Tea at Trianon: Iran Closer to Having the Bomb

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

Wednesday, July 24, 2024

Iran Closer to Having the Bomb

From The Billings Gazette:

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,)