pierre tristam

Barbecuing Bing’s

Pierre Tristam | November 30, 2018

With even Captain’s BBQ owners willing to get “back to the drawing board,” there’s plenty of room for Flagler government to fix what remains a dirty deal that hurts all sides.

The Death of WNZF’s Ron Charles, Friend and Colleague, at 56

FlaglerLive | November 7, 2018

Ron ‘Charles’ Gitschier, 56, built Flagler County’s first radio station WNZF as its chief engineer for the past 10 years, was its news director and a man of rare integrity and humility.

Restoring Felons’ Right to Vote:
Why I’m Voting Yes on Amendment 4

FlaglerLive | November 2, 2018

In 46 other states, the right is restored either immediately or on completion of probation. Florida stands out for harshness, accounting for a quarter of America’s disenfranchised.

Trump can’t have it both ways. He can’t revel in his powers of denigration and incitement then take cover behind a bogus sense of outrage and his usual deflections when the incitement and denigration arm fuses and kill people.

News-Journal Redemption: Krys Fluker Is Paper’s New Editorial Page Editor

FlaglerLive | October 17, 2018

Krys Fluker has just been named editorial page editor of the Daytona Beach News-Journal. FlaglerLive Editor Pierre Tristam cheers the appointment of his old colleague.

Palm Coast’s Shocking Electric Tax Scheme

FlaglerLive | October 15, 2018

Out of nowhere the Palm Coast City Council is about to ram through a large tax increase on residents and businesses with hardly any discussion, no hearings, no public education. No wonder we have tea parties.

Saint Kavanaugh

Pierre Tristam | October 4, 2018

Whether Kavanaugh was confirmed or not is irrelevant: whoever’s next might be less personally sleazy, more temperamentally amoebic, but judicially? Same shill, different name.

Without Fear Or Favor. Or Whining.

FlaglerLive | August 26, 2018

Defending the press against Donald Trump’s “enemy of the people” attacks may have its place, but reporters’ best bet is to shut up and do their job well: it’s the most eloquent response.

Schools Are Safer Than Your Home

Pierre Tristam | August 13, 2018

We’re making fortresses of the safest places in America, out of fear that one of those 120,000 schools might at some point be the target of a shooting.

America’s Pre-Existing Condition

Pierre Tristam | August 3, 2018

Florida is among the states suing to end the requirement that people with pre-existing conditions be covered by insurers. It’s the latest cynical attempt to end Obamacare.

Truth Derangement Syndrome

Pierre Tristam | July 20, 2018

Donald Trump once said he could shoot someone and not lose any votes. He’s right in the sense that he changed the rules of right and wrong, truth and lies, morality and immorality.

Cruel and Usual Trump

FlaglerLive | June 17, 2018

The Trump-Sessions zero-tolerance policy of separating children from their parents at the border has no precedent except in America’s slavery times.

Pious Homophobes Win One

FlaglerLive | June 10, 2018

The Supreme Court in its wedding-cake ruling declared gays once again second-class citizens, at least when their sexuality has to compete with someone else’s more stone-throwing version of Christianity.

“AATITLE” (19XX)

FlaglerLive | May 25, 2018

“TITLE” (19XX) Reading John Updike’s Complete Stories (Click to order) This series is a re-reading of John Updike’s short stories in the wake of the publication of “The Collected Early Stories” and “The Collected Later Stories,” the twin-volume set by the Library of America (2013), edited by Christopher Carduff. Updike wrote some 230 stories in […]

Israel’s Mass Shootings

FlaglerLive | May 20, 2018

You can always depend on Israel periodically to mass-murder bunches of Arabs in proportions as lopsided and unforgiving as our own mass shootings in the U.S., then scapegoat the bloodletting.

Compromise Over School Deputies in Flagler, But Look Beyond False Security of “Hardening”

FlaglerLive | May 3, 2018

There’s an effective way to end the stalemate between the Flagler Sheriff and the school board over deputies in schools without breaking the bank or compromising security.

Flagler School Board Wants To Snoop on Students’ Social Media, And Maybe Yours. Wrong Move.

FlaglerLive | April 16, 2018

The School Board is set to contract with Social Sentinel, a company that will troll social media accounts across Flagler for $18,500 and issue “alerts” to select officials. It’s an inappropriate move down a slippery slope.

Trump’s Census Whitewash

FlaglerLive | April 1, 2018

The Trump administration’s decision to include a question on the census about citizenship is intended to under-count immigrants and skew numbers to favor whiter voting districts.

Are Drug Addicts Less Valuable Than Students? Florida Says Yes, Wrongly.

FlaglerLive | March 18, 2018

Politically there may be a big difference between students’ safety and drug addicts. Ethically, there is none, and financially, addicts are being lethally short-changed.

Thoughts and Prayers, As Pointless as Outrage

Pierre Tristam | February 16, 2018

The ultimate, most pointless outrage is at lawmakers and gun freaks, one and the same, who stand in pools of blood as they tell us our gun epidemic has nothing to do with it.

Military Inferiority Complex:
Dear Leader Wants A Parade

Pierre Tristam | February 9, 2018

The military doesn’t need parades. It needs to come home. Worshipping it in time of endlessly losing wars only locks and loads more cannon fodder.

To Keep America Great, Legalize All Undocumented Immigrants

FlaglerLive | January 28, 2018

We have a choice: Keep our economy vibrant and enviable or demolish it by expelling and demonizing undocumented immigrants, as short-sighted nations have done in the false name of “purity” over the years.

Reporting on Public Figures’ Extra-Curricular Sex

Pierre Tristam | January 13, 2018

Married or not, public figures’ affairs are nobody’s business as long as the acts are legal, consensual, off the clock and virally contained. But there are exceptions.

Thank You for Record 7.6 Million Visits to FlaglerLive in 2017: A Review of a Disordered Year

FlaglerLive | January 1, 2018

FlaglerLive Editor Pierre Tristam reviews a year of record murders, record fatalities, disappointments in Palm Coast, but a sheriff’s great year, and new readership records for the site.

Alabama Saves The Day. But Not Much Else.

FlaglerLive | December 13, 2017

If what it takes for Democrats to win is a Republican pedophiliac predator and compulsive lawbreaker, their victory in Alabama Tuesday helps the GOP more than it does Democrats.

“We Don’t Serve Gays”

FlaglerLive | December 9, 2017

Invoking Christian belief to deny service to a gay couple is not a First Amendment right, nor is it a matter of artistic expression. It’s good old discrimination under a new mask.

Notes From Underground

FlaglerLive | December 4, 2017

In Afghanistan, there may be up to 1,000 children in prison with a parent–not because they committed a crime, but because Afghan law permits their imprisonment with a criminal parent until the children turn 18.

Scott’s Arab-Baiting Over Jerusalem

FlaglerLive | December 3, 2017

Continuing to prepare for his Senate run, Gov. Rick Scott’s Jerusalem ploy is demeaning Palestinians in the occupied lands to appeal to Jews in South Florida. He learned the trick at Trump’s knee.

Fantasyland and the Liberal Delusion

FlaglerLive | October 29, 2017

Liberals’s hopes that the likes of Jeff Flake or Bob Corker in any way speak for today’s vanilla-white GOP is a refusal to concede that the Age of Trump is here to stay.

Flagler’s Beach ‘Renourishment’ Is Exorbitant Futility