The Patriot Post® · Friday Short Cuts

Insight

“If every person has the right to defend — even by force — his person, his liberty, and his property, then it follows that a group of men have the right to organize and support a common force to protect these rights constantly. Thus the principle of collective right — its reason for existing, its lawfulness — is based on individual right. And the common force that protects this collective right cannot logically have any other purpose or any other mission than that for which it acts as a substitute. Thus, since an individual cannot lawfully use force against the person, liberty, or property of another individual, then the common force — for the same reason — cannot lawfully be used to destroy the person, liberty, or property of individuals or groups.” —Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850)

Friendly Fire

“I don’t think we teach civics or history anymore. So I don’t think a lot of people, especially the younger generation, even understand free speech or why it’s so important. What they have been steeped in is sensitivity and not having to endure too many moments where they encounter something that they don’t already agree with, or that makes them uncomfortable. That is not what college should be. It’s not what the free press should be.” —Bill Maher

“The biggest problem with the Democrats is their woke baggage. I think the Democrats could easily win every election if they didn’t do the kind of things that make people go, ‘Oh my god, this is the party of no common sense.’ Stop talking about pregnant men and stuff that makes people go, ‘Who are these [expletive] people? What are they talking about? Men don’t get pregnant.’” —Bill Maher

Re: The Left

“This new idea of redirecting undocumented immigrants from swamped communities on the border to more supportive sanctuary well-off cities might also serve as an ethical model for us all on a variety of other issues. For those who object to establishing grounds for the homeless far away from urban parks and downtowns, might they instead offer their own yards to help spread the burden among the entire community? For those who mocked the efficacy of border walls, might they take a vow not to erect walls around their own estates? For those who decry the inordinate carbon footprints of the consumer classes, might they pledge not to fly in private jets until catastrophic climate change abates? For those who believe that natural gas is too carbonized a fuel to generate electricity or warm homes, can they pledge not to heat swimming pools or cool down their homes below 78 degrees? For those who supported defunding the police and decriminalizing an array of previous misdemeanors and felonies, might they highlight the ensuing safety and security by not hiring private security guards? For those who call for extensive gun control and decry the ubiquity of handguns, might they pledge not to hire armed security details? For those who feel that charter schools undermine the public schools as much as unionized faculty empower them, might they eschew private prep schools? The Martha’s Vineyard experience marks a unique opportunity for modern bicoastal progressivism. View it as a landmark teachable moment to prove to the nation that leftists’ loud theories and Utopian agendas merely reflect — rather than are at odds with — their own prior concrete and well-lived experiences.” —Victor Davis Hanson

The BIG Lies

“While we’re trying to fix … an immigration system that was decimated by the last administration, [Republican governors are] not coming up with solutions. They’re using children, they’re using women and families as a political stunt, as a political ploy, because they don’t want solutions at all.” —White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre

“Under the previous administration, they decimated a system that was designed to address immigration.” —Vice President Kamala Harris

“There is no such thing as a heartbeat at six weeks. It is a manufactured sound designed to convince people that men have the right to take control of a woman’s body.” —Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams of the Party of Science™ (“How are you any different than Margaret Sanger? (That’s a rhetorical question, by the way.) Are you so zealous for political power that you’ve seared your own conscience as to believe that a human heartbeat is a ‘manufactured sound’? I pity you.” —Darrell B. Harrison | “She’s not only an election denier, she’s a science and life denier.” —Ben Shapiro | “Manufactured by whom? Does she think some doctor is hiding behind the Doppler beatboxing into a microphone in perfect imitation of a heartbeat? Stacey Abrams is so deranged.” —Liz Wheeler | “Hear that, moms? That heartbeat that you saw at your first ultrasound wasn’t real. It was an optical illusion manufactured by male politicians!” —Allie Beth Stuckey)

Non Compos Mentis Awards

“There’s a part of me that says that we have 128 [military] bases and installations in these red states, in these states that ban abortion. Maybe we should just move these bases.” —Congresswoman Jackie Speier

“I’ll say it again: It shouldn’t be harder to obtain an abortion than an AR-15.” —Hillary Clinton (“364 human beings were killed in 2019 by long guns. That same year just under 1,000,000 human beings were killed in abortions.” —Ben Shapiro)

Hot Air

“We saved the planet. We’re saving the planet with record $360 billion to save the planet.” —House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

And Last…

“A 41 yr old leftist intentionally ran down and murdered an innocent 18 yr old conservative and was immediately released on $50,000 bail. J6 defendants who nonviolently walked through the Capitol capturing video have been sitting in federal holding without bail for 18 months.” —John Cardillo