Hopefully the government won't overreact and blindly rush to take the kids away, or expect to put the father and mother in jail for several years, which makes no more sense than the worst Drug War kinds of excesses. A few months to a year in jail at most is sufficient, and don't be surprised if there is no jail time. As to the children (the parents are wackos with their “space aliens” stuff and seem self-absorbed or attention-and-ego-stroke-seeking if they want their kids to accompany them on unusual or dangerous outings, not to mention exploiting the stupid teevee crowd “shock and awe sells” mindset nowadays) — some counseling (and anger management for the stupid father) is much more in order here.

Kathy — unlike the more noteworthy and notorious example set by someone else on this site, you had responded normally to this stupid hype-event, and I hadn't the time earlier, but wanted to tell you most of all about what else followed from this event. Not so much the hype and idiocy about the event itself, but of the possible consequences. Fortunately, nobody so far has mindlessly rushed to demand that there be all-new severe restrictions on small aircraft, and brutal restrictions on personal property that can fly, especially large metal balloons (or any balloons at all — tether requirements and related nonsense are not beyond the demented scope of some). As you live in New Jersey, what I also thought about with this, having to do with something small in the air and hobbyists (albeit wacky in the Colorado case) was to wonder aloud, What if it had happened in New York metro? Not only would there have been even more hype and idiotic rhetoric (“Miracle on the Hudson” [gag]) likely, but what of the consequences? It would not be any kind of surprise to see fools like Chuckie Shumer or the Lout, Frank Lautenberg, rush promptly to demand an instant ban on private ownership of balloons, a ban on flights around New York metro, a ban of helium sales to private individuals, and other similar overreactive and totalitarian, “Nanny State Does Smothering Mothering” lunacy. For just look at how the Lout and Chuckie treated rocketry.

Drama queens.