Tea at Trianon: Chambers, Rand, and Beck

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

Monday, July 12, 2010

Chambers, Rand, and Beck

Does Mr. Beck know who Whittaker Chambers is? (Via Colleen Hammond) To quote:

I missed his program from June 15th, but on his site I saw that he quoted Whittaker Chambers as one of the media elite who mocked Rand. I have to ask, “Is Beck really aware of who Chambers is?”

Last week, he had a show dealing with the history of American communism and plastered a picture of Alger Hiss on his blackboard. Hiss, the underground communist agent who stood at FDR’s side at Yalta and who was instrumental in secreting classified government information to the Soviet Union, was only outed because of Whittaker Chambers

Chambers had been in the underground with Hiss, but then broke from communism, found faith in God, became a senior editor at Time, gave explosive testimony about Hiss in congressional hearings in 1948, which led to Hiss’s conviction on perjury charges, and then told his story in a highly publicized autobiography called Witness.

Julygirl said...: Beck's ranting, (and that's what it is), has made him a multi-millionaire. The only way to listen to him is after having imbibed in a strong drink, (or two), otherwise he is the most demoralizing voice on the current media scene. I question anything that comes out of his mouth. When did he become the Moses of the right? His influence is scary, especially in this age when most people rarely take the time to read and take their history lessons from him.; July 12, 2010 at 5:02:00 PM EDT