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I also know an eyewitness. He is reluctant to speak of the matter. In fact he says it ruined his life. It's hard for me to look him in the eye and call him a liar. Does that prove anything? Not really. But it makes me reluctant to throw someone's character in the fire just because proof is hard to come by. These witnesses that everyone is sure are crazy lying kooks are real people. I think its important to keep that in mind when accusing them. It is not a small thing to call a man a liar, and it should not be done without justification.

If the accusation strikes home, there must be some truth to it. Because I did not mention you.

Saskeptic, at one point I intended to call you to the carpet with an exhaustive recounting of your unobtrusive dissembling and genial mendacity. I later abandoned the effort on the theory that every man has one blindness or another, and who am I to dwell on the mote that clouds your vision, when I have my own blinding beams no doubt. Besides, you are relatively affable as far as skeptics go, that is as long as one is not offended by your callous and patronizing attitude towards witnesses - if one believes that fairly represents the pat theorem that all eyewitnesses are either mistaken, untruthful, or delusional. Yet this extreme cynicism is paradoxically combined with an unshakeable faith in the institutions of science - institutions which are manned by these same human beings you find so entirely fallible. Perhaps the marble halls of the academy work some wondrous alchemy on human nature. So feel free to lavish me with more pedantry - or accusations of pedantry. Be my guest. I'll content myself with the irony.