Brian’s Column: The National Boycott

Posted on March 31, 2013 by Brian Wright

“Who’s in charge here?”
by Brian Wright

Boycott: the act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with a person, organization, or country [government] to further an economic or humanitarian objective, usually in a social or political context.

My column today is a first sketch of a US national movement I am founding to withhold personal moral, political, and/or economic sanction from the US federal government (USG) until it ends a modest number of its most blatant and extreme acts of aggression—all unconstitutional—in three broad categories, to wit: Continue reading →

Donut Hole: Facebook to Merge with Hooters?

Posted on March 30, 2013 by Brian Wright

Strange ads for audio language training system
may presage new alliances in mind control via titillation
by Brian Wright

Okay, look at the combination graphic I recomposed from several of my Group pages on Facebook on the right hand side there. What’s the first thing you notice? Oh, all right, if you’re a heterosexual man with no geometry handicaps—what springs into your mind in a nanosecond? Right, the fact that every one of the pictures contains an extremely ample bosomed woman in her 20s… smiling, happy, and/or self-confident. And what’s your first urge? Like a four-year-old at Christmas handed a gift-wrapped toy… right?

Sorry for the poor quality of the graphic, but the (super)womanly imagery more than gets the point across. [Let’s dismiss the the video game advertisement on the bottom. Kind of old hat, you expect modern video game companies to use sex with righteous abandon to ply their wares to pubescent males via primordial hormonal incentives.] Continue reading →

Book Review: In the Heart of the Sea (2000)

Posted on March 29, 2013 by Brian Wright

There once was a whaleship from Nantucket
by Phyllis Wright

Many don’t realize that in early 1800s America, commercial whaling was a multimillion-dollar business. Millions of gallons of whale oil were used in America and Europe for lamp fuel and lubrication, in addition to dozens of other uses: It was a fundamental element of paint, varnish, and soap. Perhaps the main center of the whaling industry in North America was Nantucket, a small island off the coast of Massachusetts inhabited mainly by Quakers. Continue reading →

Movie Review: Gilda (1946)

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Brian Wright

Postwar Casablanca lookalike is truly gilded fare
by Phyllis Wright

Some time ago I saw the piano sheet music for the song, “Put the Blame on Mame,” with a picture of Rita Hayworth from the motion picture Gilda. The movie brings back strong memories, even though I had seen it more than fifty years ago as a young woman attending Western Michigan University. Why had it made such an impression on me? Through Barnes and Noble online I located a DVD of Gilda— which starred Glenn Ford and Rita Hayworth in black and white—and bought it. After viewing the film, I checked out the special features… which, among others, showed Rita dancing with Fred Astaire. How interesting and entertaining in its own right! I was reminded of her grace and expertise in the art of dance; in fact, Astaire once asserted that Rita was his favorite dance partner. Continue reading →

Guest Column: Education and Childbirth (1950)

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Brian Wright

Let’s use education to dispel the fear of childbirth
by Phyllis Wright

“Go ahead and scream. Everyone else does.”

“When it came time for me to have my baby I found I would have given anything to postpone it. I was so frightened.”

“You go right down to your death-bed when you have a child, but that’s the way it was meant to be.”

“It’s the worst pain there is to bear on earth, but you soon forget your suffering when you see your baby.” Continue reading →

Brian’s Column: Phyllis Joy Wright—Patriot, RIP

Posted on March 10, 2013 by Brian Wright

A ‘Greatest Generation’ icon passes the torch

No mother is more special than another, I guess, unless it’s one’s own. And—sadly, very sadly—my own World’s Greatest shed her mortal coil a week ago last Tuesday. I had hoped and planned she would be around for another decade… or until the cure for kidney disease and/or aging came along. But it was not to be. I do feel that Phyllis Joy Wright’s extraordinary life portends for humankind imminent political freedom and a spiritual elevation—at least worthy of a notability nod by Wikipedia. In any case, please take the following narrative tribute of her in the universal sense; she’s a pure embodiment of the subtle, intuitive, immensely powerful ambition ‘Mothers in General’ have for their children: liberty, peace, and abundance… more or less in that order.—ed. Continue reading →

Book Review: Riders of the Purple Sage (1912)

Posted on March 8, 2013 by Brian Wright

Romance and hard riding in the Mormon Badlands
by Zane Grey

The definitive Zane Grey work of Western fiction, Riders of the Purple Sage, differs from other Westerns you’ll read. For one thing the times of the writing are long ago in the rear view mirror. Zane Grey (1872-1939) wrote as the 20th century was just beginning (Riders is copyrighted in 1912). It’s my understanding from reading statements by Ayn Rand (1905-1982) that the new century was greeted with immense hope and optimism by virtually everyone in the West (Western Civilization). Little were they aware of what was to come. Continue reading →