The Patriot Post® · Friday Short Cuts

Insight: “Far from failing in its intended task, our educational system is in fact succeeding magnificently, because its aim is to keep the American people thoughtless enough to go on supporting the system.” —Richard Mitchell (1929-2002)

For the record: “It appears that Wednesday’s attack on Republican lawmakers and their associates has proven to be particularly traumatic for the editorial page staff of the New York Times. Symptoms exhibited by the afflicted Timesfolk include the making of assertions that have not been established as facts and a refusal to accept those that have. … If the Times followed its own unfair standards, it would now be blaming Mr. Sanders, not dredging up long-discredited smears against Mrs. Palin.” —James Freeman

Upright: “Either the United States will return to a shared single language and allegiance to a common and singular culture, or it will eventually descend into clannish violence.” —Victor Davis Hanson

Alpha Jackass: “It didn’t use to be this way. Somewhere in the ‘90s, Republicans decided on a politics of personal destruction as they went after the Clintons, and that is the provenance of it, and that is what has continued.” —Nancy Pelosi

The BIG Lie: “The Second Amendment is about a [state] militia. That’s what it says.” —gun control lefty Whoopi Goldberg

Friendly fire: “In an abject failure of leadership that may be one of the most disgraceful episodes in the history of the modern Democratic party, Chuck Schumer … asserted absolutely no moral authority as the party spun out of control in a nationwide orgy of rage and spite. … How do Democrats imagine they can ever expand their electoral support if they go on and on in this self-destructive way, impugning half the nation as vile racists and homophobes?” —Camille Paglia

And last… “It appears so far that Trump is guilty of ham-handedly and inappropriately trying to make public things that were … true.” —Rich Lowry