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.

Book Review: America’s Survival Guide (2007)

Posted on November 3, 2017 by Brian Wright

How to … reclaim America’s First Principles and history
by Judge Michael Warren

“Only lay down true principles, and adhere to them inflexibly. Do not be frightened into their surrender by the alarms of the timid, or the croakings of wealth against the ascendancy of the people….

“A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent for a second, that second for a third; and so on, till the bulk of the society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery, to have no sensibilities left but for sin and suffering.”

— Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Samuel Kercheval (1816).

One of the best introductions to America’s First Principles, America’s Survival Guide is a primer for those principles, along with several practical steps that we as Americans must take to reclaim liberty in our country. The author, Michael Warren, an actual sitting circuit court judge in Michigan, spells out the mission statement of the book at the outset: Continue reading →

Movie Review: The Misfits (1961)

Posted on November 1, 2017 by Brian Wright

Marilyn and Clark’s final flick is winner ___ 8/10
Review by Brian Wright

Roslyn: Did you ever think about gettin’ married again?
Gay: Oh, I think about it; never in daylight.

Roslyn: If I’m going to be alone, I want to be by myself.

Guido: You have the gift for life, Roslyn. The rest of us, we’re just looking for a place to hide and watch it all go by.

Directed by John Huston
Screenplay by Arthur Miller

Clark Gable … Gay Langland
Marilyn Monroe … Roslyn Taber
Montgomery Clift … Perce Howland
Thelma Ritter … Isabelle Steers
Eli Wallach … Guido
Kevin McCarthy … Raymond Taber
Estelle Winwood … Church Lady

This 1961 film is unique in several ways: a) it is the final film for Marilyn Monroe (that she completed) and Clark Gable (who died a few weeks after filming of a heart attack some attribute to doing his own stunt work), b) it was not a commercial success at the time of release but gained critical respect for its writing and acting, c) because of lack of control of production costs, the film was the most expensive black and white film to that time at $4 million, and d) adding to the troubles of production were the 108 degree heat of the northern Nevada desert and the imminent end of Monroe’s marriage to writer Arthur Miller. Continue reading →

Guest Column: Backyard

Posted on October 30, 2017 by Brian Wright

Backyard: Reflections on Baseball and Boyhood
By Mike Collins

The house I grew up in, among other things, featured a huge back yard. Our neighbors on both sides were blessed with precisely equal lot sizes and, even better, none felt the need to enclose their property with fences.

That vast expanse of real estate served many functions. Neighborhood gatherings of a magnitude that required all three parcels – barbeques, picnics, snowball fights and all manner of things relegated to fond memory took place there. Annual fireworks displays that pitted the skills of the biggest kids in the neighborhood (the collectivity known to us as our fathers) against each other were a revered annual event.

The one preeminent and defining use of that grand arena commenced in the spring of every year when a prehistoric Field of Dreams magically appeared immediately after the snow melted.

The first year we lived there was the beginning and the end of my father’s vain attempt to cure me of being left-handed. He threw countless fly balls to me that I caught with my face because his right-handed glove was apparently faulty. He was mortified at my monumentally feeble attempts to throw or bat right-handed. References to spending my time playing with my sister and her dolls were frequently issued. Continue reading →

Shawnee Mission, Hail to Thee

Posted on October 29, 2017 by Brian Wright

10: Visit to the ol’ hometown for my high school grad class 50-year reunion
By Brian R. Wright

[Link to Episode 9]

Note: These columns are a series I am making into a volume of my memoirs, working title: Volume 1: Overland Park Ways. You may follow the links at top and bottom of page to go to preceding or succeeding episodes. The series starts here. {If the [Link to Episode <next>] at the bottom of the column does not show an active hyperlink, then the <next> column has yet to be written.}

Hometown: Overland Park, Kansas
High School: Shawnee Mission West… Vikings
Event: Cocktails w/serious hors d’oeuvres
Location: Mission Hills Country Club, Mission, KS
Date and Time: Friday, October 13, 2017, 5-9+

Followed by a Saturday the 14th tour of the school—Hi, Eric with the brass, um, horns!—, brunch at a nearby sports bistro (Maloney’s), and, for a handful of the historically motivated, a reunion coda at the Johnson County Historical Museum. So that about wraps it up. I decided that the 50th reunion weekend belongs in the memoirs as a flash forward, since so much of what transpired was of high reminiscence value. In the form of a travelog…

[It occurs to me herein I’m mixing past and present tenses indiscriminately. Sorry for that.]

Remote Contact

Throughout the summer I had thought, hey, this is a big year, my 50th anniversary of crossing that all-American threshold of receiving a high school diploma. I felt it would be nice to make the effort this time—perhaps the realistic last best chance to dip into the teenage nostalgia pool without being laughed at as a beyond-the-pale geezer. It was getting to be late July and I thought by this late date, any reunions would have surely been imminent or behind me. Continue reading →

Book Review: JFK and the Unspeakable (2008)

Posted on October 27, 2017 by Brian Wright

Why he died and why it matters
by James Douglass
Review by Brian R. Wright

“The extent to which our national security state was systematically marshaled for the assassination of President John Kennedy remains incomprehensible to us. When we live in a system, we absorb a system and think in a system. We lack the independence to judge the system around us. Yet the evidence we have seen points toward our national security state, the systemic bubble in which we all live, as the source of Kennedy’s murder and immediate coverup.” — page 370

The Turning …

In a crime, proof of guilt requires evidence of motive, means, and opportunity. But the greatest of these, especially for crimes of state, is motive. The distinguishing characteristic of JFK and the Unspeakable, aside from its rigorously passionate scholarship, is its complete unraveling of the “why” of the assassination of JFK.

“John F. Kennedy was turning. The key to understanding Kennedy’s presidency, his assassination, and our survival as a species through the Cuban Missile Crisis is that Kennedy was turning toward peace. The signs of his turning are the seeds of his assassination.” — page 321

James Douglass, a peace advocate with international stature,[1] homes in on the context of Kennedy’s presidency with respect to the war machine—the military-industrial complex, the Pentagon, and the CIA.[2] We learn that Kennedy, to some extent, ascended politically by out-“Cold-Warring” his opponents, often by advocating a more belligerent military posture vis a vis several foreign policy annoyances… and promoting higher military spending. For example, in a 1958 speech, as Senator, Kennedy accuses President Eisenhower of enabling a missile gap between the US and the Soviets.[3] Continue reading →

Movie Review: Postcards from the Edge (1990)

Posted on October 25, 2017 by Brian Wright

Back when Carrie Fisher crashes and turns… her life around
Reviewed by Brian R. Wright

Directed by Mike Nichols
Book and screenplay written
by Carrie Fisher

Meryl Streep …. Suzanne Vale
Shirley MacLaine …. Doris Mann
Dennis Quaid …. Jack Faulkner
Gene Hackman …. Lowell
Richard Dreyfuss …. Doctor Frankenthal
Rob Reiner …. Joe Pierce
Annette Bening …. Evelyn Ames
Mary Wickes …. Grandma

Readers of my site know I often like to delve into the past for movies and books that are classics, at least to me. Postcards from the Edge is such a piece for a number of reasons:

Mike Nichols directs—One of the true masters of Hollywood with such giants as Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), The Graduate (1967), Catch-22 (1970), Carnal Knowledge (1971), Silkwood (1983), Working Girl (1988), and Primary Colors (1998).
Carrie Fisher writes—She was on her way to becoming an American sweetheart, a 70s sexed-up version of her mother, Debbie Reynolds, as Princess Leia in Star Wars (1977). She had less central roles in subsequent movies including The Blues Brothers (1980) and Hanna and Her Sisters (1986), and she also displayed substantial writing and singing skills.
Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine act—Playing Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds-like characters, respectively, these two provide a cinematic tour de force of the timelessly troubled Hollywood daughter-mother relationship.
The times reveal—Culture is partly defined by artworks undertaken by celebs, particularly movies. This movie sends up some largely hopeful signs of the times.

Continue reading →

Guest Column: USS Liberty, Why Justice Now?

Posted on October 23, 2017 by Brian Wright

USS Liberty: Why Another Inquiry
Joe Meadors / October 10, 2017

[This is an updated version of an article that originally appeared in the USS Liberty Inquiry website]

The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional as to how they perceive the veterans of earlier wars were Treated and Appreciated by their Nation. – George Washington

Why put together a Court of Inquiry into something that happened more than fifty years ago? Why try to reopen something that was settled by the government more than five decades ago? Isn’t this just ancient history?

In fact, there have been no inquiries into the culpability for the Israeli attack. This isn’t a matter of conducting another inquiry, but rather conducting what would be the first inquiry ever made into the question of who was responsible for the attack on USS Liberty, and why?

There are many practical reasons for undertaking a complete examination of the Israeli attack on the U.S.S. Liberty, but there is one reason that stands out above all: Justice. Continue reading →