The Patriot Post® · Thursday Short Cuts

Insight: “The shaft of the arrow had been feathered with one of the eagle’s own plumes. We often give our enemies the means of our own destruction.” —legendary Greek fabulist Aesop (c. 620–564 BC)

Friendly fire: “[Obama administration officials] go around to ABC and CNN and say, ‘We’re not going to listen to [Fox News], and neither should you.’ To me, it’s so unprecedented. They can’t handle any dissent. It’s got to be completely 100% behind what they want — they don’t want to debate, they won’t send anybody on Fox News. … It goes without saying that if George Bush had done this, he would have been Hitler.” —Fox News contributor Kirsten Powers, who calls herself a “proud liberal”

Non Compos Mentis: “Americans do not seem to be able to handle gun ownership in a way that permits maintenance of a civil society. … In an era of extreme concern about national security, Americans need to recognize that one of the greatest threats to national security is their own heavily armed population. … Unfortunately, our proven inability to handle widespread gun ownership suggests strongly that the way to do this is to deeply restrict access to and ownership of most types of guns.” —University of Texas at Austin professor John Traphagan

Alpha Jackass: “ISIS’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, sounds like a Republican candidate for president.” —Slate’s William Saletan