Verbatim

'You don't have a gun; that's good.' RICHARD FULD, former Lehman Brothers CEO, to a reporter who tracked down Fuld at his Ketchum, Idaho, home

'This is something you'd expect to see in North Korea or in Saddam Hussein's Iraq.' STEVE RUSSELL, a Republican state senator from Oklahoma, calling President Obama's televised back-to-school speech to children on Sept. 8 an attempt to create a "cult of personality"

'We asked ourselves what face we could give to the virus, and it couldn't be a pretty face.' DIRK SILZ, creative director for Germany's new "AIDS Is a Mass Murderer" campaign, explaining the choice of Adolf Hitler as the virus's human embodiment

'We are talking about serious issues here, and this is not just a serious suggestion at all.' STEVEN HAMBLETON, an Australian Medical Association executive, on a Queensland government advisory that doctors consume the equivalent of six cups of coffee to cope with fatigue

'There are more than 700 women still in the prison who have got no one to pay for them.' LUBNA HUSSEIN, a Sudanese journalist convicted of wearing pants that were deemed "indecent" under Sudanese law. She was released from jail after her union paid a $200 fine

'It becomes a "why bother" scenario.' RICK ALEXANDER, a Florida carpenter, one of thousands of Americans who have given up searching for a job after months without success

'Unless somebody can find a way to change human nature, we will have more crises.' ALAN GREENSPAN, former Federal Reserve chairman, arguing that the problems that caused the economic crisis are bound to recur

BACK & FORTH

Nuclear Arms

'Iran's nuclear capability will neutralize Israel's power.' A.Q. KHAN, creator of Pakistan's nuclear-weapons program, saying he helped Iran develop a network of suppliers for nuclear-weapons materials years ago

'These are the views of a person who has been rendered ineffective, and his network has been completely shut up.' NADEEM KIANI, a spokesman at the Pakistani embassy in Washington, stating that Pakistan is against "proliferation in the region"

Casualties of War

'The image told a story of sacrifice; it told a story of bravery.' JOHN DANISZEWSKI, senior managing editor of the Associated Press, defending the agency's decision to run a photograph of Joshua Bernard, a U.S. Marine dying of wounds sustained in Afghanistan, against the wishes of Bernard's family

'Your lack of compassion and common sense in choosing to put this image ... on the front page of multiple American newspapers is appalling.' ROBERT GATES, Defense Secretary, in a letter to the AP

LEXICON

Narcotecture n.--The architectural style favored by Afghan drug lords

USAGE: "Stylistically, narcotecture is incoherent and dizzyingly busy. Residences are composed of clashing globe-spanning elements: Asian pagoda tiers and eaves curving to points, Greek temple columns, mirrored skyscraper glass, medieval-castle balustrades and parapets." -TrueSlant.com Aug. 20, 2009

Sources: Reuters; AP; AFP; Reuters; Times of London; New York Times; BBC

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