Book Review: Blowing Carbon (2009)

Short fiction and essays, by Jack Kline

Blowing Carbon is a first-time collection of entertaining, enlightening, and endearing stories from exciting new ‘Kansan-American’ author, Jack Kline. Jack is also the creator of the exciting Philip Morris private-eye series, starting with one-day-to-be blockbuster, But Not for Me… and sequel Rhapsody in progress. Enjoy this budding writer of heart and imagination as he conveys timeless human drama drawn from his own salt-of-the-earth experiences. Such as:

  • a haunting at a Lake of the Ozarks cabin
  • the truth about Mary and her little lamb
  • a woman’s conflicting memories of her childhood
  • a college student’s struggle with tacit racism in 1973
  • one father’s emotional turmoil at his daughter’s wedding
  • examining televangelists’ and TV wrestlers’ influence on a toddler
  • a snowy ride across Kansas and Colorado in a ’49 Mercury with a man who may be Santa Claus
  • a river rock’s poignant message of peace and timelessness

From the beginning, you’ll be hooked: places and times often circa Mr. Kline’s native digs (Overland Park, KS). But this is more than a Boomer book of poignant mischief and retrospection, all ages and conditions will see recurring universals on display here… I was especially moved by the essay regarding father letting go of daughter into matrimony and a life of her own. Actually, I was moved to tears on a couple of the pieces. Also smiles. And self-recognition.

In addition, Jack has a knack for seeing the big picture and speculating what life may be like years from now. His short “Post Literacy” essay rallies us subconsciously to hold onto a core practice of our common humanity… that is, reading and writing.

“I am a dinosaur, an antique, the last of a dying breed. Born at the end of the millennium in 1998, I sit here at my ancient pock-marked oak desk having outlived my peers. And I stand apart from the vast majority of humanity, not solely because I am 117 years old, but because I can read.” — Page 75

And rendering sharp, common sense satire of the anti-smoking crusade:

“Their numbers dwindle through incessant tax increases, anti-smoking campaigns, employer sanctions, shrinking allowable smoking locations, and of course attrition—because, after all, “smoking may be hazardous.” Being a smoker today is like being a leper in Biblical times. The anti-smoking forces are uncaring and ruthless. For example, in 2007, Bangor, Maine, implemented an ordinance instituting a fine of up to $50 for drivers who smoke in a car carrying a minor. And if they can ordain that, then why not in our own homes….” — Page 199 Continue reading

Brian’s Column: Independents Rising

From chapter of the same name in American Gumption-Catharsis
By Brian R. Wright

Note: This column is a transcription from Chapter 5: Independents Rising of my book on the Hendrickson Discovery, American Gumption-Catharsis, which argues that filing educated—according to Pete Hendrickson’s book, Cracking the Code—can be THE way to man up for psychological independence. End the universal immediate threat to the species of collective-brain syndrome (CBS) and collective-brain psychosis (CBP).

Context is the irrational response on Quora to Jeremy Lee’s arguments on the nature of the tax…

The negative commenters are all over the map with ad hominem, ridicule, appeals to authority, evidence-bereft assertions, irrelevancies, and just ordinary logical contradictions. Every fallacy in the book. Like talking to those who get their info from the national anchors.

And here’s the remarkable shared irrationality:

Virtually all the leading proliberty pundits, from Paul Craig Roberts to Jacob Hornberger—to the extent they don’t simply ignore the Discovery—exhibit the same mix of fallacious ‘thinking’ as the Olivias, Jeffs, and Bruces when they dismiss CtC-educated facts and logic.

Why?

I have a feeling the comprehensive answer to this simple question is potentially HUGE for the Discovery movement, as well as to right virtually every wrong in the world today and hold evil at bay indefinitely. So please bear with me for a page or five of analysis.

Consensus Mind (also Collar Mind, the ‘Collareds’)

Jon Rappoport coins the term ‘consensus reality,’ referring to the real-world side of the same phenomenon. In the old days of Ayn Rand and her then protégé, Nathaniel Branden, coined the term, social metaphysics, which is the psychological affliction of…

“…one who holds the consciousness(es) of other men, NOT objective reality, as his ultimate psycho-epistemological[1] frame of reference.” Continue reading