Political Responsibilities
Page 12
- Adults who enter into public life implicitly consent to having less privacy, but their families - especially their children - should not be treated callously or thoughtlessly.
- [Melissa Harris-]Perry is not infallible. She is human. And like any other human, in recognizing that an action directly or indirectly causes someone harm, she owns up to responsibility, apologizes, and does what we all hope humans do: try to do better.
- A half-century after racing the Russians to the moon, the U.S. is barely suiting up in the international race to secure interests in the Arctic.
- I don’t agree with quite a bit of stuff I read in magazine interviews or see on TV. In fact, come to think of it, I find a good bit of it offensive. But I also acknowledge that this is a free country and everyone is entitled to express their views…I remember when TV networks believed in the First Amendment. It is a messed up situation when Miley Cyrus gets a laugh and Phil Robertson gets suspended.
- The First Amendment, like the constitution generally, only applies to the government. So if the government stops someone from talking, or punishes them, that’s a First Amendment issue. If a private person says 'I won’t hire you or let you be on TV anymore,' that’s not. The idea is we don’t let the government decide what’s a good opinion, but we do let individuals decide what they think is offensive and what should be rewarded and what should be discouraged. That’s the way the marketplace of ideas is supposed to work.
- The fact is, we’re not collecting everybody’s email, we’re not collecting everybody’s phone things, we’re not listening to that…NSA can only target the communications of a US person with a probable cause finding under specific court order. Today, we have less than 60 authorizations on specific persons to do that.
- Politics is noble; it is one of the highest forms of charity, as Paul VI used to say. We sully it when we mix it with business. The relationship between the Church and political power can also be corrupted if common good is not the only converging point.
- People will often say, 'Why are you talking about feminism? Why aren't you talking about human rights?' And yes, but we're talking about [women] because there is a group of people in the world who fought for centuries, who have been systematically deprived of rights because they were women. So that's why we talk about women. That's why it has to be about women. Because those are the people whose rights have been taken away. And we can't somehow pretend, 'Oh, let's talk about the human race,' and make things all wishy washy. No, it's women. It has to be women. It has to be feminism. And you have to become one.
- I grew up with the Red Letter Bible, the Bible that highlighted the words of Jesus. And I've thought about that a lot, too. This is the Jesus who said, "Love your enemies," "Do good to those who hate you," "Bless those who curse you," "Pray for those who treat you badly." He
also said, "Everyone who makes themselves important will be made humbled, but everyone who makes themselves humble will be made important." He said, "Whoever wants to be your leader, must be your servant." And Jesus said, "It's the sick people who need a doctor, not those who are healthy, for I did not come to invite good people, but to invite sinners." You know, those words used to be easier to live by before I came to congress, where fighting for leadership and soundbites and making the evening news is common practice around
here. - I would do almost anything Tina Fey asks me to do.
- From an athlete’s perspective, to cancel the Olympics in regards to the threats would be absolutely devastating - especially since the Olympics - it’s really about people meeting together through sports and putting aside their countries’ differences for that time.
- Putting women’s traditional needs at the center of social planning is not reverse sexism. It’s the best way to reverse the increasing economic vulnerability of men and women alike.