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Hi-Tech Nativity Security
To combat vandalism and theft of their holiday displays, many churches and cities are turning to a technological answer. After one of their cows was stolen, St. Marks Episcopal Church in Glen Ellyn, Ill. installed GPS devices in the figurines of its nativity scene. This year the village of Wellington, Fla. added security cameras to protect their display. From the article: "BrickHouse Security in New York City offered churches and synagogues free GPS and cameras to protect their displays this season. Seventy have signed up so far. About 24 of them are also installing security cameras. In Merrick, N.Y., the Chabad Center for Jewish Life is putting GPS in its 8-foot menorah on display in a park."
When I grew up, you rarely if EVER heard of shit like this going on. Hell, as a family, we'd all get in the car on a cold winter night, like many other families, and go look at the decorations at homes, at churches and yes..even the capitol building (I grew up mostly in the capitol city of my state).
And yes..there was a nativity scene at the capitol...was common to see across the US and no one had a cow over it.
But seriously....no one worried about it getting stolen, we all kind of respected someone taking the time to put up some decorations at the very least.
WTF has our country come to...everything is target for theft or vandalism?
Hell, growing up...Halloween was about the only holiday you had to worry about that...and it was minor.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Here's the answer no one else will tell you: it's the third world mentality seeping into everything. And, no, it's not racial: it's cultural. There's too many cultures here now that don't respect property or education or anything our country (or any modern nation) was built upon. So there you have it in a politically incorrect nutshell. We'll throw money at it, try to legislate around it, but until people, en masse, are willing to stand up and stand together to say"No more of this fucking bullshit" it will continue and get worse.
OK, time for the mods to hit me with -5 The Truth Hurts
Well, at least they're just stealing the stuff? It's not like you can sell this sort of thing on eBay or Craigslist, so it's probably a prank.
Things could be a much worse.
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Since I wasn't around in the 'old days' (for any reasonable definition of the term, anyway), I can't comment first-hand, but I'd theorise that the changes are based on urbanisation and corporatisation destroying the small community groups that people used to inhabit. If your action has a negative consequence to you personally, or someone you know, that obviously serves as a disincentive - basically, a person only has a direct incentive to be considerate if their actions are likely to affect someone within their 'monkeysphere'. It used to be the case that most of the people you regularly interacted with had some level of connection to you personally, so no problem there. In general, people don't immediately default to 'asshat' as soon as they think nobody they know is watching (although there are exceptions), but there's a secondary driving factor: this level of disaffection doesn't just appear spontaneously, it's engendered by the fact that those who shape the society we do live in do so in a largely impersonal manner - when the organisations we deal with every day don't care about whether they're screwing us over, it tends to rub off. People are left with no disincentive against bad behaviour, and little incentive for good behaviour. I'm not saying this excuses the people being asshats, of course, but it does provide some reasonable explanation of "what the hell happened to us" (which was quite possible meant to be rhetorical, but anyway...).
It's not all bad, though. The flipside is that the socially-enforced conformism of small communities is much more conducive to discrimination, repression of the 'out group', and ostracism of those who fail to follow the (often unwritten and/or illogical) 'rules'. Small communities protect the status quo, for better or worse. Whether it's a worthwhile trade off is a matter of personal opinion.
But what prevents would-be vandals from serrupticiously "Laying down" the 3 wise men in the snow, covering them up, and then placing a motion activated dancing santa with a strap on, and two yard gnomes in their place?
(Bonus, "replace" Joseph with a white lawn jockey. [gotta be PC, afterall.])
I suppose the camera would be a deturrant, but the enterprising geek could still deploy a portable EMI/EMP generator from the back of the panel van they use to perform the vandalism with. (You can get plans on the internet.)
Other amusing vandalism ideas (non-inclusive):
Put obviously fake dynamite bandoliers on all the male nativity characters. (Bonus if you put a burkha robe on Mary)
Put a fake beard on Mary. (A santa beard is acceptable, but a dark black one is better due to increased visibility)
Put suet balls in strategic locations so the indemic pidgeon population does the defacement for you
Make an FSM snowman that totally obstructs the view of the nativity scene from the road.
Put pink flamingos in the scene, then put brightly colored hawaiian shirts and hoola skirts on everyone.
Wrap all the nativity figures up in toilet paper like mummies
Load an electric paint sprayer with water and green food coloring; Spray "We accept cash and credit", "Salvation at LOW LOW PRICES!" on the snow of the church's lawn
etc, etc.
Stealing the nativity characters is boring in comparison to the many MANY different ways you could fuck with a church this time of year!
[ Why would you "respect" a practice that is sending innocent people to hell? ]
As an Atheist why would this even concern you as you don't even believe in Heaven or Hell, or do you? Why would you care if someone somewhere thinks you are going straight to hell unless deep down you were troubled they might have the slightest possibility of being right about you possible eternal salvation?
I am Agnostic and I am not bothered at all if my next door neighbor thinks I am going to the fiery pits of Satan's backyard. I could care less what they think of me. I am not a prick either who tries to tell them how wrong they are for believing in a higher power. Instead I try to live my life the best I can and lead by example. If they try to spout any religious nonsense at me I politely tell them I am not interested and don't get into an ass hole screaming match with them. If they object I tell them that in this country we have personal responsibility and if I go to hell then I am responsible for my own soul if they think it exists and if I end up in "hell" then it was my own conscious decision and right protected by the constitution.
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
I don't know, that's easy to say when you pick out one relatively short timespan as 'what this country was built on'. The dismantling of other cultures seems more accurate. So many the nativity vandals are keeping it old-school and true.
"What do you mean he's not in there? The GPS tracker clearly shows Jesus should be inside the tomb."