Brazilian UFO group criminally misrepresents Carl Sagan and appropriate his image

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:
http://forgetomori.com/2008/ufos/the-carl-sagan-institute-of-ufology/

The “Carl Sagan Institute”… of Ufology!



Two years after announcing that Jesus would return with a fleet of flying saucers, and four years after fleeing a public commitment to present one single evidence to prove what they sell, the Brazilian UFO magazine just managed to hit a new low.

In this month’s issue, editor Ademar Gevaerd announces “a new way of conducting ufology in Brazil, with the creation of the Carl Sagan Institute”. Yes, you read it right. And it doesn’t stop there.

Besides the paradoxical abuse of Sagan’s name, the magazine claims that the astronomer and one of the most famous skeptical activists in history was:

“a scientist … who suspected that some already visits us in vehicles that we call flying saucers.

Many think that Sagan passed away without knowing the result of his search .. But that is far from the truth. Sagan had a close relationship with north-american governmental agencies dedicated to the UFO phenomenon investigation, and even Joseph Allen Hynek, considered the father of Modern Ufology, guaranteed that Sagan had a profound knowledge about the alien presence on Earth.”

The full press editorial, in Portuguese, can be read here. Believe it… or not! (...)

Obviously, Sagan never said anything regarding a “profound knowledge about the alien presence on Earth”, and he actually spoke quite clearly about the opposite. (...) How could these ufologists claim otherwise? Well, it’s simple. According to them, Carl Edward Sagan lied in public! As Ademar Gevaerd stated in reply to this criticism:

“It’s obvious that in his works he speaks the opposite, since in them he plays the game of skepticism, part of governmental functions. I doubt that today he would express himself the same way, but we will never know, will we?”

(more at link)

I am sorry. In the name of Brazil, I am truly, truly sorry. I hope Ann Druyan (Sagan's widow) eviscerates these sick woo-woo motherfuckers. In fact, I have just tipped a big-name criminal law firm I have contacts with.

[MannyGoldstein]

1. Prof. Carl Was My Neighbor In College

I was in a fraternity down the street, he was a prof at my school (Cornell). We asked him to come to dinner when he first moved in. He wanted $200 to show up, more if we wanted him to say something.

Didn't exactly endear him to us. There were amusing consequences.

[JackRiddler]

2. Here's another disgusting case of dead-person-name hijacking: The Albert Einstein Institution...

appropriately called AEI, funneling NED and Republican money to CIA-backed coups and "revolutions" around the world, including the attack on Chavez.

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/3413

In the inaugural 1949 issue of Monthly Review, renowned theoretical physicist Albert Einstein penned a now famous article entitled "Why Socialism?" Here was a towering giant of the scientific community, transcending the limits of his own nominal expertise to weigh in with a clear political verdict: "I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils , namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals. In such an economy, the means of production are owned by society itself and are utilized in a planned fashion."

It is ironic at best and an insult at worst that the Albert Einstein Institution (AEI) bears his name. Masquerading under the banner of "nonviolent action," the AEI has come to play a central role in a new generation of warfare, one which has incorporated the heroic examples of past nonviolent resistance into a strategy of obfuscation and misdirection that does the work of empire. It is clear enough that Einstein himself would not have supported this sort of apolitical and empty "nonviolence," much less when employed toward imperialist ends.

I recently published on Counterpunch a review of Eva Golinger's important book Bush Versus Chávez (recently translated by Monthly Review), a book which deftly tracks contemporary U.S. efforts to undermine the Chávez government in Venezuela. I immediately received a poorly-conceived email from one Arthur Edelstein, accusing me of libelous statements for merely summarizing Golinger's well-documented findings. This unsubstantiated claim would be followed by a complaint (and veiled threat) from Gene Sharp, founder and "senior scholar" at the AEI. I attach the email in full below with errors intact. The letter speaks for itself, but it's worth quickly clarifying the two central points in question:

Firstly, Golinger's claim that the AEI has received funding from the U.S. government. Sharp is at pains to deny this below, but would no doubt concede that the Institution has received funds from both the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the International Republican Institute (IRI). These funding sources are reported in AEI's own annual funding statements. It is only through the worst of bad faith that one could claim that these are not in essence institutions pertaining to the U.S. government, since their formally-private status does little to hide the fact that they were both created by the U.S. Congress in 1983 to support Reagan's covert wars. Both, moreover, have been shown (e.g. in Golinger's first book, The Chávez Code) to have directly financed the coup-mongers among the Venezuelan opposition.

(continue at link)