Overstaged

So if the song starts playng on radio now we might see the album selling loads by this time next year!!!

Having said that, I think it´s not wrong to enjoy Christmas, as long as it doesn´t become a comercial date. My family is really big and there are some people who are poorer and some richer, and I remember some kids used to be upset at Christmas because they received cheaper gifts then their richer cousins. Obviously if they knew they parents couldn´t buy something more expensive they wouldn´t ask for it, but as we used to watch american christmas movies kids used to write letters for Santa Claus and they thought no gift was expensive or rare enough to the old men to bring... I think that was another smart creation to encourage kids to ask for better gifts.

Lol. There is no fake snow in Sao Paulo, I guess. When I was a kid my mother used to put pieces of cotton in the x-mas tree to imitate snow, cause we always felt like there should be snow on the Christmas tree... Just when I grew up I noticed how stupid it was because I never saw real snow in my entire life, except for photos and TV because winter here is much hotter then summer in Englad, I guess. And it also looked out of place the snow above the Holy Family because they didn´t have snow at that region, neither that type of trees.

She doesn´t look like Shakira anymore, she looks like Christina Aguilera.

One thing you people from USA and Europe don´t understand is that Christmas in countries like Venezuela and most of latin America happens on the bloody peak of summer hotness, and to have trees with fake snow on them and an old men wearing glacial clothes decorating all the stores is equivalent to have an american flag everywhere. I think it´s pathetic we have a winter festival in the peak of summer. We have our own traditions that are being supressed by this american $h!t.

That´s because if people buy all the gifts they need to buy on November, they´ll probably buy a bit more until Christmas comes.

But he didn´t restric private celebrations, as far as I know. Santa Claus and the gifts thing on Christmas is the worst $h!t ever invented.

I hope the fever spreads trough all latin america, tough I think nobody has courage for that. The easter rabbit has to be the next victim. In USA they should change the holiday name to Clausmas.

What´s the definition of a "Chav"? I thought they were in bigger numbers in USA??? Is a "chav" someone like Ali-G?

But there are hundreads of people who are sentence to death in the world every year for much more insignificant crimes and nobody complains about that... When a massive murderer is sentenced, then the polemic about capital punishment starts?

So in this thread people should not be arguing about the sentence of Saddam, but about the sentence Bush and Blair should receive... If there are 2 murders, one goes to the electric chair and the other remains free, you will not try to give freedom to the one on the electric chair, but try to catch the other.

You think these are the only religions in the world? What about human sacrifices on indian tribes, or the class system on hinduism...

I agree, but it happens that nobody these days believe in Samhain or whatever celtic God, and what would be the purpouse of having a holiday to celebrate a God which is believed by less then 0.01% of the population...

One thing has nothing to do with the other. A murderer don´t become inocent because there is another murder. Otherwise, no other criminal could be senteced ever...

But Bush and Blair are not subject to the same lawas as Hussein, since they´re american/british respectively. If any normal Iraqi citizen can be sentenced to death, then it´s only fair that the major bast*rd can receive the same sentence.

I still think you only said that because you live in christian countries. I detest the Catholic church, and I was born a catholic, but I thank God I wasn´t born a muslim and the catholic religion must be unfair, but not the most unfair.

A Catholic who is devote enough to take seriously the Pope´s statements about contraceptions SURELY is devote enough to not have sex outside marriage. So there is no point sayng the Church is to blame on that.

I live in Brazil... There was no "Halloween" here some years ago, since we did have 2 holidays in the same week - All Saints Day on Nov 1st and the Day of the Deads on Nov 2, both bank holidays when nobody worked. In recent years, the government took the "holiday status" from the All Saints Day and now we work normally on this day, but we still have a holiday on Nov 2 when people go to the cemeteries to visit the sepultures of their dead relatives - lol. Some English Schools started celebrating halloween a few years ago and it´s getting bigger and bigger. These days we have horror movies on the TV and many halloween parties which grow every year. I see this as pure americanization. It has nothing to do with our culture, and we have better national traditions to celebrate. In a few cities with a german descendent population, Oct 31st is still remembered as Reform Day.

Yes, but the laws of nature have nothing to do with religion, there is nothing to prove that we should worship the sun and the moon just because they have laws...

Your confusing the concept of "respect". Respect does not include to be conivent with wrong atitude. So you could still "respectfully" sentence Hitler to death...

I believe it´s basically genetics and education who make up most of a person... But then there are the personal choices which I don´t seem to understand where they come from. Everyone was taught some basic values, what to do and what not to do, and we live most of the time under these rules, but then there is an hiatus on your education where you can´t seem to find what´s right or wrong, what´s better, and then you just pick up one choice out of nothing... That´s your personality element that was born with you. Phisically, we are not more then a colony of microorganisms, an enourmous bacterian colony who evolved so much that one part cannot live independet from the other. How this bunch of cells manage to have a conscience, which is not individual for each cell, and even tough it depends on your cells to exist it´s not placed on them... it´s total beyond my comprehension.

That´s because the christian book directly links the "gods" from other religions to demons, but not properly Satan. It was not the Catholic Church who invented that, but ever since the 1st jew started to worship Iaweh, all other "gods" from pagan mitologies were considered demons.

But is there any reason to "worship" gravity and other natural laws... This is not paganism, is just an admiration for nature, paganism is a religion like any other which believes things cannot be proven by science.

Paganism is not just 1 religion... It is a label created by christianity to describe all politheist-non-christian religions.

Main reason for AIDS in Africa? What makes you think the church has so much influence there? The african continent is split into several religions and islam rules many countries. If that was the reason, then it should be the same in latin america aswell, but the reason of course is POVERTY. Back on topic, pope seems to be more worried about the image of his church then about the abused kids themselves.