Lost at sea...and also in the head

[Nick]

Read in the paper today about that family rescued at sea.  They had been lost for weeks.  A mom, dad, 2 small kids, and a father-in-law.  Turns out they had left Arizona for some little island to escape religious gov pressure from the US gov.  When I heard that my ...bunch of nuts radar went up.  They put themselves in God's hands and he sent storms, damaged their boat, and got them stranded at sea.  A fishing boat from Venezuela found them, transferred them to a Japanese boat, and ended up in Chili.  Now the US gov to flying them back home.  How is that for an oppressive gov?

[William]

Amazing. They prayed and eventually a helicopter spotted them.
Don't the Angles get any of the good gigs these days 

[ParkingPlaces]

Well, first of all, our government is more fair than those people think. It oppresses EVERYBODY!!!

But can you imagine how much money those folks are going to be making when they get paid to go on the various TV shows that love shit like that. Everything from Good Morning America to The View, and everything Fox News can muster on such sort notice; they'll be billionaires by next Friday.

So I think I'm gonna tell everyone I'm an atheist and I'm that I'm leaving the country because it is too oppressive to non-believers, then I'll get myself lost in the Canadian wilderness (or maybe the Paris subway system would be better), and  then when I get found I'll get sympathy from the American media and go on TV and make a fortune whining and wailing about how horrible this country is to atheists.

America: Land of opportunity. As long as you leave it and get lost.

[neopagan]

they will be Carnival Cruise Lines' new spokespeople... "see, getting stranded at sea isn't so bad folks - give Carnival another shot!"

[mrbiscoop]

  Sounds a little like the movie "The Mosquito Coast", but only a little.

[Nick]

Amazing. They prayed and eventually a helicopter spotted them.
Don't the Angles get any of the good gigs these days 

Angle was busy in Missouri disguised as a priest to get that girl out of the car wreck.

[nogodsforme]

I'm glad they were rescued, for the kids' sake. If they had been lost much longer, god might have given them the gift of eating each other a la Donner Party. I hope the children realize that their parents are batsh!t crazy, take their share of the tv millions and split at the earliest opportunity.

[wright]

I wonder if they were true to their paranoid SPAG and didn't bother stocking the boat with food and water for the trip, trusting that their ominpresent, omnibenevolent, omnipotent deity would send rain and make fish leap into their hands when they needed to resupply? Well, he did send them those storms, so they at least can't complain about not getting fresh water...

From the Friendly Atheist:http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2013/08/10/due-to-paranoid-religious-concerns-christian-family-sails-out-of-america-and-gets-stranded/

Honestly, these people sound so paranoid I'm amazed they could function as long as they did in modern society. If they don't learn from this experience, it's only a matter of time before they get themselves in another self-dug hole.

I'm glad they were rescued, for the kids' sake. If they had been lost much longer, god might have given them the gift of eating each other a la Donner Party. I hope the children realize that their parents are batsh!t crazy, take their share of the tv millions and split at the earliest opportunity.

Good point. It would be interesting to see if / how those kids' worldview has changed when they come of age.

[Nick]

Imagine thinking Arizona is oppressive.

[nogodsforme]

Imagine thinking Arizona is oppressive.

Well, it is. But not so much for the white conservative Christians.

[William]

Angle was busy in Missouri disguised as a priest to get that girl out of the car wreck.

Ah hah! Now I see why nobody can find that mystery priest - the identikit faces doesn't include this vital info:



(PS: I could only find the pic once my mildly dyslexic brain got round to correcting my spelling  )

[LoriPinkAngel]

The most annoying part is how much of the tax money that they object to paying was spent on their rescue.

[Graybeard]

I can't understand why God didn't send a whale of Biblical proportions to swallow them and return them to the US.

[Nick]

I can't understand why God didn't send a whale of Biblical proportions to swallow them and return them to the US.

Or just make it so they could walk back.

[screwtape]

I can't understand why God didn't send a whale of Biblical proportions to swallow them and return them to the US.

or digest them

[nogodsforme]

I would not trust the judgment of people who would take children onto a boat without proper provisions. Maybe the evil state could charge the parents with child endangerment and have the kids removed. It could save their lives in case the nutso parents decide to go live in the desert without food or water for 40 years...or maybe decide to drown them to keep them from sinning. 

[neopagan]

or... god will provide the sacrifice.

These folks are a clear danger to themselves and others; more nuts in that family than the line at a sperm bank

[wright]

Looks like they learned exactly zero and have plans to "escape" the nonexistant horrible, horrible persecution they face in Neverneverland the US: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/conservative-christian-voyagers-who-were-lost-pacific-plan-leave-again-fear-immigration-refo

When, not if, they screw up again, I hope they won't put their children's lives in danger. Again.

[Nick]

Fish bait.

[Nam]

Read in the paper today about that family rescued at sea.  They had been lost for weeks.  A mom, dad, 2 small kids, and a father-in-law.  Turns out they had left Arizona for some little island to escape religious gov pressure from the US gov.  When I heard that my ...bunch of nuts radar went up.  They put themselves in God's hands and he sent storms, damaged their boat, and got them stranded at sea.  A fishing boat from Venezuela found them, transferred them to a Japanese boat, and ended up in Chili.  Now the US gov to flying them back home.  How is that for an oppressive gov?

Surprised Shamu wasn't involved.



-Nam

[neopagan]

this time, I bet even the Venezualens won't bother with them: "look at these capitalist fools - they are back - let's see if they have any of those fancy new iPhone 3Gs, then set them adrift." fool me once...

[nogodsforme]

Wait a minute. These people don't like immigration, ie foreigners moving to the US, so they plan to become.....immigrants in a foreign country. Makes my head hurt, the stupid does.

They think the US is not conservative or Christian enough. Good luck finding any country that is more conservative and Christian than the US--that is not also full of impoverished, non-English speaking foreigners.

Where do they think they are going to go where they won't themselves be foreigners, subject to immigration laws?  Most countries are not generally as lenient as the US on immigration, so they will be wishing for the very same immigration reforms that they oppose. Let them go try to get citizenship in Germany or Japan....

Russia is, ironically, looking pretty good for them-- what with the pro-church, anti-gay rules and all. Can't wait to see them complain about oppressive government to the likes of Vladimir Putin and the Russian Mafia. They will come back begging to kiss Obama's....feet. Frying pan to fire--spasibo for playing.

[screwtape]

Good luck finding any country that is more conservative and Christian than the US--that is not also full of impoverished, non-English speaking foreigners.

SHUSH!  Don't say anything!  You're going to spoil it!  Cripes, man, we stand to offload a significant number of crazies and you are trying to talk them out of it. 

[Hatter23]

Good luck finding any country that is more conservative and Christian than the US--that is not also full of impoverished, non-English speaking foreigners.

SHUSH!  Don't say anything!  You're going to spoil it!  Cripes, man, we stand to offload a significant number of crazies and you are trying to talk them out of it.

Actually makes me think of the weirdness that is  Santa Bárbara d'Oeste, where there are brown skinned people who still swear allegience to the principles of Jefferson Davis and the Confederacy.

[nogodsforme]

Good luck finding any country that is more conservative and Christian than the US--that is not also full of impoverished, non-English speaking foreigners.

SHUSH!  Don't say anything!  You're going to spoil it!  Cripes, man, we stand to offload a significant number of crazies and you are trying to talk them out of it.

Actually makes me think of the weirdness that is  Santa Bárbara d'Oeste, where there are brown skinned people who still swear allegience to the principles of Jefferson Davis and the Confederacy.

I read about that. In Brazil, of all places. The most multiracially mixed country in the Americas. They are the descendants of the local black Brazilian population and the white US confederate slave owners. So much for racially pure segregation.  The whites headed south to Brazil to escape the horrors being around black people. I guess they were really bad at geography and thought that since the people spoke Portuguese, they were in Portugal. I can only imagine what they thought when they got off the boats in South America and saw all those Africans.

They say the same thing people in the US south say, that the stars and bars flag is not a symbol of racism, but of a unique cultural heritage. In the case of the Brazilian confederates, I believe them.

Funny how a mixed race population always magically appears, even when people say they are against the races mixing. And it is almost always black women giving birth to the mixed kids. Lots of immaculate conceptions, I guess, since those Christian white men would never have sex with their female slaves....

[Boots]

Fish bait.

only if we're lucky!

[Nam]

nogodsforme,

It is a part of their heritage, their racist heritage.

-Nam

[Aeron]

I got lost in the woods on a hike once, I went to pray, then my wife smacked me and said use the GPS.

[nogodsforme]

I just watched Cast Away with Tom Hanks. Wonderful movie that deserved all the praise it got. I thought it would be cheesy and lame, but I was wrong.  Hanks was amazingly believable.

It took Tom days to figure out something as basic as how to get coconuts open so he could have water and food.  It took days more to learn to make a fire so he could cook anything.[1]I suggest any fool religious nut wanting to take the family to live on an island in the ocean-- with no survival skills or equipment-- check out that video. 

I predict raw human cannibalism around day 6. 

1.	Evidently the film makers spent some time living on the island as if they were stranded, and those were some of the real life problems they faced.