Overheard

[Do you believe in God?]

Why should I? Is there anything in the last five years in particular that suggests to you a divine purpose to life?

Garry Trudeau
Washington Post interview, Oct. 20, 2006

Somehow suspension of habeas corpus is supposed to keep this country safe.

Somehow torture is tolerated.

Somehow lying is tolerated.

Somehow reason is being discarded for faith, dogma, and nonsense.

Kevin Tillman
(brother of Pat Tillman)
Truthdig.com, Oct. 20, 2006

The national representatives of the social conservative movement used to be sophisticated and tolerant. Today, they are sophomoric and angry. It's an embarrassing spectacle seeing leaders bullied around by the likes of James Dobson. . . .

Ex-House Maj. Leader Dick Armey
Wall Street Journal op-ed, Sept. 23, 2006

Where in hell did this Terri Schiavo thing come from? There's not a conservative, Constitution-loving, separation-of-powers guy alive in the world that could have wanted that bill on the floor. That was pure, blatant pandering to James Dobson.

Dick Armey
Interview by Ryan Sager
RealClearPolitics.com Sept. 15, 2006

Dobson and his gang of thugs are real nasty bullies.

Dick Armey
Interview by Ryan Sager Sager's blog, Sept. 15, 2006

Since I have relatives who probably believe that I am bound for hell, I am perhaps more immunized against the real sadness that is implicit in Hell Houses. Pitched principally at impressionable teenagers, who are by nature narcissists, Hell Houses shrewdly play to the selfishness of their visitors. They are not about compassion for the suffering they show but about the possibility of such suffering happening to you.

Theater reviewer Ben Brantley
The New York Times, Oct. 14, 2006

If, God forbid, an attack by homegrown Islamist radicals occurs on American soil, many, if not most, of the perpetrators will have converted to Islam while in prison. . . .

The largely unimpeded spread of radical Islam through our prisons coincides with increased opposition to the one really successful antidote--that is, the presence of Christianity.

An obvious example is the lawsuit against our prison program in Iowa. . . Making it harder for organizations like Prison Fellowship to operate within prison walls leaves jihadists and other radical groups as the only game in town.

Unfortunately, opponents . . . are blind to this, which puts more than the program at risk. . . .

Watergate felon Chuck Colson
What's Hidden in the Shadows" Breakpoint.org, Sept. 26, 2006

My God is a God who wants me to have things. He wants me to bling. He wants me to be the hottest thing on the block.

R&B singer Mary J. Blige
Blender Magazine, May 06
Wisconsin State Journal, April 23, 2006

[The separation of church and state is] a fictitious wall. Speaking of it as if it has some kind of constitutional authority is completely bogus.

Julaine Appling
Wisconsin Family Research Institute
Capital Times (Madison, Wis.), Oct. 13, 2006