i will bury you and your christmas II take 3
The Swiss have the right idea:
Swiss Santa Clauses have been banned from sitting children on their laps because of the risk that they might be accused of paedophilia. The Society of St Nicholases issued the ruling to its 100 professional members after parents expressed concern about close contact between their children and the men.
“Samiklaus,” as he is known in Swiss German, turns up on Dec 6 rather than the night of the 24th. Large groups of St Nicholases parade through the streets that day before visiting children. They traditionally sit them on their laps before asking if they have been well-behaved.
“We want to counteract any possible accusations of paedophilia involving our members,” the Society of St Nicholas said in a statement. “We regret having to do this, but the public has become very sensitive about child abuse.”
Walter Furrer, president of Zurich’s Society of Nicholases, said the rule had been introduced after a flurry of calls to the society from parents.
“This measure is above all to protect our Nicholases,” he said, adding that the decision had provoked heated debate in the usually sedate world of Swiss Santa Clauses.
While we’re at it, we need to ban Catholic Priests and people who sit alone on park benches. They may be pedophiles as well.
Truly the spirit of the Anti-Clause is with us.
And since I’m a selfish secularist heathen who celebrates Holidays instead of Christmas, I now point to a disturbing story regarding the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade:
You know that accident involving the M&M float and the destruction and the whatnot? NBC choose not to run it, instead…
NBC did not tell viewers that a giant balloon had caught on a street lamp and injured two sisters.
At the point in the broadcast when the “M&M’s Chocolate Candies” balloon was supposed to have crossed the finish line, announcers Katie Couric, Matt Lauer and Al Roker stuck close to their scripts and the network ran footage of the balloon from last year’s parade.
Couric told the audience they were seeing old footage and bantered with Lauer and Roker, but there was no further mention of the accident.
Pre-packaged news that doesn’t change when actual (troubling) news happens? Imagine how that would work if you were covering a war or something…