Insight

“The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” —George Orwell (1903-1950)

Upright

“The fatal attraction of government is that it allows busybodies to impose decisions on others without paying any price themselves. That enables them to act as if there were no price, even when there are ruinous prices — paid by others.” —Thomas Sowell

“Unlawful content should be moderated. But beyond that, the mute/block buttons give every user the ability to control who they hear from on Twitter. People should be encouraged to use those if they’re offended by someone else’s speech. The answer is tuning out, not deplatforming.” —Seth Dillon

Re: “Regime Change”

“Joe Biden's call-to-arms speech in Poland was long on soaring rhetoric about the virtues of democracy but woefully short on what more the West will do to help Ukraine defeat the Russian invasion. But by the time he got to the finish, most of that was forgotten. What mattered most and what will be remembered for a long time was a single line the president of the United States said about the president of Russia: ‘For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.’ … This was at least the fourth time on the three-day trip that something Biden said had to be walked back, cleaned up, clarified or refuted. No, there will not be food shortages in America, despite what he suggested. No, American troops in Poland are not headed to Ukraine, despite what Biden told them. No, the United States will not use chemical weapons, even if Russia does, despite the president seeming to threaten it would. And now no, we’re not pushing for regime change in Russia. It’s a helluva way to end a trip that is the most important of Biden’s presidency. He’s underwater with voters on almost every domestic issue, some by lopsided margins, and his party could be facing a midterm wipeout, which would largely neuter his term.” —Michael Goodwin

“I think his comment … was an unforced error. It … strengthens Putin at home, makes it difficult for any domestic opposition to coalesce together. And no Russian citizen, none, wants to be told by the leader of Russia’s main enemy about what their leadership can look like and not. The broader framing I worry about as well. I think we should frame this narrowly — Russia out of Ukraine — and impose so much pain on this man that he never thinks about doing this again. I think framing it as democracy versus autocracy drives the Chinese closer to the Russians and makes it difficult for some of our own allies who are autocrats to stand with us.” —former Obama Acting CIA Director Michael Morell

“The net effect is that Biden can be portrayed by Moscow as bellicose, while simultaneously coming across as weak to nervous allies in the East, and hopelessly muddled to allies elsewhere and, of course, to adversaries and the undecided across the globe. So another unforced error from Biden, and a reminder that the road from Kabul to Kyiv has not been a long one.” —Andrew Stuttaford

For the Record

“They’re calling this the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law in Florida with kids. … But that’s not what the law is. What the law does say is that from first grade to third grade, you can’t bring up gender transition, sexual orientation, whether people are gay or straight. They say don’t teach that in class. That’s it. That’s the law — which seems reasonable. You don’t want an unknown person who’s a teacher, a stranger, talking to your child who’s six about sexual transitioning and gender transitioning and sexual orientation and gay people and bisexual people and non-binary people. … That’s not your job. That’s a delicate issue to be handled by parents and loved ones.” —Joe Rogan

Race Bait

“I think [Republicans] would be thrilled to have no black seats on the [Supreme] Court.” —Bill Maher

And Last…

“All of America must take its moral cues from people who fly private jets to events where they receive thousands of bucks in swag while lecturing us about climate change, chant ‘gay’ in unison to oppose bills protecting children, and slap each other on stage.” —Ben Shapiro