Insight: “Liberty, or the absence of coercion, or the leaving people to think, speak, and act as they please, is in itself a good thing. It is the object of a favourable presumption. The burden of proving it inexpedient always lies, and wholly lies, on those who wish to abridge it by coercion, whether direct or indirect.” —John Morley (1838-1923)

For the record: “Iran has violated all of the guidelines set in the JCPOA [nuclear agreement] and is only around 10 weeks away from acquiring weapons-grade materials necessary for a nuclear weapon.” —Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz

Re: The Left: “Critical Race Theory essentially argues that racism is baked into all the systems of American society, and that any sort of neutral system is, in fact, a guise for racial power. … And so what that boils down to, in sort of practical terms, is all disparity equals discrimination. If you can see any stat where black people are underperforming white people, this means the system was set up for the benefit of white people, and that white people have a duty to tear down these systems in order to alleviate the racism that’s implicit in those systems. When it comes to schools, what this tends to boil down to is kids who are white have experienced privilege because the system was built for white people, and we have to change the standard.” —Ben Shapiro

Observations: “When enough people in a nation develop a paternalistic/maternalistic visage of the role of government, it is not difficult at all to get them to comply or acquiesce to anything. As long as a mandate or rule satiates their sense of safety and comfort, they’ll consent to anything.” —Darrell B. Harrison

Upright: “Each parent has the right to do what they feel is best for their child. This includes mask-wearing. I do not support government-mandated masks in the classrooms. Stick to the science.” —Mike Pompeo

Speaking of sticking to the science… “One way in which the CDC’s unscientific approach is currently on display is its refusal to acknowledge that [recovering from] covid confers immunity to the disease, to the same extent, and probably more, than being vaccinated. This stands to reason, since the whole point of vaccination is to mimic the effect — production of antibodies — of having a disease.” —legal analyst John Hinderaker notes

Tongue-in-cheek: “I just want to take some time to thank the TX Democrats for dismantling the premise of vaccine passports by showing us how breakthrough cases work. I also want to thank Obama for leading the way on getting back to our pre-COVID lives and having fun again.” —Lisa Boothe

Health commissars: “Certainly I celebrate when I see businesses deciding that they’re going to mandate that for their employees and, as a person who runs the National Institutes of Health with 45,000 employees and contractors, I am glad to see the president insisting that we go forward requiring vaccinations or if people are unwilling to do that, then regular testing, at least once or twice a week, which will be very inconvenient.” —National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins

Non compos mentis: “Instead of the Delta variant, why not call it the DeSantis variant? We could sell beer koozies that say ‘Don’t Florida My Fauci’ and use the money to help pay for all of the funerals that’ll be coming in the days to come.” —CNN’s Jim Acosta

Hot air: “One of the most important lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic is that when scientists are warning about a looming threat, we all ought to listen. Today, the [IPCC] is once again sounding the alarm on the climate crisis and their warning is clearer than ever.” —Al Gore

Too little, too late: “The police are not our enemies. We must come together. … We have a common enemy: It’s the guns and the gangs.” —Chicago’s inept Mayor Lori Lightfoot after Officer Ella French was murdered

The BIG Lie: “It wasn’t as if the president was removing the attorney general and making pronouncements, which would happen in a coup I suppose by classic definition. But it was leading up to that kind of process.” —Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin

And last… “Mark my words: A very large proportion of the insistence on the distinction between gender and sex is undiagnosed (and self serving) narcissism. But by the time this is revealed clinically many medical careers and innocent lives will be destroyed.” —Jordan Peterson