Insight

“Conservatives have excellent credentials to speak about human rights. By our efforts, and with precious little help from self-styled liberals, we were largely responsible for securing liberty for a substantial share of the world’s population and defending it for most of the rest.” —Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013)

Re: The Left

“What is it about those on the Left of the political spectrum that they seem to not just live in perpetual fear of apocalypse and doom but they actually embrace it? It is their raison d'etre. Is there something in the collective psyche or the DNA of modern leftists that they crave fear? And doom? … The Left is fatalistic. The Right is opportunistic. It’s the difference between cursing the darkness and lifting a candle. I have often wondered: What would be the Left’s reaction to some kind of definitive proof that there was no manmade climate change to worry about? Would there be whoops of relief and celebration? Would there be ticker tape parades down Fifth Avenue? Now, to be fair, just because the Peddlers of Apocalypse have a long track record of being dead wrong in their dire predictions doesn’t mean we don’t have things to worry about. Sometimes the wolf really is at the door, no matter how many times the boy has issued false alarms. In the meantime, the thing we have to worry most about running out of these days is … freedom.” —Stephen Moore

“Why do millions of nice liberals support the Left? Leftism and liberalism have virtually nothing in common. Do liberals believe in all-black college dormitories; that America is a systemically racist country founded not in 1776, but in 1619; that Israel is the villain in the Middle East; that capitalism, the only economic system to lift billions of people out of poverty, should be replaced by socialism, whose moral record is horrific; that little children should be taught that ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ are subjective categories and that ‘nonbinary’ is normal; or that defunding police reduces violent crime? No, they don’t. Yet millions of nice liberals support those who believe those nihilistic, anti-American, anti-human ideas. Many on the Left are neither nice nor good. But America is being destroyed by vile doctrines supported by a lot of nice people.” —Dennis Prager

For the Record

“The US has a serious inflation problem. Core inflation is higher this month than for the quarter, higher this quarter than last quarter, higher this half of the year than the previous one, and higher last year than the previous one. Median inflation used to be a favorite indicator for team transitory. This month it was at its highest ever reading. It is highly implausible that inflation will fall to 2 percent without unemployment exceeding 4.5 percent. … With core inflation running above 7 percent this month and likely, given rent behavior, to remain elevated, I fear it is unlikely that a peak Fed funds rate around 4 will be enough to restore 2 percent inflation.” —former Obama economic advisor Larry Summers

“There is another approach here that would help save America from a truly deep recession. Move to the supply side. Cut tax rates. Open the fossil fuel spigots. Stop the regulatory stranglehold on business. Start rewarding success instead of punishing it. Implement workfare to bring over 4 million people back into the labor force. Unfortunately, the big-government socialists in the Biden administration don’t understand any of this. Their woke progressive thinking has done great damage. It’s an utter failure.” —former National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow

The BIG Lies

“[Yesterday’s] data show progress in fighting inflation. This month, prices overall were essentially flat, gas prices were down, and wages were up — that’s good news for American families. My plan is showing we can lower costs, create jobs, and bring manufacturing back to America.” —President Joe Biden (“Is this a joke? The CPI rose 8.3% from last August. Gas prices are still more than double since 2021. Grocery prices rose 13.5%. Wages declined for the 17th month in a row. Joe Biden’s handlers are just completely lying to you.” —Greg Price)

“The stock market doesn’t necessarily reflect the state of the economy, as you know. The economy is still strong.” —Joe Biden (The stock market is nothing if not a reflection of the state of the economy.)

“Last year, a family of four saved … $2,400 through the American Rescue Plan, which I’ve signed into law.” —Joe Biden on the “savings” that have been more than erased by the inflation caused by the law

“Last month, we saw some welcome moderation in the price increases for food at the grocery store. It’s moderating, which is important.” —White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre

“We’re certainly doing a lot more [than Trump] to secure the border and could be doing even more if Republicans would stop their obstruction.” —Karine Jean-Pierre

Non Compos Mentis Award

“We came together as a country [on 9/11] because it was a foreign adversary. … We felt like, ‘How dare you come to our country and haunt us.’ The biggest threat to our country today, says the FBI’s director, is white supremacy and domestic terrorism. Merrick Garland said the biggest threat to our democracy is white supremacy and domestic terrorism. How do you come together when it’s home-grown terror? And we have never addressed why there is that issue that remains in this country 400 years later.” —"The View" co-host Sunny Hostin

Village Academic Curriculum

“The case for starting sex ed in kindergarten.” —NPR

“All books should be in the library. All books. This is America. We don’t ban books.” —First Lady Jill Biden

And Last…

“I had 9% more rats in my house in July 2022 than July 2021, but I only had 8.3% more rats in my house in August 2022 than August 2021. Gonna throw a big house party to celebrate finally solving my rat problem.” —David Burge