Category: Organized Labor

The Old Hollow Tree: All you need to know about School Choice

It is time to have a real conversation about what being an American is. Once it came to my knowledge late in the night of Sunday, March 20, 2011 that the Department of Justice had changed the colors of its website to black, gray and white colors, something eerily similar to the marketing of the European Union, added with the strange sort of collectivism being preached by public workers and the unions that represent them, that American’s must decide what it is they are.

Here Doc Thompson talks about Governor Kasich’s Ohio Budget and the further application of School Choice, which I support tremendously, because it creates competition in the education system. I am more convinced now than ever that the collectivism taught in schools by default has been devastating to our national economy, our political structure, and our personal identities and can be declared an epic failure. I have been open-minded about public education for the benefit of society. But now that I’ve seen the protests at the state level, and the way students have been conjured up to serve the needs of teachers unions in spite of whatever their parents might think, I am now prepared to openly speak against all the devices that are failing in American society so they can be identified and changed.

I came to similar points of view as Ayn Rand not by reading her. I came to her work late in life. But I traveled a path similar to her and arrived at similar conclusions. She, as I do, likes Nietzsche and understands without corruption what that philosopher was trying to say. She was an atheist where I’m not, but I understand her reluctance. I see spirituality in higher dimensional planes where she looked for reason in the observable world. But on matters of collectivism versus individualism I am with Ayn completely without pause.

She is on my mind because the film Atlas Shrugged is coming out soon and I have been waiting for that film for a long time. In that great book of the same name Ayn describes a tree that one of the characters enjoyed as a boy, that made him feel safe. The tree seemed unmovable in the world, a symbol of stability in a changing world. Until one night lightning struck the tree and it split in two. The boy sad, was able to look down inside the massive trunk now that the tree had split. What he found was that the tree had been rotten on the inside, eaten away by millions of parasites over a long period of time till all that was left was a hollow shell that showed its former strength, but was in fact barely able to hold itself up, and was easily destroyed in a big storm.

America is that tree. It has been eaten and parts of it killed from the inside by these insect-like collectivist. They in themselves are not bad or evil. But if you ever study a termite colony you see that their societies are very destructive to wherever they establish their residence. They are just doing what they do, but their life style is destructive to where they build their nests. Any group or organization in America that preaches collectivism, that’s labor unions, education establishments, clubs, country clubs, political organizations, Freemasons, fraternities, I’d even say the Boy Scouts of America is a form of collectivism.

Now that may seem extreme by let me tell you a brief story illuminating this fact. I have joined my share of groups, but I usually end up leaving them because of this whole collectivism issue. I hate it. Years ago I was a member, which I still distinctly support, but I was much more heavily active back then, called the Joseph Campbell Foundation. I spent my 20’s reading Campbell’s vast work and through him and his lectures, which I think I heard them all, I explored James Joyce’s work through the Skeleton Key and Ulysses, and much of Nietzsche’s work. But Campbell’s work put me on the path. Now Campbell was an intellectual individualist, much different from other intellectuals, so this is the reason he’s been successful on a level most only dream of regarding the field of comparative mythology and religion with sub categories in psychology, philosophy and art. Campbell was a maverick in many ways which is another way of saying he was an individualist. But, many of the people attracted to literature, and I run into this all the time, are liberal. So many of his fans were left-winged, so the moment he died, even to his warnings, they tried to turn Joseph Campbell into some collective savior, almost a religion.

I learned this on a literary meeting sponsored by the foundation. I figured it was a safe, and authentic event because at the time George Lucas of Star Wars was one of the board members, so I figured that the people in the foundation would reflect Campbell’s views. What I found were a group of left-winged people who had lost the message of Campbell. They memorized his work and could quote it on demand, but they didn’t “understand” it. They were victims of “collectivism.” The point of the meeting was only to be around similar personality types for some sort of reassured conformation of their appreciation of Campbell’s work. Ayn Rand has a similar kind of following with her own Ayn Rand Institute. I don’t mind such groups, but I personally don’t enjoy them because they get in the way of my own individuality. I’m currently in the same dilemma with the Tea Party. I stay in the distance, I support them very much, but not at the expense of my ability to act on my own.

Now American’s understand the balance between “team work,” and “collectivism.” We know how it’s supposed to work. We invented a game that reflects it.

American Football, the game itself, not the cheerleaders, the politics around it, the fans, the schools, but the game of football in its raw form is just the right mix of individualism and team work. In football individual talent through competition emerges on the field of play with the focal point being the ball itself. It’s a game of individual assignments that must be executed with an overall battle plan’s overall goal of moving the ball down the field of play 10 yards at a time. Football is a brutal game where only the best find their way on the field. There isn’t much sympathy for those that are “benchwarmers.” They are actually looked down upon in our society. That is the true heart of the masses, otherwise, football wouldn’t be as popular as it is. The public has accepted those rules because on a subconscious level, they understand the implications of not allowing the best to play the game. The team that attempts collective diversity would find itself at a serious competitive disadvantage and the game itself would be boring. The winners on the football field are those that can run faster, hit harder, throw further, and adapt to changing circumstances most rapidly.
American’s understand football, because it is the game of capitalism.

But when the rules get blurred in all the associated groups that we naturally are inclined to join, because there is security in the group, we find that the world appears to be more complicated. But it’s not. We make it so.

It’s not that I dislike the insect like collective minded. When I swim in a pool and a poor little bug falls in and struggles to get out, I scoop it out and attempt to save it. I always do, even though the insect is part of a collective society. But, when a hive of worms builds a nest in a tree, or a wasp nest evolves in my garage, or termites, or ants make their presence known near my home I kill them without regret, because I’m protecting my home, my property. Collectivism does not understand this concept because personal property is seen as for the greater good of society, which is just how insects few the world.

So my words here, and the resistance to further taxes in schools, and reform such as what we are exploring in School Choice as heard by Doc’s interview are for the good of that great tree that is America. I see the insects that are eating the inside of our beloved tree need to be removed so the tree doesn’t die or split at the first big storm. And I have no emotion about the lives of those insects. They should not have attempted to set up a colony in our tree.

In a less harsh way, look at school reform. The interview above is absolutely correct. Education will change because it’s too expensive and ineffective. That’s a fact of life. It will evolve rapidly in the coming years to something more individually based, and it will happen because that’s the way it works in the world at large.

We’ve been compassionate and we let the insects live in our tree, and they have maliciously attempted to hollow it out without regard for the strength of the tree. And that is the cause of their soon to be fate. It is not the heartlessness of me or others that seek continuation of the greater life form of our nation. It’s not about fairness, it’s about competition and getting the results of that competition that is an occurrence reflected in nature itself. It is in mankind’s arrogance that they attempt to alter nature into a collectivism that does not act as a parasite on the world around it, which is an impossible and naive dream by incompetent insect like minds only considering their small lives and hungers.

My advice, be an individual contributor to society, not an insect.

Rich Hoffman

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

Justice Department Goes Black and White: Dumping the Red White and Blue, a move toward socialism?

I received this information which I consider alarming, check it out for yourself!

 

U.S. Department of Justice W E B S I T E C H A N G E – I M P O R T A N T!

___________________________________________________________-

Little by little the subtle changes come until one day we will wake up and be the United Socialist States of America. 2012 is just around the corner so get and stay engaged as if our nation depended on it because it does!!!!!

U.S. Department of Justice ditches red, white, and blue stars and stripes.

Well, how interesting! It seems the U.S. Department of Justice has changed its website.
Gone are the colorful red, white, and blue U.S. Flag decorations on the page,

Replaced by stark black and white.

And at the top of the page, is a rather interesting quote:
“The common law is the will of mankind, issuing from the life of the people.”

Catchy, huh? Just one tiny little (too small to be relevant obviously) point –the quote is from C. Wilfred Jenks, who in the 1930’s was a leading proponent of the “international law” movement, which had as its goal to impose a global common law and which backed ‘global workers’ rights.’

Call it Marxism, call it Progressivism, call it Socialism — under any of those names, it definitely makes the DOJ look corrupt in their new website with Marxist accessories to match.

See for yourself: http://www.justice.gov/

 

How very interesting that ‘they’ couldn’t find a nice quote from one of our Founders. People, we have lost our Republic. This is an example of the slow, methodical misuse of power our current government is doing as they lead us to socialism, and destroying our republic as we have known it.



Rich Hoffman

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

Warrior of the Week: Rich Hoffman

Sometimes you get a nice note from the people who count, the ones that take a few steps to show the appreciation they feel by the work you do. I was contemplating which person this week would be the Warrior of the Week when Cyd and some others put together the article below and asked me to post it.

I thought about whether or not doing such a thing was proper, conceited, egotistical, maniacal, and even remotely proper. My decision is that it made me feel good so I placed it below in Cyd’s words as she wrote them, and decided to cast opinion to the wolves of discontent to chew on with all the envy that comes from inaction.

____________________________________________________________

Rich Hoffman is my selection for Warrior of the Week, even of the year. Rich has been influential in helping so many of us who have been on the front lines, fighting to expose the local and national threats to our “Representative Republic.” He understands that the union control in our area is just a sample of what is happening across our country. The riots in Columbus and Madison demonstrate just what kind of “public servant” lives in our own neighborhoods.

Saul Alinsky describes the fundamental difference between liberals and radicals. He says that, “it is to found in the issue of power. Liberals fear power or its application. They labor in confusion over the significance of power and fail to recognize that only through the achievement and constructive use of power can people better themselves.” Alinsky further states that, “Throughout Western civilization, radicals tied their destiny to the organized labor movement.” He is the person that is quoted as saying, “for every crisis there is an opportunity.”

We saw that “opportunity” in Madison and Columbus. We saw the influx of outside radicals that churned up the crowd to yell and scream and attack. Rich posted these “riots” so that we could see the hatred expressed by the “unions” with our own eyes.

Rich understands these concepts and has been slowly educating us with his essays. Each essay is based on statistics, facts and figures found in his research of public documents and his knowledge of history, I know of no one else that can put this information together and compose it in a very readable and entertaining manner.

Each essay addresses a current topic of discussion. He inserts many facts that most people did not know. Most people don’t have time to break down the budgets of their local school districts. Rich did it for Lakota and helped others research their districts. How many people knew the top salaries of their school districts? When Rich published those of the Lakota District, other people looked up their district‘s financial reports.

Rich knows that knowledge is the key to making people act. Even if their only “act” is to go out and vote. That is a major step for many people.

Rich has spent many hours “breaking the news” on WLW radio. He has the courage to take on some very hostile proponents of area levies. It is refreshing to hear his calm voice on the radio quoting facts and statistics with ease and confidence. Usually the person attacking him just gives up because they are not as well-informed.

Rich Hoffman, you are our Thomas Paine. You bring reason to our ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, and you hold up truth to our eyes. (a paraphrase of Thomas Paine)

Thank you Rich for all you do in the name of “freedom.”

It is often said that the measure of a man lies somewhere between his Love of family, commitment to God, and the principles for which he stands on. There are few people I trust to bring truth, hope and reason to so many of the issues that plague us today. For me, one of those people is Rich.

At a time, not so long ago, I needed all those things and was desperate to find the persons that would show me that there is a voice out there that feels like I do, is passionate about the path we’re on, and speaks and writes the thoughts I think. It’s much different from Glenn Beck, when you have the camaraderie within the surrounding communities and the issues at hand are shared by many.

Your tireless efforts to prepare your perspective on a daily basis do not go unnoticed or unappreciated. You are required reading every morning so that I can start my day perhaps not so bogged down with world affairs of the moment, but a lively article on what transpired the day before. The “in your face” news gets to be too much at times. What you bring to the readers is a need to inspire and the will to get folks motivated to be involved and perhaps present a whole other perspective than your own. That’s where you shine. You let people speak their mind and respond with decorum and dignity as if you know them beyond your pages.

It’s important that we let those people know, who are doing such diligent research, reading, and fighting hard for the common, everyday values we were taught to respect, be held up every now and then, and given a big THANK YOU!!! This IS our thanks to and for you.

Cyd, Sandy and the “others”

Rich Hoffman

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

Sex Trade in Rio: The World and Motivations behind Eyes Wide Shut

Barrack Obama’s disappearance to South American in a time of extreme crises looks suspiciously contemptuous. His relationship with “big labor” and even the George Soro types in the world that are intent on remaking the world is deeply troubling to the minds of many Americans that are committed to honesty and fundamental American values.

I recently wrote an article criticizing the president on his trip listing all the troubles that are currently on the table and one of them was the NFL lockout. Well, of course this got a reaction, because how is the NFL lockout as important as the tsunami in Japan? Well, it’s not. But in the secret recesses of the human mind, it is. The NFL is the game of the American Economy. The “men of the mind” buy boxes and move and shake the world from those seats on Sunday afternoons while gladiators batter each other on the field of play yard by yard. Taking that game out of the public consciousness will have an impact on our national consciousness in a negative way.

Thinking of sports, each year there are stories of athletes that attempt a competitive edge by use of steroids, or some other method. Well, in business, the same holds true, or in any other endeavor.

A few years ago I wrote a book called The Symposium of Justice that explored through the eyes of a modern Zorro type character the sinister exploits of a secret world that attempts to gain such competitive advantage over others by appeasing “the gods” or “demons” or whatever you want to call them. These rituals, which I can testify to, have their sources in ancient sacrifices where humans were killed to appease those gods. Well, to the American, Christian mind, such things are preposterous and archaic ways of thinking. But those societies that participated in such brutality such as those in central America 1000 AD to 1500 AD particularly, Native American cultures, Mesopotamia, and head hunting cultures of New Guinea all had rituals to appease the hidden elements that exist all around us in a hope that such aid would help grow better crops, or bring water to the community.

I know a few people who are practicing shaman, one that lives in St. Louis and she invited my wife and me to a spiritual gathering recently. Below is a video from her friend Chief Golden Light/Eagle who comes often to Serpent Mound, Ohio for yearly ceremonies to explain some of the mysteries between human beings and the world around us. Now to the untrained ear stuck in the world of the here and now, some of this will sound strange. Remember, just because you don’t understand, does not mean these things don’t exist.

Similar powers are explored often in the culture of voodoo, which you can find easily in the south. In fact, it’s not difficult to find a practicing voodoo priest if you go Hilton Head Island or Savannah Georgia. Many are working as dish washers in the back rooms of restaurants and they live in small trailers or even tents just outside of town, but they can certainly conger up a voodoo doll or reach into the spirit realm for you for a small fee, and bring bad luck on an enemy, or even cause an enemy to get seriously sick.

This is why I find the film Eyes Wide Shut particularly fascinating. Stanley Kubrick, creator of 2001 A Space Odyssey and The Shining jumped into the world of the rich and powerful that attempt to use sex drugs and violence to curry favor with the spirit world. Now, Kubrick was no kook. He was a serious and very talented filmmaker and he spent many, many hours researching the shocking video you will see below. He actually did what the character Tom Cruise did in the film; he snuck into these secret societies and studied what was going on and why. He depicted this action in his film, and he did not live to see it delivered to theaters. Tom Cruise violently protected the final cut of the film with his reputation, which he paid for. The film was delivered to the public as Kubrick intended, but the professional lives of Tom Cruise and Nichole Kidman were forever tarnished by the film, proving how deep the influence goes into even the very rich and powerful. In fact, Cruise and Kidman’s marriage didn’t last. They divorced shortly after the film was released. Cruise buried himself into scientology shortly thereafter and lost credibility with the public at large.

Here is an edited clip from the films ritual scene.

You can see the whole ritual scene at this link which I’ll avoid on this page because it contains graphic nudity. Now when you watch this remember that the women brought into this ceremony are common prostitutes bought though the sex trade industry and drugged with aphrodisiacs so they’d be prepared for the mass orgy.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/yt-PdxpJKqExwE/ritual_eyes_wide_shut_complete/

Steve Spielberg even came in for the DVD release and helped maintain the integrity of the film, which appears to have cost him his career as well. Spielberg is only a fraction of what he used to be as a creative talent.

So what’s in the chant? You’d think by watching that clip that it is a demonic chant, but it’s not. Here’s the translation.
Source: Leoslyrics.com
Romanian Chant (In the movie, it is played backwards. Here are the normal version, backwards version and translation)

Normal Version

Zisa Domnului catre ucenicii sai…Porunca noua dau voua…Domnului sa ne rugam pentru mila, viata, pacea, sanatatea, mantuirea, cercetarea, lasarea si iertarea pacatelor robilor lui Dumnezeu. Inchinatori, miluitori si binefacatori ai sfantului lacasului acestuia.

Backwards Version

Auov uad auon acnurop ias iicinecu ertac iulunmod asiz… Aiutseca iulusacal iulutnafs ia irotacafenib is irotiulim irotanihcni.
Uezenmud iul rolibor roletacap aeratrei is aerasal aeratecrec aeriutnam aetatanas aecap ataiv alim urtnep magur en as iulunmod. Auov uad auon acnurop ias iicinecu ertac iulunmod asiz…

Pray from India

Parithranaya Saadhunam Vinashaya cha dushkrithaam Dharmasamsthabanarth aya Sambhavami yuge yuge

Translation

And God told to his apprentices…I gave you a command…to pray to the Lord for the mercy, life, peace, health, salvation, the search, the leave and the forgiveness of the sins of God’s children. The ones that pray, they have mercy and they take good care of this holy place.

It would appear, much like in the Old Testament of the Bible that many who wish to social climb still believe that the spirit world will appease their earthly wishes if those that have command of the earth will make ritual sacrifices in the name of God’s children. Now those sacrifices aren’t necessarily to Yahweh but to what the Bible might refer to as“false gods.”
Whatever you believe, it is clear that there are many, who do believe such things, and they attempt to monopolize not just our physical laws in our state houses, and federal government, but they do play this game of spirit world appeasement. Whether or not it actually works is up to debate. But for such a long human tradition to endure for so long, results are believed to be promising, even among our current elite, which Kubrick studied in great detail.

My point in bringing this up is that it is obvious that there is more to the story of what is behind the obvious neglect by our elected officials to follow the laws of the Constitution. There are some, although in the minority, that are corrupt and evil to the absolute core of their being, and do believe that they will personally prosper by bringing decadence to the world. And that if anything is to be fixed, it will not be enough to fix only our understanding of the law as established in the Constitution, but we will have to have a spiritual awaking as well, one that does not subscribe to warped religious practices and a hunger for things done in secret in an attempt to get a spiritual advantage.

It is not farfetched to consider such things. Daily, millions of people read their horoscopes, which is a gateway acceptance to this type of ritualistic indulgence.

Case in point, the violence on the border of the United States and Mexico is clearly a situation that should provoke war. But instead we see appeasement so that drugs can continue to flow freely. We see the sex trade industry thriving out in the open even though consciously we all agree that it’s morally wrong.

Not only are drugs encouraged to continue to pour into our country to feed the weak among our fellow Americans with more mind numbing devices but the sex slavery is also endorsed.

The sex trade industry is an epic travesty upon the face of the world and progressives are naive to think of world peace when the hearts of man are corrupt with such black thoughts.

Yet this is how it’s sold to the public. Remember where the UN meets.

To make real and permanent repairs to the human condition, and the laws we live under, it is important to make the distinction into what it is we are actually trying to achieve. We can say with certainty that we want the nation restored, but there are those in the world that are first sexually promiscuous and crave power to have access to sexual deviancy, and those that believe that organizing sex practices are appealing to “the gods” and those gods will give them power and dominion over others.

So in our quests these accounts must be considered for what they’re worth, and if justice is sought, it must be sought for all, sex slaves and child trafficking included.

Consider just in the United States the porn industry generates billions and billions of dollars every year, 97 billion worldwide and that’s the money that is traceable that file SEC statements. That’s more money than Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo, Netflix, Apple, combined. Just in the United States porn makes more money than Major League Baseball, the NHL and the NFL combined with revenues of NBC, CBS, and ABC.

The question you have to ask is………………………….why?

Now I know why President Obama is going to Rio. He’s going to save all the children from sex tourism that is so rampant there.

Oh……..sorry to get your hopes up. Everyone knows this is going on, just like the people in the room in Eyes Wide Shut, (hence the title) Obama won’t even bring it up because his bosses would chastise him for it. And we all know what happens to people who try to expose this terrible industry rooted in corrupt human sacrifice. Ask Stanley Kubrick, and Tom Cruise, when the name Cruise used to mean something, and Kubrick was still alive.

Rich Hoffman

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

We’re on an Island of Reason Surrounded by an Ocean of Corruption

30 billion dollars a week is spent on just interest toward the national debt and congress cannot make a decision to cut a fraction of that out of the Federal budget. Local school boards, county commissioners and city councils are making last-minute deals to get public worker increases in before S.B.5 becomes law. Darryl Parks of 700 WLW calls it correctly when he proclaims that those of us that find large government corruption wrong, are on an island surrounded by treacherous water we cannot drink, filled with creatures hidden from view that want to swallow us whole, and it is daunting that for as far as the eye can see, there is only an endless expanse of such peril.

Meanwhile, President Obama is going on vacation to Rio in South America while nothing less than the fate of the world hangs in balance.

• Japan is in need of United States help from its catastrophic devastation at the hands of a tsunami.
• Congress, the Senate and the White House cannot agree on the proposed budget cuts and are only buying small increments to keep the government operating.
• Socialist labor unions are threatening order all over the United States.
• States and cities are going bankrupt all over the nation.
• The NFL is even shutting down over “collective bargaining!”
• The Middle East is undergoing destabilization.
• Fuel prices are rapidly increasing.
• Food prices are rapidly increasing.
• And the immigration violence on the border is terrible while the pacifists feed the discontent with rhetoric like this:

Those are the people in the water that are making up the policies we are all facing. Pacifists for profit is what they are, because in their pacifism, there is much profit among the corrupt politicians that are squandering away American resources for their own gain with little regard for the moments past their last meal just as a shark shows to the fish it has just eaten. The mindless, bloodthirsty shark has not a thought for tomorrow. It only eats, and eats, and eats for today.
Here Anthony Weiner shows his vast ignorance by grandstanding on such small issues as the defunding of NPR, missing completely why the funding was cut.

Weiner and company forget that even John Boehner is standing behind the cutting of the Joint Strike Fighter which has the engine built-in Boehner’s district at the GE facility. Everyone is making sacrifices, but those stories aren’t being reported, only the emotional ones that are equivalent to pouring blood in the water to attract the mindless sharks. All that kind of discussion is lost to the foolish sharks like Weiner and his friends that only look at the meal in front of them and circle the island of logic, hungry for more food to feed their mindless lives of living just one more day on the spoils of others.

Meanwhile, small little school districts like Lebanon rush to take care of their union friends while turning with the other hand to ask for more blood from the taxpayers to appease the sharks by tossing more food into the water to keep the beasts at bay.

Darryl Parks is right. We are all on a lonely island, the last sane vestibules of continuation that must fight an ocean of predator’s intent on immediate, selfish destruction in order to restore our nation to a life of thriving unification that can only occur when the predators no longer threaten our existence. We are truly engaged in a battle of the mindless sharks and the beings of reason for the advancement of civilization.

And Barak Obama is in Rio looking at string bikinis. Hey, I was happy to elect Alan Keys as the first African-American president, but nobody wanted to listen to him.

Allan Keys wouldn’t be in Rio right now if he were president. That much I can promise. Why didn’t Jessie Jackson and the African-American community support my man, Allan?

Because the sharks want their food to swim right into their mouths, they don’t want us on an island planning our escape, or the taming of their wild, bloodthirsty ways.

With Obama, the socialist minded, tribal leaders of the African-American community got what they wanted, a man who would turn his back on his nation, play golf, and go on vacation to South America while the world burns, and the sharks are free to eat.

Rich Hoffman

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

Hurry! Get Your Contracts in Before S.B.5. Becomes Law!: The reason we can’t trust elected officials.

There is disturbing news coming out of Lebanon, Ohio that arrived to my ears late Thursday as I was trying to enjoy the first pleasant day of spring-like weather in 2011. The information isn’t surprising as I had been thinking along these lines all week. An aspect to that thinking is in leadership which Doc Thompson discusses in this broadcast.

I’ve mentioned in many words on these pages why some leaders are better than others, and exactly what makes a leader, “good.” For a clear definition of what makes something of quality, and why some people are “better” than others I refer your inquisitive mind to the great book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. That book is one of the best, most thorough works of philosophy on quality and leadership done since the pre-Greek age. The capacity to be, “the best” is within all of us. But certain traits certainly jump out as contributory factors.

What brings all this up is the need for leadership in school systems, and the apparent lack thereof. The current system seems to be a nightmare scenario from an Ayn Rand novel and I say that without exaggeration.

I wondered how school boards were going to react to S.B.5 once it’s signed into law. After all, they are now empowered to negotiate on behalf of the community. I thought of the Lakota Levy when I’d go to school board meetings and see our elected officials all wearing Yes Lakota pins and actively promoting the passage of a school levy. Taken at face value, this seemed acceptable to me. But now, on the eve of a real management measure like S.B.5 that will give these school boards real teeth, I wondered if it was appropriate for school board members, who are elected by the community, to openly promote school levies.

That’s when the information arrived to me from an employee within the Lebanon School System that Mark North had been meeting with the union at Lebanon and informed them to have their contracts turned in by the conclusion of business March 17, to  avoid S.B.5 ramifications. The reason is that S.B.5 will honor all existing contracts, so any deals made prior to law will be recognized. Lebanon is planning to make the announcement to the press that the union has agreed to a “pay freeze” but the step increases will be held in place and kept under the radar.

This is disturbing news to me, and it’s not unique to Mr. North from the Lebanon School Board. No school board member should ever be on such cozy terms with any member of a union. They are a member of management and that requires them to be distant and impartial. If school boards were truly management on behalf of the tax payers that elected them they would not pass along information to unions informing them to get their contracts turned in before the passage of a new law. The school board should be looking to avoid a tax levy by using S.B.5 to bring their costs down. Such revelations are an enormous contributor to the current funding problems that all these school districts have.

School board members attempt to start off representing the community, however immediately in November they are sent to the OSBA Conference in Columbus. They do this once a year and the goal is to bring school board members in cohesion with the aims of the education unions that are really in control within the state. At these conferences the new board members “bond” with other board members and learn the ropes. Immediately school board members are eating out of the hand of the union. School board members that question this process are labeled “radical” and pushed out of the “group” mentality.

Now, before anyone says that I don’t know what I’m talking I know quite a few school board members all over the state, and this is how I learned about this story. It’s not a secret. Such ceremonies are no different from the “hazing” rituals in college fraternities. The intent is to unify everyone into a “collective team.”

That whole process needs to stop. School boards are elected by the public and need to represent the public. S.B.5 puts school boards in management control, the way people always thought they were, but the reality is like what has been reported on the activity of Mark North of Lebanon. They will never publicly admit that they are more loyal to unions than the public that elected them, but their actions prove otherwise.

At a minimum, no school board member elected by the public should ever wear a pin or carry a sign lobbying the community for increases in taxes. Because in doing so they are publicly admitting that they do not have management control over the school system and are not able to do the job.

S.B.5 will change the rules and the weak managers in the system, (and there will be many) will have to be removed and strong managers put in their place that will not go to the OSBA Conference in Columbus every November, but will truly represent the people who elected them.

And a warning to Mr. North and all those like him. Be careful what you say to people. The difference now is that when a whistleblower says something to the paper, and it falls on deaf ears, there are now groups like this one and others that are emerging, that will carry the story. So hiding behavior under a rock or behind closed doors will no longer be a valid way to hide improprieties to the taxpayer. And there are plenty of leaks. Believe me.

Now, for further evidence that it’s not only schools that are in a rush to ratify their contracts before S.B.5 becomes law here is the news for the Butler County FOP contract that’s been bouncing around since February 2010 . And to get an idea how much these guys make see my article, Oh, What Big Teeth You Have. What this article means is that they knew just as Lebanon knew, to take what they could get before the governor signs the new bill. It’s not a coincidence that this contract mysteriously was agreed upon yesterday.

It’s always about money.

Butler County commission signs off on FOP contract
Butler County Sheriff’s Office deputies have new agreement.
By Michael D. Pitman, Staff Writer March 18, 2011

HAMILTON — Butler County Sheriff’s deputies and supervisors will get a raise, but they’ll have to wait until next year.
The Butler County Commission agreed Thursday to ratify the collective bargaining agreements for members of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 101.

The contract, which expires Feb. 9, 2013, had to go to a conciliator in November for the six items on which the union and administration could not come to terms.

“This is how the process is supposed to work,” said Sheriff Richard K. Jones, an opponent of Ohio Senate Bill 5 that passed the Senate and is in the House for debate. “We couldn’t agree, so we went to arbitration.”

Sgt. Jeff Gebhart, a spokesman for the FOP, could not be reached for comment Thursday.

According to the new contract, union members will get a 2 percent raise next year; $1,000 cash payment in lieu of a uniform allowance; and new top step effective in February 2012 to be set 2 percent higher than the current top step while deleting the lowest step.

The union also wanted similar pay scales for court services deputies and road deputies; the ability for supervisors to bid on positions; and a uniform allowance in 2010. The conciliator did not grant these requests.

“We want our people to have the best they can negotiate for; it’s not a battle,” Maj. Norman Lewis said. “But in these economic times, with the way the budget has been slashed, it’s a process that had to take place.”

Lewis said the collective bargaining process started in February 2010, but the six items of disagreement needed a conciliation hearing.

The contracts with corrections officers, corrections supervisors, clerical and dispatch unions are being finalized and likely will go before the county commissioners in ensuing weeks, he said.

Jones said the collective bargaining process works for the administration and the unions, and has worked well for the 34 years he’s been involved in the negotiations.

_________________________________________________________________________________

 

So who is looking out for the taxpayer if all these elected officials are scrambling at the last-minute to get all the money they can before the gates to easy money close with the passage of S.B.5.?

This is proof that the money was flowing like water and nobody cared to turn it off at the facet, and access to that easy money is really what collective bargaining has always been about. It’s easy to spend other people’s money. It’s hard and takes real leadership to have discretion. And what we’re learning is that our political officials are greedy and lack leadership in every way we feared and suspected.

 

Rich Hoffman

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

The 53% Against the 47%: A Lesson in Leadership

Kasich’s approval rating is at 40 percent just two months into his tenure as governor of Ohio. Doc Thompson was critical of Kasich’s marketing of himself and the confusing messages coming from the governor’s office. Doc also discusses the West Chester Police and Fire Department wages from the article at this site. The overall consensus is that expectation among all federal workers, from the governor all the way to the desk worker expects too much compensation from the tax payer, and many are guilty of taking advantage of the bureaucracy in government to make very good jobs for themselves. Listen to broadcast here.

I’m actually amazed that Kasich’s approval rating is as high as 40 percent considering how bold he has been on many of his policies. There is no question that Kasich’s budget is going to be painful for many people. I would have to say that if I were governor, I probably wouldn’t do things much different from Kasich is doing. I personally wouldn’t think too much on the pain of the moment, because what’s right is right. It’s not Kasich’s fault that so many people have become addicted to public money. It’s like taking the bottle away from an alcoholic while they are trying to get drunk. Of course the drunk will be upset, and they usually protest that they are not alcoholics. I’d probably hire people to serve under me at good business wages so I could get the best people and not the typical “kiss ass” political climbers, I’d probably want to control the video of my presentations so they couldn’t be used against me in the future, and I’d probably be caught numerous times calling police that pulled me over, “idiots” because it would make me angry. I’m a very aggressive guy and I keep my eyes on the end result, and I see in Kasich the same traits.

Now people aren’t used to that. They are used to wishy-washy politicians that spend their own political careers not displaying any real courage. They carefully watch the poll numbers and can be moved from a position within days of stating something, depending on the power of the lobbyist.

I would say that Kasich understands like many people who are in leadership positions that a vast majority of any given group will be lost no matter how much you try to explain it. And those types of people don’t like to waste time explaining their vision to people who won’t get it anyway.

Is that the best way to present material, of course not. But it is a symptom of real leadership. Kasich knows that approximately 53% of all people in America have some leadership ability or at least the ability to grapple with difficult issues. They can see where the headlights are pointed and what’s in the light of the headlights, and they get it. 46% of all Americans can’t even see the headlights without glasses. They need assistance, and these are the people who have a tendency to be attracted to public sector jobs, unions, and welfare. No matter what you do, they won’t understand until they can look at a problem in hind-sight.

It was reported that Kasich’s approval rating is below the levels enjoyed by the last three governors when they were in their start of their administrations. The Ohio Poll registered 68 percent approval for Democrat Ted Strickland in May 2007, 49 percent approval for Republican Bob Taft in March 1999 and 61 percent approval for Republican George Voinovich in February 1991. The reason for this is because those governors spent much of their time pandering to the 47% and therefore accomplished very little as leaders. They mistakenly assume that the 53% will always be there for them, which is unfair because the 53% get overlooked as they are the good citizens that work hard to support the nation. Unfortunately the squeaky wheel does get the grease, and those squeaky wheels are that 47%.

People aren’t used to a governor that has a reversed position and targets his governorship at the 53% that understand, even if they don’t agree. It appears that Kasich isn’t the only governor showing these tendencies. Scott Walker certainly appears to be the same way.

Now of that 53%, there is no doubt that those are the people who are usually on the fence on any given issue, and the number in Ohio appears to be about 13%, which are finding themselves affected by all the negative press surrounding S.B.5. That’s where the 40% comes from.

In the end, when the policies Kasich enacts solves many of the budget problems that Ohio finds itself in, it just might become the model that the greater nation will want to follow. But Kasich really doesn’t appear to be interested in opinion. You know the old adage, “opinions are like assholes, everyone has them.” A leader has to do what they know is right because they have the ability to see beyond the headlights flashing in the darkness. Their fault is that they don’t care to explain themselves to the 47%. Those people will never be happy anyway. But they will jump on the bandwagon when better times come along.

Kasich deserves an elevation of his man card if anything, for doing what many only talk about. He is doing what leaders do, they lead.

Rich Hoffman

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

School Boards Still Don’t Get It: S.B.5 Empowers them to Control Their Costs!

Doc Thompson covers how the “rich Hollywood types and politicians hide their money from tax collectors, gaming the system. These are the same people who proclaim that we should pay increased taxes in order to fund public sector jobs. Doc has an argument with a guy that claims he’s willing to send in a $20,000 check to pay his “fair share.” Also, Doc covers a UC administrator that received over $900,000 in severance upon being released from his contract. Have a listen:

Meanwhile, local school systems, are still asking for more money claiming to be broke when in fact they are already receiving generous tax dollars from the communities. Public union leaders are somehow oblivious to why there isn’t enough money to pay them. How they don’t connect the dots is amazing. They insist that we should cut salaries in the governor’s administration before we cut teachers salaries, which sounds foolish. It’s not so much the amount of money individuals make, as it is that way too many in public office make it. That is where the socialist tendency differs from the capitalist. The socialist wants the increases across the board, as they are in step increases. The capitalist pays based on merit. That means fewer will receive “top pay” instead of a majority regardless of job performance as the system is now.

On the eve of Governor Kasich’s budget revelation it is interesting that Lebanon City Schools and Fairfield City Schools are not looking at using S.B.5 to control their costs on a broad scale, but are still playing the same game of small cuts that have been the preferred method, such as busing cuts and other items that are inconvenient to parents in the district.

Taking into account that the contracts under S.B.5 will be grandfathered in, it would seem most responsible for these school districts to begin exploring how they can severely reduce their labor costs under the new law without staff reductions.

My guess however is that these current administrators won’t explore that option unfortunately, because they cannot think any other way, which is part of the problem.

Further attempts to place levies on a ballot are not needed because these school districts don’t need the money. They need to reduce their budget expectations. They need to understand how to manage the money they do have. S.B.5 will give them the tools to do so. There shouldn’t be another levy on a single ballot anywhere in Ohio during 2011 because of the passage of S.B.5. If there is, it’s because the school districts wish to continue to play games, and not make the “hard”cuts.

If school districts like these two continue to beat the same old drum, it is because they are completely inept in the skills of money management, and those administrators need to be removed so that people who are skilled at money management can help these schools operate with their excellent ratings, but at a reduced cost.

Before a single layoff is ever explored, wage reductions should be implemented. Realistic wage amounts need to be established, not the outrageous levels they currently are. Teachers of high school students and junior high students are not all worth 70K or more no matter how much schooling they have. Some may be, but not a majority. Few people are worth that much in labor and a college degree does not guarantee those wage levels, which is the assumption under the established step increases, and the fact that I even have to write it down so that administrators have to be told says they are out of touch completely with the community marketplace.

The money is not coming from the state. The money is not coming from the federal government. The money is coming from the community, and these districts and the teachers that teach in them must decide now if they want to bend a little to make the districts remain excellent and within the community budgets, or if they will continue to think selfishly and strap these communities financially. For those highly paid teachers that don’t want to work for less, there’s the door. Good luck finding a better job because every district in Ohio is going through this trouble, and they all must come to this realization sooner or later.

The longer these districts avoid the obvious, the more damage they’ll do. They now have the tools, but further tax increases are not an option.

Below are two notices, one asking people to attend the school board meeting in Lebanon. If you care about this issue at all, you should go and ask those people how they are planning to think “outside” the box to save the community money without a loss of services. Because they will no longer be able to blame the states unfunded mandates.

The other is from Arnie Engle from Fairfield who has been fighting this fight for a long time.

To one and all
FYI
The board will be voting to cut High School busing this Thursday
Are you willing to risk our children’s lives to save $300,000??
The next Board meeting is 3-17-11
6PM in the Community Room at the HS

The blackmail tactics are about to begin

 

Our community was divided over the 3 school levies the board jammed down the throats of the community in 2004. This board is knowingly driving our district into fiscal crisis and a repeat of the 2004 community divide. Why are they doing this? Because they refuse to place the community and our children before the staff with appropriate cost cutting measures.
Please attend and let your voice be heard

Please pass this on to everyone you know !

You must sign in to speak at the beginning of the meeting and you get 5 minutes.
There is also an additional chance to speak before the board votes on the cuts. 2 minutes.

On the agenda are 3 million in cuts to be voted on. The list can be viewed on the school web site. In the list is the elimination of high school busing to save $300,000.

Fact!
The schools own finance report, shows we spent 6.6 million on pupil transportation in 2010.
We are cutting 1/3 of our busing. Shouldn’t we expect a savings of 1/3 of $6,000,000????
You can view this report on the school web site.

CAFR
Comprehensive Annual Financial Report
(Page 105 schedule 6)

School busing is the safest way to transport school children. Putting our kids on the road to and from school is a disaster waiting to happen.

And for what??? $300,000???

Are you willing to risk our children’s lives to save $300,000??

I’m not!

The following is what I said about cutting busing back in 2004.
The same applies today.

From the 2004 CARE flier
WHY CUT SPORTS AND BUSING?

The recent cuts made by the Fairfield School Board do more than balance the budget. They actually punish our children and the community,

in an effort to force an unjust $9,000,000 school levy on the taxpayers of our fine city. This tax levy will definitely benefit the staff, but NOT our children.

Regarding Sports, local papers have reported that the Xenia School District “saved $183,000 by cutting extra-curriculars. However, more than 100 students left the school district and went to other schools to participate in sports. The decreased student enrollment ended up costing the school $340,000 in school funding from the state.” Our school board and administration are aware of this, but they cut our extra-curriculars anyway.

Regarding busing, our school officials say we will save $400,000 by cutting busing. According to Treasurer Scott Gooding, we have a $5,500,000 transportation budget. We are cutting more than one-third of our transportation by cutting busing for grades 9-12 and extra curricular activities. You would expect to see savings of one-third of $5,500,000 or at least $1,800,000. Also note that the state gives us $2,000,000 for transportation as reported in the ODE, SF3 report. If we loose one-third of this funding that amounts to $667,000, nullifying the $400,000 savings projected by our officials.
Therefore, it just doesn’t make good economic sense to cut busing and sports, unless it’s really an effort to punish our kids, parents, and community in order to pass the next school levy on August 3rd.

I have heard it time and time again that the district needs to move forward and forget about the past \history. The problem is that history is about to repeat itself! We can all expect that $600 pay to play and the elimination of all busing will soon follow.

This board is, knowingly, running our district right into financial crisis. The solution to their madness was spelled out in my last letter to the editor. The boards blackmail tactics will never end as long as this board continues to places the staff ahead of the community and our children

BOARDS 1-13-11 RETREAT
Letter to the Editor
February 2011
BOARD INACTION WILL LEAD TO DISTRICT FAILURE

In regard to the Fairfield school districts budget retreat it was disappointing to hear the board was still considering a new tax levy. It would be a big mistake for the board to assume the community would support any type of levy. I would hope the board would anticipate this and enact the appropriate cuts to balance the budget. Failure to do so will send our district down the same road as Little Miami. The board needs to put the box of band aids away and get down to enacting a budget void of new levies. Time is running out.

Although there was an additional 4.6 million in cuts presented at the retreat there are still millions in possible cost cutting and revenue generating ideas presented by both me and the districts own hand picked finance committee. My suggestions and the finance committee’s suggestions should be reviewed, considered and enacted or rejected with reasoning shared with the public for any rejection, before there is any discussion of a new levy. The community is entitled to know, in detail, why the board refused to enact all cost saving ideas presented by anyone.

In my opinion there needs to be a fundamental change in the way the district does business. This would include but is not limited to the following suggestions.

Getting serious about contract negotiations.

Not relying on local property taxes to fund schools

The board must be honest with the public and follow through with their board actions.

The board should vote with an understanding of how their vote will effect the budget and leave their emotions at home
.
The board needs to start placing our children and the community first.

The board needs to review the business partner relationship it holds with it’s vendors and assure the public it is receiving the best possible price for the tax dollars spent.

The board needs to have a conservative outsider to review the way the district operates

The status quo of taxing and spending is not working in Fairfield or any government agency. If this philosophy can not be reigned in it will undoubtedly lead to the financial ruin of our district.

Let me leave you with a quote from the districts own finance committee “The current system is unsustainable without the fundamental changes we are suggesting — inaction will lead to district failure.” I have been warning the district of this for years. Time is running out.

Arnie Engel
Past member Fairfield Board of Education
CARE founder
829-7840
Please pass this on to everyone you know !
and please attend the
next Board meeting on 3-17-11.
Bring your neighbors, friends and family.

Rich Hoffman

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

Motorcycles Tell the Whole Story: The Socialist States of America

The crowds around Wisconsin on Saturday March 12, 2011 had a diseased quality about them that cannot be summed up without a philosophic journey of epic understanding. In short however, I can only offer that those poor souls marching to a socialist drum beat are lost to what it means to be an American. Without question, many of the marchers are veterans, police, firefighters and other traditional patriots, but to me they seem weak, and ill-informed, lost in a portrayal the media has given them without actually earning it. The America they want and desire is one for the soft, fragile specimens of human being that finds their life spans sickly, and always in need of assistance.

I’ve rode motorcycles for more than 20 years and always stayed away from the stereotype of what a biker is, I guess because the image has been associated with gangs and violence. It’s also associated with death. The perception is that if you ride a motorcycle, you will die. Maybe not right away, but eventually, the grim reaper is in close pursuit if you chose to ride a motorcycle.

So I’ve kept my motorcycle riding more of a private thing. I’ve always embraced a sense of freedom and a love of individuality and vehicles on two wheels were the closest thing to a horse that I could get living in a modern, suburban environment.

Cowboys to me have always been the symbol of what an American is. And cowboys rode horses when they settled the west. To modern America, highways have replaced trails, and motorcycles replaced horses. And to the motorcycle rider, the goals are the same as the cowboy.

The cowboy wanted to extend his mobility over vast distances, whether he was herding cattle or just searching for food. And where herding cattle may not be needed, and food is available at the closest McDonalds, the need to extend your reach is still needed for the hungry adventurer.

And that’s what you find in a motorcyclist, a love a freedom and a desire to extend their reach without the protection of any other vehicle. To be exposed to the road flying by below you, exposed to the elements rain, wind and heat, and to be one mistake away from death. It’s a choice millions of motorcyclist volunteer each year.
I started thinking about defining motorcyclist when I kept getting the same questions, why do you ride in the rain? And why do you ride when it’s cold?

For me, it’s about truth. Not the kind of truth that’s about right and wrong. But the kind of truth you find when you push yourself to the limit. The kind of truth mountain climbers understand, or endurance hikers. People that put comfort aside and find strength in themselves they didn’t know they had.

motorcyclist, whatever their various forms, have this yearning in common, even if they aren’t completely aware of it.

When my wife and I made a long ride to Key West I thought about these things a lot especially as we neared our destination over the inter-coastal highway US1 south of Miami in temperatures that hovered around 107 degrees Fahrenheit. I look at motorcycles the same way I look at World War II aircraft. When introduced, it was the first time in human history that an individual could extend their boundaries beyond their home territory. The automobile of course had come along but where the auto departs from the nature of flying machines is a pilot uses a stick and rudder to fly, so all parts of the human body are engaged. On a motorcycle the same holds true, one foot operates the rear brake, another shifts the gears, another operates the throttle and the right brake, and yet another operates the clutch, and all this without much protection of any kind.

Airplanes are deceptively fragile, with only a very thin skin between the pilot and the outside air. In order to operate them, a well-defined understanding of the dangers involved is needed.

It is no coincidence that motorcycles and airplanes are both associated with freedom. At first, because they tie up their operators with being fully involved in the process of flying or driving them, it is this very fact that lends to the feelings of liberation.

Make a long run on a motorcycle, and you will feel you earned every mile, and it is inescapable to feel complacent afterwards. Where the motorcycle is unique over any other mode of transportation, the cost to operate it per mile is very inexpensive. And that makes it one of the best machines around if you’re willing to trade a bit of safety and comfort for the reach a motorcycle gives you.

On our trip to Key West from Cincinnati we traveled over 3000 miles in just under 7 days and spent $167 in fuel.

Riding a motorcycle is a reliable excuse to be different, even if some of that ends up looking the same. You can dress in leather jackets in the heat of an August afternoon and it’s OK. It’s a reason to dress outrageously and proclaim your individuality. A motorcycle invites adventure to what would otherwise be just a simple trip down the road. In hard weather, it forces you to adapt taking you out of your comfort zone.

And that’s the appeal for me. Every time you get on a bike, there is an opportunity for adventure that you just don’t get in an automobile. It gives you unprecedented reach for traveling because you can do it much more economically than any other mode of transportation. And it allows you to cater your bike and riding apparel to your individual tastes.

In a car, you might just get in and start driving, and the ritual is rather short and uninvolved. On a bike, you have to dress for the ride which will probably include a jacket of some kind, gloves, boots, and durable pants. You have to keep your eye on the world around you not only the traffic and the dangers associated with that, but the weather too.

A storm can surge up in an instant. A heavy downpour on a highway at 70 MPH can cause you enormous amounts of pain if your skin is exposed. And you’ll notice when the breaks in the clouds are coming and see how the rain rolls in and drifts away as you move through it, where in a car, you may drive 20 to 50 miles and barely register what’s going on in the world around you, because inside the car, life goes on much like it would in your home.

Motorcycle riders understand pirates. The two life styles go together very well. The romance that many secretly feel toward the golden age of piracy is embodied in the fantasies of the motorcycle rider for many of the same reasons described in the long motorcycle journey. And to understand the magic of America, you have to understand one of the greatest pirates of all time, and a personal hero of mine, Captain Henry Morgan.

It is true that I have a particular fondness for the pirates that roamed the Caribbean during the golden age of piracy from 1660’s to the 1720’s. Not to imply that I honor the life of the thief. But I do credit those particular pirates as being the foundations of America, because in my view the nations of Europe were the true thieves.

Controversial, of course it is. But you have to remember what the world was at the time and why the pirates came to be. At the time that Spain claimed central and South America, they eradicated all the cultures existing at the time and stole the wealth of those cultures. Just because a nation is behind the robbery, does not make them any less a thief. And consider that at the time the English navy, would kidnap young men and employ them against their will to serve the might of their empire, and that England and France, always at war with one another, could not stand to allow the Spanish to reap all the benefits of its conquest of the Aztecs and their great capital city of Tenochtitlan.

“Tenochtitlan was a marvelous metropolis with complicated lakes that surrounded the place. The Spanish upon seeing it claimed it was so beautiful that it looked like a dream. Cortez conquered the city shortly, and had Montezuma stoned to death in front of his own people. The Aztecs had an army, but their only real focus had been to raid neighboring tribes for victims in human sacrifice to their insatiable gods, especially Quetzalcoatl. They were no match for the battle hardened Spanish and their firepower.

Cortez destroyed the city block by block and built a new city on the ruins of Tenochtitlan, a city that would become one of the largest cities in the world, Mexico City. Not only did this city go on to become one of the most dangerous places in the world, but any attempt to uncover the past of Tenochtitlan are long since destroyed. The great monument that resides in Mexico City now is the golden-winged Angel of Independence. A very strange statue for a people who were completely conquered by Spain and had their culture eradicated.

Anyway, Cortez sacked the city, destroyed the culture which was rich with gold, and proceeded to bring all that gold to Spain much to the concern of England and France. England, recruiting naval officers in the manner they had, and the rigors of their sea fairing discipline made it easy for rebellion at sea to cast off their nation and become a pirate.

Privateers were acts of piracy backed by countries, to prevent the Spanish from keeping too much gold of their newly conquered land. It didn’t take long for those privateers to cast away their nations and the burdens of their ownership in favor of freedom. So the exploits of L’Ollonais, Captain Morgan and Black Beard may have been violent and against the law, but the law makers had broken many laws as well. Those pirates wanted freedom from the heresy of nations. These very pirates were the first democracies in the world. Pirates had elections, and insurance, and were certainly the first organizations in the world to show a successful democracy and the ability of a small few to stand up to the tyranny of nations. Without question, the very popular book Buccaneers of American by Alexander O. Exquemelin which was published just shy of the 1700’s sat on the book shelves of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams who at their time collected thousands of books. It is no accident that the exploits of the pirates in that book paved the way for the bold words of the founding fathers, because the pirates had managed to wreak havoc against the mighty English. Using the same basic principles as the pirate code, The Declaration of Independence was written with a bit more education behind the quill that wrote it, but with equal sincerity. In fact, in the final battle against the English during the War of 1812, Jean Lafitte helped Andrew Jackson defeat the English in New Orleans by using the pirates that ran with Lafitte to break the English will. Pirates have played an important role in the foundations of America, and I love them for it! Their descendents find themselves riding motorcycles instead of sailing ships.

Now among motorcycle riders, these modern pirates, there are two categories of which I am of the second. The first is the rider that brings out his motorcycle on the first warm day of the year and rides his bike when the sun shines. The second is the one that rides all year, rain, shine, hot or cold. I know many, many men that talk tough, but in reality are soft at heart. They may have large muscle mass, but that is usually to disguise the weakness behind their eyes.

Many of that first type is the union worker that buys a Harley because they have the expendable income, and of that group are thousands of police, firefighter and factory workers, the so-called middle class. They bring out their motorcycles when the sun shines and the weather is warm. And in the windows of their cars and trucks they place a sticker proclaiming, “Harley Davidson,” so as to let people know that they have a motorcycle at home in the garage.

This tendency says a lot about their character.

For a while, I was vice-president of the Suzuki Club of North America and I was on a long ride with them all across Ohio. My wife and I put 500 miles on our bike that day, but I had a dispute with the president because we hit rain and he wanted to stop under an overpass. He figured that because he was president of the organization that I should follow his lead, especially in front of the other members.

I quit the club that day and road in the rain alone with my wife clutched to my back. We all met at a dealership later that day for a membership drive, but that was the last day I ever spoke to those guys. The philosophic differences between us were too great.

You see, this is the fundamental trouble with our nation. America was founded on freedom and independence, bravery, valor, rugged individualism, endurance and a tendency toward isolationism. This new breed of American raised in the labor movement, which has its roots in European socialism attracts the weak, soft minds of those that are afraid to compete.

There is no question that through social legislation the life of the working poor can be improved, as is evidence in the modern union laborer. I’ve known many of those people all my life and their hearts are for the most part soft. They only have courage in groups. They rule through thuggish intimidation because alone they are weak souls that only ride their motorcycles on sunny days if at all. What they fail to understand, which is why socialism fails 100% of the time is that everyone’s success in this life or failure, is depended upon the “character” of the individual.

Collectivism lacks character, and that is why the same people walking around Wisconsin or Ohio with signs protesting the removal of collective bargaining legislation are terrified, because they don’t have the character to exist on their own actions, and they are un-American in my opinion. At least the America I understand.

Now to them, in the Socialist States of America they are American, and they’ll fly their flags proudly. I know them well. Because they lack character and individual strength they are easily mislead since they don’t know their own history, they have allowed others to rewrite it for their convenience.

This is why they believe collective bargaining is their “right.” They have allowed themselves to be soft, and psychologically weak. They only have strength in mass swarms which isn’t strength at all. They are a spreading cancer if anything that will trade freedom for security out of sheer lack of character.

A part of me feels sorry for those union protestors. 90,000 or even 100,000 fools can fill a stadium at a sport event, or even a rock concert. They don’t represent anything but a collective hive of insect minded creatures that can carry signs and attempt to hide their lack of character behind a mass. All they can do is make noise, scream and chant, or inflict vandalism on their opponents, because they don’t have the character to meet the majority equally in a war of ideas. I feel sorry for them because they lack the courage and character to truly be an American.

Our nation was founded by pirates, adventures, and intellectuals that dared to question the European socialism trends that Marx captured in his little pamphlet, The Communist Manifesto. I know some real Americans. They are a patient group that is easily overlooked by the media because they are self-reliant. And compared to the socialist, soft-minded, left-winged, characterless, malcontents inspired to chant as a mob to achieve rights that they have no claim to are in for a sad and pathetic awakening, the real Americans will be there when everything collapses because they are always what held the nation together.

The public sector worker has always been a parasite that took far more than it gave, and received a pat on the head like a dog, by politicians just looking for a vote. Collective bargaining gave improper rights to those that didn’t deserve it, by taking from those Americans that worked hard, and taught their children to have character. Such people are what hold the nation together with the heart of those old pirates that were willing to do anything to leave behind the tyranny of Europe.Unions are European by design and that makes them disgusting and doomed to fail and here is the reason why, radicals place too much emphasis on the monotony of a day’s work. They identify themselves as a “laborer” and not person of character and that is why these people will fail at life no matter how much money we give them. They meditate on that which is depressing, those hours of the day that they sell to someone else in exchange for financial compensation. And they expect that for all time they can minimize the impact of that sale through collective bargaining. Their failure is that they lost their character and become their jobs, so thus they see nothing but that time they’ve sold away. They seek to fill that void with more financial compensation.

That’s why they are a broken people doomed to fail over and over in their lives. To hear them speak is like listening to the ghost of a depressed soul that doesn’t know that life has left it. All you can feel is pity for the poor creature.
Thugs, losers and mindless fools are bred because they traded character for socialism.

It is these characters that have turned our society into a Logothete of ineptitude, over regulated and uninventive.
And that is something that deserves to be despised.

Rich Hoffman

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

Hagan Uses Racist Slurs, Grayson Tries to Start a Fight: The Hypocrisy of Progressives

Bob Hagan, a Democrat from Youngstown recently participated in a disgraceful exchange on Facebook with Kevin Crowther during a debate over S.B.5. Hagan did what most Democrats and union supporters do when they are intellectually challenged by facts, they called their intellectual superiors names. Hagan called Kevin“Buckwheat” on Facebook for all to see.

Here is that exchange.

Kevin is a black man, a conservative that was making some great points that Hagan couldn’t answer. So like a child on the playground at wits end, Hagan retreated into a racial slur.

Isn’t that something? I thought Democrats were all about minority rights, equality for all, and looking out for the little guy. Yet here is Hagan calling a black man, “buckwheat!”

Here is Hagan’s contact information and bio.

http://www.house.state.oh.us/index.php?option=com_displaymembers&task=detail&district=60

If you have lived under a rock for the last century, “Buckwheat” was the little black boy on “Little Rascals.” After Hagan’s comments, many people went to the press and a few websites carried the story. I learned about it during a recent Tea Party meeting. If you read this article, you can see that Hagan is sorry he “got caught” I mean sorry he slipped with the racial slur.

http://www.vindy.com/news/2011/feb/27/hagan-falls-flat-on-face-8212-book-that-/

Why is he sorry? Well, apparently he wants to run for Mayor of Youngstown, and that will never happen if he can’t capture the black vote. So now that he has realized that arguing with people on Facebook is a pretty stupid idea considering that people can take screen shots, like the one you see on this page. Sorry Bob, but you revealed your true thoughts and it won’t be forgotten with double talk. Why does Hagan seem to have problems with black people? The event with Kevin took place on February 19th. It’s not a conservative conspiracy to take his seat, because a year prior to this “buckwheat” incident Hagan was in the way of another man trying to view belly dancers on a stage and Bob wouldn’t get out-of-the-way. The two men had some words, and Bob was knocked out cold, the man who punched Hagan in the face caused a gash in his chin needing 11 stitches. The man who struck Hagan was a black man. However, according to Hagan, all these things that keep happening to him are the fault of some conservatives from Southern Ohio.

Now, you’d think that this would be a big national story. But it’s not. For the most part, the papers and TV stations have given Hagan a pass. After all, he’s one of them, he’s a progressive, so his answers that he didn’t mean “buckwheat” in a racial way, is accepted.

Now here is another one of those liberals that just doesn’t seem to connect the dots in his mind, listen to Alan Grayson talking about the “hate” and “racism” from Republicans.

But this is the same Alan Grayson that sent this letter to a friend of mine. Have a read and see of those two people match up.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Dear XXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX:

On May 4, 1886, in Haymarket Square in Chicago, the public rallied peacefully in support of 40,000 workers in Chicago who had gone on strike, to win the right to organize. The police attacked, and eight died.

On July 6, 1892, in Homestead, Pennsylvania, 3800 workers went on strike, to win the right to organize. Three hundred hired and armed goons attacked them. Five people died.

On April 20, 1914, in Ludlow, Colorado, 1200 coal miners went on strike, to win the right to organize. The Colorado National Guard attacked their shantytown, and burned it to the ground. Nineteen people died. Two women and 11 children were asphyxiated, and they burned to death.

Here and around the world, many people have fought and died, so that you and I would have the right to organize.
And so that 250,000 public workers in Wisconsin would have that right, too.

This is not exactly a new idea. Six months after the Ludlow Massacre, President Wilson signed the Clayton Act, prohibiting the prosecution of union members under Antitrust Law. That was almost a century ago.

Two decades later, during the Franklin Roosevelt’s first term as President, he signed the National Labor Relations Act into law. It protects the right to organize. That was over 75 years ago.

The right to organize also is a fundamental principle of international law. Over 150 countries have ratified the “Right to Organize” Convention, an international treaty. It was adopted in 1949, over 60 years ago.
So why are we even talking about this, 11 years into the 21st Century?

Because the teabaggers want to “take back America.” They want to take it back, all right – take it all the way back to the 19th century. When there was no right to organize. When people worked for a dollar a day. When grown men competed against children for jobs. When women were barred from most jobs entirely. When you worked until you died.
Not to mention slavery.

I want to see an America that is healthy and wealthy.

They want an America that provides cheap labor to our corporate overlords. An America where the middle class is chained by debt.

We didn’t ask for this fight. But we have no choice except to fight back. For the survival of the middle class in America. For us, for our children, and for our grandchildren. And so that the victims in Haymarket, in Homestead and in Ludlow did not die in vain.

As Cardinal Spellman said 45 years ago, “it is a war thrust upon us, and we cannot yield to tyranny.”
I’m ready to fight for what’s right. What about you?

Courage,
Alan Grayson

______________________________________________________________________

Here Alan is calling Tea Party supporters “teabaggers” and calling for a fight. Also, included in his email is this emblem of a “fist.” Isn’t that kind of violent?

Let me give Mr. Grayson a history lesson: Slavery was ended by a Republican, Abraham Lincoln. That’s the really tall guy who had a beard for you MTV viewers. He was a conservative.

The labor movement was started by another Republican, Teddy Roosevelt, who fought during the first decade of the 20th century to break down anti-trusts and corporate power in machine politics. And you know what, I agree with what Teddy was trying to do. But………after his presidency, Roosevelt went on a grand safari hunt in Africa for an entire year, and every country he visited touted him as a king. Somewhere out there in the Serengeti Teddy became a bleeding heart progressive. Maybe it was his age, maybe it was a form of madness, who knows, but if Teddy had a fault it was that he craved power, and suddenly he didn’t have any power after the presidency. Before returning home, he toured all the nations of Europe dining with kings, queens, princes and Emperors. Everyone wanted to eat from his hand, and it went to his head.

The final blow came when Teddy came back to the United States and saw that his good friend President Taft had allowed machine politics to retake the Republican Party so Teddy decided to run for a third term of president. But the Republicans wouldn’t let him run on their tickets because Teddy had become, too progressive and had lost touch with his conservative principles. So they pushed him out of the party hoping he’d just retire.

All it did was make Teddy angry, because deep down inside, Roosevelt wanted power back so he formed his opinions around the new emerging “progressive” party being formed by “rich” Republicans seeking a utopia type era in America. So while the Republicans divided over progressivism and split the vote during the 1912 election, Woodrow Wilson won under a softer form of progressivism on the Democratic ticket.

Wilson adopted many of Roosevelt’s progressive reforms, especially after his wife died early in his presidency. So Roosevelt’s progressive platform filled the intellectual void of Wilson in his grief. But Wilson was an ideological academic and was not as sensible as Roosevelt and progressivism spun out of control. Wilson was a racist to the extreme, but Democrats seem to overlook that, just like they do with their current golden boy, Bob Hagan in Youngstown. Does anybody think Jessie Jackson will come to Youngstown and speak out against Hagan. Or will the Democrats denounce their affiliation with Wilson? You already know the answer.

Alan Grayson attempted to give a history of the labor movement as if to validate the union movement. The fact is, if Roosevelt had not fought hard for the worker rights against the corporate greed, they’d still be going on to this day. It took a president to provide that kind of leadership. The union movement only rode on Teddy’s coat tails and a friendly Woodrow Wilson administration that was so lost it was easy for the unions to take credit. When F.D.R came to the presidency, which was Teddy’s younger cousin, Franklin also suffered the Roosevelt tendency to elitism that came from their New York high society roots. Franklin came to power in government as a state senator when Teddy was most progressive and it seemed to have a serious influence on Franklin.

Franklin had another problem aside from being a progressive leaning young man……..he couldn’t keep his pants on, and had multiple affairs while married to Eleanor.

Eleanor forgave these imperfections, but she lost interest in sex with Franklin and buried her time into social and political causes. She wasn’t doing all that social work because she wanted to fix the world. She was trying to fix the world because she could fix her marriage.

These were psychologically messed up people, these progressives. Does Eleanor remind you of anyone? Listen to her here.

Now progressives might listen to that and think, “oh, she’s speaking my heart.” I hear something different. I hear a woman that desperately wants sex. She was well aware that her husband was sneaking his long time mistress, nicknamed Mrs. Johnson into the White House during 1941. It wasn’t revealed to the public until the 1960s. It left Eleanor drowning in jealous betrayal and a yearning for what every woman wants, and F.D.R wouldn’t give it to her. She was suffering from the same dilemma that thousands of women suffer from, an attempt to find redemption in a career of some kind only to find out much later that nothing can fix a broken heart. Such imperfections should not be followed, as they appear to be. They are to be avoided. Broken minds do not make the type of people anyone should attempt to emulate.
And here is a fan of Eleanor, they have a lot in common.

How about that deficit control and all that job creation?

It’s quite obvious what the facts are, and the days of pushing this stuff under the rug are over. Progressives are a broken people, and the labor movement is teaming with progressive influence. The name calling from Democrats and the hypocritical, divisive politics won’t fly any more. These are people who can’t even fix themselves so how can they fix anything in government.

Progressives are all about remaking the world. They don’t care how they do it. They’ll attempt to pound people out of their way if they have to, because these progressives are trying to outrun their own form of insanity.

I can speak for myself. I don’t want anything to do with progressive thought. I do want to take the nation to a period before progressive philosophy took over the American consciousness like a sickness. I would be the first to fight for worker rights against corporate greed, and I don’t need a labor union of power hungry progressives to tell me that it’s right to treat people fairly.

And I don’t want anything to do with a group of politicians that speak out of both sides of their mouths. Bob Hagan got caught using a racist slur. Alan Grayson is trying to incite violence among the union rank and file. I would suggest any financial damage caused by union radicals should be sent to Mr. Grayson for his incendiary comments and blind rhetoric, spewing half-baked historical facts to the masses that look to him for the truth, which he fails to offer. Instead he panders to the mob providing viability to his progressive philosophy, which has set America on a path of the pathetic as Republicans spend half their time defending themselves for far less impositions than what these Democrats have committed, recently.

If we follow the progressive path, we will continue to fail. If we continue to listen to the double talk of people like Hagan, Grayson, Clinton and many others, that are lost in their own personal problems and attempt to fix the world where they fail to fix themselves. We don’t need a world made in their broken images. Government is not their playground for experimental progressive politics which sends us all on a path to be second-rate in the world market place.

And unions are not a right given by government. They should absolutely be illegal. They have no place in public funding, and what Grayson fails to point out in his child like grasp of history is that his beloved F.D.R also said that no public union should ever enter the mind of any politician. But he won’t tell the mushy minded followers of his rhetoric that. He is able to mislead his flocks of sheep because it’s worked in the past, and the plan is for it to work in the future.

Rich Hoffman

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