Tea at Trianon: Strange Bedfellows

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

Tuesday, May 16, 2023

Strange Bedfellows

From American Greatness:

Interestingly, Kennedy is off to a fantastic start. He officially launched his presidential bid on April 19 and immediately polled at 14 percent, perhaps forcing Joe Biden to rush his reelection announcement on April 24. Biden’s video announcement did nothing to stem the tide of Kennedy’s popularity amongst Democrats. On April 27, an Emerson College poll showed that 21 percent of those surveyed support RFK, Jr. for the Democratic presidential nomination. This is not surprising, given that only 37 percent of Democrats want Biden to run for a second term.

Kennedy has long been a critic of mandatory vaccines of any kind. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Kennedy criticized social-distancing requirements and vaccine mandates, earning him a prestigious banishment from both YouTube and Instagram.

The corporate media immediately pounced on Kennedy’s position on vaccines, labeling him “anti-vax.” The Guardian referred to him as an “anti-vaccine activist” and gave his presidential ambitions an equal chance with those of self-help guru Marianne Williamson. The Hill also referred to Kennedy as an “anti-vaxxer.” (Read more.)