"Engrossing and Beautiful"

 Charles I and Henriette-Marie de France

 

 

 

George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham

 A most eloquent review of My Queen, My Love.

If you read this book, be prepared to obsess over the characters like you would with any engrossing fictional story . . . only to be reminded that they are, in fact, real.  After doing so, you may just scour the Internet for photos of your new "friends."  Be prepared also to lie awake wondering what REALLY happened regarding a matter of court intrigue, asking your husband when you should be sleeping if he thinks that so-and-so poisoned so-and-so before the story started. While you're at it, you should also expect to wonder whether or not you should really google the villain and behold his countenance.

But, of course, you will. After all, you HAVE to know if he really, truly existed.

Then, once you know that he WAS, in fact, real, you will fervently wish for a time machine so that you can go back to warn everyone about him.

. . . or maybe that's just me. ;)  After all, I was crying over Giuliano de' Medici a few months ago.

MY QUEEN, MY LOVE: A NOVEL OF HENRIETTA MARIA by Elena Maria Vidal reminded me of why I love history (and even revitalized that love): that is to say, it is not a simple list of dates and facts, but, rather, a compelling story, alive with rich "characters" that have the power to stay with you. Vidal masterfully wove together a literary tapestry that tapped into real-life events in a way that inspired the reader to keep turning the page. There was beauty, there was tragedy, there was romance . . . and, much to my surprise, the plot was also layered with key characteristics of a mystery novel. Since I didn't know much about this particular "story" going in, it truly was similar to reading a completely fictional work where there still exists uncertainty and suspense.

Yet, despite the strong elements of intrigue and mystery, at the center of the entire narrative is a love story: that of a king and his queen and the Love that transcends their world.

From early on in the novel, I fell in love with the love story of Henrietta Maria and King Charles I. Rather than compose more coherent sentences, I have decided to instead include my "freak-out" gushing below. Unprofessional or not, it accurately reflects my state of mind when delving into the story and may perhaps best inform potential readers:
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HE FELL IN LOVE WITH HER WHEN SHE WAS DANCING---NOT ATTRACTION, BUT REAL LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT WHERE HE SAW THE DEPTHS OF WHO SHE TRULY WAS.
 
BUT SHE DIDN'T KNOW HE WAS THERE AS HE WATCHED FROM AFAR.

And then she fell in love with HIM through his letters, which is SO BEAUTIFUL AND ROMANTIC, too!!! AHHHH. Because she has SUCH a pure heart, like Cinderella and her prince when they first meet in the live action movie.

AND THEN THERE IS THIS EMOTIONAL BUILD-UP OF STORY TENSION because they have to still MEET. And the reader just needs it to happen asap!

And then they meet . . . and it is a Moment with a capital M!

But there be villainy afoot. ;) 
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Vidal's writing skill shone through once again in her brilliant introduction of the villain of the story through the eyes of one who regarded him as a close friend. Without going into detail, he could have been mistaken as a flawed comic relief, before his true nature became clear. Not only did this make the story-line more compelling and unpredictable, but it served as a rather profound commentary on evil relevant to today. In the presence of some, evil masquerades as Cool Guy, charming everyone with his jokes. But, when only some are watching, the mask just might come off.

As a Catholic, I was particularly drawn to the historical depiction of events as concerns the persecution those of my faith faced in England at the time. It was important for me to learn more about their plight, and my heart broke for those who suffered, much like that of Henriette, just as it rejoiced at moments when they received better treatment.  Yet the pain and suffering is balanced also with Light, the reason for which they are fighting.  Through vivid and sometimes ethereal descriptions, as well as profound reflections, Vidal was able to illustrate what we love so dearly.

The writing style in general is both detailed and engaging, rich with beautiful imagery that is, at times, quite lyrical. I found a kindred spirit in the romantic way that Vidal chose to describe figures, scenery, and events and likewise enjoyed the sprinkling of Arthurian legend in the novel. It was lovely to see Henrietta and Charles share a mutual love of these old stories, which not only added depth to their relationship and to them as individuals, but also seamlessly tied into the plot and foreshadowing of future events.

In terms of the characters on an individual level, I found myself bonding quite a lot with Henrietta, between her innocent romanticism, deep love of her faith, and moments of wit and humor.  But, on another level, I wondered at times if she were a saint and found her on the whole to be an inspiring figure. While there were moments in which the reader was called to be frustrated with Charles for being blinded as to certain individuals, I came to care a great deal for him and deeply admire his nobility of heart and desire to do what was right. The reader may also sympathize with the long-seated pain that he experienced, which is slowly revealed within this man of a pure and childlike nature yet confident, regal bearing.

While there were difficult moments to read throughout the novel, beginning with the tragic backstory of Henriette's mother, Marie de' Medici, the beauty of the center characters continued to illuminate the pages. Without going into detail, I will say that the intrigue of the novel also remains until the very end. Just like with a true mystery story, there are revelations at the conclusion that truly took me by surprise.  At the same time, the final pages served as a "bookend" in more than one way.  I'll leave it at that.

The reader should bear in mind that there may be occasional phrasings or actions with which he or she may not agree, even concerning supporting characters with a great deal of good.  However, such may also be found in real life, and it is likely that Vidal wished to present people and events with as much historical accuracy as possible while simultaneously putting forth a compelling narrative.  The meticulous research conducted for this book is abundantly clear from the detailed historical facts imbued into the text (as well as the lengthy works cited), although the novel format also allows for some speculation and presumably fleshing out of characters and situations. (Read more.)

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Why Hasan Piker Mocks a Murdered Man

 From Daniel McCarthy at Chronicles:

Hasan Piker is deeply envious of Charlie Kirk.

The hard-left influencer debated Kirk in 2017 and was set to do so again before Kirk was murdered last year. Yet now Piker is going around mocking Kirk’s assassination, leading a crowd last weekend, during his live podcast tour, in a sarcastic singalong of an AI-generated song called “We Are Charlie Kirk.”

“We are Charlie Kirk, we carry the flame. We’ll fight for the Gospel, we’ll honor his name,” Piker sang off-key, the crowd howling along, while the celebrity socialist’s co-hosts guffawed and waved their arms in the air.

This wasn’t satirizing a political opponent—Kirk has been dead nearly a year. Why make him the subject of this derision?

It’s because Piker knows his audience, and they’re not looking for thoughtful politics. They want a hatefest. Readers of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four might remember the totalitarian leftist party that runs the dystopian state in that novel regularly held events called a “Two Minutes Hate” to whip up hostility against the regime’s enemies.

Piker has improved on that—his podcast and live events like this offer more than an hour’s hate.

And nobody stirs the Piker crowd into a frenzy like Charlie Kirk.

The slain Turning Point USA founder represents everything they’re against, and not just because he was a widely successful conservative organizer who won young Americans away from socialism on the unfriendly campuses where he spoke—and where he ultimately died for his beliefs.

Kirk’s faith in God, his devotion to his family, his happiness all infuriated his enemies.
His self-sacrifice did, too, and more than anything else: Kirk knew the risks he took by going where he wasn’t welcome and speaking truths the left didn’t want to hear—and was determined to prevent anyone else from hearing. (Read more.)

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Rejecting the Robot

 From Chronicles:

The other day, while I was trying to enjoy myself on a short vacation in a beach town, the ethnographer in me could not help but notice a disconcerting phenomenon.

Three or four times in a brief span of perhaps an hour, I saw a young woman and a young man walking together, clearly couples. All of the women were strikingly beautiful. “Well done, lad!” I thought each time. And then, in each case, I noted that the man was not holding the woman’s hand, and he was not talking to her or even looking at her.

What was he doing?

You know exactly what he was doing, don’t you? He was looking at the little machine in his hand as he walked beside this lovely young woman.

And no, it’s not just a quick “What’s the address of the restaurant we’re going to?” kind of looking that he was engaged in. No, these young men were ignoring the humans in their lives in order to attend instead to machines. These men who were walking alongside attractive women—a situation every normal man has devoted backbreaking work and great risks to achieve throughout the long history of humanity—are now too distracted by a handheld machine displaying ghostly images from nowhere and speaking to them in a disembodied robot voice to even notice the beautiful women before them.

In my head, as I see these men doing what they are doing, I am having the same conversation with each of them:

You can stop talking to me about how tough things are for your generation. I’ll hear none of it. You deserve every serving of ordure you might get from the world, and you will get none of my pity. For here is a real human female right beside you, longing to have you take her hand and make her feel loved, and you’re more interested in the little soul-sucking metal box with the screen on it. What has gone so dreadfully and totally wrong with you, you strange creatures? What even are you? I do not see my species in you.

But it is not just the young men. I can’t count the number of young women also fervently clinging to their phones—taking endless pouty-faced selfies, gazing into them as at a lover, and holding them at that ostentatious and ridiculous angle in front of their faces while blathering vapidities to someone somewhere else holding her little machine in just the same ludicrous posture. Absorption by the spirit of the robotic is a binary experience, spread across the sexual divide. (Read more.)

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Elizabeth I and Cleopatra

 Elizabeth I is here portrayed among the goddesses

I think Cleopatra had more similarities with Mary Stuart than Elizabeth Tudor, but the article makes some interesting points. From the University College of London:

Perhaps second only to Tutankhamun in the who’s-who of Ancient Egypt Cleopatra VII is colloquially known as the Last Queen of Egypt. This is a very debatable epithet, whilst she is the last pharaoh of Egypt, she is also the last of Ptolemaic dynasty, a Greek family who ruled Egypt following Alexander’s conquest in 332 BC. Her death, 12^th August 30 BC, is chronicled by Plutarch, mentioned by Virgil and exonerated by Horace[1],  she is so renowned her death is sometimes used to denote the end of the Hellenistic era.

Queen Elizabeth, who died 3 years prior to this play’s performance, is quite a similar character. With a slightly dubious claim to the throne, her death in 1603 heralded the end of the Tudor rule.  Following the establishment of the Church of England in the 1530’s and the sweeping massacres of Catholics and Protestants alike England had a Catholic Scottish King, James I. For years England had been at war with both Scots and Catholics, and now had that exact ilk on their throne.

Cleopatra faced similar regency problems;  she may have been an originally Greek Queen, but she was barring the advancing Roman Empire from Romanising her country and herself. Here the Queens differ, Elizabeth went on the offence, striking out at Catholic enemies, such as Spain with her famous victory in 1588. Cleopatra had nowhere near the allies nor resources to defeat her foe (indeed she lost her major naval incursion at Actium), so she had to make them [allies].

Allying herself to Caesar and then Mark Anthony she coerced armies and treaties out of them to protect her beloved Egypt. Plutarch, writing in the 1^st century AD, describes Mark and Cleopatra’s first encounter as:

“Venus was come to revel with Bacchus for the good of Asia” (Lives III.XXVI.3)

Cleopatra is represented as the Roman goddess of love and founder of Rome, great praise for an Egyptian Queen who defied them. (Read more.)

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Data Centers

 From The Enterprise:

I spent the late 1990s and early 2000s building data centers in the middle of America's largest cities. We built them in Dallas, Miami, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and St. Louis. Thousands of people walked past our buildings every day. They did not protest them. Most did not even know what was inside. That silence was not a cover for some environmental menace. Our data centers were good neighbors. They occupied underused buildings, produced almost no traffic, and bought enormous amounts of electricity from the grid while our cooling systems consumed no water. Servers and telecommunications gear hummed behind anonymous walls while the fiber inside connected businesses and consumers to a rapidly expanding Internet.

 We were hardly alone. After the Telecommunications Act of 1996 opened local telephone networks to competition, venture-backed companies raced to build carrier hotels and colocation facilities across the country. Section 251 of that law required incumbent carriers to interconnect with competitors, which created demand for neutral buildings where rival networks could meet. Equinix, Colo[.]com, Exodus, Switch & Data, LayerOne and scores of others poured billions of dollars into the physical plant of the dot-com economy. The Federal Reserve later described "a massive boom in the sector, beginning in 1997." Then the bubble burst, investors lost fortunes, and the data centers remained. They became the backbone of the cloud, mobile communications, streaming, e-commerce, and now AI. (Read more.)

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The Banality of an Evil Pro-Abortion Art Exhibit

 From Mark Judge at Chronicles:

Still, the effect of seeing Andrea Bowers’ art was mostly enervation. This kind of angry political art is by now very old hat. Take the first room one enters at the exhibit. In Wall of Letters: Necessary Reminders from the Past for a Future of Choice, Bowers has simply reproduced dozens of letters of women seeking abortions, as well as guides on how to perform abortions, blown them up to poster size, and wallpapered a huge white room with them. This performative exercise might have shocked people a few decades ago, but by now the public has already absorbed and passed its judgment on the nonsense of artists like Robert Mapplethorpe and Andres Serrano. We have moved on. A hectoring and didactic display meant to incite insurrection in defense of abortion is old news. I mean, I was around to see Karen Finley smear herself with chocolate!

Bowers does better in the other rooms at Glenstone, which feature her pieces The Body is Not a Thing, It’s a Situation and Women and the Earth Have to Tolerate a Lot. Bowers has reproduced book illustrations, both from 1896, on square panels of cardboard. The illustrations themselves are quite beautiful, lovely representations of women in flowing Victorian dresses bodies intertwined. The original drawings were meant to illuminate women as deeply powerful and fertile beings with a seamless and metaphysical connection to nature. Then there are the works Ecofeminist Sycamore Branches: Women Have Always Thought Like Mountains, which feature tree branches illuminated with neon. The irony, of course, is that Bowers is using imagery evocative of the sensual and generative power of women to argue for killing babies. (Read more.)

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Court Masques

Costume design by Inigo Jones for Queen Anne's "Masque of Blackness"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another design by Inigo Jones for one of Henrietta Maria's masques

The court of Charles I in costume in a classical fantasy, Buckingham and his life Katherine are staring up at Charles I and Henrietta Maria.

Henrietta Maria of France

Masques were a big part of court life in both the English and French courts of the seventeenth century, especially during Shrovetide. From Historic Royal Palaces:

The masque began as an improvised performance at court in the 16th century during which courtiers and even royals would disguise themselves for play acting, fun and dancing. 

Masques were staged at Whitehall and Hampton Court Palaces for the Stuarts, with singing, acting, music, dialogue, amazing costume and above all, ‘special effects’ and moving scenery. By the early 1600s, under masque-loving monarchs James I and his queen Anne of Denmark, it became really elaborate. 

A Banqueting House was built specifically for the performance of masques at Whitehall Palace in 1608, but this burnt down in 1619, and was replaced by the present building, designed by Inigo Jones and completed in 1622. 

The Stuart Masques were mostly created by the brilliant partnership of playwright Ben Jonson and set and costume designer Inigo Jones. These temperamental artists quarrelled over whose contribution was more important, and after 1632, Jones worked with less argumentative (and less talented) poets.

The masques were a heady combination of opera, theatre, ballet and ball. They were always allegorical, featuring gods and goddesses from mythology and British history. Their purpose was to demonstrate the wisdom, and God-given right to rule, of the Stuart monarchs. There was always an ‘anti-masque’, featuring wild and outlandish dancers, who symbolised the chaos of a kingdom before the Stuarts. This was followed by the masque proper portraying the idealistic world of peace and harmony under divine kingship. At the end of the masque, the King would dance, and then the courtiers. Masques were performed for, rather than by, the court, although sometimes the queen and her ladies danced. 

A masque was also a place to see and be seen. They were incredibly expensive to produce; some of the most lavish were staged by affluent lawyers. But despite the cost, they weren’t always the most comfortable of shows to attend, for either actors or audiences. The crowded room was stifling hot, and smoke from the hundreds of torches must have been oppressive. Sometimes there was a long delay before the performance began. The chaplain to the Venetian Ambassador wrote of his experience after attending a masque in 1618: ‘So crowded and uncomfortable that had it not been for our curiosity we would have given up or expired … every box was filled notably with the most noble and richly arrayed ladies… During the two hours of waiting we had leisure to examine them again and again.’ (Read more.)

From Luminarium:

HAD Ben Jonson never lived, the English masque would scarcely need to be chronicled among dramatic forms. For despite the fact that mumming, disguising, and dancing in character and costume were pastimes in England quite as old, if not older, than the drama itself, it is to Jonson that we owe the infusion of dramatic spirit into these productions, together with the crystallization of their discordant elements into artistic unity and form. Generically, the masque is one of a numerous progeny, of more or less certain dramatic affiliation. Specifically, a masque is a setting, a lyric, scenic, and dramatic framework, so to speak, for a ball.¹  It is made up of "a combination, in variable proportions, of speech, dance, and song;" and its "essential and invariable feature is the presence of a group of dancers . . . called masquers."²   These dancers — who range in number from eight to sixteen — are commonly noble and titled people of the court. They neither speak nor sing, nor is it usual to exact of them any difficult or unusual figures, poses, or dances. Their function is the creation of "an imposing show" by their gorgeous costumes and fine presence, enhanced by artistic grouping, and by the aids which decoration and scenic contrivance can lend to the united effect. On the other hand, the speech of the masque, whether of presentation or in dialogue, and the music, both vocal and instrumental, were from the first in the hands of the professional entertainer, and developed as other entertainments at court developed. The masque combined premeditated with unpremeditated parts. The first appearance of the masquers with their march from their "sieges" or seats of state in the scene, and their first dance — all designated the "entry" — was carefully arranged and rehearsed; so also was the return to the "sieges" or "going cut," and this preparation included sometimes the preceding dance. The "main," too, or principal dance, was commonly premeditated, as in Jonson Masque of Queens, where the masquers and their torchbearers formed in their gyrations the letters of the name of Prince Charles. Between the "main" and the "going out," two extemporal parts were interpolated, the "dance with the ladies" and the "revels," which last consisted of galliards, corantos, and la voltas. It was in the development of the "entry" and the "main" that the growth of the masque chiefly consisted. (Read more.)

From Dr. Lawrence Shafe:

There was an Italian tradition, particularly a Florentine tradition, called the intermezzi. These were entertainments designed to fill in the gap between plays. The key series was in 1589 when the Grand Duke got married. They were trying to recreate a Roman theatre with classical allegory in the form of an entertainment. Bernado Buontalenti was the architect engineer of these displays.

A 1600 Florentine drawing shows a mountain rising from a stage, at the top is Pegasus with Apollo and the Muses below and Poetry below them. Clouds float in with people in them and they have trees that sprout leaves. Light boxes were used containing multiple candles made brighter with mirrors and the theatres were not darkened as much as ours. This event was publicized across Europe and news came back to Henry, Prince of Wales. His friend John Harrington was in Florence and wrote back describing them.

The intermezzi increased the scale and the engineering (trap doors, revolving stages) and it was these the Stuart court wanted to emulate.

Ben Johnson and Inigo Jones were the great double act although they eventually fell out.

Caroline masques in England had a stage with a proscenium arch (first developed in the 16thC in Florence and picked up by Jones). The stage tilts at an angle and it has slots in the sides for scenery. In 1635 Inigo Jones a country scene for The Temple of Love. 1609 Jones, [at] The Masque of Queens for Anne of Denmark [made] a machine with a round arch doorway and a revolving section on top with seats. The machine was called machina versitilis.

Anne of Denmark was the prime mover to create these spectacular masques. She loved dancing and was the leading dancer. She singled out Ben Johnson but the ideas were unfortunately hers so they were all a bit thin. All the music and choreography has been lost, in fact the scenery was pulled down and destroyed as soon as the masque was over. They were modelled on the French ballet do corps where the dancers formed a complex pattern. James I never ever took part. (Read more.)

 HERE is the original program for the ballet danced by Henrietta Maria at the Louvre when Charles first saw her.

An article on the masques of Queen Henrietta Maria, HERE.

More on the stage props created by Inigo Jones, HERE.

My novel on Henrietta Maria, HERE.
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Wolves in White Coats

 From Human Flourishing:

Yesterday the Department of Health and Human Services released a report, Wolves in White Coats. Along with surgeon and whistleblower Dr. Eithan Haim, I drafted the first two chapters of the report, and my colleague Rachel Morrison at EPPC drafted the third chapter. The report describe how hospitals and clinics recklessly embraced sex-rejecting procedures on minors, despite the lack of evidence of safety and efficacy for these interventions. Our research on insurance claims, presented in Chapter 2, highlights widespread false billing practices that could implicate these institutions in criminal fraud under the False Claims Act. In short, doctors lied about patients’ diagnoses to ensure insurance reimbursements from public and private payers, and in some cases, to circumvent state laws that prohibited these procedures on minors.

The full report and a shorter executive summary are available here. For those who want a brief, high-level overview, I recommend this 12-minute film released in conjunction with the report. The testimonies here from adolescents who were irreversibly harmed by these procedures are particularly devastating....(Read more.)

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Dating as Duty

 From Chronicles:

On the left, one of the most prominent works on this question is the New York Times’ essay “Men, Where Have You Gone? Please Come Back” by Rachel Drucker. Leftists never consider the mess that is the modern dating world—or their role in creating it—and how it might incentivize the “good men” to go their own way. 

Consider the #MeToo movement. After watching baseless accusations destroy the lives of countless powerful men, modest guys stopped pursuing women. When the media, divorce courts, and prospective employers decided to #BelieveAllWomen, young males afflicted by nothing worse than shyness backed off, because they didn’t want to become the object of social ridicule or make women uncomfortable. Courtship died.

Certainly, there are bad men out there, but rather than consider them an outlier, the left has encouraged young women to take a negative view of men in general. 

While many establishment conservatives frame the issue differently, they agree that the courtship crisis is men’s fault. Fox News darling Tomi Lahren, for example, insists that “the pickings are slim” for young women seeking quality masculine men who have their affairs in order.

Attributing blame to a failure of personal responsibility on the part of men is, however, only a half-truth. Men are leaving dating behind because they no longer believe it’s possible to achieve what their fathers and grandfathers did. 

Social conservatives love to blame pornography, but they get cause and effect backward. Porn does not cause men to retreat from dating; modern dating causes men to retreat into porn. 

After realizing they were playing a losing game, a good many men stopped dating. They made the calculation that porn was the best they were going to get. You can think that ignoble—I certainly do—but they’ve come by that conclusion honestly. Of course, the same can be said of all the other petty vices our young men use to while away their days—video games, online trolling, doomscrolling, anonymous posting on 4chan, et cetera. (Read more.)

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Saint Louis IX and Politics

 From Catholicism:

Today is the feast of King Saint Louis of France. As the formerly Christian West is sliding further into the tyranny of liberalism, it is balm to the soul to consider that the people in Louis’ France were freer than we are today. They were free from big government meddling in their lives and their wallets. And they were free in the most important way, for Saint Louis believed in a Christian order wherein the State was neither inimical nor neutral to the Church, but was the Church’s helper in securing the happiness, temporal and eternal, of her subjects.

Our modern “freedom,” by contrast, is servitude.

Sad to say, Saint Louis’ own grandson, Philip IV (“the Fair” — called so on account of his outward looks, not his inward dispositions!) was greedy to rob the Church of her influence in civil society. It has long struck me as ironic that this same Philip, who was so ill disposed to the traditional role of the Church in statecraft, was also the one who persecuted the Knights Templar, robbing them of their possessions and murdering their leaders. One of his victims was Jacques de Molay, the twenty-third and last Grand Master of the Templars. The reason I find all this ironic, is that the Freemasons, who are much closer to Philip than to de Molay in their ideology, falsely take the murdered Templar as one of their own heroes — among other ways, by naming their young men’s fraternal organization, “DeMolay International.” Philip IV, who murdered Jacques de Molay, also persecuted Pope Boniface VIII, a great pope who defended — as I’ve pointed out elsewhere — the same traditional alliance of throne and altar that Philip’s saintly grandfather believed in. That tradition, known as “the doctrine of the two swords,” was eloquently put forth in Unam Sanctam, a bull written in direct opposition to Philip the Fair.

It was Boniface VIII, by the way, who canonized Saint Louis IX. (Read more.)

 

More HERE.

Also from Catholicism:

The custom of genuflecting (literally, in Latin, “bending the knee”) for the Incarnation (“…and the Word was made Flesh…”) in the Creed, was begun by Saint Louis IX, King of France, who knelt out of devotion when he heard the words sung at Mass one day. This is something of a holy mirror of the secular custom of standing for the “Hallelujah Chorus” in Handel’s Messiah. (King George II was so stirred during the performance that he rose to his feet in excitement. When the king stands, everybody stands, even during a concert.) Similarly, thanks to Louis’ piety, and the French respect for their monarch, the King of Kings is saluted with a genuflection every time his Holy Incarnation is recalled in the Credo of the Roman Rite. (Read more.)

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Seven Years of History: the Seditious Six

From DataRepublican:

 The Seditious Six video did not came out of nowhere in November 2025. It developed from an institutional lineage over a period of about eight years among academics, NGOs, and activists, with the final goal to rewrite the relationship between the military and the executive branch.

On January 30, 2017 — ten days into the first Trump presidency — Rosa Brooks published a piece in Foreign Policy laying out four ways to remove a sitting president before his term ended: impeachment, the 25th Amendment, resignation under pressure, and a military coup. Of the last, she imagined the moment senior officers would look at a lawful commander-in-chief and refuse:

“The fourth possibility is one that until recently I would have said was unthinkable in the United States of America: a military coup, or at least a refusal by military leaders to obey certain orders.”

Brooks had been Counselor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, a political appointee inside the Pentagon from 2009 to 2011, reporting to Michèle Flournoy. Before the Pentagon, she was special counsel to the President at George Soros’s Open Society Institute. After it, she went to Georgetown Law, where she still holds a professorship and participates in the university’s national-security programming.

One year after that article ran, a new organization was quietly incorporated. National Security Action - co-chaired by Obama deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes and future Biden national security advisor Jake Sullivan — was funded largely, in Puck’s words, by Alex Soros since its inception. Rosa Brooks joined its advisory council.

That is the beginning of the timeline the Pentagon press corps skipped. (Read more.)

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Traditions: The Chapel Veil

 From Catholic 365:

The chapel veil is also called a mantilla, and is worn by Catholic women to honor the Lord as truly present in the Eucharist. This is a very old tradition and is also a symbol of imitation of Mary, the Mother of God. The wearing of the Mantilla is an act of veiling a woman's physical beauty, so that the beauty of God may be glorified instead. It is also a way of emulating Mary, our mother, who is the archetype of purity and humility.  Moreover, the mantilla, or chapel veil, signifies the role of women as a life-bearing vessel.  The chalice holding the blood of Christ is veiled until the Preparation of the Gifts, and the tabernacle is veiled between Masses. Both of these vessels hold the Eucharist – the very life of Christ. (Read more.)

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La Reine Margot and the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre

A first hand account from a notorious lady, who nevertheless saved the life of her husband Henri de Navarre, the future Henri IV. Henri IV, through his second marriage to Marie de' Medici, was the father of Queen Henrietta Maria.

Five or six days afterwards, those who were engaged in this plot, considering that it was incomplete whilst the King my husband and the Prince de Conde remained alive, as their design was not only to dispose of the Huguenots, but of the Princes of the blood likewise; and knowing that no attempt could be made on my husband whilst I continued to be his wife, devised a scheme which they suggested to the Queen my mother for divorcing me from him. Accordingly, one holiday, when I waited upon her to chapel, she charged me to declare to her, upon my oath, whether I believed my husband to be like other men. "Because," said she, "if he is not, I can easily procure you a divorce from him." I begged her to believe that I was not sufficiently competent to answer such a question, and could only reply, as the Roman lady did to her husband, when he chid her for not informing him of his stinking breath, that, never having approached any other man near enough to know a difference, she thought all men had been alike in that respect. "But," said I, "Madame, since you have put the question to me, I can only declare I am content to remain as I am;" and this I said because I suspected the design of separating me from my husband was in order to work some mischief against him....(Read more.)

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Make All of America Muslim?

 From Tierney's Real News:

Most people are not aware that Hillary Clinton brought Huma Abedin and the Muslim Brotherhood into the White House in the 1990s and then shortly thereafter 9/11 happened.

THIS IS HOW THEY SCHEMED TO MAKE ALL OF AMERICA MUSLIM.

I posted an article on my old blog website and on social media in March 2018. It was about Hillary Clinton, her “new” aide Huma Abedin and a threat made by one of their associates, Sharifa Alkhateeb, the then head of the North American Council for Muslim Women, in 1989, to “MAKE ALL OF AMERICA MUSLIM.” (Read more.)

The DSA wants to transform America. From The Enterprise:

 On July 16, 2026, the World Bank approved a $1.5 billion loan to modernize South Africa's electricity, freight rail, water, and sanitation systems. It is the fourth rescue of this kind since 2022, which means the first three left the wreck standing. The conditions attached to the money are a list of the ordinary rules Pretoria spent a generation discarding. The government is to build a competitive wholesale electricity market, open transmission to private investment, allow private rail operators to compete for freight, grant the first private concession at a port terminal, and let private firms provide water. Those conditions are the sound of a creditor describing a machine that no longer runs.

Maintenance, competition, professional management, and independent oversight keep a grid from becoming a patronage office. Conservatives who treat institutions as machines have been saying so while Democrats in American cities treat the same institutions as prizes for the faithful. The African National Congress is the party that removed those disciplines. It is also the party now borrowing to put them back. The wrecking crew is sending the invoice abroad.

The claim is not that apartheid was just. In 1994 the ANC inherited an industrial economy that was unjustly distributed and technically sophisticated. The duty that came with that inheritance was to universalize access without destroying the competence that kept the lights on and the ore moving to the sea. The party did the opposite. It converted technical administration into political allocation. In thirty years it consumed capital that had taken generations to assemble. Democrats who now talk the same way about American agencies, as if competence were a colonial residue, are watching a finished experiment and applauding the method. (Read more.)

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‘Mr Molière: A Brief History’

 From Jemahl Evans at Seventeenth-Century Lady:

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (1622-1673) more commonly known as Molière, is a titan of world literature. The French Shakespeare, his influence on the development of early modern theatre, and his acerbic observations on the human condition in his work have fascinated and enthralled audiences for centuries. So great was his lasting influence on French literature that in 2025 Melvyn Bragg would restate the claim that French: ‘…is the language of Molière.’

Jean Baptiste was born into a well-to-do Parisian family in 1622. Christened ‘Le Nez’ (The Nose) by a maid, it remained a family nickname for the rest of his life. His father purchased the rank of Valet de chambre ordinaire et tapissier du Roi (Upholsterer to the King) in 1631 when the boy was just six. The title provided a steady income and conferred respectability on the upwardly mobile clan. After the death of his mother in 1632, Jean Baptiste was educated at the elite Collège de Clermont run by the Jesuit order (now the Lycée Louis-le-Grand). It is here that the young Parisian got his first taste of the theatre and actors. The Church would never forgive him.

The profession was not held in high regard in Seventeenth-Century France. Actors were publicly shamed as sinners, ran the risk of excommunication, and were forbidden from burial in consecrated ground. It was not the career path for a scion of a respectable bourgeoisie Parisian family. A decree by Louis XIII in 1641 stating that actors were ‘not to be considered worthy of blame nor prejudicial to their reputation’ did little to improve matters, even as the public flocked to theatrical performances. After completing his education, Jean Baptiste initially succeeded his father as Upholsterer to the King and started training as a lawyer. However, at the age of 21, he abandoned a respectable career for a life on the stage. His father and wider family were predictably appalled by the decision. (Read more.)

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Louis XVI and Tuberculosis

Louis-Auguste, Duc de Berry, the future Louis XVI, was born on August 23, 1754. August 25, the feast of St. Louis of France, was his name-day, and kept with special festivity after he became king in 1774. He was given the same exact baptismal name as his sainted ancestor. A few years ago on Catherine Delors' blog many interesting points were brought up in the comment box about the childhood traumas of Louis-Auguste and how those later affected his reactions to the events of the Revolution.

Louis contracted tuberculosis when he was six by being made to sit at the bedside of his dying older brother, the Duc de Bourgogne. It was a traumatic experience in many ways for a small boy, especially since he himself became quite ill. Louis-Auguste was generally regarded as unhealthy and not likely to live to adulthood. Several members of the French royal family, including Louis' parents and brother, had already died of consumption. Louis managed to survive with the proper care. Nevertheless, tuberculosis is a disease which can remain inactive for many years but can later recur. It can have many side effects, including depression.

Provence and Berry

The tuberculosis would come back to haunt him, infecting his baby daughter Sophie and his oldest son. I think seeing Louis-Joseph die just as he had watched his older brother die long ago revived a lot of the childhood trauma. Death from tuberculosis is not pretty to watch. I am of the opinion that since the death of his oldest son, which coincided with the beginning of the Revolution in 1789, Louis XVI was suffering from clinical depression. In the past, he had acted with much more energy and decision. This is one of the reasons Marie-Antoinette had to become more involved in the political arena during the Revolution.

I think Louis struggled with "melancholy" at various times throughout his life, perhaps due to the childhood infection with tuberculosis. Louis was a man accustomed to strenuous exercise, especially hunting and riding, not to mention his labors as a locksmith. It is my belief that he needed the fresh air and the exertion for both his mental and physical health. With the regimen of exercise and his strictly adhered to routine he was able to keep melancholy from overwhelming him. He was deprived of much of his riding after October 1789 and it had a devastating effect upon his health and state of mind. Losing two of his children, his authority, his home, seeing his people and family suffer, and being deprived of the exercise and fresh air vital to his health, left him in a very bad condition.

If we consider the courage with which Louis XVI faced the worst moments of crisis, including his death, then he is to be admired, especially in the light of everything else. The Queen is to be admired as well, for she could have slipped out of the country with her surviving children and left Louis to his doom (there were many plans for her escape) but she refused to budge from Louis' side. She would not leave him to face the disasters alone.

Happy Birthday to Louis XVI!

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Free Derek Chauvin!

 From Tierney's Real News:

Derek Chauvin’s attorney, Gregory Joseph, has filed a new motion seeking the dismissal of Chauvin’s state convictions, alleging that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, and the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office engaged in “illegal” and “fraudulent” conduct.

Joseph argues that a grand jury was never convened to review or indict Chauvin on the enhanced murder charges. Under Minnesota law, severe charges like first-degree murder typically require a grand jury indictment, though lower-level murder charges (like the second-degree unintentional murder Chauvin was convicted of) are frequently initiated via a prosecutor’s criminal complaint.

Joseph contends that the initial, lesser charges brought by Hennepin County were bypassed due to immense political and public pressure. He claims Governor Walz overstepped by transferring the case to AG Keith Ellison, who subsequently e-filed a second, “unfounded” complaint that included the elevated murder counts to satisfy public demand rather than following appropriate statutory boundaries.

“Because Hennepin County’s unlawful charges against Mr. Chauvin were not severe enough for the mob, Walz referred the case to Keith Ellison, who signed and e-filed a second unfounded complaint against Derek Chauvin that included the murder charge.”

Chauvin is currently serving a 22.5-year state sentence concurrently with a 21-year federal sentence for allegedly violating Floyd’s civil rights, with a projected release date in 2037. State prosecutors have not yet filed a formal response to these specific grand jury allegations. (Read more.)

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The Modesty Fallacy

 Worrying about female modesty has become an obsession among many Christians. Yes, there is more flesh exposed than there was in past times. But there is such cult-like behavior in many Catholic circles, including homeschooling groups, that has nothing to do with Church teaching nor with Sacred Scripture. I knew one group of young mothers where no one could wear cologne. Another group is saying you cannot take Catholic children to the beach because of what they might see. People make up their own rules that have nothing to do with tradition but with their own irks and quirks. They are the new Puritans. And as a historian I can tell you that standards of modesty among Catholics have changed and fluctuated a great deal for 2000+ years. I will  never forget the reaction of a devout lady when she was shown the original edition of my novel Trianon with the beautiful LeBrun portrait of Marie-Antoinette and her children on the cover. "She's wearing a low-cut dress!" was the exclamation. As for immodesty being connected to rape, Muslim women are raped even when they are covered from head to toe. And what about all the nuns raped by Communists? And I have lamented about all the young Catholic women making themselves deliberately unattractive in ugly, shapeless clothes as a badge of piety.

Lindsay T. has an interesting series of articles on her substack.

The virtue of modesty is defined in the Catechism as “a virtue of the heart” which “guides how one looks at others and behaves toward them in conformity with the dignity of persons”.^[7] How men and women dress is important, but judgement of one’s degree of modesty is not the responsibility of the on-looker. In fact, the on-looker should employ modesty in how he looks and behaves towards the other person.

Pope John Paul II, in his book Love and Responsibility, also places responsibility of chaste thoughts on the on-looker:

The virtue of chastity is underdeveloped in anyone who is slow to affirm the value of the person and allows the values of sex to reign supreme: these, once they take possession of the will distort one’s whole attitude to a person of the other sex. The essence of Chastity consists in quickness to affirm the value of the person in every situation.^[8]

If an onlooker is tempted to lust by a woman wearing yoga pants or spaghetti straps, I would suggest their attitude towards the other sex has been distorted; they have allowed “the values of sex to reign supreme.” The focus should be on affirming “the value of the person in every situation.”

The culture around Franciscan University, though it professes to teach and encourage a Catholic sexual ethic, has proven repeatedly that it does not affirm “the value of the person in every situation” when it comes to cases of harassment and assault. In fact, it has repeatedly favored the perpetrator—which is most often male—and has scapegoated alleged victims—who are most often female. The questions that female students have received upon reporting harassment or assault prove the strength of the prevailing group theory: It can’t be the man’s fault. There must be something the girl did to incite, invite, or welcome that behavior.

[....]

As a Catholic woman and mother, it concerns and affects me when, at the local Catholic high school, a teacher who is also a Franciscan graduate tells a classroom that “rape culture” is a product of feminism (See Krason: “The sexual harassment frenzy… is the latest poison from the Sexual Revolution”) and many men’s lives have been ruined by false accusations. This group theory that women are responsible for men’s purity is a part of their cultural evangelism. The University’s sexual assault misinformation spreads with conviction. As long as this group theory can subsist—that women are responsible for male virtue—then the friars can sidestep accountability. A University that has protected abusers (who are overwhelmingly male) and mishandled (overwhelmingly female) students’ reports of harassment and assault will be seen as not only blameless, but as a conservative institution battling the woke, feminist agenda of “rape culture” (I hope that sounds as crazy to you as it does to me). (Read more.)

NOTE: Yes, there is a jab at Trump for something coarse he said years ago. He was saying how rich and powerful men are often able to get away with grotesque behavior towards women. He was not advocating the bad behavior, which is obvious when one hears the entire conversation.

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The Death of Richard III

From Medievalists:

On 22 August 1485 Richard III, the last Plantagenet king of England was killed at the Battle of Bosworth. Exactly how and who carried out the killing remains shrouded in mystery. Having seen his battle line collapsing under the French flank attack, Richard charged Henry Tudor and his bodyguard. He immediately killed William Brandon, Henry’s standard bearer. The standard crashed to the ground only to be picked up, according to Welsh tradition, by Rhys ap Maredudd (Rhys Fawr).

Henry must have been close, because we are told by Vergil that next in Richard’s path was the 6 foot 8 inch John Cheyney. with great force drove him to the ground. Vergil tells us that at this moment ‘Henry abode the brunt longer than ever his owne soldiers wold have wenyd, who wer now almost owt of hope of victory.’ Holinshed says that Richard was no more than a sword point away from Henry, and Michael Drayton in his poem says they were ‘scarce a lance length’ apart. Victory was now within Richard’s grasp. (Read more.)

 More on Richard III: HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.

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Manipulated Polls

 From The Enterprise:

A $20 bill that a bank teller miscounts is still a $20 bill. A $20 bill printed in a basement is something else. Median Strategies appears to have done the second thing to two elections in one week, inventing the voters, the interviews, the methodology, and the results, then posting the product under a corporate-sounding name the day before Wisconsin Democrats chose a nominee for governor. Calling the stunt a "social experiment" after it was exposed does not convert attempted election fraud into political science.

On August 10, one day before Wisconsin's Democratic gubernatorial primary, an anonymous shop calling itself Median Strategies published a supposed survey putting Francesca Hong at 46.3% and David Crowley at 22.6%. The release came with a sample, field dates, a methodology statement, and a name that sounded like one you might already have heard of. Someone reading it on a phone the night before the primary would have seen the ordinary furniture of a real poll and had no reason, from the face of the document, to treat it as fiction. The poll did not exist.

Crowley won the August 11 primary 39.8% to Hong's 39.3%, a margin of 3,796 votes. Median had overstated Hong's advantage by more than 24 points. That gap is not a polling miss, because no voters were interviewed and no sample was ever in the field.

Median did not confess when the returns came in. On August 12, it behaved like a legitimate firm that had simply gotten Wisconsin wrong "by quite a margin," the kind of rueful note a real shop posts after a blowup, the kind of note that keeps the brand intact for whatever it planned to publish next. The next release arrived the following day. (Read more.)

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Death of the Great God Pan

 From The Greek Reporter:

One of the strangest stories to survive from the ancient world of the Greeks tells of a mysterious voice heard across the sea announcing something almost unthinkable. According to the voice, the Greek god Pan was dead.

The story was recorded by the Greek philosopher and historian Plutarch in his work On the Obsolescence of Oracles, written during the Roman period. Rather than recounting a familiar myth about a god battling monsters or interfering in human affairs, Plutarch presented the episode almost like a contemporary report. He included named witnesses, specific geographical locations, and even an investigation allegedly ordered by the Roman emperor.

The story raises an enduring mystery about what Plutarch believed had happened and why the death of Pan would have been considered such a remarkable event. It also offers a glimpse into how ancient Greeks understood their gods, oracles, and the changing religious world around them. (Read more.)

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The Callisto

 

I am fascinated by tiny houses. From Autoevolution:

Callisto is a single-level tiny house, and within its 320 square feet (29.7 square meters) of floorspace (400 square feet/37 square meters for the 40-foot-long version), you get a spacious living room, a well-equipped kitchen with a separate kitchen island, a full bathroom, and a private bedroom. Everything is on the ground level, offering the comfort and accessibility many are looking for.

This home features two matching entry doors that flank the living space, creating a balanced and symmetrical layout. The main entrance door on the left opens directly into the kitchen, while the secondary glass door across the room breaks up the wall space in the living area, seamlessly connecting the lounge and dining area to the outside.

The central kitchen is cleverly split into highly functional parallel workstations that optimize the use of space and increase functionality. On one side, a linear row of base and upper cabinets forms the main cooking area, with generous counter space, a built-in range, a microwave, and a full-size stainless steel fridge. (Read more.)

 

 

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