The Big Charter, in Brief

Happy 800th anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta!

Happy Columbus Day!

Thomas Bowden, author of The Enemies of Christopher Columbus, makes a good argument against the pathological pessimism (not to say self-hatred) that has crept into our culture.  (I’m not at a computer where I can listen to that link and double-check; so I’m going by what I remember hearing on the radio this morning.)

See also today’s Human Events editorial on the subject.

“We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. … We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.”

A blogger (commenting on this news story) calls our attention to a schoolboy who, for the offense of having a creative, inquisitive mind, had his property confiscated and his home searched, and was told that both he and his parents need “counseling”.