“At first I thought it was an aberration, but now … it appears to be a pattern.”

-- Lucy Dalglish of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, reacting to reports that the Bush administration paid syndicated columnist Armstrong Williams to promote the No Child Left Behind Act and that the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the Department of Education hired public relations firms to produce commercials that were broadcast as news reports

“Actually, ‘deficit’ is really a misnomer. ‘Chasm,’ ‘gorge,’ ‘black hole,’ ‘infinitely deep well’ all fit the description better.”

-- Economic analyst Joel Naroff commenting on the record U.S. trade deficit, which hit $561.3 billion for the 11 months ending in November. "We now have the Grand Canyon of trade deficits," Naroff said.

“When I went to Washington as the pope’s envoy just before the outbreak of the war, [President Bush] told me, ‘Don’t worry, your eminence. We’ll be quick and do well in Iraq.’ Unfortunately, the facts have demonstrated … Bush was wrong.”

-- Retired Cardinal Pio Laghi

“Parents need help with control of video games in the same way they needed help with control over cigarettes.”

-- Parent Ruben Burgos of Chicago in a TIME story asking if the state should monitor kids’ access to violent and sexual video games

National Catholic Reporter, January 28, 2005