Movie Review: The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada

Posted on September 30, 2015 by Brian Wright

Mexicans as people, oh my (9/10)

You want to understand the real meaning of immigration control? Then I suggest you check out this movie and watch it multiple times. A few weeks ago I reviewed The Visitor, an exquisite dramatic statement on the unique process the federal government (as any other leviathan-state) uses to crush citizens of Earth who happen to find themselves inside US boundaries with defective paperwork. In that Oscar-worthy movie, the unfortunate paper-deficient world citizen was from the Middle East. In Three Burials, our victim is a ‘border’-crosser from the south.

Written by Guillermo Arriaga
Directed by Tommy Lee Jones

Tommy Lee Jones … Pete Perkins
Barry Pepper … Mike Norton
Julio Cedillo … Melquiades Estrada
Dwight Yoakam … Belmont
January Jones … Lou Ann Norton
Melissa Leo … Rachel
Irrfan Khan … Police Inspector
Saurabh Shukla … Sergeant Srinivas Continue reading →

Guest Column: How the Government Suppresses Free Energy Technology

Posted on September 28, 2015 by Brian Wright

We know bountiful energy alternatives exist, why not unleash them…
By ‘Buck Rogers’ excerpted from Activist Post

Have you ever wondered what the world would be like if better and cleaner energy sources were widely available and affordable to all of earth’s people? If so, you’re not alone, as the quest for a better energy existence has been the focus of many ingenious inventors, scientists, experimenters and even corporate and government scientists for generations.

We know it’s possible, but for some reason, though, society just can’t seem to get beyond 23.6 or so miles per gallon on average, highway. The gap between what science is clearly capable of and what is available to the consumer mass market is extraordinary, and here really is no need to be using up the world’s fossil fuels and building nuclear plants as if there were no tomorrow, but we do. Continue reading →

Brian’s Column: The Death of Death Star Politics

Posted on September 27, 2015 by Brian Wright

Home of Postmaster 1, Sterling Heights, Michigan.

[Editor’s note: This column is an excerpt from the Tin Man’s Heart chapter of my novel in progress, The Truman Prophecy. The corresponding location in the book will likely see several changes before publication.]

Patrecia Bartlett turned off her TV in disgust. Mid-October 2015, the 2016 presidential candidates snorted and pawed in the early public forums leading into Primary Season. What earned her revulsion was the latest ‘debate’ among the Republican lot.

She seldom watched mainstream TV anymore, but succumbed today in a moment of weakness. Maybe this one time—with alleged libertarians Rand Paul and Ben Carson or apparent anti-MSM, Jack-in-the-Box billionaire Donald in the mix—a genuine ray of hope-laden light would slip out between the gears of the fog machine. Continue reading →

Book Review: The Deep Blue Good-By (1964)

Posted on September 25, 2015 by Brian Wright

by John D. MacDonald
Classic Travis McGee tale with language for the ages

1964 (renewal 1992) , Ballantine Books, 273 pages

For some reason there’s a gap in my reading history for John D. MacDonald’s fine fiction, especially the hugely popular Travis McGee mystery crime novels. So you can’t call me an expert witness in this case, but a friendly one on this his first in the Travis McGee series.

I had read something in the series before—I think it was the Pale Gray one (the Travis McGee titles always contain a color)—but did not remember what an astute judge of character ol’ Trav is… and how he teeters so on the edge of cynicism when it comes to sociological observations.

For example, in the Deep Blue Good-By, after Travis assesses his soon-to-be client—”The world had done its best to subdue and humble her, but the edge of her good tough spirit showed through.”—he launches into a broad internal diatribe on the world as he knows it: Continue reading →

Movie Review: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945)

Posted on September 23, 2015 by Brian Wright

A ‘respite movie’ from 1945 with a solid message (7.5/10)

Katie Nolan: Flossie Gaddis died last night.
Johnny Nolan: The poor baby. It was nice that her Mama got her all them pretty dresses.
Katie Nolan: Only now the poor thing will have to lie in Potter’s Field!
Johnny Nolan: But at least she had the dresses!

Novel by Betty Smith
Written by Frank Davis
Directed by Elia Kazan

Peggy Ann Garner … Francie Nolan
James Dunn … Johnny Nolan
Dorothy McGuire … Katie Nolan
Joan Blondell … Sissy Edwards
Lloyd Nolan … Officer McShane
James Gleason … McGarrity
Ted Donaldson … Neeley Nolan Continue reading →

Guest Column: DTE Power-Shutoff Attacks Continue

Posted on September 21, 2015 by Brian Wright

Michigan Nazis deprive elderly and infirm of electric power for disobeying orders

In the same month a 92-year-old disabled and blind Lincoln Park woman, Ms. Olga Puste, had her power shut off by DTE for refusing to allow a harmful-radiation-emitting surveillance electric meter to be installed on her home—feeble corporate apologetic from WXYZ-TV on 9/19/15 still conveys the atrocity committed on this poor woman by DTE—several Michigan citizens have been assaulted for the same reason.

This is a letter sent by David and Glenna Lonier (shown below right) of Auburn Hills to WXYZ-TV informing the station that they, too, have had their power stolen by DTE gangsta scum—accompanied by two local police officers also behaving like gangsters, violating their oaths of office to protect the life, liberty, and property of residents—under pretense of law… for the same reason as Ms. Puste. Continue reading →

Brian’s Column: Boyhood Visits to the Farm in Iowa

Posted on September 20, 2015 by Brian Wright

Reminiscences in response to Cousin Jim for his journey thru Kansas

Bro Forrest (R) and Me (L) with Tuton (Twoton)

[In the 1950s and 1960s my brother Forrest and I would go with Mom and Dad to my grandmother’s farm in Iowa. Cousin Jim and his wife are on a cross-country roadtrip heading ultimately down to New Orleans to visit his daughter. He has been trying to locate Gram’s step children, and now seems to have located them in Western Kansas. So he asks for memories and photos of the time, which I feel sans any real identifications, are appropriate for me to share out as a broader good will gesture to the rest of the human family.]

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Those were golden years in my childhood… except for the time that you and Forrest ganged up on me, when Aunt Donna slapped me for being sassy, and feeling totally out of it when the men would retire to the parlor after the big meal and talk in ‘man code.’ [It sounded like they were discussing very important matters, especially Grandpa Al. He seemed to lead the discussion, and had a way of sounding authoritative, though I’d have no idea what he was talking about. I expect my dad and Uncle Ted and the other younger men didn’t know what he was talking about either, but respectfully kept their end of it up.] Continue reading →