Brian’s Column: Atlas Shrugged Phenom

Posted on April 18, 2011 by Brian Wright

Comments on the cultural impact of the film
by Brian Wright

After more years than I can count, Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged reached the silver screen yesterday, Friday, April 15, 2011. A small group of my idea-interested friends and I attended the 7:15 showing at a cineplex in Lansing, Michigan. The show was not sold out. In fact, I estimate less than 1/4 of the 400 seats were filled… average age 40-something, with perhaps 40 30-somethings and below. Hardly any teens.

Regardless of the numbers—Atlas Shrugged the Movie (ASM) was not marketed like Harry Potter —the film is an important cultural milestone(s). My focus in today’s column is the cultural and ideological relevance of the film. On Wednesday next, I review the movie itself. — bw Continue reading →

Brian’s Column: Libertarian Alternative Government

Posted on March 14, 2011 by Brian Wright

Modest proposal to the LP of Michigan, March 2011

“That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any … government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it…”

or to fire the dipwads and find someone else to do the job. Continue reading →

Human Interest: Full Circle

Posted on March 7, 2011 by Brian Wright

Short story by Brian Wright

The Proprietor is posting his first short story today, actually a roughly 1000-word excerpt (out of ~3000 words), with a link to the full PDF version at the bottom of the excerpt. I’m asking that those who are interested in viewing or printing off the full PDF short story kick in a dollar or two via PayPal in the spirit of new-author encouragement—if results are positive, more stories will come. Still, access to the PDF file is not contingent on donation. Thank you. — bw Continue reading →

Brian’s Column: Tax Season Shuffle

Posted on February 14, 2011 by Brian Wright

“Just think of the money you get back!”

Well, it’s that time of year, you bet, all the reporting forms—Wn’s and 1099s and the corresponding ones for ‘income’-tax-enabled states—are supposed to have been delivered to the pigeons, er, ‘taxpayers’, by the end of January. I love the cheerful banter you hear from our home-grown victim class: “This is going to be a really good year, I’m getting a lot of money back!” [I’m reminded how a boy feels when his parents finally let him break open the piggy bank… only most parents don’t funnel 90% of junior’s deposits into their own pockets.] Continue reading →

Brian’s Column: The Barrier Cloud and 9/11 Truth

Posted on January 3, 2011 by Brian Wright

Cosmic significance of facing deep facts
by Brian Wright

“The extent to which our national security state was systematically marshaled for the assassination of President John Kennedy remains incomprehensible to us. When we live in a system, we absorb a system and think in a system. We lack the independence to judge the system around us. Yet the evidence we have seen points toward our national security state, the systemic bubble in which we all live, as the source of Kennedy’s murder and immediate coverup.”
— from JFK and the Unspeakable, James Douglass, page 370. Continue reading →

Brian’s Column: Panarchy Papers, Pt. 1

Posted on November 29, 2010 by Brian Wright

Making a clean transition from Old Paradigm to New
by Brian Wright

So what’s panarchy? Interestingly, until a couple of weeks ago I’d never heard or read the term, but I pinged a Google ad for an active-looking site called Panarchy South Jersey, then sent the Webmaster a note. Which led to more search, esp. this Wikipedia entry, showing the idea of being able to choose governments dates back to at least 1860 with a man named de Puydt… who wrote: Continue reading →

Brian’s Column: Omamacare II

Posted on November 22, 2010 by Brian Wright

Henry Ford
“Hey, this is the only mom I got!”
by Brian Wright

[Omamacare i]
Background

Phyllis Wright, aka Mom (84), has been undergoing hemodialysis at a facility associated with St. Mary Mercy Hospital in Livonia, Michigan, since roughly October 2009. It’s a treatment for latent polycystic kidney disease (PKD), which runs in our family—my mom’s mother had it, too, and (without dialysis) lived to be 92. Mom is covered by Health Alliance Plan, which is a PPO associated with Henry Ford Healthcare System, whose physicians and personnel are paid by the plan for Mom’s medical treatment. Continue reading →