"Harry, I don't want to take away from the severity of what you two were talking about, but please pass along to Dan he looks great in his jeans today."
—
CBS "This Morning" co-host Paula Zahn to Dan Rather as he reported live from Wilmington, NC as Hurricane Emily approached, August 30, 1993.
"What is it, do you think, government can do about this? If we declare that obesity is a disease, would that make any difference at all?"
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CBS "This Morning" co-host Paula Zahn on a study finding that one-third of Americans as obese, July 18, 1994.
"Even your sister concedes, although some supporters might like what you have to say about the economy and these very specific issues you just mentioned, they're very turned off by some of your social policies. And you know you've got political enemies out there calling you an isolationist, a bigot, you're anti-gay, and some even go as far as saying that your social stands are reminiscent of Nazi Germany. How are you to win them over?"
—
CBS "This Morning" co-host Paula Zahn to Pat Buchanan, July 5, 1995.
Zappa, Frank (singer and composer)
"When you see that [Christian] fish symbol on the bumper sticker of the car in front of you, know that that is the enemy."
—
Musician Frank Zappa, at a 1990 Los Angeles pro-abortion rally. "Anti-Christian Bigotry in Hollywood." American Family Association Journal, May 1990, page 10 of Special Insert. Also quoted by Joseph Farah. "Hollywood's New Blacklist: An Inside View of the Intolerance, Censorship, and Bigotry in Today's Entertainment Industry." New Dimensions Magazine, September 1990, pages 12 to 25.
Zero Population Growth (ZPG, now Population Connection)
"The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970's the world will undergo famine — hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now. At this late date nothing can prevent a substantial increase in the world death rate. ... We must have population control at home, hopefully through a system of incentives and penalties, but by compulsion if voluntary methods fail. ... We can no longer afford merely to treat the symptoms of the cancer of population growth; the cancer itself must be cut out. Population control is the only answer [prologue] . ... A minimum of three and a half million people will starve to death this year [1968], mostly children. But this is a mere handful compared to the numbers that will be starving in a decade or so. And it is now too late to take action to save many of those people [page 17]. ... Our first step must be to immediately establish and advertise drastic policies designed to bring our own population size under control. We must define a goal of a stable optimum population size for the United States ... and move rapidly toward that goal. ... we also are going to have to adopt some very tough foreign policy positions relative to population control.
"We must cut out the cancer of population growth. Coercion? Perhaps, but coercion in a good cause [population control] ... We must be relentless in pushing for population control [page 24].
"So the first task is population control at home. How do we go about it? Many of my colleagues feel that some sort of compulsory birth regulation would be necessary to achieve such [population] control. One plan often mentioned involves the addition of temporary sterilants to the water supplies or staple food. Doses of the antidote would be carefully rationed by the government to produce the desired population size. Those of you who are appalled at such a suggestion can rest easy. The option isn't even open to us, thanks to the criminal inadequacy of biomedical research in this area [pages 135 and 136]. ... Perhaps the most workable system would be to reverse the government's present system of encouraging reproduction and replace it with a series of financial rewards and penalties designed to discourage reproduction. ... On top of the income tax reversal, luxury taxes should be placed on layettes, cribs, diapers, diaper services, and expensive toys.
"A Federal Department of Population and Environment (DPE) should be set up with power to take whatever steps are necessary to establish a reasonable population size in the United States and to put an end to the steady deterioration of our environment. The DPE would be given ample funds to support research in the areas of population control and environmental quality. In the first area it would promote intensive investigation of new techniques of birth control, possibly leading to the development of mass sterilizing agents such as were discussed above. The DPE would also encourage more research on human sex determination, for if a simple method could be found to guarantee that first-born children were males, then population control problems in many areas could be somewhat eased. In our country and elsewhere couples with only female children "keep trying" in hope of a son" [page 138].
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Zero Population Growth (ZPG) founder Paul Ehrlich. The Population Bomb [New York City: Ballantine Publishers], 1968.
"(1)
Parenthood is not an inherent right but a privilege granted by society which may legitimately limit that privilege.
"(2)
Every American family has a right to two children and no more.
"(3)
The U.S. Congress must act to limit parenthood to two children and adopt a crash program of birth control (this includes abortion) that will be sufficient to accomplish this objective without using criminal sanctions."
—
Excerpt from a resolution adopted by the National Board of Zero Population Growth (ZPG) in September 1969. Quoted in Randy Engel. "A Pro-Life Report on Population Growth and the American Future." 54 pages, 1972, page 45.
"The end of the ocean came late in the summer of 1979. ... DDT and similar chlorinated hydrocarbons had polluted the entire surface of the earth, including the sea.
"But that was only the first of many signs. There had been the final gasp of the whaling industry in 1973, and the end of the Peruvian anchovy fishery in 1975. ... Eco-catastrophes in the sea became increasingly common in the early 1970's. ... Most ocean fishes that returned to fresh water to breed, like the salmon, had become extinct. ... Local famine persisted in northern India. ... East Pakistan was next, followed by a resurgence of general famine in northern India. Other foci of famine rapidly developed in Indonesia, the Philippines, Malawi, the Congo, Egypt, Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, the Dominican Republic and Mexico. Everywhere hard realities destroyed the illusion of the Green Revolution. ... The governments now knew that the basic cause of the problems had been exacerbated by the dullness, daydreaming, and cupidity endemic to all governments. They knew that only population control and limited development aimed primarily at agriculture could have spared them the horrors they now faced. ... Starting in Youngstown, Ohio in 1969 and followed closely by Richmond, California, community after community was forced to close its schools or curtail educational operations for lack of funds. Water supplies, already marginal in quality and quantity in many places by 1970, deteriorated quickly. Water rationing occurred in 1723 municipalities in the summer of 1974, and hepatitis and epidemic dysentery rates climbed about 500 per cent between 1970-1974. ... suddenly our citizens were faced with nearly 200,000 corpses and massive documentation that they could be the next to die from respiratory disease. ... the U.N. conference had not predicted that accumulated air pollution would make the planet uninhabitable until almost 1990. ... Americans born since 1946 (when DDT usage began) now had a life expectancy of only 49 years, and predicted that if current patterns continued, this expectancy would reach 42 years by 1980. ... Suddenly the United States discovered that it had a national consensus: population control was the only possible salvation of the underdeveloped world.
"Those who opposed population controls for the U.S. were equally vociferous. The military-industrial complex, with its all-too-human mixture of ignorance and avarice, still saw strength and prosperity in numbers. Baby food magnates. ... saw their market disappearing. Steel manufacturers saw a decrease in aggregate demand and slippage for that holy of holies, the Gross National Product. And military men saw, in the growing population-food-environment crisis, a serious threat to their carefully nurtured Cold War. In the end, of course, economic arguments held sway, and the "inalienable right of every American couple to determine the size of its family," a freedom invented for the occasion in the early '70s, was not compromised. ...
"A pretty grim scenario. Unfortunately, we're a long way into it already. Everything mentioned as happening before 1970 has actually occurred; much of the rest is based on projections of trends already appearing. ... Western society is in the process of completing the rape and murder of the planet for economic gain. ... Both worldwide plague and thermonuclear war are made more probable as population growth continues. These, along with famine, make up the trio of potential "death rate solutions" to the population problems — solutions in which the birth rate-death rate imbalance is redressed by a rise in the death rate rather than by lowering of the birth rate. Make no mistake about it, the imbalance will be redressed. ... Man is not only running out of food, he is also destroying the life support systems of the Spaceship Earth. ..."
—
Paul Ehrlich, founder of Zero Population Growth (ZPG). "Eco-Catastrophe!" Ramparts, September 1969, pages 24 to 28 [emphasis in the original].
"It has been concluded that mandatory population control laws, even those requiring compulsory abortion, could be sustained under our existing Constitution if the population crisis became sufficiently compelling to endanger the society. Many consider the situation already serious enough to justify some forms of compulsion. ... A massive campaign must be launched to restore a quality environment in North America and to de-develop the United States.""
—
Zero Population Growth (ZPG) founder Paul Ehrlich, Population, Resources, Environment (1970). Quoted in Brent Bozell. "Environmental Inaccuracy: Who Cares?" Conservative Chronicle, June 17, 1992, page 18.
"Just as we have laws compelling death control, so we must have laws requiring birth control — the purpose being to ensure a zero rate of population increase. We must come to see that it is the duty of the government to protect women against pregnancy as it protects them against job discrimination and smallpox, and for the same reason — the public good. No longer can we tolerate the doctrinaire position that the number of children a couple has is a strictly private decision. ... Such laws would serve not only to defuse the population bomb, but also to protect first-born children against too prolific reproduction by their parents."
—
Edgar Chasteen, author of The Case for Compulsory Birth Control and a board member of Zero Population Growth (ZPG). "The Case for Compulsory Birth Control: The Stork is Not the Bird of Paradise." Mademoiselle Magazine, January 1970.
"CONFIDENTIAL
DEPARTMENT OF POPULATION AND ENVIRONMENT
FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT TO THE PRESIDENT
JANUARY 1, 2000
"The 1999 midyear population of the United States of North America was estimated to be 22.6 million, with a standard error of 3.2 million. ... If present trends continue, the population will cease to decline early in 2001, and a slow rise in population size may be expected to commence thereafter. ... The Division of Optimum Population is expected to recommend next year a program target of a stable population of thirty-two million by 2075. ... The consequences of the release of radioactivity in the 1981 reactor disaster at the Seaborg plant, combined with the overall increase in environmental radioactivity permitted before the Gofman-Tamplin Act of 1976 restricted emissions, are still causing serious repercussions in our population. The leukemia rate is still 740 percent higher than the 1960 base rate, and that of chondrodystopic dwarfism is now 890 percent of base. ... It is encouraging that surviving molecular biologists and human geneticists are now relocated, and that research and training are proceeding as well as can be expected. ... It is clear that lowered population density is a primary factor in preventing a resurgence of Marburgvirus B. Another factor is the recovery of the average diet to 2400 calories per day, and the increase of the high quality protein ration to almost forty grams daily. Famine has been estimated to have been directly or indirectly responsible for sixty-five American deaths in the decade 1980-1989 ... the Great Die-Off has resulted in a population much less weakened by circulatory and respiratory diseases ... Remember that although about 125 million American deaths were attributed to Marburgvirus B during the Great Die-Off, it is clear that as many as sixty million of these would not have occurred if the population had not been weakened by environmental deterioration. ... Small population size, and continued availability of salvageable materials in Los Angeles and other cities which have not been reoccupied, have greatly eased the pressure on our reserves of non-renewable resources. ... Whether or not weather patterns will eventually return to those of the early part of the Twentieth Century cannot be determined at this time.
MAJOR RECOMMENDATIONS
1.
The continuation of present pronatalist policies will be necessary for the foreseeable future. It is important, however, that the public be continually reminded that the fundamental role of this [Population] Department is not to encourage population growth, but to regulate the size of the population for all our citizens. The public should be prepared for the institution of anti-natalist policies whenever conditions require them.
2.
The Congress should immediately ratify the population convention of the United Nations World System Treaty. ...
The [Population] Department urges you to remind our citizens that all of the trends leading to disaster were clear twenty years before the end came, and that we and the rest of mankind did nothing substantive to avert it. As a single example, the vulnerability of the world population to epidemic disease, due to large population size (overcrowding), hunger, and environmental deterioration was repeatedly pointed out by scientists. ... The cost of inaction, apathy, and unwarranted optimism has been the payment of nearly four billion human lives over a fifteen year period — and we are still paying. Mr. President, it is imperative that this generation and those to follow be kept mindful of mankind's recent history."
—
Paul R. Ehrlich, founder of Zero Population Growth (ZPG). "Looking Backward from 2000 A.D." The Progressive, April 1970, pages 23 to 28.
Playboy Magazine: "What is the maximum population the world could support without environmental damage?"
Paul Ehrlich: "It's difficult to determine the ideal population. There probably is no such static figure, but many scientists think the population of the United States could eventually be reduced to well under 50,000,000 and that of the world to an absolute maximum of 500,000,000."
"Our large polluting population is responsible for air pollution that could very easily lead to massive starvation in the United States within the next two decades, perhaps within the next five years, because air pollution changes the weather of the planet. A rapid change in our weather would result in drastically decreased food production, and we have less than a year's reserve of food at the moment for this country alone. ... We may face a water crisis in this country as soon as 1980 because of the heavy demands of industry and agriculture for fresh water. And we seem to be doing our best to make vast amounts of water into something that's been called "too thick to drink and too thin to plow"."
—
Paul Ehrlich, founder of Zero Population Growth (ZPG), in an August 1970 Playboy Magazine interview, reprinted in Population: A Clash of Prophets (Edward Pohlman, editor) [New York City: Mentor Books], 1973, pages 14 and 23.
"Accidental pregnancies beyond the limit would be interrupted by abortion. If a third child were born without a license, or a fourth, the mother would be sterilized and the child given to a sterile couple. But anyone enticed into making such a suggestion risks being ostracized as a political or moral leper, a danger to society. He is accused of wanting to take people's freedom away from them and institute a Draconian dictatorship over private lives. Obviously then reproductive freedom still takes a priority over population control. This makes a solution of the population problem impossible because, by definition, population control and reproductive freedom are incompatible."
—
Kingsley Davis of Zero Population Growth (ZPG). Daedalus, Fall 1973, 28, cited in Herman E. Daly. "The Steady-State Economy: Toward a Political Economy of Biophysical Equilibrium and Moral Growth." In Herman E. Daly [editor]. Economics, Ecology, Ethics: Essays Toward a Steady-State Economy [San Francisco: W.H. Freeman], 1980, page 335.
"Enforced population control need not be feared if people will be voluntarily responsible in their breeding."
—
Official of the San Jose chapter of Zero Population Growth, in a letter to the San Jose Mercury. Quoted in Elizabeth Moore. "Feminism and Population Control Not Compatible, Says Germaine Greer." National Right to Life News, November 23, 1981, pages 8 and 11.
"With its dramatically slowed population growth and a jump in food production, China's recent record far outshines that of other developing nations."
—
Anne H. Ehrlich and Paul R. Ehrlich (founder of Zero Population Growth (ZPG)). "Why Do People Starve?" The Amicus Journal, Spring 1987, page 45.
"[China's coercive population-control program is] remarkably vigorous and effective [and China should be acknowledged] as a leader in a grand experiment in the management of population and natural resources."
—
Zero Population Growth (ZPG) founder Paul Ehrlich. National Geographic Magazine, December 1988, page 922.
"First priority must be given to population control. We deliberately use the term "family planning." Family planning all to often means planning to have too many children, but spacing them more evenly."
—
Paul R. Ehrlich, founder of Zero Population Growth (ZPG) and Anne H. Ehrlich. The Population Explosion [New York City: Simon and Schuster], 1990, page 190.
"In his new book, Stephen Mumford details with meticulous care the demise of a sensible population policy for the U.S., as commissioned by President Nixon and later buried by one political faction after another, since it was opposed by the Vatican and other religious right-wing leaders — of whom politicians seem to be ever afraid. Dr. Mumford has spoken out on overpopulation as a danger to national security for years, and we are now seeing the chaotic anarchy that continued rapid population growth brings. "Political instability is the result of population pressures. So is environmental destruction. For over 20 years Mumford has been a lead scientist in the evaluation of all kinds of medical fertility control, including the quinacrine pellet nonsurgical method of sterilization. The book also shows that in the battle to save the papacy, the Vatican has no qualms about infiltrating U.S. politics, and has done so to purposely erode our democracy. If our political will had not been destroyed by the Catholic hierarchy, and the recommendations of NSSM 200 had been implemented in 1975, the world would be a safer place today."
—
Elaine Stansfield, Director of the group "Save Our Earth" and former Director of Zero Population Growth of Los Angeles, commenting on Stephen Mumford's virulently anti-Catholic on-line book The Life and Death of NSSM 200: How the Destruction of Political Will Doomed a U.S. Population Policy, downloaded from http://www.iti.com/iti/kzpg/ on September 22, 1998 (no longer available). The comment is included in the document.
"This is a thoughtful, well documented book explaining how overpopulation is causing a major world religious institution to self-implode, not interesting or newsworthy?
"In The Life and Death of NSSM 200 Mumford explains how the Vatican has derailed the overpopulation issue and argues that the overpopulation and contraception issues are now causing the Vatican to self-destruct.
"Mumford documents how the Vatican's policy on contraception is in direct conflict with their dogma of 'papal infallibility' which has Catholics morally stuck in an impossible catch-22 situation from which some say there is no escape for the church leadership.
"He presents strong evidence showing how the Vatican leadership has demonstrated, time and again, that they will stop at nothing to save their institution, including tearing down the US democracy, stepping on free speech, committing atrocious human rights abuse. There is even a report of Catholic chaplains providing comfort to military commanders who flung political dissidents out of airplanes at high altitude into the ocean in Argentina.
"Mumford goes so far as to suggest how the ensuing anarchy of overpopulation could actually be in the Vatican's self-interest.
"Is Dr. Mumford off his rocker? Is the overpopulation issue causing the Vatican, a two trillion dollar institution, to implode. And as the Vatican attempts to save itself is it, in turn, trying to force the free world to its knees and back into darkness? ...
"Before starting work on publishing this book on the Internet, I stopped by my public library to check on Mumford's claim about the lack of published criticism of Vatican policies. I spent half an hour searching the InfoTrac periodical data base and found practically no criticism in major magazines. This convinced me that as Mumford suggests, someone such as the Catholic League is suppressing criticism of Vatican policies.
"I leave you with Mumford's book and one short thought: Question infallibility!"
—
Howard Johnson, Editor, The KZPG Overpopulation News Network, in the introduction to Stephen Mumford's virulently anti-Catholic on-line book The Life and Death of NSSM 200: How the Destruction of Political Will Doomed a U.S. Population Policy, downloaded from http://www.iti.com/iti/kzpg/ on September 22, 1998 (no longer available).
"Too few of us are able and even fewer courageous enough to speak out in the face of power as cogently as Dr. Mumford in The Life and Death of NSSM 200. It is not his purpose to attack any religious group, including the Roman Catholic Church. But rather, his book is an assertion of the proud American traditions of democratic decision-making and separation of church and state. Using their own words, Dr. Mumford shows how Vatican loyalists seek to undermine both these dearly held beliefs on which our country is based.
"Contrary to the proscription of the Church hierarchy, American Catholics have overwhelmingly rejected the 1968 Encyclical Humanae Vitae forbidding the use of contraception. However, Presidents and Congressmen have been influenced by the Vatican on this issue."
—
Richard Bowers of Zero Population Growth (ZPG), and Director of the organization Globally Responsible Birthing, favorably commenting on Stephen Mumford's virulently anti-Catholic on-line book The Life and Death of NSSM 200: How the Destruction of Political Will Doomed a U.S. Population Policy, downloaded from http://www.iti.com/iti/kzpg/ on September 22, 1998 (no longer available). The comment is included in the document.
Zirinsky, Susan (CBS)
"How are women on the road different from men? 'They are more meticulous, more organized. More multidimensional,' she [CBS News campaign producer Susan Zirinsky] says. 'And less cynical.' Dan Rather, she insists, is the exception. What makes Rather different? 'Dan's a girl,' she says. 'Dan has the enthusiasm of a girl. There's a girl's soul lurking in him.'"
—
March 23, 1996 TV Guide story on women covering the Presidential campaign.
Zuckerman, Mortimer (U.S. News & World Report)
"Starr's is a shameful story — as shameful as the conduct of almost all television news programs and some of the press. ... Starr's leaks, whose purpose is to condition the public to believe in the President's guilt, are of a piece with other practices that reek of abuse. ... The real spinning is taking place in the graves of our Founding Fathers. When they wrote the First Amendment, they imagined a press corps as a curb on power. They did not anticipate an independent counsel free from checks and balances. They had no role for a chief inquisitor. Nor should we."
—
U.S. News & World Report's Editor-in-Chief Mortimer Zuckerman, in his editorial titled, "Starr Has Hit a New Low," June 29, 1998 issue.
"Life has become so much worse for so many Russians under democratic pseudo capitalism. ... the first market reforms and the erosion of state authority have fostered a brutal cowboy capitalism. It is manifest in the emergence of a lavish lifestyle among a flamboyant and vulgar new class of businessmen, made up mostly of speculators, traders and outright criminals, all of whom are stealing the country blind. ... No freedom from fear and no freedom from want: Small wonder many Russians feel nostalgic for the days when there was bread and law and order."
—
U.S. News and World Report's Editor-in-Chief Mortimer Zuckerman, March 7, 1994.
For the Table of Contents for HLI's Anti-Life Quote Archive, click here.
