The Patriot Post® · Thursday Short Cuts

Insight: “Make men large and strong and tyranny will bankrupt itself in making shackles for them.” —Rev. Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887)

Upright: “The government shouldn’t get in the way of innovation and progress; it should watch from the sidelines and be grateful that there are private actors who are willing to risk their own money and effort to produce the benefits government can never deliver.” —Veronique de Rugy

The purge continues: “Those guys need to go. They can be sand-blasted off, or somebody could carefully remove a slab of that and auction it off to the highest bidder.” —NAACP Atlanta branch President Richard Rose about the 90- by 190-foot carving of Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Jefferson Davis at Stone Mountain

Sickness: “What’s really horrific is women who are pregnant being forced to bear children against their will. That’s horrific.” —NYU professor Cristina Beltrán on the newest Planned Parenthood scandal

Demo-gogues: “I challenge those who are objecting to this [nuclear] agreement … to explain … why they’re right and people like Ernie Moniz, who is an MIT nuclear physicist and an expert in these issues, is wrong, why the rest of the world is wrong.” —Barack Obama

“Trust me”: “[I]f there is nuclear material [in Iran’s undeclared] site, high school physics will remind us that that leaves a trace. And so we’ll know that, in fact, there was a violation of the agreement.” —Barack Obama

Warnings: “We think [Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran] is not only a threat to [Israel]. We think this is a threat to [the U.S.] as well. Iran has killed more Americans than anyone other than al-Qaida. They’re going to get hundreds of billions of dollars to fuel their terror and military machine. … When Arabs and Israelis agree, it’s worth paying attention.” —Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Late-night humor: “The president of Iran prematurely announced the nuclear deal on Twitter … before it was official. Which isn’t that big a deal until you realize the guy who almost had nukes is known for accidentally hitting ‘Send.’” —Jimmy Fallon