Brian’s Column: Omamacare I

Posted on July 30, 2012 by Brian Wright

Obamacare vs. Omamacare
Don’t throw Mama off the dialysis machine
By Brian Wright (originally published 2009-09-07)

You can look at this story as a continuation of “Don’t Throw Mama off the Turnpike.” That’s when she and I caravan my 2002 “Free State Audi” with her 1997 Mercury Villager into the middle of New York State for the purpose of selling said Audi to an unlikely buyer. (Note Omamacare has become a series of columns.)[a] [Go to Omamacare II]

Roughly 10 days ago, Mama Bear went in for a checkup with the kidney doctor.[1] Whoops! Blood pressure is far too high, other symptoms conclusive of renal failure. [Now I’m kicking myself for pressing her into duty as my “wing man” on the long-range, Continue reading →

Guest Column: Lessons of Aurora

Posted on July 30, 2012 by Brian Wright

More guns for the masses = less mass killings
by Ron Burcham

Burcham As a Free Stater (living abroad in Michigan for an extended period), I can tell you right away that all these FBI/CIA Manchurian zombie killers like (possibly) James Holmes are not going to be wandering into any New Hampshire movie theaters for high-media-impact slayings. They’ll be met with deadly termination. My guest today, Ron Burcham, knows much more about the gun issue than I. But we both realize someone in the legitimate authority matrix had to set up this killing and that the media fix is in.— editor Continue reading →

Book Review: Rivethead (1992)

Posted on July 27, 2012 by Brian Wright

Tales from the assembly line
by Ben Hamper
Review by Brian Wright

For my mother it [Family Night at the old Fisher Body Plant in Flint] was at least one night of the year when she could verify the old man’s whereabouts. One night a year when she could be reasonably assured that my father wasn’t lurchin’ over a pool table at the Patio Lounge or picklin’ his gizzard at any one of a thousand beer joints out on Dort Highway. My father loved his drink. He wasn’t nearly as fond of labor. — from the first page Continue reading →

Movie Review: Romance on the High Seas (1948)

Posted on July 25, 2012 by Brian Wright

Doris Day’s maiden voyage joyful, funloving _ 8/10
Review by Brian Wright

Oscar Farrar: Incidentally, I picked up your last two paychecks. It was barely enough to pay for my plane ticket down here. Didn’t even leave me enough to buy you a present! I feel like a cad.
Georgia Garrett: You crook. You can go to jail for that.
Oscar Farrar: Marry me and you won’t have to testify against me. Continue reading →

Guest Column: The Politics of Obedience

Posted on July 23, 2012 by Brian Wright

Discourse on Voluntary Servitude
by Etienne de la Boetie

A most interesting blast from the past… accompanied by a complementary and contemporary video: What keeps the tiny minority of the state and its enforcers in charge of the rest of us? Fascinating question, and timeless answer. From Larkin Rose: Continue reading →

Brian’s Column: Old Paradigm to New Paradigm

Posted on July 22, 2012 by Brian Wright

A read-view list for the ‘New Way’
by Brian Wright

I don’t know who actually invigorated the term paradigm, maybe that guy we read back in college in the ancient 1970s: Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962). Anyway, many of my writing and editing peers would chide me for using so pretentious a word as paradigm—which means roughly a model, a structure, a pattern, a way of seeing the world. Continue reading →

Movie Review: Lifeguard (1976)

Posted on July 18, 2012 by Brian Wright

Classic indie re: idealism vs. ambition __ 9/10
Review by Brian Wright

Rick Carlson: [at job interview] That blond Adonis image you’re talking about, that doesn’t fit anymore. There’s a lot of training involved. A lot of responsibility. A lot of discipline. I do more PR out on that beach on a summer day than you do in here in a month. But you’re right. Saving lives isn’t selling cars.

Mr. Carlson: You’re not a kid at the beach anymore.
Rick Carlson: I’m doing what I want to do.
Mr. Carlson: You know it’s crazy, I still wonder what you’re going to do when you grow up. Continue reading →