Snowden vs. The World

Heroic whistle-blower to some, anti-american espionage agent to others; Edward Snowden raised a lot of controversy when he leaked confidential information about questionable government activity to the public.
     
     I don't however, believe we should focus entirely on prosecuting Snowden in this scandal, the second guilty agent is our own governments.  So far as I understand, Snowden exposed that the government was gathering data about phone communications, such as when certain calls were placed and from what numbers.
     
     This breach of privacy I don't believe is very severe when compared to the wiretaps during the Busch administration, or even when compared to the unregulated intake of information our government currently has access to in our online communications.  I believe there's no reason the government shouldn't be able to monitor phone calls, especially if that is essential to stopping acts of terrorism or protecting citizens.
       
      But there's a key difference between the government's access to our online interactions and their access to our phone records.  We had no knowledge that they could access our phone knowledge.  This, as far as I am concerned, is the actual crime.  I don't understand why it was necessary for the government to try and hide this function of their espionage service, other than protecting the president's public image of course, but by keeping their phone-record surveillance a secret, they turned it from a form of protecting the American people into a secret weapon that could 'potentially' be used against us.
   
      I believe Snowden deserves a meddle for exposing this furtiveness.

After all, we are a democratic nation, so how can we decide when to sacrifice privacy for protection when the majority of us aren't privy to the sacrifice.         
       

Teenage Alcohol Consumption

I'd like to start by saying that I don't believe prohibition is an option.  Alcohol is a fundamental part of our culture, and trying to take it away from people will only cause trouble (just look at the twenties).  Sex and alcohol were the reason humans settled down and developed civilization in the first place, so what kind of sad society would we be living in where those two things weren't readily available.
       Now obviously, there are problems with alcohol, such as drunk driving, the addictive effect it has on certain victims, and excessive teenage consumption.  The reason teenagers are so good at drinking and so bad at stopping (as demonstrated in recent movies like Project X, and TV shows such as Skins), is  because during the vulnerable stage of their life when they are learning how to drink moderately, instead of having guidance they are forced to indulge in secrecy.  They have no mature adults present to suggest when they've had too much.
     Of course, there's a good reason that it's illegal for youth to purchase or possess alcohol.  Until the brain is fully formed I don't doubt that there's a large risk poised by alcohol (although this didn't stop Victorian children from drinking beer three meals a day).  But is the excessive age limit of 21 really a wise decision?  In many countries alcohol is legal to citizens at the age of 18, but only mild alcohols such as beer and wine.  That way they have time to learn moderation before they are introduced to stronger concoctions.
      Anyway, this was a rather neat article I found about global age limits for drinking.      

 http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/LegalDrinkingAge.html