Tea at Trianon: An Invitation to Premier 'Dune: Part Three' at the Anti-Communist Film Festival

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

Monday, March 30, 2026

An Invitation to Premier 'Dune: Part Three' at the Anti-Communist Film Festival

From Mark Judge at Hot Air:

At its heart, Dune and its sequels offer a powerful argument against big government, high taxes, and political messiahs who promise to save the world. In fact Dune: Part Three would be a perfect fit for the Anti-Communist Film Festival. Director Villeneuve and star Timothee Chalamet can consider themselves both invited.
The world and politics of Dune have been expertly analyzed by Daniel Immerwahr, a professor at Northwestern University. Immerwahr has explored the two sides of Dune author Frank Herbert: The environmentalist who grew up in Washington state, hung out with hippies and did drugs in the 1970s, and whose mentor was an American Indian, and Frank Herbert, the conservative Republican who hated taxes and leaders who promised people everything only to go on a power trip.
Although raised by socialist parents, Herbert experienced commune living with Native Americans, and it filled him with hostility to the federal government. Herbert rejected “any kind of public charity system” because he “learned early on that our society’s institutions often weaken people’s self-reliance.” Herbert worked for four Republican candidates, including very conservative Guy Cordon, the US senator from Oregon. Cordon was pro-logging, pro-business, pro-military, anti-labor, anti-regulation, and a supporter of Joseph McCarthy. A book Herbert wrote before Dune calls Soviet agents “the sinister embodiment of everything evil.” (Read more.)