Insight

“The next great heresy is going to be simply an attack on morality; and especially on sexual morality. And it is coming, not from a few Socialists surviving from the Fabian Society, but from the living exultant energy of the rich resolved to enjoy themselves at last, with neither Popery nor Puritanism nor Socialism to hold them back. … The roots of the new heresy, God knows, are as deep as nature itself, whose power is the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye and the pride of life. I say that the man who cannot see this cannot see the signs of the times; cannot see even the skysigns in the street that are the new sort of signs in heaven. The madness of tomorrow is not in Moscow but much more in Manhattan.” —G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936)

Upright

“Why is our culture suddenly producing so many young men who want to murder innocent people? Could things like fatherlessness, the breakdown of families, isolation from civil society, or the glorification of violence be contributing factors?” —Senator Mike Lee

“If … every kid in America had a loving father in the home, we would have far, far fewer problems that we would have to deal with as a society. I do think there are a lot of problems, but if you could just snap your finger and do one thing, and you did this where the fathers were in the home, you would not even need to worry about a lot of these other problems.” —Florida Governor Ron DeSantis

For the Record

“FBI Director Christopher Wray said this week that the Islamic Republic of Iran was behind a sophisticated, but unsuccessful cyberattack against Boston Children’s Hospital last summer. Thankfully, law enforcement officials and cybersecurity experts were able to prevent the Iranians from compromising the hospital’s systems. Wray called the hack ‘one of the most despicable cyberattacks I’ve ever seen.’ Such despicable behavior from the world’s leading state-sponsor of terrorism shouldn’t surprise us. But what is surprising is that last summer and still today, the Biden Administration is at the negotiating table begging Iran to reenter the 2015 Obama/Biden nuclear deal, even when it was attacking one of our children’s hospitals! Why didn’t Biden tell our negotiators to walk out of those talks last summer? Well, we don’t walk out when the Iranian government is sponsoring ‘Death to Israel, Death to America’ rallies in Tehran. So, I guess it really shouldn’t surprise us that Biden won’t walk out even when the Iranian government is trying to cause death to American kids in a children’s hospital. That’s putting America last.” —Gary Bauer

A Trip Down Memory Lane

“The risk of overheating in terms of price pressures is considerably smaller than the risks of doing too little.” —Biden economic adviser Jared Bernstein, March 2021

“During my twelve and a half years as a member of this body, I have never believed that additional gun control or federal registration of guns would reduce crime. I am convinced that a criminal who wants a firearm can get one through illegal, nontraceable, unregistered sources, with or without gun control. In my opinion a national register or ban of handguns would be impossible to carry out and may not result in reductions in crime.” —Senator Joe Biden, July 1985

The BIG Lies

“We should reinstate the assault weapons ban and high-capacity magazines that we passed in 1994 with bipartisan support in Congress and the support of law enforcement. Nine categories of semi-automatic weapons were included in that ban, like AK-47s and AR-15s. And in the 10 years it was law, mass shootings went down. But after Republicans let the law expire in 2004 and those weapons were allowed to be sold again, mass shootings tripled. Those are the facts.” —Joe Biden (“A 2004 Department of Justice funded study from the University of Pennsylvania Center of Criminology concluded the ban cannot be credited with a decrease in violence carried out with firearms.” —Katie Pavlich)

“I don’t think there is a single incident, and maybe there is one, but I have not found one, of an assailant using an assault weapon that was stopped by a person with a gun.” —Congressman David Cicilline (“Just last week, a woman in West Virginia intervened in what would have been a deadly scene by shooting and killing a man who had opened fire into a graduation party crowd with an AR-style rifle.” —Brian Mark Weber)

Demagogues

“To my colleagues today who flew in town, came to work, got ready to argue, my question is: Why did you come here at all? … If you’re not here for the children, why don’t you go to the funeral of the killer because that’s the only place where the killer is being celebrated.” —Congressman Eric Swalwell

“This is who Republicans are. Kids are being buried and they’re bragging about how many guns they own during our gun safety hearing. They are not serious. They are a danger to our kids.” —Eric Swalwell (“If you hate the 2nd Amendment, move to China. I hear you know some people there…” —Congressman Greg Steube)

“You will not stop us from advancing the Protecting Our Kids Act today. You will not stop us from passing it in the House next week. … If the filibuster obstructs us, we will abolish it. If the Supreme Court objects, we will expand it. And we will not rest until we have taken weapons of war out of circulation in our communities.” —Congressman Mondaire Jones (“You are one of the leading Democrat voices pushing to defund and ‘dismantle’ the police. And communities burned as a consequence. We won’t let you bully Americans into disarming themselves now.” —Congressman Dan Bishop)

Race Bait

“We can’t even process one mass shooting before the next occurs. [Wednesday’s] atrocity in Tulsa happened on the 101st anniversary of the Tulsa Black Wall Street massacre. White Supremacy is clearly a factor.” —New York Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn (“Hate to break it to you, but the shooter was black.” —Caleb Hull)

Non Compos Mentis Awards

“We’re going to get to this clean energy economy one hydroelectric project, one solar panel, one wind turbine, one geothermal project, one advanced nuclear reactor, one electric vehicle, one battery at a time.” —Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm

“The idea we’re going to be able to, you know, click a switch, bring down the cost of gasoline is not likely in the near term, nor is it with regard to food.” —President Joe Biden

“The president’s economic plan, as we see it, is working.” —White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre

Braying Jenny

“As right-wing forces attempt to silence LGBTQ voices and threaten to wind back hard-won progress, the struggle against hate remains as urgent as ever. Across the country, extremist Republicans are waging an all-out assault on the safety and well-being of the LGBTQ community — from targeting trans children in Texas to bullying LGBTQ students in Florida.” —House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

Letting the Cat Out of the Bag

“It’s less about [mask] mandates on the plane than it is about who has the right and the authority and the capability of making public health decisions. And I believe that the Department of Justice is operating on the principle that decisions that are public health decisions belong with the public health agency — in this case, the CDC. So it’s more of a matter of principle of where the authority lies than it is about whether or not there’s going to be a mandate on a plane or not.” —Anthony Fauci