Brian’s Column: Obamacare and the Constitution

Posted on March 3, 2013 by Brian Wright

“You don’t have the power, Droneboy!”

Many of us Apollo 13 fans remember the exchange between the young lead engineer played by Loren Dean and Gene Cernan (Ed Harris) during heated discussions about how to get the astronauts of that mission back to earth safely. Basically, the plans everyone had for moving and navigating the ship, maintaining radio communications, powering the instrumentation, hydraulics, lights, and life support, etc. presumed an amount of power that simply wasn’t there… i.e. “we don’t have the power, Gene!” Continue reading →

Movie Review: October Sky

Posted on February 27, 2013 by Brian Wright

Launching into my Top 10 Movie List for many reasons

Homer: Dad, I may not be the best, but I come to believe that I got it in me to be somebody in this world. And it’s not because I’m so different from you either, it’s because I’m the same. I mean, I can be just as hard-headed, and just as tough. I only hope I can be as good a man as you. Sure, Wernher von Braun is a great scientist, but he isn’t my hero.

… leaving unstated, “You are,” i.e. that his dad is his hero. Kudos to the screenwriter, or perhaps the director or actors themselves, for letting the audience complete this sentence. It’s just such a sign of intelligent life for these kinds of “boy-makes-good-through-struggle-and-family-values” movies that can easily succumb to sloppy sentimentality. Continue reading →

Guest Column: Imagine There’s No Congress

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Brian Wright

Rolling down the road on the deconsent bandwagon
by Jim Babka

You don’t need government when you have one another.
— Russell Means

I regard this column by Jim, and the two that preceded it ([1] and [2]), as a significant contribution to best strategy for countering—at the grass roots level—the Leviathan State. Essentially we counter via denial of consent (DOC) through insistence on the Zero Aggression Principle (ZAP) as he and others, chiefly the Libertarian Enterprise and Rational Review Program, have named it… or the Sacred Nonaggression Principle (SNaP), as I have named it. Jim and I have exchanged thoughts on DOC. My only significant complementary idea is to finesse the transition to the New Paradigm of nonaggression by cultivating practical ‘freedom of choice’ of government, otherwise known as panarchy. After all, government isn’t the problem per se, rather compulsive, coercive government. As people opt out of the current system by choosing their own government-service providers (or none)—under umbrella of a yet-to-be-written Universal Nonaggression Protocol—our criminal state dies a quick, sure death with minimal collateral damage. — Brian Wright, ed, 2/25/2013 Continue reading →

Omamacare VI

Posted on February 24, 2013 by Brian Wright

“I really want a hamburger!”
by Brian Wright

TajMahal [Previous: Omamacare V]
On Wednesday early a.m., 1/23/13, Mom was short of breath and her pulse was racing by my feel. She eventually insisted on going to ER (I had actually become inured to her seeming out of breath and was balking at taking her in!!). We arrived at emergency about 9:00 or 10:00 a.m.

The ER physician saw her fairly quickly and because pulse was remaining high w/nitro and other meds, he suggested entubation to enable breathing with ventilator assist; I agreed (not fully realizing the ramifications). At ~1300 she was moved—unconscious, because sedative is used for inserting the tube—to ICU. This is where Omamacare VI starts. Mother, unconscious, is basically breathing with ventilator assistance in ICU, while ICU diagnoses the root problem. I’m a bit foggy on events and personnel in this early hospitalization timeframe. Continue reading →

Wednesdays with Diether (2003)

Posted on February 22, 2013 by Brian Wright

Opinions, Observations, and Reminiscences from
His Weekly Kalamazoo Gazette Column
by Diether Haenicke (DEE-TER HEN-ICK-A)

When I first heard of this book I was thinking, all right, some German dude is trying to horn in on the Mitch Albom franchise. Albom is a former sportswriter for the Detroit Free Press and renowned author of best selling book Tuesdays with Morrie—which was made into a movie starring Jack Lemmon and Hank Azaria. His celebrity now transcends the metro Detroit area, where I believe he continues to write, host a radio program, and generally perform good deeds. Continue reading →

Movie Review: Last Picture Show (1971)

Posted on February 20, 2013 by Brian Wright

Bogdanovich’s big score w/ McMurtry gold __ 10/10

Jacy Farrow: Why can’t I go to college here in Wichita Falls?
Lois Farrow: Because everything is flat and empty here…
nothing to do.

When this movie came out in 1971—well before the advent of Siskel and Ebert—it was highly celebrated in the artistic community, and it seemed all the commentary feted the young director Bogdanovich as the next great genius in moviedom. I remember watching this one at a semi-art theaters in Birmingham, Michigan. And being a 22-year-old firebrand Randian libertarian at the time, I blithely pigeonholed the movie as “naturalistic,” which was close to “behaviorism” in Rand’s basement of epithets.[1] Continue reading →

Guest Column: The Real State of the Union

Posted on February 18, 2013 by Brian Wright

“People’s Protection-Manual” on life support
by John Galt

Instead of the traditional Republicon versus Demoliar debate which ensues for theatrics on cable news, I thought a more prudent analysis of the State of the Union after Obama’s first term is much more appropriate and realistic as to where our nation is going in the future.

Thus I present the following commentary on the State of the Union for the United States of America by analyzing our Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution and their status as of tonight.

Original column by John Galt-Florida here. Continue reading →