Quotable & Notable

“Take a few minutes and write a note to Britney Spears. No preaching. No criticizing. Just love. ... Let’s love Britney the way Jesus loves her.”

-- Pastor John Weece to his congregation at Southland Christian Church in Lexington, Ky.

“Obviously!”

-- California corrections department spokesman Lt. Mark Ahlin confirming to a reporter that convicted arsonists are not allowed to serve with the inmate firefighters brigade. About 370 inmates battled the California wildfires last month earning $1 a day.

“The need for missile defense in Europe is real, and I believe it’s urgent.”

-- President Bush, Oct. 23

“Let me remind you what happened in the same situation in the 1960s. When the Soviet Union deployed missiles in Cuba.”

-- Russian President Vladimir Putin Oct. 26 comparing the U.S. plan to deploy an anti-ballistic missile system in Central Europe to the Cuban missile crisis

“The fact is I’ve been involved for a long time in policy, and I think I just didn’t get a lot of coverage on it.”

-- First Lady Laura Bush discussing her increasingly visible personal role on such diverse issues as democracy in Myanmar and breast cancer prevention in the Middle East

National Catholic Reporter, November 9, 2007