Extraterrestrials:
Some time in the 1500’s priest and polymath Giordano Bruno suggested that the stars, some of them anyway, are distant suns like ours with planets that support life, presumably some of it as intelligent (or otherwise) as we.  He was executed, and one of the charges is believed by some to have been that he held that very notion.

It does seem to be an obvious possibility to us of the 21’s century.  In the something more than 400 years since his death, this will-o’-the-wisp concept has never lost its allure.  There is an appeal to a theory that cannot be disproved, and the notion of intelligent life on other planets or even visiting us certainly fills that bill.  But there is to date one issue that remains:

No facts.

Oh, well might you object that many facts have been brought to bear.  Stars seem to varying degrees to resemble our sun.  And extra-solar planets are known and are numerous.  But that does not really add anything to Bruno’s conjecture.  Perhaps one day, perhaps soon, we may find a planet and be able through analyzing light coming through its atmosphere to find some signature of life, like lots of oxygen and some CO2.  Or maybe the space aliens will show up in their unimaginable craft and frankly introduce themselves.  But that has not happened. 

On the other hand, I do have something relevant to offer:

Two facts.

You should know, or can easily confirm from this link:
http://www.nobabies.net/TNS%20meeing%20Orlando%202916.html
Humans are staring extinction straight in the eye because we have stopped marrying cousins.  And if there are extraterrestrials visiting us, they know it full well.  Indeed if you dig around in the murky depths of reports on abductions by extraterrestrials, it would seem that they have quite an interest in human reproduction. 
Perhaps they themselves are facing extinction for the very reason that we are; nobody marries cousins any more.  If that’s the case, they need to talk to me.  Obviously if they made it here they can get on the internet, and they can contact me.  I am not holding my breath.  So it seems reasonable to conclude that they know better than you and I know exactly what is going on.

And they have not warned us.  This leads us to:

Fact 1. If they exist and are here, they are not our friends.  They are totally content to watch us die out.

In fact if you dig around a bit more, you will find the notion that they have been regarded as gods and as such have offered us the wonders of civilization, read urbanization, read murder with hands off.

On the other hand, they have not removed me from the picture, and there are not many others pressing this issue.  Given my age and general state of decrepitude, it would be duck soup to kill me.  Let’s see.  If I wanted to murder me I would get a team together.  Somebody brings forty pounds of steak to keep the dogs occupied and be sure no scraps are left.  The assault team pick the night latch silently – don’t worry about being green; so is my porch light … honor to veterans you know, step over the trip wire, limbo under the laser beams, follow the thunderous snoring to my bedroom, no worries if the snoring stops – it’s sleep apnea – nor if I am sitting in the corner with my eye open and a shotgun trained on the door – I always sleep like that –  assemble the anesthesia cart, waft alcohol fumes in my face until I am in coma, put the mask on and up the alcohol fume concentration and lower the oxygen concentration until there has been massive brain damage, drop off an empty gallon jug of whisky on the way out, put a little green man at the wheel of my car, drive to a desolate stretch of road with a bridge, have a couple of teams with lights and sawbucks at either end to keep people away for a few minutes, strap me be hind the wheel, with a truck push my car up to a hundred miles an hour with an acrobatic team member lying on the roof steering through the diver’s window and wearing a harness with a line that goes up to a helicopter, at a signal as the bridge is approached have the acrobat yank the wheel over and get lifted away by the chopper. 

Minus one threat.  If by miracle I survived my life would certainly be so disrupted I would be more ineffectual than now, if that’s possible.  And if I said, “Aliens must have done this to me,” how far do you suppose I would get?   (While I was sorting out how this would work I went to bed and later while stirring noticed that the sliding glass door to the pool deck – which I fix with a pin – stood open.  I shut it wondering not so much whether extraterrestrials were after me as whether a fruit rat had come in.  The next morning the door was open again.  Well that concentrated my mind until I figured it out.) 

So it would be cheap and easy to eliminate me.  Of course if I came to an obviously sticky end, it would make me a martyr so that’s out.  But obviously it’s easily got around. 

But they haven’t killed me.  So we have:

Fact 2.  They will never kill anybody. 

Maybe there is some “federation rule” against it.  Maybe they are squeamish.  Maybe they are terrified of us.  Most likely they don’t exist at all.  But it all comes down to the same fact.  They cannot be a threat unless perhaps by stretching a point they can whisper bad advice.  One other thing: I had pushed my research to the point where I was within a couple of weeks of blowing the whistle on this infertility from marrying strangers thing when I was struck with shingles.  The pain is supposed to go away in a couple of weeks, but this has been excruciating for more than two years.  It has cost me that much time unable to work effectively.  So just because they don’t kill you doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t tamper with you. 

And there, oh beloved reader and guest on my web site, are the first new relevant facts since 1600.

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