Bellesiles Misfires

The Wall Street Journal ^ | February 6, 2004 | KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL

[neverdem]

An antigun "scholar" as today's Galileo? Oh please, just shoot me.

History has its fair share of persecuted geniuses, men who were ahead of their time and made to pay for it. There's the hemlocked Socrates, the house-arrested Galileo, the exiled Rousseau. And to this list of giants it seems that we are now expected to add the name of Michael Bellesiles.

[Still Thinking]

The vision that society is unalterable is not just incorrect, it is dangerously undemocratic, and as such should be of concern to every modern historian."

He thinks historical fact should be mangled to suit the whims of DEMOCRACY??!! What an idiot. We sure wouldn't want history getting in the way of some individual's concept of "democracy'. God forbid, the facts might actually help shape someone's views into a non-approved mold! </forehead slap>

[Sacajaweau]

Reading some Colonial diaries. Sharpshooting was in and they enjoyed the food the women provided. "Family Outing"?

[91B]

Just another leftie who was shown to be a fraud. A few years ago Rigoberta Menchu was shown to have made her "autobiography" up out of whole cloth. Her book is still read in classes taught by lefty profs-Bellisiles will be too.

The truth never gets in the way of the Left's agenda.

[VadeRetro]

Among Bellesiles's "bloopers" was claiming to have reviewed probate records in San Francisco from before the earthquake and fire of 1906. That's a bit of a mistake, as those records did not survive that disaster.

[GovernmentShrinker]

Soft Skull Press? LOL! How appropriate for this mushy-headed fellow!

[Paradox]

The Liberals had so much riding on this book, that you can be ASSURED that if he had really lost his research notes in a flood, by now, someone would have repeated his research and published his same results. Other than a few meager attempts to defend his data, I have seen little else other than whining..

[heckler]

BANG

[Khurkris]

Stay Safe Troop.

Ranger 91B

[superdad]

Alas, Mr. Bellesiles reputation is intact with some. Join Together online, a antigun site of Boston University School of Public Health, www.jointogether.org, lists both Mr. Bellesiles' books "Arming America" and "Weighed in an Even Balance" as resources. "Higher" education at work.

[91B]

Thanks-guess I'm going to have to change my screen name after we finish transitioning to 91W :-)

[nobody_knows]

"Alas, Mr. Bellesiles reputation is intact with some. Join Together online, a antigun site of Boston University School of Public Health, www.jointogether.org, lists both Mr. Bellesiles' books "Arming America" and "Weighed in an Even Balance" as resources. "Higher" education at work."



You smoke the same stuff they do at BU, and it IS higher education!

[nobody_knows]

"Alas, Mr. Bellesiles reputation is intact with some. Join Together online, a antigun site of Boston University School of Public Health, www.jointogether.org, lists both Mr. Bellesiles' books "Arming America" and "Weighed in an Even Balance" as resources. "Higher" education at work."



You smoke the same stuff they do at BU, and it IS higher education!

[N. Theknow]

Liberal History = So what if it didn't happen - It should have happened - Therefore, it happened.

[RKV]

Kudo's to Clayton Cramer. One of the unsung heros who actually had read the primary sources and called Bellesiles' bull$^&@!
http://claytoncramer.com/weblog/blogger.html

[Cicero]

While we're at it, the Galileo case has been hugely twisted for liberal, anti-Catholic purposes. The Church had no objection to his publishing his findings as long as he presented them as theories. He finally got into trouble because he published them as a proven fact--that the earth's spinning and revolving around the sun was a fact. He thought he had proven his case with a discussion of the tides. In point of fact, his tidal argument was wrong. It was a couple of hundred years before a scientist actually proved for certain that the earth revolves around the sun.

Galileo wasn't treated that badly, either. He wasn't burned at the stake. In a time when thousands of accused witches were being burned in the Protestant north, he was put under house arrest in a very comfortable residence, and allowed to continue his work.

As it turned out, the Church was wrong about the solar system, but it did not "persecute" Galileo in any meaningful sense. Mostly, the whole affair was an academic argument between Galileo and his more stodgy astronomical colleagues.

[Still Thinking]

Bang!

[RKV]

Someone puts me under house arrest and I'll consider it meaningful persecution. True that others got much worse as you say, but that doesn't really change the issue. Separation of church and state is a GOOD thing.

[babyface00]

Separation of church and state is a GOOD thing.

Except for the fact that Galileo was working for the church at the time (to use a modern concept to describe an ancient arrangement).

Would it be wrong for a modern employer to use legal means to restrict a researcher from publicly mischaracterizing the results of research done on company time?

[BlueLancer]

"Someone puts me under house arrest and I'll consider it meaningful persecution."

I wish somebody would put ME under house arrest. I could use the rest.