Friday, October 19, 2018
Souvenir d'amitié
Trump is Succeeding
As President Trump’s first two years in office come to a close, we’ve seen two originalist justices confirmed to the Supreme Court, 26 originalist appeals court judges confirmed, 10 more nominated , and 41 new district court judges on the bench and dozens more pending. Add to that: the repeal of the sequester on defense spending and a massive military rebuild underway; a massive tax cut of unprecedented depth and structural change; a renegotiated trade deal between the United States, Mexico and Canada; withdrawals from the awful Iran deal and, in effect, the absurdist Paris accord; the rollback of job-killing and bureaucrat-empowering regulations by the hundreds; an economy surging while unemployment drops to 3.7 percent ; and a new entente in the Middle East (one that arose despite U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel) that sees the United States and Israel aligned and cooperating closely with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain and now a new government in Iraq against the expansionist Iranian theocrats.
Did I mention the devastation and defeat of ISIS in its physical “caliphate”?That’s not even the entire list of accomplishments, but it’s enough to have silenced the #NeverTrumpers who used to mock Trump-supporting conservatives by posting a street sign carrying the name “Gorsuch” above rising floodwaters. Those of us who follow the president’s often confusing, loud, extemporaneous and disruptive presidency not by his tweets but by his administration’s deeds and those of congressional Republicans are amused that the #NeverTrump rump has stopped the “but Gorsuch” nonsense. (Read more.)
Trump as a father-figure. From The Washington Examiner:
When rapper Kanye West visited the Oval Office last week, every news outlet covered it, and every new outlet commented on what a pointless circus it was. They’re basically correct—Kanye’s stream of consciousness rambles and exuberant exclamations mostly do not shed light on the policy or politics of our day. But one moment did plant itself in my brain, and when MSNBC’s Craig Melvin asked me about Kanye’s visit, this was the part I said was most interesting. Like Melvin, I didn’t notice the importance at first. My wife did. She watched clips afterwards that were tweeted out, and this particular one, she watched fully expecting inanity. But there’s a deeper insight there, whether conscious or unconscious. Here’s the relevant transcript:
(Read more.)This hat gives me a different power in a way. You know my dad and my mom separated, so I didn’t have a lot of male energy in my home. And also I’m married to a family that, you know, not a lot of male energy going on. It’s beautiful though. You know it’s something about, you know I love Hillary, I love everyone. Right. But the campaign, ‘I’m with Her’ just didn’t make me feel, as a guy, that didn’t get to see my dad all the time. Like a guy that could play catch with his son. It was something about when I put this hat on, it made me feel like Superman. You made a Superman. That’s my favorite superhero and made a Superman cape for me.
Has treason been committed? Here is an article from last year but worth revisiting. From American Thinker:
To some, any comparison between the Clintons and the Rosenbergs is a bridge too far, yet both gave aid and comfort to a strategic enemy, Russia, aid that enhanced the capability of America’s enemies to wage nuclear war on the United States. The Rosenbergs trafficked in the design of nuclear weapons while the Clintons trafficked in the raw material for nuclear weapons -- uranium. It is a distinction without a difference not lost on former deputy assistant to President Trump, Sebastian Gorka:
Gorka spoke during an interview with Fox commentator Sean Hannity on his show Hannity. The two discussed Secretary of State Clinton’s involvement in the 2009 U.S. decision to allow the sale of Uranium One, a Canadian mining firm with licenses to mine American uranium deposits in Kazakhstan. “If this had happened in the 1950s there would be people up on treason charges right now,” Gorka told Hannity of the decision to allow the sale of Uranium One…
Share“This is equivalent to what the Rosenbergs did and those people got the chair,” Gorka said. “Think about it. Giving away nuclear capabilities to our enemies. That’s what we’re talking about.”
Gorka was referring to Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were executed by electric chair in June 1953 after they were accused of giving top-secret nuclear weapon designs to the Soviet Union.
Cathedral Basilica of Saint-Denis
A masterpiece of gothic art and final resting place of the kings of France. The former abbey of Saint Denis is witness to centuries of the spiritual, political and artistic history of France. Discover the cathedral basilica, a jewel of gothic art and royal necropolis. Visit the archaeological crypt and burial site of Saint Denis, eight recumbent effigies commissioned by Saint Louis, the tomb of king Dagobert and 60 other sculpted tombs.Share
From the high Middle Ages, this monastery has always managed to link its destiny to that of royalty thus affirming itself little by little as the priviledged burial ground of the royal dynasties committed to the faith of Saint Denis. Forty two kings, thirty two queens, sixty three princes and princesses, ten nobles of the kingdom are laid to rest here. The merovingians and Dagobert, through to the carolingians such as Pépin the Short, right up to the Bourbons, with the praying statues of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, The royal necropolis of Saint Denis was the priviledged witness to the history of France. (Read more.)
Thursday, October 18, 2018
Old Hairstyles, Updated
From The Talko:
French Queen, Marie Antoinette may have worn a crown, but she was known mostly for her big pouf hair. She had hired Leonard Autie to do something extravagant with her weave one day. After hours of separating her hair and adding accessories, like white ostrich plumes, he had fastened her hair with a bow of pink ribbon, and that’s how her iconic pouf was born. But these days, women don’t have that kind of help or the time to spend hours crafting such a royal hairdo. We don’t know if Marie Antoinette used lard to keep her pouf from falling apart., but it was a common precursor to hair gel in the 1700s and a definite "no way" for today’s modern girl. (Read more.)
Islamic London
Mosques are popping up all over Britain, especially in it’s capital city of London. Sharia courts are in full function in London; handing out actual decisions to London’s ever growing Muslim population. “London is more Islamic than many Muslim countries put together,” Islamic preacher Maulana Syed Raza Rizvi told local media. Churches still outnumber mosques in Britain, but there are many mosques that are becoming overcrowded. Five years ago the Daily Mail published photos of churches and mosques in London. The difference was astonishing.Share
The St Mary’s Church had only 12 people attending mass. While nearby at the Brune Street Estate mosque there were over 100 Muslims, full to capacity. Since 2001, 500 London churches of all denominations have been turned into private homes. While this was going on, mosques have been popping up all over London. From 2012 to 2014 the number of Brits who identified as Muslim has grown by over one million. Regular churchgoers are declining at a rate that within a generation, their numbers will be three times lower than that of Muslims who go regularly to a mosque on Friday.
In Britain it’s estimated that by 2020, Muslims going to a mosque regularly will outnumber Christians going to church. There are now officially 100 Sharia courts in London. The allowance of these justice systems in parallel with British courts has Brits very worried. It’s now fully legal for Sharia courts to operate in Britain thanks to British Arbitration Act and the system of Alternative Dispute Resolution. (Read more.)
The Daughters of Eleanor of Aquitaine
Many contemporary historians, bloggers and royal watchers enjoy reading and writing about the daughters and granddaughters of Queen Victoria, who is the most recent royal matriarch and is an ancestor of nearly every contemporary European monarch. However, Victoria has a deep ancestress whose political influence on the lives of her daughters and granddaughters is perhaps even greater: Eleanor of Aquitaine.Share
Eleanor was a great leader in the 12th century with an indomitable personality. She became the Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right when she was a young teen. Soon thereafter, she married King Louis VII of France. A greater royal mismatch has hardly ever existed. Nevertheless the spiritual king and his spirited queen managed to have two daughters. After which, Eleanor convinced him that God did not approve of the match. They received an annulment and she immediately eloped with the much-younger soon-to-be King Henry II of England, by whom she had not only five sons but three more daughters. Henry controlled the French territories of Anjou and Normandy. Together, the new couple was a powerful counterbalance to her ex-husband. (Read more.)
Wednesday, October 17, 2018
Royal Wedding Dresses
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| Marie-Antoinette's wedding gown was made into church vestments but this is a royal wedding gown from the same time period. |
As queen of France, Marie Antoinette became a leader of fashion – but as a 14-year-old Austrian archduchess she committed a fashion faux pas on the day she married the future King Louis XVI in the royal chapel at the Palace of Versailles in 1770. Strict protocol governed wedding attire for the bride of a French heir to the throne: a cloth-of-silver dress. Unfortunately, the bride’s growing body was not taken into account when the dress was designed and so the resulting bodice was too small, meaning that Marie Antoinette’s attendants were unable to fasten the back of the gown. According to Elizabeth Seymour Percy, Duchess of Northumberland, there was “quite a broad stripe of lacing and shift quite visible, which had a bad effect between two broader stripes of diamonds [the latter of which were a gift from Marie Antoinette’s mother, Empress Maria Theresa of the Habsburg Empire].”As for the recent royal wedding gown of Princess Eugenie, go HERE. Share
In addition to the ill-fitting dress, Marie Antoinette’s future hairdresser Léonard Autié considered the bride’s strawberry-blonde hair “badly arranged” for the occasion. The comment, written in his journal, may have reflected his rivalry with the hairdresser Sieur Larsenneur, who styled Marie Antoinette’s hair on the day of her wedding in a low, powdered upsweep adorned with decorative gems. Léonard opted for more elaborate hairstyles for Marie Antoinette when he later became her hairdresser. (Read more.)
“Save Our Seas Act”
President Donald Trump added his signature to the “Save Our Seas Act” on Thursday, green-lighting an initiative to clean up eight million tons of debris from the planet’s oceans. “As president I will continue to do everything I can to stop other nations from making our oceans into their landfills. That’s why I’m pleased – very pleased, I must say – to put my signature on this important legislation,” Trump said as he signed the Save Our Seas Act into law at the Oval Office. Sponsored by Alaska Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, the bill aims to promote better domestic and international efforts at cleaning up garbage that is littered throughout the oceans. The new law will extend the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Debris Program for another five years, and promote cohesion among different federal agencies on how to reduce marine debris. (Read more.)Share
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