Can't help but wonder about all the fuss in Stephenville, Texas. It seems that a number of residents witnessed a large, brightly lit floating object in the night sky back on January Eighth. A few people also claim to have seen military jets in pursuit. Witnesses claim the object was in excess of a mile long.

Predictably, the military concocted a fish story in an attempt to quell speculation on what people might have seen. Of all the many things our military does well, insulting the intelligence of Americans may be what it does best:

Maj. Karl Lewis, a spokesman for the 301st Fighter Wing at the Joint Reserve Base Naval Air Station in Fort Worth, said no F-16s or other aircraft from his base were in the area the night of January 8, when most people reported the sighting.

Lewis said the object may have been an illusion caused by two commercial airplanes. Lights from the aircraft would seem unusually bright and may appear orange from the setting sun.

"I'm 90 percent sure this was an airliner," Lewis said. "With the sun's angle, it can play tricks on you."

Officials at the region's two Air Force bases -- Dyess in Abilene and Sheppard in Wichita Falls -- also said none of their aircraft were in the area last week.

- - CNN

I'm fifty years old and I've seen my share of aircraft and sunsets. Don't recall any of them "playing tricks" on me.

Witnesses of the mysterious floating object insisted that what they saw was not a pair of commercial aircraft, and the story began to draw nationwide attention. Just as predictably, the military changed its story to fit the situation:

"In the interest of public awareness, Air Force Reserve Command Public Affairs realized an error was made regarding the reported training activity of military aircraft. Ten F-16s from the 457th Fighter Squadron were performing training operations from 6 to 8 p.m., Tuesday January 8, 2008, in the Brownwood Military Operating Area (MOA), which includes the airspace above Erath County."

- - Dallas Morning News

I have questions regarding this matter specifically and on the subject of UFOs in general.

First, given all of the similar sightings by credible people (including law enforcement and professional pilots) around the world, do we truly believe all of those incidents to be false alarms? How many stories of malfunctioning experimental weather balloons, errant flares or bouts of mass hysteria are we to believe?

How is it that so many different people in so many different parts of the world have seen these unexplained phenomena? Are we to believe that they're all hoaxers in some worldwide conspiracy to make fools of the rest of us? Or, are they all just a bunch of hayseeds, drunk in their front yards and being "tricked" by a pair of passenger jets at sunset?

If we are not alone in the universe, and I do not believe we are, where is the benefit in keeping the populace ignorant of such knowledge?

And, if indeed these are extraterrestrial visitors then why are they buzzing around the planet? If they have the technology to fly across the void to our world, why do they not just land and have a chat (maybe they're afraid of those F-16's)? And why all the lights? Obviously, they don't care to travel with any degree of stealth. They wish to be seen. But why announce one's presence so dramatically and then just speed away?

So many questions.

Some time back, I wrote that there cannot be a massive government conspiracy to keep a lid on knowledge of UFOs because our government cannot keep a secret. I'll admit to having changed my mind. While the bulk of the supposed sightings across the globe are probably either false alarms or hoaxes, too many of them have the ring of believability to be false. Too many people with nothing to gain by fabricating a UFO story have reported sightings in good faith. Far too many of these stories describe one or more of the same types of objects - either cigar-shaped or spherical, and either glowing from within or illuminated by banks of colorful lights.

And, the lies produced by our government are getting sillier by the day. Steve Martin, a pilot who saw the object near Stephenville said, "A bunch of stuff is bubbling up. They may have to tell us the truth."

Don't count on it, Steve.