Category: Union

ATLAS SHRUGGED WAS SOLD OUT AT NEWPORT ON THE LEVEE: MY REVIEW OF THE FILM

I read all the reviews for the Atlas Shrugged Part 1 film as they began to pour in on April 14, 2011. The reviews were predictably not kind for all the same reasons that Frank Oz was overlooked in 1981 for an Academy Award in his portrayal of Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back. The reason back then was that the Screen Actors Guild did not regard puppeteers as actors. The Directors Guild also clamped down on George Lucas for putting all the credits at the end of the movie instead of the beginning which prompted Lucas to quit the guild and make Return of the Jedi using Richard Marquand, who at the time was not a member of the guild. Marquand at the time had only a few credits to his name, The Legacy and the TV movie Birth of the Beatles.

I am reminded of that little piece of history because so many critics seem hungry to criticize Atlas director Paul Johansson for his lack of experience directing only One Tree Hill episodes. The criticism that the film received a flat screen treatment meaning it seemed to resemble a high production value television show is sophomoric and is uttered strictly from the mouths of the unions, and have no merit. What are they comparing Atlas to as far as a film of value, something like Jackass 3-D? Atlas Shrugged is an ambitious film that takes on a lot of ground. I personally think they went too fast in the development of the story. They could have gotten away with another 50 minutes of film time, something the producers may want to release as a director cut when the film comes out on DVD. There were exposition shots of the government action in the macrocosm that needed to be there to develop why building the train line was such a big deal, and people who have not read the book might find it difficult to follow the story without repeated viewings. Because the cut of the film is trying to fit into under 2 hours at 1 hour and 40 minutes Atlas focused on the microcosm of the characters Dagney and Rearden. I understood it because I know the book so well, and people who do know the book will be happy to see that the filmmakers went to a lot of trouble to stay true to the nature of the book.

I see the film version of Atlas Shrugged as an experiment rather than a literal film meant to be taken on its own. It’s a work of philosophy put into visual form, and it requires a level of sophistication to begin with. Film is supposed to be like that. I can think of Koyannisquatsi, the great film by Godfrey Reggio that featured just a series of sped up images taken from all over the world to articulate the evolution of man in the current age into a society oddly similar to a microchip. Powaqqatsi a few years later did much the same to the soundtrack of Philip Glass.

I thought of those films while watching Atlas Shrugged. The filmmakers of Atlas were capturing the images of the book without attempting to duplicate Ayn’s work. The most notable and effective elements of this filmmaking style was John Galt in the opening scene only referred to in exposition by Rand where Galt stops Midas Mulligan on a rainy street and convinces him to leave the “outside” world. The other was the scene involving Hugh Akston. I thought the part of the film involving the static electric motor and Akston’s knowledge of it was hurried through due to the films running time, but when Askton hit the screen there was instant uttering’s of approval from the people in the theater watching the movie with me. All Akston had to do was appear on screen and the members of the audience were satisfied with the visual rendition of his character. In this way, the film version is interesting and fun because it serves as a visual companion to the book instead of a replacement, which I think many traditional thinking people might not understand.

Atlas Shrugged is an independent film. I’ve seen a lot of them, been to more than a couple of film festivals and seen a lot of bold attempts by young, and old filmmakers. Independent film has emerged as a powerful force because Hollywood does get stuck in its business model, which has been controlled by the political left, and has virtually ignored the portions of the market that go to Tea Party rallies and read books like Atlas Shrugged. To Hollywood, films like Hangover, and the next Scream film is the safe bets that fit into their understanding of things. Atlas Shrugged is about a foreign world to many on the political left, and they are not used to seeing views that are conservative in nature competing with their ideas and they don’t like it.

Atlas Shrugged because of the amount of characters and scale of the story will not work as a traditional film, with a lead like Angelina Jolie as Dagney and Brad Pitt as Rearden with a top-level director making over one million for his work along with all the supporting characters of John Galt, Francisco, James Taggert, and the other 50 or 60 characters that would all require SAG minimums depending on the scale driven off Jolie’s 20 million minimum and Pitt’s 20+ million per picture. Before anybody shot one frame of film there would be over 80 million in just wages alone committed to the film, which is why the movie had not been done up to this point. And a movie like Atlas Shrugged will never pull a ROI at the box office if the budget exceeds 100 million. This is a film for thinking people, so the scope of the film must match the intention, and that is to bring an epic story to thinking people and keep the budget to where the filmmakers can actually produce parts 2 and 3 without the contingency of waiting for DVD sales to refill the budget coffers.

My wife and I sat till the last credit scrolled across the screen at approximately 12:45 in the morning. I had to catch the late show because I attended the Tax Day Rally in Glendale where Doc Thompson was the MC. We left that event to catch the 8:20 showing at Newport on the Levee. I arrived about 7:45 to find the film sold out! Crowds of people swarmed around the ticket windows trying to get a ticket to Atlas Shrugged. So we bought a ticket to the 10:45 showing and killed our time at a nearby Irish Pub and enjoyed the storm that swept across the Ohio River while we waited. Our late show was about half full, which surprised me. What also surprised me was that many of the viewers were by themselves. I can’t recall seeing a movie that had a majority of the audience showing up by themselves. Now, the left normally would criticize those types of people as loners, and belittle them. But wishing them not to exist will not make them go away. These loners are the people who reject TV shows like How I Met Your Mother, or Two and a Half Men. These are also the types that reject reality TV shows, so their only entertainment is books, and the History Channel, because Hollywood isn’t making their kind of movies anymore. Atlas Shrugged is their kind of movie and many of them clapped at the end and stayed for most of the credits.

I sat with my arms crossed taking in what I had just seen and watching the reaction and found that the John Galt theme was racing through my head, which is a good sign. That means it was an effective soundtrack. I realized that Atlas Shrugged was the kind of movie that moves so fast and covers so much ground in such a short time that it requires repeated viewings. One viewing will not do it.

It was well acted. I thought Dagney was a believable person. In fact, the characters weren’t so beautiful that they were beyond the realm of reality which I think helps the film a lot. Again, with A list actors, that would have been a problem. Our society has become used to seeing extraordinarily beautiful people in leading roles, and that takes the situations out of our contemporary realities. When we leave the theater people don’t look like what we see in the films. So films take on a mystic of escapism. Atlas Shrugged is not out to do that. It seeks to place itself into the mind of the viewer’s experience, which is another reason for the cast to appear as it was. I thought the casting of Francisco D’Anconia played by Jsu Garcia was very good. Also of Paul Larkin by Patrick Fischler, that actor captured perfectly the treason of the good friend that was supposed to be of Mr. Larkin. Grant Bowler who played Rearden was excellent. This film is an obvious set-up for the part two which goes down the psychological rabbit hole, and I can’t wait to see Bowler stand in front of the federal court and tell them he does not acknowledge their authority or right to exist. Bowler will be able to pull it off.

I knew Tayler Schilling was going to nail Dagney in the first scene where she woke up to a phone call from Eddie Willers, also played very well by Edi Gathegi, in her apartment sleeping on the couch. A picture is worth a thousand words and Tayler got it. The character of Dagney is not an emotional person, and she played it straight until the incredible scream at the end of the movie. Here was a person that spent the whole movie trying to fulfill a promise to Ellis Wyatt, to get him a railroad, to repair the damage done by her brother to Wyatt’s business. Dagney is fulfilling a promise that she believes in with her entire soul to execute only to have Wyatt quit at the end and run off with John Galt.

Now the criticism that I’ve read is one from people who don’t understand what the big deal is. “Why is she so upset?” “What’s going on?” “So what, the guy left and burnt down his oil field. All conservatives are a bunch of greedy, oil loving bastards, serves them right!” Besides the fact that fuel costs were excessively high and Ellis was one of the only hopes in the United States for bringing the costs back down, why don’t people make the connection between oil and their own prosperity? Reardon asked the question in Atlas Shrugged, “What’s wrong with people?” Paul answered, “Why ask questions that have no answer?” He’s right, because the reason for those statements is because there are an alarming number of people in our society that no longer feel the pressure of a promise, because to care about a promise to a friend, wife or business partner, you have to care, and sadly, many people no longer care about things like a promise. So the lack of understanding directed at the confusion of Dagney’s motives in the film is more of a commentary on modern life, which is what Dagney is screaming at. She is afraid of becoming what we actually are. I would pay to see Atlas Shrugged 20 more times just to see that last scene. I thought it was vividly powerful. I loved how the camera pulled back to reveal the sign that Ellis left as his oil fields burned while she stood helpless to stop it. The reason for her “robotic” behavior is because she is determined to succeed no matter what the cost. My wife nailed Dagney’s performance by saying, “she reminds me of the terminator from Terminator 3.” And she’s right, Dagney will not be stopped. If she wants something, she will achieve it. And the scream represents that with all her ambition, with all her good will, all her energy, cleverness, and innovation, she could not stop Ellis from giving up. She saw the look in his eyes when Ellis was in her office chastising her for her brother’s incompetence and she thought if she did everything right, that she could keep Ellis from leaving wherever all the “men of the mind” were going.

I also read criticism of how the exposition was displayed with news broadcasts and this was somehow bad. I don’t agree. I think it was wonderfully done in this film. It reminded me of how the director Paul Verhoeven used newscasts from the film Robocop to propel the complicated aspects of the story along. Hollywood and critics in general have gotten used to the type of films produced in the 90’s and 2000’s that pamper to their every wish. This is something that Roger Ebert and Gene Siskal started. Those two reviewers created an industry of film critics and gave them much more power than they deserve. Movie reviewers have become breakers or makers of box office results, and that’s not necessarily healthy. Because the views of the reviewers become the editors of public opinion, and if those reviewers are progressive types, then studios will cater to those reviewers to get the “thumbs up.” I actually respect Roger Ebert quite a bit. He’s usually right on. But when he runs into something above his intellectual capacity, he gets stumped. You can see how Siskal and Ebert used to bounce off each other in this review of White Hunter Back Heart, which is one of my personal favorites films.

Ebert was fair from his perspective in his review. He knows Atlas Shrugged is loved by millions so he was careful in his comments. I think his mistake is he should have reviewed the film more the way he’d review an independent film like Koyannisquatsi. He like many people who go to see this film will mistakenly watch this film as a literal film, not as an atmosphere of images reflecting a philosophy. That’s the reason for the cityscape shots and the views of the mountains. Once all the films are completed, it will make sense. This first film is just an introduction. It’s also an experiment in filmmaking that I think is very healthy. It’s bold and deserves credit for that boldness alone. The merit of Atlas Shrugged will be felt down the road. It is the first step of bringing a new kind of entertainment to popular culture so it will suffer from opinion in the short run, but will stand the test of time over the long haul.

For the rest of us, those that don’t have to struggle to understand it, we can enjoy the treat of seeing on film the images we’ve painted in our minds while reading the book. Some of my favorite scenes were the opening with John Galt in the diner with the pouring rain outside, different from in the book, because Galt made an instant appearance in this film. I also liked that he was in Akston’s diner at the end. The appearance of Galt in the diners reminded me of the many day’s I’ve spent in such places at 3:30 and 4:30 am in the morning reading, writing and listening to the stories of the “night roamers,” those loners of society that everyone overlooks, but come out when everyone is asleep. It’s a subconscious understanding from people who understand John Galt and his motives, not an image intended for the masses looking for Batman. Subtle little changes to the book like that I thought were fun and artistic. But I’ll say that the bridge that Rearden built was magnificent to look at. Watching the train run down that track was fantastic.

My review of the film is that I like it a lot. I think it will be better when viewed with the other two films. For the DVD release I hope they can lengthen the running time with more exposition that had to be cut to keep the film under two hours. (the reason is to squeeze more showings in a day, very important for recovering a films costs.) And I think the film needs to be watched in the context of an artistic piece, just to sit back and enjoy the sights and sounds without trying to follow every word. The film moves too fast to be watched once. Repeated viewings are essential.

So go see it not just once, but several times!

Rich Hoffman

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

Kasich’s Epic Clash with the Voice of the Common Man

It is rare that any state, locality, or federal entity runs into a politician that is competent and intelligent. It is rare to find a politician that is a self-made man not looking at politics as a stepping stone to career advancement. It is rare that a politician actually puts the honor of their office first, before anything else. It is rare to meet a politician that has the guts and fortitude to endure the criticism of special interest.

It also is rare to see a politician that will take on an old-time friend and conservative that prides himself as the conservative voice of the common man, and in the times when it really counts between those two old friends, it is obvious who meant what they said over the years and who was all talk.

That’s what the State of Ohio has in Governor John Kasich and it’s evident in this video shot at 700 WLW when Kasich was on the Bill Cunningham show for a fiery showdown of ideas over the casino issues, retirement and the controversial stance the governor has taken on “collective bargaining” specifically the S.B.5.

I’m not one that tosses praises around easily. So it is with great merit that I say that I can’t recall a politician in my lifetime that matches the passion of their mouth with actual action. John Kasich is a rare person that has greater ability in management than he does in his ability to speak, which is exceptionally good. I was deeply impressed with this exchange between Kasich and Bill Cunningham.

I suspect that Kasich is like many in Ohio and he doesn’t want casinos in the state. That would explain his behavior toward the casino deal that Cunningham is so against. I can remember when Cunningham in the mid 90’s was completely against the casinos so that would explain why Kasich is so surprised in Cunningham’s defense of a socially liberal concept, such as casinos are.

Kasich should be representing the position that all businesses have an equal opportunity even if he doesn’t like them. There is a Hustler of Hollywood store near my house that I can’t stand. I think it ruins the small town of Monroe, Ohio with its presence. But, every time I drive by it, it’s full of people looking for their pornography fix and all the tax collected through each sale is paying taxes. I don’t agree with the pornography, but I vote by not going, and I won’t be going to a casino in Cincinnati for many of the same reasons. If the business model fails, it fails. I’d be happy about it, but I won’t do anything to bring it about either, because it’s a business that has the right to attempt. If it finds a market, even if that market is evil, so be it. It’s not for me to decide what’s evil for someone else.

Kasich needs to have the same position on the casinos. You can’t expect to tax them out of existence like we attempt to do with cigarettes and alcohol. Those are all anti-business stances. But, that does not ruin the great banter that Kasich engaged in. It was refreshing to see such a person in the position of a governor.

This clash of ideas is something that will resonate for quite some time because of the truths revealed. And we are better for it.

Rich Hoffman

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

Atlas Shrugged is Coming: Obama and Lakota need to see it to learn about economics

It took me a full day for the anger to steam away from my mind once I took three showers and spent hours reading to relax from the most audacious speech I can recall hearing from a president of the United States. The president’s speech was very telling, and ignorant. It is everything warned to us by Ayn Rand over 50 years ago.

Rand warned us in the epic book published in 1957 called Atlas Shrugged of everything the president said in that speech and more.  And finally, a movie is hitting the big screen from that prophetic work.  That movie comes out April 15, 2011. GO SEE IT!!!!!! What is most infuriating with the way the president stood up in front of a room full of people and declared that taxes must be increased to pay for a great America, is that he was simply saying the same mindless rhetoric that our local politicians throw our way when they are trying to pass a school levy. The thought from these people is that money equals success, so we must raise taxes to achieve more success……………………………..

………………are you freaking serious????????????????????


Where do these people come from? Obama is a so-called academic, yet did he take a single class on finance, or don’t they teach that to kids anymore?

I recently spoke about these topics but focused on the local issue of the Lakota School District finance issues to Pulse Journal reporter Lindsey Hilty which she composed in the below article.

The theme of the article was that Lakota is operating with fewer administrators than the state average, so doesn’t that mean they are operating more efficiently than other school districts?


No. Statements like that, just like the president’s speech, is full of smoke and mirrors designed to justify excessively high costs of an out-of-control government at all levels, hoping that people will be foolish enough to just look at the smoke and not at what causes it.
Read that article here:

Lakota has 58% fewer administrators per pupil than state average, report says
By Lindsey Hilty, Staff Writer Updated 1:43 AM Thursday, April 14, 2011

LIBERTY TWP. — At a time when finances of the Lakota Local School District have come under intense scrutiny from voters, officials say state data shows they are running a lean operation.

The district has 58 percent fewer administrators per pupil than the state average, and 20 percent fewer administrators than similar districts, which are categorized by size and demographics, according to the latest report released from the Ohio Department of Education in March.

In the 2009 report, Lakota had 43 percent fewer administrators than the state average, Interim Superintendent Ron Spurlcok said; however, “with our recent budget reductions and consolidations, we have seen that number grow.”
While that number may be touted as a good thing for the bottom line, he warned that it puts a strain on operations.

Assistant principals are responsible for discipline and also must sit in on all individual education plan meetings for students with disabilities.

“We realize economies of scale by running larger buildings, so we can economize where possible,” Kursman said.
However, fewer administrators in larger buildings means a bigger demand for their time, whether it is handling parent concerns, analyzing student data or reviewing teacher performance.

Many buildings now share assistant principals, she said, if the principal is called away for a meeting or to direct traffic due to transportation cuts, there is no one left to manage the building.

Levy opponent Rich Hoffman said he isn’t impressed with the numbers.
“I don’t believe any of the stats they give me anymore, because the reality is that they could do a lot more with a lot less if things really get pushy,” he said.

Hoffman said administrators could be reduced more, but they aren’t the issue.

The problem, he said, is “I think Lakota has drowned itself in salary obligations, and when you’re trying to cover 22 buildings when management of those salary obligations has been bad, it turns out to be a catastrophic mistake. Administrators get paid a lot, but there aren’t so many of them that it affects the bottom line costs, so their damage to the budget is negligible.”

There are too many employees netting more than $65,000 annually, he said, and that is the crux of the problem. He pointed to the salary lists recently published in the Pulse-Journal, and said the increase in employees in just one year who reached the $65,000 plus benchmark is unsustainable.

“You have to get the costs in line, but the costs are your salaries … None of us can afford it anymore.”
Hoffman called for tough negotiations as the board as the Lakota Education Association reopen the 2011-2012 school year contract, and said many in the community would stand behind the board as long as it was aggressive in controlling costs.

In fiscal year 2010, Lakota spent $96 million on salaries. In 2011, that number dropped $2 million due to retirements, no increase to the base salaries and a reduction in force. Employees still earned close to $2 million in step raises, Treasurer Jenni Logan said, but one third of employees, who are at the top of the pay scale, saw no step increase.
As details from legislation like SB 5 keep the district in a holding pattern, Logan said, “Inside the walls of Lakota, we’re focusing on the job at hand, which is educating our students.”

This isn’t just centered on the Lakota School District. Not even the President of the United States seems smart enough to understand the basics of finance. These people who think that showing some false numbers like “Lakota has fewer administrators,” will convince people who all the money we send their way will be spent wisely, are sadly mistaken.

Only a fool thinks that, and in the last Lakota Levy there were many fools that blindly spouted phantom facts because they were too lazy to think about the real problem. Just as the President of the United States received rounds of applause for embarrassing our nation in the eyes of anyone that has any sense throughout the world. Their collective belief is that money will make something better, when all it really ever does is compound the original problems.

It is my hope that when Atlas Shrugged Part 1 comes to the big screen that people intimidated by the length of the book will begin to understand the complex nature of freedom and the value of it.

Rich Hoffman

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

35deg 39’17.80″N 83deg 26’27.77″W—-My Little Secret: The Obama Budget Plan

There is so much wrong with President Obama’s speech on April 13, 2011 that I couldn’t possibly comment on them all without writing another book. The bottom line is that he’s a fundamental socialist. He used two examples of success, China and Brazil which are countries not tied down with much regulation, that was instrumental to those success stories.

Obama is a progressive. His mistake is that he believes like other progressives do, that money equals value, and it does not. He is completely lost, like the others of his kind. His America is not my America. My America is described below.

Speaking of progressives, they are all upset with the upcoming release of Atlas Shrugged. What is with all the Weiners that are part of the progressive movement? When I saw the sad little article from The Huffington Post about Atlas Shrugged, and the terrified attempts from a “Weiner” named Ellis Weiner to paint Atlas Shrugged as something bad and unsophisticated for mankind, I had mistaken him for the Congressman Weiner, thinking they were both the same Weiner. Read that article for yourself

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ellis-weiner/on-atlas-shrugged-as-a-gu_b_157295.html

Both Weiner’s are extreme progressives that are characters straight out of the pages of Atlas Shrugged. In that book, those characters are villains, so I would conclude that those Wieners would not like the book.

But Weiner crosses the line when he puts down the aim of the film, which will not be discovered in the part one portion of the film released. He reveals as anyone who is a fan of the book knows, that the “Men of the Mind” that have went on strike, have moved to the high mountains of Colorado to create a society of their own while the rest of the world perishes. It is obvious that Mr. Weiner just as in Congressman Weiner are a couple of people who have a limited intellectual capacity so they missed many of the deep subjects of the film. But Ellis Weiner seems to not understand that such places as mountaintop retreats of this kind exist, same as the mountain refuge mentioned in Atlas Shrugged.

Well……I’m going to give you a secret dear reader, so that you can know for yourself that fools like these Weiners live their whole lives seeing the world from the perspective of their city streets or their congressional districts. Their perspective is so warped and limited that they cannot see what is right in front of them and therefore cannot even conceive of the kind of world or ideas of a John Galt. I personally know of a place very similar to the mountain retreat from Atlas Shrugged. I will provide you with the coordinates, but shhhhhhhhh. It’s a secret. 35deg 39’17.80”N 83deg 26’27.77”W

I have spent some wonderful moments at that location. Here are some of the pictures from that place. It is one of the best kept secrets in the United States, but it is a real honest to god place and it exists for all the same reasons as in the book Atlas Shrugged.

If the world ended tomorrow, as we know it, if there were an economic collapse, that appears unavoidable at this point, and our political structure crumbles to the ground, the people who live and visit this spot on the earth will continue living and will not miss a beat. The people who know this place I’m speaking about will never miss President Obama. They’ll never care whether congress or the senate ever shows up for work again. Everything in the United States could end tomorrow and this place would still continue on.

From that place, the world is placed into its perspective. All the things that the “looters” like the aforementioned Weiner’s proclaim to be important will quickly be seen for what they truly are, just the cries of small-minded children.

When you are at that retreat it is evident, especially if you do like I do, where I download video, and radio programs onto my Ipod to watch and listen to in that remote location where power is not available, the voices of politicians sound meager in such a place. But literature, where a good book doesn’t require power, so I’ll never give them up for a Kindle, holds true from such a place. And Atlas Shrugged is meant to be read from a mountaintop and understood by the people who go to such places. It’s not intended for people like the Weiner’s.

The Huffington Post must spend hundreds of thousands of words to attempt to counter the truth which everyone knows deep down inside.

When Nietzsche proclaimed in “Beyond Good and Evil,” that GOD IS DEAD, he didn’t mean it literally so much as metaphorically. Nietzsche believed, as Ayn Rand did, and as I do that religion is used to hold mankind down. That doesn’t mean that one should not go to church or to find solace in religion on a Sunday morning. Religion is a personal thing that takes one to the thresholds of eternity. However, it was religion that ushered in progressive thought even though now progressives seek to move toward atheism and other non traditional religions. This is why the founders sought to separate church and state. They didn’t write it down that way, but it was warned against, so religion couldn’t be used to manipulate the masses through collectivism. We see that the Muslim faith is suffering from this very kind of social movement. Most of the intolerance and conflict in the middle-east is over religious topics, over who is correct and who is not. So it is concluded by thinking people that religion should be free to be practiced, but not related to government action.

The reason is that we don’t want a return to the type of foolishness that led the United States to our current position, where religious zealots of the left and right plagued our nation with progressivism, which led directly to prohibition, Social Security, Welfare, Medicare and all the other “cares,” all in the name righteousness.

In the either-or world of the small-minded, they cannot understand such a spiritual division. It is in human weakness that they feel they must impose upon others the merits of their home religion in order to eliminate from their own minds temptations which may lure them off a spiritual path. And the government do-gooder, who wishes to be the modern Robin Hood, who takes from the Rich and gives to the Poor, my allegiance is the same as the pirate from Atlas Shrugged, Ragnar Danneskjold who proclaimed in that book that his aim in life was to KILL Robin Hood! Of course this is figurative in its assessment, but the metaphor is one that intends to change the focus of value on those that take and loot, to one that creates and employees.

Such thoughts are preposterous to progressives like the Weiner’s of the world. They do not have the intellectual capacity to even understand the basics of self-reliance, and the merit of individualism. Because that is the salvation of mankind, it’s in an evolution to a man of self-reliance that pushes away all forms of collectivism and takes care of their own sector of existence. By becoming good at a trade, that individual has something to trade with others and that is the limit of the collectivism. But the Weiner’s and their kind are part of the old plague driven world of medieval Europe. Shakespeare knew that the old world of Europe was full of deception and corruption. I’ve read Titus Andronicus from a mountaintop and it reads differently there than from a library or classroom.

So now you know a secret of mine. I fear no breakdown of society because of that place. I know what the world could look like if you took away all government, because there isn’t a government at that place. It is beyond the reach of people like President Obama, George Soros and his silly Huffington Post and all the Weiner’s he likes so much. Those people are the representatives of the lead-foot travelers that are either too scared or too unhealthy to move on their own. And they do not represent the direction of the human race.

All things should evolve into improvements, not in decline, and Atlas Shrugged besides the book Thus Spoke Zarathustra is the first serious work that explores that evolution. And it is understandable that those who are close to that transition themselves would be attracted to the message. That message will be missed by the Weiner’s and those like them. Because of their limited perspective, they will cleave like fools to the world of their understanding, and will always fear the perspective of a mountaintop hideaway. The revelations that would fall upon them will shatter their reality in ways that they aren’t prepared to deal with.

I heard the Tea Party movement identified by people like those Weiner’s as being of the “extreme” hard right. They are mistaken. The Tea Party is of those types that are reaching for that next step. It has nothing to do with the current order of things. It has nothing to do with right or left. It’s about right and wrong, and passing between those dualistic principles to a place of human evolution. And that is what critics of Atlas Shrugged fear with all the essence of their being.

The world of President Obama is based on old technology of an emerging third world county, such as where the United States is headed under the Obama types.

As I’ve seen from the mountaintop the future of America can and should be this:

The future of medicine, forget Social Security and Medicare. Invest in this.

The future of transportation will be this sooner or later. Sooner if we have the guts, later if we allow another country to beat us to it.

The future of food. There is no reason to  under use our land, as we currently are.

And the future of education is not the traditional way.

This is an age of two America’s. The progressive one that will take us toward Europe. And the innovative one that accomplished those railroads across the nation like Obama took credit for, back in a day when the government hadn’t let learned to suck the life out of industry with regulation. It’s up to us all which America will win, because they both can’t co-exist any longer.

Rich Hoffman

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

Put Back a Few Cookies: Lakota Teachers took too many and didn’t leave enough for others

When you were a kid did your mother ever make cookies and put them in a cookie jar, only to have her catch you taking too many? “Now don’t eat all those cookies,” she would have said. “I made those for you, your brothers and sisters and all your friends. If you eat them all there won’t be any for the rest of them.” Well, at Lakota that’s what the teachers have done, they’ve taken too many cookies for themselves, and they’ve told the community through the teachers union that if you want to make us all happy, then you’ll just make more cookies. Problem solved. But the problem isn’t solved, because while we’re making all these cookies, we’re not being productive in other ways, when the reality is that all we need to do is exercise some common sense and fairness.

It is encouraging, yet there is still plenty of room to be skeptical, that the Lakota School Board appears to be looking for some room to gain much ground by voiding the second year of their contract with the teachers union.

The contract was voided because of the following clause: This contract shall become effective on the 1st day of July, 2010 and shall expire on the 30th day of June 2012. Contingent upon the District’s legal ability for the Board President, Treasurer, and Superintendent to sign the R.C. 5705.412 certificate. In the event that the Board Representatives are unable to sign the R.C. 5704.412 certificate the second year of this Agreement then agreed to between the parties related to the second year shall be considered null and void.”

The 412 certificate (see link: http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/5705.412 ) basically says that the District has to declare that it has sufficient revenues to meet its planned expenditures. This is Lakota’s press release: http://www.lakotaonline.com/news.cfm?story=2754

According to the Pulse Journal the move allows the board to void its contract with its teachers’ union, while at the same time, giving it flexibility to create a more sustainable long-term plan for the district, board President Joan Powell said.
“In the past three weeks as this information started coming to us from Columbus, it has become apparent that to maintain the future viability of this district, we need to look deeper than just the proposed budget reductions,” she said.
“Some fundamental changes to the contract are needed, and we have a window of opportunity to do so,” Powell said. “In light of the negative impact of this proposed state budget, we must take that opportunity. Our financial reality today is different than it was last November or last August when we executed this contract.”

Lakota Education Association President Sharon Mays said the union will continue to work cooperatively with the board to find the best solution for students and teachers, but the process now will take longer.

“I’m anxious to see the forecast, because we have not been able to look at it,” she said. “We feel as though we’ve been cooperating and collaborating, and have given up a lot of things in those memorandums of understanding. And to change direction this late in the game — now everything is slowed down.”

Treasurer Jenni Logan said deficit spending next year is expected to be $22 million, up from $13.9 million in 2011.
A $28 million negative cash balance is expected in 2013.

The stress to the budget, Logan said, is coming from three areas: the state is reducing tangible personal property taxes starting next year, Lakota is expecting less money locally, and federal stimulus dollars have gone away.

The $22 million deficit is something that has been a concern for a long time, and it is driven by one primary factor, wages. If you haven’t seen it yet, click here to see the type of wages we’re talking about. It is my sincere hope that the Lakota School Board will take this opportunity to drive those wages down. No other measure will be acceptable because no other budget cutting device will bring costs in line properly taking into account that federal money will not be there and the reductions in the personal property taxes. The days are gone where the teachers union could just blindly demand the incredibly high wages that put us in this trouble to start with.

During this next round of negotiations I proclaim that I will stand behind the school board fully if they’ll not allow the union to dictate terms to our community. I don’t want to hear any threats of any strikes from the teachers union. I don’t want to hear any threats at all. If the teachers of that union truly want to be a part of this community, they’ll dig deep and consider themselves lucky to work in such a nice district. We’re not asking teachers to work for free. But an average wage of over $62K per year is not acceptable. They asked for too much, broke the back of the community in the process, and now it’s time for them to come to the table and give back enough for Lakota to balance its budget. No other measure is acceptable.

For those that just want money, go to another district. Because soon that district will be going through the same problems Lakota is going through. So run from district to district like a thief in the night and collect your money. But for those teachers that want to work for Lakota, and want to be a part of our great community, work with us and we’ll work with you. But don’t even think of a strike or any other public relations stunt. There are people this time that will be there to expose you for what you truly are.

With all this encouragement, I hope that there isn’t some phantom intention to place another levy on the ballot in August or November, because the money isn’t there and such a thing would be incredibly arrogant. Higher taxes in our community in any capacity would be economically devastating in light of the increase in fuel costs, rise and in food costs which is directly influenced from increases in transportation costs. The amount of income that is required to purchase a $250,000 dollar home, which is what most homes cost in the Lakota School District along with the dollar shrinking in value and facing tax increases on their property is prohibitive. The only room for meeting the budget needs comes in reducing the impact of the wage costs of the employees.

The teachers took too many cookies and the community is done making cookies. The teachers need to put some of those cookies back so there’s some left for all the other teachers. Our budget is just under 160 million dollars, not a small amount. So there should be plenty of cookies for everyone. The only reason there’s not is because some teachers took too many cookies, which is robbing others from having a cookie. So do the responsible thing and put the extra cookies back in the cookie jar and play nice teachers union. Don’t be greedy. Don’t be vain. And don’t throw a fit of rage like some child that didn’t get their way. Help our school board balance their budget and do your part to make sure everyone gets along. But more (cookies) taxes, are not the solution.

Rich Hoffman

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

The Cannibals of the United States: Sacrifice the RICH!!!! Save the needy!!

On my way home today I was riding my motorcycle in the pouring rain and listening to the soundtrack to the film Apocalypto on my Ipod. It was a surreal kind of experience that I enjoy a great deal, and the simplicity of a complicated problem made itself known to me through that cryptic music as the rain tried desperately to penetrate the confines of my helmet.

If you’ve studied other cultures, their rise and fall, there are common themes. Visit any ruin of an ancient civilization and you will see that all those societies bankrupted themselves. They either ran out of water, food, or their currency. Visit Ankor Watt, Chitzen Itza, or any city in Egypt and you’ll see it. Study the past to see your future.

In Mel Gibson’s brilliant film, Apocalypto Gibson showed wonderfully the height of the Mayan Empire and displayed the problems they were having. The Mayans built huge cities, depleted their food supply and built a corrupt hierarchy of politics that sought human sacrifice to appease the mob, and to keep the masses believing that the ruling class held some sort of power with the “gods,” so that society could continue for just a bit longer hoping by some miracle that if they cut off just one more head, or paint their faces just a few more colors so the gods would take mercy on their lives and save them all. In this case the god is Kukulcan. For those of you that don’t know much about history, the main street in Cancun that all the nightclubs are on, is named after that god.

The civilization of Cahokia, just outside of St. Louis, did much the same thing. They had sacrifices which were buried in Mound 72. It is highly likely that this culture along the Mississippi River was trading with the Mayans across the Gulf of Mexico and they had cultural influences on one another. The cultures were remarkably similar resembling the type of societies found in Mesopotamia during the pre-Christian era.
During excavation of Mound 72, a ridge-top burial mound south of Monk’s Mound, archaeologists found the remains of a man in his 40s who was probably an important Cahokian ruler. The man was buried on a bed of more than 20,000 marine-shell disc beads arranged in the shape of a falcon,[16] with the bird’s head appearing beneath and beside the man’s head, and its wings and tail beneath his arms and legs. The falcon warrior or “birdman” is a common motif in Mississippian culture. This burial clearly had powerful iconographic significance. In addition, a cache of sophisticated, finely worked arrowheads in a variety of different styles and materials was found near the grave of this important man. Separated into four types, each from a different geographical region, the arrowheads demonstrated Cahokia’s extensive trade links in North America.
Archeologists recovered more than 250 other skeletons from Mound 72. Scholars believe almost 62 percent of these were sacrificial victims, based on signs of ritual execution, method of burial, and other factors. The skeletons include:
• Four young males, missing their hands and skulls.
• A mass grave of more than 50 women around 21 years old, with the bodies arranged in two layers separated by matting.

• A mass burial containing 40 men and women who appear to have been violently killed. The suggestion has been made that some of these were buried alive: “From the vertical position of some of the fingers, which appear to have been digging in the sand, it is apparent that not all of the victims were dead when they were interred – that some had been trying to pull themselves out of the mass of bodies.”
The relationship of these burials to the central burial is unclear. It is unlikely that they were all deposited at the same time. Wood in several parts of the mound has been radiocarbon-dated to between 950 and 1000 CE. Check out more about this from this article. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cahokia

Many people don’t even know that Cahokia is even there in the middle of the United States. It’s the giant hill alongside the highway on the way into St. Louis. You can see the arch of St. Louis easily from the ruins of Cahokia, yet people don’t know much about the ancient city. In fact, Cahokia wasn’t even discovered until developers tried to build a neighborhood over it. I wrote a screenplay about the place for some financial people a few years ago and we had an actress and a director, but the whole thing fell apart in pre-production. But here was the conception teaser for it. The history that I speak about is real. The modern aspect of it is fiction.

So why am I talking about cultures declining and human sacrifice? Well, listen to Porter Stansberry talk to Doc Thompson on 700 WLW. We’re doing the same thing now as those collapsing civilizations did then. We are in a state of decline. The mob you saw in the Apocalypto clip is the poor, the welfare recipients, the union workers in the modern-day. The chants are the same. If you go back and watch the clip from Apocalypto you’ll see their union ancestors chanting at the bottom of the pyramid where the high priest is basically saying the same thing that President Obama is saying now. And who is being sacrificed…..who are getting their heads cut off. The people who produce.

In a culture like the United States it is the producers that are being sacrificed through regulation, taxes, Federal red tape. New inventions are being restricted out of fairness. New medical technology is being held back so government can pursue Obama Care.

Education reform is being held back by the corrupt unions that are only trying to protect the jobs of the teachers, forget about the effectiveness on the children. It is new ideas and the producers who create them that are lined up on the great pyramid steps waiting to have their heads cut off to appease a mob of fools.

We are told that the dollar is fine, because Obama and his gang of union thugs are running Washington. Who believes that? Our government can’t even agree on what to cut out of our federal budget, because we as a civilization are paying for everything, Planned Parenthood, which should be for profit, NPR, which should have always been for profit, Social Security which should work more like a 401K and be privatized, Medicare that has more corruption than most countries can endure just on that issue alone, and needs a major overhaul.

All cultures that failed went through these steps. In fact, at Cahokia they had a thing called Woodhenge, which was a bunch of logs stuck in the ground in a circle just to the west of Monks Mound, on the East St. Louis side of the ruin. The only function of that artifact was to convince the mob that the high priests could predict the sun rise, the spring and winter equinox, and other astrological observations. The intent was to prove that they “the ruling class” had mastery over the “heavens.” All they really did was make observations, and that’s all our current ruling class of fools is doing, making observations that they sell to us as mastery over economics.

On the other hand there are people like Porter Standsberry out there that are “really” looking at the real problems coming to our culture, and people like Porter are the kind of people our government wants to cut their head off in human sacrifice, figuratively speaking of course.

All cultures that believe in sacrifice, and most agriculturally based societies do to some extent or another is limited in their vision, and leaders of those cultures should be removed immediately. Because in the world of productivity, there is no limit, only in the capacity of machinery, or manpower, but demand can be infinite. Sacrifice to the “gods” whether literal or to economic gods is foolish and short-sighted.

I saw a sign over the weekend from a woman protesting the government cuts saying “don’t cut down the economic recovery.” It is amazing that people like that are out there, that they believe there is enough money, that the recovery we are having is somehow created by government and not business owners that have decided that now that there are Republicans running a branch of government, they are investing back in business again. The woman holding that sign is no different from that mob of Mayans chanting for more blood at the foot of a giant pyramid. And the high priest will be all too happy to appease the mob so long as there are sacrificial bodies. The same type of signs are being held by people protesting S.B.5. “Keep collective bargaining.” There’s that word……collective. That is one of the most evil words in the English language, disguised as an angel, but doing the work of the devil.

For society to thrive, the rich should be encouraged and not penalized. Those less fortunate should be pushed to work not just given a check.

A few years ago I walked the streets of Washington D.C. and was about to head into a McDonalds to get a bite to eat. A beggar asked me for some change. He was sitting outside of McDonalds right next to a “Help Wanted” sign. I asked him if he had applied for a job. He ignored me and asked a woman who walked by, which she gave freely with a polite smile. The man had lost his pride and allowed himself to be a beggar. There was a job opportunity right behind him, but he’d rather plead to the high priest for the blood of another, which the priest will always be willing to oblige. There’s no shortage of those types of people, power-hungry and craving to stand on the top of a pyramid and cut off the head of sacrificial victims.

Taxes are a form of sacrifice, property taken from those that have, and given to those that have not. It’s not the head of the sacrificial victim, but it is still their property. Estate Taxes are along the same lines, when a person dies, their property, “part of their living essence and history on earth” is taken by government and handed out to the vicious mob.

Sacrifice is the kind of behavior that will only take us in one direction. And it won’t be the way of success. Clinging to old, sacrificial activity, like high taxation, cumbersome education methods, and a stifling environment that fears competition from new technology will destroy our civilization and leave us all as just one more ruin in the history of the world. That is, unless we can take our civilization back from the looters, the high priests, and other derelicts that act as a cancer upon it.

What a bunch of idiots………..

Oh, and while some may say that Mel Gibson is crazy, hey, Mel has done crazy things with women for years. He cheated on his wife, drank heavily, and was generally a wreck of a person for many years, and the media covered it up just like they do George Clooney and Robert Downey Jr. But, Mel’s a great artist and a great director. It was after he made The Passion of Christ, then Apocalypto that Hollywood turned against him. If he hadn’t made The Passion, Hollywood and the press that feeds it would still be making excuses for his behavior. That’s the world we’re living in people. The high priests with all their fancy headdresses want the mob to believe they are gods! God forbid someone like Gibson comes along and shows the truth of something. Is that acceptable to you?

It’s not to me.

Rich Hoffman

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

Obama is an Illegal President: He’s spent over 10 million hiding his birth certificate

We have an illegal president in the White House. That is the only conclusion one can reason when it is considered that Obama has established a defense fund that has spent more than 10 million dollars keeping his “birth certificate” from public disclosure. Why? The only conclusion one could equate from such action is that there’s something wrong with his birth certificate, otherwise such a document would be readily provided.

Part of the money spent by that defense fund was in public relation campaigns to invent the whole “birther” disclaimer which paints anyone that questions this issue as some wacko conspiracy theorist. It has taken someone like Donald Trump to put this issue back on the table, because Trump understands how the game is played and knows there is something fishy about the whole situation.

Of course the ladies on The View are like the rest of America, they don’t want to admit that they elected a guy that has a questionable citizenship standing who has appointed judges, signed bills into law and ran around the world acting as a President of the United States, when the fact is, America was in such a hurry to prove that we aren’t a racist nation that we openly overlooked any perils that were in the way. Below, Bill Cunningham of 700 WLW who is sometimes a conservative leaning radio personality, and sometimes a liberal leaning personality but is a practicing attorney addressed the whole “birther” issue in great detail. If you want a clear understanding of the Obama controversy listen to this broadcast which is extremely good.

As stated in the interview, there is a preponderance of evidence that Obama was born in Hawaii. What that means is that there are some newspaper reports, and some other documents that lean in the direction of birth in Hawaii, but it appears that Obama claimed otherwise to get financial aid. So on one side of the story or another, Obama has lied in his past. He’s either claimed to be a foreign student for admission into Occidental College or he was really born in Kenya and his grandparents placed the notification in the newspaper in Hawaii. I think many Americans would forgive him for the first offense. Because the second offense is much more serious, which is why over 10 million dollars and much public relation debate has been created to combat even bring up the question.

People like George Soros, and he’s not the only one, with his Open Society Institute, do not think citizenship is important, because the goal is to bring down the borders of the United States anyway, so a president with citizenship problems is not an issue to people of this nature. With the amount of organizations that Soros is involved in by way of financial contributions, it is completely conceivable to understand how using the term “birther” as a way to attack the credibility of anyone that brings up the Obama citizenship issue keeps Obama from going through the process of serious investigations by congress, and is used to shape public opinion.

For a list of all the organizations Soros is involved in check out this link.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2625790/posts

Look…….this isn’t some right winged conspiracy. This isn’t an attack on a black man in the White House. Nobody in the United States cares about that kind of thing anymore. I know a lot of level-headed people and Obama being black never even comes up.

This is an issue of whether or not the president of the United States is illegally in place, because if he is, he needs to go as a matter of law.

What I see is that nobody in congress, the senate, federal judges; anybody of any government merit has the backbone to admit such a monumental failure. Nobody wants to suffer through the embarrassment. It is obvious that the press doesn’t want mud on its face either, so there is a uniform lack of will to enforce the will of law.

We all remember the controversy when Bill Clinton didn’t release his medical records, most likely to cover up his syphilis problem and other issues, but he avoided the controversy with the same reluctance as Obama has with his birth certificate. The question we have to ask ourselves is why we’re electing people like this into the White House? What is it about our nature that even puts idiots like this in office with all this baggage to hide? Can’t we do any better than this? Are these types of people the best we have to offer from American civilization?

The answer is of course not. Most Americans think these people are jokes. In many ways the best of us have declined to be a part of the political process. We tend to our lives and let the fools go to office. We see those fools in our school boards, township trustees, city councils, state and federal governments because the best of us have better things to do and generally leave politics to the fools of our society. The problem is, those fools think we are the fools and they are marching our country into a direction most of us don’t want to go.

I’m all for globalism as long as the globe wants to adapt American ideas. I certainly don’t want anything to do with what the rest of the world is doing so keep your global progress. When countries like Brazil, France, and China start controlling the sex trade industry in their counties, they can tell us to control our pollution issues. Otherwise, their opinion isn’t wanted. And I don’t want a president that can’t even produce a birth certificate that spends millions of dollars keeping it from the public and travels the world bowing to the leader of every country, taking us in that direction. Obama is a joke. I’m sure he’s fine to play basketball with, but as president………come on. Get real.

If we are stuck with this joke for a few more years because everyone is too weak to actually demand that our public officials live by the actual rules of our law, then I say the law goes our way too. Ignore that speed limit sign, those demands to buckle up, forget the DUI laws. And for taxes, forget about April 15th, just send in your taxes whenever you feel like it. Heck, it’s just rules and laws. Who cares……..right?

And don’t even ask the question of whether the President is an American citizen because he has issues with his birth certificate, because all those “globalists” (that are attempting to break down our borders and scrap our Constitution) might call you a name……which might hurt your feelings. That’s more important than having an illegal president in the White House.After all……..it’s just a law, and according to our politicians, laws are meant to be broken.

Rich Hoffman

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

Mark North is Non-Essential: What does he do to earn his money if he can’t even do public relations?

What I learned today was that Mark North, superintendent of the Lebanon School System is a non-essential employee.

I write a lot about education. Within the education reform movement, I receive a lot of information from very passionate people who are doing their best to address some of the issues involving education, and today I heard from a couple of them that find themselves defending the community of Lebanon from another tax increase.

Cyd Zimmerman was on the Darryl Parks show on Saturday April 9, 2011 because the scheduled debate between Mark North and Rick McPherson was forfeited by Mark North after proclaiming that “nobody listens to 700 WLW.” In short, he didn’t have the guts to go on the air and defend his actions in the district which prompted Cyd to step in and discuss North’s absence from the debate.

After that interview I received notes from Cyd and Sandy Trugrul about Lebanon and education issues in general, that they both spent a lot of time putting together. I thought those notes deserved to be listed in their entirety below.

A Note From Cyd Zimmerman: The woman on the Darryl Parks interview below.

It’s important to preface this conversation by laying the framework as to how I got here and why I’m so angry and frustrated.
So many that are staring down the barrel of another school levy have the same feeling coursing through their veins and are confused or unorganized in how to go about change. After all, Spring now means levy season. Not good.

Radio is a tough gig and it’s easy to lose your way. So much to say, and so little time, and that happened to me.
I had caught wind of yet another school levy mid January of this year. This was on the heels of a 5.41 mill emergency levy that was passed in November of 2010. It generates 4.2 million per year. I could not believe it. I had no clue who to talk to or where to begin so I attended my first ever board meeting that following Monday. It was just an announcement that they were deciding one of three amounts to choose from in my early understanding. Nevertheless, I was alone in a sea of empty chairs. There were a couple of others and I now know one of those people was Rick McPherson filming. I left as they were just finishing up and thought to myself…I’m screwed. Where are all the people? Where are the taxpayers? I was aware of the Lakota levy last November and the great deal of press it had gotten, having moved to Lebanon from West Chester. I Googled them and was pleased to see the site still up. I contacted them through the email and asked for help. The response was immediate. I had found Rich Hoffman’s site via the NolakotaLevy.com and the journey began. I found someone commenting on the site, speaking of the levy, and contacted her. I then met Rick McPherson who was looking for others and they gave him my email.

That’s all takes, but you can’t be thin-skinned or shy. That’s not a problem if you’re mad enough to demand some answers.
On to the bigger picture and where does the money go? I went to the Lebanon School site and it was pretty well layed out. Here’s the problem. 77.6% going just for wages and benefits. I would never begrudge the salary of a great teacher. They are pillars of the community. But where is the line in the sand?? Here is where SB5 would have made a huge difference. Don’t call it a pay freeze and continue step increases not to mention the other perks still in play. This has happened and you had no say. Contracts signed before the bill. We all know it. This is all about fiscal responsibility and accountability. I have to do it in my home and I expect the same from this entity.

Broken

Someone school me on why we pay for this supers $650.00 a month car allowance, family YMCA membership which on their site is $73.00 per month, cell phone (50 bucks a month), when he makes more than the Governor of Ohio?? More than the Lieutenant Governor, more than the Secretary of State, more than the Attorney General, on and on. It’s all on the web site.
http://www.lebanonschoolfacts.com

I’m sorry, but that is borderline criminal in my book. And it’s NOT ok. And shouldn’t be with you either.

Broken

3.2% goes for supplies and materials. Hold on…3.4% is for other. What other? If it’s all about the children why is the “other” number higher? I still don’t have that answer…Do You?

I hear the phone calls have started for support of more sweaty cash. I’d like to get one of those calls. Hopefully it would not be a shallow conversation as was the one that ensued yesterday with Mr. North. He totally missed my side. Fine. He’s doing his job. Straddling the line between the unions and community must be brutal. Don’t say to me you have no intentions of having at the very least, an open Q&A or a town hall and then ask for millions. NO. Why? Because they can’t answer the tough questions on the spot. Oh sure, I can fill out the card and send it in. He said he has hundreds of cards. How much would the postage and cost be to them if I took them up on that offer? Small in the massive scope but this is the mindset I do not understand.

School bus drivers making over 16 bucks an hour? Really? Shrink wrapping the books at Little Miami because you have to be a certified librarian to hand them out? This is all just so bizarre.

Broken

This is the tip of the iceberg but some of the key points from emails I get. I understand. They ask the simplest questions. I know exactly where they come from. They are busy. It gets so deep, it will blow your mind. But I too have a life and if I had time to say on the radio what was on my mind, this touches the surface.

To those out there in our shoes…We hear you. Darryl spoke of the numerous emails last week asking him to pick your district. We never would be here without the help of those from neighboring districts, particularly Dan Varney and Rich Hoffman. These guys get it.

So reach out to us. We’re busy but you can email the lebanonschoolfacts site and we’ll respond. Keep the hate mail at bay. It won’t be tolerated and end up in spam. Our vision is clear and we won’t be bogged down with the naysayers. You had your time.

Cyd

__________________________________________________________

Note from Sandy:

I’ve been working to educate people on school funding and the effects of the “mandatory” school curriculum for over thirty years. The one and only reason I have stuck to this is because I believe that the demise of our country is at stake.

The schools, their funding, their administrators, their unions are the lowest level of government that “we the people” have any hope of effecting change. If we can’t make an impact at that level the Federal level is certainly hopeless. I have not wanted to give up on my country.

In my opinion, last night’s fiasco regarding the federal budget was a diversionary tactic for covering up other more serious issues taking place in the world. I feel sure of that. The media loved covering the situation. Another 7.++ earthquake in Japan hardly got noticed. I guess the four nuclear towers are “all better.” That’s off topic now too.

The school unions and leaders use the same tactics when going after the property owners for more money. Anyone that is against raising taxes “hates the children” and doesn’t support education. In their propaganda their job is the most important job in the country. No salary level is too high. I have heard teachers say that they should be paid at the level of doctors. Their mantra is that the future of our country depends on the great education that the children receive from the union teachers. Of course “the more it costs the better the outcomes.” Nothing could be further from the truth in that statement unless you consider the outcomes that they want to occur. These may be much different from what the average person believes should be happening.

We all notice that the cuts that the boards propose are always ones affect the children the most harshly. You have mentioned all of them quite precisely.

Many people are afraid to speak out regarding their opposition to a levy. They are afraid of retaliation to their children or to themselves. One parent told me that her child came home crying because she didn’t love him. She said, “where did you ever hear such a thing.” His answer, “My teacher said that if you weren’t voting for the levy you don’t love me.” He had heard his parent discussing that they couldn’t afford to vote for the levy. In other words, the teachers are polling the children. The teachers are working in the classroom against the parents; this for their own monetary gain. How repugnant is this?

When I checked on “who funds levies” through the years, it is always the same people with the same vested interests. In Lebanon it is highly touted and supported by LCNB. (Chip Bonny, a board member, now works for LCNB. He formerly worked for Huntington Bank. The district obtained over $1M from Huntington Bank last year to buy back the buses that they formerly turned over to Laidlaw.) (I was told by my banker that transaction was a totally irregular transaction and would not be tolerated by his bank. He also said that Bonny, no doubt, received a nice bonus for that business. It would have been the case at his bank.)
The postcard sent out by the Pro-Levy group lists Eric Meilstrup as the treasurer. He is an officer with LCNB. Steve Wilson, CEO of LCNB has served on the district finance committee and heads up the full page of endorsements listed in the local paper.

LCNB also owned (until this month) Dakin Insurance. Lebanon buys it’s insurance from Dakin.

Other special interest groups funding levies are developers, construction companies, architectural firms, lawyers and other business leaders. Small amounts are given by the teachers, who can look forward to nice raises every time a levy passes.

Over 85% of the budgets pays for salaries and benefits. Other salaries can be hidden in many areas of the financial states and could make that percentage go up.

Any cuts suggested are called “draconian” and “extreme.”
No cuts are acceptable to the schools, county, city, township, state or federal levels of government.

The costs listed to give the per pupil amount are only from the General Fund that is for the operation of the schools. They never list the huge debt owed for the costs pertaining to the buildings And other loans they get (buses, copy equipment, phones, etc.) Those projections go on for years and years into the future. Our great-grandchildren will still be paying off those debts. ironically the buildings and equipment will be considered obsolete or even trashed. By the time the final payments are made.

When they speak to the people they try to use terminology that most people don’t understand. (I call it educationese.) This way they speak “down” to you, as though you are a child. They are the “professional” and you are insignificant in the scheme of things. They are taught how to “handle” the public a part of their college curriculum. It is part of the “Training for Change Agents” text. They study how to change your beliefs and those of your children. How to change your values from Christian to Secular Humanism.
The fact is that last year the board hired at least two new administrators.

Krista Foley (from Piqua – Student Services and Mason, Kindergarten Supervisor.) She is listed as administrator of various student programs
at a salary of $95,626.

Bill Lautar, former student services director in Kettering (where he retired)
Director of Human Resources at $98,343. (double-dipper)

July 15, 2010, Western Star: Lautar said he is in the process of filling
other certified and classified positions before the next school year, including
a secretary for the transportation office, coaching and extracurricular positions and teaching positions in special education, language arts and science.”

Schools are divided in this totally ridiculous configuration.

Louisa Wright – Early Childhood, Principal, secretary, 17 teachers
Bowman – First and Second Grades, two principals, two secretaries,
53 teachers.
Donovan – Third and Fourth Grades, two principals, two secretaries,
53 teachers.
Berry – Fifth and Sixth Grades, two principals, 2 secretaries

Jr. H. S. – (Former H.S.) Seventh and Eighth Grades, two principals,
two counselors,

High School – Three principals, 1466 total students 9-12

The total enrollment is around 5,000. I see plenty of room for cuts.

There are several people listed in the salaries listed on the blog as receiving “Retirement Incentive” payments.

Many “Teacher Assistants” listed for our overworked teachers. Many substitutes listed. I am told they have a higher absentee rate than the students.

We pay the entire retirement costs for the administrators (pickup on the pickup), we pay the entire health benefits for North and other admin. I admit that I haven’t read all of the contracts. Mark North is given unlimited time off to attend meetings and to consult. (I can’t imagine him consulting at anything.) There are numerous meeting held all over the country and world. I am going to request who traveled where in the past five years. It won’t help this time around, but good to have on hand for the future. I assure you that the Lakota people travel all the time. There is a NSBA conference in San Francisco this weekend. Most of them go with their “significant other.” After all, the room is paid for.

____________________________________________________________

All the issues discussed above are out of sheer frustration. It is obvious to anyone that cares to look, that there are many things wrong with how tax money is collected and spent. The people who grab this money from taxpayers are called by society as “trusted officials” or even “leaders.” But to those who look into things as they actually are, those trusted officials are just simple looters. These looters give the appearance that they are doing something beneficial for the community, but it’s all a smoke screen. What’s really going on is a lot of nothing and the tax payer is paying for things they don’t need to pay for.

Prior to Cyd’s interview on the radio Darryl spoke about the “non-essential” personnel in government. With that said, everyone in government that got a letter from the government on Friday April 8, 2011 stating that they are non-essential personnel shouldn’t be working in those positions, because they are wasting taxpayer money. It would also appear Mark North, superintendent of Lebanon is one of those “non essential” personnel. He didn’t have the guts to go on the radio today and debate the levy. He doesn’t know how to work with the community and answer questions. And he caves under the union pressure at the beginning of negotiations. So what good is he? He’s non-essential personnel and he could save the tax payers a lot of money if he wasn’t employed.

How many non-essential personnel is Lebanon employing if the superintendent isn’t doing anything? That’s the kind of question you have to ask before any levy should ever be put on a ballot. And the fact that the question wasn’t ask should insult every person in Lebanon that pays taxes.

Rich Hoffman

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

GO SEE ATLAS SHRUGGED: Watch the movie, learn how the scam works, and vote this November against “collective bargaining”

I am proud to announce that I just spoke to the booking agent of Atlas Shrugged and he assured me that a print of the film will be sent to Newport on the Levee and it appears now to also be showing in two other locations within Cincinnati. This is good news for a film that was originally slated for only New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Now, because a lot of you participated in the action requested on this site, the producers of Atlas Shrugged are showing the movie in Cincinnati. So pat yourselves on the back.

A few years ago I was speaking to an agent about my script, The Lost Cannibals of Cahokia that won awards in the horror and action adventure category at the Indie Gathering Film Festival, and the people that read it there liked it a lot. But a film festival in middle-America is different than the culture of Wilshire Blvd and Santa Monica. And this agent I was talking to about pitching that script to the studios of Hollywood were the type of people that lived that “cultured” life in LA, which is nice, but far removed from what is really going on in America.

Their criticism of my story and a subsequent script that also won a few awards called “The Overman” was “your characters are too strong. They don’t appear to have any weaknesses. People identify with characters that have faults. You need to alter your leads to have something in their lives that they fear, and must overcome by the end of the movie. Also, you’re film is too bloody. And I find it hard to believe that any of these characters could survive the dangerous situations you’ve created for them. It appears to be unrealistic.”

I could only shake my head. Some of the most powerful characters in film history exhibited such traits so the agent was wrong. I thought of Indiana Jones, James Bond, Lara Croft, The Man with No Name, the list in my mind went on as to popular characters that are the kind of personalities that people love. And one of those characters that will soon come to film but has only lived in literature is John Galt.

John Galt is one of those characters that people will love once they meet him in the movie Atlas Shrugged which comes out on April 15th 2011. I think it is important for films like Atlas Shrugged to have success for all my personal reasons, because I have learned over the years that Hollywood certainly has an agenda and that agenda speaks loudly on television and film. The agenda is that people should not strive to be too good. People should not pay too close attention to the world around them. And people should focus on the “collective.” They routinely shy away from stories with strong characters, even though the box office shows a great hunger for such characters. And it is very rare that a major film makes it through the jungle of opposition and ends up on the screen with an anti-progressive message.

And that’s what Atlas Shrugged is; anti-progressive.

In the film you will learn:

• How government regulation chokes off business.
• How people who invent new, and better products are bribed by the government to not reveal those products to the market place for fear of putting older companies out of business.
• You will learn the secret behind farm subsidies.
• You will see how corruption migrates from the smallest character on the street all the way up the political ladder.
• You will see how unions shape public policy through corrupt politics.
• You will see what the true nature of American pride is.
• You will understand the definition of merit.

Those are just a few of the topics from the film and this is just the first movie of a three movie series.

There will be a lot of people that will misread the messages of the film. I’m already reading that liberals think the film endorses high speed rail. The trains in the film are there because trains were important in 1957 when Ayn Rand wrote the book. So to stay true to the book, they built the story around “trains.” The gist of the story is how government destroys innovation. It openly explores the greatness possible in the human race and shows the reason for the decadence of the many that fall short of greatness. But the theme is one of greatness, something progressives avoid like the plague.

So now that the film is coming to Cincinnati, GO SEE IT! If you want to spend your hard earned money on something useful, see that movie on April 15th. Sell it out! Spread this message around to your friends and make sure they see it too. Because in my mind, filmmakers that have went against the grain as much as the producers of Atlas Shrugged have “deserve” our support, because if they get it, Hollywood will be inclined to make more films like Atlas Shrugged. So your participation in the opening is sort of a vote. Your ticket to that film is the same as voting in a voting booth on election night. The Hollywood Reporter will be ready to declare Atlas Shrugged a failure because nobody in Hollywood wants to see this film become successful, because of the anti-progressive message.

By seeing this movie you will do more than enjoy a good movie. You will send a powerful message to a progressive establishment. This film hopefully is the first of a wave of films and stories that will emerge in our society that grabs hold of what Americanism truly is. In American art, it is time to explore the American identity so that future generations can embrace that spirit. That’s a spirit not created in war, such as World War II. It’s not an identity created in the Revolution, or the Civil War. The American spirit was created in its inventions, and its industry. In its skyscrapers and its film culture. It’s in the farms all across the country on a Sunday afternoon with an AM radio blaring a baseball game from a garage.

I have seen the American culture intimately in Wild West Arts shows that I’ve been a part of. It’s watching the guys from the Single Action Shooting Society (SASS) dressed like cowboys and dueling each other in quick drawl competitions. I’ve seen the face of the American in the white man, the black man, the woman, the Indian, the handicapped. The American is in the small town and works from sun up till sun down. They come up with a better way to do jobs because they want to spend more of their time doing something else, which only a rich culture can incentivize one to do. All those facets are explored in Atlas Shrugged for the first time in film history. And you will now have a chance to see it. So go…….see the movie and get on the train that will deliver you to truth and understanding of the world we live in and understand why things are the way they are.

And consider also that if this movie does well, and has a good running at the theater, the film should hit the DVD market around September, just in time for the very important election that we will see in Ohio over S.B.5. It will be a great thing for those of us defending Ohio from collective bargaining if voters can begin to understand what the genius behind Kasich’s plan truly is, and how collective bargaining only helps those in the unions, leaving the rest of us bankrupt. All those themes are explored in this film, so go get in line now, and see this film again and again and again and again………………………!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then go read the book, and see the movie again!!!!!!!

Rich Hoffman

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

The War Already Started: Unions took the first shot!

The OEA (Ohio Education Association) is pushing to have portions of their members checks deducted so they can raise money to fight Senate Bill 5! One of the reasons the unions wish to make sure their members are so well compensated, at our expense, is so those members won’t blink when it comes time for payroll deductions to fight political battles against taxpayers.

It was not people like me that drew the line in the sand and started this war of larger government versus smaller government. Public worker against private worker. Freedom lover against the progressive. People like me were just living our lives, working hard, and acquiring property which is the staple of American life. There is no shame in that. Owning something is commitment to it. And without commitment, it is only human to witness neglect, because without ownership, neglect is the result. It is not people like me that decided that violence, coercion and political manipulation were acceptable practices. It was them.

Yet this is what unions have brought to our nation. I know firsthand the fights that happened in parking lots and bathrooms of manufacturing facilities. I have been guilty of spilling blood from attackers in labor only to have the police turn their backs to the violence because they secretly endorsed it. The cause of that violence, because I wanted to work at 100% efficiency when the union wanted to keep the rate at 50% unless more pay or overtime were given. I have seen firsthand the violence given to “scabs” that cross a picket line, only to be beaten beyond recognition and hospitalized for weeks. I have seen anti-union people in management attacked at their homes or employees friendly to management terrorized in ways that if the same happened to the black population, racism would be screamed collectively from the entire nation. The battle lines of organized labor have been one of violence with the intent of forcing more money to their pockets. It is simple extortion.

I know of stories from the early days of Warner Brothers, where members of the filmmaking community established the parameters still felt to this day, where cars were overturned outside of the Warner Brothers gate by cameramen, set designers and other production support personnel all in the quest for obtaining “property,” in the form of money. They seek to take it from someone else with the threat of violence, which is no different from a bully taking lunch money from some poor kid on a school playground. The intent is the same.

And things have not changed. A 26-year-old woman named Katherine R. Windels was charged with two felony counts and two misdemeanor counts for allegedly making email threats against Wisconsin lawmakers during the height of the battle over Gov. Scott Walker’s budget-repair bill.

She thought it was perfectly acceptable to send a letter to GOP lawmakers threatening to kill them and their families. For every person like her that does such an unspeakable thing, there are thousands, if not millions that are thinking about it. It’s part of the union culture. They are a threatening species intent on taking property from some and giving it to themselves.

In 2008 the LEA, the Lakota Education Association threatened to walk out on the kids they taught on a chilly October evening, for one reason, to obtain higher wages. The school board gave them what they wanted to keep the school open. Two years later in March of 2010, the LEA again initiated the threat of a strike, which forced the school board to quietly attempt to sign a contract over health insurance benefits while passing an operating levy to deal with the step increases forced from the last strike attempt. In August, the union announced they were taking a pay freeze to work with the district while attempting to pass another school levy. But the whole thing was smoke and mirrors. From 2010 to 2011 the top wage earners at Lakota, those making over 65K per year increased payroll to those employees by 15 million dollars all the while pretending to be on the “pay freeze.” Last year there were 434 employees making over 65K per year. This year there’s 625. That’s an increase of 191 employees that broke that barrier. Why, the threat of a strike. The union leadership would argue with the school board over every little thing so to frighten them from even considering arguing about a large issue, like wages. The intent is to take property and give to the union membership and to prevent anyone from questioning the motive.  (Notice in the chart below, the bottom line is what everyone else felt by way of CPI.  The top number is the amount that the LEA increased their own wages.  Notice the level off period in 2005.  That was during the levy attempt that year that took four times to pass.  Once it finally passed, look how the wages took off)

In Lebanon Schools we’ve seen the superintendent there make deals with the union openly violating Ohio’s sunshine law which states that interest of such a magnitude should be discussed in the open with the taxpayers that fund the whole business. Instead he along with the entire school board went into executive session to pass the union contracts. Why, because they fear the union more than the taxpayer, because it’s not the tax payer that threatens their comfort level. It’s not the tax payer that is turning over cars, vandalizing homes, and cars, or threatening physical violence to people who stand in their way. It’s not the tax payer that is threatening to strike and leave the entire school a lifeless entity full of kids but no teachers. It’s not the taxpayers that are sending death threats to law makers, so the tax payer gets screwed while the unions take all the money.

That’s what we’re dealing with here, violent thugs that have driven up their wages through pure extortion. And now they want to repeal S.B.5 so they can continue this game against the tax payer. Of course they are upset. They make good money that was earned with blood and violence, most of it they shed from others, and some of it they shed themselves. They like that government fears them. They like that the public avoids them so that the sham can continue. They want things to continue as they have. They have so far dictated everything and conceded nothing and it shows in their wages. It’s not inflammatory to say such a thing. It is a fact, the records are public, all one has to do is look at them. Well, look at them!   The chart below is an example of Lakota’s LEA and how they pushed up their salaries as opposed to the actual growth and consumer price index.  Notice they are way above the CPI. 

My purpose with these articles is to share with others what I have done all my life, so that they can take from it what they will and possibly adapt their own methods for dealing with the parasites that feed off all of us. I have no desire to avoid labels of “radical” or “brutal” in reference to my personality. I don’t care if I’m liked, or if I’m popular. I have no desire for public office. I have no desire for social acceptance. I care not to be a leader of the Tea Party. The leader of the Lakota School Levy. I care not who is leading the fight against the Lebanon Levy, the Mason Levy, S.B.5. I lend my help to all those groups because I lead myself and am firm in my own convictions and at the end of the day I have my books and I only care what they think of me. So I will not give unions and other government thugs what they ask for, and that’s the silent endorsement of complacency which gives them to power to rob us in the light of day. I will not make excuses for the conditions that allow the unions to think they have a right to exist, because I don’t support their right to any legal justification. They can have a club meeting in their back yard just like masons, or the Boy Scouts of America, because their value is just as important to me. They are just a bunch of silly people locked arm and arm advocating a “collective” society.

Now, I know what you’re thinking union thug. You’re thinking, “this guy needs his ass kicked, that’ll teach him.” Well, to you I say, join the long list of those that have tried. See there is a mathematical formula that dictates that a guy like me will always beat thousands of you and there is nothing in the laws of physics that falls in your favor. You only have power in a collective group shouting and screaming, and you have that power because you lack personal courage.

As I mentioned I used to be vice-president of a motorcycle club in Ohio. I know many hard-core bikers and gang leaders. I understand their thinking, and I like many of them, up to a point. That point ends when they call me “brother.” “I’m not your brother,” I’ll tell them. “I’ll wave to you as we pass each other on the open road, but I am not your brother. Just because we share a love of motorcycles, that doesn’t make us bothers.” I always get an odd look, but I don’t care. The reason is that saying the word brother affirms some sort of fraternity, which I find disgusting. It’s a collective identification, and that collective identification leads to a weakness of the heart.

One year I spent several months filming a documentary for an independent film company about motorcycle riders when I came to the realization that many of the bikers I liked so much belonged to a union of some kind and that collective mentality merged with the independence of riding motorcycles. They had this desire to ride in packs, and this drove me crazy, because it seems to me anti-American. So I dropped the project, because I could not truly show that motorcycle riders were the embodiment of a true American spirit, which I wanted to believe. Too many of them subjected themselves to collectivism. The group rides and motorcycle gangs were simply too similar to the kind of behavior seen in unions, which is not a pillar for which the United States is built. The country is not built by such fools. It is used by them. It is built by the individual and the individual’s ability to employ those people to some sense of direction.

Collectivism is weakness, and that is why the man, or woman who can stand on their own principles, are kings of their own internal kingdoms, and look in the mirror each day and like what looks back. Those types of people will beat those in collective societies one hundred percent of the time. The reason for the defeat of those in the collective as opposed to the individual is the individual that is secure in themselves find they are free of guilt. Guilt is what the collective uses to gain footing in people’s lives. And when you consider the strategy of unions they start with guilt. “Don’t you want the kids to succeed?” “Don’t you want your community to be safe?” “Don’t you want to pay the firefighter, because they run into danger when you run away?” They use the guilt that they calculate is sure to be there because we are all trained to feel guilt, and guilt is the pathway to the collective mind.

If guilt doesn’t work, then it’s violence, and the intention behind the violence is to make someone internally feel guilt for not standing up to the thugs, to hide from the disgrace and push it from their minds. That is why the public has thrown money for years at these people, to hide the guilt of their cowardly acts from themselves.

So it was not the tax payer that started this battle. It is a battle for all the reasons listed. The violence was started by the unions a century ago, and they’ve done to the tax payer what the progressive proclaims the United States did to the Native American, they encroached and broke treaty after treaty and pushed the Indian off their land inch by inch because they could. Because the Indian naively believed in honor and respect and they found themselves defeated repeatedly. Just as the tax payer does. The unions do not care for honor. They do not care for respect. They use collective might as their weapon of force to strike fear in the hearts of the human population seeking to expose the guilt they are sure to reside deep in our consciousness. And to cover that guilt with more money.

So remember that the violence inflicted is not just an attack on our personal sovereignty, but an attack on our very beings, because the attempt to is to inflict upon us guilt that if not felt in our compassion for children, or the safety of mankind, it will be the guilt of our own fear to act against the violence committed upon us. And that is the battle that they initiated and it is our task to defeat it in the greater war.

The first battle of that war was fought long ago, and many of us didn’t even know it was going on. We went to dinner with our families, to the movies with our significant others and followed the latest sports scores while these thieves robbed us under the cover of legality. Now that we know it’s a war that requires our attention, the first battle we’ve won was the S.B.5 Bill, and we must work hard to keep that ground, because there is much more of that ground that must be taken in order to return our nation to the healthy state that is required for the times we live in on planet earth.

So what do you think the unions will spend that money deducted from union member paychecks on? Manipulating the voting public and convincing people to tax themselves so the unions can protect the stranglehold they have on our political system. That is a fight that must be taken back to those that initiated it, and defeat must be in their horizon and retribution for years of looting against us all must be rectified.

Rich Hoffman

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