Guest Column: Big Kahuna Tax Service

Posted on March 14, 2016 by Brian Wright

Just in time for tax season… the ‘convenient truth’ of Cracking the Code

Editor’s note: It’s been my honor to know Pete Hendrickson for several years as a friend and a fellow warrior for liberty. As many of you know, the liberating (what I’ve taken to calling) ‘Hendrickson Discovery'[1] is one of those once-in-several-lifetimes findings (available for a mere pittance) that raises all boats and puts the wind at everyone’s back… that is, everyone not working for or receiving payments from the government.

Pete made his discovery in 2003, and his book has seen multiple editions since then. Enabling tens of thousands of Americans to recover several billion dollars incorrectly paid to the federal state… and to any of several state states who assess a tax based on a resident’s ‘income.’ YES, YOU READ THAT RIGHT. The upside potential is that if everyone were to not pay what they do not owe, we the people would recover or retain roughly $3 trillion in wealth, to spend it wisely on our own lives—rather than enable the Washington Leviathan to commit atrocities on roughly a dozen major fronts.
Continue reading →

Brian’s Column: Is Donald Trump the ‘Apple Girl’…

Posted on March 13, 2016 by Brian Wright

… or Big Brother soft shoeing for the zombies

When a person makes an incorrect choice or supports a mistake, he needs to fess up and make things as right as possible… and as quickly as possible—to the extent people respect his opinion and to the extent of the magnitude of the mistake. Well, mea culpa wrt to the Trumpster. And I feel a need for deep apology to my modest group of followers for any impression I have given that Mr. Trump is anything more than, at best, a leader of one subgroup of the global syndicate vs. another.

The syndrome leading to my mistake—I never fully endorsed the man, but conveyed favorably some statements Trump had made about this issue or that one—is the classic fallacy that the apparent enemy of my enemy is my friend. The rest was simply falling for the wishful-thinking fallacy. And if ever we were going to wishful think, the 2016 election would be the ideal candidate. Trump actually conjured up for me the prophetic Howard Beale character in the 1976 movie, Network, trumpeting from his anchorman pulpit, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!” Also the so-called Apple Girl from the 1984 Superbowl advertisement for the Macintosh, per the figure above right.

Continue reading →

Book Review: Amusing Ourselves to Death (1985)

Posted on March 11, 2016 by Brian Wright

Public discourse in the age of show business
by Neil Postman

If humanity makes the grade in the next few years, a good share of the credit will be due to Professor Neil Postman and his timely insights into the decline of language (esp. with respect to reading and writing), logic, conceptual development, and common sense. In other words, thanks to his framework of astute observations, others may be able to (re)construct the building of our reasoning minds… without which we shall surely go the way of the dodo bird. Amusing Ourselves to Death is arguably the magnum opus of this cultural critic, writer, and communications theorist who was chair of the New York University department of communication arts.

Two of his other better known books I have reviewed are Technopoly (1991) and Building a Bridge to the 18th Century (1999)—which was his final, comprehensive, and most heartfelt appeal to the ‘better angels of our nature’… particularly the angels who want liberty and literate, benevolent civilization. [A deeply personal note, Building a Bridge was the prize of all the books my dear mother, the accomplished Phyllis Anderson-Barlow-Wright, referred to me—the first to knock me off the ledge of ego where I liked to think “how could Mom know anything really important?”] Continue reading →

Movie Review: Charlie Wilson’s War (2007)

Posted on March 9, 2016 by Brian Wright

Back when only commies committed war crimes

Joanne Herring: Why is Congress saying one thing and doing nothing?
Charlie Wilson: Well, tradition mostly.

Charlie Wilson’s War is a good little movie. [Tom Hanks is like Clint Eastwood: no matter what they do, the film is always going to be fun and interesting to watch.] Hanks plays real life US Congressman Charles Wilson, a representative from the 2d Congressional district in East Texas 1973-1997.

He’s from a relatively simple background and so are the people he serves: “They really don’t want much, just leave them alone, let them have their guns, and be honest with them… they’ll reelect you forever.” Charlie is a good-hearted man who basically likes to party hearty; then one day in the early ’80s while lounging in a hot tub with a Playboy Bunny and other ‘associates’ in Vegas he gets religion. Continue reading →

Guest Column: Extremist Overreaction Syndrome

Posted on March 7, 2016 by Brian Wright

As public political discourse descends to new lows,
what is a common-sense person to do?
by Paul Jacob [Common Sense]

This is a recent column by my good friend and fellow independent Web columnist Paul Jacob, pertaining to the Trump phenomenon. It’s short and to the point, so I’m posting the entire piece, with a hearty recommendation to subscribe to Paul’s daily column—which is always erudite, efficient, and practical. He’s also timely, every weekday 9-10 a.m. Eastern Time. Subscribe here.

Well, not go over the deep end.

What is that end?

Maybe it is Trump Anxiety Syndrome, the haunting fear that Donald Trump may become the next president.

Hey, I don’t support The Donald, but I always try to avoid syndromes. Continue reading →

Brian’s Column: The Independents’ Qualification (IQ) Test

Posted on March 6, 2016 by Brian Wright

World’s Smallest Quiz of Whether One Thinks for Oneself

David Nolan, founder of the Libertarian Party (1971), developed a series of questions that measured a respondent’s liberty quotient, that is where he stood wrt economic liberty and civil liberty… which were plotted on an X-axis and Y-Axis, respectively. It became known as the Nolan Chart and the basis for the Advocates for Self Government’s ‘World’s Smallest Political Quiz.’ [https://www.theadvocates.org/quiz/quiz.php]

The Independents’ Movement leadership has come up with a dual-axis chart that measures one’s alignment with Independent psychology. Start at the zero point in the middle of the chart and proceed either positively (-> Indie) or negatively (-> Zombie). Here are some initial questions whose correct answers are all Yes: Continue reading →

Movie Review: Suburban Girl (2007)

Posted on March 2, 2016 by Brian Wright

Nice twist on the older man-younger woman tale (7/10)

Chloe, as they enter the library for a book signing:
“Why are we here?”
Brett: “Because I’ll never make full editor until I start mixing with the oligarchs… and he [pointing at Archie Knox] is one of them.”

Archie, on learning her name: “Let me guess, your novelist father named you after Brett Ashley in the Sun Also Rises.”
Brett: “My father’s a doctor. But yes, I was named after that character. My brother’s named Ethan… after Ethan Frome.”
Archie: “Well, as I always say, better to be named after a sensuous 1920s flapper than…”
Brett: “… than a tragic, desperate man with an ugly scar across his forehead.”

This one didn’t get much promotion, and you know the mass movie market has been restricted when the occupation of the principal character is copyeditor (sometimes called proofreader). Brett Eisenberg (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is a Manhattan literary assistant with dreams of a life doing what she loves: reading and editing books, being part of the great scene of New York idea culture. The movie intro shows her working on a manuscript using the standard proofreader markings, in pencil. Yer humble commentator once worked in these fields of the copy and deep editors, so I know the ropes or the “stets”[1] so to speak. Continue reading →