American consumer madness kills

Here is a story of consumerism taken to its most horrible end -- the taking of a life. It's a retail tradition in the US to have massive sales after Thanksgiving, in preparation for Christmas -- the holiday where to consume is to be holy. Americans, having eaten their fill this Thanksgiving, with an economy in a tailspin, took their smoking credit cards to stores to see if they would still work. At a local Wal-Mart in Long Island, NY, shoppers went nuts at the 5AM store opening. Chanting "push the doors in," they crashed into the store, tearing the doors off its hinges, and stampeded store employees. Most employees got out of the way of the crowd in a hurry, by jumping onto vending machines -- no such luck for Jdimytai Damour, was knocked down and crushed by the mob. When the shoppers were then told that a store employee had died in the melee, they refused to lease, since they were in the line for a long time.

"I look at these people's faces and I keep thinking one of them could have stepped on him," said one employee. "How could you take a man's life to save $20 on a TV?"