Movie Review: Far from Heaven (2002)

Posted on December 30, 2015 by Brian Wright

The way we (really) were _________ 9/10

Cathy Whitaker: That was the day I stopped believing in the wild ardor of things. Perhaps in love, as well. That kind of love. The love in books and films. The love that tells us to abandon our lives and plans, all for one brief touch of Venus. So often we fail at that kind of love. The world just seems too fragile a place for it. And of every other kind, life remains full. Perhaps it’s just we who are too fragile.

When I read the above bittersweet reflection from Cathy Whitaker (Julianne Moore)—homemaker extraordinaire in upscale, extremely class-conscious 1957 Hartford, Connecticut, and wife to Frank Whitaker (Dennis Quaid), high-powered sales executive at a leading ad agency—I thought, wow, that’s my exact impression of her… and sums up a major idea of the movie. The only problem is I’ve been back over the DVD several times, and I can’t find where anyone says these words! [If any of my readers can locate the statement, please contact me on the Coffee Coaster Blog.] Continue reading →

Guest Column: Mark Baker Closing His Family Farm

Posted on December 28, 2015 by Brian Wright

Michigan armed thugs chase patriot Mark Baker and family from farm and home
by Shane Trejo (Subtitle supplied by Coffee Coaster proprietor)
c/o Michigan Tenth Amendment Center

Friends,

Take a look at the picture above, and realize that is what you are living under. Totalitarianism has taken root in America, and it is a bipartisan affair. Both parties have sold our freedoms down the river.

The latest casualty in the government’s war against the rights of the people is Mark Baker. He is closing his small farm after many years of battling against state bureaucrats.

You can access his announcement at this link. A fuller background story appears here.

While we were enjoying the Christmas holiday, Michigan state bureaucrats under the command of Governor Rick Snyder and Attorney General Bill Schuette were terrorizing the family of a patriotic military veteran to drive him out of business at the behest of their special interest paymasters of the Michigan Pork Producers Association and other special interests in the industrial pork lobby . Continue reading →

Brian’s Column: Time for the 9/11 Justice Movement

Posted on December 27, 2015 by Brian Wright

And by that I mean independent, fully empowered grand juries…

… and of course, fully informed petit juries who exercise their authority over judges and prosecutors. So it’s been a long haul and a slosh thru the muck in the various truth movements, especially the premier one: 9/11 Truth. What, it will be 15 years this coming September, and so far no legitimate suspects have even faced indictment! No fully empowered, independent grand juries have been empaneled at either the federal or state levels. As a consequence, the 9/11 Truth movement shows signs of internal strife and nobody appears to be moving forward with focus to apprehend and prosecute the criminals who did the deed.

What follows is a Facebook post reply I made on a thread in the I am the Face of Truth Group deftly run by Claudio Marty et al. It concerns the general issue of ‘Judy Wood,’ whose proponents tend to take an adversarial tack to the standard Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth (AE911T) more ‘official story’ inside the 9/11 truth movement. I’m personally relatively new to hearing the Judy Wood theory(s)… but it’s been my general impression that partisans of Wood are dismissive of the body of work that has been produced by AE911T and other allied researchers. Here is my post today: Continue reading →

Book Review: The Audacity of Hope (2006)

Posted on December 25, 2015 by Brian Wright

Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream,
by Barack Obama (Review by Brian Wright, originally posted March 2007)

Editor’s Note: My thoughts today are I should at least rename this review as ‘The Naivete of a Dope,’ but I’m putting this old review up in the new format with a mixture of reluctance and astonishment… that I ever truly held these mostly benign opinions and judgments of perhaps one of the most vile and sadistic sociopaths the world has ever seen in such high office—and there have been several, presidents especially, as Obama’s predecessor. What particularly galls me is that I failed to see how Obama was cherry-picked by the same Imperial Globalist Junta as the Dubya crowd. [In fact, I actually believed Obama lay on the outside of Intelligence operations and the New World Order machinery.]

The ‘I Have a Drone’ President

On the positive side, what the book review shows is that reasonably intelligent people seeking the truth can correct and amend initial, radical, and deep misunderstandings QUICKLY. Roughly nine years after writing the original review—which is nothing in intellectual history years—I’ve come to a fundamentally new grasp of the nature of world politics. I assure you my personality has not shifted, nor my desire and vision for liberty. So without further ado, here’s the original. Comments in dark red. Continue reading →

Movie Review: How to Make an American Quilt (1995)

Posted on December 23, 2015 by Brian Wright

Authentic-feeling story of keeping it real 7/10

Finn Dodd:
For as long as I can remember, my grandmother and her friends have been a part of a quilting bee.
I remember sitting under the quilt frame pretending that I was surrounded by a forest of friendly trees and that their stitches were messages from giants written across the sky.
I used to spend my summers with my grandmother and my great-aunt, who lived in Grasse, California.
My mother would dump me there when she took off with her latest boyfriend.
My parents’ marriage didn’t last very long.
They said they didn’t love each other any more.
Or maybe they were just afraid that their relationship had become just like everyone else’s.
They eventually parted as friends.
And I eventually stopped thinking it was all my fault.
The truth is it’s no one’s fault. Sometimes love simply dies.

Well, first of all, check out the actors in this cast of the 1995 film—it was the nominated for the MTV “Best Kiss” award (Winona Ryder and Dermot Mulroney) and for the Screen Actors’ Guild “Best Performance by a Cast” award. Almost all of them are recognizable stars from the past, with some Academy Award winners, or have since then made solid acting careers for themselves… and there are so many of them. Continue reading →

Guest Column: Soviet-Style Justice

Posted on December 21, 2015 by Brian Wright

Whistleblower experiences ‘Nightmare’ in federal prison
by Shane Trejo, excerpted from column in Bold Future

“There is an expression in the English language called Kafka-esque,” an exasperated Pete Hendrickson said about his wife’s treatment by the American ‘Justice’ System. “It refers to being enmeshed in an institutional insanity and an institutional impropriety.”

In his first public interview since his wife was kidnapped and thrown behind bars for a crime she didn’t commit, Pete Hendrickson describes the tragic circumstances surrounding his wife’s condition behind bars. Taped back in October, Hendrickson, the author of Cracking the Code: The Fascinating Truth About Taxation In America gives a somber account of the legal nightmare that has torn apart his family. Doreen Hendrickson has now been imprisoned for close to seven months for speaking the truth: Continue reading →

Brian’s Column: The Truman Prophecy (2015), Foreword and Acknowledgments

Posted on December 20, 2015 by Brian Wright

Notes on the title, key metaphors, plot, structure, and characters

Right away, many will ask what’s with the title, The Truman Prophecy? Okay, what happened is one night, shortly after I’d decided to write this—my ‘liberation’ (and first) novel—I refresher-watched the movie, The Truman Show (1998).

It depicts the life of a young man, Truman Burbank, (Jim Carrey) who has been raised since birth as the unknowing star of a television show—with actors, crew, sets, ubiquitous miniature recording equipment, on a domed stage visible in deep space—broadcasting 24/7 to billions of admirers worldwide.

!!Movie Spoiler!!
To make a long story short, Truman figures out what’s going on. In the climactic scene, fan-deified director Christof (Ed Harris), who adores his creation, implores Truman to stay on the show (enjoying a comfortable life in an idyllic community). [Though things have changed, haven’t they? Now that Truman knows.] Continue reading →