I blogged about the Stephenville, Texas UFO sightings here on Skepchick back in January. Since then, the citizens of the area have enjoyed a little notoriety and had some fun with the attention, marketing restaurants and merchandising various things with alien themes, a la Roswell, New Mexico.
Unfortunately, some folks just can’t have the fun without the belief.
Seems the lights in the Texas sky have returned ( see the news footage video here), and many people are as convinced as ever that something extraterrestrial is going on. It doesn’t matter that the military has confirmed that half a dozen or so F-16s out of Fort Worth were training in the area at the time of the sightings. Most of the people interviewed claim that the lights they saw were visible well before the F-16’s showed up, leading the really hardcore UFO “experts” to insist that the military jets were in pursuit of the “alien space craft”.
Oh well, I suppose if I lived in that part of the state, I might just need a little extra something to make my life exciting, too.
Happy Halloween, Stephenville!
That’s hilarious (in an uncomfortable way) … Well, at least your governor hasn’t signed up for the madness – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_Lights
I am so getting tired of being in Texas, land of the really, really stupid. We’re trying to fill our state education board with Creationists. We have a university that wants to be accredited for teaching Creation Science. And we have people that see red lights in the sky and the first thing they think is alien space craft, despite the nearby Air Force training range and high frequency of Air Force aircraft in the area.
How much intelligence does it take to think, “Oh, an airplane” when you see an airplane?
John B. Sandlin
You are sorely mistaken if you think that New Mexico is ready to relinquish it’s hold on the alien accoutrements market. Pfft. How many of you Texans can say you have a ceramic neon-green alien on your lawn? Huh?
Sam, Sam, Sam. Don’t you know F-16s were given to the US government by the Aliens in the late 1970s? The Aliens need humans, which they use like batteries, to power their giant underground computers. The US govt, in co-operation with the UN, abducted thousands of US citizens who were traded away to the Aliens in return for numerous powerful technologies, including, but not limited to, SR-71, B-70, F-16, F-117, B-2, the internet, and even the Ford Pinto.
Damn,
Why do Texas and New Mexico get all the aliens?
Why can’t I see any aliens?
Of course, this IS the LBC, maybe our space friends are just afraid of the neighbor hood.
I’ll head up to Brentwood, with a mirror, and see if I can signal one and get it to land!
rod
Not to make New Mexico sound like a hotbed of skepicism (far from it), but Roswell is well-known as the armpit of our fair state. All y’all (cough cough) are welcome to come to Albuquerque anytime you like. Would be nice to get a Drinking Skeptically group together at the Two Fools Tavern…
The problem with UFOs in Texas is that nine out of ten times, it’s really just someone’s oversized hat. I mean, in the right lighting, a Texan’s head-gear will give the undeniable impression of a mothership right out of Independence Day.
Then there’s the giant insects… Who ALSO wear hats. Is it any wonder there are so many UFO sightings?
@llewelly:
This is without a doubt the absolute truth. Americans make the best batteries because we consume more caffeine than any other country.
@Rodney:
Why does Texas get all the aliens? Because the stars at night are clear and bright.
I think it is because our education system is second to none. We turn out more highly educated people than any other place in the world. Why our creation math, creation science, creation literature, creation accounting, creation history, creation gardening are the envy of the creation world. I live about 20 miles from a little town called Henrietta that claims that aliens landed there at the end of the 19th century. They even have grave markers in one of the cemetaries that are supposed to mark the burial spot of one of the aliens.
@Augustus:
And sadly, they remind me of the one I love.
Who knew that General Dynamics/Lockheed-Martin, Boeing and Northrop all built UFO’s? Jeeze, all this time, I thought that they were F-15’s, F-16’s, B-1’s, B-2’s, etc. I mean, just because the biggest aircraft, air-to-air refueling practice areas, and weapons test ranges are in that area COULDN’T POSSIBLY have anything to do with odd lights in the skies, could it?
If these are all alien technology, then how come they all aren’t Frisbee-shaped? Are they afraid Wham-O will sue them for infringement?
@Augustus: Weird … I just clapped three times when I read that … Damn, that Texan still resides in me! Like an infection.