Tea at Trianon: A New Wave of Terror?

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

Thursday, April 18, 2019

A New Wave of Terror?

I hope not. From The Sun on April 14, 2019:

Chilling documents detail plans for terror attacks in Europe, funded and controlled by ISIS leaders. Details of the plans to "spread horror in the hearts of the enemies of Allah" were discovered on a hard drive dropped by a militant in the Syrian desert earlier this year. Despite the murderous group being "eliminated" from Syria last month, the documents reveal how ISIS continues to run international networks, move fighters over borders, pay for operations and plan bank robberies, vehicle attacks, assassinations and computer hacking. The documents, unearthed by the Sunday Times, show how operations abroad will be directed by ISIS member Abu Khabab al-Muhajir. They say he controls an ISIS cell in Russia and two in Germany. Another group will be based in north-eastern Syria under separate command. The aim would be to first steal money by "hacking banks" or "bank robberies" and then carry out attacks including vehicle-ramming operations. The letter, signed by six ISIS commanders and addressed to the jihadists' leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, refers to the Paris attacks of 2015 and the "Manhattan attack" in October 2017 as inspiration. Transnational networks from Germany to Russia and Syria would help with the flow of fighters and money across borders, the letters show. (Read more.)