Freakin' in the Fun House Part 3

I figured that one of the best ways to "bone up" was by interviewing a variety of people who just might be considered knowledgeable in an area where knowledge was both thin and open to debate. So I compiled a list of folks, both pro and con, and began calling.

Most of the people I talked with made for pretty good, solid interviews. Peter Davenport of the National Center for UFO Reporting was kind of fun as a combination of cheer leader ("They are definitely here!") and easy conversationalist about the topic. John Timmerman of the Center for UFO Studies provided a surprisingly open ended philosophical discussion of the topic. In some kooky way, his wife also made the call endearing by her odd interruptions as she was preparing to leave on a trip. We may be getting visited by men from Mars, but the home front is never far away.

Then I finally had to make the obligatory phone call to Joe Nickell at The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal. Suddenly, the process got weird.

The first thing I couldn't help but notice was that The Committee used a computer switchboard and then a receptionist. Everybody else took their own calls, for crying out loud. In fact, nobody else had the money for this kind of set up. So I guess things must be pretty profitable on the nay saying venue.

Then, once I finally got to chat with Nickell, I found myself getting a little annoyed. Aside from the fact that his opening joke made no particular sense (he insisted that people confused his name with Terry Nichols of the Oklahoma City Bombing - a connection that I didn't want to waste time thinking about), I also kept getting the odd impression that since I was a reporter, I must also be an idiot. OK, sure, the two often do seem to come in tandem, but enough already.

Then he had the odd habit of trying to shift the conversation into a debunking of all conspiracy theories concerning the Kennedy Assassination. Since I wasn't interviewing him about anything that had to do with that day in Dallas, his repeated sliding into this area never made any sense. Besides, like virtually every other God fearing American alive, I am quite aware that it was a conspiracy (a pretty oblivious one, I might add). So how dumb does he think I am?

Sure, I got a couple of freaky high points out of him. Nickell went on at great length about how most Americans are scientifically misinformed and blamed it all on too much emphasis on the Humanities and not enough on Science. I was already quite aware that Mr. Nickell's own Ph.D was in English, which last I checked was in the Humanities. Likewise, his own scientific background is quite limited (mostly pertaining to issues concerning document verification - his real area of expertise).

Then he got into unloading about Stanton Friedman. This started out in response to my questions about Roswell (though I was more versed in the investigative work of Kevin Randle rather than Friedman). But for Joe, it was suddenly personal. He began a long rant about how Friedman had the nerves to call himself a scientist, to pose as some one versed in scientific matter, to even dare call himself a "Nuclear physicist." Then there was a long pause. Presumably lawyers danced through Nickell's head. "...Well, he is a nuclear physicist but he only has a Master's degree."

Before this interview, I had my doubts about CSICoP. After this interview, all doubts were removed. I don't know who is actually paying the bills for these guys, but they are not getting their monies worth. These white boys are a pack of total nimrods.