Insight: “The greatest discovery of any generation is that a living soul can alter his life by altering his attitude.” —William James (1842-1910)

A blind squirrel finds a nut I: “I know some people seem to not want to give up on the wonderful pandemic, but you know what? It’s over. There’s always going to be a variant.” —Bill Maher

A blind squirrel finds a nut II: “I said this months and months ago that the issue in coming elections is going to be what’s going on in the schools. Parents vote and they don’t like what’s going in schools. They feel like they are losing control and this became the issue in [the Virginia] election. Trust me, this is going to be a huge barometer-kind of election because if Terry McAuliffe loses, people are gonna understand, ‘Yes. Oh, that’s right. It is going to be about that.’” —Bill Maher

A blind squirrel finds a nut III: “If [Critical Race Theory] means separating five-year-olds by race and telling some you’re oppressors and the others you’re the oppressed and giving up on a colorblind society and resegregation and racism is the essence of America, then I’m out. I’m out on that.” —Bill Maher

“If you genuinely believe that the violence in Charlottesville was a dark day in recent American history, a stain on the American character, and a hideously ugly and abominable ritual openly celebrating intolerance and hatred … you don’t then turn around and adopt that imagery to prove a political point. If you’re willing to dress up as tiki-torch-bearing white nationalists as part of a stunt in the final days of a gubernatorial campaign, then you clearly don’t think that what happened in Charlottesville is so bad that it’s beyond ordinary partisan politics. You don’t see people dressing up as Nazis on Holocaust Remembrance Day. You don’t see people dressing up like Japanese pilots on Pearl Harbor Day. If something is genuinely important to you, you treat it with respect. You cannot effectively fight white nationalism and hatred by choosing to dress up and pretend to be hateful white nationalists. You’re almost literally becoming that which you profess to oppose.” —Jim Geraghty

“For reasons of human psychology, deep-seated fear of nuclear power is socially acceptable among those who claim to ‘follow the science.’ But just as the COVID-19 vaccines have saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, a few people — literally a few — have had bad reactions to the vaccine that may have contributed to their deaths. Whatever that number is — three? four? — that’s more Americans than have died from nuclear power. … If Biden is serious about fighting climate change — and wants to show it — he should take nuclear power seriously.” —Jonah Goldberg

Democrat buzzkill I: “Throughout the last three months, I’ve been straightforward about my concerns that I will not support a reconciliation package that expands social programs and irresponsibly adds to our $29 trillion in national debt that no one seems to really care about or even talk about. Nor will I support a package that risks hurting American families suffering from historic inflation. Simply put, I will not support a bill that is this consequential without thoroughly understanding the impact that it’ll have on our national debt, our economy, and most importantly, all of our American people.” —Senator Joe Manchin

Democrat buzzkill II: “I for one won’t support a multitrillion-dollar bill without greater clarity about why Congress chooses to ignore the serious effects of inflation and debt that have on our economy and existing government programs. For example, how can I in good conscience vote for a bill that proposes massive expansion to social programs when vital programs like Social Security and Medicare faces insolvency and benefits could start being reduced as soon as 2026 in Medicare and 2033 in Social Security? How does that make sense?” —Joe Manchin

Friendly fire: “Joe Manchin does not get to dictate the future of our country. … Manchin’s opposition to the Build Back Better Act is anti-Black, anti-child, anti-woman, and anti-immigrant.” —Congresswoman Cori Bush

Hot air: “I guess I shouldn’t apologize, but I do apologize for the fact the United States, in the last administration, pulled out of the Paris Accords and put us sort of behind the eight ball a little bit.” —Joe Biden

Moving the goal posts: “In the United States, in most of the Western world, we’re ready to be done with [COVID], but we’re not done until the world is safe, and we’re not safe as a world until the world’s vaccinated.” —Senator Chris Coons

Non sequitur: “As an experiment, I’d love for an [sic] @SouthwestAir pilot to say ‘Long live ISIS’ before taking off. My guess is that 1) the plane would be immediately grounded; 2) the pilot fired; and 3) a statement issued by the airline within a matter of hours.” —CNN analyst Asha Rangappa regarding a pilot’s “Let’s Go Brandon” declaration (“As a factual matter, supporting genocidal religious zealots is not the same as disagreeing with the current President.” —Senator Ted Cruz)

Race bait: “‘Parents’ rights’ is code for white race politics.” —Juan Williams

And last… “Two weeks ago [Colin] Kaepernick did an interview and claimed he trains every day in hopes of playing in the NFL. Literally at the exact same time he was filming a Netflix show where he says that being in the NFL is like being a slave. The guy is totally shameless. It’s amazing to behold.” —Matt Walsh