After hearing WAAAAY more than I want to about BalloonBoy, I wonder what his and his siblings future is going to hold. There is no reservation in me as to what the consequences for both parents should be. But hammering the hoaxter is going to pop the whole families balloon permanently. At this point (thanks to their own documentation) it seems both parents were complaisant in the costly ruse. I personally want to see the full penalties of the law applied and FULL restitution made. (too bad that can't be done to most of the 'professional' publicity stunts that happen ) Just the cost of scrambling US Air Force fighters should keep them occupied for the rest of their lives after they serve the prison sentences for everything from false statements to authorities to the many real lives that were endangered.

Regardless, the children are going to pay by being parentless (which in this case will not be losing any life teachers) and will carry a stigma all through their developing years as well as having messed-up heads forever. Should there be a law in addition to Child Endangering and Contributing to Delinquency for Destroying a Childs Future as well?

What do you think is the best that can come of this for the kids?

(I don't give a shit what happens to the parents as long as it's bad. )

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Well the same could be said of Jon and Kates kids too I'm wondering why Division of Youth and Family Services hasn't been called along time ago

Kinda makes you wonder how many kids are willfully thrown into the tabloid jaws in the name of promotion and entertainment, eh?

Do ya think the freak Michael Jackson was turned into over his life taught us anything?

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The authorities were at fault in the Balloonboy affair. The balloon was never going to lift a boy that size, and even if it had, the boy would have been enclosed in an airtight gondola (and thus dead). Those majestic pictures of the half deflated thing flopping through the sky showed there was was no weight in it.

The Police let themselves get caught up in the circus.

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Calm, quiet, smooth, devastating

You can say similar things to all the child stars. Go back and look at the child stars that are now grown up (most being around my age). Lindsay Lohan, coke head; Brittany Spears, coke head; Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, I know one of them was addicted to some drug but forget which Olsen and which drug.......The children involved with the balloon will be messed up by adulthood with or without the parents. Either the parents will mess them up, or being ripped away from their parents will mess them up, or the being in the system will mess them up. As for the John and Kate plus 8 thing, I think there should be a law prohibiting shows like that because it looks to me like their exploiting children for profit.

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"BOY: On a hot summer night, would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses? GIRL: Will he offer me his mouth? BOY: Yes. GIRL: Will he offer me his teeth? BOY: Yes. GIRL: Will he offer me his jaws? BOY: Yes. GIRL: Will he offer me his hunger? BOY: Yes. GIRL: Again, will he offer me his hunger? BOY: Yes! GIRL: Yes. BOY: On a hot summer night, would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses? GIRL: Yes. BOY: I bet you say that to all the boys!" -Meatloaf

I heard that the parents were storm chasers & that when the kids went to bed,the parents dressed them in their clothes in the event of a storm to chase!I remember when kids were treated as kids! Irish

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Irish---Better to be dead & cool,then alive & uncool!
(Harley Davidson & the Marlboro Man)

I'm not so sure. They had no way of evaluating the situation until they arrived on the scene. Even then their job was to deal with it regardless of their suspicions. Had they not, they would have been open to criticism from every angle. Like the fire department responding to a fase alarm, I don't see it as being their fault.

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Responding was OK.

It was the inability to recognise that the balloon was incapable of lifting the kid, especially once the balloon lost shape with helium loss.

Hindsight with the Hubble Telescope perhaps, but they locked in a mindset they couldn't break.

I couldn't work out why the choppers weren't used to "wash" the balloon down, especially once it became sluggish.

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Calm, quiet, smooth, devastating

The chopper use would have done the job. I never heard how long or how far the 'fligh' actually was.

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Could be the best thing that's ever happened to them.

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Plug me into somethin'

If the theory does not conform to the facts, then the facts must be discarded.

No good deed ever goes unpunished

Never argue with an idiot. He'll drag you down to his level, & beat you with experience.

50 miles, I don't know how far up it was, a few thousand feet or so.

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Calm, quiet, smooth, devastating