The Patriot Post® · Friday Short Cuts

Insight

“I see men ordinarily more eager to discover a reason for things than to find out whether things are so.” —French philosopher Michel De Montaigne (1532-1592)

Upright

“A stable, committed marriage between a man and a woman is the foundation for the future. Homosexual ones will not create children. All the other sexual and gender ideologies are fraught with confusion and plagued with mental illness and are not the best environment for the prospering of children and family.” —Emmy Griffin

“The question is not ‘why are parents fighting so hard to ban pornography in elementary schools.’ The question is ‘why are left-wing teachers fighting so hard to include it.’” —Christopher F. Rufo

“The public has been enormously generous in grading Biden’s pandemic response — and in fairness, like his predecessor, Biden was ill-equipped to lead us through it. But now is the time for naked honesty in assessing COVID’s lessons and better preparing us for the future.” —Jack DeVine

For the Record

“[Ousted Chicago Mayor Lori] Lightfoot hastily point[ed] fingers at racism for her loss, all while overlooking the glaring reality that she had been elected as a black woman in the first place. The real culprit? Rampant crime, of course, which had left the city’s streets unsafe for even the briefest of walks, as residents feared becoming victims of robbery, assault, or even worse, murder.” —Armstrong Williams

“When our state and federal governments allow criminals and foreign nations to injure with impunity their own law-abiding citizens, is it any wonder the civilized world we once knew has vanished — replaced by the Hobbesian rule of the wild?” —Victor Davis Hanson

“[Chuck] Schumer’s call to silence [Tucker] Carlson is precisely the reason Carlson’s report went viral in the first place. The media-Democratic complex keeps exaggerating narratives, eliding any countervailing information, and then seeking to censor those who present such information; they keep burying evidentiary landmines hoping they won’t be triggered. Then the landmines bow up, and they’re shocked at the explosion.” —Ben Shapiro

“What’s truly sad … is that no one seems interested in advancing the conservative cause or principles anymore because they’re all too distracted with bickering over Donald Trump. Rather than unify in the fight against Joe Biden and his America Last radical leftists, conservatives are busy fighting amongst themselves over how to talk about the former president. … It’s tiresome and severely detrimental to the cause. With personalities as strong as Trump and Fox News opinionists, however, we expect the feud to continue.” —Nate Jackson

Observations

“Fifteen years ago, this nation elected a young, charismatic, and woefully inexperienced mixed-race president — the son of a white mother and a black father. That man’s middle name was ‘Hussein,’ no less, and his voting record made him the most liberal member of the U.S. Senate. Four years after that, we reelected him. If ever a nation’s actions had proven that it no longer needed to exercise government-sanctioned race-based discrimination, this was it.” —Douglas Andrews

“Comedy is under attack because it is probably the last bastion of truly free speech.” —Anthony Brian Logan

A Blind Squirrel Finds a Nut

“‘Follow the science.’ That has become a mantra in public health policy. … But solely relying on science to guide public health decisions misses the complexity of policy deliberations. The tragic paradox is that it fuels distrust in the scientific community and undermines the credibility of health officials.” —Washington Post contributing columnist Leana S. Wen

“People should be able to do what they wish without interference from the government. But if someone’s actions endanger those around them, the need to protect the larger group could outweigh this basic right to self-determination. But when is that warranted? Science alone can’t provide the answer.” —Leana S. Wen

The BIG Lies

“I took the most aggressive action ever — in all of history, in any country — to take on the climate crisis by lowering your home energy bills, which MAGA Republicans voted against.” —Joe Biden

“MAGA Republicans are calling for defunding the police departments.” —Joe Biden

“Even with Twitter, you cannot find actual evidence of any direct government censorship of any lawful speech.” —Congressman Daniel Goldman

Grievance-mongering

“I know my [white] parents loved me. But there were still very problematic things that I went through. I think it was important to show that, no, this can happen in your own home, and how we move forward collectively while addressing the racism that is being perpetuated.” —former NFL quarterback Colin Kapernick

“How white and affluent drivers are polluting the air breathed by L.A.‘s people of color.” —Los Angeles Times headline