Quotable & Notable

“Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other”

-- Title of a gay cowboy song recorded by Willie Nelson and released on iTunes.com Feb. 14. “The song has been in the closet for 20 years,” Nelson said.

“If they know that we’re praying for them, maybe they’ll have a change of heart.”

-- The Rev. Walter Hawkins Jr. of Dancy First Baptist Church, Aliceville, Ala., one of 10 Alabama churches damaged or destroyed by fire in recent weeks, asking his congregation to pray for the suspected arsonists

“The president of the United States doesn’t know what the rules are. The secretary of defense doesn’t know what the rules are. But the government expects this Pfc. to know what the rules are?”

-- Lawyer defending Pfc. Damien M. Corsetti, who is facing court-martial for the deaths of two men in a U.S. military detention center in Afghanistan in 2002

“I do not understand how your corporate leadership sleeps at night.”

-- Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., upbraiding executives from U.S. technology companies Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Cisco Systems for aiding the Chinese government in the surveillance of its online population

National Catholic Reporter, February 24, 2006