The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Down on the Pharma

4.11.07 @ 12:01AM

(Page 3 of 3)

UFO SEITZING
Re: Russell Seitz's letter (under "The Truth Is Out There") in Reader Mail's Turing to Thompson:

Rather than plunge into the bickering about Mr. Tyrrell's latest provocation, I think I'll take the day off and discuss Russell Seitz's current comedic installment.

Mr. Seitz does raise a good question. In a variant of "If you're so smart, why aren't you rich?" we now have "If the aliens are so smart, why would they bother coming to Earth?" I'm of the "If I were an alien, I wouldn't bother" school of thought.

I don't think Mr. Seitz's reference to the known existence of planets similar to Earth will convince the devout Creationists in the audience. They are all preoccupied with the conservative version of navel-gazing and self-esteem-building that places them safely at the center of the universe and bans scary ideas. If you attend church regularly and wear a navy blue suit with an American flag pin in your lapel, that takes care of everything.

My one quibble is that Wi-Fi signals probably aren't going to make it out of the atmosphere if they can't always make it between the rooms in a house.

As far as the army sent to rescue us from the Martians is concerned, any alien worth his salt would have figured out that the story was fiction.

A couple more comments are in order. First of all, the universe is very large, and if there are other forms of intelligent life, they will be extremely difficult to detect. The SETI crowd may be a little fanciful, but we can't really imagine what effect contact with an extraterrestrial civilization would have on our civilization. Just two hundred years ago, no one on Earth could have imagined what life would be like today.
-- Abe Grossman
Pleasantville, New York

SMILEY PEOPLE
Re: Patrick O'Hannigan's Carolina on My Mind:

I sure hope you keep Mr. O'Hannigan coming with more articles, he is what we need. I think back on times and he sure puts a smile on my face.

Thank you for letting us know about him.
-- Ralph Hadcock

A NICE DAY FOR A CRACK-UP
Re: Elaine Kyle's letter (under "Reader's Remorse") in Reader Mail's Turning to Thompson:

I would like to respectfully ask you not to have Clinton's picture on your website. Do you think anyone who visits your website would be interested in seeing his ugly mug?
-- Jackie Carpenter

Letter to the Editor

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