The Patriot Post® · Thursday Short Cuts

Insight

“There are in fact four very significant stumblingblocks in the way of grasping the truth, which hinder every man however learned, and scarcely allow anyone to win a clear title to wisdom, namely, the example of weak and unworthy authority, longstanding custom, the feeling of the ignorant crowd, and the hiding of our own ignorance while making a display of our apparent knowledge.” —Roger Bacon (1220-1292)

Upright

“At almost every NFL game, a few Christian athletes will kneel in the end zone and pray before or after the game. But Monday night, dozens of athletes from both teams joined hands in one of the largest prayer circles I have ever seen. They were asking God to save the life of [Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin] who was grievously injured. I believe there is a message here for America. As a nation, we are grievously injured, too. America is also in critical condition. The heart of our nation has always been the rich heritage of Judeo-Christian teaching. But now that heart is being ripped out of our chest by militant secularists. I hope and pray that Damar Hamlin survives his close call. And I hope Americans get on our knees in prayer so that we turn back to God before it’s too late.” —Gary Bauer

Observations

“By now, just about everyone has heard about the massive campaign of lies that Republican George Santos fabricated that just got him elected to a congressional seat from New York. … In traditional cultures, there are rites of passage where children formally become adults and assume the responsibilities of adults. But today, in our nation, where a sense of objective right and wrong has widely disappeared, there are no rites of passage, and many remain perpetually children. … So, George Santos is the man of our time. Why should he feel the need to submit to any ‘reality’ more than what is happening in our culture at large? … Santos shows little shame because shame comes with appreciation that there are truths — right and wrong. There is no shame in a culture where we make everything up.” —Star Parker

“In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt spelled out what happens when we turn our gaze inward rather than outward. Generation Z, he said, has been sucked into a vortex of narcissism and jealousy and isolation. According to Haidt, there has ‘never been a generation this depressed, anxious and fragile.’ For girls, particularly, replacement of roles with constant self-assessment has been a pathway to hell: ‘You post your perfect life, and then you flip through the photos of other girls who have a more perfect life, and you feel depressed.’ The new cultural ideology ‘valorizes victimhood… You’re not going to take chances, you’re going to ask for accommodations, you’re going to play it safe, you’re not going to swing for the fences, you’re not going to start your own company.’” —Ben Shapiro

For the Record

“Somewhere in the vicinity of zero voters will change their worldview or political affiliation because the GOP is taking a few extra days to grind out their leadership vote. Nor is there anything particularly ‘dysfunctional’ about disagreeing on the question. McCarthy isn’t an admiral or preordained by the Lord to be speaker, so this isn’t ‘mutiny,’ it’s just a vote. Indeed, a battle over leadership shows a more democratic dynamic than the typical lockstepping on the matter. In most other democratic nations this kind of parliamentary fight would be considered tame and completely expected … The conceit and sanctimony of politicians who believe the world is in desperate need of their talents is endlessly insufferable.” —David Harsanyi

“The House going through a slow and deliberative process isn’t ‘disfunction.’ It’s actually how the government was set up to function in order to blunt the growth and overbearing nature of the federal government.” —Katie Pavlich

“Right now, in the House, the GOP is a nominal or technical majority party with a large faction which has no interest in acting like a majority. They may well be happier being in the minority.” —Jim Geraghty

Non Compos Mentis

“I’ll paraphrase the phrase of my old neighborhood: The rest of the countries, the world is not a patch in our jeans, if we do what we wanna do and we need to do.” —Joe Biden

Fauci-Speak

“60 Minutes extinction story has brought the usual right-wing out in force. If I’m always wrong so is science, since my work is always peer-reviewed, including the POPULATION BOMB and I’ve gotten virtually every scientific honor. Sure I’ve made some mistakes, but no basic ones.” —biologist Paul Ehrlich

And Last…

“Florida is where woke goes to die.” —Governor Ron DeSantis