Guest Column: Drive Free or Die

Posted on November 16, 2015 by Brian Wright

Help reverse the Portsmouth, NH, crushing of Uber
From Common Sense, by Paul Jacob (full column here)

Ever told your kids to share? That’s aiding and abetting, you know.

Sharing is illegal.

At least, it is in Portsmouth, New Hampshire . . . regarding Uber.

The popular ride-sharing company may be widely heralded as the flagship of the new sharing economy, but a Portsmouth city ordinance effectively blocks the service, requiring that the company provide background checks on all drivers, which Uber calls “draconian.”

While the company is trying to get the city to alter that mandate, several Uber drivers have ignored the ban, continuing to pick up passengers. In October, police stopped Stephanie Franz, who now faces a $500 fine. Continue reading →

Brian’s Column: The Truman Prophecy (2015), Excerpt #8

Posted on November 15, 2015 by Brian Wright

From Part 2: Toto, Chapter 6: Sliming Baby

[Excerpt from The Truman Prophecy, due for publication 12/25/15.]

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities — Voltaire

_________________ 4Q 2015

Sterling Heights, Michigan. What was it, wondered Trish, that turned normal, bright individuals (of means and standing in the community) into that Three Stooges’ routine—“slowly I turn, step by step, inch by inch…” then pummeling the person who says “Niagara Falls”—when anyone dared question the safety or efficacy of vaccines? Or allopathic[1] treatments and drugs? Or psychiatric drugs? Or psychiatry?

No idle question…

Because it leads to the deeper question:

Patrecia Bartlett (Patty B, Trish) was a serious student of epistemology.[2] She was particularly fascinated by how people’s mental functioning had been twisted and turned by Edward Bernays’ modern technology of mind control in conjunction—over the past 60 years—with what Professor Neil Postman referred to as TV Nation.

Those were the two primary drivers, as she saw it. Continue reading →

Book Review: The Truman Prophecy (2015), Excerpt #7

Posted on November 13, 2015 by Brian Wright

From Part 2: Toto, Curtain #5: Fry & Spy on the Doorstep

[Excerpt from The Truman Prophecy,
due for publication 12/25/15.]

“It is never wrong to take freedom for yourself…
It is never right to take freedom from another.”
— Jerry Day, FreedomTaker.com

_____________________________ 4Q 2015

Auburn Heights, Michigan. Feisty, bantam-weight Jake Foster had scrapped for his living since he was a boy on the tough streets of Pontiac. This latest dustup with the Michigan monopoly power company (DTE Energy—nee Detroit Edison) would yield the same response: a fight… perhaps to the finish.

Could he and his dear wife, Brenda, prevail?

The cards were stacked against them.

Today, without so much as a pleasant voice on the phone or polite notice in the mail, a pack of variously uniformed human-shaped entities showed up in and around his yard to shut off electric power to his home. Continue reading →

Guest Column: Vaccine Injury Compensation

Posted on November 9, 2015 by Brian Wright

Government’s Broken Social Contract with Parents
by Barbara Loe Fisher
National Vaccine Information Center excerpt 11/10/15

Three decades ago, Congress created a federal vaccine injury compensation program (VICP) and gave the pharmaceutical and medical trade industries a partial product liability shield under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986. The goal was simple: to restrict civil lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers and negligent doctors whenever government mandated vaccines injure and kill Americans. ¹

In the 21^st century, Congress went further and directed federal agencies to develop a public-private business partnership with the pharmaceutical industry. ² ³ Today, multi-national corporations marketing vaccines enjoy a $15 billion dollar U.S. and $30 billion dollar global vaccine market that will reach $100 billion in 10 years. ⁴ ⁵ Continue reading →

Brian’s Column: The Truman Prophecy (2015), Excerpt #6

Posted on November 8, 2015 by Brian Wright

From Toto: Curtain #4, Frankenfoods, Inc.

[Excerpt from The Truman Prophecy,
due for publication 12/25/15.]

A crust eaten in peace is better than a banquet partaken in anxiety. — Aesop

_______________________________4Q 2015

Birmingham, Michigan. “My god, that was ‘one spicey meatless ball!’” exclaimed the famed ‘alternative foods’ cook, and activist-author, Rudy Zabala.

Diana, his wife and confidante/muse/helpmate thru his years of struggle laughed in agreement. [That was another reason they’d stayed together thru thick and thin: she continued to be amused at his child’s sense of humor.]

She asked, “Isn’t this pasta recipe from your most recent cookbook, Doing Well by Eating Good… and Vice-Versa?” Continue reading →

Book Review: The Truman Prophecy (2015), Excerpt #5

Posted on November 6, 2015 by Brian Wright

From Part 2: Toto, Curtain 3: Toxic Skies

[Excerpt from The Truman Prophecy, due for publication 12/15/15.]

“Look Up!” — William Baldwin (actor)

________________________ 4Q 2015

Troy, Michigan. “Nothing mysterious or complicated about it.

“All you have to do is look up,” said Dr. Tanya Ryan.

“You mean to tell me those aren’t normal jet exhaust?” replied her client, Jack, a gentleman from Lake Orion in for his fortnightly lower-back adjustment.

With some time between sessions, she had walked with him to the front office, which featured a northern view of the skies over Oakland and Macomb counties. The atmospheric chem dumps were simply awful today—crisscross wide plumes low in the sky, also Morse-code type trails where the tankers turned the nozzles on and off. Continue reading →

Movie Review: The Boxer (1997)

Posted on November 4, 2015 by Brian Wright

Love among the ruins of “the Troubles” (8/10)

Danny: I’m not a killer, Maggie, but this place makes me want to kill.

A pleasant discovery, for some reason not a major work that many people know of in the Daniel Day-Lewis oeuvre, which includes:

A couple of these he won Oscars for and for others he was nominated, for Last of the Mohicans I believe he won an award for cross-country running. 🙂 (And it’s still one of my top 10.) As in the first three in the list, the movie has to do with Ireland, in this case the IRA (Irish Republican Army) and one individual Danny Flynn. A promising young boxer, at 18 Danny had some role in the IRA that landed him in jail, where they kept him for 14 years because he wouldn’t inform on anyone. Continue reading →