Debate Quotes - Page 19

• I only debate with serious political youth formations. Not a group of the racist Helen Zille's garden boys.

  Julius Malema

  Boys, Garden, Political

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• It's very, very difficult I think for us to have a transparent debate about secret programs approved by a secret court issuing secret court orders based on secret interpretations of the law.

  Tom Udall

  Thinking, Order, Law

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• I've always been very wary of debates involving women.

  Tony Abbott

  Involving

  "Abbott goes to school in Sydney". Sabra Lane, www.abc.net.au. August 10, 2010.

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• My greatest concern was what to call it. I thought of calling it 'information,' but the word was overly used, so I decided to call it 'uncertainty.' When I discussed it with John von Neumann, he had a better idea. Von Neumann told me, 'You should call it entropy, for two reasons. In the first place your uncertainty function has been used in statistical mechanics under that name, so it already has a name. In the second place, and more important, no one really knows what entropy really is, so in a debate you will always have the advantage.'

  Claude Shannon

  Names, Ideas, Two

  "Scientific American", Vol. 225, (p. 180), 1971.

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• Let me explain something when I'm talking about sin, and I'm talking about all sin. One of the biggest ones that has been talked about that has really become a debate in America is homosexuality.

  Reggie White

  Talking, America, Sin

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• I do admit to mocking atheists, because mockery is a legitimate form of debate according to my rule Book. God Himself mocks evil men who refuse His moral government (see Proverbs 1:26-27).

  Ray Comfort

  Atheist, Book, Men

  Ray Comfort (2009). “Nothing Created Everything: The Scientific Impossibility of Atheistic Evolution”, p.90, WND Books

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• I refused this evening at Oxford University to debate with an Israeli, a supporter of the apartheid state of Israel. The reason is simple: no recognition, no normalisation. Just boycott, divestment and sanctions, until the apartheid state is defeated. I never debate with Israelis nor speak to their media. If they want to speak about Palestine – the address is the PLO.

  George Galloway

  Simple, Israel, Media

  "George Galloway refuses to debate with Israeli student at Oxford" by Warren Murray, Sam Jones, www.theguardian.com. February 21, 2013.

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• Energy has become a national security issue and as technology continues to improve, there will be more debates like the one on Keystone.

  Ed Royce

  Technology, Issues, Energy

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• What is especially irritating about the whole abortion debate is the way the subject has been used as a political football by those on both the right and the left of the political aisle.

  Chuck Baldwin

  Football, Abortion, Political

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• Politics is good; when it works properly, disagreements get solved without people beating each other up. But when a regime knows its days are numbered, there's always the chance it may use its position to change the rules and make the debate it is losing irrelevant.

  Vernor Vinge

  People, Use, May

  "The Children of the Sky". Book by Vernor Vinge, 2011.

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• I am very annoyed about this issue. Why can’t it be a choice? Why is that any less legitimate? It seems we’re just ceding this point to bigots who are demanding it, and I don’t think that they should define the terms of the debate. I also feel like people think I was walking around in a cloud and didn’t realize I was gay, which I find really offensive. I find it offensive to me, but I also find it offensive to all the men I’ve been out with.

  Cynthia Nixon

  Gay, Men, Thinking

  "Life After ‘Sex’". www.nytimes.com. January 19, 2012.

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• It is sad that while science moves ahead in exciting new areas of research, fine-tuning our knowledge of how life originated and evolved, creationists remain mired in medieval debates about angels on the head of a pin and animals in the belly of an Ark.

  Michael Shermer

  Moving, Angel, Animal

  Michael Shermer (2002). “Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time”, p.141, Macmillan

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• Palin is smart, politically skilled, courageous and likable. Her convention and debate performances were impressive.

  David Brooks

  Smart, Courageous, Conventions

  "David Brooks on Palin: A Profile in Cowardice" by Greg Mitchell, www.huffingtonpost.com. March 18, 2010.

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• You change society by changing the wind. Change the wind, transform the debate, recast the discussion, alter the context in which political discussions are being made, and you will change the outcomes... You will be surprised at how fast the politicians adjust to the change in the wind.

  Jim Wallis

  Wind, Political, Outcomes

  Jim Wallis (2006). “God's Politics: Why the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get it”, p.22, Lion Books

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• Earlier feminists were almost universally pro-choice and have dominated political debate until now. Having access to abortion was viewed as the only way women could have full equality with men, who, until recently, couldn't get pregnant.

  Kathleen Parker

  Pregnancy, Equality, Men

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• I admire David De Gea. I cannot remember anyone coming into Manchester United and being criticised the way he was. He was the subject of every debate in the media. You haven’t seen De Gea defend himself in the media or shifting the blame elsewhere. He just gets on with it.

  Peter Schmeichel

  Media, Way, Shifting

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• To cut 1930s jobless, FDR taxed corps and rich. Govt used money to hire many millions. Worked then; would now again. Why no debate on that?

  Richard D. Wolff

  Cutting, Rich, Used

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• The essence of liberalism is negotiation, a cautious half measure, in the hope that the definitive dispute, the decisive bloody battle, can be transformed into a parliamentary debate and permit the decision to be suspended forever in an everlasting discussion.

  Carl Schmitt

  Essence, Decision, Forever

  Carl Schmitt (2010). “Political Theology: Four Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty”, p.63, University of Chicago Press

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• I always got a bit pissed off with those broadsheet sceptics who make their living being passionately angry about homeopathy, God, synchronicity or whatever, because it's as if they can't get past their emotions, and in their rage they become as faith-driven as the beliefs they criticise. I always said they give scientists a bad name. After all, science has to be about asking unthinkable questions, not closing down debate.

  Scarlett Thomas

  Past, Names, Giving

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• If people really stopped and realized how much art and creative people move the world versus politics and religion, I mean it’s not even up for debate. An artist at least creates things, puts things into the world. Where as these other people are destroying things, taking things out of the world.

  Marilyn Manson

  Art, Moving, Mean

  "The Henry Rollins Show", April 13, 2007.

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• We turn now over the debate of the proposed Islamic center and mosque near Ground Zero....The controversy has raised profound questions about religious tolerance and prejudice in the United States.

  Christiane Amanpour

  Religious, Zero, Islamic

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• Succinct, thorough, and masterfully researched-Thomas Medvetz has written a subtle and timely history of these fixtures of public debate in the United States. In the realms of culture studies, policy, and policy formation, there is no book quite like Think Tanks in America. Plus which, no one has understood, interpreted, then used Pierre Bourdieu's ideas better-so well that Bourdieu himself would have been pleased.

  Charles Lemert

  Book, Thinking, Ideas

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• The overarching issue, as I see it, is the elitism of America's political system; the fact that regular, ordinary Americans aren't considered in policy debates or legislation, and regularly get shafted by the powers-that-be in Washington.

  Jerry Springer

  America, Issues, Political

  "Democratic Veteran". Interview with Jo Fish, June 23, 2003.

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• My point is, however, that churches do promote beliefs that would more appropriately find a place in a context of intellectual debate. They wind up cheerleading for highly dubious opinions on historical, scientific, and metaphysical matters, simply on the bases of emotional preference and the inertia of tradition. They demand conformity to these beliefs, and if you cannot swim with the current, then, well partner, maybe you'd be happier in another pool, another lake in fact, the one ablaze with burning sulfur.

  Robert M. Price

  Cheerleading, Emotional, Wind

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• Well, I think we ought to definitely look at it and debate it. I think there are a lot of people who have trouble coming to terms with that because they see marriage as traditionally between a man and a woman. But I also know that, you know, when couples are committed to each other and love each other, that they ought to have I think the same sort of rights that everyone has.

  Laura Bush

  Couple, Men, Thinking

  "The Larry King Live Show", www.realclearpolitics.com. May 11, 2010.

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