Insight

“The regime of free discussion is the only one which permits the ruling class to renew itself … which eliminates that class quasi-automatically when it no longer corresponds to the interests of the country.” —Gaetano Mosca (1858-1941)

For the Record

“For anyone paying attention over the past 15 years, the news is not that 157 Republicans voted against codifying what’s referred to as gay marriage, but that 47 didn’t. It wasn’t until 8 years ago that a (slight) majority of Americans supported it. The sexual revolution was quick.” —Allie Beth Stuckey

“We’ve had an all-volunteer force since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, and we’ve had our ups and downs before with recruiting. But this one is particularly significant. I mean, there’s two real issues here. One is the eligibility pool itself … and that is those who are qualified to meet the requirements of the United States military. That number is down to 23%. When I was on active duty, we were concerned when it was at 35%. So 75%-plus of American youth are not qualified to be in its military. Why is that? One, for moral reasons, and that’s largely crime. If you’re committing a crime, we’re just not going to take you. The second issue is medical. And this has exploded. We have far too many people who have comorbidity issues at such a young age, largely obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, and other issues that disqualify them. … And then the third thing — I referred to it as mental, but it’s also academics in the sense that we have far too many people … who can’t pass the aptitude test to get inside the United States military. That is an indictment, in my judgment, of our secondary high school education system, because the major reason they can’t pass the test is they can’t read at the proper level.” —General Jack Keane (U.S. Army, Ret.)

A Trip Down Memory Lane

“You’re not going to get COVID if you have these vaccinations.” —President Joe Biden, July 2021

“This continues to be a pandemic of the unvaccinated.” —Joe Biden, January 2022

Braying Jenny

“Do [Republicans] even have any idea of what’s going on in your own homes when it comes to contraception, family planning, birth control? Should we have a session on the birds and the bees so we have a further understanding of what this is? You don’t want birth control, but you want control of women. And that’s our fight.” —House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

Non Compos Mentis Award

“With assault rifles, exit wounds can be a foot wide. The victim’s skull explodes on impact. Organs rupture, bones shatter, the shards serve as shrapnel and tear tissue to pieces. There is a reason we never see the images after a mass murder — many of the bodies no longer exist.” —Congresswoman Lucy McBath

And Last…

“There’s no ‘It’s Summer’ clause in the Constitution, empowering the president to ignore the will of Congress and unilaterally govern when it gets hot. The rejection of the president’s ‘agenda’ by the lawmaking branch of government isn’t a justification for executive action, it’s the opposite.” —David Harsanyi