Category: Literature

Cabela’s of West Chester: The story of a family enhancing conservation through capitalism

 One of my daughters and my wife had a shopping day recently that carried them into Bass Pro Shops at the Forest Park location. I haven’t been there recently because it is moving to the Streets of West Chester and I have been excited for that switch. The store will be impressive and will be a tremendous asset to the destination experience at Union Center, Ohio. The government of West Chester is running the way things should in every population dense area. George Lang and his crew of trustees are creating incentives for businesses to evolve around and lowering the barriers of entry into emerging markets—which is one of the reasons that Bass Pro is moving from Forest Park to West Chester. There are much more lucrative options at the Streets location than at Forest Park—clearly.

The interchange entering the new Bass Pro will be quite extraordinary. IKEA is already quite a draw and will share the Allen Road activity with Bass Pro which will provide shoppers with a truly epic experience. I’m not much of a shopper, but I do enjoy going to IKEA with my wife and eating the Swedish Meatballs they have there. It’s a cool setup and I like to eat in their cafeteria sitting by the windows watching all the cool new development springing up around the Union Center location. Development when it’s done correctly is like a work of art—and the Streets of West Chester, the area around Allen Road at IKEA, and on up Muhlhauser Road to the Jags restaurant is one of the most exciting areas in Cincinnati and I enjoy immensely watching the creation of all the new cool projects. Needless to say, I’m looking forward to the new Bass Pro location.

However my wife and daughter took my grandson to the old one and he had a wonderful time. At two years old he was discovering all the wonderful monstrosities that are featured in that store, the giant fish tank, the shooting range, the climbing wall, the huge selection of boats and pitched tents—for little kids and big kids alike, it is a destination of boundless adventure that is simply just wonderful. When I was a kid I had to get all my outdoor equipment from the Army Store in Fairfield, all my camouflage pants, my rappelling gear, compasses, canteens—all that kind of thing. I still love that store, but Bass Pro has been hard to beat. Their camping equipment is unmatched and whenever I go there I love their roasted almonds. So when my wife returned from Bass Pro she brought home to me a package of those almonds which made for a great snack.

As I was eating those almonds and thinking about the new location I was checking on the new Cabela’s store breaking ground at the Liberty Way location. I had just been looking over the construction at the Liberty Center site—another project I am excited for, and noticed that the new Cabela’s store was moving along in the 4th quarter of 2014 as it was supposed to be. Soon there will be standing an 82,000 sq foot log cabin complete with stone work and all the usual trappings that will give Bass Pro a run for their money just down the road. I am also a fan of Cabela’s and the magnificent store they have in Louisville, Kentucky. It will be quite a treasure to have two of those types of stores in my neighborhood as most communities salivate over having just one. People consider themselves lucky to have a Cabela’s store within a hundred miles of their homes, let alone four or five miles down the road. During the Holiday season if you happen to see George Lang, you should give him a big kiss on the forehead and thank him for keeping West Chester government small enough to stay out of the way of these kinds of developments—allowing them to emerge as profit margins often entice such creativity in business. When it is wondered why this particular point on the map is doing so well, and why there is such a concentrated amount of wealth in one area look at the government—the time it takes to get permits, the rules and regulations of the local bureaucrats and the tax rate–the answer will present itself. Look at areas where fiscal wealth is not present in such abundance and you will find local governments who have mismanaged their resources forcing people to vote with their feet—but pulling out their wealth and leaving.

Many don’t know the Cabela’s story, which is one of the great American success stories. Many don’t know what makes shopping at Cabela’s such a wonderful and fun experience—they just know that it is. So let’s take a moment to get to know the Cabela family—which is featured on many of the videos on this site and are worth watching. Knowing who they are will demonstrate even more articulately why the new West Chester store is such a miracle of capitalism and why I am personally grateful to know of its development.

The company that would become the massive sporting goods reseller and chain was started in 1961. Dick Cabela purchased US$45 worth of fishing flies at a furniture expo in Chicago which were advertised for sale via an advertisement in a local newspaper.[3] When his first effort produced only one response, he placed an ad in a national magazine, Sports Afield, which was more successful. Included with each order was a catalog of other products for sale by Cabela.[3]

As the business grew, Cabela and his wife Mary moved their operation to Sidney, Nebraska in 1963. Dick’s brother Jim also joined the business. From those modest beginnings, the company has since grown to a publicly traded corporation with over US$3 Billion in annual sales.[4]

On February 17, 2014, founder Dick Cabela passed away peacefully at his home in Sidney, Nebraska at the age of 77.

Founders Dick and Mary Cabela and Dick’s brother James Cabela retained 25% ownership of the now public company which trades under the stock symbol CAB.

About half of Cabela’s sales come from hunting-related merchandise with about a third derived from the sale of firearms, ammunition and accessories in 2012. Additionally, in 2012 30% of revenue came from direct sales (through catalog and online orders), and 59% from physical retail stores. The remaining 11% of revenue came from its financial subsidiary and credit card business.[2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabela%27s

Richard Neil “Dick” Cabela (October 8, 1936 – February 17, 2014) was an American entrepreneur, best known as a co-founder of Cabela’s, a leading outfitter of outdoor sporting and recreational goods.[1][2] He stated that his business was inspired by his bout with polio and a deep love of hunting and fishing.[3] He was also described as an “ardent supporter of the National Rifle Association, a vocal supporter of the Second Amendment, a hunter, and a staunch proponent of wildlife conservation.”[4]

The fruits of their many years of labor carried them to a level of success that enabled Dick Cabela and his wife to build a magnificent home in the tradition of their many stores, a real tribute to wildlife and capitalist enterprise. That home can be seen at the following link along with a descriptive article. It is quite something to see.

http://www.ezpics.com/clients/savides1/PDF/Cabelas%20House%20feature.pdf

What started with a few fishing lures in a newspaper ad became a multi billion dollar industry and it was all started by essentially three people in a family—Dick, his wife, and brother—and they started it just because they had a passion for the products they were selling. Dick at the head of Cabela’s has been one of the most vocal supporters of the Second Amendment and the NRA so his footprint into the kind of politics I support cannot be ignored. So it will be a great pleasure to visit the new Cabela’s store in West Chester.

It took a lot of creative power and tenacity to bring Cabela’s to West Chester, it took a government with as much hands off approach that they could—minus the infrastructure improvements that had to be made off I-75 and the county of Butler for all the stuff that had to go under the ground to make the Liberty Way developments possible. For each new store that is built at Liberty Way there is a story similar to Dick Cabela—which I will think about every time I visit. It is people like him that make America great—and exceptional. That is why it’s a real celebration to enjoy roasted almonds from Bass Pro and to relish the aisles of a Cabela’s looking for new shirts, camping equipment, and rappelling gear. People like Dick Cabela and his family are uniquely American in that they help the environment by making people appreciate it in the best way possible—as active participants through capitalist endeavor. The new store at Liberty Way will have a constant customer in me—I can’t wait!

Rich Hoffman

www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

Obama’s Illegal Immigrant Executive Order: The violation against a meritocracy

To explain why Obama’s executive order on immigration is so dangerous requires a bit of a deconstruction—then rebuilt education. John Boehner doesn’t understand it, nor does Mitch McConnell or most of Washington D.C. for that matter. Most members of upper management in typical company structures and the typical unionized slug—they don’t get it. Most every member of every college, most members of the various social clubs, most public school administrators—they don’t get it either. The real evil that is the net result of Obama’s executive orders imposed during his particular presidency are lost to most people because they have lost the definition of value and forgotten the importance of merit. Glenn Beck had a wonderful break-down of the post executive order Obama imposition with the following video describing how Obama’s executive order destroys the value of merit among immigrants and why that is so dangerous, and destructive to the American experience.

If you really care about somebody—or some people—the responsible thing is not to rob them of their merit, their ability to earn for themselves knowledge, resources and experience. For instance when raising a child it is better to let them walk than to carry them around, even if there is danger such as crossing a busy street. If you teach the child self-reliance, they will be able to do it without help in the future empowering them to navigate the world safely. Carrying the child might seem compassionate, but ultimately robs them of the ability to function without the assistance of others—and the opinions that come with them. Merit cannot be purchased with a degree from college. A piece of paper on the wall of an office does not make anyone qualified to be one of the “wise ones” as people like Obama believe. The pretense that one can buy a degree with money and time invested into a four to eight year education is a false one. The belief that the pain earned through trials and tribulations could be avoided was the primary reason that post World War II parents sent their children to college only to be corrupted there by left-winged radicals teaching the social safety net of big progressive government—and those kids had kids of their own who are among the laziest and discombobulated yet known to the human race. Too many from that age group have a hard time getting up to go to work let along leading productive lives because they have had merit ripped from their lives by an education process that sought to destroy it with the promise that obedience to organizational charts would solve all the world’s problems.

Obama is addicted to the organizational chart of Washington D.C. politics. His Democratic party was destroyed by Republicans in virtually every corner of the nation and they are blaming him for his bad presidency. Democrats still feel that Obama didn’t do enough to help many senators and congressional members win seats during the 2014 Election. Obama was so toxic that many didn’t want his help, but now with clarity of hindsight and the need to blame someone beside themselves Obama is a good person to charge. Obama being the typical improperly educated oaf that he is spent a lifetime of having everything given to him by a mother who was guilty of placing him in bad male company, grandparents guilty of raising a crappy daughter who became a crappy mother—lovers of his mother who were communist revolutionaries, and college professors who wanted to blow up the federal government but instead invested their efforts into the color of Obama’s skin to place him behind American defense and into the White House to undo the Western Imperial evil imposing its will to the rest of the world. Obama as a kid never had a chance. He had merit robbed from him as a kid and has since stood wherever other people told him to and said what they wrote for him to read from. He has no thoughts of his own, he is not his own man—Obama is an imprisoned soul destroyed from birth and raised to be a terrorist bureaucrat using organizational charts to replace merit to rule over others. So when Democrats lost the election of 2014 the powers that move Obama’s mouth—those “Open Border” advocates, those radicals at Think Progress and other ultra liberal organizations demanded that Obama accomplish something in his last two years beneficial to them so to cut their loses. That’s why Obama signed the executive order for illegal immigrants offering protection at the voting booth for Democrats already losing the philosophical debate across the North American continent.

Obama however is a rather typical person even though he gets to maintain the illusion of being a king from the Oval Office. There are too many people now in America addicted to their offices, to their nameplates, to their titles yet they are ineffective as leaders because they lost the value of merit in their lives believing that papers like executive orders and college degrees could be suitable substitutes.   They were wrong. Most businesses across the world now function with complete idiots at their helm because of this treacherous disease taught in colleges of every kind that a plutocracy, bureaucracy, or even a monarchy has more value than a meritocracy. Yet America was founded by those seeking a meritocracy not a democracy which would simply issue by popular opinion who the ruling class would be over those who were supposed to be subjects based on how many years they attended a university. In the Obama way of thinking college professors because they never really leave the education system should rule the world because they put the most years into an education system that creates the democracy which then issues out power through popular elections. In that type of system, giving millions of illegal immigrants the ability to vote for Democrats out of sheer thankfulness makes sense to a person vacant of values.

But the Republicans aren’t any better—they don’t understand anything that I just said because they are functioning from their own plutocracy and bureaucracy view points. They want to be in power too with a belief that they rule over others just because popular opinion placed them into an office. So they foolishly sued a president that actually controls the legal system—and is a snake oil lawyer to begin with—meaning their silly piece of paper will do nothing and go nowhere. There is no merit in Republican actions, so there will be no respect for their actions. Their lawsuit is just another piece of worthless paper passing from one hand of bureaucrats to another.

There is nothing worse than a worthless person who needs their ego massaged and people who function in life like Obama cost more to the organizations that employ them than anything they attempt to productively do. They are worthless because their beliefs cause them to believe in organizational charts over the value of merit so their focus is always to climb higher on that chart so that they can sign an executive order like Obama did, instead of actually performing tasks that require thought and skill in concert with others operating from the same motivations. Worthless people don’t begin that way—but are taught to be that way through their education systems. Most children are wonderful until their parents screw them up with the assistance of 13 years of government schooling. Meet a child at 7 and the world is open to them—their eyes are bright and wisdom is emitting from them by the handfuls. Meet a child ten years later at 17 and often you have a slug—a confused oaf lost, confused, and primarily concerned with satisfying their animal instincts—eating, disposing of their waste, and reproducing through mating customs. You meet a future Obamanation of young fools ill prepared to live in a meritocracy perfectly willing to surrender their lives to rulers—because they are crippled in their educations of how to think with value instead of social structure.

That is what Obama did with his executive order aimed at amnesty for illegal immigrants. It is also why everyone is missing the point in the aftermath. A nation cannot survive if it does not function from merit—that desire to earn things instead of being given them. Too many kids today expect to just show up for something and be given money, or a piece of paper telling them they are good, or smart. But they lack the merit in actually earning it. Obama has spent his life in this way, so he sees no reason to just make it easy for illegal immigrants to become citizens—after all his party all along wanted to overload the system so to bring down the financial power of Imperial America from the inside anyway—and amnesty helps them do it. Yet, Obama just put another nail in the coffin of merit showing millions of young people that the organizational chart is more important than earning a living the honorable way. Obama has demonstrated that if you can get to the top of the organization chart with lies, deceit, and even corruption that you can literally write laws that control the lives of millions of others. That is where the failure in Obama’s executive order for illegal immigrants is of an utmost travesty in justice—not because it breaks the law in so many ways—but takes aim at merit in America and suppresses it even further than it was before Obama’s demoralizing presidency.

Rich Hoffman

www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

ILWU Local 25: A disgrace to American productivity

Yet another labor union is making itself the laughing stock of American manufacturing. A labor dispute which has been going on for quite a long time from ILWU Local 25 on the west coast involving oversea container shipping has created a bottleneck of great inconvenience during the holiday season. Being the collectivist slugs that they are, union members upset at their contract terms—or lack thereof, are deliberating dragging their feet causing mountains of product to sit idle at their docks awaiting transport. Reuters reported the issue this way:

(Reuters) – Tension over prolonged labor talks between maritime shippers and the union representing 20,000 West Coast dockworkers has erupted in public as the two sides blamed each other for escalating cargo congestion at the two busiest U.S. container ports.

As of Tuesday, 14 freighters were anchored waiting for space to enter the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, where container cargo traffic has been backing up for about a month, delaying deliveries of last-minute holiday merchandise, port and retail officials said.

The number of cargo ships kept waiting outside the two ports ranged from about eight to 15 on any given day since the backups began around mid-October, said Phillip Sanfield, a spokesman for the Port of Los Angeles.

“On a normal day, we rarely have ships waiting at anchor unless they want to be there,” he said.

Los Angeles and Long Beach rank as the nation’s No. 1 and 2 container ports by volume, together handling 43 percent of all containerized goods entering the United States.

The congestion crisis there comes as labor negotiations between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association, representing terminal operators and ocean carriers, have dragged on well past the June 30 expiration of the dockworkers’ latest contract.

Management has accused the union of orchestrating work slowdowns by its members, first at ports in the Pacific Northwest, and then at Los Angeles and Long Beach, to create leverage at the bargaining table.

Union officials acknowledge that individual dockworkers may be acting out their frustration over the pace of contract talks, but deny organizing protest delays. They point to other factors that port officials cite as the main reasons for gridlock.

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/12/us-usa-ports-westcoast-idUSKCN0IW05V20141112?feedType=RSS

Even as the union workers deny they are protesting a quick look at the literature from their website will reveal the intentions of their psychosis. The unions often involve themselves in community fundraising activities so that they can trick the local population into believing their intentions are good. But their radical socialist roots demonstrate their general social philosophy as revealed below—which is excessively evident by their own words. Their hatred of “management” is essentially the exact same animosity pulled from the pages of Karl Marx. Management—any management—is to be fought and beaten and left to the “will of the people.” Have a read for yourself:

Hundreds of visitors attending the Port of Anacortes “Bier on the Pier” festival and “Floating Boat Show” in early October encountered a giant banner with a hard-hitting message: “Port of Anacortes: blowing your tax dollars, unfair to maintenance workers, accountability now!”

The banner and public outreach materials were distributed by a dozen Port workers, local community members, supporters from ILWU Local 25, the Inlandboatmen’s Union (IBU), Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 191, Carpenters Local 756, plus staff and volunteers from “We Do the Work” radio. Visitors attending the events showed concern about problems being raised by Port workers. Hundreds accepted leaflets explaining how maintenance workers at the Port are trying to keep things running safely and smoothly – while Port bureaucrats are breaking labor laws and wasting public funds.

Last November, the Port’s maintenance workers voted to join ILWU Local 25. They made their decision after facing years of mismanagement and abusive treatment from Port supervisors.

Instead of honoring the workers’ decision and cooperating with employees, managers ordered workers to attend mandatory meetings with Port executives who threatened union= supporters for wearing ILWU buttons. The Port workers held their ground.

“We refused to be intimidated, stood up together for respect, and voted to form our union after the managers illegally threatened us,” said Mike Wray, a Port maintenance employee.

The Washington State Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC) ruled in September that Port management acted improperly and outside the law. “The State validated what workers and community members have been saying publicly for= months now,” said Dave Bost, one of several maintenance workers who was threatened by Port managers.

After winning their union election, maintenance workers began to seek afair contract – while management continued violating the law.

Port managers illegally changed the employees’ health plan; eliminated parking options for maintenance workers and obstructed union testimony before state investigators – by allowing a management witnesses to stay on the clock while Local 25 members were forced to use vacation, unpaid or comp time to testify in a PERC hearing over illegal management activity.

Port administrators recently admitted to a local newspaper that they’ve spent over $50,000 in public funds so far on private lawyers to negotiate a simple contract with employees. As of November, community members estimate that the Port’s legal fees are approaching $100,000.

http://www.ilwu.org/port-of-anacortes-contract-fight-expands/

 

The dispute described centers on the “legal right” to organize against management, and when management fights back in any way at all—it is castigated. The next terrorist attempt is to make the management feel the pain for not giving in to the extortion practice of organizing against them in the first place. The union intention is to make management feel pain one way or another with the message intended to destroy their resistance to aggressive—unified take over of the company management of resources.

 

Every time I hear a story like this I am embarrassed for American productivity, the lack of “can do” attitude that it creates for foreign markets. There is nothing more embarrassing than to explain to an export destination overseas that they do not have a product from the United States because some small mentality scanky union dudes are dragging ass at the shipping docks because they want more money or a better health care package. Labor strikes in general speak of a lack of personal pride in the production of one’s work, and only illustrate a commitment to collective ambition toward the mediocre. There is nothing good that comes out of a work stoppage except as an act of terrorism against productivity. There is no justification, there is no upside to allowing shipping docks to stack with product while a bunch of dock workers stand around talking about Ariana Grande’s rear end puffing away on cigarettes that mandate they have good health coverage because of their own irresponsibly lifestyles. They are an embarrassment to American productivity and a shame to global commerce.

Rich Hoffman

www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

“Interstellar” Epiphany and Soundtrack Review: A 50th Anniversary at Virgin Galactic’s first space resort

I had an epiphany that my wife and I were stepping off a Virgin Galactic vessel into the first hotel of their design floating above the earth with the horizon spinning outside of a massive lobby window. It is Virgin’s first hotel in space established as a resort location rivaling the Atlantis vacation destination in the Bahamas complete with an indoor water park covered with large glass windows looking out into the vastness of space. The lobby was lush and expensive with exotic restaurants all offering outrageously epic views out every window. The moon is always full and casts a constant—haunting shadow through every object and mixed with the brilliant light shining off the earth is a bluish hue that has never been replicated by any light on the home planet. It’s our 50th wedding anniversary and we have a $5000 bottle of wine to mark the year of this writing to celebrate our first week-long vacation in space. We have worked hard and deserve to pamper ourselves with a very expensive outing that will mark many years of persistence. In the lobby is playing the old soundtrack to the classic 2014 movie Interstellar, which has by then become the standard of music referencing space. It was that award-winning Christopher Nolan movie that changed it all and set the tone for the second world-wide space race causing Hilton, Marriott and Virgin Galactic to build the first space stations catering to tourism. Virgin was the first to achieve it.

The majestic views out of the multiple windows demand the music of Interstellar because nothing else would be sufficient. The hotel operators just play constantly the old Hans Zimmer soundtrack to help alleviate the shock of being grounded so firmly to the floor as the view outside swirls around like a marry-go-round. It takes some getting used to for some people; some actually throw up with the disorienting effect of the earth’s horizon spinning around so rhythmically. There are trash cans stationed along the pathway toward the check-in counter large enough for visitors to dump their stomachs in the most graceful way possible. A cleaning crew quickly removes the contents so not to alter the smell of space—that rusty metal odor mixed with the fragrance of lobby vegetation that is intended carefully to greet guests as they step off the shuttle from their journey below.

We walk to the counter as track 7 on that enchanting soundtrack plays with organs chiming to the tempo of a clock’s second hand—the earth still swirling, the light from the moon and sun moving around the room casting shadows in all directions hauntingly. Bright overhead lights on the ceiling between more large windows cast stabilizing light so that the lobby looks to be the only stable element of a universe in chaos outside—which adds to the otherworldly sensation of a species raised on a planet where the sun rises and falls every 12 hours and the horizon is always fixed. Here, the sun is always out, the moon is always full, and the horizon never stills—it spins perpetually so to provide an earth like gravity for the visitors—some who are already in their swimming suits and heading for the massive domed Water Park behind the check-in counter.

My wife and I aren’t sick; the music brings our minds to ease with a familiarity that we know well. We have listened to that soundtrack every week for the last 25 years and know its notes by heart. Before checking in we just listen to it while we sit in one of the lobby seats and watch the Virgin Galactic shuttle pull away from the docking station and head back to earth with its navigational thrusters silently pushing it back into a declination orbit to Spaceport America—our home launch point. In another three hours that same ship will be back with more visitors and within 30 minutes another ship will arrive from Spaceport America and fifteen minutes after that, one from Space Port Japan, then one from Spaceport Europe. Because Virgin Galactic has brought the Internet to Africa—they now have one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Soon they will have their own spaceport in right in the middle of the Congo.

My wife and I head to our rooms and prepare for dinner. We spend five solid hours drinking our expensive bottle of wine sitting on our hotel bed watching the world turn—literally. And we cherish that this event has finally been made possible after many years of dreaming. The whole time we listen to our well-played soundtrack for the several hundred thousandth time—Interstellar, as we have always loved it and likely always will.

That soundtrack actually only came out a few days ago, on November 17, 2014, so my son-in-law rushed to Barnes and Nobel to get it for he and my daughter the moment it was unloaded from the delivery truck. They spent their evening listening to it while eating Chinese food from their favorite restaurant—and they gave me a copy. They have already seen the movie twice and are looking for ways to see it many more times. In what’s being touted as a first-of-its-kind promotion, Paramount and AMC Theatres are offering movie patrons in North America the chance to see Christopher Nolan‘s Interstellar as many times as they want, for one price.

As with any deal, there are rules. Those who want to participate must be members of the AMC Stubs program, which has an annual fee of $12.

The unlimited tickets will be available for sale to AMC Stubs members at 330 AMC theater across the country, including AMC Imax locations. The price will range from $19.99 to $34.99, depending upon the location (currently, the average cost of a movie ticket price in the U.S. is $8.08.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/paramount-amc-theatres-partner-unlimited-749512

Interstellar requires for most people many viewings just to understand everything that is happening. Many critics of the film on their first viewings were used to a more conventional film experience and didn’t know what to make of some of the sound issues. As I said in my review—I think I was the first and only one to date to point it out—the sound in Interstellar was entirely on purpose. Christopher Nolan wanted there to be times where the events overwhelmed the sound made by the actors—because in real life—that happens often.

“I’ve always loved films that approach sound in an impressionistic way and that is an unusual approach for a mainstream blockbuster, but I feel it’s the right approach for this experiential film,” Christopher Nolan said, speaking for the first time in detail about the use of sound in his new film.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/behind-screen/christopher-nolan-breaks-silence-interstellar-749465

It is because of this approach to sound that the Interstellar soundtrack was so exceptionally good—and is why it will become the inspiration for all that I described above. When my kids gave me the first copy of the soundtrack and I played it for much of the day on Tuesday and Wednesday listening to it many, many times—it was easy to conclude that it was a masterpiece. I remember the music being great during the movie, but listening to it by itself, it was simply phenomenal as it steps up and well beyond anything that’s ever been attempted. The closest that I can think of is Philip Glass—but the Hans Zimmer approach comes with a much bolder, and narrative link to the future by drawing so historically on the past.

Blasting through the track on the soundtrack titled “S.T.A.Y” all that I began this writing above occurred with the epiphany. Many of the world’s problems seemed so miniscule and the minds that made them that way even less relevant. I could literally reach out and touch that future space station/hotel as if I were there, as if I could smell it, taste it and walk across its vast floors with Richard Branson still alive and standing in the corner welcoming his guests with long flowing locks still beyond his shoulders with a smile from ear to ear.

At dinner in my epiphany there was a guest who played in the center of a vast dinning hall with a clear picture of the moon out the distant window—again spinning around with rhythmic precision upon a large glass piano lit from beneath with blue lights that made it look like it was made out of ice. That guest was an elderly Hans Zimmer playing the Interstellar soundtrack live with a deeply personal concert, graced too with a smile from ear to ear knowing that it was his soundtrack that helped build this palace of achievement in defiance of the earthly stupidity which attempted to shackle man’s ankles to earth forever. His music helped free those shackles to usher in this entirely new age of dreamers, fortune hunters and lovers of science and possibility. It was and would be the best dinner of our lives. Happy 50th Anniversary to us—and it was.

Rich Hoffman

www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

The Scumbag Jonathan Gruber: I hate to say I told you so……but I told you so

I have not covered all the gaffs and fiascos from the Jonathan Gruber meltdown in addition to all the lies emitting from the mouth of Barack Obama simply because I covered those issues years ago and reported them well before these latest revelations.

MIT economics professor Jonathan H. Gruber ’87, often referred to as a key Obamacare “architect,” has come under fire recently for videos from 2012 and 2013 in which he called American voters “stupid” and attributes the passage of the Affordable Care Act in part to “basic exploitation of the lack of economic understanding of the American voter,” according to press reports.

http://tech.mit.edu/V134/N55/gruber.html

To me this is nothing new—to everyone who thought that my comments were just right-winged hatred and mean spiritedness—the evidence is present for all to see. Obama and his companions centering on Obamacare always planned to pass their health care law through deceptive practices and hid key provisions from the American people purposely to get it across the voting process. This isn’t just bad or deceitful politics—it is criminal behavior worthy of serious punishment. But then again, I have said all that before too.

The news cycle is incredibly behind the curve of current thought, most of what they report are the results of things that happened months or years earlier and the Obama supporters behind the Affordable Care Act knew it, and deliberately attempted to deceive the American public with a radical take over of a fifth of the national economy. Their insurrection was nothing less than the equivalent of the nationalization of the health care system which affects the health of every American—and those around the world who depend on the care of Western Civilization. It is as grand of a conspiracy as the communist take-over of Petrograd during the Bolshevik Revolution and it was all conducted under a cloak of deception.

Mysteriously Obama is not shackled and chained for his criminal conduct, but is still given a platform of further lies and fraud to launch new waves of counter logic attacks against those who see what he is and has always been about. For those who wanted to elect a man of color for the White House, there are other options—Obama isn’t the only one—Ben Carson comes to mind or any of the fine people who call themselves Fredrick Douglas Republicans. Even the Civil Rights leader himself Martin Luther King was a Republican—as was the party that ended slavery in America against the Democratic advocates. Obama is a creation of the domestic terrorists left over from the Weather Underground and he was sent to destroy Imperial America for all the hippies who wanted to make themselves into bombs to fight against Western Tradition rooted in capitalism. Obama has always been a terrorist—he is not a representative of American Excpetionalism and does not represent a vast majority of the North American real-estate. Sure they like him in the big cities where welfare recipients have their hand out for government benefits, but in the vast amount of space between major cities, Obama his not only disliked—he is hated. He does not represent America any more than a towel boy represents an NFL football team.

In many ways Jonathan Gruber is worse than Obama, he was hired by the government to provide talking point lies to domestic terrorist politicians. He was hired to be the mind behind the deception and even went so far to brag about it hoping that everyone would forget about it if only he denied the allegations. These treacherous New England liberals watched too closely how Bill Clinton snaked his way through politics and conspiracy to arrive at a level of celebrity that they all aspire to. And arrogant little punks like Gruber felt confident that they could take the scam several steps further even making himself the center of a comic book explaining Obamacare to a naive public—which he was the star.

The result has been lies and lies and lies coming from Obama and his people—especially hired guns like Gruber. Everything from the Fast and Furious scandal, Benghazi and the video controversy which was a complete fabrication designed to save his presidential run—to the IRS attack of conservative groups meant to quell insurrection against Obama and his political machine of socialist Democrats. It will take decades to dust off all the layers and layers of deception conducted by Obama and his criminal class government thugs—and they know that people don’t have the temperament to sort through the mess. Gruber himself said so much. Imagine what they say when the cameras aren’t rolling.

Attend a liberal dinner party at a Nantucket mansion and you will hear far worse than Gruber’s revelations. The people who speak those types of words are not normal people who live in red county America—which is almost every bit of land from New York to Nevada. Their talks of insurrection are mutiny from logic to chaos, from security to instability, from freedom to domination by a bunch of goon squad campus geeks who only have power when they convince the masses to jump off a fiscal cliff into eternal debt that only people like Gruber can solve—because they created the puzzle in the first place.

None of these revelations are surprising to me however. This and more is just the tip of what we will soon discover—and much of it has been discussed here at Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom. I am keenly aware that the Nantucket types and their vast swarms of wanna’ be’s—particularly those pretentious ass wipes who live near me in Four Bridges—they hate this site because they want to stay anonymous to the eyes of the world. They want to conduct their lives as policy terrorists from behind the mask of social health and reform instead of the insurrection that they really intend. But they can’t, because to surrender to them would be a crime in itself. It is a crime to not report a crime—you can’t just pretend you know nothing—that doesn’t make the crime go away and Obama has committed many crimes with a lawyers swiftness figuring that whatever law he can’t openly manipulate, he can just scoot around with a technicality—just as he is planning to do over the immigration issue involving executive orders. The worst kind of criminal there is are those who can make laws to cover their deceit—which is what Obama is attempting to do through his current actions—cover his crimes with executive orders both in concealment and in winning over grateful patrons who might forgive judgment against him at a future date because of one of two good deeds performed during his term.

With Obamacare the economic terrorists hoped that the good deeds of health care coverage for the poor might offset the crimes committed to achieve the criminal elements of the case. They see themselves as Robin Hoods—taking from the rich and giving to the poor. But what they forget is that theft regardless of who it comes from is still a crime. And Obamacare is the theft of our medical industry for the benefit of the few while bringing it under the care of government bureaucrats. When Jonathan Gruber called voters stupid this is what he meant—they are easily deceived by pick pockets in government—so the taking was ripe for plunder. Then when he was caught saying such a thing—everyone was surprised. Well, I wasn’t, and if you read here often—you weren’t either. But comparatively, Gruber’s comments are small stuff—as the big stuff hasn’t hit the fan yet and when it does……………………………”SPLAT,” and it won’t be a pretty sight.

Rich Hoffman

www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

The Apple Company Versus the Entire Russian Economy: Russia loses–a strong case supporting laissez-faire economies

Many of my political thoughts have been shaped by my early experiences in starting an R&D company during the 90s. Witnessing firsthand how intrusive and incestuous government is toward business it is my opinion that the greatest artists in the world are no longer painters, musicians or even authors—but in the type of creative people who can break down barriers of thought by giving tools to free minds stepping around government altogether. In many ways nobody in a modern sense has done such a fantastic job of that very attribute than the Apple Company. I am personally a Microsoft fan—I live by Microsoft Office and am epically loyal to that software package. I use it extensively every day. But I use a lot of Apple products every day as well, particularly my iPad and iPod—they are nearly as much of my life as the blood that flows in my body. They are extensions of my very consciousness and I use their power extensively in both business and creative applications.

There were three events that were marked on my iPad calendar that were important to November 17th all occurring in three different time zones—and all connected. My calendar feature sent me an email late on November 16th reminding me of those important events using Google Calendar to alert me—which was very useful as I was checking topographic inclinations of terrain at the time and saw the alert instantly—which I needed. Upon that reminder to maintain small talk halfway around the world through email I needed to know exactly what time it was and what the temperature was in Asia which was easy to pull up under the World Clock app on the same device. All this was going on while I was listening to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers post game report from Florida on iHeart Radio 620 WDAE. It is for those types of life management extensions that proclaim Apple as such a terrific influence on the human race.

In so many ways human consciousness has not found a way to deal with tools Apple has given to them—because philosophy feeding politics has failed to catch up to those technical innovations. Public schools are incredibly behind the curb and haven’t begun to fathom the impact that Apple has brought to everyday life making human beings not just more quickly entertained, but personally much more powerful. So the nightly news and political classes still focus on ancient threats from countries like Russia and China who are communist in their beliefs—or were communists trying to crawl out from under the psychological rock that social collectivism has provided to their people. There is much focus on the saber-rattling going on in the Ukraine by Russia and how the Chinese mocked President Obama during a recent visit. But when it comes to GDP in the United States the case in favor of capitalism is most explosively evident by the Apple Company which has extended its reach to every corner of the world and is largely made in China giving that economy jobs it wouldn’t otherwise have under its communist regime.

For perspective it is important to understand how much money Apple has made in America and what effect that money has in bettering the world and breaking down intellectual barriers among different people in a way government could never achieve under the best of circumstances. Apple didn’t take money away from a finite resource the way most progressives believe, they made it from scratch—from nothing. In many ways with all the talk I have been providing about the upcoming civilian space race the kind of wealth Apple has created will pale in compression. As massive as Apple’s profits might seem in 2014, they will look very small when looked at again in 2054. This is just the tip of the iceberg. So with that calibration statement behold the information reported on Sunday November 16, 2014 from the Business Insider about how profitable Apple is in relation to the Russian economy:

With Apple at record highs, its market capitalization is now bigger than Russia’s entire stock market (the 20th largest market in the world). What’s more, as Bloomberg notes, there would be enough money left over after selling Apple and buying Russia to purchase over 190 million contract-free 64Gb iPhone6 Pluses (enough for every Russian).

Russia, the 20th largest among the world’s major markets, is not the only one Apple has surpassed. The company, which forecasts a record holiday-sales quarter and has $155 billion in cash, is also bigger than 17th-ranked Singapore and 18th-ranked Italy. Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-is-now-worth-more-than-the-entire-russian-stock-market-2014-11#ixzz3JFoIZ4a7

When advocates for political and social collectivism promote wealth redistribution methods through regulation and other forms of government intrusion—they are essentially attempting to destroy the creative efforts that companies like Apple must embark on to create wealth in the first place. When companies like Apple are created by independent minds who are the ultimate artists painting their ideas across the canvas of society wealth spreads in ways that cannot be measured by any previous government means of data collection. There are many companies like Apple that will emerge in the next decade and whatever country those companies emerge in will greatly benefit from those creations.

Just this week I was speaking to a rep from Leia Display Systems stationed in Poland, which I have featured at this site before. I needed some further technical clarifications so I was looking for a point of contact in the United States. Well, there wasn’t one; instead they were all over Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. They were everywhere in the world except in North America which to me seemed ridiculous—but America lately because of government has not been as friendly to emerging businesses—and are missing out. Apple and Microsoft were beneficial accidents that happened because of the capitalism of the West. Luckily for Steve Jobs and Bill Gates the barriers to entry into the tech market in the 80s and 90s was low, so they were able to create the products of their genius. But bigger and better inventions have been created, specifically the M400 Skycar invented in California of all places, and because of regulation and high barriers into the aviation industry, countries like China have been looking at manufacture of a revolution that will eventually replace the automobile in the world just as those vehicle replaced the horse and buggy. The United States has been carelessly negligent on that emerging technology.

The wealth created by Apple was not taken from any government or any individual anywhere in the world. It simply didn’t exist prior to those wonderful Apple inventions, like the iPod, iPad, and the iPhone. Apple created that wealth through innovation and product development. For all the fanfare that politicians in China, Russia, the Middle East and Europe in general—they create nothing. They do nothing to help their country’s GDP, they simply get in the way of the creative process of staring a new business that could be tomorrow’s next Apple Company.

My opinions about government were shaped by watching this restrictive process one too many times and realizing that companies like Apple and Microsoft are not exceptional—they could be the status quo in a laissez-faire capitalistic economy. As wonderful and powerful as Apple products are, there are innovations that are right in front of us that could be much more important and influential to the human race. It is stupid to fight one political faction over another for the right to loot the productive—which is what has been happening for entirely too long now. It is ridiculous to leech off the few who are the modern artists of entrepreneurial leadership while pandering to the lazy and ineffective—expecting to have a constructive society that will actually last. By getting out-of-the-way of those in society with the best ideas, the lazy and inept will naturally benefit off the products they create and jobs which make those products creating wealth. But without that process everyone just sits around and demands to wage war in the Ukraine like the Russians are doing—because they don’t have anything in their economy that the world really wants. And the Chinese are rattling the sabers of war with Japan for much the same reason, they killed many of their women leaving a society of mostly men hungry for war in a communist country that has micromanaged itself into the precipice of destruction. Much of what China makes as a productive export are Apple products and items destined for Wal-Mart. Take away Apple, and Wal-Mart and China would have some serious unemployment problems. But that type of restriction isn’t necessary. And thankfully, Apple has put tremendous power into the hands of individuals and with that power, individuals for the first time in history can create wealth without all the usual nonsense that has always been present from the dawn of time when it comes to human beings. For those who want peace in the world the best way to get it is to support laissez-faire capitalism so that more companies like Apple can emerge and wealth can be brought to people’s doorsteps no matter where they live—avoiding the desire for the lazy and treacherous to steal it through means of war and manipulation.

Rich Hoffman

www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

Obama Wants to Win More Elections for Democrats: Bring out Net Neutrality

Knowing that the only way liberals in the form of progressive Democrats can continue to manipulate the agenda revealed in the 1958 book, The Naked Communist, is to bring the Internet under the control of the FCC and overall federal government. The heavy Republican gains from the 2014 midterm election statistically can be traced back to the information overload that flows online bypassing the currently controlled established media so heavily regulated by the FCC. I have written extensively at this site about The Naked Communist and the Net Neutrality attempts by the federal government however the timing of this latest effort cannot be ignored. Immediately after the election, Obama knowing that his party was in trouble because they must control information as their own ideas cannot stand in competition—launched a campaign to change the minds of the public into believing that the Internet is a public utility—so that the government can claim monopoly influence over the free flow of information. To make matters worse—Obama lied to the public yet again by attempting to disguise the take over as a necessity for Internet freedom—by attacking the “greedy,” “wealthy” Internet providers like Comcast and others. Obama basically used the same argument that has been used against “big oil” and “Wall Street” and every type of company with a “big corporation” as a designation of evil vile intention. That type of rhetoric is a direct descendent of Obama’s communist training from his Marxist college professors and domestic terrorists who were, and still are his friends. To get the full gist of this latest Net Neutrality attempt watch the guys at PJ Media break it down.

It is that kind of information Obama and his gang of thugs are trying to extinguish through FCC regulation. Government cannot compete with the private sector so Obama and his progressive terrorists must gain control of information so to remain valid in the minds of Americans. However, even with all the free flow acquisition of information there are still roughly 4 million stupid people who believe what Obama was saying. Some of those people actually camped outside of the FCC chairmen’s home to encourage him to adopt Net Neutrality. These nut cases are those “occupy” types who were chanting about the 99% and all the typical socialist rhetoric that usually comes from their mob mentality.   What was astonishing from the event seen below is that the chairmen actually played along with the protestors—as they are all of the same mind. All the participants were like aliens from another planet–one arguing over the merits of socialism, the other Marxism as the actual answer of capitalism wasn’t even on the table of discussion. The following video is a hilarious exhibition of stupidity. It is amazing these people can process enough data to eat food.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/11/12/video-net-neutrality-proponents-confront-fcc-chair-outside-his-home/

Their idea about a fast lane for some Internet providers as opposed to a slow lane for others is a complete fabrication of reality. It is a lie in the boldest way that one can be said—flatly and with a straight face disguising itself with fictional facts. The Internet is expanding quite well on its own without any government influence. I spent much of the previous evening star watching with the assistance of my iPad looking at the International Space Station and the Hubble telescope along with Saturn, Mars and Mercury which were easily seen on the backside of the earth by pointing the iPad to the ground. I was on the Internet the entire time and there was enough speed to see all the data I was pulling up. Elsewhere in my house video games were being played online. Movies were being streamed. I even had the Internet radio on—again with no drop or restriction to service–the reason—because the FCC was not in the way of my need to obtain information.

Amazon.com is one of the leaders in the world of getting products of just about any kind to the door of anybody, anywhere in the world—quickly—and there isn’t any trouble with Internet speeds to their site. Millions of people can get there at will without servers crashing just fine—without the ridiculous FCC or mother government in the way. Obama’s suggestion in favor of Net Neutrality would seek to stick government into that process so that they can track and regulate everything that happens on the Internet—which is a very stupid idea.

Obama wants radical old hippies like the protestor friendly FCC chairmen controlling the kind of content that is broadcast over the internet—because Democrats cannot deal with a world where information is in competition with the truth. This is why China has Internet restrictions as a communist country—because they can’t let their people just see anything they want, when they want to. It would destroy communism in China if people had so much freedom—and in America—where freedom is assumed, there is no way to put reigns on their minds if they still have freedom of open expression without any government tampering. Progressives managed to gain control of most American newspapers, most television stations, and most motion picture production companies, but they do not yet control the Internet which is where conservatives and free thinkers have turned to avoid FCC controls of information. With such an exchange bypassing the reigning liberalism of progressive influence—conservative beliefs hardened by competition are regaining ground in the American consciousness—slowly.

For Obama and his cohorts—slowly is way too fast—they must snuff out conservatism completely otherwise their ideas will always look like foolish escapades from the Keystone Cops. That is why Obama announced a renewed interest in Net Neutrality and displayed a desire to make the Internet a “public commodity.” That would be the mistake of the century—to allow government to take away the freest concept on the face of the planet. Within the Internet world is the closest thing to laissez-faire capitalism that there is—and if only the rest of the economy from health care to energy consumption would follow the lead of the Internet, the world would prosper immensely. Most misery is caused by progressives in one form or another by their failed policies and micro management. Without progressives, it is unlikely that there would be huge spans of slums in America fueled by public housing. Without them there would have likely been an end to racism after the Abraham Lincoln Republicans took charge after the Civil War. Democrats over time captured the position of Republicans like thieves in the night just as they are currently trying to capture the definition to the word “freedom” as proposed in regard to the Internet. As usual the thief is the one screaming loudest so to hide their guilt. And when it comes to Net Neutrality—the federal government is excessively guilty of many lies—all hidden behind revised definitions intent to gain control and relevancy.

Rich Hoffman

www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

Hollywood’s Lost Opportunities: Bo and Luke Duke return to the General Lee

I once had an interesting discussion with Skip Press, the author of several books on screenwriting and an instructor of the topic in Hollywood. He was even kind enough to put me in touch with Steven Spielberg’s manager but in my endeavors I hit a brick wall of opposition there centering on the ridiculous progressive belief that characters written for the screen needed to be flawed. Skip Press is a good guy and a very helpful and generous person—but he and I disagreed fundamentally about the very nature of character narrative. He will tell writers that the best way to get a screenplay funded and made for the big screen in Hollywood is to write a comedy, a vampire flick, or a story filled with flawed characters that mass audiences can relate to. I on the other hand have no interest in such topics, my characters are always strong—nearly flawlessly strong, and they take life very seriously—certainly not a comedic flair for the irrelevant. There are no fart jokes in my material—so Skip tried to advise me where I was wrong and needed to correct my approach—which I was not interested in resulting in the referred to “wall.”

Over many years I stand by my argument, there are many vampire flicks that have come and gone, many comedies that have drifted off into irrelevancy—but the kind of films I have always loved and are still loved by millions even if the quality of the originals are cheesy–have stuck around. To that consideration, I wrote my novel Tail of the Dragon which stayed sold-out at Amazon.com nine months of the year my publisher carried it as a direct tribute to the Dukes of Hazzard and Smokey and the Bandit violating every modern law of content writing—because I still love those stories and wanted to update that type of content. And I’m not alone. Recently as an ad for Auto Trader illustrated with great spectacle the Duke boys returned to their famous car the General Lee to film a two-minute commercial that featured a good old classic car chase. Bo and Luke Duke were looking for a faster, more updated General Lee to outrun the more modern police cars in hot pursuit. It was a lot of fun, and a very clever campaign which can be seen above. To see how that commercial was made—which I found more interesting, see the making of it below.

http://www.hazzardnet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9352

The Dukes of Hazzard was a dynamic slapstick comedy and each of the characters was an exaggeration of a real life counterpart. Boss Hogg was the epitome of the crony capitalist corrupt to his very core with a name resembling a pig. Daisy Duke, who still has an impact on our modern culture with Daisy Duke shorts was a dream girl who was nice, loyal, beautiful, feminine enough to be everyone’s favorite mother, sister, or wife, but strong enough to hold her own with the guys. Then of course there were the Duke Boys, Bo and Luke. Both of the guys looked like male models and were good clean people who didn’t drink too much, did not smoke, did not curse, and always—always helped people who were in trouble. They were the closest thing to perfect human beings that there was on television and at the end of each show they always won. They always overcame any obstacle and achieved their objective without being hateful monsters.

Now, over 35 years later people still hunger for that show. They still want Bo and Luke Duke as the Auto Trader commercial eloquently displayed. Their popularity is so intense that there is even a 2014 Christmas album coming out featuring the characters from the Dukes of Hazzard. That old television show is still popular, even with young people who weren’t even born when it originally aired. It was nice to see Tom Wopat and John Schneider playing the Dukes again. Wopat was (63) in that Auto Trader commercial and still in fantastic shape. Schneider was (54) and has even been successful as a song writer and performer—after all he became a born-again Christian while living with none other than Johnny Cash. They are just good dudes who have spent their careers making decently clean entertainment. But for all of their lives no matter what they do elsewhere, they will always be known as the Duke Boys which they embrace openly.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-dukes-of-hazzard-drive-into-the-holidays-with-christmas-album-20141016-story.html

That returns us back to the premise that Hollywood screenplays should feature, comedies, vampires, or some other emotional travesty to become a viable seller–and the answer is a resounding NO. Hollywood is losing massive amounts of money by producing that kind of crap as opposed to more of the material represented by the Duke Boys. Movie audiences want bold, flawless characters as much as possible. If they want flaws, they’ll look in the mirror for free. They go to the movies and watch television to see something greater—not to revel in mediocrity.

Hollywood as they currently are for the most part with only a few exceptions—mostly coming from filmmakers like Christopher Nolan and his brother, and a few others—are completely wrong in their selections of cinematic material to purchase and produce. The Hollywood studio system is a rudderless vessel caught in the tumultuous chaos of river rapids. By default their projects will move down river although not very efficiently. They bounce off a lot of rocks in the process and take on enormous damage—and they are slow to get where they want to go. Material like the Dukes of Hazzard may be frowned upon by the social reformers who think it’s better to get wet and banged up in the rapids of life toward humbling imperfection as opposed to just jumping over the river in the General Lee—but they would be wrong. Nobody remembers the loser who chooses to just cruise down the rapids of story telling—they remember the daredevils who seek to leap the gorge and the river all together—and those that survive are always loved and memorialized for their valor in the effort. That is what the Dukes of Hazzard mean to our 2014 American culture.

It is better to have characters who are so larger than life that they are silly compared to reality than to have grimly realistic characters who really aren’t much better than the slugs who often populate the lives of most people. It is in that yearning that Bo and Luke Duke still have star appeal and represent a time when men were men, women were women, and good wanted to defeat evil instead of make friends with it that fuels that hunger for the Duke Boys. Hollywood has missed many opportunities convincing nice screenwriters like Skip Press that they need to bend their projects to the will of movie producers who fall in love with Democratic politicians and feel good social policies. The core of America does not relate—so the lack of box office take and quick life-spans of most modern films—such as 22 Jump Street and Let’s be Cops will always lose their audience before the Duke Boys or a classic Clint Eastwood cop drama like Dirty Harry. Average is not memorable, but super good is—and in the context of television and movies in modern entertainment, there were few better than Bo and Luke Duke. Their short two-minute commercial for Auto Trader was better than most feature films and television from over the last 30 years—and that is truly a sad statement that only Hollywood can look in the mirror and blame.

Rich Hoffman

www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

Return of the McDonald’s McRib: One of the greatest gifts of capitalism

I spent the previous weekend riding 24 miles on my bicycle for the first time in over 20 years. It’s something I just wanted to do, and the journey took roughly three hours against the wind. I have always enjoyed riding bikes. The last time I had that particular bike out was nearly 10 years ago when I racked it to Hilton Head Island with the rest of my family and we rode them all over that island. But since then, there really wasn’t a good reason to get it out. So I broke it out just to see if I could still ride those kinds of distances—and the answer was that I could. While riding I had to drive past our local McDonald’s and I noticed that the McRib was back for its annual appearance which is always a favorite in our family. So naturally my wife went back up to that McDonald’s once she received my report not just once, but five times during the same weekend to get for us McRib meals for lunch, dinner, and just snacks as the inclination provoked us. What a delight those are.

I love McDonald’s. Sure the food is not the healthiest in the world, but when you need something in your stomach quick, they are just wonderful. One of my favorite aspects of traveling is visiting new McDonald’s restaurants that I’ve never been to before—especially for breakfast. Each one is an oasis of capitalism and I cherish them. Some of my favorites are the one in Eaton, Ohio along RT 127; another is on I-10 in Florida just outside of Jacksonville. Yet another is the one outside of Universal Studios in Florida. Another is the one in Carrollton, Kentucky which we stop at about 6 to 7 times a year while visiting family in Louisville. Wherever they are, I love McDonald’s, I love their Big Macs, I love their Sausage McMuffin’s with Egg. And I love……LOVE their McRibs. When those come out each year my wife and I eat at McDonald’s three to five times a week. After my bike ride and the calories I burned from the exercise I ate three McRibs back to back and loved every last drop of oozing barbecue which dripped from them.

In the early days of my company Cliffhanger Research and Development when I needed extra money to pay my yearly taxes because I had not paid enough through the year—I would often work at fast food restaurants to make a few thousand extra dollars to cover tax bills so that they didn’t pile up while revenue generating aspects of the business could be developed. I have worked at Wendy’s, I have worked at Frisch’s, and I have worked at McDonald’s—so I have a clear understanding of what goes on behind the scenes. I always feel better about the food coming out of McDonald’s as opposed to a little family restaurant because I know the large company has everything as idiot proof as food preparation can be. They literally take the error out of food prep so uncooked chicken and raw vegetables are not even an option. The method that a Big Mack is made is so fast that there isn’t much time for a disgruntled worker to tamper with the food. Sure it happens, but it happens less at McDonald’s than just about everywhere else because the process is so fast and mechanical, that there isn’t time for the vandalism of food. At the Frisch’s I worked at if a cook thought a guy in the dinning room didn’t deserve to be with a particular date they thought was attractive—they’d spit on their Big Boy. It actually happened a lot. Nobody ever knew so long as the tartar sauce covered up the saliva. The cooks would laugh behind the safety of their line as they watched their target eat their vandalized burger unknowing.

At McDonald’s there is too much visibility and the pace of food sales too great for such shenanigans. The food is usually sold within minutes of being prepared and the workers are too consumed with the basic needs of moving product than worrying about who is sitting in the dinning room with whom. The food itself is precooked off-site with idiot proof machines guaranteed to give customers food that won’t kill them—because of the large amount of food that McDonald’s offers the public on a daily basis. To watch a line leader prepare a table full of Sausage McMuffins with Egg is literally a work of art as the eggs are all real and grilled in a very specific way with complex—idiot free presses that always fascinated me with their precise timing.

When I eat at McDonald’s I never worry about my food. I don’t expect a steak dinner from a place like Jags in West Chester. I expect good food that fills my belly fast with as little tampering from human hands as possible. Another favorite McDonald’s in my family is the one in downtown Gatlinburg. A few years ago my wife wanted a new purse so we went to Gatlinburg for the day to let her go shopping for a very specific design she had in mind. After a few hours in town the mission was accomplished and we stopped by our McDonald’s there and had a couple of Big Mac meals, then left on our motorcycle for home. Prior trips had us visiting that same McDonald’s before a hard day of hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains living completely off the breakfast served uniquely by McDonald’s. I was still eating my Sausage McMuffin with Egg as we were parking near the trail to begin our journey and it filled me for the entire day in the mountains.

So after 24 miles on a bicycle, McRib sandwiches from McDonald’s were a very special treat.   I love everything about those meals, the McRib of course, but the French Fries and the Coca Cola all taste so much better. As my wife is about to pick some up for dinner she’ll tell me to find something on TV to watch when she gets back. She leaves and I scan through our DVR programs and literally by the time I find something good to watch she is back with smoking hot McRibs freshly made with delectable Fries and an oversized Coke—the whole process might take ten minutes including the drive out of our garage and back. McDonald’s is just a wonderful invention of capitalism and such a delight to have in our lives.

 

But there is nothing better than the time of year when McRibs are offered by McDonald’s. There is nothing better than the constant reminders of capitalism during the Holiday season topped with the yearly delight of a McRib sandwich. It is productivity that makes those combinations so wonderful—the ability to make good food cheaply and very quickly that serves best the interests of people like me. I wish every corner of the world had their own McDonald’s so they could share such treasures. Perhaps they could if only they embraced capitalism with more vigor—because it takes capitalism to make McDonald’s run correctly. It is machines over the fallacies of people who make McDonald’s safer than your average “mom and pop” restaurant. It is their ability to control the market forces of food production that makes them such an American powerhouse in the economy, and it is their ability to stand as testaments of capitalism in a world trying to default to socialism. For me, there is nothing better than a McDonald’s McRib not just because they taste good—but because they are reminders of the values that make America great. And I never tire of them.

Rich Hoffman

www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

David Pook ‘s White Privilage: Radical co-writer of Common Core poisons children’s minds–on purpose

The Freedom Outpost got it right when they captured a story about Dr. David Pook who is one of the co-authors of the new Common Core standards. Most politicians including Jeb Bush, and financiers like Bill Gates think that by just stating they are dedicated to better education is equivalent to a financial commitment, or a new policy. They fail to understand that the content of the type of education that government schools build by their policies will have a direct impact on the success or failure of education methods. It is not enough just to say you support something, and it is not enough to throw money at it. Education has to be of a type of content that is actually useful. And as many studies into Common Core have revealed, it is clear that its content was assembled by radical leftists who intend to instruct young people into become future radicals. In that regard, David Pook was caught—the details as reported are below:

According to Onan Coca, “Dr. David Pook is a professor at Granite State College in Manchester, New Hampshire. He’s also the chair of the History Department and one of the authors of the Common Core standards. He was a guest at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics when he opened up on his reasons for participating in the creation of the Common Core standards.”

So what were his reasons? You are about to learn the motivation behind Common Core.

The truth is, not surprisingly to some, that Common Core is very racist and very political.

According to Dr. Pook, he helped write it to balance the scales because he, and many others, are benefiting from some mythical ‘white privilege‘ that was not earned.

http://freedomoutpost.com/2014/11/common-core-co-author-admits-wrote-curriculum-end-white-privilege/#ZHBPthTdxzcQCmdu.99

It is impossible for any hope nice guys like Bill Gates and Jeb Bush could obtain as far as education quality when they surrender Common Core to radicals like Dr. Pook who is an obvious bleeding heart liberal given extreme power to destroy the minds of young people through progressive nonsense.

White privilege in 2014 America is a myth—it does not exist. The quality of one people over another is completely dictated by the content of their character. It is impossible to build a productive culture when young people want to live a “narco” life as opposed to a Christian rancher, or an engineer with six years of schooling directly applicable to their field of study. Those two lifestyles are not compatible—one will be successful one will not and it has nothing—absolutely nothing—to do with skin color.

There is no way Common Core could work even under the best of circumstances—because government schools are run by progressive labor unions and the policies are set by pin-headed politicians. When radical liberals are allowed to set the pace for all the nations’ standards on education—then failure on a massive scale will be the direct by-product. This is what has happened even in these early phases and every governor who has signed up their states to operate under Common Core standards—they have doomed their youth through the education system to guaranteed failure unprepared for adulthood. Bill Gates Company Microsoft invented the Excel spreadsheet which I think is one of the most magnificent inventions of the 20th century. Using his spreadsheets the path to failure in public education is very easy to see—the numbers simply don’t add up to success when it is front loaded with progressive garbage and liberal jargon.

There is nothing positive which can come out of a belief in white privilege other than the belief that goods and services are dished out based on the color of one’s skin—which is absolutely not the case. It is the decisions that one makes with their life which dictates if they will live as a parasitic scum in a government slum, or a productive six figure earner living in a suburban neighborhood where the greatest crime occurring is the occasional toilet paper tossed across lawns during graduation periods.

David Pook is just another example of why it is dangerous to depend on one common standard set by government for students to achieve ignoring the benefits of competition to make those standards better. Without competition people like Pook look like geniuses—but with competition, they look like the idiot radicals that they really are. That is why they support a Common Core standard in the first place—and why it is wrong and vile taking American children backwards toward liberalism instead of forward to productive success—regardless of sex or skin color.

Rich Hoffman

www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com