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October 19, 2009
Balloon boy thread [Darleen Click]
I have been so avoiding this story. I only followed reports of the initial search via radio and figured once the boy was found alive and safe, that was it. I chalked it up to the youngest brother being the dupe of the older ones (“hey, let Mikey eat it!”). Now it’s looking more like a hoax cooked up to garner publicity and/or a reality show with arrest of the parents pending. Honestly, can we be more distracted from important issues??? 48 Comments ::: Post a comment »RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI: http://proteinwisdom.com/wp-trackback.php?p=15418 Leave a commentIf you want to leave a feedback to this post or to some other user´s comment, simply fill out the form below. |
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Comment by JD on 10/19 @ 7:43 am #
People that volunteer to go on stupid stupid reality tv shows are more likely to be involved in things like this. It is a scientific fact. It is simply a matter of time ’til these attention seeking asshats do something like this.
Comment by sdferr on 10/19 @ 7:50 am #
This is the sad distraction of the child down a mineshaft without the mineshaft or the child.
Comment by Salt Lick on 10/19 @ 7:52 am #
a hoax cooked up to garner publicity
Oh, wow. I’ve only glanced at the headlines lately and I thought this was about the Obama 2008 presidential campaign.
Comment by Lost My Cookies on 10/19 @ 8:00 am #
I think balloon boy and dad are awesome. Unless the dad beats the kid for real, then not so much.
Comment by Lost My Cookies on 10/19 @ 8:02 am #
And when the scientists send me back in time to search for the terrorist group that let H1N1 out of the bag, I’ll make sure and tell my psychiatrist/lover that I knew it was a hoax all along.
Comment by Squid on 10/19 @ 8:07 am #
I never thought I’d say this, but here goes: I saw the family lawyer talking to Matt Lauer this morning, and the lawyer said something about allowing the parents to turn themselves in because a public arrest and perp walk would submit the children to a public spectacle and humiliation.
Lauer countered with: aren’t the parents the ones who started this whole thing with a public spectacle?
A surprising show of pushback on Lauer’s part. I can only assume that the family are not Democratic contributors.
Comment by Charles Johnson on 10/19 @ 8:09 am #
He is onto my plan. Don’t worry, my minions led by Sharmuta and Kilgore Trout are working on a neutralization protocol.
And I denounce you all.
Comment by SarahW on 10/19 @ 8:47 am #
I sort of welcomed the distraction of a wild story with crazy people in it – and the lack of dead 6-year olds was a plus. That’s a few hours I didn’t spend thinking of my own troubles. The human race is a cabinet of curiosities, isn’t it?
Comment by Alec Leamas on 10/19 @ 8:51 am #
The only thing that makes me doubt that it was a hoax is that there is no “step two.” I mean, what did they think was going to happen when NORAD and the Strategic Air Command tracked the balloon down with no kid inside? How do you get from balloon found with no kid inside to fame and fortune and a square on Hollywood Squares?
Comment by sdferr on 10/19 @ 8:56 am #
“How do you get from balloon found with no kid inside to fame and fortune and a square on Hollywood Squares?”
By means of the ghost of Paul Lind, silly Abe.
Comment by sdferr on 10/19 @ 8:57 am #
Oops, sorry, Alec.
Comment by Jim Ryan on 10/19 @ 9:04 am #
so avoiding
I am so never reading this blog again. EV. VER. I try to escape this “so” thing which is so everywhere and I come here and there’s a so. When I saw it, I was like.
I’m going to have a 2003-style ceremonial de-linking of this blog with some others of like minds in re: so.
Comment by DavidL on 10/19 @ 9:09 am #
The story itself if somewhat trivial. The questions as I see it are: one, our cultaral obsession with a presumed right to fifteen minutes of fame; and two, the gullibility of the LSM to report anything as news, just to fill airtime.
Is Anna Nicole Smith still dead?
Comment by Charles Johnson on 10/19 @ 9:18 am #
Off my internets! Off I tell you. Get off you damn amateurs. If you do not, I will stomp my feet up and down very rapidly then I will call you white supremacist racists.
Comment by The Sanity Inspector on 10/19 @ 9:19 am #
They should cough up the search time flight costs of those helicopters, minimum. Bet he got a lot of hits on his YouTube channel though, if that’s what he was angling for.
Comment by SarahW on 10/19 @ 9:22 am #
Alec, he had that all planned out. First, he established launch shots of an “accidental” release of the balloon. He established a backstory that would make his mistaken belief that the kid was inside understandable, plausible, forgiveable. Element a., he set up the story where all said Falcon got in trouble for sneaking inside the craft, playing around the craft, getting “caught on tape” telling his brother he PLANNED to sneak into it before the test launch. Element b. He set up the older brother to be culpable for the misunderstanding. Police would not be able to blame the father for believing the 10 year old brother for saying he saw the brother get in, and being mistaken and/or failing to see him get out. Element c. He set himself up as a strict but concerned father, who spoke very harshly to the younger boy about messing around with the hazardous balloon “crawl space”. His narrative: We all know 6 year old boys can be naughty, but Dad was on the case. Then, he can explain away the child’s hiding by the same lie.
He expected, therefore, to get away with calling the FAA and the local news helicopter out to get footage of the stunt balloon – how could anyone refuse when a child is on the line? An escaped balloon would not otherwise be guaranteed to be deemed worthy of the chase or attention. His families’ naughtiness (which he has marketed before as a feature, not a bug) and adventurousness and experimenting would obviously be part of the coverage. He expected controversy to draw attention to the family, highlight their uniqueness, and make them better known, and interesting enough for a network to gain interest in the family. The fame hound expected it would make his family more saleable.
His cunning plan fell apart because his kid didn’t understand the Dad’s script for manipulating the press. When put on the spot by his parents, he defended his staying hid when people called for him — “cheezit, Dad, you told me to stay hid” was his internal reaction to that question, and he blurted out that they said it was for” the show.”
Comment by Snowcone on 10/19 @ 9:33 am #
Honestly, can we be more distracted from important issues???</i.
Like the chance that Hillary Clinton got a few dates mixed up?
/eyeroll
Comment by No One of Consequence on 10/19 @ 9:34 am #
his kid didn’t understand the Dad’s script for manipulating the press.
Apparently, the Dad’s never heard of Art Linkletter
Comment by JD on 10/19 @ 9:34 am #
Darleen – The title for this thread is off a bit. This story is not about balloon boy, but douchenozzle daddy.
Comment by Alec Leamas on 10/19 @ 9:41 am #
Alright then, let’s hang the asshole. There was a great chance that someone could have been killed trying to save the child.
Comment by JD on 10/19 @ 9:41 am #
Is there anything you won’t lie about, yellowsnow? Even Hillary did not claim she mixed up the dates, she claimed to be speaking from a sincere perspective.
Comment by Carin on 10/19 @ 9:46 am #
Honestly, can we be more distracted from important issues???</i.
Like the chance that Hillary Clinton got a few dates mixed up?
/eyeroll
You know, time is/was much better spent when everyone was investigated the maternity of Sarah Palin’s baby.@@
Honestly, you folks have lost credibility to ever slam us for being trivial.
Comment by Salt Lick on 10/19 @ 9:47 am #
Like the chance that Hillary Clinton got a few dates mixed up?
Breaking news is Hillary got Belfast confused with her and Bill’s visit to a successful Community Reinvestment Act neighborhood.
Comment by SarahW on 10/19 @ 9:47 am #
Snowcone, she didn’t mix up her DATES. She “mixed up” what was going on at the hotel at the time she was there, in a self-aggrandizing manner.
Comment by Snowcone on 10/19 @ 9:48 am #
Sounds really important, JD.
Better post that non-story on every single right-wing blog!
Comment by SarahW on 10/19 @ 9:49 am #
For example, she said the hotel was boarded up in places. Why would mixing up dates have any effect on her memory of that? She either experienced that or she didn’t.
Comment by sdferr on 10/19 @ 9:58 am #
Distracted by a distraction from a distraction. The Pavlovian bell tolls again.
Comment by Snowcone on 10/19 @ 10:01 am #
she said the hotel was boarded up in places
Yes, the secret service boards up doors sometimes.
And the bomb damage to the theater across the street from the hotel the Clinton’s stayed in was still two years away from being repaired.
Sounds like another wingnut scoop…no wonder it came from a Rupert Murdoch “News”paper.
Comment by Carin on 10/19 @ 10:02 am #
Snowcone, no really. I don’t think that Trig is Sarah Palin’s child. Have you seen the story? Over a million hits.
Comment by BJTexs on 10/19 @ 10:03 am #
The hotel was boarded up because they couldn’t afford a Balloon Fence Missile Shield™.
Comment by Carin on 10/19 @ 10:05 am #
Snowcow, why don’t you attack the facts of the story, versus where it appeared?
Comment by BJTexs on 10/19 @ 10:12 am #
Carin #31: You are having one of those “glass half filled” days where everything is possible and the sky’s the limit, aren’t you?
I find that both cute and head shaking. :-)
Comment by JD on 10/19 @ 10:17 am #
If this is such a non-story, alphie, why are you commenting about it, and why are you lying about it?
Comment by Carin on 10/19 @ 10:20 am #
someone’s gotta be an optimist.
Comment by JD on 10/19 @ 10:24 am #
Even Hillary did not claim that the theatre was damaged. And she did not offer that as a defense of her embellishment. She said it was her sincere perception, and we all know how the leftists lurvs their perceptions.
Comment by Snowcone on 10/19 @ 11:08 am #
why don’t you attack the facts of the story
Because maybe there are no facts, Carin?
We don’t have the text of Hillary’s speech, nor do we have detailed photos of the hotel the Clinton’s stayed in.
All we have are the regurgitated accusations of one of Rupert Murdoch’s rodents.
You true believers will lap it up, the rest of us just roll our eyes.
Comment by JD on 10/19 @ 11:24 am #
Facts are flexible, and subject to Teh Narrative, people. Come one.
Comment by BJTexs on 10/19 @ 11:31 am #
Now, ya see? If there has been a Mile High Dirt Berm© around both the hotel and the theater, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.
Would we? WOULD WE?
[...]
I thought not.
Comment by LTC John on 10/19 @ 11:36 am #
BJT,
But what if the PLA snuck in vai shipping container, hmmmm?
Comment by sdferr on 10/19 @ 11:39 am #
In an attempt to be fair to Darleen, she does ask “Honestly, can we be more distracted from important issues?” which is about as rhetorical an exhortation as I can imagine. Yet neither Darleen nor I nor anyone else has identified the “important issues” we ought by right to focus on, all the while we know damned well such issues are right in front of us staring us in the face, as it were.
*Hangs head in shame*
Comment by Carin on 10/19 @ 11:47 am #
Sdferr, I don’t think you can accuse anyone here of not focusing on important issues.
Comment by sdferr on 10/19 @ 11:48 am #
What important issues Carin?
Comment by JD on 10/19 @ 11:53 am #
Opposing dirty little socialisms
Comment by JD on 10/19 @ 11:55 am #
FWIW, the “clean energy” folks, the ones that refuse to use the phrase “cap & trade” are starting to run a lot of ads around here.
Comment by Carin on 10/19 @ 11:56 am #
Ha. Or is that a heh?
Comment by Danger on 10/19 @ 12:43 pm #
Honestly, can we be more distracted from important issues???</i.
Like the chance that Hillary Clinton got a few dates mixed up?
/eyeroll
Interesting that Snowcone would bring that up without any prodding
Is this a case for Dr Freaud or Dr Pavlov?
Comment by ghost707 on 10/19 @ 12:57 pm #
Danger,
Interesting question. My initial response would be Pavlov (I think I just committed a Pavlovian response there – heh), however, with snowcone, I think Dr Hannibal Lecter might be the doc of choice in evaluating the frozen brained snowcone.
Comment by guinsPen on 10/19 @ 6:30 pm #
Godspeed, Jim Ryan.