<Number 1: You can still contract diseases from other parts of the world (Earth) even though these germs have shared our planet with us for millions of years.

I will agree, west nile virus would be a good example.

So why would Martian grerms (if any) be any less harmful than our own?

okay, you saying that diseases can stay more or less confined to certain areas of earth and this somehow has a baring on their lethality? . . . ?!

Psychologists tell me I have a good given yet utterly useless ability to best all but 1 in 500 people in picking up on similarities with two completely different settings. . . and I can see NO similarity or logical connection whatso ever in the statement you just made.

You cannot prove they would be harmless,

we cannot prove that the univers is actually a subatomic particle in a giant egg, this does not justify taking action to deal with scenearios regarding it. We just need t use common sense and resonable measures.

earth bacteria have been evolving for billions of years to better take advantage of each other with countermeasure after counter measure being employed. against every way in past present and future. . . and you expect some life that to come in that has none of this experience. You can't take a mahojong player, sit them in front of Gary Kasperov and expect to have a new chess champion. You can't take an english major, sit him in particle physics lab and expect him to formulate any new particle physics theories, and you can't realistically expect any alien life from a primitive planet to be placed in the cut throut world of earth thriving biology and expect it to make any impact whatsoever.

otherwise the National Research Council would not have issued it's most recent report stating that an appropriate Martian Quarantine Facility would take ten years to build.

Just wondering here, but WHAT IF I said the national research council was full of crap? What if I contest that the national research councils findings? what do you have to say then?

-Jusitn Kelly