Quotables

'We’re lending money we don’t have, to kids who will never be able to pay it back, for jobs that no longer exist.’

Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs fame on what he believes is American society’s overemphasis and overspending on higher education.

‘[T]he threat and risk potential is limitless.’

Tony Trenkle, the official in charge of healthcare.gov security efforts, in a Sept. 3 memo on security problems with the website. According to CBS News, Trenkle never signed off on authorization for the site, but his boss, Marilyn Tavenner, did. Trenkle resigned in November. Security experts warn that the Obamacare website may prove fertile ground for hackers seeking users’ personal and financial information.

‘Every time a politician talks, he’s out there deceiving voters.’

Dave Wilson, elected in November to the Houston Community College Board of Trustees, on not being sorry for ads that falsely implied he was black. The white Wilson won election in a predominantly black district.

‘$31.5 million’

The price paid by an unidentified buyer at a Nov. 12 Christie’s auction in Geneva, Switzerland, for a 14.82-carat orange diamond. Christie’s international jewelry director David Warren told the AFP news service that the diamond is “the largest recorded vivid orange diamond in the world.” The buyer will reportedly have to pay an additional $4.04 million for taxes and commission.

‘His mayoralty has been an experiment in what would happen if you had a feral 16-year-old boy for mayor.’

Toronto resident and writer Stephen Marche, on the city’s controversial mayor, Rob Ford. The subject of a police investigation, Ford confessed on Nov. 5 that he recently smoked crack cocaine, “probably in one of my drunken stupors,” but he vowed to continue in office.