The Patriot Post® · Friday Short Cuts

Insight: “To enjoy freedom, if the platitude is pardonable, we have of course to control ourselves. We must not squander our powers, helplessly and ignorantly, 
squirting half the house in order to water a single rose-bush; we must train them, exactly and powerfully, here on the very spot.” —English writer Virginia Woolf 
(1882-1941)

Upright: “Clinton, if she wins, would be the first former secretary of state to be elected since James Buchanan — not an encouraging precedent. Reporters who have been demanding Bush and other Republicans say how they would have acted in 2003 may want to ask Clinton about how she actually did act between 2009 and 2013 — and what she would do going forward.” —Michael Barone

Demo-gogues: “I do not know how much longer we can thwart the views of the American public on taking reasonable gun safety measures.” —Harry Reid

Non Compos Mentis: “I call on all media to use terms ‘white racist’ + ‘terrorist’ with same force & ease that we would use terms ‘Muslim’ + ‘terrorist.’” —tweet by Van Jones

Village Idiots: “The ideology of racism promoted by … @FoxNews and Co. breeds the terrorists who commit #CharlestonShooting.” —tweet by University of Maryland professor Faheem Younus

Freudian slip? “We should be reforming our criminal justice system in such a way that we are not incarcerating non-violent offenders in ways that renders them incapable of getting a job after they leave office.” —Barack Obama