Month: September 2012

‘Tail of the Dragon’ is Released: The written word is superior to politics 100% of the time

After months of discussing it finally my new novel Tail of the Dragon is being released. My publisher is using Baker and Taylor to distribute the book so it will be available everywhere as they are one of the largest book distributors there is. American Book put a nice review and sales link at the article below as well:Tail of the Dragon

http://www.americanbookpublishingblog.com/importance-of-the-quality-of-your-book-endorsements

Clicking on the picture to the right will take those who want to get Tail of the Dragon for themselves to Publisher’s Direct which my publisher directly supplies. But Tail of the Dragon will be up on Amazon and all the major carriers as well, so the book should be easy to find without trouble. My friend Matt Clark up at WAAM, Ann Arbor did an interview with me talking about the book’s release. When it comes to Tail of the Dragon, Matt has had me on his radio program many times. He has been to my new book what 700 WLW used to be over the Lakota Levy that I was fighting locally in Cincinnati until the blow back from a “blackballing” attempt by the teacher’s union working with their media contacts caused a monumental rift in the Cincinnati market that reminded me of the fallout from the Eastwood speech during Mitt Romney’s nomination. Matt talks to me about all that in the video below:

There is always the assumption that politics is an option that everyone considers a cherished social accreditation. When the radical unions who have their fingers in everything realized that I was not going away over the public school funding debate they had to do something to attempt regain control. In an indirect way their hands are clean, it’s their fingers that are dirty. It is the lobby of organized labor that is often the real villain as the employees of the system march to the parameters of thinking established by union labor. They set the rules of all political engagement.

I have been working on Tail of the Dragon for a few years and before that book I wrote a novel called The Symposium of Justice. I’ve worked on screenplays, been to film festivals with various projects, and been a professional bullwhip instructor for stunt coordinators in film and from my perspective the issues of local politics, or even national politics, are very minor compared to an actual achievement as an author. I knew what I was doing when I let the Enquirer come to my home and photograph me using bullwhips to articulate why Lakota needed to balance their budget. I knew what the radical elements within the public education industry would say as they jumped all over my love of traditional values since many of them are progressive and I told the reporter as much during the interview. It was those pictures taken over two years ago that resurfaced during the “blackballing” article done by the Enquirer discussed in Matt’s radio interview above.  For an example, and review click the link below:

http://stateimpact.npr.org/ohio/2012/03/15/anti-tax-pro-scholarship-group-leader-calls-out-crazy-pta-moms/

“Blackballing” is where the media or a political entity cuts you out of having access to them. It’s a kind of castigation for not following the proper rules of engagement. During all the levy fights of the last couple of years I have been able to speed dial various reporters in print, radio, and television to get my stories out about why the Lakota school system is wrong for wanting to increase taxes, countering anything that the pro levy factions might bring up. I am not the first to do this. I knew before getting involved that others who have come before me have been used by the media to generate stories until the comfort level of everyone involved got too testy, then the media collectively pulls the plug, “blackballing” whomever the controversial figure may be.

I knew from my friend Arnie Engle over in Fairfield who has been harassed every way a man can be harassed because of his opposition to school levies, and my friend Jennifer Miller, the former school board member in Mason who was harassed to no end because of her desire to do a “good job,” and my good friend former Lakota School Board member Sandy Tugral who was ran out-of-town labeled a “kook” by organized labor that if I put myself out there that the same types of people would come after me. The people mentioned suffered various degrees of vandalism to their private property, especially Arnie. They have been publicly ridiculed. And they have all been “blackballed” by the media once the media was done with them. I knew that if I put myself out on a limb in a local levy fight I would become a major political target.

So I gave my Enquirer article dressed in my cowboy hat and my bullwhip to let the people who would come after me later know that they would do so at their own peril. Most people assume that a career in politics is in the back of the mind of any activist. Nobody considers that a person might actually only be concerned with doing the right thing, so to their minds, appearing on the front page of The Cincinnati Enquirer announcing my resistance to a local tax issue dressed over-the-top was political suicide. Nobody considered that my intent was to take my measure beyond the touch of traditional politics, because I knew it was only a matter of time before the “blackballing” attempt would be made in my direction—since that is the only way that public education can maintain their tax payer scam.

Here is a link to that Enquirer article mentioned above, when things were still on good terms:

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20100922/NEWS0102/9230322/Man-wants-to-whip-proposed-Lakota-levy

Blackballing is how the school controls the media in the first place. The Enquirer was given a choice after No Lakota Levy started Yes to Lakota Kids helping needy children pay their sports fees, if they did not fall in line with the union controlled politics of public education, they would be “blackballed” by the school, in this case, Lakota. That is why the media is so quick to come after people who align themselves against the established political order. The media will use people to help create a series of good stories, just like a person might eat a nice meal not to be full, but simply for the taste. But in the end, the media will shit them out without regard once they are done with them, and I knew eventually that day would come.

The fault that I noticed all my friends mentioned above had fallen victim to in their various political fights is that they tried to do it through the established order of politics, where all the union controls are already implemented. They tried to become school board members, or run for some kind of office so they could get on the inside and attempt to create change from within, which of course doesn’t work. I decided not to try that, because my primary focus is that of an author, and because I have no intention of ever being elected into public office. I have no fear of doing, or saying anything that might cause me trouble down the road, so traditional politics was worthless to me. As an author I can operate without the fear of being “blackballed,” because the written word cuts through the immediacy of politics.

That is the advantage when you write novels, and run around the country with bullwhips and live a life that is superior to anything that politics can offer, is that you are free of their reach. So when the organized labor apologists attempted to “blackball” me I was already prepared. Their frustrations were already evident since they could not threaten physical violence on me. Who in their right mind was going to attack a bullwhip expert who could make mince-meat of them quickly in a personal conflict? So they attacked my media contacts.

What they didn’t know was that my media contacts were not limited to only Cincinnati, since my field of endeavor is literature, controversy is actually good marketing and works to my advantage. So the more “blackballing” they attempted to inflict on me, the better it has been on my literary endeavors. The “blackballing” would only work if I wanted to run for some type of public office, and cared what people thought about me in being “electable.” But my business is not in such popularity contests. My job is to tell stories and give insight from “the front of the train,” not adhere to the politics in the back. CLICK HERE FOR A REVIEW ON THIS METAPHOR. Literature trumps politics, which is why politicians eat out of the hand of Hollywood actors. Just ask the Republican Party about Clint Eastwood. Clint knows that he has more value to American society than some manager who wants to run for office and is a prisoner to all the silly political rules that the media has established to keep their stories within their editors 500 word limits, and their 3 minute TV story blocks. Books, movies, music and other art is where more detail is explored and entertainment gains more value beyond the politician. So the mistake of those who took on the union controlled school systems protected by a media afraid of being “blackballed” is that they played the games of politics instead of the rules of literature. And when I did that Enquirer article two years ago starting everything that followed, I never intended to beat them with politics, but with the written word.

None of that matters now. I’ll still of course be involved in issues that affect my local community, because it’s my responsibility. But I am not a prisoner to their political rules of engagement, my new book Tail of the Dragon as we discussed it on WAAM, in Ann Arbor, Michigan and many media outlets to come are what I do for a living. It is the result of a lot of hard work and that hard work is beyond the reach of silly politics and the media “blackballing” that goes on to keep everyone in their respective social categories. In my case the goal of a novelist is not to be “liked” but to be “respected.” And to gain respect, you have to say what you mean and not speak the “double-talk” of politics. And sometimes that means calling a group of levy apologists “latté sipping prostitutes with asses the size of car tires” because it’s the truth as a novelist sees it, and not some comb-over politician who simply wants a desk with a nameplate and the respect of a community for a tax payer funded job title.

It’s harder to write a novel, get it through a publisher, an editor, and a public relations staff than to fight a silly school levy that labor unions, media reporters, and thousands of insecure parents feast off of. So it pleases me greatly to announce that my new book Tail of the Dragon is now available to the public at the links provided, and that as a body of work is beyond the reach of the media “blackballing” that goes on, or the political controls of the small-minded name-plate gods. It’s a work onto itself that is far superior to any act of politics and is why I put my efforts there, beyond the reach of the “blackballers” in the back of the train.

The reason I mentioned all the above upon the release of my novel is because I’m not the kind of writer who articulates from a mountaintop on just pure speculation.  I write from experience.  In this case at the same time that The Enquirer was photographing me with my whips in my back yard I wrote the below article about my book Tail of the Dragon, August 23rd 2010.  Much of what I experienced above over the last 2 years found their way into the plot of that action packed book.  So dear reader, when you experience the corruption and betrayal of the novel’s characters as seen through the eyes of Rick and Renee Stevens, you can rest assured that there is more truth in the story than pure fantasy.  And you can also rest assured that I was writing the plot for the novel that has been my real life all along paragraph by paragraph, and there was a method to the madness from the very beginning. 

https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/08/23/my-new-book-the-tail-of-the-dragon/

The sum of all these new experiences will find their way into my next book called The Trial of Fletcher Finnegan.  (CLICK FOR A PREVIEW)  But until then, I hope you will buy, and enjoy the book–tell your friends about it and help make it a success.  Because I put a lot of myself into the writing of these stories and I construct my future plots based on real events with the knowledge that the written word has the power to move mountains, and alter lives–while exposing the ugly aspects of our daily existence.  Tail of the Dragon does that and more, and I sincerely hope you enjoy the wild ride that starts by clicking on the picture below.  "Buy the book today"

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Click Here to see what people are saying about my new book–Tail of the Dragon 

Visit the NEW Tail of the Dragon WEBSITE!  CLICK HERE and help spread the word! TELL SEVEN PEOPLE TO TELL SEVEN PEOPLE!

Rich Hoffman
https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/ten-rules-to-live-by/
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com

Clint Eastwood at the RNC: Explaining what the ’empty chair’ meant

I waited a couple of days to calm down before stating my opinion of the Eastwood speech at the RNC Convention just prior to Mitt Romney being officially nominated as the Republican nomminee for President of the United States.  The panicked Romney aide behind the stage at the Convention who said cringing as the speech time on stage exceeded the 5 minute mark and was way off-key from the typical stuffy Republican stage setup, “You don’t edit Clint Eastwood” was absolutely correct. You don’t “edit” Clint Eastwood. Eastwood is one of the most recognizable names in the world not because he sat quietly while others told him what to do, but because he has often embarked on wild chances and taken great risk upon himself and others in the building of his international persona. He has an elevated level of understanding of what audiences want to see, and his speech certainly reflected it. His knowledge of what an audience wants to see far exceeds the knowledge of the typical 30 to 40-year-old PR specialists handling Romney’s campaign, and they are not qualified to “edit” Clint Eastwood.

I knew what to expect when Clint Eastwood took the stage because I have watched the film icon give hundreds of interviews over the years, and most of them are just like that. Eastwood does not like to use notes, Teleprompters, or come across with flattened authenticity. To understand what Eastwood thinks deep down inside all anyone has to do is watch some of his most personal films, like White Hunter Black Heart, and Bronco Billy. Nothing Eastwood said on stage just minutes before the heavily scripted acceptance speech of Mitt Romney came as a surprise to me.

I was impressed to learn that Mitt Romney personally invited Eastwood to speak. It shows that Romney as a manager can identify talent thinking outside the box and will likely surround himself with good people like Paul Ryan when he gets the presidential job. But Romney was not giving Eastwood any kind of break in letting him speak. Unlike the speeches by Paul Ryan, Scott Walker, Marc Rubio and many others that were carefully scripted, Eastwood was not, and the Romney people wouldn’t dare ask the legendary actor to do such a silly thing. Romney like all politicians sought from Eastwood credibility, and to show that prestigious members of the Hollywood community supported Republicans, and that not all Hollywood was in the corner of Barack Obama. That message was so important to Romney that he had Eastwood give the last independent speech before his own introduction, and he got what he wanted in Clint Eastwood. To me, that shows great vision and instinct even if the Romney handlers were dumbstruck by the performance.

I was however baffled by the criticism, many saying that Eastwood looked like a stumbling fool on stage, a senile old man. Eastwood’s hair was a wreck, his manner seemed unorganized, and he was crude and insulting. But the biggest criticism of all is that he sucked all the air out of the room and had people talking about his speech the next day instead of Romney. Well, news flash, I could have told the Romney people exactly what Eastwood was going to do. I was so unsurprised by his speech that my wife and I hardly noticed it because in the Hoffman house, Clint Eastwood is the closest thing to a religious icon anyone will find. Over my dresser are two pictures of Clint Eastwood carefully framed and I look at them every day. My DVD collection has every single Clint Eastwood movie ever made, and they have been watched, and watched, and watched again. I even have the T.G. Sheppard album that features a duet with Clint Eastwood called “MAKE MY DAY.” For many years my family has ushered in each New Year by watching all 5 Dirty Harry films on New Year’s Eve and New Years Day. No football games, no parties, just Clint Eastwood movies with him playing Dirty Harry. Every young person in my family who has had to drive around in a car with me has had to listen to me playing that song while we drive. I simply love the man. I admire his grit and ability to age well every bit as much as the toughness he exhibited in his youthful movies that made him an international star. Eastwood has not been afraid to piss off people before, people he had admired greatly, specifically John Wayne when that cowboy icon was up in arms over Eastwood’s film direction, and acting in the movie High Plains Drifter, which Wayne felt was an insult to the American Cowboy image he helped to craft. Eastwood’s portrayal in that film as a “hell hound” returning from the dead to punish an entire town for the betrayal of their sheriff crossed many established lines of thinking in the early 1970’s. It is so refreshing to see that the 82-year-old Clint Eastwood is still not afraid to take a chance to make his point and is much smarter than the people around him. Even after a lifetime well lived, Clint Eastwood is still authentic to his own personal beliefs and cannot be swept up in the tide of politics. Eastwood showed up as a favor to the Romney Campaign and at no point did he get wrapped up in the glitter. To Eastwood, he knows just him being there helps Romney. But Romney does not help Clint. The sacrifice was purely on Eastwood’s end.

When I give public speeches and other presentations I do not use notes because I learned it from watching the many lectures of Joseph Campbell, and interviews with Clint Eastwood. The reason is that carefully prepared speeches come out sounding fake. It is much better to speak from the heart. Now on the downside, a public speaker without notes sometimes rolls through sentences while stringing together thoughts. People expecting Eastwood to give a polished performance like his younger speakers at the Convention have simply become used to the well oiled machine that has become the political norm. When Clint Eastwood went on stage, I know he was thinking he had to hit all the marks the Romney people told him to hit, but he was going to do his own thing as he usually does. Knowing Clint Eastwood, he went up on stage with a metaphorical idea he came up with while listening to the other speeches of the evening, and he wanted to use the “empty chair” to convey how we all feel about President Obama and politics in general. Most of the directors at the RNC failed to grasp the metaphor, and that is their problem. Eastwood figured that it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission, so what the hell. Everyone in the room wanted somebody to take a shot at President Obama that was stylish and worked on any levels, and Eastwood had the guts to do it.

When people say “if I were to die tomorrow” they mean they would do things differently if they knew they did not have to live with the consequences which implies that they would be willing to live with little lies in their lives if they know they have to wake up tomorrow and face the music. In Eastwood’s case, he has lived his life this way for a long time, and now that he’s 82, he could die tomorrow. He could die at anytime, and he knows it, and is comfortable with that knowledge, but he’s not about to leave this earth being a stooge for a political looter, who simply wanted to use Eastwood’s image to prop up his own credibility.

Clint Eastwood detests–especially in politics–over grooming, too much make-up, and cardboard cutout people. Oddly enough, some of the appeal of Paul Ryan is that he represents an Eastwood style of politician, no-nonsense, fit, smart, and practical. When he first took the VP position his own hair and clothing was a bit sloppy, and that is appealing because it shows that Ryan cared more about his work than his appearance. But in two weeks once the Romney handlers began to “manage him—Ryan received a nice $300 haircut and is getting a taste of the “looters life” and it is obvious that he’s starting to like it. You can see it by the way he scowled at Eastwood’s speech looking at his watch in quit protest. I would offer to Ryan not to forget who he is, and to not get too wrapped up in images. When Eastwood, one of the greatest film directors of all time went on stage with his hair a mess—without a single speech note—without a care about his future and how the Romney people might scowl at what he said—he did every bit of it on purpose. Clint Eastwood had a very good idea that what he was about to say would be analyzed heavily, criticized, and belittled. He knew that the finger-pointing politicians would run for cover and attempt to distance themselves from him within seconds. Eastwood’s intention in his speech was for one last time in his life on a big stage to show everyone viewing just what is wrong in politics, and why people have lost faith in the two-party system. Everything he did was on purpose to be analyzed, and talked about for years.

Eastwood’s goal on stage that night at the RNC was not to be liked. He was already liked. Mitt Romney simply wanted to show the world that movie stars like him too. That was the entire purpose of bringing Clint Eastwood to the RNC convention. Nobody gives a damn about the crap a politician says. And it should come as no surprise that a movie actor could show up and take all the attention from the other looters in the room. And nobody gives a rat’s ass about what the media thinks, because those are the same idiots who “made” Obama. It’s the heart and soul of America that Clint Eastwood was speaking to and that is why the people who enjoyed his speech did, and the people all caught up in the wrong aspects of politics called it “strange,” and like “an episode of Twin Peaks.” Even Glenn Beck belittled the Eastwood speech, which really lowered Beck’s grade in my book. I was planning to go see Beck when he comes to Cincinnati in a few weeks, but based on his comments over the Eastwood speech, I don’t think I will value what he says. I might listen to him every now and then on the radio, but I won’t go out of my way to see him in public like I did when he came to Wilmington. Beck like Ryan, Anne Romney and Scott Walker based on their comments and behavior over Eastwood is looking too closely at the established order of things, and it is that order that people are sick of. Beck has done a good job asking for courage among politicians, and out of all people, he should understand what Eastwood was trying to do. But even he is too wrapped up in the “established” thinking to see what’s really going on, and that is disappointing. Like Ryan, Beck is becoming too big, and his concern over his own legacy is starting to overtake his reasonable assessment. Politics should not be so well rehearsed, it should not be so scripted, and it should not be praised as royalty. When Eastwood took the stage he did so as a rebel who didn’t comb his hair, and was going to speak from the heart. That should be honored.

The drifting from sentence to sentence that Eastwood was doing, especially after the 5 minute mark was because the red light was flashing, telling him to wrap up his speech. When I speak in public, I get told often to wrap it up, because if people let me, I will talk all day. But in Eastwood’s case, he knew that the directors of the RNC event were not happy with what he was doing, and that what he was saying was going to hurt. But he had to do it anyway, and he controlled his emotions very well, picking carefully which thing to say next so that it was right at the edge of acceptance, without crossing the line. It was not that Eastwood was a senile fool on stage, but a man walking a tightrope, and he was in no hurry to fall. He took one step after another to deliver one of the most scathing rebukes of a sitting president ever delivered on such a large public stage, and he did it with all the bravado that made him one of the biggest movie stars in the world. Mitt Romney got what he wanted whether he was consciously aware of what he was asking for or not. As I said before, Romney is showing a good instinct for hiring the right kind of people for the job, and bringing Eastwood to the convention was a brilliant idea. But I would caution those same Republicans not to distance themselves from what Eastwood did and said. Clint Eastwood did the Republican Party a tremendous favor at his own personal risk. The politicians involved should accept it at its value, which is great, and not distance themselves from him. To do so is to betray what they proclaim they are fighting for.

The American public is sick and tired of contrived, plastic, politics. They want to hear things told from the heart, and they like to see the soul of the person speaking. Glenn Beck is a great public speaker, and even he writes down notes in outline form so he can deliver punctual presentations to the public and not bounce around when he gets stuck in front of 60,000 people like Eastwood was doing. But notes are still a crutch, and it takes great courage to stand in front of so many people with only your intellect as your alley, which is why Eastwood does not speak with notes. It’s also why he’s 82 years old and still able to speak with such authority as he did at the RNC convention. His wits were clearly about him, as he delivered a speech that worked on many levels, not just a superficial, visual one.

If I was disenfranchised with politics before the Eastwood speech, I am certainly more so now, based on the political response to it. The Republicans are the good guys in my book and even the good guys are deeply tainted. I can see where the next line of battles will occur in the years following the buffoon Obama, and it will not be with the professional politicians in the room at the RNC convention or their handlers. I stand with Clint Eastwood completely over anyone else from the RNC event. It’s not that the man can do no wrong in my eyes. I can think of a few times he has let me down, as in making the film Tightrope, and a few others, but I trust that Eastwood makes every attempt to be honest with himself, and his intellect has benefited from his honesty. So when he says something, I trust what it is. I may not agree with it all the time, but I know there was a thought process that delivered the thought, and it didn’t come from some snot-nosed speech writer fresh out of college who doesn’t have a lick of experience in real life. I don’t want to hear Romney deliver a carefully controlled and well-orchestrated speech given to him by a hundred such handlers. I want to hear the authenticity of what a man is, not what kind of image he can conger up for himself. It is a sad state when it is an actor who is the most real person in a room, and at the RNC convention, Clint Eastwood was the most honest. Anne Romney should still be grateful that a person like Eastwood is supporting her husband and not make sly comments about how there should have been more contrived video of her family instead of the Eastwood speech. Nobody gives a shit lady. Don’t even think about turning into another Washington princess before the seat from the previous fat ass duchess has left it.

It should say everything to everyone watching the Eastwood convention speech that an “empty chair” was the most interesting thing that happened at the RNC convention. The empty chair worked on many levels of psychology. It obviously represented President Obama who has spent his entire presidency running for re-election, and not doing the job he was elected to do. But it also represented the emptiness present in politics. I would not put it passed Eastwood that the idea came not while on the plane from California, but while the Romney people where giving him their talking points to incorporate into his speech. The idea for the chair was meant as a warning not just to Obama, but to the Republican Party to not just become more empty minds in empty seats holding public office. It was a warning not to be afraid to shake it up a little, and be unpredictable, because that’s how you get the media eating out of your hand instead of the other way around—and that is a lesson that the Republican Party hasn’t been able to achieve since Ronald Reagan was president, who like Eastwood knew all the tricks of the trade because they are actors who have mastered public image. The Eastwood speech was not a debacle, it was a brilliant metaphor intended for minds too dim to see it. But the resonance of Eastwood, in what felt like one last public performance was a potent one that sadly shows how bad our political system really is. It revealed that even people I thought “got it” still don’t and I won’t bend over backwards ever again to listen to what they have to say, because the mind behind the thought is still in its infancy.

Yesterday Romney came to Cincinnati. I was invited, but I did not go, mainly because of the ill feelings I have after listening to the controlled finger-pointing after the Eastwood speech. In a couple of weeks, Glenn Beck is coming to town and I was planning to attend, but won’t be now. I’ll still support both people, and in Beck’s case I enjoy 80% of his work most of the time. But to jump on the Eastwood bashing bandwagon tells me a lot about these people. When it comes to picking and choosing, I’ll stick with the “Man with No Name” over the “Name” of a politician or political commentator. Because there is far more value in the man who arrives at 82 years of age and has not been seduced by the glittery lights of politics over the men who are enamored by it and became that way in a much shorter span of their lifetimes. I will not go out of my way to see those first people speak in person. But if Eastwood announced that he was coming to Cincinnati tomorrow to eat a hamburger but would not be giving any public statements I would drop what I was doing and attend, because there is more manliness in the authenticity of sticking to a set of beliefs than the person who follows the trends of belief. The world is so full of the later, and is in desperate need of the former. The value of a wordless bite into a hamburger by Clint Eastwood holds more merit than a whole string of convention speeches by polished politicians and their puppet handlers of orthodox opinion.  The aide was right, “you don’t edit Clint Eastwood.”  His brand is proven, and if you ask him to speak, you take what you get.  In the case of politics, a movie actor is much more important than a roomful of politicians, and that sad fact is a reality that cannot be covered up with fancy lights and balloons, but is exposed by the presence of a simple–empty–chair. 

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Click Here to see what people are saying about my new book–Tail of the Dragon 

Visit the NEW Tail of the Dragon WEBSITE!  CLICK HERE and help spread the word! TELL SEVEN PEOPLE TO TELL SEVEN PEOPLE!

Rich Hoffman
https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/ten-rules-to-live-by/
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com

“Shoot Extreme” in West Chester Part 2: Tactical Targeting for Civilians

This posting assumes that my previous article about the new indoor target range Shoot Extreme has been read.  Click here for review.  Shoot Extreme is the tactical indoor target shooting range located in West Chester, Ohio.  It is the first of its kind anywhere in the United States, where real guns can be used in the fashion that has become popular with paintballing.  While paintball can simulate combat, the weapons are unique to paintball.  The huge advantage that Shoot Extreme has over everyone else in the simulated combat training business is that their guns are real, so it allows the shooter to become very familiar with a specific weapon.  

In my trip to Shoot Extreme the genius of the concept was quickly evident. Ownership of Shoot Extreme revealed to me that in its current state, he is at phase one of a multi-phase plan.  Currently there are two lanes (mazes) of interactive targets that a shooter must engage within 3 seconds while in the course.  The two lanes are of two different difficulties, lane one, easy to intermediate, the second is the advanced lane.  The interactive targets in this case happen to be zombies, to simulate human style targets and they are cleverly positioned throughout the simulated interior of a building dressed up like a haunted house.  The lighting is challenging because it’s dim to dark in most places which accurately simulates most situations of nighttime home intrusion scenarios.  The zombie theme is wonderful because it makes it fun and much less serious since replication of human targets crosses the line for many people. 

For even experienced shooters I highly recommend lane one first because I have to admit, my first couple of shots in the course were loaded with mild anxiety at the thought of shooting at a human like target, its one thing to think about shooting at a live target, it’s quite another to actually do it.  In lane one it takes 19 shots to get through to the end.  It takes a “double tap” to kill the final two bosses which appear nearly simultaneously. Additional ammunition is available for $10.  The cost of admission gets you 20 shots and is currently $20 dollars to get two clips of ten shots, a gun rental of your choice, a tactical holster and a run through one of the target courses.  Basically the cost of shooting is a dollar a shot, and most of the guns available are traditional 9mm and .45 simi auto pistols.  Shoot Extreme provides the best training possible with a full staff available and their gun rental department is vast as they maintain many commonly used service weapons, including Glock, Beretta, Sig Sauer, Smith & Wesson, and other arms.

When I went through lane one I picked the Beretta 92F since it is such a reliable weapon and seemed like the one that would be most useful in a zombie apocalypse.  It’s a 9mm and holds plenty of ammunition.  But with a ten round clip, a reload in the middle of the course would be needed.  And this is what makes Shoot Extreme such a treasure for target shooters.  The zombie apocalypse target shoot forces shooters to keep track of their ammunition under duress, just as it would be required in an actual combat situation, which is probably the single most important tactical teaching tool that this course provides.  The second benefit is that it gets a shooter used to shooting at a target that simulates a menace. 

Typically under normal target shooting there is very little urgency to perform, and react to the target.  The shooter is in complete control, however, in an emergency, control is in the command of the aggressor.  So normal target shooting does not properly train the mind to deal with situations of aggression.  In a real hostile situation, if an intruder entered a home and a shooter was commissioned to defend their home with their own Beretta 92F they would have to overcome their anxiety to pull the trigger on a hostile, and they would have to get used to keeping track of their ammunition in low light conditions under duress, and possess the ability to determine a friend from foe while geared up and ready to fire at the first moving target they see. 

To date, only Shoot Extreme in West Chester gives civilians the opportunity to exercise these types of skills.  When a visitor enters the double doors to the Shoot Extreme building located at the intersection of Tylersville Road, and Cincinnati-Dayton Rd, a state of the art, technologically equipped lobby is there to greet. After a release form is filled out, shooters stroll into a room where they are checked by a metal detector to ensure they don’t bring live guns into the facility, so everything is tightly controlled.  From there, a shooter steps up to a counter and selects their holster, and a technician will present dozens of potential firearms converted to fire Simunition, which functions the same as regular ammunition, but fires a plastic round that could easily strike the bare skin of a human being and not penetrate.  It will sting a bit, but will not cause any harm. In fact advanced shooters at Shoot Extreme are organizing four on four matches where they shoot at each other in special competitions.  So there is no danger of death, but this is certainly a step up from paintball.  A BIG step up!  Once a shooter has their guns and holster, a guide takes shooters through one by one.  The guide hangs back while the shooter engages the targets and does not get involved unless they need to.  For instance, while I was going though, my Beretta jammed up, which is part of the shooting experience.  In a real situation, a shooter would have to solve this problem while still in danger.  My guide was able to step in and pause the action while we cleared the gun.  He was able to restore my ammunition level to compensate me for the lost rounds so I didn’t have an unpleasant experience.  The guides are also there to help in case a shooter finds themselves in a panic situation passing out due to the anxiety. 

I moved through my course rather fast and my guide stayed well behind me not interfering.  I had a lot of technical questions which he was able to answer as I thought of them, but at no time did he encourage me to slow down, or speed up.  He just hovered back there in case something went wrong, which for me was only mischambered ammunition after a series of rapid fire targets. 

The environment is decorated just like a haunted house but the thinking is opposite from that experience.  When a monster jumps out, the typical reaction in a haunted house is to jump away from the action.   In this scenario as the walls are smeared with blood, and other chaotic markings overwhelm the senses, the zombies make a bellow noise and growl at you and the must be engaged with aggression.  You have to determine where they are and kill them within the 3 second limit.  If you don’t strike them with a clean hit, within that time, they flash red to let you know you failed to engage that target.  Toward the end of the course are two bosses that require “double-tapping” to bring them down.  They require four shots between the two in about 3.5 seconds.  One is at close range and the other is in the distance and even if you know what to expect, would be a challenging shot. 

If shooters would like to get used to the idea of firing guns at interactive targets, Shoot Extreme features a traditional range that can be viewed from the lobby, and is filled with torso targets that are very similar to the zombies in the course.  I did not shoot on this course before I went through the zombie maze, and I did lose a couple of shots because I went for head shots, and head shots don’t always register completely, since the hit sensor is in the torso.  So a torso shot is the most effective way to bring down a zombie, and that can be practiced in the traditional target range for similar pricing, about a dollar a shot along with the gun rental—so it’s very affordable, and a cheap way to shoot, a really good bargain for such a non traditional target range.  I did shoot on the traditional range after my zombie hunt, because I didn’t want the experience to be over, so I was able to see how the zombies worked in lane one by studying how the targets behaved without all the zombie dressing that makes them look like monsters in a haunted house. 

Shoot Extreme is a happening place, and a palace of tactical shooting.  It is a great benefit to the community of West Chester and the surrounding areas as it gives civilians a chance to do what only military personnel has had access to in the past.  I will emphasize that every gun owner and Second Amendment supporter I know should make a regular visit to this fantastic target range.  This particular venue enhances experiences like that enjoyed at Target World.  It is not direct competition, but is an added enjoyment, and skill set that is designed to take the personal firearm skills of a shooter and elevate them in ways that can only be experienced in such tactical scenarios.  But the competition level is never intended to be intimidating.  There are not in-your-face scores to rub in the face of shooters who don’t do well.  The experience is intended to be personal, and to be done again and again until the skills are mastered, so novice shooters don’t have to be concerned about not stacking up against those who have a lot more experience. 

The time spent at the Shoot Extreme facility can be over within 15 minutes, or shooters can hang around for hours immersing themselves in the environment.  For me, it will make a wonderful business lunch visit from time to time.  There’s no better way to talk business than over lunch with guns present, so I would think once word gets out among the business community, that many such lunches will become commonplace.  Right outside of the Shoot Extreme facility is a wonderful little Chinese restaurant as well as other options that could easily be enjoyed during a lunch hour from work. 

Obviously I can only gush over Shoot Extreme.  It’s the result of a dream from an owner who represents the best in what America has to offer.  He’s an entrepreneur who was able to take his real life service experiences in tactical training and bring it to everyday people, and that is a real gift to our society, especially those who are looking for new ways to enjoy, and protect the Second Amendment.  Shoot Extreme gives shooters a chance to get over their fear of firearms that has been drilled into our society from gun grabbing politicians, and teaches how to properly use a gun in the type of scenarios that it will most likely be used under target acquisition and threat assessment.  Because of Shoot Extreme, our society is well on its way to becoming just a bit more safe, and ultimately free. 

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Click Here to see what people are saying about my new book–Tail of the Dragon 

Visit the NEW Tail of the Dragon WEBSITE!  CLICK HERE and help spread the word! TELL SEVEN PEOPLE TO TELL SEVEN PEOPLE!

Rich Hoffman
https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/ten-rules-to-live-by/
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com

“Shoot Extreme” : The fine dining of target shooting in all of America

One of the true delights in life is to have a gun in your hand. Guns are the great equalizers that are among the greatest human inventions, because due to guns, tyranny has a hard time digging its claws into the individual lives of citizens. This has paved the way for a productive society not afraid to invent and to look down their nose at the political class with comfortable disdain. Because of the gun, the political class in America cannot believe that they are superior in any way to the average person. Because of the gun, freedom exists. Because of the gun, diversity of business can thrive in abundance. And because of the gun one of the most interesting businesses I have yet come across has started in West Chester, Ohio, the unusual concept called Shoot Extreme.

As I prepared to enter the Shoot Extreme facility at the corner of Tylersville and Cincinnati-Dayton Road I noticed that The Cone ice cream store was almost right across the street and I felt pride to live in a community that could sell ice cream in a unique specialized shop less than 200 yards from a shooting range that is indoor and set up to practice tactical target shooting with real guns. The concept of Shoot Extreme is a great one–move through a haunted house like maze with live ammunition and shoot at zombies that jump out at you from every direction. It’s a unique way to practice strategic skill, blow off some steam, and target shoot under pressure.

Shooting at fixed targets is one thing, and Target World in Sharonville is a wonderful venue for that. But shooting under pressure, where the shooter only has three seconds in a low light environment to identify a “friend or foe” target is a wonderful benefit to the civilian community of West Chester. It’s a wonderful option to live in a community that allows a person to get a fine steak diner at Jags, then to cap off the evening with a run through the tactical course at Shoot Extreme and take out the frustrations of the day by blasting the hordes of zombies set up throughout the maze. After the shooting is done, all the shooter has to do is turn the guns back in at the counter and Shoot Extreme takes care of cleaning and maintenance. The shooter can then have desert over at The Cone without further worry.

Needless to say, I am deeply impressed with the staff and concept at Shoot Extreme. For a gun loving community like West Chester, Mason and Liberty Twp, I would expect a place like this wonderful shooting range to be packed all the time. It is highly recommended that reservations are made online ahead of time to reserve a spot, and to fill out the release form on the website www.shootextreme.com before arrival because it speeds up the process of getting guns and ammunition just a bit quicker, because that is the goal of shooting at Shoot Extreme, to shoot zombies and to sharpen your senses.

This is a wonderful idea since some of the most popular videos games currently on the market are Undead 4, and Call of Duty. Shoot Extreme allows average people without access to military training and hardware to get a taste of tactical training in real life, beyond a video game environment where the smell of gunpowder and the urgency of the moment are elements of additional danger. For the cost of a night at the movies, a shooter can run the gauntlet of zombies and increase their combat skill level combining entertainment and practicality into a wonderful symphony.

More timid spectators might wonder why such things are important—why people would desire to shoot guns, let alone to do it in such a fantasy environment. The answer is because guns are cool, and are an important part of American culture. For those who don’t like guns, I would suggest that they do not understand what being an American is. Guns are the foundation of freedom, and it is healthy to become competent with them. I would say that shooting guns is as important as eating ice cream at The Cone, or buying new cloths at a department store. Shooting guns is the essence of freedom in America and there is simply no better way to celebrate it than with a trip to Shoot Extreme.

If you want fine dining, in West Chester, Mitchells Fish Market or Jags are the places to go. If you want to shop, then Voice of America shopping complex is where it’s all at. But if you want the fine dining equivalent of target shooting, then it is Shoot Extreme that becomes a must. This is simply the best indoor shooting experience of its kind anywhere, and it’s found in West Chester, Ohio.

The public perception of guns is that they are somehow a taboo subject, and that they should be feared. The timid types who still believe these ridiculous notions are in for a harsh reality as the new shooting range Shoot Extreme is just the tip of the iceberg for what’s coming. America has a youth that has been brought up on films and video games that heavily involve shooting, and as they come into age, thoughts about guns will loosen up considerably. I foresee a day in the not too distant future where guns will be openly carried by civilians like jewelry is displayed today. They will be just as common, and will not raise alarm when seen. And in the near future gun ranges like Extreme Shooting will be more common than unique as this range in West Chester is now.

The creation of Shoot Extreme is out of a desire for an indoor facility that gives to the public the same type of training only the military had access to before. The fun addition of zombies being the targets instead of actual terrorist insurgents only adds a layer of commercial appeal to a functionally sound tactical course that makes it just more than average entertainment. The desire of the timid to remove guns from society with rules and regulations is to suppress a fundamental American right that is never better present than at Shoot Extreme and the eradication of zombies in a mock apocalypse that can befall anyone with the price of a ticket. And the ticket is well worth it!   Part 2 of this posting will go up tomorrow and will dig deeper into the actual merit behind tactical training and the weapons involved at Shoot Extreme.  I am very proud to be a card-carrying member!

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Click Here to see what people are saying about my new book–Tail of the Dragon 

Visit the NEW Tail of the Dragon WEBSITE!  CLICK HERE and help spread the word! TELL SEVEN PEOPLE TO TELL SEVEN PEOPLE!

Rich Hoffman
https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/ten-rules-to-live-by/
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com