Here’s something from a recent story at Discovery News. The story is actually about some research that’s being done on John Cabot’s expeditions across the Atlantic in the late 15th century. Anyway, this is how Discovery decided to headline the story:

COLUMBUS MAY NOT HAVE BEEN FIRST TO AMERICA.

Really? You don’t say.

Let me just mention that the question under investigation in the story — whatever may be the case, whether or not the questions they’re looking into about John Cabot turn up anything new or not — it could not possibly have anything to do with the truth or falsity of the thing in the headline. We already know perfectly well about that, unless there are some people whose arrival counts, and other people whose arrival did not.

See also:

• GT 2008-10-10: Whiteness studies 104: Class, cuisine, and authenticity
• GT 2008-07-05: Whiteness studies 103: Ethnic food and authenticity
• GT 2006-02-04: Whiteness studies 102: Intended audience
• GT 2006-01-26: Whiteness studies 101: Ethnicity

• Seeing Like a State. Roderick, Austro-Athenian Empire (2010-07-03). I was just watching part of a Congressional presentation on C-Span honouring the slaves who built the u.s. capitol – not by making restitution to their heirs, of course, but by setting up some sort of plaque. What especially bugged me was the speakers' continual references to expressing "thanks" and… (Linked Sunday 2010-07-04.)

• July 4 thoughts. Thoreau, Unqualified Offerings (2010-07-03). By Thoreau First, I should preface this by saying that I just went through a DUI checkpoint.  A dozen cops standing around at a low-traffic intersection, and I'll bet that a lot of them are collecting overtime for this.  Interestingly, he didn't ask me "Have  you had anything to drink… (Linked Sunday 2010-07-04.)

• The America John Boehner Grew Up In. Matthew Yglesias (2010-07-04). Conservatism Vs. The Past (Cont’d.) (Linked Sunday 2010-07-04.)

• Homeland Security Works For Disney Now? Announces Shut Down Of Movie Sites At Disney. Mike Masnick, Techdirt (2010-06-30). Well, here we go. Remember how, a few months back, we noted how odd it was that the Justice Department (which, of course, employs many former RIAA/MPAA/BSA lawyers) was designating a special task force to fight copyright infringement? After all, copyright infringement is mostly a civil issue, between two private… (Linked Sunday 2010-07-04.)

• Sumner Time Blues. Roderick, Austro-Athenian Empire (2010-07-04). William Graham Sumner said lots of things I like. (See, for example, his "Conquest of the United States by Spain.") The following (which I apparently transcribed a couple of decades ago and just came across today) isn't one of them: [H]ow are we to appreciate the work of the Constitution-makers?… (Linked Sunday 2010-07-04.)

• feministhulk: HULK NOT DOWN WITH COMPLACENCY IN THE FACE OF HEGEMONY. IF THAT’S “JUST THE WAY IT IS,” LET’S FUCK IT UP! Twitter / feministhulk (2010-07-04). feministhulk: HULK NOT DOWN WITH COMPLACENCY IN THE FACE OF HEGEMONY. IF THAT’S “JUST THE WAY IT IS,” LET’S FUCK IT UP! (Linked Sunday 2010-07-04.)

• On Celebrating Your Freedom... Radley Balko, The Agitator (2010-07-04). Libertarian activists Pete Eyre and Adam Mueller have been arrested for filming police in Greenfield, Massachusetts. (Linked Monday 2010-07-05.)

• More on Immigration. Sheldon Richman, Free Association (2010-07-03). I’m sick of all the pro-immigration articles showing how good immigrants can be for us. It’s not that the arguments are wrong. They’re just not terribly relevant to the essential issue — the freedom of people to move without permission, unmolested by governments or private individuals. Emphasizing how good immigration… (Linked Monday 2010-07-05.)

• The Political Animal. Cafe Hayek (2010-07-05). Here's a letter to DC news-radio station WTOP: In this morning's 6 am hour, your Capitol Hill reporter, Dave McConnell, excused Sen. Robert Byrd's long-ago active membership in the KKK as simply being "something that had to be done in West Virginia back then to get ahead in politics." No… (Linked Monday 2010-07-05.)

• Blogs and peer review. Eric Crampton, Offsetting Behaviour (2010-06-30). I had coffee with Bryce Edwards over the weekend. His two year old is a week younger than ours; good times were had by all. But we both pondered what the New Zealand academic evaluation mechanism – the Performance Based Research Fund – will make of our blogging when we’re… (Linked Monday 2010-07-05.)

• Let 560 Nations Bloom – Within the Boundaries of the U.S. flowidealism, Let A Thousand Nations Bloom (2010-07-02). This post by Michael Strong is part of Secession Week 2010: Federalism and Secession Arguably the simplist and most immediate path for "Letting a Thousand Nations Bloom" is to support tribal sovereignty movements around the world, especially in the Common Law nations of the Anglosphere like the U.S.  Other colonialist European… (Linked Monday 2010-07-05.)