Insight

“Truth and news are not the same thing.” —Katharine Graham (1917-2001)

Credit Where It’s Due

“If something about the human race is changing at a previously unprecedented rate, we have to at least discuss it. Broken down over time, the LGBT population of America seems to be roughly doubling every generation. … When things change this much, this fast, people are allowed to ask, ‘What’s up with that?’ … It wasn’t that long ago when adults asked a kid, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ They meant, ‘What profession?’ … Someone needs to say it: Not everything’s about you [LBGTers]. And it’s okay to ask questions about something that’s very new and involves children. The answer can’t always be that anyone from a marginalized community is automatically right, trump card, mic drop, end of discussion. Because we’re literally experimenting on children. … Common sense should tell you that when you reverse the course of raging hormones, there’s going to be problems. … This isn’t just a lifestyle decision. It’s medical. Weighing tradeoffs is not bigotry. … Remember, the prime directive of every teen is anything to shock and challenge the squares who brought you up. It’s why nobody gets a nose ring at 56. … If this spike in trans children is all natural, why is it regional? Either Ohio is shaming them or California is creating them. … If we can’t admit that in certain enclaves there was some level of trendiness to the idea of being anything other than straight, then this is not a serious, science-based discussion. It’s a blow being struck in the culture wars using children as cannon fodder. I don’t understand parents who won’t let their nine-year-old walk to the corner without a helmet, an EpiPen, and a GPS tracker. And God forbid their lips touch dairy. But hormone blockers and genital surgery? Fine.” —Bill Maher

Political Futures

“Inflation is still the number one issue in the country and the president is slow to react, whether it’s the border, whether it’s inflation, whether it’s gas prices, even Ukraine. I think the expectation is that whoever the president is gets ahead of the problems rather than behind the problem. So I think the election this fall is going to be about inflation. It’s going to be about the effectiveness of the Biden administration. And I think it bodes well for Republicans.” —Senator Rick Scott

Upright

“We’ve got to figure out how to decouple from China, and it’s going to take a while to do that. But if you look at what they want to do, they’re sending fentanyl [to] this country. We had over 100,000 people die of drug overdose last year. They never comply with any trade agreements. They’ve never complied with the [World Trade Organization]. So what we’ve got to do is … start building American jobs. We’ve got to get American manufacturing back. … People want to buy American products and there’s other countries to do business with.” —Rick Scott

Re: Foreign Policy

“To be clear, the problem isn’t that Joe Biden says that the US will intervene militarily if Taiwan is invaded. The problem is that it’s totally unclear if that’s true or if we even have the capacity to do so, and it’s even more unclear when his own White House keeps shushing him. This is the sort of thing that leads to actual conflict; if China believes that the US is shifting policy but that we don’t actually have the capacity or will to stop them but might in the future, it accelerates conflict.” —Ben Shapiro

Friendly Fire

“Unfortunately, even as we see Russia wage a war enabled by energy insecurity in Europe, this administration has made its opposition to domestic oil and gas production crystal clear — on and off federal lands and waters.” —Senator Joe Manchin

“My frustration is at an all-time high that we are talking to OPEC, Iran, and Venezuela to increase oil output while we are at the same time blocking increased energy production at home. What does it say to producers here in the United States when we consider working with the Venezuelan government, which certainly doesn’t share our values, instead of supporting domestic or North American production? Is this really in our best interest?” —Joe Manchin

“I must admit that I am skeptical that this administration will ultimately support the development of … critical mineral projects.” —Joe Manchin

Letting the Cat Out of the Bag

“When it comes to the gas prices, we’re going through an incredible transition that is taking place that, God willing, when it’s over, we’ll be stronger and the world will be stronger and less reliant on fossil fuels when this is over.” —Joe Biden (“They’re saying the quiet part out loud now. They’re causing you pain at the pump because it’s all part of their radical agenda.” —House Republican Whip Steve Scalise)

Baghdad Bobs

“Look, a lot of things have changed over the course of the last year and we’ve dealt with a lot of unexpected challenges. … What’s most important for the American people to understand right now is they have a president who is making clear … that inflation is his top economic priority.” —National Economic Council Director Brian Dees

“I hate to spoil the narrative but this [CBS News] poll shows [Biden’s] approval rating moving up, and solid public confidence on the two biggest problems he inherited: COVID and jobs.” —White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain

Useful Idiots

“The archbishop of San Francisco is calling for Speaker Nancy Pelosi to be denied receiving communion because of her pro-choice stance. He’s one of the priests who also called for President Biden to be denied sacrament. This is not your job, dude. That is not up to you to make that decision. … How dare you. How dare you.” —"The View" co-host Whoopi Goldberg (“That is literally his job.” —Ben Shapiro)

“12 years of Catholic school, altar boy, family deeply involved in our church, and never saw anyone banned from receiving communion. This is a deep fissure in the church — and a position Pope Francis himself doesn’t support.” —CNN’s Jim Sciutto (“Pope Francis did not say that he did not support individual pastors making the decision whether or not to deny access to the sacrament in specific cases — in fact, that’s exactly what he told them they must do. He addressed the issue last September, telling journalists onboard the Papal plane that Catholics who supported abortion were ‘outside the community’ and that the sacrament of Communion was for those who were ‘in the community,’ or not estranged from it.” —The Daily Wire)

Stop Digging…

“I am tired of hearing about how we’re the best state in the country to do business when we are the worst state in the country to live.” —Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams

The BIG Lie

“The right to privacy that forms the basis of Roe v. Wade also protects the right to use contraception and the right to marry the person you love. Overturning Roe opens the door to restricting those rights.” —Vice President Kamala Harris

And Last…

“If you want to see the poor remain poor, generation after generation, just keep the standards low in their schools and make excuses for their academic shortcomings and personal misbehavior. But please don’t congratulate yourself on your compassion.” —Thomas Sowell