Tea at Trianon: A Dangerous Precedent

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

Tuesday, July 4, 2017

A Dangerous Precedent

As of this writing, Charlie Gard's parents are still fighting for his life, or at least for the right to let him die a natural death. They have been invited to bring him to the Vatican hospital. Let's hope they will be allowed to do so. It is a shame that people who fought the Nazis are now behaving like them. Here is some commentary from Catholic Vote as to the possible long-term implications of little Charlie's case. To quote:

Mindful of Godwin’s Law, this comparison is not to suggest that Charlie Gard’s murder is wrong because the Nazis did it, but rather, we can observe that we fought the Nazis because murdering disabled children and ethnic minorities is objectively wrong. Further, we should take careful note that, just as with Hitler’s order, the European Court of Human Rights (an Orwellian name, if there ever was one) does not say whether it is right or wrong to murder a child, but only observes that the “experts” had been “meticulous” in their determination to do so. Like the plague doctor of medieval times, instead of offering a cure, the British physicians can only offer sophistry.

It is a tragedy that in Europe today, the British who fought so bravely and at such great cost to liberate the continent from the murderous Nazis are now creeping down the slippery slope towards the Belgians and the Dutch who are infamous for their enthusiasm for euthanasia. A doctor in the Netherlands was recently cleared of wrongdoing after killing a patient who struggled for her life as her own family restrained her. Killing patients against their will is also commonplace in Belgium. The crimes against humanity which Hitler accomplished by force are now a mundane bureaucratic function that can be carried out with the stroke of a pen. Under the guise of compassion and robed in legality, Europe is now descending into barbarism. (Read more.)