EthixBytes
A Collection of Quotes, Comments, Statistics, and News Items

“We are redefining war on our own terms.”      President Bush, April 2003, St. Louis (CNN).

“The war was sold on the basis of what was described as a pre-emptive strike, ‘Hit Saddam before he hits us.’ It is now quite clear that Saddam did not have anything with which to hit us in the first place.”    
Former British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook.

“George W. Bush took a dim view of the Clinton administration’s use of military forces to help rebuild failed states in places such as Haiti and the Balkans. ‘If we don’t stop extending our troops all around the world in nation-building missions, then we’re going to have a serious problem. . . .’ Now Bush has assigned the Pentagon to head up the reconstruction of Iraq, the largest nation-building exercise in 50 years.”        
Bob Deans, Cox News Washington

“They asked us if there are any hidden chemical weapons, and we told them that to the best of our knowledge there weren’t any. Why would we lie now?”  
Dr. Alaa al-Sayheed, senior scientist considered one of the top 10 in Iraq’s chemical weapons program.

“In media coverage after September 11, General Norman Schwarzkopf acknowledged several times that the U. S. had helped train Osama Bin Laden and al-Queda when they were considered freedom fighters in a jihad against the Soviet Union.”   
Charles Kimball, When Religion Becomes Evil.

“Capitalism is the most productive economic system society has yet devised. [But it] has no mechanism for taking care of those who cannot earn their own way: children, the severely handicapped, the elderly, those who want to work but can’t find a job, those who work but cannot earn enough to survive.”          
Donald C. Lelong, FormerUniversity of Texas Economics Professor.

“The humanity of our ‘enemies’ doesn’t seem to register with many Christians these days. I heard one evangelical leader say that Desert Storm was carried out with a minimum number of casualties. Of course, he was referring only to U.S. casualties, because in the context of war those on the other side don’t matter.” 
Tony Campolo in Prism Epistle.

“At least 3,240 civilians died throughout the country, including 1,896 in Baghdad. The AP count is based on records from 60 of Iraq’s 124 hospitals, and covers the period between March 20, when the war began, and April 20, when things were dying down.”     
Niko Price, Associated Press.

“My remarks, which some bishops found offensive, were deadly accurate. I make no apology.”   Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating upon resigning as chairman of a panel of lay Catholics examining sex abuse after stating some bishops have shown a Mafia-like devotion to secrecy.

“The first comprehensive review by the Environmental Protection Agency of what is known about various environmental problems, after heavy editing by the White House, has whittled a long section describing risks from rising global temperatures to a few non-committal paragraphs.”         
Andrew C. Revkin, The New York Times

“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”     
Martin Luther King, Jr.

“‘High taxes strangle the economy. Lower taxes produce economic growth and jobs,’ argued President G. W. Bush. But history offers contrary evidence. Some of the nation’s strongest growth has occurred when the top tax bracket was higher than the 35% that became law last week.”      
Study of Tax Rates and Economic Growth 1936-2002, Austin American-Statesman, June 1, 2003.

“Households with taxable income from $50,000 to $75,000 will receive an average tax cut of $703, a boost of 1.2 percent; $200,000 to $500,000 taxable incomes will receive a tax cut of $5,015 and a boost of 2.2 percent. Millionaires tax cut will exceed $93,000 and the boost of household income of 4.4 percent.”    
Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.

“I want God to bless America. And America needs to support Israel more than Israel needs our support because Israel has an ally far stronger than the United States of America. [Support for the Jewish state and her people] is biblical. God blesses those who bless the Jews, and God curses those who curse the Jews.”  
Richard Land, president of the SBC Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission at a prayer breakfast at the Israeli embassy

“The national government . . . will maintain and defend the foundations on which the power of our nation rests. It will offer strong protection to Christianity as the basis of our collective morality. . . . I pledge that I will never tie myself to parties who want to destroy Christianity. . . . we want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of liberal excess during the past (few) years.” 
From The Speeches of Adolph Hitler, 1922-1939, Vol. 1 (London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1942), 871-2.

“I have no right to refuse to call a Baptist my brother merely because he does not happen to be my twin brother. Another Baptist has no right to refuse to call me brother (and nag and torment me) because I am not his twin.”       
E. Y. Mullins, Baptist Theologian.

“The SEC should be enforcing the law to its fullest extent, not negotiating compromises.”    
Mitch Marcus, former WorldCom manager after WorldCom paid a $500 million fine for inflating its earnings by $11 billion.

“Without holding executives and CEOs personally accountable for the wrongdoing that occurred under their watch, I do not believe that Wall Street will change its ways or that investor confidence will be restored.”  
Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., Chair of Senate Banking Committee in response to remarks by business leaders and disclosures of compensation packages.

“It’s not fair to tax something twice,” said President Bush in pushing Congress to eliminate taxes on stock dividends. However, “There’s double taxation all around. Workers pay taxes into the Social Security system, even pay income tax on the Social Security withheld, then when they retire, their benefits are subject to income taxes,” noted Reuben Avi-Yonah, Director International Tax Program.

“I do believe that I learnt more from her than I should have learned from any six doctors of divinity of the sort we have nowadays.”    
Charles Haddon Spurgeon commenting on Mary King, English pulpiteer and gifted theologican.

“Underage drinking accounts for one-fifth (19.7 percent, $22.5 billion) of the nation’s alcohol consumption.”     Columbia University’s National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse.

“The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville has agreed to pay 243 victims of clerical sex abuse in Kentucky $25.7 million, but it represents only a fraction of outstanding claims nationwide, guaranteeing more financial pain ahead for U.S. dioceses.” 
Rachel Zoll, Associated Press.

“Former education secretary and drug czar William Bennett, author of The Book of Virtues and one of the nation’s most relentless moral crusaders has lost in the last decade more than $8 million to casinos in Atlantic City and Las Vegas, where he is a ‘preferred customer.’ Newsweek and Washington Monthly also said he earns $50,000 for each appearance in speaking fees on the lecture circuit, where he inveighs against various sins, weaknesses and vices of modern culture.”       
The New York Times.

“He’s never going again.”      
Elayne Bennett in USA Today responding to reports of her husband’s affinity for casino gambling.

“Despite political rhetoric about enforcing gun laws on the books, it isn’t happening. Two percent of federal gun crimes are prosecuted, and it’s an absolute outrage.”      
Matt Bennett, spokesman for Americans for Gun Safety Foundation.

“Oklahoma has the second highest divorce rate in the nation (32% of adults compared to 21% nationally), even after Gov. Keating launched a program to cut the divorce rate by taking $10 million from welfare funds serving poor families and trained 400 persons in PREP. The program has yet to cut the divorce rate, but 1000 pastors have pledged not to perform weddings in their church unless the couple is willing to prepare for marriage. President Bush is pumping $300 million into the program to duplicate the Oklahoma experiment in other states.”     
The Oklahoma Observer, April 25, 2003.

“They walked the Great Wall, toured historic sites, prayer walked a TaoistTemple, listened to testimonies . . . and met students. Was this cost necessary to promote the Lottie Moon Offering? Why is it necessary to convince SBC Executives and wives of the need for missions work?” 
Pastor Gene Scarborough, Rocky Mount, NC, questioning the ‘vision trip’ of SBC Exec Morris Chapman and the seminary presidents’ wives to China in October, 2002.

Updated Thursday, September 18, 2003