VANOC vs. Freedom of Speech = VANOC Wins

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. It’s like I have a real staff or something.

Let me explain.

Pirates of the HD: The Pirate Bay Still Sailing

So I’ve wanted to write about this for a while, but as some of you have pointed out, my research skills have been somewhat less than “mad” recently, owing to a distinct lack of passion on my part. On that note, let me be the first to apologize for my spotty update schedule of late – I’ve been embroiled in some silliness recently that is on its way out the door as of now, so you can expect a return to the high standards of cynicism you’ve come to expect from old Uncle Alex.

Ten Things I Hate About Everything (Guest Blog!)

New State of Affairs is coming down the tubes for later today, my good friends and readers, but in the meantime Jeff Oh over at Keep Your Coins, I Want Change decided he’s had enough of my sporadic update schedule and has taken it upon himself to remedy the situation.  So without further ado, I give you this month’s installment of the SoA Guest Blog, courtesy of the mighty Jeff.

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Vampires: Sucking More Than Blood For Over Ten Years

All right. Typically I try not to call attention to media frenzies for a couple of reasons. First, they’re usually not worth my time to report, because all I’ll do is tear it to pieces and that kind of vitriol, I’m told, gets old – fast. Second, I don’t want to give even more attention to an issue I don’t feel warrants it to begin with. And third, nobody is going to accuse this blog of jumping on anybody’s bandwagon for the sake of page views while I’m in charge.

Christmas Cheer, Or Not: A Special SoA Holiday Message

Welcome back to State of Affairs. For those of you who are regular followers of the blog, you will be pleased to hear I’ve got some big, big SoA news to announce very soon, but it’s taking a lot of work on my part, so my update schedule is going to stay a bit off-kilter for a while. In the meantime, I’m working on a mega-post for tomorrow that won’t be done by day’s end, so I thought I’d treat you to a little something from the archives. I wrote this piece exactly two years ago today, and it’s just as relevant now as it was then. So without further ado, take a little trip with Uncle Alex, the Ghost of Bitching Past.

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Pervert Hackers: New Computer Virus Downloads Child Porn To Unsuspecting Users

My friends, the internet is a pretty wild place. I should know; most of my waking hours are spent online, jacked in, cyber-surfing the Information Superhighway. Now how’s that for Every 90s Internet Cliche in one sentence?

Post-Traumatic Stress Debacle: VA Calls PTSD “Fabrication”

For those of you looking for a standard Alex James laugh-a-minute post, you may want to move on, because I’ve got some serious things to say today.

When you write a blog with the frequency I do, you start to get a feel for the way things work online: what will garner viewers, what kind of writing style suits your readership, and so on. One of the most important lessons I’ve learned in my work for State of Affairs is the difference between hype and substance. Yes, I’ll often cover major news events (the Obama Peace Prize debacle being probably the largest and most recent), but I’m not doing it to watch my little WordPress graph climb. I like to think I bring a certain amount of integrity to my subject matter; I’m not just posting for the sake of suckering people in with sensational headlines.

Veteran’s Day

Sometimes I try very hard to forget one serious fact- I’m American.  Even though my home base is in Toronto, smashing whiskey bottles over the head of the almost always haggard Alex, I was born in Philadelphia.  I travel a lot, and usually tell foreigners that I’m Canadian.  It saves a lot of hassle, and possible beheadings.  Today though, is the one day where I can really say I’m proud to be American.  Some of my buddies north of the border might want to puke at that fact I’m saying this, but you know what, FUCK YOU.  USA-A-OK.  Fuck yeah.

Only in America.

TTC, The Costly Way: Fare Hike Expected for 2010

You know something? I’ve lived in this fair city on and off for the last twenty-five years, and let me tell you what – I love it. I love every inch of it from the Beaches to Chinatown to the Lakeshore to North York where I grew up. I’ve been to a lot of places in my life, and as cliche as it sounds, there’s just no place like Toronto. Best city in the world, if you ask me.

However.

Living Without Money: Self-Sustainability in Britain

One of the fundamental criticisms of my generation is that we don’t understand the value of money, and I suppose that’s probably a fair statement. All around me I see my contemporaries leaping gleefully onto each and every techno-gadget bandwagon that trundles by our metaphorical front doors; regardless of price, they must own the latest iWhatever, the high-end computer, the chic fashion.

But it’s not really their fault.