The Patriot Post® · Wednesday Short Cuts

Upright, Part I: “I wonder how one goes about determining whether a person is privileged. White privilege can’t be based on median income. Why? It turns out that Asian-American households had the highest median income ($68,636) in 2012. Median income for white households was $57,000. Maybe our academic elite should condemn Asian privilege instead of white privilege. But there’s another problem. My income puts me in America’s top 5 percent. If those who condemn white privilege could not see my dark brown skin color, they would also condemn me for white privilege. The bottom line to this campus nonsense is that ‘privilege’ has become the new word for ‘personal achievement.’” —Walter Williams

Upright, Part II: “A ‘liberal paradise’ would be a place where everybody has guaranteed employment, free comprehensive health care, free education, free food, free housing, free clothing, free utilities and only law enforcement personnel have guns. And, believe it or not, such a liberal utopia does indeed exist. It’s called prison.” —Maricopa County AZ Sheriff Joe Arpaio

The BIG Lie: “One of my core principles is that I will never engage in politics in which I’m trying to divide people.” —Barack Obama

Advice from a narcissist: “[W]hen I look at other political careers that I admire, I think the most important thing is to have a sense of principle and why you’re in public service. I think sometimes people want to be in public service just because they like seeing their name up in lights; they like being important. And that’s a bad reason to go into politics.” —Barack Obama

Demo-gogues: “Fossil fuel companies and their allies are funding a massive and sophisticated campaign to mislead the American people about the environmental harm caused by carbon pollution. … The parallels between what the tobacco industry did and what the fossil fuel industry is doing now are striking.” —Sheldon Whitehouse

And last… “What is it about trains that makes them objects of endless fascination to small children and Democrats?” —Frank Fleming