Tea at Trianon: Biden Admin Backs Down

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, May 10, 2023

Biden Admin Backs Down

From Life News:

The Department of Health and Human Services has rescinded its effective demand that a Catholic hospital snuff out a candle it keeps burning in the chapel, a candle that HHS called a threat to hospital safety.
“The game was simply not worth the candle for HHS,” Lori Windham, vice president and senior counsel at Becket, the religious freedom law firm representing the hospital, told The Daily Signal in a written statement Friday. “It realized it would be playing with fire in court if it stood by its absurd demand, so it chose wisely. We are glad Saint Francis’s can continue to serve those most in need while keeping the faith.”

Last month, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services sent a letter to the Saint Francis Health System in Tulsa, Oklahoma, recommending that the hospital snuff out the candle to comply with “life safety from fire requirements,” or lose its accreditation.

According to the hospital, the candle is encased in glass and covered on top, and the local government and fire marshal repeatedly have approved the display for fire safety. CMS threatened to revoke Saint Francis’ ability to see patients under Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program if it did not snuff out the candle. The Catholic hospital system asked the federal government for a waiver four times. (Read more.)