Here are some of the week’s most notable quotes culled from news reports from across Texas, and beyond.
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples, one of four Republicans running for lieutenant governor this year, when asked about same-sex marriage.
I have thought about it and I’ve decided that I’ll change my definition when God changes his.
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Bill Nye the Science Guy to U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., during an appearance on “Meet the Press” to discuss climate change.
You are our leader. We need you to change things, not deny what’s happening.
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Billionaire tech mogul Tom Perkins’ plan for how elections should be conducted.
If you pay $1 million in taxes, you get a million votes.
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Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa, on Republican candidate for governor Greg Abbott campaigning with Ted Nugent.
I can’t help but recall the old saying, tell me who your friends are, and I’ll tell you who you are.
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Ellery Schempp, who calls himself a “footnote in history,” discussing landmark the 1963 Supreme Court case that barred schools from forcing students to read the Bible or say prayers as part of their studies.
Religion works best when it is free from government interference and government works best when it is free from religious interference.
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Patrick Henry College journalism professor Les Sillars.
When you have a culture of license where you can’t tell the difference between what’s full rape or fake rape and what’s real rape, it makes dealing with real rape really, really hard.
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TFN President Kathy Miller, on a Senate Health and Human Services Committee hearing that was supposed to be about women’s health.
It’s hard to imagine how committee members can really discuss something as important as women’s health care when the hearing agenda makes no mention of important components of that care, like women’s access to abortion care services and responsible sex education for teens.
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Todd Smith, spokesman for the campaign of Sid Miller, a Republican state legislator running for Texas Agriculture Commissioner. Smith was addressing questions about racist and other deeply controversial statements Nugent has made in the past.
We are not going to do anything to distance ourselves from Ted Nugent. If we had concerns about some of the things that Mr. Nugent has said or done, we wouldn’t have reached out to him and asked him to become involved in our campaign on such a high level.
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Texas Gov. Rick Perry, on Ted Nugent’s comments about President Obama. Attorney General Greg Abbott, who is running to replace Perry, is now drawing criticism from within his own party for campaigning with Nugent.
He shouldn’t have said that about the president of the United States. I got a problem calling the president a mongrel … I do have a problem with that. That is an inappropriate thing to say.
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Disgraced former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, offering a peculiar civics lesson.
I think we got off the track when we allowed our government to become a secular government, when we stopped realizing that God created this nation, that he wrote the Constitution, that it’s based on biblical principles, and we allowed those that don’t believe in those things to keep pushing us, pushing us, and pushing us away from the government. And instead of standing up and being unashamedly a follower of Jesus Christ and fighting for our values in our society.
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Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky.
Ted Nugent’s derogatory description of President Obama is offensive and has no place in politics. He should apologize.
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Ted Nugent’s non-apology apology.
I do apologize — not necessarily to the president — but on behalf of much better men than myself.
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Former presidential hopeful Rep. Michele Bachmann, saying in an interview that the United States won’t elect former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton president in 2016 because the country “isn’t ready for a woman president.”
I think there was a cachet about having an African-American president because of guilt. People don’t hold guilt for a woman.
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BONUS: CNN confronts Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott about Ted Nugent.
*face palm* *hopeful*…*face palm*
Fruit…you know.