Book Review: Free Fall in Crimson (1981)

Posted on August 21, 2015 by Brian Wright

by John D. MacDonald
1981, Ballantine Books , 284 pages

“Meyer taught me this. What you should be doing from now on, Travis, is to make sure you get into as many computers as possible. Lots of tiny bank accounts, lots of credit cards, lots of memberships. Have your attorney set up some partnerships and little corporations and get you some additional tax numbers. Move bits of money around often. Buy and sell odd lots of this and that. Feed all the information you can into their computers.”

“And spend my life keeping track of what the hell I’m doing?”

“Who said anything about keeping track? If you get so complicated you confuse yourself, imagine how confused the poor computers [the government] are going to be.”

“Is she putting me on, Meyer?” Continue reading →

Movie Review: Network (1976)

Posted on August 19, 2015 by Brian Wright

Network _____ 9/10
Presaging the rise of the New Media

“It is the international system of currency which determines the vitality of life on this planet. THAT is the natural order of things today. THAT is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today. And YOU have meddled with the primal forces of nature. And YOU WILL ATONE. Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale? You get up on your little 21-inch screen and howl about America, and democracy. There is no America; there is no democracy. There is only IBM, and ITT, and AT&T, and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today.” — Arthur Jensen, UBS (United Broadcasting System) Chairman of the Board (of the conglomerate purchasing the network)

An actual, modern-day “Old Media” elitist couldn’t have said it better, as a domineering Ned Beatty (playing Arthur Jensen) rips into the self-destructing TV cult icon Howard Beale (Peter Finch)—explaining to the now-cowed newsman the facts of life. Continue reading →

Guest Column: A Message to Libertarians about the FDA

Posted on August 17, 2015 by Brian Wright

How the FDA aids and abets the criminal pharmaceutical companies
Jon Rappoport (excerpted from column at Nomorefakenews.com)

When I ran for a seat in the US Congress in 1994, I was very aggressive in demanding that we go after the FDA as a rogue criminal agency. Others, at the time, who were in favor of Health Freedom, said I should dial back my rhetoric; all we needed was a good law that would protect our right to take nutritional supplements. They were wrong then, and they’re still wrong.” (Running for Congress, Jon Rappoport)

Libertarians see big government as an obstruction to a free-market economy.

Some Libertarians believe the FDA is unnecessarily restraining commerce by driving up the cost of drugs and slow-tracking the approval of new drugs. Continue reading →

Brian’s Column: Truman Prophecy Context

Posted on August 16, 2015 by Brian Wright

Identifying the Gordian Knot and focusing on its undoing…

Please forgive me for airing out my thinking before actually cutting significant chips. Two reasons for this: 1) I find I think better toward solving problems when posting via writing as an open letter, and 2) I want to assure those who helped me to crowdfund After 9/11 Truth that I haven’t forgotten them—that I still plan to honor my revenue sharing scheme as sales become substantial. Indeed, part of the reason for launching the Truman novel is to stimulate sales of my Truth book, then naturally lead into activism in the Toto Worldwide Foundation I’ve envisioned.

You may read a teaser draft short of the penultimate chapter, “Declaration Eve,” of the book here.
Then a couple of weeks ago I assembled a kind of analysis of social context that gives a reality to the fictional activity… here.

Continue reading →

Book Review: What to Think About (2015)

Posted on August 14, 2015 by Brian Wright

Philosophy for a thoughtful younger generation
by Chris Brockman

Let’s see it would be somewhere in the late 1970s and early 1980s, during my life in the SE Michigan general liberty movement—which at that time still had a decidedly Libertarian Party component, at least for me—Chris and his wife Julie were welcome, sane voices in that not always august milieu. In 1978, Chris wrote a short book What about gods?, which became the modern standard for helping children think intelligently about the phantasmagoric world of deities and religion. [I would like gods? to be required reading for first graders in the government schools… but of course someone on the school board would jump up to shoot down such an ‘irreverent’ book for junior and his friends. “What about moral values!?” they’d exclaim.]

Exactly. Continue reading →

Movie Review(s): Bridges… at Ramagen (1969) and One Too Far (1970)

Posted on August 12, 2015 by Brian Wright

Classic War Movies about Bridges (7/10)
… or anti-war movies: bracketing the antiwar movement

Bridge at Remagen (1969)

Written by Roger O. Hirson
Screenplay by Richard Yates
Directed by John Guillermin

George Segal … Lt. Phil Hartman
Robert Vaughn … Maj. Paul Krüger
Ben Gazzara … Sgt. Angelo
Bradford Dillman … Maj. Barnes
E.G. Marshall … Brig. Gen. Shinner
Peter van Eyck … Generaloberst von Brock
Joachim Hansen … Capt. Otto Baumann
Sonja Ziemann … Greta Holzgang
Anna Gaël … French Girl (as Anna Gael)
Vít Olmer … Lt. Zimring (as Vit Olmer)
Bo Hopkins … Cpl. Grebs

Gen. Von Sturmer: General von Brock, you must prepare to destroy the Remagen bridge at the earliest possible moment.
Gen. von Brock: Destroy? We have 75,000 men who would be trapped on the other side of the Rhine.
Gen. Von Sturmer: And if the bridge falls to the enemy, are you prepared for the consequences?
Gen. von Brock: These men are all that’s left of the 15th Army. Their only hope of salvation is that bridge!
Gen. Von Sturmer: The 15th Army will stand or die. Hitler has ordered that not one foot of our sacred soil will be yielded to the enemy.
Gen. von Brock: Herr Feldmarschall, if orders won wars, we wouldn’t now be fighting with our backs against the Rhine, we’d be dancing at the London Savoy!

Continue reading →

Guest Column: The Real American Sniper

Posted on August 10, 2015 by Brian Wright

Why Chris Kyle was not a hero
by SM Gibson, excerpt from theantimedia.org site, January 21, 2015

(ANTIMEDIA) The following words are not meant to spit on the grave of Chris Kyle, but rather address a reality that may be unpleasant for many to hear. Chris Kyle was not a hero. He did not protect America or keep it safe. He killed a lot. He also, apparently, lied a lot as well. Sometimes truth lies beyond the lens of star-spangled glasses and once you have the courage to look beyond a constructed work of fiction, you may realize that the facts do not align with your belief system. It may not be easy, but sometimes the truth is harsh. If we, as a people are genuinely in pursuit of truth and the justice that follows, we must distance ourselves from the warm feelings that certain narratives provide and search objectively without the blinders that provide us comfort. Continue reading →