Tea at Trianon: What Are We Prepared To Do?

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, January 17, 2026

What Are We Prepared To Do?

From AND Magazine:

The Untouchables is a highly fictionalized film about Eliot Ness and his “Untouchables” and their part in bringing down Al Capone. During the film there is a memorable scene in which a tough old Irish beat cop, Sean Connery, schools Ness, played by Kevin Costner, on what it will take to bring down Capone. During that scene, Connery famously asks Ness, “What are you prepared to do?” to bring down Capone and then adds, “If he sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue.”
It’s wonderful if historically inaccurate theater. It’s also great advice in dealing with the ayatollahs.
The men who run Iran do not care about public opinion. They do not care about world opinion. They have no interest in dialogue or negotiation other than as a delaying tactic. They are on the right side of history. The Mahdi is coming. The end is near, and on the other side of Armageddon, they will rule.
Unless we are willing to submit to their control, we have two options. We can do our best to isolate revolutionary Iran, limit the damage it can do, and hope it ultimately collapses of its own weight. Or, we can actively work to crush the regime and give Iran back to the Iranian people.
Which brings us back to Connery and his question. “What are you prepared to do?” If regime change is the goal, then how are we going to achieve it? (Read more.)