Tea at Trianon: ‘I’m Going to Fight like Hell’

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

Saturday, November 23, 2024

‘I’m Going to Fight like Hell’

From The Daily B.S.:

Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina said on Tuesday that she was working on additional legislation besides her resolution prohibiting biological males from using women’s restrooms in the Capitol.

Mace introduced a resolution covering the Capitol complex’s restrooms in response to the election of Sarah McBride to Delaware’s at-large congressional seat. Mace told reporters that even though her proposal for restrooms could pass in a package of House rules, she was planning additional resolutions.

“I’ve been attacked today and last night for fighting to protect women and girls,” Mace told reporters. “It’s ridiculous. So if that, being a feminist makes me an extremist. I’m totally here for it.”

A reporter asked Mace if the resolution was in response to McBride, a transgender woman, becoming a member of Congress. (Read more.)

Women have not been safe in America for a long time. From Tierney's Real News:

These girls and women, and many others, should be alive today. So should Dru.
I spent the rest of that day, and several days after, researching Dru’s life and her story. I watched documentaries and read dozens of news articles and testimony from trial transcripts.
Dru was kidnapped from a shopping mall parking lot in Grand Forks, North Dakota (near the Minnesota border) as she walked to her car after she finished her afternoon shift. Her body was found five months later.
A 50-year-old registered level 3 (most serious) sex offender, Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., was arrested and prosecuted federally because he crossed state lines with Dru while committing his crimes. He was convicted on kidnapping, rape and murder charges and sentenced to death. But that’s not the whole story. The devil is in the details.
I woke up one morning with the firm belief that I was supposed to write the real story about Linda’s daughter so that the world knows and the world remembers. Dru was a sign - an early warning of what was to come if we didn’t change our ways - and, frankly, we ignored it.
I asked her mother, Linda, if it was okay if I wrote a newsletter about Dru. She said yes. This year is the 21st anniversary of her murder. This is a compilation of published sources & I have NOT “fact-checked” it all. I’ve asked her mother, Linda, to read it first and correct any glaring errors.
Who was Dru? (Read more.)