Category: Orson Wells

Blood Drunk Apoligists: The Lost Fools of Modernism

I was on 700 WLW with Matt Patrick on August 10, 2011 indulged in the topic of whether or not Bert and Ernie of Sesame Street are in fact homosexuals. However, on a more serious note, the topic of the day was school levies and whether or not they should be passed or declined as a way to force change. Prior to my appearance Matt had received many callers that proclaimed passing a school levy is the “patriotic, and caring” thing to do if one loves their community. I argue the opposite.

Channel 9 News always in my opinion, does a fantastic job of covering topics. Brendan Keefe’s I-Team stories are great benefits to our city in the hard reporting that he does. However, and this is the nature of television versus talk radio, there isn’t much time to get into the heart of a matter, because attention is spent on the visual appeal of the stories. In an attempt to bring balance to the story of why schools are failing all over the state, Channel 9 is sitting down with various superintendents all over Cincinnati to put a face to the requests for more money. Channel 9 sat down with the new Fairfield superintendent to explore the topic of why funding was needed for his district.

As seen in that interview, the direction of the story took an emotional turn. It was never asked, why is Fairfield unable to balance its budget based on the current tax supply. It is often discussed that federal money is declining, and state money is also on a downward trend, especially in affluent school districts. So it is only natural that financial expectations must be scaled back, but that is not what’s happening.

I had an argument with family members and friends about a year ago, who are functioning along the same assumption as the school superintendents, the reporters, the teachers, the unions, the radical protestors in London, school board members, parents, protests in Greece and everywhere else, that the world will always continue on as they always believed it would, like their own educations ensured them of a continuity in social existence that was as solid as concrete. The foundations of everything they have been taught since childhood is at stake because their beliefs are failing!

One person who considers themselves “worldly” said to me, “manufacturing jobs are leaving America. That’s a fact. America has to serve “high tech” interests. We have to get used to the fact that our role is changing. We must start saving for our children’s college now, so they can compete in that marketplace!” His utterances were straight out of the union playbook. The talking points are the same everywhere, and predictable.

“But how can you save for something that the cost is raising at an insanely dramatic rate? Is college worth 50K per year? Should 4 years of college cost 200K? Should kids go into debt to go to college? Should public education that is preparing all these kids for college charge 9 to 10K per pupil to educate? Does public education need a teacher with a master’s degree to teach 1st, 2nd, or 3rd, grade? Can public education afford to pay all their teachers over 50K per year?

At this point in the conversation fury builds in the eyes of the apologists, for they do not have answers to these questions. In fact, they find themselves caught in their own dreamlike haze. “Without college a kid has no chance! If you don’t have a degree, you are doomed these days!”

“That’s what you’ve been told,” I’ll reply. “But businesses are learning the hard lesson, which over the past 20 years that a college educated person does not guarantee them a job ready employee. In fact, many young people are proving to not be mature enough to handle the rigors of life until their 30’s these days, and it is costing companies billions of dollars in lost productivity each year, to deal with the learning curve of these immature college graduates who lack common sense, because it has been “taught out of them,” during the education process.

I have a name for these types of people, the ones who argue the obvious; I call them “Blood Drunk Apologists.” The trouble with these types is that they have drunk the blood (metaphorically speaking) of left-wing education concepts and are under the spell of a social order designed to be everything to everybody. They started drinking this blood in their own education process so it is difficult for them to see the truth of the situation now as adults. They are under a kind of voodoo-like spell that prevents them from seeing the truth even when it is right in front of them, because they have built their entire lives around a preconceived notion regarding social structure.

I’ve always questioned education and the methods. When I was a younger guy I wanted to be an archeologist or an anthologist because my interests were in the “big picture” studies of civilization. But I was also interested in politics. I was also interested in other sciences. I was also interested in fiction and literature. I was also interested in fast cars. I was also interested in adventure and danger, and like I mentioned before I looked for jobs in my teens that allowed me to explore all those things at the same time. I read a lot, and it was in those books and the studies of civilization that I was insulated from the spell that was cast on the world around me. While I was reading heavily, the person who was arguing with me about the current state of education was walking around with his pants down around his ankles being paddled by his fraternity brothers in college. Others who have argued with me about this topic were stepping off a bus in boot camp and having their heads shaved and forced to do push-ups each time they answered a question wrong to their drill sergeant. These soldiers signed up for the military so they could qualify for the GI Bill, which would help them go to college, so they could grow up and get a good job!.

There are a lot of ways that people arrive at the pain of adulthood, where at some point they drink the blood of orthodoxy. It is usually brought about by pain, where the instigator of the pain is also the one who provides the relief from the pain, making the victim falsely trust their antagonist. By drinking the blood, they find the pain of life is eased.

Proudly I have advocated to those I care about that such a life of blood drinking is unnecessary, even foolish. Because all one has to do is study history, even passively to see the course of where their actions will take them. And this whole education situation is a major crisis in our country. Education is not the end all-fix all for society building. We have a whole culture of lost souls roaming around like they are under a voodoo daze, unable to think critically. And even if education did work well, it is simply too expensive. Cost controls must be put in place to reign in the out-of-control costs, because even if people determine for themselves that they do want to go to college, and do want to maintain the current direction of public education, the cost increases of 5% to 10% every year cannot continue. There isn’t money to pay for the financial expectations of education even if we taxed our citizens at 100% of their entire incomes, at some point; our society will hit that wall. Because only a very rich society can afford luxuries, and a society cannot be rich if everyone is going to school. Some people have to actually be in the trenches fighting to make something that can be sold to someone else for a profit, that’s the only way wealth is “created.”

Civilizations who forget that facts point to a right and wrong answer and pretentious arrogance that causes critical blindness find themselves extinct, and the face of the earth is a chronicle of such failures. Some of those societies fell so hard they aren’t even in our written records, but all had empires that were vast and complicated, only to be crushed by their own arrogance, because they were under the spell of the blood they had drunk all in the name of social comfort.

Debates such as this current one over education are as old as time itself on a social wheel that has spun repeated time and time again like the scratch on a turntable record. And the current direction is as predictable as a movie we’ve all seen the end of, and those who have drunk the blood and use it as sustenance are foolish enough to believe that somehow the ending of the movie will end differently because they are the current players. Such is the effect of the voodoo spell of Blood Drinking Apologists and their Ignorance of Doom.

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

The Devil of Public Education: The Mask of School Pride

I was on the air with Doc Thompson of 700 WLW to discuss the meeting at the Lakota School Board from August 8, 2011 where a 4.75 mill levy was placed on the November ballot. Click below to listen to that electrifying broadcast where I reveal that many people within the school district consider me the “Devil of Public Education.” So I returned from the confines of my hellish existence to have a lively discussion about the state of public education in Ohio with Doc.

(There is about 2:40 of this recording that overlaps toward the end. It’s not your computer; it’s a defect of the original recording. Just stay with it, because it will pass.)

There has been a lot of tension at Lakota over the last couple of levy battles, and now that Lakota is attempting to pass yet another levy, that tension is returning. I spoke to quite a few people from the education side of the school district after this particular meeting and tension was the general atmosphere. The fights of the past have been contentious to say the least. That was when it was revealed to me that many of the employees in the district consider me the incantation of the devil himself because I hate public education!

Well, I’ve heard that kind of thing before. The most obvious circumstance under which I’ve heard that kind of rhetoric is at football games where the Cleveland Browns come to play at the Bengals stadium or worse yet, the Pittsburg Steelers. For me the emotion is even greater when my favorite team the Tampa Bay Buccaneers plays New Orleans or the Atlanta Falcons. In fact when I heard that Troy Evans the linebacker for the Saints was providing busing to residents of Lakota, which is an idea that I think is great, my first thought was “darn” why did it have to be a guy who played for the Saints!!!!!! I HATE THE SAINTS!!

But why do I hate the Saints or the Bengals hate the Browns or Steelers? Because emotion is what sports is all about. The drama of a sporting event is all about picking a side and rooting for your team to win.

Schools do this also. The game between Lakota East and Lakota West is always a big game. It used to be that a game against Princeton, or Colerain was always a big game. There’s always been a lot of rivalry in these games. Fights occur between players in movie theater parking lots and parents will fight with other parents from other districts in the stands. It’s an innate response to the human desire for competition.

So it is only natural that a school district will use “School Pride” to unify the students and parents to the goals of the school, and will use that same pride to pass a school levy and make those out who are against the increased spending of taxes as “The Devil.” Such relative generalizations are indicators of a frail psyche. I indulge in them for competitive events like football games, or any other type of conflict, but in the grand scheme of things, I keep focused on the “big picture,” where my counterparts cannot.

The organized labor element of public education has a cleaver little scheme going, of which they are entirely aware of, they use this “School Pride” issue to drive up the wage levels of their personal incomes, because while human beings participating in that school as employees, students and parents are functioning under the spell of “School Pride” no amount of money is too much so long as their school system WINS. Rational discussion that might otherwise occur in any other business environment are ignored in favor of the passion for the fight!

This is how school levies have migrated out of control. Organized labor has used “School Pride” to pass tax increases which has translated to exceptionally high incomes for the members of those unions. Administrators strapped by legislative rules negotiated by organized labor cannot manage the costs of the organized labor, so they resort to “School Pride” to sell the public and cover up their weakness of administrative influence.

This is the state of all schools, and “School Pride” to the people outside the functioning mechanisms of the school doesn’t work so well, and now that wage levels have reached a “diminishing marginal return” on the tax payer investment, people are turning down school levies, because they see no end in sight from schools asking for more money. That is why 85% of all school levies across the State of Ohio failed in the August elections of 2011, because “School Pride” as a spell doesn’t work when the pockets of the people supporting school are empty.

With the Cincinnati Bengals, Mike Brown has obviously taken advantage of the taxpayers and he makes no apologies for it. His contract is bankrupting the city, yet he doesn’t care. And he continues to put a terrible product on the field giving fans very little to cheer for. Yet like mindless fools, there are still fans that show up and tailgate for the Bengals when the Steelers or Browns come to town and will proclaim that the Bengals will be victorious! The facts don’t matter at that point, because the game is about emotion.

And that same emotion is at play at Lakota and schools all across Ohio. The LEA (Lakota Education Association) has negotiated a contract for itself that is bringing extreme financial hardship to the district. And they, like Mike Brown, don’t appear to care one bit because their actions prove so. And all Lakota can do is make a guy like me, appear to be the “Devil of Public Education” because they have no other card to play. The truth is too painful and admitting that they are helpless to control their costs is just embarrassing. Calling me names is far easier, so that’s what they resort to.

That is also why schools fail time and time again. Because the solution is not in the emotion of the fight, it’s in the business of the numbers. And once the game is done, the reality is difficult to deal with. So like a drug addict needing another fix, those in education who rely on emotion to manage their business find themselves always in need of more, because the reality has not been addressed properly and never will while those in charge use “School Pride” as a mask to cover the real problem.

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

The Symposium of Justice: The gamble of Rich Hoffman

If it is once again one against forty-eight, then I am very sorry for the forty-eight.
Margaret Thatcher (b. 1925), British Conservative politician, prime minister. Quoted in: Daily Telegraph (London, 25 Oct. 1989), referring to the 1989 Commonwealth Conference.

That quote from Margaret Thatcher accurately sums up my reasons for putting out the book, The Symposium of Justice back in 2004. Recently at the Annie Oakley Wild West Showcase in Greenville, Ohio many of my friends from there had been talking about my 2004 book and how prophetic it now seemed in 2011, and it took me on a journey down memory lane about the content of that artistic work. As I ate Chinese food from a fairground vender my wife and I had a discussion about just how crazy many of the things I wrote about in The Symposium were at the time of its publication, and ironically how true many of those things had become in a world that is clearly headed in the direction of events written about in The Symposium of Justice.

My publisher back then was against the entire book. There were many arguments about content, which resulted in a rushed publication date. The editor who was working from an office in Paris quit altogether leaving the entire editing process to my wife, who can read and edit basically, but she wasn’t a professional editor but she stepped in to meet our deadlines. The conflict basically went like this, “Mr. Hoffman, what are you thinking? You open the book with the attempted rape of a young girl by a disgusting pedophile. You have old women who are terribly rude dissected by some future race of aliens thousands of years in the future. You go off on some tangent where there is a dragon slayer hunting dragons! Then you have a group of rebels launching an attack on Washington D.C. with flying cars! ARE YOU CRAZY! You’ll get no positive reviews within the United States. No paper will provide an endorsement. No TV station will touch this material. I mean you’re main plot point is that you have this vigilante running around in the night like some kind of Batman character using bullwhips to punish criminals, and trying to free society from a mind control device that is emitted in radio waves which affect the brain and make people do things they wouldn’t otherwise do! Mr. Hoffman, we advise you to rewrite this material, to stick with the primary storyline of the vigilante and expand on that character arch. You need to make this novel much more contemporary (progressive). As it is now, it belongs in a dime store saloon in Nevada, 1890. This type of pulp literature won’t even resonate with young people in the comic book market! The main character, this CLIFFHANGER/Fletcher Finnegan has absolutely no weaknesses. He seems to be a superman able to fight off thousands of enemies all by himself! Where is the conflict in that? What is he afraid of? Even Superman had Kryptonite which gave him human appeal. Your character is the perfect man, and there are no perfect men, so how can the audience relate?”

I remember that conversation so well because I was standing on the phone in the middle of Comp USA at the time buying a new computer and the French editor, exasperated with me put her boss on the line, another French guy who spoke good English, but definitely had a French accent as he spoke, every word had a kind of accentuated thrust at the beginning of each sentence. My publisher at the time was a Canadian company. Being my first book, I couldn’t get the big New York publishers interested, so I turned to Victoria, Canada, capital of British Columbia to a publisher who would carry the title if I put up the upfront cost of publishing, which I did. My editor and company contact however was in the Paris, France office which is why they even took the time to speak to me, because I was paying them upfront. That company was purchased by an American firm a few years ago and they are now located outside of Indianapolis, Indiana, and they still carry the title only under different ownership. But even under those conditions, the publisher of my book had serious concerns. They hadn’t seen anything like it and weren’t sure what to do about bringing it to the market place.

In duress prior to a rewrite my wife and I took a trip to Niagara Falls and stayed at the Marriott Fallsview Hotel and Spa to get away from our normal environment for the weekend and talk about what to do about the book. We went to Canada because the publisher was in Canada and I wanted to put my mind in a unique setting so I could think clearly on the issue, and Clifton Hill like Gatlinburg and International Street in Orlando, Florida is a hotbed of commercialism, audaciousness, and imagination. Walking around the commercial districts targeting an international audience which seemed appropriate since The Symposium of Justice was an international publishing effort my wife told me, “It’s your book, your vision. I think it’s great. It’s our story, it’s about our struggles. It’s your autobiography, your heart, your soul. If you want to change it to match the publisher recommendations it’s your call. It’s also your writing career.”

I remember looking at the Ripley’s Believe It or Not exhibit as she said this and thinking what a monstrosity of commercialism it was. “If I stick with it, my writing career may be a short one.”

She looked at me, the blinking neon lights of Clifton Hill glittering in the slight chill of an October, Canadian evening and said, “it was you who ran around in the night with your whips trying to catch that rapist and protect your family, it was your family the police targeted because you wanted to expose that drug trade they were covering up, it was you who worked that second job as a cook to make up the financial difference of what we needed as a family, so you could spy on the local teenagers and find out who the dealers were, it was you who have spent nearly two decades reading mythology and philosophy in your “spare” time. If you want to listen to some French chick that’s about five years older than your own kids, just so you can sell more copies of the book, then do it. It’s your writing career. But think about what you admire, the artists you’ve enjoyed who society sometimes takes a century or even more to appreciate because the writer is so far out ahead of the rest of the world. The ideas you stick by in this book will follow you all your life and then some.”

We returned from that trip and I had decided to throw all the dice out there and keep the book pretty much the way I had written it.
________________________________________________________

Chapter 1: Scarface the Rapist: A convict is released from jail and encouraged by law enforcement to harass the pubic with fear by raping a young girl, so the public would support more law enforcement. The rape is interrupted by a vigilante named Cliffhanger who beats the rapist to near death with two bullwhips leaving the community split on how they feel about it. Cliffhanger gives the young girl a manifesto called “The Symposium of Justice” to be published in the local newspaper which includes Cliffhanger’s Ten Rules for living, and numerous stories written by Cliffhanger to make the argument publicly on the merits of the vigilante versus the rule of law.

Chapter 2: Stereotypical Reality: is the story published in the town paper of two vain women who are contemplating why they should live forever. One of the women is extremely wealthy and is considering a new technology called cryogenics, to freeze her body upon death to be awaked at some future time when technology can revive her. This woman realizing that she is virtually immortal becomes audaciously arrogant and rude to other people as the natural wisdom of age is interfered with the illusion that death is not on her horizon, so she reverts to a teenage mindset. When the public has had too much of her rudeness she is killed and revived in the distant future to find an alien race has found her body and is using it to perform genetic engineering to build slaves for themselves.

Chapter 3: The Veil Master: The mayor of the town hires an assassin to kill Cliffhanger for interfering with his plans with the rapist. The assassin is an arm of “The System” a progressive global group of which the mayor is attempting to climb in political power. The mayor reveals that the entire town is under a scientific experiment he is developing for “The System” which emits a radio wave that directly affects the pituitary gland in the human brain and makes citizens behave impulsively in ways they can control. The mayor explains to the assassin that if the results of his town are positive, then “The System” will be able to employee the same “mind controlling” methods all over the world.

Chapter 4: The Perilous Bed: Another story published in the town paper which Cliffhanger introduces his Ten Rules for Living to the community, hoping to fight off the mind control methods of “The System.” It’s about a young knight who wants to marry the daughter of a much respected noble. He thinks that by cutting off the head of a dragon, it will earn him the right to ask the noble for permission. The noble turns the dragon head offering down, but invites the kid to attempt to stay on a magical bed, in a magical room that will hurl three perilous tests at the young man. If the kid survives, he earns the right to ask the nobles daughter to marry him. (This was a story intended for my son-in-law which he understood)

Chapter 5: The Overman: A grill cook, the fastest man around who is mysteriously wealthy and married to the much respected town council woman Misty Finnegan, works with the local teenagers at a popular restaurant in town. Fletcher Finnegan has frequent duels with the local teenagers who respect the older man very much, but consider his thoughts “out dated” for the times. Fletcher seems to be particularly interested in a young girl who works at the restaurant as a cashier, who is the older sister to the little girl who suffered the rape attempt. The cashier is currently dating a kid who also works at the popular restaurant called, Republics. That kid is a known drug dealer and argues often with Fletcher Finnegan about morality.

Chapter 6: Return of the Flying Tigers: Another story published in the local paper to justify the vigilantism of Cliffhanger. America is in a civil war. The coastal regions have turned against the interior of the nation. A group of video game freedom fighters are recruited by an old man to lead a rag-tag offensive against the nations forces stationed over Washington D.C. Using M400 Skycars, the old man hopes to have a tactical advantage over the best defense the military has in scoring a psychological battle for the resistance by bombing the air craft carriers stationed at Annapolis Military Academy.

Chapter 7: Fran Calls: A follow-up story in the newspaper is about Hurricane Fran when it hit Chapel Hill, North Carolina and a group of tree trimmers head to the region to help with the clean-up and get rich over the insurance claims. As the work dries up, fights break out among the workers that could lead to death as everyone fights for the remaining money left as civilization returns to the region in the wake of the disaster.

Chapter 8: The Veil of Knowledge: The town mayor takes the assassin and the assassin’s personal army of specialized killers to the location of the mind control device, which is hidden in a water tower just outside of town. They are all given medallions which absorb the invisible radio waves leaving them immune to the effects of the powerful impulses. A plan is set to capture and kill Cliffhanger brutally by setting a trap.

Chapter 9: Tabernacles of Joyless Lust: A newspaper story about a real-estate agent trying to repair a deal gone bad. The agent is in an affair with her boss who is using the relationship against the woman plunging her into a law suit against her clients whom she is particularly fond of.

Chapter 10: River Dual: The mayor and his assassins raid the riverside home of a local gunsmith for two reasons. They want to make an example of the man for his support of firearms, and they hope to lure Cliffhanger out into the light of day for an epic battle which is exactly what happens. The mayor and all his assassins, except for the primary one, are killed in the battle. The primary barely escapes with his life.

Chapter 11: The Other Side of the Fence: The last newspaper story to be seen by the public, a young divorcee has found herself in the arms of a very abusive man. The man appeared to be everything a young woman dreams of until she leaves her husband and lets the new man move in. Once the man is in her home she finds he’s not what he advertised, and is now in fear of the man not only for herself but her young child.

Chapter 12: Salad Bar Goddess: The assassin is sent to an upscale restaurant near the town where his career took a nose dive. This “hit” given to him by “The System” is a chance at redemption for his failure at the river. His target is the outspoken Fletcher Finnegan who has been all over the newspapers and television recently speaking out against the policies of “The System.” The assassin’s job is to locate the man, kill him in a highly public place in front of his family, and send the subtle message to the town that resistance is futile. At the restaurant where Finnegan is reported to be at, the assassin sees the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen at the salad bar. He recognizes the woman as Misty Finnegan, whom he remembered the slain mayor had been trying to get into his bed, and was denied much to his frustration. The assassin is then shocked to find that the woman is strangely unconcerned about his presence as she returns to her table where her small children are eating with her husband, making eye contact with the assassin several times with pity on her face. Then the assassin makes eye contact with her husband and discovers it is he who is the target of his assassination. It is Fletcher Finnegan himself, and he is aware of the assassin’s presence also, as he stares him down from across the room. The assassin looking into the eyes of Finnegan is startled to see absolutely no fear there, which is an emotion he is not prepared for. He had never met a man without any fear behind his eyes of any kind. It was at that moment that the assassin had seen that same look in the eyes of Cliffhanger, and that the two men were one in the same.

The assassin is filled with envy, at the direction of his sad and pathetic life. He suddenly realizes that his entire life has been nothing more than slavery to “The System.” He is jealous of Finnegan for being enough of a man to be able to have a woman like Misty Finnegan, because such a woman could have her pick of any man. And she didn’t pick Finnegan because of money, prestige, or any level of power. She picked him because he was good. And no woman of any worth would ever want the assassin for anything other than being a thug, a brute, a mere puppet to his masters.

The assassin realizes that if he wanted to do one good thing in his life, he’d let Fletcher and his family live, because he was on the wrong side, clearly. He nods to Fletcher and proceeds to leave the restaurant where he throws himself in front of a truck on a highway to commit suicide. The assassin knows that “The System” will hunt him for not completing the contract so he’ll be killed eventually anyway. At least this way, he can do it on his terms.

———————————————-

I remember when the Pulse Journal came to my house to do an interview about my book when it came out in the spring of 2004. He wanted to talk about my whips but wasn’t sure how to make such depressing topics appealing in a newspaper article to the general population. I had the same trouble at book stores and other media events, where the focus of the story was on my use of bullwhips, but nobody wanted to touch the content of the story, rape, murder, civil war, mind control, drug trafficking, spies, global conspiracies, it was just too much for the general public to accept, and the media was lost in how to cover it.

The book was obviously extremely anti-progressive, which was well before anybody was talking about what a progressive was. It sold to my friends in the Western Arts community who bought it because the hero had a whip and it reminded them of Zorro, but they were uneasy with the heavy political overtones and scientific basis behind the mind control plot, as were many people who weren’t prepared to deal with such things.

I reminded them that the old Republic serial called Zorro’s Fighting Legion had a similar story line. It was over the top stuff and fun, but it also taught kids valuable lessons about fighting for what they believed in. But as many of them told me then, society has “outgrown that kind of entertainment.”

It took me a while to get over some of the self-criticism I had about the book because every aspect of it was uphill. But as my wife had told me, “why are you writing this? Is it to become wealthy, is it to have a career as a writer, or is it to create a work of art that will stand the test of time?” I picked the later.

It has been only recently where people who have bought it have made excited comparisons to Atlas Shrugged and other kinds of art work that has direct appeal to those in the Tea Party movement. Well, I didn’t even know about Atlas Shrugged when I wrote Symposium. I wrote Symposium based on observations I had been making about the direction of the world, and I wanted to put those observations into a format of “pulp fiction” that people understood and could relate with to articulate that message.

A cowboy friend of mine approached me at The Annie Oakley Festival last weekend and told me, “I thought you were a little off the deep end when I read that book 7 years ago, but you know what, it don’t seem so crazy now.”

I smiled at the guy. “Who would have ever thought?” He was there when I did book signings of that book all those years ago and the public bought it because they saw me performing and wanted something of mine to take home to their friends with my signature in it. Most people didn’t understand the book at all, and told me as much the following year. But the people who did were people many would consider “conspiracy theorists.” I had people travel the length of the country to meet me the following year just to shake my hand because my book, “spoke to them.” But in talking with these people, it was obvious they were the social extremists out there and while I appreciated their support, I was frustrated that the general population just didn’t get it.

At a film festival a few years ago Gery Deer laughed at the small line of people who seemed to follow me everywhere I went, he’d call them “Hoffman’s radical groupies.” He knew the obsessive type; they were similar to those who frequent Star Trek Conventions, and Star Wars events. Only these were “conspiracy theory nerds” and they would line up to have their picture taken with me.

“I feel like an idiot posing for pictures with these guys,” I’d say to Gery.

“Hey, they’re fans. Be happy you have them. Some artists work their whole life to get one fan that will drive across the country to have their picture taken with them.” He’d pat me on the back. “You have a nice little handful.”

My wife would sit back and smile, knowing that those types of activities were something I didn’t enjoy doing. “I didn’t want to appeal to just the radical fringe,” I’d say to her.

At the hotel in Cleveland, at a film festival where I won a screenwriting award for a different project, but had been receiving a lot of comments about The Symposium she said to me at the pool while I was swimming, “Do you remember the homeless guy in the movie Always, who Richard Dreyfuss as a ghost was talking through. The homeless guy was one of those guys who just saw too much, and was close to the edge of death, so close that he could see beyond his surroundings. You’re like that only you have learned to function in the world like a normal human being. Many of these people haven’t learned to do that. They see TOO much, so they seem crazy to the rest of the world that is really just half asleep. That is the pain of being too awake, is that you run the risk of having your brain fried.”

She was right, and this comment went back to the one that started it all back in Niagara Falls, that time and perception would catch up if I let it. The important thing was to put it down on paper and let the art speak for itself.

This is fresh on my mind now, because more and more people are thanking me for writing The Symposium of Justice and even though I have put that book on the shelf and am moving on to new projects, it gives me great pleasure to know that it is touching people’s lives. So to those of you who wanted to know the story of how that book came to be, and why I don’t talk about it much, it’s because for one, I think it’s cheesy when involved in high-profile cases like I am, to always be pimping a book. That book for me is something that has meaning beyond these current years, so it’s not important to me to have my ego massaged with a boost in sales. It’s more important to deal with the issues of the day, which currently is protecting S.B.5 and fighting school levies which are obvious crimes against the tax payers. But the creative side of me does enjoy knowing that people are touched by something that was extremely difficult, and controversial to create, that fell short of my quality standards because of the circumstances under which it was produced, but the heart of the project remained uniquely in place because I had angered everyone involved in publishing and marketing to bring to being something that was WAY out in front of the political curb.

And for that I’m very proud. When you take on an endeavor where you are outnumbered by a lot, and you stick to your guns because you know in your heart that you are right, it feels wonderful to have that weight lifted off your shoulders as the times prove that the numbers against you were wrong, as usual.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE SYMPOSIUM OF JUSTICE AT AMAZON.COM:

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

The Wisdom of Darryl Parks: What congress and the senate don’t want you to know

It was nice to see that Gabbie Gifford was able to make a vote on the house floor for the epic vote on raising the debt ceiling, but in the back of my mind there was something wrong with the timing and ceremony of the whole affair.  I didn’t want to admit it to myself, because I don’t want to believe that Congressman Gifford would participate in such a thing, but it seemed to me that Gifford’s return to the house was designed to take the edge off all the fighting that had been going on in congress about whether or not to raise the debt ceiling, and whether or not there would be “revenue” involved. 

Such a thought actually makes me feel bad, to question the honesty of congress.  I’m sure in her case she has probably wanted to come back for a while.  But it was her friends in the house who probably “encouraged” her to return for this big vote in order to show “unity” to the American people.  The games of politics are nasty and costly, but I think the treachery and manipulation that these people are capable of has been dramatically underestimated, and based on what I know now about their activities, I would not put it passed congress to attempt to use Gabby Gifford to help make the American people forget about how ugly business in government truly is.  When I think such things I wonder if I’m the only one who sees it, that is until I hear Darryl Parks talk on 700 WLW every Saturday morning from 9 AM to 11.  While all this government ugliness was unfolding over the weekend I was on my way to The Annie Oakley Festival and had the opportunity to listen to Darryl on my hour and a half trip to Darke County,Ohio. Darryl Parks thinks much the way I do about most things, so it was refreshing to hear him speak with incredible clarity about our nation’s problems as the summer sun began to heat up the day of that momentous broadcast.  I think this particular broadcast was so good, and so historic that it deserved over an hour of transition over to podcast for the convenience of those who haven’t heard it, or to be listened to again for those who did hear it and want to listen again.  So do yourself a favor and hit PLAY on the link below.  Grab a snack and sit back and listen with the clarity of hindsight, now that the crisis has been averted for the moment, and marvel at the wisdom of Darryl Parks. 

Politicians have been a joke for a number of years and culturally we have dismissed them as irrelevant aspects of our lives.  Seldom if ever whether it be a Looney Toons cartoon from the 30’s and 40’s, or a film, television show, or novel, is a politician portrayed in a trustworthy manner.  It is universally accepted that as a group, politicians are deceitful, life-sucking aspects of our society who have virtually no benefit to our culture.  They make rules that we all have to live by, and they make decisions that cost us money.  Yet we listen to the same speeches every election cycle and hope that somehow things will be different with the next politician.  Then we act surprised when we find out that politicians have enriched themselves greatly while working in public office.  This is the gist of what Darryl was talking about, how can a politician like Mitch McConnell get rich as a politician?  Or how does Barack Obama becomes a millionaire between the years of 2004 to 2008 while he was just another senator?  The answer is they are making deals, and benefiting from insider trading, many of the conditions they create legislation to help along, a practice that should be illegal, but isn’t because it is the law makers committing the crime who would have to create the law. 

Many politicians I believe start their public careers with good intentions, where they really want to help.  But the money and power available to them is just too lucrative and they quickly turn to corruption for that age-old pursuit of financial security.  There are always exceptions of course, but as a general rule in a governmental body that depends on majority rule, if a majority is corrupt, then the body itself is also corrupt, and that is the case with our general government.

I listened carefully to the complaints of politicians on both sides of the political spectrum as the debt ceiling issue came to a close.  They are grossly out of touch insisting on even more money to support a political system that is obviously full of thieves.  Those thieves don’t consider themselves looters of course, because they are the law.  They see themselves as citizens who deserve the highest respect for their service to their country, but by their actions they are simple thieves, seeking for themselves plunder at the expense of the people they represent no different from a pirate.

You can learn a lot by watching people under duress, and America learned a lot about its politicians as the debt crises unfolded.  The demand for more “revenue,” a term used to disguise the real meaning which is “taxes,” from the voting population as a way to manipulate the situation to their advantage from a public guilty of trusting them, rang out from many politicians like drug addicts crying for another hit of “speed.” 

The level of corruption and financial addiction has shocked even me, a long time big government skeptic. I did not know it was this bad, I simply suspected as much.  But the proof is there for all of us to see.  We have a big problem in America.  We have to rethink the whole political process and the kind of people we want to fill those seats. 

We know the enormity of the problem because the vote that just occurred over the debt ceiling increase amounts to nothing.  It solves no problems, it still allows government to spend more than it takes in, and the solution of these parasites is just to send more money to them to cover the gaps.  Yet there is praise among the thieves and much back slapping going on for all those law makers are proud of themselves and they cheered in unison when Gabby Gifford came to the chamber and changed the story in the media from a “combative congress finally passes a vote,” to “Congressman Gifford cast her first vote since her tragic accident.”  And the nation looked at the image of Mrs. Gifford waving her hand to the crowd, collectively all the fights of the last week dropped away from the memory of voters in favor of the more pleasant story of Gabby Gifford’s amazing recovery. 

While all this was going on the thieves took a deep breath of relief as the media attention focused on the recovering congressman and allowed them to scurry away to the cracks they all hide in to figure out some way to spin the situation to their advantage, and attack those darn “tea baggers,” “talk radio hosts,” and “TV personalities” who are telling the public all about the scam they have been employing for decades. 

Yet the whole structure is supported by the “revenue” that Americans give those thieves, so we are guilty of subsidizing criminal activity knowingly.  After this episode and the information available to the American public if they allow it to continue, they are guilty of a real crime, not one created by corrupt law making politicians, but one of the moral code of the human race, where we are supposed to treat each other fairly, and with honesty and not with the heart of a predator in favor of a life of respect and valor.  Because if that’s the case, then all those corrupt politicians are accurate representatives of the demons which reside inside each and every voter, which makes us all guilty in the eyes of the universe. 

Thank goodness people like Darryl Parks gets it…………what’s wrong with everyone else?

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

Philanthropy in Public Schools: More Tax Money Needed to save the WORLD!

 

These days as our kids run about for decades as lost souls trying to achieve escape velocity from their upbringing, to establish themselves as individuals, all too often they end up doing all the same things in an attempt to be “unique.” 

Each and every one of them believes “they” are on a path nobody else has ever been on as they get tattoos, color their hair, spike their hair in the latest European fashions and spend their weekends pursuing binge drinking……………why? 

Because they all learn from the same place, public education, television, and music. 

Public education is the maestro of the three primary influences and has embedded itself between the modern parent and the child in such a way that they have exacerbated the difficulties of raising a child by infusing a lot of needless “social” commentary into the process of education.  Taken from the pages of Saul Alinsky’s writing, many teachers have sought to advance social agenda’s they received in college, and attached them to the natural rebelliousness of youth to propagate a vast social movement funded entirely by tax dollars. 

Most every youthful person says the same things when asked about social causes, in spite what their parents might believe, because public education has created that wedge using the parent’s tax dollars as the platform.  See my article about Chick-Fil-A here for more on this topic:

To those who wish to argue with me and proclaim that I’m being too far-reaching with this topic examine the case below, where Roger Grein under the guise of goodness has overstepped the fine line of what public education is supposed to teach, and what is the parent’s responsibility.  Roger thinks he should use high schools to launch young people on a quest for philanthropy, which is a desire to improve the material, social, and spiritual welfare of humanity, especially through charitable activities.  In other words, the proposal is that schools should teach altruism.    

Altruism is an attitude or way of behaving that is marked by unselfish concern for the welfare of others.  This is a concept that has been tried through religion and politics for over 4000 years and is built upon the ruined foundations of western philosophy.  All cultures who embrace altruism end up extinct or hiding in some mountain passage someplace avoiding a more aggressive culture, so the merits of altruism are debatable.  Altruism is explored explicitly in the book Atlas Shrugged, which I’m beginning to think should be required reading in 8th grade English class along with Alan Eckert’s The Frontiersman and until Ayn Rand put those thoughts down on paper for the world to study along with Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle, and the works of writers like Sir Thomas More, the evils of altruism had not been properly explored, only recklessly promoted.

This brings us to this ridiculous notion that philanthropy should be taught in a local high school by teachers over-stepping their boundary, on a quest to save the world by some hippie definition established by kooks and drug addicts who only studied the versions of philosophy that they agreed with.  According to the article below, Roger Grein believes it to be a wonderful thing to teach compassion, and high moral principles to the ripe young minds of public education.  Check it out: 

________________________________________

Source article:

http://www.pulsejournal.com/news/local-news/program-teaches-philanthropy-to-high-school-college-students-1218255.html

Program teaches philanthropy to high school, college students

Youth decide how to make charitable donations to groups.

By James Sprague, Staff Writer Updated 9:56 AM Friday, July 29, 2011

CINCINNATI — An area non-profit organization is assisting high school students throughout the Tri-State in not only giving to charity, but learning more about the spirit of philanthropy and social causes.

Magnified Giving, a non-profit organization based in the Cincinnati suburb of Reading, enters its fourth year of teaching students to become philanthropists through placing the decision of what charities to donate funds to upon the shoulders of students.

The program, originally conceived 10 years ago at the college level by Roger Grein, a Reading accountant, allows students and teachers in 15 area high schools to form Youth Grantmaking Councils charged with dispersing a grant of at least $1,000 to area charities.

Seeing success with the program at area universities — including Miami University — is what instigated Grein to take it to area high schools.

“I thought ‘My God, what a wonderful idea to educate and get young people involved,’ ” Grein said. “Look at the lives it could touch.”

The charity the council decides to donate the funds to is determined by students researching area non-profits, examining proposals, visiting organizations and meeting with boards of directors, said Jen Senett, director of marketing and communications for Mount Notre Dame.

“Students break up into teams and take on a different social cause, such as children, the elderly or teen issues,” Senett said. “Each team pitches it to the group why the nonprofit organization deserves the grant money and chooses the one that will make the biggest impact.”

—————————————————————————-

Reading the comments of Mr. Grein, I would propose that he is functioning from a level of immaturity as a human being, and has no right to teach any child anything about life.  He may be qualified to teach a child about arithmetic, or English, but not on the philosophy of social welfare.

Any military drill sergeant knows that the best way to create a good soldier is to break down the individual identity of the candidate right off the bus.  Cut their hair, give them a uniform, and make them just like everyone else in their group.  Insult them aggressively, driving their individual ego’s from their youthful bodies so they will function as a collective unit on the battlefield, without a sense of self preservation.     But in society a sense of self is needed. 

Is it any accident that millions of our young people are missing a sense of self confidence which would prevent them from drug abuse, binge drinking, sexual mis-adventures, financial misconduct, altering their bodies with piercings and tattoos, or even suicidal behavior if they were taught that they must love themselves before they can love another? 

Often behind these teachers of altruism you find a person who has trouble with relationships in their own lives, where they’ve been divorced one or more times, or they don’t get along with family members, or neighbors because they believe only they are right and are on some ideological crusade to “teach” the world to love under the hippie sign of “peace.”  I know many of these people, I’ve met them at all levels, especially in education and I personally would not trust these idiots to watch my dog while I go on a weekend trip, let alone pour a bunch of half-baked nonsense into a child I’m raising. 

But worse yet, school systems are openly embracing these ideas such as what Mr. Grein has proposed.  The article above was written in our community paper after all as if it were a great benefit to all tax payers that their children would be taught to give to others before they gave to themselves.  And these are the type of programs that schools believe are “preparing” our youth for their college years, that place of social engineering who charges parents 50K to 100K to teach their children to not trust their parents.  Schools teach these social programs as justification for the enormous sums of money they are asking for in public education from property owners.

When a young man sits across from a young woman over dinner and says “I love you,” what does the word “I” mean?  If the young man has no concept of self, then what merit does the word “I” have in that statement?  What is a young woman supposed to build her life around if she agrees to marry the boy who thinks he’s going to tackle the world and start a family with her under the profession of the word “LOVE” defined by the qualifier “I.”  For the love has no meaning if there is no value in the word “I.”  This is why marriages are failing more and more often, and this is why more people than ever are making a mess of their lives, because they have lost a sense of self worth.  And they try to fill that lack of self-worth with social causes, which never really do the trick, but leave the participants on a lifelong quest for world peace to give their meaningless lives justification.   And the people they provided philanthropy to become addicts, dependent on the services of philanthropy instead of building in themselves a sense of value to propel them into their own lives of freedom, valor, and personal conviction.

And all the while, our human race paid for our own demise yet again by pouring money into the pockets of people like Mr. Grien, who because they lack personal worth seek to live through others as our tax money fuels the enterprise of our social undoing, all because society did not understand the philosophy of their age and listened to all the wrong people who advocated all the wrong approaches to human relationships.  Because there are other works of philosophy that should be looked at also, and one of those is the second most looked at book in the Library of Congress behind the Holy Bible, and that is Atlas Shrugged. 

It’s all in the book Atlas Shrugged, the rise and fall of civilization built upon altruism.  It is far easier to read it than to waste your life in the pursuit of philosophic failure advocated by a radical few, yet funded by all of us, because the value of the proclamation wasn’t fully understood by the tax payer. 

Rich Hoffman

https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/ten-rules-to-live-by/

http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior

www.overmanwarrior.com

Sleeping with a Sleazy Salesman: The Path of the Obama Presidency

On July 29th 2011 President Obama said “I don’t know why the Republicans in the House are voting for their own bill, it doesn’t have a shot at becoming law.  We need to reach a consensus as a nation.”  That statement is the reason for this post.  What Obama is really saying is “play our way, or not at all.”  The Democrats have been very resistant to doing the right thing also, but are misleading the nation with this game, that America can no longer afford.  Be sure to watch every video of this one as well as read the text and take your time.  This is a history lesson from our recent past that must be remembered right now.    Now, let’s study the pattern of behavior which indicates what the true intention of this game really is about for the current President of the United States. 

 

Like many of us, Jim Garvin is trying to understand the most recent comments of President Obama about the debt ceiling. As I watched the video below I felt for Mr. Gavin, because he represents most of America right now. The bewildered look on their faces is one of betrayal, of being lied to. Most of America knows they are being lied to by politicians from one side or the other. What they don’t know is who to blame, how to determine who is lying, and what to do about it.

What Obama and the political class have done with the federal budget is evident in this video. This spending behavior has been going on for a very long time, and represents a sickness in American politics. It is not appropriate to justify this behavior as “it’s just politics.” The American people have this dangerous tendency to deduct from their overall income what they pay in taxes. If they don’t see the money come out of their wallet, if that money is already gone before they even get their pay check, then they have a tendency to not even care what happens to that money. It’s as if their frustration in not having control of how their money is spent; they remove the thought from their minds completely, which politicians are well aware of.

I once knew a black salesman who reminds me a lot of President Obama. In fact, I’d dare say we have all known someone who considers themselves a “slick” talker who can sell anything to anybody and talk a woman out of her panties without them even being aware of it. I once watched this happen when I went for a drink with this guy and watched him work the bar, “Hey baby, what’s happening you sweet thing.”

I watched and listened and rolled my eyes. What woman would ever fall for a line like that? Anyone could tell that this dude was a creepy guy, right?

The salesman slept with that girl about 15 minutes after he met her, and when I spoke to the salesman about it I asked him how he could do it, how he could have sex with that girl, leave her with a fake phone number after he did the deed, then go back home to his wife and have sex with her in the same night, then come back to brag about it at work the next day?

He was a tall, lanky guy who moved almost identical to Barrack Obama. “Do what my brother,” he said to me using his pinky equipped with a gold ring to scratch his forehead. “I did that little girl a favor. Women love what I got’s to give em’ and if I’d given her my real number she’d be callin’ for more. And I can’t have that. She was lucky she got it once.” He noticed the distress on my face so he added, “Dude, listen. Fu**ing chicks is like selling to customers. You have to convince them that what you are giving them is what they need. And by the time they realize they don’t need what you want to give them, it’s too late, because they’ve either given you the money already, or they’ve given you a piece of ass.”

“But don’t you feel guilty taking advantage of them?” I asked.
“My man,” He said. “That’s cute, that you think people should feel guilty about making money, or fu**ing women. If you want a clean conscience, then take it from me, you will die a poor man looking for your next piece of ass.”

I didn’t dislike that salesman, I learned a lot from him. I learned everything I didn’t want to be. So it isn’t some psychological impairment that makes me think of this salesman every time I hear President Obama talk. It’s just that Obama uses the same kind of manipulation that the salesman uses. It may not be for the purpose of having sex with women, but rather to get people to buy what he’s selling. For this kind of salesman, outright lies are normal. In fact, they are so normal that they can even lie to themselves. When Obama sat down with Google to give a town hall type of speech during his campaign in 2008 it reveals a lot about Obama.

In the clip below with Google, Obama talks about patriotism in a way to cover his true intentions and disarm the client, which is the audience. Just like the con artist who wishes to conceal his dishonesty he cleverly uses gifts to keep people focused on the topics he chooses. For this particular crowd, it is discussions of technology. Obama guarantees every home in America will get broadband access under his future administration, and that his administration will stand up to the light of day by putting ear marks and bills online for all to see. He also talks about saving the planet with green jobs which is appealing to progressives naturally, even if it’s impractical and warped with idealism. When I watched this speech I thought of my old salesman friend who might say, “baby, I’ll by you a diamond necklace if you’ll suck my big **** out in my Cadillac outside.” The girl hears, “Cadillac” so maybe this guy has money. She hears “diamond necklace,” so maybe she can steal this guy away from his present woman. And sucking on something appeals to a natural biological urge many women have and gives them an illusion of control over a man because such an act is an act of trust, since the genitals of a man is the most delicate part of his body. The same types of buzz words are used in this interview, except it’s not sex that is for trade.

Unfortunately for such con artists sometimes they get caught in the lies they tell and this is the case where Harry Reid and President Obama had spoken against the increase of the dept ceiling in 2006. Reid explained that it was only because he was playing politics and it was wrong, so now in 2011, he’s right and everyone should buy into a debt ceiling increase. Obama had perhaps the worst statement. He said that his perspective as a senator was basically not as enlightened as that of the President, where more aspects of the economy must be considered. Without question in some future speech Obama will say that the President of the United Nations must consider the entire world, and not just the affairs of the United States, which is a job he is openly campaigning for.

On occasion there have been people like Mr. Gavin who recognize that something is wrong and they’ve questioned Obama. Such was the case with Joe the Plumber during the 2008 campaign. All the guy did was ask a question and Obama talked the situation into a 5 minute speech trying to justify the scam. Obama would have done better to give a short answer and move to the next topic, because it made Joe the Plumber a celebrity, which the left then proceeded to destroy Joe’s character any way they could. But it was Obama who made the mistake in this exchange. He knew that Joe was seeing through his campaign rhetoric and Obama, the salesman wanted to see if he could overcome Joe’s opposition. When words failed, Obama became very touchy openly putting his hand on the shoulder and arm of Joe the Plumber. This is very similar to a man who has been confronted by a scorned woman and uses touching to take the edge off the woman’s anger, knowing that touching helps psychologically break down the barriers of mental resistance to an idea.

With many of the positions Obama has taken, Muslim radicals seem to have gotten a free pass under his administration. He behaves very strange for a guy who claims that he’s a Christian. The trouble with a man who claims he’s a Christian and not a Muslim is that in politics it is calculated that a Muslim could not be elected, because people are tense over the aggression of many fundamentalists.

Christianity has been attacked by the Obama administration mysteriously. So if Obama is pretending to be a Christian when he is in fact a Muslim then he is deliberately misleading the pubic for political gain. And if he is willing to do that, what else is he willing to mislead the public on? That is the trouble. A man should be willing and able to stand on what they believe, not what they think people want them to believe. Such people are no different from people like that salesman who lie about how much money they have to sleep with a woman. They will say anything to get into the woman’s pants. But even the best of them get caught in their own lies. Here Obama lets it slip that he’s a Muslim then corrects himself to being Christian. Was it an accident? (More on this later)

In this next clip Obama continues to ridicule Christian faith. For a guy who again claims he’s a Christian, he seems pretty angry about it. I mean I personally don’t care if he’s a Muslim, or an Alien from some other planet. My concern is why does he feel he must hide it? Why be misleading?

Glenn Beck shows the Michelle Obama clip where she stated this was the first time she was proud of America. I personally can’t ever recall any upper level politician saying something like this. To me, this clip reveals much of what type of conversations go on at the Obama dinner table, when the cameras aren’t running. Michelle, at the time being inexperienced at deceit in politics spoke her mind, and has since learned to put a softer edge on what she say’s publicly.

To know who Obama is you have to watch all his speeches, not just the ones where he attempts to appeal to all of America, the people like Mr. Gavin. Here is Obama among his people at the Campus Progress meet talking about alternative fuels. Campus Progress is a progressive organization designed to build a progressive political base which is in direct competition against people like me, who are American traditionalists. Progressives hope to erode the effectiveness of traditionalists by appealing to the naivety of young people hungry to rebel from their parents. The trouble with progressives is they attempt to undermine American Politics with a Trojan Horse mentality, by breaking through the barriers of American’s defenses and destroying that opposition from behind those defenses. That’s alarming because Progressives know that their ideas cannot compete directly with traditionalists so they seek the subversive route. Here Obama congratulates the creation of Progressive Leadership and the role of young people in the future.

Knowing that traditionalists will reject much of what Obama is trying to implement, he seeks to appeal to young people by admitting that he smoked marijuana, a lot. When Obama says that he is angry that Washington plays politics, and nothing gets done because of the grid lock, remember that the only reason Obama made this statement is that he was tapping into the same political demographic exploited by Bill Clinton when he played a saxophone on MTV. It’s all about politics.

I hate to bring it up because the relationship that President Obama has or had with Bill Ayers cannot be ignored even though a discussion about that relationship is as contentious as talking about the birth certificate issue. For those who don’t know who Bill Ayers is listen to him talk about his life in The Weather Underground. Obama launched his political career with Bill Ayers as a supporter in the living room of The Weather Underground leaders.

Here is a video with radio interviews of Bill Ayers where his life parallels Barack Obama’s rise to fame. Bill Ayers is a very manipulative and radical hater of the American way of life. He has demonstrated the extent of just what he is willing to do against the American Government. He is an open enemy to all things American, and the government knows it and has known for years exactly where he is at all times yet he’s been free to continue his radical movements with other methods instead of the radical violence of his early years. He’s a retired professor at the University of Chicago. In a new edition of the Bill Ayers memoirs called, Fugitive Days: Memoirs of an Anti-War-Activist, he added a new afterword about Barack Obama describing the blogospheric characterization of their relationship as “neighbors and family friends” (“In 2008 there was a lot of chatter on the blogosphere about my relationship with Barack Obama: we had served together on the board of a foundation, knew one another as neighbors and family friends, held an initial fundraiser at my house, where I’d made a small donation to his earliest political campaign.”).

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Ayers

Obama tried to back off the Ayers connection, but the evidence was just too overwhelming. Now this video isn’t from Fox News, it’s by CNN. Ayers is a man who is willing to do anything to accomplish his objective. When he and his wife bragged about the rise of Barack Obama as a political power in Chicago politics there is no question that Ayers at some point told Obama, “They’ll harass you for knowing me. That’s OK. It’s worth it to have one of our kind in The White House. When they ask don’t feel bad in denying you know me. I’ll understand.”

One last warning about Barack Obama, a look into his past, this video was done in 2008, well before Glenn Beck. Tony Rezko was a major fund-raiser for Barack Obama. Rezko and several others were indicted on federal charges in October 2006, for using their connections to the state boards to demand kickbacks from businesses that wanted to do business with the state. While the others pleaded guilty to the charges, Rezko pleaded not guilty and was found guilty of 16 of the 24 charges filed against him. Rezko also worked with Rod Blagojevich who was just convicted this year in late June of 17 counts of wire fraud, attempted extortion, bribery, conspiracy to commit extortion, and conspiracy to commit bribery, as well as trying to sell President Obama’s former Senate seat in exchange for political favors. This is the circle of associates around President Obama. All these people have displayed the ability to look straight into a camera and lie about their innocence or provide misleading information.

Source article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Rezko

I’ve said a lot on these pages about looters, people who primarily look at public service positions as a way to enrich themselves off tax money. Look at how Michelle Obama and her husband behaved before he became President of the United States. This is how Obama got some of his money that he is so proud of when he state, “people like me are willing to give back some.” Obama has been bragging about his wealth even as far back as the Joe the Plumber question, which I didn’t realize until I just recently looked at it again.

Obama has shown that he will lie, especially in politics. There is no question that he will and has been caught many times as shown above. Listen to him in this CNN investigation.

When you listen to Obama speak about the budget below look at his record. Here he lies 7 times in a 2 minute speech.

Being Muslim is not a problem, as discussed. But lying about it so that a person can get elected is a big problem. Here is convincing evidence that Obama is a Muslim which is proof that the man will lie about a seemingly insignificant issue. So what does anybody think he’d do over a really big issue?

The reason this whole Muslim issue is relevant can be shown from this statement about the condition of the flag and the Muslim faith as told to Dale Lindsborg ‘s Meet the Press from Sunday’s 07 Sept. 2008, 11:48:04 EST, Televised broadcast. The then Senator Obama was asked about his stance on the American Flag.

I had forgotten about this whole issue until a friend of mine reminded me of it after reading other stories I have stated about President Obama and his position over this recent budget battle. The text below is quite startling.

General Bill Ginn, USAF (ret.), asked Obama to explain why he doesn’t follow protocol when the National Anthem is played.

The General stated to Obama that according to the United States Code, Title 36, Chapter 10, Sec. 171…

During rendition of the national anthem, when the flag is displayed, all present (except those in uniform) are expected to stand at attention, facing the flag, with the right hand over the heart. Or, at the very least, “Stand and Face It”.

‘Senator’ Obama replied:

“As I’ve said about the flag pin, I don’t want to be perceived as taking sides….” “There are a lot of people in the world to whom the American flag is a symbol of oppression….” “The anthem itself conveys a war-like message. You know, the bombs bursting in air, and all that sort of thing.”

Obama continued:, “The National Anthem should be ‘swapped’ for something less parochial and less bellicose. I like the song ‘I’d Like To Teach the World To Sing.’ If that were our anthem, then I might salute it. In my opinion, we should consider reinventing our National Anthem as well as ‘redesign’ our Flag to better offer our enemies hope and love. It’s my intention, if elected, to disarm America to the level of acceptance to our Middle East Brethren. If we, as a Nation of waring people, conduct ourselves like the nations of Islam, where peace prevails – – – perhaps a state or period of mutual accord could exist between our governments ……”

“When I become President, I will seek a pact of agreement to end hostilities between those who have been at war or in a state of enmity, and a freedom from disquieting oppressive thoughts . We as a Nation, have placed upon the nations of Islam, an unfair injustice, which is WHY my wife disrespects the Flag, and she and I have attended several flag burning ceremonies in the past.”

“Of course now, I have found myself about to become the President of the United States and I have put my hatred aside. I will use my power to bring CHANGE to this Nation, and offer the people a new path. My wife and I look forward to becoming our Country’s First black Family. Indeed, CHANGE is about to overwhelm the United States of America.”

Dale Lindsborg, Washington Post

This compelling story brings us to one central question, addressed by Mr.Garvin in the start of this article outlining the behavior pattern of one of the most subversive American Presidents in our history. This President was launched into politics by radicals and crooks. He is a public sector looter as defined by the work of philosophy Atlas Shrugged and gained his wealth in that fashion. He has shown that he will lie about his religion. He will lie about his associations. And he will be misleading about his true political intentions.

Just like the salesman who had slept with the girl, without question the girl felt used when she attempted to call the number and found out the smooth talking salesman had lied to her and even given a false number. She had believed everything the man had said because she wanted to. She wanted to believe that there were people who actually told the truth, especially when they spoke so wonderfully, and were pleasant to look at. Normal average everyday people like the woman in the bar, and millions of Americans of all different political affiliations want to believe that there is good in people, especially attractive people.

Sailors have told stories for generations about sirens that used their songs of seduction and elliptical attractiveness to lure those men to their deaths with enchantment upon the hidden rocks disguised below the surface. But it’s not just beautiful women who perform this seduction. Sometimes it’s fast talking salesman with gold rings. Its governors, mobsters, and senators, who use public office to enrich themselves, its radical reformers who hate America and launch a fellow board member into a path to the presidency from his living room, or it’s the President himself, who has his eye on a prize most American’s can’t even conceive, because the audacity of the deception defies credibility. That deception is the end of America as we all know it and a prized position with the United Nations heading that organization toward global concerns.

Lies are not hard for those types, and in this budget battle the fight isn’t over fixing the budget, or even the debt limit. The fight is over our ability to fix it, because the intent is to collapse America as a world power. And the fear from thousands of radicals like Bill Ayers is that their 40 year strategy to end America under the smile of a good-looking, smooth talking President is in jeopardy, because it’s no longer just the radical right, the conspiracy theorists, the Fox News junkies who see the problem. It’s the average, every day people like Jim Garvin who have the look of who just fu**ed me! And why did I let them do it!

Many women have woke up to an empty pillow on the morning after a drunken binge. Now America is about to roll over and see that there is no head in that pillow, and that while we slept the man we brought home not only took advantage of our condition, but also stole all our money, and material goods and headed home to the object of their true desire, a marriage we did not know about until it was too late and we’ll only have ourselves to blame.

Rich Hoffman

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

The United States Post Office: The beginning of the end

Years ago, I was at odds with the union of the manufacturing company I was working for, so severely that things were getting violent.  At my home, I was at war with the police department for turning in hours of video tape showing irrefutable proof of drug sales by area teenagers only to find out that many of the cops were working with the kids to assist and had turned against me and my family to cover up the activity.  It got so bad at one point that I had to provide body-guard assistance to my children so they could ride their bikes down the sidewalk.  In every sector of my life at that time, things were tough, really, really tough.  The culmination of these events was the primary theme of my 2004 book, The Symposium of Justice.  It looked like I was going to lose my job to a layoff because the union was pushing to eliminate me before the company made me salary, which the company was playing both political sides against each other leaving me out to dry.  It was a very difficult time. 

A family member suggested that I apply for a job at the Post Office, because the Post Office had fantastic benefits, great pay, and job security.  If I worked for the government, I would be “taken” care of and my family would be safe.  I scratched my head, even under all that stress, and contemplated how long the Post Office was going to last paying people the kind of wages they were paying.  The internet was a new thing back then and email was the emerging new rage, I saw trouble for the Post Office. 

In recent years it has been Doc Thompson who has also seen trouble for the Post Office and he has been one of the most vocal advocates of reform.  Doc’s been doing this well before the recent news that the United States Postal Service was considering cutting back it’s service to less days per week, and that they were closing down several Post Offices around Cincinnati.  Listen to Doc talk about the whole Post Office situation on 700 WLW at the link below:

I took another job where they actually made things, because I couldn’t see how the Post Office was going to sustain itself.  The family member tried to get into the Post Office employee pull but was not accepted because they could not claim minority status, and was told as much. 

The Postal Service is a direct victim of the changing times, email, UPS, Fed Ex, and other services have emerged in recent years which have cut into the revenue of the Post Office, and this has been a great aspect of the American business culture.  It’s been great for everyone but the people who have taken jobs with the Post Office.  When you talk to some of them, they would love to see the world stop advancing so they could keep their jobs, because many of them took jobs with the Post Office for the same reason that the family member told me to apply, for the job security and great benefits. 

Virtually every government sector job these days are in a similar boat as the Post Office.  Teachers and the entire Department of Education are finding that technology can do many of the tasks of teaching just as effective as a brick and mortar school, improved medicine is making retirement at 55 and 65 laughable, extending the life spans of the human being closer and closer to 100, and this same improved medicine will also dramatically lower the need for Medicare and health insurance in the future.  As aviation and other aspects of transportation evolve in an improved direction, government employee advocates want to invest in the archaic technology of High Speed Rail, which is on its way out.  The pattern of resistance to the obvious becomes clear to the intelligent viewer. 

Government is simply an entity that wants to live, just like any creature.  The bigger it gets, the more it eats by way of tax money.  But it will also attempt to hold back the kind of technology which made America great to begin with, in an attempt to preserve itself.  This is a natural reaction and can be displayed vividly in the various school levies that are on the November ballot this year.  They are led by government employees who entered that field of endeavor under the pretense of security, and they are slow to learn that the path they’ve chosen is unsustainable, and evolving into something else.  The successful person who works for a government job will evolve and adapt with these changes, because it is the changes themselves which will advance our culture for the better, and those changes will occur regardless of government worker protests. 

The lesson is that sometimes its better to take a job that may not be so attractive at first as the government, tax subsidized job, because at the non-government job, the individual can control their own destiny to a large extent.  It is not good to trade freedom for comfort, and government jobs like the Post Office are perfect examples of this tendency.  There are jobs for people in the other fields, as government stops doing services, entrepreneurs will come up with job replacements because if there is a market need for those services, there will be a creative mind who will provide that service.  What the government worker fears however, is that the public will discover how unimportant those government jobs have always been, and that will be a painful transition, when the American tax payer comes to realize how much they’ve been scammed.  But in the end, the process will make America better and stronger so long as the light at the end of the tunnel is the focus and not the darkness of the immediate surroundings.

Rich Hoffman

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

Sheriff Jones, Spokesman for the S.B.5 Repeal: Speaks at the West Chester Tea Party????

Years of dealing with prison inmates prepared Sheriff Jones well as he faced a Tea Party crowd with his arms crossed, mustache pointed out to the multitude of more than 350 who deeply support his position on immigration reform, but were heart-broken with the knowledge that Jones was set to be an anti-S.B.5 spokesman. The controversial bill passed by Governor Kasich early in 2011 takes major steps into limiting the monopoly control of public sector unions against the tax payer, and the Sheriff being a public worker himself is against such reforms. 

I went on 700 WLW with Doc Thompson July 20, 2011, the day after, to discuss the monumental event which felt more like a civil war where family member against family member were fighting it out from ideological differences and in this case only one side is right, and one side wants to keep the status quo to their benefit. 

The West Chester Tea Party has a great group, and this was the first time I had been to one of their meetings which was held in the phenomenal Entertrainment Junction situated right of I-75 at the Taylorsville exit.  Entertrainment Junction is one of the largest indoor train displays in the world and the entrance is a replication of Old West Chester and would be just as home at the Epcot Center in Disney World as it is in the heart of West Chester.  Visually, it is one of the most visually spectacular venues to hold a Tea Party meeting that exists anywhere. So it didn’t take much to convince me to attend, since I look for excuses to be near model trains and displays of creativity which permeate from every orifice of this incredible venue which is the home of the West Chester Tea Party on a regular basis.  The tipping point for me was the Sheriff himself. 

Sheriff Jones worked with a group of us from the Liberty Twp Tea Party on a video that we did about immigration reform.  You can see that video below.  I’ve seen the Sheriff on several occasions since then and respect him for his love to fight, because we share that love. But he’s been on the opposite side of arguments with the Tea Party before, so this S.B.5 issue isn’t the first.  During the winter of 2011 he was pushing for a sales tax increase in Butler County that I and other members of the Tea Party resisted him on.  You can read that article here:  CLICK.

But this event was different, because Sheriff Jones represents exactly what the problems are in reforming government to a smaller, more accountable organization.  He epitomizes the best of what the public employee has to offer, so the opponents of S.B.5, which includes Progress Ohio, the exact opposite type of organization as that from the Tea Party is using the Sheriff and his reputation to hide their malicious intentions with budget breaking government expansion.  So that makes Sheriff Jones the enemy to reform which hurts. 

But that didn’t stop many of my friends, all readers of this forum, some I had met, some I had met for the first time in person at this venue, from coming to this meeting ready for a fight.  My friends are at all different levels of political involvement, and it was fun for me to be near so many of them in one place.  As my wife and I parked our motorcycle when we arrived, we were instantly hit up by a couple of them who had their cars decorated with symbols of FREEDOM.  There was no shyness in these people, as they were poised for battle not with guns and bayonets, but hand-made signs, T-shirts, bumper stickers, and books, which are in many ways more powerful than actual weapons.  Knowledge is power!  I barely put my kickstand down before I found an armful of patriotic T-shirts and reading material that will find their way into future posts on these pages.

The deeper I proceeded into Entertrainment Junction toward the meeting, the more it felt like a family reunion from Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom.  I knew I had a lot of readers, but I had been assuming that many of them were people angry with me.  As I signed in, I realized how much this web forum had grown, and I had a new idea of just how many people are reading it everyday, which I take as an extreme compliment.  I started this site not to represent any particular Tea Party group, or any group of any kind.  I wanted it to be the purest voice I could offer, without money involved to corrupt it, to feed the many Tea Party’s and others out there who want information that the newspapers won’t or can’t cover.  So I was very enchanted to find so many people wanting to shake my hand and tell me how much this forum means to them.  As I took a seat in the front of the room, I was surrounded by over a dozen direct fans and many others that I had just had the pleasure of putting a face to.  Two of my friends, (two crazy women) took a seat on the opposite side of me from my wife and were very vocal during the meeting, especially with Sheriff Jones. 

Cyd is a name that contributes frequent comments to Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom, and had never met Sheriff Jones before when she walked up before the event began and said, “Hi, I’m Cyd, and we are going to kick your ass on S.B.5.”

The Sheriff being well-trained at threats and opposition looked at her for a moment calculating the best response.  “Go ahead and kick it,” he said.  “We’ll see.” 

In the middle of the large conference room were hundreds of seats surrounded in every direction by model train displays. I couldn’t help but be impressed.  As the meeting progressed and it was time for Jones to speak he stated his position on immigration reform, which is a no-brainer with a group like this.  Then he spoke about S.B.5. 

“I know everyone in this room is probably for Senate Bill 5,” Jones said, over his crossed arms, feet positioned confidently to match the width of his shoulders, projecting a willingness to fight anyone who cared to challenge him, which I’m sure was the intended effect.  “My wife doesn’t agree with 100% of what I say, so you guys aren’t any different.”  With that statement the Sheriff had skillfully taken the edge off an otherwise hostile crowd.  The women on my right, Cyd and her best buddy Jorjann were very rambunctious standing up at times to cheer or protest what they were hearing. 

After the Sheriff’s speech he took questions which I was one of the first in the form of an open debate.  I expressed my mixed feelings about him and Bill Cunningham and how they had wanted change, but are now resisting change because they think the change was too much?  I said I thought they’d be the first to stand behind a hard-nosed governor who made a tough clear-cut decision that was knowingly unpopular but much-needed for the necessary reforms in government.  I also said to him that I thought it was unfortunate that he was being used by organized labor as a spokesman to hide all the terrible situations in the state teachers unions that are the real target of S.B.5. 

His response was that he could only speak for himself, and he stated that whatever his budget is, he lives with.  If he has too many officers, he lays them off, but he meets his budget. 

This prompted another question from another friend of mine, who stated, “Sheriff, it is obvious that you are the exception to the rule, but the rule is that many do not operate as you do, especially in education.  They do not make the hard decisions that you make and this is why we need S.B.5, to protect us from cost overruns by governments less skilled than you.”

This appealed to Sheriff Jones and he took that more as a complement and didn’t dispute the fact.  All he could really say in response is, “I’m just the Sheriff.” 

There were many other questions along those lines with similar answers.  But for me the climax of the evening came from a teacher who stood proudly and proclaimed, “Sheriff, something must be done.  I am forced by my union to pay dues to things I do not support.  I must watch as principals and administrators who are corrupt get away with excessive dishonesty and we all know it.  The teachers union is all about power and I want out of it.  What am I to do?”  She went on for quite some time like that and the room had grown so quiet that a spider crawling on the wall behind the Sheriff could almost be heard.  The Sheriff really didn’t have anything to say to all that. “I’m just the Sheriff,” he offered. 

At the end of the meeting everyone shook hands.  “Good luck,” the Sheriff said to me as he stepped from the front to leave toward the back of the room.  I believe he sincerely meant it.  I think if he wasn’t a public employee himself responsible for many personal friends and family members who are in law enforcement; he’d be on the same side as I am.  He is a victim of circumstance.  But that still doesn’t change the fact that he’s on the “other” side on this issue and is unfortunately a figure that must be dealt with because of his proudly self-proclaimed, “BIG MOUTH.” 

The teacher and I found each other after the meeting and had a long talk.  “Thank you for your blog,” she said.  “I read it everyday and I love it.” 

That took me by surprise a bit.  She went on to tell me stories about how she teaches her students about Atlas Shrugged, and Lord of the Rings, which left me wondering how many other teachers were out there just like this woman, caught in a terrible system, wanting to break out and excel….to be great, and to really teach their students things instead of some union enterprise dictating her stamina.

I asked her why so many teachers were willing to pack up on a bus and carry a sign against S.B.5.  “They are scared to death,” she said.   

“Of what,” I asked. 

“Of the unions.  Nobody wants to step forward, it’s very risky.” 

In a nutshell she had just made the statement of why we need S.B.5.  Sheriff Jones and those like him in the public sector are just protecting the status quo.  They don’t want change because that change will be painful to them.  But S.B.5 is needed for women like the brave teacher who stood up at a Tea Party meeting and proclaimed that change was needed, that she wanted to be free of the tyranny by a terrible union that is holding her back as an employee so that the average can flourish and the best can be suppressed.  And her union dues are used to purchase political influence, against the teachers will, and she wants out of it. 

S.B.5 will not only help tax payers control their local costs more effectively, but it will be the first step into freeing good teachers like the woman who spoke up in a model train filled room full of eager, heart-broken patriots, facing a Sheriff who is the spokesman for big labor and getting back the non-committal answer……..”I’m just the Sheriff.” 

After the meeting some of my other friends, people who have been with me for a long time, back when we did the video with Sheriff Jones for the Liberty Twp Tea Party, invited my wife and I to Graeters to have some ice cream.  We met them there as the sun set and heat storms dotted the horizon.  We ate our ice cream outside on the patio by a cleaver looking fountain.  My friends wanted updates on all my wife and I’s recent activities and we swapped stories as the wind picked up and cooled down a day that had been well over the 100’s in heat index during the day.  Warm air was rapidly escaping into the emerging clouds building in the darkness above.  I could smell rain building in those clouds but I didn’t care.  As I finished my hot fudge sundae I thought about the Sheriff and how soon he’d be on TV, speaking against S.B.5 on spots already purchased by groups like Progress Ohio.  The Sheriff would be speaking based on his limited experience as “Just the Sheriff.”  But millions of voters would believe everything he said because they are too lazy to get the facts.  Meanwhile, there are many thousands of teachers stuck in a bad system just like the woman who spoke, and I wondered if people would come to their rescue.  Would they have the courage?  Would they do the right thing? 

The remainder of our friends left for the night leaving my wife and I to ride home in the sputtering rain on our motorcycle.  My wife pushed her head against my back to prevent some of the heavy rain drops from pelting her, because at speeds over 40 MPH each strike of rain is like being jabbed with a needle.  But for me, there is no place to hide, to tuck my head away for protection, which appeared to be the appropriate metaphor for what was happening.  S.B.5 will be painful for many people.  It will be painful for the public sector unions.  It is painful for people like me who have to go against people who would otherwise be friends if not for their position on repealing the bill.  But the right thing to do in protecting S.B.5, and that is for the benefit of all society, is to take the pain and trudge ahead, to not become distracted and crash with indecision. 

As I pulled the motorcycle into the safety of our garage from the lightning filled skies and pouring rain, my wife and I were soaking wet, but happy to have arrived home intact.  And the day after the election in November will bring a similar emotion even though the pain in getting there will be difficult.  Because in the game of politics, the statement, “I’m just the sheriff,” means “we will not dispute facts, but argue emotion, in the pursuit of a political system that has been built by generations and it won’t end on my watch.”  But it has to end now or later, and at some point in the very near future it will end whether we decide for ourselves to act, or circumstances force it upon us, because the rain clouds are forming and it will rain.

Rich Hoffman

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

Learning what a Republic is: The Continued Lessons of Star Wars

I could not help but notice at my favorite book store that many of the works that I used to only find online, are now in stock, on the shelf. Work by Thomas Paine, John Locke, and all the works of Ayn Rand are easy to find, and this is fantastic news because people are hungry for knowledge. The Federalist Papers are even now stocked on the shelf in abundance. Ten years ago it was only law students who bought copies of it, now it’s an older man in his upper 60’s as I watched him thumb through it’s pages prior to purchase.

Political discussion is often not just about the topics on the nightly news. Recently, a friend of mine gave me a copy of The Original Argument, which was endorsed by Glenn Beck as a way to explain in today’s language the meaning of The Federalist Papers. I enjoyed The Original Argument so much that I read it twice while on vacation recently, and it occurred to me that The Original Argument was not a rule book so to speak intended for lawyers, but it is a political philosophy that speaks a truth established by 4000 years of human history. It does not belong in the political science section in a book store, but in the philosophy section.

But as a friend of mine uttered in frustration the other day, “what are we to do about all this!” The frustration of thinking all their lives that everything was OK in the world, and that politicians were sleazy, but not considered downright evil, and finding out that in fact there are many things that have been going on that people are just learning about because they are reading again, can be very overwhelming. Catching up on 200 years of American history in the span of a year or two like many Tea Party enthusiast are doing can send a person to burn out quick. So it’s important that people remember to have fun along the way. It’s even better if people can learn while they are having fun. Fans of Glenn Beck will notice that Beck is an obvious Star Wars fan. It will also be noticed that there are a lot of Tea Party patriots who are increasingly creating Twitter accounts along the lines of “Jedi Patriot” and “Empire Fighter” in an obvious homage to Star Wars. In our modern age, Star Wars has become a form of modern philosophy, not just simply entertainment. Star Wars is a great way to think about all the things that are going on in the world around us, while also taking a vacation from the intensity of those revelations. After all, the film The Phantom Menace was not about a young boy who grew up and became Darth Vader. That is just one of the sub plots. The Phantom Menace was all about a senator who wants to be emperor, and he uses many people in obscure ways to create the circumstances that will allow him to grab power for himself. It’s all in good old-fashioned fun, but the sincerity behind The Phantom Menace is actually incredibly sophisticated, which is the genius of Star Wars.

The films of Star Wars consist of only 6 two-hour movies and that is what a majority of the fans think of when they hear the name of Star Wars. But for fans who wish to dig deeper, Star Wars tackles many of the problems of our modern times using the language of mythology and the latest entry to that mythology is the MMO computer game called The Old Republic due out later this year and it’s something my wife and I are looking very much forward to.

Glenn Beck uses Star Wars metaphors to explain many of the complicated topics of our day because Star Wars is the only work of art in modern times which attempts to tackle the complicated nature of human failure and evolution as a species. Star Wars is a basic tale of good and evil, but it goes much deeper. With over 100 books, the 6 movies, cartoons, video games, comic books, amusement park rides, Star Wars is a formidable aspect of modern culture which I’ve written about in detail at this article: CLICK HERE

What is even bolder within this Star Wars mythology is this whole new path the franchise is taking in exploring The Old Republic. There are now two novels and two videos games with the addition of the computer game being previewed here, which explores what life was like in The Old Republic which takes place over a thousand years before the events shown in the films most people are familiar with. The idea of the Sith, the villains in Star Wars is to explore the influence of evil and this is done not just in a spiritual way in these stories, but also in a political way. It is the first work of art that I can think of which has mass appeal that attempts to do anything like this. It does not limit itself as an examination of religious influence, or political study, but as an all-encompassing investigation through the story lines of what causes the rise and fall of civilizations.

I am a fan of the works of writers like Thomas Mann and his Magic Mountain, and Oswald Spengler’s The Decline of the West, and I will state in that context the collected works of Star Wars are every bit as sophisticated and meaningful. In Star Wars the entire galaxy is part of a republic. Not a democracy, but a republic. This is similar to what planet Earth is facing in whose political philosophy will emerge as the world shrinks, will it be a republic like what the United States has had so much success with, or will it be various degrees of socialism similar to what Europe and many eastern countries have experimented with.

The most important contribution is that in the galactic government of Star Wars, it’s a republic that is pursued, and provides an interesting model for how Earth should proceed. It is the Republic of the United States of America that should teach the rest of the world how to be a free people, produce their goods under the umbrella of capitalism, and interact with one another with respect under that accepted philosophy.

What gives me hope is that Star Wars is the best education device that young people have to counter what they are learning in public education, and politicians who crave socialism where the philosophy of a republic is not taught to them. It is entertainment that is providing the best education to society, and because of the popularity of Star Wars it is evidence that many people are learning about it.

Glenn Beck understands that Star Wars is a modern work of political philosophy and science. When people who love freedom want to know how America is supposed to function, books like The Original Argument are fantastic. But it cannot be disputed that free life will always stay within the confines of the United States borders. As the evidence of illegal immigration have shown, millions of people all over the world want to become a part of the Republic of the United States and we owe it to those people in America to help not just open our borders to them, but to expand the freedom we experience to those far reaches of the globe so that there can be a grand Republic of Earth. And to get an idea of how to do that, Star Wars is the best work of art available to help show how that process should look, and what type of hurdles will stand in the way, so that freedom can be experienced by anything that breathes world-wide.

So before going crazy, choking on all this information that has always been there, but is being re-discovered, it is good to have a device that can give your mind a vacation. For me, it’s a love of pirates, and Star Wars. Star Wars allows the mind to swell without limits without becoming lost in the fantasy. And I look very much forward to the age when the kids who are growing up with this expanded universe of Star Wars start to run the country, because that is a time when things will dramatically change for the better, because they will understand that America is a republic and not a democracy and the only hope the entire world has for freedom.

Rich Hoffman

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

S.B.5 IS UNDER ATTACK: Do you have the courage to keep it?

That video created a hail fire of anger among the public sector union class over the weekend because it was evidence to them that the side protecting Senate Bill 5 is able to muster up the support of high-profile national names too, like they have been doing.  Unions hate competition!

The public union sector class, which is what we should call them, as they claim to be the entire middle class for voter identity, was able to gather 1.3 million signatures to repeal Senate Bill 5 after John Kasich signed the bill into law that went into effect on July 1st 2011.  It is because of S.B.5 that the OEA (Ohio Education Association) all over the state of Ohio scrambled to pass their teachers union contracts, so they would be grandfathered in when the bill became effective.  The union knew that they needed to appeal to the masses if they hoped to successfully repeal the bill in the fall election by putting on a softer, more cooperative face.  But even more important, they needed to protect their members from budget cuts before S.B.5 could be used against their tyrannical grip on local tax budgets.  The effect of these contract negotiations placed districts like Lakota, which is the 7th largest district in the state of Ohio into financial solvency again where before the contract negotiations the finances were grim. 

That is just a sample of what S.B.5 as a bill will be able to do for the tax payer.  The out of control costs that are currently at play in all government positions, especially teaching positions, can be managed finally by the local district.  There is a lot more costs that must be managed which will continue to make school districts fiscally viable. 

The same people against Senate Bill 5 are used to push environmental issues. Notice how it’s always about children.  Progress Ohio, who has produced many videos like the Anti S.B.5 videos shown here is a progressive group which seeks to “progress” society into the progressive trends that we have been traveling down, and they are at the front of the labor movement politically.  You can learn a lot about these types of people by studying what they think is important.  The children are put in the front row used as props, and the topics are always emotional.  This is why these people cannot be allowed to give themselves pay increases, which is what has been happening.  They have no monetary discipline.  It’s ok to hire people like this to be a park ranger, but they are an overly emotional group that exaggerate everything, and are not capable of firm business decisions.  Anytime money is at play, business decisions must be firm, and understood.  

Saturday I received this email from a friend of mine with thoughts about the upcoming Lakota levy, which even though the school board solved their immediate problems with the new contract is looking to cover the cost difference lost in state funding and federal allocations in the upcoming years, and they seek a tax increase instead of the options sent to me in the email by my friend.

_______________________________________________________________________

Rich,

I hope you are well.  I continue to track the ridiculous actions of your district.  What is not making sense is why deficit spending platform is not the main theme against a levy.  In addition, there is no need for a levy, even under their current June assumptions until 2014.  Therefore, there is more time to make them:

1.       Updated and renegotiate health care and not continue to carry such egregious increases in assumptions upwards of 9.5%

2.       Change the split of health coverage with employees

3.       Remove pickups for employees

4.       Remove administrators raises

5.       Remove step raises

6.       Look more closely at their revenue assumptions

a.       2010 the district collected over $75.6 million – 2011, they say they will only collect $71.4 million.  Ask for a “BUDGET TO ACTUAL” NOW THAT YOU HAVE YEAR END TO SEE IF THEY UNDERSTATED REVENUES BY $5.1 MILLION.

b.      If they understated revenue in 2011 by $5.1 million, you need to carry that forward for 5 years and you pick up $25 million in revenues

7.       Benefits are not impacted at all, yet the community is suffering.  That MAKES NO SENSE

My thoughts for your day.  Let me know if I can help!

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I have a lot of people who work in various education positions all over the state who send me information like this.   They are frustrated with the way the system works and want to see changes made.  This guy is one of them. 

My response to him was that until school boards use S.B.5 to bring their costs down, the real costs such as what he assessed in his email to me, then this school tax levy game will continue.  As of right now, the school board knows the unions will never go for removing step increases, taking real pay cuts to bring labor wages in line with the private sector, change the health care coverage, the union won’t agree to even one thing on his list, let alone all of them.  That is why Ohio needed S.B.5, because collective bargaining has driven up public employee costs since 1983 to such an extent that now it is abusive to the tax payer, and has been for some time. 

It is these same public sector unions who have tried to label John Kasich as a Wall Street Stooge, as though Wall Street were the ultimate evil in the world.  And they of course hate Newt Gingrich who is a presidential candidate who has advocated unpopular big government warnings. 

Many forget, because their memories are shallow that it was Newt and Kasich who balanced the budget in the 90’s in the Federal government which Bill Clinton reluctantly went along with.  And these are the guys who are involved in solving Ohio’s budget problems which can be seen as a microcosm of the nation’s problems. 

The public union, big government types know this and they have their own weapons they plan to use.  Of those, is Bill Cunningham of 700 WLW who has for a long time considered himself a libertarian/conservative, but is mysteriously in favor of big public unions.  Bill is the guy at the end of the above Kasich video shaking his hand.  Cunningham seems to only advocate change so long as it doesn’t interfere with his income where his real allegiance appears to be his law practice, which of course employees many public employees who work hand in hand with public sector union employees every day and has made him personally wealthy.  One of those is his own wife, who is a current judge in Cincinnati.  Sheriff Jones of Butler County, who is my neighbor and a fellow Tea Party supporter over immigration reform, is one of the charismatic Republicans who the unions have targeted to help lead the march in repealing S.B.5 this fall.  The TV spots are being planned for this as I write this article featuring all the great feats that your local police and firefighters are doing for your community, kissing babies, helping old ladies across the street, and why they need S.B.5 repealed. 

Sheriff Jones is the same guy who has openly stated that he doesn’t understand where all the jobs in Hamilton have gone, as he marches to the FOP drum of union brotherhood.  So economics is not his strongest topic, but using emotion to win elections is.  After all, this is the same guy who wants to sue Mexico for all the illegal drugs coming into America.  Here’s a hint Sheriff Jones, they left because union wages closed down Fisher Body in Hamilton, Norwood and other places.  The union’s wages and benefits were just too steep to cover those costs, so they left.  My grandfather worked there, and I know what kind of pension he had, and even when I was a little kid, I wondered who was paying for him and his friends when they were in retirement.  It didn’t add up.  In fact many people in my family were or are union people.  And they are wrong to blindly follow union mandates just to protect their pay check.   They’ve all been told. 

The union strategy of course is they think people like Bill Cunningham, Bill Seitz, and Sheriff Jones who are Republicans with connections to Fox News can somehow offset swing voters into doubting the validity of S.B.5 into a repeal.  What is forgotten is that these Republicans are the types who have built their lives around public sector service, so they do not have an objective opinion.  To them politics as usual is the only politics there is. 

To people like me, politics as usual is simply too expensive, and cannot endure.  It is a shame that the police and firefighters unions have jumped in front of the teachers unions to shield them and muddy up the fight for reform, because it will also expose how bloated those services are  in the dispute.  Emotion will not win this battle, this time.

Listen to Glenn Beck explain the pension pyramid at about the 7 minute mark to understand the beginning of the problem.  Glenn Beck is 100% right when he says that these problems can only be sustained for one generation.  Politicians like Sheriff Jones and Bill Cunningham are part of that generation who voted for the whole thing, and it is difficult for them to admit to themselves that they brought us to this terrible crises.  So they defend their mistakes just like a person caught in a lie tries to justify what they’ve done.  But the facts are the facts. 

There is no question with 1.3 million signatures public union membership has tipped the balance of power perilously close to ending what the American republic was founded on.  When employees can vote themselves raises, which public sector unions have notoriously abused at the expense of the tax payer for years, even the big government President FDR himself cautioned us against it.  President Kennedy was the man who through executive order, made public sector unions legal, which should have never been done. 

Click here to read President Kennedy’s fatal error:

If you want to know the truth, of why these public sector unions want to maintain the status quo, all you have to do is follow the money. 

Click here to see what West Chester police and firefighters make, which is within Butler County, Sheriff Jones’s territory and FOP brothers, to see what they are protecting…………………

…………..go ahead, you want to know the truth don’t you.  CLICK HERE:

And Lakota, one of the largest schools in the state of Ohio also located in Butler County.   Why do you think the OEA wants S.B.5 repealed?  Go ahead, CLICK HERE:

It will take a very high voter turn out to protect Senate Bill 5.  Nobody is asking anybody to take a rifle into a field and defend their liberty from tyranny……….not yet.  You still have the opportunity to protect yourself from an ever-expanding government by simply showing up to vote.  The unions will certainly show up, because their income which they get exclusively from the tax payer depends on it.  So they will be there.  It must be expected that they will have almost 2 million voters who will show up and cast a ballot in November.  This is why it is dangerous to have too many government workers.  When they outnumber the tax payers, they can enact policies on their own at tax payer expense.  They can vote themselves raises, which is why they make so much money, and management is powerless to do anything about it, because Ohio Revised Code created under union lobby power has prevented management controls and driven up the costs.  

So in November, If you don’t see through the smoke and mirrors and allow yourselves to be conned, you will not only be responsible for higher taxes which will come your way in order to pay for all these elaborate public employee salaries and pensions as the system collapses on itself, but you will have turned away from an opportunity to march toward the America as it was intended to be in favor of an American headed in the direction of Europe.  And it will be your fault, because John Kasich along with the house and senate did exactly what they said they would do, and that is stare the problem in the eye and do the hard thing even when the status quo makes threats and harasses them. 

Click Here to read about how the SEIU threatened Ohio Senators in a restaurant, to attempt to threaten them into not voting in favor of S.B.5.  CLICK HERE!

They gave Ohio S.B.5.  The question is now, as a tax payer, do you have the courage to keep it?

Rich Hoffman

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