‘Why the world still can’t agree about alcohol’
Tim Brinkhof at Time
De-normalizing “alcohol consumption seems like a logical next step after cracking down on smoking,” says Tim Brinkhof. But as “societies everywhere ramp up efforts to discourage drinking, a bigger, more difficult question arises. Are the increasingly thorough measures we take to protect our health worth what we give up?” This “dilemma is arguably more apparent with alcohol than with tobacco.” Alcohol is “used to honor, celebrate, and connect,” and these traditions are worth considering and preserving.”
‘Smoky skies? Throw shade at the fossil fuel industry.’
Breena Holland at The Philadelphia Inquirer
The recent “air quality is brought to you by the fossil fuel industry,” says Breena Holland. To “quibble about how much of the Canadian fires are due to human-caused climate change as opposed to poor forest management or normal climatic changes is to not see the fire for the trees.” The “fossil fuel industry has created human-made climate change, and it has won the war against it.” Rather than “prioritize planet over profit, it chose to ‘manufacture uncertainty.’”
‘Shooting by GEO Group employee adds to argument for congressional oversight’
Ja’han Jones at MS NOW
It’s “past time to place private prison firm GEO Group under a microscope,” says Ja’han Jones. The company “added to a growing list of controversies on Wednesday when one of its employees was charged with assault for allegedly shooting a woman in the foot while she was protesting.” The “relationship between the administration and for-profit prison firms, especially GEO Group, already warranted congressional scrutiny,” and the “shooting of a demonstrator by a GEO Group employee proves this scrutiny is urgently needed.”
‘What will you regret? Studying sabbaticals taught me a hard truth.’
DJ DiDonna at The Washington Post
People who take sabbaticals “universally describe their time off in superlatives: as a peak life experience on par in importance with the birth of a child,” says DJ DiDonna. Given the “extended nature of their time off — a proper sabbatical is ideally between three and nine months — there’s ample time to check items off a bucket list.” But the “most transformative sabbaticals included periods of work-like experimentation during which people try out different ways to live their lives.”