Movie Review: Dan in Real Life (2007)

Romantic comedy with an awkward family focus (7/10)

DanDan Burns: What don’t I understand, Cara? Please, help me out. What is it? Is it frustrating that you can’t be with this person? That there’s something keeping you apart? That there’s something about this person that you can connect with? And whenever you’re near this person, you don’t know what to say, and you say everything that’s in your mind and in your heart, and you know that if you could just be together, that this person would help you become the best possible version of yourself?

Steve Carell is fast becoming a Hollywood go-to guy, especially for (sort of) original comedies: The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Evan Almighty, and Get Smart.  But in less-comedic ‘real life’ roles as well, such as the suicidal, homosexual scholar brother-in-law in Little Miss Sunshine and now this romantic comedy, Dan in Real Life, which starts out with a considerable patch of pathos.  As in Sleepless in Seattle, the leading fellow must persevere with children following the death of the wife and mother everyone loves and misses desperately. Continue reading

Guest Column: Drive Free or Die

Help reverse the Portsmouth, NH, crushing of Uber
From Common Sense, by Paul Jacob (full column here)

UberEver told your kids to share? That’s aiding and abetting, you know.

Sharing is illegal.

At least, it is in Portsmouth, New Hampshire . . . regarding Uber.

The popular ride-sharing company may be widely heralded as the flagship of the new sharing economy, but a Portsmouth city ordinance effectively blocks the service, requiring that the company provide background checks on all drivers, which Uber calls “draconian.”

While the company is trying to get the city to alter that mandate, several Uber drivers have ignored the ban, continuing to pick up passengers. In October, police stopped Stephanie Franz, who now faces a $500 fine. Continue reading

Brian’s Column: The Truman Prophecy (2015), Excerpt #8

From Part 2: Toto, Chapter 6: Sliming Baby

vaccines[Excerpt from The Truman Prophecy, due for publication 12/25/15.]

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities — Voltaire

_________________ 4Q 2015

Sterling Heights, Michigan. What was it, wondered Trish, that turned normal, bright individuals (of means and standing in the community) into that Three Stooges’ routine—“slowly I turn, step by step, inch by inch…” then pummeling the person who says “Niagara Falls”—when anyone dared question the safety or efficacy of vaccines? Or allopathic[1] treatments and drugs? Or psychiatric drugs? Or psychiatry?

No idle question…

Because it leads to the deeper question:

Patrecia Bartlett (Patty B, Trish) was a serious student of epistemology.[2] She was particularly fascinated by how people’s mental functioning had been twisted and turned by Edward Bernays’ modern technology of mind control in conjunction—over the past 60 years—with what Professor Neil Postman referred to as TV Nation.

Those were the two primary drivers, as she saw it. Continue reading

Book Review: The Truman Prophecy (2015), Excerpt #7

From Part 2: Toto, Curtain #5: Fry & Spy on the Doorstep

Flag_II[Excerpt from The Truman Prophecy,
due for publication 12/25/15.]

“It is never wrong to take freedom for yourself…
It is never right to take freedom from another.”
— Jerry Day, FreedomTaker.com

_____________________________ 4Q 2015

Auburn Heights, Michigan. Feisty, bantam-weight Jake Foster had scrapped for his living since he was a boy on the tough streets of Pontiac. This latest dustup with the Michigan monopoly power company (DTE Energy—nee Detroit Edison) would yield the same response: a fight… perhaps to the finish.

Could he and his dear wife, Brenda, prevail?

The cards were stacked against them.

Today, without so much as a pleasant voice on the phone or polite notice in the mail, a pack of variously uniformed human-shaped entities showed up in and around his yard to shut off electric power to his home. Continue reading

Guest Column: Vaccine Injury Compensation

Government’s Broken Social Contract with Parents
by Barbara Loe Fisher
National Vaccine Information Center excerpt 11/10/15

Three decades ago, Congress created a federal vaccine injury compensation program (VICP) and gave the pharmaceutical and medical trade industries a partial product liability shield under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986. The goal was simple: to restrict civil lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers and negligent doctors whenever government mandated vaccines injure and kill Americans. 1

In the 21st century, Congress went further and directed federal agencies to develop a public-private business partnership with the pharmaceutical industry. 2 3 Today, multi-national corporations marketing vaccines enjoy a $15 billion dollar U.S. and $30 billion dollar global vaccine market that will reach $100 billion in 10 years. 4 5 Continue reading

Brian’s Column: The Truman Prophecy (2015), Excerpt #6

GMOFrom Toto: Curtain #4, Frankenfoods, Inc.

[Excerpt from The Truman Prophecy,
due for publication 12/25/15.]

A crust eaten in peace is better than a banquet partaken in anxiety. — Aesop

_______________________________4Q 2015

Birmingham, Michigan. “My god, that was ‘one spicey meatless ball!’” exclaimed the famed ‘alternative foods’ cook, and activist-author, Rudy Zabala.

Diana, his wife and confidante/muse/helpmate thru his years of struggle laughed in agreement. [That was another reason they’d stayed together thru thick and thin: she continued to be amused at his child’s sense of humor.]

She asked, “Isn’t this pasta recipe from your most recent cookbook, Doing Well by Eating Good… and Vice-Versa?” Continue reading

Book Review: The Truman Prophecy (2015), Excerpt #5

From Part 2: Toto, Curtain 3: Toxic Skies

Chemtrails[Excerpt from The Truman Prophecy, due for publication 12/15/15.]

“Look Up!” — William Baldwin (actor)

________________________  4Q 2015

Troy, Michigan. “Nothing mysterious or complicated about it.

“All you have to do is look up,” said Dr. Tanya Ryan.

“You mean to tell me those aren’t normal jet exhaust?” replied her client, Jack, a gentleman from Lake Orion in for his fortnightly lower-back adjustment.

With some time between sessions, she had walked with him to the front office, which featured a northern view of the skies over Oakland and Macomb counties. The atmospheric chem dumps were simply awful today—crisscross wide plumes low in the sky, also Morse-code type trails where the tankers turned the nozzles on and off. Continue reading