The Patriot Post® · Friday Short Cuts

Upright: “It ought to be common sense — even the most ardent gun-control advocate would never put ‘Gun-Free Zone’ signs on their homes. Let’s finally stop putting them elsewhere.” —John Lott

Re: The Left: “To call these guns 'assault weapons’ is just an attempt to instill irrational fear in people with little knowledge of guns. And again, never mind that blunt objects such as clubs and hammers kill more people each year than all rifles put together. [They’re] far too busy for facts, [they’re] trying to scare people into this terrorist watch-list proposal, which obliterates not just the Second Amendment, but also their Fifth Amendment right to due process of law as a prerequisite for the loss of liberties.” —Ashe Schow

Party unity: “You know the Republicans, honestly folks, our leaders, our leaders have to get tougher. This is too tough to do it alone, but you know what? I think I’m going to be forced to. Our leaders have to get a lot tougher. And be quiet. Just please be quiet. Don’t talk.” —Donald Trump to his own party

Observations: “The presidency as it exists today is a mess. Presidents have too much power, too little accountability and too high a public profile. That makes the job attract the wrong sort of people, and then ensures they’re not up to it. If we were to shrink the government, and shrink the presidency, we might find that what was left would attract better people — and would be easier even for lesser mortals to execute.” —Glenn Reynolds

Braying Jackass: “There is … the need for Islam as a whole to challenge that interpretation of Islam, to isolate it, and to undergo a vigorous discussion within their community about how Islam works as part of a peaceful, modern society. [But] I do not persuade peaceful, tolerant Muslims to engage in that debate if I’m not sensitive to their concern that they are being tagged with a broad brush.” —Barack Obama, at pains to explain his refusal to accurately name the enemy

Belly laugh of the week: “The president is quite proud, as he should be, of his record of making the country safer.” —Josh Earnest (He should check in with CIA Chief John Brennan.)

Say what? “Obama believes [a] clash is taking place within a single civilization, and that Americans are sometimes collateral damage in this fight between Muslim modernizers and Muslim fundamentalists.” —The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg after an interview with Obama

And Last… “So [Omar Mateen] raised the suspicions of Disney World, gun shops, & just about everybody else except the federal government.” —David Burge