About Brian Wright

Hello, I'm Brian Wright, the proprietor and chief content provider to this Web opinion and review site. The Coffee Coaster (thecoffeecoaster.com) has been around since late 2006, and in early 2012 I finally decided to give the site a major makeover with this Wordpress implementation. My views are 'wholistic libertarian,' meaning focused on the spiritual--I like to use the word: essentual--evolution we will need, individually, in order to reach the New Paradigm of peace, freedom, and abundance. Let's help one another in the process.

Movie Review: Brief Encounter (1945)

Posted on March 19, 2014 by Brian Wright

A love affair destined for greatness __ 9/10

Dr. Alec Harvey: Could you really say goodbye? Never see me again?
Laura Jesson: Yes, if you’d help me.
Dr. Alec Harvey: I love you, Laura. I shall love you always until the end of my life. I can’t look at you now cause I know something. I know that this is the beginning of the end. Not the end of my loving you but the end of our being together. But not quite yet, darling. Please. Not quite yet.
Laura Jesson: Very well. Not quite yet. Continue reading →

Article: The 2004 Libertarian Party National Convention

Posted on March 17, 2014 by Brian Wright

Four Days in May
an insider’s look at the Party of Principle, from Atlanta
by Brian Wright

Here in spring of 2014, roughly a decade later, I’m reassembling my impressions from diaries I kept of the key event in 2004, which I was disappointed in the result of. Reviewing the text, I see that I was not all worked out spiritually—who ever is, even a man into his 50s at the time?—and may have stated harsh or overly judgmental impressions of people. I apologize for this, but like my advocating to vote for (yes, believe it or not) John Kerry in 2004, I have to own my past mistakes and personal shortcomings. (Heck, in 2004 I still pretty much accepted the Official Story of the 9/11 Attacks!) Many regrets to any and all I may have offended; chances are strong I have favorable views toward you today. Continue reading →

Brian’s Column: Snowden-Manning 2016

Posted on March 16, 2014 by Brian Wright

“… effecting the Revolution in hearts and minds… “

Remember the climactic scene in the Wachowski Brothers’ V is for Vendetta where the people of jolly ol’ England decide they’ve had just about enough of black bag government? Thousands of them, all wearing Guy Fawkes costumes, march directly on several companies of stormtroopers bristling with automatic weapons and supported by artillery and armor. What happens? What do all these heavily fortified and gunned up state enforcers do when faced with a determined rush of a whole city of unarmed men, women, and children ‘mad as hell and not bloody gonna take it anymore?!’ Continue reading →

Book Review: Evil Genes (2007)

Posted on March 14, 2014 by Brian Wright

Why Rome fell, Hitler rose, Enron failed,
and my sister stole my mother’s boyfriend
by Dr. Barbara Oakley

With a title like this, you just have to believe you’re in for a entertaining and informative read. Moreover, you suspect the author, who is an Oakland University (Michigan) engineering professor—and was a good friend of my late brother Forrest, and is attending my small book discussion group on her work—with a colorful, enterprising past, will be followed by controversy on account of the ideas especially among her academic minions. Barbara told me as much when we met for coffee a couple of weeks ago: “Although I’m in the engineering college, even with that I run into a strong wave of PC disapproval.” (I’m paraphrasing.) Continue reading →

Movie Review: Rich Man, Poor Man (1976)

Posted on March 12, 2014 by Brian Wright

The epic TV series to end epic TV series __ 6/10

No quotes on the IMDb page for Rich Man, Poor Man, probably because the DVD has only been released this year (2010). Even if you surf the Web, not much comes up that improves on the IMDb information; and I don’t remember anything on the DVD’s bonus material. So all that stuff on background of the miniseries remains a mystery. Wikipedia gives us a little about the book written by Irwin Shaw. Too bad about the lack of insider Hollywood info, too, because the series must have launched the acting careers of Nick Nolte (Tom Jordache), Peter Strauss (Rudy Jordache), and others into celebrity status. Several actors earned awards, notably Ed Asner playing the repressed father of the two Jordache boys. Continue reading →

Guest Column: A Fresh Look at Net Neutrality

Posted on March 10, 2014 by Brian Wright

What Airlines, The Mafia and The Law of Unintended Consequences Can Teach Us about Net Neutrality

`Net neutrality’ is a loaded term that means different things to different people. For companies whose business model relies on using somebody else’s Internet network as a distribution system, it means maintaining the Web as a common carrier like the old long-distance telephone system. For companies like Comcast , it means heavy-handed regulation that stifles investment in faster networks. For engineers, it can all seem like a distraction from the real job of getting America up to the gigabit speeds of other nations like Korea. Continue reading →

Guest Column: Free Don Siegelman, Selma, March 9

Posted on February 17, 2014 by Brian Wright

Give Some Thought to Helping Don Siegelman

For some reason—actually, I’m very clear about what that reason is—I have a very sympathetic spot in my heart for Don Siegelman, former governor of Alabama, railroaded by the federal prosecutocracy during the Bush/Karl Rove era into prison for bestowing a routine not-for-personal-profit political favor. [Basically, Siegelman’s crime was being on a federal enemies list.] He’s sought release via the Obama justice department, but his appeals have fallen on deaf ears and hard hearts. Which is why I find the pro-Obama image on the sign right to be ironic. Help him out if you can. Remember, if former governors can be sentenced to hard time for political offenses, what do you think your fate will be? Continue reading →