Tea at Trianon: Where Are The Regular, Everyday People?

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, May 7, 2024

Where Are The Regular, Everyday People?

From Jan Greenhawk at The Easton Gazette:

Joe Biden tries to portray himself as a product of a regular, working-class family, often embellishing the truth with wild stories about his confrontation with "Corn Pop" and his uncle being eaten by cannibals. To hear Joe, you'd think he was raised in every ethnic household in America and attended churches of each religion. Oh, and he was the first to accept Gay marriage and was there with Nelson Mandela getting arrested in South Africa. None of that is true. It's such a common occurrence now that people tune in to see which "story Joe will make up today."

And please, don't tell me it's the same as listening to your grandfather. My grandfather didn't have to make up stories. He supported a family of six girls and a wife through the Depression. His family came to this country as poor farmers in the late 19th century. He was poor most of his life.

However, let's pretend that we really think Joe is a "regular guy." One of us.

Then WHY does he hang out with celebrities all the time and get them to sing his praises? Is it him or his handlers to have a tin ear and a total lack of self-awareness that forces them to bring washed up celebrities like Mark Hamill to the podium to slur HIS way through an endorsement.

When I saw the post with Mr. Hamill, I didn't even recognize him. He looked like some drunk the administration plucked off the corner in D.C. as he stepped up to the podium with the ever-clueless Karine Jean Pierre, the alleged White House Press Secretary. He sounded drunk as well as he went through the list of "accomplishments" i.e. lies the Biden White House is throwing at the American people.

Maybe they were attempting to make Joe sound better by comparison. (Read more.)