Movie Review
Shawshank Redemption
Second-best movie of 1994? __ 10/10

There've been several good and powerful prison films over time, including Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke, Robert Redford in Brubaker, Steve McQueen in Papillon, Clint Eastwood in Escape from Alcatraz, and many more before and since. Many of them are based on true stories, and those that aren't are based on true experience.

When you get right down to it, what is "prison" in modern industrial societies, except the extremity of state power. Indeed, if one looks at the state as as a person, prison is its apotheosis, its glorious ideal. The state likes nothing better than to reduce all of humankind to a regimented, Big Brother existence... where you must get permission to tie your shoes, eat your meals, or take a whiz... [Full Review]

Column
The Good Ol' Bars
Whither gentlemen's pubs in Motor City 'burbs?
By Brian Wright and John Worster

Wound up checking out a place on Novi Road just north of 10 Mile. What a dive! Younger. Loud. Sports stuff and ultimate fighting on the TVs. The barmaids, all triple-D cup size, spoke in monosyllables... if you got their attention. No point in a quiet martini there. No badinage. I miss the manners and class, reasonable friendly conversation, and yes, even the cigarettes... shaken not stirred. And I am so sick of friggin' TVs in bars.
[full column]

Book Review
Hannah's Revenge
The true story of the nightmarish journey of Hannah Dustin
by Juanita Carey

"The year was 1697. The war, now referred to as the French and Indian War[1], had been grinding on for many years. Both sides were weary but stubborn. The Indians' tactics of surprise raids and kidnappings had become so successful that every white family in New England had learned to live in dread of them. Survivors, who had been ransomed by their families and returned home, had written about the horrible brutality of the raids and the miseries of the journey north, a forced march of weeks in all kinds of weather with little food or shelter... " [Full Review]

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Special Column
9/11 Truth Urgency
Must call out the Naked Emperor real soon

The barbarians are not only at the gate, they're a-fixin' to kill our women and rape our buffalo. Fortunately, we have a magic button—9/11 Truth—that pushing will turn the tables immediately. Not only will awareness of the truth about the attacks themselves avalanche within the general population, the broader awareness of the 'coordinated hostile intent' of this hidden cabal of rich, powerful psychopathic men will give the people an immediate edge in imminently and decisively ending the Oligarchy's reign of terror indefinitely. Here are a few immediate benefits: ... [more]

Special Column
SNaP II: The Book
Second Edition: "Mantra for a Nourishing Planet"

It's here and it's right. The completion of this second-first edition of the SNaP book is a total thrill. It feels like being the engineer and/or stoking the firebox on a majestic old train locomotive on its maiden run. Or, in modern terms, writing some computer code to enable SpaceShipOne[1] to accomplish its mission. I’m so proud and fortunate to be a part of the freedom movement, and I hope my book provides substantial fuel and ideas for everyone pro-free or thinking of being so.... [more]

Please also check out my revised Don't Throw Mama off the Turnpike booklet, which now contains four road stories:

1. Don't Throw Mama off the Turnpike
2. Defeat of the Original Free State Smoking Ban in 2006
3. Ron Paul Libertarian Party Convention of 1987
4. Detroit Woodward Dream Cruise #15

Latest Book Reviews

Hannah's Revenge, by Juanita Carey

Well, if you have an hour or so—Hannah's Revenge is only 31 pages long, double-spaced, with large font—take a journey down the English colonial paths and streams of yesteryear. As indicated in the opening quotation from page one, settlers in more remote areas had to constantly be concerned with Indian raids and kidnappings, where the victims would wind up as slaves and breeders for the Indians or for French interests. Ms. Dunston, having only six days previously given birth to her 12th child, was brutally taken from her home—along with Hannah's newborn baby and a neighbor woman, Mary Neff—and force-marched northward.... [more]

Carved in Granite II, Several
America: the Book, Jon Stewart
Technopoly, Neil Postman

A little change for the last week before the new year, catching up on some reading. First a 2d anthology of short stories by New Hampshire authors, fine seasonal fun. Come in from the cold, pull up an easy chair, and kick back for lotsa good reads in Carved in Granite, v2. For a daily laugh, or a dash of subtle and sophisticated satire, pick up the Daily Show's Jon Stewart's America (the Book): A citizen's guide to democracy inaction. Finally, for some deep thinking on how to preserve culture over runaway and runoverya technology, read Neil Postman's Technopoly .... [more]

Special "Take Action" Column:
Pete Hendrickson and Standing Up for the Law, Part 1
by Brian Wright

Pete's situation and what it represents for Americans is a microcosm of Will Kane's (Gary Cooper's) search for deputies to face down the criminals coming into town. There are some of us now, but it sure won't hurt if all my righteous Beanies educate themselves about the federal "income" tax and stop writing checks to the federal aggressor-class that they are not obligated to pay. Further, you are entitled to full refunds for what you have had wrongfully deducted or have paid in the past (up to three years back).
[full review]

Guest Column
Constitutional Crisis:
Where liberty lives and dies
by Tim O'Brien

The coming showdown between the United States of America and the State of Arizona over the jurisdiction and authority of each with respect to enforcement of immigration law actually signifies not one but two kinds of constitutional crises. The more obvious of these is over the governing document of our republic. Specifically, the meaning and implications of the 10th and 14th Amendments. The more subtle, though profound crisis, however, is over the constitution of the American people themselves. [more]

Guest Column
2K10 Independence-Day Message
Reclaim liberty by ending "Fraud of Fed" now
by Dean Hazel

People should be vested in their homes and survive a foreclosure through what is called rescission of contract as the lender is without lawful consideration, i.e., "Real Money" formerly defined under 31 USC 314 and 315, or even US currency! For this reason I can say with complete authority that there is no national debt only a national fraud as there was no lawful consideration for the contract on the part of the conniving Federal Reserve System (FRS), our so-called national banking system. [more]

This section contains the latest columns primarily by Website proprietor and main content-provider/writer, Brian Wright. For any of these pieces, please share your comments on the CC blog or send us a letter to the editor. [main]

How to End the Recession Quickly In five easy steps...	So the freedom movement has, believe it or not, come a long way from early 2009. Nearly all the causes I've articulated on these pages—though certainly not the earliest adopter in most of them—are in the range of acquiring that needed critical mass in the general population. Without further analysis, let me list my five measures that will rapidly produce an economic revival the likes of which the world has never seen, nor will likely ever see again—don't forget that the Singularity approaches. They are:... [full column]
Free Pete Hendrickson Correct 'corrections,' send the innocent home	Pete Hendrickson, author of Cracking the Code: The fascinating truth about taxation in America, having been convicted of obeying the law, has reported to Milan federal prison in Michigan, where he is to begin a 33-month stay. He was not allowed to remain free while on appeal, even though grounds for the appeal are a slam dunk on the level of human reason, decency, and justice... [full column]
Spirit of '76 Requires Truth of '01 Or at least evidence not destroyed w/o penalty	In matters of truth, evidence (or lack thereof) is everything. Respect for evidence is humanity's highest moral standard for the intellect in society... just as respect for the nonaggression principle is humanity's highest moral standard for the whole person in society. So if anyone, especially a public official, destroys evidence in a crime scene, that is a moral and legal crime of immense proportions. In the case of a public official doing so, the act is one of grand or petit treason, for which the penalty in America has been public hanging. [more]

Latest Movie Reviews

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The Coffee Coaster attempts to review near-term movies as well as those you'd find on Turner Classic Movies... also films that were not wildly popular during their time, but deserved to be. For any of these reviews, please share your comments with me on the Coffee Coaster blog or send us a letter to the editor.

He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself. — Thomas Paine

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Two vital and urgent books for all mankind, but especially Americans:

1. The first is a book I've reviewed by G. Edward Griffin that dissects the Federal Reserve System: The Creature from Jekyll Island. Not only does Mr. Griffin explain clearly where the money went and how the theft was accomplished, he explains the sociology of the deception. You will learn that war is the ultimate moneymaker for the elites behind the curtain of the Fed, and that we will only achieve peace and liberty when we stop feeding the Beast of the moneychangers... i.e. the Oligarchy. [main]

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2. Relative to unfeeding 'the Beast,' the second vital book is by Peter Hendrickson: Cracking the Code: The fascinating truth about taxation in America. Equally remarkable and more directly useful, Pete—thanks to digital technology, he was able to track down every reference in federal revenue statutes and regulatory codes—patiently explains that the so-called income tax is not a direct tax... and that it was never legally enacted as one. [According to the Constitution, direct taxes are only permitted via apportionment.] Thus, unless you are a federal employee or official, or employed by a federal corporation, your earnings are not income as defined in the law. [main]

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   Further, federal and state treasury departments, obeying the law, have refunded more than $10 million to thousands of individuals who have filed corrected returns. What this means is the vast majority of Americans now stand at the threshold of ending the tyranny of the IRS and getting their lives and wealth and freedom back. Simply by standing up for the rule of law and insisting on its compliance by government. Please read my review for more details.
   
   Here is the video from LostHorizons.com we want to share with our fellow citizens. Naturally, the cabal that has usurped power, especially at the federal level, is none too happy that people are figuring out that they are no longer mandatory taxpayers. [main]
   

These two books frame the issue of restoring our republic. For honorable mention as key books, I would like to include my own Sacred Nonaggression Principle, which is currently in rewrite for friendliness, and Eckhart Tolle's classic, The Power of Now.

Reflections on Memorial Day 2008
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Did our fathers die on the beaches of Normandy so we would cave to mandatory seat-belt laws, smoking bans, drug testing, and 0.08 BAL? (etc.)

"Son, I'm never going to wear a seat belt; it's my right as an American to drive as and how I choose—[Dad was a highly skilled driver who would probably, eventually have come to wear seatbelts voluntarily].  It violates everything I believe in... and fought for.  I won't do it, I won't pay the fine, and they can put me in jail 'til the cows come home."

For the previous 30 years Memorial Day has always had a somber quality for me: My father, Truman, a WWII veteran, died on May 28, 1978, Memorial Day Weekend—I was 28 years old at the time.  [Then, to make it even sadder, last year we lost my brother, Forrest, also a veteran, possibly to the same heart condition that killed my dad.]  

Memorial Day was to commemorate Union soldiers who had died in the Civil War, then later expanded to remember all those who have given their lives for their country in military service. And though technically neither my dad nor my brother perished while fighting for their country, I feel the holiday belongs to them and, more important, to any American who stands for, argues for, fights for, and is willing to die for American liberty—the principles embodied in the Bill of Rights and the Constitution... [full column]

June 8 , 2010

Share price for stock in the oil production giant responsible for the ecological catastrophe spreading across the Gulf of Mexico has already plunged by more than a third. No surprise. The story Imagining the Worst in BP's Future in the Business section of today's NY Times suggests that the ultimate costs associated with the /Deepwater Horizon/ disaster are as unquantifiable as the amount of oil still leaking into the ocean.

Clean-up and restitution alone, it is estimated, could reach $40 billion -- enough to break even a company that turns a $17 billion-per-year profit. And that's before any regulatory penalties for negligence or punitive damages imposed by juries that will inevitably be drawn from the devastated areas.

So it appears increasingly likely that BP will follow such other icons of (what is mistakenly called) "American capitalism" as financial giant AIG and automotive giant GM into the ranks of the "too-big-to-fail." Meaning that corporate executives will walk off with billions of dollars in bonuses, leaving taxpayers to clean up the mess they leave behind. The aforementioned /NY Times/ article explains how the too-big-to-failures manage to pull this off:

http://www.smallgov.us/2010/06/08/bp-muck-run-amok

Tim O'Brien, Small Government Alliance

March 26 , 2010

BR

I gotta weigh in once and a while: I have high hopes for Obamacare. It seems credible from my privileged-to-not-give-a-shit vantage that something had to be done about the pathetic performance and outrageous costs of health care in good ole USA. Surely our standing behind numerous third world nations in all sorts of health care metrics for the populace indicates we needed to make some significant changes.

More broadly, I have come to believe that the invisible hand of free enterprise (all too often aka greed) has no place in health care. There are greater goods in caring for one another than riches and power. In other words, I'm self diagnosing that I'm an advocate of socialized medicine. I don't fear the screwed up feds doing any worse for me than the all-too-profit-motived Blue Crosses of the nation. I don't see socialized medicine as any less logical than socialized roadways (aka the interstate highway system).

RB

February 9, 2010

Regarding the Citizens' United Case

I guess we will have to continue to disagree, however benevolently.

My point is that libertarians too often spend time 1-pontificating about issues that the public does not care about (conspiracy theories for example) and 2-in private (to each other on computers). This isn't all bad because if they did it publicly on what the public views as trivia, we would appear to be all nerdish.

How often do you ever see real libertarians discuss real issues in real publications where the public can learn from them? ...If I want conspiracy theories, I'll watch Glenn Beck who at least has real live libertarian guests like Steve Moore and actually uses the word "libertarian." So I've gotten away from proportional representation, NOTA, term limits, how to govern outer space, multiple impeachments, Bilderbergers (sounds to most like a competitor to Burger King) and other trivia. Which reminds me. I need to write two letters to the editor this weekend about real issues so real voters (or editors) can learn something.

Well, some of them.

Best, as always,

Keith of Macomb County

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