Tea at Trianon: Youngkin Pardons Loudoun County Father

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, September 14, 2023

Youngkin Pardons Loudoun County Father

From American Greatness:

Smith’s daughter, a freshman, was sexually assaulted in a restroom at Loudoun County’s Stone Bridge High School by a male student who wore a skirt and identified as “transgender,” thus allowing him to use the female restrooms. Despite the daughter immediately telling authorities what happened, the school covered up the incident and had the girl and her parents removed from campus. As the incident took place in May of 2021, shortly before “pride month,” the school was widely accused of making the decision that it did in order to defend its new pro-transgender policy.

As part of the coverup, the assailant was transferred to another high school, where he assaulted another female student. Only after the second incident was he finally charged and convicted in juvenile court.

At a meeting of the Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) board, when officials claimed that there were no recorded instances of sexual violence in the school due to the transgender bathroom policy, Smith stood up and loudly protested, telling everyone in attendance about what had happened to his daughter. School board members subsequently called the police on Smith, who beat him, arrested him, and dragged him, covered in blood, out of the room in full view of everyone.

“Mr. Smith did what any father would do, what any parent would do, which is stand up for their child,” Youngkin continued. “This was a gross miscarriage of justice.” The story surrounding Smith’s daughter and his subsequent arrest made national headlines, and was widely viewed as the defining story of the war over education policy, particularly with regards to transgenderism. Youngkin was able to take advantage of the education debate and other cultural issues to pull off an upset victory in the Virginia gubernatorial election in November of 2021. (Read more.)