The Jewels of Marie-Antoinette

Historical novelist Catherine Delors provides some information about the fate of the French crown jewels, particularly a certain famous diamond. Madame Delors has thoroughly researched the French royal family and the Revolution. It is well-known that Marie-Antoinette had a fondness for diamonds, although she never even thought of purchasing Boehmer's necklace of the scandal; she preferred the money to be spent on ships for the French navy. The diamond necklace was not to her taste, anyway, which tended towards light, aerial creations.

In the famous ensemble painting by Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, the queen is shown wearing only a few pearls, while sitting near the jewel cabinet. The symbolism of this has been discussed by J.M. Charles-Roux and by some art historians. It was to emphasize that for Marie-Antoinette her children were her true jewels. When the painting was begun in 1786, the queen was expecting baby Sophie; the gown she is wearing is a maternity gown, as can be seen by the open and adjustable front. The emphasis of the painting was supposed to be the other children getting the cradle ready for the new baby. However, by the time the picture was completed in 1788, little Sophie had been born and had died. Hence, the cradle is shrouded in mourning cloth.

After the death of her oldest son Louis-Joseph, Marie-Antoinette had the image hidden away; she could not bear the sight of it. Nevertheless, it was considered a highly accurate likeness of her. Louis XVI declared to the artist when first gazing at the portrait of his wife and children: "I do not understand much about painting, but you make me love it."
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LARA LOGAN WARNING: The Snakes Are Inside The House

 From The Easton Gazette:

The incident last week in Carthage, NC was at the property and home of a Special Forces Colonel. He discovered there were trespassers on his property and went to investigate and discovered two men taking photographs of his house with a professional camera that had a telephoto lens. They claimed to be “Utility Workers” but had no ID Badges, no tools or tool belts, and no work van. Plus, these “Utility Workers” barely spoke English and turned out to be Chechens. One of the Chechens tried to attack the Colonel, and he produced his sidearm and shot the attacker in the face. The other Chechen dropped immediately to the ground and surrendered. According to the Spec OPs guys I know, these were Chechen Mercenaries attempting to collect surveillance on the Colonel and his family to obviously extract revenge for American Special Forces killing many Chechen Mercenaries in Afghanistan. They’re here. They’re here as a result of the O’Biden Administration’s intentional opening of the border to destroy the United States as we know it. (Read more.)

 

Also from The Easton Gazette:

Two Chechens with no personal identification - and who were in no US national databases, otherwise illegal aliens that likely invaded the nation through the southern border, were 'taking photos' - or possibly surveilling - outside the home of an elite US Army special forces colonel near Fort Liberty, formerly Fort Bragg, in North Carolina.

Fox News reports the colonel confronted the men, one of which was using a "telephoto lens" and taking "photos of his children" outside his home on the evening of May 3, and that's the moment when an altercation broke out, with the special forces operator shooting and killing one of the Chechens. 

The FBI told Fox News, "Our law enforcement partners at the Moore County Sheriff's Office contacted the FBI after a shooting death in Carthage. A special agent met with investigators and provided a linguist to assist with a language barrier for interviews." (Read more.)

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Trump Found Guilty: Ben Shapiro Breaks Down the Verdict

 From the Breitbart comments section:

I woke up this morning in a different country from the one I grew up in, and certainly from the one the Founders gave us. But the saddest cut of all for me is that there are citizens - actual ordinary American citizens, who are all in for this, who have no problem with government wiping its ass with the Constitution and railroading a man because he disagrees with the agenda of the power elite. The propaganda media has so effectively brainwashed them to hate this man that they are blind to the obvious truth that once this horse is out of the barn, once the government can completely overrule the rights of an American citizen this prominent they have the precedent to do it to anyone. They're making the rules up as they go to support their agenda minute-to-minute. There's no principle to protect us anymore, and the Constitution isn't worth the parchment it was inscribed upon. Those who support this seem blissfully unaware of what it means, that the nanosecond they run afoul of the government they can find themselves in the same defenseless position.

Leftist blue pills, that means one day this can happen to you, or anyone you love, or any politician you support. You are all in for destroying the system that protects you from abuse of power because you can't see past your own noses on this, and the hatred for one man that you've been hypnotized to feel. You have Stockholm Syndrome. You're in love with your captors. They have given you a movie to watch in place of reality, and the one they cast as the bad guy just lost and of course you're happy about it. But this is no movie. This is no game. You're cheering for the powerful because you think you're going to be on the outside of the cage when the door finally slams shut, but you're wrong. They want to plunder and subjugate you just like the rest of us. You won't be on the private jet to the banquet with Zuck to feast on his macadamia-fed filet mignon. You will be in the peasant class with all of us magas you hate so much, living side by side in our government-issued hovels subsisting on universal basic income and eating cricket burgers, and you'll have your beloved power elites to thank and yourselves to blame. The irony is that Trump and MAGA are actually trying to protect you from your own foolishness. We are the preservative in this nation staving off the rot, but you've been told that rot is ambrosia, and you believe it. You are sad, sad, sad.

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Orestes Brownson on National Greatness

 From The Imaginative Conservative:

Brownson’s essay titled “National Greatness” appeared in January, 1846 in his Brownson’s Quarterly Review and two years after his conversion to Catholicism. The time was witness to the immigration of the “Catholic Hordes,” an increase from 35,000 in 1790 to 1.6 million in 1850.

Rumors had churned in 1843 that Brownson, a Presbyterian and Transcendentalist, was converting to Catholicism at age 41.[3] A decade earlier he had created The Society for Christian Union and Progress and authored his first book, New Views of Christianity, Society, and the Church.

He is largely unfamiliar to American Catholics, and he would likely reference our contemporary political order as heathenism founded in the non serviam of Eden and the beginning of the City of the World, the New World Order and a failed standard.

Following that date, Brownson turned his attention to his Boston Quarterly Review which became in time Brownson’s Quarterly Review.

The 1846 date is good background for Brownson’s thesis on national greatness: Texas was annexed during the Polk presidency; the Mexican-American War began; covered wagons meandered west; all representing a time the country completed that westward course of empire, but not without some shady transgressions, the one exception the first baseball game.

The issue is replete with the argument that manifest destiny was a “mission” on the part of the American people who owned a special virtue. Whether the “mission” was nationalism or imperialism, the underlying theme was one of cultural purity.

For Brownson, questions abounded as to whether or not the current circumstances were tokens of national greatness and whether God had divinely elected the American people to do this work of manifest destiny. (Read more.)

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The Trial of St. Joan

Here is link to the first interrogation of St. Joan's trial, with the other sessions following. She was tormented and betrayed by those who should have been her spiritual fathers. She answered firmly and boldly, even as had her beloved St. Catherine of Alexandria before her. As another excellent article says:

The story of her prison life is a record of shame to her goalers. Chained, mocked at, threatened, and insulted, her serenity never failed. She was in God's hand, and she bowed to His will.

Months of suffering and anxiety passed over her before her captors made up their minds as to the course they would take to bring about her death under the semblance of legal execution. If she could be convicted by an ecclesiastical court of crimes against the faith, her condemnation would redound to the fair fame of England and of the pious House of Lancaster, while covering the French and their sovereign with confusion as the allies and associates of a minister of hell. (3).... ( The House of Lancaster was fervently orthodox. Persecution of heretics begins with Henry IV. The "Cardinal of England" (Beaufort Bishop of Winchester) was the malicious attacker of heretics at home and abroad. He spoke against the Hussites at the Council of Basle, and he planned Crusades against both heretics and "Saracens.")

Pliant churchmen were at hand to give countenance and help in this undertaking bishops full of zeal and loyalty for our sovereign lord Henry VI, by the grace of God King of France and England.

The worst of these servile churchmen was the wretched Bishop of Beauvais, Pierre Cauchon. Many other prelates were Caesar's friends, but he sits exalted in solitary infamy. He came to the Burgundian camp and claimed his victim in the name of Bedford, Regent of France for the English King. Had Jeanne been detained by the Burgundians, it is impossible to believe that Charles VII would not have procured her release. Had she been held as a prisoner of war by the English, it is very likely that the shame of holding a woman captive in their hands would have made it possible to arrange for her ransom. But once charged with heresy and taken out of the hands of the Burgundians such hopes and chances were closed. Still, as an ecclesiastical prisoner she would have been entitled to counsel and guidance by religious persons, the Church offering admonition before preferring grave charges of rebellion against any of her children. But this would render her punishment uncertain. Grave doctors of the law and eminent churchmen had at Poitiers, after long inquiry, declared her worthy of trust and they might do so again.

Therefore it was determined that she should be held in a lay prison though charged with an ecclesiastical offense. Cut off in this way from all spiritual help and instruction, she was to be brought, when the process was ripe, before a well-chosen court bent on her destruction, and ready to entangle her in questions which might entrap her into erroneous or heretical statements.

And once more we are confronted, if we try to rationalize her life and put away all belief in inspiration, with the amazing problem as to where and how this untutored girl drew her stores of logic, law, and theology.

Hallowed Ground has some rare images of St. Joan and her beatification.


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World Health Organization Installing Globalist Goals In U.S. Schools

 From Jan Greenhawk at The Easton Gazette:

Most of us have to admit that we knew little of the World Health Organization prior to 2020. We may have heard a vague reference to the WHO when an outbreak of disease occurred in some small country.

We've learned a lot about them since then. Covid showed us the WHO as they really are, tyrannical thugs paid off by the pharmaceutical companies to implement authoritarian vaccine mandates and health practices in autonomous countries. Led by a man who is called "doctor" but is NOT a medical doctor and one whose past in Ethiopia is filled with tales of his corruption and tyranny that caused many in the country to needlessly die when he denied the existence of cholera outbreaks, the WHO not only lacks credibility, but trust. Tedros' denials of cholera in Ethiopia parallel his continuous denials regarding the origins of Covid 19 and his intense desire to control countries while denying them information. and institute forced vaccinations.

Questions surfacing about history of WHO’s director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus - The Globe and Mail

Now as the statistics are revealed regarding the deaths and crippling effects of millions who took the Covid 19 vaccine because the WHO forced countries to administer it to their citizens, the World Health Organization wants a foothold in American schools. And they will do whatever they need to do to accomplish that. (Read more.)

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Occitanie By Rail

 From Travel Weekly:

In the Middle Ages, this city was part of a cultural area known as Languedoc, where local nobles governed, not French kings, and the language was Occitan, not French. The local culture fostered religious tolerance and gender parity: The cloister at the cathedral here features a plaque honoring six medieval troubadours, including one woman.

Troubadours originated in Languedoc, and the Beziers plaque recalls their 11th-to-13th-century heyday, a time when they traveled to the area's courts to sing of love.

Then, everything fell apart.

A religious heresy called Catharism, involving about 5% of the population, had found a home here. Popes wanted to eradicate it, and French kings coveted the land. They got what they wanted.

Their project began in 1209 with a grisly 20-year assault, known as the Albigensian Crusade, against Cathars and their protectors, followed by an Inquisition that lasted nearly 100 years.

Today, a significant chunk of the medieval Languedoc comprises the Occitanie region. Toulouse, a power center in Languedoc, is Occitanie's capital. (Read more.)

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A Glimpse into a French Château

 From House and Garden:

Working with the architect Sebastien Desroches, Tino Zervudachi restructured the entire chateau by changing floor levels, turning a servants’ hall into a kitchen, altering the old stables into a playroom, and converting an old staff wing into more guest rooms, with dressing rooms and bathrooms, demonstrating how the concept of traditional comfort has evolved.

Occasionally, Tino encountered pleasant surprises, such as some beautiful eighteenth-century beams hidden behind several layers of later ceilings. He also had to edit the client’s grandparents’ vast collection of objects and art. “Tino did a fantastic job,” says the client. “A real skill, the rooms look like they had always been like that.” Local artisans—unused to Tino Zervudachi’s exacting standards—caused the occasional setback. However, the ever-tenacious designer succeeded and won praise from the client’s family. “Their attitude was, ‘You didn’t just improve it, you literally made it better than it was,’” she recalls. (Read more.)

 

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More To The Story On Actor Robert DeNiro

 From Christine Dolan at The Manhattan:

Robert De Niro has now morphed Hillary Clinton's 2016 "deplorables" characterization of Trump supporters to "gangsters" on behalf of the Biden-Harris 2024 presidential campaign in New York City on Tuesday. It is a far cry from the 2016 Democratic National Committee's convention when Michelle Obama declared: “When they go low, we go high.”

In one of the more bizarre political stunts in recent decades, with plenty of potential blowback, “You, talk’in to me?” actor Robert De Niro once again demeaned himself publicly as he ranted on behalf of the Biden-Harris 2024 presidential campaign outside the New York Supreme Court House during the closing arguments in the Trump document trial, as earlier reported by CDM’s Manhattan Press. (Read more.)

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Who Were the Cimmerians?

 From The Greek Reporter:

The Cimmerians were a people who were active in Anatolia during the Archaic Era. They came into conflict with the Assyrians, the Phrygians, and the Lydians, among others. Within Greek mythology, they make an intriguing appearance in a very unexpected location, which has caused considerable debate. What conclusions can we come to regarding the Cimmerians of Greek mythology?

The earliest written reference to the Cimmerians within Greek literature comes from the Odyssey, written by Homer in the second half of the seventh century BCE. In this tale about Odysseus’ journey back to Ithaca from Troy, the Cimmerians appear in a strange and mythological context.

After spending some time at the island of Circe, Odysseus journeys to the nearby mainland and reaches the entrance to the Underworld. This is just next to the Acheron River and the River of Lamentation. In this part of the Odyssey, Homer describes the fact that there was a kingdom and city of the Cimmerians in this area. (Read more.)

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Tilghman Island Country Store

 

(Courtesy of Tilghman Island Country Store Facebook Page)

5949 Tilghman Island Rd, Tilghman, MD

(410) 886-2777

The Tilghman Island Country Store is in itself worth a trip down the road to Tilghman Island, especially in the summer. I will sometimes get an ice cream cone and just sit on the porch of the store to be transported back to the simpler times of my childhood. Watermen drive by in pickup trucks and children whirl around on bikes as mothers come by for groceries and tourists stop by for wine.

As one of the few stores on the island it has just about everything, and unofficially serves as a visitors' center for vacationers hoping to escape the world for a few days. In addition to lots of ice cream there are homemade cookies, a deli, a cafe, fresh hot coffee, soups, crab cakes, cheeses, souvenirs as well as the usual grocery items.

Adding a touch of cosmopolitan glamor is the small but eclectic wine and liquor shop adjoining the deli, where there are always bargains as well as interesting finds, such as the Empress indigo gin I discovered last Friday. Friday nights Miss Patricia and Miss Mary host a wine-tasting party with hors d'oeuvres which is fun. Breakfast is served daily, beginning around dawn, and throughout the day people call in for carry-out sandwiches, subs, meatloaf, salads, crab cakes, soups, burgers and homemade pastries. Others enjoy eating outside on the picnic tables in the summer. In the back yard is Miss Patricia's garden, called "The Garden at Gibsontown," with flowers as well as the herbs and vegetables used in the various recipes. Daily specials are written in chalk outside but you can always call (410) 886-2777 or check online. Every meal I have ever had there has been delicious.

"Tilghman Island Country Store" by Marilyn Rose

Originally published in The Easton Gazette.

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Argue For The Third Person In The Room

 From Jan Greenhawk at The Easton Gazette:

Truth is, the person who shouts insults at you for your beliefs is probably not the one who will see your side of the issue. It happens to me all the time, you start a conversation and share facts and before you know it the other person is screaming "You're a hater! You are a racist! You are a misogynist! (even though I'm a woman). No meeting of the minds happened.

Except that there is another person in the conversation. That is the third person in the room. This third person is the moderate, the undecided, the person who is not quite sure what is happening and how they feel about it.

That person is listening. And, while they might be a little nervous about the rising tension, they are also paying attention to what is being said and the truth and rationale behind it. That person might be interested in your views if you state them clearly, calmly and factually. You might even get them to agree with you.

This is what happened when we used to have these discussions. A friend of mine told me once that part of the problem with people nowadays is that we have avoided conversations regarding politics and religion. That has kept us from arguing things out and either agreeing to disagree or coming to common understanding. What's left is a bunch of super sensitive children who run and hide every time they hear or read something they don't like. Or they scream insults to make the other person feel bad and go away.

Advice?

Have these political and religious discussions when you can. Stay calm and state your ideas and supporting facts. If the other person loses their mind, allow them to lose it. It wasn't that much use to them anyway. Besides, that third person watching might learn something. (Read more.)

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Ancient Tools Discovered in Maryland

 From Arkeonews:

The story of the first Americans has enthralled scientists and the general public alike, frequently leading to contentious debates. Geologist Darrin Lowery, who was previously affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution and has made 93 trips to Parsons Island with his team, has now joined them, according to The Washington Post.

Darrin Lowery discovered 286 artifacts in the Chesapeake Bay, with the oldest embedded in charcoal that dated back more than 22,000 – at least 7,000 years earlier than what scientists believe was when people initially populated America. Archaeological finds in New Mexico’s White Sands National Park, according to multiple researchers, date human activity to between 21,000 and 23,000 years ago. Lowery now believes that humans existed in Maryland around the same time.

Lowery and his team have been excavating Parsons Island for over a decade, finding ancient stone tools in layers of sediment that were dated by studying preserved pollen and microfossils.

Following a non-peer-reviewed publication of his findings—Lowery told the Washington Post that “life’s too short” to debate with other experts over the peer-review process—he claims that the oldest of 286 artifacts found on Parsons Island significantly pushes back the date of human arrival in the area. (Read more.)

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A Survivor's Warning

 

 From Jan Greenhawk at The Easton Gazette:

Every parent of a high school or college student should give this book to their child and require them to read it.

Many of us who know history often comment about how it seems our country is rapidly sliding down the slope from freedom to Marxist Communism that rivals that of the USSR and Mao's China. When we state these observations, some on the Progressive left give that little derisive chuckle they employ so much in an effort to dismiss our thoughts as ridiculous.

Others don't laugh but ask us, "What's wrong with that? Capitalism is unfair to the poor and underprivileged." Those people are downright scary.

The first group is delusional. They think the Constitution and Washington will protect us from becoming a tyrannical, Communist dictatorship. The second group has been indoctrinated so much that they believe that Communism would be BETTER for the people of this country. Years in the public school system and the university system have taught them to hate our country, our history, and our Constitution.

They have no idea what Marxist ideas will do to this country. They look at us and tell us we don't know what we are talking about when we describe the horrors of this political system. (Read more.)

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Chinese Spies Breach US Military Bases

From what I have heard, this has been going on for years. From American Military News:

 The FBI and Department of Defense have documented over 100 incidents of Chinese nationals posing as tourists to gain unauthorized access to U.S. military bases and other federal sites. Labeled as “gate crashers” by U.S. officials, these individuals have employed various methods, from crossing into restricted missile ranges to swimming near key rocket launch sites, according to information obtained by The Wall Street Journal.

“In coordination with our defense and intelligence community partners, the FBI is committed to protecting our national security,” an FBI spokesperson said regarding the report of Chinese nationals trespassing on U.S. government property. Recent attempts include a group of purported tourists trying to force their way into Fort Wainwright, Alaska. (Read more.)

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Carved in the Ground

 Holy wells in Ireland. From The Abbey of Misrule:

There are at least a hundred wells dedicated to St Brigid, Ireland’s second, and increasingly most popular, patron saint. We’ve visited a few on this pilgrimage already (this is one of my favourites) and there are more to come. This week, we’re in the Irish midlands. With apologies to the good citizens of Westmeath, I’d have to say that the Irish midlands are not the most exciting part of the world. Or even of the country. Ireland is shaped like a bowl: around the edges are mountains, hills and cliffs, and often long white beaches. In the west and north of the country especially these are spectacular, wild, Atlantic landscapes. The middle, though, is flat as a pancake. It’s bog for the most part, and agricultural lowlands. With the decline of farming, there are a fair number of depressed, half-empty towns strewn about. Despite the efforts of various local authorities, this is not much of a tourist draw. But this is not necessarily a bad thing. A lack of coach parties and green leprechaun hats is a plus, of course. And when you find a hidden gem in humdrum places, it feels like a special treat. (Read more.)

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Courage in the Face of Tyranny

 From Intellectual Takeout:

Today some demand, as did Henry and his government ministers, that we go along with their attempts to tear down a culture beloved and dear to many of us. If we condone this demolition, we will, like the Duke of Norfolk, be welcomed into the ranks of the cancel culture crew for “fellowship.” If we refuse to join them, if we instead fight back against this destruction, we will be executed, not like Thomas More by ax and chopping block, but by our digital gallows and guillotines, by doxxing, by being banned from social media, and by being deplatformed, as has happened to Intellectual Takeout and other outfits.

And so we have a choice. We can join the gang of radicals now running rampant in our country. We can keep our mouths shut, close our eyes, and pretend as if nothing is wrong. Or we can fight back against the madness, knowing full well that, like Thomas More, we may well lose the war.

In his conflict with King Henry VIII, Thomas More believed that he had one unbeatable ally: God. Many of us today also believe in that Higher Power. Other Americans may not cast their eyes heavenward, yet they may still take comfort and courage from our Bill of Rights and natural law, for these are rights granted by no government but guaranteed to us by dint of our humanity.

In laying out his case to his daughter Margaret (Susannah York), More argues for using the law as a weapon in his defense, but adds these words: “If He (God) suffers us to come to such a case that there is no escaping, then we may stand to our tackle as best we can, and yes, Meg, then we can clamor like champions, if we have the spittle for it.”

What about those of us living through these crazy times? If we come to the place where there “is no escaping,” how will we react? Will we have the backbone and the courage, as did Thomas More, to resist falsehood and oppression? (Read more.)

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2024 & The Inevitable Rise Of Biometrics

 From Zero Hedge:

Apple Pay already lets you pay with a face scan, while Amazon have introduced pay-by-palm in many of their real-world stores. VISA showcased their latest palm biometric payment set-up at an event in Singapore earlier this year. As we covered in a recent This Week, PayPal is pushing out its own biometric payment systems in the name of “preventing fraud”.

As always, this is not just an issue in “the West”. Chinese companies have been leading this race for a while, with AliPay having biometric payment options since 2015. Moscow’s Metro system has been using facial recognition cameras for biometric payments for over a year.

And it’s not just payments, “replacing the password with the person” has already spread to other areas. Hoping to corral support for biometrics from the right, national governments are collecting biometrics to “curb illegal immigration”. You can expect that to spread. The European Union will be implementing a new Biometric Entry-Exit System (EES) as soon as October of this year.

Biometric signing is on the rise too. Laptops tablets and smartphones already come with face-reading and fingerprint scanning technology to confirm your identity. Social media companies have been collecting biometric data “for security and identification purposes” for years.

Google Play launched a new biometric accessibility feature only a couple of weeks ago. It’s all just so convenient, isn’t it? So much faster than e-mailing security codes and solving increasingly impossible captchas (both of which have unaccountably got harder and more complicated recently, and will doubtless continue to do so).

That’s how they get you: Convenience. They won’t ever remove the “old-fashioned” ways of accessing your accounts, but it will get increasingly slow and difficult to use while biometrics get faster and easier. (Read more.)

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How Slavery in Ancient Rome Drove Farmers to Poverty

 From The Collector:

In the 2nd century BCE, rapid socio-economic change was afoot for the plebeian farmers of the Roman Republic. According to the traditional historical narrative, these citizen farmers, who owned family-run smallholdings, were overburdened with military duties during the period of the Second Punic War onwards. No longer able to effectively run their farms, they were displaced by wealthy landowners who established large agricultural estates worked by slaves. This led to an exodus of now landless farmers who became destitute proletarii in urban Rome. Plebeian farmers were the backbone of the Roman Republic. By the late 6th century BCE, after the last Etruscan king of Rome had been overthrown, the young Roman Republic had become a state largely populated by citizen smallholders of the plebeian class. These smallholders were at the heart of Rome’s agricultural output, but they also served in the military and participated politically as citizens.

 The Romans grew a variety of grains including wheat and barley as well as legumes like lentils, beans, peas, and chickpeas. As in neighboring Greece, the Romans also cultivated olives and olive oil constituted an important part of the Roman diet. From their neighbors, the Greeks and Carthaginians, the Romans also learnt much about viticulture and began to make their own wine. (Read more.)

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Gabrielle d'Estrées and Marie-Antoinette

Vive Henri IV
Vive ce roi vaillant !
Vive Henri IV
Vive ce roi vaillant !
Ce diable à quatre
A le triple talent
De boire de battre
Et d'être un vers galant.

The royalist anthem Vive Henri IV was from Collé's 1770 opera La partie de chasse d'Henri IV. In 1774 it was often sung to honor Louis XVI, became popular again during the Restoration in 1814, as is told in the novel Madame Royale. The lyrics which celebrate the monarch who was seen by the French people as the epitome of justice, kindness, and virility. It was an attempt to identify the Bourbon dynasty with the popular first Bourbon monarch, Henri IV. Louis XVI had also been seen as sharing with the King from Navarre an easy manner with the common folk, as well as a strong sense of justice and love of the hunt. Early in their reign, the King and Queen held a costume ball where everyone came in dress from the era of le bon roi Henri, with Marie-Antoinette herself garbed as Henri's beloved mistress, Gabrielle d'Estrées. It was part of the Queen's attempt to show that she was loved by her husband, and that she was his mistress as well as his wife. During the Restoration, members of the Bourbon family, especially the daughter of Louis XVI, the Duchess of Angoulême, were frequently welcomed with the anthem. After the fall of the Bourbons in 1830, the anthem was no longer played, and soon became a relic of the past. Share

Keep Your Eyes on the Skies

 

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The Peopling of Maryland Colony

 From The Park Ethnography Program:

In the 1660s, less than 25% of Maryland’s bound laborers were enslaved Africans. By 1680 the number had increased to 33% and by the early 1700s, three quarters of laborers were enslaved Africans. About 300 arrived each year between 1695–1708. During this time, at least half of Maryland’s enslaved population lived in Calvert, Charles, Prince George’s, and St. Mary’s counties. The others lived in Annapolis and Baltimore.

From the beginning, the Maryland population was religiously, socially and racially diverse. Unlike the Virginians, the Maryland colonists brought Africans with them. At least two men of African descent were aboard the Ark and the Dove, ships that brought Leonard Calvert, son of George Calvert, first Lord of Baltimore, up the Chesapeake Bay in 1634. One of these first African Marylanders was Mathias de Sousa. A passenger on the Ark, De Sousa was of African and Portuguese descent and, like the Calvert family, he was a Catholic.

As the colony’s charter did not expressly prohibit the establishment of non-Protestant churches, the Calverts encouraged fellow Catholics to settle there. Maryland’s first town, St. Mary’s, was established in 1634 near where the Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay.

Maryland never experienced protracted Indian warfare or a “starving time” like its neighbor Virginia. Maryland was able to trade with Virginia for needed items and the Calvert family personally supported the settlers’ early financial needs. However, like Virginia, Maryland suffered from a labor shortage. In order to stimulate immigration, in 1640 Maryland adopted the head-right system that Virginia had instituted earlier.

While interested in establishing a refuge for Catholics, who were facing increasing persecution in Anglican England, the Calverts were also interested in creating profitable estates. To this end, they encouraged the importation of Africans and to avoid trouble with the British government, they encouraged Protestant immigration.

Indentured laborers, mostly white, dominated the Maryland workforce throughout the 17th century. As the laws infringing upon the rights and status of servitude for Africans grew more stringent in Virginia in the late 17th century, free Africans from Virginia, like Anthony and Mary Johnson and their family, migrated to Maryland. Enslavement was not absent in 17th century Maryland but it was not the principal form of servitude until the early 18th century (Yentsch 1994).

As the 17th century closed there were far fewer enslaved Africans in Maryland than in Virginia. In the four counties along the lower Western shore of Maryland, there were only 100 enslaved Africans in 1658, about 3% of the population. By 1710, their numbers had increased to 3500 making up about 24% of the population, most were still “country-born,” that is born in Africa, and most were men. Between 1700 and 1780, new generations of African people born in the colony expanded the enslaved population (Menard 1975). (Read more.)

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Saint-Cloud

The château de Saint-Cloud, a country estate owned by the Orléans family on the outskirts of Paris, was bought by Louis XVI for Marie-Antoinette in 1785. The king sold properties owned by the crown in the south of France in order to pay for the palace. Marie-Antoinette thought it was vital to get her children away from the unhealthy environment of Versailles, and Petit Trianon was not far enough way. So many members of the royal family, including Louis himself as a child, had become ill with tuberculosis over the years, and so the Queen wanted to get her children into healthier air. (As it was their oldest son would die of tuberculosis in 1789.) The King put the palace of Saint-Cloud in the Queen's name, which outraged many French people, since a Queen owning property in her own right and having complete control of it was something that had not happened since the middle ages.

Saint-Cloud is mentioned a great deal in the novels Trianon and Madame Royale, since for awhile after the royal family were taken prisoner in October 1789 they were still permitted at times to go to Saint-Cloud for the country air and to get some exercise. During the Restoration of 1815-1830, the royal family used Saint-Cloud as a summer residence. Marie-Thérèse, the daughter of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, would often walk from Saint-Cloud to her sanctuary at Villeneuve l'Étang.

Here is the chapel built by Marie-Antoinette. The photo was taken after the Commune ransacked the palace in 1871.

Above is a recreation of how the palace looked before it was destroyed.

The Bonapartes loved Saint-Cloud and maintained it in great magnificence. Above is the boudoir of Empress Eugénie.

Above is the cascade in the gardens at Saint-Cloud.

During the Commune of 1871, the palace was ruined, and no longer stands. Only the gardens remain, and the chapel built by Marie-Antoinette. Share

Tara Reade on Being Exiled to Russia After Accusing Joe Biden

 

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The Two Surest Signs of the Totalitarian Impulse

 From Chronicles:

The disordered thinking behind leftist ideology is most readily discerned in its aim to spread paranoia and dependence throughout the populace. The left intends for these feelings of uncertainty to render people more malleable and docile. That way, they will more readily accept the fundamental transformation of America from a republic built upon God-given rights and self-evident truths into a virulently secular society that oppresses all dissent.

The left falsely imagines they are in a battle against a conservative “fascist establishment,” despite having captured both the administrative state and the administration ostensibly designed to run it. Meanwhile, they have adopted a tactic from real historical fascism, specifically, the use of fear and greed as political motivators.

Setting aside the abject moral, philosophical, and policy failings of  woke ideology, there is a practical problem associated with instilling paranoia and dependence throughout the populace: It requires coercion and a controlled environment.

The diktats of federal, state, and county governments, corporate powerbrokers, and academe’s cosseted satraps are a good example. These entities all mandate that those over whom they have any measure of control must participate in the indoctrination through DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) training. It is not a coincidence that these 21^st-century struggle sessions are held behind closed doors and with captive audiences. The ceremonies of this secular creed require secrecy. (Read more.)

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Marie-Antoinette: A Passion for Flowers

From Geri Walton:

Marie Antoinette loved flowers so much that when her husband became king and gave her Petit Trianon, he did so saying, “You love flowers…well, I have a bouquet for you—the Little Trianon.” Among some of Marie Antoinette’s favorites flowers were irises, hyacinths, tulips, lilacs, lilies, poppies, and violets, and the gardens of Petit Trianon impregnated the air with their scents. In addition, the Queen also loved roses, and, in 1784, she ordered more than two thousand dog roses to be planted in the gardens of Trianon.

But the Queen and her Petit Trianon guests did not just enjoy flowers outdoors: “One of her ladies had special responsibility for seeing that everywhere in her apartments huge Chinese pots and small vases of crystal, Sèvres or Venetian glass were filled with flowers.” You could also see the profusion of flowers that grew outdoors from inside as the facade of Petit Trianon looked over a French garden of geometric shaped flower beds, “and the flowers themselves [were] planted in straight lines.” Inside the little place there were also “ornaments upon the panelling—crossed quivers surmounted by wreaths of roses and garlands of flowers—executed by order of Marie Antoinette.” (Read more.)

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Banners of the King

 

ATTENTION Catholics! It is almost June, Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus! Let us all fly Sacred Heart banners from our homes as a Christian witness and in thanksgiving for the religious freedoms we enjoy, when freedom for Catholics has not always been the case. Banners available here and here. 

Here is a letter I am sending to the local newspaper:

Today I was sent a YouTube video of the Easton Town Council discussing a proposal to ban support for ideological causes. I assume this is a matter of taking fiscal responsibility. I understand that rents and taxes in Easton are high.  Although I do not live in Easton, I shop there and am always disappointed when I see empty storefronts, especially if a shop or restaurant that I really liked has gone out of business. So I applaud the Council for choosing to focus public funds on building a climate for prosperous businesses rather than spending money on ideological causes.

 One council member mentioned that, for Roman Catholics, June is the traditional Month of theSacred Heart of Jesus. Yet in spite of the growing number of Catholics in Easton, as we continually welcome new citizens from South of the Border, it would be inappropriate for the Town of Easton to hang Sacred Heart Banners from all the lamp posts. Catholics understand this, and no Catholic would ever see the absence of Sacred Heart banners as a sign of hatred. Private citizens, of course, are welcomed to show their support for causes by hanging banners in their yards, and one sees Ukrainian flags everywhere. If someone does not have one, it does not mean they hate Ukrainians.

As a Catholic, I am thinking of getting a Sacred Heart banner for my house.  Catholics suffered persecution even in Maryland, which had been founded as a refuge for them by the Calvert family in 1634. Catholicism was banned when the Puritans took over in the 1650’s. The ban lasted more than a hundred years. When our parish church of St. Joseph’s was founded in 1765 in Cordoba, MD it had to be disguised as a farm house. Catholics did not have emancipation in America until we won our independence from Great Britain in 1781. For Catholics, displaying a Sacred Heart banner can be a sign of thanksgiving for the religious freedoms we now enjoy, and which we hope to preserve. Banners are available at many sites online, including Printerval.

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Employee Sues Hospital That Fired Her for Reporting COVID Vaccine Injuries to VAERS

 From The Defender:

A physician’s assistant is suing a New York hospital system, alleging it violated the federal False Claims Act by failing to complete mandatory reporting of injuries associated with the COVID-19 vaccine to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). Deborah Conrad worked at United Memorial Medical Center, part of Rochester Regional Health (RRH), until October 2021, when she said she was fired for reporting vaccine-related adverse events. Conrad filed the lawsuit in May 2023, but the complaint wasn’t unsealed and made publicly available until February, TrialSiteNews reported last week. She is seeking job reinstatement and back pay for herself and civil penalties on behalf of the U.S. government. Most importantly, Conrad told The Defender, she hopes the lawsuit will lead to changes in how vaccine adverse events are reported.

“How can anybody trust the vaccine program when medical professionals are not adhering to the reporting requirements of the one system we have in place that is meant to assure us that these things are safe?” she asked. “I want policy change. I don’t care about the money, the vindication. I want to be able to trust the health system,” Conrad said. Under the False Claims Act, whistleblowers can file a lawsuit on behalf of the federal government against an entity they allege profited from taxpayer funds by defrauding the government.

False Claims Act cases are initially sealed while the government investigates the cases and determines whether it will intervene and take the case on itself, or allow the whistleblower to proceed with the action. The government decided not to intervene in the case. It is now unsealed and moving forward with Conrad as the “relator,” who gives evidence to the court on behalf of the U.S. government. She told The Defender the evidence she is submitting to the court is substantial — she meticulously saved every email, patient file and recorded conversations with supervisors and other hospital staff. (Read more.)

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Flower Moon

 From Live Science:

May's full moon, known as the Flower Moon, will be at its fullest on Thursday, May 23, and shine close to the bright star Antares. The moon will also appear bright and full on Wednesday and Friday. May's full moon is called the Flower Moon, after the plentiful flowers that bloom during this month in the Northern Hemisphere, according to Timeanddate.com. Other names for May's full moon include the Milk Moon, Mothers' Moon, Bright Moon, Hare Moon and Grass Moon. Many Anishinaabe, or Ojibwe, Indigenous people of the Great Lakes region know it as Nimebine Giizis, or Sucker Moon, according to the Center for Native American Studies. Since the moon turns full at 9:53 a.m. EDT on May 23, there is no ideal time this month to watch the full moon rise in a twilight sky. On Wednesday, May 22, it will rise just before the sun sets, while on Thursday, May 23, it will rise about 50 minutes later, long after sunset, in near-darkness.(Read more.)

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A Cullinan Diamond

 

From The Court Jeweller:

But it was Queen Camilla who pulled off the major jewelry moment of the day. With favorite pearls from her jewelry box–her diamond floral and pearl drop earrings and her four-stranded pearl choker with the round diamond clasp–she wore the magnificent Cullinan V Brooch. The intricate platinum brooch is set with several diamonds, the largest of which is the heart-shaped Cullinan V. The 18.8-carat stone was cut from the enormous Cullinan Diamond, which was mined in South Africa in 1905 and given King Edward VII. The rough diamond weighed more than 3000 carats, and when it was cut in Amsterdam, nine major diamonds were produced. Queen Mary was responsible for the elegant setting of the Cullinan V Brooch, which could be worn as a stand-alone brooch, as part of a large stomacher, or as the centerpiece of her honeysuckle tiara. (Read more.)

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The FBI Was Prepared to Use Deadly Force Against Trump Security Detail During Mar-a-Lago Raid

 From The Easton Gazette:

Mike Davis and Steve Bannon discuss Trump's statement today on deadly force authorized during the Mar-a-Lago raid, HERE.

From The Last Refuge:

Some people are expressing shock that the FBI was prepared to use deadly force against President Trump and his Secret Service security detail during the DOJ raid on Mar-a-Lago.  Julie Kelly has the DETAILS HERE.

I am not surprised in the least.  Remember, the objective of the FBI raid was to resecure the physical evidence that President Trump had showing how the DOJ and FBI action in 2016 was targeting him using the power of their law enforcement and intelligence agencies.   The origination of all the DOJ/FBI/IC issues goes back to the ’15/’16 FBI exploitation of the NSA database; this is not a contested discussion issue – it’s just continually forgotten.

The FBI was using their access to the NSA metadata of all Americans, to conduct surveillance on political candidates that might be a threat to the power structures that exploited the secrets within the electronic records of all Americans.  The FBI was/is conducting domestic surveillance and tracking just like the German Stasi or Soviet KGB.  It’s still happening, but we are not supposed to remember or something.

 (Read more.)

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Battle of Himera: Carthage vs. Ancient Greeks of Sicily

 From The Collector:

With lucrative ports and colonies in the western half of Sicily, Carthage guarded its territory with swift and often decisive proactivity, thwarting several attempts by Greek colonists to settle there. Carthaginians, native Sicilians, and Greek colonists all vied for territory. Soon, a complex web of treaties, marriage alliances, and local despots developed, ensuring that the once small and sporadic conflicts would now escalate and draw in mercenaries from nearly every corner of the Mediterranean.

Seizing on civil unrest, an ambitious young man named Gelon took control of Syracuse. Seeking legitimacy for his new regime, the tyrant married the daughter of Theron of Akragas. Legitimacy was not his only goal. A rival, Anaxilas of Rhegium, had taken the town of Zancle to gain control over the Messenian Straits, threatening the eastern half of Sicily. Anaxilas was a well-connected man; his father-in-law also happened to be a tyrant, controlling a small town on the northern coast of Sicily. It was called Himera. (Read more.)

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Chesapeake Seafood Market

 

From The Easton Gazette:

It was the ugliest building in town, probably built around 1970, when modernity was brown and angular, and has gone through several reincarnations. As the Chesapeake Seafood Market it looks nothing like its former self but is bright and airy. It is a place I like to visit for its convenient parking as well as its phenomenal selection. When I stopped by last Thursday, the meat market was closed. I hope it is only closed temporarily since they had the most wonderful roasted chickens.

According to the website:

Chesapeake Seafood has been a part of the Eastern Shore for more than 50 years. Ed Higgins was an eastern shore native who grew up in a family of working watermen on the Miles, Wye, and Choptank rivers. 

In the early 1960’s Ed traded in the watermen’s life and began an oyster and soft-shell clam shucking house. It didn’t take long for Mr. Higgins to expand beyond the shucking house to the restaurant, catering, and seafood market businesses in both St. Michaels and Ocean City. The business expanded to buying and selling seafood up and down the east coast including New York City and Boston.

Today the business, run by Glenn, his wife Linda, and son Adam operates a Seafood Market, Prime Meats butcher shop, and a robust catering business. Complete surf and turf offerings from crabs, shrimp, and oysters to ribeye, tenderloins, roast chickens, and dry-aged meat are readily available along with a large selection of spices, sauces, and grab-in-go offerings.

Glenn is an avid fisherman and expert in cleaning and preparing all types of seafood.  You can expect the seafood side of the market to carry a wide variety of fresh seafood such as rockfish, clams, scallops, shrimp, oysters, salmon, tuna, and of course eastern blue crabs.

(More here.)

 

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"Queering" Your Child

 From Jan Greenhawk at The Easton Gazette:

I have been reading the book THE QUEERING OF THE AMERICAN CHILD- How a New School Religious Cult Poisons the Minds and Bodies of Normal Kids by Logan Lancing with James Lindsay. It's a difficult book to read because there is so much information about what "Queer Theory**" is, how it began, and why it is promoted. However, it is a book that answers the questions about WHY school systems, federal and state agencies, teachers' unions all seem so intent on forgoing common sense, logic and scientific fact to promote the hideous agenda of "queer activists." It also explores why normal people seem content to turn a blind eye to this agenda.

One of the most alarming facts about the queering of schools is that it has been going on for approximately thirty years.

Most of this material and theory, like so many others bad educational theory, come straight from academia of the late 80's and early 90's where the term "gender queer" was created and promoted as a way to subvert what is normal in society.* Normalcy is considered "oppression" by the gender queer activists who envision a world where nothing is defined, nothing is normal, nothing is "out of bounds." They view it as their mission to spread the "virus of queer theory" (their phraseology) so that no one can get away from it. They need the nation's classrooms to make this happen.

For example, administrators, curriculum developers and teachers look to papers like "Queering Elementary Education: A Queer Curriculum for 4th Grade" to make their schools and classrooms more inclusive. 1 Queer Activists state their mission clearly, to "deliberately...interfere with" the production of normal kids.

And that is why they hate parental rights. The gender queer activists have convinced and co-opted the Federal Government, State Departments of Education, local school systems, courts, teachers' unions, and teachers for their cause. The one group they have NOT been able to bring on board are parents. So, in order to get around the obstacle of parental resistance, queer theory activists must manipulate and gaslight parents. From Lancing and Lindsay:

"Navigating Parental Resistance: Learning for Responses of LGBTQ-Inclusive Elementary School Teachers" can be considered a blueprint for using language to hide Queer Theory Instruction from parents. The paper details the rhetorical maneuvers two elementary teachers (one that 'identifies as a lesbian and is gender-queer,' and another that 'identifies as a cisgender, straight ally') use to bulldoze parental concerns and politicize 4th and 5th grade classrooms filled with nine- and ten-year-olds."

"The paper begins by confirming something parents have felt for a while now. Queer Activists think parents are a "significant gatekeeping mechanism" meant to "protect a mythical innocence" that people "project onto children."

The second paragraph is the most frightening portion of what Queer Activists want from society. By rejecting childhood innocence and boundaries of what is acceptable and permissible between adults and children with the goal of removing those boundaries altogether. This opens the door for children deciding to change their gender via surgery or hormone therapy because it removes the definition of what a child is like it removes the definition of "man" and "woman."

It also opens the door for pedophilia under the guise of mutual consent. (Read more.)

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The River and the Pyramids

 From Phys.org:

The 64-kilometer-long river branch, which ran by the iconic Giza pyramid complex among other wonders, was hidden under desert and farmland for millennia, according to a study revealing the find on Thursday. The existence of the river would explain why the 31 pyramids were built in a chain along a now inhospitable desert strip in the Nile Valley between 4,700 and 3,700 years ago.

The strip near the ancient Egyptian capital of Memphis includes the Great Pyramid of Giza—the only surviving structure of the seven wonders of the ancient world—as well as the Khafre, Cheops and Mykerinos pyramids. Archaeologists had long thought that ancient Egyptians must have used a nearby waterway to move the giant materials used to build the pyramids. (Read more.)

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