Ancient Aliens: Founding Fathers/Illuminati, Meet The Extraterrestrials.

So this opened with a line that went something like "A stargate, hidden in our nation's capitol dome." And all this time I had thought it was hidden under Cheyenne Mountain!

Apparently, this time the thing that aliens are responsible for is founding the United States of America, although this is really, really stretching the definition of "ancient". It wasn't even 250 years ago!

The first proof of this was that strange lights were seen over the DC area once in the 1950's. These lights were not Soviet spacecraft, because the Soviets, continuing their long history of being perfectly open and honest with us during the 50's, said the lights weren't there.

More proof of this is that Benjamin Franklin met with people regularly to discuss science. Presumably, the aliens were informing him about science, including on what a brilliant idea it was to go kite-flying in thunderstorms.

Of course, at this point they inevitably bring in the topic of freemasonry. Surprisingly, they actually got someone who was an important part of the Freemasons to come on the show and say vague things about the organization. The general pentagram shape of some of the streets in DC was mentioned, but in their Conspiracy Theory Twist of the Week, they held that this was not necessarily something that the Freemasons did purely because it was their symbol, but because it was referring to stars and/or aliens told them to.

[think of the scene in National Treasure where Nic Cage looks at a dollar bill through a water bottle]

Then, we get on to the Washington Monument, which is noted to be the largest obelisk in the world. They give up on the opportunity to snicker at phallic symbolism in favor of saying it's some kind of transmitter. And that the layout of the streets around it also serve to radiate and transmit some kind of space energy through all that concrete and asphalt! I guess sort of like that big ferris wheel in London in the first episode of the new Doctor Who...

Then, the show went into their foray of completely baffling logic for this episode: They said that the reflecting pool meant that the obelisk went down as well as up, doubling its size, power, and/or effectiveness. Even my non-scientist consultant (aka roommate aka Jamie) pointed out that the image of the obelisk in the reflecting pool was really horizontal to the ground.

Then it's important that the Capitol was built on a hill. Because instead of hills being classic places to put things from the beginning of time because it was easy to see and be seen from there, this is somehow related to the Temple Mount in ancient Jerusalem.

Then, this episode closes out with a double dose of the misuse of the word "literally" - the phrases "literally in a vortex of energy"and "Domes are literally considered to be portals or gateways to the stars" are both said in a short period of time.

So, can we blame the current state of Congress on the swirling vortexes of energy from the stars? Or is their problem that they've become too out of touch with the space aliens?