Free Republic

Bashing Christopher Columbus has long been de rigueur among the liberal elite. Today, it has infiltrated our nation’s classrooms and poisons our public discourse. You know the mantra: Columbus was a greedy and egomaniacal villain who brought slavery, disease, “genocide,” and ecological ruin to a previously undisturbed land. Rather than honor this legacy of “hate,” the argument goes, Americans should celebrate the peaceful indigenous peoples who populated this hemisphere long before their lands were stolen by European explorers. The war against Columbus is cloaked in the lexicon of “diversity” and the rhetoric of “inclusion.” But what many of its foot...

STOCKHOLM -- News that Swedish businessman Stefan Eriksson is facing charges ranging from embezzlement to grand theft after the crash of a rare Ferrari on a California highway came as no surprise to police back home. It was Eriksson's extravagant lifestyle and penchant for fast cars that drew the attention of the Swedish justice system, which put him behind bars for 5 1/2 years for assaults, threats and extortion. "He made about the same mistake he's made now: nice cars and big boats," said one detective who investigated Eriksson in his home town of Uppsala in the 1990s. He spoke...

case Monday April 17, 2006 By CHRISTINA ALMEIDA Associated Press Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) A Swedish businessman involved in the high-speed crash of a rare Ferrari on a coastal highway pleaded not guilty Monday to embezzlement and other charges in the alleged theft of a collection of exotic cars. Bo Stefan M. Eriksson, 44, did not speak during the hearing. The plea was entered on his behalf by his attorney, David Elden, as Eriksson listened from behind a glass barrier.Judge Mary Strobel set a bail review hearing for April 24.Deputy District Attorney Tamara Hall said bail had been set at...

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - The latest scientific analysis of a disputed map of the medieval New World supports the theory that it was made 50 years before Christopher Columbus set sail. The study examined the ink used to draw the Vinland Map, which belongs to Yale University. The map is valued at $20 million — if it is real and not a clever, modern-day forgery. A study last summer said the ink on the parchment map was made in the 20th century. But chemist Jacqueline Olin, a retired researcher with the Smithsonian Institution (news - web sites) in Washington, said...