A place for friends to meet... with reflections on politics, history, art, music, books, morals, manners, and matters of faith.
A blog by Elena Maria Vidal.
"She was not a guilty woman, neither was she a saint; she was an upright, charming woman, a little frivolous, somewhat impulsive, but always pure; she was a queen, at times ardent in her fancies for her favourites and thoughtless in her policy, but proud and full of energy; a thorough woman in her winsome ways and tenderness of heart, until she became a martyr."
"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."
"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
A Note on Reviews
Unless otherwise noted, any books I review on this blog I have either purchased or borrowed from the library, and I do not receive any compensation (monetary or in-kind) for the reviews.
Biden’s always been crafty. Cunning. Not for the country. For himself. For family. He never christened some extra special anything else for anybody
else. Always the No. 2 guy. Never the brains. Not really sweating. Just
glad-handing. We’re talking smiling. Surviving. Taking bows. Photos. Making
friends. Connections. Learning how everything operates. But for him.
Accomplishing for any other guy — zilch. When it comes to him, he’s savvy. The way he operates is it’s
permanently his ass he’s saving. The man always knew how to hang on. If looking for accomplishments, try Biden’s son.
Or Joe’s wife’s hairdresser. Or certain business people who operate his
home state of Delaware, which is smaller than my Raisin Bran box. (Read more.)
In new preprint research, scientists in Slovenia have adjusted a calculation to determine how long we have before the vacuum of space
decays. While this date is still an extraordinarily long time into the
very, very far future, our math model to determine it is loose enough to
invite more questions than answers.
It’s
intuitive that we struggle to nail down the far future this way—it’s
honestly more amazing that we can estimate the date at all. So, how do
scientists do it?
Called the Higgs field, it controls the mass of many fundamental
particles, like electrons and quarks. Unlike every other quantum field
physicists have discovered, the Higgs field has a default value above
zero. Dialing the Higgs field value up or down would increase or
decrease the mass of electrons and other particles. If the setting of
the Higgs field were zero, those particles would be massless.
The Cathars were not Christians nor did they belong to any monotheistic religion because they believed in more than one God. From William Hemsworth:
The Cathars were dualists who believed in two gods. One who created everything good and another who created everything evil. Essentially they believed that the god of the Old Testament was Satan, and the New Testament was the God we know. As they did with the Eucharist, they didn’t hold to the validity of any sacraments because the sacraments involve some kind of material. In their view all material is bad.
The human body was an evil construct because in entrapped angels in human flesh. Therefore anything to do with the human body was also deemed evil. Even procreation. Suicide was seen as a good way of escaping human bondage. Yes, they were opposed to the Eucharist as the Gnostics of old were. Their beliefs were dealt with by great saints such as St. Augustine and St. Irenaeus. Again I emphasize that they were not protestants that were persecuted by the Catholic church, but believers in type of modified Gnostic heresy. (Read more.)
What I really appreciated was the clarity and balance of Millare's
writing style; his declarative yet comprehensive sentences as he
described the theologian-Cardinal/Pope's interaction with other
theologians. Since I have read many of Romano Guardini's liturgical
theology works, I was able to follow Millare's analysis of the issues of
Ethos and Logos and even the models of meal/banquet and
sacrifice easily. And when Millare compares and contrasts Ratzinger's
thoughts with other theologians I'm not familiar with, like Moltman and
Metz, he provides the necessary detail and context, even as he
emphasizes the central themes of Logos and the eschaton.
In fact, the "consistency and centrality of the Logos" versus placing Ethos
at the center of theology, liturgical, moral, or fundamental is one of
most crucial themes of the entire book. It informs Millare's discussion
of the Sacrifice of the Mass, of the Communion of the Church and the
Second Coming, with hope for the New Heavens and the New Earth, of the
mission of the Church and the congregation attending Mass and receiving
Holy Communion and then going to the world to share the Love of God and
neighbor; and the beauty of art and architecture of the celebration of
Mass and our churches, etc.
Millare summarizes his study of Pope Benedict XVI's theology of worship and the eschaton thusly on page 266:
Ratzinger
describes his work as having an "incomplete character," yet I have
demonstrated that there is a unity within his "fragmentary" writings
that is defined by the primacy and centrality of the Logos incarnate.
It has been argued throughout this book how the focus on the loges
consistently unites his eschatology with his theology of liturgy, in
whose orbit can also be found his Christology, ecclesiology, theological
anthropology, and ethics.
The text is supplemented with
extensive footnotes and a substantial bibliography. Well worth reading,
even for a non-specialist. I read it after a discussion of the
Resurrection and Ascension chapters in Pope Benedict XVI's Holy Week
volume in the Jesus of Nazareth trilogy with my theologian friend and in the midst of the Eucharistic Revival here in the USA. (Read more.)
Knights came in many different varieties. Originally, knighthood
could be bestowed by any other knight, a bishop, or a sovereign; but in
time, the latter claimed to be the sole owner of that power.
Nevertheless, the great independent orders of knighthood—the Templars,
Hospitallers (later Malta), Teutonic Knights, etc.—retained their
independence after the fall of Jerusalem, although the first of those
suffered a terrible suppression. Then followed the knights of the royal
orders, such as Britain’s Garter, France’s St. Esprit, and
Burgundy/Austria/Spain’s Order of the Golden Fleece. There were also
hereditary knighthoods granted, along with the British equivalent, the
Baronets.
The nobility and knights were considered one class or estate in
mediaeval society, with the churchmen being another, and commoners
(depending on the country, often including the gentry and the
patricians) being the third. In some places, the commons were divided,
and there were four rather than three estates. But many were the
pictures in the Middle Ages that depicted priest, knight, and peasant,
each with a phrase indicating their respective position in the
collective order: “I defend all” by the knight; “I bless all,” by the
priest, and “I feed all,” by the peasant.
As the Middle Ages wore on, representatives of these estates took on
ever more responsibility; if their Emperor or King needed extra money,
they would be convoked and asked to fund whatever difficulty had arisen.
In England, the abbots and bishops (‘Lords Spiritual’) and titled
nobility (‘Lords Temporal’) were brought together in one House of Lords.
The House of Commons arose from the joint gatherings of the
representatives of the boroughs with landowners returned by their
neighbours from the various counties—the ‘Knights of the Shire.’ These
developments were paralleled across Europe, with nobility and knights
sitting in what became Upper Houses throughout the Continent. Alongside
the monarchs and the Church, the nobility became the great patrons of
art, music, and dance, even as they pioneered hunting and dotted the
countryside from Portugal and Ireland to Russia with their great houses
and castles. But these arrangements would totter and fall. (Read more.)
The beautiful Lea Hurst has gorgeous views, delightful rooms and a fascinating history. Lea Hurst, in the traditional Derbyshire village of
Holloway, is at first glance a classic and beautiful stone-built, Grade
II-listed home overlooking the scenic Derwent Valley at the
south-eastern edge of the Peak District. Look beyond that first impression, however, and you find some
fascinating history: Lea Hurst was Florence Nightingale’s much-loved
childhood home, and it’s now seeking a new owner. Blue Book’s Sebastian Hipwood quotes a guide price of £3.75m
for what is a splendid country home set in more than 19 acres of
beautifully landscaped gardens and parkland on high ground overlooking
the Derwent Valley. The house offers generous living space on several levels, with four
principal reception rooms, including a triple-aspect formal drawing
room, a large kitchen/breakfast room, 13 bedrooms and eight bathrooms. (Read more.)
Iran is talking more about getting a nuclear bomb and made strides in developing a key aspect of a weapon since about April, when Israel and its allies overpowered Iranian airstrikes targeting Israel, two top Biden administration officials said Friday. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan, speaking at separate panels during a security forum in Colorado, said the U.S. is watching closely for any signs that Iran made a decision to pursue actual weaponization of its nuclear program. However, Sullivan said, "I have not seen a decision by Iran to move" in a way that signals it has decided to actually develop a nuclear bomb right now. Iran resumed progress on its nuclear program after the Trump administration ended U.S. cooperation with a 2015 deal that gave Iran sanctions relief in return for tougher oversight of the program. (Read more,)
St Ruadhán was one of the ‘twelve apostles of Ireland’,
a collective of significant early Irish saints who studied under the
legendary St Finian of Clonard. Ruadhán (whose name is pronounced
‘Rowan’, and means ‘red-haired’) was, like his fellow apostles, a monk
of the Celtic tradition, which later came into conflict with Rome over
various issues, like the date of Easter, the correct form of tonsure and
other such theological details. In reality though, these issues were
secondary to the real one, which was how much power Rome should have
over monasteries in distant lands.
In early Ireland,
Christianity was monastic, and it was Abbots rather than Bishops who
called the shots. Irish monasticism had, for around 500 years, developed
a specifically ‘Celtic’ character which seems to have been greatly
influenced - and, I think, directly seeded - by Egyptian desert monks.
This was the age of the round tower, the beehive hut and the
small-scale, ascetic Christianity of the Wild Saints. It was the world of Patrick and Kevin, Colmcille and Bridget.
The
Pontiff in Rome, however, wanted this scruffy, desert Christianity
reined in under a hierarchy of Bishops answerable to him, and in
Ireland, as in England a century before, the Normans would be his
vessels. In 1066, the Norman king William the Conqueror (William the
Bastard to his friends) had invaded England, killing its legitimate (and
elected) King, Harold II, at the Battle of Hastings. He had done so
under the Papal banner, which he had carried into battle, and on his
victory he set about demolishing the old wooden Anglo-Saxon churches and
building new, stone ‘Romanesque’ ones in their places. He also gave the
green light to the continental monastic orders to move in and replace
their indigenous counterparts. (Read more.)
Louis XVII, 1793-5 (engraving), French School, (18th century)
Louis Charles de Bourbon (1785-95); Dauphin after the death of his
older brother in 1789; King Louis XVII of France in 1793; royalist print
depicting Louis in armour with the portraits of his parents, Louis XVI
and Marie-Antoinette on his shield, with a spear and helmet decorated
with fleur de lis and brandishing a sword in a pose reminiscent of
Jeanne d’Arc; used as a rallying symbol by the ‘Chevaliers de Poignard’;
As with most high-born women of the
time, Philippa’s marriage was in the hands of her father. John of Gaunt
planned for her to contract a dynastic match which would benefit and
complement his own dynastic ambitions. In 1374, Philippa was betrothed
to Gaston, Count of Foix, but nothing came of it. In 1381/2 she was
offered in marriage to Jean de Blois, claimant to the duchy of Brittany;
and in 1383 her prospective husband was Count William of Ostrevant, the
heir to Hainault, Holland and Zeeland.
In 1385 and 25 years old Philippa was
still unmarried. However, in the following year her father took her on
his military expedition to Spain, hoping to claim the kingdom of Castile
in right of his 2nd wife, Constance.
Philippa’s marriage to John – or Joao – I of Portugal was agreed as
part of an alliance made between the 2 Johns at Ponte do Mouro in
November 1386.
Philippa was married to King John at
Oporto on 2nd February 1387, before they had even received the required
papal dispensation. The British Museum has a beautifully illuminated
manuscript (above) which depicts the wedding, with John of Gaunt and his
wife, Constance, looking on. Philippa was 26 – about 10 years older
than the average age for a princess to marry. John was 3 years her
senior and had been king for just short of 2 years. (Read more.)
The following are some excerpts from translations of some of the poetry
that Marie Thérèse wrote during her imprisonment in the Temple and were
kept by the family of Madeleine Bocquet-Chanterenne. Although simply
written, her words reflects the pain and sorrow that the young girl
experienced in her often terrifying and lonely captivity.
I was your king's daughter
separated from all my family.
I languish in this sad jail
Alas! I say with good reason
Even though I am alone and sad
My jail would appear happy to me
Fantastic news coming out of Italy as they once again goes against the Klaus Scwhab agenda. In
order to protect farming, the right-wing government in Italy has now
banned the installation of ground mounted solar panels in agricultural
areas. Prime Minister Georgia Meloni has said that the rollout of solar panels on farmland is a ”threat to our food sovereignty”.
Climate
fanatics are not happy with this move, as they complaining that this
will undermine the green goals and that Italy won’t be able to fulfill
its green goals by 2030. However, they will still allow
agri-voltaic solar panels that are placed 2.1 metres above fields in a
way that will allow crops to grow underneath the panels.
Georgia Meloni says that this new decree corrects ”the ideological eco-follies of which Italy and its farmers have been victims”.
This is good news, as otherwise special Italian products that is loved all around the world might have been under threat. Now
we are seeing a continued attack on farmers under the guise of climate
change. In reality what we are seeing is Climate Communism. This isn’t the first time that the right-wing government in Italy has gone against the WEF agenda. (Read more.)
Solar scientists have spotted indications that the next solar cycle
is beginning. That is despite the fact that it isn't due for another six
years, and the current solar cycle (Cycle 25) is still in progress. The current solar cycle is expected to reach its peak or "solar maximum" midway through 2025 when the magnetic field of our star will flip and its poles will switch. Leading up to this solar activity has been ramping up with an increase in sunspots, solar flares and eruptions of stellar plasma called coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Despite
the gearing up of Cycle 25 to its peak, it looks like Cycle 26 just
can't wait to tag in. The rumblings of the onset of the next
11-year-long solar cycle came in the form of "starquakes," sound waves ricocheting through the interior of the sun detected by researchers from the University of Birmingham. (Read more.)
The tower of the original Paris Temple was used as a prison during the French Revolution to house Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette and their family. It was torn down by Napoleon in 1808 to discourage the pilgrims who were flocking to the site. From the BBC:
Their original estate has long since succumbed to the great march of
history, but you can still visit the site on which it once stood on rue
de Lobau, located just behind the Hôtel de Ville. Back in the day,
surrounding the mansion were miles of uncultivated marshland. In order
to make the land arable, the Knights Templar set about drying the marsh –
a feat that they were able to fully achieve circa 1240. But though the
wetlands have long since disappeared, the area is still referred to as
‘le Marais’ or ‘the Marsh’....
Surrounded by eight 10m-high crenelated walls reinforced by turrets
and buttress, this gargantuan fortress once featured towers, a
drawbridge, a gothic church, vast stables and homes for the knights. It
was here that the Templars guarded mass portions of their treasure and
created a powerful ‘state-within-a-state’ that was entirely sovereign
from the kings of France.
While this system of sovereignty worked
for a time, everything changed in 1303 when the Knights Templar were
forced to move their base of operations from the Temple Mount to their
European headquarters – the enclos du Temple – after Jerusalem was
recaptured by Muslim armies.
The king of France at the time,
Philip the Fair, deeply resented the Knights Templar’s powerful
‘state-within-a-state’ and resolved to bring the order down by any means
necessary. King Philip’s reasoning for destroying the order is
speculated to this day, though many scholars believe his motivations
were financial. “Philip could use the silver coin he acquired from the
Templars' treasury in Paris to improve the quality of the heavily
debased French coinage,” explained Dr Helen Nicholson, author of The
Knights Templar: A New History and professor of medieval history at
Cardiff University. (Read more.)
To the north east lay stretches of marshland, remnants of the ancient
branch of the Seine that had once flowed down from the heights of
Belleville, east of Paris. It took the hardy Templars barely a century
to turn it into the market garden (marais) of the capital, emulating the
monks of Saint Martin des Champs who had dried up the swamps on the
western fringe of the future arrondissement a century earlier. Having
redeemed the land, they moved to its north-eastern edge, where they
built a fortified compound, l'Enclos du Temple, which also served as
their European headquarters.
Forget about Rennes-le-Château and other such fantasies - there was
nothing mysterious about the Order. Rather, it was their sophisticated
farming methods that enabled them to redeem the marshy land of the
future Marais, and it was their acute business acumen that incited them
to use their geographical dispersion to advantage and develop a kind of
international deposit bank which contributed to the continual increase
of their wealth. This, and their independence, were jealously kept
behind the crenellated walls of the Enclos du Temple, roughly on the
site of today's rue du Temple, rue de Bretagne, rue de Picardie and rue
Béranger, south of Place de la République. It was complete with watch
towers and a drawbridge that led to the Temple' only gate (now corner of
rue des Fontaines-du-Temple and rue du Temple). (Read more.)
This happened in 2021. Now, fast-forward to July, 2024. Donald
Trump has nearly been assassinated. On an Instagram post about the
shooting, a Dallas PD officer posts the comment,
“Aim better.” Allegedly, it’s visible only to his friends. But it
becomes public, and he’s immediately put on paid leave while the
department investigates. The officer’s lawyer has claimed the remark was
taken out of context and was meant as a reference to the inept Secret
Service. His police chief says that if this defense proves untrue, then
“the comment made has no place in our society and certainly no place in
law enforcement.”
Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, a fireman made a tweet
that left his meaning in no doubt: “Too bad it didn’t hit him square.”
The tweet was reported and removed, but not before a screenshot had gone
viral. He later announced
that his reputation was in tatters, his family and friends had received
threats, and he had chosen to resign. “I’m ashamed that I’ve brought
this to you. I’ve already lost several people extremely close to me. I
expect to lose more.”
In upstate New York, a woman named
Darcy Waldron Pinckney posted a comment on a friend’s Facebook wall that
left her meaning in no doubt: “To [sic] bad they weren’t a better
shooter!!!!” When someone challenged her, she doubled down: “He is the
definition of corrupt and evil.”
Not long afterwards, a man tracked her down at her place of work, berated her on camera, and sent the video viral, vowing to “make you famous.” In a couple days, she was fired, with a statement that her behavior did not reflect the company’s “values.” Her employer? Home Depot. (Read more.)
Brother of Bel Air murder victim speaks at the Republican convention. From Maryland Matters:
The brother of a Maryland woman whose 2023 murder has fanned the
flames of immigration policy debate addressed a packed arena Tuesday
night at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
“Open borders are often portrayed as compassionate and virtuous,”
said Michael Morin, 40, of Churchville. “But there is nothing
compassionate about allowing violent criminals into our country and
robbing children of their mother. My sister’s death was preventable.”
Rachel Morin, a 37-year-old mother of five, was reported missing Aug.
5 after going for a jog on the Ma & Pa Trail in Bel Air. Her body
was found nearby the following day.
Harford County Sheriff Jeff Gahler on June 15 announced
the arrest of Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, 23, in connection with
Morin’s murder. Gahler said Martinez-Hernandez entered the country
illegally in February 2023 after murdering a woman in his native El
Salvador. He is also accused of a home invasion and assault in Los
Angeles in March 2023.
Video and DNA evidence from the California crime helped connect
Morin’s murder to Martinez-Hernandez, who was arrested in Oklahoma and
extradited to Maryland.
State Sen. Johnny Ray Salling (R-Baltimore County), a Maryland
delegate at the convention, told Capital News Service last week: “We
have a problem with crime along the border. We have criminals that are
coming to our nation that are just, not committing crimes, that they’re
murdering people.” (Read more.)
Ancient humans may have butchered and eaten a giant armadillo-like
creature around 20,000 years ago in what is now Argentina, a new study
finds. The discovery of
the butchered bones supports a growing body of evidence that people
spread throughout the Americas much earlier than previously assumed.
During the Late Pleistocene epoch
(129,000 to 11,700 years ago), ice sheets and glaciers covered much of
the planet, particularly during the Last Glacial Maximum, a period
around 26,000 to 20,000 years ago when the ice age was at its height.
While archaeologists previously thought that the first Americans arrived by journeying along a land bridge
connecting Siberia with Alaska 13,000 years ago, archaeological sites
discovered in North and South America in the last decade point to humans
arriving in the region much earlier. (Read more.)
Wroxton Abbey was where Charles I and Henrietta Maria spent the night after they were joyously reunited following a fifteen month separation, as the Queen had journeyed abroad to raise arms and money. As its name bears witness, the house was once an Augustinian monastery. According to the Wroxton Abbey website:
Wroxton is one of the 13,418 places listed in the 1086 Domesday Book,
ordered by William the Conqueror as the first modern assessment for
taxation. In 1089 Guy de Reinbeudcurt, the Lord of Chipping Warden, was
the owner of the Wroxton manor lands. By 1120 the estate, now taxed at
the rate of 17 hides, passed to his young son Richard. Upon his death
the estate passed to his daughter Margery and her husband Robert Foloit.
In 1173, when Robert became a monk, his son Richard inherited the
property. The Wroxton property, along with the entire barony of Chipping
Warden, was inherited by Wishard Ledet in 1203 when he married
Richard’s daughter Margaret. Wishard’s daughter Christine then held the
estate until she died a very old woman in 1271.
Her great granddaughter Christine took the Wroxton part of the Chipping
Warden estate and married Sir John Latimer. At this point history loses
sight of the Wroxton ownership. What is known, however, is that during
the early part of the 12th century, members of the Belet family were
tenants at the Wroxton manor property. Harvey was the first of the
Belets to hold the tenancy. His son Michael was the hereditary butler to
King Henry II. The estate, and the office of Royal Butler, passed to
his son Master Michael Belet, a lawyer who had become a friend of
Grostête (Greathead), the Bishop of Lincoln.
Sometime between 1200 and 1209 Master Michael Belet was granted a
charter by King John for the foundation of a priory at Wroxton in honor
of St. Mary. The charter was ratified by Henry III in 1251 after an
inspection proved that terms of the charter had been fulfilled. Belet
would later officiate as the King’s Butler at Henry’s wedding with
Eleanor of Provence.
The institution he established, The Priory of Canons Regular of St.
Augustine, continued in existence until 1536, when Henry VIII dissolved
the monasteries.
Belet endowed the Priory with his Wroxton manor house, demesne, and
other properties, valued at £78 l3s 4d. He was prior and vicar of
Wroxton. The deed of foundation
indicated that it was the Belets’ Chantry House, a chapel endowed for
the singing of masses for the founder after his death. The prior was
permitted at least twelve canons and was given free administration of
Wroxton.
A Canon Regular of St. Augustine
The priory buildings, which must have dated from the early 13th century,
were modified at least once after an inventory of 1218. In 1304 they
were reported out of repair and financial assistance was sought from
visitors. The prior asked for the granting of three years’ indulgence to
visitors who would assist them.
While the priory buildings were being modified, the demesne was
expanded by a number of land purchases. When the priory was dissolved in
1536, it had twenty tenants and held almost all the lands in the parish
of Wroxton and Balscote. The last prior, Thomas Smith, along with eight other monks of Wroxton,
pledged to the king’s supremacy on the 6th of August of 1531. It was to
be of no avail, however, as in the following year, all monasteries of
the size of Wroxton were given to the King.
In an account of the dissolution of the Wroxton priory, all possessions of the community were listed.
Soon after, the property was leased to William Raynesford of Wroxton by
Henry VIII’s Court of Augmentations. The Treasurer of this Court was
Sir Thomas Pope, a person of great influence during the latter part of
Henry VIII’s reign. He was also guardian to the Princess Elizabeth and
later a favorite at the court of Queen Mary. (Read more.)
Senator Josh Hawley says whistleblowers have come forward, alleges the Biden DHS assigned “unprepared and inexperienced personnel” to Trump who weren’t even Secret Service.
“Whistleblowers who have direct knowledge of the event have approached my office. According to the allegations, the July 13 rally was considered to be a loose' security event,” Hawley said in a letter to Mayorkas.
“For example, detection canines were not used to monitor entry and detect threats in the usual manner. Individuals without proper designations were able to gain access to backstage areas.”
“Department personnel did not appropriately police the security buffer around the podium and were also not stationed at regular intervals around the event's security perimeter.”
“In addition, whistleblower allegations suggest the majority of DHS officials were not in fact USSS agents but instead drawn from the department's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).”
“This is especially concerning given that HSI agents were unfamiliar with standard protocols typically used at these types of events, according to the allegations.” (Read more.)
United States Secret Service (USSS) Director Kimberly Cheatle was lambasted by a group of Republican United States Senators as she walked through the Republican National Convention (RNC) on Wednesday. The Senators demanded answers and transparency regarding the security failures that led to Saturday’s attempted assassination of former President Donald J. Trump.
“This was an assassination attempt! You owe the people answers. You owe President Trump answers,” shouted Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) as she and others kept stride with Cheatle through the convention concourse. Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), meanwhile, accused the USSS director of “stonewalling.” (Read more.)
As a result of cross-sex hormones and
the removal of her healthy body parts, 26-year-old detransitioner
Prisha Mosley assumed she was infertile. That’s why, when a doctor
treating her for post-transition hormonal issues asked if she could be
pregnant, Mosley laughed.
“I was sad and thought it was impossible,” Mosley said. “I told him that I was sure I couldn’t.”
But Mosley had missed her last period
and thought that perhaps she was being paranoid about her ability to
get pregnant. So on her way home, she bought three pregnancy tests. When the tests came back positive, Mosley sent a photo to her boyfriend asking if her eyes were working.
Eight months later, “It still feels that unreal,” Mosley said.
On June 3, Mosley gave birth to a
healthy baby boy via c-section. She is among the first wave of female
detransitioners to embark on a motherhood journey filled with healing
and new beginnings, but laced with more medical experiments and
unknowns. (Read more.)
Several handwritten catalogs, written between 1781 and 1792, list the Queen's books: nearly 500 titles, for a set of around 1,800 volumes. We find on the shelves of Versailles all the great authors, Latin and Greek classics as well as French and foreign writers. The ancients...but also La Fontaine, Boileau, Corneille, Molière, Racine, Regnard, Crébillon, Destouches, Madame de Sévigné, Madame de La Fayette, Lesage rub shoulders with the contemporaries - Voltaire, Rousseau, Beaumarchais , Goldoni, Defoe, Mme Riccoboni, Fielding, Richardson…
Marie-Antoinette had a certain predilection for romantic literature, entertaining works, theater and music. It also has a large music library (scores and booklets) supplied by the Menus Plaisirs. The more austere books, less appreciated by the sovereign, are not overlooked: theology (Pascal, Bossuet, Fénelon, Bourdaloue, Massillon, Nicole), history (Mézeray, Montfaucon…), science (Buffon, Nollet, Duhamel du Monceau …) are present on the shelves. There are also large volumes of travel and archeology, illustrated with magnificent engravings....
Like many of the Château's collections, the books formerly stored in the Queen's library have been scattered. The shelves today hold a deposit from the National Library of France, composed of 18th century works, of royal origin, selected for their binding in red morocco. Some books with the arms of Queen Marie-Antoinette were nevertheless able to return to the site, in particular the two acquisitions made in 2019: an Office of the Virgin, printed in 1771 by Michel Lambert, and Les Lacunes de la philosophie, by François Louis d ' Escherny, published in 1783. (Read more.)
Faux bookshelf disguising a door panel
More on the Queen's library, HERE. Marie-Antoinette also had a library at Petit Trianon, HERE and HERE.
Yesterday,
the Georgia State Court of Appeals issued an order granting oral
arguments in the disqualification case against Fani Willis. They set
the date for arguments on December 5, 2024 - AFTER the November
election. In June the Court ordered an indefinite postponement of Willis' RICO
case against President Trump and other defendants pending the outcome of
her disqualification case. This latest Court ruling means that she will not be able to proceed with her case against Trump until AFTER the November elections. (Read more.)
If
verified, the object might provide scientists a glimpse into an early
period of galaxy history. “I’ve been in this field for quite a few
decades, and we’ve wanted to find something like this for a very long
time,” says research leader Karen O’Neil, an astronomer at West
Virginia’s Green Bank Observatory, to Astronomy. The
first indication of something unexpected was a difference between
observations obtained by the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) and the Nançay
Radio Telescope in France as part of a coordinated study of dim
galaxies. Though they were meant to be staring at the same sky, the
100-meter-wide GBT detected something the Nançay Radio Telescope did
not.
“Upon looking a little bit closer at it and spending far
too much time, we discovered that we had actually mistyped the
coordinates in the GBT catalog,” O’Neil stated Jan. 8 at a news
conference at the American Astronomical Society (AAS) winter meeting in
New Orleans. “This is something, unfortunately, astronomers do
occasionally late at night.” (Read more.)
In the lone tent, waiting for victory, She stands with eyes marred by the mists of pain, Like some wan lily overdrenched with rain: The clamorous clang of arms, the ensanguined sky, War’s ruin, and the wreck of chivalry To her proud soul no common fear can bring: Bravely she tarrieth for her Lord the King, Her soul a-flame with passionate ecstasy. ~from “Henrietta Maria” by Oscar Wilde
Henriette-Marie of France, or “Henrietta Maria,” is the protagonist of my new novel My Queen, My Love (Mayapple Books, November 25, 2021), the first of the Henrietta of France Trilogy. It is the story of the fifteen-year-old princess Henriette-Marie who is mandated by the Pope and by her brother the King of France to convert the English back to Catholicism by marrying their King, Charles I. Meanwhile, the Catholic Faith is outlawed in the British Isles, so as Queen she becomes the number one lawbreaker. The powerful Duke of Buckingham tries to thwart her growing influence with her husband. And England has become known as a place where queens lose their heads.
[...]
As Regent, Queen Marie chose to avoid war by making peace with the other Catholic powers of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. She believed that Catholic monarchies should unite to keep Protestantism at bay. She sent her youngest daughter Henriette to marry in England because she believed there was a chance of bringing Charles I into Catholicism. So at fifteen years old Henriette-Marie aka Henrietta Maria was sent to marry Charles Stuart, who was a decade or so older. The royal couple initially clashed over culture and religion. They quarreled whenever together and so avoided each other for weeks at a time. When they finally did fall in love, theirs became one of the most devoted in the history of royal marriages, and was blessed with nine children. (Read more.)
Henrietta is one to root for as we see the very young bride overcome so many obstacles. Particularly because she is a devout Catholic, and by the actions of the villainess character, George Villiers.
The author take great care to include a vast amount of characters, which made for a more rewarding read for me. A book to catapult its readers into the turbulent era of England in the 1600’s. From the beginning I was hooked and read this one in a day.
Historical fiction at its finest. This was an exceptional portrait of a the wife of Charles I. Brought stunningly to life, with seamless narration and three dimensional characters, a true treasure piece of historical fiction.
E.M. Vidal meticulous research and descriptive writing, has brought one of England’s most tragic queens, Henrietta Maria, vividly to life. (Read more.)
The Cold War victory itself has turned to ashes. The U.S. expanded
NATO yet failed to contain post-Soviet Russia. For nearly a decade, a
newly free Russia posed little threat to its neighbors, but whatever
opportunity existed to incorporate this former opponent into the
U.S.-led order was squandered. American policymakers took pride in
having contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union through far-sighted
strategy, but they had no success in devising equally far-sighted
strategies to win the peace and secure Russian democracy.
The architects of America’s unsuccessful foreign policy of the last
three decades have been almost uniformly liberals. That has been true in
Republican administrations as well as Democratic ones. Liberal
internationalists tend to believe that harmony is the default condition
of mankind. On that assumption, the fall of authoritarian or
totalitarian regimes should always produce democratic and liberal
outcomes, though they may take time to emerge. That’s one reason
Washington invests billions in nongovernmental organizations,
international institutions, and “peacekeeping” missions around the
world. After a despotism is toppled, social work is all that’s needed to
set a country right, even if some of that social work must be performed
by soldiers.
A certain kind of self-described conservative or realist believes
much the same thing, only with a narrow emphasis on the formula’s first
part, the destruction of evildoers. These quasi-realists insist that
they are not democratic idealists or liberals (or indeed
neoconservatives). Yet they have only half a foreign policy and must
rely on liberals to supply the other half. George W. Bush could decry
“nation-building” when he ran for president in 2000, but once he went to
war he and his administration could conceive of no alternative to
prolonged occupation and nation-building in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
John Bolton is not so much a realist as an embarrassed neoconservative,
one bashful about admitting that nation-building is the natural
corollary of regime change as practiced by an overwhelmingly liberal
foreign-policy establishment in both parties. Right-leaning defense
intellectuals might focus on enemies to be defeated, but they defer to
their liberal colleagues when it comes to envisioning peace.
A bipartisan liberal foreign policy is failing once again under
President Biden. It presents no answers to the Israel–Gaza crisis. Gaza
is as inhospitable to liberalism as Afghanistan ever was, if not more
so, while Israel cannot wholly adopt liberalism without endangering its
own existence. The Biden administration, unable to make sense of this
reality, proceeds to arm Israel while condemning the country for not
fighting the war by liberal means or for liberal ends. Republicans in
Congress characteristically see the immediate need to eradicate Hamas
but imagine the peace will take care of itself. American policy is
similarly aimless in Ukraine: neither the Biden administration nor
congressional Republicans outline a plausible path to victory no matter
how much aid the Ukrainians receive. The bipartisan strategy is all but
explicitly one of deferring defeat. (Read more.)
In a massive and historic conservation success story, eighteen takahē
birds have been released into the wilds of a nature reserve on Lake
Wakatipu. This is hoped to be followed by seven more in October, and another 10
in the early months of next year as this rediscovered wonder continues
its long road to recovery into the third separate breeding population in
the wild. The automobile was still a novel sight in London when the takahē was declared extinct. This
iridescent flightless bird is a symbol of New Zealand’s unique
prehistoric past, but it evolved on an island without mammals, and with
their invasive introduction came what might have been the bird’s
ultimate demise. (Read more.)
Our Lady will have a place at the National Eucharistic Congress (NEC) — including under the title Our Lady of Champion. A
new painting showing Our Lady appearing to Belgian immigrant Adele
Brise — the Church-approved apparitions involved three appearances of
Mary in the Wisconsin woods in 1859 — will be unveiled at the NEC before
it is enshrined Aug. 15 at the namesake Marian shrine.
This
notable painting will make its main debut in a smaller reproduction at
the NEC in Indianapolis. In a way, this national event helped inspire
the painting. One of the representatives of the congress was leading an
initiative and working with churches and sacred places around the
country to commission new sacred art to beautify the spaces of prayer in
Indianapolis. After the congress, these new works, the planning
dictated, would “go home” to their permanent places in the church or
shrine that commissioned them.
When
the representative presented the possibility to the National Shrine of
Our Lady of Champion, the shrine thought it was “a wonderful idea to
create more art surrounding Our Lady of Champion’s apparitions in the
United States and to encourage artists to use their God-given talents to
bring awareness to Marian devotion in the United States,” said Chelsey
Hare, director of communications at the shrine. (Read more.)
Vance has a rich biography, of which his bestselling 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy,
is a powerful part. He served in the US Marine Corps. He earned degrees
from Ohio State University and Yale Law School. He succeeded in
finance, and in the Obama era was already making his voice heard, and
ideas known, as a writer. Vance came of age as a public voice at a time
of (dare I say) post-paleoconservatism. The George W. Bush years had
ended in disaster for Republicans and the conservative movement. There
were attempts by many in Washington and New York to devise something new
that wouldn’t be “paleo” or as hard-edged as Buchananism, but that
would ask, however belatedly, the questions that had to be asked about
capitalism, foreign policy, and the nexus of society and morality in the
era after the Manichean struggle with Communism. Ross Douthat, Reihan
Salam, Yuval Levin, and numerous others became “reform conservatives,”
or moved in parallel with those who accepted that label.
David
Frum was one of the 1990s neoconservatives who had taken the trouble to
read the paleoconservatives, if only to more forcefully denounce them.
He served in the George W. Bush administration, where he promoted war
with the cockamamie concept of the “Axis of Evil.” Afterward, he had an
association for some time with National Review, until he had a
bitter split with the magazine that in 2003 had published his
anti-antiwar-conservative screed “Unpatriotic Conservatives.” Having
been kicked out of movement conservatism—whatever was left of it at that
point—he set up his own website, FrumForum, before he alighted on a
perch at The Atlantic. A young J.D. Vance—who at 39 isn’t exactly old today—contributed to the short-lived FrumForum.
A few years later came Hillbilly Elegy,
and after that, some personal text messages and public statements
expressing distaste for Donald Trump in strong terms. These remarks are
now the stuff of CNN exposés and attempts to embarrass the 2024 GOP
ticket. The story about Vance that Frum, Mitt Romney, and the media that
hate Trump would like everyone to accept goes as follows: Vance was a
smart and compassionate man who sold his soul to the devil, first for a
Senate seat, now for a slot on Satan’s own presidential ticket. Trump is
a rich man who isn’t a populist of any kind, despite the curious fact
that ordinary people who’ve been screwed over by elites keep voting for
him—he’s a populist in their eyes, but what do they know? Vance had all
the makings of a good, respectable member of the slightly chastened
liberal or neoconservative elite. He had made money, he had the Ivy
League imprimatur, and his far-from-elite background and homeborn
concern for the pathologies of hillbilly America were qualities that
could give his more privileged peers a bit of compassionate rouge. (Read more.)
After
disrespectfully refusing to call President Trump anything other than
"Donald" and "Trump" because Joe just can't speak respect for his
opponent and a former President, then Biden goes on to talk about all
these examples of political violence in our country. Three examples he
gave? J6. The attack on Nancy Pelosi's husband. The attempt to kidnap
Gretchen Witmer.
Notice any events he left off? The shooting of Republican Senators
and Congressmen at a baseball practice; a shooting that nearly killed
Congressman Steven Scalise? I guess it didn't happen. The mob violence
in Portland, Seattle, St. Louis, and Baltimore that saw buildings
burning down and people injured and killed? Not violent but peaceful.
The targeting of police in New York City? No big deal.
And did he even mention those killed by illegals? No. But, he never
mentions those. There are so many other things he left off the list.
Apparently, Democrats are the only victims of political violence in our country.
Notice that Biden never mentions that times that Trump has been
portrayed as Hitler, a tyrant, a domestic terror threat, an existential
threat, and an enemy to our "democracy." Finally, the other night, he
admits that he shouldn't have said, "put a bullseye on Trump." Wow. It
only took him three days to get that one out. Wouldn't have gone over so
well if Trump had been killed, would it.
Of course, we know that Joe doesn't write his own script. We know
that his handlers tell him what to do. Still, they just keep presenting
lies. They aren't the only ones. Yesterday, I saw example after example
of progressives mourning because Trump wasn't killed. One of them was a
Congressional aid in Benny Thompson's office. There were elected
officials from a variety of states either posting something about the
shooter needing better aim OR that this is "all Trump's fault." Worst of
all? TEACHERS! (Read more.)
Former White House Chief Strategist and War Room host Stephen K. Bannon has issued a statement from jail on the assassination attempt against President Donald J. Trump, in comments made exclusively to The National Pulse.
Reacting in the immediate aftermath, Bannon, who forewarned of this, said: “I’ve
warned about this very thing for over a year–an assassination
attempt–the threat is real, very real. Thankfully, President Trump wears
the Armor of God. Today, our leader showed total command presence,
stood tall, and said ‘FIGHT’!” (Read more.)
As we’re now a day out from the assassination attempt on President
Trump, we’re all starting to gather our thoughts, dig into the things
that don’t make sense, and start to connect a lot of dots.
I’ve been doing it all day, and I definitely have strong opinions about what happened here.
I’ve been posting them all day (make sure you follow me on Twitter: https://x.com/DailyNoahNews)
but I just came across this excellent video from Sebastian Gorka who
did exactly what I’m doing….he just gave his takeaways from the
attempted assassination 24 hours later, and they are SPOT on.
He touched on almost everything I’ve been covering all day today.
And he did it in one concise video.
So I thought I would share it with you. (Read more.)
Like
many of us, I’m still digesting the assassination attempt on President
Trump. I’d have crawled over broken glass to vote for him before this
weekend, in case you were wondering. But there’s one thing I know – this
is a pivotal moment in history.
God inarguably saved Trump’s life on Saturday; his RNC speech this
week isn’t just a speech anymore. It’s one of THOSE moments in history.
“But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good,
to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.”
(Genesis 50:20)
This was never just about Trump or Biden. This is Biblical chess
unfolding on a global scale and like Outkast said, “Revelation’s getting
impatient.” Before Saturday, the discussions were about Biden’s
cognitive decline, the price of gas and groceries, WW3 ramping up, and
leftists trying to tie Trump to a think tank’s memo on policy
recommendations.
But thanks to God’s providential protection, Trump lived. We
witnessed a miracle. Not only that, Trump had the presence of mind to
hit the ground immediately, and even though obviously in shock (my
shoes!) he pumped a fist as his face dripped blood and told us to FIGHT.
We know his fight or flight response! As a veteran, I can tell you
that’s exactly what I want to see in my Commander in Chief. He’s 78
years old, just got shot, was tackled by half a dozen agents. His body
must be bruised and sore. His eardrum probably exploded, part of his ear
may be gone, and he likely has a headache that won’t quit. He’s
probably dealing with a mix of shock, gratitude, guilt (3 people in that
crowd took bullets meant for him, one dying as he used his body to
protect his daughters) and hugging his family extra tight. He has
millions of people praying him through.
He’s also the man God has obviously chosen for this moment in
history. Teddy Roosevelt was shot with a bullet that went through a
glasses case and speech and lodged in a rib (ironically in Milwaukee,
where Trump is now). He took out the speech with a bullet hole in it and
gave it. He also lost that election because he was primarying a guy
he’d actually picked to succeed him and primaries were a new thing, wild
story. But what would have happened next if JFK or Lincoln had survived
their assassination attempts? If they’d given a huge speech just
afterward? (Read more.)
It is shameful how the wicked cannot contain their disappointment that Trump was not killed. From Jan at The Easton Gazette:
I guess
I shouldn't be surprised that some teachers feel entitled to share
their hate filled social media posts regarding the assassination attempt
on former President and current candidate Trump. After all, these young
people have gone through a school system and college training programs
which have taught them more about their "right" to socially influence
their students than how to actually teach. And, goodness knows, they
have been fully indoctrinated.
In my career, I taught new teachers in our county. Most of them were
idealistic, energetic, wonderful young people who chose teaching as a
calling rather than a profession. They wanted to do what was best so
their students would learn. Occasionally, in most extreme cases, we
would get a knucklehead who wanted to share their weekend party habits
with kids or show them X-rated movies (yes, it happened). There were
those who wanted to be buddies with their students instead of the adult
in the room.
I remember reminding students about appropriate dress and
inappropriate language. Most of them figured out the limits. Those that
didn't were usually gone, sometimes by December of the first year they
were hired.
Political bias was not normally something we worried about. Most teachers didn't feel compelled to do share political leanings. (Read more.)
Marie-Antoinette "en gaulle" by Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun
#1 in Kindle Biographies of Royalty!
Marie-Antoinette, Daughter of the Caesars: Her Life, Her Times, Her Legacy
An Audible Bestseller
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An Amazon Bestseller
Trianon: A Novel of Royal France
My Queen, My Love: A Novel of Henrietta Maria
Available from Amazon
The Saga of Marie-Antoinette's daughter, Marie-Thérèse of France
A Novel of the Restoration
In Kirkus Top 20 for 2014! And #1 in Kindle Historical Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Fiction
"In every Eden, there dwells a serpent . . . ."
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St. Teresa of Avila, pray for us!
"...Bud forth as the rose planted by the brooks of waters. Give ye a sweet odor as frankincense. Send forth flowers, as the lily...and bring forth leaves in grace, and praise with canticles, and bless the Lord in his works." —Ecclesiasticus 39:17-19
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