Comments on: Santa visits some interesting places

Santa visits some interesting places

zerobyproxy — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 12:19:25 -0800

Ho, ho, ho! Santa visits Iraq. Seen via NORAD.

I am torn about this. Innocent seeming...but...I dunno. Thoughts?

By: Balisong

Balisong — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 12:35:03 -0800

I'm not downloading any NORAD software onto my computer. Sure, they probably won't abuse this opportunity, but I don't know.

By: dbiedny

dbiedny — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 12:40:45 -0800

Let's hope Santa doesn't have nice packages full of explosives to drop on the Iraqi children... Lord knows they're probably quite full of those nice "girls and boys" who like to blow them to shit. Santa's been leaving enough depleted uranium in their soil to fuck them and their children up for the next, what, 1200 years or so. Makes me fucking ill. On second thought, I vote for deletion of this post.

By: Frank Grimes

Frank Grimes — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 12:49:43 -0800

Great Santa = Great Satan?

By: ardgedee

ardgedee — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 13:11:57 -0800

Are there any Christians left in Iraq to care? Since 2003 the Christian minority (3% of the population before the war) have been fleeing to avoid ethnic cleansing. The remainder probably don't want their locations betrayed by a visit from Santa's sleigh.

By: terrapin

terrapin — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 13:12:09 -0800

We were driving back to London from Cambridge yesterday when the BBC radio announcer mentioned the NORAD thing. However, he didn't understand what 2 a.m. MTN meant and told the listening children to tune in to follow Father Christmas ... at what would be 9 a.m. ... Christmas Day.

By: effbot

effbot — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 13:34:52 -0800

Hmm. We hand out the Christmas presents on the 24th here in Sweden (and we're not alone in doing that). Good thing I didn't show this to my kids before they went to bed...

By: uncleozzy

uncleozzy — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 13:46:16 -0800

There are, in case anyone was wondering, real people manning the 1-877-HI-NORAD phone line, ready to answer all your Santa-tracking-related questions in great detail and with great enthusiasm.

By: chips ahoy

chips ahoy — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 14:17:31 -0800

This seriously stopped being cool when it stopped being a NORAD thing and went to a contractor or some other firm. NORAD Santa = Analytical Graphics, Inc. (AGI), Exton, Pennsylvania? Gimme a break.

By: -t

-t — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 14:33:44 -0800

I know it's suppose to be fun, but I just find it creepy, on several levels.

By: davejay

davejay — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 14:58:08 -0800

It mainly makes me wonder if there were similar propoganda-type efforts produced by the Nazis around holiday-time during the war. disclaimer: I in no way intend to imply that the current state of affairs in any war resembles those in WWII, and would appreciate you not derailing the thread; I am curious for the same reason it is interesting to me that, as mentioned in a thread within the last few days, in Japan you can generally only find WWII tank toys that are German.

By: humanfont

humanfont — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 15:10:09 -0800

It mainly makes me wonder if there were similar propoganda-type efforts produced by the Nazis around holiday-time during the war. There an account of a Nazi radio broadcast from Stalingrad in Enemy at the Gates. If I recall this was after the Germans took Stalingrad and found themselves stranded behind enemy lines; with sporadic resupplies from the luftwaffe.

By: Samizdata

Samizdata — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 15:59:40 -0800

Huhn. Poser Santa. And they must have been using a VERY small UAV to get that camera angle... Enough snarking. A happy non-denominational winter holiday to you all!

By: davidmsc

davidmsc — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 17:22:06 -0800

I'm not sure why this is causing any controversy, questions, or angst. Am I missing something? It's just an animated video of Santa flying over troops in Iraq, right?

By: darkstar

darkstar — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 17:40:57 -0800

NORAD being an archetypal part of the military infrastructure of the USA, it is somewhat ironic that it would be "tracking Santa". On a couple of different levels, it is a strange juxtaposition of cultural memes. Of course, if NORAD actually believes it's tracking Santa, then that would help explain the whole WMDs thing...

By: alexei

alexei — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 17:57:34 -0800

That doesn't look much like baghdad to me...

By: orthogonality

orthogonality — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 18:30:06 -0800

This is just stupid, on so many levels (military-command-designed-to-shoot-down-Soviet-nukes-and-respond-with-mutually-assured-world-ending-destruction "tracking" fictional-commercialized-bastard-offspring-of-a-supposed-to-not-be-established-religion's-prince-of-peace, not the post).

By: james_cpi

james_cpi — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 19:23:07 -0800

As I read this post and then the comments, my son ran in here all wide eyed and in his pajamas to tell me Santa just reached Florida... he has been checking the site every five minutes all night. ...so screw all you cynical jerks :) :) To my son, it is pure magic. Merry Christmas folks... !!

By: the cydonian

the cydonian — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 20:47:11 -0800

Wait, Santa has an inflight-LCD screen thingy on his sleigh?! What's up with that?

By: The Light Fantastic

The Light Fantastic — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 02:05:45 -0800

I thought that this is what the missile shield was supposed to protect us from! INCOMING!!!!! (kissing my ass goodbye)

By: nowonmai

nowonmai — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 14:32:11 -0800

I'm glad that after visiting all parts of the Axis of Evil and most of the Al Qaeda strongholds, Santa was allowed thorough US immigration so smoothly. Because he'd probably picked up a whole bunch of useful information that could have been waterboarded out of him. Maybe they just abducted one of the reindeer?