Tea at Trianon

5 Obsession-Driven Noir Films Adapted from Novels

2026-06-03T02:00:00.000-04:00

From Laura (1944)

When I first heard Sting’s lyrics to “Every Breath You Take,” the song’s chilling, threatening tone made me genuinely uneasy. Was someone watching me? Should I be looking over my shoulder? It seemed he had written a definitive stalker’s anthem. And yet, as unsettling as it was, the song was the sole number one hit for The Police and won a Grammy award for Song of the Year in 1984.

Are we obsessed with obsession? Possibly. Obsessive characters abound in creative works, and as I thought about it, several of my favorite films immediately came to mind. Characters with unrelenting fixations drive the disturbing plots of the following classic noir or noir-ish films, all craftily adapted from popular novels.
I recall reading Daphne du Maurier’s suspenseful masterpiece, Rebecca, in high school. I became immediately intrigued by the tangled tale of “the first Mrs. de Winter,” the beautiful and captivating Rebecca. Presumed to have died in a tragic boating accident near Manderley, her husband’s family’s estate on the southern shore of England, she reaches out from her watery grave to extend a forceful hold on the lives of those who loved or hated her. Her former temperamental husband Maxim, the naively insecure “second Mrs. de Winter,” and Manderley’s sinister housekeeper Mrs. Danvers, are all trapped, unable to escape from Rebecca’s manipulative grasp, as if she were stalking and haunting them from the afterlife.

And Mrs. Danvers, a name that has become synonymous with wickedness in film lore, is especially vulnerable. “Danny” professes that she would do anything for her former mistress, and her unrelenting obsession ultimately leads to devastation and her own demise. Hitchcock’s Gothic film noir adaptation, riveting and true to du Maurier’s novel, won Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Cinemaphotography (Black and White). (Read more.)

Is The Democratic Party Too Obsessive About Abortion?

2026-06-03T01:00:00.000-04:00

From Creative Destruction Media:

Over a century ago, Margaret Sanger founded Planned Parenthood, openly stating then that the goals were to “reduce the birth rates of black and brown babies as well as defectives.” Those goals were erased from the organization’s history long ago, but that was the original intent. For decades, abortion was under the jurisdiction of state laws, until it wasn’t.

In the early 1970’s, a case (Roe v Wade) came before the Supreme Court regarding the right of a woman to have an abortion. The court found that a woman had a right to privacy under the Due Process Clause of the 14^th amendment, up until fetus viability. The ruling overturned state laws governing abortion and nationalized the issue. The ruling supercharged Planned Parenthood and other resources as abortion services greatly expanded across the country.

In 2022, the Supreme Court issued the Dobbs v Jackson opinion, concluding that the US Constitution does not confer a right to abortion. The ruling found that state governments had the authority to regulate any aspect of abortion not preempted by federal law, as “direct control of medical practice in the states is beyond the power of the federal government.” In effect, the Supreme Court found it had no jurisdiction on the matter of abortion. (Read more.)

Icons and Faith

2026-06-03T00:00:00.000-04:00

From Sister Armelle:

Icons speak to faith.
How?
They represent the truths of faith in a visual manner using a theological langage of signs and symbols.
They are theology in lines and colors.
It is not for “entertainment” or emotional support.
Icons are “dogmatic” before being esthetic (even though the esthetic part is important because truth is beautiful).
They show the dogmas of the faith visually and contemplatively. It is why an iconographer should be a theologian more than an artist. It is why also an icon is built on tradition more than creativity.
Iconography uses the langage of symbols to convey and mediates the truths of faith.
It is a symbolic art and not a realistic art, because it represents spiritual realities beyond the natural world.
Like Jesus when he was explaining the mystery of the Kingdom of God through parables and allegories.
Because the “Sacred”, the “Holy”, the “Spiritual’ is beyond our natural grasp, we need symbols to bridge the gap, to reveal and at the same times conceal them.
To reveal and conceal. To make present, represent, but also to separate, to distinguish, to set apart from what is natural and visible. To keep the transcendant aspect when revealing the immanent gift.
Iconography is primarily a spiritual art, a contemplative art that demands and foster a deep spiritual life. (Read more.)

Legendary Crown Jewels

2026-06-02T02:00:00.000-04:00

From Only Natural Diamonds:

According to Daughters, the Danish Crown Jewels came very close to taking the top spot because they are among the clearest examples of uninterrupted monarchical continuity in Europe. The collection remains remarkably intact and exceptionally well preserved, offering a rare glimpse into how royal regalia can survive centuries of political and cultural change while remaining deeply tied to national identity.

Daughters notes that the Danish Crown Jewels are especially significant because of their extraordinary continuity and preservation. “The British and Danish crown jewels are perhaps the strongest examples of monarchical continuity in Europe,” he says. While Britain’s regalia reflects both continuity and reinvention following the destruction of the original Crown Jewels during the English Civil War, Denmark’s collection “has remained almost entirely intact,” creating what he describes as “a rare sense of unbroken cultural identity.”

He also explained that Denmark’s regalia functions differently than many other royal collections in Europe. “In Denmark, the regalia feels more closely tied to national heritage and cultural continuity, serving as an enduring public symbol of Danish history,” he says. That connection between the monarchy and national identity has helped transform the jewels from historical treasures into living cultural artefacts still woven into modern royal life. (Read more.)

California Dreaming

2026-06-02T01:00:00.000-04:00

From Tierney's Real News:

President Trump has endorsed Steve Hilton and Hilton asked Bianco to drop out so that a Republican can advance to the general. He is refusing. The latest polls show there is NO WAY for Bianco to win yet he refuses to drop out and support Hilton so that he CAN!
Why Bianco won’t drop out is the real question. He trails badly and has no path to win, yet he stays in and splits conservative votes — exactly what Democrats need for their “doomsday scenario” to play out.
Why? Because Bianco is another Koch Libertarian 3rd party ringer - a Democrat in disguise - who wants to split the vote and help Democrats win! His actions PROVE THAT. Bianco is on camera stating he’s for amnesty! There’s no denying it!
BIANCO: “California is one of the largest immigrant populations in the country and illegal immigrant populations in the country. But we have to address it. We have to make it right. Whether they came across illegally into the country — legally or not — is irrelevant, because we allowed it to happen. So now we just have to fix it. Secure our borders. Don’t let it happen again. And now we have to give a path to citizenship to the ones that are here.” (Read more.)

Make Humans Great Again

2026-06-02T00:00:00.000-04:00

From Chronicles:

One day in the 1960s, in a forest in Tanzania, a 26-year-old British ethologist watched a chimpanzee she had nicknamed “David Greybeard” digging termites out of a mound with a stick. Birds had long been known to use “tools”—Egyptian vultures drop stones onto eggs to crack them open, and Darwin had seen finches on the Galapagos Islands using cactus spines to pry insects out of wood. But Jane Goodall was astounded to see a mammal doing something similar. It strengthened in her mind something that had often been surmised—that chimpanzees were proto-humans, us as we used to be millions of years before we diverged into Australopithecus, Neanderthal, and, finally, Sapiens.

Humans have always been fascinated by primates. African animists worshipped gorillas as gods, the Dayaks of Borneo saw orangutans as near-kin (“orangutan” means “people of the forest”), and Westerners encountering primates after the 16th century embraced them as pets and circus animals. We would later derive endless entertainment from the likes of King Kong, Tarzan, Planet of the Apes, and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Linnaean taxonomy and Darwinian evolution can even be seen as systematizations of an ancient obsession with the “wild men” of legends—hirsute forest-dwellers both disconcertingly familiar and dangerously fey.

Goodall had been a student of the paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey, originator of the “out of Africa” theory of human evolution, who was likewise fascinated by the great apes. Other 20th-century influencers famously interested in apes included Robert Yerkes, the once-celebrated psychologist who devised intelligence tests for the U.S. Army, and whose 1925 book Almost Human recounted his delight in the company of Prince Chim, an “intellectual genius” of a bonobo, with whom he shared his New Hampshire home.

Growing liberalization and secularization of thought over the 20th century would encourage new ways of viewing ourselves and animals. By 1965, Goodall was on the cover of National Geographic, celebrating the chimpanzee as an almost-person—no mere bundle of Brownian instincts, but a distant cousin, whose obvious skeletal similarities were mirrored by humanlike behavioral traits. (Goodall herself was careful never to read too much into chimpanzees’ apparent “emotions,” however.) (Read more.)

The Real Pride Month

2026-06-01T02:00:00.000-04:00

Madame Elisabeth, Dauphin Louis-Charles, Marie-Antoinette, Louis XVI and Madame Royale assisting at Mass at the Tuileries

From The European Conservative:

Such dislike, though, would be a mistake, because June has a much older and worthier title: the Month of the Sacred Heart. Not well known outside Catholic circles, devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is in one sense as old as Christianity, when St. Longinus’ lance pierced it and out flowed blood and water, prefiguring Baptism and the Eucharist. In the Patristic and medieval eras, saints and mystics wrote of it, and of the salvific nature of the wounds and precious blood of Christ. In the latter period, these were ever more bound up with the growth of devotion to the Blessed Sacrament (and miracles arising therefrom) and the stories of the Holy Grail. It was under the banner of the Five Wounds that the Pilgrimage of Grace marched out against Henry VIII in defence of the Old Religion.

Our current version, though, dates back to the 17th century, with the revelations of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. While bound up with making reparation to the Saviour who loves us so much, and suffered death to redeem us, the devotion from the beginning has had a social aspect. One of the requests made to St. Margaret Mary by Jesus was that Louis XIV consecrate his kingdom to the Sacred Heart and place the emblem on his flags and battle colours. This he did not do. But the devotion was taken up by many other royals: Queen Henriette Marie, consort of England’s Charles I; her daughter-in-law, Marie of Modena, James II’s queen; King Augustus I of Poland; King Philip V of Spain; Louis XV’s consort, Queen Marie Leczinska; her father, King Stanislaus of Poland, and her son, the Dauphin Louis; King Augustus III of Poland; Elector Maximilian III of Bavaria; SG Madame Elisabeth of France; her brother, King Louis XVI, who consecrated France privately to the Sacred Heart, and vowed to so publicly if he regained his throne; Maria, Queen of Portugal; King Charles X of France; Henri V, de jure king of France; SG King Francesco II of the Two Sicilies; Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary, and his wife Sophie; Bl. Emperor-King Karl of Austria-Hungary, and his wife, SG Zita; King Alfonso XIII of Spain; Albert I, King of the Belgians; Carlist heir Alfonso Carlos I; and a host of others down to the present.

Such counterrevolutionaries as the Vendeens, the Tiroleans under Andreas Hofer, the Spanish Carlists, and the Mexican Cristeros adopted it as their special badge. Garcia Moreno, president of Ecuador, consecrated his country to the Sacred Heart with its bishops in 1873. Following this, several Latin American countries began performing this national consecration: El Salvador (1874), Venezuela (1900), Colombia (1902), Nicaragua (1920), Costa Rica (1921), Brazil (1922), and Bolivia (1925). In Europe, Ireland’s bishops followed suit in 1873, Spain in 1919, and Poland in 1920. Across Europe and the world, shrines were dedicated in honour of the Sacred Heart—most notably that of Montmartre in Paris. In architecture alone, the Sacred Heart devotion has given the world a priceless treasure to be proud of, to say nothing of the stalwart folk who rallied around the emblem in defence of Christendom’s soul. (Read more.)

Once again, we try to make it clear that Marie-Antoinette never made a comment about cake, brioche, etc. And she was not a spendthrift but probably spent less than other queens, and definitely less than all the mistresses. From All That's Interesting:

Some historians have suggested that revolutionaries caught wind of the quote “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche” from Rousseau’s writings, then falsely credited it to their despised queen as a form of propaganda. But even this does not hold up to modern scrutiny.

The earliest known source that connected the phrase to Marie Antoinette was the French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr. In an 1843 issue of the journal Les Guêpes, Karr wrote that he found the quote originally in a “book dated 1760,” which he said meant that the rumor about Marie Antoinette must have been false, as she’d have been about five years old at the time the book was published. So, it’s very possible that the French citizens were indeed circulating the propaganda against the queen, though clearly not everyone was buying it.
Why, then, has the misquote carried on for nearly 300 years?

“It did not come to be misattributed to Marie Antoinette during the 18th century, but during the Third French Republic starting in 1870, when a careful program of reconstructing the historical past took place,” Denise Maior-Barron, an adjunct professor at Claremont Graduate University in California, told Live Science.
While the French Revolution of 1789 is considered to be the major revolution in France’s history, it is not the only time the French people rose up against their government.

Towards the end of the 19th century, France saw another major shift in power when members of the Third French Republic dethroned Napoleon III following his failed war against Prussia. Those same republicans then sought to effectively rewrite bits of France’s history to paint key figures in a different light — particularly, the disfavored queen Marie Antoinette.

“The masterminds of the French Revolution destroyed the French monarchy by continually attacking, and eventually destroying, its most important symbols: the king and the queen of France,” Maior-Barron said. “For this reason the ‘Let them eat cake’ type of clichés persist.” (Read more.)

Tax-Raising Democrats Could Learn a Cautionary Tale from the UK

2026-06-01T01:00:00.000-04:00

From Chronicles:

In a nocturnal video posted to his office’s YouTube channel, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani greeted this year’s April 15 tax day by announcing, “I said I was going to tax the rich. Well, today we’re taxing the rich.” Mamdani, who won the mayoralty by an absolute majority last November, recorded his video on Central Park South, one of the city’s poshest streets, in front of hedge-fund billionaire Ken Griffin’s apartment building as music that sounded vaguely like the soundtrack to HBO’s Succession played in the background. Mamdani chose the location with purpose: Griffin represents, to him, “the richest of the rich,” and therefore a source of revenue to fund his social programs via a “pied-à-terre tax.” The new levy will tax second homes owned in New York by non-residents valued at $5 million or more.
Griffin responded in a CNBC interview, saying he may reconsider a $6 billion construction project that would create an estimated 15,000 permanent jobs in New York and instead focus on future projects in Miami, where he resides. Quoted in the Wall Street Journal describing Mamdani’s video as “creepy and weird,” Griffin added that Mamdani’s singling him out “put me in harm’s way.” President Trump has weighed in, telling radio host Sid Rosenberg that any city’s mayor should “cherish” business leaders and “convince them not to leave” rather than drive them away.

According to the New York Post, Mamdani has reached out to Griffin to ease the tensions but received no response. If Mamdani needs more evidence that he might be in the wrong, however, he should look across the pond to the United Kingdom, whose Labour Party, in office since 2024, has raised taxes and abolished its so-called “non-domicile” (“non-dom”) tax exemption for the non-UK income of foreign nationals who reside in Britain. (Britain, like almost all countries except the United States, does not tax its own citizens’ foreign-earned income).

The results have been a disaster. According to figures cited by the Daily Telegraph, some 10,800 millionaires expatriated from the UK in 2024 alone, an average of one every 45 minutes. More jarring evidence came on May 15, just days after Griffin’s CNBC interview, when the Times of London released its 38^th annual “Rich List,” a compendium of the country’s richest 350 individuals, including UK citizens worldwide and foreign citizens residing in Britain. (Read more.)

The Ancient Philosophy of Brutality in Euripides’ Cyclops

2026-06-01T00:00:00.000-04:00

From The Collector:

Euripides’ Cyclops is the only satyr play that has survived intact. We do not know anything about the performance history of this play, or why or even when exactly it was written. The plot borrows from well-known versions of Odysseus’ encounter with the cyclops Polyphemus. The plot is simple and brutal, but with comic elements provided by Silenus and the satyrs. The play is perhaps easy to dismiss, but Euripides raises some interesting questions about power and brutality.
The three main characters in the play are Polyphemus, a cyclops; Odysseus, the cunning Homeric hero; and Silenus, the former companion and tutor of Dionysus. There are also a number of satyrs, described as Silenus’ sons, that act as the chorus. Odysseus’ shipwrecked crew is present, but none have speaking roles and were probably not depicted on stage.

Silenus has a few guises in Greek mythology. Sometimes he is depicted as a drunken man and other times as a satyr-like creature. In Euripides’ Cyclops, he is depicted as an old man. In the play, Silenus is toadying, coarse, sly, and greedy. He is there for comic effect, as are his sons, the satyrs. Odysseus is the same character we see in the Odyssey. He uses his cunning to outsmart the cyclops and escape. However, in Euripides’ play, we do not see all of the tricks Odysseus uses in Homer’s story.

Polyphemus is a cyclops. He lives on an island with his cyclops brothers. They are referenced but not seen. Cyclopes are solitary creatures and self-sufficient. Polyphemus lives off the sheep, which he forces the satyrs to look after. They were captured and enslaved after becoming shipwrecked on the island. Polyphemus is brutish but not unintelligent. He believes himself to be superior to the gods by virtue of his brute strength. (Read more.)

Why Constantinople’s Fall Was Not Inevitable

2026-05-31T02:00:00.000-04:00

From The Greek Reporter:

Historian Anthony Kaldellis, Professor of Classics at the University of Chicago, challenges the long-held idea that the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 was inevitable, arguing that the siege should be understood through the specific military and tactical factors that shaped its outcome.

Speaking to Greek Reporter about his new book, 1453: The Conquest and Tragedy of Constantinople, Kaldellis explains that historians cannot prove that an event was inevitable because they have only one historical timeline to go by. “In a sense, nothing in history is inevitable,” Kaldellis tells Greek Reporter. “We can’t go back and run experiments to see if we change certain variables what would happen.”

His argument is directed against the idea that Constantinople’s fall was inevitable, a view he noted appears across scholarship, novels, journalism, and online commentary. Rather than reading 1453 backward from its outcome, Kaldellis argues that the event should be examined through the variables that determined the result “one way or another.” (Read more.)

More HERE, HERE, and HERE.

Another Obama Judge

2026-05-31T01:00:00.000-04:00

From Tierney's Real News:

I don’t know about you but I’m exhausted by all the corruption, obstruction and deceit from Obama judges and prosecutors. For years, Trump supporters have watched the same script play out over and over again: President Trump tries to fix something, drain some swamp creatures or deliver results for the American people—and the permanent Washington machine responds with lawsuits, activist judges, and the familiar cast of Obama-driven operatives.
The latest act played out at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. A federal judge blocked urgent renovations to a crumbling national landmark and ordered Trump’s name stripped from the building. This wasn’t neutral justice. It was judicial power-grab meets lawfare, engineered by the same Obama-tied networks that have spent a decade trying to stop Trump.
On May 29, 2026—conveniently on JFK’s birthday—U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, an Obama appointee, issued a sweeping 94-page ruling. He blocked the board’s plan for a full two-year closure needed for $257 million in critical structural repairs funded by Congress in the Big Beautiful Bill and declared that only Congress could alter the Kennedy Center’s name. (Read more.)

Why Christians Shouldn't Fear Abstraction

2026-05-31T00:00:00.000-04:00

From Hilary White at The Sacred Images Project:

You’ve seen these a thousand times, in a thousand iterations of nonsense. And you’ve spent your life, if you’ve bothered to pay attention, being gaslighted by our Elites and Betters into believing that if you see nonsense, it’s your fault. You’ve been told, explicitly or implicitly, that these and others in this vein represent the highest achievements of modern artistic culture. And that if you don’t respond to them, if you don’t feel something profound in front of them, the problem is you.
And I’m here to tell you that you’re right; it’s bollocks. I completely affirm you in this: the Emperor is, in fact, stark nekkid.
A great deal of what is called abstract art in the modern art world is nothing more than transgressive and subversive deconstruction. It isn’t trying to help you see any true thing clearly, or help you know something true. In fact it is an attempt to break reality, to reduce truths to meaningless components, taking things like colour, form, line etc. and treating them as ends of their own, without the connecting thread of meaning or purpose. (Read more.)

Henrietta Maria: Number One Lawbreaker

2026-05-30T02:00:00.000-04:00

Henrietta Maria holding a butterfly

My guest post at an amazing site called Novels Alive.

In the lone tent, waiting for victory,
She stands with eyes marred by the mists of pain,
Like some wan lily overdrenched with rain:
The clamorous clang of arms, the ensanguined sky,
War’s ruin, and the wreck of chivalry
To her proud soul no common fear can bring:
Bravely she tarrieth for her Lord the King,
Her soul a-flame with passionate ecstasy.
~from “Henrietta Maria” by Oscar Wilde

Henriette-Marie of France, or “Henrietta Maria,” is the protagonist of my new novel My Queen, My Love (Mayapple Books, November 25, 2021), the first of the Henrietta of France Trilogy. It is the story of the fifteen-year-old princess Henriette-Marie who is mandated by the Pope and by her brother the King of France to convert the English back to Catholicism by marrying their King, Charles I. Meanwhile, the Catholic Faith is outlawed in the British Isles, so as Queen she becomes the number one lawbreaker. The powerful Duke of Buckingham tries to thwart her growing influence with her husband. And England has become known as a place where queens lose their heads.
[...]
As Regent, Queen Marie chose to avoid war by making peace with the other Catholic powers of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. She believed that Catholic monarchies should unite to keep Protestantism at bay. She sent her youngest daughter Henriette to marry in England because she believed there was a chance of bringing Charles I into Catholicism. So at fifteen years old Henriette-Marie aka Henrietta Maria was sent to marry Charles Stuart, who was a decade or so older. The royal couple initially clashed over culture and religion. They quarreled whenever together and so avoided each other for weeks at a time. When they finally did fall in love, theirs became one of the most devoted in the history of royal marriages, and was blessed with nine children. (Read more.)

A review from Gwendalyn's Books:

Henrietta is one to root for as we see the very young bride overcome so many obstacles. Particularly because she is a devout Catholic, and by the actions of the villainess character, George Villiers.

The author take great care to include a vast amount of characters, which made for a more rewarding read for me. A book to catapult its readers into the turbulent era of England in the 1600’s. From the beginning I was hooked and read this one in a day.

Historical fiction at its finest. This was an exceptional portrait of a the wife of Charles I. Brought stunningly to life, with seamless narration and three dimensional characters, a true treasure piece of historical fiction.

E.M. Vidal meticulous research and descriptive writing, has brought one of England’s most tragic queens, Henrietta Maria, vividly to life. (Read more.)

Britain Mourned George Floyd. Why Won't It Mourn Henry Nowak?

2026-05-30T01:00:00.000-04:00

From Amuse on X:

Begin, then, with the deaths a nation could not stop talking about. When George Floyd died under a Minneapolis officer’s knee in May 2020, Britain responded as though the killing had happened in Bristol rather than 4,000 miles away. The Guardian’s own survey of that summer found demonstrations in more than 260 British towns and cities, from Shetland to south Wales, with crowds of 15,000 in Manchester and well over 210,000 marchers nationwide by mid June. The future Prime Minister knelt for the cameras. This is worth dwelling on, because it proves something the British establishment now seems eager to deny about itself. It is fully capable of treating a police death on another continent as a domestic moral emergency. The machinery exists. The will exists. The question is only when it switches on.
Now set against that the case of Henry Nowak. Last December, Nowak, an 18-year-old finance student at the University of Southampton, walked home from an evening out with his football teammates and was stabbed five times by Vickrum Digwa with a 8.5 inch blade, one wound piercing his heart. When officers arrived, Digwa told them what prosecutors would later call a wicked lie, that he was the victim of a racist attack. The gravely wounded teenager told police he had been stabbed. They handcuffed him anyway. They arrested the dying boy on the word of the man who had killed him, and only when Nowak collapsed did they remove the cuffs and begin first aid. He died at the scene. This week a Southampton jury convicted Digwa of murder, rejecting his claims of self defence and racial provocation, and convicted his mother of assisting an offender for hiding the weapon. Hampshire’s Deputy Chief Constable apologized that Henry was handcuffed and arrested in the moments before he lost consciousness, the Independent Office for Police Conduct opened an investigation, and his reported final words, according to trial reporting and the shadow home secretary, were the three that a nation had treated as sacred only six years earlier: I can’t breathe.
Let me anticipate the first and fairest objection, because the strength of this argument depends on conceding it. The two deaths are not medically identical, and no honest observer should pretend otherwise. Floyd was wasn’t killed by the police but from a fatal overdose of fentanyl according the coroner’s report. Nowak was murdered by a private criminal, and Hampshire Police have cited a pathologist’s view that the depth of the chest wound meant officers could not have saved him even had they believed every word he said. If the claim here were that the police killed Henry Nowak in the way Democrats claimed an officer killed George Floyd, that claim would be false. But that was never the comparison worth making. The variable under examination is not the cause of death. It is the response of a society to a death, and on that variable the two cases are almost laboratory clean. (Read more.)

Beatings, Bible and Latin: Life as a 17th Century Grammar Schoolboy

2026-05-30T01:00:00.000-04:00

From BBC:

Beatings, Latin translations and Bible studies - a 17th Century grammar schoolboy received a very different style of education from today's students. An exhibition at Huntingdon's former grammar school explores how teaching and learning have changed over the centuries in the Cambridgeshire town.
Curator Stuart Orme said: "Birching (beating with birch twigs) was quite common in the 17th Century and the birch was the symbol of the schoolmaster." The tiny medieval building is now the Cromwell Museum. Its former pupils included the statesman Oliver Cromwell, diarist Samuel Pepys and wartime evacuees.
Most 17th Century school teachers were priests at a time when it was seen as a part-time job, requiring only preaching on Sundays and performing wedding or funeral services, said Orme. Cromwell (1599 to 1658) attended the school between 1610 and 1616, and the local priest Thomas Beard was the future Parliamentarian leader's teacher. Beard found the duties too much, said Orme, and asked to be released in 1614, saying he was "tired with my painful occupation of teaching and would gladly now be set free" - but was not allowed to stand down. (Read more.)

Baby Charles

2026-05-29T02:00:00.000-04:00

King Charles II as a baby, born on May 29, 1630 (OS). From the National Portrait Gallery:

This is the earliest known portrait of the future king. It was painted, according to the French inscription, when he was four months and fifteen days old. At this age he was described by his mother, Henrietta Maria, as 'so fat and so tall that he is taken for a year old'. The painting was probably sent to the prince's godmother and grandmother, Marie de' Medici, Queen Mother of France. The dog, held by the ear, is a toy spaniel, a breed which later came to be associated with Charles as King. (Read more.)

A Republic Requires Restraint

2026-05-29T01:00:00.000-04:00

From Unlicensed Punditry:

I consider myself a traditional American. I’m neither special nor exceptional because tens (maybe even hundreds) of millions of people of my age are just as traditional as I am. It isn’t so much about us, it is about what we were taught.
Of the many things I learned as I matured, one of which was manners--but what we casually call “manners” are something much more important. They are the small acts of voluntary self-restraint that make a free society possible. Standing in line without cutting, not standing up in front of others at a concert or ballgame, cleaning up after yourself in public places, obeying rules at public gatherings, yielding space to others, lowering your voice in shared environments, and simply saying “excuse me” or “thank you” are not meaningless social rituals. They are evidence that a person understands he is not the center of the universe.
So, what are we to make of the videos of subsets of black Americans twerking at college graduations, black parents blocking the views of seated attendees at these graduations and then basically telling other people to get F’ed when asked to sit down, teens doing violent “takeovers”, violent fights breaking out between patrons and employees at restaurants?
Behavior is not racial, it is cultural—and these are cultures antithetical to the legitimate culture of America.
What we are seeing now goes well beyond simple bad manners. People blast music and videos in restaurants, airports, and public transit as though everyone else has been conscripted into their personal world. Airline passengers melt down over minor inconveniences, restaurant patrons scream at employees or assault them over trivial disputes, and “prank culture” increasingly consists of harassing strangers for internet clicks. Public spaces that once operated on a basic expectation of mutual respect are increasingly treated as stages for attention-seeking, grievance, and performative outrage. Even youth sporting events, which are supposed to teach discipline and teamwork, now sometimes devolve into adults fighting referees, coaches, and one another in front of children. (Read more.)

Islam’s Sexual Enslavement: A History in Paintings

2026-05-29T00:00:00.000-04:00

From Raymond Ibrahim:

Objectively speaking, the painting in question portrays a reality that has played out countless times over the centuries: African, Asiatic, and Middle Eastern Muslims have long targeted European women—so much so as to have enslaved millions of them over the centuries (see Sword and Scimitar for documentation).
Not only do elements of this phenomenon continue to this day—right smack in Europe—but there is something else, another medium besides writing, that documents this long history: countless more such paintings that feature the abduction, trafficking, and sexual enslavement of European women. Altogether they further underscore the ubiquity and notoriety of this phenomenon.
Indeed, this was such a well-known theme that many nineteenth and early twentieth century artists and painters specialized in it, often based on their own eye-witness accounts. (As one art gallery puts it, “Many … of the most important painters did travel [to the Muslim world] themselves, and what they painted was based on the sketches they had made while they were there…”)
Below are just 20 such paintings (there are many more). Aside from noting the artist’s name, year of painting, and, where possible, title—information which is often difficult to ascertain—I’ve limited my remarks to important asides and clarifications, mostly in the first few paintings, leaving the rest to speak for themselves. (Read more.)

Modern Americans Work More than Medieval Peasants

2026-05-28T02:00:00.000-04:00

From Nancy Bilyeau at the Vintage News:

“Before capitalism, most people did not work very long hours at all,” wrote Schor in her book. “Consider a typical working day in the medieval period. It stretched from dawn to dusk (sixteen hours in summer and eight in winter), but, as the Bishop Pilkington has noted, work was intermittent – called to a halt for breakfast, lunch, the customary afternoon nap, and dinner.”

Depending on time and place, there were also midmorning and midafternoon refreshment breaks. These rest periods were the traditional rights of laborers, which they enjoyed even during peak harvest times. During slack periods, which accounted for a large part of the year, adherence to regular working hours was not usual. According to Oxford Professor James E. Thorold Rogers, the medieval workday was not more than eight hours.

Plowing and harvesting were backbreaking toil, no doubt, but the peasant enjoyed anywhere from eight weeks to half the year off.

The Catholic Church, mindful of how to keep a population from rebelling, enforced frequent mandatory holidays. Weddings, wakes, and births might mean a week off to celebrate, “and when wandering jugglers or sporting events came to town, the peasant expected time off for entertainment,” according to Business Insider. “There were labor-free Sundays, and when the plowing and harvesting seasons were over, the peasant got time to rest, too.”

In fact, Schor found that during periods of particularly high wages, such as 14th-century England, peasants might put in no more than 150 days a year. “All told, holiday leisure time in medieval England took up probably about one-third of the year,” she wrote in her book. “And the English were apparently working harder than their neighbors. The ancien règime in France is reported to have guaranteed fifty-two Sundays, ninety rest days, and thirty-eight holidays. In Spain, travelers noted that holidays totaled five months per year.” (Read more.)

How Comrade Mamdani Will Appropriate Private Real Estate In New York City

2026-05-28T01:00:00.000-04:00

From AND Magazine:

Lest you think this is an exaggeration, here are some quotes by Cea Weaver, Mamdani’s point person on housing:
“Private property, including and kind of ESPECIALLY homeownership, is a weapon of white supremacy masquerading as ‘wealth building’ public policy.”
“Homeownership is racist/failed public policy.” ·
“For centuries, we’ve really treated property as an individualized good and not a collective good, and we are going to, in transitioning to treating it as a collective good and towards a model of shared equity, will require that we think about it differently... Families, especially White families, but some POC families who are homeowners as well, are going to have a different relationship to property than the one that we currently have.”
Cea hasn’t stopped at simply identifying the problem, however. She has been remarkably up front about exactly how to destroy the horrible capitalist, racist, cisgendered edifice she so detests.
“But investment in enforcement is not in itself enough,” Weaver wrote. The city, as the New York Post put it in an editorial, can then pass “laws that cause real-estate values to collapse.”
You need to understand that in Weaver’s world, the city’s “lack of a profit motive” is a great advantage. The city can ignore considerations of profit and loss and use its taxing and regulatory powers to drive out private actors. It can destroy private landlords and then seize control of their assets when they are forced to flee the market.
“With its multibillion-dollar capital budget, the city has the capacity to act as a non-speculative market actor: purchasing buildings where the landlord is no longer interested in ownership.”
“We need to combine the power to enforce housing standards and the power to finance and acquire rental housing — two capacities the city already has.”(Read more.)

Medieval Lepers

2026-05-28T00:00:00.000-04:00

From Archaeology Magazine:

Phys.org reports that Elena Fiorin of Sapienza University of Rome and her colleagues looked for mercury in samples of dental calculus taken from the remains of people buried at two medieval lepers’ hospitals, or leprosaria—Peterborough Abbey in England, which was founded in 1125, and Saint-Thomas-d’Aizier, built in the late eleventh century in Normandy, France. During the medieval period, the toxic metal was used to treat syphilis and leprosy in the form of ointments that were rubbed onto the skin. Samples of bones, teeth, and hair are usually used to test mercury levels in human remains. “Dental calculus offers a new and complementary perspective,” Fiorin said. “Because it forms in the mouth during life, it can capture substances that enter the body more directly, including medical treatments applied in or around the mouth,” she explained. The researchers also tested soil from the graves to see if mercury could have entered the dental calculus after burial, and analyzed the dental calculus of people who had been buried in non-leprosaria cemeteries in England and France. “Individuals buried in leprosaria show significantly higher mercury levels than those from other cemeteries, and our analyses indicate that this mercury was incorporated during life rather from the soil,” Fiorin said. “In addition, there is no evidence of local environmental sources, such as mining, that could explain these patterns.” Mercury detected in the soil at the leprosaria likely leached from contaminated bodies, since the levels of mercury in the dental calculus tended to be higher than those in the soil samples. The highest levels of mercury were found in the remains of two individuals who had been buried in a leprosarium chapel, perhaps indicating that they were elites with access to more medical treatment. Read the original scholarly article about this research in the Journal of Archaeological Science. To read more about chemical sampling of soil around burials, go to "Secrets of Life in the Soil." (Read more.)

The Man, the Ox, the Lion and the Eagle

2026-05-27T02:00:00.000-04:00

From Hilary White at the Sacred Images Project:

There is a running internet joke going around about “biblically accurate angels” that usually involves sticking googly eyes and extra wings onto random objects until they become progressively more horrifying. Like most jokes, it exists because there is a grain of truth behind it. The heavenly beings described in Scripture are often deeply strange, covered with eyes, multiple wings and composite forms, sometimes not even remotely anthropomorphised and seem designed less to comfort than to overwhelm the human imagination.
We’re going to take a brief look today at the background for these images, and we’ll learn how Christian artists traditionally rendered as symbols some of the strangest passages in Scripture.
You’ve seen them hundreds of times if you’ve ever looked at medieval art, even if you never noticed them consciously. Whenever you see an image of Christ enthroned, surrounded by the mandorla - the “Christ in Majesty” prototype we’ve discussed, you also see these four strange beings: a winged man who looks like an angel, a lion, an ox and an eagle, usually all with wings and halos. And it’s in nearly every single depiction of it, from illuminated manuscripts and book covers to Romanesque frescoes and carved Gothic tympana over church doors. (Read more.)

Tibet - Reincarnation With Communist Characteristics

2026-05-27T01:00:00.000-04:00

From AND Magazine:

During the recent summit with President Trump, Xi Jinping made clear his intention to “reunite” Taiwan, which is not historically part of China, with the People’s Republic. Another historically independent nation, Tibet, has already suffered this fate. Over a million Tibetans died in that “reunification” process, and for good measure, the CCP destroyed over 6000 Buddhist monasteries and temples.
But, if you want to get a full appreciation for what it means to be “reunited” with Communist China, you need to understand that Red China now presumes to control the succession of the Dalai Lama. Beijing has already occupied the physical. It now intends to occupy the metaphysical as well.
The Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism. The current Dalai Lama is Tenzin Gyatso. He is 90 years old. He lives in exile in India, having fled the Chinese occupation of his country, but remains widely regarded as the symbol of Tibetan resistance to Chinese tyranny. Given his advanced age, the question of who will succeed him is more than academic.
The Tibetans employ an elaborate religious process to choose the successor to a Dalai Lama. In brief, it is believed that when a Dalai Lama passes, he is reincarnated immediately in the body of someone else. The process, then, is effectively a hunt for that new individual, usually a child.
To find the Dalai Lama, other high lamas consult oracles, watch the direction of smoke emanating from the cremation of the deceased Dalai Lama, take note of natural events, and even watch to see which way the Dalai Lama is facing when he dies. When a possible successor is identified, these lamas then interview possible successors and test them. Candidates are shown personal items belonging to the old Dalai Lama, as well as “decoys,” and must correctly identify the items that “belong” to them. This is all a matter of looking for signs and delving into a world of mysticism, faith, and ancient history.
None of which means anything to the Communist abomination that is modern China.
The Chinese have no intention of allowing a bunch of Tibetan monks to choose their spiritual leader. They have declared they will choose. They have a ministry for just this task, and, of course, they have rules and regulations. (Read more.)

DNA Analysis of Christopher Columbus

2026-05-27T00:00:00.000-04:00

From Bored Panda:

Christopher Columbus may not have been who we thought, as researchers are closer to unraveling the mystery of his true identity. According to the widely accepted story about the famous explorer, he is a man of humble Italian origins. But a new genetic study has challenged this, saying he may be from a powerful and influential family elsewhere.
For centuries, history books have painted Columbus as a navigator of modest Italian origins.
Despite not being the first to make it to the Americas, he was the man credited with discovering the “New World” after convincing the Catholic Monarchs to finance a voyage that changed the course of history.
On August 3, 1492, he and his crew of nearly 100 people set sail from the port of Palos in southern Spain in three vessels: The Niña, Pinta, and Santa Maria.
To find a route to China and India was Columbus’ mission.
But after 35 days at sea and growing frustration among his crew, he nearly turned back. But the cry of land being spotted was heard at around 2 a.m. on October 12. And thus, Columbus had arrived in the Americas. (Read more.)

'Viva la Vida'

2026-05-26T02:00:00.000-04:00

One of my sisters insisted to me that I listen to the Coldplay song 'Viva la Vida'. She said it was about Louis XVI. I doubted that anything with a Spanish title, written by a liberal like Chris Martin, with Delacroix's painting honoring the 1830 Revolution on the cover, could have anything to do with my beloved Martyr-King. But I listened to humor her. And then listened again and again and again. I am now convinced that, in spite of the title and revolutionary imagery, the song is an ode honoring the immolation of His Most Christian Majesty Louis XVI. I have pondered the lyrics and what they express about his life, his passion and his death. At my sister's request, I have jotted down my thoughts here. The lyrics are from the Coldplay website. The comments in bold are mine.

I used to rule the world

At his coronation on June 11, 1775, Trinity Sunday, Louis XVI was anointed with the holy oils, including the miraculous chrism from the Holy Ampulla. He was invested in the ancient royal regalia, including the sword of Charlemagne. As the Most Christian King, Louis was first among the rulers of the world.

Seas would rise when I gave the word

Louis XVI rebuilt the French navy, which defeated the British in the American War for Independence.

Now in the morning I sleep alone
Sweep the streets I used to own

During his trial in late 1792 and early 1793, Louis XVI was separated from his wife and family and was in solitary confinement in the Temple prison even on Christmas Day, when he wrote his Will. I am not sure what the reference to sweeping the streets means, except that Louis was treated by the Temple guards with insults and disrespect.

I used to roll the dice
Feel the fear in my enemy’s eyes

Louis hated gambling, although it was rife at court. He did gamble when he chose to help the Americans, which was a successful gamble, and when he summoned the Estates-General in 1789, an unsuccessful gamble, which was used to overthrow him.

Listened as the crowd would sing
Now the old king is dead long live the king

Louis XVI was exceedingly popular when he came to the throne at 20 years old in 1774 at the death of his grandfather Louis XV.

One minute I held the key
Next the walls were closed on me

Louis was given the keys of the city of Paris when he formally visited in 1774 as Dauphin with his wife Marie-Antoinette, the city where he would eventually become a prisoner in October 1789.

And I discovered that my castles stand
Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand

The "pillars of salt" I am guessing refers to the refusal of the court to let go of the past, and the resistance, even in the royal family, to the reforms of Louis and Antoinette. The "pillars of sand" must refer to the bankruptcy inherited by Louis XVI from the last two monarchs, which he had to deal with from day one, in spite of the demands of the people for a glamorous court.

I hear Jerusalem bells a-ringing

Perhaps a reference to the heritage of crusader kings Louis VII and St. Louis IX. Louis XVI was named for the latter, with the saint's exact name of "Louis-Auguste."

Roman cavalry choirs are singing

The French monarchy was long regarded as a defender of the papacy and was thus given the title of Eldest Daughter of the Church.

Be my mirror, my sword and shield

Louis was gradually deprived of the splendor of his palace, his armed forces and his public worship of God. The "mirror" might refer to the famous Hall of Mirrors. Louis' "sword" I think represents the army he built up, and the "shield" means his Catholic faith, all of which were materially stripped from him. What did he have left until the last few months? His children, his sister and his wife. Marie-Antoinette was his mirror, sword and shield when all else was gone. And she defended him until the moment of her own death.

Missionaries in a foreign field

The Jesuit martyrs of North America are famous but people forget that Louis XVI sent out his own missionaries in the Lapérouse expedition.

For some reason I can’t explain
Once you’d gone there was never
Never an honest word
And that was when I ruled the world

Louis XVI was plunged into an acute depression when his oldest son Louis-Joseph died after a painful illness in June of 1789, just as Louis had to deal with the Estates-General and the chaos that followed.

It was a wicked and wild wind
Blew down the doors to let me in

Louis XVI would never have been king except that his older brother died of tuberculosis, a slow suffocation which people believed was caused by "bad" air. His son died of the same illness a few months before the mob broke into the palace and captured the Royal Family as prisoners.

Shattered windows and the sound of drums
People couldn’t believe what I’d become

This appears to refer to the raids upon the Palace of the Tuileries in June and August of 1792, in which much damage was done. On August 10, 1792, the Royal Family fled the mob to take refuge with the National Assembly, where they were arrested. The Swiss Guards were massacred.

Revolutionaries wait
For my head on a silver plate

A reference to the martyrdom of St. John the Baptist, beheaded by King Herod for taking a stand against sexual immorality. There were those who early on sought the death of the entire Royal Family. Louis, his wife and his sister, were guillotined.

Just a puppet on a lonely string
Oh who would ever want to be king?

When Louis was under house arrest at the Tuileries he was basically a puppet. In his Will he lamented the misfortune of being king.

I hear Jerusalem bells a-ringing
Roman cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror, my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field
For some reason I can’t explain
I know St Peter won’t call my name
Never an honest word
But that was when I ruled the world

Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh

Hear Jerusalem bells a-ringing
Roman cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror, my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field
For some reason I can’t explain
I know St Peter won’t call my name
Never an honest word
But that was when I ruled the world

"For some reason I can’t explain/ I know St Peter won’t call my name." This verse breaks my heart because I think it is a reference to how Louis XVI was originally advised by clerics to sign the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, which created a church independent of the papal supremacy. Louis felt so guilty he became ill, and when he eventually received guidance from the Pope on the matter he did everything he could to work against the document he had signed. Refusing to receive his Easter Communion in 1791 from a priest who had taken the oath to the government, he attempted to flee Paris with his family, to be captured at Varennes on the Feast of Corpus Christi. From the beginning of the ordeal, Marie-Antoinette refused to take the oath to the Civil Constitution and she and Madame Elisabeth, Louis' sister, arranged for secret Masses with priests who had not betrayed the papacy. Nevertheless, Louis' earlier perceived betrayal is the reason that has been given for why the Catholic Church, which he loved, has never beatified him.

"Never an honest word/ But that was when I ruled the world." Louis as ruler often had to go against his feelings and preferences. Although he was known to be blunt and forthright he had learned as a child to keep his thoughts to himself. Lies were told about him during his life: that he was an impotent imbecile under the thumb of his foreign wife. Lies are told about him to this day.

Anyway, this song captures the majesty of all that was great about the patrimony of the French monarchy, and how Louis had to take upon his shoulders the satanic rage of the fall of Christendom, while embodying in himself all the past courage, faith and mercy.