Notable Quotes

“Say What?!”

Graduates of this course will have the knowledge and skills to push themselves to new challenges while climbing safely and responsibly…. This class is for people who identify as Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, or other people of color.

– From a description of Cornell University’s Rock Climbing course, which is closed to white people because minorities have been underrepresented in the sport of rock climbing (Can overweight white people join? They have been underrepresented, too)

He said, “Hey, I didn’t see you after the game. I just wanted to tell you thanks and what a great journey and how much I appreciated everything you did.” The second thing he said: “I was just sitting here thinking, and I think we can really be better next year. I think we’re going to be a better team.”

- Tampa Bay quarterbacks coach Clyde Christensen relating to the Tampa Bay Times what Tom Brady told him in a phone call the morning after Tampa Bay won the Super Bowl Mr. Steube, what any religious tradition describes as G-d’s will is no concern of this Congress.

- Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) in response to Rep. Greg Steube’s (R-Fla.) speech quoting the Bible, in an effort to thwart Congress’ radical “Equality Act”

Mr. Nadler has forgotten the Constitution. The Founding Fathers required Congress to avoid infringing upon the free exercise of religion, meaning it must be sensitive to what every religious tradition describes as G-d’s will. It is especially true that Congress must remain cognizant of the set of foundational moral principles – including valuing peace, human life, and individual liberty and responsibility – that America calls Judeo-Christian ethics.

- Statement by Rabbi Pesach Lerner, president of The Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV), which advocated that Congress not pass this bill

Liberals need a Stand Your Ground law … for cancel culture. So that when the woke mob comes after you for some ridiculous offense, you’ll stand your ground, stop apologizing. Because I can’t keep up with who’s on the [canceled] list.

– Bill Maher, HBO

Cancel culture is real; it’s insane; it’s growing exponentially, and it’s coming to a neighborhood near you. If you think it’s just for celebrities — no. In an era when everyone is online, everyone is a public figure.

- Ibid.

Common Cause, which purports to be a liberal, not a radical, organization has now demanded that Facebook keep Donald Trump off its platform. We are getting liberals … [calling for] Fox News [to be] taken off the networks. I hated communism but I defended the rights of lawyers to defend accused communists. If any lawyer is the subject of this kind of McCarthyism, I will represent you pro bono, in front of universities and bar associations. I will dedicate myself that the new McCarthyism of the hard left doesn’t become American culture.

- Attorney Alan Dershowitz, Fox News

We’re not starting new parties. You know, they kept saying, he’s going to start a brand new party. We have the Republican Party. It’s going to unite and be stronger than ever before. I am not starting a new party. “Let’s start a new party and let’s divide our vote so that you can never win.” No, we’re not interested in that.

- Donald Trump, speaking at the CPAC convention this weekened

With your help, we will take back the House, we will win the Senate, and then a Republican president will make a triumphant return to the White House. And I wonder who that will be. I wonder who that will be. Who? Who? Who will that be? I wonder.

- Ibid.

I’m increasingly embarrassed to be a white male these days, when I see what my other white males [are] saying.

- Former CIA Director John Brennan, on CNN, lamenting that some people have a different political opinion than him I can’t tell you if, what the timeframe on the bill is, but I can tell you this: if you start talking about free college tuition to [historically black colleges and universities] and you start talking about free community college and all of those things, I think that you are well on your way.

- Senior advisor to President Biden Cedric Richmond talking to Axios about Biden’s plan to give reparations to African Americans

The ultra-Orthodox parties will respond furiously to the Supreme Court’s ruling. We urge the organized North American Jewish community to stand with us, and reject and oppose legislative efforts in the Knesset that would undo the ruling of the court.

- Ammiel Hirsch, leader of a Reform temple in Manhattan, in a statement about the Israeli Supreme Court allowing Reform conversions to be recognized in Israel

Do you have any targets up here? We just had something go right over the top of us.

- A United Airlines pilot, in a radio transmission, upon seeing an apparent UFO while flying over New Mexico last week

I hate to say this, but it looked like a long cylindrical object that almost looked like a cruise missile type of thing moving really fast. It went right over the top of us.

- Ibid.

That doesn’t seem like a venue for political jokes, thank G-d. Amy and I have talked about how we can just make it a fun hangout for people at home — kind of a stress reliever – so I don’t think you can expect much politics at all

.- One of the co-hosts of the Golden Globes, talking in advance of a show in which there would be no political jokes (She must have forgotten that over the past four years there have been no non-political jokes. Why the change? Hmm. Perplexing.)

I think that to some extent, the complaint about the rich getting richer as a result of the Covid panic — I think that’s a misplaced concern. Nobody was trying to make the rich richer. We were trying to save the whole economy under terrible conditions, and I think, by and large, we made the most practical decisions that were available to us. We made the rich richer not as a deliberate choice but because it was an accidental byproduct of trying to save the whole civilization.

- Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chair Charlie Munger, 97, at a shareholder’s meeting

There wasn’t some malevolence of the rich that caused it. It was an accident. And the next time around, the poor will get richer faster than the rich. That thing’s circular. Who gets rich faster by class is going to vary over time, and I don’t think anybody should be too concerned by it.

- ibid.

It’s a very irritating system because the poverty that causes so much misery is also causing the growth that makes everybody get out of poverty.

- Ibid. Hello, Mr. Green? Hi. Are you available for trial? It kind of looks like you’re in an operating room right now?

- A Sacramento courtroom clerk to a defendant during a virtual traffic ticket appearance, when it appeared as if the defendant was in scrubs and performing surgery while appearing to fight his ticket

I am, sir. Yes, I’m in an operating room right now. Yes, I’m available for trial. Go right ahead.

- Dr. Green’s reply, before the judge smartly adjourned the proceeding despite Dr. Green explaining that there were other surgeons present to perform the surgery as well

I went to CPAC — that was a problem.

– Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) joking after falling and getting a black eye