The Patriot Post® · Friday Short Cuts

Insight: “If we could manage our own finances the way the Congress does the nation’s, we’d all be living in high cotton and eating high on the hog.” —columnist Charley Reese (1937-2013)

America, you disappoint Obama: “The president’s found that disappointing and frustrating, principally because he believes it’s bad public policy for us to not take commonsense steps to address what I think we all acknowledge is a pretty significant problem. The president has also been disappointed that our political system hasn’t responded in the way that he would like.” —Josh Earnest, again exploiting the murders in Virginia for political gain

The BIG Lie: “The United States has about 4 percent of the world’s population, but nearly half the civilian-owned guns. With gun violence on the rise, some public health officials say it’s time to change our approach to the problem.” —CBS’s Maurice DuBois (“Compared with 1993, the peak of U.S. gun homicides, the firearm homicide rate was 49% lower in 2010, and there were fewer deaths, even though the nation’s population grew.” —Pew Research Center)

Sometimes they get it right: “The discussion about Flanagan has mainly centered on mental health, and whether Flanagan was mentally ill. The other, lesser discussion has been whether he was racist. If one objectively looks at Flanagan’s actions and history, one can’t help but come to the conclusion that both are probably true. Flanagan killed the two young people because they were white. He has admitted as much. And yes, anyone who does what he did is also out of their mind.” —CNN’s Don Lemon

Braying Jackass: “We’re going to see more extreme weather events as a result of climate change.” —Barack Obama on the anniversary of Katrina

Late-night humor: “At a press conference … Donald Trump kicked out a Latino reporter, but the man returned a few minutes later. So, already Trump’s deportation plan isn’t working.” —Conan O'Brien