Tea at Trianon: Common Sense Has Won

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, June 25, 2022

Common Sense Has Won

From The New York Post:

Former British Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies has called on other sports to follow the example of swimming’s world governing body FINA and ban transgender female athletes from competition. Davies, 59, who won Olympic silver at the 1980 Games and has emerged as a vocal critic of allowing trans women to take part in female athletic events, applauded FINA’s stunning decision Sunday.
“I can’t tell you how proud I am of my sport, FINA and the FINA president for doing the science, asking the athletes/coaches and standing up for fair sport for females,” she tweeted after the governing body’s vote to restrict the participation of transgender athletes in elite women’s races. “Swimming will always welcome everyone no matter how you identify but fairness is the cornerstone of sport.” But according to Davies, more work remains to be done to level the playing field in other sports as well, especially cycling. (Read more.)