Quotables

"She lied over and over."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Seymour in her opening statement last week in the trial of Martha Stewart. Prosecutors say Ms. Stewart traded stock on an inside tip and then lied repeatedly to cover it up.

"I don't make decisions in public life based on religious belief."

U.S. Sen. John Kerry, front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, who claims to hold strong Roman Catholic beliefs but supports legal abortion and civil unions for homosexual couples.

"Breathtaking."

Former Reagan administration health official Bob moffit, now with the Heritage Foundation, on the growth in government under President Bush. A study of government records by the Scripps Howard News Service last week found that the number of federal workers paid at least $130,000 annually has more than tripled, rising from 6,249 in 2000 to 21,178 in 2003. The overall federal work force has grown by 5 percent during the same period.

"Historically unprecedented."

The World Health Organization's pronouncement on the spread of bird flu. The disease made a long-dreaded leap into China and a second boy died in Thailand. Health workers fear that the latest strain of avian influenza, which has killed at least eight people in Vietnam and Thailand, will mate with a human influenza virus and become a SARS-like epidemic.