Tea at Trianon: Something Dark Is Going On

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

Sunday, April 12, 2026

Something Dark Is Going On

From Chet Nagel:

Seven of those dead scientists were working for the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) or organizations to which it provides funding. AFRL develops the most sensitive technologies in the American defense arsenal.
1. Monica Jacinto Reza disappeared in the Angeles National Forest in California on 22 June 2025. Hiking with friends, she was last seen waving to a fellow hiker 30 feet behind the group. Her body was never found despite an intensive search involving drones, helicopters and canine units. The only items of hers that were found were a cap and lip balm.
Reza, 60 years old at the time of her disappearance, was an aerospace engineer and Technical Fellow at Aerojet Rocketdyne who later moved to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She was the co-inventor of the Monel alloy. The Monel family of nickel-based superalloys was developed by Aerojet Rocketdyne to withstand oxygen-rich environments and extreme heat in rocket engines.
Reza’s mentor and co-inventor of the Monel alloy, Dallis Hardwick, died on 5 January 2014, seemingly of natural causes.
She worked closely with Air Force Major General William “Neil” McCasland who commanded the AFRL from 2011 to 2013 and oversaw funding for her Monel alloy research program. (Read more.)