Gay Today: Quote

Quotes & Quips

Compiled By Jack Nichols

Has Your New Husband
Ever Had Same-Sex Affairs?

That's none of my business or your business to even ask that question, and I think it's completely out of line…I'm finished with the conversation…This is ridiculous. You have got to be kidding me, after everything I have given you, you are now asking me about my husband's sexuality? That is flooring to me. I [give you] everything in my honesty, and now you are asking me about my husband's sexuality. Wow. Wow!

Anne Heche-to The Advocate interviewer. Reported by Rex Wockner, The Wockner Wire, #162, October 27 http://www.planetout.com/wocknerwire

Relax, they said, Things Could be Worse. So I Relaxed, and, Sure Enough, Things got Worse

Osama Bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network have acquired nuclear materials for possible use in their terrorism war against the West, intelligence sources have disclosed. …The Western sources say that the suspected mastermind of the September 11 attacks on America does not have the capability to mount a nuclear attack but fear he would do so if he could…They believe that he obtained the materials illegally from Pakistan…

Philip Webster and Roland Watson-"Bin Laden's nuclear threat"-The Times, London, October 26

Sunday's Take

The Vatican's annual operating budget is $203 million, while Sunday collections in the U.S. over two weeks bring in approximately $226 million. It would take American Catholics exactly two Sundays, in other words, to fund the Holy See for a year.

John L. Allen Jr. - "U.S. Bishops at synod gently advocate greater local authority" National Catholic Reporter, October 12 http://nationalcatholicreporter.org/word/word1012.htm

George W. Bush Learns to Flaunt

When President Bush smothered the highest-ranking Democrats, Senator Tom Daschle and Representative Richard A. Gephardt, in bear hugs last month after he addressed a joint meeting of Congress, Mr. Bush wondered if he had gone too far…The next day, Mr. Daschle said, the president asked him, "Do you think it was OK that we hugged each other in front of all these people?"…Of his reply Mr. Daschle recalled, "I said, 'It just seemed like the natural thing to do."

Richard L. Berke-"Relations Among Leaders Take a Cozy Turn"-New York Times, October 23

Falwell Loves How Texas Ignores the Law

On Monday, Gov. Rick Perry (R-Texas) said he sees no problem with ignoring the U.S. Supreme Court ban on organized school prayer "at this very crisis moment in our history." He defended a decision to have a Protestant minister open a middle school assembly with prayer last week.

Jerry Falwell-"Defending Prayer in School"-The Liberty Alliance, October 26

Privileged Children of Millionaires Square Off on World Stage

According to Dr. James Cleary, a professor of political theory at Georgetown University, Bush and bin Laden exemplify how power is attained differently in the West and East. "In America, power is the domain of the rich and well-connected," Cleary said. "In the Arab world, things are different. Over there, power is the domain of the super-rich and super-well-connected."

The Onion, October 27 www.theonion.com

Ashcroft Ignores Terrorists on the Religious Right

As for Mr. Ashcroft, he has gone so far as to turn away firsthand information about domestic terrorism for political reasons. Planned Parenthood, which has been on the front lines of anthrax scares for years and has by grim necessity marshaled the medical and security expertise to combat them, has sought a meeting with the attorney general since he took office but has never been granted one.

Frank Rich-"How to Lose a War"-New York Times, October 27

Does the Punishment Fit the Crime?

The judge gave them two options -- 60 days in jailhouse orange or an hourlong walk down Main Street in a frock. Jason Householder and John Stockum, convicted recently in Coshocton County of criminal damaging for tossing beer bottles at a car, chose the dresses.

Columbus Dispatch Staff Reporter-" Two men sentenced to wear dresses Friday" October 26

Even Heroism Isn't a Ticket to Inclusion

Gays are intimately, tragically part of this war: David Charlebois, a fixture of Dupont Circle's upper set, was a pilot on one of the doomed airliners Sept. 11. And there was the 6-foot-5 rugby player from San Francisco, Mark Bingham, who is thought to have helped fellow passengers confront terrorists in a plane over Pennsylvania. The list goes on -- the beloved gay chaplain of the New York Fire Department, killed in the World Trade Center collapse; two men and their adopted toddler killed on one of the planes; the many who lost longtime partners and are now navigating an iffy situation of relief aid and death benefits for non-traditional couples.

Hank Stuever-" The Bomb With A Loaded Message"-Washington Post, October 27

Forgiveness for Falwell Ain't in the Cards

I, for one expect [that] damage control in response to this spectacularly offensive episode is going to be an exercise in futility.

Tod Lindberg--"Osama bin Laden, meet Jerry Falwell: Extremism must be defanged."- Washington Times, October 23