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

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

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

Progressive Roots: The liars are calling the truth a lie, which is normal

 

 Progressives don’t know history, nor do they care about it.  All they seem to understand is that their bellies are full by some mysterious event called a job, which they seem not to know anything about how the jobs are created, just that they are there.  Like ants when they realize that a human being has just accidentally crushed a nest they had spent a lot of time building, progressives are seeing their dreams established by Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Second Bill of Rights, erode away. Van Jones has been hired by some of those ants to attempt to hold their dream of America together.

These ants are now fluttering about in frantic fury, attempting a new way to present their old message as millions of Americans are beginning to finally reject the infestation that the progressive has created into the fabric of the United States.

Labor unions rooted in socialism and progressives trying to create a European Utopia, as envisioned by Sir Thomas More 1478-1535, have planted so many seeds into the United States quietly, that many people just blindly accepted that all these big government desires were the way it was always supposed to be. More was an English politician, humanist scholar, and writer who refused to comply with the Act of Supremacy, by which English subjects were enjoined to recognize Henry VIII’s authority over the pope, and was imprisoned in the Tower of London and beheaded for treason. His political essay Utopia (1516), speculates about life under an ideal government. More was canonized in 1935. Progressives love Thomas More. Notice that he was canonized during this progressive period where in the United States; Franklin Roosevelt was imposing his own form of Utopia on America through the New Deal. It was in this spirit of More, that progressives sought to rebuild society. 400 years later, the man who had been imprisoned and killed in England was suddenly a hero.

FDR had no right to impose on America his New Deal. Roosevelt endorsed numerous new federal programs and agencies to reduce unemployment and restore prosperity, resulting in increased government involvement in the lives of Americans. The intent was good, and at the time, people wanted the relief. Yet this was a moment that the United States Constitution was trampled with disrespect. It is this America that is being destroyed because it was a false America to begin with, brought to us by a president who was playing with socialism, but calling it, “The New Deal.”

(2) The stock market crash of 1929 marked the beginning of the Great Depression. Unemployment increased and economic security was threatened. Farmers lost their land, workers lost their jobs, and many Americans lost their savings as thousands of banks closed. Campaigning on promises of a new deal for the American people, Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt won the presidential election of 1932.

Upon taking office in 1933, Roosevelt immediately supported a flood of new legislation. Laws established federal inspections and insurance for banks and mandated regulations for the securities market. Several bills provided mortgage relief for farmers and homeowners and offered loan guarantees for home purchasers. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) employed thousands of young men, while the Agricultural Adjustment Act helped raise agricultural prices. Congress established the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to develop the Tennessee River region. The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) provided for a vastly expanded public works effort and a program to regulate American business.

Hopes for early recovery proved illusory, and a second flood of legislation began in 1935. Sometimes called the Second New Deal, its measures included higher taxes for the rich, strict regulations for private utilities, subsidies for rural electrification, and what amounted to a bill of rights for organized labor. Guided by Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, the National Labor Relations Act gave workers federal protection in the bargaining process and established fair employment standards. The federal Fair Labor Standards Act mandated maximum hours and minimum wages for many workers. The Social Security Act of 1935 created a retirement fund, unemployment insurance, and welfare grants for local distribution (see Social Security). After 1937 opposition to extending the New Deal mounted, and by 1939 public attention had become focused on foreign policy and national defense.

The New Deal expanded the role of the federal government— particularly in economic regulation, resource development, and income maintenance— and created a number of agencies that remain in existence. Although the New Deal failed to stimulate full economic recovery, it helped the government develop policies to limit the impact of later recessions. Where Roosevelt left off in domestic policy, trampling all over the U.S Constitution, Lyndon Baines Johnson picked up.

Johnson (1908-1973), 36th president of the United States (1963-1969). He became president on November 22, 1963, hours after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Texas. Johnson’s domestic program, which he called the Great Society, was an extension of the New Deal enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s and 1940s.

Within three months the new president had the satisfaction of seeing a new civil rights bill pass the House and a new tax cut bill get through the Senate. In February he asked for two further measures: a law to protect consumers from unsafe products and deceptive packaging; and a program known as Medicare, an extensive scheme for hospital and nursing-home care for the elderly through social security (see Medicare and Medicaid). The president’s greatest legislative triumph was the passage in June of a sweeping civil rights bill outlawing racial discrimination in public accommodations and by employers, unions, and voting registrars.

All these presidents were well-intentioned, just like most progressives are. However, there are plenty of thieves willing to take advantage of those political positions for their own quests for power. People like George Soros without question have plans to build their own social utopia, and they will use people like Richard Trumka, and Van Jones to get it. If you ever want to know the truth, always follow the money. Then it will become obvious what the motives are.

And now that those utopian dreams are in jeopardy, there is frantic movement hoping to pull everything back together again. Progressives are attempting to put on a kinder, gentler face now, where in the past they used extortion and protests to impose themselves on presidents like Johnson and Roosevelt. And the Constitution was trampled upon with well-meaning audacity and now those who reside in power fear losing that power to the strength of the Constitution, because that is the current trend.

This leaves progressives with car salesman like Van Jones to put on a good face to the movement and hope that Jones can sell America back onto progressivism by convincing them that lies are the truth and the truth are the lies. “We aren’t broke,” Jones says. “Just take money from the rich, and everything will be fine.” Such irresponsibility is the last resort of the insect that has spent its whole life building a nest for the security of society with the secret desire to being the king. Such is the desire of all propionates of any utopian culture, which brings to my mind the words of William Goldring.

“Utopias are presented for our inspection as a critique of the human state. If they are to be treated as anything but trivial exercises of the imagination. I suggest there is a simple test we can apply. . . . We must forget the whole paraphernalia of social description, demonstration, expostulation, approbation, condemnation. We have to say to ourselves, “How would I myself live in this proposed society? How long would it be before I went stark staring mad?”

William Golding (1911–93), British author. “Utopias And Antiutopias,” address, 13 Feb. 1977, to Les Anglicistes, Lille, France (repr. in A Moving Target, 1982).

Encarta® 98 Desk Encyclopedia © & 1996-97 Microsoft Corporation
All rights reserved.

Yes, Van Jones, yes, Richard Trumka, we need to take a wrecking ball to the world you are defending, because it is not American by the definition of America. Progressive views do not belong in the America I want to live in. The America you built belongs in the Soviet Union and Europe at large. The promises and rights progressives like Jones and Trumka talk about are simply the Ten Planks of Communism. Those are not part of America. They are the wonderings of humorists like Thomas More and Karl Marx.

But as the ant house is destroyed, and they all run around in anger, it is important to know that it’s good that they are so upset even if we feel sorry for them. They had no right to set up an ant colony in a capitalist system with the intent to wreck our lives. Their demise is purely their own fault and no amount of kind words and manipulation can cover up what they really stand for, an America that trades freedom for security, and independence for a big brother to hold our hand as we cross the street filled with dangers created by that same big brother in order to make their presence appear useful. It’s coming to an end in a battle that is about to end their experiment of destruction.

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

Getty Images

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

Getty Images

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

AP Photo

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

AP Photo

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

AP Photo

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

AP Photo

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

AP Photo

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

AP Photo

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

AP Photo

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

AP Photo

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

AP Photo

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

AP Photo

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

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

The Scam of College: The Great Society isn’t so great.

I am not a subscriber to the college experience. I have spoken against it for years, many years. I think it’s too expensive, ineffective, and politically manipulative. I went to college three times each occasion realizing that the professors I had were not the best in their fields, otherwise they’d be doing the jobs they were trying to teach, and were money traps taking advantage of hopeful people, helplessly gullible.

One of my articles here, Most Successful People Who didn’t go to College; (click here to read) is the most popular of all my work. It has had many thousands of viewers over the last couple of months. But the essence of it coincides with this Glenn Beck show from June 22, 2011. Take your time and watch this several times, because it reflects my own opinion almost verbatim.

This whole college scam was built as part of the Franklin Roosevelt view of the world; where the very educated were part the most elite social classes in Europe. These college roots go back to Europe and the social classes from that place. Americans have been caught copying off that dismal old country, and over time, as progressives moved into and overtook education the perception became that college was essential formulated into American consciousness.

Once that perception was created, colleges were able to drive up their prices due to a monopoly status which has the full backing of the federal government. What was created between progressives and the government was the urgency that parents were complacent if they did not send their children to college and pay into the whole system.

This clip is from Beck’s radio show where a caller from Columbus challenges Glenn about the hour-long show he did on Fox.

http://www.glennbeck.com/2011/06/23/is-college-worth-it/

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I will go as far to say that a majority of the kids going to college come away with nothing useful. Much of what they learn there will have to be re-taught once they get a job. College is only worth the entrance to a job. After that, the kids are on their own. Much of what people are paying for in college tuition is the “college experience.” It’s not what goes on in the classroom, but more what happens everywhere else of a social nature.

If college were just a place to learn, that would be fine. People could pay their money, try to use their degree to get a job, and their success or failure wouldn’t be a problem. The problem with college is they are idealistic institutions that have been given false authority, built on false theories, and backed by legitimacy from the political machine. We talk about teacher unions in public school, but seem to forget that college professors are some of the highest paid employees in any statistic, and the cost of higher education is driven up by their wage levels. Tuition increases all have in common the higher costs associated with professor’s labor costs. Because of the college monopoly, a service people generally believe is absolutely essential for the success of their children, labor cost increases are completely ignored, and tuition hikes just increase, just like school levies for public school. Because the perception is an emotional one, rationality is ignored. It’s easier to ignore all the problems with college and just root for the sports team from that school because it gives empty people a sense belonging.

This is creating a nation of young people who start off their lives uttering the political garbage they hear from their professors. This lasts until these young people have children of their own and grow up, and learn to think like an American Conservative. It may take 10 years, but most people move more to the political right as they put distance between their college years and their adult lives. But worse than the politics, are the debts. I know young people with over a 100K in personal college debt where they hope they can get a job that will pay them back on that investment. But unless they work for government, which makes approximately 30% more in wages than the rest of us, the chances of the college graduate making A LOT more than everyone else isn’t very good, even if they are in a science field.

I spoke to a huge college supporter recently. This guy is a fraternity type, and holds a master’s degree in finance. He tried to argue with me that all the low-end jobs were going overseas and that America was only going to be doing technical jobs here, and that my opinion of college was wrong. “Is that so,” I said to him through gritting teeth. I was angry because it is people like him who have helped spread the lie. “Why did McDonalds do most of the hiring in the United States in May?” According to the Weekly Standard, Morgan Stanley calls it the “McDonald’s Effect,” according to Market Watch’s Washington Bureau Chief Steve Goldstein — an estimate that as many of the 30,000 of the 54,000 jobs added in May 0f 2011 were the result of a hiring binge by the hamburger chain. Where are the technical jobs he was talking about…………China, Germany, Brazil? Because they are not here and they aren’t coming here because regulation, and NAFTA have opened the door to leave the United States.

So all those ambitious young people with $100K in debt are coming out of college to work where? At McDonalds? Yes!

In my experience people go to college hoping for a silver bullet that will kill all of their future financial worries. But this is not the case. College cannot help young people get a job if the jobs aren’t there, and jobs are not created by government. Government jobs are not productive jobs, unless it’s the military or NASA where technology is actually produced. To create a job, something of use must be created and the job is to sustain that creation. America needs to get back into the business of making jobs instead of hoping a degree will lead to a life of eternal security with very little work involved. Such a thought is truly ridiculous and is the direct fault of presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnston. Those two presidents saw college as a way to advance the progressive agenda in American society, and they tricked the people of the United States to pay for their own demise while propping up the union supporters of their political antics. In the end, it’s been a massive scam that has left our youth bankrupt, both morally, but financially. And it has drained our nation of creativity and job creation.

I consider the college experience an absolute monstrosity, of unmitigated failure. I’m just glad other people are finally starting to talk about it.

Create a job. That’s the way every American should be thinking. If you want to become a scientist of some kind, go to college. But if you just want a good job, college is a scam full of false promises that will take your money and leave you empty and in terrible debt. It’s a creation designed to drain people of financial assets and replace the traditional thinking given by a child’s parents with a progressive mentality that will support the politics of madmen and their audacious world vision.

Rich Hoffman

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

Van Jones and his Plight for Paradise: A promise made to him from a robber

Van Jones is obviously feeling that his communist dream and those who dream like him are seeing their maniacal plots fall away into failure, so they are turning up the heat, attempting to drum up support for the direction progressives have been pushing for years.

Van Jones is challenging Glenn Beck to a debate because he is trying to lure Beck into a fight where Beck would gain nothing, but would give Jones a larger platform to speak from. Jones can only advance, where Beck could only lose something by coming down to Jones level. It’s a tough decision.

I’ve been saying it for a long time, this is outright war. It’s a war without bullets. Watch this clip carefully. People like this seek to keep people down so they can use those same people to lean on for power.

This is the clip where Glenn Beck answers Van Jones.

It’s important to understand what’s going on here. Progressives have had 100 years of phantomlike presence to manipulate the American system. FDR and LBJ are two presidents that have moved the nation in the kind of direction people like Van Jones expect. Those two presidents used the voting base of the people Van Jones speaks about to buy themselves power, and now America is dealing with the cost of that purchase. Yet, Van Jones is speaking as though America could always continue the way it has. As though the promises made by those two idiots, FDR and LBJ, were valid promises rooted in the foundations of the country and not simply a deal with a thief. Those presidents stole from us, gave to others, and used the profit to purchase power under the guise of legitimacy.

We are in a fight for our very lives, as a nation. There isn’t any negotiation with these types of people. The desperation coming from the progressives these days is that they see that the Tea Party is not going away, like they thought they would, and there is panic.

If I were Beck, I’d probably debate Jones and destroy him for what he is. But Beck is not a guy that likes conflict. He’s a guy that is good at seeing around the hidden corners, but he doesn’t like to fight. I do. So I’d love to dismantle someone like Jones in front of a national audience, and the people that follow Jones. But such an endeavor would not stop the fight. A fight like that would be out of pure fun to expose the degradation of the progressive movement, and what they have done to our nation.

But to Van Jones, your American Dream is not mine. You were promised things at my expense, looted from me to give to your type. What is your type, beggars, looters, and thieves, who use the poor and meek as your personal weapons against a country built on freedom. People like Van Jones hopes that he can always tap into the anger of the very lazy, and gather enough force to give looters like him legitimacy within a world of robbers.

Rich Hoffman

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

The Next Three Days Review: A Great Film………………what would you do?

I was looking for a movie to watch that fit a theme I have been working on in my Tail of the Dragon novel when I saw that Paul Haggis had directed Russell Crow and Liam Neeson in a story that explores what happens when the law is not necessarily your friend, when the system is turned against you completely. That story is called The Next Three Days.

The film is different from the story I worked on. Mine is all this along with a bit of Bonnie and Clyde mixed in. But this film intrigued me greatly. I loved it!

Paul Haggis was the screenwriter for a couple of Eastwood films that I love, Million Dollar Baby and Flags of our Fathers. He also had a writing credit for Terminator Salvation. Haggis also directed Crash, which was brilliant, so another film directed by him was something I was not going to miss.

I’m not going to reveal the details of this film. It is full of surprises and it’s a wonderful film. In the film, I can’t blame the decisions Russell Crow’s character made. It asks the hard questions like, how valid is “the law?” Is our legal system just? What is right and what is wrong and do they hold true if the perspective shifts?

I think we have become too reliant on law enforcement much in the same way as we have with teachers. We expect the police to keep us safe, which is unrealistic, because police really aren’t much of a deterrent. All they can really do is show up after a crime has been committed and build a case hoping that they can gather enough evidence to find the bad guy and bring about justice.

I don’t think the ineffectiveness of police officers in preventing crime is worth the freedoms we give up to have them. In a scene of the film shown in the preview where the police break down the door to Russell Crows home and came into his house forcefully, I became infuriated. I can say that if the same thing happened at my home, someone would have ended up hurt. There isn’t a force on earth, no gun, no club, no taser, nothing that would allow me to submit to a forceful entry into my home against my will. Property in America is everything, and when law enforcement can enter your property for the “greater goods security” then there simply isn’t any freedom.

In a lot of ways, that’s what The Next Three Days was all about. It took most of the film to arrive at that message, which doesn’t make it a bad film at all, but the movie was certainly targeted at the types of suburbanites that live around Paul in Santa Monica, a town that lives in its own insulated reality. So the characters in the film go through the transition that if they want freedom, they must take it. Nobody is going to give it to them. If they trust the legal system, it will let them down, just like education does. There is no easy fix.

I mention the film here because movies are a way to explore ideas, and a film like The Next Three Days is one of those types of films that everyone should see, then consider what they would do if they found themselves in the same situation. I suspect many people would do the disgraceful thing, and that’s to accept the rule of law, move on with another spouse, and live a nice safe life.

But, as shown in The Next Three Days, the law is only as good as the people who run it. If the lawyers, prosecutors, Supreme Court, and cops are lazy, and they are, because they’re government workers, then there is always a chance to become a victim to their complacency. So when that happens do you just take it and let their incompetence ruin your life?

I say no. It might have taken the characters 3 years to get to the point that I would have been at within a few hours, but the merit is still what it is, that when a force of any size, or complexity threatens your sovereignty, then war to defend your position is perfectly justified. It is in fact demanded.

That’s why I recommend watching this film and asking the question, how effective is law enforcement? Is it what we really want? Does it represent what being an American is all about, or are we willing to toss those ideas away in favor of an imperfect pursuit of safety.

Watch The Next Three Days for a thrill, excitement, and much-needed contemplation.

Rich Hoffman

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

Educate Ohio and The Original Argument: My Speech and a Special Gift

A friend of mine gave me a new book. Every time I get a new book, I have a good day. This particular book was The Original Argument, by Glenn Beck and Joshua Charles, at an event I was speaking at called Educate Ohio.

The event had about 30 to 40 school board members, teachers and education reform advocates where I gave a presentation on how excessive wages under union contracts are bankrupting school districts.

After the meeting I learned how the book came into my friend’s possession. The book had just be released and a woman had bought 50 of them and was passing them out at the Lebanon Racetrack, a popular meeting place for the Lebanon Tea Party, and she gave my friend 5 of them and told her to pass them out to people who would do something with the book. My friend then gave me one of those 5, which is a treasure to me greater than gold.

I read the Federalist Papers and the Anti-Federalist papers last summer. They were respectfully hard reads because of the old dialogue, but it was those books that inspired me to start this site, Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom. I wanted this blog site to be a kind of modern Federalist Papers using all the tools of the modern age to paint the picture of America’s situation. I had heard that Beck and Joshua were attempting to update the Federalist Papers into modern language that everyone could understand, and that’s what The Original Argument is. It is wonderful that finally every day people will be able to read this book and actually understand how the American government is supposed to be.

One of the speakers before me at the Educate Ohio Conference was Paul Lambert from Columbus, who said something in his presentation that made me connect the two things together, Glenn Beck’s new book, and this education event. He said, “Schools are one of the last things in our republic that we still actually control locally.” He was right; our school districts are one of the last bastions of America that are left. We elect our school boards locally, and we pay for them locally, at least for the most part. And we see that our schools have gotten away from us, they are being run by large unions that have their eyes on state and federal money that they can turn around and use indirectly to manipulate the political process, and it’s happening right under our noses.

When I gave my speech, there were many people there that were from Pickerington, Ohio where the new superintendent for my school district of Lakota comes from. This has been another issue that has exploded on the scene over the last couple of days and I am deeply disappointed in our school board’s decision to hire this person. Here is a preview of my comments that will appear in the Pulse Journal this coming Thursday. Click on the article to go to the I-Team Investigation video on double-dipping superintendents and learn the real story behind the scam. Click here to hear the radio broadcast done by that same reporter on 700 WLW. This is important!
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I thought Ron Spurlock was doing a great job as superintendent of Lakota. He was innovative, energetic, had the ability to unite people, and he was cheaper. So it is baffling to me why the school board elected to hire a double-dipping superintendent from just up the road for $165,000, about $50,000 more than they were paying Ron, and they spent 50K to find her. Didn’t anybody learn anything from the Channel 9 I-Team report we did in May?

I’m sure Mantia is a nice lady. I’m willing to give her a chance, so long as she doesn’t ask for more tax money. My problem is in the absolute preposterous understanding of economics. The school board spent $100,000 dollars that it didn’t need to. Why?

Did the school board think that getting a superintendent from outside of the district like Mantia is what the No Lakota Levy people wanted? She’s more of the same. You’re personnel costs are too high, and decisions like what was made in hiring Mantia perfectly exhibits the folly. You had a guy right in front of you and you hired a woman playing the system. And we are supposed to believe we should increase our taxes even higher than they are now to pay for this lack of understanding?

Lakota doesn’t need more revenue to fund their inflated ideas about what education is. It needs to dump its high dollar, ineffective teachers and administrators, keep people like Mr. Duff, but dump the ones you plainly know do not deserve 75K per year, and replace them with ambitious, cheaper labor fresh out of college. Don’t tell me you don’t know the difference between a good teacher and a bad one. Here’s a hint, the bad ones are working just for money, and just like superintendents that retire the minute they turn 55 then seek to be rehired so they can double-dip. Let those bad teachers go to another district. It will create a job vacancy for us.

If Lakota wants to stay excellent, it can’t just tread water. It’s has to become sustainable over time.

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The arrogance of the school board to play politics in plain site is an obvious sign of disrespect. The people I talk to are aware of it, but aren’t sure what to do about it, because things have always been this way in their lives. People are only now waking up to it because the money is running out, and it’s not so easy to just toss money at corrupt people anymore to just shut them up. People are finally starting to look at how things are supposed to be.

As I packed up all my notes, and presentation material from my speech, I looked at the book that was left for me in the back of the room under my camera tripod, The Original Argument, by Glenn Beck, given to me by someone that had it given to them, who simply wanted to wake people up so they can understand how to defend themselves. A woman that bought 50 copies of the book with her own money and gave them away in all hope that someone would learn, and just possibly one person out of that 50 would do something to stop the madness.

As my wife and I left the building into the hot June sun, I thought about Paul’s words about how schools are the last things we still can control, and the woman who hoped that the foundations of the country would be re-learned. I watched the people leaving the Educate Ohio Conference and I saw that the battle lines were right in front of me. This is the stand that must be taken, and it must be defeated before any government reform can precede, this debate over school funding, and education content.

I ran my fingers over the cover of that book and took a moment to be grateful that such a literary achievement could even be published, and purchased, and brought to my hands with the best of intentions, because it’s not too late for an army of thought to gather in order to combat the massive tyranny that has hid itself in complicated legislation and ancient language. Holding that book gave me the feeling of rebirth in America, and that good would triumph over pure evil.

After my speech I thought of several people who had approached me, and as I unlocked my car to get in and drive away I reflected about what I said to them. “What are we to do, how can we stop this massive corruption?”

I told them, “They’ve already lost. They hide like cockroaches because they have to. They can’t talk about the facts because they rely on your emotions to control you. If you do like you’re doing, come to conferences like this, read, and pay attention, you will beat them sooner than you can imagine. Just keep focused, stay with the truth, and give them no place to hide. And you’ll get your country back.”
We’ve already won. The trouble is, the bad guys don’t know it yet because they’re too stupid and arrogant to see that they’ve been caught. All people need is the truth, and it will literally set them free in every way possible.

Rich Hoffman

https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/ten-rules-to-live-by/
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