Tea at Trianon: The Culture of Death Surrounds Us

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

Saturday, January 18, 2020

The Culture of Death Surrounds Us

From The American Vision:

The Virginia Democrat Governor Ralph Northam supported a law that would allow a woman to kill her unborn baby up until his or her (not “its”) birth and thereafter if the result of that birth did not meet the personhood guidelines of the mother. The Virginia government is now dominated by pro-abortion Democrats. They are good with snuffing out the most innocent of life. At the same time, they are passing laws that will leave the rest of Virginians defenseless from people who are hell-bent on killing people no matter what the law says.

Leftists have been trying to defend the third-trimester abortion laws as a woman’s fundamental right. The claim is being made that such abortions should be permitted if (1) the mother’s physical life is in danger, (2) the unborn baby has some physical abnormality, (3) the mother’s “mental health” is in jeopardy.

Considering number 1: There is almost no example of a woman’s physical health being in danger that would necessitate killing the unborn baby. The goal of the doctor and his or her medical staff should do everything to save both mother and child. A doctor should not kill one to save the other. Jeff and Candi Durbin’s daughter went through a difficult delivery. She needed a blood transfusion and the baby was not breathing. What did the doctors do? They did everything to save both of them, and they did.

Considering number 2: Where is the line drawn on physical abnormality? What if a debilitating physical abnormality occurs well after a child’s birth? Should parents have the right to kill the child? Will DNA testing of an unborn baby be used to determine if there is some physical or mental abnormality that could be used to permit a late-term abortion. Think of the film Gattaca. James Jordan writes:

Your name is Vincent [to conquer] Freeman [free from the genetic engineering of the State], [an invalid as determined by the State] and you are a God-child. The prophets of genetics say that you have a 99% probability of developing a heart condition, and so there is no way you’re ever going to be admitted to the space program. You’ll never go to heaven…. Religiously, the film begins with a quotation from Ecclesiastes [7:13] [“Consider what God has done. Who can straighten out what he made crooked?”] and asks the question whether the human spirit is encoded on genes or comes from something higher. The religious elements are in the background, yet they serve to fix the themes of the film. Vincent’s mother clutches a rosary, cross visibly displayed, as she gives birth to her “faith-child.” The symbol on the identity cards of the designer people is an infinity symbol, but on the cards of the normal people is a cross. When Vincent is accepted to go to Saturn, Jerome [genome] exclaims pregnantly: “They’re sending you up there, for Christ’s sake! You! Of all people!”
The spiral stairway in Jerome Morrow’s (played by Jude Law) house is formed as a double-helix model of DNA. One reviewer considered genetic engineering a positive: “With genetic engineering, we could get rid of unwanted traits, such as baldness, obesity, and even genetic diseases.” We could also get rid of the children who have “unwanted traits” once they are born so they could not pass them on. It’s called eugenics (good genes). Who ultimately makes the determination? (Read more.)