EthixBytes

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

“I pray for a world in which none will be so poor, they have nothing to give, and none so rich they have nothing to receive.”
Pope John Paul II.

“The great contribution of Baptists has not been by theologians, but by ethicists.”
Bob Edgar, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches, U.S.A..

“Will [moral] values be used as wedges and weapons to divide and destroy us, or as bridges to bring us together to find common ground by moving to higher ground?”
Jim Wallis, editor and founder of Sojourners.

“Folks tend to forget that during our founding, it wasn’t the atheists or the civil libertarians who were the most effective champions of the First Amendment, but persecuted minorities such as Baptists who didn’t want the established churches to impose their views.”
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill), quoted by columnist E. J. Dionne.

“If you are not electing Christians [to public office], then in essence you are going to legislate sin. . . . the separation of church and state is a lie we have been told to keep religious people out of politics.”
Rep. Katherine Harris (R-Fl), Orlando Sentinal.

“Our greatest fear is that politicians today are trying to make use of Christianity for their own purposes. . . . They have forgotten Jesus came not to save a country, but to save the entire human race.”
Chen Duxiu, early political leader in China.

“The insurance payout to the beneficiaries of an American soldier who dies in the line of duty is $400,000, while a dead Iraqi civilian is worth up to $2500 in condolence payments. For all the talk of Iraq being a sovereign nation, foreign occupiers are the ones deciding what an Iraqi life is worth.”
Andrew J. Bacevich, Boston University.

“We really need to address the burning of fossil fuels. It is getting hotter, and the icecaps are melting, and there is a buildup of carbon dioxide in the air.”
Rev. Pat Robertson, The 700 Club (Aug. 3).

“Why does the oil industry go back 25 years to one week in 1981 to compare today’s gas prices, which have increased 254% in the last 7.5 years?”
Letter writer James Moffitt.

“The richest 1% of Americans on average pay only 18% of their income in federal taxes, with many corporate CEOs paying only 3-4%, while the rest of us pay an average of 30% of our income in federal income taxes.”
Bruce Peterson, Sojourners (March, 2006).

“The average ‘super-rich’ family has an average annual income of $9.2 million. They spend each year nearly $30,000 on alcohol; $224,000 on hotels and resorts; $168,000 renting a villa; $147,000 on watches; $117,000 on clothes; $248,000 on jewelry; $226,000 on cars and boats; $404,000 on yacht rentals; and $542,000 on home improvements.”
Dow Jones “Market Watch” (8/22/06).

“Agricultural subsidies in the West, which allocate to every cow the equivalent of $2 per day, could make Africans living on $1 a day wish they were cows.”
Jim Wallis.

“We have just learned from the news media that 50,000 Iraqis have died in this war-a fact the Bush administration has kept from the public.’
Chris Matthews interview on NBC Today (6/27/06).

“Today, tobacco accounts for one in five cancer deaths, or 1.4 million deaths each year. Tobacco alone is predicted to kill a billion people this century, 10 times the toll it took in the 20th century.”
Tobacco Atlas, 2nd Edition and the World Health Organization.

“For every [Iraqi insurgent] that I kill, I create almost 10 more.”
Army Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, commander of multinational forces in Iraq (Sojourners, 9/06).

“If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”
Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, about the best response to terrorism..

“The constitution says the president has two choices: either sign the bill or veto it. And if you sign it you can’t have your hand behind your back with your fingers crossed.”
Michael Greco, President of the American Bar Association responding to the ABA’s resolution condemning President Bush’s written exceptions to 800 bills, more than all previous presidents combined

“I have never heard a sermon from which I have not derived some good, but there have been some near misses.”
Mark Twain