I’ve always admired and respected noted genius and astrophysisicist Stephen Hawkings. I’ve even read a couple of his books, although my 90 IQ brain can’t resuscitate their titles or any of their details. But they were certainly exciting.

Now, Hawkings has excited me even more. In a recent documentary on the Discovery Channel, Mr. Hawkings revealed himself to be a visionary on the subject of alien life forms and the potential those life forms may hold for humans should contact occur.

Is my memory really really really super-dooper bad, or didn’t Hollywood stumble across those dangers eons ago? I’m thinking of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Day the Earth Stood Still. When these movies were released, they were viewed merely as entertainment or, in some quarters, as metaphorical depictions of the danger of the communist menace threatening America.

Now, Hawkings has added scientific and authoritative legitimacy to the perpetual American fear of aliens and all things distant. If I were a conspiracy theorist, I might believe that Hawkings, a British citizen, deliberately concocted his alien paradigm for the explicit purpose of driving American extremists nuts.

I could even conclude that Hawkings has offered proof for the existence of the alien body in Area 51, except that I’ve seen the pictures. The body looks like my granddad. Besides, I know for a fact that Area 51 is a top secret resort for generals and admirals.

And if I wanted to stretch matters even further, I could easily visualize a drunk staggering into a bar in Roswell and proclaiming loudly, “I’m from another planet, boys. Gimme a drink and I’ll show you my spaceship.”

But I am not a conspiracy theorist. I am a realist. I trust Hawkings’ analysis and accept implicitly his picture of giant spaceships as large as planets roaming the universe in search of real planets with the resources necessary for continued existence. Somehow, as Hawkings proffered his paradigm, I had a vision of the Goldman and Sachs building plastered with loosely flapping derivatives blasting off for another planet.

It isn’t my intent to trivialize Hawkings’ theory. But Americans can be easily spooked. Certain segments of our society seem to operate on the edge of night, always alert, for example, for proof that Obama was born in Kenya or Thailand. Now, they have the words of a respected astrophysicist to bolster their belief that Obama is not one of us.

He has been placed here by an alien civilization in an invisible spaceship as large as Mars for the sole purpose of preparing America for alien occupation.

Now, that would make a helluva a plot for a Hollywood movie.