Those same people, Obama said, would’ve thought the Earth was flat, that television wouldn’t last, that the automobile was only a passing fad.
“If some of these folks were around when Columbus set sail, they must have been founding members of the Flat Earth Society,” he said. “They would not have believed that the world was round.”Now, if you attended high school, or college, you would know (or should know) that there was no educated European who thought the Earth was flat. None. The dispute that made it hard for Columbus to get funding was that insisted the Earth was 18,000 miles in circumference, so the Indies were a plausible voyage west from Spain. The experts who told the various governments of Europe that Columbus wasn't going to be successful thought the Earth was closer to 25,000 miles around--and sailing west to the Indies was going to be a failure. Had there not been the Americas in the way, Columbus and crew would have died of thirst.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0312/74063.html#ixzz1pDrbhE3E
I really want someone with at least a decent high school education to hold the top job in this country.
Maybe Obama should demand a refund for his lousy university education!
ReplyDeleteObama is not the only one to make this mistake, but it is a whopper. Besides what you say, the idea that Columbus proved that the Earth was round doesn't even make any sense. Columbus just crossed the Atlantic and did not go around the Earth.
ReplyDeleteI think he was just using it as a metaphor of sorts. Seeing that he used other examples, he just meant, "People without vision."
ReplyDeleteIt's used in a song that way:
"They all laughed at Christopher Columbus
When he said the world was round
They all laughed when Edison recorded sound
They all laughed at Wilbur and his brother
When they said that man could fly
They told Marconi
Wireless was a phony"
Although I admit that if Bush had said that, the press would never let up ...
ReplyDeleteI want someone who can work at a more serious level than metaphor.
ReplyDeleteObama got this historical revisionism from the Bugs Bunny version of Chris Columbus - "she's-a-round-a-like-a-your head!"
ReplyDeleteIs it too much to ask for one with a basic education in math and economics ?
ReplyDeleteThere are many pieces of misinformation that are learned in school, not from books or teachers, but from other students. One of them is that Columbus encountered opposition from flat-earth believers.
ReplyDelete