Shoe by Gary Brookins and Susie MacNelly for December 27, 2020

I think “Men In Black” (1997) said it the best -

Kay : It’s a universal translator. We’re not even supposed to have it. I’ll tell you why. Human thought is so primitive it’s looked upon as an infectious disease in some of the better galaxies. That kind of makes you proud, doesn’t it?

if there were life forms on other planets they’d probably be searching for signs of intelligent beings…

If I were an alien, I wouldn’t contact us. Have you seen the trash we left on the Moon and Mars?

They didn’t want to listen to the Senators welcoming speech. Or eat at Roz’s fine dinning establishment.

They All turn away in Discuss muttering and Shaking their Head ( s )

Nope.

The postal routes don’t mesh.

On the other plants we are the aliens…

Nope.

Who’s to say that they haven’t?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox

Proof that there’s no intelligent life here is who we elect.

In Isaac Asimov’s short story “Silly Asses”, representatives from the Galactic Federation fly to Earth to let them know of their admittance as humans have learned to use nuclear power. When they find out that power is being used to make weapons, they turn around and go home. The captain laments, “Silly asses”.

They have contacted us, but we didn’t taste very good!

Jor-El: Live as one of them, Kal-El, to discover where your strength and your power are needed. But always hold in your heart the pride of your special heritage. They can be a great people, Kal-El, they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you.

[cut to seventy-two years later]

Kal-El: Dad, this really isn’t working out. Can I come home now?

(Apologies to Superman: character created by Jerry Seigel and Joe Shuster – 1938; 1978 screenplay by Mario Puzo, David Newman, Leslie Newman, and Robert Benton {Warner Brothers}.)

If Shoe is using a telescope he is probably looking in girls’ windows.

Shoe’s right. According to the Star Trek storyline, the Vulcans didn’t think to make contact until we showed we had warp speed capability. In almost every other storyline, the aliens contact us to conquer us, destroy us, or eat us. Maybe, being left alone ain’t so bad.

“Beam me up, Scotty. There’s no intelligent life down here.”

Sending signals into space to look for intelligent life is a big mistake. The highest probability for intelligence must be in the oldest galaxies. As each solar system ages every planet is inevitably doomed to become uninhabitable, by their star’s expansion or the loss of their magnetic core, or other self destructive activity. It is therefore inevitable that the most intelligent beings are likely to be the most in need of a new home.

Actually, the latest theory is that any civilization advanced enough for interstellar communication destroys itself long before making alien contact. Seems about right to me.

Bit of a stretch to think they would be speaking English. Just as we have trouble understanding a fish.. we will have similar problems understanding alien’s.

The problem is money. If an alien civilization is anything like ours, they will figure out that it costs a million times more to send a detectable signal than to listen for one. So, because of all the accountants in the universe, we are all sitting around … listening.

Amen, Shoe! Amen!

Seeing as how some might be looking through a telescope on a snowy night it speaks to the human (in this case snarky bird) condition. Personally, I would prefer a clear night.

Ever notice that when WE are looking for intelligent life in the universe, the telescopes are pointed AWAY from Earth?

It’s going to another long, long year…

It’s not like we’re not in the phone book!

Too bad you can’t get a print of this one.