The Patriot Post® · Wednesday Short Cuts

Insight: “In our country, the lie has become not just a moral category but a pillar of the State.” —Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008)

Upright: “The saddest aspect of the minimum wage story is the damage it does to human beings. The current hourly wage for a fast-food restaurant cashier is $7.25 to $9 per hour. That produces a yearly salary of $15,000 to $20,000, plus fringes. That’s no great shakes, but it is honest work and a start in life. It might be the very best some people could do. Enter the arrogance and callousness of the elite. Their vision of what a person should earn, expressed by higher minimum wages, destroys people’s best alternative without offering a superior one in its place. Maybe the elite believe that welfare, unemployment compensation and possibly engaging in illegal activities are a superior alternative to earning an honest and respectable living on a cashier’s salary. That is a despicable vision.” —Walter Williams

Equality? “I think women should register for the selective service. I see no reason not to.” —U.S. Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James

Non Compos Mentis: “Speaker Ryan is wrong [to label Trump’s attacks on Judge Curiel racist], and Speaker Ryan has apparently switched positions and is now supporting identity politics, which is racist.” —Trump surrogate Jeffrey Lord

“Tolerant” leftists: “We really ought to round up the lawmakers who took money to protect and perpetuate the failing charter-school experiment in Detroit, sew them into burlap sacks with rabid animals, and toss them into the Straits of Mackinac.” —Detroit Free Press editorialist Stephen Henderson

Late-night humor: “Bernie Sanders campaigned in California … ahead of the state’s Democratic primary, and even checked out the famous carousel at the Santa Monica Pier. But it got a little awkward when the music stopped and Bernie still wouldn’t admit that the ride was over. ‘This is gonna be a contested carousel!’” —Jimmy Fallon