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French Revolution martyr beatified Father Pierre-Adrien Toulorge (1757-93), a Norbertine priest martyred during the French Revolution, was beatified on April 29 at the cathedral in Coutances, France. Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, presided at the beatification, which was attended by 1,500 faithful and hundreds of priests and religious. When Father Toulorge was sentenced to death, a nun who was arrested with him wept, prompting this rebuke from the priest: Madame, the tears you are shedding are unworthy of you and me. What would worldly people say if they knew that having renounced the...

The relentless encroachment of socialism upon America’s economic, cultural and governmental landscape is like a bad dream to most red-blooded Americans. When society changes it can seem like the ineluctable drift of evolution or chance. But in the case of America’s ongoing continued expansion of government powers, spiking taxes, and shrinking military, it’s all part of a planned elitist push into socialism. And one need not believe in secret conspiracies when contemplating this shift. In fact, for those paying attention, it was all outlined long ago by the Fabian Socialist society, and other groups such as the Frankfurt School, as...

The American Revolution was almost contemporaneous with the French one, and politically the two were not unconnected; yet they were profoundly different in character. The American democracy is not founded upon the emancipated man bit. quite the contrary, upon the kingdom of God and the limitation of earthly powers by the sovereignty of God. It is indeed significant when, in contrast to the Declaration of the Rights of Man, American historians can say that the federal constitution was written by men who were conscious of original sin and of the wickedness of the human heart. Earthly wielders of power, and...

Like her or not, there can be no argument that Ann Coulter didn't predict the actions, tactics and results of the Occupy Wall Street movement in her book “Demonic.” In her very well written history of the real story of the insanity and mob-driven French Revolution, she could easily be describing the actions of the current OWS movement. The similarities between OWS and the Arab Spring movements to install radical Islamic theocracies are also well illustrated. The reality is that the OWS movement may grow much more violent as professional anarchists take over and drive us to armed conflict. Get...

At an Occupy Wall Street offshoot event, an Occupy Oakland protester had the following to say: (Headline: 1,000 at old Occupy Oakland camp to discuss future) "If they (police) take over the camp, we're going to reoccupy," Ronald "Rasta" Jones, 31, an Oakland resident who had lived in the Occupy Oakland camp since its first day, Oct. 10, said before officers moved in around 5 a.m. to evict people. "Our objective is for them to keep spending money. ... We're not going to stop." Jones has let the cat out of the bag. Occupy Oakland/Wall Street is the Cloward and...

Conservatives and liberals clash frequently on a wide array of issues, from taxes to trade, from deficits to defense. But their greatest conflict may lie in their contrasting attitudes toward civil society. Conservatives regard the institutions of civil society -- families, churches and communities -- as sources of hope and renewal. Self-styled "progressives" see these institutions as seedbeds of prejudice and ignorance. Conservatives believe that poverty stems largely from a lack of spiritual resources, resources that are typically transmitted through private, voluntary groups. Progressives view poverty as a simple lack of resources. Conservatives believe that social justice is best pursued...

The fine parish church of St Jacques in Compiègne has a side chapel dedicated to 16 Carmelites martyred in the RevolutionI mentioned earlier this week a second French holy place that might interest readers: Compiègne. The town is only 40 minutes by fast and frequent train from Paris, and what drew me there was the famous chateau, a place beloved of Louis XV, who hunted in the nearby forest, as well as Marie Antoinette; and also a favourite place of resort for members of the Fourth Dynasty to rule France. Napoleon was fond of Compiègne and spent time there, and...

According to the French Revolutionary Calendar, this is the first day of the Year 220 (starting from AD 1791) - Primidi, 1 Vendemiaire, CCXX. This day is also dedicated to the grape (en Francais, RAISIN).

Often the Left is so predictable. While Norway mourns the deaths of the 92 (so far) shooting victims, kook bloggers at FireDogLake, Democratic Underground, and elsewhere are already labelling the alleged killer to be "right wing." This meme appears to have started with a comment made by a Norwegian political science professor who speculated that the shooter might be "right wing." Even Sarah Palin is now being blamed for the shooting because the suspect reportedly favored the creation of a European Tea Party. The media keeps repeating the mantra that the shooter is "right wing." But what does it even...

July 14 is the day the French people celebrate the storming of the Bastille. This led to the dethroning and beheading of King Louis XVI and the establishment of the first French Republic, which promised “liberty, equality, and fraternity.” The rest of the story doesn’t go so well. Out of the French Revolution came the Reign of Terror, which saw 16,000-40,000 people guillotined. Within fifteen years, the Republic gave way to the French Empire and the Napoleonic Wars and its millions of deaths.France is hardly alone in the list of nations with revolutions that failed to live up to their...

The intellectual struggle worldwide today is now between the beliefs encapsulated in the American Revolution and those in the French. It is interests versus reason.

Louis: So, Doug, about the Tea Party? Doug: Consider what seems to be brewing in the Tea Party movement. It’s just a straw in the wind, of no real significance itself, but a foreshadowing of something ominous. All the false hope this Tea Party movement is creating impresses me as similar to what was going on in France in the late 1780s… L: I think I can guess, but why do you say that? As much as you dislike the government, isn’t it a good thing that so many people are finally fed up with it and at long last...

TWO REVOLUTIONS, TWO VIEWS OF MAN By Jean F. Drew As every American schoolchild has been taught, in Western history there were two great sociopolitical revolutions that took place near the end of the eighteenth century: The American Revolution of 1775; and the French, of 1789. Children are taught that both revolutions were fought because of human rights in some way; thus bloody warfare possibly could be justified, condoned so long as the blood and treasure were shed to protect the “rights of man.” The American schoolchild is assured that the American and French revolutions were both devoted to the...

Afterburner with Bill Whittle  A Tale of Two Revolutions: The War of Ideas & the Tragedy of the Unconstrained Vision Sep 9 / Afterburner with Bill Whittle   10min Bill Maher, Barack Obama and the Truth About American Exceptionalism Aug 31 / Afterburner with Bill Whittle   15min MSNBC & The Great Liberal Narrative: The Truth About The Tyranny of Political Correctness Aug 24 / Afterburner with Bill Whittle   13min The Power & Danger of Iconography: The Resistance Steals Obama's Weapons Aug 14 / Afterburner with Bill Whittle   8min Beyond the Angry Mobs: Only You Can Bring Congress...

The New Jacobin Elite | Print | Written by William F. Jasper    Wednesday, 24 June 2009 06:00 The Socialist Party of Great Britain is celebrating the reissuing of Peter Taaffe’s book, The Masses Arise: The Great French Revolution 1789 -1815. “Its republication by Socialist Publications, in time for the 220th anniversary of this great event in July 2009, is extremely timely,� says the party’s website. A different page on the party’s site promoting the same book instructs readers: “An understanding of the French Revolution remains crucial for all revolutionaries. Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky studied it intensely to gain an...

Much has been written about Hollywood’s obsession with Communist poster child and fashion icon Ernesto “Che” Guevara. Despite the protestations of those who actually knew and were tortured or persecuted by Che, the stories of hundreds of thousands of Cuban exiles and a vast body of easily accessible knowledge on the failed state he helped create, the bad boy “Butcher of la Cabaña” still holds an unholy fascination with the historically-challenged. Though Che was opposed to free elections, freedom of religion, free speech, free press, freedom of assembly, and even freewheeling rock and roll, he has morphed into the ultimate...

Edmund Burke was, and still is, a provocative thinker—a provocation in his own day, as in ours. At a time when most right-minded (which is to say, left-inclined) English literati were rhapsodizing over the French Revolution—Wordsworth declaring what “bliss was it in that dawn to be alive”—Burke wrote his Reflections on the Revolution in France, a searing indictment of the Revolution. He was accused then, as he often is now, of being excessive, even hysterical, in his account of the Revolution: "a ferocious dissoluteness in manners, an insolent irreligion in opinions and practices, … laws overturned, tribunals subverted, industry without...

Last week, before an audience of millions of Americans, the new president made a telling statement. Alluding to the American founders, President Barack Obama, in his Inaugural Address, stated: “The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.” This seemed to be a reference to the Declaration of Independence, or at least to the principles in that sacred...

December 22, 2008, 1:30 a.m. A Vindication of Edmund Burke An NRO Flashback EDITOR’S NOTE: Edmund Burke biographer Conor Cruise O’Brien died this past weekend at the age of 91. The O’Brien piece below was the cover story in the December 17, 1990, issue of National Review. I. TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES On November 1, 1790, Edmund Burke’s most famous book, Reflections on the Revolution in France, was published. It is important to get the title right. The book is often referred to as Reflections on the French Revolution. The book’s real title adequately reveals Burke’s intentions. Burke’s point, in...

It is the internet site that contains dark family secrets, unspeakable truths and appalling injustice. The French log on to it in trepidation and in private. Les Guillotinés offers the most complete online list yet established of the French Revolution’s victims and invites users to discover the answer to a terrible question: “Do you have an ancestor who was decapitated?” Hundreds of thousands of people have consulted the death base, created by Raymond Combes, a computer programmer and amateur genealogist. Many more are likely to follow suit. According to one estimate, up to five million French people are descended from...

Virtue and Terror, by Maximilien Robespierre (Verso, 160 pp., $14.95) and On Practice and Contradiction, by Mao Zedong (Verso, 160 pp., $14.95) These two books appear in a new series, “Revolutions,” published by Verso, a well-known British firm specializing in radical leftist gobbledygook. The books come with introductions by Slavoj Žižek, a Slovenian psychoanalyst and social theorist, who assaults both the English language and the intelligence of those who actually manage to figure out what he’s saying. If you think that’s harsh, here’s a representative Žižekian sentence: “The claim that the people does exist is the basic axiom of ‘totalitarianism,’...

High school cheerleaders must now cheer for girls' teams as often as for boys' teams thanks to federal education officials' interpretations of Title IX, the civil rights law that mandates equal playing fields for both sexes. According to The New York Times, almost no one directly involved wants this -- not the cheerleaders, not the fans, not the boys' teams, and not even the girls' teams. But it doesn't matter: The law coerces cheerleaders to cheer at girls' games. Of all the myths that surround Left-Right differences, one of the greatest is that the Left values liberty more than the...

French Revolution Catholic Encyclopedia on CD-ROM Contains 11,632 articles. Browse off-line, ad-free, printer-friendly. Get it here for only $33 plus FREE shipping worldwide The last thirty years have given us a new version of the history of the French Revolution, the most diverse and hostile schools having contributed to it. The philosopher, Taine, drew attention to the affinity between the revolutionary and what he calls the classic spirit, that is, the spirit of abstraction which gave rise to Cartesianism and produced certain masterpieces of French literature. Moreover he admirably demonstrated the mechanism of the local revolutionary committees and showed how...

At the end of the 18th century, Founding Fathers like John Adams and Alexander Hamilton were becoming increasingly troubled by the revolution that was unfolding in France. Unlike the American Revolution, which was founded on the Christian principles delineated in the Declaration of Independence, the French version was virulently anti-religious (particularly in regard to Christianity). The revolutionaries sought to replace religion with human reason, even going so far as suggesting that Notre Dame be renamed the "Cathedral of Reason." Adams observed of France with great alarm: "I know not what to make of a republic of 30 million atheists." Hamilton...

The American attitude toward the French Revolution has been generally favorable—naturally enough for a nation itself born in revolution. But as revolutions go, the French one in 1789 was among the worst. True, in the name of liberty, equality, and fraternity, it overthrew a corrupt regime. Yet what these fine ideals led to was, first, the Terror and mass murder in France, and then Napoleon and his wars, which took hundreds of thousands of lives in Europe and Russia. After this pointless slaughter came the restoration of the same corrupt regime that the Revolution overthrew. Aside from immense suffering, the...

Police plea on macabre book find The ledger was bound in human skin, in accordance with practice Police are trying to locate the owner of a 300-year-old ledger, bound in human skin, found in a Leeds road. Written mainly in French, its macabre covering was said to be a regular sight during the French Revolution. In the 18th and 19th Centuries it was common to bind accounts of murder trials in the killer's skin - known as anthropodermic bibliopegy. The book was discovered in The Headrow and may have been discarded after a burglary, detectives said. They said the...

"It is up to the readers to decide whether our intention — to examine and reflect on the great issues of our time, including the West, Europe, Christianity, Islam, war, and bioethical questions — has achieved its goal. Whether our concerns can be addressed. And whether our suggestions deserve to be pursued." - from the Preface. The following is an excerpt from the chapter, "The Spiritual Roots of Europe: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow". It was originally an address given by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to the Italian Senate on May 13, 2004. We must now consider the process by which...

Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism, by Abbé Augustin Barruél The years 1796 to 1798 saw the publication of two important presentations of evidence concerning an international conspiracy, then only decades old, which had devastated France and was threatening the entire civilized world. That conspiracy had coalesced into a continuing organizational structure with the founding of the Order of the Illuminati by Adam Weishaupt on May 1, 1776 in Ingolstadt, Bavaria. The conspirators in the Order came from the top levels of society, and their ultimate goal was the destruction of all existing religious and political institutions, all forms...

As regular readers in this column know, my reporting senior and lawful sovereign is His Imperial Majesty Kaiser Wilhelm II. When I finally report in to that great Oberste Heeresleitung in the sky, I expect to do so as the Kaiser’s last soldier. Why? Well, beyond Bestimmung, the unhappy fact is that Western civilization’s last chance of survival was probably a victory by the Central Powers in World War I. Their defeat let all the poisons of the French Revolution loose unchecked, which is the main reason that we now live in a moral and cultural cesspool.

The intellectual struggle worldwide today is now between the beliefs encapsulated in the American Revolution and those in the French. It is interests versus reason.First, some background. During the Middle Ages, the power of kings was checked by the a belief in the higher laws of God, to which kings and commoner alike - the nation, country, or kingdom, in short, the State -- were subject. But with the 16th century Reformation and the conflict between Protestantism and Catholicism, the battle was decided for the State. The Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 ended the Wars of Religion, and established the...

Home | About | Alan Keyes | Discussion | Activism | Resources | Links | Documents | Archives | Donate Search: Alan KeyesOn the establishment of religion: What the Constitution really says Cynthia A. JanakSocialism is alive and well in AmericaDebbie DanielWords are weapons . . . do we need a "Checkpoint Charlie?"Hans ZeigerTwo decadesJohn PlecnikForget free speech, liberals don't tolerate campus conservativesMatt C. AbbottHollywood, real-life euthanasiaJustin DarrKeeping the faith -- at arm's length Curtis Dahlgren"Anti-stereotypical" stereotyping: some points to ponder and pass along . . .Kaye GroganNext . . . terrorists will be checked into Hilton SuitesBarbara J....

Did anyone catch this the other night? The common attempt to link the American revolution and the French was certainly not present here. The differences couldn't be more blunt. Robespierre, Marat and the rest of their gang were nothing less then brutal totalitarian mass murderers.

Current 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1990s     November 2004Faking History THE EDITORMake no mistake, history is written by the victors. One need only observe the power exercised over popular imagination by the all-conquering secular humanists of our day, whose agnosticism and atheism currently underpin Western culture. A major part of reinforcing their secular status quo is the prevalence of studiously false, anti-Catholic depictions of epochal eras and events. Long debunked caricatures and clichés - from the so-called ‘Dark Ages’ to the Crusades to the Reformation and beyond - still dominate their revisionist films, documentaries, literature and texts....

A book review of Leigh Ann Whaley’s “Radicals: Politics and Republicanism in the French Revolution” (2000, Sutton Publishing, 212 pp., ISBN: 07509-22389)Contrasting RevolutionsEven though politicians and some historians in both America and Europe have likened the French and American Revolutions, these two landmark events of world history were as dissimilar as the men who forged them. The American Revolution (1775-1783) was a war for independence from England, a war for self-governance, as well as a thunderous political event that led to the affirmation of the Natural Rights of men – namely, life, liberty, property and the pursuit of happiness. The...

SAINT-DENIS, France (AP) - French royalists staged a pageant-filled funeral Tuesday for a tiny, rock-hard relic they hailed as the heart cut from Louis XVII, who died at age 10 in a filthy revolutionary prison. A hearse brimming with lilies - the symbol of the French crown - delivered a crystal vase containing the heart to the Saint-Denis Basilica. There, it was placed in a royal crypt containing the remains of Louis XVII's parents, Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVI. After two centuries of mystery surrounding the boy's fate, DNA tests have convinced many historians that the relic passed secretly from person...

PARIS, France (AP) -- The heart of the 10-year-old heir to France's throne was cut from his body when he died in prison, pickled, stolen, returned, and DNA-tested two centuries later. Next week, Louis XVII's heart will be placed in France's royal crypt north of Paris now that genetic testing has persuaded many historians that the tiny petrified heart is almost certainly the real thing. In ceremonies on Monday and Tuesday, European royalty will honor the little boy who became a pawn of the French Revolution, dying alone in a filthy prison. After a Mass on Tuesday, his heart will...

A SURPRISING DEFENCE It is true that a man who believed things completely contrary to the convictions of today's fundamental preachers and educators could be exalted and defended by them. Of course, I believe this is done primarily because our fundamental brethren know little of what either Dr. Westcott or Dr. Hort really believed and taught.

CHRISTIANITY AND CONTRADICTION IN HISTORYChristopher Dawson | 1939 Is history a reasonable process or is it essentially incalculable and irrational? It seems to me that the Christian is bound to believe that there is a spiritual purpose in history -- that it is subject to the designs of Providence and that somehow or other God’s will is done. But that is a very different thing from saying that history is rational in the ordinary sense of the word. There are, as it were, two levels of rationality, and history belongs to neither of them. There is the sphere of...

A TALE OF TWO REVOLUTIONS Foundation for Economic Education (FEE). by Robert A. Peterson The year 1989 marks the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution. To celebrate, the French government is throwing its biggest party in at least 100 years, to last all year. In the United States, an American Committee on the French Revolution has been set up to coordinate programs on this side of the Atlantic, emphasizing the theme, "France and America: Partners in Liberty." But were the French and American Revolutions really similar? On the surface, there were parallels. Yet over the past two centuries, many observers...

The common view [by the liberal establishment] of the French Revolution is that it was a justified rebellion of oppressed lower classes against a tyrannical king, corrupt nobilities, and an insensitive church. Some try to portray the French Revolution as similar to the American Revolution--a blow for freedom and self-government struck against tyranny. The high middle age kingdom of Louis IX was destroyed by the wars of religion, by the absolutism created by Cardinal Richelieu, by the extravagance of Louis XIV, and by the corruption of Louis XV. The results for France were the creation of a parasitical nobility, which...