Category: Union

Lebanon Looters Strike Again: Notes from a progressive school board meeting

Matt Clark did an interesting program about Democratic Senators who believe that Tea Partiers don’t deserve constitutional rights.  This is indicative of how progressives think, and this same mentality finds its way into our local school board meetings. 

Recently a former school board member that speaks to me often gave me a report of what happened at her recent school board meeting in Lebanon.  She was particularly outraged, being that she has been a board member, and knows the kinds of things that go on behind the scenes.  This meeting, right after a levy failure that was very divisive showed that the district was proceeding with a business as usual approach. 

I enjoyed her comments so much that I’m putting them up here so others can see that their districts are going through exactly the same things.  School districts are all following the same directions, and will continue so long as they are funded blindly by well-intentioned tax payers that don’t care to dig into the real issues. 

_____________________________________________

What happened tonight was typical of every school board meeting.   No one sits on the board that represents the taxpayers.    There is absolutely zero negotiating going on.   All of the board members were “crying” about how bad they feel about having to make any cuts.   They managed to approve an entirely new contract.  (Remember they approved a one year contract at the April board meeting.)  Unfortunately, we did not receive a copy of the contract that was voted on tonight.  It did sound (by what they said)  identical to the ones being passed by every other district.  Direct orders from the OEA.  They didn’t even say if it was for one, two or three years.
 
The room was full of teachers and one Lebanon police officer.   It was disappointing that not one of the Tea Party members were there.  
 
They did vote to purchase some new history books that sent chills up my spine.   Red flags flying every which way.  I have been reading about the elimination of U.S. history being taught prior to the Civil War. (Nothing about the founders or our exceptional history.)  This is exactly what was approved.  Text for United States History:  “Reconstruction to the Present.” 
 
They didn’t list a grade level for the four books they approved.   They did vote to get rid of books that North said were “100 years old.”  I do know that they haven’t budgeted money for books for at least seven years.  Maybe more.    They built a new high school and elementary and never budgeted a dime for textbooks.
          
(Lakota has hired a new superintendent “that has super skills transitioning the district’s curriculum to the Global Integration Model.”  This curriculum is to prepare this country for the “New World Order.”   She is from Pickering and won a $10,000.00 check from the Jennings Foundation – Educators Retreat.    Many people in Pickering are not happy with Ms. Mantia.  I was hoping Mark North would announce that he was moving to Pickering, but no such luck.  I almost got up and told him that he should apply, but didn’t.
 
They said they were cutting costs in a three tier scheme due to the non-passage of the levy.   They have to figure some way to cut $6.5 million that the levy would have produced.   (I think this is per year.)  They said they already cut $10 million.  (Over what time period was not clear.)   Donna said that the administrators have not received a raise in four or five years.  She said, “Not one of them (board) wanted to do these cuts, but this is just where we are.” They all declared that they appreciated the staff so much and couldn’t have gotten this far without “the association.”  We need to there there as a community –  we’re very conservative.  We can’t do more.”
 
Chip asked how many students affected by the busing changes.  North had no idea. (Then why is this a necessary cut?)  Laura asked about the gifted and North said they were working on a “strategy” used in other districts in the area.  Something about “clustering.”   (They have their own language, Educationese.)  They do have a “Gifted Building Coordinator” so I guess they can keep this nebulous position . . . . . and voted to keep many others with supplemental pay.   In fact there were pages of additional duties that require supplemental contracts.   They really didn’t have any numbers.  Just threats and tears about the affect on “the children.”  it is so bad that the “per pupil spending will be less than Little Miami.”  Everybody will be affected.  Quote was, “Cutting deep into the muscle.”  “We have to address this.”  “To be honest with you, there was a lot of fighting and arguing with the administrative staff.”  “We have to make the best of it.”   The community has spoken.” Per North.
 
Stage I:  Cut four teachers.  (One math, one music, one elementary, one Spanish.)   $450,000.00 (Divide that number by four and tell me they are not overpaid.)
 
Stage II:  Bulk concessions by the LEA – Hard freeze on the base, step increase frozen (legal council provided information two weeks ago)
Allowed to provide for the staff – 3% pay reduction (no explanation on that one.)
Eliminate YMCA athletics
All forms to be electronic (saves paper)
15% reduction in supplies (counting paper clips)
Three gifted teachers go back into the classroom
Bus stops 1/4 mile and 1/2 mile  (for some in subdivisions)
Increase in “Pay to Participate” $250.00 per sport per student for high school and $175.00 for Jr. High
 
Phase II will cut $3M plus Phase I at $450,000 only equals $3.5 million so Phase III will be next. ????????  According to them they have a $5 Million reserve.  But they are talking about cutting $3 Million more.
 
I am sure we’ll be seeing some of these threats and more in the paper.   The reporter was there from the Western Star.    He was talking to the head of the LEA.
 
Sorry so many missed the fireworks.    You’d be so proud of your elected officials.     NOT!!!!!!!!!

__________________________________________________

I’m sorry people missed the fireworks too.  You can’t see the excitement unless you show up for these things.  All I can say is that it won’t fix itself people.  You have to at least show up to the fight. 

Rich Hoffman

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

Wild West Heroes: The Foundations of America!

The following clip was taken from the Annie Oakley Wild West event that I frequent each year with some of my friends. When David P. Little a political consultant hired to attack me saw this video he attempted to take the confederate flags in this video as a way to portray me as a racist. What progressives who think like Little  simply don’t understand is that these Wild West events are important to American culture. Each year that I’ve participated in the Annie Oakley event it has been a way that I reset myself.

I consider the people in that video to be some of my best friends, even if we only see each other once a year. They are good people who know what America is supposed to look like. In American culture, the cowboy is very important. I like to use cowboy metaphors to explain complicated topics because using the premier symbol of individualism in the world, the cowboy; it helps put everything else in perspective.

Here are some examples of what I consider to be some of the best that America produces. Guns are very important to Americana. The six-shooter is as important to the United States as the Samurai Sword is to Japan.

Progressives and their globalist views, have sought to destroy American heritage which I find repulsive. I appreciate the beauty of a gunman that can handle a six-shooter effectively.

It is sad that progressives have successfully turned even the sight of a gun into a symbol of death.

Knife throwing is another heritage that is essential to American culture. I know several knife throwers personally and every one of them are wonderful people who appreciate life more, because they routinely dance with death.

So when you see a person that is keeping the Old West alive with a cowboy hat, guns, or a knife, thank them. They aren’t just paying homage to a time when people didn’t wear deodorant, had to kill their food daily just to eat, and water was hard to come by. They are keeping the spirit of liberty alive, a time that individuals sought freedom so badly they’d risk life on the frontier to have it. They despised the world of Europe so intensely, that all the discomforts known to man was more preferable.

You might recognize this guy from the first video. I’ve known Chris for a while, and he’s the real deal. He travels the world as an ambassador of the Western Arts.

That is what I think of when I think of the Wild West. And that’s why I enjoy events like the Annie Oakley Festival. In such places, America is alive and well, and simplicity reveals the truth behind the progressive deceptions that has sung our country to sleep like a patient on the operating table under anesthesia.

Here’s another guy from the video above. This is another one of my close personal friends. You may have seen the newscast Gery and I did for a Dayton TV station.

It is in fact quite healthy to consider that if the government proves too big to replace, as it is needed, and those who crave power so diligently refuse to take their hands off that power, as is proper in our republic, then it will be the very law enforcement and military that we have which will be turned against us. And in such times should they unfortunately come to pass, that the skills of the cowboy will come into play. So keeping those skills alive is essential to preserving the nation we call home.

Here’s an exhibition I did for the World Stunt Organization at a film festival.

If it all falls apart and the law is turned against us, then, well that’s the plot of The Symposium of Justice, a book I wrote several years ago. Back then, it seemed far-fetched. These days, not so much, but that is a story for another time.

Rich Hoffman

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

Van Jones and his Plight for Paradise: A promise made to him from a robber

Van Jones is obviously feeling that his communist dream and those who dream like him are seeing their maniacal plots fall away into failure, so they are turning up the heat, attempting to drum up support for the direction progressives have been pushing for years.

Van Jones is challenging Glenn Beck to a debate because he is trying to lure Beck into a fight where Beck would gain nothing, but would give Jones a larger platform to speak from. Jones can only advance, where Beck could only lose something by coming down to Jones level. It’s a tough decision.

I’ve been saying it for a long time, this is outright war. It’s a war without bullets. Watch this clip carefully. People like this seek to keep people down so they can use those same people to lean on for power.

This is the clip where Glenn Beck answers Van Jones.

It’s important to understand what’s going on here. Progressives have had 100 years of phantomlike presence to manipulate the American system. FDR and LBJ are two presidents that have moved the nation in the kind of direction people like Van Jones expect. Those two presidents used the voting base of the people Van Jones speaks about to buy themselves power, and now America is dealing with the cost of that purchase. Yet, Van Jones is speaking as though America could always continue the way it has. As though the promises made by those two idiots, FDR and LBJ, were valid promises rooted in the foundations of the country and not simply a deal with a thief. Those presidents stole from us, gave to others, and used the profit to purchase power under the guise of legitimacy.

We are in a fight for our very lives, as a nation. There isn’t any negotiation with these types of people. The desperation coming from the progressives these days is that they see that the Tea Party is not going away, like they thought they would, and there is panic.

If I were Beck, I’d probably debate Jones and destroy him for what he is. But Beck is not a guy that likes conflict. He’s a guy that is good at seeing around the hidden corners, but he doesn’t like to fight. I do. So I’d love to dismantle someone like Jones in front of a national audience, and the people that follow Jones. But such an endeavor would not stop the fight. A fight like that would be out of pure fun to expose the degradation of the progressive movement, and what they have done to our nation.

But to Van Jones, your American Dream is not mine. You were promised things at my expense, looted from me to give to your type. What is your type, beggars, looters, and thieves, who use the poor and meek as your personal weapons against a country built on freedom. People like Van Jones hopes that he can always tap into the anger of the very lazy, and gather enough force to give looters like him legitimacy within a world of robbers.

Rich Hoffman

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

The Far Reaching Schools: DO NOT QUESTION AUTHORITY BECAUSE THEY WILL FIND YOU

If society is looked at without emotion, like an archeologist examines a civilization long over with neutral observation, then it is easy to see the problems. Since my love in life puts science first, before anything, then it is not difficult to look at our current civilization and detect where we are going wrong.

Doc Thompson did a great segment on the far-reaching culture of modern public education, where they attempt to extend their authority well into the private lives of children, all in the name of “protecting” them from bullying, or even from their own parents. Listen to that broadcast here.

When I see adults blindly submitting to authority, such as when they are pulled over by a police officer, it’s almost like a switch goes off in their minds that when they see the uniform of a police officer, they immediately revert into a mode of submission. The officer says, “Put your hands up where I can see them,” and automatically the hands go up without any conscious control. The same thing happens when an officer pulls over a speeding driver, the cop puts on the lights, and the immediate reaction is for the driver to pull over. To some extent, it’s probably good that this mechanism is in place, because society would probably have more conflict involved. But on the other hand, the same tendency that makes human beings become compliant to police officers also makes people prone to believe all symbols of authority, which includes politicians and spin doctors.

This is very bad, because even though people like the President of the United States are seen as leaders to the rest of the world, people tend to listen to him as though he actually carried a level of authority. If the President calls for war, there are people in the military that will carry out the order even if it means their deaths. If the President says society needs to care for the poor, then suddenly people will become more aware of the poor. This tendency is consistent all the way down the chain of command all the way down to a child’s local soccer coach.

The adults I know do not question enough what is going on in the world around them, and this is happening because they were taught very early to respect authority. In American culture what is required to maintain an honest republic is a respect of authority, but independence and free-will must be embraced by the culture even above authority in order for it to last. American children are learning to respect authority from their parents, their family, their siblings, friends, and public education.

Public education is spending too much money, and too much time teaching children to respect authority in my opinion. They are creating a society of grown-ups that automatically freeze up in the face of authority figures, and this is a very bad thing. As I said, a little authority is good, respect for mankind and others in general is important, but blind obedience is terrible for the sustainability of any culture. It leaves society vulnerable to tyrants.

This move by public education to intrude into the personal lives of the students we send to these schools is reprehensible and must stop. And it will not stop until parents demand it to stop. It’s not just an economic factor, because more teachers require more asserted authority, and we not only pay for those teachers, but we pay in how they teach our children to blindly accept authority and not embrace the nature of freedom.

The bottom line behind most everyone that pursues the life of an authority figure is that they wish to position themselves in a lucrative paying field of endeavor, where they can make a very good income, while also satisfying some inner inferiority complex that resides within them. They often are not people who should be followed under any circumstance what-so-ever. They should be despised and ridiculed for what they are, and that’s tyrants. So they need people to believe that their authority is needed to hold society together. But what they are really doing is destroying the very fabric of what makes American society unique, and fruitful.

So long as there is a fear of authority in American society, the republic from which that society is built will be flimsy, and easy to topple, which is how they want it. Because to the tyrant, they only care for gratification of the moment, and there are a lot of tyrants wondering about in positions of authority.

It sickens me each time I see people complying without question to the demands of an authority figure. And that process begins when the teacher tells a young child in public school not to run down the hall. The nail to the coffin is driven home when a teacher has the ability to reach into the private life of the child and police what the child says on Facebook, or even what they say on a private web-site. Once the child accepts that type of authority they will grow up and become weak-kneed adults that believe easily what a sappy politician tells them. Those adults will become terrible, over-emotional voters that will not know what’s good from bad, because their decision-making skills are tainted with the corruption of compliance.

Rich Hoffman

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

The Next Three Days Review: A Great Film………………what would you do?

I was looking for a movie to watch that fit a theme I have been working on in my Tail of the Dragon novel when I saw that Paul Haggis had directed Russell Crow and Liam Neeson in a story that explores what happens when the law is not necessarily your friend, when the system is turned against you completely. That story is called The Next Three Days.

The film is different from the story I worked on. Mine is all this along with a bit of Bonnie and Clyde mixed in. But this film intrigued me greatly. I loved it!

Paul Haggis was the screenwriter for a couple of Eastwood films that I love, Million Dollar Baby and Flags of our Fathers. He also had a writing credit for Terminator Salvation. Haggis also directed Crash, which was brilliant, so another film directed by him was something I was not going to miss.

I’m not going to reveal the details of this film. It is full of surprises and it’s a wonderful film. In the film, I can’t blame the decisions Russell Crow’s character made. It asks the hard questions like, how valid is “the law?” Is our legal system just? What is right and what is wrong and do they hold true if the perspective shifts?

I think we have become too reliant on law enforcement much in the same way as we have with teachers. We expect the police to keep us safe, which is unrealistic, because police really aren’t much of a deterrent. All they can really do is show up after a crime has been committed and build a case hoping that they can gather enough evidence to find the bad guy and bring about justice.

I don’t think the ineffectiveness of police officers in preventing crime is worth the freedoms we give up to have them. In a scene of the film shown in the preview where the police break down the door to Russell Crows home and came into his house forcefully, I became infuriated. I can say that if the same thing happened at my home, someone would have ended up hurt. There isn’t a force on earth, no gun, no club, no taser, nothing that would allow me to submit to a forceful entry into my home against my will. Property in America is everything, and when law enforcement can enter your property for the “greater goods security” then there simply isn’t any freedom.

In a lot of ways, that’s what The Next Three Days was all about. It took most of the film to arrive at that message, which doesn’t make it a bad film at all, but the movie was certainly targeted at the types of suburbanites that live around Paul in Santa Monica, a town that lives in its own insulated reality. So the characters in the film go through the transition that if they want freedom, they must take it. Nobody is going to give it to them. If they trust the legal system, it will let them down, just like education does. There is no easy fix.

I mention the film here because movies are a way to explore ideas, and a film like The Next Three Days is one of those types of films that everyone should see, then consider what they would do if they found themselves in the same situation. I suspect many people would do the disgraceful thing, and that’s to accept the rule of law, move on with another spouse, and live a nice safe life.

But, as shown in The Next Three Days, the law is only as good as the people who run it. If the lawyers, prosecutors, Supreme Court, and cops are lazy, and they are, because they’re government workers, then there is always a chance to become a victim to their complacency. So when that happens do you just take it and let their incompetence ruin your life?

I say no. It might have taken the characters 3 years to get to the point that I would have been at within a few hours, but the merit is still what it is, that when a force of any size, or complexity threatens your sovereignty, then war to defend your position is perfectly justified. It is in fact demanded.

That’s why I recommend watching this film and asking the question, how effective is law enforcement? Is it what we really want? Does it represent what being an American is all about, or are we willing to toss those ideas away in favor of an imperfect pursuit of safety.

Watch The Next Three Days for a thrill, excitement, and much-needed contemplation.

Rich Hoffman

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

The New Overmanwarrior.com: A Father’s Day Present to Launch the Future

One of the challenges in analyzing profit and lose responsibilities as an occupation, mixed with entertainment, being a “watch dog political activist,” culminating with multiple writing endeavors it is inevitable that a web site presence is needed. I started Overmanwarrior.com last year to meet the growing need to maintain some sort of window into the world I participate in, since there are clients that want that information, fans of my book; The Symposium of Justice that enjoy keeping up with what I’m doing, and my activity working with bullwhips for various entertainment venues. I named the site overmanwarrior.com because of a term used in my book The Symposium of Justice, and it seemed most fitting for what I’ve been doing.

The political work I’ve been doing is an added element that was not anticipated when I started Overmanwarrior.com. That work came out of necessity, because it’s happening in my community, which makes me obligated to act when I see that something is wrong. I am not one of those writers that sits around writing about what the world should be, but lacks the courage to implement my thoughts. I cannot in good consciousness write passionately about the corruption that is taking place in books like The Symposium of Justice, which was very controversial when it came out. Time has proven it to be ahead of it’s time. My new book which is due out in 2012 and is under contract currently in the editorial phase is just as critical of the social norms built around a political superstructure that is crushing on the human spirit. On this book, I didn’t aim so far into the future as I did with Symposium, because the battle is right in front of us.

It would be hypocritical for me to write so passionately about these topics and still allow corruption to take place in my own back yard without me applying the same level of work in fighting tyranny in real life. I’m not that kind of person.

I never planned to be an activist. I despise political politicians. I want the minimum government possible. I do not want large public school organizations that are over staffed and too expense teaching kids to “comply.” I do not want to deal with a society of brain dead followers in American society. That leads to my extreme dislike of police authority. Nothing against those in law enforcement occupations but I don’t want to support anything resembling a police state. I understand that police need to have the ability to go after criminals, but to my eyes, I see criminals still selling drugs. I still see prostitution going on. Murders still happen. People still break into homes. I believe that the greater deterrent to crime, physical assaults, and murder is the Second Amendment. It is out of a socialist desire for larger government, to give law enforcement jobs to do, that the gun control legislation is pushed forward, so with such views, that I explore in my fiction, I cannot turn my eyes away from reality.

This has led to a collection of media appearances that I’ve been a part of that have accumulated over some time. My work as an entertainer and my work as a “watch dog” are unique in a kind of merging involving both entertainment of political awareness, so I needed a website update that reflected these two aspects of my life, since both aspects are simultaneously important to any curious investigation into my life.

To do this, I turned to the person that designed the No Lakota Levy website. I had designed the first Overmanwarrior.com and many complained that it was too busy and not as effective as it needed to be. I developed the Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom site which evolved into what it is now, and took over as my personal platform, but the blog is sort of all the contents of my house, where the website is the door to that house, and I needed a new door. When I had to formalize resistance to the No Lakota Levy effort to counter the effort of the OEA, and other organized groups that seemed “hell bent” to increase my local taxes for no good apparent reason, it was the website that had started a successful campaign.

As a group, the No Lakota Levy group had access to professional web designers and public relations people. But I was hesitant, because we needed a unique web presence that was on the cutting edge. We wanted a better site than what the Lakota website had. So I turned to my daughter.

Her work on that site gave her accolades from public relations professionals, and media specialists everywhere. It’s not because of the technical aspect. There are many young people these days that understand how to write code for web design. But there aren’t many that have artistic ability that actually surpasses the technical ability. For No Lakota, I gave my daughter a series of production notes explaining what the website needed to accomplish. She nailed it. She produced a website that far exceeded my expectations, properly utilized video and social media into a top notch flash oriented website.

Once I learned that American Publishing wanted to publish my second book Tail of the Dragon, and that the marketing of that book would involve nationwide media attention, I needed a website that provided a door to my extensive collection of media, primarily all the work I’ve done on Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom, and my YouTube efforts which is equally vast. I needed this door because this second book will be put on a much larger platform than my previous work so everything needs to represent that level of professionalism.

This door to my life needs to be simple, yet inviting into the world I’m involved in, and it needs to stand out. I didn’t want it to be just another website that is the standard these days. I wanted something that was current, state-of-the-art with a world-class design. So again, I turned to my daughter. She knows me; she has the technical ability, and what she is still learning she is able to use existing programs where another firm may be able to create the whole thing in code. But she has the ability of vision that is unique, where maybe a handful of people in the country could actually pull off a job like this based on my written instructions.

Did she do it? YES! I told her I need something that embodies my “watch dog” work without sacrificing all the work I’ve done in entertainment. My roots as a western arts advocate needs to be there, without being overstated. It needs to be patriotic, because I am. But it also needs to represent my literary work, which in this stage of my life is becoming increasingly more important. With those basic descriptions, she came up with the new Overmanwarrior.com site and I love the results.

With the creation of this new site, it launches a new level of commitment to the type of life that is before me. From the doorway of this site daily updates of my work on Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom will be uploaded by a Twitter feed. Some of my favorite articles out of the hundreds and hundreds I’ve written are archived as sample work. There are many video’s seamlessly incorporated into the design along with other links that will take the visitor on an extensive journey without being too complex visually. I’ve also done many hours of radio that is also listed at this site which supports my “watch dog” work and is easily available.

Tail of the Dragon is going to be a tremendous work. I am very proud of it, so far, and it’s going to give me an opportunity to discuss nationally, an issue that is even more taboo than teachers, law enforcement. What it is, why we do or do not need it, and what are the solutions to the problems. It’s an exciting book that I wanted to see written, and since it wasn’t, I wrote it. My new website of Overmanwarrior.com embodies this spirit along with everything else I’m doing, and I’m proud that out of all the thousands and thousands of dollars I could have spent having this site designed for me, that my daughter was able to hit it beyond my expectations.

I am happy to announce that as of June 20, 2011, Overmanwarrior.com has taken the next step into a larger world as the ideas explored continue to increase. The unusual task for me, the client, and my daughter the designer is how to represent a guy that is very active as a “watch dog” while not being the least bit politically interested, yet deeply involved in entertainment and business. This site is it! And she was successful in every way possible…….again!

She told me that the completion of this site and the many hours she put into its design was a Father’s Day present. Nobody could have done anything for me better than this, so yes, my Father’s Day was wonderful.

Rich Hoffman

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

Educate Ohio and The Original Argument: My Speech and a Special Gift

A friend of mine gave me a new book. Every time I get a new book, I have a good day. This particular book was The Original Argument, by Glenn Beck and Joshua Charles, at an event I was speaking at called Educate Ohio.

The event had about 30 to 40 school board members, teachers and education reform advocates where I gave a presentation on how excessive wages under union contracts are bankrupting school districts.

After the meeting I learned how the book came into my friend’s possession. The book had just be released and a woman had bought 50 of them and was passing them out at the Lebanon Racetrack, a popular meeting place for the Lebanon Tea Party, and she gave my friend 5 of them and told her to pass them out to people who would do something with the book. My friend then gave me one of those 5, which is a treasure to me greater than gold.

I read the Federalist Papers and the Anti-Federalist papers last summer. They were respectfully hard reads because of the old dialogue, but it was those books that inspired me to start this site, Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom. I wanted this blog site to be a kind of modern Federalist Papers using all the tools of the modern age to paint the picture of America’s situation. I had heard that Beck and Joshua were attempting to update the Federalist Papers into modern language that everyone could understand, and that’s what The Original Argument is. It is wonderful that finally every day people will be able to read this book and actually understand how the American government is supposed to be.

One of the speakers before me at the Educate Ohio Conference was Paul Lambert from Columbus, who said something in his presentation that made me connect the two things together, Glenn Beck’s new book, and this education event. He said, “Schools are one of the last things in our republic that we still actually control locally.” He was right; our school districts are one of the last bastions of America that are left. We elect our school boards locally, and we pay for them locally, at least for the most part. And we see that our schools have gotten away from us, they are being run by large unions that have their eyes on state and federal money that they can turn around and use indirectly to manipulate the political process, and it’s happening right under our noses.

When I gave my speech, there were many people there that were from Pickerington, Ohio where the new superintendent for my school district of Lakota comes from. This has been another issue that has exploded on the scene over the last couple of days and I am deeply disappointed in our school board’s decision to hire this person. Here is a preview of my comments that will appear in the Pulse Journal this coming Thursday. Click on the article to go to the I-Team Investigation video on double-dipping superintendents and learn the real story behind the scam. Click here to hear the radio broadcast done by that same reporter on 700 WLW. This is important!
____________________________________________________________________

I thought Ron Spurlock was doing a great job as superintendent of Lakota. He was innovative, energetic, had the ability to unite people, and he was cheaper. So it is baffling to me why the school board elected to hire a double-dipping superintendent from just up the road for $165,000, about $50,000 more than they were paying Ron, and they spent 50K to find her. Didn’t anybody learn anything from the Channel 9 I-Team report we did in May?

I’m sure Mantia is a nice lady. I’m willing to give her a chance, so long as she doesn’t ask for more tax money. My problem is in the absolute preposterous understanding of economics. The school board spent $100,000 dollars that it didn’t need to. Why?

Did the school board think that getting a superintendent from outside of the district like Mantia is what the No Lakota Levy people wanted? She’s more of the same. You’re personnel costs are too high, and decisions like what was made in hiring Mantia perfectly exhibits the folly. You had a guy right in front of you and you hired a woman playing the system. And we are supposed to believe we should increase our taxes even higher than they are now to pay for this lack of understanding?

Lakota doesn’t need more revenue to fund their inflated ideas about what education is. It needs to dump its high dollar, ineffective teachers and administrators, keep people like Mr. Duff, but dump the ones you plainly know do not deserve 75K per year, and replace them with ambitious, cheaper labor fresh out of college. Don’t tell me you don’t know the difference between a good teacher and a bad one. Here’s a hint, the bad ones are working just for money, and just like superintendents that retire the minute they turn 55 then seek to be rehired so they can double-dip. Let those bad teachers go to another district. It will create a job vacancy for us.

If Lakota wants to stay excellent, it can’t just tread water. It’s has to become sustainable over time.

_____________________________________________________

 

The arrogance of the school board to play politics in plain site is an obvious sign of disrespect. The people I talk to are aware of it, but aren’t sure what to do about it, because things have always been this way in their lives. People are only now waking up to it because the money is running out, and it’s not so easy to just toss money at corrupt people anymore to just shut them up. People are finally starting to look at how things are supposed to be.

As I packed up all my notes, and presentation material from my speech, I looked at the book that was left for me in the back of the room under my camera tripod, The Original Argument, by Glenn Beck, given to me by someone that had it given to them, who simply wanted to wake people up so they can understand how to defend themselves. A woman that bought 50 copies of the book with her own money and gave them away in all hope that someone would learn, and just possibly one person out of that 50 would do something to stop the madness.

As my wife and I left the building into the hot June sun, I thought about Paul’s words about how schools are the last things we still can control, and the woman who hoped that the foundations of the country would be re-learned. I watched the people leaving the Educate Ohio Conference and I saw that the battle lines were right in front of me. This is the stand that must be taken, and it must be defeated before any government reform can precede, this debate over school funding, and education content.

I ran my fingers over the cover of that book and took a moment to be grateful that such a literary achievement could even be published, and purchased, and brought to my hands with the best of intentions, because it’s not too late for an army of thought to gather in order to combat the massive tyranny that has hid itself in complicated legislation and ancient language. Holding that book gave me the feeling of rebirth in America, and that good would triumph over pure evil.

After my speech I thought of several people who had approached me, and as I unlocked my car to get in and drive away I reflected about what I said to them. “What are we to do, how can we stop this massive corruption?”

I told them, “They’ve already lost. They hide like cockroaches because they have to. They can’t talk about the facts because they rely on your emotions to control you. If you do like you’re doing, come to conferences like this, read, and pay attention, you will beat them sooner than you can imagine. Just keep focused, stay with the truth, and give them no place to hide. And you’ll get your country back.”
We’ve already won. The trouble is, the bad guys don’t know it yet because they’re too stupid and arrogant to see that they’ve been caught. All people need is the truth, and it will literally set them free in every way possible.

Rich Hoffman

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

Lakota’s New Superintendent is a DOUBLE DIPPER: It’s all about plunder…I mean kids

All it took was one guy from our No Lakota Levy group to show just the slightest inclination to break away from the main group before the district fluffed their wings and assumed that an opening was available to sneak on a school levy in November. This news came on the heels of Lakota’s new superintendent announcement of Karen Mantia. As I listen to Mantia and her priorities I can’t help but wonder why her primary focus is on our children’s retirement.

She has a reputation supposedly of thinking outside the box, but most of what she’s said so far sounds rather typical. How does she know that retirement will even be an option for the children of tomorrow? With all the life extension methods that are up and coming in science, retirement could be pushed to over 100 years old by then. People may live to well over 100 maybe even 150 years old. Retirement is a baby boomer idea that is quickly proving unrealistic. People just aren’t dying at 70 any more like they used to. So that seems like a strange priority. I would think that if she’s so well-educated, she’d be aware of these scientific advances. But she’s new, maybe she was just nervous and said the first thing that came to her mind.

It looks however that she is a double-dipper. Click here to watch a special report done by Channel 9 on this very issue. She retired from Sycamore in July 31, 2006 – likely after having 30 years of service. If she was 55 when she retried, her retirement is 66% of her salary. If she was making $100K when she retired, she will be bringing in $231K and that’s not counting the other benefits that are undoubtedly in her contract. If that’s the case, that’s a major issue with me, as a tax payer I’m paying for her retirement package, indirectly, but the money still came from somewhere, and now she is being paid by Lakota $165,000 per year, which is more than the last superintendent that I thought was paid too much. Lakota also spent 50K to find her, and she was just up the road. It doesn’t make sense to me.

But I’m happy to give her a chance. She’ll be alright with me until she asks for more money.

As to the article in the Pulse Journal where the Pro Levy people exploded in exhilaration that Mark Sennet showed signs of defecting. Read that article here:

‘No Lakota’ group split on next levy

Some would OK ‘conservative’ levy in November; others don’t want any levy.

Staff Writer 11:32 AM Thursday, June 16, 2011

LIBERTY TWP. — Members of the No Lakota group are in disagreement about whether they would support a levy if Lakota puts one on the ballot.

West Chester Twp. resident Mark Sennet spoke to the board of education Monday, saying the No Lakota group would support a “conservative” levy in 2012 if the board would bypass the election this November.
However, No Lakota member Rich Hoffman, who has typically spoken on behalf of the group, said no discussion had occurred at a meeting about supporting a levy, and he was holding fast to his stance on never supporting a levy.

Hoffman said there may be a split in the group, but he thinks the 50-and-older crowd will stand with him.
Sennet said Lakota officials have made “a valiant effort to try to work and control spending,” but people still need time to recover from the economic crisis. He said he and several developers would be on the board’s side if it waited for November 2012.

“We acknowledge that there were changes made,” he said. “The businesses had to make changes. The citizens had to make changes, and we were glad to see the union and teachers and board agreed to a pay freeze. But if the levy were to pass, then I guess that would be good for the community.”

Board member Ray Murray said he was pleased the business community is recognizing the district’s transparency and how it is listening to the community.

“There are going to be people who are not going to ever say yes to anything, and there’s nothing you can do about it,” he said. “We’ve got to generate more revenue. We can’t survive on a 2005 budget.”
Former For Lakota levy chairwoman Sandy Wheatley said the board and district representatives have been mending fences with those in opposition since the last election.

“Everyone has kind of stepped up to the plate to do their part,” she said. “Now, with all those pieces in place — because this is the only way Ohio has left us in terms of ways to fund schools — I think the community will see this as now it is time for us to put the last piece together by doing our part to support the tax issue. … Perhaps the residents now will be better critical thinkers around if what they are hearing is accurate information.”

Board president Joan Powell said the board will meet for a work session at the end of the month to study an updated five-year forecast and discuss options.

__________________________________________________________________

Mark and some of the other developers in our group have always been about trying to reduce the rates of tax on the properties they are holding that aren’t making any money in a tough economy. Mark just wants to get through a tough year and he’ll probably support a levy. I’ve always known that defection of a few of these guys was inevitable. They were welcome to ride along as long was we all fought for a common cause. We have many supporters of many different degrees of belief.

I do take offense however at Ray Murry’s comments where he says some people, (like me) will never support a levy.

Why would I support a levy when I can see in the light of day that labor costs are the number one problem at Lakota, and the teacher’s unions are the primary culprits that drove up those costs? Why would I think that a silly contract agreement that freezes actual step increases is enough? That’s only a three-year band-aid. Heck, three years ago I remember the teachers union in 2008 threatening a strike demanding higher wages. That wasn’t that long ago and I remember it vividly. When the union did that, I decided that public sector unions had no place in any tax payer organization. So there is no reason to even discuss a levy when so much money at the top is used on union activity. Unions drive up the labor costs not just for a couple of exceptional employees, but for everyone! There are no controls over how much a teacher can make. They are free to get a degree which immediately drives up their salary regardless of whether or not their degree actually contributes to a child’s education, because I don’t think it does. Unions just cost too much, so while they are in place, and I don’t want my money being scrapped off the top by them, why would I support them? If the union was out-of-the-way and the community could see the actual cost of what education costs, then I’d be more inclined to support a levy. I already pay a lot in taxes each year, so it’s not like people who don’t want more taxes on their property don’t support their schools and the kids that go to them. People like me don’t support public unions.

If that is a radical position, too bad, but it’s the facts. People like Mr. Murry are trying to justify why the school board has not been acting as a management protection, because they can’t. They are just figureheads. Lakota will attempt another levy because they have a new superintendent, they think our No Lakota Group is split, and they don’t know how to do anything else. Like Ray says, “We’ve got to generate more revenue. We can’t survive on a 2005 budget.” I’d say, “Why not?”

$10K per child is too high for poor performance, and the United States is not in first place in the world education market, and Mrs. Mantia’s Global Program won’t do anything to help. It’s just another way of dressing up what kids are already supposed to be learning in school.

But the state is cutting funding. The federal government is cutting money too! Hey, folks, get used to it. The gravy train the unions used with all the free money that was lost in bureaucratic nonsense is gone, and the expectation is that local communities are going to cover the difference. No, we won’t be. That’s simply not going to happen.

What’s going to happen is that schools are going to have to cut back their real costs, their wages, or they will become extinct. Property owners are not going to cover the cost of the outrageous expectations the unions have negotiated for themselves. Unions took advantage of government, as they always do, of the fact that nobody had any real skin in the game. When state and federal money is coming, it was easy to divide up the spoils, and they did. As a group, the teachers unions got greedy. Now that is coming to an end as states try to balance their budgets. And property owners do have skin in the game……their property!

So if Lakota chooses to put a levy on the ballot this November, or even in 2012, without cutting the wasted cost in excessive wages schools are enduring, then the No Lakota Group will be there to fight them.

During the last levy attempt of 2010 we held back. I personally had a lot more to throw out, but for the sake of the community, I held back a lot. If Lakota elects to go after the tax payers again with another levy before the teachers union reduces the wages for their top wage earners by 30%, or while superintendents like Karen Manita draws retirement from Sycamore where she retired at exactly 55 years old, then turned around and took another job so she could double-dip, then quit that district to come to Lakota, get a 20K raise then stand in front of everyone and tell the residents of the district is “for the kids.”

Hiding behind kids, exploiting the hard work of property owners to create lucrative jobs for themselves does not necessitate a levy request until the run-away costs are controlled, and if that means getting rid of the union, fine. If that means the union takes a pay cut, but stays put as an organization, fine. If S.B.5 gives school boards the ability to dramatically cut their labor costs, then fine. But it is not acceptable to ask for more money from the tax payer to cover the cost of lost state and federal revenue. We are not picking up the bill when the unions took too much, and they did in 2008. It’s time for them to give back, or move along so we can hire cheaper teachers, that will still keep Lakota one of the best schools in the state. Because failure, of any kind, is not an option.

Rich Hoffman

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

Lakota Finds a New Superintendent: Karen Mantia known for her Global Integration Models

Lakota has announced its new superintendent will be Karen Mantia. The news was first broke by Doc Thompson on 700 WLW during the 9 AM hour while he was interviewing me over another story. The original topic was that one of the No Lakota members appeared to be defecting from our movement and the press was all over the story before I even heard about it. Click here to listen to that broadcast.

I haven’t had the chance to meet Mrs. Mantia, or Doctor as I’m sure she would prefer to be called, so I don’t know what she will do to fix Lakota’s problems. But, it appears she is jumping out of the frying pan and into a bon-fire at Lakota.

Check out this article from Yahoo News about Pickerington Schools up in Columbus.

Source article from Yahoo News:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20110614/us_ac/8639195_pickerington_school_district_begging_for_levy_support

________________________________________________________________________

 

Administrators at the Pickerington Local School District in Ohio are gearing up for an August levy vote to avert the need to make $7 million in budget cuts. Superintendent Karen Mantia estimates 30 more educator jobs will be cut during the 2012-13 school year if the levy does not pass. While some school administrators and staff are blaming the planned state funding cuts for the district’s financial woes, there is a lot more to consider than the lack of availability of taxpayer funds.

According to the fiscal information on the school website the projected $5 million state funding cuts for this school year would only scale the district back to 2008 funding amounts. The districts experienced at least $5 million per year in increased taxpayer funds since 2000. The school garnered $15 million in state assistance in 2000 and $45 in 2010.

Unsustainable spending is an issue for not just the Pickerington Local School District, but public schools and agencies throughout Ohio. A business as usual approach to funding schools and entitlement programs is simply not feasible without drastically increasing taxes. The fiscally responsible measures detailed in Ohio’s Jobs Budget and Senate Bill 5 are not meant to punish schools or attack public employees, but to ensure districts and agencies can remain solvent without adding to the burden of taxpayers.

Voters residing in the Pickerington Local School District said “no” to a levy increase last year. Residents currently pay $1,303 in property taxes on homes valued at $100,000 and a 1 percent income tax to support the school district.

Even if the 2011 levy gains approval the $500 per student extracurricular fee per sport will still stand. The proposed levy would generate nearly $6 million and add $168 to the average property tax bill. Salaries and benefits comprise the largest portion of the budget. Administrator salaries range from $75,000 to $144,000 per year.

Beginning in 2007 the district initiated a plan to reduce operational expenses by $7 million. During the same time period the district opened three new school buildings. The taxpayer-funded federal stimulus plan added funds to the district’s coffers last fiscal year when the Strickland administration funding formula reduced state assistance by $2 million for the district. Cost saving measures enacted by the district include nearly $3 million for non-replacement of resigning or retiring employees, more than $1 million in transportation cuts and in excess of $300,000 by eliminating positions.

Unlike the Columbus City School District, Pickerington Local does not have audit findings, ongoing fraud investigations or low test scores. Parents within the school community are concerned about access to extracurricular activities with the $500 price tag per club or athletic team. Although school officials are skirting the subject, there is fear that district enrollment will drop as parents exercise the open enrollment option to transport their children to nearby schools so they can continue to enjoy sports and academic clubs.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Pickerington is voting for their levy in August and Karen is leaving while she can still save face because it’s not going to pass. I know some people up there and that is the consensus.

I am concerned that Mantia is highly regarded in transitioning the Pickerington district’s curriculum to a Global Integration Model, which is a big alarm flag to me. I am opposed to school districts doing anything more than teaching the basics, one because in such things as Global Integration Model programs, it’s all about politics. Second, such programs cost money, and that money comes from the tax payer.

The Global Integration Team is part of the Pickerington Local Schools’ vision for 21st century learning. Each team will work collaboratively with building staff to develop dynamic, real-world learning experiences to further the academic achievement of each student.

There are five teams, composed of teachers with expertise in art, music, technology, physical education/wellness and media. Each team will work with classroom teachers to strengthen student understanding of essential knowledge and skill development in the areas of reading, math, science and social studies. Activities will be structured to enhance the 21st century skills of collaboration, communication, critical and innovative thinking.

Sounds good doesn’t it? Well, I thought that was what schools were doing all along.

Read more about Global Integration Models here:

http://www.pickerington.k12.oh.us/school_NewsArticle.aspx?artID=1781&schoolID=16

It’s really a progressive program designed to teach our kids to move into a globalized government, which I’m against as a tax payer. Here’s what it’s really about:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/20729275/Poverty-Reduction-Policies-and-Global-Integration

So that’s what we’re getting, as a superintendent, more of the same, a global oriented supporter of socialism. It is amazing to me that Lakota spent $50,000 tax dollars to find this woman who was in a district literally right down the road, which is a supporter of all the things that cost too much in public school, and is philosophically taking our nation in the wrong direction. If the school isn’t teaching American pride first, it is helping to deconstruct it as a way of wealth redistribution. That’s what globalization means.

Globalization is using human’s natural empathy for one another to allow political aims to plant themselves into the freedoms of the individual. This trick of empathy is used to lure tax money toward aims that individuals would otherwise resist. In the way that globalists vision, they use empathy, as it’s taught in public schools to advance a political aim that is focused on wealth redistribution.

It appears as of now that Lakota wasted massive amounts of money to hire a woman fleeing her own district to bring more ideas to Lakota that will take the school in a cosmetically beneficial direction for the school, but a treacherous path for our children and their families.

Here we go again.

Rich Hoffman

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

No Lakota Levy Group Offers Support to a Levy in 2012: Nooooooooooooooooo Waaaaaaaaaayyyy!

As reported in the West Chester Buzz at the Cincinnati Enquire website, the No Lakota Group offers to support the Lakota School Levy in 2012.  Clarification must be presented since my site has been flooded by curious readers. 

http://westchesterbuzz.com/2011/06/14/nolakota-offers-to-support-school-levy-in-2012/

For those who don’t know who Mark Sennet is, he’s NOT in any of these clips. As it has been for years, I will still be advocating against higher taxes. Mark’s decision to make some sort of deal with the Lakota School Board is strangely out-of-place. As anyone can see from this video clip, Mark and many others could leave the No Lakota Levy movement, and I could still continue without any problem.

The reality is this…….Mark Sennet, who is a member of the No Lakota Levy Group did speak at the board meeting on June 13th, 2011, and did make such a statement as to offer support of the levy in 2012.  However, Mark was speaking individually, or at a maximum the developers that are in our group who may wish to join him, but for the rest of us, we will still be standing against any proposed levy in the school district of Lakota.

As a businessman, I am surprised by Mark’s comments.  My goals have been to bring down the cost of education, and further tax money toward a school district is simply not in the equation.  However, not everyone is working for the same objective, and obviously, there is some politics involved in this decision by Mark. 

So for those of you who don’t want to see your taxes increase, rest assured.  The No Lakota Levy Group will still function.  Even if all the developers withdrawal their support, there are still many hundreds of people who have volunteered their time and money to help with a campaign.  There will be more than enough resistance to defeat any future  school  levies. 

Some of the stories that are taking place around the Lakota district, such as parents organizing sports in their neighborhood cul-de-sacs and car pooling kids to museums are wonderful stories.  Parents should have been doing that kind of thing all along, and cutting the budget to these activities have brought out the best in our community.  Throwing money at a child’s education is almost the same as throwing money into a fire.  It takes parents that want to be involved in a child’s life.  If a community just tosses money into a bottomless pit of union expectation, which is public education, they can expect that money to be wasted.  That is why Mark’s comments surprise me. 

But many of our members that are from the developing community are sitting on properties that they can’t sell or lease, so their judgment toward levies is that they don’t want to pay an unfair amount of money in taxes for property that isn’t doing what they invested in.  In a good economy they are the first to support a levy, because they built the homes which added to the school population.  So for many of them, the taxes aren’t an issue as long as they can move their property. 
For people like me however, I plan to live in the district for a long time, and the taxes are too high right now, let alone in the future.  The expectation of cost needs to come down, so I will continue to fight that issue as I always have. 

So don’t worry.  We have plenty of supporters against a levy right now.  If Mark and his friends want to cross over to the other side, that’s perfectly fine.  It won’t have an impact on the end result.

Rich Hoffman

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