I didn’t think much of it at the time because he was so young, not much older than my own kids, but Adam Winrich was one of those guys who worked out with bullwhips with the intention to become one of the best that the world has ever seen. Adam can be seen in the picture between my wife and children in 2005. I was very happy with that group, but always felt people like Anthony should have been a part of the festivities. There just aren’t many of us out there in the world. However, reflected in my discussion with the Hollywood stunt coordinator, there aren’t many films being done with bullwhips in them, so the competition is fierce on who will get the jobs when they do come about. I had no plan, or desire to challenge Delongis for a film coordination job as a master whip handler when I knew that people like my friends Gery Deer, and Chris Camp worked much harder at the technical aspects of whip work than I and should be doing those types of jobs over me. My interest was in actually doing some of the things I was writing about, so my destiny trailed off and away a bit into the realm of politics—where real threats are actually happening. Without giving away too much, I have spent my time since that Class of 2005 living life in much the same fashion as Don Diego did in one of my favorite films, Zorro’s Fighting Legion. I lost touch with some of those members of the Class of 2005 in the process, and one of them was Adam.
I feel I have accomplished many of the political tasks I intended, and recently announced that I was going to put more of my personal emphasis back on the bullwhip as it has been such a large part of my life for over thirty years. The yearly Annie Oakley event still takes place, and some of those faces from the Class of 2005 still return every year, to meet up and tell stories of their previous year. But some of those faces have found it difficult to return as they are continuously busy working in the business. Adam is one of those guys, which isn’t a surprise to me. Adam worked very hard, and it shows. Since the Class of 2005 Adam has done shows everywhere from The Conan O’Brien Show, to football halftime demonstrations and everything in between and I think he is one of the most technically proficient bullwhip artists that there is anywhere. Many of the whip masters who learned from people like Alex Green and Mark Allen felt they had taken whip work to unforeseen heights and they had. Young guys like Adam then took the work several steps further breaking records and delighting audiences in ways that have never been done before.
I am very proud of Adam Winrich who has taken the sport of whip work to new levels. I knew there was something special about him when he was cracking his 100’ whip in the main path in front of the Darke County Fairgrounds Coliseum, only to get a reprimand by Gery because the activity was going on outside of the yellow tape danger indicators. Gery was right; the whip was very dangerous and could have removed the head of a person who wasn’t paying attention walking by. But Adam’s custom made whip couldn’t have been cracked anywhere else because it was so big and I enjoyed his constant enthusiasm to try new innovative ways to advance the sport. So Adam and I had the big whip in the crowd trying to crack it which was very reckless, and very fun.
I hope that in the future he can align his very busy schedule to returning to Annie Oakley as a new class of young whip crackers is emerging and could use his mentorship. The kind of enthusiasm that Adam brings to the world of bullwhip art is the type of thing that makes legends out of raw talent. I am very proud of the Class of 2005 because of people like Paul Nolan, my own children, and especially Adam Winrich. It is wonderful to see that the fire that burns deep inside a mind can translate to the end of a whip with antics that have never been done before by anybody. And it is my hope that such innovation and technical skill will continue to advance in subsequent Classes of Annie Oakley graduates.
Nice job Adam. I learned to do this trick from you. Nothing against Mark Allen, but he would have never considered such a thing before some of your technical experiments.
I’ve talked about it before; the opening chapter to my novel The Symposium of Justice was dedicated to the immense frustration that I feel every time I hear about cases like the one Glenn Beck revealed recently that had been buried since 2007 from media scrutiny. If not for people like Glenn Beck and The Blaze Radio Network, stories like what happened to Christopher Newsom and Channon Christian from Knoxville, Tennessee would simply be swept under the rug forever, as many such stories are. Hearing the story upset me so much that it took me a week to respond accordingly to it. I feel very passionate about these kinds of cases. But needless to say, I feel terrible that nobody was around who could have helped Christopher and Channon from being brutally raped and killed by five attackers Lemaricus Davidson, Letalvis Cobbins, George Thomas, Vanessa Coleman and Eric Boyd. The crime committed was so malicious that it should have been a national story, but it wasn’t, most likely because the attackers were black and the victims were white. The story didn’t fit the modern progressive agenda, so it was ignored. I wish that someone would have been able to stop this crime before it happened. For me, I think the worst aspect of the case was the fact that Channon Christian was a virgin, who had made a decision to avoid sexual activity due to her Christian beliefs for her future husband. Channon thought enough of the act to make a day-to-day decision that would be a grand gift to her future husband meaning her entire life’s objective was savagely stolen from her by a gang of thugs. When they dumped Channon’s broken body into a trash can later that night after hours and hours of torture, rape and severe mental abuse, it was more than just Channon’s life that left her body after slowly suffocating. All her life decisions were simply stolen from her and cheapened by a group of people who completely lacked value of any human standard, and behaved like a pack of rampant animals to destroy the lives of a nice couple just because they could. Virginity doesn’t mean much to a cheapened nation such as what we have today, but for people who are not progressive, who are not liberal malcontents, or products of modern government dependency, it still has value and that value was brutally taken from Channon Christian in an act that is terrible beyond the physical abuse. The violence cuts through to the heart of what we are as people, as rational human beings.
As reported by Glenn Beck’s The Blaze, on January 6, 2007, the couple made plans to watch a movie at a friend’s apartment, but they never made it. They would never be seen alive again.
When Christian didn’t show up for work the next morning, family members immediately grew worried and reported them missing, Beck explained.
“It turns out that the couple had made it to dinner, but when they arrived at the apartment complex where Christian’s best friends lived, they were carjacked by multiple assailants,” he said. “What followed was one of the most heinous, gruesome, senseless hate crimes, ever.”
It was at this point in the program that Beck advised parents to have their children leave the room or pause the show and watch it at a later time due to the graphic details of the story.
Newsom was gagged with a sock in his mouth, his ankles were bound with his own belt, his hands were tied behind his back, his face was covered with a bandana and his head covered with a sweatshirt that his five assailants had tied around his neck with shoestrings. He was than violently raped with an object and beaten. “One can only imagine the horror Christopher experienced as he was then forced to walk barefoot to the nearby railroad tracks, where he was shot in the neck in the back,” Beck said solemnly. “But the shots didn’t kill him — he fell to the ground and was paralyzed.”
“That’s when the assailants stood over him, placed the gun against his head and fired, killing him execution style,” he added. Newsom was shot a total of three times. But not even that was enough. The attackers then poured gasoline on his body and set him on fire.
Unfortunately, the horror of this tragic story is not over. Beck went on to speak of what also happened to Christian on that night.
The woman was forced into a back room of the house where she was hog-tied with a strips of fabric from a bedding set. She was brutally raped “in every possible way imaginable” for several hours as the assailants beat her viciously with several objects, including a broken chair leg. By the time Christian was taken into the living room, the five attackers realized they had left their DNA on their victim. In an attempt to cover their tracks, they poured bleach down her throat and on her body before they wrapped her body in black garbage bags and covered her head in a plastic grocery bag. “She was then placed in a garbage can in the kitchen of the house — all of this while she was still alive,” Beck noted.
“Channon Christian’s last minutes on earth were spent slowly suffocating in a garbage can after she had been savagely beaten and raped for hours,” he added.
Could the police have stopped Lemaricus Davidson, Letalvis Cobbins, George Thomas, Vanessa Coleman and Eric Boyd from carjacking the poor couple on their way to the apartment complex? No. Would further taxation of a new police levy stop the violence? No. Would more welfare money dumped into the system prevent the vast evil exhibited by the attackers? No. Would more education about race differences stop the crime? No, in fact it probably made it worse by giving the attackers the belief that they were “equalizing” themselves by destroying the life of a young white couple because of the hate that flows into their culture from music, from government, and all progressive outlets. There are only two things that could have eliminated this dreadfully destructive incident………..a very large handgun that would have killed the attackers on the spot, or a society that advocates social value. I prefer the later, but understand the former is more of an option in a valueless world.
Channon Christian was trying to live her life with some sense of value. Her commitment to virginity was a step in that direction which is sorrowfully lacking in modern society. It’s not so much the act of sex that virginity represents; it’s the commitment to placing value on it. Millions of women give sex away cheaply, but Channon was attempting to set herself above such tawdriness by saving herself for her marriage and the children that would come out of such a union. Women who make these kinds of commitments to families they don’t even have yet are the kind of women who become wonderful mothers, wonderful wives, and wonderful grandparents who inspire entire generations. These punks took that from Channon and every child she would have produced from a loving husband conceived in a bed that only they shared through a union they believed to be pure and under the care of God.
It is not because of the color of their skin that these attackers are scum bags that belong to my temperament at the end of a vigilante’s justice. Hearing this story makes me wish terribly that I could have been somewhere close by to lend a hand—to prevent the terror from even happening. But the reality is that this isn’t the only crime like this that has happened. It’s not the worst of these crimes to have been committed. In fact, it is happening right now somewhere in somebody’s dark corner of the world and there isn’t a politician, a law, or an education institution that can stop it. The more they try, the worse they make things. The only combat there is against this kind of thing is a sense of value, a sense of goodness that is advocated and supported by society at large. I cannot be in every spot of the globe, so I hope these words will reach people who are, and inspire them to change their communities for the better. I spend all this effort on blog postings, articles and books because it is the best strategic option against the kind of parasites we are up against.
What was the real hate crime here? Was it racism? No. It was a group of valueless thugs who wanted to steal value from someone else. So they took it from a couple in love on their way to building a future together. Since the thugs couldn’t give themselves value where they were lacking, they sought to steal it away from someone else. Even though the murders couldn’t make the thugs suddenly become valuable people, it could break the measure of goodness against bad, and give the perception that everybody is just as tainted and corrupt as the twisted fools Lemaricus Davidson, Letalvis Cobbins, George Thomas, Vanessa Coleman and Eric Boyd. In the much discussed Treyvon Martin case where a young kid of color was shot and killed by neighborhood watchman, George Zimmerman, was it a case of racism? No. Based on the evidence presented in the case, it would appear that young Treyvon thought about the world unfortunately that he had a right to travel through a gated community and not to be accosted by any neighborhood watchmen. The community he was passing through had value, value for their yards, their landscaping, their cars, their homes, and this made an attractive target for people seeking to fill themselves with value others built. The attack provocation is not one of racism but of differing values. One party either wants to steal the value of another monetarily, or metaphorically. Sometimes they just get a charge out of putting the fear of violence into those with value who feel frightened to shut themselves up behind think glass windows and locked doors. Sometimes the next step is the preference to actually yank those of value from their cars in Knoxville, Tennessee and steal away everything they ever were and everything they would ever become with brutal, diabolical sex, then murder. Where does the hate come from………….it’s not racism, it’s in hating those who have values making those who don’t feel like they can’t measure up in comparison, which they don’t.
My idea of justice on these kinds of matters are what I wrote about in The Symposium. I do not think tax payers should continue to pay for the life of Lemaricus Davidson, Letalvis Cobbins, George Thomas, Vanessa Coleman and Eric Boyd with life in prison. Tax payers should not have to feed those worthless criminals in jail for the rest of their lives, it is simply too expensive. It’s not even an eye for an eye type of revenge thing; those criminals are parasites on society that have done more than enough damage. They have robbed the world of a likely nice couple who would produce nice Christian children who would have raised them with nice southern family values, and that is a detrimental cost quite enough. The cost of one night of brutality is bad, heart wrenching, and terribly cold-blooded. But the cost of the loss of such innocence is far worse, because it is increasingly becoming more and more difficult to find people in this world who actually have value and to preserve them from becoming victims of the valueless. The cost of losing such people has a far greater impact on the social fabric of our civilization than anything else. Good people are lost forever in such cases and it is happening every day. Meanwhile the scum bags that do the crime get to sit in jail for the rest of their life fed like animals in a zoo off the tax payer. They get to live out their days as productive contributors of nothing, while those who would have otherwise been productive find themselves brutalized and stuffed in a garbage can to die where the media placed the story because it didn’t fit their agenda. The violence is not created by racism in its natural state, but by a media who seeks to advance a political agenda that pits the valueless against the valued in an attempt at social equality where nothing of worth is safe from the convicts of righteousness.
Oprah Winfrey used the oldest trick in the book as far as promoting the latest “progressive” film containing her direct involvement. Her film The Butler already has Oscar buzz as a surprising summer hit and tells the story of a White House butler who served eight American presidents over three decades. The film traces the dramatic changes that swept American society during this time, from the civil rights movement to Vietnam and beyond, and how those changes affected a man’s life and family. Forest Whitaker stars as the butler with Robin Williams as Dwight Eisenhower, John Cusack as Richard Nixon, Alan Rickman as Ronald Reagan, James Marsden as John F. Kennedy. This is the same film where Jane Fonda played Nancy Reagan. The cast is a who’s who of the extreme political left, and primary spokesman of modern progressive philosophy. If Winfrey didn’t know how to use such tricks, she wouldn’t be one of the richest women in the world. But she does, and she did—one week before The Butler hit theaters she managed to say something that angered half of America and empowered the other half putting her name in all the news outlets ahead of the movie’s release. Her film which cost only $30 million to make pulled in nearly all that total during its opening weekend, an amount that was likely spiked 7% – 9% due to Oprah’s controversy.
In case you missed the inflammatory statements, Oprah’s played the race card one week before The Butler hit theaters when a trip to a Zurich shop ended in a supposedly disturbing racial encounter for the billionaire media mogul — a national humiliation that forced the Swiss tourism board to issue a public apology. Winfrey had said she was in town for Tina Turner’s wedding last month and stopped in the posh Trois Pommes boutique where she asked a clerk to see a $38,000 Tom Ford bag behind a glass case. Oprah claims that the clerk looked down on her assuming that she couldn’t afford the bag because she was a black woman. Pictures of all these characters and more about the story can be fond at the following link.
Oprah Winfrey has also chosen this past week to break her silence on the controversy surrounding her friend Paula Deen, the disgraced television chef’s use of the N-word in the past. “I think Paula Deen was sort of used as a symbol, but I think lots of people use the word inappropriately all the time,” Oprah said during a revealing interview on Entertainment Tonight Monday. The 59-year old television mogul says she’s very sensitive to racism — a major theme in her new movie, “Lee Daniels’ The Butler.” “I do not run in the circle of people who use the word loosely,” she told ET. “For me it’s out of respect to those people who it was the last word they heard while they were being hung, the last word they heard when they were being fired, the last word they heard when their house was being burned. “It’s the word heard every day when they were walking down the street and they had to step off the side-walk to let other people pass.”
I understand the use of playing such cards to promote works of entertainment, especially when in so doing it reveals what kind of person is really behind the image. I’ve played similar cards for similar reasons such as before the release of my novel Tail of the Dragon. I don’t see anything wrong with it so long as the advocate is being authentically revealing—standing up for what they truly believe in. That’s why it’s easy to see what Oprah was up to. She knew exactly what she was doing, and the results are in the box office of The Butler. And I also believe that Oprah believes she was a victim of racism at the Swiss purse store. I believe that Oprah also believes that when she heads a board room conference that the reason there are people jealous of her, as she claims, is because she’s a black woman—and that white men despise her for her role of authority. So for me, it is not surprising that she said any of the things she has recently. My sentiments about Winfrey reflect those of Glenn Beck in a recent radio broadcast that he gave on the matter declaring that Winfrey’s action disgusted him.
Behind the public image of Oprah Winfrey is a woman who was given a tremendous chance by Steven Spielberg after the release of the film, The Color Purple to launch a media empire, which she did. The doors were opened for her to take the wheel and steer herself to an unfathomable destiny, and she did not hold back once given the chance. Many “white guys” wanting to prove they were not racist or sexist were actively seeking a black woman to advocate progressive philosophy to mainstream America in the late 1980s, and Oprah was up for the challenge. The media got behind the effort for the same reason they get behind Barack Obama. Their public and college educations taught them that the civil rights issues of the 1960s were the most important historical aspects of America’s development and they all want to play a part in shaping that history for the better.
In spite of what public image Winfrey has been able to build for herself through aligning her career path with progressive politics, deep down inside she is still the same woman she was before she stared in The Color Purple, and that personality comes out when she is being candid. With her new film The Butler, as conservatives were angry with Jane Fonda playing Nancy Reagan, Winfrey did what progressives have done for years and that was disarm the critics and raise awareness for her film project by soaking up all the media attention with a blind accusation that could never be proven as millions of Oprah fans went to the theater to see her new movie—who otherwise would have passed. By choosing to see The Butler over other kinds of movies, like Kick Ass 2 or some other film, Americans felt that it would prove that “they” were not racist by going to see such a movie, a challenge that Oprah initiated with her statements about racism.
I don’t see Oprah as a success even though she is one of the richest people on earth. I see a highly paid progressive spokesman who has been given power to help re-shape the world—which she has done. No matter how much you dress up someone, and prop them up with photo shoots, films, and enamoring articles, they are what they are, and Oprah revealed what she was to the world during her press tour for The Butler. I don’t blame her for trying to boost her ticket sales with inflammatory remarks. But I do for being a phony all other times of her life and only revealing her deepest, darkest beliefs when it is financially advantageous to do so. She knows as well as anybody that she would not have gained so much global popularity uttering such things during her rise to the top in the 1990s where nearly every woman in America looks to Oprah as the tribal chief of their global village. But I do blame Oprah for being an inflammatory phony and seeking to use race as a way to prop up ticket sales and a possible Oscar nomination for her new movie purely out of fear of being called a civil rights violator. It’s not a free market of equal ideas that people like Oprah are after, it is in the use of guilt, fear, and scandal where advantage is gained through such methods and why people like her “are” the most powerful people in the world when they would otherwise be store sellers of used junk in a flea market.
Remember above everything, Oprah is an actress. She is paid to say what other people write for her. In her case, she is extremely well paid to act not only on the silver screen, but also in real life.
Very few things make me emotional; however the words of Teri Benning at the end of a recent West Chester Buzz article nearly brought tears to my eyes. It is not often that truth is spoken, let alone written in public these days, yet Teri uttered such a truth about the upcoming Lakota Levy and I felt pride swelling upon hearing the delectable words of a Lakota tax payer.
“Instead of making plans on how to spend the money that has not been approved yet and adding back things to blow the money on if approved, why don’t they make some long-range plans and keep it for a rainy day? They’re worse than a 10-year-old with $20 burning a hole in his pocket!”
Aaaaaaaaahhhh. I liked that so much I want to read it again…………………………
“Instead of making plans on how to spend the money that has not been approved yet and adding back things to blow the money on if approved, why don’t they make some long-range plans and keep it for a rainy day? They’re worse than a 10-year-old with $20 burning a hole in his pocket!”
Isn’t that just wonderful? Doesn’t that just make fantastic sense? Of course it does. Yet that is precisely the imagery I think of when I think of Lakota, that they are like 10-year-old kids with money in their pocket and a burning desire to spend it somewhere on something as fast as they can. They lack any real discipline, logical understanding, or desire to do what is right for the community and instead regulate their thinking to the same old failed education policies of the past—policies that do not work, are not helping children become the best in the world intellectually, and is an obvious money pit.
It’s no secret by now that I have several personal friends who are either former school board members of public education and have thrown their hands up in frustration to now fight against it, or are current school board members who want to reform the system from the inside out. One of my very dear friends is a former school board member from Lakota and has a wonderful insight into what goes on behind the scenes legally, and illegally, and could tell stories for the rest of all our lifetimes about what she has seen, heard, and read from Lakota—even school board members still active. Her stories are intense, and to the untrained ears may appear radical, and over the edge. But the passion of her statements is different from the bold logic of people similar to Teri Getz Benning. My friend has been too close to the situation for too long and knows clearly what has been wrong in public education and just how sinister the situation has been for a very long time. Her anger and passion are driven from insider knowledge that should send chills up the spine of every tax payer in the country. Recently she left me this comment about another Lakota article I had written about. CLICK HERE TO REVIEW.
The public school system is in the extortion and indoctrination business. In the case of Lakota, about 67% of the taxpayers do not have children attending the schools. Yet the teacher’s union and the parents do expect senior citizens and working people to support the system to the degree of extravagance that they desire. They must have new schools, new equipment, new programs, new sports programs, new buses etc. The older schools are just not good enough.
In spite of having everything new, data seems to prove that each generation of students has not been taught the basic skills to survive. Even IQ’s have dropped drastically from those of the people during the time of the founding of this nation.
No one should doubt that any new money given to any school district will be poured into salaries and benefits. That is the clear reason why the teachers, administrators and PTA (an arm of the NEA/AFT) work so hard to shame voters into voting to tax their neighbors even more.
It is high time to put a halt to this racket. Teachers are NOT underpaid. They have the summer and bountiful days off and still make as much as architects and lawyers. STOP them now!
The only defense Lakota, or any public school has against the comments of this former school board member is to call her crazy, psychotic, or a radical conservative, just as they have attempted to call me names in hopes to deflect the ears of the taxpaying public away from the truth, a truth that was spelled out above. Public schools are indoctrination centers for the government and they are harming our children, not helping them. This is an inconvenient truth that many pray is not the case. Many supporters of public education love the social appeal of sports and other community programs that center around a school, and do not wish to see the ugly truth—but that doesn’t make it go away. The truth is the truth and cannot be made into a falsehood with wishes from Aladdin’s lamp. Public education is a racket, and corrosive scheme designed to destroy minds, rip up families, and suck the life blood out of all communities from which they reside. Public education institutions are the cockroach of the government employment family and they should be treated as foul, vile insects that must be exterminated from our communities. They lie, cheat, manipulate, and put themselves between parents and children in terribly destructive ways.
But my friend and I have seen too much of this truth to be objective any longer. I despise those institutions of learning for what they don’t teach, and what they do I find repulsive. I would like to see an end to them all and have parents take control of their children’s education completely. That is why I enjoyed the words of Teri Benning so much, because there is no radicalism, no jaded perception present—just an honest opinion rendered from observation with an appropriate metaphor. It is good to see that such people are out there and that they voice their opinions. At best public education institutions like Lakota are similar to 10-year-old undisciplined children. They cannot wait to spend money they do not have yet have, and once they do have a little, they are ready to spend it on every silly thing their immature minds can conger up. It is a relief at this stage of the game to see that new people like Teri are making their opinions known, because for every one of them, there are many dozens who sit fearfully on the fence afraid that the Lakota Levy Zombies will discover them and seek to destroy their social reputations with strong-arm tactics of peer pressure and raw emotion. But increasingly, the trend is to not fear the Lakota Levy Zombies, but to fight back against them—which is a wonderful trend. Whether the emotions range from the logic of Teri Benning, or the jaded realism of my former school board friends, the trajectory of emotion is pointing away from traditional public education and more toward a privately funded enterprise that excludes the government indoctrination, and for that I am very, very, happy!
According to Doc Thompson on The Blaze Radio Network John Boehner is a “pinko, commmie, bed wetting, mambie pambie, hand wringing, crying, orange tinted, ‘I’ve gotta do whatever I can to save the children, the puppy dogs, and the rainbows,’ dirt bag in congress.” It should have been clear from the outset that John Boehner had been bitten by the progressive bug of statism when he took the gavel of House Speaker from Nancy Pelosi, then immediately started crying. Boehner was crying because he had gained enormous power the way he perceived it–3rd most in the entire world behind only the President and Vice President of The United States, and he was proud of himself for being elected into that position. He was proud that his peers had just voted him in congress the equivalent of the Homecoming King of a big high school football game. They had enough faith in him to protect their lobby interests on K-Street, to look the other way while they made millions off insider trading on Capitol Hill, but worse of all, did exactly what Doc and his producer Skip established during the following broadcast, use Cloward and Piven methods of overwhelming financial systems in order to create havoc allowing for massive changes in American philosophy through case-law to bring about “progressive changes.” This is what Congress led by John Boehner is guilty of doing by adopting methods of making illegal aliens legal so that they can vote in upcoming elections. Listen to that epic Doc Thompson broadcast from The Blaze Radio Network at the video below. (CLICK HERE TO LISTEN LIVE)
John Boehner recently sent Barack Obama a birthday present knowing full well that America is burning on several fronts, many inspired directly by those same Cloward and Piven strategies designed to invoke progressive changes. In the world of Capitol Hill the idiots there believe that they are royalty and actually rule over the population, and in order to stay in such power they must continuously find new ways to “game” the system in order to increase their voting blocs, and they do this by giving away the wealth of others, confiscated through government, and literally buying votes in elections based on their wealth redistribution. The Democrats have done this kind of thing for years, and now the GOP is doing the same once they suffered a stinging defeat after Barack Obama was elected for a second term.
The GOP lost the last election because they played by the rules against an opponent where anything goes. The GOP did not respond accordingly. Fewer voters participated in that election on their behalf than did in 2008 showing support for John McCain and the first possible woman vice-president Sarah Palin. Palin was publicly dismantled by attack through every branch of the media ruthlessly, even though she was a woman—because she was a conservative and had been a successful governor. McCain was simply too much of a “nice guy” to respond to any attacks from the left believing that he and his party were above such a fray. Republicans under McCain’s leadership routinely believed incorrectly that they were “above” such fisticuffs while Obama and his minions ruthlessly attacked all their political opponents with blood in their eyes and a knife behind their backs. The GOP has failed to respond to progressives in American government since Ronald Reagan was in office three decades ago. Instead, they have taken up the mantra, “if you can’t beat them—join them.”
This is how Republicans have invested so much of themselves in the new Gang of Ocho Bill that seeks to give amnesty to illegal aliens. While the budgets across the nation collapse under progressive strain, the GOP seeks to find voters for 2016 among the illegal aliens hoping to beat out the Democrats in giving away more stuff to earn those voters. Meanwhile they have surrendered ground to their old base of support assuming that they will always vote for the GOP instead of the lowly Democrats. But they have been wrong. Instead of holding their nose and voting or people like John McCain in 2008, then Mitt Romney in 2012, they just stayed home to watch sports, play video games, or went shopping. People have stopped being interested in politics because of all the crookedness that is going on in Washington, surrendering their voting rights to the illegal immigrants who mean well, but often come from statism controlled governments and see nothing wrong with taking all the free stuff the American government wants to give them to earn their votes.
This brings everything around to Doc’s statement about Boehner. Boehner was supposed to use his power to bring about justice, and enforce righteousness, yet he has refused choosing instead to defend government statism. Boehner has chosen to “get along” with a president who has openly been hostile to the American way of life. Obama is a devoted radical of the left and ran an administration that will go down in history as one of the most corrupt and secretive in the history of presidents. From the questionable origins of Obama’s birth and education background to the Benghazi scandal, to the IRS attacks against conservative groups the Executive Office has openly used Cloward and Piven methods to “progress” society to the left by yanking the Overton Window dramatically in that direction. John Boehner has stood by like a weeping child and let him do it believing incorrectly that Americans don’t want a fight in politics. He and all those who think the way he does are wrong.
I was proud when a politician from my area took the third most powerful position in the world in 2010. However, watching what he’s done with it, I am deeply ashamed of the man. If I saw him or a member of his family around my town, at the grocery, or other social event, I would not seek to shake his hand, or even acknowledge his existence. A year ago I was invited to a breakfast occasion with John Boehner which I turned down. Now I would be insulted if I even received such an invite. I wouldn’t simply refuse due to time constraints, but because it would be an assumption that the host considered me cut from the same cloth of such a weak-kneed, wussy, of diabolical character, soft will, and corruptible spirit. I would consider such an invite today in late August of 2013 to be equivalent to an invite to fight in a parking lot—because the invitation would be one of disrespect.
Doc was right to call John Boehner all the things he did because the guy has not only done a bad job as House Speaker, but has caved into the enemies of America as defined by logic. Capitol Hill is a land infested by peasants not of financial demeanor, but of moral aptitude. They are lacking minds capable of leading anybody anywhere, and to cover their deficiencies, they seek to redistribute wealth to maintain office. This is what John Boehner and his GOP supporters are after with their support of illegal aliens. In America foreign immigration is part of what made The United States great, and there is a process for earning the honor of citizenship. But that path does not involve free phone apps telling immigrants how to “game” the system with welfare abuse and parasitic living. Anyone who supports such methods deserves to be called everything that Doc called them, and much, much more.
At Mos Eisley Radio these guys not only talk news concerning the most recent Star Wars Game X-Wing Miniatures, which I am crazy about, but a lot more. Have a listen to them for in-depth looks at classes, guilds, lore, and everything else fans care about in the galaxy far, far away. But related to this article, they go into great detail about the strength of ships and strategy of the game for those who are prompted to get more involved by the conclusion of this article. Have a listen while reading the below text!
Recently while on vacation in Florida my nephews along with my kids, my wife and I played a very cool Dungeons and Dragons type of role-playing game called Heroscape over pizza from the best place in Central Florida till the late hours of night with the condo door open to the ocean outside. We had turned our large dinning room table into a war zone and found ourselves intensely engaged in mortal combat with dragons and warriors. Like the referred to pirate game, I enjoy those types of games that allow you to play with several live players around a dinner table. It is a great way to bond with other family members and actually speak to each other, while exercising the brain. I find those types of games to be stimulating in a similar way to reading a novel, or playing a great video game. The difference is that you have to work with other people in a way that is only possible with this type of strategic gaming. For many years these role-playing strategy games have increased in popularity from a sub-culture of Dungeon and Dragon players, to what is now considered mainstream geekdom at major conventions all over the country. The transition came officially from the popular game, Magic the Gathering. The gaming industry in that market has never been the same, which is wonderful for the human race. A short history of this type of gaming can be seen at the link below.
However, for me, I always loved that Pirate game from Wiz Kids the best of any that I have played in the last twenty years. My entire family was deeply into it and our playing time together represent some of the most fun we’ve had together, which is quite a statement. So I have missed it as Wiz Kids stopped making the game in the format we enjoyed, and time and distance has moved us away from the contents. However, I recently received news from Lucasfilm about their latest version of a Star Wars Role Playing game by Fantasy Flight Games which I thought at first would be gimmicky, but upon investigation quickly found that it was a quite in-depth game that actually combined the type of game play that I enjoyed so much in Pirates, the Constructible Strategy game by Wiz Kids and the Heroscape. The new game is called Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game.
Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game is a tactical ship-to-ship combat game in which players take control of powerful Rebel X-wings and nimble Imperial TIE fighters, facing them against each other in fast-paced space combat. Featuring stunningly detailed and painted miniatures, the X-Wing Miniatures Game recreates exciting Star Wars space combat throughout its several included scenarios.
Whatever the chosen vessel, the rules of X-Wing facilitate fast and visceral gameplay that puts you in the middle of Star Wars fiercest firefights. Each ship type has its own unique piloting dial, which is used to secretly select a speed and maneuver each turn. After planning maneuvers, each ship’s dial is revealed and executed (starting with the lowest skilled pilot). So whether you rush headlong toward your enemy showering his forward deflectors in laser fire, or dance away from him as you attempt to acquire a targeting lock, you’ll be in total control throughout all the tense dogfighting action.
Star Wars: X-Wing features (three) unique missions and each has its own set of victory conditions and special rules; with such a broad selection of missions, only clever and versatile pilots employing a range of tactics will emerge victorious. What’s more, no mission will ever play the same way twice, thanks to a range of customization options, varied maneuvers, and possible combat outcomes. Damage, for example, is determined through dice and applied in the form of a shuffled Damage Deck. For some hits your fighter sustains, you’ll draw a card that assigns a special handicap. Was your targeting computer damaged, affecting your ability to acquire a lock on the enemy? Perhaps an ill-timed weapon malfunction will limit your offensive capabilities. Or worse yet, your pilot could be injured, compromising his ability to focus on the life-and-death struggle in which he is engaged…
The Star Wars: X-Wing starter set includes everything you need to begin your battles, such as scenarios, cards, and fully assembled and painted ships. What’s more, Star Wars: X-Wing’s quick-to-learn ruleset establishes the foundation for a system that can be expanded with your favorite ships and characters from the Star Wars universe.
The hook for me was when I saw the game’s version of The Millennium Falcon which is for me one of my favorite fictional symbols in film history of rebellion. CLICK HERE FOR MORE. I remember vividly when I toured the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C. to see the actual model of the Falcon in a traveling display that was set up there. I traveled to Washington that weekend just to see the Falcon. I spent nearly two hours looking at it, photographing it and memorizing every pipe, dent, and burn mark on a ship I had watched so many times in the feature films. It was for me one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in my life. When I saw the level of detail that Fantasy Flight Games had poured into the Millennium Falcon game piece for the X-Wing Miniatures role-playing game it called to my mind memory of that original model in sheer detail and I instantly fell in love. I immediately bought a starter set of the X-Wing game and launched my family onto a new generation of game play that is sure to engulf for many years. In the game players can fly the legendary Millennium Falcon into fast-paced battles for the fate of the galaxy! The Millennium Falcon™ Expansion Pack for the X-Wing™ Miniatures Game allows players to blast through hyperspace with Han, Chewie, Lando, and more. The Millennium Falcon comes with four pilot cards, thirteen upgrades, and all requisite tokens. New rules expand the X-Wing galaxy to include large ships and modifications. With its pilots, upgrades, and lovingly detailed miniature, the Millennium Falcon Expansion Pack is a beautiful addition to the X-Wing game! It may be the coolest thing I have seen in years regarding this kind of thing. It is a marvel to look at and unbelievable to have as a game play option. I consider it stunning.
If the Millennium Falcon didn’t close the deal for me on the new X-Wing game the promise of the next ship did. It doesn’t come out until the end of August, but when it does, I will buy it immediately. It is the HWK-290 designed by Corellian Engineering Corporation to resemble a bird in flight, the “hawk” series excels in its role as a personal transport. The HWK-290 Expansion Pack comes with one detailed miniature at 1/270 scale, a maneuver dial, all necessary tokens, six upgrades, and four pilots, including the renowned Kyle Katarn. Each HWK-290 provides a wide range of support options for your squad and can be outfitted with both a turret weapon and crew member. The reason this ship is significant for me is because it was the featured spacecraft of the main character in the video game Dark Forces.It never appeared in a Star Wars film, but was the home craft of the video game character Kyle Katarn, who would later become a Jedi Master in the novels years later. One of the very first video games that my oldest daughter ever played was Dark Forces. It was a first person shooter that came out in 1995. My daughter was only 6 years old at the time and helped me play it by pressing the space bar on the key board when I told her to which caused my character to jump. She was too young for the complex shooting and strategy it took to win the game, but she knew how to hit the space bar when I told her to and it was that game that launched her into a lifelong love of video games. She and I will always share that unique father/daughter experience, and I will always think of her when I think of the HWK-290. I was dazzled to learn that Fantasy Flight Games was actually inserting that ship into the game mythology before other types of ships, which let me know that the game designers were very serious about expanding the Star Wars experience of role-playing gaming in a format that hasn’t seen such a level of attention since our beloved Pirate Constructible Strategy Game.
Now that I’m going to be playing, it won’t take long before other members of my family will also and soon we will be ordering LaRosas pizza late at night and lining up 2-liters of Coke along our kitchen counter playing Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game well into the night. It doesn’t matter that everyone playing will be well over 20 years old and in my case their 40s. I still get a thrill about purchasing new strategic game pieces that can be used under battlefield conditions that have infinite possibilities. I do not feel this kind of passion for other types of games. The reason is that the role-playing games allow for complete independent freedom of strategy, unlike board games where the path is set and random chance puts players often into a position to win the game. With games like X-Wing Miniatures all the conditions of battle are set and designed by the player, and that is why I love these experiences so intensely. For me the game is only part of the fun. I enjoy often reading the stats of the cards and infinitely considering various strategies before hand. The game only proves a theory good or bad.
I have played these games with people who are really good. They are very quick with their mind and spend a lot more time playing the games than I ever will. It is fun to watch these kinds of players at tournaments and conventions. I will never put the kind of time into these games that they do, but I admire their efforts. Too many adults in our modern age believe falsely that games are for kids and that such things should be put away as adulthood consumes our lives. Games are not for kids, they are for minds. Games like the Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game feeds the mind with more than entertainment, it provides mental exercises that are invaluable to real life. I can’t say how many times I have been locked in epic political struggles and other situations where I resorted on the practices used in these strategy games to apply some skill I tried and won with in theory, against real opponents in real scenarios.
So as I sometimes take breaks from the rebellions of the real world to embark on these flights of fantasy, even in my leisure, strategy is an important part of my life. It is far safer to make errors in judgment among friends and family over pizza and Coca Coke than when it really counts in real life.
And with that said, I am ecstatic to see this new Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game available at what might only be termed, an essentially important period in my life. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect and I am so glad that the good people at Lucasfilm put the short playing clip of the example with Wil Wheaten and Seth Green up so I could see the Millennium Falcon playing piece for the first time and become enticed enough to investigate further. That investigation will yield tremendous benefits that can only be found when adults play the games of young people and further develop their minds against the antagonists who have lost such abilities to their own detriment. Sometimes being good at strategy isn’t about being better at the game itself, but is due to working against un-armed opponents. Those who don’t play these kinds of games find their minds unable to think strategically enough to compete when it really matters, and every time a new game like Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game comes out, I am deeply thankful for the opportunity to feed my mind with the contents that have benefits which extend beyond convention. When a vacation is needed, it’s not just the body that needs rest, the mind does also. But the mind enjoys stimulation, not stagnation, and often a game like this can provide the crucial ingredient that the mind seeks with abundance in all the best scenarios.
To get the gist of what I’m talking about read this review from Boardgamegeek.com. It reveals why this game is so much better than most other games, and why it will become one of the most enduring games of its type in this generation.
Harrowing dogfights, family drama, shootouts, a tender moment, amazing monsters, humor.
There’s a tempo to Star Wars. We all remember Luke screaming NOOOOOOO at Vader. For different reasons, we remember Anakin turned Vader screaming NOOOOOO. But we also remember Leia offering a little cracker to an ewok. We remember first seeing Darth Maul’s double lightsaber. And we remember Han saying “I know.”
It is NOT all pew-pew-pew. It is NOT all Vrusssshhhhhhhzwwwmzwwwmmm. It’s a cycle of teasing action and drama.
Even though the X-Wing Minis game plays out some incredible dogfight sequences, the play of the game is NOT a straight forward flow.
I’ve got dozens of rounds under my belt now, and I’ve been wanting to write a review, and it finally came to me what it is that makes this game such rip roaring fun.
It’s not the astoundingly detailed minis. And anyone complaining about scale needs to take a close look at the movies, where the scale of the ships to each other changes from shot to shot due to the compositing techniques used at the time.
The minis are awesome. I’m somewhat surprised that different ships use different plastics, but I understand why. That denser stuff used on the X-Wing would collapse a Falcon into itself.
The prepaint jobs are incredible. The cards gorgeous, the components just off the scale. Even with the bit more they must pay in royalties to Uncle George, the massive appeal of this game allows them to make a ton of copies and the price, while at first glance seems daunting, isn’t a lot for what you get.
What makes the game work is the pendulum swing. The rhythm.
First, the setup. The agonizing squad building. Is it worth 2 points to raise this pilot’s skill, not knowing what the enemy force contains? It could easily be two points that have ZERO effect on the game. Terribly tough gambles. Now that wave 2 is out and you could just as easily face a hulking mothership like a decked out Slave I or a swarm of the world’s most annoying TIE fighters, you really have to prepare for a wide contingency of opponents.
This setup is tense. You want flexible. But strong. Synergistic support between squad members, but not so much that the loss of a key ship means defeat. And you ALWAYS want about 3 more points for that perfect build. No matter how many points you choose to fight, you will kill for another 3.
So it’s got that whole squad building aspect down great. Especially now that there’s a ton of options. Who knows what your opponent will bring?
But the flow of a turn is brilliant.
Everybody chooses their maneuvers. No downtime. But here in the game is where you are playing cat and mouse. Maybe psychologically toying with the opponent, making them think your plan is A when it is actually B.
Hidden agendas and secret moves. That’s the next game that plays out after the squad building math.
Then the wonderful move system. Everyone slowly reveals their moves, in what might be the games most questioned rule. The lowest skilled dudes go first, and eventually the better skilled dudes, which mean they have a fairly good chance of accidentally hitting and losing their action, where the lower skill guy might pull it off.
But it works in the long run, because it keeps higher skills in tailing positions.
Bit in this phase of the game, again, very, very little downtime, as the nefarious plans and maneuvers are revealed.
Squeals of glee and grunts of horror abound as unexpected collisions happen and skillful turns are executed.
But then comes the start of your devastating on the spot decision making. While plotting your squadrons moves, you had an overall plan. Now, each ship must choose it’s precious action.
Evade? How many guys might end up firing on you? Target? Are you clear to get the shot this or next turn? Focus – the all purpose “Egads, I need help” token. Or maybe that barrel roll or super freakin cool new Boost – move a bit maybe out of a firing arc or -surprise – snap someone into your arc. Maybe you execute some trick of your specific pilot.
Here is where you are tempering your odds. Things that will alter the upcoming luck sequence. carefully guiding the gods of luck to your favor.
The tokens build up on the board as actions get selected. At first, this is a pile of confusing cardboard. In a few games, the counters become invisible, simply reminding you of who plans what.
Whew. So, strategic planning in the squad build, then the secrecy of move plotting, then the agonizing action choices. What more does this game need?
Raw luck.
Bring out the dice. Or the iPad app, if you prefer.
Its Star WARS and the dice bring on the war. Now MORE decisions that hurt. Do I spend my focus token to get that extra damage possibly in, or hold on to it to help me avoid possible damage? What if I hold it and no one fires? What a waste… Two hits coming in… Do I evade? Or hold on to the evade since a crit might come next?
Hopefully, you’ve pile bonus upon bonus on your fighters. Distance, skill, weapon, focus… Or maybe all you’ve got is a shot in the dark.
Fire away.
Even defenders are active, choosing focus and evade moments.
Again, very little downtime. Lots of whining and cheering. Little downtime.
Start the cycle again. Hidden choices, movement reveals and actions, combat.
I think THIS is why X-Wing is such a stunningly successful design. It bobs and weaves each turn. No phase is long enough to overstay its welcome. And you must juggle and balance each phase to support the others.
An excellently designed system that overcomes any of it’s perceived problems due to the overall strength of play.
Recently Dan Varney, the treasurer for No Lakota – accused Lakota officials of trying to manipulate voters by enticing them with $2.8 million of possible restorations of some budget cuts. “It’s how they play the game and they are trying to instill some passion in the school parents” to drum up votes for the proposed property tax increase,” Varney said.
According to school officials if the levy is passed, bus service will be reinstated for grades 2-6, for students who live farther than one mile from school. This is simply an attempt by Lakota schools to purchase votes in the next election using tax payer money to do it. Currently, bus service is issued only to students in those grades if they live farther than two miles from school. This school year, the district supposedly identified some routing efficiencies to provide bus service to all K-1 students at no additional cost. (Isn’t that amazing, just in time for a school levy attempt?)
“We value the community’s feedback that we heard in our Community Conversations last year,” said Mantia. “We heard this would be a tremendous help to our families, and will also help us regain lost instructional time.” Superintendent Mantia noted that the change would provide busing to an additional 2,200 students, helping minimize traffic congestion on some of the district’s busiest roads.
Also,
Students in grade 4-6 will be offered one additional day of art, music or physical education. Currently students take classes in art, music or P.E. one time per week.
Student participation in after-school clubs and extracurricular activities will be encouraged by increasing opportunities and reducing fees from $550 to $400 at high school and from $350 to $300 at junior high.
Students in grade 9 would be offered a seven-period class schedule, instead of six periods per day.
Part of the funding was allocated for advanced technologies and modernized coursework to further individualize learning, a focus area of the district’s current strategic planning work.
The school board voted June 24 to place a levy on the November ballot for the community’s consideration, and announced at that time that a major component of the levy would be for technology, including a $13.5 million multi-year upgrade to the district’s instructional technology infrastructure. School building security will also be bolstered across the district. The decisions made by the board Monday evening finalize the plans for how the levy funds would be allocated.
Of course all these things that Lakota is “giving” to the community are contingent on the passage of a tax increase. The arrogance displayed by these public workers is astonishing; they will give back to the community what is already theirs “IF” they vote to pay more taxes on their properties—which is simply amazing. So in that context what Dan Varney said in the paper was dead on, if all too polite. Lakota schools think that the votes are suckers, and stupid. Lakota has no respect for the average tax payer in the Lakota district, as their behavior displayed grotesquely in evidence. The definition of Lakota’s actions is pure extortion. They stated that if tax payers gave Lakota more money, they would restore services that were only lost because the school board did not manage their costs under the leadership of Superintendent Mantia. If a levy is not approved by the voting public, then those items listed above will not be granted. It is a low down dirty trick that belongs on one of those television commercials advertising products for $19.99. It’s a scam disguised as education. Its corruption disguised as community benefit. It’s wrong, detrimental, and socially corrosive.
In such a time when bandits rule our school system using our children as shields against justice, thank God there are people like Dan Varney of No Lakota Levy out there fighting the good fight defending those same children with honesty from the looters wishing to exploit them for personal gain. Without people like Varney the extortion scams advocated by public education institutions like Lakota would have no representation in the press, leaving the sinister schools to dance upon community innocence with immunity from righteousness. No Lakota Levy is an organized resistance that is all that stands between open extortion by public schools and the out-right looting of the “rich,” so-called “wealthy” property owners who will lose millions if the Lakota levy of 2013 passes.
For idiots, diabolical nut cases, open progressives and Obama voters, they enjoy the Lakota levy position of attacking the rich and giving to the poor, the silly, childish levy supporters who purchase half million dollar homes, pay over $5000 per year in property taxes still desiring more, then turn around and ask the rest of the community to give their children a “free” education at Lakota which is run by the kind of people shown above who openly believe that extortion is an acceptable campaign strategy. I’m glad there are people like Dan Varney who can hold their tongue in the face of such a travesty, but he does, and is a good man for the job. Every homeowner should be thankful that there is a group like No Lakota Levy out there defending them from higher taxes by government looters like Lakota’s administrators and their band of education thieves. In that group there are people like Dan Varney who stand as pillars of stone against the winds of chaos in a battle for the heart and soul of Lakota–the residents who pay the taxes versus those who wish to steal them.
“This goes on where I live too. In the face of declining enrollment, they (public schools) still beg for more money. They know they’ve got teachers on the way out, and they’re probably planning to use this money to jack up the salaries of the departing teachers in their last few years because their pension is probably based on their last few years of salary. It’s got nothing to do with quality education. It’s got everything to do with cozy retirement. Watch for them to get re-hired after “retirement” too!”
1. Compton, Calif.
Compton has teetered on the brink of bankruptcy after it accrued a general-fund deficit of more than $40 million by borrowing from other funds, depleting what had been a $22 million reserve.
2. East Greenbush, N.Y.
A New York state audit concluded that years of fiscal mismanagement — including questionable employment contracts and illegal payments to town officials — left East Greenbush more than $2 million in debt.
3.Fresno, Calif.
Fresno had the ratings of its lease-revenue bonds downgraded to junk-level by Moody’s, which also downgraded its convention center and pension obligation bonds due to the city’s “exceedingly weak financial position.”
4. Gulf County, Fla.
Fitch Ratings warned that Gulf County’s predominately rural economy is “narrowly focused,” with income levels one-quarter below national averages and economic indicators for the county also comparing unfavorably to national averages.
5. Harrisburg, Pa.
Harrisburg is at least $345 million in debt, thanks largely to municipal bonds it guaranteed in order to finance upgrades to its problematic waste-to-energy trash incinerator.
6. Irvington, N.J.
Irvington has a violent crime rate six times higher than New Jersey’s average, with Moody’s citing “wealth indicators below state and national averages and tax-base and population declines due to increased tax appeals and foreclosures.”
7. Jefferson County, Ala.
Jefferson County, home to the city of Birmingham, has been dealing with the collapse of refinancing for a sewer bond. It filed for bankruptcy protection in 2011 over a $3.14 billion sewer bond debt.
8. Menasha, Wis.
Menasha defaulted on bonds in 2007 it had issued to fund a steam plant which has since closed and left the city permanently in the red and, as of 2011, had $16 million in general fund revenue, but had $43.4 million in outstanding debt.
9. Newburgh, N.Y.
Newburgh was cited by Moody’s for “tax base erosion and a weak socioeconomic profile,” with 26 percent of its population below the poverty line and its school district facing a $2 million budget gap.
10. Oakland, Calif.
Oakland is trying to get out of a Goldman Sachs-brokered interest rate swap that is costing it $4 million a year. According to a recent city audit, Oakland has lost $250 million from a 1997 pension obligation bond sale and subsequent investment strategy.
11. Philadelphia School District, Pa.
Philadelphia’s school district, the nation’s eighth-largest, faces a $304 million deficit in its $2.35 billion budget, and is seeking $133 million from labor-contract savings to prevent further cutbacks.
12. Pontiac, Mich.
Pontiac, where the emergency manager has restructured the city’s finances, was downgraded by Moody’s, reflecting the city’s history of fiscal distress and narrow liquidity.
13. Providence, R.I.
Providence, rumored to be filing for bankruptcy for more than a year, experienced consecutive deficits through fiscal 2012, has a high-debt burden and significant unfunded pension liabilities, as well as high unemployment and low-income levels.
14. Riverdale, Ill.
The credit rating for Riverdale is under review by Moody’s because the city has not released an audit of interim or unaudited data for the year that ended April 30, 2012.
15.Salem, N.J.
Salem is under close fiscal supervision after it issued bonds to finance the construction of the Finlaw State Office Building, which was delayed by construction issues, and its leasing revenues are not enough to cover the debt payments and the maintenance fees.
16. Strafford County, N.H.
Strafford County regularly borrows money to cover its short-term cash needs after it spent two-fifths of its budget on a nursing home, which lost $36 million from 2004 to 2009.
17. Taylor, Mich.
Taylor has a large deficit and is vulnerable due to significant declines in the tax base, limited financial flexibility, and above-average unfunded pension obligations.
18. Vadnais Heights, Minn.
The St. Paul suburb of Vadnais Heights had its debt rating downgraded to junk last fall by Moody’s after the city council voted to stop payments to a sports center financed by bonds.
19. Wenatchee, Wash.
Wenatchee defaulted on $42 million in debt associated with the Town Toyota Center, a multipurpose arena, and has ongoing financial issues due to the default.
20. Woonsocket, R.I.
Woonsocket faces near-term liquidity shortages necessitating an advance in state aid, a high-debt burden and unfunded pension liabilities, with Moody’s citing the city’s continuing difficulties in making spending cuts because of poor management and imprecise accounting.
All those places and many more who are right on their heels to failure, are suffering now because they did not do the hard work of saying NO to tax increases. It’s not easy saying no, and the most dominant reason that management gives in to the pressure of the public sector unions is that they don’t want to be called names by the mobs who are members, as silly as that sounds. Most people have an inherit desire to be liked, and it is too much for them to be ostracized by their peers. Much of the bankruptcy threats listed above simply exist because the people in charge of the money were afraid of being called names by the people who wanted the money. It all comes down to that.
The only things voters can do now are Vote No against tax increases and force the reductions of the public sector union members as a political power. Their inability to regulate themselves has forced this issue now, so they have only themselves to blame. A failure to say NO will not only destroy their lives, but also the communities everyone lives in. Their life as public workers will come to an end eventually anyway—sooner or later. If it is sooner than entire cities may not be laid to waste. But if it is later, as in the examples above, then it is too late to avoid the inevitable. Bankruptcy will follow, and many more people will suffer because they feared to say NO to the masses that are never happy, and can never be appeased leaping from crises to crises always looking for higher wages from extortion to fill the bottomless pit of their belief in the net worth of their unionized professions.
Upon the announcement of the 2013 Lakota levy both sides of the issue began voicing their opinions, and one fellow that represented how the typical YES voter for tax increases thinks left a series of comments favoring the levy which can be seen below. The guy named AJ Malott isn’t a bad guy, just a person who sees public education as an entitlement similar to Social Security and Medicaid, and he believes that the older residents in Lakota should be willing to pay for his children’s education because he is paying for their senior oriented retirements. He also makes a point to mention No Lakota Levy, which is a group I played a large part in formulating so explanations are in order. First, let’s see what AJ thinks.
And another thing, isn’t it interesting that the so-called leader of the NoLakota levy group owns a contracting company? Is he expecting an influx of work when no one wants to buy/build/remodel in the community? People only want to invest in their homes if they feel connected to their home and community, and plan on staying.
I thought we were smart by moving into the Lakota district 4 years ago BECAUSE of the support and quality of the schools. So, yes, lets put that in jeopardy so other millennials whom are starting their families do not want to move here. And, then those who want to move because they don’t want to pay the taxes can experience declining home values. Then, it can be a lose-lose situation for all.
With the exception that they claim that the older generation doesn’t want to pay for schools for the younger generation. Well, doesn’t this whole system we have designed center around everyone paying their collective share. When one group decides they want to opt out (the seniors), it puts undue pressures on the other groups. So, if they can do it, I’m not sure why our generation can’t do the same thing. You pay for schools and I will continue to pay into benefits I’m sure I’ll never see any of.
You know, I am finding it really difficult to continue to pay that Social Security and Medicare tax out of my paycheck. I look forward to the next generation of politicians that feel the same way, and look to make cuts to those “entitlement” programs. If you don’t want to support my child’s future, why should we support yours.
In that article which the commenter referenced, Bob Hutsenpiller gave a statement representing No Lakota Levy’s position. He simply said any tax hike will be a tough sell to older residents in Liberty and West Chester Townships. This prompted AJ Malott to assume that he was in a position to offer critical review about Hutsenpiller. Bob went on to say “Lakota officials should continue its recent budget cutting while the seniors, retirees and residents of the district go through these rough economic times. Most of the seniors of the Lakota district are contemplating moving out of the district just to reduce their tax burden.” For saying that, Malott felt entitled to deliver a subtle attack in order to defend his child’s “right” to a free education. So before going into a dissemination of Malott’s comments which represent the average levy supporter in all public schools, I must put a book end into my involvement with No Lakota Levy prior to this upcoming campaign. To discuss that I have to refer back to a Middletown Journal article from the summer of 2011 where members of No Lakota Levy without my agreement attempted to make a deal with the Yes Vote group at Lakota. I was tipped off about the event by the reporter covering the story. The article can be seen below.
Members of the No Lakota group are in disagreement about whether they would support a levy if Lakota puts one on the ballot.
West Chester Twp. resident Mark Sennet spoke to the board of education Monday, saying the No Lakota group would support a “conservative” levy in 2012 if the board would bypass the election this November.
However, No Lakota member Rich Hoffman, who has typically spoken on behalf of the group, said no discussion had occurred at a meeting about supporting a levy, and he was holding fast to his stance on never supporting a levy.
Hoffman said there may be a split in the group, but he thinks the 50-and-older crowd will stand with him.
Sennet said Lakota officials have made “a valiant effort to try to work and control spending,” but people still need time to recover from the economic crisis. He said he and several developers would be on the board’s side if it waited for November 2012.
“We acknowledge that there were changes made,” he said. “The businesses had to make changes. The citizens had to make changes, and we were glad to see the union and teachers and board agreed to a pay freeze. But if the levy were to pass, then I guess that would be good for the community.”
Board member Ray Murray said he was pleased the business community is recognizing the district’s transparency and how it is listening to the community.
“There are going to be people who are not going to ever say yes to anything, and there’s nothing you can do about it,” he said. “We’ve got to generate more revenue. We can’t survive on a 2005 budget.”
Former For Lakota levy chairwoman Sandy Wheatley said the board and district representatives have been mending fences with those in opposition since the last election.
Needles to say, the kind of “fence mending” Wheatley was talking about was an attempt by the levy supporters to split up our group. As she stated in her comments, there would always be people like me who would say NO to a tax increase, so the Lakota administration attempted to cut deals and split up our group so they wouldn’t have an opposition for the upcoming election in 2011, which of course didn’t work. Prior to forming No Lakota Levy Sennet contacted me about joining forces as in the previous levy I had been doing my own thing. He had been working from a group with a different name. When he asked me to join his group, we called it No Lakota Levy which went on to defeat the next two attempts. But before the second attempt under that name, Sennet had decided that the kitchen was too hot for him. The social pressure of not supporting a levy impacted him, which was what Wheatley was referring to. I witnessed some of the most open extortion I have ever seen through charity events, boycotts, and behind the scenes manipulation that was rancid with sinister intentions. By the second levy, many of the people in No Lakota Levy didn’t want to be seen at meetings with me because they were afraid that such associations would harm their businesses, even though No Lakota Levy was saving them tens of millions of dollars in taxes. In private meetings they liked my company, but they didn’t feel comfortable associating with me in public, for fear that the Levy Addicts would connect the dots and find out that they were members of No Lakota Levy. Bob Hutsenpiller was the exception.
Once Lakota hired Superintendent Mantia her mode of operation was to apply even more pressure on the business community “mending fences.” It didn’t work by the 2011 attempt in November so Mantia went to work with new strategies in the winter of 2012. After my events with Sennet at No Lakota Levy, I wasn’t sure I wanted to handcuff myself to playing such a front man while so many others stayed in hiding for fear of being associated with an anti-tax group. I played along for a while, but did not like the direction the rest of the group wanted to go. The emphasis on public image of No Lakota Levy was becoming much more important, and I didn’t like that, and I wanted out. I felt it would be better for No Lakota Levy if people like Hutsenpiller spoke on their own behalf, and we discussed it in meetings about future levy attempts by Lakota. But I was very good at my job, and so long as I was there, it allowed the people who were most effected by commercial real-estate taxes to use me as a shield, which was giving Lakota the illusion that their “fence mending” was working in their favor.
I meant it when I said that in the next election Lakota would have to deal with No Lakota Levy on one angle, and myself on the other. I don’t like to mend fences, because doing such a thing only benefits the people who build the fences to begin with, and those fences were built by Lakota politics. I don’t like deals, peer pressure and financial decisions made under coercion and I prefer to call a spade a spade. But I am glad to see Hutsenpiller speak reasonably representing his stance. The amount of money that Lakota is asking people like him to pay in additional taxes is bewildering. It is just a shame that others like him are so cold with their tongues. Without question, they will be NO Votes in the upcoming election, but they are careful what they say in public because they will have to see people like AJ Malott at social events frequently who have no idea how much money the tax increases cost a business, and can never hope to comprehend. Those phantom business owners don’t want the ramifications of being out of agreement with the “fence builders” like Lakota’s current superintendent, for fear that the lack of “cooperation” will have a dire cost against their livelihoods. Unlike their contemporaries in public education, the business owners cannot raise taxes to cover their costs. They have to actually nurture a customer base.
Every time there is a new Lakota levy there are new people like AJ Malott who come and go from the community. They move to Lakota for the nice green space, the shopping, and the schools, but they don’t know much about the character of the area. I grew up in Liberty Township and I know what kind of place it has always been. It was named after the American Revolution just as the City of Monroe to the North and Hamilton to the West were named after key members of the American rebellion. And most of the long term residents I know who have lived in the area most of their lives have that kind of blood deep in their veins no matter what their economic or social status proclaims now, Hutsenpiller is of that type. They are free spirits who resent “fence mending” as much as I do. They will do what they must for their businesses, but what they think in private is an entirely different matter. The people who support these school levies are typically young people who are newer parents, or people who came from progressive places like New England, or California so they don’t really understand the argument against school funding and public education in general.
For me, I want to argue against the entire premise of public education, not just the ridiculousness of the funding. I am encouraged to see other people rise to the occasion to make those points, which free me up to make the larger arguments. The Lakota Levy to me wouldn’t mean much in financial investment, it’s the essence of the implication that is the problem. I spend more on a typical dinner than the levy would cost my residence. But the real cost of the levy is against the business owner, people like Bob Hutsenpiller who cannot build enough buildings to possibly cover the tens of thousands of dollars his taxes will go up if the levy passes. Bob is not alone. There are dozens of people like him who will pay millions in additional taxes if the levy passes, and it is a shame they don’t do more to defend themselves, instead of getting stuck in the political trap set by people who want to “mend fences” when the entire cost of the materials for the fence come from the business owner.
The Fox News documentary special The Great Food Stamp Binge, hosted by Bret Baier was so good that I am going to include the complete text of their blog posting concerning that wonderful episode within the contents of this document. If you missed it, fret not. I have it below which can be seen in its entirety with six parts. I suggest you watch it and share it with as many people as you can. Everyone in America needs to see this documentary. It is a work which explores the treacherous extent of the welfare state in our current economy. There was a catch phrase during the documentary when Bret Baier stated, “when does the safety net become a hammock,” which I thought was particularly good because the information as provided was extraordinary and deeply revealing. It paints a picture that points to an astonishing danger that is going to hit every American in the wake of the Obama presidency that will be very painful to overcome. The welfare state and attack of the FDA with all other government agencies that are openly advocating more dependents upon the parental hand of statism are hard at work to remove from American culture the notion of independence leaving in the wake a society of moochers and disconnected serfs. Watch, learn and share the following:
Once upon a time this was called food stamps, but the modern world is all about branding and image, not accuracy or substance. Thus, a snappy new name was needed.
All this change is a direct result of the Obama administration’s surreptitious undermining of the law in the Stimulus Act in 2009 and the disingenuous gutting of President Clinton’s overwhelmingly successful Welfare Reform law. This was achieved by administrative fiat in 2010.
As I watched the rough cut with Fox Editor-at-Large Peter Boyer, I found myself at a loss for words.
I don’t know whether I was more saddened, or angered by the interview John Roberts did with an apparently healthy “surfer” who happily lives a life of leisure in Southern California subsidized by the taxpayer.
It was simply mindboggling to listen to this grown man explain the logic he uses to justify taking food aid — and thus free food — rather than working and paying for it himself.
This great government giveaway is being undertaken and I can’t help but believe those that truly need help are still going hungry.
As we continued to watch I began to see what was behind the SNAP program. It is about changing the mentality of the nation, of Americans.
Take this example, from “The Great Food Stamp Binge,” of what is nothing short of social engineering or reeducation. In North Carolina social workers actually got an award for breaking down the “Mountain Pride” that makes some from that state reluctant or unwilling to take handouts. They actively fought the tradition of tightening your belt and taking care of yourself when times get tough.
There is much more in this excellent program — it is a thought provoking, well told story and I urge you to watch it.
Certainly, there are many in this country, who need the help. The idea that Americans go to bed hungry or get sick due to malnutrition is one that should appall any morally sound man or woman. And that is what makes the SNAP initiative utterly foul.
After watching I realized why I was angered by those who take, but don’t need, and frustrated for those who are given, but don’t want. This great giveaway is being undertaken and I can’t help but believe that those that truly need help are still going hungry. Millions of tax dollars are going to people who aren’t our neediest, it is a disgrace.
Many of you have probably heard the Chinese proverb, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” The SNAP program is one big fish giveaway that leaves people reliant rather than reliable. The government is on a mission to sign people up – one in seven in this country already receive food stamps — and the taxpayer is footing the bill for, what I believe, is a tragically misguided plan.
I had no plan, or desire to challenge Delongis for a film coordination job as a master whip handler when I knew that people like my friends Gery Deer, and Chris Camp worked much harder at the technical aspects of whip work than I and should be doing those types of jobs over me. My interest was in actually doing some of the things I was writing about, so my destiny trailed off and away a bit into the realm of politics—where real threats are actually happening. Without giving away too much, I have spent my time since that Class of 2005 living life in much the same fashion as Don Diego did in one of my favorite films, Zorro’s Fighting Legion. I lost touch with some of those members of the Class of 2005 in the process, and one of them was Adam.
I find those types of games to be stimulating in a similar way to reading a novel, or playing a great video game. The difference is that you have to work with other people in a way that is only possible with this type of strategic gaming. For many years these role-playing strategy games have increased in popularity from a sub-culture of Dungeon and Dragon players, to what is now considered mainstream geekdom at major conventions all over the country. The transition came officially from the popular game, Magic the Gathering. The gaming industry in that market has never been the same, which is wonderful for the human race. A short history of this type of gaming can be seen at the link below.
For some hits your fighter sustains, you’ll draw a card that assigns a special handicap. Was your targeting computer damaged, affecting your ability to acquire a lock on the enemy? Perhaps an ill-timed weapon malfunction will limit your offensive capabilities. Or worse yet, your pilot could be injured, compromising his ability to focus on the life-and-death struggle in which he is engaged…
It never appeared in a Star Wars film, but was the home craft of the video game character Kyle Katarn, who would later become a Jedi Master in the novels years later. One of the very first video games that my oldest daughter ever played was Dark Forces. It was a first person shooter that came out in 1995. My daughter was only 6 years old at the time and helped me play it by pressing the space bar on the key board when I told her to which caused my character to jump. She was too young for the complex shooting and strategy it took to win the game, but she knew how to hit the space bar when I told her to and it was that game that launched her into a lifelong love of video games. She and I will always share that unique father/daughter experience, and I will always think of her when I think of the HWK-290. I was dazzled to learn that Fantasy Flight Games was actually inserting that ship into the game mythology before other types of ships, which let me know that the game designers were very serious about expanding the Star Wars experience of role-playing gaming in a format that hasn’t seen such a level of attention since our beloved Pirate Constructible Strategy Game.
The Overmanwarrior 