Calif. Lightning Strike Kills Scout Leader

[Gold Metal Flake]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/sequoia_lightning_death

"FRESNO, Calif. - Lightning struck a group of Boy Scouts taking shelter from a storm, killing the troop leader and leaving a 13-year-old boy brain-dead in the latest tragedy to befall the organization this week, authorities and the teen's grandfather said.

Six others were injured when the lightning bolt made a direct strike on a tarp the Scouts had set up in a meadow in Sequoia National Park on Thursday.

Ryan Collins, 13, was being kept on a ventilator so that his organs could be donated, the boy's grandfather said Friday. Collins was listed in critical condition at the University Medical Center in Fresno, but his family had given up hope.

"He would never recover or anything else," grandfather Bill Collins said."


This is so sad. But, I can't help but wonder if some fundy group will try to interfere with the child's family.

[skooooo]

1. THis is too weird..

What's up with all the boy scout tragedies lately?

[expatriot]

19. This one wouldn't be running on the national wires if

there hadn't been the 4 killed setting up their tent.

and the story about 300 scouts suffering heat exhaustion wouldnt have been a story either if not for the combination of the 4 being killed earlier and the fact that the President was involved (waiting for him).


not too weird, just the media looking for a thread to hang their stories.

[leesa]

24. 6 electrocuted in two weeks is not too weird?

Sounds like God's out to get the Boy Scouts. Why aren't we hearing THIS from Foulwell?

[whistle]

2. That quote about we are an empire and so we create reality....

...is one of the most arrogant statements I have ever read. This actually came for the mouth of a Bush adviser?

[uppityperson]

3. This is sad. Thank you family for donating his organs.

Thank you and so sorry.

[DS1]

4. www.godhatesscouts.com !

Wait, that doesn't make any sense, the Scouts already booted out gay people.

:crazy:

If this doesn't make any sense, google "Fred Phelps"

[GarySeven]

5. The fundies will have nothing to do with this ...

If he was struck by lightning, that means he had offended God in some way.

Oh come on people. You thought of it before I did.

[SpiralHawk]

7. eh

Hmmmm!

[delete_bush]

8. you mean they're not demanding he be kept

on life support for the next 100 years?

[murielm99]

20. God is back in the smiting business?

I do feel for these families.

And, my son is an Eagle Scout. But yeah, I thought it.

[rocktivity]

6. At least it wasn't someone at the jamboree

That would have been TOO much...

:(
rocknation

[OfireitupO]

9. get a hold of yourselves

With the God must really hate the scouts crap


1. People are struck by lightning all the time and there are tens of millions of scouts who happen to camp out a lot
2. If it was God who did it, God must really hate minorities and 3rd world nation folk who die by the millions of hunger and disease

[Bill McBlueState]

12. God must really hate minorities and 3rd world nation folk

It's pretty obvious to me that if gods exist, they have to hate everyone. How else can you explain Toby Keith's popularity?

[pitohui]

15. jehovah the god of thunderbolts not god of agriculture

god has nothing to do with it one way or another if someone dies of hunger or disease

lightning in theory a different matter

you can look it up

yes, our dark humor is in bad taste, but our God or Jehovah is well documented to be a sky or thunder god in origin


sometimes it's laugh or cry

[NuttyFluffers]

17. It does seem like "Sky God" is mad at the scouts.

no tsunami, riptide, earthquake, mudslide, or forest fire yet. just sky incidents. what's next? tornados? freak baseball sized hail? boy-scout-eating locusts? bizarre... they better go let gays and atheists in stat.

[JI7]

21. people are pointing out the hypocrisy or joke of it

which was started by the right wingers in regards to gays, pro choice groups and others. when they said that shit about how there will be hurricanes, earthquakes etc because the gays had a little party.

and i do think the right wingers would be saying it was God's will if it had happened to members of a gay rights , pro choice or other group they have a problem with.

[VegasWolf]

10. Maybe God is telling them to get their act together re persecution of gays

[Mr. Peanut]

22. Your observation is interesting

in light of the fact that European scouts do accept gays.

Scouting For All has said that the B.S.A.'s refusal to allow certain religious denominations to charter troops, in conjunction with their control by certain other religious groups and discriminatory policies against gays stands in blatant violation of these requirements.

I further note that Scouting For All has stated that it is incumbent upon George W. Bush, President of the United States of America, to step down as honorary president of the Boy Scouts of America.

[Wcross]

11. I was struck by lightning at a boyscout camp. (seriously!)

If you are living in the woods for weeks on end, sometimes nature bites you in the ass. In my case it burned me on the ass cheek.
I was lucky enough to be gounded, it went up my right leg and out my left ass cheek because I was sitting on a bolt attached to a metal picnic table. It threw me about ten feet back from the table.
Did I offend god? I don't know but I am alive 30 years after the fact.

[NNN0LHI]

13. Golly that sure must have been a big shark

Oops wrong thread. Sorry.

Don

[pitohui]

14. seems like god has HAD it with boy scouts

striking them with zots all over the place

i hope no one interferes with the family's wish to donate the organs to someone who can use them

[davidinalameda]

16. really doesn't pay to be involved with the Boy Scouts this week

makes you think

[OneBlueSky]

18. I doubt that God had much to do with this . . .

shit happens . . . and when shit happens, it doesn't necessarily mean that God intended it to happen . . . He gave us free will, and sometimes (well, often) our free will make shit happen that isn't particularly nice . . . free will to do things like try to erect a tent next to a live power line, or take shelter in the wrong place during a thunder and lightning storm . . . shit just happens . . .

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

23. I just spoke to Zeus. He assures me it was his bolt...

And he's a bit pissed about the lack of offerings of late indicating the bolts might continue.