Tag: education funding

Obama, Keynesian Economics, and Public Labor Unions: Lakota Schools try for another levy

John Boehner In a statement released by the Ohio Republican Saturday night — just a day before talks with President Barack Obama — Boehner said the “White House will not pursue a bigger debt reduction agreement without tax hikes.”

Tax hikes………………….the only way out for groups of politicians who have promised, and promised, and promised so much to so many, yet know they do not have the money to pay it back without more taxes. For those types of politicians the English economist John Maynard Keynes provided them with a way to loot money from the public in the appearance of good will, and still purchases political power for themselves. About the same time another economist named Friedrich Hayek came on the scene to refute Keynesian economics and this battle has been going on for nearly 100 years.

That video is a very clever way to articulate the two economic theories. Here is a bit more about these two economists at an economic conference. There was a time in the 70’s, when Jimmy Carter had used Keynesian economics to spiral the nation out of control, that Keynes was dismissed as relevant. Ronald Reagan had used the philosophy of Hayek to resurrect the economy in the 80’s with Reaganomics, much to the dismay of Keynesian fans who are typically Democrats and Progressives.

It is these two economic theories that are at play in these recent school battles where public schools claim to be broke and believe that spending is the way to improve education, solve all social problems, and maintain an infrastructure of expanding government by teaching into the very young the principles of Keynesian economics, submission to authority, and the role of big organized labor in the fabric of social engineering. So it comes as no surprise that on this day of July 11th 2011, the Lakota School District, the 7th largest district in the state of Ohio and one of the wealthiest decided to put another levy on the fall ballot. Being an institution of education structured by their labor unions around a Keynesian economic model, the school board understands nothing else. They have as a district done exactly what the federal government has done on a national level, and that is spend themselves into oblivion leaving tax hikes as the only way out.

It’s funny that Hayek doesn’t get any respect in these videos because in real life he doesn’t, even though his economic theories are proven more relevant, and far superior. The reason for the lack of popularity of Hayek is that politicians don’t like him. Politicians looking for a vote like to give things away in order to buy those votes and Keynesian economics provide them with the excuse to do so. Public schools are absolutely no different. Schools give away college electives, busing, and school sports in a political trade for an endless supply of tax revenue to support their Keynesian economic views.

This is the reason a school district like Lakota believed that if they spent $50K on a search for a new superintendent, and then paid that superintendent $165K per year over the assistant superintendent who was making only $105K per year, that they would have success in balancing their budget deficit. The school administration believes that if they spend more money, they will automatically get better results.


This belief system of course comes from the union labor influence, where they purposely take advantage of not just the administrator’s economic ignorance in matters such as these, but also the tax payers. Unions are big government advocates who subscribe religiously to the Keynesian model. Hayek’s economic theories are a severe threat to them.

Schools are currently facing a bust cycle, because the cost of education is artificially high. Facing this bust cycle in Ohio, Governor Kasich signed Senate Bill 5 into law to help school boards deal with this natural cycle and still maintain the level of education services that are needed for our society to function. This has drawn national attention from of course President Obama who is very friendly to union labor and Keynesian economics. Over the 4th of July holiday the NEA (National Education Association) voted to pass a $10 tax on their union members to support the Obama reelection bid.

Source article:

http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/obamas-price-10-tax-for-union-teachers–you-pay/question-1945813/

This isn’t just happening on a national level; in Ohio the OEA (Ohio Education Association) is mandating a $50 fee from all its members to fight Senate Bill 5 in order to raise 20 million dollars to repeal S.B.5 in November. Firefighters are demanding $100 from their own members. All that money comes from the taxpayer indirectly. Artificially high wages for these public sector jobs makes fees of this kind feasible to be used against the tax payer in lobby power purchased from these massive public union memberships and that’s a big problem.

Source article:

http://www.redstate.com/laborunionreport/2011/04/07/ohio-unions-to-mandate-more-money-from-members-to-fund-sb5-campaign-fight/

What the unions are doing, and Obama is perpetuating in his refusal to deal with the Republicans demands to cut spending, is trying to prevent the natural bust cycle that is facing the nation by throwing more money, (our tax money) at the situation to maintain the promises they have made to themselves and their members for decades.

The average teacher at Lakota makes over 60K per year, which is much more than the tax payers who pay their salaries. This is justified by state law citing that various degrees obtained by teachers in the state of Ohio must be compensated accordingly. It does not matter that the residents of Lakota do not need kindergarten teachers who have master’s degrees, and are being paid by the community for those degrees even though the market cannot support such concepts. The union lobby using membership funds have shaped the law to suit their Keynesian economic model which is a severe flaw that is detrimental to anyone who pays taxes.

So again, our community will be in for another fight against the Lakota School System as organized labor have embedded themselves into our politics so deeply that they can dictate what type of economic strategy our elected officials use to deal with the financial realities of our times.

The difference between now and in the past, where the NEA, the OEA and presidents like Obama and many other progressives have pushed Keynesian economics to satisfy their political deals, is now people are learning about the tricks that have been played on us all for many years. The millions of dollars of lobby power, the fear mongering that money spent equals success, the strikes to artificially drive up wages, all that is coming to a close because people are learning.

And my response to this recent attempt by Lakota to pass yet another school levy when the tax payers of the district are already heavily taxed, just as we are nationally, it is the expectations that must be attacked, and will be exposed heavily in this next campaign which I look very much forward to fighting this fall. The fight is over a failed economic theory by Keynes and the economic intelligence of Hayek. That battle is underway and there will be a lot of broken hearts in the meantime, but the fight must be fought because without the fight, there will be no tomorrow as we know it or expect it. Depending on the victor of this battle tomorrow may or may not be left to our decisions. And I will fight this battle on the side of Hayek!

Good luck Lakota, you’re going to need it!

Rich Hoffman

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

Casey Anthony is Walking Free: But the real murder is far worse than a drunk party girl

This is another one of those articles where the video is just as important at the text. So take your time.

No matter what you think about the Casey Anthony trial and her being found not guilty of murder for her 2-year-old daughter in Orlando, Florida there is more at stake than just the freedom of a Casey Anthony. The emotions of this case have proven to be too much for many people to take.

Interesting how the Judge went lighter on that lady after she claimed to be bi-polar and under medication. When Casey was found not guilty, the opinion of most in society was anger as a collective gasp swept the nation.

Casey was a party girl like so many young girls these days, and her paternal instincts were seriously compromised. Her priorities were obviously vacant in the events that led up to the death of her child.

Even Skyline Chili in Clearwater Florida is openly upset about the not guilty verdict and are protesting in their small little way.

700 WLW did a fantastic job of covering this trial, and once the verdict was read, the outrage emitted from the 50,000 watt flamethrower of the Midwest. Darryl Parks had some particularly riveting analysts.

Casey Anthony is a persistent liar. So much so, there is almost no way to tell which thing she says has any semblance of the truth.

The real trouble with this verdict is the indication that society, which the jurors represent, is having more difficulty thinking critically when given evidence that requires firm decision-making skills. This is a shocking tendency among young people who have been raised in a progressive society to expect experts to do their thinking for them. Listen to this juror explain her thinking. Imagine a room full of people just like this juror, who have been bred to accept what is told to them through commercials, TV shows, newspapers, tabloids and online media, they have lost the ability to think critically.

Here the prosecutor for the case speaks on The View about how shocked he was on the not guilty verdict.

I feel sorry for the retiring prosecutor. I’ll say what he refused to acknowledge, and that the system is irreparably broken. Casey, a young woman with her priorities obviously misplaced, coming from a family of poor value thinks nothing of telling lies. What good is she on the stand swearing an oath to God? If she doesn’t believe in God, or care about the ramifications of a lie, what good is her oath, and word on the stand? The jurors aren’t much better than Casey, they are people collected from across the state and sequestered and represent to the best ability of the law to provide a fair jury of Casey’s peers, but they have obviously lost that good old fashion sense of right and wrong, of the ability to make a moral decision, because they have been infected with progressivism. And the court system which is a good ol’ boy game of politics and manipulation proved completely inept for not the first time. It’s a tangled mess of broken people trying to find the truth in darkness but without a flashlight.

This trial looks to cost taxpayers over $4.5 million to achieve nothing. It was a trial in pursuit of the truth, that had a mountain of evidence, but even with all the money spent, and nearly three years of investigating, it lacked jurors who could ascertain the information and pass judgment. And that is the real crime which has been revealed and that criminal is progressivism. Every character in this drama is a victim of progressivism, a prophecy predicted by Ayn Rand in her book Atlas Shrugged. The very same neglect these jurors showed to the mountain of evidence presented by the prosecutor is the same neglect citizen’s show toward the government tendency toward socialism, or property owners toward their schools and the union manipulation of their tax dollars. When people lose faith in themselves, and look to professionals to tell them what to do, and in the Anthony trial it was two combative attorneys who told jurors conflicting stories, the jurors proved they had lost the ability to make a decision without being spoon feed the facts. And that is the travesty of this trail.

Casey Anthony will be back on the party circuit grinding away the night with other young sluts and their dyed hair, tattoos and alcohol fueled neglect as they seek to fill the spiritual emptiness of their lives with other empty people equally lost because progressivism has lied to them. They will therefore lie to everyone else, honor is no longer valued, and murder has little value because life has been cheapened by progressivism.

This all comes back to the opening comments of Bill Cunningham of 700 WLW. This party girl was putting her little girl to sleep with chloroform so she could party it up with her friends. In doing so it appears that the prosecution proved that Casey killed her little girl in this process, probably by accident. The dead girl was put into the back of the car and driven around for over a month while Casey tried to figure out what to do about the body. In the meantime, Casey was out partying, getting “wasted” and having sex with multiple partners, again, according to the prosecution. So the moral outrage from the general population is how Casey could do such a thing. And from the youth culture, people under age 35 who have been taught in public education that collective consensus is best over individual decisions, and that going to college means lots of cheap sex and excessive drinking while responsibility in life can be delayed until their mid-twenties. These young people are more and more just like Casey Anthony, liars, cheaters, and morally bankrupt children of a progressive nation who are numb to murder because their goals in life are focused on the party, and not the responsibility of living. That’s why this case is a case of national relevance and a thermometer of our current moral state.

Most of the viewers in this case are just as guilty as the woman who shouted out in court then pleaded with the judge to go easy on her. She wanted attention in a big national case for her own selfish reasons, but lacked the courage to stand by her convictions and fell to her knees before the law withering under the pressure of the law which only has the power to regulate the weak while the truly evil walk free to tyrannize again. So shout at the TV, protest at Skyline, and talk among yourselves about the injustice of this case, but when real courage is required to prevent these murders well before they ever happen, you will be the morally bankrupt souls that supports through your inner demons people like Casey Anthony, and contribute to the evil that rots our society. Casey killed her daughter with neglect, but American’s are doing the same to their country with the same type of neglect. So in the end, everyone is guilty, and that’s why Casey Anthony is being set free.

Rich Hoffman

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

Suggested Reading:

http://afewcentsaday.com/Store.html

Thanks Glenn Beck: Good luck on the path of authenticity

Glenn Beck is one of those unique individuals, who no matter how he arrived at where he’s at is truly an authentic person. Because of his lack of willingness to play politics, social games, and his hunger for knowledge, he has been able to say and do on television what few people in the history of mankind have been able to achieve, he’s been able to pull out of civilization the good in their nature instead of playing to their fears. Tyrants typically achieve the kind of popularity that Beck has by playing to the worst in human nature. Beck has done the opposite, he has gained mass appeal by bringing out the good, and to me that is a phenomenal achievement.

It didn’t come as a surprise to me when Beck made the announcement that he wanted to back off. I saw him in Wilmington and he seemed tired. I couldn’t blame him; after all there had been so many people who threatened him and his family. Who in their right mind would want to put themselves out there like he has for all this time? But during his last episode when he spoke about why he wanted to leave his Fox show, he stated he wanted to leave with his soul, and I thought that was incredible.

Soul preservation has always been extremely important to me. I have made all my major decisions in my life with that concept in mind, including quitting college for the third time, because I did not feel I could be authentic to myself by kissing the ass of the college professors who controlled my grades. In my professional life I’ve done the same, I do not kiss ass, play games, or suck up in any way to people who consider themselves my superiors. I never have. Any success I have had is by default, where everyone else had failed and I was the only one standing that had a solution. And once the solution was presented and people are making money again, those services are highly sought after. But I never did it by playing golf with the boss, or telling the president he had on a nice tie. As a matter-of-fact, it was just yesterday that the president of a company that I have to deal with told me, “You are a piece of F**cking work, you know that!” He was furious with me because I do not pump his ego, which is something he is used to. I speak to him like he’s any other employee I have ever dealt with. I dread dealing with losers like that guy, because they are power-hungry fools that acquire those positions by default, by playing politics. Not by talent, but by the networks they build through socializing, and they disgust me. So I deeply appreciate a person like Glenn Beck who says, “You know, I’m at the top of my game, but I don’t want to lose my soul, so I’m going to take a chance to retain my creative ambition and not just settle into complacency because the money is good.” I wish every person in the world was like that. I’ve always been like that, but aside from Glenn Beck, and my wife, and maybe a few other people I’ve known over the years, nobody else is.

So I will miss Glenn Beck at 5 pm each day. But I wish him well on such an ambitious project such as what he is about to do in launching his own online network. I love what he is trying to do. I think giving up the Fox platform is a mistake, but I love his honesty and ambition.

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Only time will tell how successful Beck’s future endeavors will be. If he stopped right now and retired, the world would be far better off than it was, so anything he does in the future will only make it better, because the man himself is a good one. He may feel guilt about his past mistakes, but he has more than redeemed himself in his gifts to mankind. For too many years it has been the extremists on the far left that have moved The Overton Window so far to the left as it is today. And now because of Beck, whether he continues to have success or not, have pulled that window a bit more to the right, where people like me and an army of others can continue to drag the political spectrum back to the center where it has always belonged.

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Rich Hoffman

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

Lakota Spent $100,000 on Nothing: and now they are asking for more money

The article below is what is appearing in the Cincinnati Enquirer July 8, 2011. I gave a brief interview at the close of the meeting. There isn’t any reason in the world why the Lakota School Board should put a tax on the ballot. S.B.5 became law on July 1st which is why all the unions rushed to pass their contracts during the spring, to get those contracts grandfathered in. The school boards now have a tool to deal with the budget short-falls in the coming years, yet they don’t think in terms of cost reduction by way of wages and benefits renegotiated with Senate Bill 5, only cost expansion. The financial crises is self imposed. When a school board votes to spend 50K on a superintendent and pay her 165K yet overlook the guy who was doing a good job for only 105K, blowing a total of 100K on costs they didn’t need, it is clear that these administrators just don’t get it. No wonder all the school board knows how to do is ask for more money. It is very disappointing to see that the school board is putting up three options, which is essentially playing good cop and bad cop by making the smaller number look more digestible to voters. It’s very disingenuous and insulting.

___________________________________________________________________

LIBERTY TWP. – Residents may see a tax hike ranging from 4.5 to 7.5 mills on the fall ballot if Lakota school board members agree on a millage amount.

The board is scheduled to choose a final school operating tax millage – 4.5 mills, 6.5 mills or 7.5 mills – to propose to voters in November. It will pick one of the tax options at its next meeting on Monday.

Regardless of the tax size, it became clear during Thursday evening’s board work session that the third tax issue in a little more than a year is headed for the Nov. 8 ballot.

Annual school tax cost increases for a $100,000 home would range from $137 for a 4.5-mill operating tax to $199 for a 6.5-mill tax to $229 for a 7.5-mill tax.

It took four tries in 2004 and 2005 before voters in Liberty and West Chester townships last approved a new operating tax. An operating tax helps pay for daily operations of the 18,300-student district, including employee salaries and benefits.

But voters in 2010 twice rejected operating taxes, and the defeat in May 2010 was by one of the largest margins in Lakota’s 54-year history. In November 2010, voters defeated a 7.9-mill operating levy.

Lakota is among the nearly half of Southwest Ohio’s 49 school systems that are considering or planning to put a tax issue on the Nov. 8 ballot.

Despite cutting $10.2 million in personnel and programs for the upcoming school year, Lakota faces a budget shortfall of $14.6 million by 2015 and requires more local tax revenue to remain solvent for the five-year projection required by the state for all public school districts, said Lakota officials.

Jenni Logan, treasurer of the Butler County district that is the second largest in Southwest Ohio, told the board that “we are still in a spending deficit” even with recent and extension budget cuts.
Board President Joan Powell said “deficit spending is an untenable position”.

In the last school year, the board has made historically deep cuts including eliminating busing for thousands, renegotiating its teachers labor contract and freezing almost all types of pay.

As the seventh-largest school system in Ohio, it is also the biggest district in the state to earn a top rating of “Excellent With Distinction.”

Laurie Clark, of West Chester Township, said one of her two children will lose bus service when classes start in August.

“I’m worried that without a levy there will be bigger classrooms and we’ll see more teachers go. This is such a great school district, and I want to keep the quality as high as it has been,” said Clark.

But Rich Hoffman, spokesman for anti-school tax group “NoLakota,” said the board needs to look at further cuts rather than residents’ wallets. He said Ohio’s SB5 law, which curtails public school workers’ powers of collective bargaining, is in place and should be used to further reduce Lakota’s expenses.

“”SB 5 became law (and) school boards now have a tool to deal with the budget shortfalls in the coming years,” said Hoffman. “Yet they don’t think in terms of cost reduction by way of wages and benefits renegotiated with Senate Bill 5, only cost expansion.”

The board is scheduled to make the first of two state-mandated votes to put a tax issue on the fall ballot at its meeting 7 p.m. Monday at Lakota’s Central Office, 5572 Princeton Road, Liberty Township.

___________________________________________________________

I won’t be at the meeting when they make their final selection of one of the three choices, because I know they have already chose the smaller number, hoping that it will not be such a hard number to digest.  I have other plans for that particular evening which are far more important.  So I’ll look forward to another good fight to defeat that next levy. 

Rich Hoffman

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

The Fireworks Superstore on Exit 141 in Tennessee: a pillar of freedom

On a trip that had the main computer system of our mini-van go crazy on us while visiting a ghost town in Florida, had an accident with a crazy woman from England when she backed into the front of us at a stop light in Cape Canaveral, blew a tire in Georgia, and had the ABS system fail completely just north of Atlanta we had our share of transportation problems on our most recent trip through the south.  And all day long while driving back to reality my son-in-law wanted nothing more than to stop and get fireworks from a dealer for a Fourth of July, 2011 celebration at our home when we got back.  Because of all the trouble with the car I wanted to set a goal for the last really big place on our way home on I-75, a place I had taken my kids when they were very young, and it stuck in my mind as embracing everything that reminded me of just how great America is.  It’s the Fireworks Superstore at exit 141 in Tennessee, a palace of patriotism! 

Predictably, the place was wonderfully cheesy and had been kept up in the same manner as I had enjoyed some 20 years before.  A quick glance around the store revealed many names that are rooted in rebellion and danger, because in many ways that’s that fireworks represent.  And before buying fireworks, you need a general understanding these days of what they do. 

   

Open circuit

An incomplete electrical circuit

Orange book

The United Nations publication for classification and testing of dangerous goods

Oxidant

The component of an explosive that supplies oxygen for the reaction of the product

Palm burst

A color break with palm tree core

Parallel circuit

An electrical circuit in which the current is divided between several igniters. Less easy to test for breaks.

Paste

Commonly used to cover shells to enhance their burst

Pattern shell

A shell of fewer stars that creates a pattern rather than a sphere

Pellet

See Star

Peony shell

A shell whose stars do not leave any trails

PIC

Plastic Igniter cord

Pigeon

A specialized type of firework which travels to and fro along a horizontal rope

Piped match

Raw match enclosed in a paper or plastic tube

Pistil

The central core of a shell. Often a complimentary or contrasting colour to the main burst

Plug

See Bung

Portfire

A thin walled tube filled with slow burning composition used to light other fireworks

Propellant

Composition used to produce force e.g. A rocket motor
   

Punk

Slow burning lighter for small fireworks

Pyrotechnic

Generic term for any item which react in a self sustaining chemical reaction and generally produces a light effect. Pyrotechnic articles are different to fireworks and generally are used for stage and theatrical uses

Quickmatch

Raw match enclosed in a paper or plastic tube

Rack

Apparatus for firing rockets or mortar tubes

Rain

Shells containing long burning stars that fall all the way to the ground.

Raw match

Black powder coated thread used for linking fireworks

Repeater shell

Usually a cylinder shell with timed bursts at regular intervals

Ring shell

An aerial shell that produces symmetrical rings of stars often have a rope tail to control orientation of the break

Rising effect

Often a tail effect on a shell but can be external attachments to a shell that break off during the rise to create special effects

Rocket

Aerial effect propelled by a motor

Rocket cone

A device for firing flight rockets

Rocket motor

The power unit behind a rocket. Typically made by pressing black powder into a choked tube

Roman candle

A cardboard tube with a stack of timed comets or bombette units

Round shell

A shell in the form of a sphere usually containing colored stars

Safety area

The area around a fireworks display site between the spectators and fireworks. Not including a fall out zone

Salute

Report or loud bang

Saturn shell

A chrysanthemum break with an outer ring of a contrasting color

Saxon

A bar with centre pivot with drivers at either one or two ends which make the bar spin on a central point.

Screecher

A whistle unit with a hole through the centre. This increases the burn speed and therefore the sound

Sequence

The pattern in which fireworks are detonated in a display
   

Series circuit

A circuit arranged so the current runs through each igniter in turn. This enables and breaks to be detected

Serpent

A spinning tube used in candles and shells. Usually with a report unit

Set piece

A ground firework. Generally static

Shell

The most spectacular of fireworks propelled with a lifting charge from a mortar and a bursting charge that charge to a star composition in the air after a predetermined delay

Shell delay

See Delay fuse

Shell of shells

An aerial shell that contains smaller shells ignited when the main shell bursts and subsequently produces small secondary bursts

Short circuit

The accidental completion of a circuit which causes the current to not flow through the igniter

Shot

The single functioning of a roman candle or cake

Smoke

Air suspension of particles from incomplete combustion of a composition

Smokeless powder

A powder containing nitro-cellulose and nitro-glycerine as it does not produce much smoke

Spark

Typical effect caused by incandescent particles ejected form the surface of a burning composition

Sparkler

Wire coated with pyrotechnic composition that gives off small sparks

Spider shell

A shell containing a small number of large stars producing a symmetrical burst. Sometimes called octopus shells

Splitting comet

A comet with an internal charge of flash powder which when ignited splits the comet into several pieces.

Squib

Electric igniter

Star

A pressed unit of composition usually spheres or cylinders used in shells, mines, rockets and roman candles

Storage

The holding of fireworks prior to their use. Premises must be licensed for amounts above a certain quantity

Strobe

A pulsing on off star effect fired from candles and shells and ground based effects

Tail effect

A comet star secured to the outside of a shell to give a tail to the rising shell

Tiger tail shell

A shell made up of a solid ball of composition to produce a substantial tail effect. Sometimes with a small shell break

Titanium

A silver metal used in the production of maroons and grebes

Top fused

A shell where the shell delay is lit separately from the lifting charge. Often found in large Maltese shells

Tourbillion

See Serpent

Transportation

The process of consigning a load of fireworks. Subject to heavy legislative control

TREM card

Documentation required when transporting fireworks of any quantity. Transport emergency card. Provide information for emergency services

Trunk

A large tail unit often used on palm and willow shells
   

UN classification

The assignment of a packaged firework into the UN classes for fireworks

UN compatibility group

The G or S of 1.3G or 1.4S. The compatibility group indicated what a particular item may and not be transported with

UN Hazard code

See UN number

UN Mark

A complicated mark assigned to a particular packing box for dangerous goods

UN Number

A four-digit number assigned to hazardous goods. Explosives always start with a 0 e.g. 1.4G fireworks are UN 0336. Used to identify a dangerous item in the event of an emergency

Volley

A mass firing of rockets or shells

Water firework

Aquatic fireworks e.g. shells or water gerb

Water gerb

A floating gerb with a weight and cork float.

Water shell

See Aquatic shell

Waterfall

A curtain of coloured or silver sparks that falls vertically. Composition is made from an aluminum alloy

Weeping willow

See Willow shell

Wheel

A rotating piece attached to a post in the form of a saxon bar or wheel with driver units

Whistle

A tube containing composition of potassium benzoate and potassium silicate. On burning the composition creates oscillation in the tube and creates a whistle effect which is amplified in the tube

Whizzer

See Hummer

Willow shell

A shell containing charcoal based stars with a long burn time which often fall to the ground

Fireworks and participating in controlled destruction is important to the celebration of any July 4th ceremony.  And cheesy fireworks stores only enhance the celebration.  As I walked through the store I contemplated why that was, why one of my favorite towns of Gatlinburg, which is far from the sophisticated wine county of the Bay Area, has so much appeal to me.  So much so that I feature the town in my new book, Tail of the Dragon so prominently, and the reason is, that such cheesiness is uniquely American.  Shops like the fireworks store with all their contents are loud proclamations of businesses that are not subjected to state control by the government.  They, like the stores in Gatlinburg Tennessee with the multitude of t-shirt shops, the large amount of Ripley’s Believe it or Not’s that line the street, are ideas in someone’s head that have been translated into reality and they are unique in the world. 

There are places in the world like Niagara Falls, Canada, and areas in Hong Kong among a few others that have attempted to take a page out of the American handbook in their tourist spots to capitalize as we have, and I always find it refreshing to see.  Because in such places, capitalism is trying to pop its head out and grow.

But in the United States, we take it for granted that our nation’s highways are filled with these types of things, and while the progressive high brow, European lover may frown down on this activity, it is because they fundamentally embrace socialism, and they know such places are a threat to their attempt to manipulate the United States into a country of their vision.  For me, such places as the Fireworks Superstore on exit 141 are the epitome of freedom and the polar opposite of progressive  vision, so they are like temples of independance. 

John Stossel understands this too, and did a wonderful segment recently exploring this topic. 

Gaudy flashing lights are wonderful and I enjoy them wherever they exist.  I may not enjoy the moral position behind them, but I do enjoy the freedom of the entrepreneur to have the opportunity to come up with and implement an idea, no matter how ridiculous it is. 

That is what we celebrate on the Fourth of July, freedom to come up with an idea no matter how gaudy, and the freedom to explode stuff and pay homage to our past rebellion which allowed us to form the greatest country on Earth, the United States of America.  So when you pass a fireworks stand on the highways of America, salute them for the freedom they represent.  They are an important reminder of just what America is and what it can be, and are a part of that thin line that exists between tyranny and freedom.

Rich Hoffman

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

The Real America: Thinking of the Fourth of July from the beach!

Ocean waves are the perfect metaphor for how corrupt politics erodes away at our freedom. I had spent much of the night at our condo working on an editorial assignment for my new book Tail of the Dragon, which is a about a rip-roaring car chase through the heart of the south at speeds over 200 mph. It combines two of my passions, politics and fast cars.  Without sleep, I was up at the crack of dawn summing up my latest writing project. 

When I think of politics and racing together I think of a moment around this time of year in 1984 where President Reagan flew into Daytona Speedway, which is just an hour north of our condo, to witness the race and see Richard Petty win his 200th victory.

When people ask me what Tail of the Dragon is about, it’s hard to explain in modern terms because for me, even though I was a young guy, the book was born on the day when the two people I admired most back then were both having big days at the same time. This race, the Firecracker 400 with the iconic Ronald Reagan speaking in his usual way and Richard Petty winning with a cliffhanger solidified in me what America is all about.

Whenever I feel the need to get back in touch with what America is, in a modern sense, I think of this race when I was a young man staring at a static laced television set in a sweaty un air-conditioned house waiting for family to come over to my parents house to set off fireworks and grill hamburgers on the grill.

When I finally got my own drivers license I drove so fast that I earned the nickname Richard Petty, and other NASCAR names. One of my first jobs out of high school was a car salesman, which gave me access to the fastest cars built at the time. When I wasn’t selling cars to customers, I was taking cars out for lunch and test driving how fast I could make them go. Richard Petty to me always represented what winning was supposed to look like, and his casual attitude represented the best of what America had been and could always be.

So as we celebrate the 4th of July, the Founding Fathers are the first thing that should come to mind. But for me, memories of a more recent past percolate to the surface. And as I walked the beach this morning and looked north up the coast to where the Daytona Speedway waits for the famous Fourth of July race, which they call the Coke Zero 400 these days, I see the spirit of America alive and well.

When I finish the Tail of the Dragon, I hope to share that spirit with the rest of the nation so they can relearn everything that they’ve forgotten about American Pride, and as you can see from this clip compared to the exchange between Reagan and Petty, America as forgotten a lot.

My goodness………????????????????????????????????????????????????

We have a long way to go.  The waves of corruption have been beating on our shores for a while now leaving us with hungry, patriotic yearnings for a president like Reagan.  The first step is in realizing that the erosion has taken place, then we have to figure out what to do about it.  Because left alone, the waves will continue to beat on us till there is nothing left but a sandy beach where once brilliant ideas existed and courage was commonplace.

Rich Hoffman

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

Senator Bill Coley Protects S.B.5: Ben Dribble of the Lakota School Board sticks his foot in his mouth

Over the last couple of days I have received dozens and dozens articles, comments from newspapers, video reports from news stations all over Ohio and Kentucky over this crazy school funding issue. Members of the Ohio Education Association seem baffled that voters are not interested in their rhetoric, as they have been in the past. People like me are not impressed with the silly stunts the OEA is trying to pull off with their 54 contracts signed this spring as S.B.5 goes into effect today, July 1st to attempt to appear that they are working with communities……..finally. With the unions, it’s all smoke and mirrors, as usual.

Unions don’t understand where the cost savings is in S.B.5, according to them. They don’t understand because those same OEA members believe they should be paid extraordinary amounts of money for teaching positions when new options such as electronic courses that could drive down the costs of education and are being resisted by the union. Now the OEA is trying to downplay S.B.5, as if they were nonchalant to the bill, even though they have aggressively gathered 700,000 signatures of their members and their families and friends to get the bill repealed.

Senator Bill Coley was on the Doc Thompson show on 700 WLW talking about some of the ways that school s can drive down their costs, and he also discusses how even with the 700,000 signatures the unions won’t be able to repeal the S.B.5 Bill, enabling unions to continue to drive up the cost of education in uncontrollable ways. Bill explains how Ohio is the first state in the nation to advance a program that will allow teachers to still make good money, but will also drive down the cost of education. But it’s competition that the teachers will have to deal with, and that’s why the union resists anything new.

A nasty email came to me the other day saying, “Mr. Hoffman, you won’t be happy till teachers are making 35K per year.” Let me say that people who think like that have gotten on my last nerve. They are fools who have played the system for years and brought all our budgets to the level they currently are. They have taken advantage of state and federal money that was passed out like candy on Halloween, and now that the governments are broke, schools and their unions believe that the budget gaps are supposed to be paid by tax payers.

Here’s the problem…….taxes are already too high. They always have been, but now that the money isn’t there from external sources, the local taxpayers are being asked to cover the difference; it is showing just how out of control the spending always has been. In schools, too much is when the budget exceeds your income. If you are losing state and federal money, then the school has to cut its costs to fit the budget. If the school has too many teachers and administrators that are making above 60K per year then it will have to dump some of those expensive employees to meet their budget. It’s pretty simple really. You don’t ask tax payers to cover the difference, because that difference is unrealistic.

I also hear quite a bit that schools are the pinnacle of a community, and that if tax payers don’t pay extraordinary amounts of money to public education then that somehow means the community doesn’t support it’s schools. This is nutty thinking by people who are grossly out of touch. Who says that money makes something good? Why can’t we have a great school at half the cost? And who says we need union labor to teach a kid to read? I’ve worked with union labor plenty of times and they always over exaggerate their importance. The typical union employee would make watching TV sound like they were making a sacrifice.

I don’t care if the labor is union or not, only if it is too expensive or correctly priced when it comes to an organization. I personally don’t want to pay money into a union because they have their roots in socialism and I don’t like socialism. But if a union wants to get together and play cards or whatever, they are free too. But they don’t have a right to collective-bargain for my money taken from my property. Whenever there are cost over runs, it’s most always because there isn’t any management controls.

I read the other day that Ben Dribble of the Lakota School Board mentioned that one of the requirements of a superintendent was to pass a levy………………………..what? So that is what a member of the school board believes? That costs just go up uncontrollably by some mysterious force and that taxes must therefore increase to meet those cost increases? People like Ben Dribble won’t know what to do with S.B.5 which actually gives school boards management control over their costs. So it may take some time for districts to find school board members that can actually manage costs, but eventually, these cost overruns will be dealt with.

Lakota like all schools must realize that even with the decrease in state and federal funding that property tax revenue will decline even further as more people move out of the district because of foreclosures or decreased property values once they go through property reassessment. Homes that were bought on the top of the housing bubble need to be devalued and should not be taxed at the higher rate. And when that happens, Lakota will lose even more tax revenue.

Apparently people like Ben Dribble and the OEA believe that it is feasible for property owners to cover the budget gap no matter how big that gap is. They believe that because they don’t understand the value of money, which is why the cost of education is so high to begin with. They are out of touch and are elements in education that need to be removed before any budget decisions can actually be discussed.

Thank goodness S.B.5 is now effective. Now let’s see if anybody has the guts to use it. Because the task of education is to get better than it is now, and also more effective without driving up the cost, anything less is not acceptable. The changes that are needed won’t happen without S.B.5 remaining intact, because it requires those changes to meet the new challenges presented. And so far, unions are standing in the way of that change and that makes them a detrimental force standing in the way of progress.

Rich Hoffman

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

The Ghost Town of Kerr City: a metaphor for planet Earth

I have always had a fascination with civilizations that have eroded away into nothing. When I was a kid, I explored old grave yards, and dilapidated homes that were abandoned. I particularly enjoy exploring old cars that are rusting away in the middle of a field far away from civilization. The questions, where did it come from, and where did the people go always must be asked. I have also found entire cities like Chichen Itza in the Yucatan Peninsula and Cahokia outside of St. Louis particularly fascinating. With Chichen Itza we know it fell from power around 1000 AD about 412 years before the Spanish ever showed up. But Cahokia is a complete mystery. That entire city of over 20,000 people just vanished around 1200 AD for no apparent reason.

Society does not continue on forever, as much as people wish to believe. America is just a society like any other. Like any culture, the roots of the society are in their foundation. In America, the first 100 years set the course we all see today, and were built off the foundation documents of the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution. The second half, the last 100 years or so has other ideas that have entered into the American experiment, ideas imported from Europe and the east. Those ideas will change the longevity of our culture for good or bad. To be able to tell which one is to be able to study history and see how factors add up to push a society one direction or the other.

That’s why my family and I were scouring the backwoods of Florida through lush vegetation and natural springs searching for a ghost town that was only 90 years removed. We had taken a similar journey before where we were studying the lost town of Moonville, Ohio, which is now haunted.

Moonville was a mining town that rose and fell around coal mining and was formed in 1856 but by 1947 the last family had left Moonvile and to this day, all the buildings are gone, and foundations are very difficult to see. This is a fairly new town that had risen and fell within a few generations, so those types of places are fascinating and a lot can be learned from them.

When I learned that the ghost town of Kerr City, a town that had started in 1884 on 205 acres and consisted of 26 city blocks was still somewhat intact on the north shore of Lake Kerr, we had to go check it out. But it wouldn’t be easy; most of the town had abandoned their homes by 1941 when the post office finally pulled out after the winter freezes of 1894 and 1895 destroyed the citrus crop that had been a bulk of the town’s economy. The town had died because the economy of it had never recovered.

When my wife and I travel to Cancun to visit Mayan ruins the Mexican people supporting the town know that they have nothing to offer but tourism. They aren’t making anything substantial; they have no feasible export, so they rely almost exclusively on tourism, and are very kind to their guests, because people to Cancun are like the citrus trees to Kerr City. The Mexican people know that if the United States tourism dollars dry up, so will their economies. So they treat people well and offer them services they may not find in their home country. Most of those services revolve around decreased social regulation, which is why Cancun is a popular spring break destination.

My wife and I also travel to Cape Canaveral often, and it is easy to see that a majority of the economy of Cape Canaveral and Cocoa Beach are built around the Space Industry of the Kennedy Space Center, which is only a few decades old, 1958 to be exact. NASA is one of the only government programs that work. The amount of money that NASA creates in American wealth cannot be minimized. With an annual budget of $19 billion dollars it produces hundreds of billions of wealth in return. But politics doesn’t think in those terms. It is easier to pander to the poor, to the lazy, to the distraught because those voters are looking for someone to rescue them.

Instead of continuing to develop the Ares 1 and Orion rockets, the Obama administration wants to invest $6 billion over five years in a commercial space taxi to carry astronauts into low Earth orbit. The budget would also funnel billions of dollars into developing new space technologies, such as the ability to refuel spacecraft in orbit. What isn’t in the budget is a specific target for exploration. All that sounds fine from a distance, but when the Shuttle Program ends in July, the Space Center will lose 7000 jobs, which in the term of government money, the budget cuts proposed by the president are ridiculously short-sighted. More money is wasted each year in just Medicare according to Attorney General Eric Holder, “Although today marks a critical step forward in combating and deterring illegal activity, our work is far from over,” Holder said. Fraud has accounted for as much as an estimated $60 billion a year in the Medicare program. Wow, think what NASA could do with $60 billion dollars if somehow Medicare fraud could be controlled. Obama is reducing NASA to a support role where other nations build the actual space craft and the United States will ferry staff to them and refuel the craft. How exciting!

The Federal government spent a small fortune on the General Motors bailout, yet there is little desire to even maintain the budget of NASA. Why? Well, I believe that under the current form of government there is a desire to dismantle NASA so other countries can have the job of developing technology, just as those same types wish for America to not drill for oil, yet allow Brazil to perform the task. Those government types do not believe in the sovereignty of America, they are globalists, and elitists. I believe that these globalists don’t like the idea of setting up colonies on the moon because their focus is in on the political agenda of worldwide unification and planetary colonization does not exist in the progressive platform, so they are not certain how to deal with it, so they cancelled the plans.

As my family and I walked around the ghost town of Kerr City, once we found it by using latitude and longitude coordinates on our GPS unit, it was easy to see even among the ruins, that the city was overly reliant on its citrus groves. There were without a doubt people in the town back then that declared that Kerr City needs to develop other types of economic activity. But as is the tendency among human beings, the majority of the societies are followers, and if the leaders say to grow citrus, then citrus is what the town will grow. Just like today in the United States if progressives say global unification is important, and preserving the Earth are paramount concerns, then the followers in society will tend to accept such ideas without question. However, such people, like the farmers of Kerr City, believed that if they did everything right, planted their groves, or take care of the planet, that life will always be as it is in their short lifespan. But as seen in the video below, Earth is and will always be in a state of fluctuation.

This will of course continue until Earth as a planet comes to an end, which it will.

That’s not to say that human beings should purposely trash the planet. But, the context of survival must be understood. Earth is not a stable, eternal environment. If mankind wishes to continue as a species, it must continue to push the frontiers of space. It is that space technologies developed in those pursuits that will help our society become a master of our own fate.

The good people of Kerr City did not do that. They were happy to live off their citrus crop until a few hard winters wiped them out making all the hard work they spent building homes, buying cars and keeping them running, and generally doing the business of running a small town useless, because without an economy, there is nothing for anybody to do. And without their citrus crop, Kerr City was useless.
As sweat ran down my face, and ticks crawled up our legs, I stood on the shore of Lake Kerr and noticed what wasn’t there any longer. Only a few buildings still stand. This ghost town wasn’t like Moonville where that place was certainly haunted. Kerr City was only haunted in its lost potential as a town. The remaining buildings had been kept up by a person who had bought the property and rented out the homes to lake visitors. The dirt road leading to the site was prohibitive and far from inviting. But the owner’s endeavors had at least kept a shadow of the town alive, even if that shadow was fading as the encroaching forests were taking the town back, soon to erase it from memory all together.

I couldn’t shake the thought that Kerr City could easily become planet earth if we continue to listen to all the hippies, college professors, and politicians that simply can’t understand why space is important to the human race. These same fools will complain about coal production being devastating to the earth while pushing for electric cars to replace the combustion engine, forgetting that the energy for the electric car came from a coal-burning power plant. It is pathetic that America has not returned to the moon to mine it, to set up economic opportunities, to push transportation technology even further along. It is sad that those who are progressive leaning citizens look to high-speed rail which is the old technology of Europe instead of the efforts being created from those innovators of NASA. Those short-sighted visionaries who look at a village in Africa and wish it to be equal to the United States are the same types that only planted citrus trees in Kerr City, which led to the town’s eventual demise.

While the do-gooder environmentalists save the planet from the combustion engine, from oil technology, and from the human race, idiots who follow the misguided at Moveon.org and other George Soros funded organizations pushing for green technology, are planting the seeds to mankind’s end. Because green house gasses, and mass extinctions have no bearing when the earth is pummeled into a 100,000 year-long ice age after the next meteor impact blocks out the sun from the equator for centuries which freezes over the ice caps. Or the next ice age occurs and kills off most of the earth’s population. Or the sun burns out and becomes a red giant completely consuming the Earth as it expands outward and destroys at least the first four planets in the solar system.

Progressives, who are supposedly the scholarly among us can’t seem to get their minds around the concept that in 5 billion years the earth will not be here. Instead, they figure that they won’t be here, and prove that they are only concerned with their lives, because progressives in spite of all their concern for the environment and world peace are inherently selfish. Just like the people in Kerr City, who thought that the town would always be there, before an environmental disaster took the town by force leaving the humans to flee for their lives everything they had ever built.

The heart of the town was Beulah Avenue. Now, Beulah is a dirt street with four houses left on it with a Texaco gas station. I couldn’t help but look at our Town and Country mini-van parked next to a makeshift sign of Beulah Avenue to think how our vehicle looked like a space ship that had landed in the town to visit from some far away land only to return to that world when we had our fill of inquiries satisfied, which we did when had enough of the ticks and the sweat. And that’s where the whole planet is headed eventually, a future ghost planet leaving behind just small remnants of our existence. Future explorers will wonder why we all confined ourselves to progressive villages and stopped exploring space and using the natural resources available while we let our civilization go extinct out of well-intentioned, but limited understanding.

Nobody ever sees it coming, the extinction of a town, a civilization, or even a planet. The best way to prevent that stagnant extinction is by constantly leaning forward, by taking the reins off human kind and letting the explosion that created America continue as it did for the first 100 years, where no political power stood in the way of fresh ideas and advanced the world culture in ways never before realized on planet earth during this relatively calm stage of life of which all of human existence rose, hopefully not to just fall away into extinction like most of the species have met fate in a similar fashion. And like the winter freeze destroyed the town of Kerr City, politics is destroying the uniqueness of America, and the culture that can actually reach the stars and put fate in human hands instead of a passive submission to mother earth which the hippies of a thousand broken homes look to for psychological reassurance as a solid parent when the reality is far from so. Extinction is the path of the tyrant who is selfish with only their life spans in mind. Extinction is the path of the hippie, the greenie weenie, the hemp smoking loser holding up the peace sign. Extinction is the path of the 22-year-old girl who goes to a night club with a handful f her friends and allows a bar tender to pour “jelly shots” into her belly button to let strangers suck on in a sexual ritual resembling defiance to orthodox. Extinction is for the globalist that suckles to the breast of mother earth for all the same reasons that a youngest child seeks to undermine their older siblings for attention of the mother to fill a psychological void in their minds. Extinction is for those who seek security before adventure, for those who look to protect their pension, their income, before accepting a new adventure which would bring new experiences to their mundane lives of slow decay. Extinction is for the socialist and the elite bosses that dictate to the flock just who, what, and where to think as their promised utopia becomes a prison of constant supervision. The proof of these ideas can be seen in the buildings of Kerr City, once thriving with life, but within just a few years, all hope was extinguished because the town couldn’t see it coming, and when they did, they failed to act accordingly.

I see it coming from my visits to Cape Canaveral as 7000 NASA employees are about to lose their jobs while the Obama administration pours billions and billions of dollars of aid into his union brothers and sisters whom elected him in the position of a “social elite.” Extinction comes when the fools rule because they give away resources to the masses without tangible return on investment. And those fools sabotage a superior competitor such as the United States so that other nations can flourish in the world and will be thankful to those fools later when the world becomes globally united and one step closer to mass extinction because the society looked inward at a time that it should have looked to the stars.

 

Rich Hoffman

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

Eating Alligator: The Circle of Life, and progressives don’t understand

There was some debate before my family went out to eat at the BallyHoo Grill in Gainesville, Florida about whether or not to eat alligator.  I had declared that I wanted alligator for dinner, where my wife and kids were dismayed by the thought.  “But dad, alligators are an endangered species.  We can’t just eat them for no reason.”

I contemplated the resistance and shook my head at the years of liberal propaganda that had been marketed at such causes.  It is true that alligators have been heavily hunted, and without some recognition of the animal, they would probably be hunted into extinction, maybe, only to be over hunted, or used in tourist locations as stuffed caricatures of danger.

But there is something more symbiotic going on with mankind’s relationship to the alligator, which stemmed from my desire to eat one.    I thought about why I was craving alligator.  I love dinosaurs, and the alligator is one of the few animals on the face of planet earth that is a reflection of that period, the Mesozoic Era which lasted about 150 million years and by eating the animal I wanted to participate in the spirit of the animal, even if in a small degree.  I wanted to be part of the alligator essence.  I wanted the cells in my body to identify the flesh of an alligator and mimic the structural contents of the tough meat and raw muscle.  Animals like cows and chickens are passive animals, and my body is used to such creatures, and takes them for granted.  So I wanted my body to digest a dangerous predator and to mimic its contents.

The next morning, after my meal, I got up well before sunrise and went to nearby lake from the hotel where we were staying at, and set up my camera hoping to see some alligators swimming, and even perhaps eating.  As I hiked through the woods teeming with insects, even in the morning mist, to the lakes edge, the surface of the water was inundated with tiny insects plucking the facade, some being eaten by fish.  Thus, in turn, there were alligators swimming about in the lake stealthily approaching their pry.  As the alligators would get close to where fish were eating the insects, the alligators were eating the fish.   

Much of the alligators consuming the fish were happening underwater leaving only ripples of splashed water on the surface to indicate the struggle.  This would happen for a moment, and then it would be done.  Yet, I continued tracking alligators with my camera as they purposely sought after pry. 

Near my tripod, where I had set up under the canopy of a grand oak tree draped in Spanish Moss a bird had landed on the shoreline to eat small creatures that had made homes in the soft mud.  I didn’t take the time to identify the bird because my eye was on a 7 foot alligator coming my way, with its eye on the bird.  The result of this predatory dance can be seen in this video of that event. 

As seen the alligator came on the shore to eat the bird, and it was so quick that the bird didn’t stand a chance.  The alligator ate the bird right in front of me and we contemplated each other.  Competition in nature had orchestrated this symphony of pain, radiating between pitches of survival and death.  The alligator had just eaten so it wasn’t hungry, plus it knew that I was a predator that posed a danger to it, so conflict with me wasn’t to its advantage.  I continued filming without moving away.

The alligator was a swift and cunning warrior, and that’s why I wanted to eat one the night before.  Once my family tried it, they all enjoyed the experience once they got over the initial feeling of betrayal in eating an endangered animal.  As I explained to them the night before it’s the circle of life at work here, and we are at the top and shouldn’t be ashamed of it.  I reminded them of our mutual love of dinosaurs, that life had lived on this planet for millions upon millions of years in this fashion, with the strongest eating the weakest, and life would continue on like this for eternity, because this method was built under a universal model of understanding.  Species would rise and become extinct regardless of interference and regulation.  And if the alligator wanted to survive, it would have to figure out how to beat humans as the superior animal.  Or, if humans wanted to continue to have alligators to eat, or make belts out of, then they’d find a way to farm them much the way we do chickens and cows.  If they go extinct it will largely be up to nature not the pathetic audacity of the human being.

There is another destination in Florida that is by our condo down there, it’s one of my favorite stores, and it’s called The Dinosaur Store.  In it you can see the ancestors of the alligator, and buy replicas of full dinosaur skeletons, which I think is fantastic.  It’s a truly magnificent store, unique in the world.  If you love dinosaurs like I do, this store should be your second home.  Humans are making themselves extinct with this hippie socialism that is unnatural in any realm but the human mind of a flower child.  It’s a fantasy built around protecting the weak by cutting the legs out from under the strong and it simply makes no sense.  In the modern progressive view of the world, humans are regulated from being the predators to protect the species of alligator.  Using the same logic, the alligator would be regulated by the human do-gooder to protect the fish, and of course the fish regulated to protect the insect. 

http://www.dinosaurstore.com/dinosaur%20store%20home%20page.htm

 

The hippie progressives that so disgust me do so because they are attempting to engineer all existence with their immature understanding of nature, rather than joyfully participating in the experience of living, both life and death with the same enthusiasm.  As I visit my favorite store from time to time, and look through the fossils, books, and statues that are for sale there, some species of dinosaur did go extinct, by way of a giant meteorite or just by natural selection.  But not all dinosaurs went extinct as shown by the dinosaur swimming in the lake eating a bird right in front of me. 

I’m glad I ate an alligator that night, because for me, it was the highest tribute I could pay to a creature of such magnificent quality.  I ate the animal because I wanted to feel closer to it.  I wanted to think a little more like the alligator, because I respect it, a sentiment confirmed when I watched an alligator spring forth with such quickness from a lake to eat a bird.  This did not happen in a zoo, or a park of any kind, but in raw nature, where a prehistoric beast through sheer quickness and strength beat a bird to flight for the prize of one more day of life.  And the alligator become such a dominate species because of competition, through fighting for survival.  That’s why I wanted to eat one. 

This balance of life between the alligator, the fish and the birds has been in place hundreds of millions of years.  All of human civilization has come about in a relatively temporary period between ice ages where a mass extinction of dinosaurs allowed a cerebral creature called man to emerge without being eaten, so that man could build tools and become the dominate species within just a few thousand evolutionary years.  Understanding this balance is necessary before ever speaking about extinction, or even right and wrong.  The modern progressive is a simple-minded creature that has not matured enough to understand that their existence in the scheme of the earth is meaningless; much like a child thinks its whole world is the domain of its parents.  The alligator does not care about global warming, pollution, or the cities of mankind.  It was here before the human being, and it will be here after, because it knows how to survive.

Rich Hoffman

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

Top Twenty Useless College Degrees: Why are we paying so much for college?

Here’s a great little article; the top twenty useless college degrees.  Click on the link for the source article. http://www.thedailybeast.com/galleries/2011/04/27/20-most-useless-degrees.html

 I’ve put them all here for your convenience.  Special note, look how many graduates each year graduated with these degrees, each spending 50K to 100K for their educations only to find out there aren’t jobs in those fields of any value. 

Just think about the number on the chart, over a million kids entering these fields that are virtually useless degrees.  There are either an over-abundance of jobs in these fields, or the jobs don’t pay enough to justify the cost of the education.  In same cases it’s both issues. 

1, Journalism

AP Photo

Median starting salary: $35,800

Median mid-career salary: $66,600

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: -4,400

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: -6.32

Undergraduate field of study: Communications

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 78,009

 2, Horticulture

Getty Images

Median starting salary: $35,000

Median mid-career salary: $50,800

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: -15,200

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: -1.74

Undergraduate field of study: Agriculture and natural resources

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 24,988

3, Agriculture

Getty Images

Median starting salary: $42,300

Median mid-career salary: $59,700

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: -9,100

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: -0.88

Undergraduate field of study: Agriculture and natural resources

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 24,988

4, Advertising

AP Photo

Median starting salary: $37,800

Median mid-career salary: $73,200

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: -800

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: -1.71

Undergraduate field of study: Communications

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 78,009

5, Fashion Design

AP Photo

Median starting salary: $37,700

Median mid-career salary: $72,200

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +200

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +0.81

Undergraduate field of study: Visual and performing arts

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 89,140

6, Child and Family Studies

Getty Images

Median starting salary: $29,500

Median mid-career salary: $38,400

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +36,100

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +12.33

Undergraduate field of study: Family and consumer sciences

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 21,905

7, Music

Getty Images

Median starting salary: $36,700

Median mid-career salary: $57,000

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +19,600

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +8.16

Undergraduate field of study: Visual and performing arts

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 89,140

8, Mechanical Engineering Technology

AP Photo

Median starting salary: $53,300

Median mid-career salary: $84,300

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: -700

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: -1.45

Undergraduate field of study: Engineering technologies

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 15,112

9, Chemistry

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Median starting salary: $42,400

Median mid-career salary: $83,700

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +2,100

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +2.48

Undergraduate field of study: Physical sciences

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 22,466

10, Nutrition

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Median starting salary: $42,200

Median mid-career salary: $56,700

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +5,600

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +9.24

Undergraduate field of study: Biological and biomedical sciences

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 80,756

11, Human Resources

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Median starting salary: $38,100

Median mid-career salary: $61,900

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +12,900

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +9.61

Undergraduate field of study: Public administration

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 23,851

12, Theater

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Median starting salary: $35,300

Median mid-career salary: $59,600

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +16,900

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +10.88

Undergraduate field of study: Visual and performing arts

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 89,140

13, Art History

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Median starting salary: $39,400

Median mid-career salary: $57,100

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +500

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +11.46

Undergraduate field of study: Liberal arts and humanities

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 47,096

14, Photography

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Median starting salary: $35,100

Median mid-career salary: $61,200

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +17,500

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +11.54

Undergraduate field of study: Visual and performing arts

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 89,140

15, Literature

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Median starting salary: $37,500

Median mid-career salary: $65,700

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +30,900

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +9.37

Undergraduate field of study: English language and literature

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 55,462

16, Art

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Median starting salary: $33,500

Median mid-career salary: $54,800

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +88,100

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +10.57

Undergraduate field of study: Visual and performing arts

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 89,140

17, Fine Arts

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Median starting salary: $35,400

Median mid-career salary: $60,300

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +25,800

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +11.62

Undergraduate field of study: Visual and performing arts

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 89,140

18, Psychology

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Median starting salary: $35,300

Median mid-career salary: $62,500

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +19,700

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +11.59

Undergraduate field of study: Psychology

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 94,271

19, English

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Median starting salary: $37,800

Median mid-career salary: $67,500

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +30,900

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +9.37

Undergraduate field of study: English language and literature/letters

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 55,462

20, Animal Science

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Median starting salary: $34,600

Median mid-career salary: $62,100

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +500

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +13.15

Undergraduate field of study: Biological and biomedical sciences

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 80,756

 

Rich Hoffman

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