Tag: Hollywood insight

Overcoming an American President: Making ‘Tail of the Dragon’ novel–metaphor at The White House

At Amazon.com my new book has been sold out for most of 2013 which has qualified Tail of the Dragon for some bulk discounts bringing down the price.  Amazon is now offering Tail of the Dragon for $17.99 on their online store.  I can’t promise that the same price will be held elsewhere as Amazon has a relationship with my distributer and publisher that allows for the price reduction.

I am very proud of the way the novel Tail of the Dragon came about.  Those who have read the book have had wonderful things to say about it, and have enjoyed the contemporary message that is uniquely a mix between Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Smokey and the Bandit.  I did with the novel what I do with most things—I put a lot of effort into the project on the front end.  I am never happy embarking on a creative endeavor from the distance of mere contemplation.  For instance, in the title I am currently working on called The Trial of Fletcher Finnegan, where the entire United States military representing global bank cartels wish to arrest the protagonist for being a flame of liberty in the small, seemingly insignificant town of Fort Seven Mile, Ohio I want to have some authenticity about the character as I write it.  So I tend to incorporate such needs into my research.  In this case it requires me to do things that I cannot say at this time, until some future date, but I do place myself into my character’s shoes whenever I can.  I want to know that what I put to paper is possible, and not just the fantasy of a person locked in psychological duality—where they live one way of life, but write about another.  I want to know that what I write about could happen the way I envision it, and the best way to perform such a thing is to do samplings of the behavior in real life.

For Tail of the Dragon my wife and I rode over 20,000 miles on a motorcycle during one summer.  Even though the novel is about an epic car chase, the essence of the story is about the struggle for real freedom, not just the legal illusion.  That meant I had to understand the idea more than just intellectually—I needed to see and feel it up close.   So we rode our motorcycle from the shores of Lake Erie to the southern tip of Key West and many points in between while I worked out the details in the novel to give the story a uniquely hands on feel.  The result of those journeys can be seen in the below six part video series featuring The Making of Tail of the Dragon.  Click on the videos to watch, and then click on the descriptive text below to revisit the details of each episode.

In Part One, my wife and I visited the actual site of the mythical Tail of the Dragon in the pouring rain riding at elevations over 5000 feet.  This was the first time I had ever visited the road and was scouting for a metaphorical template for which to paint a uniquely American version of freedom upon.   I had heard about the Tail of the Dragon at Deal’s Gap in North Carolina, but had to see the place for myself.

In Part Two we approached the Tail of the Dragon from the west across the Cherohala Skyway nick-named the Mile High Legend.  I wanted the car chase in my story to begin on the Skyway which is the only way over the mountains from the west.  At 100 to 200 MPH of speed during the chase landmarks come and go quickly, so I had to have a good feel for the roads in and around the area.

In Part Three, I needed to work out the context of the main character’s obsession with personal freedom.  To accomplish this, my wife and I took a long, hot, and punishing trip to Key West by motorcycle to study a place which is well-known for its love of personal freedom and distrust of politics.

In Part Four, I joined a motorcycle club and became its vice-president participating in a membership ride from Cleveland, Ohio to Freemont just south of Sandusky.  I was working on the problem of individualism over collectivism and had become fascinated by the dual problem present with motorcycle riders where they proclaim to be rugged individualists, yet travel together in packed formations much like birds in flight.  The concept seemed wrong to me, so I explored the idea first-hand.

In Part Five, my daughter rode her first motorcycle on her own with me to Cleveland for a film festival where I was set to pick up an award for a separate project.  We raced up I-71 at speeds exceeding 90 MPH most of the way as time was not on our side.  As a man, I am a risk taker, and that tendency is certainly present in my Tail of the Dragon characters.  But I wanted to explore a trust issue where my wife and daughter needed to trust my recklessness to a new level.  I was working out a problem I was having in the novel and I needed to prove a theory to myself so that I could find the words to articulate the problem for my characters.

In Part Six, I needed to solve a new problem.  The story required a level of fearlessness that comes only to those who really push life to the ultimate limits.  That requires participants to move beyond the social façade most live within their entire lives.  I felt the best way to do this was to go to one of the most haunted places in the country and face down the ghosts that live there.  It was a supernatural themed motorcycle trip that will never be forgotten.

The result of all these trips became the basis for my novel Tail of the Dragon.  I am very proud of the result.   Even though the story is essentially a high-speed car chase and audacious flight from everything representing modern authority, the psychological transformation of the characters required that I put them “above” all established authority known to the present day world from which we live.  Most people recognize the American President of The United States as being the ultimate authority figure on planet earth.  In my story, this meant that my characters had to overcome this figure—at least metaphorically.  I knew I hit the mark when my editor at American Book commented on the scene which took place in The White House with tears of joy.  I further received conformation when the copyeditor hired by American Book to finalize the manuscript wrote me a personal note which can be seen here:

Rich, here’s a lovely comment from the copyeditor to you:

 Mr. Hoffman:  It was very much an honor to work on your book, which I found to be fascinating, thrilling, and insightful.  I found myself pouring through the book, wanting to know what would happen next.  Your book is wonderful on its own, and on top of that, it reminds me of my own parents; I can’t wait to have them read the book once it is printed.  Thank you for the pleasure of being part of such an enjoyable and rewarding process;  I wish you the best of luck! 

 

To get the climax to work in The White House I needed to take the readers to a place that no other mechanism had achieved in society, no song, no movie, no television show, no piece of prior literature—nothing.  My editors on the East Coast are hardly bastions of conservativism.  At the start of the book they were much more aligned with the type of people who voted for Barack Obama than my Tea Party favoring tendencies of Rand and Ron Paul.  What I had to overcome in Tail of the Dragon was this notion that the American President was a figurehead to be worshipped and honored, and that was an idea that transcended any political party known to current society.  The primary antagonist in Tail of the Dragon was willing to do anything to become president.  He was willing to run over anyone anywhere to have the chance to sit in the Oval Office—so to achieve the aims of his political ideology which he had built over a lifetime.  This all comes at the expense of society and the individuals that make it up.  To make my point I had to go beyond this ridiculous notion and place my heroes above all established authority—not as typical outlaws, but as something else—that defied understanding prior to my writing of Tail of the Dragon.

I had the idea in my head, but to put the final touches on it, I can say that those 20,000 miles of motorcycle riding finalized my thoughts into a coherent philosophy that is unique onto itself.  The cure for the human race is to arrive at the mental view-point the President arrived at during the climax of Tail of the Dragon.  And for me to understand that not just conceptually but philosophically required an extraordinary journey both physically and mentally that pushed me to my limits in a unique way so that when I put words to paper the context was created in a way that had never been done before.  My editor’s reaction was the first conformation of that success.  The second has been the slowly building love for the novel by those who have read it, and kept Tail of the Dragon a rare commodity at Amazon.com driving the price down so more people can enjoy the fun, adventure, and philosophy for which it contains. 

You can find Tail of the Dragon at Amazon.com by CLICKING HERE.

 

Rich Hoffman

166701_584023358276159_1119605693_n“If they attack first………..blast em’!”

www.tailofthedragonbook.com

A timeline of the IRS Scandal: Freeze their assets, take back their bonuses, hold their pay, and lock up their buildings

The IRS is guilty of misleading the American public and the Obama Administration has proven itself at the very least incompetent to manage government offices.  The Obama White House is most likely very guilty of much, much worse—with a series of scandals that far eclipse Watergate.   To understand the severity of these crimes, here is just the IRS timeline of who knew what and when they knew it.

Dear reader, the best thing you can do is send a copy of this article to your congressman and let them see the IRS timeline for themselves.  Also, make sure to instruct them you expect Congress to treat the IRS in the same way that the IRS treats all of us.

  • Freeze all their paychecks till the matter is resolved.
  • Take back any bonuses paid during the above timeline.
  • Freeze all assets till innocence is proven.
  • And padlock their doors till legal justification for holding a position of authority can be restored.

If any of us were in trouble with the IRS and caught in just a fraction of the trouble that they are currently in, that is what would be done.  So the same needs to happen to the IRS.  Without the urging of the public, Congress will lose their back-bone and let justice subside to back-room negotiations, and this cannot be allowed to happen.

You have seen the evidence.   Now act on it. And if you have doubts……the below video was filmed one week before the IRS bomb dropped. Obama was well aware of what was going on……………he is lying, and that is against the law.  And he knows it.

Rich Hoffman

166701_584023358276159_1119605693_n“If they attack first………..blast em’!”

www.tailofthedragonbook.com

The Iron Men Doc Thompson and Skip Lacombe: Raising $1.5 million for Oklahoma tornado victims after a marathon 24 hour radio broadcast

On Thursday morning, May 23, 2013 The Morning Blaze with Doc Thompson and producer Skip Lacombe broadcasted for 24 straight hours to raise money for Mercury One’s Midwest Tornado Relief Fund with support from The Blaze Radio Network‘s Glenn Beck, Jay Severin, Buck Sexton, Pat & Stu and other special guests such as yours truly.  The broadcast began at 6AM Thursday morning and ran through 9 AM Friday Eastern time 5/24 from Oklahoma.  The time over that 27 hour period that Doc and Skip were not on the air was during Glenn Beck’s regular 9 AM to 12 PM broadcast.  The marathon broadcast was quite an achievement as Doc and Skip spoke straight for the entire time with a performance that far exceeded Rand Paul’s recent filibuster in the Senate and successfully helped generate over $1.5 million dollars for victims of the Oklahoma tragedy.  It was halfway through this marathon that I came on with Doc to talk about the IRS situation surrounding Lois Lerner and how much mutual affection we had for one another.

I have worked long periods of time that also exceeded 24 hour intervals, so I have an appreciation for what Doc and Skip achieved.  Since Doc joined The Blaze, I leave their streaming audio on just about everywhere I go.  With phone apps being what they are these days and computers being so mobile The Blaze Radio can be heard anywhere through streaming audio, so I never have to worry about signal strength that was so typical of AM radio.  I can now travel anywhere in the country never having a break in a broadcast, and that is the single best reason for using The Blaze as my new primary news source.  But I wasn’t willing to give it a chance until my good friend Doc joined The Blaze.  Now that he has, I am hooked.

I left Doc and Skip’s broadcast on for the entire period and was surprised to hear them displaying the same enthusiasm at 4 AM as they did at 6 PM the previous day.  Before the 27 hour marathon performance, Doc and Skip had done remote broadcasts from Washington D.C. and Richmond, Virginia, in the same week which demonstrated the strength of The Blaze’s Radio program to pick up from one location and successfully set up a remote in another location so quickly.  The innovation that was being used at The Blaze means that Doc and Skip due to their iron man-like endurance no longer have to be constrained by cumbersome equipment as other radio stations are limited to.  The phone screener no longer has to be in a booth in the next room communicating to the radio host through a glass window.  Modern equipment efficiency allows part of an operation like The Blaze to function out of New York City, Dallas, Texas, and then the road team represented by Doc and Skip communicated over computer networks through headsets in real-time.  This means that ambitious projects like the Oklahoma fundraiser on the heels of an already extensive road trip are possible because Skip can pack up their radio studio and put it in their car easily to set up in the next town quickly.  The Blaze has been one of the first, and best of their kind, who have a large news organization that is so mobile, and is free of FCC regulation.  That makes them very unique.

After Doc left the air to catch up on some much-needed sleep, The Blaze Radio Network switched over to Glenn Beck who was broadcasting from The American Dream Labs in Salt Lake City and immediately stepped into coverage of the London terrorist incident where a young soldier was beheaded by a radical extremists in the city streets.  The Blaze is a creation of Glenn Beck built by the money he earned off his popularity gained at CNN and Fox News.  Instead of becoming a pompous ideologue, like so many do who have even a fraction of Beck’s talent, he took his money and did great things with it as an entrepreneur.  It is because of Beck’s commitment to The Blaze that it is such a dynamic radio program and had the ability to send Doc and Skip on the road to Oklahoma to raise money for the victims there so efficiently, and effectively.

As I’ve said, more than once I have worked 24 hours or more, and I know how tired Doc and Skip had to have been.  But add to that the need to talk for such a long period of time without the assistance of visual aids, or even music to fill the time.  The entire show had to be filled with Doc and Skip’s voices and that is difficult, because to do so, there has to be enough thought in the mind to articulate words in a voice.  As a fairly frequent guest on talk radio, and occasional public speaker, I can talk for hours without notes—but this is due to the many books and information I put into my head with a daily education that I work hard to maintain.  So I can appreciate the sheer volume of thought it takes to generate 24 hours of straight talking with only breaks at the top and bottom of each hour for the news.  Doc’s performance with Skip was a Marconi Award winning endeavor in my opinion.  No other radio host in the country could come close to what Doc pulled off.  Doc and Skip’s unique brand of news radio and commentary is laced with comedy that is the conservative equivalent to Jon Stewart from The Daily Show, it was funny stuff at 6 AM Thursday, and it was still funny 27 hours later at 9 AM Friday.

Doc didn’t just get to such a level over night.  When he was in Cincinnati Doc did 6 hours of radio every single day.  He did three hours at 700 WLW then 3 hours in Richmond, Virginia at 1140 WRVA for well over a year.  I used to think that was a lot of radio for a voice to perform, but Doc blew that trend out of the water with his marathon Oklahoma performance.

Doc’s iron man tenacity in radio was reflected in his broadcast, and ultimately, it is that type of on-air personality that makes The Blaze a much better news organization than is offered any place else.  The Blaze hires and recruits out-side-the-box types of employees like Doc and Skip, and the results are overwhelmingly obvious.  The Doc Thompson Show on The Blaze demonstrates a passion for the material that is simply unheard of anywhere else.  It was a pleasure to listen to Doc and Skip on the radio for more than 24 hours.  I came away from that broadcast wishing that every day could be so wonderful as to hear the Doc Thompson Show on the radio with fresh content every hour of the day for the entire duration.  I feel fortunate to have witnessed it, and even participated in a small way—to be a part of that magnificent history.  Doc’s broadcast was a shining example of how individuals come together in a crisis without government coaxing, to do good things for good people with all the ingenuity and tenacity that is typical of the American spirit.  All those elements were present on The Blaze Radio Network’s 24 hour fund-raising efforts in Oklahoma during a tragedy that brought good will to millions upon millions of listeners who were joined to a great cause by the voice of Doc Thompson and his producer and sidekick, Skip Lacombe.

Nice job guys!

Rich Hoffman

166701_584023358276159_1119605693_n“If they attack first………..blast em’!”

www.tailofthedragonbook.com

Rich Hoffman Interview with Matt Clark: The eye of the IRS scandal storm

Because of all the IRS news lately, and considering that I have been in the center of the storm, Matt Clark wanted me to come on his radio show at WAAM in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  Unlike my friend Justin Binik Thomas who is a very nice guy whose previous interview with Matt sparked my visit seen and heard below, I do not trust the system to fix anything.  I hope that everyone in congress does what they are supposed to and defend the name of Justin and those involved in the recent IRS scandal where that government collection agency attacked Tea Party groups maliciously out of their innate desire for self-preservation.  But I have serious doubts.  I don’t like the IRS, or what it represents.  And I sure don’t like how it goes about its job, and I’ve never been shy to talk about it.  The IRS represents government statism in all the worst ways, leaving their intrinsic social debauchery to migrate unmolested into the American experience.

For my part in the IRS scandal I produced two videos for the Liberty Township Tea Party that fell under the questioning by agents harassing them for information.  The IRS wanted DVD copies of my videos because they were shown at a Tea Party event for education reasons.  The first video was one that was produced by me and a group I was working with called the State Sovereignty Committee of the LTTP.   The basic function of the group was to get together once or twice a month for several months and learn about The Tenth Amendment.  We would then present our findings to the larger group of the Liberty Township Tea Party.  As we uncovered information in our little research group I discovered that the situational abuse of the Commerce Clause was detrimental and highly scandalous.  So I suggested that our group present our findings in a nice video that made the complex topic easier to understand.  That is the video you can see below.

The other video involved the Immigration Committee of the LTTP, which was assembled and put together in much the same fashion for the same reasons.  For that video it simply made sense to sit down with one of the most vocal advocates of immigration reform in the entire United States, Sheriff Jones of Butler Country and interview him.  Both videos were then shown to the larger Liberty Township Tea Party group for purely educational reasons.   The complete expense of the videos was covered by me to keep everything easy.  The reason that I publish this website of Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom without any subscription fees is to avoid having to file any IRS forms that give them regulatory power over my work.  With those videos, no money changed hands—they were simply the result of my donated time, and of those who worked on those projects with me.  I do offer my published works on my website for money, but I do not sell them direct.  The books are sold exclusively through my publisher.  This keeps an accurate record of my quarterly royalty checks which are indisputable with the IRS since the payment comes from a company that keeps sales clean and beyond refute.  Publishers like authors to sell their books directly because the profit margin is much higher instead of sharing the revenue with third-party book distributers; it also allows authors to lower the price selling more titles.  Bill O’Reilly even with all his name recognition does this better than anyone and for the same reasons.  In his case his increased profit margins go directly to charity instead of third-party distributors.  I do not use this method because of my controversial endeavors knowing that everything I do is watched closely by the IRS and the other arms of tyranny which make up the federal government.

As innocent as the videos were, which in essence were no different from any typical YouTube video, the IRS included them on their lists of questions to the Liberty Township Tea Party as though some great scandal had been committed, which was simply laughable.  But I did have to provide actual DVD copies of the videos to the IRS, which seemed ludicrous to me as there were 4000 IRS employees in Cincinnati any one of which could have downloaded their own copies from the YouTube postings.  As I spent a whole Saturday afternoon finding and creating DVDs of the videos I wondered what those IRS employees did all day—and the more I thought about it the angrier I became.  Regardless, I turned in the videos and the Liberty Township Tea Party satisfied all their questions given to them by the IRS.  About a month later this scandal broke to the level it currently is.

In a lot of ways, the 10th Amendment video inspired me to create this site because that was the moment I realized how corrupt our government truly was.  The way congress split hairs over the Commerce Clause, the 14th Amendment and any other hook they managed to get over states rights violating the Constitution in the process showed me what the game of government was really about.  The proof was overwhelming, and obvious.  I saw the same thing happening in our public schools, in the Obama administration, the United Nations, and exemplified in the statist philosophy of the IRS.  So I started this site to help educate others as to how the scam has been perpetrated upon Americans for many years.  Once I admitted to myself that the level of deceit was not just a suspicion I had, but the proof was discovered in that 10th Amendment video, I came to understand that more information had to get out to more people, more often.  I spent 4 months making that 10th Amendment video with a team of other people—and that was too slow.  The Tea Party only met once a month, and that was too slow for educational purposes, so I started this site to accelerate the process of learning.

So is the IRS right to notice that my videos have had a role in the Tea Party effort?  Yes they are right, and they understand that if people learn the truth of their intentions then more people will turn against the IRS grip on the public.  So for their own preservation, they are right to target those videos—as innocent as they are—for what the videos represent.  However, the IRS is still confined to the law—at least the perception of law.   They cannot openly violate the Constitution; they must do so with deceit and fear hoping to get others to comply out of dread instead of legal knowledge.  And it is my intention to take those weapons away from such scoundrels by re-teaching people how to think for themselves.

As usual it was fun to do Matt’s show. It is even more fun to see the IRS squirm on the chopping block for once.  However, I don’t trust what I see or feel of the situation.  There is more to the story and the sacrificial lambs of the IRS thrown upon an alter by the President of the United States indicates a deeper, darker, much more sinister problem that has yet to indicate its magnitude.  For that beast, my eyes follow the evidence trail of dismembered lives, treachery, lies, and every conceivable sham to the lair where the real trouble resides.  It is there that the head of such a monster must be removed through the preferred method of defunding—by starving it out of its hiding place.   But I do not regulate my thoughts to a peaceful end where the process will correct itself.  Logic says that before it’s over, the nasty beast of government will attack to protect its lair where many future baby monsters are laid like eggs—awaiting to be hatched.  The monster of the federal government wants to preserve its young so that they can grow up to become great monsters of their own.  It is the task of all right thinking people to prevent that from happening.  I hope Justin is right about trusting the process, but logic says that in the end it will be my methods that we’ll see first.

Rich Hoffman

166701_584023358276159_1119605693_n“If they attack first………..blast em’!”

www.tailofthedragonbook.com

The IRS Ways and Means Hearings in Washington D.C.:Justin Binik Thomas and Tea Party friends seek justice

What a lot of people do not realize is that Tea Party groups are educational organizations designed to get back into touch with Constitutional ideals and beliefs that were valued upon the founding of The United States of America.  In essence they are like a giant book club where members get together and talk about the merits of books they have read like The Federalist Papers and The 5000 Year Leap.  That makes the recent IRS scandal against the Tea Party that much more preposterous, which has been going on for over three years now, culminating in the testimony in Washington that is currently going on.  All government entities from local schools to the smallest cubical in the IRS administration offices have in their culture an inherit desire to advance statism—and anything that is a threat to their statism they deem worthy of attack.  If a school levy is resisted, the advocates of the tax increase believe they have a “right” to destroy businesses and any individual who stand in the way of their funding.  The IRS does the same on a massive scale acting as agents of tyranny to those who oppose statist oriented government objectives.  So as a supporter of Tea Party causes, it gave me great pleasure to listen to the testimony of May 17, 2013 and hear occasional cheers coming from the crowd sitting in the balcony—since I personally know a good portion of the Tea Party patriots making such a ruckus there.

Many people are just now arriving to where many of us have been for a long time.  Justin Binik-Thomas is a friend of mine who was also up in the balcony, along with Rachael Proctor who I most recently discussed in another article.  They were joined with most of the organizational heads of the Liberty Township Tea Party which is one that I have supported from the beginning as it is the group that is in my home district.  In February of 2013, only a few months ago I had to provide the IRS through the Liberty Township Tea Party hard copies of videos I made which were shown at a picnic that was done at a local farm celebrating patriotic themes.  CLICK HERE FOR REVIEW.  To understand what the Tea Party is all about, watch the video I have at that link because it involves many of the people targeted in this current IRS probe, and it can easily be seen how ridiculously stupid the IRS probe of these people truly is.    I remember vividly the meeting where it was discussed how the IRS had asked the Liberty Township Tea Party about their relationship with Justin Binik Thomas, who is one of the founding members of the Cincinnati Tea Party, and the cold chill that permeated the audience at that event.

Unlike my Tea Party friends, my interest in politics extends beyond education.  I am an aggressive type of individual and I sometimes do and say things many of them would never consider.  For that reason I keep a bit of distance from them so to preserve my right to exercise my intentions without bringing negativity into their direction, particularly from groups like the IRS or any other government body.  So privately, frequent readers of my Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom got together with Justin Binik-Thomas to deal with this whole IRS thing.  CLICK HERE TO REVIEW.  I’m not the kind of person who believes in mass demonstrations and protests.  I don’t do the group activity thing but I do respect those who do.  The people who were in that Overmanwarrior’s group were not the types who would collect in mass to show the IRS that there is strength in numbers—they are the type of people who are prepared for the next tragic steps once government organizations realize that the Tea Party will not back down.  They are people like Justin Binik-Thomas who won’t be frightened away from holding leadership positions in the Tea Party organizations, due to IRS intimidation.  Knowing something about media relations myself, if those steps are necessitated, I don’t want my friends in the Tea Party splattered all over the news as a negative connection to me, so I keep a respectable distance—because that is where I am.  I admire their kindness, and desire to learn.  That much I share with them.  But I have different methods for dealing with bullies that is much more direct than a lot of people feel comfortable with.  I intend to direct that kind of attention toward one of the biggest bullies around, the IRS.  So the meeting we had with Justin well over a year ago in the middle of this IRS scandal was to deal with those next steps should the IRS push the issue beyond pieces of paper and phone calls.

This is where the statist government types like Barack Obama are at a loss, and why they find themselves in the center of so much trouble.  America is not Europe; we have not been beaten down by thousands of years of statism under kings and queens.  America was founded by rebels fleeing Europe.  Rebellion is so deeply ingrained into our DNA that it cannot be easily changed leaving a subtle and constant push against statism.  Even though government education has trained the minds of generations toward statism, deep in their hearts Americans hate it, and they act against it any way they can.  Most of the people I know are happy to peacefully protest, as they traveled to Washington to show a unified force against the IRS.  But I prepare in other ways for events that are historically probable.  I do not count on government to submit itself to the will of the American people, and I expect a fight from them.  So I am always in a state of preparation.  But what we all have in common, my Tea Party friends and some of my “other” friends who will strategically stay in the shadows until needed–is that we are not going to yield.  Submission to government is not an option.  We will never submit to United Nations authority, we will never submit to the tyranny of the IRS or any other government organization.  I personally won’t even submit to a local trustee or zoning board.   I don’t go out looking for trouble, I simply resist the imposition of my time, money, and energy by those who want something from me, and hope to force me to act in the way they desire through “thuggish” democracy—mob rule.

What else is the motive when a bunch of union inspired thugs attempt to vandalize the property of a target, or organize a mass protest in front of a home or business?  What is the point of spying on a target so that weaknesses in their defense can be ascertained?  What is the point of using the rule of law through the tax code or some other government inspired imposition to arrest a target and throw them in jail just because they have charisma and a following?  The intent is to “win” at their intended strategic objectives, through force.  The IRS did these types of things to the Liberty Township Tea Party because they wanted to send a strong message to a Tea Party group in John Boehner’s back yard.  They wanted to tie up the efforts of the Tea Party into not protesting big government and national debt, but to put them on the defensive with red tape and bureaucracy.  It was harassment with the intention of “changing” the behavior of the Tea Party groups.  By targeting Justin Binik-Thomas the IRS wanted to send a message to the other Tea Party groups that leaders in such groups would be targeted—so to discourage leaders from naming themselves for fear of an audit.

I am happy to see the victims of this IRS harassment enjoying their moment in the sun.  They deserve to look down from the gallery upon those who intended to bring harm to their lives—and the IRS did intend to use their authority to change Tea Party behavior.  Justin deserves that satisfaction as does Rachael and the representatives of the Liberty Township Tea Party who were there for the testimony.  It is nice to see justice being handed out where it is deserved.  I’d rather get everything out in the open so that the pretense of politeness can be dropped and everyone can start dealing with reality.

As these scandals break, and justice comes to the aggressors of the IRS and the government that supports such a tyranny, what I believe will happen may be delayed, where the federal government out of frustration just turns on the American people with out-right force.  Such peaceful resolutions are the intentions of the Tea Party and I’m happy to see them getting some form of justice from the efforts and worry they have expelled.  But such victories are paper in nature and easily forgotten.  They are not the kind of conflict resolution that I am thinking of.  It would seem that for that, I’ll have to wait a bit longer as the government recalibrates for their next psychological assault.  But what we all share no matter what the method is that submission is not an option.  Statist government is not what we are willing to support, and there isn’t any amount of forced imposition that can change that basic premise.

Rich Hoffman

166701_584023358276159_1119605693_n“If they attack first………..blast em’!”

www.tailofthedragonbook.com

Review of ‘Iron Man 3’: The Mandarin terrorism speaks more truth than the news wishes to admit

I saw Iron Man 3 last weekend and wanted to immediately provide a review of some kind because it was a very good film full of large concepts.  The value in these comic book based stories is that they do not take themselves too serious as intellectual advancement devices.  But like so many plot lines to video games these days, the writing, and concepts behind the plot are quite advanced allowing viewers to define abstract concepts in mythological dialogue that the human brain understands as a truth obtained  no other way.  When it is wondered why the Marvel films are doing such magnificent business it is not because of the great performances of Robert Downey Jr., or any of the primary actors, but because the bizarre plot lines have within them a truth that unifies all the fragmented evidence society is exposed to and presents the information in a way that makes sense.

But before going too far down the rabbit hole, let’s get the typical stuff out-of-the-way.  Is Robert Downey Jr., worth the $50 million dollars he is getting to play Iron Man in these films?  I’d say no.  If it were me making the decision at Marvel Comics and Disney on how to pay Downey for Avengers 2, I would write Downey out of the story and let him sit it out for a film or two so that his agent does not have the contract leverage to continue driving up the labor costs.  By paying Downey so much money, which I don’t think even he thinks he’s worth, it sets a dangerous standard that the other Avenger actors will expect in equality under the ridiculous standards of collective bargaining, and could wreck the magic of these films in the future.  If Iron Man or an Iron Man type of character needs to appear in The Avengers 2 let it just be the suit with another actor doing the voice of Downey, or make it the Iron Patriot instead of Iron Man.  Let Avengers 2 make a lot of money without Downey to take away the leverage and keep the budget under control—otherwise the Marvel films as a financial formula could be wrecked as the parasites of the entertainment industry will seek to concentrate on collective bargaining as a way to increase their own looting percentages.  Downey’s performance as Tony Stark in the Iron Man films is brilliant, and I laughed out loud several times during Iron Man 3, but that performance is not worth $50 million dollars or more.  I’d center the next Avenger film around another character and if the actors don’t come down in their prices, make it more about The Hulk as a CGI character to cut down the screen time of the other actors and call the bluff of the agents trying to increase payroll for the actors to over $200 million alone—as everyone now expects a Marvel Comics movie to pull in at least $1 billion at the box office.  With that said I don’t think any other actor could have played Tony Stark as brilliantly as Downey did.  The range of emotions Robert Downey Jr., performed in Iron Man 3 ranged from dealing with genius scientists, mechanical robots, romantic interactions, maniacal terrorists, to the innocence of young children—all done with comedic overtones.  It was unique, and fun to watch.  In spite of the money demands Iron Man 3 will place as a danger to contract negotiations between Downey and future films, I think all the parties will work out the situation in time and snap back into reality allowing Iron Man to return to the big screen played by Robert Downey Jr.  I think Downey understands the situation and will do the right thing in the end giving kids more of his Iron Man.

What set this Iron Man 3 film apart from other movies of the same basic design was the way they portrayed the villain, The Mandarin, played by Ben Kingsley.   As I read the reviews of Iron Man 3 and saw that so many young people were having a hard time accepting who and what the Mandarin was as a bad guy, I had to laugh a bit.  Many people seeing Iron Man 3 had hoped that The Mandarin would be a villain of epic James Bond capacity, a treacherous villain worthy of being far superior to Tony Stark in order to drive tension into the film’s narrative.  Instead The Mandarin was simply an actor hired to play a terrorist by the real terrorists who were working behind the scenes of a well-intended campaign to end human misery by re-growing lost limbs from victims of unfortunate tragedies.  The real villains in Iron Man 3 were brilliant wide-eyed scientists and politicians who wanted to help the world, not destroy it.  They simply desired to “nudge” society into compliance with their vision.  This conspiracy went all the way into the President of the United States own administration and was handled very well by the writing and direction of Shane Black.  Considering that Iron Man 3 was being filmed and finished in post-production after the events of the real life Aurora shooting, Sandy Hook, and Benghazi, the plot of Iron Man 3 was incredibly insightful.   The difficulty with the various conspiracy theories involved in all those real life tragedies is to assemble them logically with the information that can be known.  Figuring out what happened is not easy as it’s like trying to assemble a puzzle where someone has stolen most of the pieces and then tried to figure out what the picture on the puzzle was without most of it being put together.

Most people know or feel that the government as a self-preserving entity will knowingly derail information from the public which leads to all the wild speculations generated about the real intentions of a terrorist act.  Even to this very day, conspiracy theorists are ridiculed by the government and their public relations machines for even asking good questions about what really happened in the 9/11 tragedy calling them “truthers.”  This leaves people afraid to openly state their opinions, which is the design of the derogatory designation forcing society to relegate their opinions to themselves.  Yet fantasy films like Iron Man tackle those conspiracies head on with creativity and attempt to assemble the missing puzzle pieces with some form of logic, and this is why films like Iron Man, and the Batman films are doing such ROBUST box office business.  There is a truth in Iron Man that has more meaning for society than 24 hours of watching Fox News.

I watched an interesting interview from Bill O’Reilly a few days ago where he was confused by the enormous business that Iron Man was producing in sheer box office dollars.  O’Reilly like all the other news makers of the day wants to believe that Iron Man 3 is good just because of the great performance of Robert Downey Jr.  But it’s not. Iron Man 3 is about terrorism and radical extremists, something we all deal with everywhere in the world.  Yet the way the terrorism angle was dealt with in Iron Man 3 was likely much more truthful than the typical plotline of any other blockbuster film.  We all expected The Mandarin in Iron Man 3 to be a ruthless terrorist like Osama bin Laden, or Saddam Hussein—a mastermind, and ruthless despot.  But when Tony Stark discovered who the real Mandarin truly was, he found that he was just an actor who has been playing the part of a terrorist in exchange for drugs—as he’s a recovering addict.  That is the reason behind the success of Iron Man 3 and films like it.

Even in the wild over-the-top plot lines of The Avengers, the idea of aliens attacking earth through a wormhole has more plausibility than many of the plot lines that our society is fed by statist oriented governments who seek to placate the public with disinformation and manipulation in order to advance their version of solutions against the will of the people they represent.  There is more truth in simple comic book stories than in any other plausible explanation, and this is not just a diabolical tragedy, but a stunning revelation.  The magic of a story like Iron Man 3 is that it puts the plausible concept in the mind of the viewer so that rational emphasis can be added to actual reality.  In the case of Iron Man 3, the storyline is unlikely, but the scenario of how the terrorists were able to get into the president’s own administration and manipulate vast sums of people with the fear “they” created with the fictional character in The Mandarin has roots in reality.  The intention of the Mandarin was to get the eyes of the American public to look toward China or the Mideast for the source of the terrorist threat, not to Miami, Florida in a crack house filled with whores and a burnt out actor who had been hired by the terrorists to play a terrorist.

Iron Man 3 reminded me of a typical action film from the 80s in most other regards.  I did not think the special effects where outrageously great.  I thought the ending was telegraphed and was average.  Coming out of the theater I asked Doc Thompson what he thought of the film from The Blaze and he said that he liked it, but that it was an average film—technically.  He gave it 6 out of 10, which I tend to agree with.  I would give it a bit higher score based on Downey’s performance alone.  But the film is much better if the context is considered by the explanation of many conspiracies.  It is in this explanation, or plausible one, that the Marvel movies thrive so boldly.  There is truth in these fictions that is more relevant than the truth offered in real life that often turns out to be fiction.  This is why Iron Man 3 has made nearly $1 billion dollars in just two weeks at theaters.  As wonderful as Downey’s performance was, it is the plots that drive the heroics, and that rests in the hands of Stan Lee from Marvel Comics.

I read a lot of heavy material, and I often balance out all that weighty stuff with comic books to ease my mind and relax.  In fact, for my 25th wedding anniversary my wife bought me a comic book.  I like to read them, which only takes about 10 minutes, but I often enjoy just looking at the pictures which contain the visions of the authors and effort of their imaginations.  They are often simplified outlooks at reality but occasionally, there are very sophisticated concepts that are approached in comics which can’t be explored in the deepest work of Carl Jung.  I read recently a very good editorial from Dave Marshall at Dark Horse Comics in January of 2013 titled “Everyone Needs Stories.” Below are the first couple of paragraphs that remind me of why Iron Man 3 is so successful.

Too often stories can be taken for granted, bundled away as frivolous entertainment, but it only takes glancing at a newspaper, opening a book (nonfiction included), or having a conversation to see that storytelling is an inexorable part of communication, which in turn is an inexorable part of the human experience. 

Stories are everywhere, yet our thirst for them remains unquenchable.  We even consume products masquerading as stories in nearly immeasurable quantities if they are convenient, as our need is so present and demanding.  This fact informs my work every day.  I strive to contribute to books that give people the stories they need, with truthful characters who navigate authentic emotional experience in an intricately realized world, as opposed to merely growing the heaps of false stories, with motorized characters clicking through their roles in a mechanical plot, designed to lure people in and produce a predictable result (usually additional purchases). 

When a story gives people what they need it becomes a part of them, integrating into their attitudes and ideas, and expressing itself in infinite ways, some of which the comics community knows well.

Dave Marshall, editor of Dark Horse Comics

Marshall is right, everyone does need stories, but not the kind that are produced in public relation firms and pumped out to keep the society at large in the dark as to the real truth of a matter.  They need stories that can take the motivations of well-intended individuals and make them into treacherous monsters which is what Iron Man 3 is all about.  It’s a fantastic story that has more relevance than the nightly news, and more truth than a White House press conference.  As whimsical as Iron Man 3 is, it is more honest than the speech of a typical politician or government spokesperson, and that is why business is so good with comic book movies.  They are not successful because kids and adults alike are escaping reality and reliving their childhoods through the characters actors like Robert Downey Jr., create, but because the stories are truthful, and honest about the human condition in a way that no other endeavor attempts to tackle.  In that regard, Iron Man 3 is a 10 out of 10 and a movie that should be seen by everyone in every corner of the globe.  And yet again, Stan Lee deserves a tip of the hat to his tenacious creations and ruthless honesty.

Rich Hoffman

166701_584023358276159_1119605693_n“If they attack first………..blast em’!”

www.tailofthedragonbook.com

“To Walk in the Woods Where There is No Path”: Understanding the need to live a little dangerously

I am not used to as of yet reading through arguments where people I don’t know quote things I have said to validate their opinions.  Yet I ran across just such a quote by accident seen below from my 2004 Symposium of Justice novel.

“Walk in the woods where there is no path. Live in conflict with those that are superior to you. You will learn, hopefully not too late, that life’s greatest fruits come to those who live a little dangerously. You’ll also find that if you make batters work for a hit, they’ll respect you more as a pitcher. If they get a home run off of you, it will mean more if they earn it.”

– Rich Hoffman, The Symposium of Justice.

I often write the things I do and move on to the next topic never thinking about what impact those statements might have on a reader.  I simply offer the words in hopes of provoking thought in those who place their eyes upon my work. I told recently the story of how Peter Facinelli and I came to work on a project together and it all started with us meeting at a film festival.  I was at that film festival because a college professor had read my book and wanted to do a film version of the story which matched my own intentions, so he came to my house for a weekend of picking at my thoughts regarding his screenplay version of my novel.Fan photo2

While staying with me during this visit, he continued to compare my work to Nietzsche extensively, which I thought was nice, but not relevant.  I made only a passing reference to Nietzsche in The Symposium, but he had taken the dialogue to a whole animated level, which I thought was out of some inner need to attached meaning in his life to important things collected by his mind for the benefit of inner mythology.  So I dismissed his appreciation for my work and instead wanted to focus on the shooting schedule for his film and how we would go about it.  In my mind I had moved on from the intellectual concepts and onto something productive.  That probably has something to do with why he was so shattered when I told him he was a terrible film director when he missed our film festival deadline with footage that was too dark, poorly cut together and virtually worthless.  For me, it was just business.  I didn’t think at the time that the entire reason he wanted to make the film in the first place was that The Symposium had an effect on him, and he wanted to live out a fantasy of becoming a film director with material he felt passionate about.

At another event that I was at a few years later, I had a fan who wanted my autograph and a picture because The Symposium of Justice had impacted him in such a way.  As a person who never seeks autographs or pictures next to celebrities I wasn’t sure what all the hoopla was about.  I had recently just returned from Los Angeles where I did the thing with Facinelli and noticed that everyone was taking pictures next to everyone else.  So I stood next to whomever wanted to stand next to me for a picture.  I didn’t understand it, but I played along.  The good thing about Peter is that he made a point to drive me back to my hotel each day after the film shoot, so when we were in the car away from the set I asked him if he got tired of all the celebrity stuff.  He laughed and said that he did sometimes, but that it was a necessary part of the job.  So when I was at an event promoting the completion of my Symposium project called The Overman I signed autographs and posed for pictures playing along still not sure why anybody would want to do such a thing.  An article about that event can be seen from a Yahoo News piece shown below.

  JAMESTOWN, OH – Award-winning screen writer, author and stunt performer Rich Hoffman brought his most recent independent film project to Greene County, Ohio in March. Hoffman, originally from Middletown, Ohio, teamed up with Gery L. Deer, managing director of GLD Enterprises & Productions of Jamestown, to make a film that combines live action with the latest in high-definition computer generated imaging.

 

It took more than 12 hours to film the live action for the five-minute film short. Post production will take more than a month to complete and the film is scheduled to be released following its premier at the 2009 Indie Gathering independent film festival, August 14 in Cleveland.

The script is based on characters in situations introduced in Hoffman’s dark, futuristic, action novel, “The Symposium of Justice,” released in 2004. The project is professed to be on the cutting edge of digital video effects.

“Rich had an ambitious production schedule and a deadline that required us to do a great deal of work in a very short time,” said Deer, who is best known locally for his work as an independent journalist and entertainer but is also an experienced stunt performer and producer. “We had everything he needed to meet the production goals and, I have to say, short of a Star Wars movie, I have never seen so much green screen material in one place before; it was quite impressive.” All of the sets and background effects will be added in post production.

Green screen is a common term referring to the Chroma key technique used for mixing two images or frames together on film. In Chroma key, a color from one image is removed or made transparent revealing another image behind. This technique is also referred to as color keying, color-separation overlay, and bluescreen.

This process has been used for many years on weather broadcasts, where the presenter appears to be standing in front of a map, but in the studio it is actually a large blue or green background. In film and television production, the process is used to enhance visual effects or reduce costs on set construction.

Actors working on a green screen set perform among green-colored set pieces and backdrops. In post production, specialized computer software recognizes the green tinted background and makes it transparent and replacing it with digital effects. The actors, set pieces and props then appear to be in whatever setting required. Recent films like “300,” “Sin City,” and “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow,” have used this process to create both characters and settings.

Everyone is donating their time to this independent film project, as so many Hollywood-based productions are doing today. GLD Enterprises & Productions provided the production facility and set crew and stunt performers for filming the live action as well as various engineering and technical services.

The hope is that the final product will draw new business for the cast and crew in this sluggish economy where production capital is hard to raise. “This will be a great way to show what our group can do,” said Hoffman. Fortunately, Deer and Hoffman came into the project with an impressive track record.

In 2006, Hoffman’s script, “The Lost Cannibals of Cahokia,” won the highest award possible for a feature screenplay in the horror category at the Indie Gathering international film festival in Cleveland. Since then Hoffman has continued to develop other projects and recently returned from Hollywood where he worked on another independent production as a stuntman and fire whip specialist. A fire whip is a Kevlar bullwhip which is soaked in a specially formulated combustible fuel used for the visual effect.

Deer’s resume includes multiple performance and contest awards and work as a property consultant and designer for the 2003 Universal Studios movie, “The Rundown,” as well as roles in several independent film productions. A writer, whip stunt coach, publicist, and voiceover artist, Deer has been featured on television programs like NBC’s America’s Got Talent and The Bonnie Hunt Show. Deer is also a registered Writers Guild of America screenwriter.

The work was done on a closed set and the details of the script have been kept secret pending the outcome of the film competitions No title has been released at this time. To see photos or get more information about the project go online to www.gldentertainment.com  and click on Hoffman Collaboration.

Source http://voices.yahoo.com/ohio-production-company-plays-major-role-futuristic-3151948.html

I had to finish what that director had started which is what The Overman was all about.  In reality it turned out to be a sample of firewhip work against greenscreen to demonstrate how those two technologies could be incorporated.  We had to shoot all those scenes outside because of the fire and the intense light from the fire making keying in colors during post-production a nightmare, but it worked well and was an award-winning effort.

The purpose of all this is that I wrote The Symposium of Justice from the heart, and many people came to enjoy it, but I moved on to the next phases of my life without looking back much or taking much time to consider what impact that novel had on people. It does make me feel good that so many people enjoyed it, and wanted to work with me just to be near the person who wrote the words.

Now it is equally strange for me to see quotes of my novel appearing here and there as validation to philosophical positions which is a strange sensation—and I think I like it.  I enjoy it in the same way that The Symposium gave me access to people and places that I wouldn’t have enjoyed any other way but to put a story out to the world which touched lives in ways that you always hope for.

I might have been too hard on that film professor—(wanna’ be film director).  He wanted to make the film because he wanted to bring The Symposium to life even though he lacked the emotional tools to do so.  As more and more people go to the trouble of using aspects of my work to support their growing understanding, I will make an effort to be more facilitating of their expanding horizons.  And if that involves a keepsake, or memento such as an autograph, I will make the effort not to appear so stand-offish.

Rich Hoffman

166701_584023358276159_1119605693_n“If they attack first………..blast em’!”

www.tailofthedragonbook.com

IRS, Benghazi and the AP: Glenn Beck explains what all three have in common

For those who have not been keeping up with the news, here is the chance to catch up.  Glenn Beck puts his thoughts together on how the IRS scandal, the Benghazi terrorist attacks, and the AP News story are all connected.  Glenn’s thoughts are very much aligned with my own.  Watch, listen, and share with a friend.  For those who read here and hold “important” positions and know “important” people, make sure to share this with your networks so they understand what kind of game is going on.

 

With three major scandals enveloping the White House, Glenn spent time on radio this morning breaking down how they are all rooted in the idea of fundamental transformation.

“We have Benghazis, IRS, and the AP. I tried to figure out what these things were really all about. In the end what do these three scandals have in common? And what they have in common is the arrogance of transforming the world,” Glenn said.

In Benghazi, Glenn believes that Obama was trying to transform the Middle East by supporting revolution. Glenn theorizes that the CIA was involved with running guns to the Syrian rebels, a theory that has been supported by other members of the media in recent days.

“In Benghazi he was transforming the Middle East. He wanted to run guns, support the Muslim Brotherhood and Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia was the one who asked us to support the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria. So support the Muslim Brotherhood in the entire Middle East, run guns to the Muslim Brotherhood through Turkey into Syria and cede revolution, not just in Syria but all throughout the Middle East. This is the transformation of the Middle East. That’s his policy,” Glenn said.

How about the IRS scandal? Glenn said that’s about transforming political dissent and how the government deals with political dissent. He said the scandal specifically shows the evolution of intimidation and control from “nudge”, encouraging people to only trust sources with an acceptable bias like Al Jazeera and Huffington Post, to “shoot” where the IRS is used as a weapon to attack people’s reputation and finances.

“This scandal is about shoot. We’ve gone from nudge, to shove – which is destroy your reputation and I’m going to send the union thugs out after you ‑ to shoot. I’m actually going to use the union thugs to beat you, and I’m also going to destroy your life and finance through the IRS. I will destroy you. I will bankrupt you. When it comes to the only kind of gun the IRS has, they’ve just fired it at the American people,” Glenn said.

Finally, the AP scandal is about transforming the media.

“The progressives have been trying to transform the media for quite some time, and they’ve done a great job. We’ve all seen it,” Glenn said.

“Now, this, I want you to hear this fact clearly. This president has gone after and is prosecuting more whistleblowers than all of the other presidents combined in American history. By the way, he’s had five years. In five years he has gone after more whistleblowers than all other presidents combined. Understand that’s during the Communist hunts. That’s during Vietnam. That includes all of World War II, all of World War I and Woodrow Wilson. That includes Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. All other presidents combined,” Glenn said.

Glenn said that in order to transform the media, you first have to threaten the watchdogs who are trying to show what the government is doing. And when a few of the watchdogs are able to break through, you go after the press and intimidate them until they are unwilling to investigate.

“This is the last part of the fundamental transformation. What do all of these have in common? Transformation: Transform the Middle East, transform the First Amendment, and transform the media and the watchdogs. Transform, fundamental transformation of the United States of America,” Glenn said.

Source:

http://www.glennbeck.com/2013/05/15/irs-benghazi-and-the-ap-what-do-all-three-scandals-have-in-common/?utm_source=Daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2013-05-15_220544&utm_content=5496211&utm_term=_220544_220551

Rich Hoffman

166701_584023358276159_1119605693_n“If they attack first………..blast em’!”

www.tailofthedragonbook.com

Liar, Liar, LIAR!: Why Obama should be impeached and what he has in common with Ariel Castro

How many people are watching the terror coming out of Cleveland involving the three girls who were taken by Ariel Castro and held captive as sex slaves for 10 years and wondering how nobody detected what that diabolical molester was up to?  Castro’s friends, neighbors and even family members were unable to detect the lies Castro told and instead found themselves seduced by evil.  Castro even went to the trouble of attending family vigils for the lost girls hosted by family members pretending to assist in finding the girls knowing all along that the victims were chained in his basement and that he alone had the power to relieve the families of their misery.  Instead he looked them in the eye and told them he’d do everything he could to find the lost girls–lying openly, and boldly driven by demons most of society cannot fathom.  CLICK TO REVIEW.  Yet the same type of diabolical menace is not just present from the mouths of sex abusers and child rapists but of presidents and all their minions.  The same tendency to lie, cheat and steal is not just present in the embodiment of malevolence which is Ariel Castro, but also in President Obama and all those who serve under him.  Obama’s employees are guilty of lies, more lies, cheating, and more cheating topped off with diabolical manipulations in order to maintain a lawyers approach to “plausible deniability” and are obviously guilty of misusing the office of President of the United States for grabs of power, and domestic terrorism. (Such as bringing in the families of Sandy Hook victims to put in the Senate rotunda to apply emotional leverage for gun control legislation.  Using fear to motivate opinions is terrorism) For that reason, President Obama should be impeached immediately and with great fanfare so to discourage such tyrannies from manifesting in the future.

This isn’t the first time I’ve said such things about Obama.  I suggested impeaching the President after the controversial appointment of cabinet members during 2012.  CLICK HERE FOR REVIEW.  So this isn’t anything new for me.  But if my congressman John Boehner had acted when I suggested it then the lost lives in Benghazi might have been saved, the economy would be recovering, and the IRS scandal which was happening to members of his district due to their involvement in Tea Party groups would not have occurred.  Also members of the media would not have been subjected to harassment by the Obama Justice Department under Eric Holder and countless other tyrannies that could have been averted.

Instead, Boehner calculated that my urging to impeach Obama was radical, and represented a far right-wing view-point that he dismissed.  After all, his concerns were to play golf with Obama and work toward “peaceful solutions” through diplomacy.  Boehner also enjoys appeasing the local socialites who know little about politics, or business finance, yet inject themselves into every discussion where money flows attempting to bring altruistic judgment through joined wine glasses and catered meals.  Such socialites support Obama’s brand of socialism, especially in public education institutions even though they claim to be conservative Republicans joined at the hip to Governor Kasich.  Boehner and Kasich listen to the socialist whims of such people so that the purse strings stay open for future campaigns.  After all, those socialites are “rich” and their opinions carry much weight even though the quality of their minds are detriments to society, and for politicians seeking re-election the former is more important than the later.   It is because of such social pressures, and lack of determination that people like Ariel Castro can operate in the open, and why con artists like Barack Obama can get away with audacious lies behind a socialist agenda to fulfill goals that exist outside of fathomable reality.  The blood is on the hands of those who didn’t act in the beginning hoping that elections would solve the problem peacefully, and far less grotesquely.

But elections didn’t solve the problem, and the “socialites”  planned desire to maintain community integrity with wine glasses and fund-raising dinners allowed evil to grow, not abate, and now all those involved with the great indecision are guilty of not just assisting in treachery against The United States, but in assisting evil through inaction.  The crimes committed by the Obama administration all during 2012 and thus far in 2013 are on the hands of those who failed to recognize evil hidden behind a smiling face and great charisma that only a demon from the temples of hell could generate.

It is a fair characterization to level such claims at Barack Obama because it was his administration that allowed for a terrible evil to be committed with full knowledge that it was a lie.  Obama and his White House staff blamed the Benghazi deaths on Mark Basseley Youssef, AKA Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, AKA Sam Bacile the director of the terrible film “Innocence of Muslims” which about 10 people saw in a southern California movie theater.  Other than that one public showing only a 15 minute video clip existed on YouTube at the time of the Benghazi attack.  Bacile wrote the film in prison and shot it within two months of being release with no money, no real actors, and obviously an angry rant that was shaped during his stint in prison.  Nobody saw it, and nobody cared—but the film was a symbol of free speech, which President Obama is supposed to protect.  Instead, Obama allowed Bacile to take the fall for an alleged gun running operation in Libya and the apparently intentional death of those involved to cover the tracks.  The Obama administration immediately hoped to hide their guilt behind the free speech efforts of a nothing film shown to a vacant audience counting on the American people to believe that the violence had been ignited by a 15-minute YouTube clip.  See the rest of the story at the below link.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/innocence-muslims-filmmaker-ordered-back-prison/story?id=17673952

Obama knowingly lied to the American people and with the same type of public sincerity shown by the embodiment of evil in Ariel Castro who pretended sincere emotions during a presidential election that covered the gross abuse of his employees intentionally disgracing The White House.  They did what they have done on purpose, and they trusted that the press and American people would not advance the issue beyond their deceitful manipulations.  The worst of all these recent revelations are that the Obama administration designated a sacrificial victim in Sam Bacile who was only guilty of being a bad filmmaker, and tossed him into jail to cover the crimes of murder that was either intentionally committed by the Obama administration, or was caused by sheer incompetence.  Either way, Americans died in Benghazi due to poor leadership by the Obama administration.  Then the Obama White House tried to blame the violence on a silly YouTube video hoping that the scandal would not be pressed by the public any further.  They insulted the deceased with their hope to get away with the crime.

The reasons for the impeachment of Barack Obama extend well into a long list of Constitutional violations and are voluminous beyond comprehension.  But the worst is the intention of the administration to pick a sacrificial victim in Bacile and throw him upon an alter stepping all over his rights as an individual to preserve the collective aims of the Obama White House.  If The White House will do such a thing with one man, they will do it with any collection of people, any business, or any philosophic idea, and that makes Obama and his employees dangerous to the American experience, and detriments to all free people who want a fair chance at life success and social opportunity.  That is why Obama should be removed from office so to set the parameters for all future presidents of what is acceptable and what is not.  A failure to act on Obama and his crimes will establish for the entire future an understanding that it is alright for Presidents to behave in such a destructive fashion against the American people.  More destruction will follow of the American way of life if Obama is not impeached, and this is a reality that cannot be hidden from.  It will take courage, courage from the press, courage from the politicians that must embark on the tragic journey, and courage from the American people to look evil in the eye and act against it, instead of being seduced.  It must happen because America does not want to look at itself decades from now and wonder what happened in the same way that we are asking how Ariel Castro was able to chain three stolen girls in his basement in plain site of many people who failed to act in a way to save the victims.  To me, Ariel Castro and Barack Obama are one in the same.  Their only real difference is that Castro tortured and molested three innocent girls over a long period of time.  Obama is doing the same figuratively with the entire world, and he needs to be stopped boldly and with great conviction. One is literal, one is metaphorical, but they are both the sheer face of evil in all its destructive qualities, and bottomless malevolence.

Rich Hoffman

166701_584023358276159_1119605693_n“If they attack first………..blast em’!”

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Peter Facinelli’s ‘The Delivery’: My explosive contribution to a new graphic novel–coming soon!

set2I have kept the clip shown below to myself for the most part until now so not to interfere with the development of the motion picture The Delivery of which I served as a film consultant and stunt double performing all the fire whip stunts.  (CLICK TO REVIEW and see pictures from the set.)  A few years ago I was at a film festival collecting an award for a screenplay I wrote called The Lost Cannibals of Cahokia and was in the middle of filming a film adaption to my novel The Symposium of Justice.    Peter Facinelli and director Rob Gunnerson were at the same festival promoting their recently completed indie film called Arc, which won all kinds of awards and is considered one of the best of its kind.  Facinelli is of course known as  Dr. Carlisle Cullen, from the Twilight series and is a current highly sought after actor in Hollywood.  After a firewhip demonstration I did for the World Stunt Association Peter and Rob approached me about flying out to Los Angeles to work on a project the two were working on called The Delivery.  The result of that endeavor can be seen below.  Essentially they had a high concept idea that they wanted to make a pitch trailer out of for movie studios in conjunction with RealD 3D film equipment development.  The Delivery is a highly dynamic universe of Angels and Demons who inhabit the bodies of men and fight in modern times with swords and fire whips.  Peter wanted me to do the fire whip work for his project which I gladly obliged.

The status of that film is Peter and Rob is developing the concept now as a graphic novel which is the current trend in Hollywood.  Hollywood likes to purchase proven commodities since budgets are so incredibly expensive, and film concepts must be fleshed out in advance these days.

The whip work I did was shopped around Hollywood with the RealD 3D stock footage captured during that shoot and became animation templates for films like Iron Man 2 and the Immortals.  Below Rob talks more about the future direction of The Delivery in an interview.  The entire interview can be seen at the hotlink below:

Interview with Robert Ethan Gunnerson

Producer, Director, Editor of the movie ARC

February 27th 2012

You’ve met with some artists to begin discussions of making “The Delivery” into a comic book, which is a cool idea in my opinion and we would love if you can hold us up to date about this. Back to my question… Have you ever thought about to make “The Delivery” as an animation movie?

Let me use THE AVENGERS as an example here. This summer THE AVENGERS will be released to what will undoubtedly be great success (at least from a financial standpoint, but hopefully from a critical standpoint as well.) It will feature some of today’s most popular actors. But let’s imagine for a moment that THE AVENGERS is a brand new idea that nobody has ever heard of. And imagine Stan Lee walking into a pitch meeting with a studio.Firewhips

“So I’ve got this movie about a group of superheroes,” he says. “One of them is called IRON MAN. He’s this recovering alcohol who has a fake heart of sorts and flies around in a suit of iron. And there’s this other guy called THE HULK. He’s a dude who gets angry and turns into a green, muscular giant who can pick up a car with one hand. And there’s THOR, a Norse God who walks around in the modern world with a giant hammer and wings on his helmet.”

By this point, I guarantee the executives in the room are saying, “Um…no, thanks. Too expensive. Too weird-sounding. Too much of a risk. Too much money. And we don’t get it. Sounds like fun. And maybe if you brought it to us with an audience already built-in, then we would talk. But to do this from scratch? No way.”

That’s what we have with THE DELIVERY. A new concept that needs time so people can get it and Hollywood can “see it.” We have a screenplay for the first movie. We have a 3-D pitch trailer for the first movie. We are talking to artists about creating either a series of comic books or a graphic novel to develop an audience. We have, in fact, talked about doing an animated series for the project. But we need to build from the ground up and handle things in the most reasonable financial fashion. It starts with artwork in still images, and then we will move forward to animation/feature films/etc. as we build followers.

The film adaption I had been working on with a film professor who loved my Symposium novel and wanted to try their hand at producing and directing a movie version of it disintegrated when they failed to produce a finished clip to show at a film festival, which was needed to secure investors.  The film professor learned the hard way why they teach film studies and aren’t actually in the “film business.”  So my project was put on the shelf awaiting more competent hands as the money window opened and closed.  The same thing happened to Peter Facinelli  even with his superstar status after Twilight.  Film studios are taking the safe bets for big budget action pictures with proven action stars and comic book material after the smashing success of Iron Man and the other Marvel Comic characters.  Peter and Rob made their pitch trailer just ahead of the “Marvel wave” so the funding window closed on them as well.

But that doesn’t change the fact that doing such things was and is a lot of fun.  Rob ran a great set and the project was a blast–literally.  Without question we captured the best three-dimensional fireball ever recorded in 3D.  They asked me to give them a 5 to 7 foot fireball that was as deep as it was wide, and I gave it to them.  We shot the scene at about 4 AM as we were on a 12 hour shooting schedule over two days.  When I cracked the fire whip sending a roaring air splitting explosion through the neighborhoods of Burbank, California the set gasp in awe as hundreds of people forgot to breathe for just a moment.  It was the climax of The Delivery trailer shoot and was worth the entire effort.  The RealD 3D execs in the director’s tent all rushed over to shake my hand as they realized what they had captured on film with their state-of-the-art camera system.    Director Gunnerson yelled………………”F**KING AWSOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”  His proclamation was nearly as loud as the whip explosion.img_3402

Many people ask me if it makes me angry to see that RealD 3D used that footage captured that night to shop their camera system around to studios and that those same studios did not invite me to do the same work for them on other film projects.  Instead they handed the footage over to animators to copy off of.  So the answer is no.  There is nothing like real life effects, and whenever possible real effects should be done in physical reality.  Animation never looks quite as good second-hand.  However, I cannot blame studios, as I am expensive.   If a kid can animate a fire whip on a computer screen while eating a hamburger from a Burger King drive thru window while copying stock footage of me more power to him.  I am happy to help promote whip art any way possible, and projects like The Delivery and everything that spawns off it do in very positive ways.

However, it might be a while before Peter and Rob can get their film “delivered” to theaters.  They need to build up a Comic Con following, and Peter understands how to do that.  It will take a little time, but will eventually get done.  Meanwhile I have to do the same with my own projects.  In the film business it is like a merry-go-round where the point of opportunity may be seen, but quickly passes as the ride spins around. The way to approach is to wait for that opportunity to present itself again on the upstroke instead of trying to act too late and force a project through before its ready.  Stan Lee at Marvel Comics spent decades building up the demand for his characters, and sometimes it takes that.  I am happy to see that Peter and Rob are planning to do the same, and to take their time with their idea—because it is theirs—and gives it value that is almost always missing from stories that are brought to production too quickly by industry barnacles who only care about the money they can make off a project.  A film must be able to do both, and in the end, The Delivery will “deliver.”

Peter Facinelli’s The Delivery Movie Trailer by CullensNews

Rich Hoffman

166701_584023358276159_1119605693_n“If they attack first………..blast em’!”

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