Tag: overmanwarrior

A Force For Change: The deep power of mythology to unleash human imagination and potential

My friends at Nostalgic Ink in Mason, Ohio promised that they would have a Tantive IV Blockade Runner for my upcoming game with X-Wing Miniatures—the popular new tabletop game featuring Star Wars dog fighting tactical strategy. I checked around lunch on Thursday the 22nd and the store sorrowfully told me that their truck had not yet arrived with their deliveries. But they informed me a few hours later that it had arrived, and I promptly drove my motorcycle back there to pick it up. They had it waiting for me behind the counter and for a $100 dollars, it might have been one of the most glorious things I can remember beholding my eyes upon. My next thought was how I was going to get that package home on my motorcycle—because it was so big. You can see it in the picture below.image

As much as I dislike progressive politics, a failed teaching system world-wide, socialism and all forms of statism my first love is not politics or even conservativism—but mythology. I am not a huge supporter of group behavior and love my independence, but there are a few groups I support, and one of the organizations I have the most reverence for is the Joseph Campbell Foundation. My love of mythology is my number one enjoyment without there being a close second. My love of the Star Wars Miniatures game, X-Wing has a deep history in the old X-Wing computer games I used to play with my nephews all hours of the day for entire weekends. Many times we had to run missions against those Corellian Corvettes and they were at times, very difficult—which is why I still remember them 15 years later. The wonderful people at Fantasy Flight Games have found a modern—low tech way of re-inventing the great mythological storytelling of that old video game with new gorgeously detailed models that really make modern mythology come alive in that game. That’s why I love Nostalgic Ink and many of the people who frequent those places. Likely they wouldn’t agree with me on my views on modern education, politics, drugs, and even traditional values—but they love the mythology evoked in many of the tabletop games sold in that palace of thought—giving us common ground.image

But Star Wars isn’t just about spaceships and fantasy as I have elaborated often. It is about modern mythology and the perpetuation of goodness and as I have stated—the filmmakers of the series and the people at Disney now behind it—wish very much to use mythology to be a force for good in the entire world. I have said it many times, there isn’t anything happening in the world right now that will eclipse the good work that will come from the Star Wars partnership with Disney. The first traces of this attempt at goodness through mythology can be seen in the J.J.Abrams message below while on the new Star Wars set for the seventh film. The video was posted on May 21st and by the time I picked up the Tantive IV at Nostalgic Ink it had seen nearly 2 million views within that 24 hour span on YouTube. There isn’t a government on earth or organization anywhere that has the kind of ability to reach so many people. Star Wars advocates itself to be a force for good by advocating a force for change. The change they are talking about in the video is not silly progressive politics for the sake of social alliances—but real, genuine change born from human innovation to benefit all of humanity with the gifts of creativity.

 

Star Wars: Force for Change wants to create a brighter tomorrow for thousands of kids and families around the world. With your help and creativity we can develop innovative solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges. By acting as a Force for Change, your contribution to support UNICEF’s Innovation Labs and other innovative work for children will fund dozens of life-changing projects like these in communities across the globe: • Portable, solar-powered learning kits being built-in China, Uganda, and Burundi to ensure underprivileged children in these countries have access to relevant, high-quality educational materials. • Mobile phone application developed in South Sudan and Uganda, and used in the Philippines, that helps reunite children with their families after an emergency. • A text messaging solution in Zambia that helps families receive infant medical test results from clinics, in half the time, through mobile phones. Join us! Help create a brighter tomorrow for thousands of kids and families. Be a force for change.

http://www.omaze.com/experiences/starwars-episode-viiimage

Immediately following that message Lucasfilm sent me this press release which did not surprise me at all. As much as I have raved about Gareth Edwards after his spectacular work directing the new Godzilla movie he was named as the new director of the first Star Wars standalone film—staring either Han Solo or Yoda—likely the later. This to me was tremendous news as I had been saying that Disney was positioning Star Wars to be more than just a huge money-maker for their company—but again, a force for good by using mythology to reach behind political ideologies to get the human race pointed in the right direction. The hiring of Edwards and his response to the alignment I think will have a major impact on the mythmaking experience and the results on a worldwide audience.

Gareth Edwards and Gary Whitta Onboard for Star Wars Stand-Alone Film

May 22, 2014

 

In addition to the episodes of a new Star Wars trilogy, Lucasfilm and Disney have begun development on multiple stand-alone movies that will offer new stories beyond the core Saga. Gareth Edwards will direct the first stand-alone film, with a screenplay by Gary Whitta. The film is due out December 16, 2016.

Gareth Edwards blazed into the filmmaking forefront with his acclaimed work on Monsters, a film he wrote, directed and served on as cinematographer and visual effects artist. The skill and vision readily apparent in Monsters earned him the high-profile spot directing this year’s smash hit Godzilla.

“Ever since I saw Star Wars I knew exactly what I wanted to do for the rest of my life — join the Rebel Alliance! I could not be more excited and honored to go on this mission with Lucasfilm,” said Edwards.

Gary Whitta’s screenwriting credits include 2010’s The Book of Eli starring Denzel Washington. He is also well-known as a journalist and editor in the video game industry, as well as part of the BAFTA award-winning team on Telltale Games adaptation of The Walking Dead.

Whitta states, “From the moment I first saw the original movie as a wide-eyed kid, Star Wars has been the single most profound inspiration to my imagination and to my career as a writer. It is deeply special to me, so to be given the opportunity to contribute to its ongoing legacy, especially in collaboration with a film-maker as talented as Gareth, is literally a dream come true. I’m still pinching myself.”

http://starwars.com/news/gareth-edwards-and-gary-whitta-onboard-for-star-wars-stand-alone-film.html

image

So there was a lot to be excited about this week, and especially over the last 24 hours. Through all the years that I have been a member of the Joseph Campbell Foundation, George Lucas—the creator of Star Wars—has been on the advisory board so that he could help guide teaching mythology to a new generation. People like me and Edwards are the obvious benefactors. Edwards makes a living from his education in mythology, where I use mine in real world application—both I would consider equally important. If there was ever a man who deeply cared about the direction of society in a positive way—in a way that Walt Disney did—it is George Lucas. Through his deep commitment to mythology he not only produced films like Star Wars which take story telling to powerful new places—but inspired through the Joseph Campbell Foundation to teach a new generation of filmmakers like Gareth Edwards and J.J. Abrams to take movies to places that Lucas and Steven Spielberg could only dream of. Even small little companies like Fantasy Flight Games in Minnesota are helping advance a mythology that literally touches every corner of the world with messages advocating goodness through their table top game X-Wing Miniatures. As for the Force for Change campaign mentioned by Abrams, that is something I can certainly support. I could care less about being in the new movie, but I do care deeply about the advancement of goodness throughout the world, and there isn’t any vehicle anywhere but Star Wars with Disney at its back that has the power to pull it off. It is for those reasons that the new Tantive IV by Fantasy Flight Games is one of the neatest things I have ever seen for the price of $100.

The Tantive is just a model, but it’s what it represents that matters. It is a force for change that leads to good—and that makes it wonderful and worth pursuing on the cusp of a wave that is hitting the world in very positive ways.

Rich Hoffman

www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

 

INTOLERABLE: How the TEA Party was started and why

It took me a few weeks to get around to it, but I finally had the opportunity to watch the new documentary by my old friend Doc Thompson featuring the origins and validation of the TEA Party movement which began during the Bush administration and exploded under President Obama. Now 14 years of deficit spending that is a train wreck in American history the TEA Party has risen as a direct response to the irresponsible nature of government. The documentary is very good and even better, it is free. Doc and his producer Skip LeCombe put a lot of effort into the enterprise and are offering it for mass viewing. They are asking for donations, but the heartfelt documentary can be seen in its entirety at the following link:

http://intolerable.us/

Or, you can see the movie right here:

Written and produced by Matt Roman, along with Doc Thompson and Skip LaCombe, Intolerable was released on Tuesday May 6th featuring original music and material marking the inaugural project of File 55 Productions. It was an ambitious effort that certainly caught the eye of Glenn Beck and was featured on his radio show.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/05/06/theblaze-radios-doc-and-skip-tell-the-true-story-of-the-tea-party-like-youve-never-seen-it-before/

http://www.glennbeck.com/2014/05/07/new-documentary-seeks-to-tell-the-truth-about-the-tea-party/

Glenn had been encouraging his audience to stop thinking and start acting when it comes to following through on various passions and projects. The Blaze Radio Network’s Doc Thompson and Skip LaCombe personified that advice.

Glenn asked Doc and Skip to talk a little bit about the purpose of the documentary.

“You know the misconceptions about the TEA Party that’s been pushed out there. I got really frustrated after our tour, and I said, ‘Let’s tell the truth about the TEA Party, so people can share it and save their friends and neighbors,’” Doc explained. “[That] is what it really is: It’s good, hard-working Americans that share your same values… You’re going to watch this. You’re going to get good information. And you’re going leave feeling good. You’ve going to have some direction for the future.”

“We offered it for free because we want as many people to see it as possible, but we’re also capitalists,” Doc said. “And then from here, some of the donations we get, we’re going to put the money toward a whole lot of other projects that we have rolling out. We have about 15 things we’re going to do in the next couple of years… We’ve got a bunch of good stories.”

As I watched the film I thought back in time a bit and remembered how the Republican Party tried to cozy up to me during this TEA Party rise. Actual candidates and the people who finance them expected me to be pulled into their web. The Republicans rode the wave of the TEA Party making it their own, and around 2012 turned on it all together. The establishment began taking drastic steps into the other direction, back toward the progressive middle. I remember well the difficult conversations I personally had with high level local Republicans in my town who hoped and prayed that I would play along nicely—which of course I didn’t.

Of course this is how they play the game in Washington and why people like John Boehner and Mitch McConnell are such bad people—at least as politicians.   They talk tough on the stump speeches, but behind the scenes, where the money gets raised—it’s a different story and they expect that the friendships established will make good people overlook bad things for the good of the Party. TEA Party supporters of course didn’t go for this and stood against the establishment which is the cause of a kind of civil war in modern America. The result is that only the strongest people of the TEA Party movement are still actively involved. Gone are the crowds shown in Doc’s documentary, but we all knew even back then that the momentum would not last.

My personal crises came as Judge Napolitano was pulled off the Fox Business Channel, and my friend Doc Thompson was fired from 700 WLW radio within days of each other. Doc was being attacked for his beliefs and the company he was working for hid the termination behind a ratings drain—which wasn’t the case.   And my Republican friends wanted to pull me into their world of charity events and careful politicking that was sensitive to progressive issues—which I personally have no sympathy for. I made my stand, pissed off a lot of people and relationships were fractured forever. When the smoke cleared, I was still a TEA Party supporter and my friends were left without the benefits of my friendship. It was foreign to them that a man would stand on principles and that realization made me very angry.

Many people have pointed out that my articles from the start to the present have changed over time. I can understand that. In the beginning I had hope for people like Governor Kasich, Governor Christy, Paul Ryan, even John Boehner—but after just a few years, they have all failed to hold their moral ground. They proved to be a lot of talk, but way too willing to make a deal just to stay in power. I have watched the NDAA get passed in the middle of New Years Eve, and watched Obamacare shoved down people’s throats. I have watched the Justice Department commit crimes and get away with it because they are the law. With each story, my hope for the preservation of the system as it is currently has evaporated. So the tone of my articles has evolved with that sentiment.

Doc Thompson could have just given up after he was terminated from 700 WLW and his home station in Richmond, Virginia. But he didn’t.   After a lot of fighting, he become employed by Glenn Beck and has excelled from there. Most people would be happy with just a gig like that—but Doc is taking things several steps further and this new documentary is just the start. I am proud to see the documentary Intolerable be released. There is a defiance in it that is healthy for America. Anyone who watches this film and thinks the TEA Party is a bunch of racist radicals is the actual villains of society. Nobody can watch Intolerable and then turn around and say the TEA Party is not the last beacon of light for the freedom that is unique to America—unless they are part of the undoing of it.

Doc and Skip did a great job of representing the TEA Party and getting to the truth of the movement and providing context to the rhetoric that is against it. It is a documentary that has been needed, and now it can be seen by anyone anywhere who has an internet connection. So there is no excuse to not see it. So watch it, learn from it, and spread the word around. Doc Thompson has done the hard work of making it. The least you can do dear reader is give it an audience.

Rich Hoffman

www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

 

Help the Children of the World SEE GODZILLA: What box office totals really measure

For me, movies have always been a measurement about the temperament of a society in general. The kinds of films that make money, and those that don’t speak largely about the values of earthly civilizations. I enjoy most films, small art pictures like Atlas Shrugged sometimes because they don’t make much money and speak to a very focused and intelligent audience. I also like films like the new Godzilla movie which speaks directly to the masses with enthusiastic hope. What is different now as opposed to even a decade ago is that occasionally, huge blockbuster films like Godzilla are released simultaneously around the world and provide a very clear picture of what those worldly economic conditions are relative to the United States which can be directly measured by ticket sales.

Godzilla earned an estimated $103 million from 64 overseas markets this past weekend—during its opening. Warner Bros. reported that 51 percent of those sales were from 3D showings.

The movie’s biggest markets were the U.K. ($10.4 million) and Russia ($9.1 million), and it had the top opening of the year in Australia ($6.1 million). Other major territories included Mexico ($8.9 million), France ($6.5 million), Korea ($4.5 million), Brazil ($4.2 million), Italy ($3.6 million) and Spain ($1.6 million).

Godzilla opens in China in June, and then Japan in July. If it lives up to its potential in those two markets, it should wind up with over $400 million from overseas sales.

Produced by Legendary Pictures and released by Warner Bros., the monster movie reboot earned an impressive $93.2 million at the domestic box office.

Godzilla‘s domestic debut ranks second in 2014: it wound up in between Captain America: The Winter Soldier ($95 million) and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 ($91.6 million). It also opened significantly higher than last summer’s World War Z ($66.4 million), and more-than-doubled Pacific Rim‘s $37.3 million.

It’s also worth noting that Godzilla earned more in its first three days than Star Trek Into Darkness earned in its first four ($83.7 million) on the same weekend last year. It was also above 2011’s Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides ($90.2 million).

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=3845&p=.htm

To sum all this up properly just in the North American continent Godzilla made $93 million dollars. Over the entire rest of the world the film made $103 million without China and Japan being factored. Those countries will see the film over the next couple of months. With all politics removed from public relations jargon promoting all these other countries as equal to the United States, and the demand for Godzilla being universally equal all over the world—it could be observed that dollar for dollar—The United States—a capitalist country has the buying power of the rest of the world combined.

For instance, Brazil is a large country, but because they lean in the direction of socialism, they have a per capita income that is far below that of The United States. $4.2 million is about how much most states made in America displaying vividly that in Brazil there are not nearly enough movie theaters available to show the film. In America, I have around seven different theaters to choose from to see Godzilla while in Brazil, there may only be a few theater in each major city. The rural areas of Brazil are lucky to have power let alone have a theater down the road from their house making it impossible to even think of seeing Godzilla. So as a country, their demand to see the movie was high, but their people because they are poor did not have much opportunity to attend a theater. Even more pressing to the whole problem is that there is not enough per capita income to dictate that an investor could even open and operate a movie theater in the country. Italy and Spain are both socialist countries and put out a pathetic number in response to the Godzilla box office. Again, it is not that people did not want to see the movie. Those that could did. But in those countries, there just aren’t enough theater owners who want to embark on the entrepreneurial activity of theater ownership.

France put up a respectable number as they have several major cities that have movie theaters. In the future however because of the socialist policies of the current government penalizing the rich, there will likely be far less real-estate investment into movie theaters leading the country back into something like what Spain, Italy and Brazil are putting out as far as economic activity.

Economic activity is of course the access of investment into theater ownership and access to money to attend a movie by the general population through disposable income. If taxation consumes much of that income, then movie attendance will of course decrease. After China loosened up a bit toward western films and actually allowed their citizens to watch movies like Godzilla, they are usually good for around $40 million in opening weekend box office totals out of a population matrix of over a billion people. Much of this market base is around the capitalist region of Hong Kong, but the communist portions of the country are still deeply deprived of business investment and disposable income to even purchase a movie ticket. There are likely millions of children within China who would love to see Godzilla, but they can’t because no movie theater owners want to deal with the communist government to operate such things with all the restrictions involved. After all, China only allows ten films a year from America. The rest of the year there aren’t many opportunities to see movies that are good. China isn’t making many movies, and neither is the rest of the world. Only America makes movies like Godzilla and only a select few are allowed to be seen within a communist country. Godzilla will be one of them—thank goodness.

Here is a sad statistic; the entire country of Australia which is a large landmass, only produced $6.1 million in Godzilla sales—mostly on the east coast of the country.   Australia has also functioned under socialism for a number of years which has killed their economic growth and the results can easily be seen in the terribly deficient movie theaters available. Obviously people in Australia would love to see Godzilla, but they do not have enough movie theaters to allow such a thing. They have not been friendly enough toward entrepreneurial activity to allow their people such a positive leisure time activity like seeing Godzilla.

Is it fair to judge the world against such standards—well, yes it is. Godzilla is the kind of movie that boys, girls, young, old, virtually every market demographic in the world would like to at least see, but those opportunities do not exist in countries struggling with socialism, communism, and over restrictive governments. Countries like Russia have at least stepped up to the plate and allowed for western films to be shown in their city multiplexes and they produced a respectable $9.1 million, just shy of England which boosts a much smaller landmass and total population. Such comparisons speak very accurately about the economic strength of the cultures viewing the film Godzilla.

Godzilla is s global phenomena built with Japanese branding for many years, so it is a stable platform to make such comparisons. And the economic status of the world is easy to measure against such a globally unified reference point. If you want to measure the strength of a nation, just look at how many people attend movie blockbusters and determine if they have access to a movie theater, have expendable income, or live in a country that allows the kind of free speech needed to see such a thing. Then ask why they can’t, and you will have the answer as to which political systems work best for the people they are supposed to serve, and which ones simply use people as a platform for their own self-importance.

I bet dear reader—that you had no idea that the new Godzilla movie told so many stories on so many levels—but now you do.

Rich Hoffman   www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

 

My Wife Saves The Day: Fantasy Flight’s Corellian Corvette–just in time

I work hard, and I am involved in a lot of real life crusading on many fronts, and part of my stress management—especially lately—for the last year has been the new Fantasy Flight Game, X-Wing Miniatures.  It is so fun, and so exciting, that I could literally speak on it for hours and hours without a single pause.  It is good in so many ways that I find it’s creativity and contents redeeming in intellectual recharging leaving me to spend much of my spare time in the world one can create within its framework as a tabletop game.   My love of the game has been so intense that due to the new Epic Play format which requires a tabletop play area of 3’ X 6’ I had to find something better to set up these huge games involving the new capital ships and rules associated with them.  My wife found some really large fold up tables and benches that will allow the setup of this massive game just in time for the new Corellian CR90 Corvette which is coming out this week and has had my interest for nearly a year now.team-epic-4

The next two weeks for me involves a lot of X-Wing playing, some of it requiring traveling.  So it’s been on my mind.  This very interesting Corellian Corvette ship is coming out right in time for some of these events, and just weeks after this release is the distribution of the Wave 4 ships, which will feature the E-Wing—specifically the Corren Horn card I am very eager to put my hands on.  My previous weekend was busy learning how to fly these big ships, and tracking down a second game mat to encompass the second half of the gigantic play area for Epic Play and Cinematic play.  My wife found a match to the one we already have from a remote distributer out-of-state and ordered it ahead of our pressing weekend events.  But that left us looking for a proper set of tables that could be set up and moved around easily depending on where we were playing.

My wife again found the perfect set; a pair of fold up 8’ X 2 ½’ tables that put together side by side gives plenty of play surface.  Such an area is just too big for most dining room tables and is nearly impossible to travel with.  She found these tables at Wal-Mart along with matching bench chairs that easily can be packed up and traveled with so that X-Wing Miniatures can now go anywhere in the world we wish to take it.  After receiving my Rebel Transport, CLICK HERE TO REVIEW, I had been stuck trying to figure out how to play it and still have room to spread out all the other items it takes to play the game comfortably.  One problem we have in our family is that when we have large get together events, the women tend to conjugate in the kitchen talking while the men and boys all want to play something—like X-Wing.  But then we have to wait for the dining room table to be clear so we can play, it leaves us impatiently waiting for dinner to be over so we can gain control of the dining room table—which ruins the purpose of a nice dinner to begin with.  With these new tables it will no longer be a problem.  I can set the game up outside, in the living room, in the basement, in an upstairs room, anywhere we want.

I love that the game is getting so big.  It is exciting for me, because I love all the complexity of having massive scenarios of strategic opportunity.  It is interesting to me to have so many variables above and beyond a few ships dog fighting to the death.  And my collection is getting so large, that setting up everything literally takes up an entire large room.  The Rebel Transport which came out a few weeks ago showed me quickly that more space would be needed because once the Corellian Corvette comes out; space would become a necessity leaving me scrambling for solutions ahead of its release.  Below are the stats and benefits of the new CR90 as described by Fantasy Flight Games.cr90-corvette-fore

The Corellian CR90 Corvette in Combat

At ninety squad points, the Corellian CR90 Corvette eats up a massive chunk of your available resources, so how does it hold up in battle?

  • For starters, the CR90 features a primary weapon with an attack value of “4” that can fire at enemy ships as far away as Range “5.” Accordingly, if you’re approaching your squad-building with an eye toward your economy of attack dice, shields, and hull points, the CR90 forces another wrinkle into the equations. By firing before other ships are even in range, the CR90 is effectively adding actions and attack dice to your squad.
  • Then, how about those shields and hull points? Both the fore and aft sections of the CR90 feature their own shield and hull point values, and altogether, between the two, the ninety points you spend on the CR90 nets you eight shields and sixteen hull points. That makes the CR90 a rather difficult starship to destroy, especially when you factor in the ability to reinforce either the fore or aft section, adding an evade result to each attack against that section made during the round.
  • Even after the CR90 takes a pounding, it can use the recover action to spend energy to recover shields. The result is that if your opponent doesn’t throw absolutely everything against your CR90, it has a good chance of surviving and recovering to turn the tide back in your favor. Of course, if your opponent does focus all of his guns against the CR90, that means your other ships are free to wreak havoc.
  • Meanwhile, the CR90 can spend energy to fire powerful secondary weapons like Single Turbolasers and Quad Laser Cannons. Because you can equip up to two of these hardpoint weapons on the CR90’s fore section and another on the aft section, your CR90 may perform as many as four attacks each turn, all with attack values starting at three or four.
  • The CR90 also has access to a number of upgrades that simply aren’t available to smaller ships. For example, the Rebel Transport Expansion Pack introduced several members of the Echo Base command, including Toryn Farr, Carlist Rieekan, and Jan Dodonna. It also introduced the WED-15 Repair Droid, which could partner with the R2-D2 from the Tantive IV Expansion Pack to work fast repairs on your ship every turn. Also in the Tantive IV Expansion Pack, Raymus Antilles works wonders when his CR90 is supported by starfighters with Ion Cannon Turrets or Ion Cannons.
  • Finally, as a huge ship, the CR90 simply obliterates any small or large starships that get in its way. If a small or large starship gets caught in its path, that ship is destroyed… no attack rolls necessary. This means that the mere presence of a Corellian CR90 Corvette in your squad is likely to force your opponent to adjust his intended flight patterns.

All together, the CR90 can harness its raw bulk, its primary and secondary weapons, and its many possible crew options in order to punch gaping holes in enemy squadrons.

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=4821epic-tantive-1

The new Epic Rules allow for up to 300 point squads which means there will be a lot going on during a game which can quickly become overwhelming.  So it was refreshing that my wife found such a wonderful solution at Wal-Mart—of all places.  For just over $300 dollars I had my problem solved so that 12 people could sit around this massive table top and play X-Wing Miniatures comfortably—and still spread out all our stat cards and squad builds without struggling to find space around the periphery of the game mats.  The tables work so well I would have paid $1,000 for them—they are that good.

For me this whole hobby experience has become a bit like a model train obsession.  Fantasy Flight Games has done such a good job of hitting that market and giving such well made models something useful to do.  The CR90 will just add a tremendous layer of mythology to an already deeply involving game.  I probably spent 6 hours alone over this past Saturday just reading through all my cards in preparation for the events coming up over the next couple of weekends.  The game itself isn’t that expensive, but with ships like the CR90 costing around a hundred dollars of actual money, this is a hobby that can chew through several thousand dollars, which is where I’m at.epic-tantive-2

The money is worth it because when I set up that world and play the game, a lot of the nonsense going on outside in reality gets put on pause for me.  It manages stress in ways that might otherwise become unbearably overwhelming.  It allows players to live in a mythology that isn’t imposed upon by a story teller, but is happing by the decisions made by the players and it has a logic to it that fits my real world concerns.  So it’s an exciting time for me—especially in the world X-Wing Miniatures.  There is a lot for me to look forward to regarding that hobby, and I am so happy to have the leisure which that game brings to spend my time with and share with the people who matter most to me.

Sometimes the best things in life are the smallest—and this is one of them which ironically is growing in EPIC proportions.

Rich Hoffman

  www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

 

The ENORMOUS box office of Godzilla: A skeleton key to human civilization

You could smell it in the air on Friday.  My wife and I went to an early showing of Godzilla after having a nice lunch at Chick-fil-A and already the Showcase Cinema in Springdale, Ohio was cranked up in anticipation of what turned out to be a fabulous movie.  READ MY REVIEW HERE.   It was simply a jaw-dropping experience and the buzz was already percolating into what would become a $32 million dollar evening after a $9 million dollar Thursday night of special showings.  The theater was buzzing with excitement the likes of which I had not seen in years and the film hadn’t even thought of hitting Saturday yet.  Projections had the film only doing $65 million dollars over the weekend, but by Saturday morning, it was obvious that Godzilla would crush the opening of Spiderman 2, from two weeks earlier of $91 million.  My wife and I bought our Imax ticket and quickly discovered on a gigantic poster that we would be treated to a free popcorn just for buying the Imax ticket, so we picked up some wonderfully buttered popcorn and stepped into history as the best monster movie ever to be filmed played before our eyes.  During the climax my wife was so excited she almost leapt at the screen laughing, pointing, and was ready to punch something.

At the conclusion a few of the employees who came in to clean up asked me how the movie was, and stated that they couldn’t wait to get off work so they could see it.  My wife and I were the last to leave the theater and I told them that they needed to clock out right now, and get up in those seats and watch this movie right now.  It was that incredible, history making awe inspiring—and the ramifications of it would manifest long after what would turn out to be a monumental opening weekend.  I knew as the credits stopped rolling that this movie was going to explode with global business that would topple $1 billion dollars and launch new life into a film genre that will ignite the imaginations of millions of young people and I enjoyed the reverence.  Unlike The Amazing Spiderman 2 which saw a major drop in business during its second week of release, Godzilla would likely see even more business over the upcoming Memorial Day weekend as word of mouth will spread like wildfire about how good the movie is.

So what does this mean?  Why is the box office of Godzilla so important?  Well, I have been writing a lot lately about the importance of mythology in our culture.  It shapes everything from philosophy to politics and is likely the most important attribute to any human society.  There are a lot of elements in our present world that makes human beings feel powerless, and subjected to abuses, so when their imaginations are stimulated with thought, there is a sense of freedom in the exchange.  When a movie is as exciting as Godzilla is, and inspires so many people to go to a theater to experience it, a unifying philosophy is being painted across the canvas of human society and it is a wonderful thing to witness.  When a movie does that kind of business, other studios are forced to copy, and that means that films that are losers, like Cloud Atlas, Life of Pi, and other progressive films must adapt and compete against traditional films that a majority of the world population yearns for.

There is no group hugging going on in Godzilla.  The hero is Godzilla who stands as a solitary savior of mankind and the main protagonist who is on his own adventure is also the last man standing to save mankind from disaster.  The rest of the characters can only watch everything happening with passive helplessness.  It is in this attribute that once again traditional films destroy the box office business of collective message stories attempting to sell progressive storylines.  When a traditional old-fashioned film like Godzilla does such good business the public is voting, and the votes favor tradition because other studios—due to capitalism are forced to compete or go out of business.

Japan’s Tolo studios have had the rights to Godzilla for years, and they have nurtured it along.  But they knew that if they wanted to take Godzilla into the realm of international—mainstream sensation, they needed Legendary Pictures to pull off the task.  Legendary Pictures put up 75% of the nearly $200 million dollar budget and hired relative newcomer Gareth Edwards to direct the film.  There weren’t any film studios in France able to perform such a task, not in England, not in Germany, certainly not in China and Japan was obviously limited in their abilities.  It took an American production company to achieve the objective of spreading the Godzilla message and did they ever pull it off.  The risk of Gareth Edwards not only paid off, but the film will evolve into a sensation that will not be forgotten any time soon.  It is a benchmark film that will take the world by storm.

This is yet another example of many themes discussed here at Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom day in and day out over a number of years now and it was quite refreshing to see the early wave of Godzilla before everything became much noisier.  I was not surprised to see such a ruckus, human beings are starving from substance, and Godzilla delivers it.  If Godzilla were simply about destruction, it wouldn’t do such good box office numbers, and the buildup of the character over the last 60 years has not prepared people for this kind of market desire.  The old films were fun films, but not good ones.  It is for the unspoken themes for which Godzilla is so popular, the one against the many, the mysteries of our own past unrealized, the protection of man’s creations over the creations of nature, the futility of those same creations against the scale of nature at times, and individual will.  It’s also about hopes, dreams, and the importance of family.   The scene where the main protagonist helps a little boy find his parents is just another reiteration of that main family theme found throughout the film.

History has been made and it was a fun weekend watching the events come together as the box office numbers of Godzilla came in.  It felt like victory for all those who support classic elements in movies which builds the mythology not just of our nation, but now of the world.  These days, it’s no longer cars that America exports that are so prized throughout the world, or the aviation industry, or even food—it is mythology which can only come from the imaginations of free people.  Only in America could a movie like Godzilla be made, and that was obvious as I left the theater ahead of a box office wave which consumed the world and brought a smile to my face for more reasons than that the movie was a great one.  Mythology has the answers to many of our contemporary problems and hidden within the Godzilla film is the skeleton key to healing human civilization.   And the key has now been turned.

By the way, Lengendary Pictures is now working with Universal Studios and their next big monster movie after Godzilla is Jurassic World.  And they love the script so much, they are already talking sequels.  I am very happy!  And really looking forward to it!

Rich Hoffman

  www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

 

Lakota Student Lies About NFL Career to Impress Teacher: The sickness of teacher/student appeasment

Lakota once again is plastered all over the Tri-State news market for sheer stupidity and carelessness among their reckless administrators and general employees. Word from within the Lakota school system has said that a former student from Adena Elementary came to the school to see his old teacher.  Jeff Kline bluffed his way past the supposed beefed up security which was improved after the recent levy passage in November and enjoyed something of a hero’s welcome as he paraded the halls talking about his experiences playing for the Jacksonville Jaguars.   Here is how Fox 19 reported the story.

At Adena Elementary School in West Chester, you have to check in, get a visitor’s badge and have an escort. That’s what an ex-student did last week. He committed no crime and was “who he represented himself to be,” says a school spokesman.

However, he lied about his career, saying he played in the NFL, according to police, and letters sent home by school staff.

That sent up some red flags, and leaves a lot of “What ifs” in the minds of parents. The incident has the school looking over their security plans and policies. 

“We have officers that are assigned to the beat. They’re obviously going to increase their presence. When you have concerns, when parents are concerned, they want to see that presence up there,” said Capt. Brian Rebholz of the West Chester Police Department.

Police have spent time on the school grounds as students are coming and going from the property.

 

  http://www.fox19.com/story/25520691/lakota-school-looks-at-security-after-man-poses-as-nfl-player

As to the name of the former student no media outlets are reporting it for some reason—the kid is over 18, so saving the boy from embarrassment as a former student is rather stupid—considering they say they are desiring to fix the problem going forward.  Channel 19 did put up the name of a fourth grader in their report, so why the police and school would protect a person who lied their way past security to massage his ego around a bunch of children is unfathomably idiotic.  The Cincinnati Enquirer has the name because they checked NFL records to see if the kid had actually ever played professional football even as a practice squad member—which he didn’t.   Lakota, after the incident is now boosting their police presence, which they stated was the reason for the latest school levy—and they got caught being star struck by a former student who could have just as easily have used the same story to get into a classroom and bring harm to students.  There are so many things wrong with this situation that is being ignored that it is literally unbelievable all the people involved actually consider themselves intellectually mandated to advance society as educators—and they have really missed the mark. As anybody who knows anything about dealing with such matters understands, you must identify the cause, not the effect.  These news outlets have reported the effect of the issue, but not the cause.  Throwing more police into the halls of an elementary school at Lakota and sending home a strongly worded letter might make all the parents feel safe and secure—but it does not solve the problem.

The former student obviously wanted to return back to Adena to fulfill some goal established during his days there as a student.  This is the danger of children bonding more with teachers than their own parents as children.  The parents of this NFL imposter should really be ashamed of themselves for producing such a shallow young man ill prepared for the world.   I mean what was he thinking—even after he went to Adena to have all the little kids and teachers suck up to him with his made up NFL experience—he would still have to return back to his car to drive away knowing that he is a loser who hasn’t done anything yet in life.  The fact that he was willing to put on a cloak of such deception speaks loudly as to his actual values.  He cares more about what people think of him than what he really is, and this will lead to a disaster as this event is just a prequel.

Then there are the idiotic teachers so hungry to believe that their work with the young man led to something wonderful, like an NFL career.  The fact that they so willingly bought the story says that they wished to be deceived—they wanted to believe that their adopted son—a former student of the Lakota school system, could punch out into the world and be successful based on their instruction—and all they really did was raise a liar.  And who would be surprised, after all isn’t that what Lakota is really about?  Aren’t they more concerned with appearances than actuality?  Lakota is about raising money through taxes for their unionized teachers disguised as basically pre-adult day care.  Parents drop their children off to daycare facilities up to age 5 and conduct their lives almost independently—as though they were disconnected from their children leaving the little minds to be raised by baby sitters.  When the children become of age for public school, they are then placed in an older version of day care organized by the state to spur job creation among the men and women who reside within its borders.  Much of what actually happens in public school is about illusion anyway—so that those busy parents don’t feel guilt and change their behavior.  The employees of this ridiculous system wish so fervently that it would work and inspire children to greatness that they will soak up any little morsel of success story as a fact without any analysis contrary to their desire.

Interesting how the school board president Julie Shafer didn’t put the young man’s name up on her Facebook account like she did when I called her levy supporting friends’ fat-assed whores—which they are.  They are metaphorical whores to the needs of the state at the cost of their children which sickens me.  If Lakota wanted to stop the kind of behavior shown at Adena they would have released the kid’s name to put the scare into anyone else thinking of doing such a thing—but Lakota is actually terrified that future students might not do the same and become deterred from massaging their egos with the illusion that their efforts at public education are worthy—and successful.  Lakota school administrators and teachers want to believe that they can teach a child to grow up and become a gladiator in an arena filled with drunken fools and scantily clothed cheerleaders to destroy other human beings with the force of their own head.  Their bodies may become ruined after only 15 years of this behavior, but heck, they might get on ESPN a few times.  That is success—a really good player might be able to purchase a boat in Florida and pour $10,000 into the G-String of strippers on a Saturday night before a big game.  Without question these are the thoughts of the teachers giving Kline a hero’s welcome in the halls of Adena elementary with children present and watching closely the adult behavior.

Ultimately, Lakota produced a child in Kline who would rather lie about his career just to impress others—which could be said about every level of the Lakota organization.  Suppressing stories are the same as lying because the attempt is to hide the truth.  The parents of Kline are even worse, they surrendered the instruction of the young mind of their son to a bunch of pretentious Lakota babysitters who created such a deep yearning for acceptance in the young lad that he actually made up a story about his success to visit an elementary teacher he should have long outgrown and forgotten about.  The story is actually a serious one—it’s not about lying to breach security, it’s about the deep need to lie, so to make a former teacher show once again respect to a grown man who still has unresolved issues from his childhood.  Lakota just as they taught the young fellow did what they always did, they threw a few more cops at the situation to make parents sleep better at night, and will undoubtedly throw more money at the situation which is essentially like throwing gas on a fire—but it makes everyone feel better about themselves.

The cause of this tragedy is that the student, Jeff Kline, desired to actually visit a former teacher and get their approval.  To do it, he had to give the school what he thought they valued to get them once again to look favorably upon him like they did when he was a child yearning for a gold star to be put at the top of his work assignments.  Lakota taught Kline to strive for that appeasement at whatever cost, even if lying is the method of obtaining the objective.  After all, that’s what Lakota does—so why wouldn’t their rudderless students do the same?  The answer is they will do as they were taught—and to that effect Jeff Kline did.

Rich Hoffman

  www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

 

Godzilla For President: A review of the new Gareth Edwards masterpiece

What would you get if Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, and Akira Kurosawa all made a movie—it would be Gareth Edwards new Godzilla film.  That is not to say for a second that Edwards is a copy-cat filmmaker paying homage to his boyhood heroes.  The 2014 Godzilla film released by Legendary Pictures is simply that good, and is sincere in its tip of the hat to those great filmmakers.  While watching I kept thinking of films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Jaws, Jurassic Park, Birds, Ran, Dreams without attempting for a second to show its superiority to the classic Godzilla movies—but rather being very respectful of them.  If there is a tight rope of movie marketing, authenticity to a beloved character, and the necessity to navigate the needs of the movie industry, Gareth Edwards just propelled himself into one of the top filmmakers in the world forever by walking it cleanly.  The new Godzilla film is simply astonishing.  I have read the reviews and spoken to several people who had seen the movie and I have come to realize that the movie is so vast in its scale that most viewers can only grip one of the many plot lines of the film.  Being spoiled spoon fed movie goers for so many years; they have forgotten the old Hitchcock films and likely didn’t bother with Kurosawa due to the subtitles.  Well, Edwards didn’t have that problem and has simply made a masterpiece that will have a major impact on film history.   I know good when I see it and this Godzilla film is great, incredible, astonishingly beautiful, captivating in virtually every way, and is simply a benchmark film redefining the genre of monster movies.  This Godzilla movie is what Cloverfield wanted to be.  It is simply jaw-dropping grand.  It will take several viewings for everything to settle in and history will study this movie as a masterpiece of modern film.

While waiting in line to see the movie I wrote yesterday’s article about Godzilla.  CLICK HERE TO REVIEW.  So I am already a fan of the 60-year-old monster.  I had to take a few hours after watching the movie to calm down and check my emotions to ensure that I wasn’t just being inflammatory with my enthusiasm.  After rolling around in bed for about 10 hours unable to sleep still excited about this Godzilla film I have concluded that perhaps I haven’t been excited enough.  Four key scenes will explain why without giving away the movie.  The first is the birthday metaphor so carefully weaved into the Bryan Cranston portion of the story.  It was remarkably powerful, and so subtle that most viewers appear to have missed it upon their first viewing.  It was a touch of Steven Spielberg that I haven’t seen from a filmmaker since the film Always.  Then there was the flaming train engine coming out of an intense fog at night across a railroad bridge.  The film quality looked as though it belonged on the pages of National Geographic.  The cinematic effort of that shot was simply mind-blowing.  Then there was the airport scene where the power had gone out across an Hawaiian city then came back on to reveal a giant monster destroying everything—with the main characters rushing toward the devastation.  There has been nothing like that done in movie since Jurassic Park, The Lost World, and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.  It was over-the-top exciting, but never so much that it came out campy.  Godzilla pays tribute to these beloved old films without insulting them with direct mimicry.   Then there is the airdrop into the city of San Francisco during the monster fight.  The only filmmaker who ever attempted portions of these kinds of visuals is Akira Kurosawa.  The colors, the atmospheric conditions, the ceremonial aspect of the scene, the immensity of the whole enterprise culminated in that portion of the movie and was simply magnificent.  Edwards was well aware of his geography during the entire film.  The film went from extreme long shots of a storm over the city with the tiny troops falling toward their apparent doom with swirling cumulus nimbus clouds reaching into the upper atmosphere.  Then there are the hand-held shots as they fall through the cloud layer and into the destruction of the city while Godzilla is fighting with the monsters.  All these were cut together with the same level of continuity and it was seamless.  The long view of existence right along with the human perspective was astonishing.  I can’t say it has ever been done more effectively than what Edwards did in this movie.  There was a scene from Close Encounters years ago where the shadow of the mother ship was cast against the ground at night over the unaware human drivers of a truck.  That shot was incredibly difficult to pull off and came from the mind of a very young Steven Spielberg before he got old and stuffy.  I can’t recall another filmmaker trying such a thing since then—until this Godzilla movie.  It is hard to do such atmospheric scenes and Spielberg has given up on trying now that he is in his “mature” years.  But the ambition of Edwards deserves recognition as film schools will study this scene for years attempting to break down its effectiveness.

Speaking of geography it was impressive to tie in events happening halfway around the globe in simultaneous bits of story.  For instance, Las Vegas gets attacked by a monster as Godzilla is hunting the beast from the Pacific Ocean just off the coast of Hawaii.  The extra attention to little details like proximity of terrain to each other in a world shrunk by Google Earth was so refreshing that even smart people seeing the movie will be impressed that Edwards thought of them while staging scenes.  The characters in this Godzilla film were intelligent, and cared about the circumstances around them.  That was refreshing.

Then there was the soundtrack which was equally remarkable.  I had never knowingly heard any of Alexandre Desplat’s work until this film, but it was quite powerful.  Desplat certainly tapped into great film scores by John Williams, particularly Jaws because it was evident in the film score.  The resemblance to that classic piece was unmistakable.  I have listened to the soundtracks of Jurassic Park and The Lost World countless times, and the notes and cues from Godzilla are right in line with those pieces.  It was yet another circumstance of welcomed surprise in a film full of them.  There was a raw majestic energy included with the music that was as big as Godzilla and the story line itself.

The character of Godzilla unlike the past had a deep intelligence to him, a knowing alertness to the circumstances of civilization and his desire to advance it.  That is a new element to these kinds of monster films, Godzilla was quite well aware of his ancient role as a kind of protector of man’s achievements.  He wasn’t interested in the mindless toppling of buildings and power lines, but of hunting down and destroying the monsters which were destroying the cities of earth.  There has been a lot of talk about Godzilla being a boon to nature—reminding mankind that it is not in charge.  Yet if Godzilla were so interested in nature, he would have allowed the giant creatures—MUTOs (Massive Unidentified terrestrial Organisms) to breed and hatch their babies which are all they really wanted to do.  From the vantage point of Godzilla mankind’s creations are pretty insignificant, yet he consciously made a decision to pick mankind over the MUTO creatures.  Several times in Godzilla’s efforts were close-ups on his weary face as if he had been fighting this battle for several millennia.  Edwards smartly captured this intelligence and made this Godzilla much less primal, and much more sophisticated.  As strange as it sounds the creature seemed so smart that I wouldn’t have been shocked if he didn’t sit down with some tea and discuss James Joyce as a literary endeavor.  He was what I described in my referred article written prior to seeing the film as a kind of overman.

Godzilla is movie making at its absolute best.  There isn’t anything better out now and hasn’t been in many years.  Even the epic nature of Peter Jackson’s Hobbit films can’t hold a candle to Godzilla.  This monster film is a benchmark for these types of things that will set the bar very high.  Many reviewers continue to compare Godzilla 2014 to Pacific Rim, but the two aren’t even close.   The only thing they have in common is that both films deal with large creatures.  Godzilla is about so much more.  It’s a movie that needs to be seen many times to understand, and even more times for just the sheer entertainment value of it.  The cost of seeing the movie is worth the climax of the film itself.  They simply don’t get better than that and will still be fun after the 100th viewing.  Godzilla 2014 will become the next favorite film of many little boys desperately seeking something meaningful in their young lives.  But for the adults who grew up with the old versions, this Edwards film is a sheer work of art that will be difficult for any filmmaker to surpass for many, many years.  It is a treasure onto itself and a gift to every creature with eyes, ears and an imagination.  I give Godzilla an enthusiastic thumb up with both hands and both big toes and a smile from ear to ear.  It is movie making at its absolute best and then some and will never be forgotten in my household likely being played continuously forever once it hits Blue Ray.  In the meantime, I will go see it again.

Rich Hoffman

  www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

 

The Jackie Robinson Story: Hiding bad behivor behind racism today

I had the opportunity to watch the movie 42 about Jackie Robinson, who was the first black baseball player in the Major Leagues. I normally avoid progressive films, and there is a fine line between progressive propaganda with a political agenda and genuinely good stories, which is what 42 was. The film is one that needed to be made and while watching provoked many thoughts that deserve comment.

Jack Roosevelt “Jackie” Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was an American baseball player who became the first African-American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era.[1] Robinson broke the baseball color line when the Brooklyn Dodgers started him at first base on April 15, 1947. As the first major league team to play a black man since the 1880s, the Dodgers ended racial segregation that had relegated black players to the Negro leagues for six decades.[2] The example of Robinson’s character and unquestionable talent challenged the traditional basis of segregation, which then marked many other aspects of American life, and contributed significantly to the Civil Rights Movement.[3][4]

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

In the film Harrison Ford played Branch Rickey wonderfully which I thought was a heroic story in and of itself. I loved Ford’s role and portrayal and found myself wishing that more people in the world were like Branch Rickey.

Wesley Branch Rickey (December 20, 1881 – December 9, 1965) was an innovative Major League Baseball (MLB) executive elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1967. He was perhaps best known for breaking Major League Baseball’s color barrier by signing African-American player Jackie Robinson, for drafting the first Afro-Hispanic superstar, Roberto Clemente, for creating the framework for the modern minor league farm system, for encouraging the Major Leagues to add new teams through his involvement in the proposed Continental League, and for introducing the batting helmet.

Rickey played in MLB for the St. Louis Browns and New York Highlanders from 1905 through 1907. After struggling as a player, Rickey returned to college, where he learned about administration from Philip Bartelme. Returning to MLB in 1913, Rickey embarked on a successful managing and executive career with the St. Louis Browns, the St. Louis Cardinals, New York Yankees, Brooklyn Dodgers and Pittsburgh Pirates. The Cardinals elected him to their team Hall of Fame in 2014.

Rickey also had a career in the sport of American football, as a player for the professional Shelby Blues and as a coach at Ohio Wesleyan University and Allegheny College. His many achievements and deep Christian faith[1] earned him the nickname “the Mahātmā.”

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

I found it interesting that Rickey is yet another innovative celebrity from Ohio and in the film the scenes that took place with the Cincinnati Reds at the old Crosely Field were stunning. It was a reminder again of how much Cincinnati and specifically Ohio helped shape the nature of America. I enjoy baseball, and love the role Crosely Field played in the early days of Cincinnati’s development, so it was fun to see Crosely Field alive in the film 42. To learn more about Crosely Field, click the link below for a complete history and lots of photographs.

http://www.crosley-field.com/

Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey were noble men from an era that I desperately love. I would never support racism, and respected Robinson’s crusade. I have been friends with many black men over my life, and my experience has been similar to the kind of people Robinson was. I respected their politeness, their manly swagger, and their deep commitment to goodness. Goodness does not know color and clearly, especially after watching Jackie Robinson’s story in 42, as a baseball player he wanted to do “good” and the world is far better off for it.

However, the premise of racism as it is today is to allow bad behavior to go unchecked because of skin color, and this is not right. Jackie Robinson if he were alive today would likely condemn rappers like Jay-Z and Snoop Dog for taking the very things he fought for as a black man and squandering them away using the color of their skin to be detrimental paradoxes of oblivious conduct. Robinson was careful to always present himself as a gentleman to the public and he ultimately won the battle against racism by capturing the high moral ground of the public. Yet against his memory looters, scum bags and social malcontents want moral judgment against their bad behavior obliterated behind a mask of racism. After watching 42 I came away feeling that Robinson loved his wife, loved his children, loved his teams, was honorable and appreciative of Branch Rickey and was a gentleman in every way to the press. That is the kind of person all Americans regardless of skin color should try to emulate.

Yet too many people of color today wish to hide their poor life choices from judgment by conjuring up memories of the kind of racism that Jackie Robinson dealt with—which is an injustice that is not forgivable. For the welfare mothers abusing the system to get free money from the government with out-of-wedlock children, they are disgracing the good work that Jackie Robinson conducted. To the dope smoking gangstas’ from the inner cities—Robinson didn’t fight so hard and put up with so much to have low moral values hide behind the race card. Or to the man who romps around the African-American communities like a bee to flowers impregnating as many women as possible without any sense of responsibility, Robinson did not fight so that you could be such a loser.

I loved the scene in 42 where the little African-American kid chased the train until it was out of sight because Robinson was on it. Jackie Robinson was the boy’s idol. Young people need those kinds of idols, and it doesn’t matter the skin color, it is the conduct of those people who can set the pace of young people forever and give them something to live up to. All Snoop Dog and Jay-Z are doing is justifying why people should stay down and shoot low—and if anybody questions them on their poor lives—call them racists.

42, the movie gave me hope for Hollywood. I loved the movie and will see it again. It was a very patriotic film which deserves its place in history. I’m glad it was made and I’m glad I took the time to watch it. It is my hope that other films like it will be made in the future. Because in such stories are the story of all of us who call ourselves Americans—and no place else in the world are such things done as they are in The United States—even in our games of leisure and evenings of entertainment—of which baseball has a long tradition.

Rich Hoffman   www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

 

Education is Dead: How to properly teach

Friedrich Nietzsche only lived to be 55 years old and most of that last decade he was at a complete loss of his mental faculties.  His thoughts at the time were extremely profound—but incomplete.  He was on a journey that would require more tweaking over several centuries, but mentally he was going to places no human mind had ever quite dared.  And his mind folded over on itself.  I think about Nietzsche a lot because I am of that same age as he was and I know the pressure of going against a tide—and am always aware of the fragility of mental stability.  The topics I am interested in, Like Nietzsche challenge our views of the world and the way we are all raised.  When those foundations are challenged it is possible for a mind to lose its footing and fall into insanity.  I came to know Nietzsche through Joseph Campbell’s writing and enjoy his views against institutionalism primarily.  When I challenge education establishments with the promise that I could walk into their classrooms and teach better than any four of them put together I fully mean it.  When I look out into the world and declare that the entire education structure is false and failing I am doing it with the same audacity that Nietzsche did by declaring that “God is dead.”  Education has for many become a kind of religion, so by challenging their premise—they react in much the same manner as religious radicals do—with fearful aggression and empty dares—such as invitations to teach their classrooms.

Teaching for me has always been easy.  I do it every single day of my life to people of all ages.  But I enjoy it most with children.  By the end of this article you will dear reader understand why.  Because I cannot explain such a thing until the proper context has been established.  But I offer it out there to those who read here from that education industry and are perplexed by my statements in much the same way that orthodox members of the church read Nietzsche and wondered how he could pronounce such an audacious declaration.   I am different from Nietzsche as he only conceptualized the ideal of an overman.  His body was sickly and his mind was not ready to deal with the weight of such realizations, and he crashed into his own thoughts.  Hindsight provides good maps, and I know how to read them.  This lesson I take seriously as I pronounce that “Education is dead.”  Here is why.

My wife and I had our grandson for the evening over the weekend so we took him to Frisch’s for dinner.  At this point he is only a year and a half old, so his mind is turning on rapidly and everything is an adventure.  I enjoy this age in kids the best because their minds are unwritten by corruption, and everything is literally a possibility.  I use these opportunities to teach.  We arrived at the restaurant and I took my grandson out of his car seat.  I did not carry him, but let him walk across the parking lot by himself, step up onto the sidewalk, alone, and proceed right along with his grandmother and me as an equal.

We were greeted by a kindly old woman who was a hostess and she was instantly dazzled by my grandson’s audacity.  He confidently walked into the dining room like a big person very serious seeing for the first time a world approached in such a way under his own power.  Along the wall by the pickup window were five young waitresses ages 19 to 25 who instantly fell in love with my grandson.  Most children these sizes are carried in like a purse, and nuisance to tired parents.  This little guy was self-reliant—at least he gave off that impression and it was attractive to see such an open mind so confident.  I let him walk to the booth the hostess guided us to and only helped him a little into a seat next to me.   The hostess asked if we wanted a booster seat which I declined.   I didn’t want my grandson to be stuck in such a thing reminding him that he was different from us.

We ordered our food and I let my grandson conduct himself as an adult.  I showed him how to color with the crayons the hostess had provided by letting him copy my efforts.  I didn’t tell him to color in the lines of his kids menu, but to simply use the crayons to his desire.  The food came, and he ate with us pleasantly.  Occasionally he would spontaneously wave at the waitresses who were very happy to respond back to him.  To me all these kids are only a few years apart, but to the girls and my grandson, they are about to inject themselves into relationships where they can have kids of their own and they of course hoped they could have children as cute as he was.  But more than that, adults love the presence of innocence—of a mind uncorrupted by the perils of life—a mind filling itself with potential and it makes them feel happy.  We often look at teenage kids and young adults with disdain because as they make choices that we know will fail them, we despise what they will become.  9 out of 10 adults know that those rambunctious teenagers will end up just like them in a few years—and sadness ensues.  But for a child the age of my grandson, everything is yet unwritten and it is nice to see such hope in the eyes of a child.  Most of the adults in the Frisch’s dining room was looking in our direction with a smile on their faces.

After dinner we conducted ourselves the same repeating the exercise of self-reliance.  We then proceeded to Hallmark to make some Mother’s Day purchases.  My grandson cannot yet talk in sentences, but he is very expressive and we spoke to him like he was a normal person—again equal to us.  Of course we know he isn’t, but there is no need to show our superiority over him.  Life will provide enough blowback to his enthusiasm.  What little people like him need most is samples to learn from—they learn by example—so providing context to memorize is the most important attribute—and success to build from.  For a kid his age every step in life is a success—so such evenings are opportunities to have a lot of little success.  At Hallmark again I let him walk into the store on his own.  Instantly every female in the store stopped and looked his way.

For my grandson the sights and sounds of the Hallmark store were too much for him.  Everything was a new adventure and he quickly saw Disney characters he knew from television and wanted to pick up everything and carry it around with him.  I let him.  As he moved from object to object I put away the things he discarded as his mind filled with the feel of textures, the smell of various products, and the visual stimulation of their color tones. My grandson was erupting with enthusiasm.

Again the girls working the store were of the same age as the Frisch’s waitresses and they had the same reaction.  They couldn’t help but be enchanted by him.  He was the kind of child they hoped to have themselves soon.  On their minds were not thoughts of saving the rain forest, or equal rights for same-sex couples, or even equal pay for women.  They wanted to be moms and to have children like this little fellow and they would do so in less than a second if they could manage to find men in their  lives who weren’t douche bags who wanted the sex, but not the responsibility of raising a family.  Most of their boyfriends only wanted sex with them to satisfy their biological hunger so they could then return back to their Xbox to play games that are much more interesting than girlfriends.  There was sadness in the eyes of these girls and I felt sorry for them.

I let my grandson roam about inside the store and outside it for about a half hour while my wife shopped.  We discovered all kinds of things.  I let him walk around the busy parking lot outside and stood in such a way to keep cars from running into him.  If he wanted to walk across the street, I stopped the traffic to allow him the freedom of movement.  We found outside lots of strange bugs, rocks, and varying surface profiles of the pavement.  When he would step into one of these declinations in surface he would say, “down.”  “Yes, that is down.”  My wife bought him a new Mickey Mouse ball which was his favorite thing in the store and a nice memory to the evening.  At the counter I held him so he could watch the cashier who was nearly in tears over his adult like cuteness ring up the ball.  I told him, “we are conducting an exchange of currency so you can have your ball.”  Two other girls standing nearby erupted into smiles and a woman who had been watching us for the entire half hour boldly said, “if he says that……….it will be too much for me. “  I kept my focus on my grandson and explained to him the value of the money my wife was giving the cashier was to evenly exchange the value of the ball that he would take home with him so he’d understand that something had to be produced to have something he desired.

That was just a sample of a few hours of one evening.  There have been others like it and there will be many more and that is the task of learning.  The reason my grandson was cute to the adults around him was not just his miniature mimicking of adult behavior, but the untarnished potential of the life in front of him.  He literally has the whole world before him, and it is delightful to see the light come on in his mind.  This is no doubt why many people become mothers and teachers—to experience this joy.  However, when minds are stifled to statism and handcuffed by social prerogative which says that one is too small to sit in a booth by themselves, or the road is too dangerous, or you must color in the lines provided, or don’t pick up all the colorful contents of a store, or items they desire magically appear in their arms from a loving grandmother without having any idea how it came to be, we destroy the minds of those children and within a few short years, those bright lights in their mind’s eye go out.

Children grow up with the limits we give them, and it starts at a very young age.  For every teacher, parent, or guardian too lazy to put back things on a shelf, or doubt their ability to protect children from a speeding car or to explain the value of money to a mind still assembling connectivity—everything they do or don’t do has an impact on the child.  The limits they place will continue on with a child their whole life and will either destroy them, or benefit them.  If teaching is not 100% concerned with this adventure in learning, but simply in compliance—it is failing.  At that point it can be said that education in America is dead, and it will not be resurrected under the current pretense.  It will have to be reinvented.

Rich Hoffman

www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

 

50 Years of Marriage: The Rams draft Michael Sam–the first openly gay NFL player

It was a rare privilege these days to attend the 50th wedding anniversary of some family friends hosted at a church they had spent their entire life attending.  Prior to the event my wife and I had just celebrated a few days ago our own anniversary of 26 years.  My parents were there and next year they will celebrate their own 50th anniversary.  Growing up I had two sets of grandparents who both went past the 50 year marriage mark which didn’t seem unusual back then.  In the middle of the celebration came the news through social media that Michael Sam had been drafted in the 7th round by the St Louis Rams—which was significant because he is the first openly gay player to enter the NFL.  Talk about locker room tension, or even on the field concern of being tackled by the guy who will unquestionably struggle to keep his sexuality in check around naked men every day.  The kind of idiots who think that gay athletes can be paired together without circumstance are the same fools who can’t fathom being married for 50 years to a member of the opposite sex, raising a family and falling in rhythm with that person in a lifelong dance that builds good people as byproducts to the relationship.

A long time friend of mine gave a nice speech to the crowd amassed in the bowels of the Grace Baptist Church in Middletown about how important his parents had been to he and his sister over all those years.  It wasn’t difficult for him to conger up many good memories of all the years his parents had been there for him like a rock to depend on.  As I listened I knew my own children and now grand children had similar thoughts which would become that much more pronounced when my wife and I hit our own 50 year mark.  That seems like a long time ago, but we realized during the speech that all these 50 year marriages had essentially all been present at our own wedding and they were at the stage then that we are now.  I remember thinking at the end of the 1980s when divorce was becoming rampant and easy by lawyers looking to make money off other people’s misery that many then thought 25 to 30 years of marriage was impossible, yet many were present at our own wedding at the Becket Ridge Country Club.  That in itself was sadly unusual.

Long marriages are not about sexuality.  They are about teamwork, commitment, determination, tenacity, love, and a willingness to walk through the fires of life and spit out the flames one by one at whatever cost.  No marriage over such a long time goes without pitfalls because life has a way of issuing out detours to such journeys without any compassion to our sensitivities.  Long time couples find a way to work through things and come out on the other end and their families are stronger for it.

The news of the new openly gay NFL player is a judgment based on a person’s sexuality only.  It is a progressive desire to destroy all resemblance of traditional family values and place before the world the progressive notion of an athlete that is gay as though such a thing could be normal.  Regardless of how one believes another might become gay, the fact that Michael Sam is will without question cause difficulties in the lives of his teammates.

Being married for a long time I can declare with safety that if I were playing football and the cheerleaders had to shower in the same location as my team mates, my wife would not be OK with that.  The reason is because sexuality needs to be focused and conducted in the bedroom of our home in order for her to manage all the other tasks of our family.  Having nakedness and sexual temptation outside of our marriage would then weaken all the important tasks in our relationship, such as picking out new trees for our yard, keeping track of events in the extended family, needs that the children might have and so on.  Seeing the naked bodies of many women even if the occurrences did not lead to sex would be distracting to our relationship.  It introduces elements that would pull the context of our marriage maneuvers into the primal realm which is not sustaining to families at large.  It’s not a matter of trust so much as sacrament.  If every other young woman prancing around gets a nice view of the tripod and can go home to satisfy themselves to its memory—what sacrament is there for my wife who is then supposed to worship it as a phallic beast meant only for her appeasement.  At football games she would know that all the little girls had the same knowledge of it as she.  They may not handle it but the vision of it is there in their minds for their enjoyment.

NFL player wives already have to accept that their husbands are likely cheating on them while on the road for away games.  That is bad enough.  But now they have to worry that Michael Sam will be doing more than playing ball on a football field and even if it isn’t beyond just looking—the act will be a sexual one.  For a man who likes to be under other men, nobody can legitimately ponder that for a gay male—being on the bottom of a football pile is not a fantasy that he will carry with him to his private acts.  For each man who adds a bit of sweat and odor to the fantasies of Michael Sam, it is sexual essence robbed from the wives of the players who are left with almost nothing sacred for their own bedroom.  Part of the appeal of a married couple is that their sexuality is committed to each other—not the world at large.

I do not like it when my wife goes to a doctor.  Her nakedness belongs to me.  Now, in the scheme of the human body we are all just clumps of flesh and once the soul is removed, the body decays away into dirt.  Humans bring value to such nakedness through their relationships.  If every other man out there has seen the naked body of a wife, then there is less sacred appeal in the bedroom—and anybody who has been married for a long time knows the need for such things.  Sure you get used to seeing each other but there is still purity in knowing that every neighbor up and down the street has not seen her which makes her treasures a gift of the relationship.  Without such enticements, fighting through the really hard stuff is not very appealing—and people usually give up.   This is also why being married to a stripper will bring unusual tension to a relationship.  It might be fun while she is young and attractive, but down the road when her old customers are lonely and looking her up online after she’s popped out a couple of kids—her naked body will be on their mind.   They don’t want to talk—but to remember.

To people who think marriage is a mystery and really have no clue to how relationships work, they are cheering for the progressive step forward society has taken as the St. Louis Rams drafted Michael Sam.  They believe that putting a gay man in a locker-room with other guys will actually work but it won’t, mark my words.  The two things are not biologically, or intellectually compatible and the tension of sexual premise will be distracting to the organization in a very negative way.  Progressives are fine with the conflict, because they are out to change the essence of how human beings conduct relationships.  They are interested in the social impact of changing behavior—especially in marriage.

An old friend sat at my table at this anniversary dinner—one I hadn’t seen in about 20 years.  We picked up our conversation upon the last sentences we had uttered two decades ago only he filled me in on the three marriages he had over that duration.  Such things are normal these days.  Having children with one wife then children with a second and third and trying to see all those kids who are essentially being raised by other men who do not share the same kind of values as the original father is simply destroying children—and these days it is normal behavior.  Nobody thinks twice about hearing his story—but when people find out that my wife and I have been married for a quarter century they almost act like they stumbled into a leprosy village.  Yet everyone yearns for the 50 year anniversary.  I doubt there is a woman alive who goes to her wedding day not hoping to someday celebrate 50 years of marriage to her husband. Yet increasingly, such thoughts are a fleeting fantasy.

The progressives have destroyed the lives of many millions of people by teaching them the wrong values; this latest stunt involving Michael Sam is just the most recent.  Unisex bathrooms, easy pornography, and cheapened sexuality mixing gender roles attacking the family unit of tradition aggressively have destroyed our modern culture and left the children to be raised essentially by government schools.  Behind every marriage these days is a parade of parasitic lawyers chasing after the couple like hyenas waiting for one of them to stumble so that legal action against the other can take place and the state can take control of the children.   What my friend was thanking his parents for at the anniversary dinner was for giving him a sense of tradition and value as the trend has moved toward thinking that the Michael Sam draft is fashionable. Anybody coming from such long-term marriages whether it is my friend, me, or my children are lucky and we know it.  But it will be up to us to protect such opportunities in the future as the trend is against it.  Yet it shouldn’t be.

Rich Hoffman

www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com