at least the USPS version

Quote :

"Starry-eyed children writing letters to the jolly man at the North Pole this holiday season very likely won't get a response from Santa Claus or his helpers. The U.S. Postal Service is dropping a popular national program begun in 1954 in the small Alaska town of North Pole, where volunteers open and respond to thousands of letters addressed to Santa each year. Replies come with North Pole postmarks. Last year, a postal worker in Maryland recognized an Operation Santa volunteer there as a registered sex offender. The postal worker interceded before the individual could answer a child's letter, but the Postal Service viewed the episode as a big enough scare to tighten rules in such programs nationwide. People in North Pole are incensed by the change, likening the Postal Service to the Grinch trying to steal Christmas. The letter program is a revered holiday tradition in North Pole, where light posts are curved and striped like candy canes and streets have names such as Kris Kringle Drive and Santa Claus Lane. Volunteers in the letter program even sign the response letters as Santa's elves and helpers. North Pole Mayor Doug Isaacson agreed that caution is necessary to protect children. But he's outraged that the North Pole program should be affected by a sex offender's actions on the East Coast — and he thinks it's wrong that locals just found out about the change in recent days. "It's Grinch-like that the Postal Service never informed all the little elves before the fact," he said. "They've been working on this for how long?" The Postal Service began restricting its policies on such programs in 2006, including requiring volunteers to show identification."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120570241

11/19/2009 2:33:08 PM

sad day

11/19/2009 2:34:33 PM

this is why we can't have nice things

(try email)

11/19/2009 2:34:58 PM

Too Bad. Santa, like God, doesn't exist.

11/19/2009 2:37:58 PM

I still believe!

11/19/2009 2:38:23 PM

This is ridiculous.

Do they think the guy is going to open a dialogue and offer the kid a free sleigh ride if he meets him in the woods behind his house or something?

11/19/2009 2:38:29 PM

BUT HE'S A SEX OFFENDER
HE HAD SEX WRONG OK

I want to know when "sex offender" started to only mean "pedophile"

and if it's the "well, they obviously cannot control their sexual urges" argument, how the fuck are we letting faggots adopt kids

11/19/2009 2:46:22 PM

I have a sex offender living on my street.
I always point out his house when I ride by it with other people.

11/19/2009 2:48:05 PM

Screw Santa, who needs him.

You Christians need to learn the secret to a happy Christmas that the Jews figured out long ago:

Chinese food and a movie.

11/19/2009 3:21:15 PM

11/19/2009 3:21:43 PM

Christmas died for me when I never got the Turtle Van

11/19/2009 3:24:04 PM

JEWWWWWWWWWWWWS!

11/19/2009 3:24:31 PM

^ same

except the mico machines air craft carrier

11/19/2009 3:24:33 PM

^ i'll sell you mine for a lovely dash of nostalgia

fiddy dolla

11/19/2009 3:26:10 PM

I remember writing santa asking for some new Ninja Turtles and a letter came back with a Ninja Turtles sticker on it

I don't think I've been as amazed since

11/19/2009 3:33:06 PM

it is possible to be labeled a sex offender after getting a public urination ticket

11/19/2009 3:33:48 PM

Only if you had a boner when you peed

11/19/2009 3:35:55 PM

sounds like a man who speaks from experience

11/19/2009 3:36:25 PM

haha not me, a friend of a friend. cost him about a grand to get it all dropped

11/19/2009 3:38:20 PM

a friend

uh huh

11/19/2009 3:40:54 PM