Insight: “Our modern society is engaged in polishing and decorating the cage in which man is kept imprisoned.” —Swami Nirmalananda (1863-1938)

Sad, but true: “Biden voters didn’t really want a President. Nah, what they wanted was a wealth redistributor, a student loans-forgiver, a stimulus check-issuer, a mask mandator, an open-borders advocator, a tax-increaser, a critical race theory-endorser, and an eviction moratorium-extender.” —Darrell B. Harrison

For the record: “There was a second mission, which was to prevent Afghanistan from ever becoming a safe haven for terrorism again. Unfortunately, we have failed.” —former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta

Non compos mentis I: “We don’t have a complete picture obviously of where every article of defense materials has gone, but certainly a fair amount of it has fallen into the hands of the Taliban.” —National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan

Non compos mentis II: “What has unfolded over the past month has proven decisively that it would’ve taken a significant American troop presence — multiple times greater than what President Biden was handed — to stop a Taliban onslaught. And we would’ve taken casualties.” —Jake Sullivan

Non compos mentis III: “The Taliban have informed us they are prepared to provide the safe passage of civilians to the airport.” —Jake Sullivan

The BIG Lie: “It’s pretty clear this [Afghanistan debacle] probably would have been just as bad, if not worse, under what Trump wanted to do.” —NBC anchor Chuck Todd

Whew! “In Afghanistan, I would like to assure our neighbors, our original countries, [that] we are not going to allow our territory to be used against anybody or any country in the world. So the whole global community should be assured that we are committed to these pleasures that you will not be harmed.” —Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid

And we have beachfront property in Tennessee: “We don’t want to repeat any conflict, any war, again, and we want to do away with the factors for conflict. … Therefore, the Islamic Emirate does not have any kind of hostility or animosity with anyone. Animosities have come to an end, and we would like to live peacefully.” —Zabihullah Mujahid

Village idiot: “Why should our soldiers be fighting radicals in a civil war in Afghanistan? We’ve got our own on Capitol Hill.” —Stephen Colbert

Authoritarianism: “Put aside all of these issues of concern about liberties and personal liberties and realize we have a common enemy and that common enemy is the virus.” —Dr. Anthony Fauci

Belly laugh of the week: “It was a unique situation being a brother to a politician in a scandal and being part of the media. I tried to do the right thing, and I just want you all to know that.” —CNN’s Chris Cuomo

And last… “Joe Biden has not spoken to a single world leader since the fall of Afghanistan. This is not what you expect from the leader of the free world.” —Senator Marsha Blackburn