thugery to get etoy.com (an articstic sight in France operating since 1994) shut down, how could you possibly give them your business in good conscience? My gut reaction (no flame intended) upon reading your comments was (and, truth be told, remains) "you deserved not to get those gifts in time!"

    Karma (the metaphysical stuff, not the slashdot numerical kind) in action, I would say.
  • My guess is that the kids had had it up to here (attempts to gesture via text) with the "spirit of Christmas".
    --

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