Ref this: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/26/us/26Santa.html?th&emc=th
Somebody going berserk over a divorce & shooting up a houseful of inlaws is hardly novel. Tragic, but not original.
Many people on the SDMB report being creeped out by clowns, iconic figures meant to charm & entertain kids. I wonder how the small children who escaped the shoot-em-up Santa will react next year to the inevitable arrival of saturation-level Santas into their lives?
I would like to add that said “Santa” then killed himself.
A horrible horrible deed and a nasty story for this time of year.
Fucking people are just…there isn’t a word strong enough or vile enough.
Hey, I like wry cultural commentary as much as the next guy, but this creep wasn’t trying to make a statement - at least not a cultural one. He wanted to exterminate an extended family. And the family always had a big party on Xmas Eve, with a neighbor in a Santa suit. What better opportunity?
As for the children, focus on rampage killing itself, and media coverage of it. They can’t get enough. (And yet no one ever tries to connect any two incidents and try to find an underlying clue - gun culture, masculinity culture, etc., just my suggestions.)
I do think a lot of the reason many people find clowns creepy are from media references to clowns doing evil things (like John Wayne Gacy or even the Steven King novel “It”) so it wouldn’t surprise me if this tragedy did cause a lot of people to feel creeped out by Santa even if they had no personal connection to the tragedy (it’s probably safe to expect all the people who personally survived this will likely be traumatized by anything to do with Christmas for years to come 
).
Personally, I think the news media does tend to look for “answers” on these issues, but their mistake is that they try to find simple explanations for complex phenomena - trying to pin the blame for violent acts on violent movies, video games, guns, heavy metal music, etc. I think this is because the rest of us are comforted by the illusion of control that such a simple answer gives us over these events. It makes these events less scary if we think that we can stop the neighbor’s kid from shooting up his high school if we just take away his video games. The truth (in my opinion) is that these incidents are most often the result of psychiatric illness (quite possibly including a prior history of abuse in the home or poor impulse control), which is brought to the surface by a complex mix of genetic predisposition and family trauma/abuse/neglect that outsiders don’t really have that much control over. At best, maybe the media could focus on raising awareness about the issue of how people in the middle of a bitter divorce can protect themselves if they see signs of mental instability or abusive behavior in their ex-spouse?
I found clowns creepy long before John Wayne Gacy–clowns scared the piss out of me as a kid. And they were stupid–even when I was little, I didn’t find them funny.
I doubt the kids involved in this will fixate on Santa. They could, but I think they’ll be busier trying to cope with the tragedies and the evil they witnessed.
I agree that there are complex reasons for this kind of thing, but I also think that we as a society choose not to look at the issues. The media is just silly with things like this. It’s not violent video games or gun ownership per se that causes these tragedies. I do think guns are too easily obtainable and too often viewed as viable alternatives to solutions (and films and computer games do glamorize that tolerance), but other forces are at work as well, mental illness, substance abuse, poor critical thinking skills, ignorance etc. He sounds like an abusive husband who decided that since he couldn’t have his wife, no one should. Asshole.
I do wish people (whoever they may be) would study the school killings and attempt to discover WHY they happen. Instances like this need study as well. Reading that, all I can think of is this: why do these people have to kill others and then kill themselves? Why can’t they just go off and do themselves in? Most likely they kill themselves out of remorse or fear of what will happen to them now that they’ve murdered others. My heart does not bleed for them (except in the most abstract way). If you are that unhappy, by all means, turn it inwards and kill yourself. You will leave behind as much pain and doubt and ill will, but at least children won’t have to see their parents and grandparents die and suffer gunshots to the face.
Hmm, I wonder why diggleblop was banned.
Don’t knoew if it’s connected, but in post 43 of this thread (If a cop illegally spots marijuana growing in a house, can he get a warrant?, started by diggleblop), Qadgop the Mercotan posted a long list of legal questions diggleblop’s been asking.
Now the guy’s rental car just exploded.
That was one pissed off Santa
[hijacking my own thread … ]
I wonder too. A quick search of dblop’s recent posts don’t turn up anything obviously out of line compared to his normal stuff.
I think there’s a bit of a kerfuffle going on in GD these days about thread titles vs. thread contents which has ballooned into a small-scale riot about mod quality & responses to backtalk aimed at mods. Perhaps he pulled a smart-ass there and became collateral damage?
As the board guidelines say:
If you’re not sure, go ahead and ask us.
Yes, and I apologize for the continued hijack, but the first thing I do when I see a recently banned member is search for incriminating posts. Nothing really stuck out to me. Also, I didn’t see any mod warnings (but then again, I only looked at his posting history for the past week or so). Ah well, another one bites the dust.
I wondered this as well. diggleblop was quite a well-established poster over 1,000 posts - do you not routinely post explanations of bannings in ATMB any more?
Usually, as noted, sock bannings don’t get public airings. But you’re right in this case. I’ll post an announcement in ATMB. If you have any other questions about it, please ask them in another thread there or in the Pit.
Getting back to the original story, this thing turned out to be a horror movie come to life.
(Warning: possibly TMI)
Apparently, the guy got caught in the fire, and drove home with third degree burns that melted the Santa suit into his flesh.
The guy had $17K and a passport. They think he was planning to escape to Canada but he set himself on fire and committed suicide.
It couldn’t happen to a more deserving person.
Just evil. I guess I hope the 8 year old doesn’t remember being shot in the face by Santa. Bastard.
Yeah, should have happened in June. That would have been much better.