In the middle of the night I received a message from Laura Sanders who is working on the Move Forward Lakota campaign, a group that is advocating the passage of a new levy at the Lakota School District. She wanted to show me her new video, which is nice and I think well-edited. But like I wrote her, where in the video does it say “WHY is more money required?” We know teachers are valuable to the community. But Lakota is not underfunded. It’s a district with $165 million dollar budget that we know about, and in all reality is closer to $250 million in total revenue. Yet it is the average pay rate of the employees in the district that hovers just over $63K per year that is driving up those costs, so how much is too much?
Like I said to Laura, having money to put on a glitzy show does not provide justification for the expenses. We cannot manage our district if teacher pay is simply a bottomless pit. Lakota has at least $30,000 to start their levy campaign with and I’m sure they will receive more over this next campaign. To see who gives money to them and what their campaign finances look like read this article which breaks down how much they spent last year, how much they have to spend this year, and who gave them money by clicking on the link below:
The belief from the Move Forward Campaign is that if they spend money, they will automatically convince people of their need. And that’s what they’ve done with their new ad. In the heading Laura titled it “Creative Battle” I suppose in response to the No Lakota Levy’s latest video which you can see here:
You can see our website at www.NOLAKOTALEVY.com where that video launches upon your visit.
I have heard some of the most foolish comments in my adult life regarding Issue 2, which is the ultimate fix for these budget problems, especially at Lakota. I know for a fact that there are teachers at the top of the pay scale that aren’t worth 45K per year let alone 80K and 90K. Only in a union under collective bargaining could weak people earn so much. But then there are some teachers that are worth that much money. But if the Lakota Levy fails and cuts are made, it will be the newer teachers who cost the least and generally have the most ambition that we’ll lose, unless Issue 2 holds. The argument the public workers are making is similar to me telling my editor that, “the book will be terrible if we lose these characters. I refuse to make revisions to my 110,000 word manuscript!” They would then say, “Ok, thank you for the opportunity to work with you Mr. Hoffman, but we can’t afford the publishing cost of a book that large. Such a large book has limited market value because statistics show that most people are intimidated by large books, so we would never recover our initial investment, so good luck on finding another publisher.” The Issue 2 group does not understand that by trimming down a manuscript or a school district we make them stronger.
While all this discussion over Issue 2 is percolating and unions are dug in deep with their rhetoric and talking points, Lakota is after more money to supplement a contract with it’s union that is excessively high, the Cincinnati Reds are floating offers for their star player in Joey Votto, who is currently the gem of our local baseball team. He’s the ideal baseball player and we’d all like to see him stay in Cincinnati for his entire career. But in reality, Joey will most likely decline in production over the coming years, and he is set to make more than 20 million a year, because his contract dictates that much. So the Reds should follow the formula of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and dump him for a fresh young player that costs much less but can give comparable numbers. The Reds would have to do this because to keep Votto means they couldn’t afford other players that will be needed to create a valuable franchise. So at some point in the near future, the Reds will have to cut Votto, which will be painful, just like editing a book, or managing a school district. It’s painful, and emotional, but we are REQUIRED to do what is right for the organization we are representing. What dictates the Reds cut Votto is that they don’t have a budget which allows for him in the future. Public workers don’t understand this. They simply believe that tax increases will allow for them to have everything, job security and all employees making healthy wages without competition driving costs down. They believe this because a budget limit has never been established, which is what we are doing with the No Lakota Levy group, helping to manage costs by setting a limit.
Study the young man standing in front of his parent’s very nice home, yet is a philosopher of the world who like so many young people is untested and believe that they know it all. They only believe such things because life has not chipped away at their beliefs yet, and they live in a world that tells them they do know it all, and that life begins to end at age 25.So from their perspective, they are at the prime of their existence, and like the honey bee in service to a hive, they are vigorous to serve the “queen,” (MOTHER EARTH) before their time expires into decline. This young man was recently RIF’d from GameStop, and he wants to know where his job is and explains in an interview why he is one of the protestors participating in the “Occupy Movement.”
You can hear more from young people who are participating in this “Occupy Movement” with Doc Thompson and Bill Cunningham of 700 WLW by clicking on this very illuminating broadcast below. Cunningham actually sounded like his old self for a change when he was confounded by the young woman’s sense of belonging to a “greater cause.”
There are three games growing up that I refused to participate in. First was the game of Chess. I used to disregard strategy in favor of straight on combat thinking that strategy was a sign of weakness. I believed that until I read the Art of War and the Book of Five Rings. After those books I played chess on a PC to learn the basics and understand how important it is to think 5 to 10 moves ahead of your opponent. The second game was Poker, because I always associated that game with gambling, which I’m completely against. To win at poker requires a certain level of deceit, the ability to maintain a “Poker Face” which implies a level of dishonesty. To this day I still have not played this game for that reason. The third game is Golf. I have been invited many times to play the game and have rejected them all since golf has a public perception of a “gentleman’s” game which is a stereotype I have sought to avoid. I recently played Wii Golf in our living room and enjoyed the game without the country club culture and socializing with men in checkered pants and a false sense of titan-like world knowledge as big fish in a small pond. For all the reasons I have avoided golf in my life is due to the image of the President playing golf with John Boehner. I always viewed those power games as something similar to “anal lube,” and I don’t swing that way. When I have a meeting with an opponent I don’t allow for the opportunity to be swindled under a false pretense of peace under a flag of neutrality, which is what the game of golf represents to me.
It is within those three games however that the skills for seeing the greater strategy which is at play with these “Occupy Movements.” Those games require an understanding of the skills needed to dominate a culture and demonstrate how powerful people think 5 to 10 moves ahead of time and implement their strategy over decades to win. It requires an understanding of reading “poker faces” to see what is really going on behind your opponent and it demands knowing who is tied to who in alliances formed on the golf courses of the world. This is where Bill Cunningham is stuck with Issue 2 in my opinion; he is in league with too many people in public service to think with a clear head. That is a prime example as to why I avoid golf games, so I can remain free to throw criticism where it deserves to be, regardless of whatever friendships or leagues are formed.
The great despair these protestors are discovering is that they were told they’d be chess masters themselves, but upon entering adulthood they learn they have always only been pawns, and their parents were no better, and disillusion is engulfing them as they turn on their own society in a game that is and will remain beyond their comprehension.
And as the news broadcasts cover the globe showing these events erupting all over American, strategists sitting at large glass tables overlooking vast vistas in Hong Kong, Buenos Aires, Geneva, Rio, London, Paris, Berlin, Moscow, and Beijing utter under their breaths, “Checkmate.”
I recently did an article about Issue 2 where I compared the details of that very good bill to the aerospace company Boeing, building its new manufacturing plant in South Carolina. To see that article click the link:
Even though Tampa Bay lost big today it is important to have adversity because it builds character, and when a young team like the Bucs are have been winning at will, they sometimes take things for granted. So losses are opportunities to build character, because the overall franchise is more than one game and this article is about the “bigger picture.” The young kids will bounce back and solve their problems, because the foundation beneath the loss is of high quality. And such a lesson is one everyone faces at some time or another whether it be an individual, or an organization. Winning all the time does not challenge the soul, overcoming something that shakes your foundations do. And with all the talk on this site about failure in government, it is because they do not go back to the film room and figure out why. They just ask for a “bailout,” and lose time and again without improvement and use higher taxes to prop up their self-esteem. A football team does not have the option of raising taxes. They have to dig deep and improve themselves.
On any given Sunday in the falling leaves of autumn, at the end of my driveway you will see two flags. You will also see flags all the way up my driveway and on the porch of my house also. And in the living room on football Sunday, it’s always Halloween, even at Christmas, as skulls, smoke machines and more flags are displayed. But the flags at the end of my driveway are special, very special, because they were given to me by the owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers himself and are the focus of my enjoyment of that football team which is run by that very innovative and generous family in one of my favorite cities, Tampa Bay.
To understand the history of why I’m a Tampa Bay Buccaneer fan, please see two of my previous articles on this subject.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers as an ownership represents much about my own style of management, and ideas about how all organizations should work They have as a franchise produced an extraordinary number of great players, coaches, and personalities who now populate the TV analyst’s booth on every sports channel. But they have done so without a lot of hoopla and fanfare, unless you happen to live in Tampa Bay. To the world outside of Tampa Bay, The Buccaneers are just another NFL team. The media doesn’t really understand why they are special, only that there is something unique going on in the Bay City of Florida that they sometimes contemplate with empty questions, and even emptier answers.
Players have come and gone, and coaches too, but in Tampa Bay there has been a consistency of always being competitive, of at least being an exciting team to watch no matter what year it was. The history of the team runs deep. Unfortunately, because NFL teams cannot afford to keep all their highly paid players, due to business limits, a team like the Buccaneers must always push the limits and dig deep to find ways to win even when they lose their best talent.
After losing coaches like John Gruden, which was a business decision, Monte Kiffin, the future Hall-of-Fame defensive coordinator, Warren Sapp, John Lynch, Derrick Brooks, (due to age) and many, many others including the power running full-back Mike Alstott, Tampa seemed out of cannon balls after nearly a decade of dominate defense and trend setting achievements as a franchise. All over the country, sports reporters were predicting doom and gloom for the Buccaneers. But I wasn’t, and neither were the Glazers. The Glazers knew they had been breeding talent down in Tampa for years and decided that if they were losing all that great talent on all sides of the ball, including coaches that they needed to look internally for the next great coach to build their team and maintain their reputation. The Glazers were not looking to an “outsider” to just merely win games in Tampa Bay. The Glazers wanted to preserve their culture that they had built, a static culture that required someone who had always been there and grown up in the organization all along, starting as a very young man.
It wasn’t hard for me to predict that Raheem Morris would be the next head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Bucs had lost Mike Tomlin to the Pittsburg Steelers who was a coach in Tampa just a few years prior, and they weren’t going to lose the much sought after assistant coach in Raheem to another team, because Morris had grown up with all those great players and coaches on the inside, and the Glazers had enough understanding of what they brought to the NFL to keep a coach who could maintain their culture with a dynamic personality full of energy. So the Bucs promoted Raheem Morris to head coach and defensive coordinator, which was unprecedented in the NFL and drew much criticism from virtually every expert in the industry. Many were saying that Tampa Bay Buccaneer Football was on its way out.
Except me…….and I let Bryan Glazer know it after a series of terrible loses where the youngest head coach in the NFL was struggling through his first season with a decimated team lost to free agency, and age. But Raheem is the kind of guy who never quits, and his personality is as my wife says……infectious, so it was only a matter of time before Raheem turned things around and got the Tampa Bay Buccaneers playing the caliber of football everyone expected from this very dynamic organization, a team that could live up to that Jumbo Tron intro. Bryan sent me those flags in thanks because it was a tough time for he and his family. Virtually everyone was calling them stupid, cheap, and out-of-touch for hiring Morris when Bill Parcels had indicated he wanted the Tampa job, and news analysts were chipping away at the Glazer family credibility at every opportunity. But they trusted their instincts and stayed with Morris, and I thought a kind word would go a long way in their darkest hour. So Bryan sent me those flags in thanks. Those flags aren’t the kind you can buy from a street vender or even on EBay. They are only passed out during home playoff games, so they are very rare. Bryan gave me the ones he had on his desk.
Meet Raheem Morris here, and let him show you around the Tampa Bay Organization:
I love his energy! One of the first things he did after his first dismal season was draft Josh Freeman, which drew an extraordinary amount of criticism, because many felt that Freeman was not a marquee quarterback, because there were much higher profile quarterbacks on the block and that Morris was out-of-his mind for taking Freeman!
Most fans had the same reaction as that guy, but Raheem knew what he was doing and the Glazers trusted his decisions, even if everyone in the world thought Raheem Morris was out of his mind. In this early interview, you can see much of what Morris saw in the young Josh Freeman, a mature kid even-keeled who would not panic in the 4th quarter under pressure and would provide a stable platform all the other players could build themselves around.
Another controversial player that Raheem Morris went after which nobody understood was LeGarrette Blount, a fiery young running back from Oregon who seemed to have a very violent temper. Blount would have been drafted higher if not for this fight which would haunt him even to this very day, as sports analysts will not forget the incident. Blount is one of those people who were destined to fall between the cracks because nobody with any sort of vision would look beyond his brutal will to fight, which was mistaken as a ruthless will to win, at any cost.
I saw the game with Blount and I noticed how he squared his shoulders to invite the fight, and was not afraid. He seemed to run the ball the same way, without fear and with a fury. I saw something unique in the kid, and Morris obviously saw the same thing. But the Tennessee Titans missed this genius, because Blount’s fighting didn’t stop in the Titans training camp, again, here is a kid who will fight for every inch and does not understand what the word “quit” is. Here is Blount in just a practice where he loses his helmet and still won’t let the defense stop him, which triggers a violent exchange.
Raheem convinced the Buccaneer Organization to sign Blount as an unsigned free agent once the Titans cut him. Because Morris has such an “infectious” personality, Tampa Bay was able to get a hold of a player similar to Warren Sapp only on the offensive side of the ball. Tampa for the first time since Mike Alstott had a runner in the back-field that could pound the ball in a way the Buc fans had come to expect. Warren Sapp had the calm and cool Tony Dungy to keep Sapp from flying apart in rage. And Blount now had the bubbly and good personality of Morris to compliment his very natural aggression and provide leadership and direction so that LeGarrette Blount could be what he was built to be, one of the greatest running backs of this modern age.
LeGarrette Blount is pure, raw energy, but the credit to giving this kid a chance, belongs to Raheem Morris. Have a look at what Blount has been able to do for the Bucs.
The organization isn’t just those two guys. There are dozens of similar young people who have been quietly recruited into the Buccaneers and they are too numerous to list here. What becomes quickly apparent when studied is that Tampa Bay as a franchise recruits dynamic personalities into a static pattern established by the Glazer Family to use those dynamics to always push-off the competition within the NFL over a long period of time. It is within that statement that I am so passionate about Tampa Bay Buccaneer Football. I am not a person who cares for stats, or even individual players. I am all about dynamic patterns used to make a static pattern great, or better. (SEE THIS LINK TO UNDERSTAND WHAT I MEAN BY STATIC AND DYNAMIC PATTERNS.)In fact, even with all the great players and coaches, even when it came down to the treasured veteran linebacker Derrick Brooks, who was the ideal icon of the franchise, when he become too old to maintain the static pattern of expectation the Glazers let him go, just as they did Sapp, Lynch, Gruden and many others. It wasn’t out of disloyalty, although the fans did feel that way. It was that the Glazers put the high level static pattern of their team ahead of their loyalty to personalities. When the dynamic personalities are no longer effective, the Glazers look for new personalities to keep the Buccaneers continuously competitive.
It is true that this does hurt them at the ticket booth, as fans do fall in love with individual players, and many sports fans keep careful track of the various statistics of those players. But the Glazers have always maintained this discipline to their organization, which is unique to them. They fired my favorite coach in Sam Wyche to hire Tony Dungy. They fired Tony, even though they loved him in Tampa because Tony had stalled out and become less effective so they could hire John Gruden. And when Gruden had lost his touch with the players and become mediocre, Tampa fired Gruden, considered by many to be one of the best minds in football, to hire Raheem Morris, the young assistant who quietly absorbed all the greatness of the men who came before him. And Raheem knows that if he becomes complacent and stops bringing a dynamic to his team which protects the static pattern of quality that is expected with the Tampa Bay Franchise, he’ll be let go also. It’s not personal, but for the Glazers, they have a dedication to putting on the field at every level a quality product.
This mentality even extends to the Cheerleaders who are among the best of any NFL team. Not only are their costumes appropriate along that fine line between sex appeal, and family friendly style, but their choreography as a dance unit is top-notch, and has been since the construction of Raymond James Stadium. When attending a game at Ray Jay you will be treated to these cheerleaders who perform with precision in between plays in an overall show that is complete for the entire 3 to 4 hours you are inside that palace.
And it’s not unusual for the Buccaneer Cheerleaders to do many community events and appearances all over town exhibiting their quality performances as a dance team. The philosophy of these Buc Cheerleaders is to bring the sex appeal expected from a cheerleader in the NFL with a style and work ethic similar to a Broadway Dancer.
It’s in the details however that makes just an average organization great. It’s a multitude of little dynamics which tend to preserve the greatness of a static pattern in competition with other static patterns, and in the NFL all teams have great players and football minds that are seeking to destroy each other’s season. And in Tampa Bay if the cheerleaders don’t keep people excited about the product on the field during this epic battle between the players themselves, then the Pirate Ship that sites in Buccaneer Cove, which is a replica of a giant Caribbean Village, will. All the props in the stadium are built by the same company who builds for Walt Disney World and the Pirate Ship is one of the most unique features for a sports stadium in the entire world. There is nothing like it anywhere!
It was this Pirate Ship which earned my eternal loyalty to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Being from Cincinnati, I know the history of their stadium debacle up close, and the ironic thing is, before Paul Brown Stadium was built, the Bengals toured Raymond James Stadium for ideas, but they seemed to miss most everything in their interpretation. Raymond James Stadium is the centerpiece of activity in Tampa. When they aren’t playing football there for the Buccaneers, it might be football with the South Florida Bulls, or a Monster Truck event, or a concert, or an equestrian event, Raymond James Stadium hosts events all through the year, was built completely with community money but gives back to the community in so many ways without compromising the integrity of being the home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Raymond James Stadium is the Crown Jewel of the NFL and all sports establishments. It is the best of the best even when others have tried to copy it. The difference is most ownerships attempt to duplicate the luxury boxes and vending sales, without understanding the dynamic relationship connected to the fan experience. This is why most have failed when attempting to duplicate the success of Raymond James Stadium, home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
And this is why even when I don’t get to fly to Tampa for a game I duplicate the experience at my home on a Sunday afternoon. Because being a fan of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is about more than a football team, it’s a celebration of the success of merging dynamic quality patterns with static patterns and how that balance can be achieved successfully.
Many who know me are baffled by the fact that I love the Buccaneers so much, because I tend to read a lot and don’t seem like the type of person who would enjoy “tailgating” and cheering for a player to carry a ball across a green field to cross a little line on the ground where the team gets points. (Such a thing is rather silly in the greater scheme of things) But in truth, some of my favorite people are in Florida, and Tampa has many people in it that I call my friends, and those friendships have in common a love of the Buccaneers because their success bleeds over into other aspects of life. And I don’t give out friendship easily. But in regard to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who even over their practice field fly a giant pirate flag that looms over the players to remind them of where they are and what they are expected to do, innovation and encouragement to reach deep inside to bring out greatness is encouraged in every act exerted. You can see that flag in the next clip. When people visiting Tampa Bay fly into the International Airport if they look out the east window of their craft, that flag is the first thing they will see in Tampa Bay, for it inundates the horizon.
But the secrets to a great organization are in many of the unsung positions, and the Buccaneers value their former players, even if they let them go to avoid salary cap problems where those players become too expensive for what they bring to the field of play. They promoted the linebacker Shelton Quarles to a scout which keeps his dynamic talent under the umbrella of the Buccaneer Franchise and allows the Bucs to locate passionate players who fit into the static expectations of the organization, because if anyone knows what kind of player should be in a Buccaneers locker room or on the field, it’s Shelton.
When I was growing up, as I pointed out in another article on the Buccaneers, my nickname was “Animal.” I like Blount had a problem with fighting. I could not take a hit without fighting back and I never knew when to quit. (I still don’t) because I would be bored in life without some kind of fight or another. No coach wanted me on a football team because I never took direction well, and I had no tolerance for the politics of school football. If I had met someone like a Raheem Morris when I was 16 through 22 I might have played football for a guy like that, because Morris, and the Glazers know how to tap into those types of individuals that other organizations overlook, or take for granted who move through life on the outside of establishment. And the Buccaneers know that it is in such dynamic people who a competitive edge over an opponent can be found. So it is with that in mind that I feel an affinity for LeGarrette Blount. I can relate to the kid. It will be interesting to see how he handles success, once money finds its way to him. I hope it doesn’t change the kind of man he has a chance to be. I’m sure that Raheem Morris is having those kinds of talks with the young man.
So as we contemplate education reform, and the role of government in society, I rest my mind from the burdens of the day and dedicate my valuable time to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers whenever they play because on every occasion that I doubt the validity of an idea I can look to that organization as a symbol of how things should or could be. I see upon that organization at every single level a passion for finding a dynamic which will make them better without compromising their static quality. I see an indulgence in more than just a game, but a philosophy that not only benefits the team and ownership of the Buccaneers, but the entire community themselves. It is the entire experience of the quality achieved at all these various levels which put the smile on a face of a young boy and ignite in him a hope that anything is possible. Or it brings delight to the over-weight middle-aged man stuck in a rut in his life to see gladiators give it their all on the field of battle, or the bored mother who holds up her hands to have beads thrown upon her head from the pirate ship in Buccaneer Cove. It is an entire city that is the better for the fact that the Buccaneers guard selfishly their unique brand of football in an NFL League that is all-too-focused on quarterbacks and statistics, that they often miss the magic of the dynamic in human spirit. Too often those types upon a confounded brow wonder how such characters came to be but for someone like the Glazer family created the conditions for the unique to blossom, and capture in those weekly battles a magic which enhances the lives of thousands.
There are those of us who function outside of the normal static patterns of society, and do so on purpose, because it is clear to us what is behind this “Occupy Movement.” Glenn Beck is one of those people and you will see his videos here explaining this situation, along with the other active parties. Much of the source material for this article comes from Glenn Beck in one way or another, because as progressives have outlets like Russia Today, the RT Network, the Huffington Post and many others, those of us who don’t care for progressivism have Glenn Beck’s work, and Talk Radio and we are late to this game, because for too long, we trusted the system while progressives embedded themselves under our noses. To understand fully, I suggest watching these videos completely, which I’m providing to compliment my text. It is extremely important to have a full understanding of this very complicated situation that is actually a military maneuver without the use of weapons. So take your time and absorb all this information, and be sure to send it to a friend. To understand what the intent behind the military maneuver is, read this article:
To understand what is wrong in America, which none of the progressive groups seem to understand, but people like George Soros is exploiting for his own ends, watch this video. Here Robert Kiyosaki author of Rich Dad Poor Dad explains the mystery that everyone is so confused about. He breaks down our entire society into four groups in a diagram he calls The Quadrant. First are the “E’s,” which are employees then come “S’s,” who are the “Smart Guys,” then the “B’s” which are big business, and then the “I’s” are the investors. I’ve been saying the same as Kiyosakis that our society makes entirely too many “E’s,” and it s the “Employees” who make up these protestors. America was designed to create “B’s,” and “I’s” and an abundance of “S’s.” But the socialist movement brought to the United States by progressives during the years of Teddy Roosevelt seeks to make lots of “E’s” through public education. So when everyone is trained in the same place, they think the same, and can then be used to march like soldiers when commanded.
The strategy from people like George Soros, and he’s not the only one, but is simply the guy who is on the camera most, and provides video for us to observe, is to use progressive groups, like labor unions, to drive up costs, bankrupt the economic system of the United States to the point of collapse, then bring the United States into a weakened position under the global order of the United Nations. That is the plan. (“Call it crazy today, but tomorrow you’ll wish you listened.”)
If your wife asks you, “Honey, does this dress make me look fat?” Then you, the husband answer as you can see the skin dimples pushing through the fine surface of the dress as it hugs her hips, “No, no, you look beautiful.” The husband has committed a sin. You told her she was beautiful when you know in your mind that the correct answer was, “Hell, no, you’re fat. You have let yourself go over the last ten years and I’m embarrassed to be seen in public with you.” The husband answers the way he does out of a duty to his wife that goes beyond truth. He is forced to put on blinders to the truth in order to share a life with this woman, who has gained 40 extra pounds, wants the ability to eat, and eat and eat, but still expects her husband to lust after her for sex.The man, to avoid fighting with his over-weight wife will tell her anything to shut her up and get her off his back, so he tells her, “No, the dress looks great………..dear.”
Parents who have kids in those delicate years of childhood, who are in their school years, are an insecure lot. They of course want what’s best for their children, and desire every opportunity for them. So they tend to trust the opinions of others over their own knowledge because after all, being a good parent takes experience, and how do you get experience but by raising kids. So during that process, parents tend to believe they can throw money at a “professional” to give them the added security that those professionals will be there to pick-up whatever they miss as parents.
The parents both working jobs and paying a lot of money for a house they bought just so they could send their child to Lakota is no different from the husband who is just trying to keep the peace with his wife. “Yes, you look good to me. How much do you need to do your job better?”
The obese professionals caring for our children then take that money given by the enabler and buy more junk food so they can become even more obese. And when the food runs out, they will come back and say, “I need more! I am a ‘big boned’ entity and I need to maintain this large body. I’m hungry. We need a new levy.” The enabler, the typical tax advocate will then say as the woman in the video said, “We need to pass this levy so we can have good schools, so we can maintain our excellence.” But the eyes don’t lie. The public can witness the dishonesty which resides there seemingly hidden. They can see what the enabler is really thinking. “Wouldn’t it be better if the school system wasn’t so obese? Wouldn’t the school be better if it was much thinner?” The enabler is just as guilty as the husband who tells his wife, “Yes honey, you look good. You’re not fat at all.” The husband knows that if he doesn’t tell his wife something to that effect then sex will come with difficulty, and it will be a pain-in-the ass to pass his wife in the bathroom or in the hallways of his home. And thus the levy advocates are in the same boat. They must pass these inflated professionals in the halls of the school their children attend and communicate with others in social events, so they put on the blinders so that they can endure the experience with some resemblance of sanity.
I would look at the woman with her body attempting to bust out of her dress and ask, “Do you really want to know?”
The woman expecting praise as she fans her hands down her thighs to straighten out her dress doing her best to look sexy, “Of course, darling.”
I would then say, “My dear, your ass is fat and you are a pain to all the eyes of this room for you should have worn a potato sack rather than do that dress injustice by asking it to hide your blob-like body. There isn’t any amount of perfume, make-up, or cosmetic accessories that can hide the fact that you have visited the potato chip bag about 100 times too many!”
I didn’t know how bad it was till the Issue 2 debate that I mentioned where a member of the Middletown City Council pleaded to Senator Coley that jobs needed to be brought to Ohio, as if Coley could somehow reach into a magic bag and produce them from thin air. This man truly believed that such a statement was possible, and as I heard him speak I felt profound pity for the man. He seemed like a nice guy, certainly well-intentioned, but he did not understand where all the jobs in his city had gone.
I don’t blame Boeing at all for not wanting to put up with a radical work force, and I find it appalling that the government is stepping in where it has no business, but the same thing happens in our communities each time a teachers union decides to strike, a federal mediator comes in to negotiate, and what happens is our elected officials quickly get out-witted by the outside pressure and the unions win with public money we must then supply as tax payers. The situation is that ridiculous. And yes the spoiled class is that out-of-touch.
Thank the “Spoiled Class” for those empty buildings, and the job that was once there, but has fled our shores in search for freedom and the right to thrive and grow.
I was impatient at the Issue 2 debate which took place on October 3, 2011. As my wife and I arrived at the Lakota East Freshman Building at 7 PM to see Bill Coley take on Steven Lazarus representing the local firefighters in a debate over Issue 2, the collective bargaining reform law. I was impatient because my Tampa Bay Buccaneers were playing the Indianapolis Colts on Monday Night Football and anyone who knows me understands how much I love the Bucs! So I had thought about skipping this debate so I wouldn’t miss the game. However, I also like Doc Thompson and the Liberty Twp Tea Party and both were involved in putting on this debate, so I reluctantly recorded my game to attend this event.
I feel badly now, for with all that I have said and written about how destructive the public worker has become not only to the national economy, but to themselves. I feel badly because even though many view my comments as harsh and overly critical, I realize now after that episode of the Issue 2 Debate that my comments have not been harsh enough. It is evident to me that the public unions do not represent the middle-class in any way shape or form. They are a new class onto themselves. The name of that class is the “Spoiled Class.” They are citizens of our community who have become so numb to anything beneficial that they no longer appreciate what it took to give them anything at all. They seem to be no different from the spoiled child of the very wealthy who will scream at the top of their lungs, “I DO NOT WANT TO GO TO DISNEYLAND IN CALIFORNIA. I WANT TO GO TO DISNEYWORLD IN FLORIDA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
They like the spoiled child are not even capable of seeing anything beyond their own concerns. The “Spoiled Class” collective disposition is only out for what they can achieve in mass and even that has a selfish prerequisite.
Many of my current friends are about 30 to 40 years older than I am, because it is during this phase once the body has withered away, and sexual fulfillment is not the primary objective of the adult mind followed by a sense of sacrifice to a child. (I’d put the order of necessity for women the other way around, for men, it is as I listed it) It is these older minds who finally begin to see things as they are, unfortunately death is breathing down the necks of these fine people, so it’s often too little too late. They contributed their share of madness into the fabric of social existence confusing necessity with their biological urges and now in their later years they wish to fix what they helped to wreck through the ignorance of their youth. To my way of thinking, “youth” extends well into the late 50’s of some of these people. Some people don’t get “wise” until their 60’s or 70’s. But most do get there eventually because as the strength of their bodies leaves them, their minds increase to compensate.
She wasn’t the first to make such a proclamation. Over the years people would say to me, “You are just like Thoreau.” They seemed astonished when I’d reveal to them that I had never read him, at least until fairly recently, after the encouragement of my daughter. The reason I never gave Thoreau a chance early in my life was because I partially blamed him for the Hippie Movement. It was high school English that taught me that Civil Disobedience was the model of the Civil Rights Movement and it was enjoyed by Ghandi also. Well, I thought Ghandi was a pacifist who should have led India to a violent conquest of his enemies, and this whole starvation thing never made any sense to me. The idea of self-sacrifice for a greater caused always seemed immature. Just as the idea that Christ died on the cross to relieve me of my sins never made sense either. I spotted a long time ago in those Christian studies a series of looters who sought to place themselves between the people and their God as a kind of toll keeper, and they use Jesus, the pacifist as a gate to collect the toll. Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience wreaked all these elements and I refused to read it in high school for that reason, again in college, and in my adult life until my daughter told me my rebellion was misplaced.
Rich Hoffman
The Overmanwarrior 
