Tea at Trianon: Anarchy

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, May 6, 2021

Anarchy

From The Blaze:

It's still a mystery to the media why crime is skyrocketing in much of the country, but any sane person knows that when you let criminals back onto the streets, you get more criminal behavior. When you treat the police like criminals, you get less policing. The result is utter anarchy.

Evidently, in California, the only crimes one can commit are not wearing a mask or opening a business against coronavirus edicts. Murder, robbery, or assault? Not so much. The AP is reporting that "with little notice," California decided to increase good behavior credits for 76,000 inmates, "including violent and repeat felons," which will enable them to trim their already diminishing sentences by as much as one third. So much for the promise of only offering more chances to "first-time, nonviolent" offenders. More than 20,000 people serving life without parole – something very hard to achieve in California these days – will be eligible for early release. (Read more.)