Quotations in the News

Tuesday, December 17 2013 | 9:09 a.m. CST

"I cannot imagine a more `indiscriminate' and `arbitrary invasion' than this systemic and high-tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every single citizen for the purposes of querying and analyzing it without prior judicial approval. Surely, such a program infringes on `that degree of privacy' that the founders enshrined in the Fourth Amendment. Indeed, I have little doubt that the author of our Constitution, James Madison, who cautioned us to beware `the abridgment of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power,' would be aghast." _ U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon, in a ruling that questions the constitutionality of the National Security Agency's bulk phone record collection.


"People don't really understand probabilities at all. Once you have a bunch of zeroes, it doesn't matter how many you have _ one in 10,000, one in a million or one in a billion. ... People do understand the meaning of the word `largest.' They overact to one dimension and underreact to the other." _ George Loewenstein, a professor of economics and psychology at Carnegie Mellon University, on why people buy lottery tickets for big jackpots with long odds.


"I cannot voluntarily surrender my credentials because I am a voice now for many _ for tens of thousands _ of LGBT members in our church." _ United Methodist pastor Rev. Frank Schaefer, who is under suspension by the denomination for performing a same-sex wedding, saying he will not resign from the clergy.