I have to ask after yesterday's weird incident with the homemade "flying saucer" (more like a helium balloon) whether it was all a setup; especially after the six year old kid involved hinted that it may have been all just that, all for show no more or less.
Maybe the kid's just six years old, and maybe he gets a sense of adventure from his father who is a well known (at least on the Net) as a storm chaser. However, our air defence system in North America was designed to handle real emergencies and not publicity stunts. When we found out after the balloon landed that no one was in there after all and there was no possibility anyone could have been in there at all, and later when we found out the kid had been hiding out all this time, I'm sure we all breathed a sigh of relief.
But what if this had been the real deal, a terrorist attack or worse? Or while the world was distracted by this a terror attack happened somewhere else. I can't say I was all too impressed by the response. The fact that this may have been all fake is outrageous, but if it was such a stunt then the joke was on us and it wasn't funny at all.
If this was nothing more than a minor's cry for attention, it was done in one of the most bizarre ways imaginable. If this was, however, a publicity stunt, then the family should be sent the bill for the "rescue" which is certainly into the tens of thousands. This looks like a grouping that could afford it but that's not the point. It makes a mockery of what the phrase "breaking news" should mean.
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