Tea at Trianon: Biden’s Desperate COVID Overreach

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

Friday, September 10, 2021

Biden’s Desperate COVID Overreach

From The National Review:

President Biden has a dilemma. He was elected on a promise to “shut down the virus,” but eight months into his presidency, COVID-19 is still raging. With his approval ratings cratering, he is desperate to garner headlines for taking bold action. And so, just weeks after his deserved rebuke by the Supreme Court over his eviction moratorium, he has once again gone too far.

On Thursday, Biden announced a series of unilateral actions aimed at increasing the percentage of Americans who are vaccinated. We obviously do not dispute the idea that it would be a good thing if more people were vaccinated, as the shots have proven to be safe and highly effective at nearly eliminating the risk of hospitalization and death from COVID-19. But the issue here is not what outcomes we may prefer, but what authority Biden has as president.

As chief executive, it is one thing for Biden to require vaccination for federal workers, or even for private companies that are hired as federal contractors. But Biden’s proposal goes way beyond that by ordering all private businesses with over 100 employees to require vaccination or weekly negative tests for all their workers, under the threat of steep fines. He says the order will affect 80 million private employees.

Currently, vaccination mandates that do exist (such as the MMR shot) are requirements imposed by states or individual school districts. There is not anything akin to a sweeping vaccine mandate for private workers at the federal level. This rule imposes a significant compliance burden on employers to not only police who is vaccinated, but also to facilitate weekly testing of workers. (Read more.)