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- From: Brian Zeiler <bdzeiler@students.wisc.edu>
- Newsgroups: alt.paranet.ufo,alt.alien.visitors,sci.skeptic
- Subject: Re: Are Skeptics DELUSIONAL? Do they need help to cope with reality?
- Date: Wed, 19 Jun 1996 02:44:07 -0700
- Organization: University of Wisconsin
- Lines: 71
- Message-ID: <31C7CBE7.1D15@students.wisc.edu>
- References: <4q27hf$nj4@tuegate.tue.nl> <4q7rdt$pe0@newsbf02.news.aol.com>
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-
- Robojim2 wrote:
-
- > I had to post it again, in case anyone missed it. This proves my point
- > that debunkers have a psychological NEED to eradicate anything that is
- > "unknown", because they are the ones who have a weak grasp on reality.
-
- Yes, UFO debunkers are feeble-minded morons. Here's another glaring
- example of just how pathetic Menzel really was. This is from the book
- _Aliens in the Skies_ by John Fuller. It contains the testimony by six
- scientists, including Drs. Hynek and McDonald, before the House Committee
- on Science and Astronautics. Despite the somewhat silly name, this book
- is pure science and is nothing but the scientific testimony and Fuller's
- impressions. From page 19 [Fuller investigated the Exeter sightings]:
-
- "I had spent six weeks in the Exeter area, and had not only proved to my
- satisfaction that the policemen involved were articulate and stable
- individuals, but uncovered some sixty other sane and sober witnesses who
- had viewed similar objects at extremely low altitude over a six-week
- period.
-
- "Dr. Menzel began speaking about the case with crisp authority, stating
- that the policemen were obviously in a hysterical state, that they had
- obviously been mistaken in their observation, and that the case should be
- quickly dismissed as not worthy of further attention.
-
- "I then began asking Dr. Menzel some questions. How much time had he
- spent in Exeter investigating the case? How long had he spent
- interviewing the officers? Had he visited the site of the incident and
- asked the men to walk through their experience? Had he examined the
- police blotter? Had he made random calls around the area to find other
- witnesses to the same type of object? And most simple -- what were the
- officers' names and ages?
-
- "As I had suspected, his answers revealed that he had spent no time
- whatsoever in Exeter, had never met the policemen, did not know their
- names or ages, knew nothing about their backgrounds or reputations on the
- force, and was reaching all his conclusions on the basis of a stereotyped
- Air Force report, which in turn was based on a most superficial inquiry
- into the case.
-
- "When it became obvious that Dr. Menzel was reaching pseudoscientific
- conclusions on the basis of entirely superficial knowledge, he responded
- by shouting loudly over a nationally syndicated television program, "Will
- you shut up!"
-
- Clearly, Menzel was a typical debunker buffoon arguing from an
- informational vacuum with absolutely no intention of conducting
- independent fact-gathering. He had decided the case was meritless, so
- why bother with the facts? This, of course, was also well before it was
- found out that he had "ULTRA" clearance with the CIA and NSA for
- unspecified projects that, by coincidence, took him to New Mexico on
- government expense in 1947 and 1948.
-
- This reminds me of the time Klass was getting his face ripped off, as
- usual, on a nationally televised UFO debate (I think with Friedman), and
- on the phone, he was losing so badly that he could only yell "Bullshit!"
- and angrily hang up the phone. Too bad the pathetically gullible
- sheep-flock cultists who blindly lap up the pseudoscientific factual
- impoverishment of their cult heroes can't grasp just how defenseless
- these debunkers really are.
-
- Incidentally, this Exeter incident that was a source of acute shame and
- deserved embarrassment for Menzel was also the case where Klass insisted
- that the UFO was really a "plasma ball". When other scientists like Dr.
- McDonald and others pointed out how completely moronic and baseless his
- supposition was that plasma balls could form in calm, stable atmospheric
- conditions without any storm whatsoever, Klass abandoned his tenuous
- hypothesis in shame.
-
- --
- Brian Zeiler
-