Don't Visit with Aliens--It's Illegal

[kailhofer]

Since we all know that Project Blue Book and the like "proved" there's nothing out there...<br><br>Why does Title 14, Section 1211 of the Code of Federal Regulations, implemented on July 16, 1969, make it illegal for U.S. citizens to have contact with extraterrestials or their vehicles?<br><br>(Yes, this is a real law.)<br><br>Here's a link to one of those ET sites that gives a lot of details on it:<br>http://www.weeklyuniverse.com/etlaw.htm<br><br>There's a good story idea, where frustrated but friendly aliens keep trying to make contact, but the humans run away because it's illegal to talk to them.<br><br>Nate

[Robert_Moriyama]

This would only work if the law was widely known ... of course, UFO enthusiasts would be the most likely to know of it, so paradoxically, they might be the most excited at the prospect of alien contact, but also the most aware of legal earthbound risks. So ... a California UFOlogist with two strikes for (say) incidents at protests or something like that gets wind of a contact message and has to weigh the risk of life in prison against the fulfillment of his life's dream ...<br><br>Given the Homeland Security hooha with its granting of Orwellian powers to government (the writers of the Constitution would weep), this could be a horror story for the aliens and their earthling contactees.<br><br>Robert M.

[Robert_Moriyama]

This is pretty weird. I do a lot of work with the CFR and most of it from a government computer. Just for the fish (the halibut, that is) I decided to look up 14CFR1211 and this is the listing I get:

1210 Development work for industry in NASA wind tunnels
1211 {Reserved}
1212 Privacy Act-NASA regulations
1213 Release of information to news and information media

How can you have a law on the books that is 'Reserved'??? And then they turn around and maintain that ignorance of the law is no excuse!

Zeig Heil!

--Wilhelm

<br>This law was probably classified ... like the Patriot Act, nobody is really supposed to know what it involves. This does not preclude the government from declaring you an 'alien combatant', however, with no legal rights ...<br><br>Robert M.

[Robert_Moriyama]

'Quarantine' -- that's even more insidious than detention without formal charges. Like a 'diagnosis' of insanity in the old Soviet Union, it would mean that they could hold until THEY decide it was 'safe' to release you.<br><br>How would one prove that a regulation / law had been 'withdrawn'? Would this show up in the Congressional Record or equivalent?<br><br>Robert M.

[kailhofer]

And apparently it was 'withdrawn' (IE: No longer a law) sometime before 1992. And that's why it isn't on the regular 14CFR database.

<br>I found another site that declared this an urban legend. (www.snopes.com)<br><br>They claim, The "Extraterrestrial Exposure" law was removed from the CFR in 1991, NASA having determined that it had "served its purpose" and was "no longer in keeping with current policy," and is no longer in force.<br><br>So, it used to be illegal to have tea parties with little green men in the back yard, but now it's apparently ok again.<br><br>This begs the question that now what is the law that lets you get locked up for visiting nasty, contagious, sneezing aliens? I hardly think that the CDC or somebody less friendly wouldn't have a claim on your germ-ridden hide. That doesn't sound like government as I know it. ;)<br><br>Nate

[Robert_Moriyama]

The implication here is that after 1991, there was no longer a *need* for a law to lock you up for having tea with aliens. After then, you could be locked up without any reason at all.
:D
Dan

<br><br>Well, certainly with the Patriot Act in effect, you can probably be sent to Guantanamo Bay for being, oh, I don't know, something subversive -- like a registered Democrat?<br><br>Robert M.

[Robert_Moriyama]

I think the 'Urban Legen' portion of this is that it was officially intended to make it illegal to have physical contact with either LGM or BEM's.

Although, when you read it, if you were to clasp appendages in a greeting gesture with denizens who had been in contact with another 'celestial body' you could be quarantined.

Makes me nervous. I shook Billy Joel's hand once, in Chicago, and I'm pretty sure he was married to Christie Brinkley at the time. . .


Bill

<br><br>You mean she was from waaaaaay 'uptown'?<br><br>Robert M.

[Robert_Moriyama]

Duck and cover days...like we could protect ourselves from a nuclear blast - or killer space germs!

Nothing prepared us for herpes, AIDS or the Asian 'flu...

Still ducking when necessary,
K.

<br><br>Kate<br><br>Glad to see that your typing hand is still functioning -- Jeff mentioned that you had a bit of a fall recently.<br><br>Speaking of ducks and Asian flu, they're worried that the current strains of bird flu may be mutating into a form that would be transmissible from human to human. And there ain't no vaccine for this one nowhere nohow. Next up: a bill to allow for summary execution for coughing in public ...<br><br>Are you old enough to remember the jokes that went with those wonderful instructional films on how to prepare for an imminent nuclear attack?<br><br>Go to the basement if possible.  In buildings without basements, go to the room furthest from any windows.<br><br>Remove all loose items from pockets.<br><br>Bend over, grasp legs, and ...<br><br>kiss your ass goodbye.<br><br>Yeah, taking cover under your desk (as advised in a clip that I think was included in the movie The Atomic Cafe?) to protect you from a nearby 100-megaton blast would be a lot like opening an umbrella to deflect a falling anvil / giant boulder / malfunctioning Acme device a la Wile E. Coyote.  On the other hand, it would be about as effective, and a hell of a lot cheaper, than the 'missile shield' that is being deployed before it has ever had anything resembling a realistic and successful test.<br><br>Oh, well.  We don't really want to die of old age, do we?<br><br>Robert M.<br>

[kailhofer]

Yeah, taking cover under your desk (as advised in a clip that I think was included in the movie The Atomic Cafe?) to protect you from a nearby 100-megaton blast would be a lot like opening an umbrella to deflect a falling anvil / giant boulder / malfunctioning Acme device a la Wile E. Coyote.

<br>Ha! You scoff at ACME Technologies Umbrella Defense System, but the truth is that with the Umbrella, the Coyote survived the boulder impact! <br><br>Soon, you too could be under the ACME Umbrella! Invest today! :)<br><br>Nate

[Robert_Moriyama]

Ha! You scoff at ACME Technologies Umbrella Defense System, but the truth is that with the Umbrella, the Coyote survived the boulder impact!

Soon, you too could be under the ACME Umbrella! Invest today! :)

Nate

<br><br>He survived, but he wound up all accordion-pleated and slinky-toy looking -- not a good thing when you start out skinny with scruffy brown fur. Anyway, I think he was an early product of Manticore transgenic research -- he had some feline DNA, so he had the comcomitant 9 lives.<br><br>Robert M.<br><br>

[kailhofer]

...since this thread's about aliens, 86 was a humongously good year for them, tool. remember what movie came out that summer? ha, yes. now that's a heyday right there!

Lee

<br>Man, that's right. Crocodile Dundee! No way Paul Hogan wasn't an alien! :)<br><br>Nate<br>