The Patriot Post® · Wednesday Short Cuts

Insight: “[T]he great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances, as though they were realities, and are often more influenced by the things that seem than by those that are.” —Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)

For the record: “The crusade against fossil fuels in part is an effort to transfer wealth from red states to blue ones, by increasing energy costs disproportionately in the former. In part it is a religious movement: The interpretation of destructive weather as the gods’ punishment for the sins of Man is ancient. And just as the pagans for millennia attempted to prevent destructive weather by worshipping golden idols, so do modern environmentalists now attempt to prevent destructive weather by bowing down before recycling bins.” —Benjamin Zycher

Alpha Jackass: “If a threat is serious enough to require the sacrifice of our men and women in uniform, then members of Congress should at least have the courage to make clear where they stand … by fulfilling their constitutional duty to authorize the use of force against the threats we face today.” —Barack Obama, who never asked for authorization to attack Libya

The BIG lie: “No foreign terrorist organization has successfully planned and executed an attack on our homeland.” —Barack Obama

Setting the record straight: “[R]emember, the Democratic Party had a campaign plank to change the First Amendment. And they were doing it in the guise of campaign finance reform. And that was worrying me more because the press tends to miss that. … I thought the threat to the First Amendment came from the Democratic side.” —Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes

And last… “Obama and the Japanese PM will tour Pearl Harbor. The Japanese PM will not apologize for the attack, but Obama will apologize to him.” —Twitter satirist @weknowwhatsbest