Quotable & Notable

“Jews for ‘It’s OK to say Merry Christmas’ ”

-- Banner on the side of a van that ferried comedian Jackie Mason down Fifth Avenue in New York City Dec. 15

To “succeed in passing responsibility to the Iraqi people.”

-- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld explaining President Bush’s strategy on Iraq

“They’ll donate money to us and volunteer to help, but they don’t want to worship with us on Sunday mornings.”

-- Major George Hood, community relations officer for the Salvation Army, describing people’s attitudes toward the organization that is a church as well as a charity

“My granddaughter commented that no one had taken the baby Jesus this year and … I said, ‘Oh, what the heck.’ ”

-- Virginia Voiers, a 70-year-old grandmother from Eureka Springs, Ark., who was charged with misdemeanor theft for stealing Baby Jesus from the city Nativity scene

“The WTO will make all poor farmers in the world starve to death and in that case we’d rather be beaten to death.”

-- Seo Jung-eui, member of a militant South Korean farmers group protesting Dec. 13 outside the World Trade Organization meeting in Hong Kong

“We cannot discuss information that would compromise the success of intelligence and military operations.”

-- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice neither confirming nor denying that the CIA runs secret prisons in Europe

National Catholic Reporter, December 23, 2005