Tea at Trianon: America’s Peculiar Institutions: Slavery and Abortion

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

Wednesday, July 4, 2018

America’s Peculiar Institutions: Slavery and Abortion

From Townhall:

Anti-abolitionists once called slavery America’s “peculiar institution” as a euphemism to shield the American public from a true understanding of its diabolical nature. Similarly, abortion activists use language like “choice” and “women’s health” to avoid deep moral questions about whether an unborn child should have the right to life. While many might blanch at such a striking comparison, the reality is that the similarities between our tragic legacy of slavery and our continued government-sanctioned support for abortion aren’t all that different.

As a rule of thumb, Westerners tend to avoid any attempt to compare today’s issues with the atrocities of human chattel slavery. In 2012, then-Vice President Joe Biden lashed out to an audience of African Americans, claiming that his Republican opponents were trying “To put you all back in chains.” Uproar emanated from commentators at the thought that a public leader would create a modern parity to slavery. Maybe the momentary outcry was well-placed. But it is naive to think that today’s society is so progressed as to be immune from moral lapses on par with chattel slavery.

Indeed, America has heartbreakingly embraced a new “peculiar institution” -- taxpayer-funded, on-demand abortion. Abortion today is Slavery 2.0. (Read more.)