Tag: Down the Rabbit Hole

West Chester Chickens: The roots of a community built on self-reliance

Those pesky zoning people are back at it in West Chester, Ohio picking on Danielle Richardson who recently moved to one of the most successful and financially lucrative areas in the Midwest.  Like cowards in the night, they left a message on her door informing her that she would not be able to keep the nine chickens that she has in her back yard because it’s in violation to a ridiculous zoning resolution.  Richardson was told that her pet chickens would have to go because West Chester Twp. does not permit farm animals in residential neighborhoods, according to spokeswoman Barb Wilson. “In our definition, when you talk about farm animals, poultry are clearly identified as such, chickens, horses, cows, sheep, goats would be considered farm animals.”

http://www.journal-news.com/news/news/woman-will-battle-township-to-keep-backyard-chicke/nfYCP/

What Danielle Richardson doesn’t know is that the zoning terrorists who left the note on her door are using zoning to carry West Chester Twp. into a city classification as local progressives understand that before such a measure can be made, references to West Chester’s rural past must be erased.  Farm animals have been a part of West Chester’s past for as long as I can remember.  I remember when cows came up to the fence behind the Wendy’s restaurant by the corner of Cox Road and Tylersville, and half a dozen homes between there and the Lakota high school had farm animals around their homes.  That symbol of self-reliance, of the farmer and country living is what made West Chester attractive for development, because people did not want to live in a city and liked driving by large fields, cows, horses and other farm animals—images that they couldn’t get in a city environment.

But slowly these new residents have changed the nature of West Chester from a rural community to one of a progressive New England suburb, and with that image has come a zoning adherence to ICLEI, (International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives) which is the architect behind the United Nations Agenda 21 strategies.  The eventual goal of Agenda 21 is to pull residents out of the suburbs and back into the cities where their behavior can be carefully controlled through regulation—which is what is happening to Richardson.

Zoning officials do not want residents to be self-reliant, to have chickens where they can produce their own eggs.  In Richardson’s neighborhood she gives her neighbors free eggs as a gift.  This is something the ICLEI people do not want to see—because they want to control the issuance of eggs.  They want Richardson to get her eggs from the local Kroger where regulators have their hands in on the action.  They certainly don’t want to support self-sustaining lifestyles—which is the real message behind their angst toward farm animals.  They certainly aren’t protecting the home values of neighborhoods with such zoning regulations, because the homes were built around the farm culture that is at the roots of West Chester.

My grandparents had a farm on Seward road very close to the Erie Canal which was some of the best farmland in the world.  The valley below Beckett Ridge which flooded often had some wonderful farms which extended all the way to the west into Fairfield.  My grandfather married my grandmother by taking a canal boat to the east where he met her at a dance at Port Union, which was next to the current drive-thru that is diagonal from the United Dairy Farmers at the corner of Port Union Road and 747.  Many people have no knowledge that the Erie Canal ran right along those railroad tracks and is still visible as a relic to West Chester’s past.  I grew up knowing many of the farmers in the region.  They bailed hay, slaughtered cows, had horses, goats and just about every kind of animal imaginable.  At a minimum they had chickens—because that is how they had eggs for breakfast.  Over the last 30 years, people who wanted to be close to these activities moved to West Chester, people like Danielle Richardson.

With the new homes came pretentious progressives and their big government regulations and social tampering trained in the ways of ICLEI.  The far away entity of The United Nations is jealous of American self-reliance, and they certainly find the farmers of North America repulsive—and through Agenda 21 wish them regulated out of existence.  That is how zoning ordinances like the one Barb Wilson cited came to be.  But that is not how it’s supposed to be.  Those ICLEI worshippers desire to change West Chester, not preserve it, and getting rid of chickens in a neighborhood are part of their strategy.

Danielle Richardson made some good arguments in her reasoning for keeping her pet chickens.  She used all the ICLEI buzz words, like “sustainable living” and “green” friendly which are the weapons zoning typically uses to alter behavioral lifestyles.  After all, what is greener than raising chickens and eating the eggs produced by them?  But that is not what zoning has in mind when they talk about “sustainable living.”  They wish to handcuff human beings so that nature can prevail and incorporate all living into city-state control and regulation.  And they plan to pay for their offensive through taxes that adversely destroy private ownership of property.  Danielle Richardson took the spirit of West Chester back the other way—toward self reliance, which is what ICLEI finds so repulsive about American lifestyles.

West Chester has within its zoning administrators, as does virtually every community in America—progressive terrorists who salivate for the opportunity to regulate society into a direction of their strategic choosing.  That choosing was not shaped by the traditions of a community like West Chester but the far away fools at The United Nations and their ICLEI arm of bureaucrats.  It is likely that Richardson had no idea that she would cause so much of a ruckus over her personal desire to have chickens on her property, but ICLEI seeks to regulate how private property owners use their land.   The strategy at ICLEI is to impose themselves on private property ownership to the point where taxation and heavy regulation make investment not attractive.  At that point government will own those properties and control what goes on there—and chickens will be a thing of the past.  Government regulators want to be the one to place eggs on the doorsteps of neighbors instead of Danielle Richardson because they want to gain control over what people eat and when they eat it.  In that way, they want to change West Chester, not preserve it.  They want to remove from its past the image of self-reliance and personal sovereignty and change it into a city of tax producing citizens under the control of petty regulators and zoning officials.

I have a personal recommendation for Danielle Richardson–at the zoning hearing, tell those idiots what you really think of them.  Let them have it, because the next step in that process is in your favor.  There are friendly ears above the zoning bureaucrats who know exactly what is going on, and you’ll get to keep your chickens.  Just don’t yield to the zoning people.  This fight goes far beyond chickens and eggs—but to the heart of what it means to be a property owner in America—during a time when the rest of the world wants to be the supplier of the eggs.  Yet they wish to do so without having chickens to lay them.  ICLEI is about to discover which comes first, the chicken or the egg.  Danielle Richardson already knows that answer—and the rest of the world is about to find out.  They want to control the eggs, but they don’t respect the chickens that make them.

Rich Hoffman  www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

 

F**k the Earth: Save man’s mind

I enjoy a nice babbling brook running through the mountains surrounded by trees and fresh air illuminated by sunrise firelight. Often I have slept on the ocean front to the sound of waves beating on a beach as a steady breeze pours in from offshore thunderstorms lighting up the distant night clouds like cannon fire from a distant battle. I have pondered often the forces of a cliff face as I rappelled down it and marveled at the magnanimity of nature. I have equally stared deep into the heavens and contemplated the countless galaxies of space and considered the perplexing reality of a multiverse. But what most impresses me is the mind of man and the ability of that species to overcome obstacles, invent tools of creation, and extend beyond the limits of nature to something new. What is marveled at when large mountains are observed, or the beauty of a forest, or the running water of a stream is the creation of nature into activity of which our short-term lives will only witness a fraction of. However, it is still destruction that is observed, mountains were caused by tectonic plates being forced together by earth forces, and trees grow, die, fall down and decompose, just like human beings. Water falls from the sky in the form of rain, runs across the earth, is consumed sometimes by creatures like humans, disposed of as waste and evaporates back into the sky to begin the process again. The work of man’s mind is the only life form in known existence to take all the raw materials of the planet and organize them creatively against the tide of chaos that exists in nature. A skyscraper is a deliberate construction of mankind that is organized and useful as opposed to the mountain that is simply the result of opposing forces colliding.

The current green movement which is simply the next generation of communism is attempting to take mankind back to worship of the earth the way tribal groups have in the mystic past. Their sole intention is to turn worship of the earth into a religion that has political consequences and their method is one of regression—of angst against the creation of mankind. They look at the creations of man, the space ships, the cars, the buildings and they hate them like natives screaming at lightning streaking across the sky. Their answer is to conduct a rain dance to appease the gods creating the lighting. Meanwhile, inventors like Tesla actually took the mind of man toward creating their own lightning. Inventors created irrigation as a way to take charge of their own destinies and stop wasting time doing a rain dance to appease some stupid god. Forget about rubbing a couple of sticks together to make fire, or waiting for lightning to strike and ignite a small blaze, mankind made ovens, and furnaces, and air conditioning units to control their environment so that they could be comfortable and invent even more things instead of running around looking for sticks to catch fire just to cook food.

Nature is the construction of Mother Earth, and the galaxies the inventions of the universe. But are those constructs superior to the equations E=MC2 or the nanotechnology of cell sized bots that can repair human flesh? When was the last time the earth invented anything new, or Jupiter, or Neptune? What have those natural products done except float in space and be bombarded by asteroids—their fates tied to their proximity to a dying sun at the center of a solar system? Where will the creeks, animals, and mountain ranges be during the next meteor collision, or the eventual explosion of energy at Old Faithful in Yosemite? They’ll all be destroyed, and what will there be left of anything on earth if the mind of mankind is extinguished as a retreat to the primordial worship of Mother Nature?

I would argue that the mind of man is more important than the saving of Mother Earth. The earth is inferior to man’s mind—the inventions, the potential, and the ability to shape its own destiny in spite of natural elements, such as planetary restrictions, life spans, and proximity in space to heating sources like planetary balls of fire we call suns. There was never a turtle that built an economy as sophisticated as humans, or an otter that built a train station. No bird ever invented a light bulb. And ants don’t write books, make movies, or create sophisticated music. We are amazed that dolphins and whales show signs of intelligent life, but even they are about as intellectually wise as an average 4-year old human—and what is so special about that? The reason we respect these creatures so much is that they are at least close to human intelligence—so why would human beings yield to them?

The real issue is one of creation and the value of those creations. Are the creations of nature more valuable than the creation of mankind? My answer is that mankind’s inventions are more valuable. Both, man’s and nature’s acts of creation are destructive in nature. Mountain ranges are the results of terrible destructive forces, and trees are daily fighting it out in a battle for sunlight. They don’t whip out stones to throw at each other, or fire guns, but trees are constantly at war with one another. One tree will spread its branches out over another one that is smaller to try to choke off its light so that the roots aren’t fighting for the same water supply. Don’t environmentalists know that? Are they so stupid but to look at trees and not see life forms at war with one another? Trees are not sitting in a forest singing campfire songs to each other living in harmony. They are fighting—and some of their battles go on for 50 or more years. The only reason humans don’t see them is because the battles occur without human reference and time frames. Every day spiders are catching other insects to devour for their personal consumption, mice are being eaten by snakes, fish are being eaten by bigger fish, and Great White Sharks are eating dolphins.

At some point the modern worshipers of Mother Earth decided that the way to deal with these tragedies is to revert to the past worship of earth as a deity and to appeal to its sensibilities hoping that human life would be spared some of this tragedy. But only mankind has even attempted to solve any of these destructive problems. At least humans know to replant a forest, to re-grow the food they consume, and to not poison the water they drink with sophisticated filtration systems. Only a human being has sought to mimic the abilities of a bird, the hunting agility of a lion, the communication aptitude of a dolphin, and actually offer alternatives to the stupidity of nature—the inevitable destruction that is always just around the corner with the next black hole consumption, or planetary impact.

Every global environmentalist on earth is wrong in its worship of earth. Earth is dying as we speak—it may take a few billion more years, but if left alone—it is dead. It will not live forever—it is not a god. It is not worthy of worship. Earth is a tool for man’s mind. It is meant to be a lunching point for human consciousness and nothing more. It can only be hoped that 4 billion years from now to 10 billion years that the minds of man will still live in the universe and will punch beyond the confines of that barrier to whatever is beyond it. Earth will have long been gone by then, every turtle, every bird, every fish, every drop of water in the ocean ripped off the planet to become water molecules in the vacuum of space by expansion of the sun. Every idiot who professes worship of nature at the expense of man’s mind is preaching doom for both. The earth has its best chance because of mankind, not in spite of it. Of the two, man’s mind is more valuable and if one has to be saved, it must be the imagination of human beings.

Every advocate of communism, socialism, social justice, and environmental conservation is ignoring the basic rules of our universe and stand in defiance of nature when they profess to preserve earth because they think it’s pretty. They ignore the violence; the very foundations of all life—that they are built on violence and destruction. Only the human being stands in rebellion to this trend by advancing toward an unknown intelligence only it can create—because it is not yet present among all known life forms. It is time to abandon the fools who do not believe that man does not have dominion over all the earth—because they do—and that is the will of nature as a species that is vastly superior to every other life form on earth. Its time to stop feeling guilty about it for the good of everyone, and everything involved.

Rich Hoffman   www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

 

Glenn Beck’s ‘Agenda 21’: Yes it can happen, because it is

I didn’t read Glenn Beck’s novel co-authored by Harriet Parke Agenda 21 at first because I was already well versed with the danger of that United Nations strategy, and wasn’t in the mood for another dystopian novel.  Soylent Green, Brave New World, and Atlas Shrugged are quite enough so another one didn’t have much to contribute to my intellectual expansion.  However, as my favorite book store recently closed, and Agenda 21 had been on a list of mine to read for a long time—I picked it up as the last book that I bought at that local treasure.  Recently I had a small window open to read that novel, so I took it and was impressed with the results.  Written from a first person perspective as a teenage girl coming to age behind the concentration camp lifestyle of a possible earth future, the novel attempts to speak at a level that most 15-year-olds understand, and was quite successful.  It was a good novel that tells the masses what is really going on with many of the FEMA camps and conspiracies that are swirling around through very secretive government circles.  Many mainstream pundits believe falsely that the topics surrounding Agenda 21, the novel is conspiracy theory—but they’re not.  They are quite real and have their birth in Europe and have in fact happened in that beleaguered conglomeration of war-torn nations many times.  However, to many Americans, the premise of Agenda’s 21’s concentration camps for United States citizens seems unfathomable.  That is another mistake because the foundations are already established—not as a primary objective, but a failsafe in case everything goes terribly wrong—which it will.

If you have ever dealt with a zoning department dear reader, you have dealt with agents of Agenda 21 so slickly trained; they don’t even know that they are part of the conspiracy.  CLICK HERE TO REVIEW PREVIOUS ARTICLES ON AGENDA 21 PUBLISHED AT THIS SITE.   For instance, many of them receive their training at college universities for their professions and approach their jobs with the same slanted view of the world that attorneys do—people who spend a lot of time in typically liberal institutions are trained to think in the way of the European.  In the case of zoning professionals, the concepts of carbon credits and micromanaged government imposed social living is not a foreign concept—they are often very receptive to progressive sentiments because of their training.  In my community it is the tendency to put roundabouts at major roadways typically found in Europe that is the most dominating giveaway.  Roundabouts are stupid and only slow down traffic—but are concepts quite common in Europe.  Just across town at the famous By-Pass-4 scenario “improvements” are the bright idea of bureaucrats in Fairfield who came up with the foolish concept of preventing no left turns into traffic for safety reasons.  So now east/west traffic wishing to intersect with By-pass-4 have to turn south then do a U-turn at special intersections to turn back north.  The reasoning proposed was to prevent driver’s side accidents—but the traffic flow is an obvious regression of human transportation.  Older people like me hate it, but younger people like it, because they have already been trained at public schools to accept such government tampering, and human micromanagement.   I have many times traveled down that road back in the good ol’ days where I could travel 100 MPH with no problem.  Not anymore.  You can hardly get up to 60 or 70 before there is another traffic light that stops progress.  These are the methods of the highly educated government bureaucrats who often are attracted to jobs that will help them with Agenda 21 type advancement.  They see such “improvements” as being good for society because they “slow” people down for their own good—and save lives.

All anyone need do is take this behavior out several decades toward the logical mathematical conclusion, and that becomes the events of Glenn Beck’s Agenda 21 novel.  Out of a reverence to nature—as an effort to put Mother Nature before the needs of mankind, government has regulated everything that are inventions of a human mind.  The paradox is that government does not yield completely to the forces of nature as they do not consider that man’s mind is a force of nature.  Human beings in the Agenda 21 novel have been essentially placed in cages so that nature can prevail, and all human beings who have not been killed in purges are forced to serve the earth primarily and without question.  This of course is harder for people who remember what personal freedom used to be like.  But for children taught under the new United Nations “Republic” where American sovereignty has long been extinguished—it is no problem at all.  They are essentially taken from their parents at an early age to be raised by the state—the community.  Traditional child instruction by two parents—one male—one female is prohibited because the foundation beliefs of a child must be built on the needs of collective salvation, not the individual’s family connections.

The evidence to this behavior is already present, public schools want parents to admit their children into pre-school classes much earlier than age 5 now.  It wouldn’t take much to mandate that children must attend pre-kindergarten classes from birth.  President Obama has already alluded to this sentiment.  It’s already mandated that children must attend school at age 5, so it wouldn’t take much to continue driving that number the other way until babies are taken from a parent at the hospital upon their birth.   Guns are another Agenda 21 concern; The United Nations does not want to deal with an armed public—because they are difficult to manage.  They want to be the only ones armed, so The United Nations is seeking at every turn to erode away American love of The Second Amendment.  They also seek the destruction of organized religion so that serving Mother Earth becomes the primary concern of earth’s human population.  They fully plan to make earth conservation into a religious cult so that those two values are aligned—this trend is already well underway.  Another big Agenda 21 item that happened overnight really is the switch of light bulbs from the good incandescent light bulbs starting in Europe and being followed closely by America.  At Home Depot yesterday my wife wanted me to pick out new ceiling fans and I looked hard and there was not one incandescent light bulb to be found in the store.  Every light bulb now on the market is the new coiled energy-efficient fluorescent light bulbs that do not come on right away and take a moment to light up.  Who are these light bulbs good for—not the human race?  It only took five years for incandescent light bulbs to become extinct.  They were regulated out of existence and there was barely a whimper among the populations of the world.  People predictably picked up the new coiled Agenda 21 bulbs to use and went back to their televisions and internet porn giving the matter not a second thought.

Ohio and several American states are sitting on vast reserves of coal, oil, and natural gas, but the government will not allow the exploitation of those resources because their goal is to drive up energy costs pushing people away from traditional fossil fuel sources which pollute the earth instead of viewing such energy methods as a jumping off point for taking human beings to a future of newer cleaner methods.  The governments of the world, trained under Agenda 21 guidelines believe they must micromanage this process so to save the earth from the terrible human being, the entire economy of places like Kentucky and West Virginia have been artificially altered to prevent the extraction of coal as an energy source by government bureaucrats raised by their college institutions to believe in Agenda 21 values.

The new Common Core standards in public schools are confirming all the things I have said about government schools for three decades.  They aren’t trying to teach children to be smarter and good free loving adults—they are programming them to be servants to Agenda 21.  These children compared to traditional pre Agenda 21 children are explored at length in the new Glenn Beck novel.  The government raised children have all types of insecurity issues directly related to the micromanagement by corrupt government institutionalism and have lost the ability to even sexually reproduce.   By the time the events of the Agenda 21 novel take place, human beings have lost every major freedom they ever had—including eating—in trade for the security provided to them by the state—the desire to be universally equal to everyone else.  This is an attractive prospect to the masses who are either not skilled enough, or too lazy to work so to be exceptional, and they are the ones who win democratic elections.  As public schools train kids under Common Core standards to think more and more toward Agenda 21 values, their individuality is less and less valuable to them—until it is eventually gone.  At that point in time, the events of the novel Agenda 21 will be in effect and the governments of the world will go through their purges, implement their concentration camps and enact their next planned phase which has been in place since essentially the 90s, during Bill Clinton’s administration.  Heck, to be fair, it goes back to Bush the Senior really—he was one of the first American presidents to fully embrace these United Nations global desires.   A lot has happened in full support of The United Nations Agenda 21 strategy in just 20 years.  20 more years, America is at risk of being everything contemplated in Agenda 21 the novel.  Virtually every human being trained at a public school and instructed within the liberal university systems throughout the world are at risk of being lost to this new religion of Agenda 21.  We see it presently in our roads, our zoning, our light bulbs, smart meters, and war against coal.  We will see it tomorrow in our brain-dead youth taught through Common Core standards how to be “good citizens” as exhibited in Agenda 21 the novel.

There is still too much private investment that prevents governments from doing exactly what occurred in Agenda 21, the novel.  But that is eroding by the day.  Ultimately, the events in the novel were caused by government mismanagement—which is a mainstay of all their activities so a predetermined conclusion is self-evident.  When they decided to organize society into concentration camps killing those who refused to adhere to Agenda 21, they had lost control and sought to imprison the human race to preserve the earth.  That is not a farfetched proposition when compared to the actions of governments witnessed just over the incandescent bulb controversy.  I have no doubt that FEMA as a contingency plan has all the crazy concentration camps set up all over The United States as Alex Jones fears.  There is one outside of Indianapolis which I’ve seen, and another up in Lima, part of a converted prison.  The masses won’t be at these facilities, only a select few to try to keep society going after the government screws up human kind completely, destroying the economy with Keynesianism, ruling with socialism, and removing religion in favor of worship of the earth.  They won’t have a choice but to attempt self-preservation with the methods described in Agenda 21, the novel.

I know beforehand my role.  I will not be in one of those camps, and I will not be disposed of during the eventual purge.  I will be the organizer of the resistance also described in the novel.  I will be the one wrecking supply chains, harassing government officials in their sleep and driving them insane with worry.  And I’ll enjoy doing it—believe me.  I am actually looking forward to it.  I can build my own stuff; I don’t need them, or their grid to do whatever I want—so the terror of the Agenda 21 novel is not something I can relate to.  I will never walk an “energy board” or support the “Republic” named in the book. I am simply waiting for the eventual screw-up to occur before I pull everyone together.  Legally, obviously, we must wait for the government to cross the line—and when they do, it will be time to go to work—because the writing is on the wall.  Unless people change their behavior, the terrors of the Agenda 21 novel are an inevitable conclusion—which is why Glenn Beck published the novel.  He hoped that it might wake people up in time to at least save America.  However, the rest of the world can’t be helped.  They are too far committed already.  They will suffer for it.  America is still up for grabs.  There will always be resistance in America even if the masses throw themselves before the feet of government officials in trade for security—and ease of work.  But there is a small hope that Common Core will be eradicated, that taxation reduction will destroy the money which these government bureaucrats feed off of, and that our youth won’t be lost to Agenda 21 programming.  I have hope for them yet, where I don’t think Glenn Beck does.  I believe the youth will rise up to revolt, and when they do, I’ll be there to help them achieve their objectives and teach them how to do it.  Because I will never live the life of the people in Agenda 21—heck, I couldn’t stand modern-day Europe for all the same reasons.  It’s just a matter of time—and if you want to know more, then you should read Agenda 21 by Glenn Beck and Harriet Parke.   It is an accurate portrayal of a very possible future projected by the information of our current social path of self-imposed destruction.

Rich Hoffman   www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

 

The Socialism of a Doctor Note: How doctors and lawyers seek power to start and stop the world

One really stupid misconception that modern American workers have is this nutty notion that doctors and lawyers run the businesses that employ them.  They do not.  Doctors may wish they did run business, but they don’t.  A doctor’s note may legally get an employee off their job for some sniffle, but the desire for the productivity needed by the job vacancy while that excused employee is recovering from their illness persists in spite of whatever a doctor puts on a piece of paper.  A doctor’s note does not make productivity go away, just the responsibility that an employee has to fulfill the parameters of employment.  This is a situation that has been compounded by attorneys for many years that have successfully brought law suits to companies trying to employ people, but finding that they have employee rebellions driven by public school socialism that believe jobs exist in nature and that people have a right to them.  Ambulance chasing lawyers have proven in sympathetic courts that jobs should be protected and have inadvertently brought about a situation of catastrophe in American business—mountains of paperwork compliance and armies of employees protected by law for every sniffle, sore muscle, and mental anguish that unproductive human beings can concoct so that they can sit on a couch and watch tabloid daytime television.  Lawyers and doctors have very nearly destroyed American productivity.

I am reminded of this trend as the arguments for higher minimum wages are cast forward by the same foolish politicians who gave rise to lawyers manipulation of the medical industry—who handed to doctors the power to write a note to excuse unproductive behavior.  Advanced by activists lawyers looking to make a name for themselves and their eight years of study to be accepted into a BAR association of similar such parasites, the intention has never been protection of capitalism, individual sovereignty, but collective salvation and the slow spread of socialism through trusted doctors to insecure patients.  Those parasites have taken American ingenuity and strangled it into a nearly lifeless corpse and they could care less as they travel for month-long vacations to Bahama vacations destinations—oblivious to their detrimental impact of their legal activism.

Government regulations of every kind from zoning to safety compliance officers trained also with six to eight years of college socialism believe they are doing the American worker good by defending their lives and limb from the evil tyrannies of the employer.  But all they have really done is destroy the desire to hire extra employees and replace those they do employ with machines to avoid the pain-in-the-ass of providing a job to an employee planning to sit home under a doctor’s excuse.

A machine does not show up after five days of missing work with a doctor note excusing their adventures on the couch expecting the work that needed to be done to still be sitting there waiting on them.  It was attorneys who painted companies into corners with lawsuits giving doctors so much power over modern productivity.

Every company in America is now terrified of the pharmaceutical stooges known as doctors—those drug dealers who pass out treatments in the form of “medication” to keep large lobby groups in Washington rich and well equipped for District of Columbia strip joints.  These same doctors get kids addicted to methylphendate (Ritalin), adults onto high blood pressure and thyroid medication, and older people onto regiments of pills that their tattered relics of bodies depend on for substance once addicted.  Most doctors are agents of a slow death making every ailment seem like a catastrophe that will bring the world to a close if their advice is not followed.  Who gave these people this authority–lawyers and sympathetic socialist courts.

About six years ago I had ACL surgery to repair an injury I incurred playing basketball.  The torn ACL was something that caused me all kinds of issues.  The loose knee gave out on me when I’d run up and down stairs and one time while I jumped through a wall of fire with my bullwhips my feet slipped in the wet grass.  My knee popped out of socket so badly that my Femur drove directly into the ground where my knee was supposed to be leaving a strange dirt stain in the middle of my thigh from where the skin stretched.  We wrapped the knee to hold it together and I finished the stunt anyway, but shortly thereafter I sought out the latest in ACL surgery methods—the kind that was putting professional athletes back on the field within a year.  I eventually found a good one and had the surgery done.  That doctor was so proud of his work that he told me I’d be able to walk out of the hospital—technically, but legally, I’d have to stay off it for a few days—which I did.  I was assigned to 12 weeks of physical therapy at a cost to my insurance company of around $200 bucks a visit.  I went for two weeks, learned all the exercises they were having me do and I made a tremendously quick recovery.  At 9 weeks I was ready to stop wasting my time on physical therapy but of course the technicians were giving me all the reasons I needed to continue coming.  Little did they know I wasn’t taking any of the drugs they were prescribing to me, and I was doing extra work on my knee at home against their advice.  They were perplexed that I had gotten better so rapidly.  At 9 weeks I told them what I had been doing and it would seem that I had thrown Holy water on a demon from the 10th dimension by the recoil of revulsion that they exhibited—and keep in mind that this was a very highly respected organization that works on professional athletes—not some hole in the wall in a second-rate establishment.

I stopped attending therapy and they hassled me to no end once I canceled the rest of my appointments over the next 8 weeks.  They had been counting on that money coming in three times a week for that duration. They were terrified of law suits in case my knee regressed and used this kind of dialogue as a way to make me cast doubt on my decision.  But I was done, I could walk and run fine and I knew better how to manage my body than they did.  I could do what the physical therapists were doing to me at home—but faster.

In my entire life I have never used a medical condition as an excuse to not do a job.  I have never taken a doctor’s note to an authority figure hoping to get out of a task I was responsible for.  I have had major surgeries, dislocated bones, plastic surgery and major illnesses—and I have never used a doctor note to get out of work or even excuse a day off.  Never.  Based on my experience most diagnosis, most prescriptions, most excused days off, are needless.  Yet they occur because of activist lawyers trained in socialism from their law schools who gave doctors power that they couldn’t get any other way.  Lawyers interpret the law given by the political system and have directly been a conduit to destroy American individuality in favor of collectivism.  Free market doctors have been pulled into government control through regulation, their long periods of training within socialist institutionalism, and enticed with the power to stop or start the world with a doctor note.  That power was given to doctors by the legal system for the purpose of gaining control of the workplace by government. Lawyers write and interpret the law which feeds government growth.

The result has been catastrophic for American productivity.  Too many people believe falsely that a doctor has authority over a company, or the need to produce or not produce.  That power has been protected by lawyers as agents of greed in full support of government growth and economic statism.  Aside from the corrosive labor unions who expect to be paid for sitting on their unproductive asses, the doctor note is the next greatest contributor to American inefficiency and lack of job creation.  No employer in their right mind wants to hire more people who expect to be paid a $10 dollar minimum wage only to take off several times a year because a doctor excuses them.  Usually, minimum wage workers tend to take full advantage of doctor notes to get them out of work—which they are being paid to do.  Their position as an employee means that an employer has a need for their labor.  If they are at home with a doctor note, they are not able to perform that task.  But that doesn’t make the necessity for those tasks to wait for the employee to get better and return to work.  This isn’t France.  People do not get paid unless production occurs, and it doesn’t occur if nobody shows up for work to do it.  And a doctor’s note and the lawyers who protect them with the arm of government at their back do not trump the strategy and needs of the American job creators—the businessmen.

Rich Hoffman   www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

 

Rick and Morty on Adult Swim: The future of a new generation

Watching Bill O’Reilly lately, with his support of Tesla Motors, government bailouts, yet maintaining strong traditional stances against socially downward trends, I had the feeling I’m was watching a generation’s excuses for bringing socialism to America. O’Reilly represents a majority American opinion for those above age 35, which is why he is so popular. However, there is a tremendous undercurrent that is coming under this age barrier and they think radically different from the generation of Bill O’Reilly about most everything. These are people from a generation that does not understand what it meant to have a mother in the home. They had the “state” in charge of most of their education, and they don’t have great prospects for social monetary gains, and they are not particularly happy about it. I associate with these people in gaming circles. They are often Star Wars fans, Doctor Who fans, and they play a lot of video games—hours and hours of video games. They don’t know or care who their politicians are—because they don’t trust them. The system has let them down in every way possible and they are well aware of it. They will likely support Rand Paul for president, but otherwise have quit the real world—because to them—it sucks—and lacks opportunity. They are not like Bill O’Reilly’s generation, and have no desire to be.

Adult Swim on the Cartoon Network traditionally puts out cartoons intended for adults, and it is a favorite channel in my house. Cartoons I find are able to tackle complex adult problems without the pretense of serious drama—so I find them very enjoyable. I was a fan of The Simpsons until the direction of their show moved too far to the political left, I enjoy The Family Guy in spite of their obvious progressivism, and I love Robot Chicken. There is a lot of imagination and creativity in adult oriented cartoons that speak honestly about the direction of human civilization. But I have a new favorite it’s called Rick and Morty and aside from the gaseous expulsion jokes, I absolutely love it.  

Rick and Morty is an American animated television series created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon that premiered on December 2, 2013 on Cartoon Network‘s late-night programming block, Adult Swim. Roiland voices the eponymous main characters: Rick, a scientist and alcoholic, and Morty, Rick’s grandson. The series was announced during Adult Swim’s 2012 Upfront presentation, and has been picked up for 10 half-hour episodes; the series has been renewed by Adult Swim for a second season. The show has received critical acclaim.[1]

Rick is a mentally-unbalanced but scientifically-gifted old man who has recently reconnected with his family. He spends most of his time involving his young grandson Morty in dangerous, outlandish adventures throughout space and alternate universes. Compounded with Morty’s already unstable family life, these events cause Morty much distress at home and school.

Cast and characters

  • Rick Sanchez (Justin Roiland) – A genius scientist whose alcoholic tendencies are the source of concern for his daughter’s family over the safety of their son Morty.
  • Morty Smith (Justin Roiland) – Rick’s good-natured but easily influenced 14-year-old grandson, usually dragged into his misadventures.
  • Jerry Smith (Chris Parnell) – Morty’s insecure father, who strongly disapproves of Rick’s influence over his son. His marriage is jeopardized by Jerry’s poor relationship with father-in-law Rick. Jerry works at a low-level advertising agency.
  • Beth Smith (née Sanchez) (Sarah Chalke) – Morty’s mother, Rick’s daughter, and a cardiac surgeon for horses. Level-headed and assertive, she struggles with her husband over his ego, which thrives in defiance of his proven mediocrity.
  • Summer Smith (Spencer Grammer) – Morty’s older sister, a more conventional teenager who values her image and constant access to cell phones. She occasionally expresses jealousy that it is Morty who gets to accompany Rick on his inter-dimensional adventures.

 

http://video.adultswim.com/rick-and-morty/special/

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

Of course I relate most with the grandfather Rick, except when he belches, farts, and drinks. The kind of physics stories that the show is tackling correctly identifies the topics of concern that America is currently facing. I have covered here the predictions that the world will experience over the next 20 years, and Rick and Morty is right on track to help the minds of this new generation deal with those complex issues.

I simply love the story lines. They are some of the cleverest topics I have seen attempted by a television show with the exception of Doctor Who, only this show goes a few steps further. There is an episode where Morty convinces his grandfather to buy him a sex robot while traveling to an intergalactic pawn shop which was truly bizarre, but as I watched it I couldn’t help but think that the future of the sex trade industry was being shown. The human race is only a few decades away from these very issues, and that same episode dealt with extremely difficult subject matter centering on problems with feminism—and the nature of life. In spite of the crazy over-the-top conduct of the show, it was very intelligent and well written. If it wasn’t so controversial, it would be nominated for an Emmy because it is actually dealing with hard topics that most writers would avoid like the plague.

It doesn’t happen often, but Rick and Morty is one of those rare exceptions on television that is well worth watching. It certainly took me by surprise. The goodness of it is not so much in what it is now, but in what it will be as the Bill O’Reilly generation fades off into the sunset with all their 60’s hippie rhetoric, big spending debt, and labor union stagnation—yielding to a new generation that will have to solve cures for cancer, their own mortality, and new issues involving the mind-bending discoveries about our universe that will come directly from the computation services of modern artificial intelligence being hatched before our very eyes. Many of the problems that Bill O’Reilly deals with nightly will soon washed away like high-tide striking a sandcastle on a Florida beach. This is the attitude of Rick from the show, where he protests to his granddaughter, Summer that now he has to take over a planet because of her boobs. I don’t understand Bill O’Reilly’s support of Tesla Motors. But I do understand the grandfather Rick, and that is why Rick and Morty is a breath of fresh air seen only on Adult Swim on the Cartoon Network.

Rich Hoffman  

www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

 

The Way of the Fighter: American rebellion against rigidity, command structure and orthodox behavior

Please watch at least this first video for context and background on Claire Lee Chennault:

This isn’t the first time I have revealed a personal passion that I have for the American Volunteer Group who fought in China under Claire Lee Chennault. CLICK HERE TO REVIEW. What the A.V.G. did in just a few months in China against the vastly superior Japanese is the epitome of American ingenuity and exhibits the true benefits of capitalism. There is a reason that the A.V.G was so dramatically successful against the Japanese airforce and made the allied Royal Air Force seem like stumbling fools in comparison. The A.V.G were soldiers of fortune who were unorthodox and despised authority. They were not only in China for the right and ability to fight an enemy against all odds, but they were there to get rich. The Chinese government attacked by the Japanese from the East and the communists coming out of the North paid American pilots flying outdated hot rod P-40’s $500 per kill—unofficially—making some of the best A.V.G. aces quite wealthy. But that wasn’t all, it was the mechanics and ground crew which kept the planes flying using innovation that only America had shown an ability to perform that eventually tipped the scales of war toward the A.V.G. There are very important lessons that were on display over China during the early days of World War II that were every bit as real as the John Wayne classic—and favorite film of mine, The Flying Tigers. It was in this film that I first learned about Claire Chennault. But as heroic as the Flying Tigers were portrayed by Wayne in that film, the reality was actually much more spectacular. One of my most treasured books is the rare one written in 1949 by Chennault himself called Way of the Fighter which went into great detail about the A.V.G. and how eventually General Stilwell would screw everything up in Asia—after World War II.

Chennault as leader of the A.V.G. produced a group of fighting men who were charismatically over-the-top with valor, but were deadly accurate as fighting men. Once America officially entered the war, Stilwell was in charge and the A.V.G. was dissolved into official military control, and their kill ratio declined rapidly. Chennault was so critical of Stilwell, and the American government that the book Way of the Fighter was removed from print quickly and to this day is very rare. To get a copy, it costs anywhere from $150 to $300 dollars for a beat-up copy. The book is a treasure of American spirit and is a key to the kind of talent and drive which makes The United States so unique.

The Flying Tigers, according to the Way of the Fighter was predicted by military experts to not last three weeks in combat against the Japanese. Instead over a 7 month period over Burma, China, Thailand, and French Indo-China the A.V.G. destroyed 299 Japanese planes with another 153 most likely destroyed but unaccounted for. All this with just 12 P-40’s lost in combat and 61 on the ground from Japanese strafing missions. Only four A.V.G. pilots were killed in air combat; six killed by antiaircraft fire; three by enemy bombs on the ground; and three were taken prisoner. Ten more died as a result of flying accidents. The Flying Tigers were so hated by the Japanese because of the tremendous kill ratio against them that they promised on their radio broadcasts to shoot A.V.G. prisoners as bandits on sight. But the three captured pilots were treated with respect indicating the enemy’s genuine admiration for Chennault’s organization.

There were two keys to this success, the first of which was capitalism. The pilots were the best there was and wanted to make a lot of money shooting down Japanese planes. The money attracted the best pilots that were available during the prewar times leading up to World War II. The other of course is Claire Lee Chennault himself. He would eventually become a military general but during his A.V.G. days he was simply a hired strategist for the Chinese who desperately needed a creative, “western” mind to protect them from the invading Japanese. Chennault was extremely unorthodox. In some respects he was very strict; in others he was very lenient. He knew when to apply pressure and when not to, which is a distinctly American trait that military leaders all around the world scoffed at—including The United States. But it was because of Chennault’s manner that the A.V.G. was so incredibly good.

Chennault would train his soldier of fortune pilots relentlessly saying, “You will face Japanese pilots superbly trained in mechanical flying. They have been drilled for hundreds of hours in flying precise formations and rehearsing set tactics for each situation they may encounter. Japanese pilots fly by the book, and these are the books they use.” Chennault would then dump the books into the laps of his star pilots. “Study them, and you will always be one jump ahead of the enemy.” Chennault would stand still for effect, peer at the pilots ruthlessly then say, “They (Japanese) have plenty of guts but lack initiative and judgment. They go into battle with a set tactical plan and follow it no matter what happens. Bombers will hold their formations until they are all shot down. Fighters always try the same tricks over and over again. God help the American pilot who tries to fight them according to their plans. The object of our tactics is to break up their formations and make them fight according to our style. Once the Japanese are forced to deviate from their plan, they are in trouble. Their rigid air discipline can be used as a powerful weapon against them.”

Chennault would present charts, graphs, maps, and hours upon hours of practice flying personally mentoring each of his pilots drilling them, building them up as individuals—treating each of them as though they were the star quarterback on a football team, and they performed for him spectacularly. Once he had their trust, and their ears he would say, “You must use the strong points of your equipment against the weak points of the enemy. Each type of plane has its own strength and weakness. The pilot who can turn his advantages against the enemy’s weakness will win every time. You can count on a higher top speed, faster dive, and superior firepower. The Jap fighters have a faster rate of climb, higher ceiling, and better maneuverability. They can turn on a dime and climb almost straight up. If they can get you into a turning combat, they are deadly.” Chennault would then pull his finger across his throat to drive home the point as the heat of the Toungoo airfield poured in from a tent flap letting in the summer sun, sweat dripping off the fighters as they listened attentively.

“Use your speed and diving power to make a pass, shoot and break away. You have the edge in that kind of combat. All your advantages are brought to bear on the Japanese deficiencies. Close your range, fire, and dive away. Never stay within range of the Jap’s defensive firepower any longer than you need to deliver an accurate burst. You need to sharpen your shooting eye. Nobody ever gets too good at gunnery. The more Jap’s you get with your first burst, the fewer there are to jump you later. Accurate fire saves ammunition. Your plane carries a limited number of bullets. There is nothing worse than finding yourself in a fight with empty guns.”

The Flying Tigers would become part of the official American military under the United States Army Air Forces’ 23rd Fighter Group. The effectiveness of the A.V.G. pilots declined quickly under the regimented military life insisted upon by Stilwell. However some ace pilots like Tex Hill would stay on and help train other American pilots in the ways of the famous A.V.G. and Chennault’s battle tactics would migrate from aircraft carrier to carrier throughout the entire Pacific allowing America to gradually beat back the Japanese and eventually dominate them. The victories in the Pacific theater were not a result of General Stilwell or MacArthur, but rather because of Clair Chennault. Without Chennault, America would not have won in the Pacific and Japan would have taken China months before the bombing of Pearl Harbor. This would have given them access to numerous natural resources that would have allowed them to dominate the entire continent of Asia. World War II really came down to two generals who broke official rules of orthodox command, Patton in Europe took Trier with only two divisions sarcastically replying to his furious commanders who instructed him otherwise that he would “give it back,” if they didn’t approve of his methods, and of course Chennault’s epic battles with Stilwell—Stilwell obviously jealous of Chennault denied him of supplies and manpower secretly hoping it would end the winning reputation of the former A.V.G. commander. The victories in the Pacific and in Europe were won by soldiers of fortune, and unorthodox command. It was not just won by bravery, or equipment, but by people who knew how to use the strengths of their equipment against the enemy and were not afraid to upset the command structure of their superiors. That is the “American” way!

On the other hand the allies, particularly the R.A.F. out of England with their Spitfires had a much more difficult time. For instance, in the battle over Rangoon, the R.A.F had losses comparable to the Japanese while the American A.V.G. had a 15 to 1 kill ratio fighting right alongside them all. This is because the A.V.G. were unorthodox freedom fighters combating for money and adventure while the R.A.F and Japanese pilots were regimented military fighters who would follow orders to a fault, and could be counted on to die if needed for the greater good.

After America defeated the Japanese, Stilwell, foolishly advised command that there was no other need for America to guard China from any hostile threat in that region even though Claire Chennault was practically jumping up and down begging America to stop the push by communists into China from Russia. Chennault warned that there would be more war, likely in Korea and Vietnam if America did not continue to defend China. Truman, and American military command ignored Chennault with the same institutionalized swagger that they professed that the Flying Tigers would be destroyed within three weeks. They blew off Chennault’s warnings, blacklisted his book, Way of the Fighter, and assumed that they had won the Pacific war based on their West Point educations. They were wrong. Within a few years America was back at war with Korea, then a few years after that with Vietnam. But at that point communism had already affected the collective based cultures of Asia and had even gone to work in America under the counter-culture movement starting at colleges within The United States.

Few people would believe that the slow slide into such an abyss of global communism and socialism began when America won World War II and stopped listening to General Claire Lee Chennault. But it did. Too many Americans at the time did not see communism as a threat but did see Japan as a threat because of their obvious hostilities toward the outside world. However, as Chennault published his book, Way of the Fighter, Chinese communists were taking over the country violently torturing the kind of people the A.V.G. fought so valiantly to defend, leaving them alone and defenseless. Communist China then moved against Tibet and America did nothing about it. Just that fast the entire land mass of Asia was under communist control and quickly seeping into all of Europe through the less offensive term of socialism. Communists did to the world what Chennault did to the Japanese pilots, they exposed the rigidity of American politics and picked off their enemies one by one over a long period of time—just as Chennault had warned.

The lessons should be clear, freedom, capitalism and innovation beats rigidity, command structure, and orthodox behavior. And it isn’t group consensus that wins wars and defends nations, but ultimately solitary minds, valor, and raw courage that is more unpredictable then structured. And thus, that is the Way of the Fighter, and the way that nations prosper.

Rich Hoffman

 www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

 

The Endless Imagination of Fantasy Flight Games: New releases of X-Wing Miniatures

I love technology as much as anybody, but when I want to relax, technology is often not part of the experience.  I will always love a real book in my hands because I don’t like looking at a lit up screen to read, and I will always prefer physical activity to computer play.  But with the NSA concern in reading every email, watching all online traffic, and all the privacy concerns involved,  I love Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures more and more—because of the low tech, yet complex game play.  I play the game as much as I can because it has all the multifaceted strategy of a video game, the intellectual muscle flexing of chess, and the unlimited creative potential of miniature model building incorporated into a non-technical exercise that is a true vacation from the many prying eyes of our modern world.  The video shown below is from a couple recent games that I played displaying the creative potential behind the game.  The models are very detailed, and provide creative stimulation for boundless imaginations, and the terrain such as asteroids and star field backgrounds surprisingly pull the mind into the game world effectively.

The depth of the game is something to truly behold, but for me it is the lack of technical involvement that is most attractive.  When playing, the technical outside world is turned off.  However, perhaps even better the creative potential of the game is limitless, and the company Fantasy Flight Games has really overachieved as an organization.  Prior to 2013, they already had a championship caliber game that would live on for many years as a crowd favorite.  But they didn’t stop there.  Instead, they worked on making 2014 one of the most exciting in the short life of the game with a whole range of new additions.  Every game addition mentioned below is something that I am very eager to experience and will hit the marketplace within a few months of this writing.  These will make the video shown above that much more exciting, and complex, and will fill many evenings with great joy.  Fantasy Flight Games is one of the most innovative and forward thinking companies in existence.  I wish they were not applying these great skills to just entertainment, but in the field of aerospace, manufacturing science, and research and development.  But in the world of gaming, they are simply the best there is at this point in time.  Here are just a few of their releases over the next couple of months that I am most excited about.

The GR-75 Medium Transport

First unveiled as a prototype at Gen Con Indy 2013, the iconic GR-75 Rebel transport is most famous for its critical role in the Rebellion’s evacuation from Hoth. However, the GR-75’s role in the Rebellion’s efforts extended far beyond that pivotal conflict.

GR-75 transports were used mainly to transport supplies, equipment, or troops, but some were modified to serve as fuel tankers for long-range starfighter missions. Relatively inexpensive, the GR-75‘s hulls couldn’t be penetrated by Imperial sensors, and the Rebel Alliance often enhanced this feature by outfitting the starship with sensor jammers. Indeed, the Rebel Alliance made such common use of the GR-75 that it was often called the Rebel medium transport.

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=4628. 

Rebel Aces features one A-wing and one B-wing miniature, both of which come with alternate paint schemes. You’ll also find four highly skilled unique, new pilots; thirteen upgrade cards; maneuver dials; and all the tokens necessary to launch these starfighters into the thickest action of your space battles against the evil Galactic Empire. It also includes a new mission, which thrusts some of the Rebellion’s finest pilots into a desperate rescue effort that highlights the B-wing’s durability and the A-wing’s agility.

Heroic New Paint Schemes

Fly with the best! The alternate paint schemes on the starfighter miniatures from the Rebel Aces Expansion Pack allow you to battle for the Rebellion’s cause while representing the heroic efforts of the pilots who first flew its A-wings and B-wings as experimental prototypes.

Only ace pilots were granted the right to fly prototypes for the Rebel fleet. Piloting the agile A-wing required tremendous focus and lightning fast reflexes. Still, by helping the Rebel Alliance develop and improve upon its original designs, their efforts benefitted everyone dedicated to the cause of galactic freedom, and the A-wing ultimately proved its worth during the Battle of Endor by helping to cripple Star Destroyers.

To honor those prototype pilots who first flew the ship, the A-wing in Rebel Aces features the paint scheme depicted on the Prototype Pilot ship card, with a bold blue central stripe and red and yellow highlights.

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=4705

Close Air Support

Manufactured by Incom Corporation, the Z-95 Headhunter was the primary inspiration for the later design of the T-65 X-wing. Even though the X-wing eventually outclassed it in nearly every respect, the Z-95 was cheap, durable, and reliable enough that it continued to see use throughout the Galactic Civil War, most commonly in close air support roles.

Entering X-Wing as the Rebel starship with the lowest squad point value, the Z-95 Headhunter is perfectly suited to play the role within the game that it played within the Star Wars galaxy. It’s a durable and reliable starfighter that comes with the ability to carry and fire missiles, making it capable of playing a strong support role.

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=4663

The CR90 Corvette

While the Tantive IV is easily the most iconic CR90 corvette in the Star Wars galaxy, it is by no means the only one of import. Manufactured by the Corellian Engineering Corporation, the CR90 was a swift, multipurpose ship that saw widespread use among governments and private parties.

The CR90 corvette’s modular design made it easy for users to reconfigure it to best suit the purpose they wanted it to serve, and the CR90 was often employed as a cargo transport, troop carrier, passenger vessel, or light escort. Additionally, the CR90 could be outfitted with enough weaponry to make it a formidable gunship; it could equip as many as eight turbolasers, six laser cannons, and four ion cannons.

The Tantive IV Expansion Pack presents a similarly adaptable starship for use in your games of X-Wing. Between its two ship cards, for fore and aft sections, the CR90 can equip up to ten upgrades of four different types.

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=4663

Every time X-Wing Miniature players think they have this game figured out, Fantasy Flight comes up with new ships with entirely new variables making the game ever evolving unlike most table top games.  As players provide Fantasy Flight Games with feedback on their website chat forum, the game designers have proven adapt to filling voids discovered in strategy. For instance, Imperial players were dominating tournament play with Tie swarm tactics which allowed cheap Tie Fighters to overwhelm the more expensive point values of the Rebel players by sheer numbers.  Fantasy Flight saw this trend and is now releasing the Headhunter which will be nearly the same point value giving Rebel players the option of putting swarms of Headhunters against Imperial players.   The CR90 and CR-75 will be the first of a series of big ships to hit the game which will bring entirely new strategies to the game not even yet explored.  In this way the strategies that players used last year in 2013 will be useless in 2014 with all these new variables being introduced.  In this way, X-Wing Miniatures is very dynamic and is likely the reason the game is exploding in popularity.  I know I spend considerable amounts of time reading cards and planning strategy even when I’m not playing the game.  It fills my mind with enjoyment for the sheer mechanism of focused thought.

It is always a pleasure to experience a company that is doing everything right.  With Fantasy Flight the only real issue they have is in delivery of new product line.  They are currently late on the CR90 and CR-75, but for what they provide as far as product, they are worth the wait.  There are few things that bring me so much pure joy as Fantasy Flight Games X-Wing Miniatures.  For those new to the game I have provided samples of tournament play from Team Covenant who is a committed group of table top gamers who wish to advance the hobby to for the uninitiated.  The game is different from gambling games like Poker and Black Jack because it is essentially a war simulation.  The added ability to actually pilot vessels makes X-Wing Miniatures even fun to watch because the entire game play area is up for grabs.  Every conceivable mathematical surface of a play area is an option.  The game is not limited to spaces, or a game board—but to the unlimited options of a game player and how they chose to utilize that battlefield.  That freedom is both within the game and from external electronic control, surveillance, and other limitations that make X-Wing one of my favorite current past times—a trend that is not likely to subside any time soon.

Rich Hoffman

http://www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

The Closing of Holy Cross: Pelicans of European lore

In “The Dream of the Virgin,” by Christoforo Simone dei Conrocefissi—a painting of Jesus Christ emerging from a dead body in the form of a tree–a bird atop the crucified figure of Christ has bothered me for a number of years—since the early 90s when I first saw it.  The bird is a pelican which according to the nature lore of the European Middle Ages nourishes its young on blood drawn from its own breast.image  It is used in the painting to show the proper metaphor of how Christ through the giving of his Holy Blood has nourished mankind into Salvation.  About that same time the pastor of my Lutheran Church of Holy Cross in Fairfield, Ohio was suffering from a divorce where his wife ran off to find freedom from the rigidity of being a pastor’s wife.  She wanted to live a free life away from his judgmental existence and bicycle across the earth free of God’s appraisal.  As I looked up at the lit up cross in that church my parents helped keep alive for many years it was a measure of a 20 year journey into philosophy that leaped well beyond the good foundations provided by my years there. Holy Cross for me was my first exposure into a journey that would outgrow the little church starting at the point of time mentioned.  Over the next two decades I would only return a handful of times that would finally end on March 23, 2014.  It was the last service of that church, my parents were the ushers and a substitute pastor headed the service which would be the last one.  There was no new generation to take over, and the church was finally closing.   It first opened in 1957, my parents were married there, my wife and I were married there, we were all baptized there, some of my nieces and nephews and most of my first acting and public speaking was done there.  Prior to the 90s, I performed every job at the church except conduct the actual ministry and play the organ.  The church had played a huge part in my life which put me on a path to fight evil with a foundation started during my youth.   Now during this last service as we all readied to take communion one last time that painting was coming back to me resurrecting the ridiculous role of the pelican.  That was what I thought of as I was handed bread representing the body of Christ.

I have told people who didn’t understand why I stopped attending Holy Cross that it wasn’t that I was becoming an atheist or had lost “faith.”  I had just outgrown the church which of course nobody understood, particularly parents who had given so much of themselves to it.  For me, the failure of the church was not in its message of goodness, in helping people and having spiritual value—it was in the ideal of sacrifice.  I had continued to study literature well after my Bible study days and moved into comparative religion heavily from 18 to 19 years of age.  I learned that it wasn’t just Lutherans and Catholics who had these stupid concepts about sacrifice—it was all religions to some degree or another—and I saw clearly that politics was exposing this weakness taught to the masses of humanity for their own exploitation of power.  Now a pastor I had studied with closely over many years had a wife leaving him and it was obvious that God wasn’t coming to his rescue.  Bowing on his knees to a savor wasn’t going to bring the woman back.  The situation was much more complicated and I needed to understand the answers for my own life.  Blind trust into some mysterious beings behind a curtain was not enough for me.  For many of the people I knew, it was—and I saw that as an intellectual limitation that would not be sufficient for my family.

I left the church unofficially because of the false premise that sacrifice was needed for human life to move forward.  Creativity is the real driver of advancement, not pouring the blood of Christ into a cup and drinking it on Sunday.  Softened rituals of human sacrifice which is what Lutheran communion was only served in providing basic childlike foundations into living a life of goodness.  It did not help a person live a life where they are in control, where they are accountable, and they dictate the fate of their own existence.   So I continued on and only returned for big family events until this last service.  I couldn’t help but notice the tears from the audience, listening to the organ from the balcony, the lit up cross I had spent so many Sundays and years helping keep the place alive.  I looked out the window at the same trees I looked at growing up.  They were a little bigger, but mostly still there.  During sermons I had stared at every line of every brick in the front wall of a church that was quite a popular place in the 70s and 80s.  Many of my first girlfriends came out of the church.  Even during some of my most rebellious years mentioned prior, I still attended church at Holy Cross almost every weekend.  It had become a sanctuary of goodness for me over the years that I had a lot of value for.  But not enough value to sacrifice my life to, or the lives of my children.  The church was not more important than me and my family and that is a tough concept to explain to people who have not taken those steps.

The drastic difference in thinking was that sacrifice was a concept which should be abandoned—the ideal that something must be given up so that something can come to be.  I was not going to teach my children that sacrifice was needed to live—but that it was creativity that brought everything into being and that God was the factor behind inspiration and drive.   The ideal of someone sacrificing their life so that I could live was something I decided to reject and would spend my life going forward living from my own spontaneity and creativity and I would teach everyone who wanted to listen to do the same.   That way of thinking is not for everyone.  It requires a firm footing upon a foundation of goodness, and I gained that foundation at Holy Cross Lutheran Church and my parents did a wonderful job introducing it to me.  Many of my first books, which I still have and treasure are Bibles and Bible Encyclopedias.  In my pastor’s office when I was personally instructed by him I always admired the books on his shelves—literature was very important to him. But at a certain point you outgrow it if growth continues, and for me I could have stayed stagnate and thrown myself at God’s mercy the way the pastor did when his wife left him, or I could take control and move past him—well past him and shape my own destiny through creativity—not sacrifice.

One last time I took communion out of respect for the ceremony and I felt sorry for those who were still confined to the ideal of sacrifice.  They were good people, but they were stuck—and happy to be there.  Like the pastor from two decades prior, who was now deceased, it was easier to pray to God, trust in the wisdom of His benevolence than to take personal responsibility through personal creativity to lead one’s own life to a conclusion of self motivated destiny.  It is far easier to bow and eat bread, drink wine, and pray and leave the responsibility for living to the universe.

As I put the communion cup down for the last time alongside the northern windows I felt the heat of the building pushing warm air through the heating system. I would miss this church—because I wouldn’t be able to come back ever again.  It was closing, and at the end of the service, it would finally be gone forever, and it was a sad moment.  The building was alive and had been since 1957.  I had grown up and felt that heat most of my life but now I felt not just sad that it would be over—but that it was now like a pair of shoes that I wore when I was a child which I could no longer wear—and I felt bad that I couldn’t teach everyone to also outgrow their shoes.

Holy Cross closed with the stripping of the alter—with no music and the slamming shut of the church log, sniffles permeated the vaulted ceilings, the classic lights, the candles which were now extinguished and the gentle rumble of the heating system pushing warm air into the congregation.  The church had cared for its people attending worship for so many years, and now it was over—and it was sad.  But the ultimate failure was not the changing demographics of the area, the declining morality of society, but the concept that sacrifice was needed for a fruitful existence.  Every institution which subscribes to those types of theories ends just like the lives which give shape to them.  Sacrifice is the wrong approach to everything because in the end things just end, like marriages, churches, lives, and minds.  For something to live on, it requires creativity because without that—nothing happens—and that is the secret to success, love, and life.    The only pelican in my life are the ones I feed in Florida when I visit Tampa, who wait for me to feed them a fish.  They don’t give me back anything in return except for the joy of watching them eat it.  The European lore was wrong and all those who followed it.

Rich Hoffman

 www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

 

The Leather Jackets of U.S. Wings: Sgt. Hack’s curious case and exceptional quality

Too often there is very little to talk about but what we don’t like—and when you’re picky, or expect competency when dealing with people, all too often what we get is disappointment.  Every day for over 6 years now I have put on a leather flight jacket from US Wings.  I ride motorcycles all year, and there are maybe a handful of days over that span of time that I don’t have to go somewhere.  And when I do travel it is usually by motorcycle.  So my leather jacket has to be tough, withstand all the elements and be extremely functional.  Even on the hottest days of summer a leather jacket is needed—the mornings are often cool, too cool for naked skin and large bugs pelt you in the torso area while riding.  The leather is an offering of armor and is essential riding equipment.  Even during a motorcycle ride from Key West to the Everglades 50 miles west of Miami where the real temperature was 107 degrees the early dawn sun was pleasant to the naked skin, but once the day hit 10 AM, it was punishing.  The jacket was needed just to stay hydrated and prevent the skin from burning under the sun. Then from Miami to Orlando, afternoon thunderstorms are common, it may be intensely sunny and 15 minutes later a thunderstorm is upon you dropping rain the size of a small fist as hundreds begin hitting you by the minute.  Without the leather the pain would be intense, probably unbearable.  So because I ride a motorcycle every day of the year I wear a leather jacket every day as well.  I have an additional problem, I often meet people where my leather jacket has to go along with a suit and tie.  It would be disrespectful to the people I see to show up in a biker jacket with studs looking like I’m going to Sturgis—so I need my leather jacket to look as good as the cloth underneath it.  So with all that in mind I have only found one company in the entire world that made a jacket fitting for me and that is U.S. Wings outside of Cleveland, Ohio founded by Sgt. David D. Hack, the Purple Heart recipient and Nation’s #1 US Army recruiter from 69 to 73.  He’s been Chief of Police in Sebring, Ohio, and in his spare time founded U.S. Wings in 1986 to the present.  His company knows how to make cloths that fit my very intense lifestyle.  So you can imagine dear reader how disappointed I was when I went to zip up my well-worn flight jacket a few weeks ago and the teeth were so worn out from use that they no longer gripped each other.

I contacted U.S. Wings to price a new zipper and liner and they responded quickly.  The zipper replacement was $60 and the liner replacement was $90, plus shipping the jacket to the New Jersey plant where most of the construction takes place.   It was still winter where the nights are often in the mid 20s so I had to be able to zip up the jacket—it simply couldn’t wait.  But after careful consideration, even though the stitching all over the jacket was still very much intact it was decided that it was time to retire that jacket and buy a new one.  A new jacket from U.S. Wings costs about the same as a good firearm but considering my use, a new one was better than fixing the old one so I placed an order for one of their Signature Series flight jackets with nearly the exact specs.

The order was placed and a few days later the jacket arrived on my doorstep ready for battle.  I literally took it out of the box, tried it on for fitting and left the house on my motorcycle.  When you meet with people they can tell instantly whether the jacket is a cheap rip-off from some shopping mall vender selling “club” clothing or some piece of crap made for the herds at various coat suppliers destined to be sold in the future at a flea market.  It doesn’t matter so much if the jacket is stained from sweet, rain, bugs, or heat streaked, they can tell if it is of quality and if it’s not it won’t look right with a suit and a $500 dollar watch.  But U.S. Wing jackets are just fine for this kind of thing and suit both necessities perfectly.  The jackets are of a quality where their value never comes into question.

When I bought the first jacket six years ago Hack’s company sent with it some bonus items free of charge—a book about Hack’s life which was actually quite good and a free Moko Man hat which I wear often.  As this new jacket arrived I expected him to send something extra, but wasn’t all that shocked when only the jacket was inside.  The economy had been hard for everyone, so I figured that U.S. Wings had given up on those kinds of perks to save money.  Two days after the arrival of the jacket it was a Saturday and one of my nephews was at my house playing Star Wars: X Wing with myself and one of my son-in-laws as we noticed the mail man driving up our driveway.  He dropped off a package and neither my wife nor I expected to receive anything.  We took the usual protocols when examining something unusual which arrives at our home, but my concerns quickly alleviated once I saw the U.S. Wings logo on the box.

U.S. Wings had sent a special delivery of free items, a DVD music video titled “The Ballad of Sergeant Hack” by Erica Lane and a special single song CD by the same musical artist called “Believe in America.”  Inside also was a special bag designed to protect expensive garments while traveling, such as U.S. Wing jackets and tailored suits.  It was a cost that U.S. Wings did not have to incur, they could have just sent the jacket, but as usual they went above and beyond.

The song, “The Ballad of Sergeant Hack” can be heard on the first video on this article along with other videos which give an ideal who David Hack is, and why he is one of those unique people whose personality inevitably comes out in his company U.S. Wings.  Hack is a guy who personally wrote President Johnson complaining that he wanted to go to Ranger school.  He volunteered for Vietnam during a time when many people were dodging the draft and was a recruiter on the active front designated to reenlist soldiers who were set to rotate out of the combat zones.  Needless to say, Sergeant Hack is the real deal and that personality certainly comes out in the clothing line of U.S. Wings.

Hack’s patriotism is genuine.  He’s obviously not happy with the direction of the country currently—and his sentiments are much older than the Tea Party.  He’s not a “come lately” to the ideal of patriotism and is truly one of the unique people of American culture.  I purchase my leather jackets from U.S. Wings because there simply are not better jackets made by any other manufacturer in the world when it comes to military clothing and rugged apparel.  I would not trust my jackets to be made by a roving communist from the East or a socialist from Europe or a conquered soul in Russia.  U.S. Wing jackets are purely American and made for American lifestyles, and they are the only kind of jacket that I’ll wear.

As is often the case, the company U.S. Wings is the embodiment of its creator, Sergeant Hack and the quality he has directly infused into a great American company.  In a day where most things are imports from other countries done cheaply out of necessity, U.S. Wings jackets have an emblem inside all their garments which actually sends a chill up my spine every time I see it—which is every day because I put those jackets on every day.  U.S. Wings is a company that I trust because I trust Sergeant Hack and know that he puts a lot of extra effort into the reputation of his company.  Most companies that make coats, shoes, boots, or even farm equipment have fallen from grace because the personalities of their creators, the Chief Executive Officers who utilize capitalism to bring joy to the world lose touch with their initial passions.  When it comes to U.S. Wings, even after many years of existence, over a long-span of time, their quality and effort are matched by their past performance and it is one of the rare honors that I have had to open a package from them and see what’s inside.  Often it is the little things that matter, and when it comes to U.S. Wings a lot of little things add up to greatness, from the quality of their stitching to the measurements of their segments—to the quality of the actual leather.  And even when they don’t have to—because the product speaks for itself, David Hack wants his customers to know more about him, so that they know what they are getting is the real deal that won’t falter when they need it most.  And when it comes to leather jackets there aren’t any better made.

For me there are two essential ingredients to my daily life, my leather U.S. Wings jackets and Gargoyle Sunglasses.  Everything else is a variable.

Here is the U.S. Wings website:

 http://www.uswings.com/

And now that you’ve read all this, watch all the videos completely and know that what you are seeing is a deep tap-root into American exceptionalism and be damn proud of it.

Rich Hoffman

 www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

 

The Idiots of France: Why Goodyear validates the new Atlas III movie poster

I have been watching the French labor unions behavior toward the Goodyear tire company for over a year now with excessive fascination.  Anybody who thinks that Atlas Shrugged written by Ayn Rand in 1957 is a farfetched fiction novel is out of their mind, because most everything stated in that dystopian novel has taken place in that openly socialist European country.  Most labor unions believe the same type of things that the crazy French union believes, only they attempt to dress it up a bit.  Now with a socialist French president, the unions no longer feel they must dress up their behavior and are revealing what they have always been—economic terrorists inspired by Karl Marx desiring the end game of communism.  Maurice Taylor – chief executive of Titan International told rightly the France’s industry minister that his country had “beautiful women and fantastic wine” but “no idea how to run a business”. Mr. Taylor added: “Goodyear tried for over four years to save part of the Amiens jobs that are some of the highest paid, but the French unions and the French government did nothing but talk.”  The production at the French Goodyear plant has been stagnant as the striking workers regressed into some type of tribal ritual of belief thinking that the jobs at the plant existed in nature and that it was Maurice Taylor who was keeping those jobs from the people.  In reality it was people like Taylor who made the jobs and that isn’t appreciated by anybody—which was the basic plot of Atlas Shrugged.

Last winter Maurice Taylor frustrated with the French government and idiotic workers at the Amiens plant sent a letter to Arnaud Montebourg, the French Industrial Minister saying “I have visited that factory a couple of times. The French workforce gets paid high wages but only works three hours.  They get one hour for breaks and lunch, talk for three and work for three. I told this to the French union workers to their faces. They told me that’s the French way!”  This set off a firestorm of political theater that extended all over Europe.  Most of the opinions sided with the French workers and were against Maurice Taylor which I found appalling.  It has become grossly apparent during this whole French Goodyear issue why Europe is failing economically, and why America even under a socialist president like Obama is far superior in terms of economic development and innovative surplus.  France is the second largest economy of Europe and they really don’t function well at anything.  Taylor stated a fact, the French workers don’t believe in hard work—long productive hours—or capitalism, which is the creator of jobs.  Some French workers may, but a majority of the people elected a socialist president, and they are getting what they deserve, a terrible economy with a dismal ten-year market forecast.  The situation is so extreme that just a few weeks ago the labor union actually kidnapped two Goodyear executives to force negotiations.Non_Fiction_thumbnail_2__54597.1393006797.120.120

After a court rejected their most recent appeal against the plant’s closure, members of the hard-left CGT union locked up production and human resources directors Michel Dheilly and Bernard Glesser.  France 2 TV showed the Goodyear executives seated at a table staring straight ahead as workers shouted in their ears. One director had a bed pan thrust in his face.  This happened after these same union people were insulted at Maurice Taylor’s portrayal of them as being “lazy.”  And this isn’t the first time.  They did it previously at a 3M plant in Pithiviers when a dispute over severance pay couldn’t be resolved.

http://www.lesechos.fr/19/02/2013/lesechos.fr/0202577006715_goodyear—la-lettre-de-titan-a-montebourg.htm

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9885369/French-minister-hits-back-at-three-hour-day-attack.html

The kidnappings in France appear to be a normal type of behavior for them as most of the French people were not outraged at all by the incident.  Even after the kidnappings the news slant out of Paris focused on the CEO of Titan Maurice Taylor, and his comments from the previous year.  Here are just a few:

France’s Communist Party expressed outrage at Taylor’s letter to the French government, calling it “an appalling provocation coupled with xenophobia against French workers.”  In France the communist party actually gets quoted in the paper which doesn’t happen at all in The United States–openly—even though many reporters lean toward communism as opposed to capitalism.  Another statement pontificated–“this is an insulting letter,” said Mickael Wamen, the CGT union’s representative at the Goodyear plant, saying it showed Taylor “belongs more in an insane asylum than at the head of a multinational corporation.”  But that same guy supported taking Goodyear executives hostage.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/07/us-france-bossnapping-idUSBREA060GG20140107NowNon_Fiction_Hat__59902.1386945564.220.220

I have seen the new movie poster from the film Atlas Shrugged Part III: Who Is John Galt and it is controversial.  The filmmakers don’t wish me to reveal it at this time, so I won’t, but I’ll say this much.  It features John Galt standing up in front of the labor union at 20th Century Motors and telling them that he (Galt) will not go along with their socialist plans—and that he refuses to join them.  This happens against the backdrop of an American flag, and to me it is very exciting.  I actually love it—because when you pay attention to things like this whole issue in France, it becomes obvious very quickly why the entire continent of Africa is poor, why India is overcrowded and destitute, why China has the living conditions of an insect, why Russia is deceitful and broke, and why all of Europe is a cesspool of jealously toward The United States.  It is because they have behaved with collectivist, socialist corrosion which John Galt wisely divorces himself from in the upcoming movie.  The movie poster may not be exciting in the way a new superhero picture would be, but it is exciting in a way that people who understand capitalism need to see and hear.  Maurice Taylor will like the poster.  The French labor unions will hate it—but who cares what they think.  That French plant has sat idle during their entire strike.  They didn’t create a job to rival Goodyear, they just stood around like a bunch of idiots waiting for Taylor to “give” them a job they were somehow entitled to.

The new Atlas film based on the great American novel Atlas Shrugged looks like it will be fantastic.  Socialists, communists, labor unions, and scum bags won’t like the film.  They won’t like the new movie poster because John Galt is rejecting their premise in the movie–so who could blame them.  The French cannot understand American capitalism.  They have ruined their minds and as much as people like Maurice Taylor have tried to help them, they don’t get it.  In Atlas Shrugged, John Galt tried to help everyone, and they rejected him, so he packed up his efforts and left leaving the world to them—and the “workers” were unable to do anything with it.  The 20th Century Motor Company in the movie went out of business just as the Goodyear plant in France is doomed to failure.  The jobs and the wealth it created doesn’t rain from the sky the way the primitive labor union workers seem to believe based on their national philosophy shaped by Karl Marx, but is provided by people like Maurice Taylor and nobody else.  That is why the new movie poster to Atlas Shrugged Part III is so appropriate and for every reviewer who proclaims that the film is hateful, vitriolic and unrealistic—those same idiots are the people who have sided with the doomed French at the Goodyear plant in Amiens.  At the end of the book, the same thing that happened to the Goodyear executives was attempted against John Galt and the results were not pretty for those involved.  The French have proven Ayn Rand wise beyond belief and Atlas Shrugged more fact than fiction.Rand1

Rich Hoffman

 www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com