The Patriot Post® · Thursday Short Cuts

Insight: “We must not permit our respect for the dead or our sympathy for the living to lead us into an act of injustice to the balance of the living. … We have the right as individuals to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of Congress we have no right to appropriate a dollar of the public money.” —Davy Crockett (1786-1836)

Upright: “While the world is not perfect, and never will be, we live in a wildly prosperous nation with unprecedented political freedoms. We have much to be thankful for. More importantly, not everything in life is about politics. The sooner we recognize that, the better 2018 will be.” —Heather Wilhelm

Village Idiots: “Patriotism is perverted. We’re not on the same page of what it means. To me, being patriotic is loving your country — being a citizen, having a voice, being e pluribus unum. How perverted it is to go from ‘We are one’ to ‘We are number one,’ which is such a childish idea.” —Sarah Silverman

Broken clock… “If you’re a working-class family, a lot of people say, ‘Oh, it’s only $200, oh it’s only $300.’ If you’re a working-class family living paycheck to paycheck, $200, $300 is damn good money and you are grateful for it.” —CNN’s John King

Big threats: “As Republicans head to the White House for their backslapping and high fives to celebrate passage of a bill against the will of the American people, we have a simple message for our Republican friends: Republicans will rue the day they pass this bill, and you can bet Democrats will make sure of that.” —Chuck Schumer

Braying Jenny: “It’s just delivering one gut punch after another to hardworking people.” —Sen. Elizabeth Warren on the GOP’s tax cut for all Americans

And last… “Condolences to the families of those slain … by the tax bill. I personally lost a brother. Well, I mean, I never had a brother, technically, but he probably would have died from keeping more of his money, so same thing.” —Ben Shapiro