Don't Bogart My Blog: Sunday Best: Humans’ deadliest predator is closer than you think

Sunday, July 28, 2019

Sunday Best: Humans’ deadliest predator is closer than you think

Think sharks and snakes are scary? This predator kills an average of two million people a year.

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Sunday, July 28, 2019

NYTimes.com/Opinion »

Did you tune into Robert Mueller's congressional hearings this week? If not, don't worry, you didn't miss much. "The result was the political equivalent of a movie that makes you want to avoid reading the book," writes columnist Gail Collins. While there was a lot the former special counsel didn't tell us, "his plain-spoken answers illuminated for Congress — and millions of Americans watching at home — the case against the president," says Noah Bookbinder. So, now what's Democratic leadership to do? Columnist Charles M. Blow thinks that "our political establishment has a moral duty to chastise this president for his corrupt and criminal behavior, even if it doesn't lead to his removal." — Alexandra March

The Deadliest Hunter of Human Beings on the Planet

Armando Veve

By TIMOTHY C. WINEGARD

Humans kill around 475,000 people a year, but the mosquito killed nearly double that last year — and that was a good year.

Pay or Die

People lined up for taxis in Suyapa. Victor J. Blue for The New York Times

By SONIA NAZARIO

$23 million. That's an approximation of how much owners of buses, taxis and motorcycle taxis in Honduras pay in a "war tax" to gangs annually. If they don't pay, they risk being "shot, strangled, cuffed to the steering wheel and burned alive while their buses are torched."

One Lesson From Politicians? Never Apologize.

Javier Jaén

By CASS R. SUNSTEIN

Evidence shows apologies actually rarely help you — they can even hurt you. Why? "An apology is like a confession. It makes wrongdoing more salient."

It's Not *Only* A Chemical Imbalance.

Leigh Wells

By KELLI MARÍA KORDUCKI

"I fantasize about a future in which mental illness is understood less in terms of static diagnoses and psycho-pharmaceutical fill-gaps than each individual's symptoms and the circumstances that might inform them."

There's Good Porn, And Then There's Bad Porn

Illustration by Nicolas Ortega; Photographs by Dwight Eschliman, Image Source, and nitrub, via Getty Images

By C. THI NGUYEN AND BEKKA WILLIAMS

There may be no harm in scrolling through Instagram ogling food porn or browsing Zillow in search of real-estate porn — but things could get risky when you dive into moral outrage porn.