Tea at Trianon: "We're Getting Out"

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, June 2, 2017

"We're Getting Out"

From Life Site:

The Paris agreement calls for countries to "promote … gender equality, empowerment of women and intergenerational equity," among other things. These phrases, pro-lifers say, are common to U.N. documents as euphemisms for the promotion of homosexuality and abortion. The U.N. Sustainable Development Goals lists 17 major goals with 169 subsidiary "targets" to be funded. One major goal is "gender equality" to "empower all women and girls." Its "target" to be funded is to "ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights." Other U.N. documents also use "gender equality" and "empowerment of women" to mean the promotion of abortion.

The president focused on economic reasons for his decision, explaining that the Obama-negotiated agreement put U.S. employers and employees at a "permanent disadvantage" with China, India, and other countries. He said the agreement would "punish" his country with "onerous energy restrictions" that would slow the nation's economic recovery from its recession under Obama.

The president also pointed out that the agreement places an unfair financial burden on the U.S., which has already reduced its carbon-dioxide emissions by 12 percent since 2006 and is already a Clean Energy leader.

Critics of the agreement say it would ultimately cost the U.S. $3 trillion and also 6.5 million industrial and manufacturing sector jobs. Furthermore, the agreement would punish the U.S. for emissions but allow other countries such as China to get away with heavy emissions. In fact, critics claim that under the Paris Agreement China will actually increase emissions until 2030. “The bottom line is that the Paris accord is very unfair at the highest level to the United States,” Trump explained.

Trump criticized the agreement's Green Climate Fund, which seeks to take $100 billion from affluent countries to subsidize poorer countries' climate change efforts. "This agreement is less about the climate and more about other countries gaining financial advantage over the United States,” he reasoned.

The one concession Trump offered was an openness to negotiating a new agreement that would be less burdensome to U.S. companies. “We’re getting out,” Trump characteristically blurted, “but we will start to negotiate and we will see if we can make a deal that’s fair.” (Read more.)