We could use a thread for Stupid Republican Idea of Literally Yesteryear. Also one for Stupid Republican Hypocrisy.
Here’s a story with today’s date!
Greg Abbott is, of course, the Republican candidate for Governor…
That’s true. He and his younger brother had a direct hand in the extermination of the Taíno people. For sure, his “discovery” changed the world forever, including some extraordinarily unfortunate ways.
I’m definitely on board with not celebrating his day, because Columbus was not the first person to lead an expedition to the western hemisphere (that was accomplished tens of thousands of years earlier), was not the first European person to lead an expedition to the western hemisphere, either (that was accomplished hundreds of years earlier), and the direct result of his imperialist bent was the annihilation of dozens if not hundreds of cultures and their peoples that had flourished for thousands of years. He also did not heroically seek to “prove” the world was round when everyone else thought it was flat (for some reason, this myth refuses to die.)
Columbus’s arrival at Hispianola is a dark day in human history.
Trying to whitewash his day by naming it something else is pretty darn stupid. Don’t celebrate it. Do talk about what happened and the true historical context for what he did. Don’t try to make a new holiday to cover it up.
However, conservatives’ attempts to defend Columbus Day are even stupider. (Especially the “Italian heritage” argument. What crap!)
Still and all, you know, – no Columbus, no U.S.A. That’s why we celebrate it. If it was a dark day for Indians, well, so was the Fourth of July.
ISIL/S is apparently fermenting the Republican brain.
The Border Patrol says it never happened.
Meantime, over in Arkansas, Tom Cotton (R, running for the Senate), thinks that ISIL/S is collaborating with Mexican drug cartels. The drug cartels apparently want to expand into the terrorism business.
The froth is amazing, isn’t it?
I was thinking more along the lines of his expedition began the inexorable process of uniting the old and new worlds. I understand people were here, and that Vikings had been in northern North America, but the old and new worlds had not started coming together. Lots of harshness, but still an incredibly important historical development. And we know exactly when it happened.
What thread are we in?
So what? Many singular events, if they had not happened, would have led to no U.S.A. The overwhelming majority of them are not celebrated.
The signing of the Declaration of Independence formed a new nation, currently the greatest on Earth. It was a step towards greater liberty for more people (not all, not enough, but more), drastically unlike most of the couple hundred years of history in the western hemisphere after 1492. But as we celebrate our nation, I’m all for reflection and honesty about our past and current questionable or regrettable actions.
To persist with this argument would be a hijack, so I’ll drop it. Not the right thread for this particular discussion.
My intent was simply to lead up to my saying that the conservative attack on a stupid decision (changing the name of the day) is also stupid.
A relative of mine does that a lot. Agrees we should drop a subject right after she’s given her final word but before anyone can respond.
About Columbus day, I’m all for renaming or not recognizing it, but can they still keep that day as a holiday so I don’t have to work?
You can take the day off but only if you’re Italian. It works like Rosh Hashana for Jews.
“Just one more thing…”
Or is that better suited to Columbo Day?
I was just coming in here to ask that. 
Meanwhile, Louie Gohmert (R-Insaneland) says that Obama let Ebola-infected people sneak into the United States because he wanted everyone to “feel included.”
Ah, Gohmert. He’s a special one.
Renaming Columbus Day is a stupid idea. It’s a way of benefitting from what he did without honoring him. Unless we’re willing to give the continent back, such measures are just stupid.
But does he have asparagus for everyone? I want to be included on the asparagus.
And Santorum hasn’t even declared his candidacy yet!
Meanwhile, from Michele Bachmann (R-Arkham):
Give the continent back? What exactly do you think he did, and where do you think we would be right now if he hadn’t done it?
It steam-engines when it comes steam-engine time. Some Euro would have sailed across the Atlantic that decade.
Getting this thread back on track:
Phyllis Schlafly: Obama wants ebola in the U.S. so we can be more like Africa.
I’m perfectly willing to give the continent back to anybody who can prove they were living here in 1492.
That’s awesome.
I wonder if we can start the meme that a liberal biologist wants apes to have equal rights with humans, so is working with Obama to spread Ebola so the apes can rise.