Author / Alex Tolkin
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Fishing for trouble
BY ALEX TOLKIN Fishing is often associated with leisurely activities shared by grandparents and grandchildren at a lake, but in reality, it has become a primarily commercial enterprise. According to thecoastalside.com, this commercialization has put the world’s fishing stocks at risk, creating a significant challenge for those responsible for regulating the industry and ensuring that…
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The State of the Union: Political Maneuvering with Little Policy Substance
BY ALEX TOLKIN The president’s State of the Union address was once a dry written report on the current challenges facing the nation and his plans to address those challenges. Now, however, the State of the Union has become a political pageant in which the president attempts to use his influence to sway Congress to…
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Don’t Politicize a Tragedy — Yet
Yesterday, there was yet another horrific school shooting, this time at an elementary school in Conneticut. The fact that I can describe the shooting as yet another in a long line of shootings is appalling. Proponents of increased gun control are understandably furious that assault weapons are for sale and can be used to slaughter…
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Some People are Very Confused
The 2012 election may be remembered as the election of the polls. Contemporary media coverage requires constant, 24-hour stories to entertain the public. However, often there are no entertaining campaign stories on a given day. Oh boy, Obama and Romney both held extremely conventional rallies in Ohio. Thrilling. Polls, on the other hand, are released…
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How Republicans cost Romney the Election
Barack Obama has been racking up interesting endorsements as the election draws to a close. New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, a Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-Independent cited global warming as his motivation for endorsing the president. Chris Christie, the Republican governor of New Jersey and strong Romney supporter praised Obama extensively for the president’s response to Hurricane Sandy. Yet…
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Reddit, Gawker, and the new rules of online free speech
For all of you who do not religiously follow inane online drama, the past week has been an absolute soap opera on two of the web’s most popular websites. Reddit is a tremendously popular content aggregator where users vote on what content they find most interesting. Gawker is part of a popular family of news…
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The Shire’s debate non-live blog
Edit – instant polls (for what they’re worth) concur with my assessment that Obama won significantly. That said, this debate probably matters little since people don’t care about foreign policy this election and it was the last debate anyway. As before, I’m going to offer general comments on the debate rather than a blow-by-blow question-by-question…
