Where's The Evidence For Alien Visits To Earth?

I Want To Believe, But.......

Prompted by the Mars "structure" YouTube video posted on The
Two-Way blog the other day, I couldn't resist bringing back a
classic, the alien autopsy video.

You will watch, no doubt with your mouth agape, the autopsy of
an alien corpse recovered from the remains of his (hers?)
spaceship, crashed (shot down?) in Roswell in 1947. You can read
a short story on the autopsy here.

The video portrays the exact reversal of what so many abductees
say happens to them: the surgical bed, the doctors performing
tests, the gruesome nature of the whole thing. (In fact, if you
are a sensitive viewer, be advised. It gets gross after about 3
minutes, or so.)

Too bad that Ray Santilli, the video producer responsible for
the footage, admitted that the video was a hoax. (Although he
did say some frames were original, you know, just to keep
believers believing...)

So, the question is: Why do millions of people believe in such
nonsense?

As fans of the X-Files know, it's summed up in the poster
hanging on FBI agent Fox Mulder's wall: "I want to believe."

If we were to use current technology to fly to Alpha Centauri
4.4 light years away, the closest star to the sun (Proxima
Centauri is a bit closer, but is a red-dwarf.), it would take
over 100,000 years to get there. The distances are astonishing
and wormholes, as far as we can tell, aren't opening up in space
just yet.

There are many arguments against alien visitation and I will
take this up again soon. But just for starters, apart from the
technological difficulties of interstellar travel (what do we
know, right? "They" could have found much faster ways to move
about), there is also a complete absence of convincing evidence.

Sorry, but the video was a hoax and there is no conspiracy of
scientists hiding the truth from an unsuspecting public. Who
more than a scientist - who has devoted his/her life to the
study of the universe and of life - would love to have
conclusive evidence of intelligent life elsewhere? That would be
truly amazing!

The fact is that no radio signals, no sample of alien
technology, no truly real sighting of a UFO that couldn't be
explained with far simpler arguments involving atmospheric
disturbances, weather balloons or just plain aircraft in funny
visibility conditions, have been registered.

Perhaps it's time we simply accepted the fact that even if we
are not alone in our galaxy or the universe (absence of evidence
is not evidence of absence, as Carl Sagan liked to remind us),
for all practical purposes our cosmic isolation amounts to us
being alone.

This doesn't make us less important, but, as I elaborate in my
book A Tear at the Edge of Creation, if we are rare, and so is
our planet, we should rise up and do all we can to preserve and
celebrate what we have. We should stop looking for advanced
alien creatures to save us from our mess (or to destroy us for
what we've got) and take care of our own legacy to the planet
and to the next generations.

Let's Dispense With the 'Hero' Nonsense

Not only did Alameda firefighters and police stand around, watch and do nothing as a suicidal man, Raymond Zack, spent an hour in the San Francisco Bay, neck deep in water, they didn’t even go into the water to retrieve his lifeless body after he died. They left that work to a bystander. To make this incident even more infuriating, police and fire officials defended the inactions of their employees and blamed budget cuts and city policy for this inhumane behavior by those who often claim to be selfless protectors of the public.

At least we can dispense with all the hero nonsense from public safety "first responders" who use the hero card whenever they are negotiating for higher pay, better pensions and other bigger budget items. When it comes time to actually act like heroes, they often act like bureaucrats. Certainly, as a deadly fire in San Francisco Thursday that claimed the life of at least one firefighter shows, these jobs can be dangerous (although they don't come near the top of the most-dangerous-jobs list). But the Alameda tragedy is an increasingly common situation as officials put their own safety, comfort and bureaucratic priorities above everything else.

Per the MSNBC report: "Interim Alameda Fire Chief Mike D'Orazi said that due to 2009 budget cuts his crews did not have the training or cold-water gear to go into the water. ‘The incident yesterday was deeply regrettable,’ he said Tuesday. ‘But I can also see it from our firefighters' perspective. They’re standing there wanting to do something, but they are handcuffed by policy at that point.’"

For God’s sake, blaming budget cuts is reprehensible especially given the large chunk of local budgets that firefighting services consume. Simple decency required some effort – rather than standing around and gawking by these highly paid professionals – to save a troubled man. The bystander who fished out his body didn’t have cold-water gear (let alone a big pension from the fire department), but she jumped into the water any way and acted like an actual human being. The water was a bit chilly (54 degrees) but it's not Alaska.

The article quoted a local resident who made the sensible point: "This just strikes me as not just a problem with funding, but a problem with the culture of what's going on in our city, that no one would take the time and help this drowning man." And it’s a huge cultural problem within any firefighting department that would put budgetary complaints and red tape above doing their basic human mission of saving someone in harm’s way.

The Alameda police showed even deeper bureaucratic inhumanity. "Certainly this was tragic, but police officers are tasked with ensuring public safety, including the safety of personnel who are sent to try to resolve these kinds of situations," Alameda police Lt. Sean Lynch told the San Jose Mercury News. "He was engaged in a deliberate act of taking his own life. We did not know whether he was violent, whether drugs were involved. It's not a situation of a typical rescue."

This response is typical from police agencies. First they say that officer safety is their first priority. Then they blame the victim. Well, if you’re not going to do your job and endure even an iota of risk, then let’s stop playing up the risks to officers. And helping suicidal people and troubled people of all sort is part of the job of a police officer, one would think. No one, of course, will be held accountable for any of this, which is how it works in the public sector, and especially with public safety agencies.

The whole scene sounded like something from the Three Stooges, except with tragic results. According to the MSNBC report, "The Coast Guard was called to the scene, but the water was too shallow for its boat. A Coast Guard helicopter arrived more than an hour later because it had been on another call and had to refuel."

When asked if he would save a drowning child in such waters, Alameda Fire Chief Ricci Zombeck offered this bureaucratic and maddening answer to an ABC news reporter "Well, if I was off duty I would know what I would do, but I think you're asking me my on-duty response and I would have to stay within our policies and procedures because that's what's required by our department to do."

Obviously, then, we are safer without these departments. A heroic bystander might at least jump in the water and try to save your kid while the professional, well-paid, highly pensioned "hero" is forbidden by policy (and a bureaucratic attitude) to do so.

The firefighters, cops and Coast Guard, with all their personnel and top-of-the-line equipment, were incapable of even trying to save the life of a man who stood neck deep in water for an hour. Something definitely is wrong with this picture. It reminds me of another incident in Philadelphia I wrote about for LewRockwell.com a few years ago:

"In a videotaped ‘rescue’ along the Schuylkill River last May [police and firefighters] did nothing other than watch for a half-hour or so as a troubled man clung to the side of a bridge, then jumped off and drowned. … [T]hey were joking around as the tragic event transpired. It took a roller-blading passerby and another bystander to attempt a rescue. … And the officials wouldn’t touch [the dying man] or try to resuscitate him until the rubber gloves and other safety equipment was on the scene. They left the dirty work for the brave volunteers. This infuriating response didn’t merit a rebuke from the police commissioner, who actually praised the assembled cops for their efforts after a public outcry ensued."

Instead of getting punished, Alameda officials will get rewarded – with additional training dollars. But who really believes that even if that money had been available and the policy been different that these first responders would have done the right thing? The local resident was right. The problem is a deep cultural one, something I see to be endemic in the government agencies that always claim to protect and serve us.

Police and fire agencies are bureaucracies and, as such, they end up functioning in a similar manner to the Department of Motor Vehicles, the IRS and any other alphabet soup agency you can name. As writer Thomas Sowell put it, "You will never understand bureaucracies until you understand that for bureaucrats procedure is everything and outcomes are nothing."

And so normal people stand around wondering how we can end up with such a bad outcome – a needless death – while the bureaucracies, stuck as they are on procedure, tell us they acted appropriately.

It’s about time the public starts rethinking our public safety policy and starts wondering whether the creation of big costly bureaucracies, encumbered by ridiculous rules and designed mainly around the convenience and safety of those working in the agencies, is the best way to protect the public’s safety.

June 4, 2011
http://lewrockwell.com/greenhut/greenhut65.1.html

Steven Greenhut (send him mail) is editor-in-chief of CalWatchdog.com and a widely published opinion writer. He is the author of the book, Abuse of Power, and his latest, Plunder!.

Copyright © 2011 Steven Greenhut

Luke 10:38

Suggested Bible Reading

Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me." But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her."
-Luke 10:38-42

10 Reasons Obama Can't Feel Your Pain!

Do we have a sociopath in the White House? A Sociopath is a person who lacks a sense of moral responsibility or social conscience. Obama doesn't want to help our country - he wants to harm it. Each and every one of his blundering policies is killing our country. Obama just doesn't GET IT!

Here are the 10 Reasons Obama Can't Feel Your Pain:

1.Single-handedly destroying the economy
2.Driving up gas prices to unthinkable numbers.
3.Forcing Americans to accept ObamaCare.
4.Advocating and pushing amnesty for illegals.
5.Engaging in back-door gun control measures.
6.Stuffing the courts with Liberal ideologue judges.
7.Massive failed stimulus packages.
8.Government takeover of private enterprise.
9.Punishing job creators.
10.Taking over the Internet.

While the rest of America struggles to get by, Obama is arrogantly and deliberately bringing our economy to its knees. The unemployment rate is at 8.7%. What does Obama do? He's working on a MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR economic stimulus package for the Arab world. WHAT ABOUT US? How about fixing the economy in your own country! The amount of disregard Obama has for America grows larger every day.

Right now, Obama is raising a BILLION DOLLAR war chest to buy his re-election.

The Church of Muslim-Killing

Fred Reed on smiting the in-fiddle. NB: strong language.

Cyberg, Tennessee – The Reverend McBilly Osfeiser strode to the rostrum of of the Full Bible Perfect Word Baptist Church, a frame building reeking of plainness and Protestantism. He was a tall man, with the sharp facial planes and hard visage of a desert patriarch about to kill something. The congregation shrank in their pews. He was a man who brooked no sin, and no sinners, whom he consigned to eternal damnation, and thought they were getting off light. He looked fiercely about, and spoke:

“Brethren, I come before you to preach the word of God, for these be evil times, and the children of Israel, and yea the parents and grandparents, even unto their heirs and assigns, are sore beset by the tribe of Mohammed, and Beelzebulb, and Luciferin and Luciferase. In the name of God we must gird our loins, whatever exactly gird means, and smite the followers of Allah, and suffer them not to live, neither child nor mother with child nor suckling babe. Their lands shall be accursed and nothing there shall prosper, neither tares nor the wild ass; thus saith the Lord God, the God of Israel , the god of love and mercy.

“Today we shall begin our sermon with the story of Samsung and Delilah, in the book of Hezechiah, chapter fourteen, verses nine through twenty-seven, in the reign of Herod Agrippa. In that time Israel was sore beset by the Malachites and the Catamites, even the Stalactites and Stalagmites, and the Assyrians of King Areopagitica with many chariots threatened the city of Solomon. But Samsung spent three days and three nights fasting and praying, and sacrificed a sheep, and it was good in the eyes of the Lord. In the morning he went forth and slew them all, cutting through them with sling and samothrace as one scything wheat until not a Stalagmite was left standing, saving the city.

“Today, brethren, we of Christ face the same test of our faith. In Afghanistan, as we speak, the Mohammedan Taliban build mighty forces which they will use to conquer all of Christendom and enslave us, having gotten here mysteriously.

“The powers of the darkness are many and patient, and the Mohammedan awaits to make our wives and daughters into harem slaves. It is well said that if we do not slew them there, or perhaps slay them, they will slew us here, or a slew of them will slay a slew of us there, maybe here, or they will...whatever. Remember the second book of Malthusians, when Chay-suss expelled the Gadarene Swine from the woman afflicted with leprosy, “Rebus sic stantibus,” he said. “Carthago delenda est,” which is the Latin for “Get the back whence thou camest, and thy towel.”

“I urge you, brethren, to support our Christian troops who with magnificent courage are killing the heathen with drones strikes from thousands of feet while sitting in Colorado. To those weak in faith, who say that we are killing innocent women and children, I say unto ye, women are the source of all Taliban and thus must be military targets. If we destroy arms factories, should we not destroy Taliban factories? As the mighty warrior Jay-suss would want, we will smite them, and leave them bleeding and dying, and wailing over their broken children, blinded and crushed and burned, that they might learn to walk in the ways of righteousness.

“And now, brethren, I want to introduce you to one of our own warriors for Christ, Willy Bill Bedford, who is just back from the heathen land of Afghanistan, and wounded – wounded, brethren! – smiting the in-fiddle for Jay-suss. Willy Bill, will you come up and testify?”

Willy Bill was a big, chunky kid with a sloping forehead you could have used to bank a turn in a motorcycle race, and about every other tooth was missing so he looked like a piano keyboard. His left arm was in a cast. “Willy Bill,” shouted Reverend Osfeiser, “Tell your brothers and sisters in Jay-suss how you been doing the Lord's work.”

Willy Bill seemed uncomfortable but he sort of scrunched up his courage and said, “Yeah, well. OK, Reverend. Well, we was out in Litani Province and there was twelve of us in a Humvee with 'bout a thousand rounds each of seven-six-two and a sack full of Bibles an'...”

The reverend roared, “And tell the brethren why you had Bibles, the inherent perfect word of God, with you!”

“Oh, yeah. We belong to Bible Spreaders, we try to bring Moslems to know Jesus, you know. BS is real important to us, so we always....”

“You hear that? Bringing souls to God!”

“Well, we came to Awali, that's this village, maybe three hundred sand-nig – Taliban and their kids, all dirty and livin' in mud huts because they don't love Jesus and the kids there beg for something to eat because they don't know that beggin' ain't right. Well, we told them to get away and smacked them around a little because they might be suicide bombers, you know, and you could just tell the grown-ups hated us for our religion and our freedoms and all, and then we heard a rifle go off. Well, they ain't supposed to have rifles. So the lieutenant called in a air strike and a couple of sixteens came in, and whoom, they just smacked the livin' dog-snot out of those fuckers and.....”

“Now, Willy Bill, don't be using language like that. Do you think Jay-suss talked that way? It's a sin.”

“I'm sorry, Reverend. I won't do it again. I don't want to commit no sin. Anyway, it was a good strike, killed almost everybody although a few was left screamin' and makin' a fuss and women was huggin' kids or what was left, I mean, how much sense does that make? I guess they learned their lesson. So we went through and left Bibles on top of some of the dead ones so whoever found them would come to Jesus and then I fell off the Humvee and broke my arm.”

At which the Reverend McBilly Osfeiser shouted, “Hosannah! Praise the Lord! While we have sat here, living a life of ease, Willy Bill, Cyburg's own Willy Bill, has smote the in-fiddles, and saved our precious daughters from being in harems, though perhaps not in back seats, and saved our holy Tennessee, where we are free and snakes have handles and the God of Wrath rules as he did with Noah in the Sinai!”

I need a drink.

June 7, 2011

Fred Reed is author of Nekkid in Austin: Drop Your Inner Child Down a Well and A Brass Pole in Bangkok: A Thing I Aspire to Be. His latest book is Curmudgeing Through Paradise: Reports from a Fractal Dung Beetle. Visit his blog.

Copyright © 2011 Fred Reed

Seward's Folly

American Minute with Bill Federer
May 16
Seward's Folly is what Alaska was called when it was first purchased from Russia, as it was thought to be of no value.
Only when it was discovered to be rich in natural resources was appreciation shown to Secretary of State William Seward, who was born MAY 16, 1801.
Serving under Abraham Lincoln, William Seward was wounded by an accomplice of John Wilkes Booth the same night Lincoln was shot. Seward stated:
"I do not believe human society...ever has attained, or ever can attain, a high state of intelligence, virtue, security, liberty, or happiness without the Holy Scriptures; even the whole hope of human progress is suspended on the ever-growing influence of the Bible."
As the vice-president of the American Bible Society, 1836, William Seward stated:
"I know not how long a republican government can flourish among a great people who have not the Bible; the experiment has never been tried; but this I do know: that the existing government of this country never could have had existence but for the Bible."
Seward concluded:
"I...believe that if at every decade of years a copy of the Bible could be found in every family in the land its republican institutions would be perpetuated."

Remember

Matthew 7:8

In God's Hands
Suggested Bible Reading

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

"And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you--you of little faith?

"Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear?' For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. "So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today's trouble is enough for today." -Matthew 6:25-34


Today's Scripture

Everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.