Tea at Trianon: Thirteen Security Questions

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, February 17, 2021

Thirteen Security Questions

From Fox News:

Livid about what she called the "failure at the top" in the wake of the Jan. 6 breach of the U.S. Capitol, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., insisted that the sergeant-at-arms for the House of Representatives be fired. He subsequently resigned and Pelosi appointed an interim sergeant-at-arms. The Senate made a similar move. Pelosi also moved to fire the chief of the Capitol Police. The Mercury News’ headline bellowed, "Pelosi Calls for Resignation of Capitol Police. Speaker of the House says either he resigns or she will fire him." At a press conference on Jan. 7, Pelosi said, "There was a failure at the top of the Capitol Police, and I think Mr. (Steven) Sund – he hasn’t even called us."
Who is ultimately "at the top of the Capitol Police?" Pelosi knows she is. She and the Senate leader, though they don't manage day-to-day operations, have ultimate authority over Capitol security. They failed. She quickly vowed to fire the sergeant-at-arms and the chief of Capitol Police. But what about her own responsibilities and culpability in what all agree was an inadequate response, intelligence failure, and shameful preparation for such an event? (Read more.)