The Patriot Post® · Monday Short Cuts

Insight: “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” —Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)

For the record: “I really believe that if my uncle were here today, he would encourage us to find solutions to the problems, even women’s problems, and all problems, without having to do violence to babies in the womb.” —Alveda King

Reading between the lines: “I know personally about [Trump’s] feelings towards Haiti and toward Central America because … I went down there on a medical mission trip. I did about 200 cataract surgeries with a group of surgeons in Haiti and the same in Central America, and when we asked Donald J. Trump as a private citizen to support those trips, he was a large financial backer of both medical mission trips. So I think it’s unfair to sort of draw conclusions from a remark that I think wasn’t constructive … when I know for a fact he cares very deeply about the people in Haiti.” —Sen. Rand Paul

The BIG Lie: “When you reflexively refer to the press as the ‘enemy of the people’ or ‘fake news,’ that has real damage. It has real damage to our standing in the world. And I noted how bad it is for a president to take what was popularized by Joseph Stalin, the ‘enemy of the people,’ to refer to the press.” —Sen. Jeff Flake

Non Compos Mentis, part I: “This Hawaii missle [sic] scare is on YOU Mr. Trump. The real FEAR that mothers & fathers & children felt is on YOU. It is on YOUR ARROGANCE. HUBRIS. NARCISSISM. RAGE. EGO. IMMATURITY and your UNSTABLE IDIOCY. Shame on your hate filled self. YOU DID THIS!” —actress Jamie Lee Curtis

Non Compos Partis, part II: “I woke up this morning in Hawaii with ten minutes to live. It was a false alarm, but a real psychic warning. If we allow this one-man Gomorrah and his corrupt Republican congress to continue alienating the world we are headed for suffering beyond all imagination.” —actor Jim Carrey

Braying Jackass: “One of the biggest challenges we have to our democracy is the degree to which we don’t share a common baseline of facts. If you watch Fox News, you are living on a different planet than you are if you are listening to NPR.” —Barack Obama

And last… “We should all be able to agree to two basic propositions: (1) It is inarguable that some countries are crappy. (2) It is bigotry to suggest that all people who want to immigrate from those countries to America are crappy.” —Ben Shapiro