For the record: “Bill Nye isn’t interested in a scientific debate about global warming — how much is occurring, the measurement techniques at issue, the sensitivity of the climate to carbon emissions, the range of factors that affect the climate. He wants you to accept his version of the truth — not just that global warming is happening, but that massive government intervention is necessary in order to avert imminent global catastrophe.” —Ben Shapiro

Dezinformatsiya: “[John Wayne] stands tall at the National Rifle Association’s National Firearms Museum — true, only as a cardboard cutout of himself. But the cardboard fantasy of the good guy gunning down the bad guy is what makes the museum work as an enjoyable escape from the life-and-death reality of American gun carnage. There are thousands of ingenious, gleaming rifles and handguns in displays about America’s gun-rich history of colonialism, immigration, expansionism and vigilante justice. But it is the gallery devoted to Hollywood and its guns and good-guy shooters that best illustrates the power of fantasy now driving the modern gun rights debate.” —New York Times’ Francis X. Clines

Friendly fire: “I think we got to be accepting. It looks judgmental to people. It looks like we know better. We got to be open and we can’t eliminate a large swath of the country because they want to be with us on these other issues.” —Democrat Rep. Tim Ryan on the intra-party abortion rift

Non Compos Mentis: “[W]e received a bit of good news — not just for Democrats but for the country — that the president is easing off his demands for a border wall in the government funding bill. The money is better used elsewhere. If the wall is $50 billion dollars, you could use that money to give just about every American broadband.” —Chuck Schumer

Demo-gogues: “Republicans should not want to shut down the government, and they are the only ones who have the power to shut down the government. And you do not want to shut down the government of the most powerful nation on earth. Think of the humiliation of the United States throughout the world if you Republicans shut down the government.” —Sen. Patrick Leahy

And last… “The problem in America is not that the rich earn too much. The problem is that there aren’t enough of them to pay for all the government the Left wants.” —Gary Bauer