Happy Birthday, America!

Wooo! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!
okee, enough of that. It's July now, which means I take down the puppy-poll (the yeses have it. i voted 'maybe'.) and replace it with one that actually makes sense. I think I'll stick with the patriotic theme for the month.

So i've been catching up on the UFO festival the past couple of days. I attended some free-to-the-public lectures yesterday and today, by folks who are in the business known as ufologists. Certainly some interesting perspectives, although each I've seen has certainly been too sure of his own various theories. I enter into the idea of extraterrestrials with an open mind, although I see severe limitations of anyone study of the phenomena which has no empirical basis. Then again, if there is some sort of cover-up of said evidence, that's precisely what justifies the need for ufological (sp?) research. right?

Here's what I thought coming into the weekend. If ETs do exist, there's an excellent chance that their existence would be withheld from average people such as you or myself. It's the nature of government to cover its ass on matters that could threaten political stability. If ETs don't exist, well then, they don't. So the question shifts from "how can we tell" to: "does it seem likely?" And, with the number of stars and number of planets and blah blah, etc., it seems incredibly likely. So, I'll hear these guys out.

Something did crash here in 1947, nobody disputes that. The wreckage was a sizable skid of debris discovered by local ranchers, and in the days following army personnel and media alike reported the object to be a "flying disc." The idea of a flying saucer wasn't stigmatized as much in the 40s, and their existence wasn't challenged as much as it is today. The military changed its story the next day to say that the object was merely a weather balloon (uh... skid?). Military officials sealed off the area and took the debris and/or remains off to places unknown. The next 6 months saw the passing of the National Security Act, as well as the establishment of the National Security Council, CIA, Air Force, and Department of Defense. hmm, all in late 1947.

Yeah, yeah, there's a serious lack of direct evidence. But you've gotta admit, some of the fragments are pretty cool (presence of titanium in the soil around the crash, zoom-in of a photo of a memo re: Roswell reveals word victims (unmanned weather balloon?), death-bed reference to "creatures" by the officer in charge of locking down the site, etc). It's all pretty cool, and quite festival worthy.

Yeah. Well, Happy Birthday again America! U-S-A! U-S-A!