I have generalized this with a catchy acronym-aphorism — CITOKATE ... or... Criticism is the Only Known Antidote to Error. A practicing scientist knows this, in his or her bones, even as the Cro Magnon ego inevitably tugs in the other direction, murmuring to each of us that we are 100% correct and that critics are all vile fools.

David Brin

[Hat tip: Blake Stacey]

America’s moral integrity was the single most important weapon my platoon had on the streets of Iraq. It saved innumerable lives, encouraged cooperation with our allies and deterred Iraqis from joining the growing insurgency.

But those days are over.

Paul Rieckhoff,the executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, in
in an op-ed in the NY Times [may require free registration], the most important thing you can read these days.

My personal favorite poll number is the President’s 2 percent approval rating among blacks. Which is within the margin of error. Which leads to all sorts of mind-boggling possibilities, scientifically: Is it possible that more black people hate the President than are actually alive today? Do you think black ghosts are coming back to hate him? Do you think they can read black sonograms at this point? Are doctors saying, “We don’t know if this is a boy or a girl, but we know this baby hates George W. Bush”?

Stephanie Miller, in an interview with Matthew Rothschild in The Progressive

"The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism. To redefine Article III [of the Geneva Conventions] would add to those doubts."

General Colin Powell (retired), former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, former Secretary of State

When those who dissent are told time and time again — as we will be, if not tonight by the President, then tomorrow by his portable public chorus — that he is preserving our freedom, but that if we use any of it, we are somehow un-American…

When we are scolded, that if we merely question, we have "forgotten the lessons of 9/11"… look into this empty space behind me and the bi-partisanship upon which this administration also did not build, and tell me:

Who has left this hole in the ground?

We have not forgotten, Mr. President.

You have.

— Keith Olbermann, "Special Comment" on Countdown (MSNBC), 11 September 2006 [video]