Tuesday, November 29, 2005

"I am resigning from the House of Representatives because I’ve compromised the trust of my constituents.

When I announced several months ago that I would not seek re-election, I publicly declared my innocence because I was not strong enough to face the truth. So, I misled my family, staff, friends, colleagues, the public -- even myself. For all of this, I am deeply sorry.

The truth is -- I broke the law, concealed my conduct, and disgraced my high office. I know that I will forfeit my freedom, my reputation, my worldly possessions, and most importantly, the trust of my friends and family.

Some time ago, I asked my lawyers to inform the U.S. Attorney Carol Lam that I would like to plead guilty and begin serving a prison term. Today is the culmination of that process. I will continue to cooperate with the government’s ongoing investigation to the best of my ability.

In my life, I have known great joy and great sorrow. And now I know great shame. I learned in Viet Nam that the true measure of a man is how he responds to adversity. I cannot undo what I have done. But I can atone. I am now almost 65 years old and, as I enter the twilight of my life, I intend to use the remaining time that God grants me to make amends.

The first step in that journey is to admit fault and apologize. The next step is to face the consequences of my actions like a man. Today, I have taken the first step and, with God’s grace, I will soon take the second.

Thank you."

- Rep. Randy Cunningham (R-CA)

Monday, November 28, 2005

"The whole thing (being an NFL analyst for ESPN) means such a great deal for me, and hopefully one day it will be there. But my friends and my family mean a little more. I would rather be helping them, even if it hurts that."

-- Michael Irvin

Sunday, November 27, 2005

" We need to listen again to the biblical criticism of religion. No book, not even by Marx and his followers, is more scathing of empty religion than the Bible. The prophets of the eighth and seventh centuries BC were outspoken in their denunciation of the formalism and hypocrisy of Israelite worship. Jesus then applied their critique to the Pharisees of his day: 'These people ... honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me' (Is. 29:13; Mk. 7:6). And this indictment of religion by the Old Testament prophets and by Jesus is uncomfortably applicable to us and our churches today. Too much of our worship is ritual without reality, form without power, fun without fear, religion without God."

-- John R.W. Stott

Friday, November 25, 2005

"But if there is an ounce of truth in the notion that George Bush seriously proposed the destruction of al-Jazeera, and was only dissuaded by the Prime Minister, then we need to know, and we need to know urgently. We need to know what we have been fighting for, and there is only one way to find out.

The Attorney General's ban is ridiculous, untenable, and redolent of guilt. I do not like people to break the Official Secrets Act, and, as it happens, I would not object to the continued prosecution of those who are alleged to have broken it. But we now have allegations of such severity, against the US President and his motives, that we need to clear them up.

If someone passes me the document within the next few days I will be very happy to publish it in The Spectator, and risk a jail sentence. The public need to judge for themselves. Sunlight is the best disinfectant. If we suppress the truth, we forget what we are fighting for, and in an important respect we become as sick and as bad as our enemies."

-- Boris Johnson, British MP (Tory)

Thursday, November 24, 2005

"We give you thanks, Almighty God, for all the benefits you have given us."

-- Unknown Catholic

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

"If you cannot believe, love from the bottom of your heart and don’t have so many questions about your faith. Just give your love to everyone! Most people are unable to express themselves about formal faith; but everyone understands what love is. Let love surge up in your heart and you will be one with God. If you are looking for a way forward, if you belong to those who strive for the kingdom of God, for a new heaven and a new earth, then love! God loves the world. Anyone can see that, otherwise God would not have wanted to make everything new."

-- Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

"War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today."

-- John F. Kennedy

Monday, November 21, 2005

"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State."

-- Joseph Goebbels, German Minister of Propaganda, 1933-1945

"Any suggestion that prewar information was distorted, hyped, fabricated by the leader of the nation is utterly false. This is revisionism of the most corrupt and shameless variety."

-- Dick Cheney

"Any suggestion that prewar information was distorted, hyped, fabricated by the leader of the nation is utterly false. This is revisionism of the most corrupt and shameless variety."

-- Dick Cheney

Sunday, November 20, 2005

"Providence watches over each of us as we journey through life, providing us with two guides: repentance and remorse. The one calls us forward. The other calls us back. Yet they do not contradict each other, nor do they leave the traveler in doubt or confusion. For the one calls forward to the Good, the other back from the evil. And there are two of them, because in order to make our journey secure we must look ahead as well as back."

-- Soren Kierkegaard

Friday, November 18, 2005

"I resent the fact that on Veterans Day, they criticized Democrats for criticizing them. I like guys who've never been there that criticize us who've been there. I like that. I like guys who got five deferments and never been there and send people to war, and then don't like to hear suggestions about what needs to be done."

-- Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), Col., USMC, Ret.

Thursday, November 17, 2005

"The Way is not a religion: Christianity is the end of religion. 'Religion' means here the division between sacred and secular concerns, other-worldliness, man's reaching toward God in a way which projects his own thoughts."

-- David Kirk

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

"I'm quite confident we're going to find out that it started kind of as gossip, as chatter, and that somebody learned that Joe Wilson's wife had worked at the CIA and helped him get this job going to Niger to see if there was an Iraq/Niger uranium deal. There's a lot of innocent actions in all of this."

-- Bob Woodard

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

"Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of supply and demand; it is the privilege of human beings to live under the laws of justice and mercy."

-- Wendell Berry

Monday, November 14, 2005

"I am particularly proud of my contributions in recent cases in which the government has argued in the Supreme Court that racial and ethnic quotas should not be allowed and that the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion."

-- Judge Samuel A. Alito

Sunday, November 13, 2005

"Do not desire crosses, unless you have borne well those
laid on you; it is an abuse to long after martyrdom while
unable to bear an insult patiently."

-- François de Sales (1567-1622)

Saturday, November 12, 2005

"Are you worried because you find it so hard to believe? Don't be surprised at the difficulty of faith, if there is some part of your life where you are consciously resisting or disobeying the commandment of Jesus. Is there some part of your life which you are refusing to surrender at His behest, some sinful passion, maybe, or some animosity, some hope, perhaps your ambition or your reason? If so, you must not be surprised that you have not received the Holy Spirit, that prayer is difficult, or that your request for faith remains unanswered … The person who disobeys cannot believe. Only if you obey can you believe."

-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
"We are not cutting Medicaid for those truly in need."

-- Rep. David Dreier (R-CA)

Friday, November 11, 2005

"In America, through pressure of conformity, there is freedom of choice, but nothing to choose from."

-- Peter Ustinov

"In America, through pressure of conformity, there is freedom of choice, but nothing to choose from."

-- Peter Ustinov

"In America, through pressure of conformity, there is freedom of choice, but nothing to choose from."

-- Peter Ustinov

Thursday, November 10, 2005

"The man who will go where his colors go, without asking, who will fight a phantom foe in jungle and mountain range, without counting, and who will suffer and die in the midst of incredible hardship, without complaint, is still what he has always been, from Imperial Rome to sceptered Britain to democratic America. He is the stuff of which legions are made...He has been called United States Marine."

-- T. E. Fehrenbach, Historian

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

"Most pious and even many working people think, 'Rich and poor have to be.' They ignore the fact that it is impossible to amass any kind of fortune without cheating, without depriving and hurting others and destroying their lives. They fail to realize that, concentrated in a few hands, big business can steer hundreds of thousands toward certain ruin through unemployment. Why do these facts remain hidden from us? Only because we ourselves are also under the rule of the god who blinds us, which is mammon."

-- Eberhard Arnold, 1923, Germany

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

"Perhaps now we can begin to understand how Adolf Hitler could rally German Christians to do the unthinkable to Jews and Gypsyies in concentration camps. If you convince people that they are at risk unless they move to destroy those who represent a perceived threat, regardless of the methods and means, then you are on your way to atrocities."

-- Larry Johnson, ex-CIA officer

Monday, November 07, 2005

"Our country is at war and our government has the obligation to protect the American people. Any activity we conduct is within the law."

-- George W. Bush

"Our country is at war and our government has the obligation to protect the American people. Any activity we conduct is within the law."

-- George W. Bush

Sunday, November 06, 2005

"President Bush has ordered White House staff to attend mandatory briefings beginning next week on ethical behavior and the handling of classified material after the indictment last week of a senior administration official in the CIA leak probe."

-- The Washington Post

Friday, November 04, 2005

"Fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement. He is a rebel who must lay down his arms. Laying down your arms, surrendering, saying you are sorry, realizing that you have been on the wrong track and getting ready to start life over again from the ground floor - that is the only way out of a hole. This process of surrender - this movement full speed astern - is repentance."

-- C. S. Lewis

Thursday, November 03, 2005

"The prime reason that the Moose is not an elephant is that the GOP is theologically devoted to comforting the comfortable and afflicting the afflicted."

-- Marshall Whitman

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

"Americans are long overdue for an answer to why they were told there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq."

-- New York Times Editorial Board

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

"If history is our guide, there is reason for concern."

-- George W. Bush