“He wants to be a role model. He wants to be a hero. That’s why he joined.”

– Twenty-two-year-old Amanda Shumate, defending her brother, Marine Lance Cpl. Jerry Shumate Jr. of Matlock, Wash., one of eight U.S. servicemen charged with murder in connection with the death of an Iraqi man.

“A job should lift you out of poverty, not keep you in it.”

– U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., speaking in support of an increase in the federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour.

“How else do you determine if you reached a consensus?”

– Mindy Chambers, spokeswoman for the Washington State Auditor’s Office, pondering the explanation by Matthew Pederson of the Spokane County Air Pollution Control Authority that the SCAPCA board reached a consensus on hiring a new director during a private meeting, but they didn’t take a vote.

“When people do something like this, we all wear it.”

– Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich, saying the actions of Deputy Joseph W. Mastel, who has been fired and charged with indecent exposure at a coffee stand, dishonor the badge.

“The fact is, children unattended on the Internet on chat rooms and social networking sites are at risk.”

– U.S. Rep. Michael G. Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., a proponent of banning MySpace.com from school and library computers, saying the popular Web site’s self-imposed plans to curb contacts between children and adults are insufficient.

“Over a period of several months the subcommittee has received a vast amount of mail from parents expressing concern regarding the possible deleterious effect upon their children of certain of the media of mass communication. This led to an inquiry into the possible relationship to juvenile delinquency of these media.”

– From an interim report submitted by U.S. Sen. Estes Kefauver, D-Tenn., as the Senate launched a series of hearings in 1954 into the threat posed by American comic books.

“I can’t help but consider the peculiar genius our church has for roiling the waters.”

– Rev. Eddie Blue of Maryland, after the Episcopal General Convention named a woman, Nevada Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, as presiding bishop of the U.S. Anglican province.

“Anytime you try something new, people are skeptical, and they should be. That’s why we called it an experiment – the goat experiment.”

– Virginia City, Mont., Mayor Allyson Adams, who wants to minimize the use of chemical spraying by bringing in hundreds of goats to eat the knapweed that threatens native vegetation in her community.

“These agents were out just trying to do their job, trying to do an arrest in a very controlled situation, and it just didn’t come down exactly as planned.”

– FBI Agent Michael Folman after a deadly gunfight broke out between Florida prison guards, who were accused of sex-for-contraband exchanges with women inmates, and the FBI agents who came to arrest them.