Quotables

‘We can’t stop it.’

U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., on conservatives in the House being unable to stop a deal between outgoing Speaker John Boehner and Democrats to raise the government debt ceiling until March of 2017 and provide billions more in domestic and military spending. Boehner said the deal will leave a “clean barn” for Rep. Paul Ryan, his successor as speaker.

‘Spending more than you earn is always easy.’

Canadian news analyst Neil MacDonald on whether newly elected Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be able to keep his campaign promise to run a deficit for a few years.

‘Delta doesn’t show up to train some people to basket weave.’

Retired Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer referring to the elite U.S. Army counterterrorism unit Delta Force, on the Obama administration’s reluctance to call ground operations in Iraq “combat.” A raid led by Delta Force freed 69 ISIS prisoners in October (see “Human Race,” in this issue).

‘No one is forcing anyone to accept “one wife, many husbands!”’

Zhejiang University economics professor Xie Zuoshi after receiving a barrage of criticism for suggesting multiple Chinese men should be allowed to marry the same woman to solve the country’s bachelor crisis, caused by the sex-selective abortion of girls.

‘It seems to me that what was going on there was that he/she wanted the limelight that the other, female, members of the family were enjoying and has conquered it, just like that.’

Feminist writer Germaine Greer on why Bruce Jenner became Caitlyn Jenner. Greer has also said that men who undergo surgery and hormone treatment to become women “are not women.” An online petition sought to prevent Greer from giving a lecture at Cardiff University in Wales.