Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Today In History: I want to believe...

...that people aren't this gullible.


On this date in 1947, radios and newspapers announced that a Venus-shaped weather balloon full of swamp gas and crewed by a migratory flock of birds had crashed near Roswell, New Mexico, flattening a large circle of crops and scattering its mysterious cargo of cow rectums all over the place.

11 comments:

Drang said...

Cow rectums? The aliens are cheese makers?

Anonymous said...

Hey, they go museums in Roswell, just full of space-artifact stuff. Well, they say it's space-artifact stuff! And, after all, the city government wouldn't let 'em put up all those signs if it wasn't true!

Would they?

Going north on the highway, some miles up, there's even a sign at the ranch gate. I'd go in, during some run to Whittington, but then I've seen greasewood pastures before...

:-), Art

Mr. Fixit said...

What's harder to believe;
Intelligent life in outer space?

or
Complete and honest disclosure from the US Govt.?

Mr Fixit

karrde said...

Belief in the assertion that the UFO claims were all mistaken does not require belief in full and honest disclosure by the government...

But who am I kidding?

If you put it that way, I don't know which to believe.

Heck, signs of intelligent life on this planet are sometimes hard to believe.

Anonymous said...

Oh, Tam. That subject header and that first line -- together -- are priceless. Just superb.

Anonymous said...

Folks 'round these parts are... quirky. Going from having the primary state economy being based on ranching, chile, and being obscure to having it based on secret government laboratories and close-mouthed military bases had an impact, after the feddles discovered what an advantage obscurity could be.

I don't expect the federal government to give full and honest disclosure. I do, however, expect them to be every bit as good at keeping big secrets as they are at everything else they do.

Anonymous said...

The sheeple are very gullible.

Cowtown Cop said...

It is interesting that at the time that it happened it was no big deal. Only after a significant time lapse did it become a "big event". Time does not sharpen memories or help with accurate perceptions.

Tam said...

"Complete and honest disclosure from the US Govt.?"

These are the people who can't even keep a presidential blowjob under wraps, remember?

Rabbit said...

Wife owns 220 acres just outside Roswell somewhere. I say 'somewhere' because she's never seen it. It came to her in an inheritance years ago. The grass lease pays the taxes on it and that's about all. I used to joke with her that we should move out there, build some big concrete tourist cabins shaped like teepees and line up rocks in spirals and diagonals and call it a "holistic meditation stopover experience" for all those yahoos heading to Sedona via Roswell. I guess I could drag a trailer to AMARC and scrounge enough obscure aircraft aluminim and scatter it around the place as easter eggs.

Then again, I'm accustomed to living where I have trees. Ain't no trees out there. Maybe the grays ate them. Could be just a cover story, though.

Regards,
Rabbit.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, the government can't blow up an outhouse in Central America without the NYT putting it on the front page the day before, but since 1947 the secret treaty with the aliens (we get velcro and microwave ovens, they get specimens for anal probing) has been kept under tight wraps.

Well, JFK was a close call. They managed to shut him up the day he was planning to blow the whistle on the whole thing.