How bad (or good) is vaping? And the folks arming for election day.
“We may well have missed, or are missing, the greatest opportunity in a century. The unintended consequence is more lives are going to be lost.” That’s a senior scientist of an anti-smoking group joining a chorus of policy-makers and health advocates who are arguing that the “relentless portrayal of e-cigarettes as a public health menace, however well intentioned, is a profound disservice to the 40 million American smokers who could benefit from the devices.” Is vaping just another tool to enable young people to turn an oral fixation into a lifelong health problem? Or is it the closest we’ve come to developing a way to extend the lives of people who smoke cigarettes, while making it less likely teens will start smoking them in the first place? The feds say it’s too soon to tell, while e-cig proponents say we’re wasting precious time. From the NYT: E-Cigarettes Can’t Shake Their Reputation as a Menace. (When I was young, a lot of kids started smoking because they thought it made them look cool. At least vaping removes that incentive.)
+ Missouri has a tobacco tax on its ballot. And get this: Cigarette companies are urging voters to adopt the tax, while health advocates are against it.
No Justice, No Shalom
“In March, Sgt. Elor Azaria fired a single bullet at close range into the skull of a Palestinian assailant as he lay wounded, sprawled on his back, on a street in Hebron in the West Bank minutes after lunging at soldiers with a knife … this is not in dispute because the shooting was caught on video.” The facts of the case are not in dispute. But the ethics are. WaPo with an interesting look at the military trial that’s tearing Israel apart.
Fringe Worthy
“Prior to this campaign season, these ideas were relegated to sort of the political fringe of the American political landscape. Now these ideas are legitimized.” From Reuters: U.S. militia girds for trouble as presidential election nears. So the bad news is that, depending on Tuesday’s results, we might have an armed insurrection. The good news is that at least this election will finally be over. Let’s call it a wash.
+ Politico: White nationalists plot Election Day show of force.
Assad Song Says So Much
Bashar al-Assad is not only still alive, he’s still in power in Syria. And he recently held a press conference of sorts, where The New Yorker’s Dexter Filkins heard a familiar theme. “Assad expressed a frustration sometimes heard in extreme partisan circles in the United States — that it is impossible to get a fair hearing in the established media. The Western press, he said, publishes countless stories on his regime, while ignoring the crimes of the rebels.”
+ Many parts of Syria are in ruins, and hundreds of thousands of people have been killed. But some Syrian refugees are now paying smugglers to take them back
Waxing on Brazile
Donna Brazile, interim chair of the Democratic National Committee, was dropped from CNN after the network learned (via Wikileaks) that she had shared a potential debate question with the Clinton team. That gave Jack Shafer an opportunity to drop this knowledge on you: “Her deceit reveals an ugly aspect of news talk that will probably go unremedied as Brazile is tarred and feathered by the ethics cops: That is, the whole show-business concept that places paid partisan yakkers on television is corrupt and venal and deserves burial in a shallow grave.” I agree with all of that (except the shallow part).
+ NYT: A Union of Politics and News Ends With Both Contaminated.
Semper Fit
“The sores from chafing are so bad you will think nothing of tugging open your shorts and squirting in ointment in full view of strangers. There is no modesty here; they seem to understand. Actually, no. They don’t really understand. They are not competing in this race. And nobody not competing in this race understands.” The NYT’s Randal C. Archibold takes you to the Quintuple Anvil Triathlon — five Ironman-length races in five days — where the key question is: How much suffering can you take? (That seems like a good segue into the latest election news.)
Teflon Don
According to the latest tracking poll from ABC and WaPo, the presidential race is close to tied and Trump has opened up an 8-point edge when it comes to the candidate voters find more honest and trustworthy. (I’ll pause for a second so you can clean the spit-take off of your screen before we move onto the next item.)
+ NPR: How to win the presidency with 23 percent of the popular vote.
A Deserted Aisle
“But this story reflects two universal truths about culture. First, many cultural changes for which Millennials are initially blamed really reflect broader trends affecting even the oldest consumers. Second, many cultural changes are really reversions to old norms.” Derek Thompson tries to unpack why Millennials hate grocery stores. (Or why shopping in grocery stores has never been better.)
+ Some startups are trying to offer nutritional advice based on your DNA. But scientists aren’t all that sure we’ve advanced to the point where personalized nutrition can solve our problems.
+ And GQ with a proclamation that for some will seem like sacrilege: Ranch is good on some things, not so much on other things.
Put Down the Folding Chair
“After four years of litigation funded by a billionaire with a grudge going back even further, a settlement has been reached. The saga is over.” So said Nick Bilton as “what’s left of Gawker Media has settled its long-running legal feud with Hulk Hogan for a reported $31 million.” (This makes Hulk Hogan 1-0 in real fights.)
Bottom of the News
From Vanity Fair: How Jon Stewart Took Over The Daily Show and Revolutionized Late-Night TV: An Oral History.
+ The Telegraph: Half of Heathrow’s 25,000 noise complaints were made by the same 10 people. (These folks are gonna love Twitter.)
