The Patriot Post® · Monday Short Cuts

Insight: “There is in all of us a strong disposition to believe that anything lawful is also legitimate. This belief is so widespread that many persons have erroneously held that things are ‘just’ because the law makes them so.” —Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850)

For the record I: “It’s always funny to hear people speak about solar panels as if they were some sort of cutting-edge technology. The discovery of the photovoltaic effect goes back to 1888. President Jimmy Carter declared a national ‘Sun Day’ in 1978 and put 30 solar panels atop the White House. One of those panels is now on display at the Science and Technology Museum in China — not only the top producer of solar panels and carbon emissions but also the nation that would most benefit from the United States’ unilateral economic capitulation.” —David Harsanyi

For the record II: “It is the denial of the modern technology and competitive markets which continue to allow human beings to adapt to organic and anthropogenic changes in the environment. Even people who mimic doomsday rhetoric seem to understand this intuitively. The average American says they are willing to spend up to $177 a year to avoid climate change, not the approximately $177,000,000 per person it would cost to set arbitrary dates to get rid of a carbon-energy economy. … After shutting down a large chunk of its economy in 2020, and spending trillions to keep those affected afloat and avert a depression, the United States emissions only fell by 13%. Imagine what 50% might entail.” —David Harsanyi

Re: leftist fallacies: “If a 16-year-old is wielding a knife and trying to stab someone, you can’t kill her. Because she’s just a baby. But if a pre-born child is unarmed in the womb, you’re welcome to kill her. Because she’s not yet a baby. This is the logic of the left.” —Seth Dillon

Observations: “The armchair-quarterbacking of police shootings is, at this point, more recurrent and sustained than bad officers behaving badly. In postmodern society, the exceptions are being treated as the rule. The bad police officer is treated as the rule, and the good officer is the exception. People have failed to be nuanced and understand differences.” —Erick Erickson

Re: dezinformatsiya: “On Jan. 8, The New York Times reported that Officer Sicknick had died after being struck in the head with a fire extinguisher by violent Trump supporters. This story was quickly repeated by numerous other media outlets. Millions believed it. The story was false. … There will be no significant consequences to the Times for spreading a lie that divided and inflamed the country at a dangerous time. For all the moralizing about people ‘spreading misinformation’ on social media, the biggest spreaders of misinformation in America are the liberal media, the Times above all.” —Glenn H. Reynolds

Non compos mentis: “Given that GOP supporters believe that rampaging mobs burned and looted major cities — somehow without the people actually living in those cities noticing — getting them to see facts about something as abstract as the deficit is a hopeless cause.” —New York Times columnist Paul Krugman

Corporate wokism: “Stopping the continued killing of Black and Brown people at the hands of the police demands we divest from police and invest in systems that build community health and well-being, especially in BIPOC communities who bear the biggest burden of systemic racism in policing. We support defunding the police like we support keeping fossil fuels in the ground. It’s imperative we divest from systems of harm and invest in regenerative systems for all.” —Seventh Generation

And last… “If you are very concerned about Washington D.C. residents not having a senator, let’s make them citizens of Virginia or Maryland. Oh, wait, that wouldn’t accomplish your actual purpose of adding two more Democratic Senators?” —Ben Shapiro