Brian’s Column: Wanted: Locker Room Attendant

Posted on December 16, 2012 by Brian Wright

Notes from the front lines of the Great Recession
by Brian Wright (originally posted 11/15/2010)

As part of my Old Paradigm[1] job search process, I have resumes posted on a couple of online search firms: Monster.com (and—Senior Moment!—I forget the other one it’s been so long since I’ve received any reasonable inquiries). I also had listed my resume with a more direct peddler of personnel named QuintCareers, where my account profile specifies technical or marketing writing/editing but also, apparently, leaves a big door open by listing an “Other” category in my preferred industry focus… not to mention leaving the low end of my salary needs at 10,000 FRNs annually. So I’ve been going along for probably three-four years receiving emailed newsletter lists of mainly technical writing jobs in three regions of the US: New England, Mid-Atlantic, Great Lakes. Continue reading →

Book Review: Living Deliberately (2011)

Posted on December 14, 2012 by Brian Wright

Bridging self-help, popular, and mystical teachings
by Hrvoje Butkovic
Review by Brian Wright

Several months ago, Mr. Butkovic sent me a note stating that he had read my review of the book The Secret on Amazon, and he wondered if I might do the same for his book, Living Deliberately. To which I responded, “Sure, but I would prefer to write a review on my own site, the Coffee Coaster. Hrvoje is I believe a Croatian name (not the easiest name for Americans to pronounce, but he tells me just call him ‘Groovy’), and the author makes his home in South Africa. I inform Hrvoje that in the grand scheme of the cosmos I, too, have recently become interested in the spiritual side of things, having started development on a spiritual philosophy I refer to as FLOW. Continue reading →

Movie Review: Avatar (2009)

Posted on December 12, 2012 by Brian Wright

Flags of our fathers… and our brothers _ 11/10
Reviewed by Brian Wright

Jake Sully: The Sky People have sent us a message. That they can take whatever they want, and no one can stop them. But we will send them a message. You ride out as fast as wings can carry you, you tell the other clans to come, you tell them Toruk Makto calls to them, and you fly now, with me, brothers, sisters, and we will show the Sky People, that they cannot take whatever they want. That this… this is our land!

Continue reading →

Guest Column: Sip Java, Write Judge

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Brian Wright

Take a Folger’s Moment to help free Bernie-von
by Perry Willis

Bernard von NotHaus (68) faces many years in prison. What was his crime? Von NotHaus dared to compete with the Federal Reserve monopoly to provide people with an alternative form of money based on gold and silver. His customers were happy with his service.

But the federal gangsters were not happy. (If you think I’m wrong to call them gangsters please see my counter-argument below). The feds hate it when their legalized counterfeiting has to compete with money having real value. So… Continue reading →

Brian’s Column: Panarchy Papers, Pt. 3

Posted on December 9, 2012 by Brian Wright

First cut on a modern declaration of independence
by Brian Wright

Link to Panarchy Papers, Pt. 2

So what’s this all about? First, I have come upon the concept of panarchy[1], thanks to this Website I visited a few weeks ago. The fundamental idea of panarchy is free choice of government. The government we Americans have come to know and loathe was set up by the founding fathers based on “implied” consent, and as Lysander Spooner questioned in No Treason, why should a man be bound to a contract he never signed? Panarchy resolves that question: a man should not be bound to any contract except those he explicitly makes. This is the advance we have been looking for: government by full consent, government by contract. Such a full-agreement form of government may not have been possible in the late 1700s (when the Divine Right of Kings had only just been challenged). But it makes sense now. Continue reading →

Book Review: Drug War Addiction (2001)

Posted on December 7, 2012 by Brian Wright

From the front lines of America’s #1 policy disaster
by Sheriff Bill Masters
Reviewed by Brian Wright

Editor’s note: I met Sheriff Bill at the 2002 Libertarian Party National Convention in Indianapolis. He looked just like the picture, authentic law-enforcement (LE) good guy, unpretentious, whistle blower. He had the inside skinny on how corrupt the cops of Samland had become, almost all being on the take in the Drug Racket. With federalization, the drug war money from the Washington—guns, SWAT teams, civil forfeiture, and simply mountains of tax loot—made for a welfare system few of his buddies in Colorado LE could resist. It became just too easy to become a self-righteous thug. The book was hot stuff around the l/Libertarian circuit in 2001 when it came out. I bought the book from his table, did a read in a couple of days, and found it remarkable that so little a book could be so dense-packed with moral and practical observations of the “#1 policy disaster.” Continue reading →

Movie Review: Emperor of the North (1973)

Posted on December 5, 2012 by Brian Wright

Ultimate no-baloney-stuff hobo movie _ 9/10
Reviewed by Brian Wright

A no. 1: You ain’t stopping at this hotel, kid. My hotel! The stars at night, I put ’em there. And I know the presidents, all of them. And I go where I damn well please. Even the chairman of the New York Central can’t do it better. My road, kid, and I don’t give lessons and I don’t take partners. Your ass don’t ride this train!

A no. 1: [At the end of the movie, A No. 1 throws Cigaret off of the train, into a pond, and shouts to him from the train] Hey kid you got no class. Hit the bums, kid. Run like the devil. Get a tin can and take up mooching. Knock on back doors for a nickel. Continue reading →