Insight: “Those who created this country chose freedom. With all of its dangers. And do you know the riskiest part of that choice they made? They actually believed that we could be trusted to make up our own minds in the whirl of differing ideas. That we could be trusted to remain free, even when there were very, very seductive voices — taking advantage of our freedom of speech — who were trying to turn this country into the kind of place where the government could tell you what you can and cannot do.” —Nat Hentoff (1925-2017)

Just don’t ask me how: “I stand here today for the first time in 20 years with the United States not at war. We’ve turned the page.” —Joe Biden

Race bait: “I urge President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas to immediately put a stop to these [illegal immigrant] expulsions… We cannot continue these hateful and xenophobic Trump policies that disregard our refugee laws.” —Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer

The BIG Lie: “We have reiterated that our borders are not open.” —Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas

Grand delusions: “Should we be looking at the budget of Department of Homeland Security? Because I was not aware that whips, which come from the slave era, slavery era, were part of the package that we issue to any sort of law enforcement or government-sanctioned personnel.” —MSNBC’s Joy Reid

Dumb and dumber: “Thank God for President Biden, for putting us on a different course where over a 150,000 people had been fully vaccinated.” —House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

Dezinformatsiya: “Last week, a 47-year-old man stormed into a law firm in China’s Wuhan city and shot dead a lawyer who he had ‘some disputes with,’ according to Chinese state media. … The fatal shooting shocked many in China, which has some of the world’s strictest gun control laws — so much so, that some people thought initial reports were about yet another American shooting. … China’s gun control policy is broadly popular among the public, which — like many in the international community — views US gun crime with bewilderment and horror.” —CNN

Who’d a thunk it? “BREAKING: The Taliban announce a list of deputy ministers, failing to appoint any women, doubling down on an all-male, all-Taliban government in Afghanistan.” —Associated Press (“A fundamental problem of liberalism is a denial of the reality of evil, a natural consequence of which is the pursuit of naïve visions of human self-redemption and salvation. The Taliban are innately evil. That is what liberals refuse to accept. Hence, ‘breaking news’ like this.” —Darrell B. Harrison)

Non compos mentis: “‘Parents’ rights’ has emerged as a centerpiece of the Trump-era GOP — an aggrieved rallying cry against mandating vaccines, masks in schools, or the teaching of content that parents find objectionable, including material on race, slavery and other so-called divisive concepts.” —Jennifer C. Berkshire in The Nation (“The implication here being that someone else has a superseding ‘right’ over your child.” —Grant Addison)

Get Out of Jail Free card: “We don’t need the fun police to come in and try and micromanage and tell us what we should or shouldn’t be doing. … I got up and started dancing because I was feeling the spirit and I wasn’t thinking about a mask.” —San Francisco Mayor London “Break My Own COVID Rules” Breed

And last… “Thousands upon thousands of people are pouring into the country every day illegally and the administration responsible for handling it is blaming border patrol for ‘whipping’ them. I’m honestly not surprised anymore.” —Caleb Hull