EthixBytes

(A Collection of Quotes, Comments, Statistics, and News Items)

“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right. . .. Time makes more converts than reason."
Thomas Paine, Common Sense

“The federal budget deficit is back with a vengeance [$159 billion for 2002] and deficitwatch.org is keeping track—cost estimates for the war on terrorism: $139 billion last year and a projected $287 billion in 2003. That’s more than we spent in 25 years on the space program.”
Dr. Saul Wilen, CEO of San Antonio consulting firm

“The President asked for over $3 billion for Homeland Security, Congress approved less than half of that—$1.3 billion. And yet we are about to spend $95 billion on the war in Iraq. Have we confused our priorities?”
Commentary on CNN, 3/07/03

“There never was a good war or a bad peace.”
Benjamin Franklin

“I didn’t know we needed $10 million for a South Pole station—I didn’t know al Qaeda had reached the South Pole.”Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) responding to an amendment to the $80 billion war funding Senate bill which included  $62 billion for the Pentagon, $8 billion for aid to supporting countries, and $4 billion for terrorism at home.

“Former CSX railroad executive John Snow was sworn in February 3 as Treasury secretary, leaving a corporation which made billions of dollars in profits while paying no taxes and offering him a $15 million severance package!”
Associated Press.

“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
Teddy Roosevelt, EthicsDaily.com

“ I think what we need to do is convince people who live in the lands they live in to build the nations. Maybe I’m missing something here. I mean, we’re going to have kind of a nation-building corps from America? Absolutely not.”
Then Gov. George W. Bush, in campaign remarks on Oct. 11, 2000. President Bush in 2003 outlined a vision for transforming Iraq and the entire Middle East into a democratic region.

“A fondness for power is implanted in most men, and it is natural to abuse it, when acquired.”
Alexander Hamilton, 1775

“The Republican-controlled House Budget Committee voted to cut $25 billion in veterans’ benefits over the next 10 years. The Bush administration proposed cutting $172 million from impact aid programs, which provide school funding for children of military personnel.”
Austin-American Statesman, 4/4/03

“I am angry that so many of the sons of the powerful and well-placed . . . managed to wangle slots in Reserve and National Guard units. Of the many tragedies of Vietnam, this raw class discrimination strikes me as the most damaging to the ideal that all Americans are created equal.”
U. S. Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell in his autobiography.

“Osama bin Laden is a Saudi. (Ayman al) Zawahiri is Egyptian. Saif-al-Adel is Egyptian. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is Pakistani. Then down here is a Jordanian, a Palestinian, a Saudi, a Yemeni, an Indonesian, a Kuwaiti and an Egyptian. One thing kind of leaps out at you: Not one of them is an Iraqi.”
U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, citing a chart of al Qaeda ‘high-value targets.’

“In 2001 and 2002, about 75 million people under age 65 went without health insurance for at least one month. Nearly three in four were in working families and more than half were white.”
Associated Press, 3/08/03.

“The director of chaplaincy evangelism of the SBC North American Mission Board was forced to resign because he did not enforce the board’s newly-tightened doctrines on female chaplains and divorced chaplains stringently enough, according to observers. NAMB officials declined comment.”
Baptist Message, 1/30/03.

“What if President Bush were as eager to control guns as he is to control weapons of mass destruction? While he is asking for full weapons disclosure on the part of Iraq, his administration is loathe to consider any form of gun registration within our own borders, where on any given day an average of 79 gun deaths occur—30 by homicide, 45 by suicide (the rest the result of accidents, police action and unknown causes).
The Christian Century, December 18-31, 2002.

“Smith & Wesson has introduced its biggest handgun, a .50-caliber Magnum, five-shot revolver with an 8½-inch barrel. The primary market is for hunting,” said a spokesman. Tom Ortiz of the ViolencePolicyCenter said the new gun would create “a new order of threat to law enforcement.”

“President Bush punched a dangerous hole in the wall between church and state by signing an executive order that eases the way for religious groups to receive federal funds to run social service programs [and] to win converts and discriminate in employment. It should be struck down by the courts.”
Editorial, NY Times, 12/30/02

“Most Americans believe that between 1 million and 5 million people live in poverty in the U.S. when the actual number is nearly 33 million. A random national survey revealed 47 percent of Americans think it takes almost $35,000 to adequately house, clothe, and feed a family of four, but the government’s threshold for that family is $18,100.”
Catholic Campaign for Human Development

“Federal regulators are seeking about $323 million in penalties from Tenet Healthcare over allegations that the hospital chain submitted nearly 17,000 false claims to Medicare during the mid-1990s. . .. At least 70% of claims for pneumonia patients ($4000 more per patient) and 27% of claims for patients requiring ventilators ($27,000 per case) were false.”
USA TODAY, January 10, 2003

“Wearing the crucifix as fashion . . . makes an ironic statement about those in our culture who continue to wear it out of (pre-Xer) piety. Xers show that there is nothing so sacred about a religious symbol that it cannot be turned into a fashion accessory.”
Tom Beaudoin quoted in Christianity Today

“When critics of W.’s tax cuts say they favor the wealthy, the president accuses them of class warfare. That’s designed to intimidate critics by making them seem vaguely pinko. Besides, there’s nothing more effective than deploring class warfare while ensuring that your class wins. It is the Bush tax cut that is fomenting class warfare.”
Maureen Dowd, N.Y. Times

“I’m wary of argument for generic-masculine English [in translations of the Bible] on the basis of ‘plenary inspiration’ of Scripture. . .. If so, why did Jesus and his disciples quote from the Greek Septuagint version of the OT, which departs from the original Hebrew in many small details?”
Sam Torade, Christianity Today Letters

“Nearly two-thirds of the world’s 876 million illiterate adults are women. Approximately 6000 girls are subjected to female genital mutilation each day, and 30% subjected to its most radical form die from the effects. Four million women are sold each year as slaves. In sub-Saharan Africa, 55% of HIV-infected adults are women, and teenage girls are five times more likely to be infected than boys.”
Shari M. Kelly in Mutuality

“I believe that one day life will win over death, that good will win over evil, that love will win over hate, that joy will win over sadness and that the whole world will work the way its Creator intended it to work. . .. I believe that with God, it is possible. . .. God is; therefore I hope.”
Ethicist Lewis Smedes, who “won” this year.

“It is better to discuss an issue and never settle it than to settle an issue having never discussed it.”
The late Hudson Baggett of The Alabama Baptist

Updated Thursday, September 18, 2003