the step-dad dude looks like he can go back to his crack pipe now that his neck is out of the noose.

I know that's pretty crude, but it's what I think.

I wanted the step-dad dude to shut the hell up.
Neither one of those boys needed to be paraded around in front of the media like that.
At any time a journalist could have ask an inappropriate question. I was so glad they had the since enough not to.
Although, I think I did hear one ask if he (Shawn) had said anything about what had happened to him.

I think the step-dad's wonderful. If you do a google search, you can both of them working their asses off at searches and functions for various missing kids, almost every one of whom is buried under some leaves somewhere.
I don't get the crackpipe reference, Owen, sorry.

Nancy, imagine if one of our brother's daughters had gone missing and the cameras were focused on him. Absolutely obsessed with finding his kid he would be, and also absolutely un-camera-ready he would be, right down to the missing front tooth.

It just seems funny to me Donnah...

I can let the appearance stuff slide a little, but after all this time of the kid missing, I dunno..I just guess I see a lot of people looking like the parents, and it just seems wierd. I skip shaving some..if I don't comb my hair/lost a cap-maybe that could be me. I just figure I would ask a cop for a razor...*especially* if I was as verbose as he is/was.

He was making love to the camera, and the only way I can reconcile the situation is to take into account that he and the Mom must have been on the suspect list.

Then again, maybe I am being too suspicious. He may be this wonderful guy that hooked up with the Mom, fell head over for the kid before he was
*adopted* by Mr. Creep... and since then his life has been driven by the search.

As savvy as he appeared on TV, it seemed odd...

HAPPY MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY(late) everyone!

Two lost kids are home and all men/women black or white have their shot at the dream here in America.

Dr. King certainly played a part in that and I'm greatful. He left our Country a better place then when he arrived. Unfortunately.... jesse, sharpton, and liberal guilt are chipping away at all the progress that his movement brought about. Racism is alive and well today- but it's not the racism that Dr. King made a stand against.

Update to last comment:

I still don't agree with taking away Presidents Day to make room for MLK Day. Presidents Washington and Lincoln deserve to have their own day more then any other American.

I thought he needed to shave too, Owen. I'm also disappointed to hear he flew out Monday night to tape Oprah. She could have brought her crew out there.

Oprah will give him a make over for sure.
Then we'll be seeing him on Larry King next.

When Queen Oprah summons you, you must go.

I'm trying to pick out a pattern. Is there *any* father of a kid who came back that y'all like? That's like the world's smallest club, so it should be easy to pick from. I'll take it granted no one likes Ed Smart.
What about the dads whose kids didn't survive? John Walsh OK? Mark Lunsford? Marc Klaas? They're a bigger club, but one that you'd want to join even less.

My husband can't stand John Walsh. I say more power to the guy for trying to bring something good out of all the pain. I don't think I'd be much good to the world if it had been my kid that had been savaged.

It's funny, whenever I think of him I think of Senator Paula Hawkins. She was backing him way, way back in the day and helped him get the NCMEC started. That was a great idea: no more waiting periods to declaring a kid missing, and a national database where it could be reported just like what they already had for cars.

BTW, so far my favorite Stockholm syndrome quote is Patty Hearst saying that if her captors had told her that chocolate doughnuts were being exploited and they had to act, that she would have felt very emotional over the plight of chocolate doughnuts.

Donnah,
I had a problem with exposing two children to the media only hours after they were found.
It is obvious that step-dad dude is uneducated and less advantaged, and the savy press could wrap him around their finger. I also think that someone in law enforcement, a councelor or something, should have suggested a more subtle manner to speaking to the media. Ed Smart had the withitness to conceal his daughter from the spotlight, or in the case of step-dad dude, the limelight.
After I have been violated, I'd like someone to advocate for my privacy.
I'm sure he was genuinely happy though.

i think he wrapped the press around his finger.

I can't for the life of me, see how. He must have been on the debate team in another lifetime. Now Oprah. She must have spotted it too.

I've read in their local paper that Oprah's donating $1 million to their Search and Rescue foundation, so I'm sure that was worth a few hours of the parents' time. In the last four years they've worked over 60 searches. The step-father has his own search dog that he's out there working, even though the man's wearing a prosthetic leg.
http://www.ruralmissouri.org/04pages/04OctDogs.html
BTW, both husband and wife looked immensely more attractive 4 and a half years ago. I'm half surprised that Shawn could recognize *them*.

They've had over four years of practice with the media, with all that time except this past week their being completely dependent on the media to keep their kid's story in the news. After the first couple of months, people lose interest that your kid is gone, so these people are constantly trying to refocus the public's attention on their case. You really don't hear from too many parents after a kid's been gone this long. They bankrupt themselves searching and then they come to terms with the loss of the kid. In Florida the famous missing kid is Amy Billig precisely because her mother spent decades actively searching for her, and courted the media incessantly on her behalf. Mrs. Billig died a few years ago, and she searched right up until the end. So, I really give people respect who persist year after year with what is 99.9% of the time utter futility. Against all the statistics, which I've no doubt they were perfectly aware of, these sad, desperate people did keep plugging, and now, improbably, they have their kid back. I'm happy to rejoice with them.
Even though you and I don't like it having been done at all, the cameras on Shawn was supposedly a one-time thing for a homecoming.

Donnah,
you kept the dog and prosthetic leg cards out till last?

ROTFL. I was trying to fight fair, but y'all left me no damn choice! The search dog's name is Trax, and the guy lost his leg during a search for a missing girl.

during a search for a missing girl...that did it.

"saved the dog and the prosthetic leg" damn that is funny..

see how nice this all turned out ???

Donnah, you gonna whip out some porn ring the college Coaches run or something to kill that one too ???

btw.. I wish for y'all, what my wife's mother-in-law wished us for MLK day.

Listen, I can't just cop my m-i-l's smartass lines; she checks this thing and would see me plagiarizing.