crazy glen beck is actually on to something here. but he's still crazy.

it's not taught because it's extremely speculative. there's a hodge podge of random evidence, and if you interpret it a specific way it becomes compelling. but...

the phoenician writing - if it's not a hoax - is probably carthaginian. we know that carthage was pretty special in the ancient world, but we have a deficit of their history for the specific reason that the romans wrote them out of history by carrying out a genocide against them and literally tearing down every building in the city to it's foundation, then paving over it. look that up some time - it's dark reading. they were probably more important than egypt or greece, in their era, but they've been wiped out by an act of violence.

we can prove that they had large trading networks all the way around africa (not emulated by a european power until the portugese went out looking to get around the arabs), and north at least as far as ireland. beyond that, it gets sketchy, but it's long been speculated that they did find their way to america. the small amounts of evidence that exist are intriguing, but there's nothing strong enough to rewrite history...

this is in the list of "if they found it, they wouldn't believe it" type theories. but, i think it's very likely. we went through this with the vikings. and it's increasingly clear that the chinese made their own voyages from the other side. give it time.

but to answer the question: why haven't you heard of this? because the evidence isn't powerful enough. at least not yet, anyways.

have you considered sending a correspondent to the white house? i know: costs, and what's the point, it's propaganda, right? but i think this is actually quite important - if not from democracy now, then from some other independent and left-leaning organization.

i've been watching the white house press briefings for a few months now, and there's nothing even approaching a centrist position from much of anywhere. you'll get some ethnic groups standing up for their own from time to time, but it's all very one-dimensional. it's just right-wing journalist after right-wing journalist asking questions that seem framed around fox news coverage. i'm sure there's somebody at the show that watches these things and will agree how painful they are to watch. the closest thing i've seen to somebody asking about the humanitarian issue on the border was a trick question to try and get the secretary to admit that the administration was trying to weaken border security - when anybody aware of the facts knows how deport-happy the administration is.

what that creates is a situation where the only press pressure that the president is getting is from the right and the extreme right. there is still a facade of democracy in the united states, enough that the president needs to react to the press, for political reasons. the absolute deficit in the press corps of anybody approaching anything left wing means he has zero pressure to hold on policies, or move in a more progressive direction. it follows that getting somebody in there that's asking less outrageous questions is likely to actually have a policy effect, in allowing him to stand still or forcing him to moderate a little.

again: it's easier said than done. limited resources. i get it. but even a single, indignant voice can turn a room enough to turn up the heat. and, if it's not within the abilities of democracy now, i still think it's something you can float around to like-minded organizations.

watching the press conferences, you'd think obama set the dream act up to create an overground railroad to smuggle in illegals, and his secretary is doing a bad job in distracting from it. and yet we see here what's really happening.

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Rachel Golem
Yes, of course. All the problems in Honduras are the fault of white people who have never been there!!!!!!

NeoGeo12
CIA coups, Corrupt trade deals and the heinous drug war are the major reasons why America government is responsible for all this mass immigration.

deathtokoalas
the trade deals are key. this was predicted in the 90s.

russia invades crimea: it's a terrible breach in international law.
israel invades gaza: it's a sovereign right of nations to undertake military action.

i'm not taking a position here on which position is correct. i'm just pointing out that the united states merely uses international law as a tool of propaganda, and in truth hasn't the slightest interest in it's enforcement.

something has changed, though. this used to be a right-wing position - all the fear mongering about the nwo and the totalitarian order at the un is a calculated disinformation campaign to build popular support against the united nations, to stop it from being able to restrict american actions. the democrats, from roosevelt on, generally sought to uphold the legitimacy of the institution.

then, iraq happened. and the governing party has adopted a uniform position on the matter.

the un is dead. international law is dead. deal with it.

as some other people have pointed out, "europeans" in this period would not have been r1* or migrated in from asia, but would likely have migrated in from northern africa and probably have been light brown, like modern arabs.

on the one hand, i'm willing to mostly write this off as mormon revisionism. the dna evidence linking natives to siberia is pretty overwhelming.

on the other hand, i think it's important to point out that it's not necessary for large numbers of solutreans to have migrated to america in order for the technology to get there. a few stragglers is all it really would have taken. and, i don't find the idea of a small group moving along the pack ice - or even being lost at sea - to be all that outrageous.

the key piece of evidence would be to find some of these blades somewhere along the way. now, i want you to note that what apparently led this guy to this hypothesis was that he couldn't find any blades in alaska. but, the same problem still exists - now he needs to find blades in...

wait. those ice sheets are gone. so....

this is unfalsifiable.

it's a nice story. but there's no way to prove it one way or the other. unfortunately, it's not even wrong.

regarding the x chromosome, i think that carthaginian or greek contact in the pre-roman period is far more likely.