Insight

“Books won’t stay banned. They won’t burn. Ideas won’t go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas. The source of better ideas is wisdom.” —A. Whitney Griswold (1909-1963)

Inquisitive Minds Want to Know

“Have we reached the ultimate stage of absurdity where some people are held responsible for things that happened before they were born, while other people are not held responsible for what they themselves are doing today?” —Thomas Sowell

“Can someone please explain how California has a water shortage…next to the Pacific Ocean? Call the Israelis and ask about their desalination plants. Droughts come and go, but California is next to an ocean. No excuse for a water shortage.” —Katie Pavlich

Re: The Left

“We are apparently fated to have our heartbreak and sorrow aggravated by a certain breed of politician. The breed finds the moment of unspeakable tragedy a fit moment to undertake histrionic displays and hysterical lectures promoting their favored causes. Among this number is President Biden, who could have met the moment but chose not to. He failed it.” —Scott Johnson

Standing on Caskets

“As a nation, we have to ask: When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby? When in God’s name will we do what we all know in our gut needs to be done? … I am sick and tired of it. We have to act. And don’t tell me we can’t have an impact on this carnage. I spent my career as a senator and as vice president working to pass commonsense gun laws. We can’t and won’t prevent every tragedy. But we know they work and have a positive impact. When we passed the assault weapons ban, mass shootings went down. When the law expired, mass shootings tripled.” —Joe Biden

“Spare me the bulls**t about mental illness. We don’t have any more mental illness than any other country in the world. You cannot explain this through a prism of mental illness, because … we’re not an outlier on mental illness. We’re an outlier when it comes to access to firearms and the ability of criminals and very sick people to get their hands on firearms. That’s what makes America different.” —Senator Chris Murphy

“The only adjectives left to describe yet another school shooting are ‘sick’ and ‘tired’ of conservative extremists blocking common-sense steps to reduce the risk of these atrocities ripping away the lives of children and leaving their families to grieve their devastating losses.” —Senator Ron Wyden

“There is no such thing as being ‘pro-life’ while supporting laws that let children be shot in their schools, elders in grocery stores, worshippers in their houses of faith, survivors by abusers, or anyone in a crowded place. It is an idolatry of violence. And it must end.” —Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

“Another shooting. And the GOP won’t do a d*mn thing about it. Who the hell are we if we cannot keep our kids safe. This is preventable. Our inaction is a choice.” —California Governor Gavin Newsom

The BIG Lie

“The United States continues to enforce its immigration laws. … The restrictions at our Southwest border have not changed. … The bottom line is that U.S. borders are not open.” —DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas (“In April alone, DHS released 118,000 migrants into the U.S., more than the 113,000 they removed.” —Bill Melugin)

Non Sequitur

“I wonder about [the] death penalty, which I am opposed to. So is the [Catholic] Church, but they take no action against people who may not share their view. … We just have to be prayerful. We have to be respectful. I come from a largely pro-life Italian American Catholic family, so I respect people’s views about that, but I don’t respect us foisting it onto others. Now our archbishop has been vehemently against LGBTQ rights, too. … So this decision, taking us to privacy and precedent, is very dangerous in the lives of so many of the American people. And again, not consistent with the Gospel of Matthew.” —House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

Non Compos Mentis Award

“The question about voter suppression and voter turnout … [is] correlation without causation. We know that increased turnout has nothing to do with suppression.” —Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams (“If it dramatically improves voter turnout, it needs a name other than ‘voter suppression.’” —Seth Dillon)

Village Matriarch

“When we talk about the children of the community, they are a children of the community.” —Vice President Kamala Harris

Revisionist History

“On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was shot and killed in police custody.” —The Washington Post

And Last…

“Right now thousands of climate activists are flying on private jets to a climate summit in Switzerland. This is the equivalent of opening your clean water convention with an oil spill.” —Jimmy Failla