Tea at Trianon

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Wednesday, November 6, 2024

Te Deum Laudamus

Christus vincit! Christus regnat! Christus imperat!

Te Deum laudamus: te Dominum confitemur.
Te aeternum Patrem omnis terra veneratur.
Tibi omnes Angeli; tibi caeli et universae Potestates;
Tibi Cherubim et Seraphim incessabili voce proclamant:
Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth.
Pleni sunt caeli et terra maiestatis gloriae tuae.
Te gloriosus Apostolorum chorus,
Te Prophetarum laudabilis numerus,
Te Martyrum candidatus laudat exercitus.
Te per orbem terrarum sancta confitetur Ecclesia,
Patrem immensae maiestatis:
Venerandum tuum verum et unicum Filium;
Sanctum quoque Paraclitum Spiritum.
Tu Rex gloriae, Christe.
Tu Patris sempiternus es Filius.
Tu ad liberandum suscepturus hominem, non horruisti Virginis uterum.
Tu, devicto mortis aculeo, aperuisti credentibus regna caelorum.
Tu ad dexteram Dei sedes, in gloria Patris.
Iudex crederis esse venturus.
Te ergo quaesumus, tuis famulis subveni: quos pretioso sanguine redemisti.
Aeterna fac cum sanctis tuis in gloria numerari.
V. Salvum fac populum tuum, Domine, et benedic hereditati tuae.
R. Et rege eos, et extolle illos usque in aeternum.
V. Per singulos dies benedicimus te.
R. Et laudamus nomen tuum in saeculum, et in saeculum saeculi.
V. Dignare, Domine, die isto sine peccato nos custodire.
R. Miserere nostri, Domine, miserere nostri.
V. Fiat misericordia tua, Domine, super nos, quemadmodum speravimus in te.
R. In te, Domine, speravi: non confundar in aeternum.

O God, we praise Thee, and acknowledge Thee to be the supreme Lord.
Everlasting Father, all the earth worships Thee.
All the Angels, the heavens and all angelic powers,
All the Cherubim and Seraphim, continuously cry to Thee:
Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts!
Heaven and earth are full of the Majesty of Thy glory.
The glorious choir of the Apostles,
The wonderful company of Prophets,
The white-robed army of Martyrs, praise Thee.
Holy Church throughout the world acknowledges Thee:
The Father of infinite Majesty;
Thy adorable, true and only Son;
Also the Holy Spirit, the Comforter.
O Christ, Thou art the King of glory!
Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father.
When Thou tookest it upon Thyself to deliver man,
Thou didst not disdain the Virgin's womb.
Having overcome the sting of death, Thou opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all
believers.
Thou sitest at the right hand of God in the glory of the Father.
We believe that Thou willst come to be our Judge.
We, therefore, beg Thee to help Thy servants whom Thou hast redeemed with Thy
Precious Blood.
Let them be numbered with Thy Saints in everlasting glory.
V. Save Thy people, O Lord, and bless Thy inheritance!
R. Govern them, and raise them up forever.
V. Every day we thank Thee.
R. And we praise Thy Name forever, yes, forever and ever.
V. O Lord, deign to keep us from sin this day.
R. Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us.
V. Let Thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, for we have hoped in Thee.
R. O Lord, in Thee I have put my trust; let me never be put to shame.

From The Daily Wire:

Former President Donald Trump won the 2024 election, Decision Desk HQ predicts, completing what is likely the biggest political comeback in American history.
Despite suggestions that the race would be incredibly close, Trump took off with an early lead, quickly winning majorities in the key swing states of Georgia and North Carolina, and showing early dominance in Pennsylvania.
When the race was called just past 1:00 a.m. on the east coast, Trump had won three of seven swing states — Georgia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania — putting him at 270 Electoral College votes. He is set to take the stage at his election night party early morning on Wednesday.
Campaign officials and advisers celebrated Trump’s victory late into the night on Tuesday and early Wednesday in West Palm Beach, Florida, at an election night party for the former and future president.
Trump, who also won the 2016 presidential election, will return to the White House after a four-year absence, after Harris and President Joe Biden won in 2020. (Read more.)

Historic Portrait Famously Recovered by the Monuments Men

From ArtNet:

The work, titled Portrait d’une femme, à mi-corps, is one of three paintings seen in a historic April 1945 photo of the Monuments Men at Germany’s Neuschwanstein Castle. James J. Rorimer, a museum curator-turned Army captain, is seen overseeing U.S. soldiers recovering a cache of 5,000 paintings and 20,000 other objects the Nazis had hidden at the site in Bavaria.

Much of that art had been sold under duress, if not outright stolen, in the Nazis’ efforts to confiscate all valuables belonging to Jewish people. Rorimer, who would go on to become the director of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, was instrumental in the Army’s Monuments Men unit, which was dedicated to protecting cultural heritage during World War II, as well as recovering and returning stolen artworks and other artifacts. (Sadly, nearly 80 years after the war’s end, some families continue to seek restitution.)

The photograph became a symbol of that work, and appeared on the cover of the 2009 book The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History, by Robert Edsel with Brett Witter. George Clooney directed and starred in the film version in 2014. (Read more.)

A Gen-Z Town Hall

Final Predictions on Election 2024

From Tierney's Real News:

Remember, most of the pollsters and pundits are not in the business of telling us the truth until they have to. They are in the business of doing the bidding of whoever pays them the most and “course correcting” at the last minute so they can claim they were right all along. I wrote and fielded research surveys in my marketing career and I know how easy it is to manipulate a poll result by using skewed questions or databases. They all do it. Even worse - today they can’t reach people like they used to with land lines so it’s a nightmare to even find people to poll. In 1980, the pollsters said Reagan was going to lose big time to Carter until the last week. (Read more.)

Voting in America

It used to be dangerous. Fro m The New Yorker:

The United States was founded as an experiment in eighteenth-century republicanism, in which it was understood that only men with property would vote, and publicly, since they were the only people who could be trusted to vote with the commonweal, and not private gain, in mind. What went on in 1859 was something altogether different: voting was still public, but all white men could vote, and nearly seventy per cent of them managed to do so in the congressional elections that year, pistols and fisticuffs notwithstanding. (Read more.)

Visits From Beyond

From Christine Niles:

Woke Bureaucracies

From Right Flank:

Leftist bureaucrats hide in their offices and let paperwork do their dirty work for them. That’s why so many conservatives are paranoid—because they should be.
A Colorado school district has been sued for canning a dean of students for allegedly coming out against critical race theory in its “professional development” brainwashing scheme. Though the programmers encouraged open dialogue and promised there would be no reprisals for being honest, the Dean should have seen it coming.
Critical race theory, of course, is pseudointellectual nonsense founded on the premise that America is “systematically racist” because white men baked their inherent racism into the very fabric of the country.
According to CRT, if you’re born white, you’re automatically an incurable racist. The U.S. Constitution, our laws, our government, our schools, and even the logic on which all of it is based is racist.
Put another way, CRT teaches students that white men are evil. It’s a racist doctrine masquerading as the savior of the oppressed.
Patrick Hogarty, the dean in question, is a white man who identifies as an American. Would Marxist school administrators rather he identify as a little girl from Patagonia? Probably. (Read more.)