As I understand...

... in the "Balloon Boy" hoax, the parents pretended their son had accidentally lifted off from the Earth in an experimental weather balloon.

Of course, there was much publicity over this event and public concern for the missing child.

But when they played the recording over the radio of the neighbor being interviewed, he said something along the line of being drawn to the commotion by one of the parents running around the outside of the residence calling the name of the missing son, and that two of the other children were on the roof (with a camera) and one of them said their brother was in the balloon.

And I thought to myself...
"Are you serious? BOTH parents are home and neither of them know that one of their children has possibly taken up flight, while two more are on the roof?! I'm thinking 'Protective Services' might be in order here."

And then I thought...

"Why'd they have the camera? And why were they on the roof in the first place? I thought this was supposed to be an accidental launch."



And then there's the Haiti hurricane situation. I told my coworkers that very night that it would be a perfect scenario for child trafficking. Then some SAVE THE WORLD!!! activist said that it was the responsibility of the U.S. to bring the orphans here.

Me thinks to myself..."Ouch. Bad idea there, Pandora!"

And sure enough, the radio tells me that 20 American missionaries were being held for trafficking children.

My thought?

"20 Americans? TWENTY? at the same time? organized that quickly for the purpose of smuggling orphans?

Bullshit.

Your country is going through a terrible tragedy, your people are suffering, and the first thing you do is target the country that's in the best position to assist?!!! What exactly is being done there that's so incredibly wrong that you would create this fiasco to divert the media's attention?!"

And this morning the radio told me only one of the detained Americans still remains in custody. If that person is allowed to go, will the media find evidence of what was really going on? Why haven't they already?



And maybe it's that I just don't have a lot of faith in people in general, but there's ALWAYS someone out there just waiting to jump on some Get Rich Quick plan.

So last night that radio tells me of this scenario...

The owner of a Toyota Prius has the accelerator problem that's been so widely covered as of late.
Two different news people report that the driver of the vehicle stated that he tried everything to get the vehicle to slow down - all the way to the point of reaching down and manually pulling up on the accelerator with his hand - before calling 911 and having the local police walk him through how to stop the vehicle using his E-brake. (He is reported to have reached a speed over 90mph.)

First - If he's old enough to where he's actually willing to drive a Prius - let alone afford it - he should have had a driver's training class that covered how to stop the vehicle if the brakes were to fail.

Second - He tried everything? It occurred to him to call 911 on his cell phone - at 90mph...but it didn't occur to him to...um...turn the key to the 'Off' position?

Cuz' I've had two cars (see * for more info) accelerate on me and turning the thing off was the first thing I thought both times. Well, maybe the 2nd thing. The first was probably, "Shit. My car is speeding up by itself. Hope this doesn't cost much to fix."

And really, with as much unwanted publicity that Toyota has taken over this, I'd think that by now you'd have wondered how you'd go about stopping your Toyota if it went all Herbie or Christine or Bumblebee on you.

Of course, unless you're still driving a car that doesn't have power steering, you need to put the car in neutral and restart it right away. Especially so if there's need for urgent use of the power brakes or if you are on a curve.


I'm glad I buy used cars. I'd sure hate to buy one new, have it recalled, and then have it seem that all the stupid people in the world were driving the same kind of car I chose. (Although I kind of wish I had a Toyota now so I could haul ass down the road. I'd put a sign in the back window saying..."Sorry Officer. Can't stop. Accelerator sticking.")

I wonder if Toyota vehicles will top the "Most Stolen" lists again THIS year.


And there's today's ramblings.

I'm ending this post much the same as the last one, but with an apology included.
I'd missed that another one of my high school friends had found this and therefore didn't throw a shout-out in her direction. So... Hi, Judy! Sorry I missed you last time! :)


*(1) - 1987 Chevy Celebrity Eurosport (Satan's college car) - I hit a monster snowdrift at a good clip. The engine was so full of snow that it knocked the belt off. Once the belt was back on it ran again...but was as anxious to get to a heated garage as a horse is to get home after a long ride.

*(2) - 1997 Buick LeSabre (Yup. The one I still have) - Sped up by itself just one time. The cruise control has worked sporadically since then. Hmmm...CC, Toyota?