Old Fogey's Quotes for Saturday

"I have never painted a rosy picture. I've been very measured in my words, and you'd have a dickens of a time trying to find instances where I've been excessively optimistic."
Donald Rumsfield, regarding Iraq
Sen. Clinton Says Rumsfeld Should Resign

“MIPR ME”
License plate on the black Hummer of Brent R. Wilkes, defense contract lobbyist in the middle of the bribery scandal, referring to “military interdepartmental purchase request”
Washington Deal Maker Details Palm Greasing

“I thought to myself, ‘What just happened? Fighter jets mixed up with the cross?’ ”
Rev. Gregory A. Boyd, mega-church pastor, rejecting the linkage of Christianity to a political party or patriotism, remarking on a church service that ended with a video of fighter jets flying over a hill silhouetted with crosses.
Disowning Conservative Politics, Evangelical Pastor Rattles Flock

"We still want to graduate lawyers, physicians, businesspeople, educators. The goal is to have students understand how their profession impinges and impacts poverty. And, as a result, they may want to approach things differently."
Harlan Beckley, founder of the SHEPHERD PROGRAM for the Interdisciplinary Study of Poverty and Human Capability at Washington and Lee University
Class Questions

"Yet, just as labor's gains long benefited many more than those who were unionized, labor's losses since the early 1980s have adversely affected a much larger share of the workforce than that belonging to unions."
Charles J. Whalen, labor-market economist and editor of Perspectives on Work
Echoes of a Broken Strike

"We get a little lazy, I think, when we spend all our time as diplomats talking to our friends and not to our enemies."
Richard L. Armitage, former deputy secretary of state
U.S. Policy Curbs Options In Mideast, Critics Say: Refusal to Engage Syria, Iran And Palestinians Is Faulted