The Patriot Post® · Wednesday Short Cuts

Insight: “The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing.” —Jean Baptiste Colbert (1619-1693)

For the record: “As expected, Volkswagen’s scandal over emissions cheating is spreading to other car makers. … In an honest world the scandal would now spread to the agencies and politicians that conspire to set implausible rules and then help create ways around them for industries that employ millions of their voters and whose products are of vital daily purpose to virtually everyone in their societies.” —Holman W. Jenkins Jr.

Delusions: “There are things I’m proud of. … Saving the world economy from a Great Depression — that was pretty good. … For us to be able to mobilize the world community to take rapid action to stabilize the financial markets, and then in the United States to pass Wall Street reforms that make it much less likely that a crisis like that can happen again, I’m proud of that.” —Barack Obama (Never mind that the economy is a major factor in the increased suicide rate.)

She’s just like us! “I’ve gone hunting, I’ve gone skeet shooting, I understand the important role that guns play in so many people’s lives.” —Hillary Clinton

He has a point: “Frankly, if Hillary Clinton were a man, I don’t think she’d get 5% of the vote. The only thing she’s got going is the women’s card. And the beautiful thing is, women don’t like her.” —Donald Trump

Non Compos Mentis: “I can’t think of anything else that could literally destroy the planet other than climate change.” —Rep. Alan Grayson

And last… “Curt Schilling is of course correct with the science in saying that claiming to be a woman when you have the chromosomal and anatomical structures of a man does not make you such. You’re still a man no matter what you think or how you dress.” —Paul McHugh, former psychiatrist in chief for Johns Hopkins Hospital