Tag: corruption

The Apple Company Versus the Entire Russian Economy: Russia loses–a strong case supporting laissez-faire economies

Many of my political thoughts have been shaped by my early experiences in starting an R&D company during the 90s. Witnessing firsthand how intrusive and incestuous government is toward business it is my opinion that the greatest artists in the world are no longer painters, musicians or even authors—but in the type of creative people who can break down barriers of thought by giving tools to free minds stepping around government altogether. In many ways nobody in a modern sense has done such a fantastic job of that very attribute than the Apple Company. I am personally a Microsoft fan—I live by Microsoft Office and am epically loyal to that software package. I use it extensively every day. But I use a lot of Apple products every day as well, particularly my iPad and iPod—they are nearly as much of my life as the blood that flows in my body. They are extensions of my very consciousness and I use their power extensively in both business and creative applications.

There were three events that were marked on my iPad calendar that were important to November 17th all occurring in three different time zones—and all connected. My calendar feature sent me an email late on November 16th reminding me of those important events using Google Calendar to alert me—which was very useful as I was checking topographic inclinations of terrain at the time and saw the alert instantly—which I needed. Upon that reminder to maintain small talk halfway around the world through email I needed to know exactly what time it was and what the temperature was in Asia which was easy to pull up under the World Clock app on the same device. All this was going on while I was listening to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers post game report from Florida on iHeart Radio 620 WDAE. It is for those types of life management extensions that proclaim Apple as such a terrific influence on the human race.

In so many ways human consciousness has not found a way to deal with tools Apple has given to them—because philosophy feeding politics has failed to catch up to those technical innovations. Public schools are incredibly behind the curb and haven’t begun to fathom the impact that Apple has brought to everyday life making human beings not just more quickly entertained, but personally much more powerful. So the nightly news and political classes still focus on ancient threats from countries like Russia and China who are communist in their beliefs—or were communists trying to crawl out from under the psychological rock that social collectivism has provided to their people. There is much focus on the saber-rattling going on in the Ukraine by Russia and how the Chinese mocked President Obama during a recent visit. But when it comes to GDP in the United States the case in favor of capitalism is most explosively evident by the Apple Company which has extended its reach to every corner of the world and is largely made in China giving that economy jobs it wouldn’t otherwise have under its communist regime.

For perspective it is important to understand how much money Apple has made in America and what effect that money has in bettering the world and breaking down intellectual barriers among different people in a way government could never achieve under the best of circumstances. Apple didn’t take money away from a finite resource the way most progressives believe, they made it from scratch—from nothing. In many ways with all the talk I have been providing about the upcoming civilian space race the kind of wealth Apple has created will pale in compression. As massive as Apple’s profits might seem in 2014, they will look very small when looked at again in 2054. This is just the tip of the iceberg. So with that calibration statement behold the information reported on Sunday November 16, 2014 from the Business Insider about how profitable Apple is in relation to the Russian economy:

With Apple at record highs, its market capitalization is now bigger than Russia’s entire stock market (the 20th largest market in the world). What’s more, as Bloomberg notes, there would be enough money left over after selling Apple and buying Russia to purchase over 190 million contract-free 64Gb iPhone6 Pluses (enough for every Russian).

Russia, the 20th largest among the world’s major markets, is not the only one Apple has surpassed. The company, which forecasts a record holiday-sales quarter and has $155 billion in cash, is also bigger than 17th-ranked Singapore and 18th-ranked Italy. Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-is-now-worth-more-than-the-entire-russian-stock-market-2014-11#ixzz3JFoIZ4a7

When advocates for political and social collectivism promote wealth redistribution methods through regulation and other forms of government intrusion—they are essentially attempting to destroy the creative efforts that companies like Apple must embark on to create wealth in the first place. When companies like Apple are created by independent minds who are the ultimate artists painting their ideas across the canvas of society wealth spreads in ways that cannot be measured by any previous government means of data collection. There are many companies like Apple that will emerge in the next decade and whatever country those companies emerge in will greatly benefit from those creations.

Just this week I was speaking to a rep from Leia Display Systems stationed in Poland, which I have featured at this site before. I needed some further technical clarifications so I was looking for a point of contact in the United States. Well, there wasn’t one; instead they were all over Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. They were everywhere in the world except in North America which to me seemed ridiculous—but America lately because of government has not been as friendly to emerging businesses—and are missing out. Apple and Microsoft were beneficial accidents that happened because of the capitalism of the West. Luckily for Steve Jobs and Bill Gates the barriers to entry into the tech market in the 80s and 90s was low, so they were able to create the products of their genius. But bigger and better inventions have been created, specifically the M400 Skycar invented in California of all places, and because of regulation and high barriers into the aviation industry, countries like China have been looking at manufacture of a revolution that will eventually replace the automobile in the world just as those vehicle replaced the horse and buggy. The United States has been carelessly negligent on that emerging technology.

The wealth created by Apple was not taken from any government or any individual anywhere in the world. It simply didn’t exist prior to those wonderful Apple inventions, like the iPod, iPad, and the iPhone. Apple created that wealth through innovation and product development. For all the fanfare that politicians in China, Russia, the Middle East and Europe in general—they create nothing. They do nothing to help their country’s GDP, they simply get in the way of the creative process of staring a new business that could be tomorrow’s next Apple Company.

My opinions about government were shaped by watching this restrictive process one too many times and realizing that companies like Apple and Microsoft are not exceptional—they could be the status quo in a laissez-faire capitalistic economy. As wonderful and powerful as Apple products are, there are innovations that are right in front of us that could be much more important and influential to the human race. It is stupid to fight one political faction over another for the right to loot the productive—which is what has been happening for entirely too long now. It is ridiculous to leech off the few who are the modern artists of entrepreneurial leadership while pandering to the lazy and ineffective—expecting to have a constructive society that will actually last. By getting out-of-the-way of those in society with the best ideas, the lazy and inept will naturally benefit off the products they create and jobs which make those products creating wealth. But without that process everyone just sits around and demands to wage war in the Ukraine like the Russians are doing—because they don’t have anything in their economy that the world really wants. And the Chinese are rattling the sabers of war with Japan for much the same reason, they killed many of their women leaving a society of mostly men hungry for war in a communist country that has micromanaged itself into the precipice of destruction. Much of what China makes as a productive export are Apple products and items destined for Wal-Mart. Take away Apple, and Wal-Mart and China would have some serious unemployment problems. But that type of restriction isn’t necessary. And thankfully, Apple has put tremendous power into the hands of individuals and with that power, individuals for the first time in history can create wealth without all the usual nonsense that has always been present from the dawn of time when it comes to human beings. For those who want peace in the world the best way to get it is to support laissez-faire capitalism so that more companies like Apple can emerge and wealth can be brought to people’s doorsteps no matter where they live—avoiding the desire for the lazy and treacherous to steal it through means of war and manipulation.

Rich Hoffman

www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

Cirque du Soleil’s Guy Laliberté Journey to Space: A reality we will all soon face

Guy Laliberté is the kind of man who most everyone likes no matter what side of the political aisle they may reside. When someone becomes a billionaire whether or not they want to—they have a major impact on the culture around them—by default. Through his Cirque du Soleil Guy Laliberté has touched many lives, including mine. If not for that Cirque du Soleil in Central Florida particularly at Downtown Disney it is likely that there would have never been the invention of a firewhip—which is something I have become known for with my small jaunts into entertainment. So Guy Laliberté with just a little help from the Canadian government invented a new concept for an animal free circus that has raked the world with creative ambition as one of the most astute entrepreneurs there is. Guy in a relatively short period of time went from a carefree street performer breathing fire into a one of the world’s richest men becoming one of the world’s first space tourists. Guy was able to purchase a ticket in excess of $35 million dollars through a company called Space Adventures who booked him on a Russian rocket destined for the International Space Station.

In many ways all the companies such as the Virgin Galactic endeavor I have been so keen on will be much more affordable opportunities for civilians to move into space. Guy—who is hardly a bastion of conservatism, represents the excessive hunger that the human mind has for a fate destined in space. Too many people, particularly liberals who want to make a religion out of earth worship have attempted to designate the hunger for space as a “dream for the extreme rich.” But what is behind their fearful utterances is the reality that people like Guy Laliberté have opened space to the minds of as many people as Cirque du Soleil has for changing the definition of a circus experience. A ticket aboard Virgin Galactic will only cost $250,000 dollars as opposed to Guy’s experience-which was fairly rigorous. Virgin Galactic’s attempt will be comparatively much more luxurious and inexpensive.

Guy didn’t find just being wealthy fulfilling. He had the world at his feet, yet it wasn’t enough. He had the means to purchase a ticket to space without it draining his bank account, so he did so for the opportunity to scratch at the boundaries of earth. His story carrying him to the deck of his private ship contemplating space travel is a fascinating one that is a tale of hope that should be inspirational to anyone. It wasn’t about being wealthy that made him into such a rich man, it was in pushing himself to new challenges that created it by default—they way it is supposed to work. His wealth is not to be hated—or envied—it is simply the byproduct of a mind at work that happened to change the way everyone sees a circus performance.

Seeking a career in the performing arts, Guy Laliberté toured Europe as a folk musician and busker after quitting college. By the time he returned home to Canada in 1979, he had learned the art of fire-breathing. Although he became “employed” at a hydroelectric power plant in James Bay, his job ended after only three days due to a labour strike. He decided not to look for another job, instead supporting himself on his unemployment insurance. He helped organize a summer fair in Baie-Saint-Paul with the help of a pair of friends named Daniel Gauthier and Gilles Ste-Croix.[6][9]

Gauthier and Ste-Croix were managing a youth hostel for performing artists named Le Balcon Vert at that time. By the summer of 1979, Ste-Croix had been developing the idea of turning the Balcon Vert, and the talented performers who lived there, into an organized performing troupe. As part of a publicity stunt to convince the Quebec government to help fund his production, Ste-Croix walked the 56 miles (90 km) from Baie-Saint-Paul to Quebec City on stilts. The ploy worked, giving the three men the money to create Les Échassiers de Baie-Saint-Paul. Employing many of the people who would later make up Cirque du Soleil, Les Échassiers toured Quebec during the summer of 1980.[17][18]

Although well received by audiences and critics alike, Les Échassiers was a financial failure. Laliberté spent that winter in Hawaii plying his trade while Ste-Croix stayed in Quebec to set up a nonprofit holding company named “The High-Heeled Club” to mitigate the losses of the previous summer. In 1981, they met with better results. By that fall, Les Échassiers de Baie-Saint-Paul had broken even. The success inspired Laliberté and Ste-Croix to organize a summer fair in their hometown of Baie-Saint-Paul.[17]

This touring festival, called “La Fête Foraine“, first took place in July 1982. La Fête Foraine featured workshops to teach the circus arts to the public, after which those who participated could take part in a performance. Ironically, the festival was barred from its own hosting town after complaints from local citizens.[19] Laliberté managed and produced the fair over the next couple years, nurturing it into a moderate financial success. But it was in 1983 that the government of Quebec gave him a $1.5 million grant to host a production the following year as part of Quebec’s 450th anniversary celebration of the French explorer Jacques Cartier’s discovery of Canada. Laliberté named his creation “Le Grand Tour du Cirque du Soleil“.[6][20]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cirque_du_Soleil

The rest was history making Laliberté one of the wealthiest people on the planet. But feeling drained and unchallenged he began to look toward space after learning of a civilian going there in 2001 that had opened his mind to the possibility. So he bought his ticket through Space Adventures and trained with the Russian astronauts for a trip aboard their rocket for a grand adventure into space in 2009. The details of his trip were covered in great detail in the below Forbes magazine where even the smell of space was described.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenbertoni/2011/06/09/why-cirque-du-soleil-billionaire-guy-laliberte-traveled-to-space/

Once more people in Laliberté’s position, such as Lady Gaga, Steven Spielberg and Labron James go to space and report back their experiences there will be an explosion of interest in the activity which this world has never seen. Space is the next Gold Rush; there are manufacturing opportunities on asteroids and in the zero-G environments that will simply carry mankind to an entirely new evolutionary stage. Politics, philosophy and religion will have to be completely redefined—education totally overhauled just to deal with the psychosis of a species scrambling to space. It will be as unlike anything anybody has ever seen just as Cirque du Soleil is nothing like the old Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus acts—they both take place under a tent or arena, but one is an extreme evolution over the other to the point that they are barely recognizable as being born for the same intent. The jump into space which is going to explode over the next decade with the kind of wave that ushered in the Internet will change completely the way everyone does business.

Those who ride that wave will do well; those who resist it will plunge into a poor state. Virgin Galactic will likely be the first company to bring satellites to the furthest corners of the world giving Internet access to the poorest village of Africa providing those people access to entrepreneurial activity which will give them access to wealth. The wealthy who pay tickets to go into space the way that Guy Laliberté did will fund the fleet of Virgin Galactic ships that will eventually fly people from New York to Tokyo in just a few hours as opposed to an entire day. And soon following will be vacations in space that will make current day Las Vegas look like a roadside tent show. This is all happening over the next couple of decades based on the marginal interest that is generated by each new civilian tourist. Guy Laliberté was one of the first, but soon it will become common.

There is a progressive faction of society that is trying to suppress the ambitions of the movie Interstellar—but to no avail. Interstellar managed to be one of the last films of the year to play in communist China and those people are absolutely devouring the epic Christopher Nolan journey into space. The Chinese and South Koreans have shown massive per screen revenue breaking records playing on 7,742 screens in the world’s second biggest movie market. This will push the Interstellar box office up over $200 million after just a week of full release which is an astounding amount of money. And with each screening comes a deeper hunger to leave earth for space by virtually every individual on earth that will soon be faced with similar decisions as Guy Laliberté had to face—to go, or not to go—that is the question, because reality will present space as a very viable option very, very soon.

Those who ride that wave will do well; those who resist it will plunge into a poor state. Virgin Galactic will likely be the first company to bring satellites to the furthest corners of the world giving Internet access to the poorest village of Africa providing those people access to entrepreneurial activity which will give them access to wealth. The wealthy who pay tickets to go into space the way that Guy Laliberté did will fund the fleet of Virgin Galactic ships that will eventually fly people from New York to Tokyo in just a few hours as opposed to an entire day. And soon following will be vacations in space that will make current day Las Vegas look like a roadside tent show. This is all happening over the next couple of decades based on the marginal interest that is generated by each new civilian tourist. Guy Laliberté was one of the first, but soon it will become common.

There is a progressive faction of society that is trying to suppress the ambitions of the movie Interstellar—but to no avail. Interstellar managed to be one of the last films of the year to play in communist China and those people are absolutely devouring the epic Christopher Nolan journey into space. The Chinese and South Koreans have shown massive per screen revenue breaking records playing on 7,742 screens in the world’s second biggest movie market. This will push the Interstellar box office up over $200 million after just a week of full release which is an astounding amount of money. And with each screening comes a deeper hunger to leave earth for space by virtually every individual on earth that will soon be faced with similar decisions as Guy Laliberté had to face—to go, or not to go—that is the question, because reality will present space as a very viable option very, very soon.

Rich Hoffman

www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

Obama Wants to Win More Elections for Democrats: Bring out Net Neutrality

Knowing that the only way liberals in the form of progressive Democrats can continue to manipulate the agenda revealed in the 1958 book, The Naked Communist, is to bring the Internet under the control of the FCC and overall federal government. The heavy Republican gains from the 2014 midterm election statistically can be traced back to the information overload that flows online bypassing the currently controlled established media so heavily regulated by the FCC. I have written extensively at this site about The Naked Communist and the Net Neutrality attempts by the federal government however the timing of this latest effort cannot be ignored. Immediately after the election, Obama knowing that his party was in trouble because they must control information as their own ideas cannot stand in competition—launched a campaign to change the minds of the public into believing that the Internet is a public utility—so that the government can claim monopoly influence over the free flow of information. To make matters worse—Obama lied to the public yet again by attempting to disguise the take over as a necessity for Internet freedom—by attacking the “greedy,” “wealthy” Internet providers like Comcast and others. Obama basically used the same argument that has been used against “big oil” and “Wall Street” and every type of company with a “big corporation” as a designation of evil vile intention. That type of rhetoric is a direct descendent of Obama’s communist training from his Marxist college professors and domestic terrorists who were, and still are his friends. To get the full gist of this latest Net Neutrality attempt watch the guys at PJ Media break it down.

It is that kind of information Obama and his gang of thugs are trying to extinguish through FCC regulation. Government cannot compete with the private sector so Obama and his progressive terrorists must gain control of information so to remain valid in the minds of Americans. However, even with all the free flow acquisition of information there are still roughly 4 million stupid people who believe what Obama was saying. Some of those people actually camped outside of the FCC chairmen’s home to encourage him to adopt Net Neutrality. These nut cases are those “occupy” types who were chanting about the 99% and all the typical socialist rhetoric that usually comes from their mob mentality.   What was astonishing from the event seen below is that the chairmen actually played along with the protestors—as they are all of the same mind. All the participants were like aliens from another planet–one arguing over the merits of socialism, the other Marxism as the actual answer of capitalism wasn’t even on the table of discussion. The following video is a hilarious exhibition of stupidity. It is amazing these people can process enough data to eat food.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/11/12/video-net-neutrality-proponents-confront-fcc-chair-outside-his-home/

Their idea about a fast lane for some Internet providers as opposed to a slow lane for others is a complete fabrication of reality. It is a lie in the boldest way that one can be said—flatly and with a straight face disguising itself with fictional facts. The Internet is expanding quite well on its own without any government influence. I spent much of the previous evening star watching with the assistance of my iPad looking at the International Space Station and the Hubble telescope along with Saturn, Mars and Mercury which were easily seen on the backside of the earth by pointing the iPad to the ground. I was on the Internet the entire time and there was enough speed to see all the data I was pulling up. Elsewhere in my house video games were being played online. Movies were being streamed. I even had the Internet radio on—again with no drop or restriction to service–the reason—because the FCC was not in the way of my need to obtain information.

Amazon.com is one of the leaders in the world of getting products of just about any kind to the door of anybody, anywhere in the world—quickly—and there isn’t any trouble with Internet speeds to their site. Millions of people can get there at will without servers crashing just fine—without the ridiculous FCC or mother government in the way. Obama’s suggestion in favor of Net Neutrality would seek to stick government into that process so that they can track and regulate everything that happens on the Internet—which is a very stupid idea.

Obama wants radical old hippies like the protestor friendly FCC chairmen controlling the kind of content that is broadcast over the internet—because Democrats cannot deal with a world where information is in competition with the truth. This is why China has Internet restrictions as a communist country—because they can’t let their people just see anything they want, when they want to. It would destroy communism in China if people had so much freedom—and in America—where freedom is assumed, there is no way to put reigns on their minds if they still have freedom of open expression without any government tampering. Progressives managed to gain control of most American newspapers, most television stations, and most motion picture production companies, but they do not yet control the Internet which is where conservatives and free thinkers have turned to avoid FCC controls of information. With such an exchange bypassing the reigning liberalism of progressive influence—conservative beliefs hardened by competition are regaining ground in the American consciousness—slowly.

For Obama and his cohorts—slowly is way too fast—they must snuff out conservatism completely otherwise their ideas will always look like foolish escapades from the Keystone Cops. That is why Obama announced a renewed interest in Net Neutrality and displayed a desire to make the Internet a “public commodity.” That would be the mistake of the century—to allow government to take away the freest concept on the face of the planet. Within the Internet world is the closest thing to laissez-faire capitalism that there is—and if only the rest of the economy from health care to energy consumption would follow the lead of the Internet, the world would prosper immensely. Most misery is caused by progressives in one form or another by their failed policies and micro management. Without progressives, it is unlikely that there would be huge spans of slums in America fueled by public housing. Without them there would have likely been an end to racism after the Abraham Lincoln Republicans took charge after the Civil War. Democrats over time captured the position of Republicans like thieves in the night just as they are currently trying to capture the definition to the word “freedom” as proposed in regard to the Internet. As usual the thief is the one screaming loudest so to hide their guilt. And when it comes to Net Neutrality—the federal government is excessively guilty of many lies—all hidden behind revised definitions intent to gain control and relevancy.

Rich Hoffman

www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

Return of the McDonald’s McRib: One of the greatest gifts of capitalism

I spent the previous weekend riding 24 miles on my bicycle for the first time in over 20 years. It’s something I just wanted to do, and the journey took roughly three hours against the wind. I have always enjoyed riding bikes. The last time I had that particular bike out was nearly 10 years ago when I racked it to Hilton Head Island with the rest of my family and we rode them all over that island. But since then, there really wasn’t a good reason to get it out. So I broke it out just to see if I could still ride those kinds of distances—and the answer was that I could. While riding I had to drive past our local McDonald’s and I noticed that the McRib was back for its annual appearance which is always a favorite in our family. So naturally my wife went back up to that McDonald’s once she received my report not just once, but five times during the same weekend to get for us McRib meals for lunch, dinner, and just snacks as the inclination provoked us. What a delight those are.

I love McDonald’s. Sure the food is not the healthiest in the world, but when you need something in your stomach quick, they are just wonderful. One of my favorite aspects of traveling is visiting new McDonald’s restaurants that I’ve never been to before—especially for breakfast. Each one is an oasis of capitalism and I cherish them. Some of my favorites are the one in Eaton, Ohio along RT 127; another is on I-10 in Florida just outside of Jacksonville. Yet another is the one outside of Universal Studios in Florida. Another is the one in Carrollton, Kentucky which we stop at about 6 to 7 times a year while visiting family in Louisville. Wherever they are, I love McDonald’s, I love their Big Macs, I love their Sausage McMuffin’s with Egg. And I love……LOVE their McRibs. When those come out each year my wife and I eat at McDonald’s three to five times a week. After my bike ride and the calories I burned from the exercise I ate three McRibs back to back and loved every last drop of oozing barbecue which dripped from them.

In the early days of my company Cliffhanger Research and Development when I needed extra money to pay my yearly taxes because I had not paid enough through the year—I would often work at fast food restaurants to make a few thousand extra dollars to cover tax bills so that they didn’t pile up while revenue generating aspects of the business could be developed. I have worked at Wendy’s, I have worked at Frisch’s, and I have worked at McDonald’s—so I have a clear understanding of what goes on behind the scenes. I always feel better about the food coming out of McDonald’s as opposed to a little family restaurant because I know the large company has everything as idiot proof as food preparation can be. They literally take the error out of food prep so uncooked chicken and raw vegetables are not even an option. The method that a Big Mack is made is so fast that there isn’t much time for a disgruntled worker to tamper with the food. Sure it happens, but it happens less at McDonald’s than just about everywhere else because the process is so fast and mechanical, that there isn’t time for the vandalism of food. At the Frisch’s I worked at if a cook thought a guy in the dinning room didn’t deserve to be with a particular date they thought was attractive—they’d spit on their Big Boy. It actually happened a lot. Nobody ever knew so long as the tartar sauce covered up the saliva. The cooks would laugh behind the safety of their line as they watched their target eat their vandalized burger unknowing.

At McDonald’s there is too much visibility and the pace of food sales too great for such shenanigans. The food is usually sold within minutes of being prepared and the workers are too consumed with the basic needs of moving product than worrying about who is sitting in the dinning room with whom. The food itself is precooked off-site with idiot proof machines guaranteed to give customers food that won’t kill them—because of the large amount of food that McDonald’s offers the public on a daily basis. To watch a line leader prepare a table full of Sausage McMuffins with Egg is literally a work of art as the eggs are all real and grilled in a very specific way with complex—idiot free presses that always fascinated me with their precise timing.

When I eat at McDonald’s I never worry about my food. I don’t expect a steak dinner from a place like Jags in West Chester. I expect good food that fills my belly fast with as little tampering from human hands as possible. Another favorite McDonald’s in my family is the one in downtown Gatlinburg. A few years ago my wife wanted a new purse so we went to Gatlinburg for the day to let her go shopping for a very specific design she had in mind. After a few hours in town the mission was accomplished and we stopped by our McDonald’s there and had a couple of Big Mac meals, then left on our motorcycle for home. Prior trips had us visiting that same McDonald’s before a hard day of hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains living completely off the breakfast served uniquely by McDonald’s. I was still eating my Sausage McMuffin with Egg as we were parking near the trail to begin our journey and it filled me for the entire day in the mountains.

So after 24 miles on a bicycle, McRib sandwiches from McDonald’s were a very special treat.   I love everything about those meals, the McRib of course, but the French Fries and the Coca Cola all taste so much better. As my wife is about to pick some up for dinner she’ll tell me to find something on TV to watch when she gets back. She leaves and I scan through our DVR programs and literally by the time I find something good to watch she is back with smoking hot McRibs freshly made with delectable Fries and an oversized Coke—the whole process might take ten minutes including the drive out of our garage and back. McDonald’s is just a wonderful invention of capitalism and such a delight to have in our lives.

 

But there is nothing better than the time of year when McRibs are offered by McDonald’s. There is nothing better than the constant reminders of capitalism during the Holiday season topped with the yearly delight of a McRib sandwich. It is productivity that makes those combinations so wonderful—the ability to make good food cheaply and very quickly that serves best the interests of people like me. I wish every corner of the world had their own McDonald’s so they could share such treasures. Perhaps they could if only they embraced capitalism with more vigor—because it takes capitalism to make McDonald’s run correctly. It is machines over the fallacies of people who make McDonald’s safer than your average “mom and pop” restaurant. It is their ability to control the market forces of food production that makes them such an American powerhouse in the economy, and it is their ability to stand as testaments of capitalism in a world trying to default to socialism. For me, there is nothing better than a McDonald’s McRib not just because they taste good—but because they are reminders of the values that make America great. And I never tire of them.

Rich Hoffman

www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

Vile Democrats Win Ohio Board of Education Seats: Southern Ohio Republicans too stupid to see the obvious

 For education reformers in Ohio disappointment was revealed after the smoke cleared once the Election of 2014 results came in. In Southern Ohio where resistance to Common Core and the influence of teacher unions against children is strongest two socialist leaning Democrats won the state board of education seats for both District 3 and 4. One was an incumbent the other a former teacher union president which guarantees inaction and more progressive policies imposed on government schools providing a further erosion of the minds of young people. This is how The Pulse Journal reported the aftermath:

A.J. Wagner appeared to be winning election Tuesday night to the state board of education’s District 3 seat, which represents Butler, Preble, Montgomery, Miami and southern Darke counties.Wagner, a former judge and Montgomery County auditor, was appointed to the seat in August after Jeff Mims resigned. Both are Democrats who want to keep the Common Core standards and place a priority on urban public schools.

Former teachers union president and art teacher Pat Bruns won the school board seat for District 4 that represents Warren and Hamilton counties, earning 56 percent of the vote, to 44 percent for Zac Haines Bruns, a Democrat, supports Common Core school standards and wants to crack down on charter schools. Haines, a young Republican business owner, opposes Common Core and strongly supports school choice, including charters.

See more at: http://www.todayspulse.com/news/news/common-core-foes-lose-state-school-board-races/nhzjH/#sthash.lM7UlgeI.dpuf

Putting a teacher union president on the state school board is like putting a snake into a glass cage filled with mice. There is no place for the mice to go, and all will be consumed eventually by the asp. So long as these types of people are setting the state standards in Ohio or anywhere else, government schools will be ineffective and culpable of instructing students all the wrong liberal policies.

For short-sighted gains, area Republicans did not focus any energy into the seats of these board positions which end up being breeding grounds for liberalism. When signs for Mary Pritchard who won (28 percent) nearly on her own without much party support, were displayed at an area Kasich rally, Todd Hall threw out the advocate. Todd runs the Republican Party in Southern Ohio now and is primarily concerned with bending the party around the finger of developer’s business interests instead of solid philosophical policy.   Knowing him the way I do, he probably has a hard time saying that word let alone putting it to practice. The result is more bleeding heart Democrats setting the pace for more union control of government schools who continue to ask for money to support their scam ridden baby-sitting service called “public education.” That means area Republicans who are developers—like Todd is–will end up having to pay more money in taxes to those institutions of mismanagement because of their short-sighted strategy on a race that was locked from the start. There was no challenge to Kasich, or Boehner so Republicans could have helped Pritchard gain just 10 more percent of the vote. But because they chose to play it safe—it will cost down the road quite a bit.

Common Core is one of the vilest attempts at youthful minds in recent history. It is revisionist education steering minds toward collective intentions instead of individual achievement. This does not make Republicans for the future—it makes Democrats. In the dim-witted desire to show solidarity behind party favorites like the liberal union rep Sheriff Jones of Butler County and talk show progressive Bill Cunningham who only pretends to be a Rush Limbaugh type on WLW radio—Republicans have taken a weak approach to the philosophical tenets of conservativism and are patting themselves on the back as if they achieved a victory.

Todd Hall and his area Republicans are proud that they know weak-kneed conservatives who golf with President Obama with tough talk to the media, but gently fondle his genitals under the White House dining table and think nobody sees it. They are proud that Kasich dipped his feat in the water with a fight against public sector workers but decided that it was too much for him—and quickly retreated straight into the arms of Obamacare—to win some women voters and minority compliments—all the while giving up on conservative belief in favor of big government support. They are stupid enough to think they won—meanwhile real conservatives like Mary Pritchard are out of the arena and relegated to a category of “crazy Tea Party types.”

So true the country moved a bit toward conservativism, but only in name—just like most area Republicans in Southern Ohio—the races that could have been won that really mattered still have vile Democrats in them and can still do massive amounts of damage to young minds through Common Core—which is a creation of a current front-runner of the Republican national ticket for president—Jeb Bush. So before thinking that the dark days of liberalism are behind anybody in Ohio—the evidence indicates that the storm is just brewing and these soft-backed Republicans do not have the philosophical wherewithal to withstand the pressure such radical Democrats from the state board of education will try to impose. The real fight of the 2014 was lost in Ohio and Republicans failed to recognize it—in spite of the warnings. They were too busy looking like an inclusive party than focusing on the actual management of Ohio from top to bottom—and that will cost down the road…..a former teacher union president on the state board of education—what a travesty.

Rich Hoffman

www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

 

‘Interstellar’ Film Review: What ‘2001’ wanted to be and a superior sequal/answer to ‘Koyaanisqatsi’

I was already a fan of Kip Thorne’s work in the book Black Holes and Time Warps so I had a very strong feeling that I would love the new film Christopher Nolan called Interstellar. It was a safe bet to be a great movie originally developed by Steven Spielberg and Nolan’s brother Jonathan beginning nearly a decade ago. So there was considerable thought put into the project which undoubtedly would show up on screen.   I read the reviews that had managed to come out prior to viewing a premier of the film myself, most praising Interstellar in some way or another just for sheer scope, but not giving high marks in other aspects like dialogue or in some cases sound quality as the music sometimes overwhelmed what the characters were saying. Now that I’ve seen it I am convinced that even some of those technical issues were on purpose—deliberately placed into the story to convey the vastness of space and mankind’s role within it. Interstellar is a painting of many impressions splashed upon the screen intending to advance nothing less than the human race to another level of conscious development. It is everything that the classic film 2001: A Space Odyssey should have been—or wanted to be—and even then, much, much, more. It is a triumph and likely the reason that cinema was invented to entertain human minds to begin with. It is as if the entire history of cinema was created to place this one film onto the silver screen.

To get an idea of what the screenwriter was thinking during the development process of Interstellar—before diving too deeply into the contents of the story—read what he said to /Film.com which is a kind of industry insider blog site. Jonathan Nolan spoke openly about his motivations while writing Interstellar. He has brought his writing talents to the Dark Knight series which I have praised heavily because of the content and angle he chooses to provide in those films. In Interstellar his motivations were clear, persuasive, and as bold as anything that has ever been done before in a movie.

/Film question: So that was always the pitch that like it was set in the future where resources are, were our future’s looking bleak?

Nolan: Absolutely. I mean, look the reality is we stopped going to space because we’re too fucking wrapped up in whatever narcissistic bullshit, you know, as a sort of a collective. I mean, look, there’s an awful lot of things that still need to be fixed here on Earth, right? You know, problems that never seem to go away. Poverty, disease and a lot of stuff that we turned our attention to that is a good thing. We’re also just kind of sucked in the bullshit. I was talking downstairs, I grew up in Apollo space travel, we were promised jetpacks and fucking teleportation and instead we got fucking Facebook and Instagram. That’s a bummer.

But we don’t think of it in those terms. We think of ourselves as being the most magnificent, amazing universe ever and if we wanna go back to the Moon, sure, we could. It’s like no, those guys are all dead or retired. We’re not going back to the Moon. And if we wanted to, we’d have to spend billions of dollars and it would take years and years and years. We’re just done. We’re not doing that. We’re out of that business. And so people don’t think in those terms. We had to set the movie in the future in which that was abundantly clear.

http://www.slashfilm.com/jonathan-nolan-interstellar-interview/

Readers of this site will instantly recognize the angle Jonathan Nolan took in setting up the movie Interstellar. At the start he challenges the notion of public education when the government schools are caught lying to students about the Apollo missions—stating that they were only intended as propaganda against Russia. Public education in Interstellar is on Common Core overload as test assessments determine what kind of careers students can pursue as adults in the collective society.

Meanwhile, innovation is down, people are barely able to make food for themselves as a blight fungus similar to the current Ug99 strains that are currently moving across Africa into the Middle East-specifically target wheat and okra. Because the developed world has micromanaged the world’s resources—specifically the minds of their youth—there isn’t anybody anywhere who can stop the fungus as it thrusts the world into hunger slowly killing earth.

http://www.outerplaces.com/universe/technology/item/6654-the-cause-of-the-interstellar-famine-and-why-it-could-happen-in-real-life

It was amazing how many reviewers on their first viewing of the film missed so many of the most important messages—many confused the fungus in the film to environmental recklessness supporting their global warming conspiracies when it is exactly that kind of stupidity which has lunched the world into regression. Interstellar is such an amazing film that people wanted to come away with something they liked in it, even if the premise of the film attacks many of the core beliefs that most of our current civilization holds. So there is some revisionist memory going on in almost every review I read. But it’s not fair to Interstellar because as a movie it is going to places that nobody ever has attempted before. It tackles 5th dimensional space; inter galactic travel, the nature of love, the transitory aspects of time, the foundations of religion, the deep human yearning for adventure, the magnificence of invention and the corrupt nature of politics most epically displayed in forcing NASA underground because public support could not fathom spending money on spaceships when the world needed food. The movie even tackles the premise and existence of poltergeists. There are so many big ideas harnessed in the movie that it really belongs in its own category. It seeks openly to advance the human mind—which is certainly no small feat and it succeeds on every level.

The best parts of the movie were the space sequences which reminded me so much of 2001: A Space Odyssey filmed in complete silence—just as they would have been. The catastrophes in space were just mind bogglingly beautiful. As I have also reported at this site I am a tremendous Koyaanisqatsi fan—even to the extent that I designed a line of t-shirts years ago as a tribute to the 1983 experimental film. imageBut the problem with it was that it pointed to progress as a vile and evil thing ultimately and concluded with a rocket exploding on its way to space falling back to earth in complete silence to the score of a magnificent work by Philip Glass. Well—there was a lot of Koyaanisqatsi in this movie and the music by Hans Zimmer without being disrespectful to Philip Glass tackles the original Koyaanisqatsi score with a new level of boldness. The pipe organs from Hans Zimmer’s soundtrack gave narration to the silence of space in such a grand fashion that it will become the new standard for all filmmakers over the next century. If The Wizard of Oz brought color to film, Interstellar has brought music to space—and that is not an insult to the contributions of John Williams to Star Wars—but Interstellar is in a new category of its own that will become the new standard—it is that good. The flight sequences were so wonderfully done—they were like a concert set in space to silently floating images struggling to break the boundaries of not just earth—but previous human limitation. There were times when the thrusters to the ships kicked on and the music literally was blowing me into the back of the seat—it was jaw-dropping incredible.

I think most people seeing Interstellar will like something from it—but the movie was intended to be enjoyed by smart people—or at a minimum, those who strive to be. It is a thinker’s movie to say the least and deliberately reaches out into the audience to declare, “We feel your pain.” It is literally bigger than anything on earth, there is no mountain too tall, no ocean so great—by the time Interstellar is watched once, everything on earth seems small and silly—including the civilization we have so far built. This is easily the grandest production of ideas ever gathered for the silver screen and even challenges some of the greatest literary work put to print. Interstellar is a magnificent masterpiece assembled to please the mind—to see life beyond death, and to touch the true face of God.

When the main character Cooper finds himself in the fifth dimension it’s not aliens, or a “they” out there in space trying to help the silly ants of humanity with carefully placed worm holes next to Saturn or the rapture inside a singularity—it is us who have mastered multi-dimensional travel, who have left the door open to our former incantations so to achieve the task in a linier time—to tell the story of humanity as a struggling race beating an invisible clock against stupidity only to weave the universe into a canvas of our own creation. It is the mind of man who spills over outside of their bodies into the infinite and become the utterances of immortality. What is most unusual of all within Interstellar was the carefully constructed request from Christopher Nolan to Hans Zimmer to create music which would live up to such a lofty intention—and uniquely, the legendary composer did it in a fashion that is literally blowing minds too restricted to behold all the images with the must see movie not just of this year, decade, or era—but in the history of film both past and future. Interstellar is out of this world in every category that counts—especially in the swagger category of bolding going to places only contemplated by physics equations and warped imaginations. Now such places are available to anybody who can pay the price of a movie ticket and desire to peak beyond the shroud of impossibility manifested into the bold reality of a destiny that is there within reach, now.

Interstellar is simply a new standard of excellence and will be copied hundreds of different ways from now on. History has just been made with this masterpiece of modern cinema—it is everything that many films have tried to be. The difference is that Interstellar pulled it off.

Rich Hoffman

www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

Biden’s Cocaine Induced Hallucinations : Senate predictions only a drug addict could concieve

It appears that Joe Biden representing White House viewpoints was smoking the same type of crack that his son did when he was recently kicked out of the Navy for drug abuse. The Biden family obviously has a permissive attitude toward drug abuse as is evident by their politics, but it has migrated from just casual use to out-right believing that the hallucinations are a reality only they can see. For a politician with all the resources that come from the Obama White House—and being a so-called political heavy weight—Biden ridiculously predicted that Democrats would keep control of the senate. The evidence was extremely heavy against such a fantasy prior to the Election of 2014, yet he still went on the networks and gave speeches driven by hallucinations of hope knowing full well that his words would come back to haunt him—yet he did it anyway—as chronicled by Reuters:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Vice President Joe Biden predicted Democrats would retain control of the U.S. Senate in Tuesday’s congressional elections but said that whatever happens, Republicans would have to work harder to make sure things get done in Washington.

In an interview with CNN, Biden said he did not agree with forecasters who say Republicans are poised to capture the six seats they need to take over the Senate. They are also expected to expand their majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“I don’t agree with the odds-makers,” Biden said in the interview broadcast on Monday. “I predict we’re going to keep the Senate.”

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/11/04/White-House-Cites-Joe-Biden-s-Superior-Knowledge-For-Predicting-Election-Wins-For-Democrats

http://news.yahoo.com/biden-predicts-u-democrats-keep-senate-cnn-143137238.html

Just weeks prior to the election Biden’s youngest son Hunter was kicked out of the Navy for testing positive for cocaine use—yet the story by the media was nearly completely overlooked, which was a very significant report involving such a prominent politician. Cocaine is an illegal substance—yet for the progressive Democrats, they wish very much to decriminalize drug abuse obviously carrying over into destructive habits taught from parent to child. Here is one of the view media outlets who carried the story—Ben Swann—the reporter formally from Channel 19 in Cincinnati.

On Thursday, it was revealed that Vice President Joe Biden’s youngest son, 44-year-old Hunter Biden, was released from the Navy in February, after he tested positive for cocaine use.

In a statement from Hunter Biden’s lawyer, he said:

“It was the honor of my life to serve in the U.S. Navy and I deeply regret and am embarrassed that my actions led to my administrative discharge. I respect the navy’s decision. With the love and support of my family I’m moving forward.”

Hunter Biden graduated from Yale with a law degree, and he currently works in Washington as the private equity executive and board director of an international energy firm, in addition to practicing law in Connecticut.

Yahoo News reported that Biden, “faces no automatic review of his law license in Connecticut following his discharge from the U.S. Navy Reserve after testing positive for cocaine use.”

According to Connecticut’s Statewide Bar Counselor, Michael P. Bowler, lawyers in Connecticut face automatic review of their bar admission only when they have been convicted of a crime.

http://benswann.com/vice-presidents-son-discharged-from-navy-for-cocaine-use-keeps-license-to-practice-law/

The Vice President’s son was discharged from the military which is run by President Obama while both of them currently reside in the White House for consuming an illegal substance yet nothing was said about it. And just weeks later Joe Biden was confident enough to tell the media that the senate would be retained by Democrats even when all the evidence pointed to other results—which eventually came true even more robustly than predicted. The only conclusion that can be surmised from these events is that Joe Biden is either ridiculously stupid and naive, or is on crack himself and should be drug tested—because he would likely fail.

Biden was arrogant enough to defy logic in favor of political ideology which is a symptom that most drug users are guilty of. They often abuse drugs so that they can escape the effects of reality upon their conscious minds—which is why drug induced users are dangerous to themselves and others. There is a reason that drugs are illegal—it is largely because it is proven that some of them—like cocaine have a detrimental effect on human beings that not only makes them dangerous and stupid but has a carry over effect into society at large imposing their destructive habit into the lives of the innocent. Alcohol is certainly a dangerous intoxicate also, but it takes much longer and a lot more consumption to arrive at the point of danger than a few lines of cocaine. People who want to cheat the evasion process of shrugging reality propose the decriminalizing of drugs—as Biden has because in his family he obviously endorses it. However, cocaine is still illegal and the Biden boy should go to jail—not just lose his standing in the Navy. Only a victim of a drug induced stupor would fail to see such a thing—just as the same condition would have been needed not to see that the Republicans were going to take the senate. For those who favor drug use and its effects—if you want to know the dangers of habitual use—just look at Vice President Biden and listen to him talk. Then you’ll know why cocaine is an illegal substance.

Rich Hoffman

www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

The Religion of Public Education: Turning away from the truth

As many know I have a standard policy of posting the letters rivals send me to share with my readers here. I have put many of them up over the years, especially in the beginning which is evident to anyone who wishes to use the calendar feature to go back into time and read them.   Because of that policy I get a lot less detailed letters than I used to. Instead most of the comments now are short and less revealing like, “you’re mean,” “arrogant” or “hateful.” But recently William Schmidt has remained a consistent critic who has shown so wonderfully how the other side thinks with his continued parade of detailed letters. After I published the one he sent me last week, he decided he’d had enough and sent me the following:

On Saturday, November 1, 2014, Bill Schmidt wrote:

Rich,

After you again posted another of my e-mails to you on your blog, I told some people that I had been sending e-mails to this anti-school’s guy named Hoffman and that you had been posting and then commenting on them in your blog.  They read some of the entries and then said that you seemed pretty kooky and creepy.  They asked me why I kept sending you e-mails and I told them about your appearances on the radio, etc.  They asked if I thought I could change your narrow mind at all and I said “definitely not”.  So they questioned what was being accomplished by continuing the discourse.

I thought back to Nov of 2011 to when I sent you my first e-mail.  Lakota had just voted down another school levy and it was clear more cuts needed to be made.  I had been made very uncomfortable about how Doc Thompson had made you a spokesman about school finance and how he coddled you by agreeing with everything you would say and how he wasn’t being much of a journalist.  So I wrote you an e-mail which you posted on your blog.  Since then, various things have happened.  You no longer are requested on the radio.  You were kicked out of No Lakota Levy.  A school levy passed in your district.  And, judging that my e-mails are the only ones you seem to put out there, it appears your readership must consist of only a handful of kooks and creeps.

I had to admit that sending you e-mails seems to have no purpose anymore.  We are just rehashing the same old stuff.  I feel you dragging me into the abyss.  I need to let you continue to sink on your own.  Since I only read your school blog diatribes anyway, because the other stuff you write is such nonsense (as illustrated by your recent Virgin Galactic tout), I really doubt if I will be calling up your blog very much anymore. 

Don’t hurt yourself out there trying to find Communists hiding behind the monkey bars but maybe you should take one of your Brown Shirts along with you as you search. I’d say mattjutras might be available. And I’ll be careful trying to find a Kroger survey to participate in.

 

William

Years down the road the strategy I am currently conducting will be quite evident. I have worked with others but consistent with my experience, there are severe weaknesses in doing so—so a strategy unique to the times is mandated to implement the needed objectives. I have been building that network now for several years and in doing so certain patterns emerge.

Schmidt’s current position is not that unlike the Laura Sanders episodes, or school board member Julie Schafer—when faced with facts that defy their worldly views, they chose mental evasion to logical observation. They always come around to saying that “you’re not worth the time or investment so I’m leaving.” What they really mean is that “I cannot make you accept my reality so I’m discouraged and will not look in your direction with the same candid flare a child hides under their covers hoping that monsters will not get them.” They often rationalize this position by calling me names like kooky or creepy and think they are smart with connections to debunked communist conspiracies or otherwise scandalous activity leading to public rebuke as if that public had a mind toward intelligence where their collective sum outweighed an individual thought.

Once these people reach the end of their tolerance—of their attempts to reform elements of society into their harmony they retreat to the warm arms of their like-minded despots—such as what William did in a moment of crises. Arrogantly his advisors spoke as if they were Christian missionaries on location in some primitive wilderness and their advice to William the failed missionary was to cut ties with the failed attempt and focus their efforts somewhere that brings success. In this way the government education culture has taken on a type of religious zeal not unlike the Crusades or the current Jihad movement of Islam—that anybody not brainwashed to the religion of their viewpoint should be cast aside as disreputable, or destroyed so that their challenging viewpoints do not threaten the sanctity of their religion—in this case the religion of public education.

There is a long list of such characters that have tried and failed to do what William has. Of them I will say that Schmidt often refrained from going too far which is why I will miss him a bit. He did provide a window into their thinking that I have been using extensively in studies for the referred to upcoming strategies. But as for demeaning my efforts here in attempting to portray them as ineffective and isolated from the mainstream—I can see who reads each day and how many of them there are. I see the many links to Lakota school computers, to the movers and shakers of politics, to the government offices of Columbus, Ohio and Washington D.C. I wouldn’t spend my time if it was wasted—which its not.

But I’m doing things, and planning things that are highly unconventional and certainly not a part of any current political playbook. And it’s all carefully considered and calculated. But as to Schmidt’s wishes of reputation smashing quandary—the meter on the sidebar tells the story better than words. Most newspapers would love to have those numbers, and I don’t sell any advertising aside from links to my own extended works which is about to get a major update. It’s all in the name of authenticity and in these types of political fights; there just aren’t enough characters in the arena who have a heart for that fight—or a proper strategy. And the ones who do are treated as a threat because they are upsetting the apple cart that people like Schmidt depends on. Like a last-minute football play in the closing seconds where a spectator might look away not able to take the drama of the moment—Schmidt’s type always retreats to this effort because the moment is just too much for them. The impact on the world at large is too great and they worry about the changes to their lives if it continues—which I can assure all—it will.

But you can’t do the same old thing over and over. I had a friend at 700 WLW, actually two friends, Darryl Parks and Doc Thompson. They were both fired largely due to people like William Schmidt who complained to the station and its advertisers hoping to quell the message against their social scam. 700 WLW is much friendlier now toward the William Schmidt types—the pro-pot, gay-marriage supporting advocates. They are a sports talk station that does not currently get involved in messy politics. They probably will return to that at some point in the future, but as for now, they are playing it safe. That was their decision. They have invited me on their programs which I have declined. Their criteria wished me to take on the role of the villain instead of the role I formally had—and that wasn’t going to happen. So we have moved on to other things separately. But those other things will likely have more power than the former things and that is the concern that Schmidt and his advisors see on the horizon.

So as things continue on, I will miss Schmidt and his window into oblivion—where his kind considers anything with a three syllable word—“kooky,” or “scary.” There is value in studying the problem, but as often is the case the problem when it knows that eyes are on their tail retreats into a hiding place trying to buy additional moments for its sustenance. But the time is running out—and they know it—even if they turn their eyes away hoping to maintain an illusion for just a moment longer.

Rich Hoffman

www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

Escape from Monkey Island: The small minds of a teacher’s union

 

Most of the nasty letters I get are simple name calling with no merit of an argument suggested, because honestly, there isn’t one that can be given. There is only the hope that provocation through name calling will quell my desire to point out the obvious. However, Bill Schmidt is pretentious enough to believe that his knowledge of the situation surrounding the teaching profession in government schools justifies defense and he often provides an interesting look into the warped mind of a typical levy supporter. Recently he wrote me about the steps my district of Lakota is taking to keep their excessively high wages somewhat managed. CLICK HERE TO REVIEW. Reading his comments is like visiting the zoo to watch monkeys swing from the trees as they call-out strange sounds only they understand. As a thinking human being we can only wonder how those monkeys can stay content on a tiny island in a zoo fed by zoo handlers and not desire to cross that vast moat to freedom and the world beyond. Instead they stay on the island and create a small micro society only they understand. In this way, monkeys at the zoo are like the teaching profession in government schools, inward looking and small-minded. Read the letter Schmidt sent me recently to get a look into this small canvas of thought.

On Monday, October 27, 2014, Bill Schmidt wrote:

Rich,

If a new Lakota teacher were hired in 2011 and is still working at Lakota, that person would still be classified as a 1st year teacher, yet would be providing the district with 3 years of experience.  By the fact that voters rejected levies many times in previous elections, Lakota is no longer giving step increases.  There is no clear indication that this teacher will ever get a step increase.  By not getting step increases, this teacher has sacrificed about $7,500 in income by June of 2015.  Looking at this prospect, I believe this teacher should work a normal 8 hour day.  This teacher should work hard (not less) during that time and do it with enthusiasm.  At the close of the day, this teacher should then work even more.  That work should be towards recouping some or all of the $7,500 that has been sacrificed as the Lakota community has readjusted their educational priorities in rejecting several levies.  If the “job” at Lakota has been found coming up short in achieving a “high destination” for the students being served, despite a hard and enthusiastic effort, other personal should be hired to work the extra hours to make this high destination achievable.  It is possible that the money is not there for that to happen, but that is what the voters of Lakota have chosen in their rejection of previous levies.  When you do not have enough personnel to do the job, then hire more just like a major business would.

I wouldn’t classify writing e-mails to you as “pulling strings”.  It is you who have placed copies of my e-mails on your blog, without asking my permission and certainly not at my encouragement.  At least one of the responses to posting my personal e-mail to you involves a physical threat, which you certainly did not discourage.  You have misidentified me and misrepresented me in several of your blogs.  Except for your actions, my views would only be known to you and that would not be imposing myself into “local management” by doing something like establishing a blog and taking a spot on a radio show.

You and some of your readers seem to think I should be learning something from you.  Why would your opinions be any more valid than my own?  Wouldn’t it be just as valid to say that you should be learning from me?

I hope that Lakota teachers realize that they could give all the extra effort possible, apply all expertise available to them, accept any reduction in salary imposed and it would not satisfy you and your supporters.  This statement isn’t a “grief-stricken diatribe”  — just the truth.

William Schmidt

The biggest trouble with Schmidt’s thinking is that he assumes a teacher is worth a $7,500 increase just for being employed—as if it were just years alone which dictated value. At Lakota this is the primary problem with their wage structure—they allowed too many employees to make in excess of $65,000 per year just because they showed up for work long enough to get step increases due to tenure. They didn’t earn their wages by beating out others to become the best in their field; they just had to put enough time in to gain a guaranteed percentage of wage increase regardless of performance.

Then Schmidt suggests the impossible—he actually believes that the best strategic position that can be conducted under these labor driven circumstances—inspired by radical left-wing economic philosophy, he suggests that teachers work even less than they do now.

The reason we had tax fights in Lakota was pure management or resources. The school administration wanted an unlimited community budget through taxation. Members of the community, like me, wanted competitive alternatives to drive down the cost of education and imposition upon tax payers. Without that fight, the big government—all day baby sitting lusting, left-leaning progressives would ask for tax after tax, after tax for the rest of existence. It is up to the tax paying base to apply pressure to those in charge of the purse strings to let them know that it will be painful to spend money. If pain is not introduced, it is proven that government workers will never stop taking, and taking—until there is nothing left. In Lakota they certainly did and even though they finally scammed their way into getting more money—they did exactly with it what we promised they’d do—they give an instant raise to their teachers. They lied to the public and the public saw it for what it was.

This put Lakota in a bad position. They know if they try for another levy in 2017 as they are projected to attempt, that there will be another fight—and it will be bloody—again. It is highly unlikely that they will get it approved the first time—statistically, it takes about three times to pass a levy in the Lakota district, at least over the last 15 years—so they are not looking forward to the attempts as they will take a serious public relations hit. So they will avoid it as long as they can, because the promise of a fight forces them to manage their resources. Without that promise, the government employees will abuse the money foolishly and the value of the overall product will be reduced.

So here is William Schmidt who doesn’t even understand the concept of management of money—he just believes that people are entitled to money because they breathe. And if they don’t get this perceived value, they are encouraged to work less…………………..how? Most teachers—not all—but most are glorified baby sitters, just as strippers are variations of prostitutes, and physical therapists are glorified masseuses’. They are all from the same family of occupation. Kids as proven by their test results and worldly knowledge are not being “educated.” They are simply being watched by other adults paid for by tax payers with a thin mask of “education” to make parents not feel guilty about the service. That is modern public education and William Schmidt wants more money for this baby sitting service just because someone has been one for a number of years established by a collective bargaining agreement ignoring value for the positions all together.

His letter further explores the possibility of opinion value assuming that just because he’s alive that his opinion is equal to mine. But it’s not. I know how hard I have worked to achieve my opinions and here Schmidt believes that he and I are equal just because we eat similar food, sleep in beds, and have other similarities that are human in origin. Monkeys like humans have similar features—they tend to eat similarly, dispel waste in a similar manner—yet monkeys and humans are vastly different from each other just as I am different from Bill Schmidt.  Our opinions are not equal. They only thing I can learn from the letter above is just how right I have always been at the vast ignorance stirring at the center of the debate of public education and the value of dollars spent on the teaching profession. It is expected that these strange public union types do learn a thing or two from me and my readers—because we are trying to help them not be so treacherously foolish and a detriment to human civilization. But they have nothing to offer us of value as their entire existence is a parasitic one—in every facet of their lives.

After our brief email exchange I told him that he had the depth of a dried up creek—meaning that his thinking prevented him from an advanced discussion of the matter in much the way that driving a car could never be explained to a monkey at the zoo. It is just a concept that is too far removed from their culture on their little island display. He replied to me that I’m a fascist—which is always the retreat of a left—leaning loons when they run out of arguments—and facts to twist like a funhouse mirror. Arguments like Schmidt’s require non-thinking application of mental acuity lacking any intelligence. And because they do, they use name-calling to pound their point home. But—unlike in the past, those names only hit a brick wall of resolution and are flattened upon contact. Once it is understood that thinking destroys the position of people like Schmidt, they are left defenseless without anything to do but threaten with name-calling and collective opinion framed by their brain-dead followers.

Rich Hoffman

www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

Why Credentialed Respect Can Never Make Hans Zimmer: How to make music that matters

I am likely to continue talking about the new movie Interstellar for quite a long time—because it is the latest and most exciting philosophic/scientific endeavor aimed at a mass audience that I can think of, and is a vastly important film. Below is one of the first reviews from Variety and should be read by anyone on the fence considering seeing the movie. It will tell you everything you need to know about the film. But more specific to the film and an equal part of its majesty is the music by Hans Zimmer. The score is mind-blowing good and may well eclipse the iconic music of 2001: A Space Odyssey as instantly recognizable. So it deserves to be known that Hans Zimmer, one of the premier musical composers of our age and on par in history to be known among the giants of Straus, Beethoven, and Mozart did poorly in school and did not attend college. Listen to the man himself talk about his education—or lack thereof—and what he believes is the path to success that most should take.

https://movies.yahoo.com/news/film-review-interstellar-150003405.html

There isn’t a college in the country who can teach a student with tuition charges to be as good at conceiving and conducting music for films as Hans Zimmer is. There is not a band program out there who can teach an army of others to become another Hans Zimmer. The best way to become another Hans Zimmer is to get near him and start learning—then applying his techniques at decision-making and problem solving into the individual experience of the student. A school cannot teach those skills with memorization techniques. Only through natural aptitude and practice can one hope to become as proficient. There is no way to cheat the system by throwing money at a skill hoping that it can be purchased. The kind of skill that Hans Zimmer has is only obtained one way, through lots of hard work and dedication while maintaining his uniqueness on the curb of perception.

Yet government schools and colleges all across the world suggest that they can produce such people if tuition dollars are applied, and the results never come back with satisfaction. There are many who aspire to become like Hans Zimmer and they may even learn to play his songs at a high school football game through a band program, but they cannot teach a student to become a person equal to the skill of Hans Zimmer with just scholastic education methods. The aspiring artist if they have a hope of such lofty heights must apprentice themselves to someone equivalent to the value they wish to achieve and start with a total dedication of themselves to the craft. Advice is only as good as the person who gives it.

Once when I wrote an article about the failure of a band teacher from our local high school the parents of the students sent me many nasty emails about my opinions. It wasn’t hard to conclude that their vast anger was inspired by a deeply rooted fear that they had in realizing that money could not purchase skill for their children—as they wished to believe. When the famed band teacher fell from grace and was cast aside by the district as a vagabond it was feared that his students would fall as well—as if their success was attached directly to his star. Much to the terror of the parents the real answer was that their children were learning nowhere near enough about music to become anything but copycats in the music industry. They were learning to play the instruments, but they weren’t learning to make music that would play from them—which is a big difference. And these days, anybody can practice playing music with a software program. What needs to be taught are the ways that notes can be composed into new forms of music that reveals the inner sanctum of thought and all human possibilities.

It is for that reason that I seldom ever listen to any “pop” music. My iPod doesn’t have a single music track in eight gig of memory that is not a movie soundtrack of some epic intention. Over a third of my soundtracks on that iPod are Hans Zimmer scores. I still listen to Gladiator at least once a week which I think is one of his best pieces of work. Music should speak about possibilities and achievement, not just passive witnessing of the world around the listener. Band students and music classes in general are not learning about the epic scale of a subject matter, they are simply learning to repeat the work of Hans Zimmer.

If I were to attempt to teach such students I would not do so in front of a class in a stale government school with brick walls and blackboards with the smell of lunch drifting down the halls promising frozen pizza and tatter tots among several hundred other students emitting waves of pent-up rage at adolescent frustrations. I’d have them climb a mountain with sweat pouring off their foreheads then piping the Gladiator soundtrack into their tired ears as they sip for life-sustaining water from a canteen warmed by body heat. Then I’d ask them to compose the first notes that came to their minds based on their experience once the music had been silenced. That is how you learn to compose music, not just copy the notes of Hans Zimmer.

I can’t say how many times I have now listened to the Man of Steel soundtrack even in the minus zero degree temperatures on the back of a motorcycle as the snow was falling ever so ferociously—with my fingertips so frozen that they were in great pain. It has now been more than a dozen at least and each time brought the notes to a grand fortissimo inside my helmet that spoke of another world reality of possibility well beyond the grips of conventional manhood. While most men are first concerned in the morning with where they will use the rest room, what they will eat, where they will dispel their sexual appetites, and how they will earn the acclaim of their peers—such music under such circumstances dictate higher thoughts far more epic than the animal wants of flesh. It is only under those extreme conditions that Hans Zimmer can be understood as notes put upon a blank page as opposed to copied the way a band conductor of a local high school teaches students how to blow a horn and put on a show for their proud parents with their video cameras out to record the occasion—and a “yes” vote during levy time for the memory. On the way home from such concerts the parents foolishly declare that their child may become the next Hans Zimmer because they learned to play the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack. But the students never see the music as from the feelings of observation—they simply memorize the motions put in place for them by someone like Hans Zimmer.

Too many people believe wrongly that being “credentialed” equates to success. They believe that if a music instructor at a school somewhere says that a student knows something—that they know it. Yet they fail 100% of the time to create future Hans Zimmer types no matter how much money is spent on music programs and government school electives. Those good at music are still those with a natural appetite to take their skills to the next levels through extremely hard work and persistence. Credentialed these days has been regulated into being symphonious with security—and that is a path to average—which is not what Hans Zimmer’s music is about at all. His music is much more than that and is why I listen to it with great zeal and marvel at its uniqueness. That uniqueness is why it’s a joy to hear—and thus far, as admitted by Zimmer himself, is why schools cannot duplicate the efforts of the award-winning history making composer even with all the money in the world. That is because his music does not come from comfort, but experience, in a life lived and felt as opposed to copied and mimicked—and is why Hans Zimmer’s score for Interstellar will literally take people out of this world. Zimmer actually let his mind leave this world to write the music—and that is a grand achievement!

 

Rich Hoffman

www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com