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Re: sooo....where's the kid?
Posted: 17 Oct 2009 06:43
by SandChigger
If the parents thought the balloon was really capable of lifting the boy into the air, they should never have left the children alone around it unsupervised. If this "Mr Science" asshole is going to be doing potentially dangerous experiments, he shouldn't be doing them around his children.
I heard on CNN that the local Child Services had been notified but that the sheriff had asked them to hold off on any investigations until his office could interview the family again.
(And what's this Wife Swap bullshit about? I'd never heard of the show before this, but is it really something children should be involved in or connected with? Fucking loons. And great role models.
)
Re: sooo....where's the kid?
Posted: 17 Oct 2009 08:38
by smugetsu
Wife Swap is or was a reality-type TV show, where basically they would take two couples and have them trade wives for a week or so. Basically, the "drama" stemmed from having two very different families have a new member for a week. For example, they'd take a white, conservative woman and have her move in with a liberal black family, or something along those lines. The black woman would then move in with the white family, and whackiness (or stupidity) would ensue.
It was (I don't think it is still on the air, but then again, I don't watch that kind of show) a stupid premise, but nothing really dirty or sexual. Insofar as I can tell, sex or the literal adult practice of "wife-swapping" never figured into it. In that regard, it probably wasn't a bad example for the children. However, whoring yourself out on reality TV probably is.
*Editted 4 spellig
Re: sooo....where's the kid?
Posted: 17 Oct 2009 13:13
by Sandwurm88
Yeah, these people are nut-jobs, almost on the level of Jon and Kate plus eight. Your kid is so nervous that he is throwing up on level television and you just continue your attention-whoredom. These kids should go into foster-care.
Re: sooo....where's the kid?
Posted: 17 Oct 2009 13:52
by Hunchback Jack
People who go on reality shows deserve what they get. Shows don't get ratings by making people look normal and well-adjusted, and you'd have to be an idiot to want to "be on TV" when someone else is in complete control of how you're portrayed.
HBJ
Re: sooo....where's the kid?
Posted: 17 Oct 2009 14:12
by SandRider
this controversy started on Wolf Blitzer's show, maybe even on the day of the event,
I don't know, but I saw Wolf pimping it yesterday ...
he asked the kid if he had heard the parents calling for him ...
kid nods yes ...
Wolf asks why he didn't come out ...
kid mumbles something, then I think it's the name he calls his mother, "...said it was for the show."
Wolf tries to clarify what the kid said, and dad gets real defensive and bitchy.
after that point is when the "publicity stunt" talk starts making the rounds.
BTW, Chig, they thought Wife Swap was such a great idea, another network made Meet Your New Mommy ...
(not kidding atall; and the say Western Civilization's not in decline ....)
Re: sooo....where's the kid?
Posted: 17 Oct 2009 14:16
by Omphalos
Publicity was the very first thing I thought. Some kid trapped in a weather balloon. Yea, right.
Re: sooo....where's the kid?
Posted: 17 Oct 2009 14:27
by SandRider
and let's go ahead and skirt around the racial/language issue for a minute ...
when the mom, who's Japanese, or somesuch, called 911 in Larimar (I guess),
she told the operator her son had flown out of the back yard in "the flying saucer".
this is on the tapes - it took a minute for the operator to understand just WTF she
was babbling about. Apparently the whacko father refers to the balloon as the
"Flying saucer". (Which is kinda what it looks like, too; Cold War era weather balloon
the Air Force told everybody they didn't have, must've been a UFO)
I wouldn't have blamed the 911 operator if she'd've hung up.
"Well hell, Sheriff, some crazy Hmong broad screaming 'bout her kid's abducted
from the back yard by aliens, what was I supposed to do ?"
speak good English (or Spanish) or risk being denied basic civil services.
This here's Murrica, dammit.
Re: sooo....where's the kid?
Posted: 17 Oct 2009 15:31
by Hunchback Jack
I watched the Blitzer interview on YouTube. The kid's "You said we did this for the show" comment could have meant anything - he could have just been confused, he's only six - but the Dad's reaction was, unfortunately, pretty damning.
HBJ
Re: sooo....where's the kid?
Posted: 17 Oct 2009 16:12
by Freakzilla
My six-year-old makes up shit that never happened all the time.
He thinks he's half fish and has gills in his armpits.
He used to tell people Quinn from Jaws was his step-father.
Those are some of the tamer stories.
Re: sooo....where's the kid?
Posted: 17 Oct 2009 22:18
by Eyes High
Just read that the parents will be facing charges. The article didn't go into specifics.
Balloon Boy's Parents Will Face Charges
By IVAN MORENO and P. SOLOMON BANDA, AP
posted: 5 MINUTES AGOcomments: 5824filed under: National News
FORT COLLINS, Colo. (Oct. 17) — A Colorado sheriff said he was pursuing criminal charges in the case of a 6-year-old boy who vanished into the rafters of his garage while the world thought he was zooming through the sky in a flying saucer-like helium balloon.
The boy's parents, Richard and Mayumi Heene, met with Larimer County investigators for much of the afternoon, but Sheriff Jim Alderden didn't say who would be charged or what the charges would be.
Alderden didn't call Thursday's hours-long drama a hoax, but he expressed disappointment that he couldn't level more serious charges in the incident, which sent police and the military scrambling to save young Falcon Heene as millions of worried television viewers watched.
"We were looking at Class 3 misdemeanor, which hardly seems serious enough given the circumstances," Alderden said. "We are talking to the district attorney, federal officials to see if perhaps there aren't additional federal charges that are appropriate in this circumstance."
He said deputies were seeking a search warrant for the family's home, and there would be more information at a news conference Sunday.
After the sheriff went inside, Richard Heene and his wife walked out. As reporters yelled questions, all Heene said was, "I was talking to the sheriff's department just now." He then walked to his car with his wife and a friend, and they drove away.
The Heenes were expected to speak to reporters outside their home later Saturday, after a strange day that began with Richard Heene knocking on the windows of journalists camped outside his home and promising a "big announcement." A few hours later, he did an about-face when he told reporters that they should leave questions in a cardboard box on the front doorstep.
As Heene walked away, a reporter shouted, "Can you tell us once and for all if this is a hoax?"
"Absolutely no hoax. I want your questions in the box," Heene said, waving a cardboard container before going back into his home.
...
The rest of the article can be found here:
http://news.aol.com/article/parents-of- ... l%2F719681
Re: sooo....where's the kid?
Posted: 19 Oct 2009 08:42
by smugetsu
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/10/18/colora ... index.html
(CNN) -- Three days after the world watched a giant balloon fly through the air as a tearful family expressed fears that their 6-year-old boy could be inside, authorities announced what millions suspected: The whole thing was staged.
The balloon is displayed at the sheriff's department in Fort Collins, Colorado, on Sunday.
1 of 3 The "Aha!" moment that led authorities to realize what had happened was an interview with the family Thursday night on CNN's "Larry King Live," Sheriff Jim Alderden of Larimer County said Sunday. In the interview with Wolf Blitzer, filling in for King, the Heenes asked their son why he had not come out from hiding when they called his name.
"You guys said we did this for the show," the boy responded.
On Sunday, Alderden called the incident a "hoax," adding that investigators believe the evidence indicates that "it was a publicity stunt" by the family in hopes of "better marketing themselves for a reality television show at some point in the future."
The parents, Richard and Mayumi Heene, met in a Hollywood acting school and "put on a very good show for us," Alderden said. Authorities know there was "a conspiracy" between them, he added.
He said charges are expected to be filed in the case.
Re: sooo....where's the kid?
Posted: 19 Oct 2009 10:55
by Drunken Idaho
Who called it?
The sad thing is, the family is probably still going to get some kind of reality TV show deal out of this whole thing.
Re: sooo....where's the kid?
Posted: 19 Oct 2009 13:14
by Eyes High
Re: sooo....where's the kid?
Posted: 19 Oct 2009 13:19
by Serkanner
I'll add this story to the ever growing list of why I don't ever want to have children.
Re: sooo....where's the kid?
Posted: 19 Oct 2009 14:07
by Drunken Idaho
Serkanner wrote:I'll add this story to the ever growing list of why I don't ever want to have children.
I've already added this story to my ever growing list of why we shouldn't have reality TV. That poor kid is the victim here (and I suppose, people like Eyes High who became emotionally involved). He's been used by his parents as a cute little story that has now crashed and burned, and then they paraded him around these news talkshows making him lie to everyone. No wonder he got confused and spilled the beans to Blitzer. The parents did all this to gain attention and score some kind of reality TV deal. It's pathetic and that father is clearly a complete goof.
Re: sooo....where's the kid?
Posted: 19 Oct 2009 14:17
by A Thing of Eternity
Some combination of people watching reality TV instead of just going out and living, and sites like facebook replacing real forums (not internet "forum" I meant the original meaning) for interaction and self expression WILL be the downfall of western civilization. The US will probably fall first, then the rest of us will quickly follow suite.
Hopefully
the Machine stops. 
Re: sooo....where's the kid?
Posted: 19 Oct 2009 14:24
by TheDukester
Serkanner wrote:I'll add this story to the ever growing list of why I don't ever want to have children.
Not that it's any of my business, or my place to judge or question, but this just makes no sense to me. The
child was not at fault here. Why would some random parent being an idiot make
you not want to have children? Wouldn't it be a safe bet that you'd be a better parent than that idiot?
As I say, though, not really my business. I'm mostly just curious, and not trying to press for some sort of agenda.
Re: sooo....where's the kid?
Posted: 19 Oct 2009 14:35
by A Thing of Eternity
I know I have plenty of reasons to never have children without needing any more outside influence whatsoever!
Re: sooo....where's the kid?
Posted: 19 Oct 2009 15:44
by Redstar
They're idiots. They could have gotten away with it by simply not coaching the kid, and just drugging him and having him wake up in the forest near the crash site. He'd be "traumatized" and "repress" the memories. (Moved from Random Crap, which really isn't much of a move at all)
Re: sooo....where's the kid?
Posted: 19 Oct 2009 18:50
by SandChigger
Who da grumpy boy? Who is he? So cute!
Just watched Jeanne Moos take her usual potshots at the story. Clip from SNL. Love it.
(And yeah, the kid is the victim here. Even if he is hyper and I just want to smack him.)
Re: sooo....where's the kid?
Posted: 20 Oct 2009 08:23
by Serkanner
Drunken Idaho wrote:Serkanner wrote:I'll add this story to the ever growing list of why I don't ever want to have children.
I've already added this story to my ever growing list of why we shouldn't have reality TV. That poor kid is the victim here (and I suppose, people like Eyes High who became emotionally involved). He's been used by his parents as a cute little story that has now crashed and burned, and then they paraded him around these news talkshows making him lie to everyone. No wonder he got confused and spilled the beans to Blitzer. The parents did all this to gain attention and score some kind of reality TV deal. It's pathetic and that father is clearly a complete goof.
I added it because he ratted out his father.
Re: sooo....where's the kid?
Posted: 20 Oct 2009 08:25
by Serkanner
TheDukester wrote:Serkanner wrote:I'll add this story to the ever growing list of why I don't ever want to have children.
Not that it's any of my business, or my place to judge or question, but this just makes no sense to me. The
child was not at fault here. Why would some random parent being an idiot make
you not want to have children? Wouldn't it be a safe bet that you'd be a better parent than that idiot?
As I say, though, not really my business. I'm mostly just curious, and not trying to press for some sort of agenda.
Forgot to add this comment into my response.
The kid ratted ... number one offence to any (future) parent.
Children are living proof why I hate most people in general.
Re: sooo....where's the kid?
Posted: 20 Oct 2009 11:45
by smugetsu
Now it appears the FAA is getting involved and conducting their own investigation.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/10/20/balloo ... index.html
I agree with SC when he says that the kid is the victim here- I really do feel sorry for him. His dad essentially used him for his own gain.
Re: sooo....where's the kid?
Posted: 20 Oct 2009 14:26
by Drunken Idaho
Serkanner wrote:Drunken Idaho wrote:Serkanner wrote:I'll add this story to the ever growing list of why I don't ever want to have children.
I've already added this story to my ever growing list of why we shouldn't have reality TV. That poor kid is the victim here (and I suppose, people like Eyes High who became emotionally involved). He's been used by his parents as a cute little story that has now crashed and burned, and then they paraded him around these news talkshows making him lie to everyone. No wonder he got confused and spilled the beans to Blitzer. The parents did all this to gain attention and score some kind of reality TV deal. It's pathetic and that father is clearly a complete goof.
I added it because he ratted out his father.
I'm all for ratting out one's parents if they deserve it. And this bastard deserved it.
Re: sooo....where's the kid?
Posted: 20 Oct 2009 14:45
by inhuien
He didn't rat on anyone, all he (a nervous little child) did was blurt out the truth. I'm not seeing any malice aforethought here.
