The Patriot Post® · Tuesday Short Cuts

Insight: “It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become prey to the active. The conditions upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime, and the punishment of his guilt.” —John Philpot Curran (1750-1814)

Observations: “Biden isn’t even bothering to try to convince you that he’s choosing the most competent people for key [cabinet] jobs. Instead, he’s telling you what they look like. Their appearance is all that matters. So it turns out your mother was wrong; you can judge a book by its cover. In fact, you’re now required to.” —Tucker Carlson

For the record: “The fraud happened. The election in many ways was stolen and the only way it’ll be fixed is by in the future reinforcing the laws.” —Senator Rand Paul

He has a point: “If money really did grow on trees, why not give more free money? Why not give it out all the time? Why stop at $600 a person? Why not $1,000? Why not $2,000? Maybe these new Free-Money Republicans should join the Everybody-Gets-A-Guaranteed-Income Caucus. Why not $20,000 a year for everybody? Why not $30,000? If we can print out money with impunity, why not do it?” —Rand Paul, who further declared, “To so-called conservatives who are quick to identify the socialism of Democrats: If you vote for this spending monstrosity, you are no better.”

Upright: “Folks, we just received a 5,600 page PDF that represents one of the largest spending bills in our history, and NOT ONE Member of Congress will have had time to read through it before voting later today. This is awful governance, and a disservice to the American people.” —Rep. Ralph Norman

Non sequitur: “People say around here sometimes, ‘I’m faith-oriented, so I don’t believe in science.’ And I said, ‘Well, you can do both. Science is an answer to our prayers and our prayers have been answered with a vaccine.’” —House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

Non compos mentis: “We missed our opportunity to impeach [Trump] for treason. [New York] can make up for it!” —Rep. Maxine Waters

And last… “I don’t really let statues bother me, because, well… they're statues. They don’t make me angry, because they’re just inanimate objects. The only way a statue can hurt you is if it falls on you while you’re tearing it down. I avoid this danger by not tearing them down.” —Jim Treacher