Tag: Lakota Schools

Godzilla the Destroyer: Why Japanese culture wins at business and politics

Large companies strapped with labor union rules have turned to Japan hoping to learn something through Six Sigma or some other borrowed manufacturing method to improve their delivery times and product quality.  But they seldom ever work with spectacular results leaving companies to “cook the books” so to justify their commitment to such programs because the workers are still operating with the same type of mentality that they did before any written procedure.  The Japanese people think differently than other people in the world.  The root of their differences is their firm commitment to Shinto Buddhism passed down to their culture through their Samurai history.  To understand a bit of Shinto Buddhism one must understand the nature of what Shinto is.  The most modern example of Shinto to Japanese culture is the films of Godzilla—which is about to get a major upgrade from Warner Brothers in 2014.  See the preview below which has me very, very excited.  I love Godzilla—King of the Monsters! 

Godzilla’s allegiance and motivations have changed from film to film to suit the needs of the story. Although Godzilla does not like humans,[38] it will fight alongside humanity against common threats. However, it makes no special effort to protect human life or property much the way Japanese people see the world [39] and will turn against its human allies on a whim. It is not motivated to attack by predatory instinct: it doesn’t eat people,[25] and instead sustains itself on radiation[40] and an omnivorous diet.[36][41] When inquired if Godzilla was “good or bad”, producer Shogo Tomiyama likened it to a Shinto “God of Destruction” which lacks moral agency and cannot be held to human standards of good and evil. “He totally destroys everything and then there is a rebirth. Something new and fresh can begin.”[25]  Godzilla represents Japanese culture and their ability to deal with major tragedy and give rebirth to their country over and over again.  It is in this resiliency that the Japanese people find they are one of the most productive countries in the world—and able to embrace capitalism with a warm support that has caused their economy to swell.  Per capita, they are among the most productive people in existence.  Below are just a few attributes and interesting facts about Japanese culture.

Japanese children clean their schools every day for a quarter of an hour with teachers. This led to the emergence of a Japanese generation who is modest and keen on cleanliness.

* Any  Japanese citizen who has a dog must carry special bags to pick up dog droppings. Hygiene and their eagerness to address cleanliness is part of Japanese ethics.

* A hygiene worker in Japan is called “health engineer” and can command salary of USD 5000 to 8000 per month, and a  cleaner is subjected to written and oral tests!!

* Japan does not have any natural resources, and they are exposed to hundreds of earthquakes a year, but this has not prevented its becoming the second largest economy in the  world.

* In just ten years Hiroshima returned to what it was economically vibrant before the fall of the atomic bomb.

* Japan prevents the use of mobile phones in trains, restaurants and indoors.

* For first to sixth primary year Japanese students must learn ethics in dealing with people.

* Even though one of the richest people in the world, the Japanese do not have servants.The parents are responsible for the house and children.

* There is no examination from the first to the third primary level because the goal of education is to instill concepts and character building.

* If  you go to a buffet restaurant in Japan you will notice people only eat as much as they need without any waste because food must not be wasted.

* The rate of delayed trains in Japan is about 7 seconds per year!!
The Japanese appreciate the value of time and are very punctual to minutes and seconds.

* Children in schools brush their teeth (sterile) and clean their teeth after a meal at school, teaching them to maintain their health from an early age.

* Japanese students take half an hour to finish their meals to ensure proper digestion because these students are the future of Japan.

The Japanese focus on maintaining their own culture.
Therefore. . . .

* No political leader or a prime minister from an Islamic nation has ever visited Japan – not the Ayatollah of Iran, the King of Saudi Arabia or even a Saudi Prince!!

* Japan is a country keeping Islam at bay by putting strict restrictions on Islam and ALL Muslims.

      1) Japan is the only nation that does NOT give citizenship to Muslims.
      2) In Japan permanent residency is NOT given  to Muslims.
      3) There is a strong BAN on the propagation of Islam in Japan .
      4) In the University of Japan , Arabic or any Islamic language is NOT taught.
      5) One CANNOT import a ‘Koran’ published in the Arabic language.
      6) According to data published by the Japanese  government, it has given temporary residency to only 2  lakhs,(Muslims), who             must follow the Japanese Law of the Land. These  Muslims should speak Japanese and carry their religious rituals in their                 homes.
      7) Japan is the only country in the world that has a negligible number of embassies in Islamic countries.
      8) Muslims residing in Japan are the employees of foreign companies.
      9) Even today, visas are not granted to Muslim doctors, engineers or managers sent by foreign companies.
    10) In the majority of companies it is stated in their regulations that NO Muslims should apply for a job.
    11) The Japanese government is of the opinion that Muslims are fundamentalist, and even in the era of globalization they  are                  not willing to change their Muslim laws.
    12) Muslims CANNOT even rent a house in Japan.
    13) If anyone comes to know that his neighbor is a Muslim then the whole neighborhood stays alert.
    14) No one can start an Islamic cell or Arabic ‘Madrasa’ in Japan 
    15) There is NO Sharia law in Japan .
    16) If a Japanese woman marries a Muslim, she is considered an outcast  forever!
    17) According to Mr. Kumiko Yagi, Professor of Arab/Islamic Studies at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, ” There is a mind               frame in Japan that Islam is a very narrow-minded religion and one should stay away from it, permanently!

Years ago when I was younger I worked at Cincinnati Milacron as a lathe machine rebuilder, and on my tool box where my co-workers had pictures of naked women, cars, and sports figures, mine had a photo of The Millennium Falcon and a list of the 9 Ways of the Samurai taken from Miyamoto Musashi’s epic book called The Book of Five Rings.  They are as follows:

  1. Do not think dishonestly.

  2. The Way is in training.

  3. Become acquainted with every art.

  4. Know the Ways of all professions.

  5. Distinguish between gain and loss in worldly matters.

  6. Develop intuitive judgment and understanding for everything.

  7. Perceive those things which cannot be seen.

  8. Pay attention even to trifles.

  9. Do nothing which is of no use.

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

I studied and studied and studied those words, and read Miyamoto Musashi’s book over and over again—I still do.  The book means so much to me that I gave a copy of it to both of my son-in-laws so that they could learn how to be a proper man with those basic foundations.  Godzilla is the monster embodiment of all those 9 Ways and is unique to Japanese culture.  They are also the key to why the Japanese are so epically successful while other aspects of world culture struggles.

I don’t agree with everything the Japanese do—for instance they are gross collectivists.  But the 9 Ways of the Samurai are something that should come out of American culture and the cowboy lore of our foundation rather than the Samurai of Japan.  But what I do admire is that they have a value system which they preserve, and those values show up in their economy.  You don’t hear of labor unions ruining the Japanese people—they wouldn’t put up with it—because their Shinto Buddhist belief system would prevent them from adhering to union rules in the fashion so prevalent in the United States or communist countries.  The movie monster Godzilla is the embodiment of their belief system, the destructive nature of terror mixed with the life renewing force of rebirth.  To them, rebirth is an opportunity to correct things and live again, where in the West it is something to be terrified of, and avoided.  Godzilla is their way of dealing with the bombing of Hiroshima, and most recently the tsunami that caused such havoc over much of their country.  In Japan, they embrace fear, death, and sorrow with a boldness which allows them to get right back on their feet again and keep producing—because their value system holds them together.

American businesses have tried to study the Japanese with the hope that they could copy off their paper without adopting their way of thinking.  I watched labor disputes end Cincinnati Milacron while I worked there and read Musashi’s quotes as workers protested the loss of their jobs.  I used to contemplate that the people I worked with were fools not in touch with the Way of life—the Way of a living force for good and bad.  The Japanese tap into this energy and make vibrant economies with a land mass the size of most states in America.  The miracle of their society is within those 9 Samurai Ways.  But their mythology is most impressively—and metaphorically present in the movie monster Godzilla—a creature from the distant past—victimized by mankind’s destructive trends—only to become a destroyer of all that is oppressive—in a process that is life-renewing…instead of considered traditionally destructive.

To read more about Miyamoto Musashi click the link below:

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Miyamoto_Musashi

And be ready to see Godzilla in the summer of2014.  I’ll be the first in line!

Rich Hoffman

 www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

 

The Art of the Businessman: Profit is the Academy Award of a job well done

Because of people like Bill Maher—who serves as a spokesman for progressive causes—many believe that “business” is inherently evil, vile, and selfish.  Business people are depicted on shows like Maher’s broadcasts as detrimental to the state of a human being.  Barack Obama has this impression of American business; school levy supporters in our local communities do as well, all of Hollywood projects this image too.  Look at how business was depicted in the film Avatar, or in Robocop—the villains are almost always business people.  I’m sure that’s not always the case—but I’ve seen a lot of movies, and I can’t think of a single instance of where business, and business people are depicted in a heroic circumstance except the Atlas Shrugged movies, or the old Fountainhead film.  Even the great movie Citizen Kane depicted the evils of American business as during the rise and fall of Kane from power—all he really wanted in life was his Rose Bud.  CLICK TO REVIEW.  The hatred for business is very obvious in Maher’s interview shown below where he had on Ron Paul to explain his brand of Repubicanism.

My wife dragged me out shopping over the weekend, which is really hard to do—and as we were leaving I watched some of the tributes to Nelson Mandela on television following his death at the age of 95 years old.  Mandela’s position on apartheid was a good one.  He is the modern version of Gandhi who through pacifism changed the direction of a nation.   He is the primary example of how one man can change a country.  However, Mandela was a communist, and it takes a lot more than making blacks and whites equal to make a country great.  Equality is just one aspect in a very large umbrella of things that must be done correctly for a country to thrive.  And South Africa is not thriving—it’s essentially a third world nation because socialism and communism have left the country with little to nothing in economic activity.  I was thinking about Mandela as my wife and I went shopping for Christmas.  It warms my heart to pull into a shopping complex and see thousands of cars packed into a parking lot trying to navigate a maze of other cars all looking for the same thing.  Communists will look at such a sight and declare that the consumerism of Christmas is evil—and vile.  But a capitalist like me sees people buying things for other people as gifts and somebody who made all these items benefits from the products offered in the exchange.  There are so many little things to buy and sell that the economic strength—the potential strength of America is on full display during Christmas.  I love the audacious displays of lights, I love the smell of food from the many restaurants, and I love the long lines and crowds trying to buy items for someone during December in America.  I love all this activity because they are all signs of economic stimulation—the products of somebody’s thinking mind realized in the form of a product.

When Chick-fil-A has a line around the drive through selling their chicken sandwiches, that restaurant chain is the direct result of Truett Cathy—a person I admire greatly.  I consider every one of his chicken sandwiches to be a miracle of modern capitalism.  I love them, I love eating at Chick-fil-A, I like the fresh flowers on the table, the supplier of the chicken, the lettuce that is always fresh, the juicy tomatoes, I love Chick-fil-A sandwiches and the quality they exhibit.  They are the result of Truett Cathy’s idea generated from his mind under the merits of capitalism.  I love book stores, I love Bed Bath and Beyond, I love Best Buy, I love J.C. Penny.  I love Target.  I love Chilis restaurant, I even love Charming Charlie’s.  I love seeing all these places slammed with business during the Holiday Season.

http://www.truettcathy.com/

Making money is not a dirty word.  In business it is like winning an Academy Award in the entertainment industry—it’s a sign of respect for a good job done.  Money is the exchange that brings value to the endeavor.  When a company makes money, it has won an award for doing a good job.  Walmart is often criticized for exploiting workers in China, and its tendency to drive down prices for consumers.  The Walton family is enviously looked upon as corporate greed in the worst extreme by jealous rivals—but the fact remains that Walmart’s success is the money they’ve made—it is the capitalist equivalent to a job well done.  And as for China, what jobs would be created in that communist country if not for exports to The United States?  Walmart’s success brings work to the people in China who need it.  Jobs are not created from trees, they have to actually arrive out of a thought that somebody has for bringing a product to market, and somebody has to be that market.  Walmart brings lots of products to market in a way that makes them affordable to the average person.

I see business as a creative enterprise, not as a stuffy old game full of meetings, flights to have meetings, and meetings to have meetings over lunch, dinner, and more excuses to have meetings.  This is often the result because the proper focus of the reason for business has become lost over time due to people like Bill Maher.  In business, engineers, architects, machinists, truck drivers and a host of other people from the top to the bottom have an opportunity to create something that had never existed before.  In business, the joy is not in making money—it is in the creation of a product.  Making money is the reward for doing it well—but it’s not the reason.  I love business because it’s a creative enterprise—it is the product of somebody’s mind.  Business is good—because it’s artistic in the purest sense of the word.  People like Maher see artists in people like Picasso and Shakespeare but those are only one kind of artist—the other kind are people like Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Donald Trump, Truett Cathy, and many others who created somethings from nothings and made money as a reward for doing so.

The term “making money” is an American concept because under capitalism that’s what occurs when the product of a person’s mind generates an invention from nothing that is then bought and sold generating money (value) that wasn’t there before.  When I went out for Christmas shopping with my wife I saw a lot of people “making money” and it made me happy for them in a similar way that it makes me happy to see films get Academy Awards.  It is nice to see people succeed at things.  Businessmen who are good make money from nothing deserve respect not ridicule.  They bring about products that did not exist before and the world is better for it.  Patented designs, new ways to manufacture goods, streamlined production lines, are all aspects of American business that “make money.”  Making money is not bad—it’s good—it’s very, very good!

What nobody talked about during the death of Nelson Mandela was the fact that the former president was a communist which world leaders with their feet in the world of Socialist International are all well aware of.  Mandela showed that a communist leader could be a charismatic and likable person the world would cherish.  For global communists still hoping for a world united under the banner of progressivism, Mandela represented their hope that others will follow in his example.  But what a businessman sees about South Africa through their art of making money is a gross failure.  South Africa may have had fairness and equality among blacks and whites, but how were they making money?  Where are the latest cars coming out of South Africa?  What about airplanes?  What about food?  What about great literature?  What about soft drinks?  What about movies?  How about jet engine building technology?  What have the South Africans done under the communist leadership of Nelson Mandela—economically?  The answer is nothing—or next to it aside from some diamond exports.  South Africa like most other countries in the world who have failed to embrace capitalism fully, suffer because they do not make money—but instead wait for money to be given to them from somebody who has already made it.  Because they fail to understand this basic premise, they suffer needlessly and must live their lives as second-handers to the creative enterprise of business people who made the products they are seeking.  This relationship might cause anxiety, and jealously—but it doesn’t change the nature of the issue.  Fairness does not trump productivity when all things are considered.  Fairness is important to the human race, but not at the expense of economic activity.  When a country makes money—it helps more people as a direct result.  Fairness and equality does little good if everyone lives in a cardboard hut and is waiting for a food truck to arrive from a capitalist supporting economy to feed them.

The hatred that Bill Maher and his progressive kind share against business is just the kind of thing that destroys the essence of Christmas—not just the religious aspect of it—but the commercial which is uniquely American.   Economic activity is the sign of a healthy country, and it is good to see so much activity going on during the Christmas Season.  Business people are not villains, the way Maher has attempted to portray them.  They are artists whether they know it or not on the front of a creative enterprise—the art of making money which is validated as successful or not based on how much profit is generated from the effort.  Instead of being celebrated as the hope for mankind, they are vilified by progressives, communists, and socialists as impediments for equality.  But what those same progressives never reveal is that the only way the world can be truly equal is if everyone is equally poor—like they tend to be in places like South Africa.  Likely during the Holiday Season in South Africa there is as much activity in the entire country as there was at just the shopping complex I visited with my wife over the weekend.  The reason is clear, yet never discussed—because in America artists even make money as business people, whereas in South Africa they have to wait for someone to dig it out of the ground, or bring it to them on a boat.  And that is not the path to prosperity for any nation.  The cause of economic improvements………..growth, of closing the gap between rich and poor is not more regulation, but less with more artists in business to create new things that can be bought and sold.  Then and only then do more people prosper, thrive, and live.  Because economic stimulation comes directly from the creative enterprise of business, and the money they make for the benefit of everyone.  

Rich Hoffman

 www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

 

The American Romeikes: If only the United States Supreme Court will protect them

State run schools have proven to be detrimental to the human psyche and should be abolished as a form of education.  Yet in the world today, it is the most dominant forms of education there is.  The danger in them is not so much the quality of the teachers, the pay, or even the aspects of volunteerism they tend to use as a mask for their real activity within communities—but it is what they teach.  There was a reason that China sought a partnership exchange program with Lakota schools in my local community.  CLICK FOR REVIEW (Read the comments of Dean Hume from the Spark Magazine on that article, and the situation becomes extremely clear).  The reason is that both country’s schools are run by state government—China is a communist country, Lakota is a state-run school in freedom loving Ohio within The United States, but both education institutions teach essentially the same type of thing to students—submission to the state and the authority that constitutes government structure.

The Romeikes, a German family who are devout Christians, alarmed about what their children were learning in German schools decided to come to the U.S. to homeschool their kids. In Germany, homeschooling is illegal, so the family was granted asylum in the United States during 2010. But the former teacher and labor union supporter President Obama and his administration of doom decided to appeal that ruling and the family lost their protection.  The case marks a remarkable move by a sitting American president—a direct attack upon a family that represents most of the type of people who settled America as immigrants in the first place for the same reasons—in an attempt to flee the destruction of their hopes and dreams for their children.  Obama does not care about the many illegal aliens coming into America and the crimes they generate, or their trend to become attached to government subsidy, and other destructive byproducts—but he took the time to single out a family that wanted to flee Germany to homeschool their children in The United States.  To even latte sipping prostitutes, school levy supporters, and mild-mannered progressives—this should send out alarm bells.

The Romeikes could lose custody of their kids if they go back to Germany because of the Obama administration. Thankfully the U.S. Supreme Court has decided to take up the case as the Obama administration was quick to declare that the Romeikes are not eligible for protection in America because homeschoolers are not recognized as a social group eligible for protection.  This Romeikes case has within it the heart of most of America’s modern problems—that individuals are not recognized by government as relevant—only groups of people—and that is fundamentally wrong, misguided, and destructive to everything it means to be an American.  The Romeikes under the American Constitution through granting asylum should have more power or at least equal power to the SEIU or AFL-CIO unions, but the argument that White House lawyers are making in defense of government schools all over the world is that the Romeikes are required to yield to the collective opinion of the masses, because they are not affiliated with a group.

http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/special-report-bret-baier/2013/12/03/all-star-panel-german-familys-fight-homeshool-kids-us

This is why public schools are vile temples of terror as they encourage collective submission to democracies ran by idiots—instead of instructing the value of individuals to take charge of their own lives for the betterment of entire civilizations—public schools teach subservience, collective welfare, and yielding to authority—not American traits.  It is not enough to drop a child off at school and hope they learn something—because often what they are learning is vile, evil, and disgusting by the standards of people who still have them.

Most reading this are the products of public education.  There are surely good memories associated with the experience of their “school days” and bad ones.  When I was a kid there was a song that was pretty new called “School’s Out For The Summer” or something to that effect by Alice Cooper.  I used to play that music so loud that we had to roll down the windows to keep from blowing out our eardrums when my friends rode in the car with me.  I specifically remember a time on the last day of school at Lakota when I realized that I was free of that place for an entire summer—I had a car, a job, and a whole future ahead of me, and I was traveling 110 MPH down the Old Beckett road which is now Union Center Blvd with that song roaring at full blast.  The residents up on Beckett Ridge could hear the music coming from my car out of the valley nearly as clearly as I could inside my car.  It was one of the best moments of my life—a small wink of time when things are totally clear to the conscious thoughts of the waking world.  I know why I was so happy, and why I was driving so fast.  I hated school—I hated every bleeding moment of it—I hated the smell, the look of the buildings, the teachers, the authority figures—I hated everything about it.  I knew even at my tender high school age that the place and what the teachers were teaching were things I didn’t want to know.  They were teaching me to be dependent when all I wanted out of life was independence.  The music, the speed, the lifestyle I was living was all about independence and it felt good to break the speed limit, and the social norm for music levels to celebrate being free of that dreadful place—a palace of shackles to limit imagination and hinder intellectual growth.  They teach you in school what to think—not how to think.  There is a tremendous difference.

Some of the worst arguments I’ve ever had with family members outside of my marriage was when my wife declared that she was going to homeschool our children because of a disagreement we had with Mason schools when they wanted to teach sex education to my fourth grade daughter.  Of course they sent home a release form, which we rejected, and the black listing began.  We were expected to sign the form without question and when we didn’t, trouble erupted.  My wife used to volunteer at Mason schools and was loved by the principles, the administration and all the teachers—until she said no to the sex education.  Things likely got out of hand because the school employees saw my wife as one of “them” and expected her to fall in line behind the collective.  Well, for people who think I’m an “individualist” they have not met my wife.  She once quit her first day at McDonald’s as a teenage girl because they told her where to stand at the front counter.  Not a good idea to give her any kind of—“instruction.”  She does what she wants, when she wants to do it—to this very day, to this very hour, to this very minute.  She wasn’t welcome in the school as a volunteer anymore; she was harassed by known student drug dealers who came to our home to harass her and my daughters while I was gone to work.  The fire department began following her around everywhere to the grocery store, post office, and especially the bank.  They’d get in line in front of her and behind her and talk about “bitches that just wouldn’t play along” and had nothing to do all day long but “be neurotic,” a shot at her for being a housewife in the traditional sense.  They never addressed her directly, just talked around her, about her situation avoiding any direct threat or legal implication.  The unions had coordinated the harassment through their network of compliant parasites all trained in public education to just do what they were told, and they were told to harass my wife for not allowing our daughter to be taught to put a condom onto a dildo in the fourth grade.  The Mason police department gave us personally 50,000 reasons to despise them with their continuous harassment that went on for two years.  The situation was so bad I approached the mayor of Mason at the time for relief, but none came.  Instead of complying with the pressure we withdrew our kids from school and taught them ourselves to an onslaught of pressure from family members who thought we were crazy for trying—and unqualified.

My kids learned more in this period of time than all the years up to that point, or in the years after. We were teaching them things in the fourth grade that no school would even think of—such as why the earth had an elliptical orbit around the sun and why Edger Allen Poe was so much better of a writer than the modern-day John Grisham.  I was able to teach my kids during this period about literal pornography and intellectual pornography which is what they would see at the grocery story at the check out lines with all the magazine headlines selling sex, panic, and weight lose—which obviously wasn’t working very well for most people.  This period of homeschool benefited my children in such obvious ways that it was clear that there were some very bad things going on in public school evident by the differences instantly noticed.  Public schools like Mason, and the school my children graduated from at Lakota was destroying the process of thinking, but they sold themselves to the public as institutions of thinking—and clearly were doing the opposite. They were teaching non-thinking—they were teaching compliance to authority—and nothing more.  My children returned to public school for a few years but ended up graduating nearly two years early by taking online classes condensing their junior and senior years together.  They couldn’t wait to leave a brick and mortar school for the same reasons that I drove 110 MPH down Beckett Road on the last day of school playing rock music.  While both my children had their graduation ceremonies conducted by Lakota—they were in Europe learning how the world really worked—already living their lives years in maturity ahead of their classmates—which is still true.

The Romeikes know the same thing, and I feel sympathy for their struggle.  I know how hard the system comes down on people who do not comply because I’ve experienced it first hand.  I agreed to leave Mason by my wife’s request.  We sold our home for a nice profit and moved to something better in the district I grew up in of Liberty Township.  My agreement with her was that since we bought some property that gave me elbow room, I would not leave again.  The next time I went to war with the police, the firefighters, and the teachers like I did in Mason, I would not retreat—ever.  When they came for blood like they did in Mason, I’d hang them by their feet in the trees around our home like Christmas decorations, and that has been the standing policy for the last 15 years.  In my twenties I wasn’t sure what I could and couldn’t do when the highest authority in town was questioned.  In my thirties I figured it out.  The secret that nobody talks about is that there is a major offensive advocated by the education industry to process the minds of the human race into a kind of gravy that can be spread over their social reforms.  They hate individuality with a passion and are at war with logic.  The antics written about here centering on the Lakota levy are nothing compared to what my wife and I went through in Mason after we decided to homeschool our children to save them from premature sex education classes.

The Supreme Court has an obligation to stand up for the Romeikes.  They are the kind of family that made America unique—and I want those kinds of people as neighbors—even friends.  I want to see those people at the grocery store, and at a park. I want to pass them at the gas pump.  They look to be good people who should be free of tyranny and have the right to turn on the lights of their children’s minds away from the shackles of state-run schools in Germany which these days are virtually identical to Lakota, or Beijing, China.  They are all state-run schools advocating compliance to authority—and are menaces to human thought.  The Obama administration is doing to the Romeikes much the same as what the union brothers of the fire department and police departments of Mason did to my wife and me, only on a larger scale.  The international trade unions after all look out for each other and they see anybody who posses a threat to their hive collective to be dangerous—and in need of attack—ruthless attack with no mercy or recognition for the individuals involved.  For the Romeikes the only chance they have to keep their children free of a state-run education is The United States Supreme Court.  But now because of Obama and his administration of left-wing radicals dangling by the puppet strings of labor unions—the Romeikes may not even be able to keep their family together.  The Supreme Court will not only decide whether or not the Romeikes can free their children of a tyrannical public education, but whether or not they can even stay a family—which we all know is the ultimate goal of progressivism—the destruction of the family unit.  It will be interesting to discover how the Supreme Court rules.  There is a lot at stake for not just the Romeikes—but for all of us because that ruling will set a course that not only America will follow, but the world.

Rich Hoffman

 www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

 

Millennium Falcon Spotted in England: First impressions of Galactic Starfighters in ‘The Old Republic’

Reliable sources state that the Millennium Falcon has been sighted on the outskirts of Pinewood Studios in England, built at a secret location for the upcoming filming of Star Wars Episode 7.  This is exciting news for people like me who have been following the construction of an actual full-scale Falcon outside of Nashville, Tennessee by Chris Lee and his team of devoted model builders.  The sources are reliable because many of the production team on this latest Star Wars film, unlike those from the past, are Star Wars fans, and their excitement seeing the actual Falcon has been too much to keep quiet about.  As I’ve covered here many times, The Millennium Falcon is one of the greatest symbols of freedom that the modern human race has.  I would say that the time I saw the actual model of it at a Smithsonian exhibit years ago was nearly a religious experience for me.  I took hundreds of pictures of it at a time before there was digital photography.  It is one of the most recognizable images in the entire world, and that status will be solidified over the next decade.  The Millennium Falcon is currently the most photographed fictional item anywhere; it also appears in the most fictional literature being written about in over 200 novels and countless comic books.  It is an icon of the Star Wars franchise and it appears that Lucasfilm in close association with the Disney Company has built a full-scale Falcon to film with a seamless tracking shot where the characters can actually walk onto the ship from the exterior with a steady cam rig and up into the interior in one take—just to show off that they can execute such an ambitious task.  The Falcon can then be taken to a Disney Park to be placed on permanent display with a similar strategy as Disney has used on The Black Pearl from the Pirate of the Caribbean films.  The Millennium Falcon is similar to The Black Pearl in that they are both pirate vessels from their respected franchises.millennium-falcon_00288478

There are a lot of very real things to worry about in the world such as the debt ceiling issues, the funding of the government, Obamacare, the collapsing Social Security situation, declining wages, a wrecked moral compass on the world stage, but it’s time every now and again to enjoy the things that are good.  For me, the release of The Old Republic’s Galactic Starfighter game has been a long time and coming and is something I deeply cherish.  The news about the Falcon hit the news wire about the same time as Galactic Starfighter was uploaded onto The Old Republic servers and has given me over the last 24 hours countless pleasure.  It is a wonderful game, which is rather complicated and takes some getting used to.  But it is the best of the best in my opinion, a nice tribute to my favorite space simulator of all time in X-Wing Fighter from way back in the 90s, and the more modern Xbox version of Star Wars: Battlefront.  Galactic Starfighter plays very slick, has lots of things going on the HUD display, and is fast—which is just how I like things.

In my 2004 novel The Symposium of Justice one of the subplots was a story called “The Return of the Flying Tigers” where a group of air combat simulator enthusiasts took to the skies in converted M400 Skycars to attack a Washington D.C. taken over by the United Nations causing a second Civil War in America.  The video game players went up against Apache helicopters and other military vessels during raids over the beleaguered American capital.  Playing Galactic Starfighter with a host of other live players who are quite good gives the sense that such a thing is very possible.  The skills that must be established to be good at the game are fundamental combat strategies that would be taught in any military academy, and it is fun to see that out of all the entertainment options available to the players of the game, that they prefer to fight it out with other pilots in a free world where rewards are granted for heroics, bravery, and daring.

In the real world the attributes that make people good at Galactic Starfighter are penalized, so it should come as no surprise that so many people are fleeing the real world to live in a fantasy one—so to preserve their concept of valor.  Galactic Starfighter only opened on December 3, 2013 to subscribers.  The game goes live to everyone else in February—so I feel privileged to be able to fly with so many people on a game that has so much early interest, and enthusiasm.   It gives me hope for tomorrow to see so many people at least in their minds yearning for the nobility of aerial combat.

It is nice to take a break from the world’s problems and sign in to a place where things make much more sense—a world where risk still earns rewards and everyone doesn’t live in a padded room for fear of becoming hurt.  The action in Galactic Starfighter is fast and furious—and highly addictive.  I am hooked.  It is the perfect homage to the kind of stories that have spawn off a saga born from The Millennium Falcon.  It is also why when the next Star Wars film is finished, that millions upon millions of fans will flock from the far reaches of the world to see it in person when Disney places the vintage ship into one of its parks.  I’ll be one of those millions, because of what it means to those who find games like Galactic Starfighter to be as essential as food, water and sleep.

In preparation for the start of the new flight simulator on The Old Republic I ran one of the very hard rail missions—the Heroic level 7 runs with my XS-Freighter.  Those runs are nearly impossible requiring a pilot to take out several scout ships, run a mine field, and take out a capital ship while navigating an asteroid field at a very high-speed.  I can’t recall a time when my heart has beat so hard as it did during this mission, and when I cleared it with a perfect score, I was ready to burst with excitement.  That’s how much fun these flight simulators are, and now with Galactic Starfighter how much better a great game like The Old Republic is with the new addition.  The very first thing I did on the morning of December 3, 2013 was upload the new addition.  And the game hasn’t been turned off since……………

Here is the official press release from BioWare:

12.03.2013

Early Access to Galactic Starfighter Digital Expansion Available to Star Wars: The OldRepublic Subscribers Today

AUSTIN, Texas – Dec. 3, 2013 – The journey to become a legendary Starfighter pilot begins now! Today, BioWare™ a division of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA), and LucasArts granted early access for current subscribers to the new Free-to-Play Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ Digital Expansion, Galactic Starfighter. The second Digital Expansion introduces 12v12 intense Player-vs-Player (PvP) free-flight dogfighting and fierce factional battles as the war between the Sith Empire and the Galactic Republic explodes into space. Players will compete and advance to earn experience, in the form of “requisition” to unlock awesome new weapons, powers and abilities to customize their ultimate Starfighter.

“We are so excited for players to experience all the incredible new content in Galactic Starfighter, while still gaining additional XP and credits to give their ground game characters a boost,” said Jeff Hickman, Vice President, General Manager of BioWare Austin. “Free-flight space combat is a feature the fans have been asking for, and Galactic Starfighter really delivers on that feeling of heart-pounding fast-paced dogfighting action that you expect in a Star Wars™ game.”

Anyone who becomes a subscriber will be able to jump right into Galactic Starfighter and become part of the factional combat and free flight PvP experience (no minimum character level requirements apply). In addition to gaining early access to Galactic Starfighter, subscribers will receive exclusive rewards, including custom paint jobs, two pilot suits and two titles (“Test Pilot” and “First Galactic Starfighter”). Preferred Status Players* will be granted access to Galactic Starfighter on January 14, before the Digital Expansion becomes available to the public beginning on February 4.

Star Wars: The OldRepublic is a Free-to-Play, award-winning MMO set thousands of years before the classic Star Wars movies. Players team up with friends online to fight in heroic battles between the Republic and Empire, exploring a galaxy of vibrant planets and experiencing visceral Star Wars combat. Now players can experience the complete storylines of the eight iconic Star Wars classes, all the way to Level 50 without having to pay a monthly fee. The Free-to-Play option complements the existing subscription offering, providing greater flexibility in how to experience Star Wars: The Old Republic.

For more information on the Digital Expansion: Galactic Starfighter, please visit www.StarWarsTheOldRepublic.com/galactic-starfighter. Join the conversation by visiting the official Community Blog, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube pages. For additional press assets, please visit http://info.ea.com.

What is it?

Galactic Starfighter is a 12v12 PvP free flight space shooter. At its core, it is all about coming as close as we can to recreating the incredible experience of space combat as seen in the Star Wars™ movies. It is fast, furious dogfighting action where you get to choose your style of play by selecting the Starfighter that is right for you, be it Scout, Strike Fighter or Gunship (or all of the above!), blowing up your enemies, and then using Requisition (experience) to upgrade and customize your ships.

From the start, we wanted to make sure that we nailed the feel of “free flight” Star Wars space combat, so we’ve taken great pains to get the controls just right. It is flat-out fun to simply fly your ship through the battle zones we’ve created. The Scout feels zippy and maneuverable, the Strike Fighter nails the all-purpose combat role, and the Gunship is really, really good at picking off targets from long-range then relocating to the next cover point to keep out of harm’s way.

Finally, there are a TON of options for customization. And I’m not just talking about re-painting your ship (though I recommend that you do!). I mean swapping out your weapons and engines and SEEING the actual ship change shape, while altering your stats and abilities. I’m talking about equipping Treek as your co-pilot and hearing her chirp at you when an enemy is locking onto you with missiles. PLUS repainting your ship, recoloring your paint job, customizing the color of your blaster bolts and your engine trails. Beyond the visual and audio customizations, Major and Minor components plus Crew equal a HUGE number of stat and ability changes that allow you to tweak your Starfighter to your heart’s content and the Major and Minor components all have full upgrade paths as well.

This is a HUGE update to the game and we expect you’ll be playing and enjoying Galactic Starfighter for years to come.

But Wait, There’s More!

I want to take a moment to point out that this feature is just getting started. What do I mean by that? Well, for Early Access we will have two very distinct battle zones and one game mode plus fourteen unique Starfighters with all of the customizations mentioned above, but that’s not even our full Launch content! Galactic Starfighter is much more than that. In February for our full Launch, we add a new role (the Bomber) plus 10 more Starfighters for a grand total of 24 ships to customize and take into battle. Add to that an incredible new dynamic Flashpoint that is level and role neutral called Kuat Driveyards which ties our ground game story directly into the space PvP action with a new Starfighter area on the fleet and you begin to see that full scope of what we’re delivering.

Taking it one step beyond, we have already laid out significant plans for Space PvP to support it far into the future, so there will be regular releases of content to keep our Starfighters happy for a good long time to come. As with everything in our game, we will be listening raptly on all available channels for YOUR input to shape what Starfighter becomes as it evolves. Thank you for your ongoing support. It means the world to us.

Blaine Christine
Senior Producer

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Rich Hoffman

 www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

 

Matt Clark and The Young Americans for Liberty: Mistakes from the past will be anger in the future

It is no longer the Tea Party which is the issue, or school levies aligned with cheating politicians.  It has been determined that much of the modern sicknesses surrounding our American culture is self-inflicted by philosophical suicide and there is no changing that in the short run.  Many of today’s Tea Party patriots supporting Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and many other traditional conservatives will see Social Security collapse, Medicare costs sky-rocket into bankruptcy, and the years of socialism they said yes to bring the greatest economy and country on earth to the brink—and we’ll be lucky to survive.  The process is already starting, but their years of spineless conviction will come raining upon their lives when Obamacare takes full hold in their families and the next decade will be shoveling ourselves out of the mess.  I’ve spent roughly 2 million words warning people how to avoid this fate, but it’s now too late, so my direction is no longer focused on those of today—but those of tomorrow—the next generation who has to deal with all these mistakes.  Those young people are now aware of the failed society that has been given to them, and they aren’t happy about it.  This is the cause of the sudden rise of the libertarian movement on college campuses which appears to be as robust as the socialist movements that took place in the same colleges during the 1960s.  These modern libertarians are the antithesis to those collectivists of yester-year, who currently sit as approval editors for all television, magazines, and newspapers.  These libertarians are socially liberal but fiscally conservative, and they don’t like much of anything that is political—leaving machine politics in serious, serious trouble.  This was the topic of Matt Clark ‘s recent radio broadcast as he sat down with the president of the Young Americans for Liberty at the University of Michigan and talked about the libertarian movement, freedom, and his student group’s activism.

I am a social and fiscal conservative—so much so that I make Rush Limbaugh look like a bleeding heart liberal.  I have no tolerance for drugs or sexual promiscuity in the party scene.  Nothing good comes from those activities—but a lot of bad does.  So I do not like much about how this new generation of young people spend their time.  But as they learn in their colleges that much of what they are paying a lot of money to learn, and realize that the debt placed around their heads just in student loans is intentionally self-destructive, their fiscal conservatism is blooming.  At that point I find I have a lot in common with those libertarian millennials.  It is at this common bond that I intended to refocus my energy—toward them.

I will be there to explain to them that the health care industry used to be the best in the world, that the sustainable wages for liberal teaching at colleges was intentionally self-defeating.  I will remind them that light bulbs used to come on bright, and that global warming mysticisms taught to them in public and college institutions was created by second-handers to gain political power, and nothing more.  I will tell them about people like John Hutchinson who could give young people the kind of world they are playing in their video games, as opposed to the village hut mentality of the current political belt way of Washington who wants to shut down Hutchinson as a freak living on the fringe of society.

I will remind them of who lied to them, who cheated them, and how it came about—throwing many logs on the fire in the coming years till the world created by second-handers which we see today is up in flames—and their influence with it.  I don’t want those second-handers in my life, and the millennials don’t either—which is why they are turning toward libertarianism for relief, and a crack at a decent life away from the mistakes of their parents and grandparents who spent twenty years voting for stupid liberal school levies only to get programmed robots as children wanting nothing to do with Republicans or Democrats now that they are of voting age.

Out of the thousands of articles I have written the two that are still the most popular are Successful People Who Did Not Go to College, and Giants in Ohio.  Those can both be seen on my sidebar to the right.  They are consistently among my top viewed articles day in and day out as they are circulated around Facebook to young people contemplating paying for another semester of socialist programming from their college, or the science that those institutions have deliberately lied to them about, which has been exposed on popular History Channel episodes like Ancient Aliens.  Behind those articles is the one I did about Malden Island and the giant statues of Easter Island.  Each article acts like a log on a fire that these young libertarians come to learning that they suspected something wasn’t quite right, and my words confirm it for them—causing them to take action.

One thing that is sure is that the world of Karl Rove, Mitt Romney and even Hillary Clinton won’t cut it.  We are not living in the 60s anymore and the Beatles are no longer popular.  The entertainment of these millennials is angry—rightfully so, and their indignant nature is a rising tide of a movement that traditional politics will not be able to hold back.  Republicans could go a long way to capturing some of that momentum if they put their effort behind Rand Paul during the next election, but they won’t do that, because most of them are second-handers, and the betting money is to put another out-of-touch New Englander like Chris Christie up for nomination, or even the very safe bet of Jeb Bush.  In so doing, Republicans will only solidify the commitment from young people to get behind a third-party candidate—as those types of people do not represent their concerns.

Democrats are trying to appeal to these millennials by giving them free stuff, but the illusion is not lost on the young libertarians.  They know that Obamacare needs their money and support to care for the elderly and sick with a massive wealth-redistribution scam rooted in socialism—and even if they did want to play the game out of empathy, they can’t because premiums are way too high because of the government created oligopoly.  By the time millennials pay their Social Security that they’ll never collect, their other taxes for 1960s War on Poverty programs which haven’t worked, and pay their student loan payments for their useless college degrees giving them no job making  over 35K per year unless they work for government somewhere—there isn’t any money for Obamacare after they pay for their cell phone bills, their cable, their online game subscriptions, and their tendency to eat out all the time because the entire generation has forgotten how to cook.

The second-handers in government have purposely avoided this topic because they don’t have an answer for it.  But I will be sure to recite the memory of all these faux pas for these young libertarians looking for a direction to vent their anger.  I fully intend to be there to point the way directing their angry mobs, and loose lips with nothing to lose from their actions.  And when those mobs arrive at the door of the current second-handers, they have good reason to be afraid.  The day of reckoning is coming down upon them and there is no way to stop it now.  They didn’t listen in the past, and will now have to pay a heavy price—and it won’t be my fault or the rising tide of libertarians pissed off at politics as usual.  They will be the first generation to get openly screwed over by all these stupid policies done in America against the Constitution, and their compliance is just not in the cards.  They have nothing to lose, and that makes them dangerous—and I intend to put my skills to work on their behalf.

Rich Hoffman

 www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

 

Those Loaded With Guns and Those Who Dig: Naming the second-handers

Since I was about 19 I have kept volumes and volumes of notes about my observations regarding life as it truly is.  I have done that for over 25 years now and the process has migrated from little notebooks that family members would buy my for Christmas and birthdays, to loose-leaf notebook paper in binders written upon front and back and down across the margins haphazardly in some situations to complete a thought without having to turn the paper over.  That process has evolved of course into what I share daily here at Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom.  Of course to outsiders—people who do not know me, they continue to be baffled as to why I do all this.  After the Lakota election many of the unionized workers happy to have been given a tax increase by the community sent me a barrage of comments letting me know that all my work over the last three years has been fruitless—since they won the money anyway. This is because of their small mindedness that they think this way, and points to a resolution which will be concluded at the climax of this article.  A written body of work such as what I publish here may only have a 1% chance of changing an election.  That falls within the margin of victory for a candidate like Mark Welsh and Cathy Stoker in West Chester, or the Lakota levy which was a few hundred votes short out of thousands going up against an energized group of levy addicts.  The number goes up to perhaps 5% if the media type is popular and well-received such as The National Enquirer, People Magazine, or some other populous enterprise.  On the night of the election, Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom saw 2000 hits that evening above the daily normal of 400 to 500.  The spike was because the normally placid intellectual thinkers wanted somebody to tell them how to vote—so they looked to my blog to help them make a decision.  In an election that had about 26,000 votes cast, my blog probably changed the vote of about 300 people, most of the rest of that 2000 were from the other side nervous about their results and wondering what I was saying.

My entire adult life I have yearned to observe, think, and to write these things down in the solitude of my own mind.  Most of the notes I made over the years repeat themselves over and over again—or they lack proper conclusions.  This is because I was working things out.  By the time I started this blog, I had most of the answers to everything in life—because I had spent a quarter century getting those answers.  My personal education could not come from orthodox sources but came from a mind on fire not looking for a way to douse the flames, but to throw more logs on to make it roar.  During my orthodox education, which was as extensive as anyone’s, I noticed and wrote about as a young twenty year old, that education institutions seemed more intent to put out the fire of my mind, than to feed it, so I rebelled against that notion with a fury.  Even back then while most people my age were focused on getting drunk and “partying” I was sitting late at night at Waffle Houses and Perkins restaurants with my notebooks open writing till four and five in the morning.

My Cliffhanger character from my novel The Symposium of Justice was autobiographical, just for the record.  The character I created for Tail of the Dragon was a version of that which had accepted a degree of submission in his life until he reached a breaking point.  Cliffhanger never reached a point like that—which many publishers and book review professionals have told me is “unrelateable” to the general public.  Cliffhanger is intellectually unreachable for most people, and I know that—I know why, how, and for how long and I’m OK with it—because it’s autobiographical.  I wrote Tail of the Dragon to show that I could come off my personal mountain and speak the language of everyone else, but even then, Fletcher Finnegan was beyond the reach of most.  Not because he wasn’t a compelling character full of motivation, but it’s what drives that motivation that begins the difficulty.

If over the last year you invited me for a drink and I went, I must really, really like you—and for the record one person asked me about 6 times and I did go twice—and they know who they are.   I struggle to find time to be with all the people who want some of my attention.  I simply can’t do it—I don’t have the time.  I reflected at my mother’s Thanksgiving Day meal that they only live about 2 miles from my home, yet I only saw them 3 times the entire duration of 2013.  The reason is not that I don’t care about them, but they are on a different set of tracks that don’t intersect with mine very often.  Typically, I read, write, and think for 19-20 hours per day, every day.  Thinking is my hobby, and is as important to me as breathing.  Climates where people are busy trying to forget are not conducive to the thinking I enjoy doing, so I turn down social invitations nearly 95% of the time.  Out of all the invites, I give in one or two times a year just to show people who I respect their friendships—but at home are my stacks and stacks of books, notes and a view of the woods that is the focus of much contemplation—and there’s no place else that I’d rather be.

One of my favorite all time movies is The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, and in that film Clint Eastwood says, “In this world there are two kinds of people my friend, those with loaded guns, and those who dig—you dig.”  There is a truth to that statement that extends to a logic bedded deep in our human hearts and minds—it permeates time and space through many cultural manifestations and made that movie not just a good one—but a great one.  But why, and how—it was a question that started me on this quest beginning at age 19.  Instead of learning to shoot like Clint Eastwood did in that film, the quest became an intellectual one leading to hours and hours of solitary confinement—hours of practicing bullwhips in my back yard putting out candles with a crack, and thinking about why some men have guns while others are always carrying shovels.  In that answer was the solution as to why communism will never work, why economies rise and fall, and why some people are smart while others are stupid.

My purpose for writing this blog is not for those who carry shovels and dig—the media types who do what their editors tell them to, or to the public education employees who have had their intellectual curiosity extinguished in exchange for a stolen pay check paid for by tax payers.  I don’t write it for the typical Entertainment Tonight viewer who is only concerned about gossip and nonsense.  I don’t even write it to win elections—although I often have my hopes and endorse candidates and ideals occasionally.  I share my notes with the general public now instead of scattered notes written down everywhere just to capture thoughts as I think them—because I am intellectually reloading the guns of those who have them—metaphorically speaking.  I know who reads here, and most of them are leaders in powerful places who shape policy.  Some of them are Supreme Court members—you know who you are, they are powerful national politicians, they are local politicians they are leaders of political activism, they run business, they run media and all of them are shackled by their social roles to express the things I do, which they also feel.  What they all share in common is that they tend to be leaders—not followers—they carry guns, not shovels.

Clint Eastwood’s line in that famous movie is another way of articulating Pirsig’s train theory—there are some people who are on the cutting edge, and some who are content to remain in the caboose.  CLICK HERE TO REVIEW.  But to say things another way—a more appropriate way is to say that some people are meant to be leaders and are others second-handers leading democracies to always fail as a stable form of government always slipping into an abyss of collectivism if allowed to evolve on their own.  My character of Cliffhanger from The Symposium of Justice is named as such because he is always on the cutting edge, he is at the front of Pirsig’s train.  He pulls society along—they feed off him and his strength.  The conflict occurs when they (society) wish to believe that they guide the train, which they do not.  They are only passengers—or otherwise “second-handers” the way Ayn Rand defined them in her 1943 novel The Fountainhead.  “Whether explicitly or otherwise, the independent man grasps the distinction between the metaphysical and the man-made.  Conformity to the metaphysically given, he understands, is essential to successful action; the man-made may be accepted only if and when it achieves or flows from such conformity.  This kind of individual fulfills the basic requirement of human survival: he knows how–by reference to what absolute—to form his ideas and choose his actions. 

“To the second-hander, by contrast, the man-made—whether rational or irrational, true or false, good or evil—becomes the equivalent of realty.  This kind of individual, having detached himself from the realm of existence, has no standard by which to judge others; he has no way to know whose ideas to follow, whose behavior to copy, whose favor to curry.  Such a person reduces himself to helplessness, the fundamental helplessness of having left his life to the mercy of blind chance.  The result is most people’s desperate need for an authority, religious or secular, who will take over their lives, make their value-judgments, and tell them what to do.  The independent man will refuse any such role, but the worst second-hander of all, the power luster is eager to accept it.  Thereafter, he destroys everyone, including himself.  In other words, people at the back of Pirsig’s train are second-handers and unfit to make leadership decisions because the point of decision-making is at the front of the train where the leaders reside.  And society does not have an abundance of leaders at the front to make decisions.  We do not produce enough of them—and this is a major problem.  The second-hander is the person who spends their lives digging under the threat of those with metaphorical guns.

Barack Obama is a second-hander because he is clearly in the back of the decision-making train and always has been.  His power comes second-hand, through lies, manipulation, coercion and political help.  By the time the train passes a spot of decision-making, it has passed a point where Obama could ever make a correct decision.  Lakota schools and the employees of the last tax increase are second-handers in that they believe that what they instruct in the back of the train can influence the direction of society.  But it is impossible because they are at the back well behind the point of decision-making and can only react to the fate of the train on the track wherever it may go.  Most of the media are second-handers because they build their lives around people like Barack Obama, or public schools like Lakota—so they lack any real authority to report how decisions should be made, they can only report what they observe as the train moves down the tracks unable to lead society in any proper direction.  No amount of study can change this nature—no doctorate degree, no level of government sanctioned authority can change these metaphysical laws, they are what they are.  When society holds elections in a democracy, the ballots are cast at the back of the train, not the front—the perception of the elections are shaped entirely by second-handers.  Leaders are not miraculously produced as a result—which is why people are nearly always disappointed by-election results, even if their candidate wins.

What I write here and share as my personal notes in blog form are intended for the type of people who wish to be at the front of the train, and that is typically who reads most often and diligently.  Decisions are made at this point, not in the democracy at the back where those with shovels “dig.”  Those with guns and not afraid to use them have to know where to shoot, and at what—so they must be at the front of the train where they can see.  Everyone else digs in the back letting others make decisions for their lives because they fear the responsibility to do it on their own.

I have never had any desire to be at the back of the train—never one day in my entire life.  I’ve went back there a few times just to see what all the fuss is about only to return to the front out of sheer disgust.  When people provide invites to socialize—those events are always in the back of the train and while there, I cannot see what’s coming down the tracks—and I don’t enjoy that position.  I like to be not just on the front of the train, but hanging over the edge of the front watching the moving tracks rolling by underneath.  I like to be at the furthest point forward that is humanly possible and it doesn’t come from conversations with second-handers.  I do not write these millions upon millions of words to get rich off of appealing to the masses—the second-handers.  The intent is to share my notes with the leaders-the people inclined to sit at the front and make decisions well before anyone else is aware that a decision needs to be made.  Like Clint Eastwood said about guns and digging—the proper way to explain the same metaphor is to state that there are two kinds of people, those who sit at the front of the train and are leaders, and those who simply ride that train, the second-handers.  In a society it takes both to make things work, but it is important to understand that democracy does not work—a society cannot survive if it is run by second-handers.  It must be run by leaders—and this is the point of my many words, notes and future articles.  Second-handers will call these words rants, they will call them “attention grabbers,” they will call them “politically threatening” but they will all be wrong.  They are simply revealing their motives for doing things second-handed, and cannot understand life at the front of the train.  Their opinions do not matter because by the time they make a decision the ability to change directions has already passed—so all their statements constitute noise and nothing more.  I am not concerned about their noise.  I am concerned with what’s coming down the tracks and conversing with those who crave the front of the train away from the second-handers at the back.

With that in mind, I think it is time to start talking more about what’s coming down the tracks instead of all the stupid decisions that weren’t made at important junctures because second-handers through democratic authority gained the ability to lead—to their own peril and many others.  In the future, this will be the direction taken at Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom.  We know now how we arrived at where we are.  We know who made the dumb decisions and why.  Now we have to distinguish ourselves from them and divide the train up properly into who has the guns and who has the shovels—or more philosophically proper—who has leadership and who are the second-handers.  It is time to let the second-handers know what they are and to shove them out-of-the-way so that we can right our train back on the correct track and get moving in the proper direction.  And that job requires an understanding of what’s coming—which is the summation of my twenty-five years of notes which has given me a map of where we need to go.  So it’s time to use it.  I do not care about the squawks of the second-handers, their protests, their opinions, their cries for help, or their desire for comfort.  Nothing they say will help—it’s just noise in the background as the train barrels down the tracks.  I don’t even care to sell them souvenirs on the journey because that requires interaction with them, and I can’t stand these days to do even that.  Leadership is all that matters and seeing what’s coming before we get to a point of being beyond where decisions no longer matter.   That is where all the notes, the reading, and writing are intended to go, and where my focus will reside.  If it makes the second-handers angry, so be it.  Instead of calling them all the names which is the result of their social position, like Marxists, socialists, progressives, communists, school teachers—etc, I think it’s time to let them know their true place on the train—and the proper name of their kind.  As Clint Eastwood said, there are those with guns and those who dig.  Rich Hoffman says, “there are those who are “cliffhanger’s” hanging over the front of the train on its perilous journey, and those who are second-handers who sit in the back and are victims to wherever the train goes.”  My effort goes to those at the front of the train—as those in the back are only capable of observing the world as it goes by.

Rich Hoffman

 www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

 

The Chimera of American Courts: Erne Tertelgte’s epic standoff

If anyone were to wonder what the Founding Fathers would think of America today, people might have had a glimpse when Ernie Tertelgte, age 52, represented himself in court against misdemeanor charges of obstructing a peace officer and resisting arrest relating to an Aug. 31 incident where he was cited for fishing without a license, according to KBZK. He argued that “universal law” allows him to hunt for food to feed himself.

Tertelgte then proceeded to continue talking and was asked again to remain silent as a dumb founded judge sat helplessly in her chair bewildered as to how to proceed.  The court room employees who process daily dozens of cases and over the course of a year, thousands—purely for the revenue that is brought to the courts through guilty pleas was uncertain how to proceed against Tertelgte’s statements which were as close to what might have been heard from 1776 to 1791 in America as anyone living today could hope to encounter.

“I cannot ma’am in honor of the Constitution of the United States,” he said. “I can’t allow a man who carries British recognition for the purposes of British ministerial law to continue to persecute me.”

“I cannot ma’am,” Tertelgte continued. “I have to honor the founder’s ma’am. I honor the memory of those who fought and died that we can be free of this type of thing.”

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/11/24/i-am-the-living-man-protected-by-natural-law-you-are-probably-going-to-want-to-watch-this-epic-court-testimony/

There were of course snickers from those who have become used to blind compliance at Tertelgte’s naiveté.  After all the Montana man was failing to recognize over 200 years of progressive legal manipulation, feel good policies, and the minds of many academic scholars who have added their own words to The United States Constitution over the years—the case law from many attorneys, the decisions of Supreme Courts, and the stump speeches and laws created by many Presidents.  Tertelgte simply wanted to be left alone to fish, but even the remote state of Montana had imposed itself into the basic food gathering activity demanding that those who wished to participate pay them a fee.  Most Americans have been broken like a beaten horse to do as they are told, to speak when they are told to speak, and to think what they are told to think—so Tertelgte’s words seem alien to them, spoken from a different time by a different people.

The argument that Tertelgte cited in court is essentially the same type of thing that the plot to my 2012 novel Tail of the Dragon was all about—a rural personality colliding with the statists of a court room and refusing to acknowledge their power over individuals.  That novel was based on my personal experiences in court which were so numerous that they nearly number the stars in the sky on a cold cloudless winter night.  Starting at about the age of 25, I stopped hiring lawyers and just did the job myself which really angered judges—because they expect their victims to pay the proper lawyer fees and to respect the game they are playing.  But when lives and fortunes are at stake, it is foolish to leave freedom to chance letting some snot-nosed lawyer who golf’s with the judge a few times a year to throw you to the wolves with politeness—or some invisible courtroom etiquette that is made up of legal tradition vacant of respect for individual rights. 

To the 30-year-old millennial who spent the night before the recent Thanksgiving thinking about their drunken college days in intoxicated bliss, but proudly displaying their teaching certificate from those days on a wall at their home, or a law degree over their office desk, the words of Ernie Tertelgte might as well have come from E.T. The Extraterrestrial.  Tertelgte is a dinosaur from another time and another place—a Constitutional purist that naively failed to give the modern minds of statism the time of day.  Those same millennial’s drinking heavily on the Thanksgiving’s Holiday watching YouTube clips of Tertelgte on their iPhones with upturned pinkies and giggling tirades lack a mind to even understand that it was Tertelgte who was right and they who were on the path to extinction.  As remote and distant as Ernie Tertelgte might seem to the modern human being, it is Tertelgte’s position which is sustainable, not the modern statist who accepts the fines of the court blindly without question and the authority of a judge to rule over their lives with an ignorance bred in Europe.

Tertelgte was right when he stated that the American court system was British ministerial law.  In the years after the formation of the Constitution—beyond 1791, the American people a little homesick from mother Europe bounced back into the mentality of their former rulers.  They did this by default—because freedom is hard, and requires people to be self-reliant.  Freedom requires gumption, and intelligence—aspects of modern life that are grossly missing.  Governments through their control of the school systems, the national park system, taxes, regulation, and virtually every facet of modern life have taught people not to think—to just turn up their pinkies around a beer glass and chug—then make fun of people like Ernie Tertelgte so to discourage others from following his example.

Europe and its policies of kingdoms, statism, princes, princesses, peasants and all the hierarchies of obedience was rejected in America for a brief time in human history, and The American Constitution captured that philosophy in a bottle to preserve for all time.  It didn’t take long for European loving lawyers, judges, and homesick settlers who knew of nothing else to snap back into the mentality of their homeland, and attempt to reshape the Constitution into a document that reminded them of home through case-law.  That is what the judge sitting helplessly upon her throne facing down Ernie Tertelgte in her court room—paid for by the subjects of her little kingdom–was measuring the bearded man in the tri-cornered hat against.  She wasn’t judging him by the American Constitution, but against 200 years of progressive erosion of that same document.  Tertelgte simply rejected that progressive erosion and insisted on the original interpretation of the American Constitution.

Of course Tertelgte was found guilty and fined $150, which he responded, “you are trying to create a fictitious, fraudulent action, I am the living man, protected by natural law.”  He then yelled, “Do not tell me to shut up! I am the living, natural man, and my voice will be heard!”   The only thing that Tertelgte said in all his utterances that was wrong was that the judge had already played her part in creating that fictitious and fraudulent action—and for many years had done the same to thousands of others.  Thousands of other judges just like her had done the same to millions, and millions of other people over the course of their lifetimes.  Out of all those people only Tertelgte and a handful of others have taken the time to challenge that fictitiousness with solid fact based on the actual Constitution.  The fiction is the judge and all the years of case-law generated through years of many people believing that through consensus belief trumps the original law of the American Constitution.   Then those illusionists insist that the participants of the legal system also take part in that chimera because the laws of democracy demand that majority will rules, and so long as the majority wishes to participate in a fiction, then that fiction becomes their reality.  Under that mentality people like Erne Tertelgte are the ones accused of not having his feet in reality, and are snickered at for not having a realistic understanding of modern law and its protocols.  But in actuality, the only one living by the Constitution is Tertelgte with a bold authenticity that deserves respect—even if it did cost him $150 bucks of stolen money from the court to justify their jobs for the entertainment of an epic American fiction called the court system.

Rich Hoffman

 www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

 

Cindy Carpenter and Mrs. Hyde: Butler County RINOs and deceitful politics

In the recording below from 700 WLW Bill Cunningham found himself in the middle of Butler County Republican politics when Commissioner Cindy Carpenter was engaged in yet another debacle on his show.  Cunningham joked to Cindy who was on the radio to defend accusations and possible indictments against her–that Butler County does not have any Democrats so Republicans have taken to fighting each other as Carpenter was at odds with the county prosecutor.  I think it was lost to Cunningham that what he said was actually quite wrong.  A lot, (too many) politicians in Butler County like Commissioner Don Dixon are former Democrats just like Cunningham used to be—they are the epitome of the whole RINO accusation—“Republican In Name Only.”  Dixon used to lead the Democrats in Butler County in the 90’s and only changed parties when he realized that it would be easier to win elections if he called himself a Republican.  During the last trustee race in the very conservative West Chester Township, Cathy Stoker was a Democrat but she didn’t dare put that information on her campaign literature.  Instead she put “fiscal conservative,” so to give the impression that she was a conservative.  Her running mate, Lee Wong—who is a functional socialist literally called himself a Republican—complete with the little elephant on his yard signs.  Later during the Cunningham broadcast with Commissioner Carpenter their mutual friend Sheriff Jones came on and essentially called Carpenter a liar.  Jones thinks of himself as a Republican, yet he supports labor unions and votes for school levies.  His social behavior is quite liberal, yet he is considered a staunch Republican, just like his friend the radio host Cunningham.  A lot of these people put on the mask of conservativism to win audience approval, but they legislate like bleeding heart liberals and are directly responsible for spreading the expansion of government.  Because most of the world sees and hears these kinds of people as the faces of Republicanism, real conservatives who live as traditional Americans, and are actually philosophically conservative seem as though they are extremists.  Meanwhile, these mask wearing conservatives get themselves involved in so many different aspects of politics that they lose track of what they said to whom and when they said it.  This is apparently what has happened to Cindy Carpenter who came on the Bill Cunningham Show to dispel the perception of her political blunders.  At the end of the broadcast she was dismissed by her Republican buddy and political fundraiser Sheriff Jones who sided with the prosecutor over the controversial incident.  CLICK TO REVIEW.

Many of the problems that Cindy has had during her tenure as Commissioner has been her tendency to abuse her office for little things like free baby sitting services and intimidating others with a lot of yelling and screaming.  I might be inclined to admire Cindy’s combativeness if she didn’t have elements of big government expansion about her—which comes out in conversations like what she had on 700 WLW.  She was quick to point out in her interview that she was a conservative, as though she needed to explain her actions to confirm it.  However, the troubling aspect of her discussion is that she declared Sheriff Jones had told her he’d back her over her confrontation with the Butler Country Prosecutor, which was the theme of her latest trouble.

This is the direct result of politicians who are not philosophically aligned by conservative beliefs and instead use the Republican Party as a platform to work as career politicians.  When these politicians have to fake being conservatives to get elected in a conservative area, they are often caught in contradictions like what Cindy has found herself in.  I believe she has convinced herself that she’s a Republican in the same way that John McCain or Chris Christie believes they are hard-core conservatives—yet deep down inside they are bleeding heart liberals who believe that government should intrude on people’s lives—and interfere with justice based on their interpretation of a moral code—which is established by the same type of politicians.  

This behavior from Cindy is not new; it has gone on for a long time and seems to be part of the way she operates.  Former Commissioner Chuck Furman addressed his concerns regarding Cindy Carpenter’s temper tantrums and emotional tirades in the Commissioner’s office not that long ago.  If I were in Cindy’s position, it is likely that many people would be intimidated and frightened also and often, so I don’t begrudge her of that.  I understand dropping the “F” bomb in meetings and harassing people who are standing in the way of justice—but whose justice?  That is the million dollar question.  As a conservative, I know where the line is, but for someone who is a wanna-be conservative– a RINO—their opinions are likely shaped by liberal politics dressed behind a conservative mask—and that is not OK.

Below is a letter from Commissioner Furman to Carpenter which reflects accurately the current trouble that Cindy is having—yet this letter is over a year and a half old as of this writing.  It shows a pattern of behavior that is quite destructive.  Cindy’s response to the letter can be seen by clicking on the hot link attached to the letter.

June 5, 2012

To: Cindy Carpenter, Commissioner

Butler County, Ohio

This is a difficult letter to write but I think it has become necessary. I am speaking in regard to the hostile environment you continue to create in the commissioner’s office.

It has, again, been brought to my attention that you have denigrated and yelled, this time using profanity; stating that you were a “F—ing” commissioner when addressing a member of the commissioner’s staff. Tuesday, May 29, 2012, your very loud and angry unprofessional rant while addressing a staff member was clearly heard by many other staff members throughout offices on the 6th floor, as well as anyone in the elevator frequented by the public.

Your tirades and tantrums are becoming the norm rather than the exception. You seem to be driven to continually create a hostile work environment.

I have repeatedly stated, that in my opinion, the commissioner’s staff are all hard working professionals. Those who work together in an office should be able to expect at least a satisfactory level of respect. Our staff does not deserve your hostile behavior. Day after day they live with the threat of your outbursts. There is no way one can justify yelling and using profanity to address staff.

Your verbal assaults as well as your threats of physical assaults have gone on much too long. The staff of the commissioner’s office work for all three commissioners and I, for one, do not wish to seemly condone that kind of behavior directed toward them. While, unfortunately, I do not have any means to control your behavior I refuse to continue to sit silently without commenting about your abusive and irrational behavior. If a county supervisory staff member spoke to anyone under their command the way you have been known to do it could, and should, be cause for their dismissal.

Unfortunately, I have no remedy for this situation, but I refuse to be silent about it.

From: Chuck Furmon, Commissioner

Butler County, Ohio

CC: Don Dixon, Butler County Commissioner

Mike Campbell, Butler County Administrator

Cindy’s response to Furman was similar to what was heard on Cunningham’s show.  She presented a logical explanation for everything which sounded good and makes you want to shake your head in acknowledgment—but something isn’t quite right about it.  Someone isn’t telling the truth……….either Furman wasn’t being truthful or Carpenter wasn’t.  I know Chuck a bit, and I doubt it’s him.  Cindy I wasn’t so sure about, although the time or two that I met her she seemed like a nice stable person.  She certainly didn’t seem like such a Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde personality which has persistently followed her antics as an elected representative since 2010.

Yet during the Cunningham interview the Mr. Hyde personality was exposed toward the end.  Sheriff Jones is too politically astute to lie on 50,000 watts of AM radio to hundreds of thousands of people all over Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky.  Sheriff Jones might be walking the line between Republicans and Democrats with the skill of a circus act, but he’s not a liar.  So that leaves Carpenter rather exposed in an uncomfortable way that deserves consideration.

I admire about Cindy her fight, her drive, and her pursuit of justice.  Yet, her beliefs are way too liberal for me—she is a big government mind pretending to be a conservative.  She is at best a moderate Republican and if Butler County were a different kind of place where liberal politics were tolerated, I suspect she would be a Democrat similar to the kind of man Todd Portune is in Hamilton County.  I have a history with Todd as well, and I know his politics well—and Cindy is far closer to someone like him ideologically than she is a Republican like T.C. Rogers, the commissioner who took Chuck Furman’s seat during the 2012 election. Many believe that Butler County has three conservative Republican commissioners, but really they have only one in T.C.  Don Dixon is a former head of the Democratic Party and is Republican in name only.  He is a RINO without question.  And not far to the right of the political spectrum of Don is Cindy Carpenter.  Under a real tally of values Butler County is currently being led by two Democrats and one Republican—which is a deception that is not forgivable.

When people live their lives around lies, they force themselves to become a schizophrenic type of personality—a Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in real life.  Cindy’s three year history shows that to the public she can display Doctor Jekyll—who is mild-mannered and articulate personality that is Republican.  But in the halls of the commissioner’s office screaming at people for strange reasons, forcing security to baby sit her kids while she attends meetings, and running around playing a bleeding heart liberal as a social service worker using the power of her office to impose her will—she shows the Mr. Hyde—and that person is a Democrat. It’s often not easy to see until provoked, but eventually the monster comes out and shows itself—and that’s what happened during the interview Carpenter gave to Bill Cunningham.

I don’t mind if people stand by what they are and believe what they believe.  I admire it in fact, and I will fight for those people to maintain that right.  I believe in the marketplace of ideals fighting it out for the betterment of everyone.  But that process doesn’t work if people hide what they really are and attempt to pull a blanket of deception over the actual monsters that drive them as people.  For that reason alone I won’t support Cindy Carpenter in the next election—because it is obvious she has not been completely honest about what she is, and what she believes.  Politicians who are RINO’s because they know they cannot be elected into office any other way are worse than Democrats because they are attempting to deceive the public at the very start of their public service—and that makes them unqualified of an office of any kind—and untrustworthy of tax payer dollars.

Rich Hoffman

 www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

 

Even Losing The Bucs Are The Best: What is really behind team sports

I’m still on the fence about professional football; my interest in it has declined greatly over the last several years because of how it facilitates collectivism, and education institutions supported by left-winged radicals.  Football is a fun game that is cool, yet serves as a cover for the content being taught in these institutions, and the general collectivism exhibited by them.  For instance, a graduate of Ohio State University generally says “we” when referring to the school they attended—and they do this in the same way that people say “we” when referring to their favorite sports team.  “We scored a touchdown in the third quarter,” or “we lost a close game,” are just a few examples, and the behavior is learned in the education institutions.  Because of its “coolness” football serves as cover for all the bad things happening in the class rooms being taught by liberal leaning educators.  Society accepts the bad so that they can have the good, the entertainment of high school football under the Friday night lights, or a Saturday NCAA game between Ohio State and Michigan, or the fabulous Sunday afternoon football of the professionals—who are all the best and brightest of the college and high school players.

To compound matters, my favorite team the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have had a bad year—a new coach learning his way around the NFL has struggled to find his niche as he pushes out the last remnants of the Raheem Morris era—targeting specifically Josh Freeman—the starting quarterback.  So there hasn’t been much to cheer for on my end, however, as I’ve stated emphatically on several occasions I would be a fan of the Buccaneers if they never won another game—because I support the ownership—not specific players and coaches.  I support the culture that the Glazer family attempts to create around their Tampa football franchise, and admire the grit of their ownership.

This grit was on full display during Monday Night Football against the embittered Miami Dolphins on the night Warren Sapp’s jersey was retired at half time.  Sapp was drafted by my favorite coach of all time, Sam Wyche who also drafted John Lynch and Derrick Brooks—three guys who could have only found themselves brought to the same place at the same time by someone like Wyche.  Since that period of time, Tampa has tried to duplicate that chemistry again, and have relentlessly tried various options trying to find that same intense spark.  They have had some small fires, but no explosions they way they did in 2002 when they finally won a Superbowl by the team that Wyche built-in 1995.  Wyche was at the front of Pirsig’s train.  Up until that Monday Night game the Bucs had lost all their games, most of them by narrow margins, but a loss is a loss and they were looking for their first.  They played with a passion that was entertaining, and admirable and reminded me why I have always loved that team—they have a never say die attitude which I find enchanting—even when they lose.  That mentality comes from the ownership.

I would rather be a fan of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who lose every game they play so long as they played like they did on Monday Night Football the night that Warren Sapp’s number was retired.  If they lose, it’s OK with me so long as they take off their rivals head while doing it.  That is why I like the Bucs—and always have.  It will continue as long as the Glazers keep the spirit of that team with a philosophy which embodies that behavior.

Maybe it was something Sapp said to Greg Schiano the head coach of the Bucs prior to the game when the two had dinner, but on the following Sunday Tampa beat the crap out of the Atlanta Falcons with an effort that looked Superbowl worthy.  Football is that kind of game; it’s a game of capitalism that has many socialist tendencies looting off it for their own survival.  I love the capitalist elements of football, but I despise the socialism.  And of all the football teams in the world the only one I actually enjoy with any sense of loyalty is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

But I never say “we” when referencing the Bucs………….it’s always “they.”  They do the work, they do the hitting, they take the chances, and they win or lose the games.  I do not share in that activity with them.  I simply enjoy watching them try.  And that is the biggest difference between how I see football, and most everyone else.  For those others, they have an unhealthy relationship with football that opens their minds to statism coming through their education institutions that cause them to say “we” when dealing with the actions of others.  When the word “we” comes into play, football is a bad thing—because it allows those who do not actually contribute to the victory to believe that they helped win a game—and that is socialism.

When the beer belly father cheers on the kids of a high school football team, generally such onlookers are reliving the days that have passed them by—with their advanced ages they can no longer run, jump and leap through the air—so they cheer on the young little saplings with great enthusiasm and say “we” because that is the only way they can touch such memories—is through others.  When the middle-aged guy makes a bet over a college football game with his cubical all decked out with paraphernalia of his alumnus and declares that “we” will bet “you,” he is living his life through the college students of that college team with a dangerous form of collectivism.  His most glorious days are now behind him and only the college football team can recapture them for him.  Or when there are drunken fights at a professional game over whose team wins or loses, the participants are really fighting over the lack of control the team outcome has reminded them really occurs in their actual lives.  So the reminder is something to fight over—to suppress the knowledge that all their cheering and prayers had no bearing on the outcome.  I don’t watch the Tampa Bay Bucs for any of these reasons.  I watch it for the warfare displayed on the game field; I watch it for the capitalist gains of better players suppressing those at a tactical disadvantage.  I watch it for the hard hits, the strategy, and the passion of winning—or trying to.  I watch it for the spectacle……..purely.  In that regard, Tampa could lose the rest of its games for the next 10 years and I would still be a fan so long as they played the way they did on Monday Night Football on a November evening when Sapp was memorialized and the Bucs won their first game of 2013.  If it were the last, it would be fine with me, because my love of them extends beyond any tentacles of collectivism, but the joy of living, bleeding, fighting and surviving to fight another day and wrestle from an opponent a hard-fought victory that is as elusive as a purple moon in a sun blazed sky.

Rich Hoffman

 www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

 

Joe Rehm Pleads Guilty To Stealing No Lakota Signs: Why the 2013 election results should be “recalled”

Just a bit of a recap on the election results at Lakota.  Although it is set for a recount, Butler County officials should scrutinize those ballots heavily, because it is now obvious that there were coordinated efforts to cheat on the election.  That is not the utterances of a sore loser, it is a statement of observed fact.  Just prior to the election I posted the pictures of a person who was caught stealing No Lakota Levy signs.  YOU CAN SEE HIM HERE.  Even though many people especially on the pro tax side believe this is a small issue, Michael Clark in The Cincinnati Enquirer made mention of it saying in his reporting that No Lakota Levy had noticeably less signs out than the pro side.  Subconsciously, this lets readers know that No Lakota Levy is not making a strong political showing, which wasn’t the case.  The direct result, the reason No Lakota Levy spent so much on signs, ads in the newspaper and etc., was to show voters that it was worth their time to vote against the levy.  However, pro tax supporters because they didn’t have an answer to the No Lakota Levy message had to let voters know that it was pointless to resist, so they sought to sabotage the message.  In a close election, such as the situation at Lakota where the public school won a tax increase by less than 1% it was voter turnout that made all the difference, and stealing the Lakota signs was a way of telling No Voters, to stay home.

Well, the guy in that picture was named Joe Rehm and on Wednesday November 13th, 2013 he was in Butler County court as part of the 10 AM cases.  At 12:20 PM Judge McDonough finally called Joe up to find out how he’d plead to the sign theft of No Lakota Levy signs, since he was captured on film and published red-handed here on Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom.    Joe didn’t look as smug as he did in the pictures showing him clearly stealing a No Lakota Levy sign while bragging about it on the phone.  My friend Graeme George spoke to the court against Joe saying to the Judge, “Because of the actions of Joe and others, so many signs of ours (No Lakota Levy) were stolen that we lost the defeat of the levy.

We lost by less than 1% of the votes cast.  Sign thefts made a lot more of a difference than that.

Therefore, people like Joe cost taxpayers 14 million dollars in a tax increases every year.”

Is it an inflated claim to suggest that the sign thefts cost the election of 2013?  Well, we’ll never know because the thefts were just as bad this year as they have been in the past.  No Lakota Levy spent thousands of dollars on signs knowing the importance of having a political presence.  No Lakota Levy didn’t have the benefit of sending home pro levy material directly to parents from the school, or using teachers to twist the mind of the children into stealing signs after football games on cold Friday nights, so No Lakota Levy had to play things straight, and expensive.  In court, Joe Rehm plead guilty but declared that the sign he stole wasn’t worth more than $2, but as we know he’s not the only one.  This upcoming Wednesday, one week later, three juveniles caught stealing signs in a similar way will go through the same process.  They’ll have to explain why they did it, and who put them up to it.  Of course they too will say that the signs were only a couple of dollars each, and they didn’t think it was a big deal.

Judge McDonough because Graeme pointed out the cost to taxpayers of the levy passage, really lambasted Joe for his wrongful actions.  It was a good show, but Joe was only fined $200 plus $40, and $125 court costs, for a total of $365. The judge did not impose the 60 day jail sentence.  Even less will be done to the three kids when they go through the same process.  They’ll be fined, the court will make its money, the election will still be won, the signs will still have been stolen, and the tax payers will still have to pay every year $14 million in new taxes to take care of a teacher’s union contract that wants even more money than they already make.  No Lakota Levy will not be reimbursed for their loses which was thousands of dollars, and they are still on the hook for paying the increases in taxes.

In previous attempts the media covered these sign thefts, which at least put the actions on the news letting people know what was happening.  This time, everyone stayed off the story, the credit to that goes to Randy at Lakota.  The signs simply disappeared keeping the anger from the imposition in the shadows away from unmotivated voters, which helped keep the No Vote turnout, low.  The tax payers were cheated in just about every aspect with the Lakota levy, Lakota used their internal resources of the school to promote the levy sending literature directly home to parents, they funneled money through their PTA groups to outspend No Lakota Levy by nearly 5 times, and they utilized a public relations employee paid for by the tax payers to keep the media focused away from sign theft, sex scandals, school shooting threats, but on the fact that Lakota hadn’t seen a tax increase since 2005………and as Sheriff Jones stated……….”it was time,” time for a tax increase as if there was an invisible watch that says such things without any rationale behind it.

For every Joe Rehm during the election there were likely dozens if not hundreds just like him who stole one sign at a time and called a teacher on the phone hoping to get a piece of ass off them for stealing a No Lakota Levy sign as a badge of honor.  Joe wasn’t even from Lakota but was “otherwise” engaged in the district.  One can only imagine the phone records pulled if Judge McDonough had chosen to pursue that evidence…………what Joe was saying……….”Hey baby, I stole a No Lakota Levy sign………….are you proud of me?  Will you suck my c**k now…………………..please……………..I’m a nice progressive beta man who thinks you work hard 7.5 hours a day.  Hey, I cleaned the passenger seat out of my stupid little hippie car and am ready to take you to Penera Bread for some overpriced soup.  With your low wages of $65K per year you teachers work so hard, and it’s just unfair.  Will you suck my c**k.  Hey, it’s for the kids, those poor little darlings.  This No Lakota Levy sign is stupid; I’m bringing it to your house to prove I did it.  You’ll be so proud of me.”  Looking at Joe talking on the phone and knowing he stole our signs and plead guilty to it, that’s what I think of—and his motives behind it.  It pisses me off because in the end, Lakota got their tax increase, Joe got off with a slap on the hand, just like the kids on Wednesday will, the media didn’t give a damn, and the bad guys won by exploiting children, manipulating the public, and cheating.

With all that said, I would care to guess that the teacher’s union stuffed at least 500 votes that would probably be cast away as illegal ballots if anyone cared to pursue justice in a close election.  But they won’t, because ultimately most people are on the phone with some special someone who works for the Lakota school system and they are asking that someone for the same kind of favor I imagine Joe was asking for when he stole the No Lakota Levy sign.  Everyone wants a favor, but nobody stands for what’s right at any level—which is why children are exploited, and tax payers are on the hook for $14 MILLION dollars a year every year likely forever.

Hope the sucking and whatever was worth it.

Rich Hoffman

 www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com