Brian’s Column: “Yikes! When did toothpaste get to five dollars a tube?!”

From the mundane to the sublime: an epiphany
Originally posted 9/7/2009

Busch's MarketSo here I am at Busch’s—a family independent grocery store that sprouted on the corner of Meadowbrook and 10 Mile Road in Novi, Michigan—used to be a Farmer Jack. Not having children, never much of a grocery shopper, my idea of going to stores for things, for nearly 40 years, has been, “That looks really good (or cool, or different); just throw it in the basket. $19.95 may be a little steep, but that’s why God invented MasterCard.”

And so it would go… for food, for clothes, for drinks, for car stuff, etc. Continue reading

Book Review: Left, Right, and Prospects for Liberty (1965)

Fresh look at the political spectrum
by Murray Rothbard
Review by Brian Wright

Left, Right, Prospects for LibertyFor an eternity now, the pundits and editorialists, not to mention the academics, have insisted on a misleading interpretation of political positions. As I write in Module #2 of the Sacred Nonaggression Principle:

Most of us are familiar with the terms left and right, and have some conception of the different political ideas along the left-right spectrum. The figure below shows a conventional scheme. Continue reading

Movie Review: Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

Original unique whole-family classic to be _ 9/10
Review by Brian Wright

Moonrise Kingdom

Suzy: These are my books. I like stories with magic powers in them. Either in kingdoms on Earth or on foreign planets. Usually I prefer a girl hero, but not always.

Wes Anderson, who loaded the bases thanks to quirky hits Rushmore (1998) The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) hits a home run with Moonrise Kingdom. Or at least a triple… which is more in keeping with the quixotic ‘oddballness’ that characterizes the Anderson movies this reviewer has seen. Moonrise‘s attraction for me—aside from the humor that I sometimes wonder if I’m smart enough to see—lies in its 1965 all-American familial setting: like Norman Rockwell seen through the eyes of Clem Kadiddlehopper. Continue reading