The Patriot Post® · Tuesday Short Cuts

Insight: “The law is an adroit mixture of customs that are beneficial to society, and could be followed even if no law existed, and others that are of advantage to a ruling minority, but harmful to the masses of men, and can be enforced on them only by terror.” —Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921)

Upright: “Republicans … fight Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Hillary Clinton and all other Democrats. But they don’t fight the left and leftism. The implication is that if only we could defeat this or that Democrat, we would be on our way to a much better America. But it’s not true. … Republicans need to tell the American people over and over that the only thing that can stop the further degradation of the United States of America is conservatism and the Republican Party. Because only conservatism and the Republican Party can stop the left.” —Dennis Prager

Non Compos Mentis: “I have feelings, good, bad and otherwise, about Star Wars. … Like the part where [Darth Vader] was totally a black guy whose name basically was James Earl Jones … [and] while he was black, he was terrible and bad and awful and used to cut off white men’s hands, and didn’t, you know, actually claim his son. But as soon as he claims his son and goes over to the good, he takes off his mask and he is white. Yes, I have many, many feelings about that.” —MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry

Belly laugh of the week: “Plenty of time and effort have lately gone into analyzing a host of related crises — homelessness, unaffordable urban real estate, devastating gentrification, and a housing bubble whose burst landed us in the Great Recession. … The true culprit is so deeply embedded in American notions of wealth, rights, and property that we cannot see it for the terrible economy policy it is: private housing. … [W]hat we call private housing is actually public land that government has set aside for private purposes. … Ultimately … the best antidote to private housing is public housing."—Jesse A. Myers in an article for The Nation titled, "How to Get Rid of Your Landlord and Socialize American Housing, in 3 Easy Steps”

Braying Jackass: “I think that most of our largest domestic threat comes from racial supremacist groups. I worked in counterterrorism; I know this to be a fact. … People want to take us back to some mythological good ol’ days, and there are elected officials who are capitalizing on this sentiment.” —Rep. Andre Carson

And last… “Obama is right. His climate deal will create jobs. The Unemployment Office will need a bigger staff.” —Twitter satirist @weknowwhatsbest