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B.R. Merrick
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Joined: 2009-08-30
Columns on STR: 35
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brmerrick@optonline.net

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Male

Short bio:

B.R. Merrick writes for "Strike The Root" and "A Voice for Men," is  proud to be a classical music reviewer at Amazon.com and iTunes, and in spite of the poisonous nature of television, God Himself will have to pry his DVDs of “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” out of his cold, dead hands, under threat of eternal damnation.

RECENT COMMENTS BY B.R. Merrick

Columns by B.R. Merrick

God's Bastard Son
0
B.R. Merrick 2008-06-01 16:00
Exclusive to STR June 2, 2008 No, not Jesus. I'm not about to lambaste God Incarnate. Even people who don't believe in His divinity have a hard time going against anything He said when He was here. The Monty Python troupe, when plotting their next film after 'The Holy Grail,' considered a spoof on Jesus's life. After researching the Four Gospels, they came up empty-handed, not because they were...
My Day in Court
0
B.R. Merrick 2008-05-04 16:00
Exclusive to STR I walked out of my apartment in a good mood on a Saturday morning in March, to find a parking ticket on my car. I was parked in front of a dumpster. When I moved into this apartment complex years ago, I noticed that other tenants frequently parked in front of the dumpster, so I did, too. I knew full well that I could get ticketed, booted, or even towed, but I took my chances on...
Everything I Ever Needed to Know About Public School
0
B.R. Merrick 2008-03-30 16:00
Exclusive to STR March 31, 2008 "We don't read about dinosaurs."  Calvin, from Calvin & Hobbes Contrary to what I used to believe, what everyone else believed, and even the artist himself may have believed, Calvin was not a rotten little kid. He had a vivid imagination, amazing coping ability, and an indomitable spirit. In my opinion, his rottenness is almost entirely the fault...
EXTRA! Thomas Edison Rolls in Grave
0
B.R. Merrick 2008-03-19 03:00
Exclusive to STR If you're like me, you easily tire of lamenting everything you hate about the world. Here I've barely entered into the beginning of middle age, and I already feel like a curmudgeon when I hear the latest news about the goings-on in any bureaucracy. For my part, I will do my best as a Root Striker to provide helpful tips and a little hope for other would-be cranky old bastards,...
An Open Letter to David Horowitz (Although He Doesn't Know It)
0
B.R. Merrick 2008-03-12 03:00
Exclusive to STR The letter below was written in response to yet another mailing from a guy I used to listen to, foolishly believing the rhetoric about 'freedom' and 'liberty.' This guy is one of the worst offenders. I am ashamed of my former warmongering beliefs, and the way I have let 'intellectuals' like this fool me into going along, all of which I shall dive into in later writing. Stay...
The Breakup With My Lover
0
B.R. Merrick 2008-03-04 17:00
Exclusive to STR March 5, 2008 I was brought up to believe in the goodness of America , and that if anything bad ever happened, it was the fault of people who didn't realize how good America is. Even my church drilled it into us that the founding of our religion could not have happened anyplace else. You can make the same obvious conclusion that I did: God willed America to be the great country...
Charity Never Faileth
10
B.R. Merrick 2009-05-13 16:00
Exclusive to STR May 14, 2009 The title of this article comes from 1 Corinthians 13:8. I can't call myself a believer anymore, but I do believe quite strongly in the need for each of us to be charitable. I think it's good for us. I know that for me, it helps to remind me of things I tend to forget, when I think of what it is that I lack. There are plenty of people worse off than I am, or...
Separation of Me and State
10
B.R. Merrick 2009-07-26 16:00
Exclusive to STR I listened to Dr. Laura every once in a while years ago, back when I was proudly religious and conservative. She was, and I assume still is, unabashedly conservative. She took a lot of abuse for it, but she stuck with it. (Of course, it did make her a millionaire.) One time when I was listening, a man called in to tell her that a young woman he knew had just had an abortion...
Let Us Awake Now
10
B.R. Merrick 2009-06-04 03:00
Exclusive to STR On May 30, 1962, a modern musical masterpiece premiered in England ’s newest cathedral, built next to the remains of the cathedral that was destroyed when the Nazis bombed Coventry .  Benjamin Britten's "War Requiem" combines two choirs, two orchestras, three vocal soloists, and the Latin religious funeral text with...
The Fake TV Challenge Recommended
10
B.R. Merrick 2010-09-02 03:00
By B.R. Merrick   Exclusive to STR   In spite of my opposition to The War on Certain Kinds of Drugs, I wish to inaugurate a new war against another one. I have good reasons for doing so. This drug is cheap. It is everywhere. It is insidious. Once it is in your bloodstream, it is nearly impossible to extricate. It becomes infused with the cells of your body...
The Census Taker's Gun
10
B.R. Merrick 2010-09-24 03:00
Column by B.R. Merrick.   Exclusive to STR   “A Census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.” ~ Hannibal Lecter, “The Silence of the Lambs”   Okay, so a while ago, I had to go to a specialist to get something cleared up. Quite mild, all taken care of. It reminded me of how nice it is to have a...
How to Hurt the Poor
10
B.R. Merrick 2011-04-06 03:00
Column by B.R. Merrick. Exclusive to STR It didn’t spark this column; it merely stoked the flames: Arthur Silber is sick. Arthur is also poor. Arthur, who is a fantastic and observant writer, is reduced to begging. Chris Floyd, another fantastic writer and Silber admirer, has urged his readers to give something to Arthur to help. One of Floyd’s readers commented,...
Desire Is the Mother of Necessity
9.5
B.R. Merrick 2011-06-30 00:00
Column by B.R. Merrick. Exclusive to STR Necessity is the mother of invention. ~ ascribed to Plato   This alleged Platonic nugget may very well be true, but it does not take into account something that I believe is far more important, since it gets closer to the root of why we invent. If necessity is what leads to invention, what, if anything, leads to necessity?   I suppose any...
The Great White Lie Recommended
9.33333
B.R. Merrick 2010-06-23 03:00
By B.R. Merrick   Exclusive to STR   Like most good anarchists, I read Antiwar.com on a regular basis. They are to be commended for the outstanding work they do, and for the fact that they do it with such consistency. Recently, James Bovard posted an entry in the blog concerning the Obama Administration's refusal to permit discovery in the case of Maher Arar, a man who was...
The Prince of Peace
9
B.R. Merrick 2009-10-12 16:00
Exclusive to STR Three days after swearing an oath to uphold and defend The Constitution, a document that reserves the power to declare war to Congress and not the President, Barack Obama murdered 22 individuals, according to this article in Salon.com. Two hundred fifty-nine days later, he was rewarded for this butchery and the many more that followed when he accepted with great humility a prize...
Signs of Autumn
8
B.R. Merrick 2008-09-30 16:00
Exclusive to STR October 1, 2008 One of the reasons I love living in the Northeast is the change of seasons. I've lived in other areas of the country where there are some rather severe changes between winter and summer (and I love a good snowfall), but they miss the finer points of spring and fall almost entirely. How unfortunate for the millions stuck living in geographically inferior areas,...
Free Roman Polanski
8
B.R. Merrick 2010-06-14 03:00
Exclusive to STR   “Rosemary’s Baby” is one of the greatest films of all time, a one-of-a-kind original. The director of this masterpiece, one Roman Polanski, raped a thirteen-year-old back in the ‘70s. Technically, he never admitted this, and the charge of rape was dropped during a plea bargain, the state’s cynical way of making its own version...
Joe Stack and the Incomprehension of Liberty MUST READ
7.6
B.R. Merrick 2010-04-14 03:00
Exclusive to STR Other people have alreadysurmised the essentials of these tragic deaths quite well. I am assuming that the reader doesn’t need a recap of what transpired on February 18. And make no mistake about it: These are tragic deaths, using the original meaning of “tragic.” A tragedy concerns the downfall of a once great individual. “Hamlet...
Coercion Is Death
7.5
B.R. Merrick 2010-07-19 03:00
By B.R. Merrick.   Exclusive to STR     We all hold opinions. That's one of the many, many things that set us apart from the rest of the animal world. There's nothing wrong, in my opinion, with having an opinion. Hell, I've got plenty. Let's just take one opinion as an example:   I believe that the three greatest composers who ever lived are Johann...
David Holmes: A Capitalist's Eulogy
5
B.R. Merrick 2011-03-04 04:00
Column by B.R. Merrick.  Exclusive to STR  I was informed of David’s demise on Wednesday morning, December 15, 2010, just a few days before the same holiday that began my correspondence with this fascinating individual two years prior. It was my desire to get as much information as I could about David Lowden Holmes so that I could honor him the way he deserves. Sadly,...
Joe Stack and the Incomprehension of Liberty MUST READ
7.6
B.R. Merrick 2010-04-14 03:00
Exclusive to STR Other people have alreadysurmised the essentials of these tragic deaths quite well. I am assuming that the reader doesn’t need a recap of what transpired on February 18. And make no mistake about it: These are tragic deaths, using the original meaning of “tragic.” A tragedy concerns the downfall of a once great individual. “Hamlet...
The Fake TV Challenge Recommended
10
B.R. Merrick 2010-09-02 03:00
By B.R. Merrick   Exclusive to STR   In spite of my opposition to The War on Certain Kinds of Drugs, I wish to inaugurate a new war against another one. I have good reasons for doing so. This drug is cheap. It is everywhere. It is insidious. Once it is in your bloodstream, it is nearly impossible to extricate. It becomes infused with the cells of your body...
The Great White Lie Recommended
9.33333
B.R. Merrick 2010-06-23 03:00
By B.R. Merrick   Exclusive to STR   Like most good anarchists, I read Antiwar.com on a regular basis. They are to be commended for the outstanding work they do, and for the fact that they do it with such consistency. Recently, James Bovard posted an entry in the blog concerning the Obama Administration's refusal to permit discovery in the case of Maher Arar, a man who was...

 

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