Venus: Not a UFO

This is a photo, of Venus, by Jon Shaner, meteorologist at Fox/WXMI in Grand Rapids, Michigan (from our media Facebook page):

That the military tried to say, initially, that this is what Captain Thomas Mantell chased as a UFO (subsequently reporting that it was a Skyhook balloon that gulled the pilot) and Donald Menzel often used the planet as a UFO explanation, plus French skeptic Gilles Fernandez providing reams of material to bolster his thesis that the 1896 Airship in California was a mis-identification of the planet, goes to the heart of why UFOs have been muddied from the outset of their appearance.

When academics and (usually) credible bodies (the U.S. Air force) insert such a bogus and errant explanation for a UFO sighting, it confuses the mind of media and the great unwashed (the public).

That confused mind-set has pushed UFOs into a fringe bracket of reality which prevented and prevents any real study of the phenomenon.

Does any sane observer of the night (or morning) sky really think that Venus, in all its glory, could be a UFO or airship?

The "explanation" is ludicrous.

But some still try to use it to explain UFO sightings, which shows me where the insanity of society lies.

RR