#policy

It’s hard not to empathize with the mayor’s anger, given the injustices he’d suffered, but righteous anger rarely leads to wise policy. ↗

— Edward L. Glaeser

#coleman-young #detroit #injustice #policy #wisdom

Traffic is about drugs. As detailed a portrait as I can muster about what is happening in the drug world, from top to bottom, from policy to how things move on the street. ↗

— Steven Soderbergh

#bottom #detailed #happening #how #i

The accession of not one but three illegal drug users in a row to the US presidency constitutes an existential challenge to the prohibitionist regime. The fact that some of the most successful people of our time, be it in business, finances, politics, entertainment or the arts, are current or former substance users is a fundamental refutation of its premises and a stinging rebuttal of its rationale. A criminal law that is broken at least once by 50% of the adult population and that is broken on a regular basis by 20% of the same adult population is a broken law, a fatally flawed law. How can a democratic government justify a law that is consistently broken by a substantial minority of the population? What we are witnessing here is a massive case of civil disobedience not seen since alcohol prohibition in the 1930 in the US. On what basis can a democratic system justify the stigmatization and discrimination of a strong minority of as much as 20% of its population? ↗

— Jeffrey Dhywood

#bill-clinton #drug-policy-reform #g-w-bush #prohibitionism #war-on-drugs

We have to abandon the conceit that isolated personal actions are going to solve this crisis. Our policies have to shift. ↗

— Al Gore

#change #collaboration #community #policy #shift

Crime is only the worst example, but it is a paradigm for other Labour policy disasters. No one tells the voters that crime is falling: let them stay scared senseless. ↗

— Polly Toynbee

#disasters #example #falling #labour #only

We must pass a national energy policy to continue our successes in the War on Terrorism. ↗

— Zack Wamp

#energy #energy policy #must #national #our

All those who prefer peace to power, and happiness to glory should thank the colonized people for their civilizing mission. By liberating themselves, they made Europeans more modest, less racist, and more human. Let us hope that the process continues and that the Americans are obliged to follow the same course. When one’s own cause is unjust, defeat can be liberating. ↗

— Jean Bricmont

#foreign-policy #france #human-rights #iraq #kosovo-wa

Additionally, borrowing a page from U.S. foreign policy, I decided to send a message to a government that was becoming increasingly hostile. ↗

— Timothy McVeigh

#becoming #borrowing #decided #foreign #foreign policy

I have learned as much in the last three years as in any other comparable period of my life, but with an added realisation of how little over a half century of study one has in fact managed to learn of the whole range of economic policy issues. ↗

— James Meade

#any #century #comparable #economic #economic policy

In every society in human history, including the United States, those in power seek to imbue themselves with the attributes of religion and patriotism as a way of getting greater support for their policy and insulating themselves from any criticism. ↗

— George J. Mitchell

#attributes #criticism #every #getting #greater