Insight

“You see these dictators on their pedestals, surrounded by the bayonets of their soldiers and the truncheons of their police. Yet in their hearts there is unspoken — unspeakable! — fear. They are afraid of words and thoughts! Words spoken abroad, thoughts stirring at home, all the more powerful because they are forbidden. These terrify them. A little mouse — a little tiny mouse! — of thought appears in the room, and even the mightiest potentates are thrown into panic.” —Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

Upright

“In an age where elites embrace defunding the police, when homelessness runs rampant, when gangs dominate entire communities, and when radical district attorneys refuse to prosecute violent crime in cities across America, rarely has the Second Amendment been more necessary to secure the rights of our fellow citizens.” —Senator Ted Cruz

“Many would still tell us that the evil on display in Uvalde or in Buffalo derives from the presence of guns in the hands of ordinary American citizens. It’s far easier to slander one’s political adversaries and to demand that responsible citizens forfeit their constitutional rights than it is to examine the cultural sickness giving birth to unspeakable acts of evil. It’s far less comfortable to ask why despair and isolation and violent hatred is so prevalent in America. It requires a sick soul to drive a truck into a crowded sidewalk, to plant a bomb at a marathon, or to fly a plane into a building. It requires a sick soul to open fire in a movie theater or in a church or in a school. A speeding automobile in the hands of a madman is deadly, as is a jet airplane. Tragedies like the events of [last] week are a mirror forcing us to ask hard questions, demanding that we see where our culture is failing. Looking at broken families, absent fathers, declining church attendance, social media bullying, violent online content, desensitizing the act of murder in video games, chronic isolation, prescription drug and opioid abuse, and their collective effects on the psyche of young Americans is both complicated and multifaceted. It’s a lot easier to moralize about guns and to shriek about those you disagree with politically, but it’s never been about guns.” —Senator Ted Cruz

“We must not react to evil and tragedy by abandoning the Constitution or infringing on the rights of our law-abiding citizens.” —Ted Cruz

Demagogue

“We know what works on this. It includes — let’s have an assault weapons ban.” —Vice President Kamala Harris

Race Bait

“So since no one else will ask, I will. Did those children die because most of them were Mexican American and the police didn’t give a d**n about a school [with] predominately brown kids? I mean, because it’s Texas..and if you think everyone who isn’t white is illegal.” —University of Pennsylvania professor Anthea Butler (“Critics note that Uvalde School District Police Chief Pedro ‘Pete’ Arredondo, who reportedly held officers back as 19 children and two teachers were killed by a gunman, is Latino, as is city Police Chief Daniel Rodriguez. Several of the local and federal officers who responded to the scene are also Latino, and many have children in the school.” —The Daily Wire)

The BIG Lies

“They said a .22-caliber bullet will lodge in the lung, and we can probably get it out — may be able to get it and save the life. A nine-millimeter bullet blows the lung out of the body. So, the idea of these high-caliber weapons is, uh, there’s simply no rational basis for it in terms of self-protection, hunting.” —Joe Biden

“A mob of insurrectionists stormed the Capitol — the very citadel of democracy. Imagine what you’d be thinking today if you had heard this morning, before you got here, that a group of a thousand people … killed two police officers.” —Joe Biden

Useful Idiot

“I don’t plan on coming out for the [national] anthem going forward until I feel better about the direction of our country.” —San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler (“The flag and the anthem are not appropriate places to try to voice your objection. … I would never not stand up for the anthem or the flag. … You need to understand what the veterans think when they hear the anthem or see the flag. And the cost they paid and their families. And if you truly understand that, I think it’s impossible not to salute the flag and listen to the anthem.” —Chicago White Sox manager Tony La Russa)