This week on the UFO UpDates List has seen a number of posts that have dealt with a book released by a French Author indicating that there was no plane that crashed into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001 and that it was in fact a missile. Mixed in with those posts were others that discussed how the demise of the popular show, X-Files, shows that UFOs have fallen out of favour with the North American television audiences and has been replaced with shows like 'Crossing Over' which concentrate on a psychic speaking with ghosts or spirits on our behalf.

In addition to those very entertaining snippets on the List was another piece that caught my eye talking about how the television show 'Stargate SG1' had an episode titleded 'Touchstone', dealing with the infamous AREA 51 in the Nevada Desert. What was so interesting about this is that the script called for one of the main characters to ask a question.

"Is this where we keep the little green men?" A question, which would seem logical in a science fiction show like Stargate SG1... but nope, we have a little problem with that question being associated with AREA 51.

Apparently, the U.S. Air Force has to provide FULL approval to all the show's scripts and they called up to get the offending question pulled. When told that it was just a joke, they persisted with "There are no aliens in Area 51!" The writers did a minor re-write and used the air force's mantra within the television show... and all was fine with the world once again.

But does anybody else see anything wrong here other than me?

We have the U.S. Air Force whose official position is "There are NO ALIENS or UFOs" doing WATCHDOG on a show whose entire premise is based on visiting alien planets! Talk about putting the fox in charge of the henhouse.

But there's more to all of this than simply a few unrelated posts on the UFOupdates list being interesting.

It annoys me that Ufology has been lumped into the parapsychology pot along with ghost stories, sightings of the Loch Ness Monster and conspiracy theories.

The one that got the most posting on UFO UpDates List this week concentrated on the story of a French author and the conspiracy theory that he supports about no plane hitting the Pentagon.

Just to set the record straight, I personally know someone who saw the aircraft coming in towards the Pentagon and I have no reason to disbelieve her or to think that she is part of any ongoing conspiracy regarding that horrible event on September 11.

It would appear that because there is a conspiracy of cover-up going on about UFOs within the government, it means that ANY conspiracy becomes a fair topic for people involved in UFOlogy. This is simply not true. Other conspiracies, however interesting, do nothing for people wanting to learn the truth about UFOs.

Now we get to the subject of UFO popularity! To listen to one of the posters, you would have to believe that because X-Files has finished, it signals that stories about UFOs and aliens have ceased being the flavour of the month and now audiences want to hear about ghosts and goblins and things that go bump in the night.

The problem with that thinking is akin to us sinking our heads in the sand and whispering, "I don't see it so it doesn't exist!"

Whether UFOs remain a 'popular' - and I'm placing popular in quotationmarks here - item or not does not mean that the sightings will go away. It doesn't mean that the stories of people being abducted will go away and it won't mean that any other number of things associated with UFOs will go away. The conspiracy of denial, the mystery of relevant evidence, and the ongoing documentation of UFO sightings indicates that there is something out there and we still don't know what it is.....

But that's just my take on it....