Insight: “None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

“Children are at extremely low risk for Covid. In 2020–21, 678 people aged 0–17 died from Covid. To put that in perspective, 1,161 people in that age cohort died from influenza in 2012–13, and 803 died in 2014–15. Covid is more severe than the flu for adults, but it is not significantly different from the flu for children. The adults have multiple safe and effective vaccines, and now antiviral pills as well to treat Covid. We don’t close schools for influenza, and we shouldn’t close schools for Covid.” —National Review

“Teachers are not at any more risk than grocery-store workers, restaurant workers, or any of the other ‘essential workers’ who have been working in person throughout the entire pandemic. If fast-food employees can show up to work, so can teachers. In fact, they have a higher obligation to do so because schools are more important than Taco Bell.” —National Review

“$4.5 trillion dollars in covid relief and people can’t get their hands on tests.” —David Harsanyi

Vive la révolution: “I am not about pissing off the French people. But as for the non-vaccinated, I really want to piss them off. And we will continue to do this, to the end. This is the strategy. … We are putting pressure on the unvaccinated by limiting, as much as possible, their access to activities in social life. … When my freedoms threaten those of others, I become someone irresponsible. Someone irresponsible is not a citizen.” —French President Emmanuel Macron

Fake news: “Biden and Congress mark a year since violent insurrection.” —Associated Press

Banana republic: “The Department of Justice will continue to do all it can to protect voting rights with the enforcement powers we have. It is essential for Congress to act to give the Department the powers we need to ensure that every eligible voter can cast a vote that counts.” —Attorney General Merrick Garland

D'oh! “There’s a lot of reason to be hopeful in 2020.” —Joe Biden addressing the nation in January 2022

Déjà vu: “They don’t know exactly what’s in Build Back Better and what it means. And it’s always easier to sell a package to the public once it’s passed, so we’re hoping we’re going to get to that point.” —White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki (“We have to pass [ObamaCare] so that you can find out what is in it.” —Nancy Pelosi, 2020)

The BIG Lie: “We never give [Biden] any free time or any time to think.” —Jen Psaki (“Joe Biden has spent 95 of his 348 days President on vacation, mostly in Delaware. That equates to a quarter of the Biden regime’s first year in office.” —The National Pulse)

Non compos mentis: “If I was Glenn Youngkin I’d be flooding the zone to get this I-95 crap fixed. DC suburbs are vengeful about this kind of thing.” —Jonah Goldberg, editor-in-chief of the “conservative” Dispatch, blaming the newly elected (but not yet sworn in) Republican governor of Virginia for all the snow-bound pileups on I-95

And last… “America was founded on the rule of law, and law and order is how American democracy is sustained.” —Mike Pompeo