"Prison as a deterrent does not work. If it did, America would be the safest country on earth"

--- The Economist, in a story "Cleaning up the ’hood" about focusing on drug markets rather than users, 3 March 2012.

Quote in context:

Traditional drugs policing targets both users and dealers. This poses three main problems. First, low-level dealers are eminently replaceable: arrest two and another two will quickly take their places, with little if any interruption to sales. Second, it tends to promote antagonism between the police and the mostly poor communities where drug markets are found. Arrests can seem random: only one in every 15,000 cocaine transactions, for instance, results in prison time, but those other 14,999 sales are just as illegal as that one. In some neighbourhoods, prison is the norm, or at least common, for young men. Police come to be seen as people who take sons, brothers and fathers away while the neighbourhood remains unchanged. Third, prison as a deterrent does not work. If it did, America would be the safest country on earth.

"All democracies tend to steal from the unborn since they can't vote"

--- Roger Scruton, in an interview in New Scientist on the occasion of the publication of his new book, Green Philosophy, 7 January 2012

Quote in context:

What role should the state play in [lessening our impact on the planet]?

This is one issue we all worry about, regardless of ideology. Wisely, the American founding fathers held that state powers should be conferred and limited by the people: that is what the Constitution was for. However, even in the US, we now see the state stealing future assets to finance current profligacy. All democracies tend to steal from the unborn since they can't vote. But families and small associations can look to the past and future - and the unborn have a voice. The state should return power to small groups so problems land in the lap of those with a motive to solve them.

"Always true to the truth, no matter what, But never scornful of those who have to lie."

--- C.P. Cavafy, lines in Thermopylae, transl. David Ferry, in Poetry Magazine, vol. 1999, no. 4 (January 2012), p. 292

From the poem (second of three stanzas):

Compassionate, available to pity;

Generous if they’re rich, but generous too,

Doing whatever they can, if they are poor;

Always true to the truth, no matter what,

But never scornful of those who have to lie.

 From some other translations:

George Barbanis: "always speaking the truth, yet without hatred for those who lie."

Edmund Keeley/Philip Sherrard: "always speaking the truth, yet without hating those who lie."

John Cavafy: "speaking the truth despite all hindrances, without ill-will, however, for the liars."

poemhunter.com: "always speaking the truth, but without rancor for those who lie."

"... to provide intellectual cover for a self-interested policy. (That is the mark of what diplomats call “good principles”.)"

--- The Economist's Banyan columnist, in "Having it both ways: Iran and the gap between theory and practice in Chinese foreign policy", Jan 28th 2012

In context:

China’s stance over Iran, however, is far from clear-cut. It finds itself in a pivotal but acutely uncomfortable position. The simplistic old platitudes in which its foreign policy is couched cannot do justice to the complexity of the calculations it has to make. Most of its foreign-policy principles, says Minxin Pei of Claremont McKenna College in California, are “either obsolete or under pressure”, and Iran is an example of their irrelevance.

They do seem nevertheless to provide intellectual cover for a self-interested policy. (That is the mark of what diplomats call “good principles”.) “Energy security” has long been a priority for Chinese diplomacy. It has underpinned its friendships with other regimes excoriated in the West: pre-division Sudan, for example, or Myanmar’s junta before it donned civilian clothing and gave charm a chance. In Iran, China has longstanding commercial relationships and an important—and cheap—energy supplier. Naturally it wants to avoid antagonising a reliable old friend.

"Puzzles are the gateway drug of the world of mathematics"

--- Matt Parker, opening line of his review of The Puzzler's Dilemma by Derrick Niederman, New Scientist, 25 February 2012

In context:

Puzzles are the gateway drug of the world of mathematics, enjoyed by recreational users and hardcore mathematicians alike. And there is never a shortage of them, from sudoku in newspapers to mind-bending brain-teasers you can find online.

A constant stream of puzzle books is part of this trend. Most of them are just collections of discrete puzzles in a reference-book style, but every now and then someone feels the need to treat the puzzle book like a novel. In creating a narrative they aim to make their book readable in a continuous flow. In The Puzzler's Dilemma, Derrick Niederman has taken on this challenge.