Category: Disney

Justice Comes With The Crack of a Whip: Taking off the mask once again

l_cf11f2fa084e4701b57dd59b09cb8c40I know that especially lately, each new movie that comes out; I have had grand things to say about them which weaves back through my life to points of origin that are not only sentimental, but deliberately placed there by the important people in my life who raised me.  Part of being alive as opposed to half-dead or socially subdued is that you feel things.  And I feel things, lots of things—because I have never turned my mind off to the world. I love movies, I love music, I love visiting places, I love food, I love family, I love books, I love comic books, but probably more than anything in my life besides family, I love bullwhips, and I was elated to discover recently that one of the great whip makers with ties to Western Stage Props had made three bullwhips for the upcoming Disney film The Lone Ranger.  I was happy to hear that Joe Strain from his business The Northern Whip Company had supplied the whips for the grand revisit to the Old West by The Lone Ranger because it would not only help my friends in the bullwhip industry who make large parts of their livings off sharing their unique skills with the public, but that the modern makers of The Lone Ranger were going to pay tribute to the use of the whip in the classic stories that took place from the 1930s to the late 1950s.  Not only would the new Lone Ranger from Disney pay direct tribute to the classic silver bullet mythology, the tenacious horse named “Silver,” the “William Tell Overture,” a very ambitious rendition of Tonto played by Johnny Depp, but they were even going to put a few whip scenes in the film, which used to be a standard in westerns.

I watched every television episode of The Lone Ranger at some point of my life at least once.  I used to watch it with my grandfather when I was a very small child.  CLICK HERE FOR MORE.   When I was a kid it was a combination of The Lone Ranger, Disney’s Zorro, John Wayne westerns, and Clint Eastwood westerns that I watched with my family as entertainment before there was ever a Star Wars, or an Indiana Jones.  In most of those old westerns, a bullwhip was the secondary weapon of choice on many occasions.  So I grew up with a tremendous reverence for the bullwhip as have many of my friends from the bullwhip world who are seen scattered throughout this article in videos of their own displaying their love of a uniquely American art form.  In fact the only place in the world where the bullwhip holds even more reverence than in America is in Australia.  It is there that the whip maker who made the two whips seen hanging from my holsters in the picture above resides–Terry Jacka.

I know a lot of great whip makers in America, but I have a particular fondness for Terry Jacka’s whips.  In them he has put his 35 plus years of work into works of art that are extremely responsive, and very, very accurate.  They are among my two most valuable possessions in the entire world and are almost always with me no matter where I go.  When I travel, I travel with them.  When I stay at a hotel in some faraway land, the whips go with me, and I practice with them.  Without them, I feel incomplete.  And the most fulfilled that I feel each year is when I get to participate in the annual Annie Oakley Festival put on by my friend Gery Deer, because I get to wear my favorite Terry Jacka whips around everywhere I go for the day in public without it causing any kind of trouble.  CLICK HERE TO REVIEW.  You can learn more about Terry and his Australian Whip Company at the link below.

 http://theaustralianwhipco.com/

In the typical Lone Ranger stories, the hero Texas Ranger Reid is gunned down with a group of fellow Rangers and left for dead by a group of thugs who wish to inject crony capitalism into their local business operations.  (Do not confuse this with pure capitalism which I support adamantly)  To do so, they gun down the legitimate law so that they can make easy prey of the people they wish to exploit.  It’s a classic theme that can be seen in virtually every western made and no matter how many hundreds of westerns I have seen, I never tire of the message.  It is a theme I resurrected in my novel The Symposium of Justice in 2004 which essentially was a modern western set in the current time, and featured the marketing slogan “Justice Comes with the Crack of a Whip.”  I enjoyed tremendously the opportunities writing that novel gave me, the ability to do some stunt work for the World Stunt Association, make public appearances, and even do some consulting work in feature films, CLICK HERE TO REVIEW.  I understood why my bullwhip friends enjoyed traveling the country doing tricks for audiences and performing in large shows.  But from 2007 to 2009 I was getting the overwhelming feeling that something of a real Lone Ranger was needed in the actual world and I wasn’t quite sure how to go about it.  As I looked around at the diminishing crowds at some of the western events I attended and my friends with their commitment to traditional western arts were looking more antiquated each year by audiences who were rapidly losing an understanding of the typical values displayed in film westerns, I had noticed that a similar evil that was clear in the old Lone Ranger episodes was sucking the life out of the world around us, and I wasn’t content to just write about it in books, and show up on movie sets earning acclaim from top actors, directors, and producers just because I had a unique talent.  I felt an overwhelming desire to not just talk about it, or write about it, but to actually fight for the values of the Lone Ranger in real life.

Obviously I didn’t put on a mask and grab a horse and run around in the middle of the night ripping the heads off bad guys with my whip.  The evil of our modern age—the social villain that is destroying the American western is not a direct enemy that required a direct fight.  It was a subtle one that was killing America with a thousand cuts, and I had to find a way to identify it, and fight it on terms I controlled.  In the middle of getting constant invitations to appear in very lucrative job assignments using my bullwhip to make a good living, I changed direction and did what all my friends would agree was a terrible move for anyone who wanted to work in the entertainment field—I became politically involved.   I picked the biggest bully on my personal block that was as close to the evil Cavendish gang from The Lone Ranger that I could see and pushed back against their tyranny.   I took my skills from years of working with bullwhips and applied it directly to a political fight that was desperately needed, because I wanted to defend my love of America from forces that wanted to eradicate it.  Sure it would harm my work in entertainment, and it would bring me personal anxiety, but then that is why the Lone Ranger had to wear a mask.  Ironically the villain in my neighborhood which was the greatest threat to my love of westerns and the values they articulate was my local school district of Lakota, a government school committed to draining the community of taxes, and programming children into progressive thought—the anti-western concept.  So I dialed up the media I had made with my contacts nurtured in entertainment and filmed the video below called   A Whip Trick to Save America.

The whip trick video was featured on The Blaze by Glenn Beck’s new enterprise during its opening weekend.  CLICK FOR REVIEW.  Just a few days later I did a personal interview with The Cincinnati Enquirer where I spoke out openly against the tax increases proposed by the school and I did whip tricks for the reporters knowing full well what would follow.  I knew that the established order of things would attempt to paint me as a radical traditionalist who was so in love with the “old days” that I couldn’t see the wonderful benefits of “progress” as it has been brought to America by intelligentsia, CLICK TO REVIEW.  At the time, I had been involved in many personal fights with others, one on one, or otherwise, and had no problem with direct conflict.  But as I was writing The Symposium of Justice and telling the story of Fletcher Finnegan, who was a modern masked outlaw named “Cliffhanger,” I had a persistent nagging desire to prove a theory that I had constructed in the book which had to be proven for the follow-up novel, which is how one man can take on a giant statist organization and survive.  In my novel, it was the heroics of Cliffhanger that inspired good people in the town of Fort Seven-Mile to join together and form Cliffhanger’s Fighting Legion, to fight tyranny all the way to the powers that pulled the strings of political puppets beyond the reach of Washington D.C.  Fletcher Finnegan was my modern version of The Lone Ranger, a masked man who instead of a silver bullet, used bullwhips to bring justice to the world.  But for me, that wasn’t enough.  I wanted to strike at the heart of the evil, not just the reaction to it, which had always bothered me about every western I had ever seen.  It was one thing to fight evil and stand for the good, but what was the cause of the evil?  To answer that I had to go on a dark quest of my own.

The bull whip video had started me down a road for justice and soon after I was doing many radio broadcasts, granting interviews to the AP, and speaking on television.  As I had been working with several local Tea Party groups, I had grown concerned that my work with the whips might draw bad publicity for them so I backed off some of my public bull whip presentations relying instead on my speaking ability to perform the pursuit of justice.   At this point I was already deep into my experimental theory which I am about to reveal the result.  Over the next couple of years I found that like the Lone Ranger, I had put on a kind of social mask to protect the people I cared about in the Tea Party movement, and traded business attire as my mask, keeping the whip hidden from a media that was looking for every opportunity to paint me as an extremist radical that wanted to destroy the lives of children—instead of saving them.

What I learned during this endeavor is exactly what I set out to understand.  Government statists spread their evil by creating anti-concepts.  If the American western was about creating in the mind of viewers a “concept” about tradition, and value, then the anti-concept was about destroying that value.  This was the cause of the declining popularity of the American western and why my bull whip friends were finding declining interest in their art form over the years.  This anti-concept theory is being taught in public schools to metaphorically deliver the souls of millions of young people to the slavery of a giant Cavendish gang represented in reality by statist governments all over the world.  Before I started all this activity the biggest fear that small government activists had was retaliation, particularly from labor unions set up like parasites in government institutions such as public schools, and IRS agencies.  These unions got what they wanted by acting identically to the gangs of the Old West who robbed trains, stole cattle, and harassed settlers.  They used force, or the threat of it, to take what they wanted and imposed fear on their victims so they could maintain their regional power.  These statists functioned from misleading facts through the formation of the “anti-concept”—by stripping away values from society.  The way to destroy a concept is with open attack, using the threat of force, or by subversion, by undercutting the value of an argument.  For instance with the public school mentioned, they failed to recognize the need for their tax increase was caused by their mismanaged finances.  They associated the value of education to money equaling goodness for children even though the facts had nothing to do with that reality.  If someone challenged that premise, the union would show up in collective force to protest the school board sending a message to the community that if anyone stood in their way, they’d be vandalized, personally harassed, their children would be tortured in various degrees, and they’d be turned into social outcasts.  Because of this threat, nobody challenged them, even the so-called wealthy elite who understood clearly what was happening but were unable to do anything about it for fear that their businesses would come under attack by union thugs and social radicals.  What the unions were doing was no different from what the Cavendish gang did in The Lone Ranger.  They used fear to impose their statist will on the innocent.

It is one thing to think such a thing, but quite another to speak out against it.  After all, nobody wants to be called a mean, selfish, or a diabolical menace to the fibers of an interconnected society which is how the villains in this case had destroyed the concept of goodness.  They had subverted entire communities into sitting on their hands and not speaking out in fear of being considered socially as an outcast—or even an outlaw.  I theorized in The Symposium of Justice that the way to beat these types of villains was to challenge their premise with the question “why.”  When the statist enemy cannot answer, which they never can, they then turn to force.  This is where my hero Fletcher Finnegan/Cliffhanger used his bullwhips to impose justice on those who tried to use force to remove the concept of goodness from society.  My problem was that I knew such an idea worked in small combat situations with fewer than ten combatants at a time from personal experience.  But I wasn’t sure if the same could be applied to statist government all the way to the top of the food chain which is what my next novel in the series is all about.

When I did the Enquirer interview Mike Clark asked me if I knew what I was doing in bringing my whips to the front page of Cincinnati’s largest paper.  I knew as he asked the question that I was looking at a future Judas, a betrayer who would pretend to be a friend just like the villain in The Lone Ranger who led the Texas Rangers to their deaths in the canyon trap set by the Cavendish gang.  But this time, I would use the bait to my advantage—and I did.  I knew that if the threat of personal harm was removed from the unions’ arsenal of weapons that they’d be defenseless against me because they certainly couldn’t answer any questions regarding “why.”  When I have my Terry Jacka whips, nobody is going to bring personal harm to me with any melee weapon.  For those hired thugs who don’t care to use a firearm, the decision of that kind falls into a level of thuggery that our current statist society still recognizes as bad, so it doesn’t happen often and that is when firearms are needed for defense.  But for all other circumstances, no gang of thugs can bring harm to a person who can use bullwhips in the fashion that I do.  By presenting my whips to the unions all across the State of Ohio through popular media, I had taken away the weapon that all statist organizations use to impose their will, the threat of force.  This allowed me to give many dozens of interviews to the media against unarmed opposition because the statist representatives of public schools could not answer the “why” and they could not stop me with force.  So they were unable to stop me and this remains the case to this day.  Without thuggish force, without bringing harm to others, they have no ground to stand on.  The way to beat them time and time again is to ask them “why” which they can never answer, and then to let it be known that physical force, social intimidation, and extortion will not serve them.  When they learn that, their game is over.  They cannot win with facts of any kind.

When I say, “Justice Comes with the Crack of a Whip” this is what is meant; that statist villains have had their most important weapon removed from them—the ability to apply force.  This is why whips were so popular in the early westerns like The Lone Ranger and Zorro, because they represented the “concept” of justice in a way that does not involve killing your opponent.  The whip allows the wielder an ability to disarm those who wish to use force against others.  The bull whip cuts like a knife, is far faster than a pair of nunchucks, and much more versatile than a sword, staff, or baseball bat.    In short, a person who learns to use the bull whip anywhere close to the kind of people shown in the videos on this article know in their mind that nobody can harm them in one-on-one or group combat.  That self-assurance is a measure of freedom that allows goodness to be seen clearly, and solutions to statism are then solved.

As The Lone Ranger puts on his mask in the new Disney film, I’m taking mine off.  I am no longer concerned about what anybody thinks about my use of the bullwhip as I have made my point.  For me, the bull whip is a symbol of justice because it prevents those who wish to steal away righteousness from the innocent eliminating the ability to invoke any fear to do so.  It forces statist opponents to take the next step which involves more lethal force and in this way the “ground” to combat is controlled by the whip holder, because they know what their opponent is going to do since their options are so limited.  Before that next step, which obviously the Clinton’s have no problem utilizing, CLICK HERE FOR REVIEW; decisions have to be made on how the public perception of such an action can be justified.   Most statist enemies lack this type of arrogance, or network to pull off such a feat, so they are paralyzed when threat of force is removed from their social holsters, and that is invoked by the bull whip.

There are many great whip makers in the world for my money; Terry Jacka is the absolute best.  Right up there with him is Joe Strain and my old friend Paul Nolan who was seen in the video on the pillars at sunset with his wife and friend T-Rex.  A lot of whip masters don’t talk about it, but when they put a whip in their hand the power they feel is not one to inflict pain and suffering on other people the way some statist slave master might think.  What they feel is the power to defend themselves from any melee force that might attempt to enter their barrier of protection.  Speaking personally, when you see a whip artist standing at the center of a two-handed Queensland Crossover, or other two-handed routine, they know they are standing in the middle of spinning knives that can cut to shreds anyone who tries to penetrate that parameter.  When I wear my Jacka whips with the long 12” handles pointing out like Samurai swords on both sides of my hip I do so to have quick access to them off my quick release holsters, which were specially designed for me by Gery Deer.  I know when I walk around with them that I have complete control over my life because the whip keeps anybody who might wish me harm from entering my parameter of individuality, and that is a wonderful feeling.

It is in this spirit that the bull whip was used in the Old West mythology as a symbol of justice instead of pain.  The greatest of them all was Lash LaRue who was known as The King of the Bullwhip.  He was another of my favorite western protagonists.  So it brought me great delight to see that Disney had purchased three whips from The Northern Whip Company to be featured in the new Lone Ranger film.  I would love to see a film where whips are used in them to the level that Lash LaRue or Zorro did, but I’ll be very happy to see a scene or two with the Lone Ranger bringing about a bullwhip to implement justice in a way that only bullwhip masters understand.

As for me, the bullwhip is an important part of my life, and I am taking the social mask I put on for a brief time off.  The justice I seek doesn’t require a mask, because in the hands of a bull whip master, there is nothing to fear.  It would be my hope that I could share this self-assurance with as many people possible so that they too could learn such a skill that would free them from the tyranny of fear that so cripples such vast majorities with the constant threat of personal harm while in pursuit of honor.

Check out Joe Strain’s bull whips for yourself.  I’m sure he will have replicas of the ones he made for The Lone Ranger available soon.

http://northernwhipco.com/

Also, check out my friend Paul Nolan who also makes great whips.

http://midwestwhips.com/

Another great champion of the bull whip sport is Adam Winrich.  He is a wonderful whip maker, but spends most of his time these days doing professional gigs.  He also has dozens and dozens of instructional videos on technique some seen here on this article.

http://www.winrichwhips.com/index.html

Then of course there’s Chris Camp who laid the foundation for many world record endeavors and stays busy as a whip professional traveling the world with his family for many corporate clients.

  http://www.thewhipguy.com/WhipGuy.html

And if you want to take some classes on how to get started in a nice comfortable bull whip training studio that is just a short drive north of Cincinnati, contact my friend Gery Deer.  It’s the only one of its kind in the world.  Most of the names mentioned have attended Gery’s Annie Oakley Western Showcase event each year in Ohio during the last weekend of July.

http://www.thewhipstudio.com/

But the first step is in deciding not to live in fear, then learning what can be done about it.  Justice Comes with the Crack of a Whip, and for each of us, there is nothing more important.

Rich Hoffman

“Justice Comes With The Crack of a Whip’!”Bullwhip, Red and Black 24 Plait 2-tone

www.tailofthedragonbook.com

Star Wars Weekends 2013: The best the human race has to offer in one place

Every year I look forward to the Star Wars weekends at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.  It is one of the wonderful opportunities for philosophy, fantasy, ingenuity and the best aspects of human nature to converge at a palace of capitalism and celebrate the existence of one of the greatest stories of all time.  I love the energy, optimism, and opportunity that Star Wars offers individuals and families everywhere.   Many die-hard Star Wars fans converge every year in the middle of May to attend the fabulous Star Wars Weekend events.  For those who cannot attend, I offer these clips from the spectacle taken during the opening day ceremonies on Friday, May 17, 2013.

Sit back, grab a snack and enjoy the fun and pleasure of entertainment shown in the videos below!
 

Rich Hoffman

166701_584023358276159_1119605693_n“If they attack first………..blast em’!”

www.tailofthedragonbook.com

Called to Greatness: The wonderful work of Josh Charles–Project Freedom Phoenix–coming soon

Continue reading “Called to Greatness: The wonderful work of Josh Charles–Project Freedom Phoenix–coming soon” →

The Film Industry Bubble: Mello Yello pays me a visit before “Prometheus”

After my article a few weeks ago on the soft drink, Mello Yello the marketing team noticed and contacted me to let me know they appreciated my dedication to their product. You can see their comments from that first contact at the bottom of that posting.I have only ever drank one kind of soft drink, and that is Mello Yello, so I was particularly impressed to come home on Friday to a box from the Coca Cola company in Atlanta, Georgia. Inside the box were a number of Mello Yello marketing items that the company had sent me that made a good day even better.

They sent me a T-shirt, a long sleeve shirt, a hat, a pen, a notebook, and a thank you note, which meant a lot coming from a company that I have silently been very loyal to for a number of years. I had just enough time to open the box and scan through the items before getting ready to take my kids and their significant others out to the movie theater to see the long-awaited Prometheus. So I put on my new Mello Yello T-shirt, and my Mello Yello hat, and I grabbed the Mello Yello notebook with pen to give to my oldest daughter, and we left for the movie.

Of course I looked like a walking billboard for Mello Yello when my daughter let me into their townhouse where I gave her the notebook. She tends to write almost as much as I do, so I knew she would put it to good use. I also knew my kids would get a kick out of seeing all the Mello Yello gear, because in our family, it’s well known my love of Mello Yello. We don’t all get together as easily as we used to because we all have busy lives, so getting the Mello Yello clothing in time for our long-planned movie was a nice addition to a wonderful evening.

For Prometheus my wife wanted to see it on the IMAX screen at Showcase Cinemas in Springdale, which I think is the best movie screen in the Cincinnati area. Of course the film was in 3D like they all are these days, just like film producers promised when they flew me out to Los Angeles a few years ago to do a fire whip sequence and prove out the use of a 3D camera system for Real D 3D with Peter Facinelli. I had at that time a lot of skepticism that audiences would flock to theaters to put on 3D glasses and watch a movie with just a little extra thrill factor. Women who go out on dates spending a lot of time fixing up their hair just right I didn’t think would be interested in putting on glasses that would smear their make-up. People who naturally wear glasses have to now look through two glasses to see anything in a 3D movie, which is a pain in the neck. But Hollywood was committed to the idea of 3D just prior to Obama becoming president because they were pushed by theaters owners all over the United States to justify their investments in state of the art projection systems, giant theaters, and comfortable seating.

Hollywood like the education industry is facing the same kind of economic bubble that the housing industry has already experienced, and it’s bursting. In Hollywood, it was the films of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg in the 1980’s that set the modern idea of what a “blockbuster” was. Every year since the release of E.T. and the last of the original Star Wars films Hollywood has tried to copy the box office numbers of those films by pushing for larger stunts, larger and louder explosions, and faster paced film techniques driven largely by the music video generation created by MTV. Most of the films Hollywood produce each year falls short of executive expectations, but the pressure has been on for quite some time to get larger box office totals as the entertainment unions have driven up the financial expectations higher and higher. Leading actors now for a picture make between $20 million to $30 million, so budgets for a typical summer blockbuster are now up over $150 million dollars routinely. Hollywood has increasingly had to rely on overseas sales to complement their box office take domestically in order to justify their massive up front investments. Revenue streams are changing for the industry as well, as ticket prices have went up to compensate the increasingly high budgets for films, technology has made it so people can often watch films at home more comfortably than at a movie theater. Just the other day I was at Wal-Mart where I looked at a beautiful 70” big screen LCD television that was just over $2,000 dollars. Hollywood now has to find a way to give people an experience at the theater that they can’t get at home, so 3D is their solution. And it’s failing.

I say 3D is failing not with pleasure in my voice, but sadness. I love the movie theater experience, which is why I made a tremendous ritual of taking all my kids to a movie and spending $100 on tickets that cost over $15 each to see Prometheus with my Mello Yello gear on to create memories that will last a lifetime. I wanted them to have a great night out at the movies where going to the theater is like going to a sacred mythic temple as modern mythology is bestowed upon the moviegoer.

Prior to our film beginning I watched the previews for the newest rendition of Spiderman, and Batman, and half a dozen 3D extravaganzas that I could see will end up in the same scrap heap as Battleship and John Carter. It’s not to say that those films are bad, or don’t have a market niche to fill, but studios are forced to spend over $100 million to make those films because of expectations, and ticket prices are simply too high, most people will wait to watch those films on video, or Netflix. Every movie cannot be Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Pirates of the Caribbean, or The Avengers. Most Hollywood producers are fearful to attempt these days to develop original material because the risk is simply too great. Even a popular book like John Carter may not be enough to guarantee success. As I watched the previews prior to Prometheus, I knew that 75% of those films would be box office disappointments. They were dead before they have even arrived, because of the laws of quality described in Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. The Hollywood producers and entertainment agents more than ever are chasing dreams like the founders of California’s gold rush. They are digging for gold where it’s been discovered instead of looking where nobody has discovered it yet, because they are functioning in the back of the “train” so to speak.

Needless to say the film I took my family to Prometheus was spectacular, and it should have been for $100 bucks. I had no regrets in seeing that movie especially since everyone enjoyed the film tremendously. But as I stood in the lobby of Showcase Cinemas afterward in my bright yellow Mello Yello gear a wave of sadness swept over me realizing that the financial structure that made the whole movie theater business run was about to bust. Prometheus represented the best that Hollywood had to offer, and at $15 dollars a ticket, it barely seemed worth it. I can’t image paying that kind of price for a lesser movie, yet the movie industry is counting on it, and they will be disappointed.

The same holds true in the movie industry as it does with President Obama not understanding that European economic models built around socialism is the cause of their failure, and The United States allowing for a mixed economy of a little socialism here and there sprinkled with bits of capitalism is what has caused Obama’s failed economy during his presidency. He’s as clueless as the typical film executive who will find themselves out of a job in a couple of years because their films failed to meet the market expectations. Hollywood is looking for the Justice League to fill the market void of George Lucas retiring. That was on my mind because just a few days before Mello Yello sent me all that merchandise I received a press release from Lucasfilm stating Lucas was officially retiring, and that Kathleen Kennedy was stepping in to help fill the void at that billion dollar film company. Kennedy is a long time assistant to many Spielberg films and now she’s going to work full-time at Lucasfilm. This is a serious indication that Hollywood’s creative core is aging, and moving on to other things, and the next generations of Hollywood filmmakers and other above-the-line talent are functioning from the back of Pirsig’s quality train, and will fail under the heavy expectations.

I thought it was appropriate that I was wearing a Mello Yello T-shirt on a night when I was having all these thoughts. Way back in 1994 and 1995 I wanted to buy a Mello Yello T-shirt, but then frustrated executives at Coca Cola were upset that the soft drink did not perform equivalent to Mountain Dew, so they pulled the drink for a bit and changed it to the soft drink “Serge,” so I didn’t get my Mello Yello shirt. This went on for a while until executives at the Coca Cola Company realized that this would not boost their sales, so they had sacrificed a very good drink just because it arrived late to the marketing gate, and if they had held strong, they might have made real gains through the late 90’s into the next century. Mello Yello made its triumphant return slowly, and is just now beginning to be purchased in the northern states of America. The same day I went to Wal-Mart to see the big screen television, they had three 12 packs of Mello Yello on their shelf. My wife bought all three of them. A couple of years ago, Wal-Mart in Ohio did not carry Mello Yello at all.

Mello Yello has always been a great drink, but it was judged based on the blockbuster success of Mountain Dew, and it suffered as a result. The same thing is about to happen in the film industry. Many films will suffer as film executives lose their jobs in the years to come due to the entertainment bubble collapsing under the enormous weight of expectation. And like Mello Yello, I have my brands of filmmakers that I support valiantly, and Ridley Scott is one of them. When my “brands” make a film that I know they poured their heart and soul into it, I go and see them. The next film I feel passionate about will be Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit. I will pay top dollar to see that movie as a kind of vote for what I think success in a movie should be, to help curb the disappointment from an industry that expects too much, and is collapsing under inflated opinions. Twenty years from now, like my previous twenty years of supporting Mello Yello, I’m sure some of these very good film studios will re-emerge from the wreckage that is about to become of the film industry, and I’ll be there to support them as I was to see the great film Prometheus and one of the great offerings of the year from 20th Century Fox.

I proudly put my Mello Yello gear away when I got home that night and contemplated all that you read here today. And because of that, it means more to me than the moment that I opened it. In capitalism, whether it’s a movie, or a soft drink, the idea came from the mind of a capitalist, and millions of people enjoy the results of those thoughts—and every instance is a thing of beauty. I cherish Mello Yello because it’s been through so much as a company and even with all that, they still have the swagger about them to send me a box full of Mello Yello fun on the eve of taking my family to see the film Prometheus. It was an evening of ideas, and capitalism, and crushing expectations. But at the end of the day, it is the ideas that burn not so much brightest, but longest that survive. And Mello Yello survives, in the same way that many others will endure as great minds who think at the front of the train emerge to give great ideas a place to materialize. Each time I wear my Mello Yello T-shirt, it will not be out of blind devotion to a soft drink, but out of reverence to a company that I cherish because it makes a great product, and has had the tenacity to weather the storms of economic betrayal to arrive at a day when it can please the taste buds of millions.

____________________________________________________________

This is what people are saying about my new book–Tail of the Dragon

“Just finished the book and am sweating profusely. Wow, what a ride !!!  Fasten your seat belts for one of the most thrilling rides ever in print.“

Visit the NEW Tail of the Dragon WEBSITE!  CLICK HERE!

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

The Beauty of Capitalism: A Dance Off with Star Wars and dreams from Central Florida

For anyone who doubts even a little that capitalism is the ultimate economy of a free people, one only as to look at the great amusement parks and roller coasters from Central Florida. Below is a recent video from Attractions Magazine which begins in my favorite amusement park in the entire world, the Epcot Center.

The Star Wars Weekend just opened at Hollywood Studios and here are some clips from that opening ceremony. Star Wars as an idea could never have manifested in a country like Russia, China, Greece, France, or any African country not because of skin color, or even financial viability. The key is in the ability to think and appreciate freedom, allowing fans to participate in a living mythology as evident in this parade where people from all over the world come to pay tribute to their favorite Star Wars characters both as a participants and as spectators.

And in a capitalist oriented culture it is in the freedom of musical expression, and theatrical expression that pop culture merges with myth in the very popular dance-off that was shown on opening night.

As many people these days are confused as to what kind of politics they should support, it is only capitalism that makes all the dreams and talents of Central Florida come to life. And what a wonderful culture we have because of it.  I am thankful every time I get the opportunity to see the latest and greatest of entertainment in Central Florida.

____________________________________________________________

This is what people are saying about my new book–Tail of the Dragon

“Just finished the book and am sweating profusely. Wow, what a ride !!!  Fasten your seat belts for one of the most thrilling rides ever in print.“

While you wait for Tail of the Dragon, read my first book at Barnes and Nobel.com as they are now offering The Symposium of Justice at a discount which is the current lowest price available.

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

Peter Jackson Takes a Stand: Saving Jobs in New Zealand from labor union looting

Sometimes the best way to see something clearly is to back up so you can put it in focus. It also helps to not view the world exclusively through one particular specialization of which one makes a living. Living life should be a constant adventure of always learning and expanding ones viewpoint, and not relegating a perception to just those within the field of one’s occupation. This is the role of philosophy and story tellers, people I enjoy spending time around more than any other, because they often see the bigger picture of things, excel in this skill and do society great justice when they share the fruits of their labor.

This is also why I have been spending some time talking about the new film The Hobbit by Peter Jackson, because stories like this are much bigger than the small issues that surround us on a daily basis, so in placing our energy onto such projects metaphors of our own reality can be analyzed. So let me share with you dear reader a clip from the video blog of The Hobbit hosted by Peter Jackson before we plunge into a bit of darkness in our discussion today. When watching this clip it reminded me of two things—first I am happy to see that Jackson is filming The Hobbit, for the first time in 48 frames a second and in 3D. I had the privilege of working with Real D 3D a few years ago on the development of a new camera system they were testing for the 3D market which is very similar to the version seen in this clip, so it excites me greatly to see this kind of technology being utilized to the furthest extent of artistic interpretation. Second—for the reasons that have held up The Hobbit as a production and almost prevented it from being filmed in New Zealand are the same that I will probably never get the chance to do work in Hollywood again, because of my stances against unions in my written work.

The dark story of making The Hobbit is one that has held the project up for years and is yet another story about how labor unions are corrosive organizations. And its statements like that which have blacklisted me from any future work within the Hollywood community. I made this choice consciously knowing that I will instead shift my attention in these middle years of my life to writing novels instead. So I am happy to let my whip work and other entertainment talents drift into the nature of that independent task of authorship. Because there is no going back now, I’ve said too much.

But what I said needed to be said. It’s the things that Peter Jackson doesn’t want, or need to say. It’s the things that the distributors at Warner Brothers can’t talk about even if their opinions are harsh on the matter privately. This is because a subtle harness is placed upon the entertainment industry and that harness is the exact same gag that exists on public education, and is preventing the open learning and creativity of millions of children from realizing their full potential. It is that of the labor unions.

During Lord of the Rings, the production could be said to be very successful because Peter Jackson as a director is extremely personable, grounded, and fantastic at multitasking. He kept his set fun which allowed for a bonding to occur between his technical staff and his actors which showed up on-screen in a tremendous way. It is unlikely that Lord of the Rings would have been such a great production if Jackson had not been the director, or if the entire film had not been shot in New Zealand.

My wife and I made serious plans to move to New Zealand in the early years of our marriage and live on a sailboat. So I understand the appeal of a country that as of now prides itself on rugged individuality. When one thinks of New Zealand government of any kind does not come to mind, just big open fields, mountains, horses and–sheep. But the one great thing that I’ll say about New Zealand that the film industry can’t say is that one of the reasons Lord of the Rings went together so impressively, and all members of the crew got along unusually well, and communication worked at all levels was the absence of a labor union in New Zealand involving the actors and technical unions. Before Lord of the Rings came out there were only a few major films to come out of New Zealand, The Man from Snowy River films, and the George Lucas spectacle Willow. So the labor unions didn’t protest too intensely when New Line Cinema aligned with Wingnut films to produce a massive three film adaptation to the Tolkien classic, the unions didn’t pay much attention. Jackson wisely shot the films back-to-back while Fellowship of the Ring was still in post production and had not yet hit theaters. The Lord of the Rings films were able to be made outside of the chaos of the usual Hollywood production without a lot of union influence in an almost campfire style production where everyone bonded on the set.

However, success breeds the looters, and after multiple Academy Awards the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance union from Australia decided it wanted to move over into the New Zealand market because they feared that such high-profile big budget films in the future would go to New Zealand instead of Australia where the Star Wars films were shot over similar concerns. These big productions could not be done in the United States, because there is too much hassle these days over labor disputes, so film companies run from unions out of necessity, and in this case New Zealand is the last far-flung corner of the globe without one of these labor unions controlling the industry, so The Hobbit will be the last of its kind. The unions took action against The Hobbit production joining with the Screen Actors Guild and four other international unions to boycott the production.

You can read an article about this mess here:

http://news.sky.com/home/showbiz-news/article/15772110

Peter Jackson in an effort to save his home country of New Zealand the thousands upon thousands of jobs The Hobbit would bring to craftsman and film personnel refused to buckle under the union pressure and called the union what it was, a bully looking for money, membership and power. He threatened to take the production of The Hobbit and its $300 million budget to Europe in order to make the film. You can read that article here:

http://news.sky.com/home/showbiz-news/article/15745443

Thankfully the whole situation settled as thousands of New Zealanders protested to keep The Hobbit production in New Zealand, so the unions backed off socially, and Jackson was able to go and make the film the way he likes to make them. For me personally it is very nice to see Peter walking around on his sets casually without all the egotistical authority that so many of his predecessors displayed. It’s Jackson’s directorial style to be very open, fair and forthcoming in his dealings with his cast and crew. Jackson is certainly a director who would suffer from too much outside control on his projects which is what the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance union was trying to do. They saw Jackson’s success and they wanted to loot off his back, off his creations, and his relationships so they could get a piece of the pie for themselves.

This is what teachers unions have done to our schools. It’s no different in any respect. A school cannot pick up and move like Jackson threatened to settle a union dispute. A community has a school and it’s fixed in place. So if a union infests it with their looting tendency, the community is forced to deal with the extortion measures they employ.

The Disney Company deals with the unions by tossing more money at the problem which is why the Pirate films are so expensive. Disney has the advantage of generating a tremendous amount of money through their subsidiary companies, so they can play that game. They are too big to fly under the radar like Jackson does today, or Spielberg and Lucas used to. Notice that as Spielberg became bigger and more successful over the years, that his films seemed to become more and more bogged down. He still makes pretty good films, but nothing like his final year as a master filmmaker in 1993 with the release of Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List. I know people get angry with Spielberg and Tim Burton (who I think is a fantastic director) for sucking up to the Obama administration now, and the Clinton administration’s back in the 90’s, but at the heart of that evil is a desire for creative people to make their movies as a wall of opposition known as the entertainment unions stand in the way. The union influence shows up in the final product and it does rob the production of some magic. The audience can tell the difference and it does affect Hollywood’s bottom line. They respond by making more comedies, and easy productions that aren’t overly complicated and can be shot around Los Angeles or Las Vegas–easy set ups. The creative minds behind the movies attempt to keep the protesting communists who run the labor unions at bay with appeasement. Disney throws money at unions to advance a project which works, but prevents smaller film makers from being able to compete on equal footing, because the unions hold all producers to the same standard as a company like Disney. Unless the filmmaker makes the film out of the country like Jackson has, they find themselves encumbered needlessly both creatively and financially.

As I see the previews and clips coming in from The Hobbit I am starting to get excited, because such films—stories of such depth are rare for all the reasons described, and are true treasures of our culture. I desire a world where people can speak and do business with each other without the looters standing in the way trying to make easy money for themselves. And yes, my comments here about the education unions have blacklisted me in entertainment which will go on forever. But I have other talents and I’ll use them to tell the story of how human beings get themselves into these fixes. It’s a difficult thing to balance out the need to make a living and then to make a living that is honest and true. Because the chances are, even if you are a wealthy film maker, if your love is to make movies you still need the industry system to make them, so you do your best to shut your mouth and put up with the parts you don’t like. You give money to the Obama administrations as a payoff to a mobster thug and hope they leave you alone politically. And the same holds true for the teaching profession. Or any profession that is controlled by labor unions, it’s hard to come out and speak against it, and to call it what it is, because the system is designed to exclude any voice of dissention. But I will do it, because I’ve already started the process, so I might as well see it through. And in the meantime, I will cheer with much vigor the upcoming film The Hobbit for all these reasons and more. Great stories are so few and far between, and I’m so excited about this one that I may just go get in line for it right now.

Click here to see the TAIL OF THE DRAGON press release for an update on my most recent project:

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

Check out Rich Hoffman’s favorite website, (besides this one):

http://thepeoplescube.com/

Slaying Dragons: Learning to be proud of becoming a DRAGONSLAYER

A long time ago I used to be the guy who fed the string of exploding fireworks from the top of a Chinese restaurant that I worked at while the owners of the establishment put on an epic dragon dance like the one seen below. The fireworks were coiled up in a box that had over 50,000 tied to it and I’d have to stand on the roof and feed the lit explosions just over the dancing dragon below as it performed for a massive audience. My task was to keep the fireworks about two feet above the action but to protect anything from igniting the feed box, which was very dangerous work on my end, that I loved.

As I witnessed many oriental dragon dances I contemplated the difference in how oriental cultures viewed dragons and how the Occident, (western cultures) viewed dragons. They are very different ways of looking at the same thing. In the orient, dragons are a symbol of life renewing aspects. The dragon sheds its skin, and is seen as a serpent and life-giver in many respects. In the west, the dragon’s breath fire, are meant to be feared and usually sit on top of huge piles of treasure and are sought after to be slain. But why was this?

It was that primary question that sent me on a ten-year study and provoked me to quit college three times because nobody had a satisfactory answer for me in the field of philosophy. That might not have been the case if I had been able to attend Sarah Lawrence College where Joseph Campbell taught comparative mythology, or Leonard Peikoff’s philosophy classes at Long Island University, had I known about them when I was 18 to 28. But the books of those men were available, and I scooped up the work of Joseph Campbell and devoured them for the next ten years trying to figure out what was wrong with this whole problem of dragons in human society.

I spent many late nights at Waffle Houses all over Cincinnati reading till 4 to 5 AM over breakfast omelets pouring through all of Campbell’s classics meticulously, and it was this action that catapulted me into a lifelong study of myth, philosophy, and human culture that extended beyond the realms of classic anthropological and archeological study. The study of dragons in our culture actually is the skeleton key to understanding the conflicts of our age and it all begins with the grace of that dragon dance from my youth and the hypnotic fireworks I was tasked to feed during the ceremony. And it ends with the reason why I am so excited about the new Peter Jackson film translation of The Hobbit, which I so enthusiastically support at my site here.

My wife’s birthday was last night and my daughter, son-in-law and I went to our favorite Chinese restaurant in Liberty Twp to get my wife the only food she truly likes, Chinese from Panda King. My entire family loves the oriental family who run that restaurant and we’ve known them for years. The man and woman who operate Panda King are two of the hardest working people I know and their son grew up much like the sons I knew in my teenage years, working with the family business, doing their homework between orders and displaying a fantastic work ethic. It is that work ethic that I admire so much in the people of the orient. They have no fear of hard work and cannot be stopped once set in motion. So my wife wanted food from The Panda King for her birthday dinner and nothing else.

As we placed the order I showed my daughter the new preview to The Hobbit on her cell phone which she hadn’t seen yet and we mauled over the idea of how cool Peter Jackson’s version of Smaug the Dragon would be from that literary classic. As we spoke about it I looked all over the walls of The Panda King at the dragon decorations and thought about the dragon dances again. The difference between the eastern view of dragons and the version from the west displayed so vividly by J.R.R. Tolkien in The Hobbit is quite astonishing. The only thing the two cultures share in their view of the animal is the category of dragon as a mysterious creature.

About that time a young man who I had fired from his job about 7 months ago came in to order food and appeared to recognize me. There was that tension where words cannot cross a void and nothing is said as a result. He didn’t know what to say to me, and there was nothing I could say to him to bring comfort. Asking how he was doing would have been inappropriate under the conditions of his termination, and asking for an appeal to me would have been degrading. So he avoided eye contact with me, ordered his food and left unceremoniously, as my daughter and I continued to talk about Smaug from The Hobbit.

Running into former employees that I’ve had to terminate happens a lot. It happens when I get gas, and at various shopping complexes as I am out and about, so I’ve learned to shift into the proper gear when those encounters happen. Firing an employee or letting them go as a reduction-in-force is difficult, but the situation is always in their control. It is a failure in job performance that does them in, and they either accept that fact or they don’t. So the choice to be angry is entirely in their control.

This guy in Panda King chose not to be angry and took responsibility for his actions, so his lack of desire to be confrontational to me earned some respect that he had won back just a little bit from how I felt about him upon termination.

When the food was done cooking the owners put it all in a giant box that it took to carry it all home. I joked to them about coming home with us to eat it all. The couple gave me an odd look not comprehending what I was saying as the thought of leaving their work in the middle of the evening was not even a consideration, even joking. And there-in-lies the fundamental difference between the east and the west, as much as I admire the oriental work ethic and their very dedicated preservation of strong families in their culture, they do not function very independently. Independence is not important to them culturally. The people of the orient think in terms of collectivism, as a complete organism of which they are but a single cell. They are naturally altruistic by their cultural heritage and as much as I admire them as a social organism, they think very different from the way I do. This is why their dragons are revered as life-sustaining, because the dragon to them is the state. This is why oriental cultures tend to fall toward communism. This is the case certainly in China, Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, and if the politics is not literal communism, then it might be monarchy, feudalism such as what is found in Japanese cultures or an out-right dictatorship. The people of the orient are prone to sacrifice their individual lives for the benefit of the collective whole.

When J.R.R. Tolkien wrote The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings he set out to bring Great Britain a proper mythology for their culture, which England did not have. England through their reign of empire had a hodgepodge of many cultures as they imported the King Author legends from France, which had its roots in the troubadours of romanticism. But England lacked an authentic myth to unify its people, so Tolkien set out to give it one with his characters in the literary classics of Middle Earth. As a professor at Oxford he saw firsthand the spread of socialism throughout London society and as a veteran of World War I he had some very unique perspectives into the progressive conditions that spread after the Treaty of Versailles. Tolkien the intellectual kept his mind free from politics like many creative people and instead delved into creating his own world mythology which reflected the concepts of our actual life. Walt Disney and George Lucas have done that in the United States and in England Tolkien was taking his observations of human behavior and painting them against stories such as The Hobbit in 1936.

Tolkien was so prone to withdrawal from contemporary politics that he lashed out in anger at those who declared his Lord of the Rings as an anti-communist parable comparing Joseph Stalin to the Dark Lord. Tolkien saw his work as reaching beyond the politics of the day even though he was clearly reacting to the events through the mechanism of myth.

The Hobbit is in essence a treasure hunt, not too unlike that of Disney’s beloved pirates from Pirates of the Caribbean. Bilbo Baggins was conscripted from a group of treasure hunters led by Gandalf seeking to take back their kingdom and the treasure guarded there by the dragon Smaug. This takes the home-loving Hobbit Bilbo on an adventure of the lifetime and lead directly into the events that become Lord of the Rings, which is a much more sinister story about evil and the nature of its influence. In The Hobbit, Smaug is the perfect embodiment of the classic occidental dragon motif as seen in this clip from the 1977 cartoon adaption of The Hobbit.

Notice Smaug is a pompous, arrogant creature who uses brute force to guard his treasure taken from the surrounding kingdoms. And he sleeps atop it guarding each and every item. Bilbo the Thief, the (pirate) has been tasked to steal an item from the dragon’s lair. The dragon in these stories represents The State, the institutional control of an organization that takes and steals by force the wealth of the people who have their rights to their creations. So the dragon is the villain in occidental mythology where the creature represents a destruction of individual liberty, and the right to their personal wealth. The dragon does not have a right to hoard the looted wealth of the people in its lair. This makes the dragon slayer, the thief of Bilbo Baggins a hero in this case.

However, if the same story were told in China, Bilbo would be the villain and it would be the dragon who would be the hero. Because in that culture the dragon is the revered creature, the state and the survival of the culture is the paramount concern. But in European post renaissance mythology, before Karl Marx spread his disease across Europe, it was the individual desire for conquering one’s personal dragons that become the concern.

I put the quality of J.R.R. Tolkien’s thinking in line with the Founding Fathers by way of intellectual capacity in what he was trying to achieve. Tolkien had the ability to behold very large ideas much the way Ben Franklin did, and was able to see beyond the political trends of his day to tell very powerful myths in an attempt to hold his culture together. Tolkien was creating a mythology which directly leads to philosophy, two ingredients that are paramount to holding a culture together.

Political science and other feeble attempts to bypass the process of myth always lead to social decay. Mythology is needed in order to form complicated social concepts which give context to large ideas. This is why the new documentary called Finding Joe, which is about the power of Joseph Campbell’s scholarship in creating a new field of endeavor called comparative mythology which will soon become a major field of study like anthropology, sociology, and even physics is now, because there is power in myths and the words that form them. So much so that societies will rise and fall based on the strength of their mythological messages.

But that is the difference between the east and the west and these ideas are in open conflict with each other. The hippie movement of the 60’s and into the modern-day sought to study the east as the premier mode of thinking using examples of India, Tibetan Buddhism, and Japanese Zen to challenge the thinking of western thought. It was even Jane Fonda who basically made love publicly with communist North Vietnam using her sex appeal to win over millions of American’s into communism.

But it cannot be disguised what lingers in the heart of mankind. And all the open conflicts of our day could be seen in Panda King where my daughter and I were buying my wife dinner for her birthday. My friends who run the place genuinely enjoy seeing me when I come to place an order and our friendship exists completely in respect. But they do not understand my motorcycle riding, my cowboy hats or my outlandish dress on occasion. They do not understand my strong desire for individual liberty. And I do not understand their blind obedience to collectivism, or their selfless natures. I admire it in some respects, but I do not, nor do I wish to understand it. When I see a dragon I wish to slay it and mount it’s head on my wall so I can hang my bullwhips from its teeth. When they see a dragon they want to do a dance and celebrate its nature.

And the fellow who I fired was a young fellow who was confused by all this stuff. He thought that work was optional, that he could show up when he wanted. He often wore symbols of the Yen and Yang on his jewelry and had a fascination with the Peace symbol. He thought that he could make up his own hours and that if he lost his job he’d just collect unemployment. So I gave him directions to the unemployment office and told him to get in line because he was now on it. He huffed and puffed and bragged on Facebook about how was going to stick it to me and what a bad guy I was, but in the end he had lost his job because he did not perform the tasks he was hired to do. He was functioning from a faulty philosophy. He wanted the collectivism of the east without the hard work, yet he still wanted the individuality of the west, again without the work. That young man is a victim of no mythology, but rather a grouping of broken symbols that had lost their meaning leaving his mind vacant of resolution. This gives him little social value in that he cannot even be hired like Bilbo Baggins to steal treasure from a dragon resting atop a pile of gold.

If you want a long sustaining society that will always hold itself together, the orient has the problem licked. They are a stable people who can have a continuous society that lasts for generations, but they are willing to give up individual liberty to have it. The Occident, (the west) tends to burn itself out quickly in the absence of strong family values since the innovations of one generation to the next die out as the great minds of one age find the descendents of the next one much like that guy I had to fire. Without the work ethic to sustain an idea, they quickly die out and the culture disintegrates. But, it is in individual endeavor that innovation thrives, and it is in the Occident that we developed aviation, computers, the internet, electricity, and virtually all technological marvels. Because the keys to a good life, the treasures of mankind are underneath the dragons of society and those dragons must be killed to gain those treasures. You cannot dance around them and throw sacrifices at those dragons and expect the dragon to give you treasure. Instead the dragon will only ask for more. So the dragons must be killed, so that society can prosper and advance with each slain monster.

American society will thrive once it stops feeling guilty for the dragons it kills, because we are not like those in the orient. We are unique, and it is our task to kill dragons and steal their treasure for our use. That is the mythology of the west, and one that at a subconscious level, we all understand.

Rich Hoffman

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

Check out Rich Hoffman’s favorite website, (besides this one):

http://thepeoplescube.com/

The Obama Folly: A famous mouse and Rich Hoffman visit the Clarkcast

The President’s speech during his annual State of the Union address would have been a good one if only there were value behind the words. Obama’s deeds over the last three years have spoke volumes as to his true intentions, so the well delivered lines spoken to millions of citizens on January 24, 2012 were merely those of a well rehearsed actor speaking lines given to him by his superiors—those who pay him money. Recently Matt Clark of the Clarkcast radio network http://www.clarkcast.com/ read portions of my article about Obama shutting down Disney World just one week prior to this address on his radio program where the real nature of this president was revealed at that event. You can read that article here:

https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2012/01/21/main-street-u-s-a-closes-barack-obama-does-what-he-does-everywhere/

The value of Obama’s words in his speech has equal value to the act Matt did in the video below where Mickey Mouse called in to comment on Obama’s visit. In fact not only did Mickey call in, but Goofy too as they reacted to Obama shutting down Main Street USE in Disney World to give a self-serving political speech that was but a prequel to his State of the Union address. Now, of course Mickey Mouse did not actually call but was in fact played by Matt Clark as he essentially had a conversation with himself playing both roles. It was a very cleaver bit of radio, but more importantly, it shows how something that is just an act for fun, can sound so real. Just like Obama’s State of the Union speech. Obama is just a character in the game of politics, like Goofy in this skit below. Both are made-up characters who didn’t read their email properly.

The gist of the entire State of the Union speech is one to justify raising taxes. Obama is simply on the same level as every government organization who knows of no other option but to raise taxes to pay for their looting programs. What Obama doesn’t want to hear, or the hands up his ass that move his mouth, is that the real problem is not in raising taxes on the rich to “pay their fair share” but in questioning the value of the programs the looters intend to fund. Who says the tax requirements as they are now are justified? I don’t want to pay for The Department of Education. I don’t want to pay for the EPA. I don’t want to pay for a Justice Department that acts as character assassins for the President of the United States. In fact I don’t want to pay for all those lowlifes gathered on the House floor. I would argue that everyone gathered in the House chamber could have been ejected from government office and life in America would continue the next day, and the day after without any difficulty. All those government employees are non-essential, and to me are but looters of tax money. They provide nothing of value to the United States. With each law they pass, they take America further away from the Constitution, so every day the government is in session, they destroy America just a bit more. So why do we need them, and why do we need to pay higher taxes to pay for useless positions and programs? The even playing field Obama was talking about in his State of the Union is essentially socialism, even if he doesn’t call it that.

If socialism is too harsh of a word, then let’s call it soccer. Obama wants American business to function like a soccer game as opposed to football. The reason American’s don’t take to soccer the way the rest of the world does is because soccer seems to be enjoyed most in socialist leaning countries. In soccer, the forwards cannot be behind the fullbacks when the ball is kicked up the field. The intention of the rule is to keep the ball from being lobbed down the field by a powerful kick and giving the offense an unfair advantage over the defense. American footfall on the other hand which represents capitalism, encourages speed and if a receiver can beat a defensive back to get wide open, it is expected for the quarterback to make a deep pass over the defense to score. Obama wants America to embrace soccer, and therefore an economic system that reflects that game, which is pretty boring, low scoring, and entails watching a ball bounce around a field aimlessly for a couple of hours.

This is the America of fairness Obama is presenting in his speech. He wants to make sure forward thinking people will be declared offsides if they have too much speed and ambition to get behind the defense of U.S. regulation, or in other words—the defense. This is also why Matt Clark had me on his show to discuss the folly of Obama’s intentions to promote tourism in America by shutting down the most successful amusement park on the face of the planet. Matt and I discussed at great length the misplaced notion that political looters in our society are made up as celebrities, and that because of that status can actually displace thousands of paying tourists just so the president can stand in front of the castle in Disney World and give a speech. I argued that the executives at Disney should have refused the president, because Obama is not a king, or even a noble. He’s merely a public servant.

The confirmation that everything Matt and I said in our broadcasts could be seen before and after the State of the Union speech. Jean Schmidt who I’ve talked about here publicly declaring that President Obama is a president that has failed, made sure she was in the receiving line whispering to him on his way in. And on the way out, she was there again to get his autograph, just as many congressmen were doing from both political parties. Before the speech Speaker Boehner was hugging Joe Biden in spite of the fact that the VP and the President had bypassed congress to create a whole new branch of government in the appointment of Corday. Heck, I was at Boehner’s office just last week making the case for why the Speaker should move to impeach the President. And here they were just a few days later hugging, smiling and shaking hands. The State of the Union was simply a copy of Hollywood’s Academy Awards ceremony. The looters of government have watched how Hollywood presents material and they have copied it.

Washington has made the president into an actor and the State of the Union is simply a ceremony where the culture of Washington D.C. gets together, signs autographs for each other and displays their skills of acting for the public to see. But nothing about the State of the Union had anything to do with fixing problems in America. Obama attempted to use his skills as an actor to declare he loved the American Flag, that he wasn’t a socialist, and that he did not want to dismantle America.

He gave a speech intended to confuse everyone and trick them into giving him more time to give America soccer instead of football—socialism instead of capitalism. But all anyone has to do is look at the actions of these characters, these actors who, just as Matt Clark did in his impression of Mickey Mouse, played the role of a character in political theater. Politicians simply play their part; they do not back up their words with actions. They are actors as lost and confused as the Hollywood community because both groups believe in the seduction of celebrity over the valor of conviction. Our political body is made up of poor quality characters who are good actors for the cameras but lack any personal beliefs leaving their actions to be defined by the puppet masters who control their purse strings. With all that said, I would vote for the kid who dresses up in a Mickey Mouse costume at Disney World in Orlando for president because at least I can look at the costume of Mickey Mouse and have more faith in the authenticity of that actor as opposed to the actor that is Obama. Because the modern politician doesn’t just wear one costume to hide their true identities, but several, so many that the only way we can discover the intentions of these actors is to study their actions when the cameras aren’t rolling. I do not want the America of these actors, of these fair-share advocates, these sleazy salesmen who want to replace our American Football with global soccer. I do not want to pay for them with my taxes. I do not want their social programs. I do not want the country they wish to advance with their smiling faces and their hand shakes. Taxes should not go up, but the revenue demands must go down. And the American people must recognize that politicians are not even celebrities of worth because they don’t even make a movie that at least brings joy to the human race for a two-hour film.

The politician brings nothing but lies, and are utterly worthless, and must be overhauled in the minds of America for what they are, based on what they do, and not on what they say. For more on this sleazy salesman proposal read my detailed article on the concept here:

https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2011/07/30/sleeping-with-a-slick-salesman-the-path-of-the-obama-presidency/

To learn what a Overmanwarrior is CLICK HERE:

https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2012/01/09/the-overmanwarriors-eating-fighting-and-philosophizing-the-keys-to-a-good-life/

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

Watch Rich Hoffman’s favorite T.V. show:

http://www.foxnews.com/freedomwatch/

Main Street U.S.A Closes: Barack Obama does what he does everywhere

Barack Obama came to Disney World and did what he does everywhere he goes in the United States; he shut down Main Street USA. I’m sure the intentions of this visit were not to indicate the more metaphorical limerick described in that opening sentence, but that is the perfect summation of the President’s 4 terms in the United States Executive Office.

Everyone who knows me understands how much I love Disney World, and what I think of Walt Disney. While it’s clear that the more progressive caretakers of the Disney Company in recent years seem perplexed as to what made Disney such a successful company they have been wise enough to keep the original intents of Walt Disney alive well after his passing. Disney is one of those I would term as being an overman, a person who thinks beyond the conventions of the learned. One who can see clearly what is still invisible to everyone else. In fact, Disney World as a complex is a major portion of Florida’s economy. To understand just how important Disney is to Florida and the United States in general, have a look at this link of an article I wrote quite some time ago. You’ll learn some very interesting fun facts about Disney World:

https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2011/06/12/thank-a-rich-person-how-rich-people-make-american-society-better/

There is a part of me who finds the Disney Company very misguided in shutting down Main Street U.S.A at their primary amusement park just so Obama can give a speech. It is a bad move on behalf of management to recognize the value of certain human beings. But they are not all at fault. The management at Disney World are in good company when they host the President. Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks have done similar events for President Obama, and much has been said about Tim Burton hosting the secret Halloween Party at the White House. Heck, even one of my favorite human beings on the planet sent the Chewbacca costume from Star Wars to appear at that same Halloween Party. This is baffling to me, this whole premise of creators, which film makers are, being seduced by politicians of little worth like Obama.

If I were the management at Disney aside from the fact that I think Obama is a worthless President with no management skill, I would tell the President that he was not welcome to shut down a portion of my amusement park to give a self-serving political speech. I would do that because the average customer at Disneyworld has far more value than a politician of any caliber. However, the behavior of these successful filmmakers and entertainment tycoons does not exempt them from poor judgment. I know many people who are of above average income who attend fundraisers for presidential candidates and other politicians that are anywhere from $50 per plate to $5000 a plate and this is the fundamental trouble with our government. People, who actually have the ability to make money and pay $5000 a plate for a meal to put money in a politician’s pocket, misplace the value of a politician. They don’t seem to have the ability to turn off in their minds the aptitude to not become star struck with politicians and treat them with celebrity instead of servitude. Politicians are public servants, not celebrities. They should never be held up as a celebrity under ANY circumstance at any level.

Politicians learned from Hollywood how to build their image into a celebrity appeal, and the same Hollywood producers and image makers who create the images we see, seem to not recognize that the looting politician is simply using the Hollywood strategy against Hollywood itself to gain money, and political influence within the organization.

If I were Hollywood I would be angry at those looting politicians, and I’d abandon the progressive politics that looters like Obama are trying to slide under the door, because Hollywood is being scammed. Wasn’t it Lenan who stated that if he could control Hollywood he could control the world? Well, they’ve tried to implement communism into Hollywood for years and many actors and producers looking for money for their projects to green light from financiers like George Soros steer scripts in a noticeably leftist direction. The result is that box office results for 2011 are about $500 million down from what they were a year ago. In fact, they are so bad that they are down to the 1995 levels.

It is not internet piracy that is causing films to fail, so the new SOPA and PIPA bills won’t save Hollywood. Piracy is up because the quality of films are down. People are not willing to pay good money for socialist propaganda. They might watch those films for free, but they aren’t going to flock to the theaters to see them. All anyone has to do to measure the sad state of depravity that Hollywood is currently in is examine the James Bond franchise of late. Compare the Bond films of the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s to the 90’s and the now the dismal 2000’s. They’ve lost their way with the Bond films. Where are the Bruce Willis films? Who are the new tough guys; because that’s what people want to see. That’s what movie goers are willing to pay for. Who are the new Clint Eastwoods, Harrison Fords, Steve MacQueens? Hollywood has Johnny Depp but he’s more of the type of actor like Dick Van Dyke used to be, who is so talented that he could cover any role. Captain Jack in the Pirate films is an iconic role, but Depp is not an iconic actor that sells a type of film. He is such a fantastic actor that he can play anything. Films are hungry for male studs and women who like to be women. The political agenda that the media companies have signed up for and imposed on their employees, the producers, actors, and writers, are being rejected by the typical American who think the product coming out of Hollywood is so worthless, that they either don’t go, or will only watch the films if they are pirated. If SOPA or PIPA takes away all piracy the American people will just blow Hollywood off all together.

Hollywood is losing money because it got into bed with Bill Clinton in the 90’s, it worked against President Bush, actively and now it’s back in bed with Obama, and half the nation hates these presidents, so Hollywood has isolated it’s market share to only half the nation who are stupid enough to blindly accept the progressive images Hollywood has been trying to sell. So like everything that touches government, who is made up almost exclusively of looters, people who have no ability to produce on their own, but can only steal their worth from others, the relationship Hollywood has had with politics has hurt it desperately.

So it is quite appropriate to have President Obama shut down one of the most successful tourist destinations on the planet with his looting presence. The current managers of the Disney Company have only Uncle Walt to guide them, because they don’t have new ideas, or the ability to produce them. And Obama is in the same boat, he has no new ideas, he’s a pawn for the global socialists, and he looks to looting presidents like Woodrow Wilson, F.D.R, and L.B.J, for guidance. But he’s not an original, yet Hollywood treats the president as such and falsely makes Obama believe he has value where he is simply a looter who has turned the Hollywood image machine against the image makers themselves. But as Main Street U.S.A shuts down to qualify a token king of America so he can speak about programs to promote tourism, to the company that is best at it. The elemental ideas of Americana hover like smoke at such speeches only to be seen but unable to be touched by the looter mind. They can only describe what they see, but cannot feel it, let alone maneuver it.

The reality of the situation is that tourism will increase if the president could lower taxes so taxpayers had more disposable income. Yet Obama is intent to loot more money for more government programs and believes that by shutting down the most popular tourist destination in the world is the way to increase tourism. It’s the same mentality of shutting down energy sources so that American’s will buy into the President’s Green Policies. But none of the people involved in this epic meeting know what to do next. The President is a looter of the public, and the Disney Executives are looters to the estate of Uncle Walt.

But the real America and the answers it can provide to all these modern problems exist just outside the roped off area the President occupied in the closure of Main Street. It’s over near the Liberty Tree and is above the Liberty Tavern in a window above the Christmas Store, it’s a lone gunman with his barrel sticking out the window standing guard for the tyrants who might come and rob the town of its liberty. You see, Uncle Walt knew what all these modern pinheads have forgotten, that the spirit of America is in that window, and is reflected in the Liberty Tavern itself, and is under the Liberty Tree overlooking Tom Sawyer Island. It’s not at the podium of a pathetic king who wants to exercise his looted power to stand in front of a castle with the same immature ambition that a young girl hopes to meet Cinderella in that very castle. And it’s not in entertainment executives who have allowed a looter to appeal to their celebrity desires. The answers to all America’s problems are in the people who were shut out of the ceremony, and this is why Hollywood and Disney specifically is facing financial setbacks in not performing to the expectations of their market share.

Movies are ultimately about ideas not special effects. And theme parks are built on treasured ideas from movies that touch the soul. The desire for a family of four to travel to Disney World or Universal Studios is to relieve the magic of the movies they love. At Disney it’s Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, The Little Mermaid, Cinderella, Toy Story, and at Universal Studios it’s Terminator, Twister, The Mummy, Jurassic Park, Jaws, Spiderman and The Hulk. Tourists won’t flock to a theme park to ride a MILK roller costar or the latest George Clooney political flick. And until Hollywood gets it, and stops bending over for looting politicians like Barack Obama and putting money into the thieves pockets, the Hollywood market share will continue to plummet.

Hollywood, you will have to choose, will it be progressive reform where you play the role of the propaganda machine for a corrupt group of looting politicians, or will you choose the way of the dollar and pursue the avenues that audiences are truly hungry for, values established in “Old Hollywood,” as modern progressives term it, in a day when movies meant magic and hope, the ideas that built Main Street U.S.A in the first place?

To learn what a Overmanwarrior is CLICK HERE:

Public Schools are Teaching Socialism: The confusion in forms of GOVERNMENT

On Thursday December 8, 2011 my public response letter to a resident of my community upset with my work at defeating the tax increases for my local school was published in the Pulse Journal. Upon looking the letter over to make sure everything I wrote was there I quickly noticed that the letter was quite a bit shorter than what I originally wrote. That is when I noticed that the Pulse Journal had edited out my references to socialism in public education that I had included in my response.

My first thoughts were that Cox Publishing who produces The Pulse Journal as well as most of the local papers from Dayton to Cincinnati had a policy against mentions of socialism in their newspapers, and for good reason. I will cover that reason in a bit. The other rationale is that many people reading the paper may find it very vitriolic to compare public education to socialism instruction, and such a reality may be thought to be over-the-top.  It could also be that I called some of the parents of my community a bunch of “spoiled brats.”  So the paper edited out my references. Whichever reason, the newspaper did cut down my draft to what actually appeared in the paper, which is their right to do, their paper, their rules. So I will include my original letter below for those who would like to see that note in the fashion that I originally wrote it.

But first, I think a bit of education on why I mention socialism and public education as being so closely related. It is entirely possible that the publishers of newspapers, tax payers, and even many in government themselves do not understand what kind of government America is supposed to be. In fact, I heard Jay Carney give a statement from the White House just the other day where he said America had an interest in promoting “democracy” to the rest of the world, and he said it believing democracy is the type of government that America is which is incorrect. So if he got it wrong, there is a good chance that 95% of everyone in America will get it wrong as well because we were all taught in the same place with the exception of those fortunate enough to receive private instruction or homeschooling. So please watch this video so you can have some context for what follows.

Now here is the letter I submitted to The Pulse Journal written as I intended.

_______________________________________________

Keep on Complaining Lakota……….please do!!!

Tony D’Ambrosio, I’d like to thank you for your attempt to discredit me here in the Pulse Journal. It brings me great joy to see that people like you are irritated by my actions. It doesn’t take a genius to see that plenty of money is flowing into the Lakota School System and it is extremely disingenuous to hear that there are members of the Lakota community who believe that there is never enough money spent on education. We currently spend $1,140 per $100,000 in property assessment.

The reason I want to thank you and my other critics for your vocalized criticism is that I have noticed a spike in our website numbers from people who are curious as to why you people are so angry. I have received many kind letters thanking the No Lakota Levy for our hard work in defeating the Lakota Levy attempts and it would appear that your anger comforts people’s minds of their suspicions that the pro levy advocates are simply out-of-touch with reality.

What a lot of people don’t understand is that the $1,140 per $100,000 number doesn’t just apply to personal residences, but businesses are taxed at the same rate, so if a business is valued at over $1,000,000 which many of them are, that business will be taxed at the same rate, and that comes out to a big number. I have heard continuously from a series of spoiled brat parents who actually believe in this whole socialism concept that those who can afford a higher tax are somehow obligated to pay it, if a school system demands it. No, that’s not how it works, and if that isn’t socialism, then you tell me what it is, because it certainly isn’t capitalism.

So keep up the complaints, because it is driving people to learn the truth. And the truth is that the LEA should have already reduced their costs to the district by a mere 5%. It’s been 6 weeks since the election, and nobody in the school system has done anything but talk. And talking costs money.

Rich Hoffman

_______________________________________________

It is understandable that labor unions, politicians, President Obama, Jay Carney and many others who consider themselves part of a democratic government. Educators teaching K-12 and professors at the level of the universities also want a democratic government, because they want America to become an oligarchy as discussed in the above video. They see themselves as part of the “ruling class” so they desire America to swing over to an oligarchy, and public schools have demonstrated that they do not want to create intelligent citizens because it is in ignorance that academia will appear fit to lead. To prove my point pick a random young person out at your local shopping mall and ask them to show you where Georgia or Kansas is on a map. Better yet ask them to locate New Zealand on a globe, and most of them will not be able to show you. But ask them about global warming, or gay rights and they will tell you all you want to know. This is because those children have been intentionally taught to back up a political agenda that favors an oligarchy so they are “educated” voters once they hit 18 years of age. This is an unconscious desire that comes from the Department of Education, the labor unions, and the politicians who set school curriculums to protect their political view points in the future, by creating a bloc voting class of young people who keep them in power.

Now my reference to socialism which is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system.[1] “Social ownership” may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises, common ownership, autonomous public ownership or state ownership.[2] As a form of social organization, socialism is based on co-operative social relations and self-management; relatively equal power-relations and the reduction or elimination of hierarchy in the management of economic and political affairs. Isn’t this what they are teaching in the schools? Isn’t this what the parents who are demanding that the wealthy of the community pay more taxes? Isn’t this what the schools are inadvertently doing through their unions, raising taxes on the rich indirectly upon communities all over the United States so that wealth redistribution of that wealth can occur? Isn’t that what is happening? The answer is YES.


More on socialism here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism

The reason The Pulse Journal, The Dayton Daily News, The Western Star and all the other papers who are distributed under Cox Publishing is most likely sensitive to the term of socialism is because of the political beliefs of Cox Publishing’s founder, James M. Cox. James Cox was a powerful newspaper publisher in 1921 and was governor of Ohio and the hand picked candidate of President Woodrow Wilson to run against Warren G. Harding for president of the United States. Lucky for America, Cox lost to Harding. But to this day Cox lives on in his newspapers. So when you read your local newspaper, you need to understand that the purpose of the paper in it’s founding was not to just deliver the news, but to advance the “progressive” agenda and the roots of that paper go all the way to the top of American politics connected directly to the Wilson administration. Knowing all that, I enjoy my local paper, but I always read them knowing that they have a slant toward progressive politics. This is why many people feel that papers like the Pulse Journal and the Western Star are pawns for the school systems. Those papers have always given me a fair shake in interviews and the reporters, many of whom I know personally are not socialists or progressives necessarily. But the company policy does appear to be sensitive to socialist references since Cox himself was accused of being a socialist on several points. It was thought that Cox lost to Harding because of American animosity toward the Wilson creation of The League of Nations, which became The United Nations. (My how times have changed. Thank your local school for that propaganda in globalism.) The Americans who built the prosperity we all enjoyed as a nation didn’t want any part of globalism and over time progressive politics has taken the edge off that belief to where we currently function as a society, which is advancing the spread of Socialist International.

CHECK THE LINK BELOW FOR MORE INFO.
https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2011/12/02/socialist-international-bringing-an-end-to-america-as-we-know-it-by-design/

I do challenge all these angry tax increase supporters to tell me what form of government they believe we are teaching our children because from what I can see from the topics that seem important to these schools and the types of beliefs young people are displaying upon graduation, that they have been taught to be democratic socialists, which puts every nation that uses it on a path toward an oligarchy. This isn’t news…………is it? Surely a majority of our population isn’t so naive to believe that their children are learning the merits of capitalism in public school?

In the first video you learned that contrary to popular belief, the Nazi party was not a far right organization, but was in fact far to the left. The Nazi was far closer to a monarchy than an oligarchy which of course if a government is allowed to continue a march to the left is the ultimate destination for all populations. To add credence to my statement that schools are socialist institutions as they are currently designed, examine this Walt Disney propaganda cartoon from the 1940’s and examine how they propose the Nazi Party Advocate is created from a child. Isn’t that what the current progressive party is doing in our schools today? Are your children learning self-reliance, advanced reading, physics, philosophy, or are they being programmed to be good little voters for progressive positions created by Socialists International?

You tell me what it is? Capitalism or socialism?  Want to see more?  Check out the Story of Stuff, click the link:

https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/08/17/tides-foundations-story-of-stuff/

SEE THE WORLD THROUGH HOFFMAN LENSES:

https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2011/12/03/socialists-live-hoffman-lenses-on-urban-meyer/

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