Month: January 2013

The American Dream Labs: A new book by David Barton ‘The Jefferson Lies’

I received from a good friend and loyal reader here at Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom a great gift—one of the only things that I truly love in the world—a new book.  And this particular book is from one of my favorite authors and is about one of my favorite Founding Fathers.  The book is called The Jefferson Lies by David Barton and seeks to set the record straight about Thomas Jefferson as progressive secularists have attempted to destroy his good name in order to advance their diabolical causes.  The book was ironic because it represented a kind of book end to a string of announcements that had their source in one man—Glenn Beck who is proving to be one of America’s new Founding Fathers by creating the means to rediscover what made us so great in the first place.  If not for Glenn Beck the new book I received about Thomas Jefferson would not have been possible—because it is Beck who has given voice to scholars like David Barton who would have otherwise been whisked away into a corner of intelligentsia and subdued.  If not for the efforts of Glenn Beck’s media empires, fueled by the book publishing industry and a society starving for intelligent material, people like David Barton wouldn’t have a voice.

Much of the trouble in America today can be blamed on progressives.  The world of debt, of broken marriages, of childhood misery, of aborted babies, of a stupid grown-up electorate more interested in sports scores than who they will vote for in the next election, of kids walking around aimlessly with their pants down around their knees in public wondering why nobody wants to hire them for a job. Most every problem in our modern society is the fault of secular, tampering, small-minded, progressives like Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnston and a whole slew of other like-minded fools who have attempted to socially engineer mankind with their infantile foolishness driven by insecure minds not completely sane.  One of the reasons secular progressives have attempted to diminish the work of people like Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, George Washington, and one of my all time favorites—Ben Franklin is because the modern man of progressive thought is but a boot heel philosophically to those classic Founding Fathers.  Presidents like Thomas Jefferson must be defamed so that presidents like Woodrow Wilson can look equal.  The progressive, who is in charge of every public school in America knows that the way to make themselves look good is bring everyone else down—which is why the world around us is filled with so many stupid people.  (I mean I was at the movies the other day and I think the collective intelligence of the people around me might have been able to power a pocket calculator.  They all looked like they voted for Obama.  One kid was walking with his girlfriend and literally couldn’t carry their popcorn into the movie theater because his pants were pulled down so far that he had to hold them with one hand because his other was holding his girlfriend’s.  The girlfriend had to carry the popcorn and pop.  The boy probably had a brain, and he might otherwise have been a promising young man of some merit, but I could take one look at him and tell that he was probably raised off government assistance, that he came from a fatherless household, that he probably ran with a group of wanna’ be thugs practicing gang behavior as kittens practice fighting with a ball of yarn—to prove their prowess.  The boy was a victim of secular progressivism and their social experiments that have gone worse than a Frankenstein mad scientist experiment.) 

As I held the new Barton book in my hand I thought of the spot that I had sat in over a decade ago when I took my family to Monticello—Jefferson’s very innovative home.   I sat where Jefferson did as he wrote his letters and looked out the same windows that he did the day that he died on July 4th, the same exact day as his one time political rival John Adams.  The two men wrote each other furiously during the closing days of their lives, and July 4th meant something special that nearly defied death.  Both men separated by miles of carriage driven roads through an endless wilderness pushed their minds to see one more July 4th in 1826.  In fact, they died within 5 hours of one another, no phone lines, no television, just remote wilderness and a mutual love and respect for knowledge and the founding of America.  Jefferson was a smart man overflowing with self-driven ambition.  He was the result of his many thousands of books.  What he put into his mind came out as a direct result to the quality he had invested.  He read books ranging from Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations to Alexander O. Exqemelin’s The Buccaneers of America (One of my all time favorites first published in 1678—Oh what I would give to have an original copy of that book in my personal library!)  Like Jefferson my life would be meaningless without books.  They are the blood that pumps through my veins and that will always be the case.  I simply love to read them, and I love to be in their company whether it be a private library or a public one.  I love the presence of knowledge, thought, and enterprise.  I have often spoke of my disgust that the Library in Alexandria, Egypt was destroyed by the mob.  CLICK HERE TO REVIEW.  Progressives like all the parasites of the past know that the way to control the masses is to make them too ignorant to think for themselves—so that those same masses will always clamor for a leader—provided by the modern progressive politician.  The mentality is the same whether the period of time is the sacking of Rome, or the modern push for same-sex marriage as a priority over the national debt.  The secular progressive seeks destruction of thought to advance their sinister plots.

But the same man who made indirectly the new David Barton book about Jefferson possible had just spent a week explaining his new massive project—The American Dream Labs which is a fantasy right out of the pages of anything Thomas Jefferson or Ben Franklin could have ever hoped for in America.  Glenn Beck is restoring to our modern times a love of knowledge and innovation that founded the nation, and he is doing it beyond the reach of secular progressives.  Beck is achieving a kind of critical mass that George Soros and all his billions couldn’t stop, because in the “rock, paper, scissors” game of politics, intelligence always crushes stupidity and progressives like Soros have been crushed by a reawakening of the human spirit.  Glenn Beck simply refused to back down, and he is about to erupt with a creative energy driven by the same kind of restless force that drove Thomas Jefferson.  The results of this awakening unfortunately won’t be measured for a decade or two, but it will occur now that Beck has started the process.  The results of today are a direct result of progressive policies started in the 1990’s.  The conservative revival of Beck, Barton and those like them won’t be truly felt until around 2025 or 2030.  It takes a long time to emerge, but it starts in arts and entertainment–the rest of the culture will follow later.

Beck shares with me it appears a love of the theoretical city/amusement park Epcot Center.  Walt Disney, like Beck was committed in his day to the same kinds of thoughts and feelings that drove the Founding Fathers, which is why there are such strong themes referencing them in Disney World.  CLICK HERE FOR REVIEW.  Every city in America should take notes from Disney’s Epcot Center and form their infrastructure around those concepts.  But none do, instead they allow themselves to be shaped by corrupt politicians who try to scrape enough off the top to buy a new condo for themselves.  Modern cities are shaped by incomplete people.  So Glenn Beck is planning to build his own city called Independence, U.S.A. at a cost of about $2 billion dollars.  Click the link below to see all the video of Beck explaining the concept complete with drawings and further commentary.  Most important to me is that Beck is going to feature a library in the center of his city that will be available to teach politicians all over the country how they are supposed to govern based on wisdom, not diabolical greed.  I am extremely excited about Glenn Beck’s American Dream Labs.  He is attempting to do what Walt Disney never could, and Ayn Rand only thought about in the book Atlas Shrugged—he is building a Galt’s Gulch in plain sight—in the midst’s of secular progressive political control.

The American Dream Labs (CLICK TO SEE MUCH MORE)

Progressives who believe that everything is interconnected around the halls of intelligentsia obviously missed the boat.  They are right about the interconnected nature of things, and the need for wisdom, but they allowed their academic vision to be corrupted by the wrong philosophy—that of European collectivism, and they will fail 100% of the time as a result.  They outwardly proclaim to represent wisdom, and knowledge—but instead they represent foolishness, and apathy—so it is they who are behind the push to destroy the name of Thomas Jefferson.  And it is because of them that people like Glenn Beck must build a new city so that it can outshine all others as a gleaming example of how things should be done—not how they currently are.   Because of books like the one I received from my friend, The Jefferson Lies, Glenn Beck is moving his business operations into movies, television shows, more books, and more radio—in short, as I mentioned to Doc Thompson the other day—“Glenn Beck will be the new Ted Turner of modern media.”  Ted Turner represented the views of secular progressivism and the world has been shaped by his many billions of dollars.  Ted is indirectly responsible for that young man I mentioned at the movie theater who had to hold his pants up with his free hand walking like a penguin into a movie theater with his girlfriend.  The young man is the result of secular progressive thought advanced through Ted Turner’s cable television empires.  CLICK HERE FOR MORE.  Glenn Beck is now doing the opposite of all those past media tycoons.  Beck before he’s done will far out-grow his media model of Orson Wells, and I believe that he will out-produce Walt Disney—and that means an end to secular progressivism eventually in America—and I can’t wait.

The book I received as a gift on January 12, 2013 from one of my dear Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom readers represents this slight shift in embracing knowledge over political ideology that has helped feed the modern empire of secular progressivism.  The  book is a an early product of Glenn Beck’s American Dream Labs and I cherish the very pages contained within it like a lost treasure found after thousands of years of being buried in the sand.  All books have value, but some have more value than others, and anything by David Barton is a treasure trove of wealth and knowledge.  I am so thankful to have such a book in my hands.  Upon reading through it I am reminded of the rooms of Monticello which was an early version of Jefferson’s kind of American Dream Lab, and found it easy to understand why Jefferson answered his own White House door in his slippers and bed robe, and didn’t think enough of the presidency to even put the title on his tomb stone.  That is the kind of man who founded America, and that is the kind of man who I admire.  That is the kind of human being that Glenn Beck’s American Dream Labs will be committed to producing in The United States and that excites me greatly.  It is my hope that my grandson can go to the movies with his future wife and take note that all the young men there can carry the popcorn for their girl friends while holding her hand with the other.  The young men will be able to perform the task because they’ll have their pants pulled up around their waist and properly fastened where they belong, and not down around their knees like the messed up kids from the early 2010’s who had been virtually destroyed mentally by secular progressivism and left to root in the abyss of cataclysm.

Rich Hoffman

“If they attack first………..blast em!”

www.tailofthedragonbook.com

Doc Thompson on The Blaze Radio Network: What’s better than a pile of gold?

I first met Doc Thompson at a School Choice event in Mason, Ohio.  CLICK HERE FOR REVIEW.  Doc and I had done a number of interviews on the powerful 700 WLW radio station in Cincinnati that was having a major impact on the direction of not just education funding in the state of Ohio, but also the nature of education itself, so it was good to finally meet him in person.  Unlike most who sit behind a radio station microphone with a fake name and the many caricatures of oneself invented for the airwaves, Doc is surprisingly just as passionate about issues off-the-air as he is on.  This is how he came to meet me at the School Choice event, and we have stayed in touch ever since.  We would cross paths again at the Glendale Tea Party where Doc was the keynote speaker as trains stormed by during a particularly patriotic afternoon gathering.  We worked hard to bring Atlas Shrugged Part One to the Newport on the Levee movie theater, and we helped make waves with a carbon party at a local Cincinnati vineyard consuming as many carbons possible with fuel exhumed by the Sons of Liberty motorcycle club and a lot of outdoor grilling.  We also defeated a number of local school levies which generated extensive anxiety among the local labor unions and created discussions that had never occurred before in the world of politics because Doc had a microphone and would often call on me to expose many of the education facts that get shoved under the rug.  (CLICK HERE TO SEEM HIM SPEAK AT THAT GLENDALE EVENT). 

(CLICK HERE TO SEE THE VINYARD SPEECH)

One of the darkest days in my recent memory was when all the push back from this activity came to pass.  The unions organized a kind of community boycott against me, Judge Napolitano had his show Freedom Watch canceled on the Fox Business Channel–allegedly because of his constant support of Ron Paul for President—and Doc Thompson was fired from WLW Radio while on a honeymoon with his wife Yuna.  All this news came within about 5 days of each other and I had the impression that there was an all out assault on the kind of reforms I was fighting for, so I bunkered down which led to my famous latté sipping prostitute comments that made so much news around Cincinnati.  I didn’t care if it made people angry or even hurt their feelings.  It was time to change tactics because my friend was being forced to leave his job and I felt responsible for it.  Scott Sloan at WLW tried to assure me that I didn’t cause Doc to lose his job at that particular Clear Channel station but I had been around the block enough to know that politics behind the scenes had worked against Thompson and it was because he was a good guy not just behind the microphone—but in real life—that contributed to his termination.  I felt responsible because I helped fuel that trait with this blog site, (many of those interviews can be found here with an easy Google search).  Too many times over the years I have seen “good guys” punished in some form or another for being too good—for NOT running around on their wives, for NOT drinking enough at company parties, for NOT having a series of personal failures such as gambling addictions, eating disorders, or being chain smokers.  The people who run the world—at least those who have up to this point—like to cozy up with people who exhibit personal failure, because it makes them feel less guilty about their own wrecked lives.  Doc, it was clear to me, was a good person trying to fit in with a group who thought he was way too clean behind the ears, and it cost him his job, at least that’s my take on the whole ordeal.

After Doc left, I knew my relationship with WLW would change.  I did a couple of appearances with Marc Amazon, Darryl Parks, and then one very memorable one with Scott Sloan, but during all of them I felt I was betraying Doc Thompson, so I had to cleanse myself of that notion—which is why I said the things I did about all the characters involved.  It wasn’t just the gigantic assed despots who support school levies in my community, but their weak-kneed husbands who throw stones at people like Doc Thompson—because he’s too “good.”  “Goodness” should be rewarded, not punished, and here was Doc Thompson, squeaky clean socially, subbing part-time for the Glenn Beck Radio Show, winner of several Marconi Awards, and marrying a beautiful television news anchor while fighting for what’s good in American politics.  He was doing everything right, yet he found himself on the outside looking in, and it made me furious.  When Russ Jackson called me after my Enquirer comments (CLICK HERE FOR REVIEW) and wanted me to come on the Eddie and Tracy Show, I declined not because I didn’t want to argue on the air the merit of my controversial public statements, but some of those comments were directed at the people behind the termination of Doc Thompson, and I didn’t want to pour more fuel on the fire, while on the air.  The guilty parties know who they are, they put me on email block right after the phone call.   Not because I threatened anybody or said anything disrespectful, but because the guilty parties knew I knew what was going on.  (Only a few did this, most were innocent.)  

Logic told me that I had a book called Tail of the Dragon coming out—that I should play it safe and keep my mouth shut—like everyone else, because it would be good for me, my sales and my writing endeavors in the future.  But tactically, experience told me that a line in the sand needed to be drawn—so I said what I did to respond to all the issues occurring at the same time and for the good, the bad, and the ugly it was time to slug it out and not tap dance through the issues.  I sided with Doc Thompson even if it meant that he would be a street vender selling hot dogs at baseball games and would never get a broadcasting opportunity again.  When I meet good people, I do not betray them for any measure of personal advancement—politically, fiscally, or amorously.  I never have, and I never will even if it costs me a great deal up front.  Good people are so rare, that they are much more valuable than all the riches of the world when you meet them, and Doc is one of those people.

Doc went on to Detroit to work for a CBS station and he had success, only not long after hiring him producers announced they planned to convert their talk station into a sports network with an ESPN type spin on their broadcasting, so again, at the start of 2013, Doc appeared to be out of a job.  That is until Doc Thompson’s friend Glenn Beck offered him a chance of a lifetime with The Blaze Radio Network hosting a morning show nationally from 6 AM till 9 AM right before Glenn’s famous radio show that has a footprint of over 10 million listeners.  This means that Doc will be heard all over the nation on iHeart Radio with a Blaze Channel that is setting the broadcasting standard for the future.  Doc Thompson finally gets the opportunity to be the good person that he is under the business umbrella of Glenn Beck who is equally committed to being a “good man,” in all phases of being human.

The news for me that Doc was not just doing another syndication deal like so many other radio shock jocks currently do all over the nation, is extremely exciting.  There are plenty of Sean Hannitys, and Howard Sterns these days, and the world doesn’t really need one more.  They are part of the established order as it has been, not as it will be—and so far, Glenn Beck is a media personality who is shaping the world of tomorrow with the kind of ambition that eluded Nikola Tesla’s great fight with Thomas Edison.  The difference between Edison’s version of electric power and Tesla’s was not one of superiority, it was because J.P. Morgan backed Edison and wanted to control electricity—so Tesla was bought out forcefully and Edison prevailed shaping the way electricity is generated and delivered to this very day.  In the case of Glenn Beck, the situation is reversed.  The money is behind the better man and it has allowed people like Beck to hire good people like Doc Thompson to become the new standard in radio broadcasting.

Walter Cronkite made his name as a newsman because he was there when the television was invented.  Bill O’Reilly became the dominate newsman when cable overtook broadcast television years later as a reliable news source.  Both men were there at the start of major technical revolutions and were able to use their skills specific to those innovations to usher in a new age.  Doc Thompson will become that new standard that has not yet been heard on any broadcast, because another technological revolution is emerging around internet distributorship percolating outside of FCC regulation, and this will ironically allow good people like Doc Thompson to dominate that new age.  This time Doc will not be fired for being a good person, for not making enough “fart” jokes on the air, or spending airtime talking about the voluptuous attributes of women.   Doc will succeed because his new boss is Glenn Beck—a man who honors the honorable, and is committed to a goodness that has left Americans vacant.  Doc Thompson will become the new standard in broadcasting in 2013 and it all starts on January 21st on The Blaze Radio Network every morning with an emerging media empire driven by Beck that is committed to not just making money—which it is–but in the manufacture of “goodness” which ironically is a new concept in our media driven culture.  That is why Doc Thompson is one of the few types of personalities who could fill that growing demand.  Being a “good guy” is not something that can be faked when it’s required to come from a person 24 hours a day 7 days a week.  In the old days, newsmen and actors could “pretend” to be good people while they were on the set, or conducting an interview.  These days, with the growth of the internet and instant access to information at all times of the day, a radio personality like Doc Thompson must go beyond the traditional broadcasting criteria—the broadcaster must actually be “good” otherwise people won’t listen, because they have been burnt before with deception, and they won’t invest their time in a puppet show as they did in the early days of media.  In this new age, Doc Thompson is the whole package, and the world is about to learn what I already know, that The Blaze Radio Network just secured their future in history with the announcement that Doc Thompson will be their new morning man who will send all the competition reeling.  Being “good” can’t be faked, it has to be sincere, and Doc Thompson is as sincere of a person as I have ever met in journalism, entertainment, or as an activist.  If a pile of gold and friendship with Doc Thompson were set before me, I would pick Thompson, because that friendship is worth more than the gold.  This is why The Blaze Radio Network will explode as the next generation in broadcasting, and I am very happy to see it happen.  It couldn’t have happened to a better guy.

CLICK HERE to see my early thoughts about The Blaze with a contribution during it’s opening weekend of publication back in 2010.  I’m pretty good at spotting a winner. 

And this footage of Glenn Beck’s visit to Wilmington, Ohio and his Christmas dedication to one of my favorite films, It’s a Wonderful Life.

The fighters in this new way of thinking are standing up for what’s good, for the values we all celebrate in films like It’s a Wonderful Life.  Anything less, just isn’t acceptable and for me, I expect those values every day of the year…………………..not just during Christmas.

Rich Hoffman

“If they attack first………..blast em!”

www.tailofthedragonbook.com

Lee Wong President of West Chester: Turbulant politics ahead!

For all the reasons that Lee Wong is now president of the West Chester Trustees, local politics is at best dysfunctional beyond repair with the same old faces.  Only Catherine Stoker knows her true motives, but it appears that during an election year where Lee and Cathy’s seats are both up for re-election, Cathy—who has been a trustee for West Chester since 1994 and represents every brand of big government intrusion into business interests, private residents, and is a tremendous supporter of the public education black hole school funding that currently exists is dealing her friend a bad hand of cards. Cathy and Lee have a great relationship and work well together for their own collective oriented agenda, but politics is…………….well……………politics.  For an example CLICK HERE to see video and commentary on the sidewalk debacle that took place in Becket Ridge by Lee and Cathy.

http://westchesterbuzz.com/2013/01/09/west-chester-board-of-trustees-name-wong-president/

If anyone has ever seen Lee Wong conduct a meeting, it is obvious that he struggles to keep everything organized, so it appears that Cathy is throwing her friend under the bus by allowing him to draw all the fire that is coming from the West Chester Tea Party’s commitment to fiscal responsibility—which is proving challenging. Cathy’s years of experience knows that whoever is president will take most of the fire as they are required to provide frequent quotes to the press—and this will be politically difficult for the kind of person that Lee is.

The same type of shuffle game occurred on the Lakota school board last year when Joan Powell relinquished her president’s seat to Ben Dibble.  She had an election coming up to win, and the new comer Julie Shafer was elected vice-president allowing Powell to hide in the background till the heat died down that was going on at the time.  CLICK HERE FOR REVIEW.  It is relevant to the trustees of West Chester as they are all politicians in the same community and are functioning from the same strategies.  While inexperienced politicians like Lee, Ben, and Julie are led to believe that they are being promoted for their good behavior, the more politically manipulative “old timers” know how to preserve themselves under challenging circumstances, and both Lakota school board members and the West Chester trustees are faced with huge challenges in 2013 from new blood running for their seats.

I know of two people who are thinking seriously of making runs for the trustee seats of Cathy and Lee, and they stand a great chance of removing those two progressive minded politicians.  Cathy had arranged with Lee in much the same way they worked out the issue of the side-walk in Beckett Ridge–that he would become president and she would be vice-president because they hold a 2 to 1 vote over the third trustee George Lang recently re-elected during 2011.  In Cathy’s case, it is best for her to appear she is not a power-hungry name plate goddess by relinquishing some of her power to Lee—while the real motive might be to diffuse political attention away from herself to Lee, so that her seat gets most of the progressive votes over the two conservative challengers who are planning to run against her.

It is interesting that there is never any explorations in the local papers about this kind of behavior.  Reporters have allowed themselves to be lap-dogs to people like Cathy, Lee, and Joan.  Reporters enjoy powerful people with name-plates because it makes for easy reporting, so seldom is any substantive investigation done into the motives of politicians when positions of power changes.  But in Lee’s case, it would seem obvious given his political handicaps what Cathy is up to.  Voter apathy is how Cathy has managed to keep her seat and maintain invites to all the prestigious West Chester social occasions for over 20 years.  Often, that is the real motive behind these types of politicians; they enjoy the social occasions and the feelings of importance that they offer.  They are always seeking ways to exploit voter apathy—such as changing around the names to make positive adjustments appear to be happening, to give the appearance of democracy in action. But the reality is quite something else.

It will be up to voters to prove Cathy politically wise, or not during the election of 2013.  In the past such decisions have worked, but that was before people started to wake up, as they are beginning to do now.  The question will be whether or not voters will give new people a chance to rock the foundations of West Chester politics with much more competent minds—instead of the scheming that goes on which centers completely on self-preservation using politics to provide the illusion of personal value in the context of social occasion.  The management of a district or a community is not about hand-shaking, charity events, or touchy-feely progressivism.  It’s about making hard decisions and care-taking the community’s tax money with more than lip service—it requires a surgical approach to all things financial, and a healthy disdain for the power of a name plate.

Rich Hoffman

“If they attack first………..blast em!”

www.tailofthedragonbook.com

The Passion of Alex Jones: What fighting for America looks like

CNN is clearly using Piers Morgan to show how radical the pro Second Amendment crowd is by first inviting on Ted Nugent with predictable results, then Alex Jones to bait them into animated gun totting diatribes designed to demonstrate how dangerous Americans with guns are. But it is backfiring.  The political left for years has had more than their fair share of radical nutcases expressing their viewpoints and now they are trying to paint radicals on the right as “nutcases” as if they were above the ludicrous diatribes.  America is showing that they are just as accepting—even willing to throw their support behind such animated personalities.  Alex Jones as a radio show is very popular, but as an entertainer—it is evident that Alex is 100% committed to what he believes and taken at face value, he appears to be a certifiable nutcase conspiracy theorist.  But the trouble with Alex is not that he may be certifiably insane, as people like Piers Morgan are attempting to frame in the court of public opinion.  Quite the opposite, Alex Jones is suffering from being “too awake,” he’s too aware of the world around him and the level of deception that human beings are capable of—a trait that most of society gladly shuts their minds off to.  When Alex Jones was asked to come onto the Piers Morgan Show to defend the Second Amendment, Jones exploded with the kind of dialogue that is becoming more and more common place all through the Midwest.  The direction of the conversation appears to have created anxiety on the CNN set.

Jones is popular because he speaks to the kind of Americans that know something is terribly wrong at the very top.  They realize that they have been lied to, they question all authority, and trust nobody in politics.  The Alex Jones listeners, who are quite numerous, have accepted that there is no authority on Earth that can be trusted, and they instead put their faith in self-reliance.  So it is not difficult for those types of people to question the reality and motivations of those in authority.  They may get the details wrong—but they do not get wrong the tendency of human beings to impose their will on other human beings as the ultimate ego boost that is incredibly prevalent in politics and the money that puts politicians in power.  That money often comes from political activist billionaires like George Soros and others like him who have an intense desire to shape the Earth into a vision of their own thinking, and they do not care if they impose their will on the individual rights of others who are not billionaires.  It is they who do wish to supplant the American Constitution with a document more “progressive” so that they can gain the ability to have control of more people.

Saying such a thing about billionaires is a fact.   It’s not a conspiracy theory at all.  Those types of personalities are ruthless by their nature, which is how they came to be billionaires in the first place—in most cases.  Many of these same types once they have become extremely wealthy try to redeem the sins of their past with what they consider the “greater good” as they see it.  But their good might be a tyranny to people like Alex Jones and his listeners, and guns are desired to be removed from society to impose the will of the billionaire’s version of good without fear of open revolution like Alex Jones threatened to Morgan during their interview.  Most of the patsies in the media are simply hired to represent the views of ownership, so the war is not with just the leftist political ideology of progressivism advocated by the President Obama’s, Elizabeth Warrens, Governor Chris Christies, Hillary Clintons, and the Piers Morgans, but the money behind the scenes shaped by people like Ted Turner, George Soros, and Warren Buffett.

When Jones talks about the Bilderburger Group, and all the intertwined groups that serve the political interests of the very wealthy, he is noticeably fearful of their motives—which indicate sinister strategies against mankind.  I believe that Jones was harassed while in New York City by thugs of the financially powerful who fully intend to destroy American sovereignty and rebuild it in their own image.  When Jones became out-of-control during the CNN interview, I have no doubt that executives at CNN were on the phone with worry over what their bosses would think of the Jones/Morgan exchange because it backfired obviously.  Jones did look like a crazy, maniacal, gun totting, lunatic—but he represents people like me, and millions of other gun supporters who reside in the core of America.  I have said myself that I am ready for a new American Civil War.  In fact, I expect it to become a reality in the very near future.  I’m not going to give up any of my rights for the “greater good” as George Soros or anybody else sees it.

The growing realization that eventually people like Alex Jones will have to come to, that will come with time, is that there is nothing to fear from all those conspiracy makers.  Once Jones and his fans realize that they have just as much power to inflict pain on the Bilderburgers or any armed gunmen who might try to harass them outside of the CNN building before an interview, they will discover that they always had the power—and that conspiracies of any kind are simply designed to move the minds of mankind in a particular direction, whether or not there is any truth to the conspiracy.  The idea of a conspiracy direct or indirect is designed to strike fear in the minds of the recipients.  However, once people realize that they are just as capable of inflicting the same kind of violence that the conspiracy perpetrators are, there really isn’t anything to fear from them.  There is no reason to fear the gun carrying thug, the politician and their security details, “hit squads,” or just public relations specialists—they are all only human.  If the quality of mind of one side is superior to the other with all other things being equal, then the strong mind will always prevail.  Guns make the physical nature of conflict equal leaving only the minds to prevail over others—which is why the powerful wish to remove guns from society—because their minds are not superior to everyone else.  Being more fiscally ruthless does not equate to a quality mind.  The only way the extreme billionaire redemption addict looking to suppress the sins of their youth with philanthropy, is to control society by taking away the physical ability of equality—because the mind of those billionaire activists is not superior to their opponents.  That is what the gun control argument is all about—power and control.  Once that is realized, there is nothing to fear.  The conspiracy generators are just pathetically simple people who use money to overcome their mental weaknesses in a quest for power and ruthlessness that made them billionaires in the first place.

Alex Jones is not crazy, and neither is Ted Nugent.  They are passionate, and utter their anger that the world is not the honest one that they thought it was.  In that regard their ideas about the world has been shattered.  They wanted to believe that people on the other side of the political aisle were good—and they are outraged to find out that they aren’t.  And they fear losing that equality measure of their political enemies having guns and them not having equal weapons because they desire to be law bidding citizens.  Their political enemies are dirty and won’t follow any laws anyway, so the good people who follow Alex Jones will always be at a disadvantage to the radical extremists on the political left.  Their anger isn’t insanity, its fear at losing their equal footing with those who wish to control their lives–so the emotions do get out-of-hand.  If so many people weren’t asleep, they’d be angry too!  However, Alex Jones would sleep better at night if he realized that the reason behind his conspiracy theories of ultimate control of the human population are because our enemies have insufficient intellects that cannot deal squarely with the minds of those they wish to suppress.  They are not superior, and cannot control our society unless we surrender our ground and guns to them.  Now that the chips are on the table, the other side has been exposed, and their argument will fade off into eventual oblivion like clouds on a hot August day evaporating before our eyes.   There is nothing to fear from those people, because their actions are based on poor intellects and an abysmal understanding of reality which is a tendency that means they should fear us a lot more than we have need to fear them.

Alex Jones in that regard is not crazy, he’s simply passionate, and that makes him a good, healthy American doing his job.

Michelle Obama’s Email to Me: The lavish life of a wanna be queen

For some reason, Michelle Obama thinks I’m her friend.  She would be wrong.  Tonight she sent me this ridiculous email:

Friend —

Four years ago, during his first inauguration, Barack and I were thrilled when thousands of Americans from every corner of the country took part in the National Day of Service honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

We were so excited because we knew that the celebrations weren’t just about a new president, but about everything that we can accomplish together. And that starts with service.

So this year, as we prepare for another celebration, we’re hoping to renew that spirit of service and citizenship — we’re calling on all Americans, including you, to volunteer in your community on Saturday, January 19th, for this year’s Day of Service.

Please join us, and commit to serve on January 19th.

Throughout our lives, Barack and I have seen that building a full life isn’t about what you can get for yourself — but what you can give to those around you. It’s a value that’s been central to our lives together. And as parents, it’s something we’re trying every day to pass down to our girls.

This inauguration is only possible because of you and all your hard work. Barack and I are so grateful for you, and for everything you’ve done for us and for our country.

Pledge to join us for the Day of Service at an event near you:

http://action.2013pic.org/Pledge-to-Serve

Thanks,

Michelle

P.S. — When you commit to serve, you’ll be automatically entered for the chance to come out to Washington, D.C. for Barack’s inauguration — flight and hotel covered.

Lady……………..I don’t serve anybody.  The only thing I’ll pledge is to throw you and your husband’s ass outta office.  Enjoy your party spent with the money stolen from the American people through the strong-arm tactics of the IRS.  The time is coming when the princes and princesses of The United States will learn that it is they who serve, not the other way around.  And Michelle…………..sweetheart………….if you’re in such a giving mood……………..why not give back the millions of tax payer dollars you’ve spent on family vacations.

Rich Hoffman

“If they attack first………..blast em!”

www.tailofthedragonbook.com

New Frontiers in Education: ‘Star Wars The Old Republic’ on Alderaan

One of my changes in position on public education comes not from the revelation that the labor unions have no respect, or desire to work with taxpayers over school funding issues—but in learning about changes in education methods that are far better than the traditional way of learning.  To my mind first comes Rosetta Stone software which is completely changing the way that foreign language is taught to individuals, and is quite revolutionary.  It is only a matter of time before math, science, and language arts is revolutionized in the same way.  In fact, I believe that Microsoft Office is the most significant revolutionary step forward that any society has ever made, because it helps solve many of the basic language problems in communication with its powerful word processor and very excellent Excel Spreadsheets which I think are stunning in their conception.  The Cell design in Excel is one of those very unique inventions that are having a major impact on our society, because it makes complex mathematical computations accessible to a mass audience.  No longer is an accounting degree from college necessary to understand complex financial calculations.  This fact alone has helped stoke the fires for the present “freedom movement” that is going on in The United States where everything is being re-considered and re-invented as the revelation that we have all been duped by the political class for many years with fuzzy math and flat-out lies has been easily revealed by Microsoft Office’s powerful, user-friendly programs.  Excel by Microsoft has helped average people blow the lid off the truth that used to be concealed in the brief cases of politicians and understood only by accountants and lawyers.

Education based software like those mentioned above are the obvious signs of change that is coming on the forefront of learning.  Along the same education lines, yet in the field of entertainment I have been playing a new video game from BioWare called Star Wars: The Old Republic that I have found to be absolutely stunning in its conception, scope, subtle ambition, visual articulation, and intelligence that is absolutely mind-boggling compared to the kinds of entertainment options that were available when I was a kid.  The game is an MMO so you play with millions of other players from all over the world at the same time and interact with a storyline that is in essence an epic novel.  In fact, that is exactly how my wife and I have been describing it after over 100 hours logged onto the game during the last two weeks.  The Old Republic is a living breathing novel with sights and sounds where it requires the input of the player to advance the storyline.  To date, co-opting with my wife playing as a Jedi Counselor and myself playing as a Jedi Knight, we have made literally hundreds of decisions along the way that have proven how education in the world of tomorrow should be.  The decisions made have immediate consequences on the story so depending on how those decisions are conducted directly impacts the outcome of the story.  For the designers at BioWare if I didn’t know better I would think that they were trying to “teach” society the meaning of democratic republics and the value of being “good citizens,” because the content is very heavy, and without doubt, most of the young people who share that cyberspace with us in that massive concept of a game probably don’t retain much of the vast amounts of data provided.  But in watching them play the game, I have been impressed at how quickly some of them have advanced in the game managing many aspects of their characters with a complicated system of adjustments that must always be checked and dealt with.

There is a currency system in the game that is specific to over 17 different planets, plus the Republic itself has a kind of universal currency.  A player must manage their crafting skills, their armor damage, the specs of their weapons, armor and those of their companions.  They must also manage a starship of their own including the fuel to get from point A to point B, and countless other small little details that must be constantly maintained as the game is played.  Not to mention there are many opportunities to play with groups of 4 to 16 players at the same time so you have to coordinate with all of them to achieve mission objectives.  Most of the time my wife and I work as a team, I’ll designate that I’ll perform one task while she does another maximizing our efforts and it was during all this that I realized that much of what The Old Republic was doing is far better than the kind of things public education is trying to achieve in the old fashion way of teaching.  No wonder kids are so bored in school and aren’t learning anything when they are playing games like these for fun!

I had managed to curb my enthusiasm for the first 70 hours of game play by telling myself I only liked the game because it was new, or because we had to spend several thousand dollars to play it at the level I wanted to.  But after we visited the planet of Alderaan, the planet that was destroyed in the first Star Wars film A New Hope I realized that I was not only playing the best video game I have ever played, but was witnessing a revolutionary new way educating tomorrow’s youth.  Alderaan graphically and politically is absolutely magnificent.  The reason we spent money on buying new computers just to play The Old Republic were for moments like the environment on Alderaan, with snow-capped mountains all around the major cities that even have mist drifting in front of them.  There are windmills generating power off in the distance and everything is very lush, green, and advanced.  For those who know me, my favorite amusement park in the world is Epcot Center at Disneyworld, and Alderaan in the game The Old Republic is like a living breathing city of Epcot design with very complicated politics that must be unraveled by the game’s players.  It is extremely intriguing and really mind-blowing how vast that world is.  We tried for over an hour to get to the edge of the map world, (the programmed content of just that planet) and couldn’t do it.  Alderaan alone in The Old Republic is bigger in size than most video games that might be programmed for Xbox or the PC, so in relation to the other 17 planets in the game, it is difficult to comprehend how BioWare pulled all this material off.  There had to be mountains of scripts, dialogue performed by actors for many, many hours and large teams of programs just to create all the substance—but to connect it all with a storyline is baffling.  To stand on Alderaan and take it all in, and look at the mist forming and drifting across the mountains in the distance it had the same kind of look as the Smoky Mountains, the Colorado Rockies, the Canadian city of Banif, or the Swiss Alps—BioWare pulled off what I would consider an impossible feat with just this one environment—the illusion of reality.  Once a player is in that reality, they are open to be taught in that environment.  That is why The Old Republic is so superior to any other game experience I’ve personally ever had, but also sets the stage for education in the future.  This is the way education should be handled with all America’s youth.  No politics, no exploitation, none of the funding issues that are plaguing modern public education with inefficiency–but instead the kind of productivity that is evident in The Old Republic that encourages a player to learn, and rewards that learning with gratifications that are remembered because they are fun to pursue.

Needless to say that I am impressed beyond measure with The Old Republic, I get the feeling that I’m involved in the start of something truly revolutionary.  I remember how educators and scholastic purists had a negative reaction to the pocket calculator in the 1970’s the same way they are resisting Rosetta Stone software today for foreign language use.  Many will resist too the notion that a game like The Old Republic can replace much of the current education structure with a more efficient type of learning that is far more powerful than the type of collectivism found in public schools.  The Old Republic is the first of its kind and is heads and shoulders above anything else done to date—not just in the combat system, but in the story and what it teaches the player.  It is gigantic in an attempt that is utterly successful and it makes me wonder what the future holds if there comes a time where The Old Republic becomes considered graphically simple as a standard that gamers today look back on titles like Pac Man and Pong from years past and shake their heads at how far we’ve come.  The world is changing, and The Old Republic is evidence that not all of it is bad.  The lessons learned within the context of the story are valuable, morally sound, and players can see immediately the consequences of their actions in a way that life has a way of molding over many years.  On The Old Republic players can see those actions within the context of 200 hours of game play instead of 20 years of hard living.  In that way The Old Republic is the best form of educational entertainment I have ever seen, and I am proud to live in a time to see it developed into a reality.  I simply love the game and am a very proud subscriber, and will be for a long time.  It is a miracle of everything that is good about our modern times mixed with the power of myth, which is the backbone of every culture that hopes to survive into the future.  It takes more than math, science, and language arts to make a flourishing society.  It requires “context” to apply all those skills, and without that context, education only succeeds in creating mindless drones.  What The Old Republic does successfully, is provide “context” in a story which allows players to develop skills that are directly applied with quick and frequent rewards.  That is why The Old Republic is so revolutionary, and is the first step into a much, much larger world.

Rich Hoffman

“If they attack first………..blast em!”

www.tailofthedragonbook.com

The Steubenville Rape: Guilt, Evil, Sorrow, and Epic Institutional Failure in Education

Thank goodness for “New Media” (blogs, Twitter, and YouTube) otherwise the rape case at Steubenville high school would have went nowhere.  It has been well documented at this site the various instances of institutions that have covered up the very bad behavior that goes on in education establishments such as Penn State, virtually every public school and college, to protect their bottom line when controversy erupts over various sex scandals.  When their sports programs are caught over something despicable they participate reluctantly in the prosecution of outright evil—because they all recognize that their sports programs are their sources for funding.  Click here to review the Stacy Schuler case at Mason high school for an example.  Virtually all institutions have a tendency to turn their faces from evil in order to protect their own interests.  They do not care what happens to individuals, they only care about the collective survival of their institutions.  In the mind of the institution whether it be Steubenville high school, Penn State or my local school district of Lakota, they all are willing to use sports as a safety blanket to sweep all their garbage under, and they do so without apology.  They only care about individual lives when they get caught.

Specifically in Steubenville a couple of high school football players appear to have gang raped an intoxicated 16-year-old girl that was bragged about by other students on YouTube.  Fury broke out on both sides of the argument featuring the same old cover up neglect that is always present in these cases—primarily from adults who are so in love with the distraction of organized sports that they no longer recognize the rights of individuals. On the other side are the kinds of people who make a moral argument for justice on behalf of the victim.  In this case of Steubenville computer nerds making up the group Anonymous hacked a deleted controversial video where an 18-year-old Ohio State student bragged about the crime with his friends, then tried to take the video down once the heat came down on them.  Anonymous reposted the video which opened up the case nationwide.

But what I find most amazing is that Ohio State and now Kent State is seeking to distance their affiliation with the characters that were directly or indirectly involved in the “gang rape.”  Surely Ohio State and Kent State are quite aware that the same levels of rape are occurring every single night on their campuses, particularly on Friday and Saturday nights when group parties are most prevalent.  And surely the parents of every decent looking 16-year-old girl up till about the age of 23-years-old knows that their little girl has probably been gang raped in the exact same fashion as the girl at Steubenville high school.  Surely the parents knew that all the years they saved money so they could send small fortunes to these colleges that this was the kind of activity their children would be involved in.  If their child attends parties—especially ones where athletes are present, gang rapes of unconscious girls is common, not unique.  Surely they know that the problem is wide-spread and nowhere near an isolated incident.  These rapes happen every single night on their campuses, and they happen all the time in high school parties where drinking is involved.  If a girl loses consciousness in a crowd of boys, she will find her cloths off and sexually assaulted nearly 100% of the time once she wakes up again.  Any girl who brags that she has lost her memory at a party is trying to distance herself from the disgrace to save embarrassment—which is why these things don’t get reported more often.  When they do, the girl is blamed for getting so drunk that she put herself in danger—just as what happened in the Steubenville incident.  The general attitude from the public is that “boys will be boys” and collective salvation takes precedence over the individual rights of a passed–out young girl.  So why do the universities distance themselves from a few boys when tens of thousands of girls and boys are conducting the same activity nightly?  They are either liers, or extremely niave.  I would bet on the former.

Most of the time the fathers of these young girls are as guilty as the young boys who perform the gang rapes because secretly in the back of their minds they root for their high school and college sports stars to have sex with their daughters as though they are sacrifices to the Gods of sports.  These pathetic fathers, who are quite numerous in population density, enjoy knowing that their daughters have been the object of delight for the gladiators of sports, so they do not prepare their daughters for the primal aggression of girls and boys coming together under situations of intoxication.  Also the universities and education institutions using their progressive philosophy have taken on the mentality of orgy porgy from A Brave New World.  Schools everywhere at all levels use casual sex as a way to implement a social collectivism that was first experimented with in 1920 Petrograd—the cradle of communist thought during the Russian Revolution of 1917.  The term “Let’s Party” comes not from rebellious youth fighting for their freedom as we have all been led to believe in songs like the Beastie Boys performed, but from communist Russia and their strict adherence toward crushing individualism and cherishing the collective.  To the collective oriented institution, a young woman who has been gang raped has been stripped of her individuality and accepted into the community through group enjoyment so the behavior is encouraged—which is why it is so wide-spread on college campuses.  Partying is not about having fun; it’s about breaking down the individual ego with acts of disgrace that cause the masses to seek solace in collective salvation.  That is the goal of the institution philosophically.

If not for New Media and some of the computer geeks who used it–the story at Steubenville would have been covered up like the hundreds of thousands of other rapes that occur every weekend at every education institution across the country.  And the guilty parties are virtually everyone who has turned their eyes away from the nature of evil and embraced collectivism.  It is only for New Media that a change in society is occurring forcing it to look evil in the eye at Steubenville and deal with their emotions—instead of using evasion to turn away from the responsibility.  The little girl who went to the party and was allegedly gang raped by a small group of football players is ruined forever in the a way that innocence can only measure and I feel deeply sorry for her.  The guilt falls on many shoulders.  Women who find themselves in this kind of situation are ruined because men do not like to take on wives that have had sex with lots of other men, and now that her story is out, she will have to explain it forever not only to her future husband, but her future children, which will be embarrassing for the rest of her life.

That doesn’t mean her life will always be terrible, but there will always be that stigma that she will either have to explain, or avoid when dealing with others.  But the girl is not alone, she shares a story that many thousands of young women all share these days, and they try to ignore their checkered past when they finally do marry and try to start families of their own.  But the secret is always there in the back of their minds and all future relationships.  It is the source of much male impotency, sexual dysfunction, and amorous relationships that occur outside of wedlock in the decades to come regarding relationships.  Men like to know that their woman have been theirs and theirs alone.  But a society committed to collectivism wants to destroy that sense of possession, and that is the root behind the evil.  The girl was just doing what society has instructed her is “popular” and “proper.”  She has been taught that getting drunk is good.  She has been taught that self-respect is a bad character trait.  And she has been taught to surrender her integrity to the Gods of sports.

When I go to sports events I often park in the same areas as the players do who play on the field, and it always amazes me after a game the lines of young women who form up where the players exit.  All those young women are hoping to use their looks to sleep with a sports star that society thinks is so important.  The women in the back of their minds hope they might become pregnant so they can have a permanent connection to those Gods of the arena, or at least be able to brag about their powers of seduction to friends which gives them social prestige.  The girls who think such things are fools, but the people who taught them to think this way are worse—their parents, their school, their media driven society that turns its eyes away from evil by promoting it are the real villains.  Ultimately, the poor girl who went to the party at Steubenville, got drunk and surrendered her body to the athletes at the party did it for the same reasons that the groupie girls try to bed professional athletes—for social prestige. They of course don’t mean for things to get out of hand—but often that is the case.  Evil is at work in these events, and the guilt is on more hands and minds than the two football players who will be tried for the incident only now that the story has become a national story.  Those football players like the girl are only sacrificial victims to a society committed to collectivism.  It is society at large that sacrifices these young people once the evil of their actions are exposed in the light of day, and there is no court system in the nation that can prosecute such a wide-spread evil that is virtually everywhere.  It is an evil that has grown under our current education system and is a direct result of America’s social commitment to progressivism.

Rich Hoffman

“If they attack first………..blast em!”

www.tailofthedragonbook.com

The Empty Feeling of Sports: Why my nickname used to be “The Animal”

The comments I’m about to make require context since much of our current society is built around the importance of sports.  When I was in high school, my nickname was “The Animal” because of my particularly violent style of play in team sports.  Every coach and gym teacher I ever had tried hard to convince me to sacrifice my afternoons and weekends in pursuit of some ridiculous “team” concept with practices for football, track, baseball, basketball and anything else that required strength, endurance, incredible coordination, speed, charm and personal determination—because I’ve always had plenty of those attributes and often they wanted to ride my back to their own glories.  By default, I sometimes caved under the pressure as a youngster and would feel bad about it later—which is why I don’t “cave” to anybody or anything as an adult—but needless to say I would agree to play soccer to shut everybody up.  Since I didn’t care about making a living as an athlete, getting a pat on the head from a coach, having the support and friendship of my team mates, or getting an ice cream from my own parents, It created many opportunities for me to show why people called me “The Animal.”  I was hated by the opposing teams and that aspect was virtually the only reason I played organized sports at all until I could drive a car on my own and earn my personal freedom by working and earning my own money. When I could drive a car, my days of being driven to organized sports practices ended immediately—as I would not do such a thing out of my own self-interest.  And I never have looked back with reverence at those days like many adults do as middle-agers and wish I could do it again.  I did it right the first time, and I have no regrets.  Some people felt I threw away massive amounts of talent because I did not “exploit” my athletic abilities.  What they fail to realize is that by preventing myself from being exploited, that I preserved my core integrity which affords me the ability to say what I say below with authenticity.

As I mentioned yesterday (CLICK HERE FOR REVIEW) I noticed that grown adults were obsessed with information for the big BCS game between Alabama and Notre Dame, the playoff game between The Bengals and The Texans, and the wall to wall news coverage concerning sports statistics that mean nothing.  Considering that our nation has just went over the “fiscal cliff” and requires some serious consideration by the minds of those who run our American Republic they are too busy thinking about trivial nonsense involved with sports to do their jobs as caretakers of our society.  Organized sports are the harbinger of fools—it occupies their minds in a way that is pointless. For instance, with all the effort given by The Cincinnati Enquirer toward the Bengals playoff game, and all the wall-to-wall hours of discussion on talk radio and cable television dedicate to Andy Dalton and the gang what good came of any of it?  The Bengals lost yet again.  The teams that won will advance, the teams that lost have their seasons ended.  Whoever wins the Super Bowl will be forgotten within two weeks after the game is played so what was the point?  The same for the BCS title game, who will remember the victory in February? 

Now again, I understand the drama of sports.  My favorite football team is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  My wife and I have been known to fly down to Tampa just to watch a game at their very cool stadium.  But there has never been a great victory or a sports moment so grand that it eclipsed the experience I’ve had reading even a mediocre book.  Reading for me is much more powerful because it is the ultimate individually based endeavor—whereas sports are shared—collective experiences—and if you read here often then it is already known what a big “no, no” that is.  I would say that much of the reason our current society is so sick, is because of the distraction it has with sports and the mental investment in collective based endeavors. 

Many colleges are supported with tuitions because of their sports programs.  Many public schools receive community support because of their sporting programs.  Many kids play sports so they can get scholarships to attend university so they can play sports for that school and help sell the entire university with sporting events that have nothing to do with scholastic aptitude or the advancement of the human mind.  Public schools even shut down and have a “pep rally” for the entire school before a big game to unify the eyes and ears of the students, their parents, and everyone else around the community.  So it is very important to our modern society who wins and who loses a sporting event.  For the winners it often means more money and community support of higher taxes or tuition–for the losers it means constantly reshuffling coaching staffs so people can hope to have a victory in the future. 

But in the end, the victories are forgotten within days, and the loses are painted over—and nobody really cares.  This fascination with sports is no different from the mob during the Roman Empire’s fascination with gladiator arena games.  The fascination with barbaric games is the sign of a society in decline, and America is on that path led by the education institutions that should stand against such a thought.  They betray their own cause with an hypocrisy that cannot be forgiven or rationalized. 

In the case of the Cincinnati Bengals, because of their foolish love of sports, the entire city has ignored that the owner—Mike Brown, has robbed the community of many millions of dollars through the Paul Brown Stadium deal to provide a mediocre product that occasionally goes to the playoffs.  His product otherwise ties up prime real-estate downtown with only eight games a year yet people accept it because they look forward every day with many thousands of dollars in personal investment toward a game like what happened on Saturday January 5th 2013 between the Bengals and the Texans.  When the Bengals lost, it soon became realized how much money was wasted on the team, the stadium, and the amount of time gone forever thinking about the gladiator sport of football only to walk away with an empty feeling in the end and the proclamation—“maybe next year.”  America is still failing economically, and all the personal problems people have in their lives are still there.  That empty feeling people have after a sporting event comes to a close is the reality they have put off while they poured their attention into the distraction of sports they should have given to the lives they are living.  Pretty soon those “maybe next years” add up to old age with their lives behind them instead of in front and a head of empty ideas shaped by sports statistics. 

Sports are not the measure of goodness that so many people think it is.  It is a commitment to social failure and a mental investment that never pays off.   Sports can earn for the athlete some brief fortune and glory only because the social stigma tosses looted money and cheap women at the gladiators during victories.  But they are always short-lived and the trade-off isn’t worth it.  For those who believe it is—they have never really lived to begin with.  Sports is the folly of fools and but an excuse to cast their minds into evasion—which will solve nothing and lead them individually into a slow decline both physically and mentally.   Marshall McLuhan had it right when he said:

 “The school system, custodian of print culture, has no place for the rugged individual. It is, indeed, the homogenizing hopper into which we toss our integral tots for processing.”

Marshall McLuhan (1911–80), Canadian communications theorist. The Gutenberg Galaxy, “Cervantes Confronted [1]

I’ll take the rugged individual over the sports star any day.  I’ll take a good book over the cheap women won in a sports victory.  I’ll take the retained investment of knowledge over the result of a final score every single time.  Sports are the devices that makes those custodian’s of print culture seem worthwhile by glazing over the empty feelings following losses with the term, “maybe next year,” forever keeping analysis from happening today on the worth of such a faulty cause.   This is why my nickname was “The Animal.” The rage I expressed on the field of play was not to impress my coaches or the fans.  It was a hatred of the pawns on the field with me, and a desire to devour them with superior aptitude that I personally thought so little of—so much so that I would not even think of exploiting it for my own personal gain obtaining the riches of a society that is morally bankrupt.

[1]The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations is licensed from Columbia University Press. Copyright © 1993, 1995 by Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

Rich Hoffman

“If they attack first………..blast em!”

www.tailofthedragonbook.com

‘Les Misérables’ and ‘Star Wars’: A trip to the book store to buy ‘Scoundrels’

Before I get into a lengthy diatribe of translating the good experience of taking my grandson to his first book store as a 4 month old lad, I must comment on the video below featuring a middle-aged couple being hounded by their grown children after seeing the new movie release of Les Misérables featuring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crow and Anne Hathaway in a fantastic rendition of the popular play and book.  The couple is noticeably emotional as they left the theater and were in the car on the way home.  The sons of the couple thought the sight of their parents emotional state worth capturing for the YouTube archives.  Les Misérables (usually pron.: /leɪ ˌmɪzəˈrɑːb/; French pronunciation: ​[le mizeʁabl(ə)]) is a French historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published in 1862, that is widely considered one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century. In the English-speaking world the novel is usually referred to by its original French title, which can be translated from the French as The Miserable, The Wretched, The Miserable Ones, The Poor Ones, The Wretched Poor, or The Victims. Beginning in 1815 and culminating in the 1832 June Rebellion in Paris, the novel follows the lives and interactions of several characters, focusing on the struggles of ex-convict Jean Valjean and his experience of redemption.[1]

 

I don’t have the same experience with Les Misérables as the couple above.  For me, the French Revolution was a failure, and the aftermath led them to become a country continuously conquered by the Germans thereafter.  But, in American society, much of the love of Paris, Mardi Gras festivals, and even the roots for socialism among the so-called educated and cultured East Coast residents can be traced back to the popular play and their love of it.  For me, the characters in Les Misérables do not have enough Übermensch in them, which is all that I find worthy in works of art these days.  But I was thinking of that poor couple as my wife and I took our grandson to our weekly outing to the bookstore to stock up on more books for the week.  Before our shopping spree however we went to Chili’s as I watched the preview show for the BCS Title game between Notre Dame and Alabama on ESPN.  As I looked around the bar, everyone’s eyes were fixated on the same information being broadcast from the flat screen televisions all around the restaurant.  As we ate, I discussed all these elements with my wife and grandson, we spoke about the BCS game, Brian Kelly in leaving the University of Cincinnati to bring Notre Dame to dominance in just two years, the consistency of the Alabama program,  and why the poor couple coming home from the Les Misérables movie were so sad.  I explained to my grandson that many adults have turned off their minds.  Football, even though I enjoy the drama of the game is an accepted entertainment that occupies the neural development of the brain’s core processes and serves as a great distraction from the helpless, out-of-control nature many people feel in their lives.  Many adults have turned their minds off to many forms of mythology unless the orthodox society has determined that something has great sophisticated merit over other forms.  In other words, most adults wish to believe that they have arrived in their advanced age at a place of mental superiority over children like my grandson.

My grandson looked at me gurgling milk bubbles from his mouth as I spoke for nearly a half hour without pause.  I’m not sure how much he understood, but he looked at me and didn’t interrupt as my wife fed him his bottle.   I was feeling relaxed as we are on the third week of our unconventional vacation in the Star Wars galaxy of The Old Republic video game, and my wife and I have been having a blast.  Unlike Les Misérables or sports of any kind, the philosophy of Star Wars deals often with topics of the  Übermensch so more and more I turn to it for the level of thinking I enjoy indulging in, and two solid weeks of gaming on the new MMO The Old Republic with my wife and kids solving various political problems as Jedi Knights on the worlds of Nar Shaddaa, Coruscant and the shattered world of the once thriving Taris, I am at the closest place to complete bliss that I think is possible, and I suddenly felt very sorry for my adult contemporaries who only had the BCS Title game to look forward to, or a screening of Les Misérables.  To me, those are passive—or dead mythologies.  But Star Wars has always been a vast and creative mythology.  The concepts set in the mind a motion that unifies complex ideas under the powerful process of mythology and in human history, there is nothing like Star Wars, and sadly parents like the couple crying over Les Misérables deny themselves the same experience with Star Wars because they mistakenly believe that Star Wars is for kids alone.  It’s not.  For the adults who can share those mythologies with their children—and in our case—grandchildren, Star Wars is the building blocks to the next great philosophic movement.

The start of this new philosophic/religious awaking is just beginning.  Star Wars the Clone Wars just had their 100th episode aired on the Cartoon Network during the second Saturday of January 2013 and Kathy Kennedy is moving the production of the new movie trilogy into the casting stage.  The servers are thumping for the MMO game that my wife and I were eager to get back to after our dinner and trip to the book store—so BioWare has been successful in bringing new interest to the game which I think is very valuable.  But the reason for our outing was not to buy a new video game, see a movie, or even to eat out with our grandson.  The purpose of our journey to the book store was to buy the new Star Wars book called Scoundrels which just came out on January 1st and is a book that my wife has salivated over for nearly 6 months.  So after dinner we headed over to our favorite bookstore and suffered through the numerous people who wished to stop our progress and gaze at our grandson who was wide awake and smiling.  I was happy to show him such a place of freedom—a book store.  For me personally, there is no place better on Earth.  I love the smell of them.  I like the people in them.   And I treasure the vast vaults of knowledge contained in them.  So long as there is a free press, tyranny of any kind can never take full hold in any culture.  Bookstores are the backbone to freedom and this was my grandson’s first experience in one–his first of millions—I will make sure of it.

For me, when I was only 9 or 10 years older than my grandson is now, I would spend all of my time away from home in two places, the arcade and the book store.  When I ran out of money in the video arcade, I would then go to the book store and read through the titles for hours and hours never getting bored.  In fact, I read the Egyptian Book of the Dead complete with hieroglyphic translations during these visits before I was able to purchase my own copy many years later once I started working at age 13.  Back then, Star Wars as a mythology only centered on the original trilogies and had three novels out, the novelization of A New Hope (the first Star Wars film) a novel called A Splinter in the Mind’s Eye, and a book called Han Solo At Star’s End.  Now, there are hundreds of novels, and they take up an entire section of the book store.  In fact, there is no other section in any book store that is larger than most of the sections dedicated to Star Wars books.  And I am proud to say that my wife and I possess every single Star Wars novel or junior book ever written and have them in our personal library.  She has read them all, I have read about 2/3rds of them.

The book we came to get, Scoundrels was sold out in just two days.  The book features Han Solo in a Timothy Zhan story taking place immediately after A New Hope.   My wife really wanted to read this one, because it takes Solo back to the time of his late 30’s.  In the books that will lead up to the new films being produced by Lucasfilm and Disney where Harrison Ford will reprise his role and introduce Han Solo’s glorious daughter Jaina to the silver screen, Solo is well into his 70’s—so he’s been around a long time. (No Lucasfilm has not confirmed that Jaina will be in the new film.  I just know it to be the case—my own deductive reasoning.)  Well, apparently we weren’t the only ones wanting to buy Scoundrels.  The book store employee who was very excited to talk about the Star Wars books he’s been reading with us, called around town to find a store that had the new book.  While we waited, a young man was in the Star Wars section buying up four paperbacks while his girlfriend waited patiently.  I was impressed to see his ambition as he declared to me that he “loved Star Wars.”  I saw on his face a more mature and controlled emotion than the one shown by the distraught  Les Misérables viewers.  With that being said, I noticed that the book store had more Star Wars books than usual and it was explained to me that a combination of the BioWare game The Old Republic, The Cartoon Network television show The Clone Wars, and the announcement of a new Star Wars trilogy coming to theaters in 2015 along with a very aggressive publishing effort pumping out books like Scoundrels every couple of months–nothing is selling hotter than Star Wars these days.

I enjoyed the passion of the young man in the Star Wars section and the book store worker.  I saw on their faces an enthusiasm that was much different from the patrons at the Chili’s bar watching the BCS pregame statistics.  That football game will come and go and be forgotten within months.  Star Wars will be remembered and built upon by the fans who read the books in a mythology that takes place over 37,000 years of interconnected story that spans thousands of characters arcs.  Nothing against   Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables but as a literary endeavor alone, Star Wars is the greatest single work of literature ever created—and it’s not just for kids.  Adults could learn a lot.

We traveled across town and picked up the book that was being held at the counter for us.  Barnes and Noble at The Streets of West Chester had a copy left and my wife erupted into delight when she put her hands on the meaty hard cover book.  “It will be so nice to read a story where Han and Chewie are together again”  There was a love on her face that was much more sophisticated and honest than the poor people who were broken up over the ending of Les Misérables.  There is a truth in Star Wars that is eluding the rest of our 21st century society and only Lucasfilm has really managed to put their finger on it fully.   I have been visiting book stores for  nearly 35 years and this was the first time it really hit me that a wave of new philosophy is about to impact the human race with a freshness that modern mankind has never experienced.  And it happened during my grandson’s first visit to a book store to get a Star Wars novel.

If there is one thing that I have learned on my 3 week vacation in the Star Wars galaxy it is that there is a New Hope manifesting in reality.  It is percolating subtly through art, politics, and philosophy through the work of children’s stories that contain within them the answers we are all seeking.  If Les Misérables is about the harsh conditions and sympathies toward revolution and oppression, Star Wars is about the hope of crushing that oppression with a balanced life of kindness defended with passion and aggression—a very different message than the one provided by the great Victor Hugo novel which Ayn Rand loved so much.

http://exaltedmoments.blogspot.com/2009/06/ayn-rand-on-victor-hugo.html

But Star Wars is the next artistic step in mankind’s long quest for truth, justice, religious purpose, and the endless desire to discover what’s over the next horizon.  At least, that’s what I told my grandson, and judging by is facial expressions—he was listening intently, even if he has not yet constructed the ability to express himself with anything more than a smile.

If  you’d like, visit me while I take a personal vacation, not in some faraway place, but on Star Wars: The Old Republic.  CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE.

Rich Hoffman

www.tailofthedragonbook.com

The San Antonio Shooting Nobody Heard About: Media bias and the battle of billionaires behind it

Why do people think that the media is selective in their coverage and agenda driven?  Well……….because they are.  For instance, just a few short days after the Sandy Hook shooting in Connecticut a gunman in San Antonio, Texas was upset that his girlfriend broke up with him and went on a shooting rampage at a movie theater—very similar to the Aurora Theater shooting.  The only big difference is that in Texas there was an off duty police officer nearby who was armed.  So when the 19-year-old Chinese restaurant worker started his shooting rampage in anger over his girlfriend, the shooter was shot by the armed officer.  The result of the shooting was just two people injured in the hospital—one of them the broken-hearted shooter.  The trouble is that as big as this story was—every bit as big as any other incident across the country and deserved the same kind of wall to wall coverage on the major networks that Sandy Hook, Aurora, or any other shooting received—it was only the local news around San Antonio and a few blog sites across the country that have discussed the story.  Other than those sources, the story has not received any “play” by the major networks which is odd considering the level of awareness that public shootings have been getting lately.  Watch the coverage from the local television affiliate here:

Yes, many of the stories that make the major networks are agenda driven.  That does not mean that the average reporter is privy to that agenda.  In reality, they may be unaware of the company agenda completely when they are first hired.  The agenda for a news organization is driven by the owners personal beliefs and as diverse as many think their news organizations may be, when it comes down to the original sources of an agenda driven news organization there are always only a few at the top who own everything—as it usually is—and all the reporters, editors, free-lance writers, even organizational management know what the parameters for a story are based on the kind of content their owners approve of.  News organization employees lucky enough to keep their jobs for five or more years learn that agenda and stick with it for the good of their own livelihoods.

In Cincinnati Scripps is a big player, as well as Clear Channel.  Gannett runs the Cincinnati Enquirer, and Cox Media controls many of the local papers from Dayton to Cincinnati.  When these organizations form up story topics they will give “play” to a view point—especially a controversial one if it gives them ratings—which is understandable.  This works well as long as the subject does not exceed the parameters established by management—following the guidelines of their ownership.  If a story fits the parameters set by ownership then the news organizations will give the story “play.”  If it does not, then the story will be canned—because no editor is going to risk their job covering a story that will anger their ownership.  The reporters who survive for many years in the “business” learn what the parameters are.  Those who don’t, find themselves removed in the RIF process. (Reductions in force)

CNN was the creation of Ted Turner the media tycoon from Cincinnati who set up shop in Atlanta, Georgia.  Ted married Jane Fonda in the 80’s as Jane was re-inventing herself after her long known associations with communism.  Ted although a capitalist, has shown many philanthropic leanings toward communism and obviously shares many of his ex-wife’s collectivist beliefs, which is reflected in the kind of stories that CNN has covered.  Turner as recently as 2012 stated on CNN that he believes its good that American troops are committing suicide because it shows aversion toward war.  Compare that to Jane Fonda riding a communist North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun in the 60s calling for an end to American imperialism and you have a communist marriage made in heaven. These are the kind of people who formed CNN and really all the 24 hours news programs, with only Fox News representing conservative viewpoints.  MSNBC is even further to the political left than CNN openly advocating progressive causes with the company slogan, “Lean Forward.”  (Where have we heard that slogan before……….Hmmmmmmm)  Ted has given over a $1 billion dollars toward The United Nations, so it is obvious where his beliefs reside, and most of his companies reflect his political viewpoints—otherwise they find themselves unemployed.  And his companies are virtually everything that falls under Turner Broadcasting, which includes the Cartoon Network, TBS, TNT and TruTV. If you are a Time Warner subscriber, you send money to Ted Turner’s companies.

http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2012/10/25/Ted-Turner-I-Think-Its-Good-US-Troops-Are-Commiting-Suicide

Much has been said about the radical conservativism of Fox News owned by Ted Turner rival Rupert Murdoch.  It would appear that Fox News was created by Murdoch as a 24 hour news channel answer directly to the radical left leaning tendencies of CNN.  Much of the public relations action against Fox News on many networks including cartoons on Comedy Central are brown-nosing actions designed to earn the respect of Ted Turner’s money and funding.  Few know that Turner has a long-running grudge with Murdoch that originated in 1983 when a Murdoch-sponsored yacht collided with Turner’s boat during the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, causing it to sink 10 km from the finish line. At the post-race dinner, Turner verbally assaulted Murdoch, afterward challenging him to a televised fist fight in Las Vegas. In 2003, Turner challenged Murdoch to another fist fight, and later accused Murdoch of being a “warmonger”, as he was backing President George W. Bush‘s invasion of Iraq. [29]

 Even to this day, even though Ted is retired for the most part from many of his businesses, his loose lifestyle and commitment to collectivism can be seen in the way he socially conducts himself.  Like all communist and collectivist loving people seen best during the hippie movement in The United States, monogamy is not one of their strong suits—as liberalism advocates loose sexual relationships and promiscuity.  Even at age 75, Ted and his ex-wife Jane are involved in a love triangle with her new live in boyfriend 70-year-old Richard Perry.  (Imagine the sex antics when they were younger)  These are the kind of people who have had a huge hand in shaping the news coverage that comes into our living rooms in 2013.

http://www.showbizspy.com/article/255668/jane-fonda-in-love-triangle-with-ted-turner.html

In that context it is easy to see why CNN advocates gun control when it is The United Nations who most wants to see the world disarmed of all firearms.  CNN will pick stories that fit the old boss’s viewpoints because his money still speaks, and all employees at CNN know that if they want some of it, then they have to toe the company line.  So CNN will exploit Sandy Hook to push control legislation, and other networks will copy CNN because they are the trend setter.  But CNN and the rest of the national media will not cover the story of San Antonio where an armed citizen ended a gunman’s rampage because a private citizen had a gun and was not afraid to use it saving dozens of lives—unlike Sandy Hook and Aurora where the citizens were sitting ducks because they were unable to defend themselves.

So yes, there is media bias and it is quite rampant and driven entirely by human weakness.  The employees of tycoons like Ted Turner have no problem trading their journalism ethics for a pay check even if they disagree with Turner politically.  And people like Bill O’Reilly may never have had a shot at becoming the number one news guy on prime time television with Fox News if not for the rivalry that started between Ted Turner and Rupert Murdoch during a yacht race in 1983.  Murdoch wanted to stick it to Turner so he paved the way for a guy like O’Reilly to have a shot at writing his own ticket.  John Stossel has done the same thing coming from ABC’s 20/20 which is owned by Disney and must adhere to the social positions of that very large media company.   Stossel left to join the Fox Business Network to have freedom over his journalism that he didn’t have at 20/20.  If Stossel had written a book like he wrote last year called, No They Can’t, which is an argument in favor of libertarianism, he would have found his job on the chopping block at ABC, but at Fox, he’s encouraged to do such things because Rupert Murdoch leans more to the political right.  Glenn Beck left CNN for the same reason to join Fox, and then create his own television network with The Blaze TV which is now on the Dish Network.  Thankfully for all of us, Glenn Beck will be the new Ted Turner and that will go a long way to fixing many of the problems our society is currently dealing with.  Look for these improvements to begin around 2020 lasting through about 2040 when Beck will be hitting aged 70 himself.  The big difference will be that such stories like those of Turner and Fonda won’t be happening with Beck.  The personality differences are one of personal quality and those attributes directly find their way into their companies.  All this news media is driven from a few minds that happen to be billionaires and their ownership of the news organizations and the employees who work for them are a direct reflection.  In Beck’s case he has a personal friendship with billionaire Jon Huntsman which helps keep Beck fighting along in a world established by the many billions of dollars spent by radicals like George Soros and Ted Turner to advocate social progressivism.

http://www.ftpress.com/promotions/promotion.aspx?promo=136175

Much of the news we see today is driven by those few minds, minds like George Soros, Ted Turner, Rupert Murdoch, NBC executive Tom Rogers and a few others.  Everyone who works directly or indirectly for those people must form their journalism opinions around their bosses—just like any other business.

That is why the San Antonio shooting that occurred just a few days after Sandy Hook did not get any coverage except in the San Antonio news market.  National news is agenda driven by the minds that created the organizations and cannot be trusted at face value.  Unfortunately, the same people who create those organizations also contribute a lot of money into politics, so these same people not only influence heavily how Americans see the news, but also influence how the news is made in the world of politics.  Unfortunately, many of the minds mentioned above are radical left leaning progressives who want gun control, they want open sexual promiscuity, and they want a drug induced society—so the news we see every day is filled with stories that support these topics.  And it will continue until there is competition that threatens the monopolies of those ownerships in news organizations—and it will come.  The hypocrisy was accepted in the 1990’s and 2000’s, but the scam is out of the bag now, and people are turning away from those traditional broadcasts by the handfuls.  Stories like the San Antonio shooting will get coverage, and will be used to defend the Second Amendment against the wishes of old gun grabbers, communists, and hot-tempered yacht tycoons who behind all the money and power of their financial empires are still only people who breath, eat and use the rest room just like everyone else. They are flawed human beings at best, and their news reflects their ownership.

Rich Hoffman

“If they attack first………..blast em!”

www.tailofthedragonbook.com