“Columbus is ours”: The great Pope Leo XIII on the great Christopher Columbus, of happy memory. And here is a series of lectures by Fr. John Hardon on Columbus the Catholic. Too much pro-Catholic bias, you say? OK, just for balance, I’ll throw in this defense of Columbus from the atheistic Ayn Rand Institute.On the lighter side, here is a (somewhat goofy) version of the classic Fletcher Henderson tune “Christopher Columbus.” Enjoy, and raise a glass to the man who brought the West out west!
I'm so stunned to encounter someone who has actually heard of Fletcher Henderson that I'm speechless....
ReplyDeleteHi Warren,
ReplyDeleteRemember that dork in high school who was listening to Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington when all the other kids were into Def Leppard and Duran Duran? That was me...
I suggest reading" A People's History of the United States" in regard to what Columbus did to the Arawaks of the Bahamas.According to Las Casas over three million people perished from war,slavery, and the mines in Hispaniola.
ReplyDeleteEd,
ReplyDeleteI was that dork in high school who was listening to Benny Goodman and Beethoven symphonies while all the other kids were into Aerosmith and Nazareth....
Same principle, slightly different generation. ;-)
"three million people perished "
ReplyDeleteWikipedia gives a figure of 236,000 people perishing, due to a great extent to smallpox. The Spanish did dirty their hands, yes, but the disease was far more infectious. The three million figure is extremely inflated; Medieval France had only a population of 18-20 million, and it had a higher level of technology and 10 times the land area to boot.