If not for blogs like this one, Twitter, and YouTube the crimes at Steubenville would have been covered up like many of the other crimes do in public education. From the very beginning I stated that a cover-up was highly likely. All public schools share the trend of sacrificing individuals to the collective whole, and when it comes to high school football, individuals are routinely sacrificed as athletes are often the symbolic stars of their community. The tendency when school athletes commit crimes is to cover up the evidence so the entire community can continue to idolize the heroes of the football field and rally behind the schools they represent in battle. Behind those athletes is a progressive education system that employees a lot of people off tax payer money, and schools need those tax payers to avoid looking too closely at real school activities—where scandals are common—not rare. So I declared the scope of the crime in previous articles that turned out to be very prophetic. CLICK THE LINK BELOW FOR REVIEW.
Before social media, a slick public relations employee would have swept this rape case under the rug, like they do many thousands of cases all across the country. In Steubenville, Ohio it was only social media that exposed the crime in such a way that the media actually covered the story—which they usually don’t. Because of the video evidence, which is rare, news outlets had to cover the information once it was brought to people’s eyes—and the case exploded into a national spectacle. Many people didn’t want to believe that the events occurred, and many news outlets attempted to put on a happy face, while many in the Steubenville community who wanted to continue worshiping their football stars attacked the rape victim and her parents for saying anything about the issue—or “tempting” the boys in the first place. All of the ugliness of high school sports, public education, and the real relationship they all have with the communities which fund them was exposed in a raw fashion that many people didn’t know what to do with.
So it came to my eyes early on Monday the following AP news wire story confirming all that I had said previously, and a great relief swept over me. The sadness for the poor girl was something I already dealt with—but this most recent news was the granting of a Thanksgiving Day wish provided early—justice for the victim and exposure of what public education is truly about—collectivism, sacrifice, and cover-ups.
STEUBENVILLE, Ohio (AP) – A school superintendent and three more people have been charged by a grand jury that investigated whether other laws were broken in the rape of a 16-year-old West Virginia girl last year in eastern Ohio.
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced the charges Monday in Steubenville
William Rhinaman, 53, director of technology at Steubenville High School, faces four counts: tampering with evidence, obstructing justice, obstructing official business and perjury in connection with the case, DeWine said. Rhinaman was arrested Monday.
If convicted, he could face four years behind bars, more time than the two convicted boys will serve.
Details of the indictment, including what kind of evidence was allegedly tampered with, were not immediately available.
“This is the first indictment in an ongoing grand jury investigation,” DeWine said in a prepared statement. “Our goal remains to uncover the truth, and our investigation continues.”
In the case of Steubenville it was Deric Lostutter who exposed the rape from the school cover-up, and if he hadn’t posted the images sent to him by members of a group of computer hackers working in the collective hive of “Anonymous” there would have been no justice in the case at all. The school officials would have covered up another crime, and life would have returned to normal for the members of the Steubenville community. That is why the FBI raided Lostutter to begin harassing him once he was discovered as the man behind the exposure—which I have also explained in previous articles. CLICK BELOW TO REVIEW.
However, Lostutter is far from a hero in the “Anonymous” circles because he has gained individual fame for his stance in protecting the rights of the Steubenville victim. Since his fame from the case, “Anonymous” has distanced themselves from him in the usual fashion. “Anonymous” members tend to think the way their public educations taught them to, as anarchists, socialists, Marxists and other radical types all centering around collective identity—which is why they call themselves the “hive.” They see themselves as a hive of bees I suppose serving some higher purpose. They certainly aren’t capitalists, and once Lostutter showed a knack for dealing with the media and achieved some fame, he had distinguished himself as an individual which is a big no, no with “Anonymous.” Here is a sampling of their thinking complete with grammatical issues:
Deric Lostuttter began once again seeking media attention by doing media interviews on behalf of Anonymous, and the organizers of #opmaryville. An operation to bring justice to a teenage victim and her family after a sexual assault occurred by football players in a tiny Ohio town
The victim and her family brought charges against Players on the high school football team, but those charges were promptly dismissed by local prosecuting attorneys(citing lack of evidence and the victims refusal to cooperate), and the victim’s home was burnt to the ground prompting the family to get out of town. Maryville’s Local sherrif quoted as saying that “they did all that they could, but charges were dropped due to lack of evidence and the victim and her family just need to get over it and move on.” The victim and her family accuse the sherriff and prosecutors of lying, and deny not cooperating.
As Anonymous geared up to rally behind the victim and her family, Maryville’s official sites were taken offline to protect the town servers, and the local sherriff began to mock the Anonymous Hive.
Lostutter, who as of Monday began tweeting and posting about the case on his facebook was told early on by members of anonymous that he would not be a part of this operation, as he’s a “famefagging attention seeker” and for the op to go right, his fake anonymous ass should stay the fuck out of things.” Lostutter then began once again comparing himself to Barret Brown, Jeremey Hammond, and Edward Snowden continued to post about Maryville even issuing a false press release about #opmaryville from his twitter. Lostutter now dubbed, The Leader of Anonymous in one article in which he admitted he knew nothing about #opmaryville. Which makes no sense because usually when you’re interviewed it’s because you have direct knowledge of what’s goin on. The Daily Dot quickly retracted the title of Anon Leader, but not until after a internet backlash which pissed off thousands. This however didn’t stop Lostutter from continuing to seek out media interviews as the “Spokesman for Anonymous” in which he continued to speak for and about #opmaryville without being involved or having any knowledge of the real Anons organizing the operation.
So there is a lot going on regarding the Steubenville case, but the bottom line is that it took the courage of individuals to expose the various levels of collectivism which attempted to cover up the crime. Even with the New Media outlets that put the story on the front page of newspapers and brought national coverage to the issue collectivism is still the impediment to justice, but because of people like Lostutter, the ability to sacrifice single victims to the plight of a collective whole has been greatly minimized.
I am happy to see justice done, and I will enjoy my Thanksgiving that much more knowing corrupt school officials are going to jail over the incident. There are a lot more names to add to the list of indictments from thousands of schools all over the country doing essentially the same thing, but Steubenville is a good place to start—and the four officials citied are simply the first—they won’t be the last. Because of “New Media,” traditional media must compete, and that spells doom for school districts and communities everywhere who are accustomed to cover-ups like the one in Steubenville. And that is something to truly be “thankful” for.
For me the situation is clear, I’ll support J.D. Winteregg to run against John Boehner in the primary coming up as opposed to the other challenger who spoke at the West Chester Tea Party in a short introduction and debate against my neighbor Eric Gurr—a very nice guy, smart man, but too much of a political insider. J.D. has a new penny feel about him, and after hearing him speak, I believe he is incorruptible. I’ve known a few people over the years that can walk through the valley of sin without falling to temptation, and Eric has that presence about him. It will take that kind of person to knock off Boehner, and do what is required in Washington D.C. in the seat that Boehner vacates. But don’t just take my word for it, watch the debate for yourself—where both J.D. Winteregg and Eric Gurr introduce their basic platforms and do a bit of Q & A at the end through debate fashion. Both guys did a pretty good job at this early stage. Neither are slick politicians—but that’s a good thing when it is considered that the task at hand is to knock off the Speaker of the House—the third most powerful job in the entire world.
John Boehner has been in Congress representing the 8th District since 1990. He’s been in that position my children’s entire life, and they are now both married and having kids of their own. He’s been in Washington too long. I know he’s a nice guy, but I’m sure the same could be said of Obama privately. Boehner is just bad for the job. It became clear to me that Boehner had fallen in love with Washington D.C. when he was caught on a hot mike talking to Joe Biden about golf before the President addressed the nation with a yearly speech. Obama obviously has intentions to grossly expand government which is a real and serious threat to everyone’s livelihoods who actually work at real jobs—and hob knobbing with the powerful elite while they do it is just neglectful. It has become obvious that Obama and John Boehner are not that far apart on many issues. Boehner plays the Republican act for the cameras, and fundraising speeches, but it is obvious he doesn’t believe what he says because he doesn’t act on his promises—such as someone’s going to “jail over the IRS.” Boehner like Obama just delivers lines of dialogue and seems to believe in nothing.
When a politician like John Boehner “compromises” he’s done, not because compromise is a dirty word, but because the implication of that task states clearly that a person is willing to yield their values for the collective good of democracy. The trouble with that is the other side does not function from a value system, so compromise to them costs nothing—because they have nothing to yield. The compromise exclusively comes from those who do have value—people like Boehner—and he has for over twenty years compromised, and compromised, and compromised until he has allowed the Republican right to be pulled so far to the political left that he could likely hold a job right now in the Clinton White House of the 1990s.
Boehner plays too many Washington games, and he loses most of them. Whether it’s the government shut down, the debt ceiling, Health Care which was rammed through Congress on his watch, his failure to go after Obama on several potentially impeachable offenses—Benghazi, the IRS, the NSA, the political appointments, Boehner has shown that he’s comfortable in Washington. He likes it and for a representative from Ohio, he is not representing it in the Belt Way—giving politicians like Obama leverage in all negotiations. It is obvious that in the poker games of Washington, John doesn’t know what he’s doing, or what his opponents are doing to him. Boehner is continuously out-maneuvered by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid for God’s sake—and those people are complete idiots. I am convinced that Boehner was elected Speaker of the House not for his skill as a Speaker, but for his naive complacency—his aloofness toward the crimes going on in the House under his nose which is enriching its members. Boehner is Speaker of the House to keep the status quo functioning with excuses and promises while the trio of Reid, Pelosi, and Obama run him down over and over like Enos on the old television show, The Dukes of Hazzard.
On a rainy January in 2011 I went down to John’s office during lunch to speak to his “people,” the same guys who were in the audience scouting the competition trying to knock off their boss in the video above. I wanted to give Boehner a formal letter, and actually hoped to catch him in town, as I knew he was back home at the time. When I got to the office, they hadn’t seen Boehner even though he lives right down the road—and that little aspect of Boehner’s management style spoke volumes about the current Speaker of the House—he’s out of touch. Boehner after 20 years in Congress has been out-witted one too many times and the way he attempts to overcome his intellectual naiveté is to play golf with his enemies and compromise. When Boehner compromises with Obama it is always the GOP which gives up something because Obama is a classic thief—a looter who gains everything he has in life by taking from others. Obama never gives up anything because he never earned anything. John Boehner on the other hand has always done for himself—but he gives Obama equal value at the bargaining table with a compromise. It’s like going to a garage sale and buying a new television in exchange for a pack of stolen laundry plucked off a neighbor’s cloths line. Boehner has the television; Obama has the bag of laundry. Boehner gives Obama the television, and Boehner gets a bag of laundry that the owner eventually comes looking for and thinks that it was Boehner who stole it in the first place, because it’s in his hands. Obama goes home and watches football on the television while Boehner defends himself in court for stealing laundry from people’s back yards. That is what Democrats call “compromise.”
The Speaker of the House should know how to defend himself from those types of political games, but Boehner clearly doesn’t. Like Enos in The Dukes of Hazzard, John Boehner is a good man pushed around constantly by the Boss Hoggs of Capital Hill, and he falls for just about every scheme imaginable. He has been kept as Speaker because the thieves, looters and barons know that they can continue their crimes against the tax payer so long as John Boehner is in charge—and that is just an insult to the people of the 8th District, and to himself. It is painful to watch Boehner struggle through all the various controversies that the Obama administration has served up to him, and he misses again and again the opportunity to deliver a spike. It’s like watching a child in tee-ball who can’t swing a bat and hit the ball set up on a tee. It’s just pathetic.
So it’s time for Boehner to go and send a message to Washington that an established (powerful) Republican can be knocked out of his seat by someone new—someone like J.D. Winteregg. If the Republicans fail to gain seats in the House after the Obamacare debacle, then they are complete idiots anyway—and hopeless beyond repair. Obamacare is not just a ball placed on a tee for the GOP to hit, but it’s already been knocked out into the field for them. All they have to do is run the bases. So losing Boehner in the primary is of little consequence to the GOP. We can afford it as an investment into a new kind of government where the Speaker is actually in his office when he’s in town, and doesn’t think first of playing golf while the other side is pulling his underwear up over his head like a Three Stooges skit. It’s time for someone else to take John’s seat, and for me it would be J.D. Winteregg.
It is such a pleasure in a world that has seemingly gone mad politically, philosophically, and economically to see the glorious gumption of Chris Lee and his entourage of dedicated Millennium Falcon builders. I have covered the exploits of Full Scale Falcon.com before—but that was upon the original announcement that Chris and company had dedicated themselves to building a full sized Millennium Falcon on an 80 acre lot outside of Nashville, Tennessee. CLICK HERE FOR REVIEW. For me and millions of other Star Wars fans the Millennium Falcon represents rebellion, freedom, and hope. It is impossible to step into my home and not see something relevant to Star Wars—but in my bedroom there are Millennium Falcons everywhere. For me it represents more than just a nice plot point from a cool movie—the roots of the Falcon represent far more—and those roots are obviously driving Chris and many others to spend their own time, money, and effort on making a real Falcon that people can see and touch—and walk through. The Millennium Falcon is about more than just escapist fantasy—I would argue it is the direct result of laissez-faire capitalism, and people deep down inside know it—which is why they love the iconic space ship. It was because of laissez-faire capitalism that The Millennium Falcon was able to nearly single-handedly beat a galactic empire with speedy modifications, powerful weapons and raw guts born out of a Star Wars invention called the Corporate Sector.
When I was in the fifth grade my mother used to put together a gift bag of goodies to play with and read while taking long vacations that required many hours in the car. That year my family went to Myrtle Beach and inside my gift bag was a novel just published by Del Rey called Han Solo at Star’s End. It was the first book published after the 1977 release of the first Star Wars film and it featured my favorite character and I couldn’t wait to read it. My mom purposely kept the book on top of the refrigerator out of my reach but positioned it so that I could see it. I was salivating for weeks to read it. I was looking forward to our family vacation not for the opportunity to go to the beach, but to read that book.
Finally on a hot summer morning after a devastating thunderstorm that nearly delayed our trip, we left. The moment we were on I-75 south, my mother gave me the carefully constructed gift bag with all the goodies in it to keep me occupied for the long drive. There were lots of neat things in the bag, but only one thing I wanted and the moment I put my fingers on it, I was in love for life. I devoured Han Solo at Star’s End. I read the book all the way to Myrtle Beach, at every restaurant we stopped at, on the beach, at the hotel room, everywhere that I could hold a book. When I finished I read it again, then again, then again. I lost count of how many times I read that book. I was in love with the Millennium Falcon not because of the movie—which was great, but for deeper reason that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. It was the Corporate Sector and specifically a guy named Doc Vandangante who could have only been employed by such an experiment of laissez-faire capitalism that had sent my mind ablaze for some unknown reason.
On my family’s Myrtle Beach vacation I read in Han Solo at Star’s End that while in the Corporate Sector, the Falcon was damaged after Solo and Chewbacca attempted smuggling weapons to insurgents on Duroon. They did collect payment from the insurgents and went to pay off Ploovo Two-For-One, but in a rather creative manner. Given the prickly relationship and even outright disgust they had for each other, Han bought a foul, irritable, putrid dinko, attached the payment to it, and unleashed it on the unfortunate employer. Although Corporate Sector Security arrived at the establishment where they were, Han and Chewbacca escaped their grasp relatively unscathed. Payment completed, they went off to find the outlaw tech “Doc” Vandangante‘s hideout, only to discover he had been taken to the Corporate Sector Authority prison at Stars’ End. Doc’s daughter Jessa offered upgrades and repairs to Han’s ship, and a Corporate Sector waiver, in exchange for Han helping rescue Doc and the other prisoners. Before Han could take off, the outlaw techs were attacked by IRD-A Fighters. Piloting a Z-95 Headhunter, Han led the other techs and Jessa in defense of the base. Despite heavy losses, they were successful. To complete their rescue mission for Jessa, Solo and Chewbacca were given two droids, Bollux and Blue Max, and went to the agriworldOrron III to meet up with a group led by Rekkon planning the prison rescue. Though Solo was initially only interested in getting the repairs for his ship, his motives became personal when Chewbacca was captured. After dealing with a traitor in the group, Solo and the others arrived at Stars’ End. In order to gain entry, Han, Atuarre, Pakka, Bollux and Blue Max posed as a troupe of entertainers. The rescue proved successful; freeing Chewbacca, Doc, and the other prisoners and destroying the Stars’ End in the process. After the Falcon was repaired, Solo and Chewbacca left the Corporate Sector for a time, taking Bollux and Blue Max with them in future books…….all of which I read with the same enthusiasm.[18]
The Corporate Sector was formed in 490 BBY[9] to free the Republic lawmakers and the Corporate moneymakers from their differences, after being exiled from the Inner Rim to the Tingel Arm. The Corporate Sector originally had a few hundred systems all devoid of intelligent life. Its creation came in the aftermath of the disastrous experiment with corporate control in the Outer Expansion Zone. The new experiment was tried under more careful supervision, the Republic sent the equivalent of a full subsector’s worth of ships to protect the rights of the workers in the sector and to ensure the companies preserved the basic integrity of the environment on the planets in the sector. The corporations were allowed to operate in the sector and could purchase entire regions of space, but were supervised by the Galactic Republic. A general tax was paid directly to the Republic government which enabled the companies to avoid the morass of sector, system, planetary and local taxes found on most worlds in the Republic. The Corporate Sector thrived because of deregulation and low taxes.
Doc was born on Coruscant to Carmilla Vandangante, a corporate viceprex and widow who doted on her only son. He rebelled against his life of luxury and privilege at the age of seven, reprogramming his droid nanny to discard such unpalatable foods as kibla greens, flangth, and stewed gwouch into a living room vase. This demonstrated his technical gifts to his tutors, who soon tailored their lessons to these skills.[1]
Upon graduation, Doc accepted a position at Alkherrodyne Propulsions as design systems team leader. He soon became disenchanted with the corporation’s shoddy workmanship covered with flashy marketing, but swallowed his pride and remained with the company. However, when the Azaria 66 began exploding in minor accidents, Alkherrodyne’s slicers framed Doc. The countless lawsuits wiped out the multi-billion credit Vandangante fortune, and left the name slandered.[1]
Doc became a drifter, eventually making his way into the Corporate Sector, where he met an outlaw tech by the name of Shardra. They immediately fell in love, and when introduced to her profession, Doc found his calling, repairing smuggling ships and souping them up to be some of the fastest in the Corporate Sector. Shardra bore the couple a daughter, Jessa Vandangante, but soon died in an unfortunate fuel dump explosion. Doc found raising a daughter to be a difficult task, especially as the free-spirited woman grew older and started catching the eye of younger smugglers like Han Solo.[1]
The Millennium Falcon was a direct result of very creative free enterprise by a number of previous owners but culminating in the exploits of Han Solo who ran into Doc Vandagante. In a very large galaxy of ideals, some parts of it ruled by peace-loving pacifists, some ruled by ruthless crime lords, some ruled by sinister agents of tyranny, some just trying to preserve their heritage among the intermingling of many races and species—it was the Corporate Sector that made The Millennium Falcon such a special starship. Much like today’s world in real life, government and business could not get along—so government gave business free rein on the outer edge of the galaxy away from their control in exchange for the benefits. The equivalent in the real world might be the Caribbean, Las Vegas, Gatlinburg, Tennessee, Hong Kong, or even Disney World where politics leaves the areas alone with their overly intrusive rules and regulations. The direct benefit is the vibrant economic activity of creative minds such as the fictional Doc Vandagante. My question as a young fifth grader on Myrtle Beach was why wasn’t the rest of the galaxy the way the Corporate Sector was? Why would the government within the core worlds want the benefits of the Corporate Sector not on the outer rim of the galaxy, but within the core near the capital planets? Well, the sad answer was power.
Star Wars is of course a fictional story, but it has so many references to our current life that the mythology accurately reflects many competing ideals that are in actual conflict. The concepts introduced through the story are familiar to us all. The Imperials love statism, the Rebels love freedom, and then there are those who might otherwise find sanction in the Corporate Sector with all the good and bad that comes with it. Some of the planets in the Corporate Sector are ravaged with pollution, and corrupt board of directors just out trying to make money at the expense of others. It’s not all good in the Corporate Sector—it’s not safe—fair, or even remotely nice. But, the Corporate Sector was responsible for much of the technological innovation that the rest of the galaxy enjoyed and there is a philosophical argument there worth noting.
The Millennium Falcon is a direct product of the laissez-faire capitalism of the Star Wars universe. When I returned back to the real world after reading Han Solo at Star’s End it was clear that my public school was intent to teach the politics of the core worlds, what we might call in the real world—socialism. The public schools were intent to preach the merits of statism—rules and regulations, federal control of everything. Not me. I wanted a Millennium Falcon—I wanted something like it in my lifetime, and it quickly became clear to me that the kind of education that the public schools were offering would not take the world where I wanted to go. When John F Kennedy dared America to go to the moon, he tossed at NASA a bit of laissez-faire capitalism to make it happen—and beat the Russians to space. Stanley Kubrick watched this progress and built is movie 2001: A Space Odyssey around that type of progress. But once the Berlin Wall came crashing down in 1989, America took its foot off the gas and started over regulating everything once again to give politicians something to do—and that space race progress came to a halt. Now there has been over 20 years of blatant and gradually increasing socialism coming out of WashingtonD.C. because that’s what everyone was taught in their public schools, and there are no real plans for space under the Obama administration going forward. They are instead focused on solar panels, street cars, public transit, and a communist care health system.
NASA if turned loose with laissez-faire capitalism could likely build a real functional Millennium Falcon within a decade. The technology is close enough that at least a vessel that could take off and fly into space with artificial gravity, ion propulsion, life support and other forms of sustainability could be achieved quickly if the real life Doc Vandagantes were turned loose of government regulation. I know a few of them, I know people who have invented flying cars that could take off from one driveway and land in another half a world away, but has no real interest from large aerospace companies facing gigantic liability concerns, and mountains of paperwork in compliance to purchase—and advance. I know of people who have cured most cancers, but the FDA has tried to throw them in jail to keep the technology off the market so pharmaceutical companies can continue keeping people sick and addicted to their products. I know of scientists who have started the process of regenerative growth—who can re-grow fingers lost, or legs amputated. They are solving the problem of aging and whether or not human beings actually have to die. They are a threat to the companies who make prosthetic limbs, and ADA legislation that wants more ramps for wheel chairs, elevators for the disabled, and generally more handicapped people to use for political advancement in the here and now. Those types of people will gladly sacrifice the opportunities of tomorrow for power today.
Statists inside the beltway of Washington D.C. are the first to say that if people never got sick, never died, and had unlimited freedom of transportation, then the world would become over polluted, over populated, and a menace to itself. They are still thinking small, because they obviously never read anything like Han Solo at Star’s End as kids—an act I’m sure Chris Lee shares with me. People like Chris and I ask ourselves why can’t I have my own Millennium Falcon to take off and go to work in orbit around earth where all the pollution and byproduct of production could be dumped into space preserving planet earth forever. When work was completed at the end of the day, we would just fly home and land in our back yards with our Millennium Falcons. Why can’t we have it–because we live on earth with restrictive governments that hate laissez-faire capitalism?
I’ve read many of the European classics and compared to Star Wars, they are boring. I love Shakespeare, but I would take any Star Wars book over William Shakespeare any day of the week. Shakespeare was a better writer than Brian Daley who wrote Han Solo at Star’s End without question. But Daley is much more positive as a thinker than Shakespeare, and that optimism about what’s possible is what Star Wars is all about. Yet much of the modern statism that is infecting the world is because of European culture, Thomas Mann’s Magic Mountain, Dante’s Inferno, or the master himself James Joyce of Finnegan’s Wake fame, which I have read and understand. Give me Star Wars over Finnegan’s Wake and give me the Millennium Falcon over a fu**ing street car. Give me a manufacturing plant floating around earth dumping its garbage into space or on the surface of the moon as opposed to the socialism of Brazil where everyone lives in a card board hut. Give me a Corporate Sector that can build a Millennium Falcon in America so that I can have one as opposed to the dying towns of Detroit choking on socialism and feel-good progressivism.
What Chris Lee is attempting to do is no different from what Doc Vandagantes did in the book Han Solo at Star’s End for TheMillennium Falcon. Chris isn’t working for NASA, or some other group building Falcons for the general population. Government will not get behind such an effort, so Chris is doing it on his own. I was a bit skeptical at first even though I wanted to see the results. But after Chris showed off the latest cockpit construction after many months of meticulous effort, I can see clearly that he will be successful so long as he can continue to fund the project. It is for that reason that I am starting an icon on my side bar here at Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom encouraging my readers here to help Chris with his project. I think it’s important. Is it as important as sex trafficking in the world, or the sad state of current politics———-no, but yes. Yes because Chris’s Millennium Falcon project is about the most important ingredient to human society—imagination—and the gumption to make things happen. Chris wants like I do to walk inside a real life Millennium Falcon—and he’s making it happen on his dime, with his time, and his effort. And now that I’ve seen it, I can’t help but wonder what our world would be like if government simply got behind people like Chris and allowed them to function in a Corporate Sector of America where inventions like the Falcon could flourish, instead of trying to heard people into cities through progressive politics and force them onto government sponsored mass transit. The Millennium Falcon is a larger symbol than that—it is the result of laissez-faire capitalism and a hope for mankind that resides in the spirit of ideals and innovation—and a lot of perspiration.
That old Han Solo at Star’s End novel still sits near my reading chair. It’s now torn, and very worn out from years of handling—but it still evokes in me boundless imagination opportunities and optimism. Many people look at what Chris is doing in Nashville and read what I have said here and think that we are grown up kids who love the escapism of cinema, or fantasy which has a grain of truth to it. But what do we want to escape from—and to what. Speaking for myself, I wish to escape from the clutches of those with undeveloped imaginations—people who avoid thinking rather than thriving from it. For me, a personal Millennium Falcon would allow me to leave those sluggish minds behind in a flight for the stars and the endless possibilities available outside of the laws comb-over politicians have constructed just to increase their power base. My wife has read Han Solo at Star’s End—in fact she’s read every Star Wars book ever written up to this point which is in the hundreds—and she understands why there are Millennium Falcon’s all over our bedroom. Many don’t because they failed to let novels like Han Solo at Star’s End capture their imaginations at a young age, or failed to enjoy a film like Star Wars for whatever reason. They lack the mechanism to enjoy those kinds of things and it is they who are weights on minds like mine. I want to escape from their limitations, their restrictions, and their lives stuck in quicksand of self-construction. The Millennium Falcon to me is freedom from all that, and a symbol against restriction because TheFalcon is a pirate vessel built by illegal components that’s faster than anything regulations in the Republic or Empire would allow. And that’s why I love it, and why people like Chris are dedicating their lives to see a real life Millennium Falcon—even if they have to build the damn thing themselves. I sleep better at night knowing that there are people like Chris and his friends out there—beyond the reaches of those who use rules and regulations to mask the lack of imagination that plagues their thoughts like a cancer—and the democracies of tyranny that they create with good intentions imposed from faulty thinking. The Millennium Falcon is an escape from those who don’t understand and a celebration by those who do.
There is a good reason that I stand with Roger Reynolds and David Kern over the recent controversy surrounding Butler County Commissioner, Don Dixon. Before I tell this story remember that I’d rather deal with Republicans who are fighting each other over what’s right than a bunch of collectivist Democrats. But then again, Don Dixon was a Democrat all through the 80’s and 90’s and only decided to become a Republican in the year 2000, when it was obvious that conservative politics ruled Butler County. When politicians use their public office in an abusive way—to obtain benefits for their friends, family, and political allies, right is right—and its not always easy to tell who is telling the truth, or even what “right” is. In the recent case of Don Dixon, he obviously gave his son Brent benefits from his political holdings over the years—to the direct benefit of his family. Don’s angry because Kern and Reynolds called him out on it—finally. Here is the story from the newspaper.
Two board of election employees – including the son of a county commissioner – resigned in the wake of allegations that they were receiving full-time benefits for working part-time jobs.
The county made about $200,000 contributions toward their medical and dental insurance and also paid toward their pensions.
Republican Brent Dixon, 44, and Democrat Garry Hicks, 61, resigned this month after Butler County Prosecutor Michael Gmoser became involved and issued a “cease and desist” letter to the board of elections.
Brent Dixon was hired 22 years ago during the tenure of retired elections director Betty McGary, who has had a long-time relationship with Don Dixon. McGary quit in 2011 after 33 years.
“That’s the most lowdown sleazy, nasty comment I’ve ever heard. If you want to talk about me and you want to talk about my political history that’s one thing. Stay out of my life, out of my personal life. Roger Reynolds doesn’t have a millionth of the integrity she’s got,” he said. “I don’t pick on his wife.”
He threatened to sue Reynolds and Kern.
Don Dixon, who has led a crackdown on county spending since the economic downturn, was outraged that Reynolds had dragged McGary into the flap. He referred to McGary as his wife. He said the allegations were politically motivated.
Don Dixon said county commissioners have no control over the board of elections even though county commissioners approve the board’s annual budget.
Reynolds said Butler County contributed more than $156,000 towards Brent Dixon’s medical insurance over the years. Hicks was hired in 2001 and the county contributed about $35,000 toward his medical insurance premiums. Hicks recently was only taking the county’s dental insurance. Reynolds did not have figures for how much the county contributed toward their pensions.
With changes in the state pension effective Jan. 1, 2014, the 14 percent raises put Dixon’s and Hicks’ monthly wages over the $600 benchmark that enabled them to continue to earn a full month of credit for pension benefits. Before the changes, employees had to earn a minimum monthly salary of $250 to receive one full month of pension credit.
“There’s a lot of questions related to how Betty McGary would go along with this and authorized this as a director when it directly impacted Don Dixon’s son,” Reynolds said.
Don Dixon can cry foul all he wants, but the bottom line is that his son was given help by government through his father which is an abuse of power. It doesn’t mean that Dixon is a bad person, but has simply done what many politicians fall victim to, they abuse their power for personal benefit which ultimately cost tax payers a lot of money. When there are many tens of thousands of people like Don Dixon doing for his son Brent what he did, the cost to tax payers is catastrophically high.
I wasn’t unhappy with the results. I was proud of my efforts. Brent had a slick car that many people believe was built by his father’s people. Brent had a car that was built to win. My car was one that my dad and I built-in our basement and back yard over many months. A lot of sweat and love went into my car and it showed. Brent’s looked professional, mine looked like it was made by an 11-year-old—which it was. But even so, I had won 9 out of 11 races including the final—which wasn’t bad. But my dad swore that I had won both photo finishes as he had placed himself on the sight line. He was outraged.
Naturally, I thought that my dad was just cheering for his son the way all proud parents do who believes that their children are the best at everything. Brent’s dad Don was near my father with his entourage of ass-kissers and of course Don believed that his son had won. The two dads were looking at the situation from opposing positions. I didn’t care. I was happy to have done well, but my dad was furious on the way home. The entire time we loaded my car onto the trailer and drove home he talked about Butler County politics and declared that the race was so close that politically the officials gave the win to Brent because of who his dad was. I wasn’t so sure, but what he was saying made sense.
Afterwards, the media seemed more interested in my story than Brent’s including the Journal News story seen above—because I was the underdog and as the reporter declared, people like the underdog. People liked my car, they like the David and Goliath story, they liked reading about Hoffman versus Dixon—where obviously Dixon was Goliath. As the reporter concluded his interview with me and took his pictures at a spot that is now a sports bar where my home used to be located, he winked at me and said…………”you won kid. I was there………I saw it with my own eyes. But politics is more powerful than heart. You have a lot of heart, just not enough politics.”
I watched that reporter leave and thought hard about what he said, and it likely sent me on a journey that has been over 30 years in the making. I value my heart and the products of my mind over the connections that I could make kissing ass through politics. I have avoided politics my entire life, likely because of my experiences against Brent Dixon at the Hamilton Soap Box Derby in 1979. I’ve watched Brent grow up in the shadows of his father his entire life and I would never trade positions with him. Brent has to look in the mirror every day and know that much of what he has obtained in life he gained through his father—whether it was the decision of a photo finish victory against me, or a cute little job with the Board of Elections and all the perks that came with it. If I live a hundred more years I would never wish to trade places with Brent Dixon.
When I was 11 years old and my soap box derby car was parked next to Brent’s slick black and gray professionally constructed Dixon winning machine I wouldn’t have traded him my car for his—even though they were both equally as fast. The reason is that I built mine with my dad with a lot of hard work and that made my victories that day much more cherished. Brent won in the end, but like many things in his life, he won with the help of politics, which cheapens such victories to the point where they’re worthless.
Now many years later, on the fallout of a Lakota levy election loss where the politically connected won over the rag-tag efforts of those standing against tax increases, I wouldn’t trade places with those people for the same reason that I wouldn’t trade with Brent. Dixon the son won at many things in life because politics helped him get over the top. I have watched this happen to many people, and I have fought against it as I always will. It didn’t surprise me at all to see that Brent had eventually found himself in trouble over such a thing because it wasn’t the first time. What did surprise me is that David and Roger stood up to a respected Republican Commissioner who has his roots going back decades into Butler County politics. The fact that they did speak out against Dixon speaks volumes about a wave of politics that is about to hit Butler County in the years to come—a political system that the levy supporters will not like, and the power brokers like Dixon who have spent a life-time nurturing their name so that they could help their loved ones with looted money and resources gained through government offices.
I have been in many photo finishes, and many of them were lost the same way that my rendezvous with Brent Dixon ended—with politics defeating raw heart. But………..in the end, even after all these years the results of two lives shaped by a Soup Box Derby race proved drastically different because one found their life shaped by who their dad was and the other shaped by the kind of man their dad allowed them to be. That subtle difference leads to winning a war by letting the battles go to the politically connected and otherwise manipulative causing a result that always ends with self-destruction over a span of decades. A war won is more valuable than battles shaped by political influence, not for what the spoils of victory can give to pad a bank account, but for what it brings out truly in a heart and soul. Battles are won by people like the Dixons. Wars are won by those with heart…………..and a mind that still feeds it. In confronting Dixon, Reynolds and Kern showed a lot of heart, and I admire them for it. David Kern specifically has spent a life-like the biblical David, overlooked and quietly residing in the background for the most part. Commissioner Dixon represents all the high-profile prestige of the Biblical Goliath, who expects to use his power and prestige collected over many years to crush his enemies. What happened over the board of elections scandal is that an actual David named Kern cast a single stone against Goliath, and the results were predictably epic. Because the David of Butler County—Kern and Roger Reynolds are out to win a war—as they have for years endured the battles won by Don Dixon. And if Goliath was not guilty to begin with, the single stone would have had no effect.
In the end, heart crushes politics. Sometimes it just takes decades to achieve victory. Most of the time, it takes more than a photo finish, but enough time provided for Goliath to overlook a single stone that could bring him down, and the will to cast it when the rest of the world believes it to be unwise. That is what I learned in my race with Brent Dixon in 1979 and the lives of two people who moved from there into radically different directions.
I’m still on the fence about professional football; my interest in it has declined greatly over the last several years because of how it facilitates collectivism, and education institutions supported by left-winged radicals. Football is a fun game that is cool, yet serves as a cover for the content being taught in these institutions, and the general collectivism exhibited by them. For instance, a graduate of Ohio State University generally says “we” when referring to the school they attended—and they do this in the same way that people say “we” when referring to their favorite sports team. “We scored a touchdown in the third quarter,” or “we lost a close game,” are just a few examples, and the behavior is learned in the education institutions. Because of its “coolness” football serves as cover for all the bad things happening in the class rooms being taught by liberal leaning educators. Society accepts the bad so that they can have the good, the entertainment of high school football under the Friday night lights, or a Saturday NCAA game between Ohio State and Michigan, or the fabulous Sunday afternoon football of the professionals—who are all the best and brightest of the college and high school players.
To compound matters, my favorite team the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have had a bad year—a new coach learning his way around the NFL has struggled to find his niche as he pushes out the last remnants of the Raheem Morris era—targeting specifically Josh Freeman—the starting quarterback. So there hasn’t been much to cheer for on my end, however, as I’ve stated emphatically on several occasions I would be a fan of the Buccaneers if they never won another game—because I support the ownership—not specific players and coaches. I support the culture that the Glazer family attempts to create around their Tampa football franchise, and admire the grit of their ownership.
This grit was on full display during Monday Night Football against the embittered Miami Dolphins on the night Warren Sapp’s jersey was retired at half time. Sapp was drafted by my favorite coach of all time, Sam Wyche who also drafted John Lynch and Derrick Brooks—three guys who could have only found themselves brought to the same place at the same time by someone like Wyche. Since that period of time, Tampa has tried to duplicate that chemistry again, and have relentlessly tried various options trying to find that same intense spark. They have had some small fires, but no explosions they way they did in 2002 when they finally won a Superbowl by the team that Wyche built-in 1995. Wyche was at the front of Pirsig’s train. Up until that Monday Night game the Bucs had lost all their games, most of them by narrow margins, but a loss is a loss and they were looking for their first. They played with a passion that was entertaining, and admirable and reminded me why I have always loved that team—they have a never say die attitude which I find enchanting—even when they lose. That mentality comes from the ownership.
I would rather be a fan of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who lose every game they play so long as they played like they did on Monday Night Football the night that Warren Sapp’s number was retired. If they lose, it’s OK with me so long as they take off their rivals head while doing it. That is why I like the Bucs—and always have. It will continue as long as the Glazers keep the spirit of that team with a philosophy which embodies that behavior.
Maybe it was something Sapp said to Greg Schiano the head coach of the Bucs prior to the game when the two had dinner, but on the following Sunday Tampa beat the crap out of the Atlanta Falcons with an effort that looked Superbowl worthy. Football is that kind of game; it’s a game of capitalism that has many socialist tendencies looting off it for their own survival. I love the capitalist elements of football, but I despise the socialism. And of all the football teams in the world the only one I actually enjoy with any sense of loyalty is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
But I never say “we” when referencing the Bucs………….it’s always “they.” They do the work, they do the hitting, they take the chances, and they win or lose the games. I do not share in that activity with them. I simply enjoy watching them try. And that is the biggest difference between how I see football, and most everyone else. For those others, they have an unhealthy relationship with football that opens their minds to statism coming through their education institutions that cause them to say “we” when dealing with the actions of others. When the word “we” comes into play, football is a bad thing—because it allows those who do not actually contribute to the victory to believe that they helped win a game—and that is socialism.
When the beer belly father cheers on the kids of a high school football team, generally such onlookers are reliving the days that have passed them by—with their advanced ages they can no longer run, jump and leap through the air—so they cheer on the young little saplings with great enthusiasm and say “we” because that is the only way they can touch such memories—is through others. When the middle-aged guy makes a bet over a college football game with his cubical all decked out with paraphernalia of his alumnus and declares that “we” will bet “you,” he is living his life through the college students of that college team with a dangerous form of collectivism. His most glorious days are now behind him and only the college football team can recapture them for him. Or when there are drunken fights at a professional game over whose team wins or loses, the participants are really fighting over the lack of control the team outcome has reminded them really occurs in their actual lives. So the reminder is something to fight over—to suppress the knowledge that all their cheering and prayers had no bearing on the outcome. I don’t watch the Tampa Bay Bucs for any of these reasons. I watch it for the warfare displayed on the game field; I watch it for the capitalist gains of better players suppressing those at a tactical disadvantage. I watch it for the hard hits, the strategy, and the passion of winning—or trying to. I watch it for the spectacle……..purely. In that regard, Tampa could lose the rest of its games for the next 10 years and I would still be a fan so long as they played the way they did on Monday Night Football on a November evening when Sapp was memorialized and the Bucs won their first game of 2013. If it were the last, it would be fine with me, because my love of them extends beyond any tentacles of collectivism, but the joy of living, bleeding, fighting and surviving to fight another day and wrestle from an opponent a hard-fought victory that is as elusive as a purple moon in a sun blazed sky.
It took me over a week to watch Killing Kennedy, the film done by the National Geographic Channel and produced by Ridley Scott based on the best-selling novel by Bill O’Reilly. But I’m glad I finally got around to it on my DVR because I learned a few things. I am usually turned off by the whole Kennedy assassination issue because I think it took American focus off our self-reliance at a critical point in our history and I don’t like the collective sorrow that came out of the event. Also after Oliver Stone’s film from the early 90’s, there are a lot of questions surrounding Kennedy. Kennedy was a good president but he made a lot of mistakes, just like in his real life where he was too fast and loose with women, too connected to organized crime, opened the door for public sector unions to organize in government, but he did well during the Cuban Missile Crises, and setting the stage for the Space Race. So Kennedy is a mixed bag, and certainly wasn’t the worst President America ever had—but I don’t feel energized by him enough to study too deeply. When I think of Kennedy, I think of the struggle against communism and the 60s in general, and I hate both of those things, so I typically avoid references to the period except when they scream out for attention. O’Reilly’s book, and now the movie have successfully done exactly that—brought that attention to my eyes with screaming fury.
After watching Killing Kennedy it became obvious to me that many of the conspiracy theories floating around about the assassination come from the left—from sources like Oliver Stone. I did not know that Lee Harvey Oswald was such a staunch Marxist, even going to Russia to live and work for a while. Oswald had a Russian wife that he brought back to Dallas, and the source of his anger at Kennedy was in his hope that Cuba would succeed as a communist country. I have spoken often about this period in American history and how persistent communism was by many people—particularly the universities, and seeing Oswald behave the way he did toward communism was something I did not know, but fit perfectly into what I already knew about the period. The political left obviously does not want Oswald to be at fault for the Kennedy killing because they share with him a sympathy for communism, so they are looking for every other excuse they conger up away from the reality that Oswald was a communist nut case.
There were still many unanswered questions that will probably never be properly answered, as to why the FBI was so involved in Oswald’s life, and why Jack Ruby—a strip club owner was so passionate about the Kennedy killing to assassinate Oswald but O’Reilly like he does so often only looked at the evidence the way a journalist does, and those facts put on the shoulders of Lee Harvey Oswald a fanatic for Marxism who wanted the communists to succeed in Cuba and elsewhere in the world. Oswald saw Kennedy as a threat to that reality because of his stance against Cuba.
Many of these elements are present in our American life today. The political Left and Right back then had to deal with many Americans like Oswald who wanted to give communism a chance—so they bent a bit and moved to the left in both parties to take away the temptation of marching in the streets the way communists gained ground in places like Russia and China. I think this is why Kennedy gave public sector unions a chance through executive order to thrive—aside from the appeasement of the organized crime elements in his life. Kennedy’s vice-president LBJ, started the Great Society programs to take the edge off the communist threat rolling through American politics at the time. The results of this assault are seen today in the statist position of government against the people of the nation. Communism is clearly present in the modern education system, in the social programs of the 60s and all elements of progressivism. But Kennedy and LBJ thought they were fighting communism by yielding a bit to it, but what they really did was bend enough to allow elements of communism into American society to prevent more people like Lee Harvey Oswald from rising to prominence and trying to kill American politicians. Their appeasement took the edge off the hard-line communists, Marxists, and socialists—which were a much bigger problem in America than people think.
Bill O’Reilly is entirely too moderate for me, but I do watch him almost every night because he is as fair and balanced of a reporter as there is. He does let the facts speak, and it is his brand of journalism that I find attractive, and why he is one of the most successful best-selling authors in American history. I trust Bill O’Reilly, but I think he is too mild in his views. He is however a product of the 60’s, just like I am a product of the 80’s and tend to see things the way Ronald Reagan did—at least the act that came out of The White House. But the facts are the facts, and so long as facts drive the arguments, political ideology—or conviction is irrelevant—and O’Reilly can always be trusted to present the facts that are known, and reveal what they add up to.
I am glad to have seen Killing Kennedy—it was a good production that told a story of a dark period in American history and should be seen by everyone. It should be shown in schools, it should be shown by parents to their children, and grandparents to their entire clans during Thanksgiving—because it’s an important film that captures a very volatile period which we all share still. The effects of the politics of that period still resonate like ghosts haunting the house that the American Republic built—and the specters are ideologues of communism who are just as vicious and manipulative as Lee Harvey Oswald, just not as short-tempered and insecure to act on their hopes of violence. These ghosts act through legislation to achieve the same spread of Marxism to every corner of the globe—a strategy that was well beyond Oswald—a reality that only conspiracy theory can attempt to out-shine, because the Kennedy assassination was about a lot of things—but in the end it was about defending communism from an America that was the enemy of Marxist ideology—and supporters showed then as they do now, that they will do anything and harm anyone to advance their cause.
For those who have read the novel Atlas Shrugged and have an appreciation for it, let me share with you my own private Galt’s Gulch—the Atlantis found in the novel where an intrusive government gave the best minds in the world little choice but to simply go on strike and let the parasites of society rot on the vine. My paradise does not exist somewhere in the real world. I know many people, some with considerable amounts of money who are making arrangements in the wake of the Obama administration to re-establish themselves in places like Belize and Argentina to run from the encroaching governments that exist in the world. That is not my plan, as I see it as pointless, because eventually, the scum bags will be knocking on my door there as well. So for me—physically, I will stay in the real world and fight them, I’ll fight them in court, I’ll fight them in politics, or I’ll fight them with fists and guns—but one way or the other, I will not comply with governments hell-bent on individual destruction in the name of socialism. The distinction is a simple one; I support unhampered capitalism while my political enemies support degrees of socialism—through Social Security, health care, and various proposals of wealth redistribution. Most politicians alive in America today are some variation of a socialist because they seek to advance their power and influence artificially with looted money consumed by taxes—and they create more laws and policies as ways to extract more of my money.
With such a social position, it makes for awkward dinner conversations. Even though I appreciate that some of my well-to-do friends continue to invite me to all the big events around town, the charity extravaganzas where all the powerful minds of media, business and politics gather to stroke each other and feel important. I despise many of those people because of what they represent as entities openly advocating altruism not for what it does for the unfortunate, but for their own power base–and don’t make an effort to disguise it leaving such evenings fruitless. Taxation is often advanced through altruist schemes, and it disgusts me. I’d rather spend my time in my personal Galt’s Gulch where pure capitalism is alive and well, where I can do pretty much what I want when I want to do it, and I can fly around from point A to point B without the stupid FFA getting in my way, or the FCC trying to regulate everything I say and do, or the TSA trying to frisk me just because I want to make a regional flight to a city two states away. Or nearly half of everything I earn going to the IRS forcing me to run faster and faster on a treadmill that the government controls so they can take my money and give it to some slug who grew up doing drugs, slutting themselves around having babies out of wed-lock, or genuinely abusing themselves physically and mentally. In my leisure time I look for ways to be away from all those elements, and I have found it in the video game The Old Republic—and my current excitement is that they have just created a new expansion seemingly just for people like me who love to fly, but don’t want the extra cost of housing an actual airplane at a hanger that is marred down in more rules and regulations. The enjoyment of real-world flying is buried in paperwork, fees and taxes. When the new combat space simulator opens in December, I may never see anybody in the real world again, because I simply love such things, and will likely never leave the virtual world of The Old Republic again. I’ve flown in real life, and over the years I’ve played hundreds of thousands of hours of flight simulators and aerial combat games—and the brain really doesn’t know the difference. So I am very much looking forward to this new element in my current favorite game Star Wars: The Old Republic.
On that game my wife has over 2 million credits and I have about half that. She is very rich in that virtual world, because we spend a lot of time in The Old Republic doing things that earn credits—which is the money system exchanged. I also spend a fair amount of time on the Bioware website following the complaints of other gamers playing the game. I find their reasons for paying a monthly fee to play the game to be fascinating as many of them are raised by public education to believe in altruistic practices—so many expect Bioware to give away things for free, but many of the hardest core gamers are very much capitalists—people who are very innovative and expect to keep what they earn as they play. This leaves Bioware always looking to create incentives to keep game players pushing to do more things and stay interested enough that they pay their subscriptions and spend hundreds of hours a month playing. The incentives are credits and other rewards such as leveling up, earning certain titles, and acquiring unique items.
The Old Republic is what they call an MMO, a Massive Multiplayer Online game. As you play the game online, thousands of other people are playing with you in the same environment. It is similar to popular games like World of Warcraft in that the big distinction is that the worlds within the game are truly massive inspiring people to play together or against each other on a truly epic scale. Something that everyone who plays these games understands is that they expect to keep what they earn—and they get very angry at game developers who short change them with restrictions. If in The Old Republic Bioware taxed some of the credits my wife and I have earned at the same rate that occurs in real life, and gave those credits to new gamers who only played a fraction of the time that we do, most people playing The Old Republic would find that imposition absurd—unfathomable even. If Bioware did something like that, they would lose players by the hundreds. The players would leave to play another game where rewards were not consumed and distributed to those who don’t have the same level of commitment. Most people understand that it is unfair to tax in-game credits and give them to players who didn’t earn them.
Gamers who play these kinds of MMO products universally are raw capitalists. They totally get it and when it’s asked why they play so many games so often, the reason is similar to mine—because it is their own Galt’s Gulch. They know they don’t have the same opportunity in the real world to be successful because they either don’t have the political connections or access to capital because it’s been stolen from them by government. So they play video games because at least there, they can keep what they earn. I know this culture very well. Both of my daughters worked for Gamestop for a while, my oldest was actually a manager at several stores all over Cincinnati. When I’d go to see her for lunch I would get the opportunity to study these people and explore what motivated them. They are a relatively new market demographic that nobody in government knows what to do with. They as a generation from age 40 down to age 10 have pretty much dropped out of life. They don’t care to join country clubs to socialize, they don’t waste their time trying to get rich in the real world because it’s nearly impossible with all the government looting, and they don’t trust the media or their education institutions because they’ve been lied to and are disappointed. They don’t typically vote, they eat a lot of pizza, and they are happy to drive a piece of crap car because they don’t care if they meet a spouse. Most of those things take them away from their game environments, so they don’t participate. The game awards mean more to them, even though they are virtual. I was seldom ever at Gamestop with my daughter where she wasn’t slammed with business. It’s a gigantic industry. For instance, the new Call of Duty video game just released made a BILLION dollars in just a 24 hour span of time. A billion with a “B” which is a tremendous amount of money spent on a product of any kind in just one day.
The Old Republic video game I play with my wife cost $240 million just to produce the original content which launched with the game two years ago. If I had to guess, I would say they’ve invested at least that much more in the game since the release, and they are of course expecting to make the game profitable which means they have to make enough revenue off subscriptions and other revenue streams to justify the expense. With a half a billion dollar front loaded investment, Bioware understands that more than a few overweight geeks playing the game in their basement are needed. It has to be somewhat mainstream to have financial viability at that level of investment.
What all those MMO games have in common is capitalism as the primary driver. Game developers understand that it is incentive that drives game participation and the more restrictions placed, the lower the game sales. The reason that online gaming is such a current phenomena is because it is a refuge for people who love capitalism, and most young people do. Socially through their educations they have been taught socialism, which they find unattractive—but are intellectually unarmed as to how to deal with it. So they go to the online world of their choice and invest their time and energy into virtual capital instead of the kind based in reality because the virtual stuff is more real to them. (Think about that.) Most modern gamers find the fantasy world of World of Warcraft and The Old Republic to be more real than the REAL world. What does that say about our society?
The FCC would if they could regulate this gaming industry. After all, the NSA probably knows everywhere I’ve been and what I have done within The Old Republic just as they are tracking everyone playing all games online. And that is what scares them, because in their giant mega computer that comprises all that data and studies the behavior patterns of the modern America—or global video game players as there are people from all over the world playing The Old Republic they know what I just professed, and they are terrified to name it publicly. They cannot turn off such games through regulation as much as they’d love to because of the riot of anger that would ensue. People have found refuge from the statist world within video games, and once that is gone, there is no place left to run. The Obama statist types had hoped by now through education, taxation, and government employment to have “changed” the nature of the human being to more of an altruist and less of a capitalist. But it hasn’t worked and all that they achieved is they pushed people into a form of activity that doesn’t generate any taxes for them. The government can’t tax the millions of credits my wife and I have earned in The Old Republic. The IRS has no power there. I can’t use that money to buy a new condo, an airplane, or a car either. But who cares, because all those things force me further entangled with a government that simply wants to steal from me at every opportunity. So I gladly give up those material objects in trade for virtual ones that actually have more value—because within the world of The Old Republic, I earned them and can keep them.
The video game industry is about raw capitalism in its purest form. The economic theory of Keynesian thought would not work in The Old Republic or any other video game, just like it doesn’t work in real life. Wealth redistribution doesn’t work in a gaming world, so why would government statist types believe it would work in the real world? The answer is that they are in denial of what motivates and makes human beings viably functional. Governments have instead hoped to nudge and shape the world into artificial yearnings that have no basis in reality—and they’ve done it at great expense to human development. The test bed to these theories have been in the explosion of online gaming—particularly the MMO. It is also why I’d rather spend my time in The Old Republic than anywhere else because there at least I am free of the types who expect to mooch off my energy and effort because they are too lazy to do for themselves. And if that sounds like a harsh statement consider that I’m not alone—and it is that trait which drives an entire video game industry offering a kind of freedom that no longer exists in the real world—the freedom offered through capitalism.
It’s Election Night and likely there are issues that you dear reader are rejoicing about, and others that are making your stomach churn in knots. There were a lot of school levies on the ballot, many from districts that just passed tax increases a couple of years ago, like Fairfield, and Lebanon. Others like Lakota are trying yet again as nearby Mason watches closely with their foot in the water to see if it’s safe for them to try again. Regardless of the ones that pass or fail, the basic concept is flawed and needs to be addressed. All public schools are government-run and are grossly inefficient. They are dominated by government unions that need to be dismantled in favor of competition because they are functional monopolies. Public education is what many fear Health Care is becoming, a government monopoly full of inefficiencies, high costs, and lack of choices. Even worse is the feeling of doom one has when dealing with any government institution. In the case of school levies, the ones that fail will be put right back on the ballot as the administrations will not respect the will of the voters. The ones that pass will be back on the ballot in about four years. I often refer to this ridiculous system as a communist plot, which it was—but the philosophy of this folly deserves deeper analysis.
Most of America is shaking its head right now at the audacity of Barack Obama and the trail of lies that extend behind him for as far as the eye can see. Americans just don’t understand what is going on; they don’t see how a president can lie so much, so often and get away with it. Yet they participate in the process of allowing him to do it by their silent endorsement. Obama is an educator; he is a former instructor at the University of Chicago and a member of the academic elite. Vice President Biden’s wife is a former teacher as many within the president’s inner circle are big government statists who believe that it is their intellectual majority which rules the world tomorrow. But this still doesn’t explain how they can lie so adamantly to the cameras of the press and speak in front of millions openly advocating ideals they know are false.
The key to the beliefs of Barack Obama and every government school in America is that they all subscribe to a political theory debated for centuries called Positivism as the root of human freedom. Positivism is the law that states reality is anything that the government says it is. Positivism requires that all laws be written down and that there are no theoretical or artificial restraints on the ability of a popularly elected government to enact whatever laws it wishes. Positivism postulates that literally, the majority always rules, and always gets its way. Positivism is the primary driver of a democracy. If a majority of the people want it, then law is built around that belief.
For secular progressives this is why they wish to remove God as any kind of reference of belief. In order for Positivism to work, the collective will of the masses must be held in reverence, not an individual God promoting Natural Law. Positivists must always focus on gaining control of the masses in order to bend the collective will of all human beings toward their desire. This is why The White House believes that Benghazi is no longer relevant, because their public relations machine has turned public sentiment against the investigation of American deaths there. Yet under the same effort, they deny that Americans are against Obamacare, so they continually search for ways to gain majority opinion so that they can use Positivism to override any pending legal questions arising from forcing every human being in America into purchasing a product whether they wish to or not. Democrats in this case can obtain the majority rule by giving away enough free healthcare to put those in opposition into the minority—so they are refusing to look at reality stalling long enough to get a majority of the country signed up on the exchanges. Once that is done statists like Obama can ignore the Natural Law violations of Obamacare in favor of the Positivism of the masses, and their desire for free healthcare from the minority. This is how Obama in good conscience can lie, cheat and deceive so easily, because to him, Natural Law—those given to every human being by God is meaningless in the face of Positivism provided by government through democratic rule—rule by the majority. If the majority is ignorant, and recklessly foolish, that does not matter to the positivists, because the masses always rule. This whole concept of the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few goes back further than Karl Marx, but it was communism that most aggressively embraced the implementation of democracy. Positivism is the law of thinking that drives the desire for communism, socialism or any form of collective society.
For the same reasons, public schools functioning from the same generally philosophy of Positivism will ignore the results of the school levies if they do not go their way because the collective will of their school boards, the state education boards, and the teachers unions do not support the Natural Law which individual votes cast toward their cause. They, as an education institution have a collectively held desire to obtain higher taxes, and “THEY” will not stop asking until they get it. They think this way because they are functioning from Positivism and believe they are owed something just because they desire it as a mass whole. It does not matter to them that their need is only one of many demographic factors because as an institution they have majority rule within the context of their social structure. This means they will ignore election results until their reality is validated by a majority of the public who tires under constant levy requests.
America was founded on the ideal of Natural Law, meaning that law extends from human nature, which is created by God—whatever form one holds God to be. Natural Law states that all human beings desire freedom from artificial restraint. Because all human beings desire freedom from artificial restraint and because all human beings yearn to be free, our freedoms stem from our nature—from our very humanity. For those who wish to believe that government is the center of the universe, Natural Law is dangerous because it prohibits the majority rule they desire—it muddies up the water keeping a society from functioning as a collective whole. This is why Obama thinks the Tea Party is more dangerous apparently than the Taliban. The Taliban at least is an organization functioning from Positivism while the Tea Party is insisting on Natural Rights.
Regardless of how the election goes, the real battle is not between who wins or loses at the ballot box on November 5th 2013. The real fight is between Natural Law and Positivism. Until a majority of Americans recognize Natural Law as the primary driver of prosperity in their lives, the school levies will not stop, government statists like Obama will continue to lie and deceive, and America will continue on a path toward socialism as opposed to capitalism. The key to solving the problem is in rejecting Positivism and politicians who believe that government is the giver of rights, and embracing Natural Law. Until that happens, every election will be a fight for life or death of not only lives, but entire economies, those at the local level, and of course those flowing out of Washington D.C.
Since 2010 I have given many reasons why a voter should turn away the Lakota levy of 2013 with a NO VOTE. It should be as obvious as rain during a hurricane, higher taxes do not make a better school district, help with property values, or even make children smarter. All those claims are manipulative statements designed to trick voters into imposing higher taxes on themselves with the same audacity that it is generally reported taxes will only be $16 dollars a month. Most people who don’t pay close attention will believe that the cost is small, because they will miss that the media generally only reports the lazy $100,000 of property assessment, but the reality is in the Lakota district almost nobody has a home valued that low. Generally, the cost of the Lakota tax increase will be about $30 dollars a month adding up to around $360.00 per year, which is a sizable amount of money considering the taxes are already high.
Most people who read here every day are already Voting NO. But to make it easier to spread the message, here is the NO LAKOTA LEVY ad which appeared in the Cincinnati Enquirer with a full-page placement, which was obviously extremely expensive. It contains most of the information of why voters should VOTE NO on the Lakota levy. So send it around to your friends, family and social networks to ensure that they show up and vote against the levy to protect their homes from the villainy of Lakota’s terrible management.
I can think of a lot of things my $30 dollars a month will go to besides another tax. Likely for me, it will be consumed in the increases I will see resulting in Obamacare. But my cable bill, various subscriptions, and even fuel costs could all use that $30. I don’t want to throw away nearly $400 more a year on a stupid teacher’s union. For $400 dollars a year I could buy my children Season Passes to Kings Island for Christmas, or a flat screen television to watch football games in my garage. I could book air travel to Florida, or pay for my family to attend Disney World each year. There are a lot of things that my money could be spent on other than a tax increase for the Lakota levy.
Even for people who also read here who aren’t in Lakota, pass this flyer around anyway. There are a lot of school levies on the ballot and pretty much all of them are driven by the same insanity. The cause of the tax increase is the collective bargaining agreements imposed upon tax payers by the teachers unions, and what they expect in wages and benefits is simply disgusting. Even worse, they hide their mechanisms behind the next generation of youth, and they have to be stopped. It’s currently ridiculous and getting worse.
As for the work done by No Lakota Levy, I am very proud of what they have accomplished this time around. The organization has grown into a legitimate political force of some wonderful minds who are defending the way of life we love in West Chester and Liberty Township from truly corrosive parasites, and every homeowner and business investor should thank God that they see those familiar signs on the side of the road standing against the Lakota Levy. Back in the winter of 2012 there were discussions about how much I hated the people who ran the Lakota administration and I wanted to do my own thing letting new faces step in and freshen up No Lakota Levy. I am very happy to see the results. More people have participated this time around, and there has been some fantastic work done. The website is very good, the ads, the media comments, the amount of signs on the streets has been top-notch, and this campaign was the best one yet as far as logistics. The tireless efforts of the usual cast of characters are evident, and it has been good to see. Their work has been noticed, and the message has gotten out.
So send this article to a family member or friend so that they will have the facts on Election Day, and be sure to encourage them to vote, because in an election, every vote matters, and nothing should be taken for granted.
When Obama lies openly to the public then gets caught, the lawyer in him knows that deniability of responsibility will keep him out of direct trouble. If he can withstand the storm of scrutiny long enough, people will eventually forget what he did, and things will resume to normal. That strategy is the way of all progressive politicians, and it is a method that has evolved out of Saul Alinsky. So it is no coincidence that large government schools like Lakota use the same methods to hide their wasteful spending, their sex scandals, and overall inefficiencies–they like Obama are a progressive institution committed to change in America. For the proof look at who Lakota has employed for third-party advice, such as Jeffery Stec who led the Community Conversations campaign, and most recently the Sun Associates plan which is essentially a progressive think tank from Massachusetts. Lakota has traditionally attacked those who try to bring light to their wrongs, and desired to simply outlast scrutiny, which is the path they took to arrive at the 2013 school levy in November. They ignored the facts, ignored their controversies, and tried to outspend their opposition with sheer force to arrive at a moment in time where they could try to paint a picture to the community why they should raise taxes in spite of declining enrollment in the face of a 2014 labor contract.
Stealing, vandalizing, or otherwise attempting to silence their opposition is the only strategy organizations like Lakota, Obama, or any other government entity has because the truth is not their alley. They cannot answer criticisms, because they are functioning from deceit, and for their mechanisms of manipulation to work, they require an electorate that does not ask questions, seek answers, or have any standards to hold them against. That is why during the fourth No Lakota Levy campaign the best that the opposition of For Lakota can do is steal and vandalize campaign literature hoping that enough voters won’t learn the truth. For Lakota to be successful in their levy attempt the need to play the numbers game and hope that voter turnout against them is less—because they cannot answer the questions as to why they need more money. They can only declare that they need it, and what the impact of not having the money is. They never can answer the “why.”
Near that location was a large billboard No Lakota Levy Sign that was completely stolen and the one in the photo was damaged so badly that a quick repair was not possible. The message against No Lakota Levy was simple, if a sign is displayed, it will not only be taken down, but it will be destroyed so it cannot be used again. It is the same basic premise as what Obama pulled when he pushed through Obamacare without telling the public that his proposal was “legally” a tax. Or in telling people they’d get to keep their doctor or insurance if they liked their current plan. Of that he didn’t have any idea what was going on in Benghazi, but he was clearly engaged in the War Room during the killing of Bin Landen. Obama is a progressive liar and he hides his deceit in his abilities as a lawyer to twist the truth. In order to do that he must have a media not willing to look at the hard facts—and so far he’s had his wish—which is why the behavior has escalated into the massive health care costs that are about to slam into the American public. Obama mislead America with Obamacare and Lakota schools has followed the same progressive playbook in their justification of their proposed tax increase which won’t be seen for what it truly is until later—once its too late. Like Obama, Lakota has no way of defending themselves against facts. They can only hope the media stays on their side, and people don’t look too deeply at the real situation—which they seek to hide perpetually. To do that they must steal No Lakota Levy signs so that people won’t go to the website and learn the truth. CHECK IT FOR YOURSELF AT THE LINK BELOW.
That is the reason for the vandalism against No Lakota Levy signs. As an institution, Lakota schools do not stand for goodness, for children, or education. The school stands for lies, more lies, manipulation, deceit and a progressive utopia. They are a vile government institution hell-bent on the progressive education of today’s youth, and the wealth redistribution of the rich given to the poor. Three years ago I approached these election issues with a more contemporary approach, but since then, I have gotten to know the participants and this is my conclusion of their behavior—based on their actions. They are no different philosophically than Obama, and are a detriment to themselves and everyone they come into contact with. They are a corrosive force that has only their own selfish agenda at heart and they are truly up to no good. Like Obama, they chose to lie to even themselves about what they stand for, and wish to believe that higher taxes, more centrally controlled education and the theft of community wealth are good. To maintain the illusion to themselves and the voters, they steal the No Lakota Levy signs. They do not care that thousands of dollars of theft have occurred under their encouragement, because they think they are on a moral crusade for the health of the children, which they have used for their own benefit of tax increases to fulfill the same progressive America that is behind Obamacare.
And the only way to stop them is with the bold vote of NO. Be sure to vote on Tuesday, November 5th because Lakota hopes that the “NO” voters will stay home this time, and that Lakota can rally just enough radicals to vote YES on their behalf. By removing the No Lakota Levy signs, they can take away the fuel propelling the NO vote to the polls on Election Day. But more than that, they hope to remove the question from the public as to why they are in need of money to begin with, and for that, they don’t even want to know the answer—so they remove the reference hoping that nobody will ask.
So far, the media has played along just like they did with Obamacare.
