Old Fogey's Quotes for Saturday

"It is better for me to be raped than for my brother to be killed."
Darelsalam Ahmed Eisa, 18, rape victim in Dafur
Darfur Women's Stark Choice
[It makes me ashamed that I sometimes agonize over what to wear in the morning]

"This puts our military personnel and others directly at risk in this and future wars."
Sen John McCain (R-Arizona) discussing the administration's proposals that would weaken the Geneva conventions
GOP Infighting on Detainees Intensifies
[How can so many soldiers remain Republican with this administration's near total disregard of their safety in so many ways? I agree with the bumper sticker 'Support Our Troops: Bring Them Home']

"Congressman Ney and his co-conspirators engaged in a long-term pattern to deprive the public of his honest, unbiased services as an elected official."
Alice S. Fisher, chief of the Justice Department's criminal division
Rep. Ney Admits Selling Influence
[If this is a convictable offense, how is there a quorum left in Congress?]

"The Holy Father is very sorry that some passages of his speech may have sounded offensive to the sensibilities of Muslim believers.''
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican Secretary of State
Pope Expresses Regret for Remarks
[So even the pope knows how to make a non-apology, subtlely blaiming the listeners for their perception of his words. Maybe he watches a lot of American TV coverage of politicians and celebreties]

“We’re going to build a trench around Baghdad so we can control the exits and entrances so people will be searched properly. The idea is to get the cars to go through the 28 checkpoints that we set up.”
Brig. Gen. Abdul Karim Khalaf, speaking for the Iraqi government
Iraqis Plan to Ring Baghdad With Trenches
[Imagine the outcry in our country, if Bush proposed doing this to our major cities. And yet he can't understand how so many Iraqis seem ungrateful for the invasion that made this necessary]

". . . a shocking and perverse culture of academics who are poisoning the minds of today's college students with . . . hatred of America . . . and support for America's terrorist enemies."
David Horowitz, author of "The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America," referring to American universities
Rosa Brooks: Students, Beware Professor Osama
[Today's McCarthyism has spreading tentacles, just as the original version did. Are you the next 'terrorist sympathizer' to be fingered?]