Book Review: The Age of Turbulence (2007)

Posted on May 30, 2014 by Brian Wright

Adventures in a new world
by Alan Greenspan

2007, The Penguin Press , 507 pages

The defining moment for the world’s economies was the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, revealing a state of economic ruin behind the iron curtain far beyond the expectations of the most knowledgeable Western economists. Central planning was exposed as an unredeemable failure; coupled with and supported by the growing disillusionment over the interventionist economies of the Western democracies, market capitalism began to quietly displace those policies in much of the world. Central planning was no longer a subject of debate. There were no eulogies….—Page 12 Continue reading →

Movie Review: The Answer Man (2009)

Posted on May 28, 2014 by Brian Wright

Small movie w/many nice features __ 8/10

Kris Lucas: Why can’t I do the things I want to do? There’s so much I know I’m capable of that I never actually do. Why is that?

Arlen Faber: The trick is to realize that you’re always doing what you want to do… always. Nobody’s making you do anything. Once you get that, you see that you’re free and that life is really just a series of choices. Nothing happens to you. You choose. Continue reading →

Guest Column: Notes from Thomas Greco

Posted on May 26, 2014 by Brian Wright

Excerpts from the Spring 2014 Newsletter
by Thomas Greco

I do some of my best thinking when I’m on the move—in a bus, a train, a plane (though perhaps not in a Thai minivan). I can’t help but wonder if this might be due to a physical phenomenon of “induced creativity” akin to the electromagnet induction of electricity that occurs when a coil of wire is moved through a magnetic field. Could it be that “creative energy” is induced when an idle brain is moved through the Earth’s magnetic field or through a monotonous landscape? Far out, eh? Full Newsletter here. Continue reading →

Brian’s Column: Golf in the Provinces, Part 2

Posted on May 25, 2014 by Brian Wright

The “golf with my friends” phase

[Back to Part 1]

As I continued to move forward learning “provincial” golf, I would run into friends of mine from an aerospace technology firm where ten years before I’d done some engineering. I don’t really remember the sequence, how our Fab Four was initially formed. But I had started keeping a record of all my rounds of golf from the very first, so it’s in there.

I was asked to play one Saturday with Curly and Mo (not their real names)—it’s always about who can get out; Curly tho married could always get the Saturday kitchen pass, and Mo

Continue reading →

Book Review: Friday Night Lights (1990)

Posted on May 23, 2014 by Brian Wright

Book and movie provide Hoop-Dreams
insights for the high-school gridiron set

“There were many people in Odessa who, after the initial shock, had slowly fallen in love with the town. They found something endearing about it, something tender; it was the mutt that no one else wanted. The had come to grips with the numbing vacantness of the surroundings, broken only by the black horses’ heads of oil pumpjacks moving up and down with maniacal monotony through heat and wind and dust and economic ruin.” — page 34 Continue reading →

Movie Review: Bad Lieutenant, Port of Call New Orleans (2009)

Posted on May 21, 2014 by Brian Wright

Nicholas Cage excels in film noir w/ a twist __ 8/10

Aside from the fabulous featured performance by Nicolas Cage (Terence McDonagh: the ‘bad lieutenant’) this movie is an object lesson on how drug prohibition corrupts entire governments—from the sidewalks, to city hall, to the state capital. And the root corruptees are always the police, where the the day-to-day human contact comes into play, the laws must be enforced (or bought off), and the rubber meets the road. The buying-off is an essential part of the process… in reality, and in the movie. Continue reading →

Guest Column: Thoughts from Prison, Awaiting my Appeal

Posted on May 19, 2014 by Brian Wright

by Don Siegelman
c/o Friends of Don Siegelman | 1827 1st Ave North, Birmingham, AL 35203

I am waiting with great anticipation for my own appeal for a new trial, but today I would like to turn my attention to the plight of my fellow inmates. To those of you who have done so much to help me, I am asking you to give a hand to these other unfairly treated prisoners.

We recently got good news! The US Sentencing Commission just voted to reduce sentences for some low level, drug offenders! This is important progress, but I would like them to go farther. Fairness dictates that they apply the reductions retroactively as well. Continue reading →