annals of blind faith

[sisyphusshrugged]

of the young lady who flew off to meet her MySpace friend on the West Bank

Katherine Lester's parents thought they had no reason to doubt their daughter when she told them she needed a passport for a trip to Canada with friends.

Can any of you campers suggest a reason?

Comments

[shelleybear.livejournal.com]

And worse then that, it's owned by Rupert Murdoch.

[gngrmyrsn.livejournal.com]

Ouf! Evil squared!

[gngrmyrsn.livejournal.com]

MySpace.com was co-founded by Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe in 2003. They intended for it to be a place for established musicians to network and for unsigned musicians to get noticed.

Because music is evil?

[lintra.livejournal.com]

Um, because you don't need a passport to get into Canada or back into the US and every casino commercial playing in Michigan says so.

Plus, don't you call the parent taking the kids to Canada to make sure everything is safe for your 16 year old before you allow? Hm, musta been I was raised by parents who worried about my safety.

There were other quotes in there that disturbed me far greater - quotes from the parents implying that it was the government's job to not let underage kids fly out of the country, or something.

This is a case of kid-too-smart-for-parents.

[luxetumbra.livejournal.com]

You'll need a passport starting in 2007 for all US-Canada cross-border trips by plane and in 2008, for all US-Canada cross-border trips regardless though, so maybe she said it was for next year?

This is a case of kid-too-smart-for-parents.

I don't know. Lying to your parents to run off and meet Random Internet Guy from the West Bank? Sometimes breeding runs true.

[lintra.livejournal.com]

Well, they keep saying we're going to need passports, but they're also talking about some special ID cards, and they're also talking about delaying all that. I live 7 miles from the busiest US-Canada crossing and the feeling around here is that they won't enforce this passport plan because the businesses don't like it - that doesn't mean they won't, but there isn't a run on passports around here yet.

As far as the brains, well, I don't think we're talking a high bar, and I'm not saying her common sense was good - but she got a passport and airline tickets and got to Jordan. I'm not saying that's smart in and of itself, but it does take a bit of proactivity. There should have been a number of places the parents should have tripped her up. They never did. This leaves me to believe she outsmarted them. It's part of parenting to catch the lies. I know you can't always, but asking a lot of questions is a good idea.

But my daughter thinks I'm just the strictest parent ever with always wanting to know who she's with and calling parents and in general remembering the crap I got away with when I was a teen and trying to make sure she doesn't get in those smart-but-no-common-sense situations. I'll certainly have pie on my face if she ever manages to sneak off to Jordan.

[ckd]

In D&D terms: she made her INT rolls vs. parents, but failed her WIS check vs. bad idea.

The strict parent bit reminds me of part of my extended family. There were two sisters, each of whom had two boys. The sister who'd been "wilder" as a young woman knew all the tricks, so her kids learned to either forget it or ask permission. The other one, more the "good girl", had trouble keeping the kids under control because she couldn't draw on her own experience to know what to look for....

In D&D terms: she made her INT rolls vs. parents, but failed her WIS check vs. bad idea.

[lintra.livejournal.com]

I love D&D analogies!

Exactly. My mom was a good girl and never thought for one minute her straight A student was sneaking out of the bedroom window. My kid gets frustrated with the questions, but she also still talks to us. So far. (fingers crossed.)

[xgray.livejournal.com]

don't you try to malign these poor, innocent parents. you know this is all teh internets fault!

[halleyscomet.livejournal.com]

I hate to say it, but kinda I'm sad to see the FBI got involved.

We could have had a perfectly good hostage crisis. FOX news would have gone nuts over because it would involve "A Missing Pretty White Girl." Even better, it would end in either an eternally missing "victim" or a graphic execution video.

And we could have sat back and laughed at it all, because it was the nit-wit's own fault. We would have had a nice demonstration of Evolution in action.

It's a shame the FBI cheated Saint Darwin of the Gene Pool out of this one.

Oh well, a kid this dumb will exit the gene pool on her own eventually. Let's just hope it happens before she breeds.

[jmhm.livejournal.com]

I dunno, I think kids should get away with stupidity if they can when they're young.