Quotables

‘The surge was a sprint. And America got winded too quickly.’

Former State Department official Kael Weston, who spent seven years in Iraq and Afghanistan, arguing that more than a surge, President Obama should commit a small enduring ground force to Afghanistan for a decade. Obama ended the U.S. military surge in Afghanistan in September.

‘I’m not the joke everyone thinks I am.’

Ogemaw Heights High School sophomore Whitney Kropp on appearing in her Michigan high school’s homecoming court after fellow students selected her as a prank. Kropp’s decision to attend the event despite her embarrassment prompted local businesses to donate a gown and hairstyling, and a Facebook page that drew more than 90,000 “likes.”

‘They’re playing God.’

Patrick McMahon, plaintiff in a lawsuit alleging the New York Organ Donor Network pressured doctors and hospital staff to declare patients brain dead sooner so their organs could be removed. “I have been in Desert Storm, Iraq, and Afghanistan in combat,” said McMahon, a nurse practitioner and an Air Force veteran, speaking to the New York Post about one case. “I worked on massive brain injuries, trauma, gunshot wounds, IEDs. I have seen worse cases than this and the victims recover.”

‘Let My People Vote.’

The theme for a voter registration campaign by PICO, an activist organization that targets African-American churches. Nearly 300 churches participated in a Sunday campaign in September that included holding voter registration drives during worship services. “People are stopping in the middle of worship to have people pull out the registration forms and fill them out,” said PICO policy director Gordon Whitman.

‘I just don’t want to go to the point where I show up and nobody else does.’

Country music star George Strait on his decision to stop touring after his 2013-2014 concert tour. Strait has had 59 No. 1 country hits during his career, more than any other performer.