The Patriot Post® · Wednesday Short Cuts

Insight: “Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.” —Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

For the record: “Trump promised to champion forgotten Americans, but imposing a 25 percent tariff on steel and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum will hurt more of the forgotten Americans than it helps. The American steel industry employs about 140,000 people, while steel-consuming industries employ 6.5 million. This means Trump is imposing a tax — tariffs are taxes — that will hurt the 6.5 million in order to help the 140,000.” —Marc A. Thiessen

Upright: “Trade only happens when both sides think they are better off for making the trade. Win-win, or it doesn’t happen. Trade is always good because it is voluntary.” —John Stossel

Dezinformatsiya: “The former Mayor of Nashville, Tennessee, Megan Barry, was arraigned Tuesday on charges of felony theft for using taxpayer funds to support her affair with her bodyguard. It was one of the big stories of the day with all three of the evening network news broadcasts giving it airtime. The only problem was with ‘NBC Nightly News’ not reporting Barry’s Democratic Party affiliation. … When former Missouri Governor Eric Greitens was forced to resign after the details of his own affair and sick cover-up were exposed ‘NBC Nightly News’ made sure to mention he was a Republican.” —Newsbusters’ Nicholas Fondacaro

Hell hath frozen over: “I think President Trump deserves enormous credit for ratcheting up that pressure [on North Korea] and making sure those sanctions were real. There was no reason the Obama administration couldn’t have done that, and they didn’t.” —New York Times’ David Sanger

And last… “Today, there is far less availability of shotguns, rifles and pistols than any time in our history. That historical fact should raise the question: Despite the greater accessibility to guns in previous decades, why wasn’t there the kind of violence we see with today’s far more restricted access to guns? … We must own up to the fact that laws and regulations alone cannot produce a civilized society. Morality is society’s first line of defense against uncivilized behavior.” —Walter Williams