The Patriot Post® · Friday Short Cuts

Insight: “Goodness without wisdom always accomplished evil.” —Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988)

Upright: “The idea that gun control advocates don’t want to confiscate your weapons is, of course, laughable. They can’t confiscate your weapons, so they support whatever feasible incremental steps inch further toward that goal. … It seems odd that someone would let murderers and madmen decide what inalienable rights we should embrace. It is almost humorous to hear someone advising you not to worry about domestic tyranny as he explains why the state should eradicate a constitutional right and confiscate your means of self-defense.” —David Harsanyi

Demo-gogues: “Our Dreamers, they make America dream again. We, frankly, owe a debt to your parents for bringing you here to be such a brilliant part of our future” —Nancy Pelosi

Friendly fire: “I think there comes a time when you need to pass that torch. And I think it’s time.” —Rep. Linda Sanchez, House Democratic Caucus vice chair, encouraging Pelosi, Hoyer and Clyburn to vacate their leadership roles

Snake oil salesman: “Repealing the [Second] Amendment may seem like political Mission Impossible today, but in the era of same-sex marriage it’s worth recalling that most great causes begin as improbable ones. Gun ownership should never be outlawed, just as it isn’t outlawed in Britain or Australia. But it doesn’t need a blanket Constitutional protection, either. … Take the guns — or at least the presumptive right to them — away. The true foundation of American exceptionalism should be our capacity for moral and constitutional renewal, not our instinct for self-destruction.” —"conservative" NY Times columnist Bret Stephens

Non Compos Mentis: “While the guns Stephen Paddock used in Las Vegas fired automatic rounds, they were perfectly legal under ATF rules.” —CBS News

Village Idiots: “The murderous members of the NRA should face a firing squad.” —Nancy Sinatra (If an NRA member was guilty of murder, not too many NRA members would object to a firing squad. But of course that’s not what Nancy means…)

And last… “I believe the shootings of random, happy people doing normal, quotidian things are a symptom of the spiritual emptiness and loneliness that afflicts a subset of our people — a byproduct of family dissolution and fraying communities. It won’t be solved by any gun measure.” —Mona Charen