Guest Column: The ‘Grand Paul’ Movement Lesson

Posted on December 3, 2012 by Brian Wright

Republicans rage as the Great Burning arrives
by The Daily Bell

From the post-election November 08, 2012, Daily Bell report.

“Republicans descend into civil war as Tea Party movement vows to drive party further to the right … The Republican Party was last night descending into a civil war over control of its political future, as recriminations raged about its failure to oust Barack Obama and take control of the US Senate. Some conservatives warned colleagues that they risked annihilation by refusing to change and appeal to the women, younger and ethnically-diverse voters who had stood by Barack Obama since 2008. Yet many supporters of the Tea Party movement – whose agenda was rebuked across the US – claimed Mitt Romney had actually not been conservative enough, vowing to drive the party further to the Right.” – UK Telegraph Continue reading →

Brian’s Column: Panarchy Papers, Pt. 2

Posted on December 2, 2012 by Brian Wright

Elements of a new Declaration of Independence
by Brian Wright

Link to Panarchy Part 1

In my first Panarchy column, thanks to my discovery of the panarchy concept—i.e., freedom of choice of governments—I feel I finally assembled all the pieces to solve the Big Universal Problem (BUP). The BUP is essentially “tyranny”—the political domination of one group of men over another to the point of enslavement and destruction. My solution has a universal component applying to all humankind and a specific component re: my particular relationship to the American state… which is probably quite a common relationship. Continue reading →

Book Review: The Singularity is Near (2005)

Posted on November 30, 2012 by Brian Wright

When humans transcend biology
by Ray Kurzweil
Reviewed by Brian Wright

Original posting 11/28/2007

Speaking of watershed books of the life extension movement—that’s the comment I made about Engines of Creation, the previous book I reviewed—Ray Kurzweil’s magnum opus on the imminent promise of human-life enhancement technology has arrived. Actually it arrived a couple of years ago, but it’s taken me a while to get around to reading it. Continue reading →

Movie Reviews: An Affair to Remember (1957)

Posted on November 28, 2012 by Brian Wright

Inimitable, retro romantic comic-drama ___ 8/10
Review by Brian Wright

Terry McKay: Winter must be cold for those with no warm memories. And we’ve already missed the spring.

The famous quotation. But what is the context? Trying to reconstruct: it does take place in a dialog sequence between Terry McKay (Deborah Kerr) and Nick Ferrante (Cary Grant) aboard ship (a transoceanic cruise destined for New York)… and moves the plot along. By this time—following a significant side trip to an island where they visit Nick’s grandmother (Cathleen Nesbitt)—they have fallen in love. I’m pretty sure Terry is expressing her melancholy that, in the words of the song, “it’s sad to belong to someone else when the right one comes along.” Continue reading →

Guest Column: OK Thanksgiving Meditations

Posted on November 26, 2012 by Brian Wright

Thoughts from an Oath Keeper on the meaning
(and implications to Leviathan) of secession
by Chris Duane

It’s Thanksgiving. Our forefathers were thankful to live on a newly-discovered continent, and later they were thankful to live as freemen who had escaped the British Empire’s rule and control over their lives.

Today we are thankful for what yet remains of the traditions which have marked our country’s greatness over two centuries. But many of us are harried somewhat as we have noticed that our great country is drifting toward collectivism and away from the individualism which forged and formed America as the greatest nation on earth, in all of earth’s human history. Now people in all fifty States are talking about secession. It’s driving the communists mad. While enjoying our holiday, let’s look into the idea of secession vs collectivism. It will do the Pilgrim proud to hold such contemplations on this very special day. It also would please the ghost of Henry David Thoreau, don’t you agree? Continue reading →

Brian’s Column: Stepping up to the Law of Causality on 9/11

Posted on November 25, 2012 by Brian Wright

An open letter to my engineering colleagues concerning the tragic realities of 9/11

My Dearest Friends of Reason and Science:

First, please forgive the presumption— should it indeed be a presumption—that as a corollary of your being an engineer you have a absolute devotion to the validity of reason and science. It’s entirely possible in the years since graduation from engineering school someone may have convinced you otherwise, i.e. that things are true or false based on what God reveals or what other agencies (secular or clerical) claim to be true based on “higher authority” than objective reality as judged scrupulously by your own mind.

Continue reading →

Book Review: Debunking 9/11 Debunking (2007)

Posted on November 23, 2012 by Brian Wright

An answer to Popular Mechanics and other defenders of the official conspiracy theory… by Dr. David Ray Griffin
Review by Brian Wright (original post 2008-01-23)

2007, Olive Branch Press–Interlink Publishing Group, 385 pages

An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it. Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self-sustained. — Gandhi

For almost a year after the 9/11/2001 attacks, I’m extremely sad to report, I accepted the party line—the official government conspiracy theory: 19 radical Muslim Arabs with boltcutters, under direction of a diabetic (and CIA resource) on dialysis in a cave in Afghanistan, defeated the most sophisticated air defense system in the history of the world… in an hour—even becoming enamored of the Bush administration’s toughness and determination to root out and destroy these incredible antihuman monsters. (I’ll even admit to a little racial hatred thrown in for good measure.) Continue reading →