Where There's Smoke...

After all we have learned regarding government spying in the last month, you would think most people would be thrilled to learn that the United States government has finally decided to come clean about some long-held myths. Specifically they are finally answering questions about the rumored base code-named "Area 51". Just in case you don't spend your time trolling conspiracy theory websites, Area 51 was long believed to be a secret military instillation somewhere in the New Mexico desert and it was supposed to be where the CIA took the bodies of the aliens who crashed in Roswell as well as every other dirty little secret the government didn't want the general public to know about. For the longest time the military refused to admit that the base even existed until late last week when they finally conceded that it is real, but instead of being used to house aliens or the Ten Commandments, it was where they used to test their most secret spy planes. (By the way, this is what my brother-in-law, who knows a thing or two about the issue, has always said was what happened. People probably saw lights from the new planes but rather than have plane enthusiasts (or spies) out there with binoculars trying to spot the new experimental designs  it was better to have crazy people out in the world spouting off about aliens because they will be dismissed as crazy and no one will look for the base. Sometimes the best defense really is to say nothing and let the other person talk themselves into looking bad.) And while it is always nice to learn that our government is no longer lying to us about everything, this is one of those stories which they probably should have kept to themselves.

I am willing to bet the US government gets hundreds, if not thousands, of letters requesting they come clean about some crazy theory every single day. Most of them are ignored, as well they should be. But by acknowledging that one of the longest-held conspiracy theories turned out to be true (even if the main issue of aliens was not addressed) they have opened the floodgates. The last thing you want to give a conspiracy theorist is even a shred of credibility and yet that is exactly what has happened. Now every person who has ever claimed to see Bigfoot or been abducted by aliens actually has a counter-point when they get into an argument with a sane person. It used to be they didn't have a leg to stand on but now they can go, "Yeah, well, Area 51 wasn't supposed to exist either!" Of course, this is probably what the government wants because, just like back when Area 51 was testing spy planes, it is better to have conspiracy theorists on TV demanding the government now stop lying to us about aliens than having news reporters talking about all the stuff the current administration is doing. (Sometimes the old tricks still work the best.) Still, if they were going to try and distract the American people by releasing once-classified information couldn't it have been something useful to the rest of us? How about Sinatra's FBI file because I bet that had some stories which would be a lot more interesting to the general public.