"If I were Kim Jong Il, I would read the message of Iraq to be, if you don't have nuclear weapons, you get invaded, and if you do have nuclear weapons, you don't get invaded. Because we didn't invade the Soviet Union and China. So I think we're sending the wrong messages and doing nothing to really prevent a very, very dangerous situation." -- Madeleine Albright

Now, I've met some wonderful people in my life who call themselves Christians, but I've also met some very bigoted, hateful people who also use their religion in the persecution of others. Consider this quote in the context of the latter and not the former.

"I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." -- Mohandas Karamachand Gandhi

"I don't know that atheists should be considered citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God." -- George Herbert Walker Bush

"The conservative movement is successful despite the "crackpots and nuts" on the religious right. I know them all. I've said Jerry Falwell should be kicked in the ass, and I meant it. He has a big one. You can't miss it." -- Barry Goldwater

"It is always to be taken for granted, that those who oppose an equality of rights never mean the exclusion should take place on themselves." -- Thomas Paine (On First Principles of Government, 1795)

"One should respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny." -- Bertrand Russell (The Conquest of Happiness, 1930)

"The price of liberty is eternal vigilance." -- Thomas Jefferson

And this, people, is why I'm not content in sitting idly while my country goes deeper towards authoritarianism and fundamentalism.

"It does not take many words to tell the truth." -- Chief Joseph

Francis Bellamy, the author of the Pledge of Allegiance, was a Christian Socialist who believed that Jesus was a Socialist.

"Ultimately all the questions in this case really boil down to one--whether we as a people will try fearfully and futilely to preserve democracy by adopting totalitarian methods, or whether in accordance with our traditions and our Constitution we will have the confidence and courage to be free." -- Justice Black in the dissenting opinion of Barenblatt v. United States (1959)