High Strangeness: UFO Treadmill

Thursday, September 4, 2014

UFO Treadmill

I haven't been able to blog much this week for various reasons, and while I often miss checking in with UFO world, I often don't miss it. Because sometimes when I do check in, I find that everyone is still stuck on the same old UFO treadmill...

Today, and I have only myself to blame for this, I checked in on The UFO Iconoclast(s) here and here, only to find that there was yet another Roswell kerfuffle brewing... Seems someone's an idiot for believing that ranch foreman Mac Brazel found balloon wreckage back in 1947, while someone else is a moron for believing that Brazel found genuine UFO wreckage.

Know what I think?

Really, you shouldn't care what I think. I don't even care what I think. Too many people are already thinking too many things about too many ancient, sketchy UFO cases that can never be proven one way or another, and the last thing I want to do is add to the wasteland of squandered, pointless thinking.
Someone out there knows every damn thing there is to know about this balloon.

Well, I will think this much:

Do you know there are people out there who can quote chapter and verse about every last high-altitude balloon project ever undertaken in US skies throughout eternity? Names, dates, launch coordinates, payloads, maximum altitudes and velocities; you ask, they'll answer.

Not that I think there's anything wrong with that, mind you -- my personal trivia specialties are classic cars and movies & TV shows -- but just because I know a lot about old cars doesn't mean I know everything about old cars, and just because some dude knows a lot about balloons that doesn't mean he knows for an absolute fact that there were no balloons over Roswell in July, 1947. That's just stupid. And insulting. Nobody really knows what was or wasn't in the sky that night, so either everything should be considered or nothing should be considered. Either no one's an idiot or everyone's an idiot. Except me.

So, kinda sorry I checked in. Things are exactly as they were last week. And last month. And last year.

Oh, one good thing did come out of it: Mr. RRR at UFO Iconoclast(s) had a pretty funny line. See below...
RRR: Mac Brazel was a dolt, and his "debris" was balloon scrap, just as the Army said.


Some Guy on the Innernets said...

For a guy who doesn't give two shits about Roswell, you sure seem to write a lot about it.

My own opinion is the balloon theories are ludicrous and don't merit half the attention they get, but the "skeptics" don't really have anything else, so that's what they keep blathering about. Tiresome. I do agree that the UFO universe is mostly worn out rehashes and loopy theories--on both sides of the arguments. I spend less time on it every year. It was exciting in the 80s though!

Mark UFO'Connell said...

Yep, you're right. Back in the day, when I simply felt contempt for the Roswell freaks, I was happy to ignore the topic. But over the summer I learned how truly sleazy they are and, well, my contempt has evolved into disgust. So now when I see Roswell investigators embarrassing themselves I tend to pile on. They poison the well for all of us, and I'm tired of it.

Some Guy on the Innernets said...

The thing is, for me, the flakes and the nuts and the sideshow freaks don't mean squat about whether or not something very interesting and possibly extremely important happened there in '47. Contrary to what a lot of people say, there is an awful lot of good, solid evidence that something extraordinary took place. The endless noise doesn't change that, no matter how lame or excruciating it gets.