Every day in highly respected newspapers I read well-crafted stories with information that in years past I would have embraced but now know is nonsense, displaying a lack of understanding of economic theory and the regulation of business. The stories even lack readily available official data on the economy and knowledge of the language and principles in the law, including the Constitution. What these stories have in common is a reliance on what sources say rather than what the official record shows.

— David Cay Johnston

You can be on the side of angels without having to be cautious, indecisive, and paranoid all the time. The angels actually want you to be scrappy and assertive.

— David Kurtz

Despite the statement of the Plaintiff in his follow-up e-mail, this phone call was not pleasurable for either one of us.

— Graham Syfert

The last thing that I would suggest is that her witchcraft or masturbation stance should be what we should be thinking about or focusing on, and I think that’s an enormous mistake that the Democrats will make. We like to sit around the office and we have a little game called ‘How will the Democrats blow it?’ And that’s the way they’ll do it. They’ll think somehow that that will resonate with voters, that 20 years ago Christine O’Donnell on MTV said ‘Masturbation is a sin.’ And they’ll play it, and they’ll ridicule it, and the voters will be like, ‘Yeah, I don’t have a job.’ That’s how they’ll blow it.

— Jon Stewart

To be clear here, the issue isn’t the copying of code, which is covered by copyright. It’s the copying of the function served by the code. It’d be like saying Rush Hour needs to pay a licensing fee to the producers of Lethal Weapon because they already patented the idea of an interracial action/comedy movie about cops.

— Matthew Yglesias

It’s like Patrick Henry famously said, “I support the idea that I should have liberty, so much so that I might prefer death, but that’s not really my choice to make and I understand not everyone will agree with me on that.”

— David Kurtz

[USA] players actually look like they like each other and are having fun. England, on the other hand? I have never seen a more joyless group of players in my life. They are having no fun. It’s no fun watching them.

— Michael Davies

I can handle [Russell Brand] in 30-second clips every month or so, and I think he’s hilarious. I have a sneaking suspicion that any longer exposure to him would instantly make me want to hit him with a shovel, therefore I can never see a movie in which he stars, or read his booky-wook. Don’t tempt me, Russell. I have a shovel.

— mdemone

If a player doesn’t happen to share a language with the referee, he might yell in his native language just to convey that he’s upset. “Any kind of fellatio comment is inevitably understood,” says Alexi Lalas, who was on the U.S. World Cup roster in 1994 and 1998.

— The Explainer

Mr. McDonnell may be compounding the damage by insisting that nonviolent former felons — people convicted of shoplifting and other property crimes, for instance — must do more than just apply to the state if they wish to vote, a process that until now has been time-consuming but generally successful for those who stick with it. Mr. McDonnell would have them submit a letter making the case that they have contributed to society since their release — an utterly arbitrary standard. What’s more, they are asked to explain why they think they should get their rights back. As we see it, the correct answer is: Because they are rights. Period.

— Washington Post