I watched a few minutes of the House Committee hearing on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs), what used to be called UFOs.  All the while I was wondering:  Why?  Why are elected leaders giving so much time, taxpayers’ money, and “airspace” to phenomena with a phenomenal absence of evidence?

What someone heard someone said about something they said they saw. . .  

See a pattern here?

When I was in Junior High school, I loved reading any book I could find on UFOs.  Fascinated by mysterious visits from aliens in weird- shaped and super-fast spacecraft, I was “lost in space” where “no one has gone before.”  I loved Sci-Fi, which was mostly fiction, with some science tossed in.  Great for a child’s galactic imagination.

So, yes, I believe there are unidentified things.  Of course there are.  Many things in the air, in the ocean, in the universe, we haven’t identified.  Like all the species we haven’t discovered yet, there are countless objects, living and non-living, that we simply can’t explain, can’t give a name to. . .yet.  And, let’s not forget optical illusions, mirages, the play of light, etc.

But why let our imaginations, like my childhood, warp away into the darkness?

I have no doubt private companies and governments are (“secretly”) flying experimental things around that get spotted now and then.  The military has plenty of money to “play around” with the allowance we give them.

Oh, and I’ve written about Unidentified FAITH Objects, those things faith imagines flying around out there (spirits, demons, etc).  That’s a whole “nuther” thing. . .but related.

And don’t you wonder what a House Committee will waste time on next?:

Bigfoot

Nessie

The Toothfairy

Santa Claus

Or, maybe study the human propensity to fall for superstition, our tendency to allow our senses to trick us, and to believe what “they said they saw” as truth.

As a kid, I read about “Project Blue Book” that collected documents on UFOs.  Here’s what happened with that:

“The bulk of the Blue Book investigations into 12,618 reported sightings were resolved, or explained, — but 701 remained “Unidentified,” the Air Force has said. The service said that none of the incidents constituted a security threat or indicated abilities beyond modern science. It added, “There was no evidence indicating that sightings categorized as ‘unidentified’ were extraterrestrial vehicles.”