Tea at Trianon: Apocalypse in San Bernardino

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

Friday, April 1, 2016

Apocalypse in San Bernardino

From The New Yorker:

Although the operation appeared ill-planned, there was some evidence of forethought. Malik and Farook rented a black Ford Expedition with Utah plates, which might delay identification during a getaway. They smashed and discarded phones and computer drives. But they did not attack a school or a concert or a gridlocked freeway. Instead, they attacked a room full of people who knew Farook, and who recognized him despite the ski mask he was wearing. There are differing accounts of the murder scene. In one, Farook had left the party angry after an argument and then come back, half an hour later, armed. In another, the attackers were three white men. In a third, published by the Sunday Times of London, and attributed to “witnesses,” it was Malik who fired first, “aiming semiautomatic fire at people gathered around a Christmas tree, knocking it sideways.” At her side, “Farook appeared to hesitate, perhaps momentarily losing his nerve or maybe to seek out a specific victim, such as Thalasinos.”

People fled deeper into the building, that was certain. Ceiling sprinklers were set off by the gunfire. The shooters emptied four thirty-round magazines, striking thirty-six people and killing fourteen, and then immediately fled, although they were wearing vests packed with more ammunition. They left a bag with three pipe bombs on a table—the remote-control detonator was in their vehicle—but the bombs failed to explode, perhaps because of the sprinklers. (Read more.)