I declare before you all, that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.
-- HRH The Princess Elizabeth, 21 April 1947
Those words, spoken on the occasion of the then Princess's 21st birthday, are a vow that she has faithfully fulfilled with unparalleled grace and honour every day since.
To Her Majesty, Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God of Canada and Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith, a very happy and joyous birthday. Long may she reign.
For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts
Well, we've got two threads now devoted to her, but she's certainly worth it...
If one looks up the phrase "class act" in the dictionary, they will find a photo of :
"Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith."
Jim--I can't argue with much of what you say-- I am no fan of hereditary monarchies (or hereditary anything for that matter), but i think she's been as good in that jiob as anyone could have been. However, I would think one of a monarch's greatest duties to the country is to produce an heir ready to assume the throne (isn't that why Henry VIII established the church of England?)--and I don't think she's done all that good a job in this task. Instead we just get the typical trust fund kids, doing little and achieving even less.
Big RR wrote:Jim--I can't argue with much of what you say-- I am no fan of hereditary monarchies (or hereditary anything for that matter), but i think she's been as good in that jiob as anyone could have been. However, I would think one of a monarch's greatest duties to the country is to produce an heir ready to assume the throne (isn't that why Henry VIII established the church of England?)--and I don't think she's done all that good a job in this task. Instead we just get the typical trust fund kids, doing little and achieving even less.
I think Anne is not so bad. In any case they seem to have seen the error of their ways in the cold parenting and forcing heirs to marry those with whom they have little in common.
Lord Jim wrote:I think Chuck "I wish I could be a tampon in your knickers" Windsor is an embarrassment and a disgrace...
I have no respect for the Prince of Wales...He should step aside...
But I think William and Kate are a good template for a Modern Constitutional Monarchy...
Give them time and we'll see; after years of having little to do but wait for the death of the current monarch (and I guess opening supermarkets by cutting the ribbon and going to charity events, but nothing of real substance), let's see where William winds up. Waiting for granny or daddy to die before you really do anything is not a way to prepare for anything of consequence.
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Indeed. If I had to pick between a system that could make a head of state out of Donald Trump, and a system where the head of state will be Charles the Tampon, I'm going to go with the system that gives us Charles the Tampon.
"Hang on while I log in to the James Webb telescope to search the known universe for who the fuck asked you." -- James Fell
You still get stupid politicians - like Bliar, all too happy to jump into bed with Bush - but you get to pay for the royals to live high on the hog, too.
Monarchies are ridiculous AND disgusting.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan
