Or was it Christopher Columbus they laughed at?

From the NYT's report on Gary Faulkner, the American arrested in Pakistan on a solo mission to kill Osama bin Laden, comes the Rhetorical Question of the Day, supplied by the man's brother-in-law, John Martin:

"How many people thought Paul Revere was a nut?’” 

Some of us would have been dumbfounded, but the reporter nimbly followed Martin's train of thought: "Asked if his brother-in-law was a hero or a nut, Mr. Martin replied, 'I think if he would have accomplished his task, he would have been a hero.'" Got it.