The Patriot Post® · Monday Short Cuts

Insight: “We who live in free market societies believe that growth, prosperity and ultimately human fulfillment, are created from the bottom up, not the government down. Only when the human spirit is allowed to invent and create, only when individuals are given a personal stake in deciding economic policies and benefitting from their success — only then can societies remain economically alive, dynamic, progressive, and free. Trust the people. This is the one irrefutable lesson of the entire postwar period contradicting the notion that rigid government controls are essential to economic development.” —Ronald Reagan

Observations: “I guess the logic of running Bloomberg against Bernie is that even the absolute worst person in the country who isn’t a socialist is still better than a socialist.” —Frank J. Fleming

Friendly fire: “Bloomberg must be the front-runner because liberals are calling him a racist. Keep booing. That’s how you lost the last election.” —HBO’s Bill Maher

The BIG Lie: “I had no intention of [tearing up Trump’s speech] when we went to the State of the Union. … I made a niche on a couple of pages thinking, ‘You ought to remember what was on this page, this page,’ then I realized most every page had something in it that was objectionable. So it wasn’t a planned thing. … It seems that if you want to [entice the] press you have to get attention. So I thought, ‘Well, let’s get attention on the fact that what he said here today was not true.’” —House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

Grand delusions: “Trump is so scared of facing Biden in a general election that the president got himself impeached for trying to get a foreign leader to damage Biden’s campaign.” —political analyst Juan Williams

Dangerous territory: “There should be more guidance and regulation from the states on basically — take political advertising as an example — what discourse should be allowed. Or, on the balance of free expression and some things that people call harmful expression, where do you draw the line?” —Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg

Non compos mentis, part I: “It’s one thing to deplore eugenics on ideological, political, moral grounds. It’s quite another to conclude that it wouldn’t work in practice. Of course it would. It works for cows, horses, pigs, dogs & roses. Why on earth wouldn’t it work for humans? Facts ignore ideology.” —atheist Richard Dawkins

Non compos mentis, part II: “Trans women are women. Trans men are men. Non-binary people are non-binary. All gender identities are valid.” —London Mayor Sadiq Khan

And last… “The strongest argument for socialism is that it sounds good. The strongest argument against socialism is that it doesn’t work. But those who live by words will always have a soft spot in their hearts for socialism because it sounds so good.” —Thomas Sowell