The Patriot Post® · Thursday Short Cuts

Insight: “Only a large-scale popular movement toward decentralization and self-help can arrest the present tendency toward statism.” —Aldous Huxley (1894-1963)

Upright: “What [Democrats] are actually demanding, in the form of a ‘no-buy’ list … is the abrogation of American citizens’ Fifth Amendment rights in order to then strip them of their Second Amendment rights. Meanwhile, anyone who uses their First Amendment right to oppose this scheme is accused of wanting to sell guns to ISIS. … It would be difficult to think of a better demonstration of Democrats’ wholehearted embrace of an ends-justify-the-means philosophy of governing.” —Ian Tuttle

The buck stops over there: “The decision to release the unredacted version of the [Omar Mateen 911] transcript … was made independently and entirely by the Department of Justice.” —Josh Earnest

Good question: “Just wondering: Why didn’t the Department of Justice redact the statements of Dylann Roof? He was quite clear about his motivations too.” —Mona Charen

Non Compos Mentis: “I am all about keeping guns away from dangerous people, but I feel like more of us should be pointing out that the most dangerous people with guns are cops and soldiers, and that the no-fly list and FBI anti-terror efforts are seriously corrupted by entrapment, racial profiling and Islamophobia.” —Durham City Councilwoman Jillian Johnson

Keen sense of the obvious: “It doesn’t appear that I’m going to be the nominee.” —Bernie Sanders

Braying Jenny: “You can see [the effects of climate change] every single day. You just need to get out of that telephone booth where other climate deniers hang out and open your eyes and see what’s happening.” —EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy

And Last: “In 1963, Martin Luther King was a gun owner on an FBI watchlist.” —David Burge