Liberal
"I think these days we want to be getting back to a few basics and we might have to consider a few of the old-fashioned remedies." — NSW housing minister Joe Schipp advocating public flogging of street hoodlums.
Censored
"Historical and political status aside, he brings little that is academic and intellectual." — Australian National University lecturer Michael McKinley, in an article on the university's offer of an adjunct professorship to Bob Hawke. The ANU Reporter has rejected McKinley's article for publication.
Free market
"I think that is probably because most of them are stolen." — Russian used car dealer Andrei Kurashov observing that used cars are very cheap in Poland.
Entrepreneurial spirit
"When the Moscow rate was 50 roubles to the dollar, it was 65 in the Baltics. So you can make money selling dollars in the Baltics and changing them back in Moscow." — Alexei Solntsev, director of a Russian "cooperative".
Subtle distinction
"We have been interested in the number of Scuds but, in fact, the search is going on by the United Nations, not the United States." — US defence department spokesperson Pete Williams on continuing US-UN operations in Iraq.
Democratic view
"It is almost impossible to prevent self-destruction if she were to decide to carry out suicide." — Chief Justice Thomas Finlay of the Irish Supreme Court explaining a recent ruling that his country's constitution does not after all ban abortion in all circumstances. Abortion is now permissible if the woman's life is threatened.
Or political disaster
"It's the sort of time frame you'd only apply at times of national disaster, like earthquake relief or wartime regulation. And it doesn't even read as if it's been drafted by a lawyer." — WA Criminal Lawyers' Association president Andrew Hodge, calling for repeal of the Lawrence Labor government's recent juvenile crime law, which was drafted, amended and passed in a month.
Fortunes of war
"The government is shit scared of forming a correlation between chemicals and cancers ... It relies on vast sums of money and resources and aligning that against a solitary veteran who is just s family." — Vietnam Veterans' Association SA president Adrian Walford after a recent judgment that exposure to Agent Orange and other chemicals during the war did lead to illnesses among veterans.