Sometimes it really, really, really sucks to be right.

[MADem]

17. NO ONE DIED!!!!

The guy was "not seriously injured." The OP's assertion wasn't accurate--his example just got grazed in the leg by a garden-variety THIEF. And NOT anywhere near the store, either. The guy was at his apartment complex when that shit went down.

No one person in that entire litany of "violence against shoppers" link was killed. Not one.

Geez, I hate this overdramatic posturing. Yes, it's crass to shop on the "sacred" day that commemorates the first meal with the Wampanoag on Cape Cod (when a bunch of white people turned up and were uninvited guests, basically) but it's not the end of the world, either. If the day is sacred to you, stay home.

Don't tell other people how to live their lives, it never works, anyway. Their attitude is "Great--stay home...all the more goodies for MEEEEEEEEEEE!"

The new paradigm is 24 hour consumerism. People who want to eschew that kind of thing and can't control themselves need to move to the country, far from any malls. Even at that, with a click of the mouse, people can shop in their underwear at two in the morning.

The people I saw interviewed on TV were flat-out saying that they were poor, and the reason they were waiting in the cold for the stores to open was because they wanted to give their kids a better Christmas than they actually could afford, and this was the only way they could do it.

Personally, I think they'd be better off telling kids that they're Spanish, celebrating Three Kings' Day on Jan 6, keeping the 25th as a religious holiday, and buying all the presents in the AFTER - Xmas sales....