The Patriot Post® · Thursday Short Cuts

You’re no “civil rights hero”: “There is a time-honored tradition of people who strongly disagree with a message and take it out on the messenger, and opponents of integration had a personal animus for Jackie Robinson. Opponents of all the great social movements would take out after the advocates that were most effective in asking people to change. As a result, I don’t take it personally when the criticism comes at me.” —Al Gore

Braying Jackass: “You guys [confiscated guns] here [in Australia] in one fell swoop and I wish that could happen in my country, but it’s such a personal issue for people that we cannot talk about it sensibly. We just can’t. People get so emotional that even when you make a suggestion about not selling AK-47s to people on terror watch lists, that’s a non-starter. I don’t know what needs to happen.” —actor Matt Damon praising Australia’s gun control

Death threats: “Look, there’s only one solution. A bunch of us anti-gun types are going to have to arm ourselves, storm the NRA headquarters in Fairfax, VA, and make sure there are no survivors. This action might also require coordinated hits at remote sites, like Washington lobbyists. Then and only then will we see some legislative action on assault weapons. Have a nice day.” —Southern State Community College professor James Pearce

For the record: “To say that Hillary Clinton is unfit to be commander-in-chief is to give her too much credit. It implies that she might be fit for other positions of responsibility. She’s not fit to be POTUS, and she’s not fit to be a private [in the Army]. It’s time for her to slink back to her foundation, make her speeches, and retire to private life. Instead, she’s still the odds-on favorite to stride into the Oval Office. Our nation is in the very worst of hands.” —David French

Belly laugh of the week: “[W]e have gone to great lengths to avoid the appearance of interfering with [the Clinton email probe]. Director Comey himself noted that there was no outside influence brought to bear on this investigation. That certainly is consistent with the effort that we have made to protect the independence of the investigation.” —Josh Earnest

And last… “Hillary showed no ‘intent.’ She accidentally installed a server in her home, then accidentally wiped it clean during an investigation.” —Twitter satirist @weknowwhatsbest