Tag: John Kasich

The Cincinnati Bengals, School Levies, and Health Care: Why they all suck!

As I was watching football, my favorite team the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was on one channel, and the Cincinnati Bengals were on the other, I received several emails from some of my valuable contacts who supply me with a stream of information daily. One was about the Health Care Freedom Amendment. Another was about Sycamore Schools and their thoughts about going to the tax payers for more money, both of those I’ll include here to share with this audience, and retain their value for future reference.
The Tampa Bucs led by Raheem Morris looked fantastic. The Cincinnati Bengals looked absolutely pathetic. Actually, terrible was more like it. Considering how much the tax payers of Cincinnati are paying for the stadium that the Bengals play in, it was a slap in the face to see such a pathetic display of complacency taking place on the field in what the Bengals showed. As I watched the Bengals stumble around during the game I could not help but think that they are the perfect example of why throwing money at a political problem does not work.
Also, yesterday morning it was revealed that even with all the court challenges by Progress Ohio, the Health Care Freedom Amendment, which will allow the State of Ohio to challenge Obama Care under the rights of state sovereignty. Getting the issue on the ballot in November is the huge first step to knocking back the intrusive hands of government bureaucrats who are aggressively advocating the rapid expansion of government with even more far-reaching impositions. Read all about it below:

——————————————————————————

August 12, 2011 9:51 AM Ohio high court: Healthcare signatures valid COLUMBUS, Ohio — Opponents of a federal health care overhaul scored a key legal victory on Friday that should clear a proposed ballot measure for a fall vote.

The chance for voters to reject portions of insurance changes championed by President Barack Obama will appear Nov. 8, alongside a ballot issue seeking to repeal a contentious re-write of Ohio’s collective bargaining law. One is expected to bring out Republican-leaning voters and the other is expected to bring out Democrats in a state closely divided along political lines.

In a unanimous decision Friday, the Ohio Supreme Court rejected a liberal policy group’s lawsuit challenging certification of the so-called Health Care Freedom Amendment on the grounds petitions carrying 69,000 signatures were flawed.

ProgressOhio executive director Brian Rothenberg argued that Secretary of State Jon Husted counted signatures on petitions that contained technical errors, including the way paid circulators listed their employment.

Husted, a Republican, argued the challenge revolved around petitions carrying extra information, a practice government should not discourage.

Justices said the secretary of state is “entitled to deference.”

They found that Rothenberg’s charges lacked legal merit, noting “even if his challenge had substantive validity, Rothenberg’s evidence is insufficient to establish that the part-petitions do not have enough signatures.”

Husted announced July 27 that the coalition of tea party organizations and other groups behind the measure that submitted 427,000 valid signatures, well over the roughly 385,000 needed to get the amendment on the Nov. 8 ballot.

The proposed amendment to Ohio’s Constitution would keep people from being required to buy health insurance or face penalties. The federal mandate would go into effect in 2014, when new competitive insurance exchanges are scheduled to open.

Opponents say the federal government is overreaching by requiring individuals to purchase a product. The Obama administration counters that Congress’ power to regulate interstate commerce squares the constitutionality of the mandate.

——————————————————————————-

The Bengals are such a terrible as a team for all the reasons the government screws up everything it touches, whether it’s education, or health care. The ownership of the Bengals believes as government does, that money spent equals value on the field, and that clearly is not the case. Carson Palmer gave up over 40 million dollars to leave the organization because he was so embarrassed to be a part of the Bengal organization, because at least he wants to retain his soul moving forward. But many in government have given up their souls long ago in trade for financial security.
These soulless creatures of bureaucracy are why government believes that “they” have the right to force us to buy their health care plan, and of course why public education simply doesn’t understand that they will have to learn to decline their revenue streams to match the declining wages, declining property values, and less money coming from outside community sources because the education bubble has burst. They believe they have a service so valuable to society that they should be exempt from any decreases in value.
This next article displays the extreme arrogance of the Sycamore School District, which is similar to what has been going on at Lakota where almost the same terminology was used to justify a 4.75 mill levy they voted on early this past week. It is not by accident that all the districts seem to be saying the same kind of thing. It is the Ohio School Board Association, a centralized organization in Ohio who helps provide the guidance to these school boards in times of crises, and it is this OSBA that is seeking to fulfill the type of education agenda that Progress Ohio, (the same group against the Health Care Freedom Amendment) wish to implement, at the tax payer cost. Check it out:

—————————————————————————–

Update five-year forecast

Regarding the July 13, 2011 article “Sycamore schools: Some light at the end of fiscal tunnel.” In order for the taxpayers and board members to understand the significance of the lost state revenue, the district’s May, 2011 Five Year Forecast must be updated now.

The lost state revenue needs to be looked at in the context of the five-year plan. The five-year plan would show the new revenue, planned expenditures and new cash balance for each year.

The development of a revised plan should not wait until the next state mandated October forecast. This revised forecast will provide the school and community four more months to consider the consequences of these changes.

Twice in the article, Diane Adamec, board president referred to a planned tax levy in 2012. The school has promised not to approach the community for more money until at least 2012.

She said, “What the regular citizen will not see is a request for an additional tax levy sooner than planned.”Later she adds, “By holding expense growth to an average of 1.5 percent annually, this district will maintain its promise not to go back to the community until at least 2012 for new taxes for operations – an eight-year span.”

Based on what I read and hear about the worldwide fiscal crisis, the possible U.S. financial default and constant deficit spending, there is no “light at the end of the fiscal tunnel.”

All government entities at the Federal, state, local levels including public schools, and citizens are facing a huge challenge ahead. Thinking that we might see some light ahead may be a comforting thought, but it is more akin to burying one’s head-in-the-sand.

————————————————————————————

I like that article because that is precisely what these schools are doing; they are burying their heads in the sand. They are pretending to “sacrifice” and maintain a lower rate of growth, in this case only 1.5%. They pretend that they are doing it “for the community” and at a great sacrifice to themselves. Preposterous!

I heard multiple times last week in regard to Lakota Schools that it’s been since 2005 that Lakota has had a revenue increase! It was only two years after that increase that the teachers union mounted a strike against the school which drove up costs 10.1% over the next two years, so some of us have learned that putting more money in the basket doesn’t get better results, or even maintain the old ones, because the union once they see the money, will threaten to walk off the job anyway in order to get at the extra money the community has supplied. It is in these modern times, where all the inflated costs are contracting, and education falls under that category, that plans must be made along that contraction. It is only natural that revenue should be less than the 2005 numbers because the financial supply, (which was inflated) is contracting, so it is not growth that should be expected, but decline, and their budgets should reflect that.
Yet with all the discussion Sycamore Schools articulates the dilemma wonderfully. They think it appropriate to present to the public that they only expect a 1.5% increase in revenue per year, like they are doing everyone a favor, by not going to voters for more money more often!
The value of something cannot be measured in some transitory monetary figure. Teachers have overpriced themselves and with the absence of elusive state and federal money, it is obvious now. Arrogant academics like these superintendents who think the voting public to be fools, just like the academic oriented president who has tried to force the nation to buy into his Health Care Policy, in order to fulfill the political whims of progressive groups like Progress Ohio, are simply out-of-touch and living their lives buried in the sand while their bodies are visible, but their heads are not. And if anyone doubts that there are people in the world who are just so heartless and outrageous by their actions yet friendly and conciliatory in their public presentation, (just like school systems are) just have a look at the ownership of the Cincinnati Bengals.
The Bengal organization threatened to move to a different city, just like teachers threaten to strike to get their money. The city voted to give The Bengals a new stadium, which is now bankrupting the city for a game that is played 8 times a year in a stadium that is average at best compared to other NFL homes. And the product the Brown family puts on the field is terrible…….absolutely terrible with no sign of getting better…….ever! I look at that team as proof that money spent does not acquire the desired results, it just fills the pockets of those who care for nothing else but money.
The city is under contract, and obligated to fulfill that contract. And the schools are under contract too, with their unions who have extorted enormous sums of tax payer money into their pockets out of sheer greed…….and they talk down to the public like they are children! This election of November 2011 will have a lot to deal with, but more than anything it will say what kind of society we are to become. Because in voting for these school levies, allowing President Obama to mandate that citizens must “purchase” something from the womb to the tomb, and that unions should continue to have the right to drive up costs even when market factors show their expectations should be declining, are all at play, and depending on the outcome of that vote, our society will be shaped accordingly. This is not one where people can sit back and let somebody else make the decisions. Ultimately, that is why the Bengals are such a bad team, because the contract was forged from the blood of the community and it lacks accountably, or even reality and that has infected the leadership, which infects the players, and ultimately infects the fans. The same happens in a school, and it always will until the public puts a stop to it. Until then, everyone is guilty just a little.

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

Secret of Malden Island: Why public education is hiding history

I’ve read a lot of books, and they are all special in their own way. But every now and then a book comes along that provides information so compelling that it changes your world view and makes you see things in a broader spectrum. For me, one such book was Forbidden Archeology. Click here to see an article I wrote about this book complete with video from the author. Well worth your time and investigation.

Recently a school board member upset with me on my stance with public education, where I question the merit of college education, and the seemingly infinite amounts of money educators ask for public education without any proof of results, I thought of that book and realized that this professional education specialist, who holds a master’s degree and considers themselves, “enlightened” wouldn’t begin to understand my point of view because they simply haven’t explored the same topics about cultural studies that I have. For a lot of people, the book Forbidden Archeology is a life shattering event, because not only does it challenge the beliefs of those in the education industry but the religious assumptions that people hold dear. So they won’t read Forbidden Archeology because they aren’t willing to accept new scientific data that may challenge their current belief system, which is unfortunate, because it is that trait which holds back our society exclusively.

Yet the fossil record established in Forbidden Archeology is stellar. The book tells the story of various universities who have openly suppressed archeological evidence because the discoveries simply don’t fit into the facts their schools have published. Colleges who fund excavations usually do so with a mind for results just like businessmen who look for profits. The selection for funding a dig usually has an intended result, such as digging up the city of Troy to prove the ancient stories, and biblical archeology to satisfy the biblical references, because such excavations have a similar effect on a university as does a college sports program. Scientific discoveries are selling points for the university just like a sports program, they attract new enrollment which is revenue. I have watched the struggle for archeological funding for many years since I maintained a subscription to Biblical Archeology Review at 10 years old till the advent of the internet. In that magazine scientists offer cruises and group trips to find ways to fund their excavations outside of the college funding structure, but there simply isn’t enough money to do proper investigations all over the world. The political climate in the Middle East is a serious determent to scientific discovery. So when a university makes a significant find, they hang onto it with everything they have, even if it means they ignore new evidence that invalidates their previous finds. That’s what Forbidden Archeology is all about. The politics of science are holding back proper understanding of human existence. It is exactly the same problem as we see in the school funding structure itself. The high pay rates they’ve given themselves dictate high enrollment, which drives up taxes, and also incentivizes the educational institutions to mislead any factors that may not allow the institutions to continue to grow or sustain their financial expectations. I suppose my anger, and “anti education” position has its roots in the simple fact that I know that education institutions routinely have lied to protect their interests.

 

They cheat in sports to maintain their excellence, and they will cheat in academic accomplishments for the same reason. Forbidden Archeology as a massive book of fossil records that simply are ignored by the establishment proved to me that institutional scholarship cannot be trusted as a soul provider of scientific understanding, or the funding representation needed to supply it.

There are many mysteries all over the world that do not have logical explanations behind the cultures that built them. I am convinced that there is a lot more history to the human race than what we currently accept and this evidence is coming in fast and furious.

Malden Island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean is a remote, desolate place which costs about $10,000 for a one way ticket just to get there, so archeology there is very difficult to explore because the sheer cost of the enterprise is cost prohibitive, so only casual observations have been made. There are 40 stone temples on Malden Island that are described as similar in design to the buildings of Nan Madol on Pohnpei, some 3,400 miles (5,475 km) away. In fact, there is a basalt road that runs along the bottom of the Pacific Ocean which connects these islands under hundreds of feet of water. This suggests a culture that is more than 50,000 years old and that this entire land mass was once above water supporting a civilization that had no trouble moving around tremendous stones to build very large, complicated societies which we know absolutely nothing about, other than the fact that someone built them and they are older than biblical history. Yet, nobody discusses them because they don’t fit into our understanding of the human race and their origins. Scientists have their diffusion theories of how migrants arrived in North America using the land bridge of the Bering Straight and they are sticking with it.

Source articles
http://mitchtestone.blogspot.com/2008/12/malden-island.html

But there are more discoveries of strange, “very old” archeology spread all over the world that don’t fit nicely into conventional explanation. Here’s just a few from source link:

http://www.world-mysteries.com/mpl_10.htm

• A pyramid explored by Dr Ray Brown on the sea floor off the Bahamas in 1970. Brown was accompanied by 4 divers who also found roads, domes, rectangular buildings, unidentified metallic instruments, and a statue holding a “mysterious” crystal containing miniature pyramids. The metal devices and crystals were taken to Florida for analysis at a university there. What was discovered was that the crystal amplified energy that passed through it.

• Ruins of roads and buildings found off Binini Island in the 1960’s by the photographed and published expeditions of Dr Mansan Valentine. Similar ruins were also photographed off Cay Sal in the Bahamas. Similar underwater ruins were found off Morocco and photographed 50 to 60 feet underwater.

• A huge 11 room pyramid found 10,000 feet under water in the mid Atlantic Ocean with a huge crystal top, as reported by Tony Benlk.

• A 1977 report of a huge pyramid found off Cay Sal in the Bahamas, photographed by Ari Marshall’s expedition, about 150 feet underwater. The pyramid was about 650 feet high. Mysteriously the surrounding water was lit by sparkling white water flowing out of the openings in the pyramid and surrounded by green water, instead of the black water everywhere else at that depth.

• A sunken city about 400 miles off Portugal found by Soviet expeditions led by Boris Asturua, with buildings made of extremely strong concrete and plastics. He said “the remains of streets suggests the use of monorails for transportation”. He also brought up a statue.

• A marble acropolis underwater across five acres of fluted columns raised on pillars.

• Heinrich Schilemann, the man who found and excavated the famous ruins of Troy (which historians thought was only a legend), reportedly left a written account of his discovery of a bronze vase with a metal unknown to scientists who examined it, in the famous Priam Treasure. Inside it are glyphs in Phoenician stating that it was from King Chronos of Atlantis. Identical pottery was found in Tiajuanaco, Bolivia.

The discoveries of the strange and unexplained could fill libraries of text books, and the reason for the suppression of this information is the monopoly of academia on scientific understanding and religious politics.

Of all the articles I’ve written here at Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom one of the most popular is Giants in Ohio. Click here to read that article. Since I produced that article it has seen over 10,000 hits alone! That surprises me greatly, but shows that people are very hungry and desiring to understand these strange entities. Giant bones of a hominid type of species standing between 8 to 10 feet tall are found everywhere on Earth, but Ohio has a fair number of burial sites. There are bones, so we know something lived that was excessively large, yet nobody has an explanation, because it doesn’t fit into our understanding of Native American migration and evolution. Modern scholarship is focused on the Mound Builders and why they built the mounds, without having any assumption of a culture older than those mound cultures. It’s kind of like looking for the keys to your car that you lost under a parking lot light at night because you can see. But where you really lost the keys were someplace else entirely out in the darkness. Our study of human history is along the same type of theory. Our education institutions find and publish the artifacts that fit best into the preconceived notions of the scientific discoveries of which they’ve built their reputations. All the other ones are put into a back room someplace or sold to a private collector as a conversation item. You can find more evidence of this history in Indian Hill, Cincinnati or Beverly Hills from the fireplace mantles of private collections than in any museum, because the museums sell these treasures away to their foundation supporters rather than let them sit in a drawer collecting dust and making the museum no money.

When I first came out against the increased taxes of our local tax levy, because my thoughts are that as a society we are spending too much on education to get only very basic results, we are not getting a bang for our buck. The education culture believes we don’t spend enough, because they simply live in a different world than everyone else, and I don’t see much value in that world because even where they should excel, such as in the realm of science, they have proven they cannot be trusted. A president of a local union sent me a very nasty email because I had went on WLW and discussed the salaries of the personal that was demanding more money, and they called me a “tin hat” because I entertain these scientific notions that there are mysteries out there that we don’t understand, and I recognized instantly the same type of character assassination that I read about in Forbidden Archeology, which angered me greatly. In fact, and you can read my response to that person here: CLICK. I started Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom shortly thereafter because I realized that these “education types,” are more concerned about protecting their income than finding the truth about anything finance or otherwise, and they use intimidation and character assassination mixed with peer pressure to control criticism of their behavior.

I fight people like that union person openly because unless they’ve done the work I have to get at the truth of the matter, unless they’ve read even a fraction of the books I have, done one tenth of the exploration that I have, and they haven’t, they have no authority from which to speak. They are simply mouth pieces of corruption attempting to mislead civilization. My love of life is not for any transitory age of the present and the rituals of that culture, such as we find in the education monopoly of this current age. The education culture is pretentious and vastly corrupt and approach the world with their eyes straight on the subject to the point that it is all they can see and even that is out of focus, when what is required is to pull back and see the world for all it’s vastness, and the depths of the history which created it.

This education class can’t even understand the nature of the planet earth while they stay hell-bent on explaining global warming from a former hippie like Al Gore. When a guy has smoked as much marijuana as Al has how much credibility could he possibly have? But that same education class gets behind the uneducated rants of Al Gore because he brings money to their universities and just like a K-Street prostitute, the education class will say anything, support any theory they are told to believe so long as the money is good. And religion will fight over a singe spot in Jerusalem for which religion can claim possession of that spot on the ground from which “sacred things” happened. But to one who studies with open eyes, the entire world is a sacred spot of which only a fraction of the mysteries of the past have revealed themselves in a blossoming understanding of the true history of the human race that is opening before our eyes.

When that understanding blooms the education class will find themselves on the outside looking in because they were slow to adapt to that new understanding. They will be on the outside because they have lost all credibility to the public once it is revealed that they are more interested in their own enrichment than the sacred pursuit of science.

If you want to know the truth the start of that path should be in the book, Forbidden Archeology. From there the evidence will lead the way.

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

SEIU Visits John Boehner’s Office: GIVE ME A JOB, or I’ll cry!

Tea Party Terrorists! That was one of the many signs outside of John Boehner’s West Chester office on August 9, 2011. A group of protestors had gathered to demand jobs from the House Speaker and the organizer of this illustrious event which involved kicking the doors to the office requiring the doors to locked by the staff, was none other than Gabe Kramer from the Service Employees International Union, otherwise known as SEIU.

Gabe is the Chief of Staff of Operations and Administration for SEIU District 1199 representing West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio and was the point person for this event which I think is an excellent example of everything that is wrong with our nation. I don’t mean to pick on poor Gabe, I’m sure he’s a nice guy if one were to sit down and have a beer with a guy like that. I’m sure he emits many noticeable, human qualities that are quite admirable. But proving to be a philosophic fool on completely the wrong ideological path is no excuse for intentionally attempting to mislead people into a thought process which is destructive to American Culture. And that is what Gabe and his little army of lost souls is guilty of.

It is not hard to gather up a multitude of the very lazy, the uneducated, the pompously altruistic, the unemployed, those who are afraid to compete in the world marketplace to rally behind a cause like those SEIU hosts. SEIU uses shock, and the force of mass to influence legislation, and have done so for many, many years. But the foundation of everything those “types” of people believe is flawed.

Rather than go into all the ways that SEIU is a communist organization following religiously the Ten Planks of Communism as established in the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx, the followers of SEIU, even if they are only a member and unaware of the basic philosophy because they are simply interested in their own personal incomes, the fundamental error is in their lack of understanding of how economics work. The roots of their entire philosophy rest in loose soil with no foundation but feelings. That is why they fail and everyone who follows them is doomed. History proves it.

Where I should have been angry that SEIU was in my home district, on soil that is sacred because it’s in my home land, I couldn’t help but laugh, for the comedy displayed at that event belonged on Comedy Central with full intention to make people laugh, which is until it is realized that these protestors are serious. They actually believe the things they say!

When the protestors demand jobs of Speaker Boehner what are they asking for? Do they really believe that John Boehner can pluck jobs from the “job” tree and pass them out like candy on Halloween, because that is the implication of their utterances? Do these same capitalist malcontents believe that it is the Tea Party that prevents them from getting a job? Apparently, they do! They believe that government creates jobs and gives them out, and that it is John Boehner’s job to “give” them a job…………………………….I’m serious!

The fact that so many people in the Republic of the United States believe this is evidence that our public education system has completely failed, because too many grown adults have no idea how their government, or their country work. Between my laughter at the protesters of this event, I have to admit a tinge of pity for these poor people. It must be terrible to see the world with such narrow vision, through the spectrum of naivety and ignorance. To be so terribly uneducated and foolish that the truth of the matter might as well reside in a whole different solar system from the one we all live in.

My wife and I were discussing this issue on the other day, at how small the world to such people must actually feel. My wife reads a three hundred page novel every two and a half days. It takes me about a half week to a week depending on my obligations. Our hobby together is to read. We read, and read, and read! In my books I have seen the rise and fall of civilizations and religions hundreds of times. And I am grateful for that knowledge, because it is easy to see through such thinly veiled smoke screens like those people like Gabe Kramer proclaim. Only an empty mind waiting for someone else to fill it with ideas is prone to follow blindly to an office like John Boehner’s and be foolish enough to stand with a sign and proclaim to the world that they are but children repeating what some bully have instructed them to believe. After the laughter at the audacious ignorance of the event, I felt pity for all those empty minds that have never discovered the joy of obtaining knowledge, who are so quick to grab a sign and follow somebody like Gabe into a fruitless battle pursuing the ideas of a poverty-stricken, promiscuous fool like Karl Marx who has infected the world with some of the most destructive philosophy mankind has ever entertained, and this includes the corrupt emperors of the world like Nero, and Gangus Kahn!

It is the mushy minded who are attracted to these communist ideas of Marx. Those girls of PITA who will stand naked in a public place to protest those cute little animals being killed because the girls themselves are only a few years grown away from their stuffed animals they slept with in their beds. But now that they have the bodies of women, somehow they have merit to their voice, as if their bare breasts and naked buttocks contained years of experience and intelligence. The radicals of SEIU or the teachers unions are no different from the radical behavior of those young naked women, they resort to emotion and sign stimuli to influence cultural policy, and that’s all those poor, empty citizens were doing at the Speaker’s office. They have no idea where jobs come from unless some politician passes out a new branch of government to buy votes, but the creation process does not come from government. They simply use the money that was created by others to create the job. It was not the government who created the job. It was the tax payer. And that is why government has grown to be too big now, because government was irresponsible, because it listened to the mindless fools of organizations like SEIU where they should have ignored them.

This fault is an innate reaction. Most of us are mature enough to become parents and know how embarrassing it is to take a child to the store only to have that child scream and cry when they want something, like a toy, at the store. If the parents says no, and the child begins crying, it is tempting to just give in to the child to save yourself from the embarrassment the children draw to the parent with the noise they make. The squeaky-wheel-gets-the-grease syndrome is what that is. The parent is in control, has all the resources, the only thing the child has in its favor is the ability to draw attention to itself with loud noise. A bad parent will tend to give in to the child and will allow that child to grow up spoiled. A good parent will withstand the embarrassment for the child’s own good, and will not buckle under the pressure. Communism as outlined in the SEIU handbook, The Communist Manifesto teaches grown-ups to be like children, to yell and scream for things till they are given “something” by government. And the unfortunate circumstances of our age are that the politicians have been like the weak parents, all too quick to appease the children.

And that’s what I saw outside of office of John Boehner, is a bunch of children screaming for candy from a parent busy with other things, “adult stuff” and bewildered by the ungratefulness of those children. So while the behavior of the SEIU children was humorous from a distance, the behavior itself is pathetic. The fact that SEIU believes these screaming rants actually work is because it has in the past. They have used such behavior to harass our public officials and business community for a long time to the will of small, immature minds without any sense of how things work in the real world. With all the tools of modern society at their disposal, they still insist on being small-minded little children motivated to scream and cry for food to drop into their mouths, instead of taking advantage of the freedoms they enjoy and earning for themselves limitless opportunity in a capitalist republic under attack by cancerous, socialist peons from a declining European landscape that left to its own devices would still be rolling around in the Dark Ages.

People like Gabe Kramer would be more at home in 1112 AD outside a European palace with a soiled robe, burning a torch crying for the benefits of the Roman Empire to the political nobility, and wondering why Rome as a power went away, because he is just as clueless in 2011 when he cries for a job that it’s his job to create, and certainly not the job of John Boehner.

 

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

The Devil of Public Education: The Mask of School Pride

I was on the air with Doc Thompson of 700 WLW to discuss the meeting at the Lakota School Board from August 8, 2011 where a 4.75 mill levy was placed on the November ballot. Click below to listen to that electrifying broadcast where I reveal that many people within the school district consider me the “Devil of Public Education.” So I returned from the confines of my hellish existence to have a lively discussion about the state of public education in Ohio with Doc.

(There is about 2:40 of this recording that overlaps toward the end. It’s not your computer; it’s a defect of the original recording. Just stay with it, because it will pass.)

There has been a lot of tension at Lakota over the last couple of levy battles, and now that Lakota is attempting to pass yet another levy, that tension is returning. I spoke to quite a few people from the education side of the school district after this particular meeting and tension was the general atmosphere. The fights of the past have been contentious to say the least. That was when it was revealed to me that many of the employees in the district consider me the incantation of the devil himself because I hate public education!

Well, I’ve heard that kind of thing before. The most obvious circumstance under which I’ve heard that kind of rhetoric is at football games where the Cleveland Browns come to play at the Bengals stadium or worse yet, the Pittsburg Steelers. For me the emotion is even greater when my favorite team the Tampa Bay Buccaneers plays New Orleans or the Atlanta Falcons. In fact when I heard that Troy Evans the linebacker for the Saints was providing busing to residents of Lakota, which is an idea that I think is great, my first thought was “darn” why did it have to be a guy who played for the Saints!!!!!! I HATE THE SAINTS!!

But why do I hate the Saints or the Bengals hate the Browns or Steelers? Because emotion is what sports is all about. The drama of a sporting event is all about picking a side and rooting for your team to win.

Schools do this also. The game between Lakota East and Lakota West is always a big game. It used to be that a game against Princeton, or Colerain was always a big game. There’s always been a lot of rivalry in these games. Fights occur between players in movie theater parking lots and parents will fight with other parents from other districts in the stands. It’s an innate response to the human desire for competition.

So it is only natural that a school district will use “School Pride” to unify the students and parents to the goals of the school, and will use that same pride to pass a school levy and make those out who are against the increased spending of taxes as “The Devil.” Such relative generalizations are indicators of a frail psyche. I indulge in them for competitive events like football games, or any other type of conflict, but in the grand scheme of things, I keep focused on the “big picture,” where my counterparts cannot.

The organized labor element of public education has a cleaver little scheme going, of which they are entirely aware of, they use this “School Pride” issue to drive up the wage levels of their personal incomes, because while human beings participating in that school as employees, students and parents are functioning under the spell of “School Pride” no amount of money is too much so long as their school system WINS. Rational discussion that might otherwise occur in any other business environment are ignored in favor of the passion for the fight!

This is how school levies have migrated out of control. Organized labor has used “School Pride” to pass tax increases which has translated to exceptionally high incomes for the members of those unions. Administrators strapped by legislative rules negotiated by organized labor cannot manage the costs of the organized labor, so they resort to “School Pride” to sell the public and cover up their weakness of administrative influence.

This is the state of all schools, and “School Pride” to the people outside the functioning mechanisms of the school doesn’t work so well, and now that wage levels have reached a “diminishing marginal return” on the tax payer investment, people are turning down school levies, because they see no end in sight from schools asking for more money. That is why 85% of all school levies across the State of Ohio failed in the August elections of 2011, because “School Pride” as a spell doesn’t work when the pockets of the people supporting school are empty.

With the Cincinnati Bengals, Mike Brown has obviously taken advantage of the taxpayers and he makes no apologies for it. His contract is bankrupting the city, yet he doesn’t care. And he continues to put a terrible product on the field giving fans very little to cheer for. Yet like mindless fools, there are still fans that show up and tailgate for the Bengals when the Steelers or Browns come to town and will proclaim that the Bengals will be victorious! The facts don’t matter at that point, because the game is about emotion.

And that same emotion is at play at Lakota and schools all across Ohio. The LEA (Lakota Education Association) has negotiated a contract for itself that is bringing extreme financial hardship to the district. And they, like Mike Brown, don’t appear to care one bit because their actions prove so. And all Lakota can do is make a guy like me, appear to be the “Devil of Public Education” because they have no other card to play. The truth is too painful and admitting that they are helpless to control their costs is just embarrassing. Calling me names is far easier, so that’s what they resort to.

That is also why schools fail time and time again. Because the solution is not in the emotion of the fight, it’s in the business of the numbers. And once the game is done, the reality is difficult to deal with. So like a drug addict needing another fix, those in education who rely on emotion to manage their business find themselves always in need of more, because the reality has not been addressed properly and never will while those in charge use “School Pride” as a mask to cover the real problem.

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

LAKOTA TAX INCREASE of 2011: If the superintendent wants to be paid like a CEO, act like one

On July 12th of 2011 Michael D. Clark covered the Lakota School Board meeting for the Cincinnati Enquirer about the inevitable tax increase the school district is planning to impose on the tax payers. Here is what he reported:

Voters, who in November 2010 rejected a 7.9-mill school levy, will see the 4.75-mill, continuing operating levy on the Nov. 8 ballot once the board conducts another, state-mandated vote next month.

If voters in the Lakota School System approve the 4.75-mill property tax hike, it will cost the owner of a $100,000 home $145 more in annual school taxes. That will of course be $290 per year on a $200,000 dollar home.

“The schools are the community’s schools, and it will be up to the community whether we continue to move forward or slide backward,” said Lakota Board of Education President Joan Powell.

???????????????????????????????????????????????

Here is the problem with what Joan said in that statement. Lakota has no choice but to continue to be a good school. Speaking for myself, I pay thousands of dollars a year into the school system, and I expect nothing less than an excellent district. Going backward as Joan suggests is not an option. Excellence and quality is required. It is completely expected by me as a tax payer. In other words, I am not spending a lot of money in taxes to get a crappy school system.

However, the school board is citing that a loss of state and federal revenue dictates that the district must go to the voters for more money, and if Lakota wants to maintain a great school, then the property owners of Lakota must pay the difference.

But that’s not what’s going on.

The reality goes back to an October evening in 2008 when hundreds of teachers packed the Lakota School Board Meeting with black shirts showing unity and demanding a 3% increase in pay or they were walking off the job. They were going to strike! You can see the news cast of that video here. You have to click on the link because Channel 5 has disabled the code. It is the events in that video which has caused our current financial crises at Lakota just 3 short years later.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kvPQPJ_F1A

Here’s another link, again this one will take you away from this page, but it’s worth the look.  Listen to Kit Andrews report that Lakota’s per pupil amount was just over $8,000 per child.  Now it’s almost $10,000 per child in just three years.  How long does anybody think this can go on?  What’s the plan to reduce the per pupil cost because that costs is almost completely driven off the labor cost of the employees, not brick and mortar costs?

http://eplayer.clipsyndicate.com/cs_api/iframe?windows=1&va_id=726521&show_title=0&wpid=0

To demonstrate just how quickly Lakota salaries went up after the strike attempt of 2008 the No Lakota Levy group has assembled the spreadsheet below.

Now, what does all that information mean? Well…..the average teacher’s salaries by school from the time of the strike threat in 2008 to the present look like this. The year of the strike the average teacher salary was $56,633. Just two years later the average salary was $62,331. The spreadsheet above shows the average rate of pay per school and the amount of increase at those schools. In essence, there was a 10.1% increase in the cost of an employee at Lakota right after the strike.

2007-2008 $56,633
2008-2009 $59,041
2009-2010 $62,331

Lakota currently has over 600 employees who make over $65,000 per year which ties up over $47 million dollars in budget costs. CLICK HERE TO SEE WHO AND WHAT LAKOTA STAFF MADE IN 2010-2011.

The way to fix the budget at Lakota is simple. It must be decided to not have as many employees making such large sums of money, because asking the district to carry that many highly paid employees in a district simply destroys any attempt a district of any kind has of balancing its budget.

To provide an idea just how quickly these costs can migrate out of control in 2009-2010 Lakota started the year at 59K per year and ended at 62K per year. During that year the district carried 434 employees who were paid over 65K per year. However, just one year later, that number jumped to 625 employees who made over $65,000 per year. I’m sure some of those people retired, or moved on to new jobs, but they still showed up on the payroll for that fiscal year and must be counted. The amount of increase in payroll demands from one year to the next, just one year, was $15,647,689.00. (The source for that information comes straight from the Pulse Journal wages edition published each March. Add the numbers up and that’s what you get) It is that number which causes the need for school levies.

Now recently the teachers union came up with a 3 year agreement so they could avoid the effects of Senate Bill 5, which was signed by Governor Kasich early in 2011, which puts a stop to the out of control “step increases” which has caused much of the trouble, because under a step plan, even though the teachers agreed to a “wage freeze” in August of 2009, they still received a wage increase under the “Step” plan which is why the salaries of the teachers went up so much over the course of one year. The teachers union at Lakota and other unions who have negotiated similar contracts plan to get S.B.5 repealed before their current contract expires, thus allowing them to resume back to their normal spending addictions, such as in 2008.

Having teachers making 65K or more is not a big deal if they only consists of the top quarter of your workforce, and in a district like Lakota which employs over 2000 staffing positions for more than 18,000 students the costs can get out of line quickly if not watched carefully.

Lakota has managed to bring their budget under the $160 million mark consistently on their 5 year forecast, but if it doesn’t balance the budget, then it’s not enough.

Tax rates at Lakota are already too high. There are too many homes going into foreclosure and higher taxes just aren’t attractive to potential home buyers. So the task at Lakota is to maintain its excellent rating, while also bringing down their costs and providing some relief to the tax payers, not more burden. If the loss of state and federal revenue forces the budget under $120 million a year, then that means the administration at Lakota needs to tackle their expensive costs, the amount of employees they have that are exceptionally well paid, to balance the budget. If that means letting those positions move someplace else so they can make more money and replacing them with cheaper labor…….fine. That’s the way the process works. Over paying employees is not good business, and does not make a district great. It makes fools of the management to even entertain such thoughts.

But statements that Lakota will be going backwards if we don’t pay more taxes are eerily similar to the kind of nonsense Lakota went through in 2008 when the labor threatened to strike, and got their pay raised as a reward, which the cost was passed down to each and every member of the community. If we are going to have to pay our new Superintendent Mrs. Mantia $165,000 a year, and the school board will justify that cost by stating that she is operating like a CEO of a company, well then we’ll expect her to drive down the costs in the same manner as a CEO does for their shareholders. I expect Mrs. Mantia to maintain Lakota’s excellent rating and current quality while driving down the labor costs to balance the budget. If she must let go of some of the expensive labor in favor of less expensive labor, then she must do that. But raising taxes is not an option. Any fool can do that. I could put my dog in charge of the school district and he could wag his tail to proclaim taxes need to be increased to meet a budget.

In the end, the Lakota Administration has not had the heart to do the right thing. They were outsmarted when it came to the labor dispute of 2008 and they are seeking to hide their shame with tax increases. The revenue produced by the community is more than sufficient to run an “excellent” school, but it is not sufficient to pay employees 20% to 30% more than the average income of the taxpayers themselves. The math just doesn’t add up.

Tax increases are an irresponsible measure by minds that lack the wisdom to see where they have made an error. And the greatest error is in pretending that more money will somehow fix the debacle. Lakota needs a long term plan for dealing with “declining revenues” because that is the fact of our age. People will be making less, properties will be worth less, there will be less coming from government and the bubble of tremendous benefits for public workers is at an end. And during this transition Lakota has an obligation to the millions of dollars our community produces to have a great school to maintain that service. Because failure is not an option! Lakota will not go backwards, and it cannot raise taxes. It must do the hard things that balance the current budget, or step aside so people who know what they’re doing can do it for them.

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

The American Ruling Class: Turning down a seat at the table

I received from Phil, a frequent visitor to this forum an article from The American Spectator by Angelo M. Codevilla written July 2010.  I had not read that article but ironically it summed up nicely many of the issues that Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom is dedicated to, the identification of, dissemination of, and understanding of what is rotting the foundation of America.  Whenever I receive evidence that independent minds have arrived at virtually the same conclusion I have in a fashion 100% separate from my personal experiences, validation of those similar conclusions is refreshing.  You can read that article here.  It is well worth the time of anyone who wants to understand what the problem is behind the picture below.  The picture of the newspaper article is an editorial from a Michigan publication and articulates the growing frustration between the two classes of people who exists in American, the ruling class, and the country class, as identified by Codevilla in The American Spectator article. 
 
American Spectator article:  CLICK BELOW

http://spectator.org/archives/2010/07/16/americas-ruling-class-and-the

Matt Clark, also from Michigan, like the articles above contemplates the bizarre behavior of Harry Reid, and Barack Obama from his radio program on WAAM.  Two weeks ago I was on the air with Matt and he asked me to predict what would happen in the debt crises.  I told him that Boehner would cave, even though I believed that Boehner had all the best intentions, he is now part of the ruling class, and he thinks in that fashion.  Any other thinking is foreign to him.  Listen to that broadcast here:  Listen to Matt’s most recent broadcast by hitting play below: 

I haven’t thought of naming these different class types by what Codevilla has.  To my mind America doesn’t need social class structures.  Such things get in the way of creativity, and have no place in society.  The desire for human class qualifications is to me, an archaic desire of an infantile mind.  Such desires are something that the human being is destined to outgrow, and America is the first step of that growth.  The idea of self-government, even though it never quite got off the ground where even the founding fathers struggled with their own European roots.  They knew how freedom should look on paper, but failed to implement it into their culture, and infantile minds craving power have occupied positions of power for two hundred years and created the classes illustrated above. 

I have dedicated thousands and thousands of words completely free of charge, with no intention at profit for myself to exposing this class structure in America. I do write books, I have written a book called The Symposium of Justice which was dedicated to exposing how the system worked at a psychological level.  You can see that book by clicking here:

I am currently working on another book that my editor is currently scrutinizing through called Tail of the Dragon.  The early comments about that book is, WOW, there is a lot of political chaos in this story, hard-hitting stuff!  My response is that the point of all the death, the billions of dollars of destruction, the violence, the love, and the adventure is to arrive at the scene inside the White House at the end of the book where the president gives a mighty speech.  Early readers have stated that it reminds them of a shorter version of the John Galt speech from Atlas Shrugged, which I consider a high compliment, because that’s the point.  Because my intention behind all this free content that I put out each day, and the intention behind my books, is to put a light on this ruling class, and once understood, for common American’s to take that power away from the ruling class by cutting the money which funds the whole enterprise. 

The path which took me to this place is a long one.  But what confirmed in me the final straw was an experience I had out in Hollywood, while working on a project with a production company.  Up until that point I had assumed that politics was a separate thing from entertainment, but when I worked on the set of a development project for a rather high-profile actor, I learned that the same politics were at play in the film industry as in politics, and this is why Hollywood and politics are often holding hands, because both believe they are part of the ruling class.  So to illustrate that story I’ll talk about my experience on the set of this project. 

This actor is a good guy.  I personally like him quite a bit, as I do the director.  So I won’t mention them here by name.  I’ve worked with entertainment types before so past reference isn’t necessary.  What is important is that even in a simple thing like entertainment, politics is very important. 

I was flown in to a job to be a stunt stand-in, so I had to be made-up to look just like the lead actor.  The lead actor was producing this production so it was his money that paid for my expenses.  He really wanted me specifically and he went out of his way to acquire my services.  When I arrived on set, I was given my trailer and the producer had accidentally not ordered the correct amount of trailers for this production.  So I was asked to share a trailer with the lead actress who wasn’t scheduled to arrive on set till after my make-up was complete.  This producer was relieved when I shrugged my shoulders and stated, I’ll dress in the parking lot, it doesn’t make any difference to me.  The director and the producer looked oddly at each other like I spoke from another planet.  They assumed I’d be very upset. 

The actor really wanted to meet me when he arrived on set and came to shake my hand.  He assumed that I would take great privilege in shaking his hand.  Now to those who know me, I make a point to treat everyone the same.  I show no special honor to anybody.  I would treat the President of the United States with the same attention as a street beggar.  To me they are all Americans.  And I like to be treated the same.  It’s a sign of respect to me.  So I shook his hand without a lot of worship.  I simply said, “Hey, what’s going on?”  He looked at me oddly, with a bit of obvious disappointment.  About two hours later he brought his family to me between takes and asked me, “Hey, Rich, do you have your whips, can you show my kids some of your stuff?” 

“Sure,” I grabbed my whips and demonstrated some single and double-handed routines and the kids loved it.  One of them had a little hat and he held it out to me.  I took it from him and put it on his head.  His mother, who was a popular television actress, said with a smile, “I think he wants your autograph.” 

I smiled at the kid and grabbed his hand.  “How about a handshake.”  I thought it was the right thing to do, since autographs seemed so presumptuous.  I don’t feel comfortable giving them.  I never enjoyed doing book signings with my book The Symposium of Justice, and I certainly didn’t think a child of two famous parents should want autographs.  If anything, I would think his parents would appreciate downplaying such a thing, since they get bombed with requests every time they go out someplace.  So by downplaying the incident I thought I was doing them a favor.  The actress looked uncomfortable at me with a smile intended for television and gathered her kids up and left the set. 

For the rest of the shoot I caught the actor looking at me oddly anytime he had a free moment.  It made me feel like an animal in a zoo the way he was examining me.  I blew it off, but the look reminded me of the many similar looks I had received over the years by politicians and company presidents who felt betrayed that they had invited me to the table and were hurt that I refused their invite by not participating in their hazing rituals.  It was at the lunch break on the set where all the technical people sat at one table, the support actors sat at another, the stunt men sat at another, the agents at another, and the director, producer and the lead actor sat at the same table closest to the catering truck.  Since it was those people who I knew the most out of everyone present I sat at their table.  The director and producer were warm to me, but the actor who had been very talkative until I arrived suddenly claimed up.  The director following his lead after a few moments stopped talking so openly.  All the people at that table finished up their food quickly and left saying they needed to get ready for the next set-ups. 

I was left at the table by myself, but the stunt coordinator who was sitting at a near-by table and had struck up several productive conversations with me came over and sat down.  “Do I stink of something” I asked him mockingly smelling my armpits. 

He laughed.  “No man, you have to understand something out here, everything is politics.  You are either in, or you’re out.” 

“So I’m out?” 

“No, you’re in, or they wouldn’t have called you.  I think they aren’t sure what to do with your Midwest like behavior.  Don’t worry about it, you’re cool.  They’ll come around.  Give them some time.” 

That conversation confirmed what I had been thinking, and it was disappointing.  I completed my tasks for that project and when it came time to break and wrap, the actor insisted on driving me back to my hotel to personally thank me for helping with the project. 

As he drove me through several neighborhoods back to my hotel there was awkwardness between us.  I realized that he did not want to drive me back, but was simply doing it because he had told the crew he planned to.  He was simply fulfilling his role in Hollywood politics.  He personally driving me back was supposed to be considered part of my payment, and to me it was expected by a friend, or potential friend.  When I stepped out of his car I wished him luck on his next project.  He said to me, “hey man, you have my email address.  Feel free to contact me anytime.”  As he drove away I felt relief of being out of that uncomfortable situation.  I was happy to be a part of the project, but glad to be away from the politics that was very evident. 

About 3 weeks later I wrote him curious to see if he’d respond. His email, which I had used dozens of times before bounced back.  He had canceled his account. 

It didn’t bother me; I was as uncomfortable as he was once we realized that we were functioning from completely different ideologies.  For me, I can deal with people who think different from me, even if I don’t like it.  But for people like him and his wife, they had looked for the signs, just like Codevilla spoke about, and I showed that I was not part of the ruling class and had no desire to learn how to be.  They were disappointed in losing a potential friend because unless I was willing to join their class, they could not associate with me.  When they realized that I wanted to stay on the outside, they stopped investing in our relationship.  It’s that simple.

This process is what school board members encounter when they get voted in by the public.  Congressional freshman also go through this process.  It is very tempting to say yes, because in saying yes, financial security is almost guaranteed.  Because it is the ruling class who has the power, and resources to give you, so when they invite you to the table, you accept it as an honor.  But for me I see shackles at that table, and I’ve always turned away from it, much to the horror of those who invited me.  To them it is a terrible insult to have their helping hand slapped away.  They become angry at themselves for ever thinking that they were willing to put their reputations behind someone who doesn’t want to play the game, which is a mere commoner, a peasant destined to be ruled by the ruling class. 

I could tell several dozen stories just like that one, and they all have in common the same pattern, an invite to the table of power, only for me to downplay the invite as worthless.  Not to slap down the value of the invite, but to display my reluctance to accept power and the game that follows.  For me the real value in life I can say I’ve felt on many occasions, and I feel sorry for those in the ruling class who grab so diligently that such concepts for which they are committed are a path of decline and they do not know it.  It is why so many politicians are corrupt and so many in Hollywood develop destructive addictions, it is the power of politics that corrupts the mind, because the pursuit of a class of any kind is like trying to fit mankind into the cloths of their youth.  The pants just don’t fit, mankind has outgrown such small-minded notions, they just don’t know how to articulate their beliefs.  So the questions come out as they do in the newspaper article from Michigan, as a frustrated rant about the way the world should be and the way it really is. 

This is the battle of our age, the reluctance of those who know better to join those who have bitten from the forbidden tree, the knowledge of good and evil, the pairs of opposites where politics ruins society from a lifetime of enchantment and understanding where the citizens do not need a ruling class, because they govern themselves. The politician uses duality to split the otherwise bright mind desiring freedom into bondage of opposites where the ruling class can conduct a psychological war to launch themselves as the peacemakers, and power holders.  It’s a game as old as time itself, and it is now outdated and worthless, for the philosophy of our time is not of Aristotle, Plato, or Socrates, but of Ayn Rand.  Time does not lie, even if the politics of power and the ruling class that resides in that power do lie.  America is at a point where we must go back to the beginning again, and start fresh with the knowledge we have now, and allow the European influence of peaking order and power grabs to leave our society under the guidance of modern philosophy which is specifically American. 

We must do this without pause, without the guidance of history, because we are writing that history right now.  The home of the brave and land of the free is alive in the hearts of those who do not seek the security of the ruling class.  That class, is the path to decline and rot and everything that is opposite of true freedom.

 

 

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

Save us from Embarrassment: Mt. Healthy levy fails and like all government is asking for more

Doc Thompson covered the results of the debt ceiling increase on 700 WLW the same day that President Obama signed the bill which passed the house late in the night, the senate early in the morning and arrived on the president’s desk a half hour later.  While all this was going on Doc contemplated the winners and losers about a deal that essentially does nothing but allow the government to increase it’s debt to 16 trillion from the 14 trillion it is now, which amounts to a joke suitable for a comedy club. 

The same day the debt ceiling was increased voters went to the polls for local school districts asking for more money, Mt. Healthy being one, which went down to defeat. Before the ink was dry on the newspaper announcing the headline all over Cincinnati, Mt.Healthyadministration officials were declaring that they would try again in November of this year! 

This has left many of us scratching our heads, what don’t the Mt. Healthyofficials understand about the voters rejecting the levy?  Isn’t that a clear sign to the district that the residents have sent a clear message to cut their spending?  Yet the district like a bunch of mindless ants only know how to do one thing and that’s ask for more money. 

At Lakota we are getting ready to defend ourselves from yet another levy increase when it has been made clear that the residents do not want to increase their taxes.  It has been established that the source of the problem of all these school districts is that the teachers unions have taken way too much money from the community to pay their salaries which are extraordinarily high.  At Lakota the average teacher makes over 60K a year.  That’s the average! 

Nobody is asking teachers to make low amounts of money, but by any scale anything over 55 K per year is a good living, and a teacher should be happy with a reasonable living, especially if the tax payers are being required to pay for it off their property.  But the trouble is that the teachers unions force dues upon their teachers, and other costs are deducted from their paychecks without the teachers consent.  The NEA is taking money from its members to re-elect President Obama, and in Ohio the OEA is taking money away from teachers to help repeal S.B.5 this November.  So the real income of a teacher isn’t quite as high as their salary because they have these political deductions coming out against their will. 

More and more often I am getting notes like the one below from teachers who desperately want to see reform and they want out of their unions.  They want to see the school boards have the teeth to solve their financial problems and they don’t support the politics of their union, however, if they want to work as a teacher in the state of Ohio, they HAVE to be in the union.  And the unions continue to drive up the cost of education using their members as a shield and revenue stream to fulfill a political agenda which they place on the backs of the property owners. 

—————————————————————————————————————————-

  1.  I am a teacher, and I would give anything to not be a member of the union. I am so sick of them. They are hijacking children’s education and tying it up in endless bureaucracy, squabbling over funds that don’t exist. Unions served their purpose, but now federal labor laws have covered what rights the unions once fought to protect. Now my rights are being violated when I am forced to join (and pay, which is all they care about). It is a complete scam, a giant monopoly of power, and completely counterproductive in this period where transition to new models of education is key if we want our children to be competitive globally.

(Oh, AND SCRAP TENURE. Terrible system that stagnates positive growth.) I don’t want to secure my own job by throwing kids under the bus. If I’m not good enough, I should be fired, plain and simple. The idea of protecting yourself from hostile workplace politics is not enough of a pro to save that outdated concept.

Sara

—————————————————————————————————-

The trouble with schools and the trouble with the federal government are the same.  They are all built on a model of Keynesian economics which has turned out to be a scam, and the people who have supported this economic theory have egg on their faces.  They insist on more “revenue” which is just a fancy word for “taxes.”  More revenue, more TAXES is the only way the Keynesian economists which fill the rank and file labor union leaders and politicians with great abundance can save themselves from the embarrassment of financial failure. 

That’s what we’re dealing with here, it’s a complete failure of political and economic philosophy that has been tried, and has failed.  And it’s embarrassing.  That’s the sum of the entire situation. 

What tax payers at all levels are being asked to do is to save these people, who were taught and believe all the wrong things, the embarrassment of facing the music which they have played upon our culture.  By throwing money at these situations these advocates of higher taxes hope to delay the ramifications of their failure to a future time when maybe they won’t be present to accept the blame, where the burden will be transferred to some unfortunate public servant onto a generation that is still playing with toys and watching Nickelodeon on TV. 

To those of us who know better, who never believed the merits of Keynesian economics the answer is obvious.  Costs must be brought in line to live within the budget established by the community.  In the case of schools, it’s the wages that are inflated and encompass every teacher of a district and the union monopoly which have driven up those wages that are the problem.  The union middleman option is simply too costly to a district.  At the Federal level it’s the entitlement programs which were created to buy bloc voting sectors to gain political power that is causing all the trouble, and all these parties are now caught in the lie they have built their entire lives around, and it’s time for someone to face the music. 

When any school district or politician asks for more “revenue” what they are really asking is for you to bail them out of the embarrassment their own actions have created.  And they expect you to bail them out at your own expense.  How does that make any sense, when the proper thing to teach our young people is that if you make the wrong decisions in life, you must face the music and change direction?  Not look to others to bail you out of your trouble so your feelings won’t be hurt, because such a position is not only expensive, it’s detrimental to the human condition, which is evident in the ideological positions of all who want a tax increase.  

How out of touch are these people?  Listen to Harry Reed, majority leader of the Senate; ask if he can go home to care for his fig tree.  That’s the mentality we’re dealing with.

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

The Wisdom of Darryl Parks: What congress and the senate don’t want you to know

It was nice to see that Gabbie Gifford was able to make a vote on the house floor for the epic vote on raising the debt ceiling, but in the back of my mind there was something wrong with the timing and ceremony of the whole affair.  I didn’t want to admit it to myself, because I don’t want to believe that Congressman Gifford would participate in such a thing, but it seemed to me that Gifford’s return to the house was designed to take the edge off all the fighting that had been going on in congress about whether or not to raise the debt ceiling, and whether or not there would be “revenue” involved. 

Such a thought actually makes me feel bad, to question the honesty of congress.  I’m sure in her case she has probably wanted to come back for a while.  But it was her friends in the house who probably “encouraged” her to return for this big vote in order to show “unity” to the American people.  The games of politics are nasty and costly, but I think the treachery and manipulation that these people are capable of has been dramatically underestimated, and based on what I know now about their activities, I would not put it passed congress to attempt to use Gabby Gifford to help make the American people forget about how ugly business in government truly is.  When I think such things I wonder if I’m the only one who sees it, that is until I hear Darryl Parks talk on 700 WLW every Saturday morning from 9 AM to 11.  While all this government ugliness was unfolding over the weekend I was on my way to The Annie Oakley Festival and had the opportunity to listen to Darryl on my hour and a half trip to Darke County,Ohio. Darryl Parks thinks much the way I do about most things, so it was refreshing to hear him speak with incredible clarity about our nation’s problems as the summer sun began to heat up the day of that momentous broadcast.  I think this particular broadcast was so good, and so historic that it deserved over an hour of transition over to podcast for the convenience of those who haven’t heard it, or to be listened to again for those who did hear it and want to listen again.  So do yourself a favor and hit PLAY on the link below.  Grab a snack and sit back and listen with the clarity of hindsight, now that the crisis has been averted for the moment, and marvel at the wisdom of Darryl Parks. 

Politicians have been a joke for a number of years and culturally we have dismissed them as irrelevant aspects of our lives.  Seldom if ever whether it be a Looney Toons cartoon from the 30’s and 40’s, or a film, television show, or novel, is a politician portrayed in a trustworthy manner.  It is universally accepted that as a group, politicians are deceitful, life-sucking aspects of our society who have virtually no benefit to our culture.  They make rules that we all have to live by, and they make decisions that cost us money.  Yet we listen to the same speeches every election cycle and hope that somehow things will be different with the next politician.  Then we act surprised when we find out that politicians have enriched themselves greatly while working in public office.  This is the gist of what Darryl was talking about, how can a politician like Mitch McConnell get rich as a politician?  Or how does Barack Obama becomes a millionaire between the years of 2004 to 2008 while he was just another senator?  The answer is they are making deals, and benefiting from insider trading, many of the conditions they create legislation to help along, a practice that should be illegal, but isn’t because it is the law makers committing the crime who would have to create the law. 

Many politicians I believe start their public careers with good intentions, where they really want to help.  But the money and power available to them is just too lucrative and they quickly turn to corruption for that age-old pursuit of financial security.  There are always exceptions of course, but as a general rule in a governmental body that depends on majority rule, if a majority is corrupt, then the body itself is also corrupt, and that is the case with our general government.

I listened carefully to the complaints of politicians on both sides of the political spectrum as the debt ceiling issue came to a close.  They are grossly out of touch insisting on even more money to support a political system that is obviously full of thieves.  Those thieves don’t consider themselves looters of course, because they are the law.  They see themselves as citizens who deserve the highest respect for their service to their country, but by their actions they are simple thieves, seeking for themselves plunder at the expense of the people they represent no different from a pirate.

You can learn a lot by watching people under duress, and America learned a lot about its politicians as the debt crises unfolded.  The demand for more “revenue,” a term used to disguise the real meaning which is “taxes,” from the voting population as a way to manipulate the situation to their advantage from a public guilty of trusting them, rang out from many politicians like drug addicts crying for another hit of “speed.” 

The level of corruption and financial addiction has shocked even me, a long time big government skeptic. I did not know it was this bad, I simply suspected as much.  But the proof is there for all of us to see.  We have a big problem in America.  We have to rethink the whole political process and the kind of people we want to fill those seats. 

We know the enormity of the problem because the vote that just occurred over the debt ceiling increase amounts to nothing.  It solves no problems, it still allows government to spend more than it takes in, and the solution of these parasites is just to send more money to them to cover the gaps.  Yet there is praise among the thieves and much back slapping going on for all those law makers are proud of themselves and they cheered in unison when Gabby Gifford came to the chamber and changed the story in the media from a “combative congress finally passes a vote,” to “Congressman Gifford cast her first vote since her tragic accident.”  And the nation looked at the image of Mrs. Gifford waving her hand to the crowd, collectively all the fights of the last week dropped away from the memory of voters in favor of the more pleasant story of Gabby Gifford’s amazing recovery. 

While all this was going on the thieves took a deep breath of relief as the media attention focused on the recovering congressman and allowed them to scurry away to the cracks they all hide in to figure out some way to spin the situation to their advantage, and attack those darn “tea baggers,” “talk radio hosts,” and “TV personalities” who are telling the public all about the scam they have been employing for decades. 

Yet the whole structure is supported by the “revenue” that Americans give those thieves, so we are guilty of subsidizing criminal activity knowingly.  After this episode and the information available to the American public if they allow it to continue, they are guilty of a real crime, not one created by corrupt law making politicians, but one of the moral code of the human race, where we are supposed to treat each other fairly, and with honesty and not with the heart of a predator in favor of a life of respect and valor.  Because if that’s the case, then all those corrupt politicians are accurate representatives of the demons which reside inside each and every voter, which makes us all guilty in the eyes of the universe. 

Thank goodness people like Darryl Parks gets it…………what’s wrong with everyone else?

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

Sleeping with a Sleazy Salesman: The Path of the Obama Presidency

On July 29th 2011 President Obama said “I don’t know why the Republicans in the House are voting for their own bill, it doesn’t have a shot at becoming law.  We need to reach a consensus as a nation.”  That statement is the reason for this post.  What Obama is really saying is “play our way, or not at all.”  The Democrats have been very resistant to doing the right thing also, but are misleading the nation with this game, that America can no longer afford.  Be sure to watch every video of this one as well as read the text and take your time.  This is a history lesson from our recent past that must be remembered right now.    Now, let’s study the pattern of behavior which indicates what the true intention of this game really is about for the current President of the United States. 

 

Like many of us, Jim Garvin is trying to understand the most recent comments of President Obama about the debt ceiling. As I watched the video below I felt for Mr. Gavin, because he represents most of America right now. The bewildered look on their faces is one of betrayal, of being lied to. Most of America knows they are being lied to by politicians from one side or the other. What they don’t know is who to blame, how to determine who is lying, and what to do about it.

What Obama and the political class have done with the federal budget is evident in this video. This spending behavior has been going on for a very long time, and represents a sickness in American politics. It is not appropriate to justify this behavior as “it’s just politics.” The American people have this dangerous tendency to deduct from their overall income what they pay in taxes. If they don’t see the money come out of their wallet, if that money is already gone before they even get their pay check, then they have a tendency to not even care what happens to that money. It’s as if their frustration in not having control of how their money is spent; they remove the thought from their minds completely, which politicians are well aware of.

I once knew a black salesman who reminds me a lot of President Obama. In fact, I’d dare say we have all known someone who considers themselves a “slick” talker who can sell anything to anybody and talk a woman out of her panties without them even being aware of it. I once watched this happen when I went for a drink with this guy and watched him work the bar, “Hey baby, what’s happening you sweet thing.”

I watched and listened and rolled my eyes. What woman would ever fall for a line like that? Anyone could tell that this dude was a creepy guy, right?

The salesman slept with that girl about 15 minutes after he met her, and when I spoke to the salesman about it I asked him how he could do it, how he could have sex with that girl, leave her with a fake phone number after he did the deed, then go back home to his wife and have sex with her in the same night, then come back to brag about it at work the next day?

He was a tall, lanky guy who moved almost identical to Barrack Obama. “Do what my brother,” he said to me using his pinky equipped with a gold ring to scratch his forehead. “I did that little girl a favor. Women love what I got’s to give em’ and if I’d given her my real number she’d be callin’ for more. And I can’t have that. She was lucky she got it once.” He noticed the distress on my face so he added, “Dude, listen. Fu**ing chicks is like selling to customers. You have to convince them that what you are giving them is what they need. And by the time they realize they don’t need what you want to give them, it’s too late, because they’ve either given you the money already, or they’ve given you a piece of ass.”

“But don’t you feel guilty taking advantage of them?” I asked.
“My man,” He said. “That’s cute, that you think people should feel guilty about making money, or fu**ing women. If you want a clean conscience, then take it from me, you will die a poor man looking for your next piece of ass.”

I didn’t dislike that salesman, I learned a lot from him. I learned everything I didn’t want to be. So it isn’t some psychological impairment that makes me think of this salesman every time I hear President Obama talk. It’s just that Obama uses the same kind of manipulation that the salesman uses. It may not be for the purpose of having sex with women, but rather to get people to buy what he’s selling. For this kind of salesman, outright lies are normal. In fact, they are so normal that they can even lie to themselves. When Obama sat down with Google to give a town hall type of speech during his campaign in 2008 it reveals a lot about Obama.

In the clip below with Google, Obama talks about patriotism in a way to cover his true intentions and disarm the client, which is the audience. Just like the con artist who wishes to conceal his dishonesty he cleverly uses gifts to keep people focused on the topics he chooses. For this particular crowd, it is discussions of technology. Obama guarantees every home in America will get broadband access under his future administration, and that his administration will stand up to the light of day by putting ear marks and bills online for all to see. He also talks about saving the planet with green jobs which is appealing to progressives naturally, even if it’s impractical and warped with idealism. When I watched this speech I thought of my old salesman friend who might say, “baby, I’ll by you a diamond necklace if you’ll suck my big **** out in my Cadillac outside.” The girl hears, “Cadillac” so maybe this guy has money. She hears “diamond necklace,” so maybe she can steal this guy away from his present woman. And sucking on something appeals to a natural biological urge many women have and gives them an illusion of control over a man because such an act is an act of trust, since the genitals of a man is the most delicate part of his body. The same types of buzz words are used in this interview, except it’s not sex that is for trade.

Unfortunately for such con artists sometimes they get caught in the lies they tell and this is the case where Harry Reid and President Obama had spoken against the increase of the dept ceiling in 2006. Reid explained that it was only because he was playing politics and it was wrong, so now in 2011, he’s right and everyone should buy into a debt ceiling increase. Obama had perhaps the worst statement. He said that his perspective as a senator was basically not as enlightened as that of the President, where more aspects of the economy must be considered. Without question in some future speech Obama will say that the President of the United Nations must consider the entire world, and not just the affairs of the United States, which is a job he is openly campaigning for.

On occasion there have been people like Mr. Gavin who recognize that something is wrong and they’ve questioned Obama. Such was the case with Joe the Plumber during the 2008 campaign. All the guy did was ask a question and Obama talked the situation into a 5 minute speech trying to justify the scam. Obama would have done better to give a short answer and move to the next topic, because it made Joe the Plumber a celebrity, which the left then proceeded to destroy Joe’s character any way they could. But it was Obama who made the mistake in this exchange. He knew that Joe was seeing through his campaign rhetoric and Obama, the salesman wanted to see if he could overcome Joe’s opposition. When words failed, Obama became very touchy openly putting his hand on the shoulder and arm of Joe the Plumber. This is very similar to a man who has been confronted by a scorned woman and uses touching to take the edge off the woman’s anger, knowing that touching helps psychologically break down the barriers of mental resistance to an idea.

With many of the positions Obama has taken, Muslim radicals seem to have gotten a free pass under his administration. He behaves very strange for a guy who claims that he’s a Christian. The trouble with a man who claims he’s a Christian and not a Muslim is that in politics it is calculated that a Muslim could not be elected, because people are tense over the aggression of many fundamentalists.

Christianity has been attacked by the Obama administration mysteriously. So if Obama is pretending to be a Christian when he is in fact a Muslim then he is deliberately misleading the pubic for political gain. And if he is willing to do that, what else is he willing to mislead the public on? That is the trouble. A man should be willing and able to stand on what they believe, not what they think people want them to believe. Such people are no different from people like that salesman who lie about how much money they have to sleep with a woman. They will say anything to get into the woman’s pants. But even the best of them get caught in their own lies. Here Obama lets it slip that he’s a Muslim then corrects himself to being Christian. Was it an accident? (More on this later)

In this next clip Obama continues to ridicule Christian faith. For a guy who again claims he’s a Christian, he seems pretty angry about it. I mean I personally don’t care if he’s a Muslim, or an Alien from some other planet. My concern is why does he feel he must hide it? Why be misleading?

Glenn Beck shows the Michelle Obama clip where she stated this was the first time she was proud of America. I personally can’t ever recall any upper level politician saying something like this. To me, this clip reveals much of what type of conversations go on at the Obama dinner table, when the cameras aren’t running. Michelle, at the time being inexperienced at deceit in politics spoke her mind, and has since learned to put a softer edge on what she say’s publicly.

To know who Obama is you have to watch all his speeches, not just the ones where he attempts to appeal to all of America, the people like Mr. Gavin. Here is Obama among his people at the Campus Progress meet talking about alternative fuels. Campus Progress is a progressive organization designed to build a progressive political base which is in direct competition against people like me, who are American traditionalists. Progressives hope to erode the effectiveness of traditionalists by appealing to the naivety of young people hungry to rebel from their parents. The trouble with progressives is they attempt to undermine American Politics with a Trojan Horse mentality, by breaking through the barriers of American’s defenses and destroying that opposition from behind those defenses. That’s alarming because Progressives know that their ideas cannot compete directly with traditionalists so they seek the subversive route. Here Obama congratulates the creation of Progressive Leadership and the role of young people in the future.

Knowing that traditionalists will reject much of what Obama is trying to implement, he seeks to appeal to young people by admitting that he smoked marijuana, a lot. When Obama says that he is angry that Washington plays politics, and nothing gets done because of the grid lock, remember that the only reason Obama made this statement is that he was tapping into the same political demographic exploited by Bill Clinton when he played a saxophone on MTV. It’s all about politics.

I hate to bring it up because the relationship that President Obama has or had with Bill Ayers cannot be ignored even though a discussion about that relationship is as contentious as talking about the birth certificate issue. For those who don’t know who Bill Ayers is listen to him talk about his life in The Weather Underground. Obama launched his political career with Bill Ayers as a supporter in the living room of The Weather Underground leaders.

Here is a video with radio interviews of Bill Ayers where his life parallels Barack Obama’s rise to fame. Bill Ayers is a very manipulative and radical hater of the American way of life. He has demonstrated the extent of just what he is willing to do against the American Government. He is an open enemy to all things American, and the government knows it and has known for years exactly where he is at all times yet he’s been free to continue his radical movements with other methods instead of the radical violence of his early years. He’s a retired professor at the University of Chicago. In a new edition of the Bill Ayers memoirs called, Fugitive Days: Memoirs of an Anti-War-Activist, he added a new afterword about Barack Obama describing the blogospheric characterization of their relationship as “neighbors and family friends” (“In 2008 there was a lot of chatter on the blogosphere about my relationship with Barack Obama: we had served together on the board of a foundation, knew one another as neighbors and family friends, held an initial fundraiser at my house, where I’d made a small donation to his earliest political campaign.”).

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Ayers

Obama tried to back off the Ayers connection, but the evidence was just too overwhelming. Now this video isn’t from Fox News, it’s by CNN. Ayers is a man who is willing to do anything to accomplish his objective. When he and his wife bragged about the rise of Barack Obama as a political power in Chicago politics there is no question that Ayers at some point told Obama, “They’ll harass you for knowing me. That’s OK. It’s worth it to have one of our kind in The White House. When they ask don’t feel bad in denying you know me. I’ll understand.”

One last warning about Barack Obama, a look into his past, this video was done in 2008, well before Glenn Beck. Tony Rezko was a major fund-raiser for Barack Obama. Rezko and several others were indicted on federal charges in October 2006, for using their connections to the state boards to demand kickbacks from businesses that wanted to do business with the state. While the others pleaded guilty to the charges, Rezko pleaded not guilty and was found guilty of 16 of the 24 charges filed against him. Rezko also worked with Rod Blagojevich who was just convicted this year in late June of 17 counts of wire fraud, attempted extortion, bribery, conspiracy to commit extortion, and conspiracy to commit bribery, as well as trying to sell President Obama’s former Senate seat in exchange for political favors. This is the circle of associates around President Obama. All these people have displayed the ability to look straight into a camera and lie about their innocence or provide misleading information.

Source article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Rezko

I’ve said a lot on these pages about looters, people who primarily look at public service positions as a way to enrich themselves off tax money. Look at how Michelle Obama and her husband behaved before he became President of the United States. This is how Obama got some of his money that he is so proud of when he state, “people like me are willing to give back some.” Obama has been bragging about his wealth even as far back as the Joe the Plumber question, which I didn’t realize until I just recently looked at it again.

Obama has shown that he will lie, especially in politics. There is no question that he will and has been caught many times as shown above. Listen to him in this CNN investigation.

When you listen to Obama speak about the budget below look at his record. Here he lies 7 times in a 2 minute speech.

Being Muslim is not a problem, as discussed. But lying about it so that a person can get elected is a big problem. Here is convincing evidence that Obama is a Muslim which is proof that the man will lie about a seemingly insignificant issue. So what does anybody think he’d do over a really big issue?

The reason this whole Muslim issue is relevant can be shown from this statement about the condition of the flag and the Muslim faith as told to Dale Lindsborg ‘s Meet the Press from Sunday’s 07 Sept. 2008, 11:48:04 EST, Televised broadcast. The then Senator Obama was asked about his stance on the American Flag.

I had forgotten about this whole issue until a friend of mine reminded me of it after reading other stories I have stated about President Obama and his position over this recent budget battle. The text below is quite startling.

General Bill Ginn, USAF (ret.), asked Obama to explain why he doesn’t follow protocol when the National Anthem is played.

The General stated to Obama that according to the United States Code, Title 36, Chapter 10, Sec. 171…

During rendition of the national anthem, when the flag is displayed, all present (except those in uniform) are expected to stand at attention, facing the flag, with the right hand over the heart. Or, at the very least, “Stand and Face It”.

‘Senator’ Obama replied:

“As I’ve said about the flag pin, I don’t want to be perceived as taking sides….” “There are a lot of people in the world to whom the American flag is a symbol of oppression….” “The anthem itself conveys a war-like message. You know, the bombs bursting in air, and all that sort of thing.”

Obama continued:, “The National Anthem should be ‘swapped’ for something less parochial and less bellicose. I like the song ‘I’d Like To Teach the World To Sing.’ If that were our anthem, then I might salute it. In my opinion, we should consider reinventing our National Anthem as well as ‘redesign’ our Flag to better offer our enemies hope and love. It’s my intention, if elected, to disarm America to the level of acceptance to our Middle East Brethren. If we, as a Nation of waring people, conduct ourselves like the nations of Islam, where peace prevails – – – perhaps a state or period of mutual accord could exist between our governments ……”

“When I become President, I will seek a pact of agreement to end hostilities between those who have been at war or in a state of enmity, and a freedom from disquieting oppressive thoughts . We as a Nation, have placed upon the nations of Islam, an unfair injustice, which is WHY my wife disrespects the Flag, and she and I have attended several flag burning ceremonies in the past.”

“Of course now, I have found myself about to become the President of the United States and I have put my hatred aside. I will use my power to bring CHANGE to this Nation, and offer the people a new path. My wife and I look forward to becoming our Country’s First black Family. Indeed, CHANGE is about to overwhelm the United States of America.”

Dale Lindsborg, Washington Post

This compelling story brings us to one central question, addressed by Mr.Garvin in the start of this article outlining the behavior pattern of one of the most subversive American Presidents in our history. This President was launched into politics by radicals and crooks. He is a public sector looter as defined by the work of philosophy Atlas Shrugged and gained his wealth in that fashion. He has shown that he will lie about his religion. He will lie about his associations. And he will be misleading about his true political intentions.

Just like the salesman who had slept with the girl, without question the girl felt used when she attempted to call the number and found out the smooth talking salesman had lied to her and even given a false number. She had believed everything the man had said because she wanted to. She wanted to believe that there were people who actually told the truth, especially when they spoke so wonderfully, and were pleasant to look at. Normal average everyday people like the woman in the bar, and millions of Americans of all different political affiliations want to believe that there is good in people, especially attractive people.

Sailors have told stories for generations about sirens that used their songs of seduction and elliptical attractiveness to lure those men to their deaths with enchantment upon the hidden rocks disguised below the surface. But it’s not just beautiful women who perform this seduction. Sometimes it’s fast talking salesman with gold rings. Its governors, mobsters, and senators, who use public office to enrich themselves, its radical reformers who hate America and launch a fellow board member into a path to the presidency from his living room, or it’s the President himself, who has his eye on a prize most American’s can’t even conceive, because the audacity of the deception defies credibility. That deception is the end of America as we all know it and a prized position with the United Nations heading that organization toward global concerns.

Lies are not hard for those types, and in this budget battle the fight isn’t over fixing the budget, or even the debt limit. The fight is over our ability to fix it, because the intent is to collapse America as a world power. And the fear from thousands of radicals like Bill Ayers is that their 40 year strategy to end America under the smile of a good-looking, smooth talking President is in jeopardy, because it’s no longer just the radical right, the conspiracy theorists, the Fox News junkies who see the problem. It’s the average, every day people like Jim Garvin who have the look of who just fu**ed me! And why did I let them do it!

Many women have woke up to an empty pillow on the morning after a drunken binge. Now America is about to roll over and see that there is no head in that pillow, and that while we slept the man we brought home not only took advantage of our condition, but also stole all our money, and material goods and headed home to the object of their true desire, a marriage we did not know about until it was too late and we’ll only have ourselves to blame.

Rich Hoffman

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

The United States Post Office: The beginning of the end

Years ago, I was at odds with the union of the manufacturing company I was working for, so severely that things were getting violent.  At my home, I was at war with the police department for turning in hours of video tape showing irrefutable proof of drug sales by area teenagers only to find out that many of the cops were working with the kids to assist and had turned against me and my family to cover up the activity.  It got so bad at one point that I had to provide body-guard assistance to my children so they could ride their bikes down the sidewalk.  In every sector of my life at that time, things were tough, really, really tough.  The culmination of these events was the primary theme of my 2004 book, The Symposium of Justice.  It looked like I was going to lose my job to a layoff because the union was pushing to eliminate me before the company made me salary, which the company was playing both political sides against each other leaving me out to dry.  It was a very difficult time. 

A family member suggested that I apply for a job at the Post Office, because the Post Office had fantastic benefits, great pay, and job security.  If I worked for the government, I would be “taken” care of and my family would be safe.  I scratched my head, even under all that stress, and contemplated how long the Post Office was going to last paying people the kind of wages they were paying.  The internet was a new thing back then and email was the emerging new rage, I saw trouble for the Post Office. 

In recent years it has been Doc Thompson who has also seen trouble for the Post Office and he has been one of the most vocal advocates of reform.  Doc’s been doing this well before the recent news that the United States Postal Service was considering cutting back it’s service to less days per week, and that they were closing down several Post Offices around Cincinnati.  Listen to Doc talk about the whole Post Office situation on 700 WLW at the link below:

I took another job where they actually made things, because I couldn’t see how the Post Office was going to sustain itself.  The family member tried to get into the Post Office employee pull but was not accepted because they could not claim minority status, and was told as much. 

The Postal Service is a direct victim of the changing times, email, UPS, Fed Ex, and other services have emerged in recent years which have cut into the revenue of the Post Office, and this has been a great aspect of the American business culture.  It’s been great for everyone but the people who have taken jobs with the Post Office.  When you talk to some of them, they would love to see the world stop advancing so they could keep their jobs, because many of them took jobs with the Post Office for the same reason that the family member told me to apply, for the job security and great benefits. 

Virtually every government sector job these days are in a similar boat as the Post Office.  Teachers and the entire Department of Education are finding that technology can do many of the tasks of teaching just as effective as a brick and mortar school, improved medicine is making retirement at 55 and 65 laughable, extending the life spans of the human being closer and closer to 100, and this same improved medicine will also dramatically lower the need for Medicare and health insurance in the future.  As aviation and other aspects of transportation evolve in an improved direction, government employee advocates want to invest in the archaic technology of High Speed Rail, which is on its way out.  The pattern of resistance to the obvious becomes clear to the intelligent viewer. 

Government is simply an entity that wants to live, just like any creature.  The bigger it gets, the more it eats by way of tax money.  But it will also attempt to hold back the kind of technology which made America great to begin with, in an attempt to preserve itself.  This is a natural reaction and can be displayed vividly in the various school levies that are on the November ballot this year.  They are led by government employees who entered that field of endeavor under the pretense of security, and they are slow to learn that the path they’ve chosen is unsustainable, and evolving into something else.  The successful person who works for a government job will evolve and adapt with these changes, because it is the changes themselves which will advance our culture for the better, and those changes will occur regardless of government worker protests. 

The lesson is that sometimes its better to take a job that may not be so attractive at first as the government, tax subsidized job, because at the non-government job, the individual can control their own destiny to a large extent.  It is not good to trade freedom for comfort, and government jobs like the Post Office are perfect examples of this tendency.  There are jobs for people in the other fields, as government stops doing services, entrepreneurs will come up with job replacements because if there is a market need for those services, there will be a creative mind who will provide that service.  What the government worker fears however, is that the public will discover how unimportant those government jobs have always been, and that will be a painful transition, when the American tax payer comes to realize how much they’ve been scammed.  But in the end, the process will make America better and stronger so long as the light at the end of the tunnel is the focus and not the darkness of the immediate surroundings.

Rich Hoffman

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