The Patriot Post® · Tuesday Short Cuts

Insight: “Let us not be deceived by phrases about ‘Man taking charge of his own destiny’. All that can really happen is that some men will take charge of the destiny of the others.  They will be simply men; none perfect; some greedy, cruel and dishonest. The more completely we are planned the more powerful they will be.” —C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)

For the record: “It barely gets a headline these days, but we thought readers might like to know that federal spending for the first nine months of fiscal 2020 hit a record $5.005 trillion. Congratulations to everyone, and especially young Americans. You’ll be paying for it the rest of your lives.” —The Wall Street Journal

Race bait: “As the Washington football team finally gives up its racist slur of a name, there is one major sports team that has avoided the spotlight and resisted meaningful engagement with the violent and racist implications of its name. To know the full history of the Texas Rangers is to understand that the team’s name is not so far off from being called the Texas Klansmen.” —The Washington Post’s Karen Attiah

Non compos mentis: “Republicans are all upset that I’m connecting the dots between poverty and crime. I know most of them haven’t experienced or seen these issues first hand, but I have. This may be hard for them to admit, but poverty and crime are highly linked, both violent & nonviolent alike.” —Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez

Braying jackass, Part I: “I think it is a fair point to raise as to whether or not, if [Trump] loses, he’s going to go quietly or not. And we have to be ready for that.” —Hillary Clinton

Braying jackass, Part II: “Republicans have two prongs to their strategy to try to win. The first is: Try to prevent many people who they think won’t vote for them from voting. So, make the lines really long… Try to make vote by mail as difficult as possible, when in fact that is how Donald Trump votes.” —Hillary Clinton

Braying jackass, Part III: “Look, I want a fair election. If people get to vote and they, for whatever reason, vote for Donald Trump, OK, we’ll accept it. Not happily. But I don’t think that’s what will happen, because I think the more people who can actually get to the polls, whether by mail or in person, and get their votes counted, then we are going to have the kind of election we should have. And then it will be a win both in the popular vote and the Electoral College.” —Hillary Clinton

And last… “Competition is enormously important, because human beings are so fallible. If you insulate people from paying the price of being wrong, you’re going to get a lot of wrong things done.” —Thomas Sowell