Tea at Trianon: Everything’s Swell in Maryland… Except for Reality

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

Friday, November 14, 2025

Everything’s Swell in Maryland… Except for Reality

From Direct Line News:

What an amazing time to be a Marylander… if you’re into make-believe.
Meanwhile, back in reality: traffic on the Beltway is still soul-crushing, the state budget resembles a college kid’s overdrafted debit card, Baltimore crime stats look like something out of a post-apocalyptic video game, and — minor detail — we’re still down one Key Bridge, with no clear plan, timeline, or budget for getting it rebuilt. But yes, by all means, let’s keep throwing taxpayer dollars at bike lanes in districts where no one owns a bike.
This is what happens when one party runs the state like it’s a college activism seminar instead of a government. Our “leaders” are too busy banning plastic bags, painting rainbow crosswalks, and holding equity forums to address actual problems — you know, like infrastructure, public safety, or the state’s fiscal health. But sure, let’s raise taxes again and call it “justice.”
Republicans have been warning for years that this progressive fantasyland approach would lead us here. And what do we get in return? Sneering lectures and budget holes big enough to swallow the Harbor Tunnel. But here’s the kicker — when Democrats break something (like a bridge), they throw a press conference, not a solution. (Read more.)