Every year I look forward to the Star Wars weekends at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. It is one of the wonderful opportunities for philosophy, fantasy, ingenuity and the best aspects of human nature to converge at a palace of capitalism and celebrate the existence of one of the greatest stories of all time. I love the energy, optimism, and opportunity that Star Wars offers individuals and families everywhere. Many die-hard Star Wars fans converge every year in the middle of May to attend the fabulous Star WarsWeekend events. For those who cannot attend, I offer these clips from the spectacle taken during the opening day ceremonies on Friday, May 17, 2013.
Sit back, grab a snack and enjoy the fun and pleasure of entertainment shown in the videos below!
I saw Iron Man 3 last weekend and wanted to immediately provide a review of some kind because it was a very good film full of large concepts. The value in these comic book based stories is that they do not take themselves too serious as intellectual advancement devices. But like so many plot lines to video games these days, the writing, and concepts behind the plot are quite advanced allowing viewers to define abstract concepts in mythological dialogue that the human brain understands as a truth obtained no other way. When it is wondered why the Marvel films are doing such magnificent business it is not because of the great performances of Robert Downey Jr., or any of the primary actors, but because the bizarre plot lines have within them a truth that unifies all the fragmented evidence society is exposed to and presents the information in a way that makes sense.
But before going too far down the rabbit hole, let’s get the typical stuff out-of-the-way. Is Robert Downey Jr., worth the $50 million dollars he is getting to play Iron Man in these films? I’d say no. If it were me making the decision at Marvel Comics and Disney on how to pay Downey for Avengers 2, I would write Downey out of the story and let him sit it out for a film or two so that his agent does not have the contract leverage to continue driving up the labor costs. By paying Downey so much money, which I don’t think even he thinks he’s worth, it sets a dangerous standard that the other Avenger actors will expect in equality under the ridiculous standards of collective bargaining, and could wreck the magic of these films in the future. If Iron Man or an Iron Man type of character needs to appear in The Avengers 2 let it just be the suit with another actor doing the voice of Downey, or make it the Iron Patriot instead of Iron Man. Let Avengers 2 make a lot of money without Downey to take away the leverage and keep the budget under control—otherwise the Marvel films as a financial formula could be wrecked as the parasites of the entertainment industry will seek to concentrate on collective bargaining as a way to increase their own looting percentages. Downey’s performance as Tony Stark in the Iron Man films is brilliant, and I laughed out loud several times during Iron Man 3, but that performance is not worth $50 million dollars or more. I’d center the next Avenger film around another character and if the actors don’t come down in their prices, make it more about The Hulk as a CGI character to cut down the screen time of the other actors and call the bluff of the agents trying to increase payroll for the actors to over $200 million alone—as everyone now expects a Marvel Comics movie to pull in at least $1 billion at the box office. With that said I don’t think any other actor could have played Tony Stark as brilliantly as Downey did. The range of emotions Robert Downey Jr., performed in Iron Man 3 ranged from dealing with genius scientists, mechanical robots, romantic interactions, maniacal terrorists, to the innocence of young children—all done with comedic overtones. It was unique, and fun to watch. In spite of the money demands Iron Man 3 will place as a danger to contract negotiations between Downey and future films, I think all the parties will work out the situation in time and snap back into reality allowing Iron Man to return to the big screen played by Robert Downey Jr. I think Downey understands the situation and will do the right thing in the end giving kids more of his Iron Man.
What set this Iron Man 3 film apart from other movies of the same basic design was the way they portrayed the villain, The Mandarin, played by Ben Kingsley. As I read the reviews of Iron Man 3 and saw that so many young people were having a hard time accepting who and what the Mandarin was as a bad guy, I had to laugh a bit. Many people seeing Iron Man 3 had hoped that The Mandarin would be a villain of epic James Bond capacity, a treacherous villain worthy of being far superior to Tony Stark in order to drive tension into the film’s narrative. Instead The Mandarin was simply an actor hired to play a terrorist by the real terrorists who were working behind the scenes of a well-intended campaign to end human misery by re-growing lost limbs from victims of unfortunate tragedies. The real villains in Iron Man 3 were brilliant wide-eyed scientists and politicians who wanted to help the world, not destroy it. They simply desired to “nudge” society into compliance with their vision. This conspiracy went all the way into the President of the United States own administration and was handled very well by the writing and direction of Shane Black. Considering that Iron Man 3 was being filmed and finished in post-production after the events of the real life Aurora shooting, Sandy Hook, and Benghazi, the plot of Iron Man 3 was incredibly insightful. The difficulty with the various conspiracy theories involved in all those real life tragedies is to assemble them logically with the information that can be known. Figuring out what happened is not easy as it’s like trying to assemble a puzzle where someone has stolen most of the pieces and then tried to figure out what the picture on the puzzle was without most of it being put together.
Most people know or feel that the government as a self-preserving entity will knowingly derail information from the public which leads to all the wild speculations generated about the real intentions of a terrorist act. Even to this very day, conspiracy theorists are ridiculed by the government and their public relations machines for even asking good questions about what really happened in the 9/11 tragedy calling them “truthers.” This leaves people afraid to openly state their opinions, which is the design of the derogatory designation forcing society to relegate their opinions to themselves. Yet fantasy films like Iron Man tackle those conspiracies head on with creativity and attempt to assemble the missing puzzle pieces with some form of logic, and this is why films like Iron Man, and the Batman films are doing such ROBUST box office business. There is a truth in Iron Man that has more meaning for society than 24 hours of watching Fox News.
I watched an interesting interview from Bill O’Reilly a few days ago where he was confused by the enormous business that Iron Man was producing in sheer box office dollars. O’Reilly like all the other news makers of the day wants to believe that Iron Man 3 is good just because of the great performance of Robert Downey Jr. But it’s not. Iron Man 3 is about terrorism and radical extremists, something we all deal with everywhere in the world. Yet the way the terrorism angle was dealt with in Iron Man 3 was likely much more truthful than the typical plotline of any other blockbuster film. We all expected The Mandarin in Iron Man 3 to be a ruthless terrorist like Osama bin Laden, or Saddam Hussein—a mastermind, and ruthless despot. But when Tony Stark discovered who the real Mandarin truly was, he found that he was just an actor who has been playing the part of a terrorist in exchange for drugs—as he’s a recovering addict. That is the reason behind the success of Iron Man 3 and films like it.
Even in the wild over-the-top plot lines of The Avengers, the idea of aliens attacking earth through a wormhole has more plausibility than many of the plot lines that our society is fed by statist oriented governments who seek to placate the public with disinformation and manipulation in order to advance their version of solutions against the will of the people they represent. There is more truth in simple comic book stories than in any other plausible explanation, and this is not just a diabolical tragedy, but a stunning revelation. The magic of a story like Iron Man 3 is that it puts the plausible concept in the mind of the viewer so that rational emphasis can be added to actual reality. In the case of Iron Man 3, the storyline is unlikely, but the scenario of how the terrorists were able to get into the president’s own administration and manipulate vast sums of people with the fear “they” created with the fictional character in The Mandarin has roots in reality. The intention of the Mandarin was to get the eyes of the American public to look toward China or the Mideast for the source of the terrorist threat, not to Miami, Florida in a crack house filled with whores and a burnt out actor who had been hired by the terrorists to play a terrorist.
Iron Man 3 reminded me of a typical action film from the 80s in most other regards. I did not think the special effects where outrageously great. I thought the ending was telegraphed and was average. Coming out of the theater I asked Doc Thompson what he thought of the film from The Blaze and he said that he liked it, but that it was an average film—technically. He gave it 6 out of 10, which I tend to agree with. I would give it a bit higher score based on Downey’s performance alone. But the film is much better if the context is considered by the explanation of many conspiracies. It is in this explanation, or plausible one, that the Marvel movies thrive so boldly. There is truth in these fictions that is more relevant than the truth offered in real life that often turns out to be fiction. This is why Iron Man 3 has made nearly $1 billion dollars in just two weeks at theaters. As wonderful as Downey’s performance was, it is the plots that drive the heroics, and that rests in the hands of Stan Lee from Marvel Comics.
I read a lot of heavy material, and I often balance out all that weighty stuff with comic books to ease my mind and relax. In fact, for my 25th wedding anniversary my wife bought me a comic book. I like to read them, which only takes about 10 minutes, but I often enjoy just looking at the pictures which contain the visions of the authors and effort of their imaginations. They are often simplified outlooks at reality but occasionally, there are very sophisticated concepts that are approached in comics which can’t be explored in the deepest work of Carl Jung. I read recently a very good editorial from Dave Marshall at Dark Horse Comics in January of 2013 titled “Everyone Needs Stories.” Below are the first couple of paragraphs that remind me of why Iron Man 3 is so successful.
Too often stories can be taken for granted, bundled away as frivolous entertainment, but it only takes glancing at a newspaper, opening a book (nonfiction included), or having a conversation to see that storytelling is an inexorable part of communication, which in turn is an inexorable part of the human experience.
Stories are everywhere, yet our thirst for them remains unquenchable. We even consume products masquerading as stories in nearly immeasurable quantities if they are convenient, as our need is so present and demanding. This fact informs my work every day. I strive to contribute to books that give people the stories they need, with truthful characters who navigate authentic emotional experience in an intricately realized world, as opposed to merely growing the heaps of false stories, with motorized characters clicking through their roles in a mechanical plot, designed to lure people in and produce a predictable result (usually additional purchases).
When a story gives people what they need it becomes a part of them, integrating into their attitudes and ideas, and expressing itself in infinite ways, some of which the comics community knows well.
Dave Marshall, editor of Dark Horse Comics
Marshall is right, everyone does need stories, but not the kind that are produced in public relation firms and pumped out to keep the society at large in the dark as to the real truth of a matter. They need stories that can take the motivations of well-intended individuals and make them into treacherous monsters which is what Iron Man 3 is all about. It’s a fantastic story that has more relevance than the nightly news, and more truth than a White House press conference. As whimsical as Iron Man 3 is, it is more honest than the speech of a typical politician or government spokesperson, and that is why business is so good with comic book movies. They are not successful because kids and adults alike are escaping reality and reliving their childhoods through the characters actors like Robert Downey Jr., create, but because the stories are truthful, and honest about the human condition in a way that no other endeavor attempts to tackle. In that regard, Iron Man 3 is a 10 out of 10 and a movie that should be seen by everyone in every corner of the globe. And yet again, Stan Lee deserves a tip of the hat to his tenacious creations and ruthless honesty.
I am not used to as of yet reading through arguments where people I don’t know quote things I have said to validate their opinions. Yet I ran across just such a quote by accident seen below from my 2004 Symposium of Justice novel.
“Walk in the woods where there is no path. Live in conflict with those that are superior to you. You will learn, hopefully not too late, that life’s greatest fruits come to those who live a little dangerously. You’ll also find that if you make batters work for a hit, they’ll respect you more as a pitcher. If they get a home run off of you, it will mean more if they earn it.”
While staying with me during this visit, he continued to compare my work to Nietzsche extensively, which I thought was nice, but not relevant. I made only a passing reference to Nietzsche in The Symposium, but he had taken the dialogue to a whole animated level, which I thought was out of some inner need to attached meaning in his life to important things collected by his mind for the benefit of inner mythology. So I dismissed his appreciation for my work and instead wanted to focus on the shooting schedule for his film and how we would go about it. In my mind I had moved on from the intellectual concepts and onto something productive. That probably has something to do with why he was so shattered when I told him he was a terrible film director when he missed our film festival deadline with footage that was too dark, poorly cut together and virtually worthless. For me, it was just business. I didn’t think at the time that the entire reason he wanted to make the film in the first place was that The Symposium had an effect on him, and he wanted to live out a fantasy of becoming a film director with material he felt passionate about.
At another event that I was at a few years later, I had a fan who wanted my autograph and a picture because The Symposium of Justice had impacted him in such a way. As a person who never seeks autographs or pictures next to celebrities I wasn’t sure what all the hoopla was about. I had recently just returned from Los Angeles where I did the thing with Facinelli and noticed that everyone was taking pictures next to everyone else. So I stood next to whomever wanted to stand next to me for a picture. I didn’t understand it, but I played along. The good thing about Peter is that he made a point to drive me back to my hotel each day after the film shoot, so when we were in the car away from the set I asked him if he got tired of all the celebrity stuff. He laughed and said that he did sometimes, but that it was a necessary part of the job. So when I was at an event promoting the completion of my Symposium project called The Overman I signed autographs and posed for pictures playing along still not sure why anybody would want to do such a thing. An article about that event can be seen from a Yahoo News piece shown below.
JAMESTOWN, OH – Award-winning screen writer, author and stunt performer Rich Hoffman brought his most recent independent film project to Greene County, Ohio in March. Hoffman, originally from Middletown, Ohio, teamed up with Gery L. Deer, managing director of GLD Enterprises & Productions of Jamestown, to make a film that combines live action with the latest in high-definition computer generated imaging.
It took more than 12 hours to film the live action for the five-minute film short. Post production will take more than a month to complete and the film is scheduled to be released following its premier at the 2009 Indie Gathering independent film festival, August 14 in Cleveland.
The script is based on characters in situations introduced in Hoffman’s dark, futuristic, action novel, “The Symposium of Justice,” released in 2004. The project is professed to be on the cutting edge of digital video effects.
“Rich had an ambitious production schedule and a deadline that required us to do a great deal of work in a very short time,” said Deer, who is best known locally for his work as an independent journalist and entertainer but is also an experienced stunt performer and producer. “We had everything he needed to meet the production goals and, I have to say, short of a Star Wars movie, I have never seen so much green screen material in one place before; it was quite impressive.” All of the sets and background effects will be added in post production.
Green screen is a common term referring to the Chroma key technique used for mixing two images or frames together on film. In Chroma key, a color from one image is removed or made transparent revealing another image behind. This technique is also referred to as color keying, color-separation overlay, and bluescreen.
This process has been used for many years on weather broadcasts, where the presenter appears to be standing in front of a map, but in the studio it is actually a large blue or green background. In film and television production, the process is used to enhance visual effects or reduce costs on set construction.
Actors working on a green screen set perform among green-colored set pieces and backdrops. In post production, specialized computer software recognizes the green tinted background and makes it transparent and replacing it with digital effects. The actors, set pieces and props then appear to be in whatever setting required. Recent films like “300,” “Sin City,” and “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow,” have used this process to create both characters and settings.
Everyone is donating their time to this independent film project, as so many Hollywood-based productions are doing today. GLD Enterprises & Productions provided the production facility and set crew and stunt performers for filming the live action as well as various engineering and technical services.
The hope is that the final product will draw new business for the cast and crew in this sluggish economy where production capital is hard to raise. “This will be a great way to show what our group can do,” said Hoffman. Fortunately, Deer and Hoffman came into the project with an impressive track record.
In 2006, Hoffman’s script, “The Lost Cannibals of Cahokia,” won the highest award possible for a feature screenplay in the horror category at the Indie Gathering international film festival in Cleveland. Since then Hoffman has continued to develop other projects and recently returned from Hollywood where he worked on another independent production as a stuntman and fire whip specialist. A fire whip is a Kevlar bullwhip which is soaked in a specially formulated combustible fuel used for the visual effect.
Deer’s resume includes multiple performance and contest awards and work as a property consultant and designer for the 2003 Universal Studios movie, “The Rundown,” as well as roles in several independent film productions. A writer, whip stunt coach, publicist, and voiceover artist, Deer has been featured on television programs like NBC’s America’s Got Talent and The Bonnie Hunt Show. Deer is also a registered Writers Guild of America screenwriter.
The work was done on a closed set and the details of the script have been kept secret pending the outcome of the film competitions No title has been released at this time. To see photos or get more information about the project go online to www.gldentertainment.com and click on Hoffman Collaboration.
I had to finish what that director had started which is what The Overman was all about. In reality it turned out to be a sample of firewhip work against greenscreen to demonstrate how those two technologies could be incorporated. We had to shoot all those scenes outside because of the fire and the intense light from the fire making keying in colors during post-production a nightmare, but it worked well and was an award-winning effort.
The purpose of all this is that I wrote The Symposium of Justice from the heart, and many people came to enjoy it, but I moved on to the next phases of my life without looking back much or taking much time to consider what impact that novel had on people. It does make me feel good that so many people enjoyed it, and wanted to work with me just to be near the person who wrote the words.
Now it is equally strange for me to see quotes of my novel appearing here and there as validation to philosophical positions which is a strange sensation—and I think I like it. I enjoy it in the same way that The Symposium gave me access to people and places that I wouldn’t have enjoyed any other way but to put a story out to the world which touched lives in ways that you always hope for.
I might have been too hard on that film professor—(wanna’ be film director). He wanted to make the film because he wanted to bring The Symposium to life even though he lacked the emotional tools to do so. As more and more people go to the trouble of using aspects of my work to support their growing understanding, I will make an effort to be more facilitating of their expanding horizons. And if that involves a keepsake, or memento such as an autograph, I will make the effort not to appear so stand-offish.
For those who have not been keeping up with the news, here is the chance to catch up. Glenn Beck puts his thoughts together on how the IRS scandal, the Benghazi terrorist attacks, and the AP News story are all connected. Glenn’s thoughts are very much aligned with my own. Watch, listen, and share with a friend. For those who read here and hold “important” positions and know “important” people, make sure to share this with your networks so they understand what kind of game is going on.
With three major scandals enveloping the White House, Glenn spent time on radio this morning breaking down how they are all rooted in the idea of fundamental transformation.
“We have Benghazis, IRS, and the AP. I tried to figure out what these things were really all about. In the end what do these three scandals have in common? And what they have in common is the arrogance of transforming the world,” Glenn said.
In Benghazi, Glenn believes that Obama was trying to transform the Middle East by supporting revolution. Glenn theorizes that the CIA was involved with running guns to the Syrian rebels, a theory that has been supported by other members of the media in recent days.
“In Benghazi he was transforming the Middle East. He wanted to run guns, support the Muslim Brotherhood and Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia was the one who asked us to support the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria. So support the Muslim Brotherhood in the entire Middle East, run guns to the Muslim Brotherhood through Turkey into Syria and cede revolution, not just in Syria but all throughout the Middle East. This is the transformation of the Middle East. That’s his policy,” Glenn said.
How about the IRS scandal? Glenn said that’s about transforming political dissent and how the government deals with political dissent. He said the scandal specifically shows the evolution of intimidation and control from “nudge”, encouraging people to only trust sources with an acceptable bias like Al Jazeera and Huffington Post, to “shoot” where the IRS is used as a weapon to attack people’s reputation and finances.
“This scandal is about shoot. We’ve gone from nudge, to shove – which is destroy your reputation and I’m going to send the union thugs out after you ‑ to shoot. I’m actually going to use the union thugs to beat you, and I’m also going to destroy your life and finance through the IRS. I will destroy you. I will bankrupt you. When it comes to the only kind of gun the IRS has, they’ve just fired it at the American people,” Glenn said.
Finally, the AP scandal is about transforming the media.
“The progressives have been trying to transform the media for quite some time, and they’ve done a great job. We’ve all seen it,” Glenn said.
“Now, this, I want you to hear this fact clearly. This president has gone after and is prosecuting more whistleblowers than all of the other presidents combined in American history. By the way, he’s had five years. In five years he has gone after more whistleblowers than all other presidents combined. Understand that’s during the Communist hunts. That’s during Vietnam. That includes all of World War II, all of World War I and Woodrow Wilson. That includes Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. All other presidents combined,” Glenn said.
Glenn said that in order to transform the media, you first have to threaten the watchdogs who are trying to show what the government is doing. And when a few of the watchdogs are able to break through, you go after the press and intimidate them until they are unwilling to investigate.
“This is the last part of the fundamental transformation. What do all of these have in common? Transformation: Transform the Middle East, transform the First Amendment, and transform the media and the watchdogs. Transform, fundamental transformation of the United States of America,” Glenn said.
This isn’t the first time I’ve said such things about Obama. I suggested impeaching the President after the controversial appointment of cabinet members during 2012. CLICK HERE FOR REVIEW. So this isn’t anything new for me. But if my congressman John Boehner had acted when I suggested it then the lost lives in Benghazi might have been saved, the economy would be recovering, and the IRS scandal which was happening to members of his district due to their involvement in Tea Party groups would not have occurred. Also members of the media would not have been subjected to harassment by the Obama Justice Department under Eric Holder and countless other tyrannies that could have been averted.
Instead, Boehner calculated that my urging to impeach Obama was radical, and represented a far right-wing view-point that he dismissed. After all, his concerns were to play golf with Obama and work toward “peaceful solutions” through diplomacy. Boehner also enjoys appeasing the local socialites who know little about politics, or business finance, yet inject themselves into every discussion where money flows attempting to bring altruistic judgment through joined wine glasses and catered meals. Such socialites support Obama’s brand of socialism, especially in public education institutions even though they claim to be conservative Republicans joined at the hip to Governor Kasich. Boehner and Kasich listen to the socialist whims of such people so that the purse strings stay open for future campaigns. After all, those socialites are “rich” and their opinions carry much weight even though the quality of their minds are detriments to society, and for politicians seeking re-election the former is more important than the later. It is because of such social pressures, and lack of determination that people like Ariel Castro can operate in the open, and why con artists like Barack Obama can get away with audacious lies behind a socialist agenda to fulfill goals that exist outside of fathomable reality. The blood is on the hands of those who didn’t act in the beginning hoping that elections would solve the problem peacefully, and far less grotesquely.
But elections didn’t solve the problem, and the “socialites” planned desire to maintain community integrity with wine glasses and fund-raising dinners allowed evil to grow, not abate, and now all those involved with the great indecision are guilty of not just assisting in treachery against The United States, but in assisting evil through inaction. The crimes committed by the Obama administration all during 2012 and thus far in 2013 are on the hands of those who failed to recognize evil hidden behind a smiling face and great charisma that only a demon from the temples of hell could generate.
It is a fair characterization to level such claims at Barack Obama because it was his administration that allowed for a terrible evil to be committed with full knowledge that it was a lie. Obama and his White House staff blamed the Benghazi deaths on Mark Basseley Youssef, AKA Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, AKA Sam Bacile the director of the terrible film “Innocence of Muslims” which about 10 people saw in a southern California movie theater. Other than that one public showing only a 15 minute video clip existed on YouTube at the time of the Benghazi attack. Bacile wrote the film in prison and shot it within two months of being release with no money, no real actors, and obviously an angry rant that was shaped during his stint in prison. Nobody saw it, and nobody cared—but the film was a symbol of free speech, which President Obama is supposed to protect. Instead, Obama allowed Bacile to take the fall for an alleged gun running operation in Libya and the apparently intentional death of those involved to cover the tracks. The Obama administration immediately hoped to hide their guilt behind the free speech efforts of a nothing film shown to a vacant audience counting on the American people to believe that the violence had been ignited by a 15-minute YouTube clip. See the rest of the story at the below link.
Obama knowingly lied to the American people and with the same type of public sincerity shown by the embodiment of evil in Ariel Castro who pretended sincere emotions during a presidential election that covered the gross abuse of his employees intentionally disgracing The White House. They did what they have done on purpose, and they trusted that the press and American people would not advance the issue beyond their deceitful manipulations. The worst of all these recent revelations are that the Obama administration designated a sacrificial victim in Sam Bacile who was only guilty of being a bad filmmaker, and tossed him into jail to cover the crimes of murder that was either intentionally committed by the Obama administration, or was caused by sheer incompetence. Either way, Americans died in Benghazi due to poor leadership by the Obama administration. Then the Obama White House tried to blame the violence on a silly YouTube video hoping that the scandal would not be pressed by the public any further. They insulted the deceased with their hope to get away with the crime.
The reasons for the impeachment of Barack Obama extend well into a long list of Constitutional violations and are voluminous beyond comprehension. But the worst is the intention of the administration to pick a sacrificial victim in Bacile and throw him upon an alter stepping all over his rights as an individual to preserve the collective aims of the Obama White House. If The White House will do such a thing with one man, they will do it with any collection of people, any business, or any philosophic idea, and that makes Obama and his employees dangerous to the American experience, and detriments to all free people who want a fair chance at life success and social opportunity. That is why Obama should be removed from office so to set the parameters for all future presidents of what is acceptable and what is not. A failure to act on Obama and his crimes will establish for the entire future an understanding that it is alright for Presidents to behave in such a destructive fashion against the American people. More destruction will follow of the American way of life if Obama is not impeached, and this is a reality that cannot be hidden from. It will take courage, courage from the press, courage from the politicians that must embark on the tragic journey, and courage from the American people to look evil in the eye and act against it, instead of being seduced. It must happen because America does not want to look at itself decades from now and wonder what happened in the same way that we are asking how Ariel Castro was able to chain three stolen girls in his basement in plain site of many people who failed to act in a way to save the victims. To me, Ariel Castro and Barack Obama are one in the same. Their only real difference is that Castro tortured and molested three innocent girls over a long period of time. Obama is doing the same figuratively with the entire world, and he needs to be stopped boldly and with great conviction. One is literal, one is metaphorical, but they are both the sheer face of evil in all its destructive qualities, and bottomless malevolence.
The status of that film is Peter and Rob is developing the concept now as a graphic novel which is the current trend in Hollywood. Hollywood likes to purchase proven commodities since budgets are so incredibly expensive, and film concepts must be fleshed out in advance these days.
The whip work I did was shopped around Hollywood with the RealD 3D stock footage captured during that shoot and became animation templates for films like Iron Man 2 and the Immortals. Below Rob talks more about the future direction of The Delivery in an interview. The entire interview can be seen at the hotlink below:
You’ve met with some artists to begin discussions of making “The Delivery” into a comic book, which is a cool idea in my opinion and we would love if you can hold us up to date about this. Back to my question… Have you ever thought about to make “The Delivery” as an animation movie?
Let me use THE AVENGERS as an example here. This summer THE AVENGERS will be released to what will undoubtedly be great success (at least from a financial standpoint, but hopefully from a critical standpoint as well.) It will feature some of today’s most popular actors. But let’s imagine for a moment that THE AVENGERS is a brand new idea that nobody has ever heard of. And imagine Stan Lee walking into a pitch meeting with a studio.
“So I’ve got this movie about a group of superheroes,” he says. “One of them is called IRON MAN. He’s this recovering alcohol who has a fake heart of sorts and flies around in a suit of iron. And there’s this other guy called THE HULK. He’s a dude who gets angry and turns into a green, muscular giant who can pick up a car with one hand. And there’s THOR, a Norse God who walks around in the modern world with a giant hammer and wings on his helmet.”
By this point, I guarantee the executives in the room are saying, “Um…no, thanks. Too expensive. Too weird-sounding. Too much of a risk. Too much money. And we don’t get it. Sounds like fun. And maybe if you brought it to us with an audience already built-in, then we would talk. But to do this from scratch? No way.”
That’s what we have with THE DELIVERY. A new concept that needs time so people can get it and Hollywood can “see it.” We have a screenplay for the first movie. We have a 3-D pitch trailer for the first movie. We are talking to artists about creating either a series of comic books or a graphic novel to develop an audience. We have, in fact, talked about doing an animated series for the project. But we need to build from the ground up and handle things in the most reasonable financial fashion. It starts with artwork in still images, and then we will move forward to animation/feature films/etc. as we build followers.
The film adaption I had been working on with a film professor who loved my Symposium novel and wanted to try their hand at producing and directing a movie version of it disintegrated when they failed to produce a finished clip to show at a film festival, which was needed to secure investors. The film professor learned the hard way why they teach film studies and aren’t actually in the “film business.” So my project was put on the shelf awaiting more competent hands as the money window opened and closed. The same thing happened to Peter Facinelli even with his superstar status after Twilight. Film studios are taking the safe bets for big budget action pictures with proven action stars and comic book material after the smashing success of Iron Man and the other Marvel Comic characters. Peter and Rob made their pitch trailer just ahead of the “Marvel wave” so the funding window closed on them as well.
But that doesn’t change the fact that doing such things was and is a lot of fun. Rob ran a great set and the project was a blast–literally. Without question we captured the best three-dimensional fireball ever recorded in 3D. They asked me to give them a 5 to 7 foot fireball that was as deep as it was wide, and I gave it to them. We shot the scene at about 4 AM as we were on a 12 hour shooting schedule over two days. When I cracked the fire whip sending a roaring air splitting explosion through the neighborhoods of Burbank, California the set gasp in awe as hundreds of people forgot to breathe for just a moment. It was the climax of The Delivery trailer shoot and was worth the entire effort. The RealD 3D execs in the director’s tent all rushed over to shake my hand as they realized what they had captured on film with their state-of-the-art camera system. Director Gunnerson yelled………………”F**KING AWSOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” His proclamation was nearly as loud as the whip explosion.
Many people ask me if it makes me angry to see that RealD 3D used that footage captured that night to shop their camera system around to studios and that those same studios did not invite me to do the same work for them on other film projects. Instead they handed the footage over to animators to copy off of. So the answer is no. There is nothing like real life effects, and whenever possible real effects should be done in physical reality. Animation never looks quite as good second-hand. However, I cannot blame studios, as I am expensive. If a kid can animate a fire whip on a computer screen while eating a hamburger from a Burger King drive thru window while copying stock footage of me more power to him. I am happy to help promote whip art any way possible, and projects like The Delivery and everything that spawns off it do in very positive ways.
However, it might be a while before Peter and Rob can get their film “delivered” to theaters. They need to build up a Comic Con following, and Peter understands how to do that. It will take a little time, but will eventually get done. Meanwhile I have to do the same with my own projects. In the film business it is like a merry-go-round where the point of opportunity may be seen, but quickly passes as the ride spins around. The way to approach is to wait for that opportunity to present itself again on the upstroke instead of trying to act too late and force a project through before its ready. Stan Lee at Marvel Comics spent decades building up the demand for his characters, and sometimes it takes that. I am happy to see that Peter and Rob are planning to do the same, and to take their time with their idea—because it is theirs—and gives it value that is almost always missing from stories that are brought to production too quickly by industry barnacles who only care about the money they can make off a project. A film must be able to do both, and in the end, The Delivery will “deliver.”
It has taken me a few days to assemble my thoughts about Ariel Castro, the man who took at least three young girls hostage in his home and forced them to perform as sex slaves over a ten-year period, never letting the girls see the light of day. I wish I could say that such information was shocking, but it’s not. The case represents a complete failure in our society—a failure to recognize evil and to act on it. Castro was very arrogant about his behavior, even maintaining emotional connections to the families of the girls he had locked in his basement—so to throw off the trail of his guilt. The case has unsettled Americans because they fear that it could happen to anybody, anywhere, if such people could do such a horrible act right out in the open of a busy neighborhood. The question of how Ariel Castro could have held the girls prisoner for such a long time as other people walked by down the side-walk, visited his home, and observed him from across the street and not detect the evil happening in his basement leaves Americans feeling insecure—and looking to government to assist them. Everybody wants to know that somebody can detect such evil and prevent it from happening.
When I wrote my novel TheSymposium of Justice I wrote the opening chapter based on a personal experience I had which involved the FBI and local police who were unable to find a serial rapist that was roaming my neighborhood, frightening my wife and little girls. The villain of that chapter was a character who is ironically very much like the profile of Ariel Castro in real life. The scene takes place in the chapter titled “Scarface the Rapist.” It was based on many late nights spent by myself looking for the rapist on my neighborhood streets because the FBI was failing to discover the predator. The similarities to Castro and Scarface the Rapist in my novel was not a prophetic act on my part, but a profile tendency that such villain’s exhibit. I realized in my interviews with the police at the time, and the FBI that our society had lost the ability to detect evil and act on preventing it, because most human beings had fallen victim to inaction by allowing their personal educations to introduce to their minds anti-concepts which stripped away their ability to ascertain value to people or situations.
I wrote The Symposium of Justice as a reaction to this realization. I wanted to re-teach those willing to learn how to recognize evil and to act on their realizations. I wanted to present to reader’s minds various scenarios that examine evil from various vantage points so that they could relate the experience to their lives and hopefully keep people like Ariel Castro in the cracks of society away from innocent children.
There is no amount of surveillance available to the CIA, FBI, the DEA, the police, or any other protective organization if the people listening have lost their ability to determine the nature of evil and to act against it. The short answer to the Ariel Castro types in the world, who wish to assert their dominance over others with force, coercion, and fear, is that the authorities cannot save anybody. They can only scoop up the bodies later after the crimes have happen. It took Amanda Berry to finally escape after 10 years of captivity having to endure unimaginable acts to heroically save herself by playing her hand till just the right moment. If she hadn’t kept her mind sane, the rest of the girls would still be chained in the basement for perhaps another 10 years and the police, along with every federal agency would be powerless to do anything about it. They are powerless not because they don’t have the tools to detect human bodies present with heat detection technology, listening devices, and other advanced wall penetrating information gathering equipment—but because they cannot detect the behavior patterns of evil.
The human race has lost its ability to look people like Ariel Castro in the eye and determine that they are up to no good. The human race has lost its ability to assert judgment of right and wrong. It has lost the ability to act on behalf of goodness.
I realized this during my many interviews with federal agents and the police years ago. So I took matters into my own hands. I wrote The Symposium of Justice to help others re-learn how evil conducts its sinister symphonies. I write this blog every day in the same spirit, I want to teach other human beings how to determine right from wrong and to educate them on the skills they have had bred out of them through public education and other statist institutions. The best way to prevent the Ariel Casto types from ruining the lives of other people is to detect them as they walk down your sidewalk, or to catch them in the middle of the night outside a neighbor’s window, and to deal with them in ways that they police are powerless to engage in—due to a court system which has allowed evil to thrive by removing value assessment from society.
The other aspect to this problem of evil and its social growth is the tragic result of modern society to consciously produce “beta men.” Public schools, statist governments, religions, and the media have actively sought to destroy the traditional sense of strong, Alpha males in a misguided attempt to bring perceived equality to women. They have sought to accomplish this by bringing down the mental standards of women toward men, and making men strive to be physically less astute and more akin to females. This has caused all types of problems primarily where men no longer feel they should protect females in society. Men should no longer open the door for women, pay their way during mating customs, or stand on behalf of a woman’s honor, is the modern message advocated most profoundly. Progressive social engineers have removed “value” from the social vocabulary so to make possible equality between the sexes and this has left both males and females prone to being preyed upon by evil.
We currently live in a society where a man would not consider taking a bullet from a gun for a woman he does not know. He will not fight for the honor of a female that is being pillaged by a gang of thugs. The man has been taught to be a “beta” since he views males and females the same in value so the first impulse is indecision instead of valor during an emergency confrontation or possible maneuver by evil to harm an innocent women. This has wrecked sexual customs in human beings forcing their inner feelings underground through pornography to manifest. For women, they deeply yearn for a dominate man in their sexual relationships and are more prone than ever to promiscuous relationships outside the family unit to satisfy their yearnings. For men, unable to satisfy their wives turn to pornography and innocent young girls who are too immature to judge their adult inadequacies. This is the fuel behind the sex trade industry where many men save up their pennies to purchase “escorts” during business trips at their hotel rooms, or place dollar bills in the panties of 19-year-old girls at Vegas gentlemen clubs. Some even go so far to fly oversees to participate in the type of youthful sex that they cannot get in the United States openly.
This comes back around to the Ariel Castro case. Castro, too poor to fly to Malaysia, Cambodia, or China for illegal sex with 12 to 16 year-old-girls simply took them from his neighborhood. He scouted them out as a school bus driver for a public school, and simply took the girls for his use. His situation is no different from the other evils that drive sex trade throughout the world. The only difference between Castro and “Millions” of other confused men is that Castro was too poor to hide his crimes from the eyes of society. He could only afford to take the crimes to his basement, but the desire is the same as the middle-aged businessman who pretends to go to Cambodia for a “charity” event only to use such an endeavor to commit vicious evil against an innocent child sold into the sex trade by parents crushed under government statism. The evil of Castro was not seen by friends, family and neighbors because in their minds they are guilty of the same crimes. They may not act on their thoughts, but they think about them, which prevents them from casting opinions at the strange behavior of Castro as he entered his home with more food than he needed, placed trash in front of his home that was “excessive,” and had strangely boarded up windows. Nobody thought to push Castro when they were associating with him about his strange habits because they had the same irregular behavior patterns allowing evil to hide itself in plain view.
I know when I wrote Symposium and started the opening chapter with a rape attempt driven by a child molesting sex addict that I was insulting most of the world population. I didn’t expect the novel to jump to the top of the New York Times Bestseller list because it stands against most of the current values of modern society. But for that, I am proud. I enjoy profoundly fighting evil. I have done it all my life and I will do it as long as I walk the earth. I have picked fights with evil for many years and had many adventures because of it. If I had it my way I would string evil up into the trees with my whips and beat them all like a piñata. I don’t care if its one evil doer or 1 million, it does not matter. But in the modern world, I would be prosecuted because I have value where evil does not. Evil and statist government are essentially one in the same so the government will defend evil and prosecute me because evil has nothing to give—they can only take—just like government. So I take my frustrations out on evil in my novels—particularly my Symposium, which my kids love most. They know me, and some of the antics I have been involved in, so they understand the motives of Fletcher Finnegan from that very defined story of good against evil.
I feel bad for Amanda Berry who escaped the wrath finally after 10 years from Ariel Castro. But I feel worse for the “millions” and millions of other girls throughout the world who are currently under the same tragic circumstances. Evil has their lives in its hands and for such young minds they realize that there is nowhere on earth that they are safe, so they surrender their integrity to the impositions of tyranny in the form of forced sex. The line of problems that lead to such circumstances is long, and has its roots in statist governments and lack of individual will. This problem will not go away with the prosecution of Ariel Castro. It will simply allow society to divert their attention away from the real problem of evil that is present in their own lives, inconveniently. For those who realize such things, I offer them The Symposium. The way to beat evil is to combat it directly and to spit in its eye and prevent it from hiding in the shadows of guilt, apathy, and lazy neglect. Evil must be defeated if the human race hopes to continue, and no government on earth can achieve such a feat no matter how much money they spend on the attempt. The combat of evil comes from the ability to first determine right from wrong and assess value. Then there must be a will to confront it. Without such things, evil will continue to hide right in front of our faces, and more Amanda Berrys’ will remain chained in basements, tied to bed posts, and taken from loving families and sold into modern slavery until such a will is present in the human race. It all starts with recognizing evil for evil, and having the courage to confront it without fear.
This is how desensitized we have all become. It’s an accepted practice…………….and it is evil.
As Justin communicated with me his thoughts on the IRS revelation on May 10, 2013 he had just wrapped up a very busy day with the media finishing up with ABC World News Tonight, among many other television news programs. He was far from “satisfied” and I couldn’t blame him. Here is the prior article about the issue with the IRS and Justin.
* Reaching out to liberty groups and tea party groups is political in nature – an affront to liberty. I accept the organization (IRS) has a policy against it, but would like to know what actions are taken to assure this does not recur.
* Asking a group about a tax status, unless politically motivated, is ok. What leadership does in their free time is of no relevance to what the organization does. Asking about an individual, particularly an unrelated individual, is troubling. What purpose could it serve? Why was that individual, me in this case, not contacted or informed of outreach?
* As of writing I have not received anything in writing from the IRS besides the initial denial. It would be nice to receive an apology and to receive assurance it will not happen again and that responses, if any, will not be held against me the individual.
The IRS had attacked the Liberty Township Tea Party out of blind speculation that they were involved with Justin Binik-Thomas as he was a founding member of the Cincinnati Tea Party and the assumption was that the Liberty Township group had a way of getting to Thomas. So Liberty Township was maliciously selected for “enforcement.” This essentially meant that the leadership at Liberty Township had to jump through any hoops the IRS decided like mere animals doing tricks for their livelihoods. One of the targets of this IRS inquiry were videos I made featuring Sheriff Jones discussing immigration reform and another I put together featuring the current congressional violations against the 10th Amendment.
I felt bad that my videos were under scrutiny and that some of my antics had gotten other people in trouble with the IRS. At one point in the early winter of 2013 I told some of that leadership just to blame the videos on me, that I was the sole owner of their content, and that I’d deal with the agents on my own. The Liberty Township group did a stand-up job of dealing with the IRS and took care of the situation, which was much more gracious than I was willing to provide, which probably saved a lot more headache. I provided the information the IRS was looking for, and once all those leads went nowhere, the IRS backtracked.
The entire witch hunt started as a direct assault on Justin, and the IRS was simply using mass peer pressure to force Thomas to comply, or back off his Tea Party actions. The IRS was essentially harassing the Liberty Township Tea Party as a way to get at the nerves of Justin Binik-Thomas, and that is not just wrong, it was criminal. So the apology from the IRS is nice, but way too late. It also hints at something else that is amiss.
I am very suspicious of government. I think of even the best of their representatives as habitual liars and con artists. I wouldn’t trust them to walk a dog on an empty leash. So their timing on this apology is actually alarming. The first thought that came to my mind is why are they doing it? And, why now?
Using pure deduction, based on the behavior of government in the past, the same government that lied under oath many times in the past declaring that the IRS did not do the things they just admitted to doing, I would say that the IRS as a member of the federal government is employing the old “bend but don’t break” defensive football strategy. The government knows that they are guilty over the Benghazi situation and are caught in a serious lie. They know that the Tea Party is still full of members that are very active and highly charged even after the re-election of Barack Obama. The government knows that there is an active campaign to remove Republican Governor Kasich from office in the next primaries for turning against the Tea Party, so they fear what might happen to them if the Tea Party gets even more detail out of the Benghazi hearings, which have been carried on Fox News, and extensively by The Blaze Network. The Blaze is a huge supporter of the Tea Party movement and it is getting bigger by the day. The IRS of course knows all this since they have the ability to pry into all our lives at will in the name of “revenue” for the always hungry government. During the Benghazi hearings The Blaze website had over 15 million unique visitors, which is a lot of Americans looking for the truth. So I contend that the IRS is taking a calculated move in relation to the rest of the government and yielding a little to the Tea Party in hopes of taking the edge off the really bad stuff coming out of the modern-day Watergate—which is Benghazi.
This is the trouble with a “collective” organization who thinks more like an ant colony protecting the “queen” than a society of free individuals. The IRS understands what their brothers and sisters are going through in Washington D.C. regarding Benghazi, and they are hoping to take the edge off the story with a nice little monumental revelation that seems so scandalous that it sucks the life out of the Benghazi story. But so what—what is anybody going to do to the IRS? So what if the IRS breaks the law and pisses off the Tea Party, what do they care if they make anybody angry? They revealed they lied in testimony, and that they actually target individuals whom they politically disagree with. So their admission means nothing, it gets played on the news and it makes many Tea Party members believe—falsely—that “the government” is coming around, that they are trying to be good, and honest for a change wishing to redeem themselves for sins of the past—which is far from the truth.
Experience tells me that the behavior of the IRS indicates a bigger fish to fry just outside of perception, and the attempt to throw the world off the scent is the real strategy of this sudden revelation by the IRS. So it would be my advice to those who read here frequently to not take your foot off the throats of those who seek to rule over you. Instead, push down and do not become distracted with this petty admission. I know Justin doesn’t feel happy about spending the last two years targeted personally by the IRS just because he existed. I know the Liberty Township Tea Party would like to have back the dozen or so 2 hour meetings they had to deal with just IRS compliance measures. And as for my time, where do I get back my Saturday that I wasted making DVD copies of my published videos so some pin head at the IRS can have hard copies of evidence gathered from the Liberty Township Tea Party? The answer is that I don’t, the IRS stole my time for no reason, and they don’t care one bit about it. Their apology is not one of sincerity, but of further cover-up of the many sins coming out of Washington D.C. One of my Saturday’s is more valuable and productive than the entire IRS building full of people over any given year. Every minute of my life creates jobs, hopes, and fulfills dreams for others, so wasted time on the IRS takes those things away from others which are why they are such a bad organization whose only primary role is wealth-redistribution.
The shocking revelation by the IRS is not out of goodness, but to cover up further deceit. For them to show humility toward Justin Binik-Thomas who was the real target behind the Cincinnati IRS probes is in the hope that the Tea Party becomes too compassionate to press on with the much more destructive injustices that are hidden just beyond sight. The General Petraeus affair was made of the same type of distractions. The tactical General was planning to retire anyway, so why not throw a juicy story to the hungry wolves hunting a guilty government in order to throw them off the trail? But the Tea Party didn’t take the bait and run back to their caves to eat the meat as hoped. Instead they sniffed and determined that the target was insignificant—and pressed on toward the real villain. Just the other day Obama declared to students at Ohio State that they “should not listen to these anti-government” groups. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain—was essentially what he meant. Government is feeling the pressure from the Tea Party and the strain is showing. Government knows they are guilty—all of them—of serious crimes, much more so than the situation of targeting Tea Party groups of tax exempt status then lying about it. And it is on those crimes that everyone must remain focused—which is what’s happening.
One of the Liberty Township Tea Party members in that leadership group most affected by the IRS inquiry released a statement which I will now provide on the matter. It’s from Mark Etterling, and articulates the problem very well, and provides insight to the next steps that are to come. Mark’s thoughts reflect my own.
An IRS spokesperson recently issued a verbal apology to the various Tea Party and Patriot groups whom they had specifically targeted for extreme scrutiny over their applications for 501C3 tax exempt status. Even though I can’t speak for our group, which happened to be one of those that was targeted, or any of the other groups for that matter, I can at least issue my own personal response. Your apology is NOT accepted. In fact, I’m willing to go so far in my response as to say that I would personally like to see those responsible not only fired, but also brought up on both criminal as well as civil charges for violating our civil rights via a direct abuse of power.
Exactly one month ago I wrote a commentary stating that I was fed up with all the bogus mea culpa’s. An apology based on an accident is one thing. However, an apology that is derived solely from being caught committing overt actions related to a political agenda is something else entirely. An apology isn’t enough after a school suspends a kid over eating a Pop Tart into the shape of a gun just so that the administrators can push a gun control agenda. Using the IRS to exercise extreme scrutiny against specific political groups is nothing more than an overt attempt to curtail the opposing voices of those groups. Therefore, an apology doesn’t cut it there either.
Those that are currently in power like to scoff at those of us who protest against what we view as tyrannical actions by claiming we are simply being paranoid. However, if you look up the Merriam-Webster definition of Tyranny it’s easy to see that bringing the full power and weight of the IRS to bear on a specific political group for the sole purpose of stifling their oppositional viewpoint fits the very definition of tyranny.
3: a rigorous condition imposed by some outside agency or force
4: an oppressive, harsh, or unjust act : a tyrannical act
I’m not acting out of hypocrisy just because this happens to be an incident that struck home for me. In fact, in the book I wrote two years ago I specifically stated that even though I disagree with almost everything liberals like Chris Matthews or Rachel Maddow ever say, I would still fight for their right to speak no matter how much I disagree with them. The reason is that freedom and censorship cannot coexist. The presence of one will automatically destroy the other. A person cannot profess a love of freedom and yet practice a tolerance of those things that destroy freedom at the same time. Therefore, your choice is to either tolerate the abuse of tyrannical censorship, or be as outraged about this as I am. I would suggest that no matter what your political leanings you should think about this carefully and choose wisely. Otherwise, the next time you might find yourself being on the wrong end of such tactics yourself where the tyrants will have already chosen for you.
My wife and I transplanted a Black Walnut tree in our yard during August of 2012 knowing that the little tree would struggle. August is a bad time of year in Ohio to move any kind of living thing that grows in the soil, but to compound matters there was a drought in August that year which meant we had to constantly water it. Then just six weeks later, the tree had already been looking withered when it suffered through the first frost of the year. Looking at the bits of ice accumulated on the tiny stump of a tree, I thought that was the end of its life. The little budding leaves shriveled up and fell off within days. All through October, November and December I looked at the little stump for a sign of life but there wasn’t any. So the plan was that we’d dig it back up in the spring and find a replacement. But as March came, then April I held out hope that the little tree would show some sign of life. Then, in the fourth week of April, little buds sprang out at the base of the tree. It was trying to grow again.
About the time that I was watching this tree I was reading Ayn Rand’s Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal on my front porch. I immediately drew a metaphoric parallel between capitalism represented by the little tree and the cruel nasty world that was trying to kill it represented by socialism. I thought of socialism because we had to remove the tree from where it was growing naturally as I was worried about mowing over it with the lawn mower. Landscaped yards always remind me of socialism as they are planned associations of plants in relationships concocted by the owner of a property that may not naturally be compatible. We had moved the tree to save the tree which brought to my mind George W. Bush’s famous socialist quote “I had to abandon free market principles in order to save the free market.” If I had not removed the tree, it would have died. But why did I have to move the tree—because I desired that my landscaping look a certain way. It wasn’t the poor little tree’s fault; it was just trying to live where a seed had fallen. As the dictator of my property, I can decide what lives and dies. My plants do not have freedom from me. They are completely reliant upon my compassion to keep them alive or to kill them at my discretion. That is why landscaping to me always reminds me of a planned society resembling socialism.
I tend to let things grow where they want to as much as possible, as they do in nature. I don’t like to tamper and trim too much unnecessarily, because I like the plants on my property to know that they have a certain amount of freedom to do as they please, and that I will let them. That also tends to be my leadership tendency when I have to lead others; I let them do their thing as much as possible as long as it doesn’t violate my overall vision. But the vision is always mine, and if something or someone gets in the way of that vision, they get cut down ruthlessly. That is the way of nature.
But that is not how it is supposed to be in a free country with free people. The government is not the people’s gardeners. The government is not supposed to transplant trees, cut the grass, and plant flowers just because they think such arrangements look pretty, or are pleasant esthetically. The government is not supposed to move businesses around, tamper with people’s cultures for bloc voting advantage, or pick winners and losers in enterprise. They are not supposed to be involved in health care, otherwise known as the watering of the population, but should allow growth to occur as robust and dynamic as the economy and the minds of the people can allow. The populations of earth should be allowed to grow to the highest trees of the California Redwoods as opposed to the well manicured trees of a football stadium, where the building is more emphasized visually than the plant growth of the landscaping.
These are the problems that are tackled and solved in Ayn Rand’s classic book about the philosophy of an economy which make excellent arguments in favor of capitalism. Reading the book felt like discovering an old archeological relic which held the keys to solving most of society’s problems, and finding such material after it had been buried away from man’s eyes for generations. Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal is a remarkable book written from essays first published in The Objectivist magazine during the 1960s. Capitalism is The Unknown Ideal because it never really had a chance to get off the ground in America, where the Ideal was invented. The result to America and to the world has been explosive economic growth that gave every individual operating under capitalism the opportunity to live and thrive based on their own ambitions.
Yet every statist oriented government in the world, which has dominated the human mind for millennia fear capitalism the way a panicky home owner worries that the grass of their well manicured lawns are growing too robust. For the property owner, it is generally accepted that the trees and every blade of grass on a property are the possessions of the owner. Governments, princes, princesses, monarchs of every kind, dictators, even United States presidents believe in their heart of hearts that people belong to the “leaders” of a culture in the same way that plant life on a property belongs to the owners and this is the cause of statist governments which find capitalism repulsive.
They fear an unmanaged economy because the evidence is that the growth can quickly overwhelm their property and remind them that it is the plant life that will always outlast their attention and place demands on the property owner–the leaders of statist governments. The growth of such plant life always threaten to overtake government which is what they fear most, so they diligently cut back any sign of extensive growth like maniacs fearful of their own shadows. Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal digs into the history of these fears and provides psychological reasoning for them in a way that is unique to this particular book.
Years ago when I studied economics at The University of Cincinnati there was not one mention of this book which had been out to the public for over 25 years at that point. The economics professor would have had much more success as an instructor if he had not attempted to explain variations of Keynesian economics and the cause and effect of business cycles but had simply taught his class upon the contents of Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal. Those business cycles, depressions, recessions, and all economic growth are caused by statist governments tampering with the robust desire for economic activity to flourish naturally, and without restriction. To maintain their control, governments are always cutting back on growth to satisfy their aesthetic tendencies which is the cause of most misery in economic development.
The book is incredibly well written, and easy to understand. But its concepts are contrary to what entire generations of civilization have been taught in their public education establishments and colleges. So most readers will go through a phase of troubled thought when reading, as they have to unlearn all the garbage that they have been taught over many years, but for the sake of review—in pulling together such remote thoughts into a single metaphor, the little Black Walnut tree and its tenacity at living reminded me of the lessons articulated in the wonderful book Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal. If every human being in the world read just this book, they would find their lives much better off. This book is the Dead Sea Scrolls of modern economics. Capitalism has been attacked and transplanted many times by over aggressive statist governments for many years. It has suffered harsh winters, frosts, lack of nourishment, and abuse of many who want to kill it. Yet, like any gardener learns when they take an extended vacation, or neglect their yard work, the grass always grows, and the trees spread out their branches. Capitalism finds a way to grow even under the harshest governments, under the most vicious advocates of socialism. It keeps crawling its way toward the light in spite of destructive restriction and gardeners who trim their yards to simply exert control over the plant life. Statist governments control economic activity in the same way, they cut, trim and manipulate to satisfy their vision, not the individual desires of the people who put them into power to begin with. This is the cause of their failure, and the reason for economic recessions.
In that regard, the industry of football was shocked that the Buccaneers would be willing to pay $96 million dollars to one person who was not a quarterback. In professional football, it is simply unheard of to pay that kind of money to one person, especially coming off ACL surgery. To the world of sports analysis, no single person is worth that kind of money. Yet for the Glazers in Tampa, who have been searching for a way to give their fans another dominate Buccaneer defense similar to the days of Warren Sapp, it is worth the money to them. As I’ve said before, American Football is the game of capitalism, and countries who favor socialism do not understand why Americans love it so much. Soccer is the game of socialism, which is why almost every country that plays soccer as their national identity, have an economic system of socialism blowing the wind in their sails. With that perspective, Darrelle Revis is simply the best defensive player in the NFL and the Buccaneers wanted him, so they paid the money to get him. Revis set his value at such a high figure by being the best, and anybody who wants to enjoy his services can pay the money. That is how capitalism works. In this case, Revis gets the kind of money that being the best defensive NFL player for 6 years can garner, and the Bucs get a player that should be able to return the team to the number one defense in the league category. Revis was traded to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on April 21, 2013 signing a six-year contract worth $96 million, making him the highest paid defensive back in NFL history.[63] The Jets received the Buccaneers’ 2013 first round pick (13th overall) and a 2014 fourth round conditional pick, which can become a third round pick.
For those in the world who wish to believe that anybody, or any player if they have a good coach, or school to teach them, can become a player like Darrelle Revis due to institutional merit, they are sadly mistaken. Revis is great because of his individual effort. Revis was born to former high school track star Diana Gilbert and Darryl Revis.[64] Revis is the nephew of former NFL defensive lineman Sean Gilbert.[65] Revis’ high school accolades include the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review 2003 Player of the Year, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 2003 WPIAL Class AA Player of the Year, and 2003 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette “Fabulous 22”.
In the PIAA Class AA State Championship football game, he led Aliquippa to a come-from-behind 32–27 win over Northern Lehigh by scoring 5 touchdowns including 3 rushing touchdowns, a punt return, and the return of a blocked Northern Lehigh field goal attempt. He also completed a 39 yard pass, had a reception, and an interception in the game.[7]
In his junior and senior years of high school he led Aliquippa to WPIAL basketball championships, leading the team in scoring both years, culminating with a 25.2 PPG average his senior season. He also had the most interceptions out of any cornerback for high school. He would go on to become a dominant player in college and then in the NFL earning him the reputation of Revis Island referring to the part of the football field that he covers. He is the prototype of the “shutdown” cornerback.
In Tampa Bay, they suffered through a season during 2012 that had them losing most of their games by 7 points or less. They had the offensive weapons, they had a top ranking running defense, they had wonderful special teams, but they could not stop the pass. They had lost a number of players over the years at cornerback and just could not find the right combination. Teams learned about halfway through the 2012 season that the Bucs could be beaten if they went over the top and threw over their very good defensive lineman, and linebackers. And that’s what happened. All the Bucs could hope to do was win games by out-scoring their opponents, because they couldn’t stop them. This was an uncharacteristic element for a Glazer team known for their staunch commitment to defense. So it was well-known that they would address the issue in the upcoming off-season. But few thought they’d be willing to spend so much money to address the situation.
The Bucs are taking a chance with Revis, and Darrelle appears to understand it all too well. Coming off an ACL surgery is risky, and for the Bucs to spend so much money on a damaged player speaks volumes as to what they value in Revis’ head as opposed to his physical skill. But for them, the marketplace was a perfect fit. Darrelle with the Jets had carried the entire team on his back, but in Tampa, he will have a tremendous amount of help. He should thrive under the ownership of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but only time will tell, however, the Glazers deserve credit. They are not just looking for a cornerback to cover 45% of a football backfield. They are looking for a leader at the level they had with Warren Sapp, John Lynch and Derrick Brooks who played on the field at the same time.
The Revis trade articulates how much value one person on a team can be. Individuals are not interchangeable. While teams do involve coordination of many individuals to accomplish a task, it is individuals of exceptional character and skill who raise the bar from mediocrity to “excepetionalism.” The Buccaneers expect out of Revis exceptionalism and it is worth the money to them to get it. It is fun to root for a team ownership who is willing to commit so much money to one player to obtain not only victories, but a culture that is known to the entire city of Tampa—as a dedication to “DEFENSE” as it was established in the years leading up to their Superbowl win of 2003. Even if the experiment turns out to be a bust—which I don’t think it will I am proud to support the Tampa Bay Buccaneers because of their willingness to embark on such experiments. I am proud to wear their merchandise, to fly their flags, and watch their games. The Glazers work hard to give me a product I can enjoy and they value the art of capitalism to a level that I don’t see in any other NFL team. That commitment is all over the Revis trade, and for that I am extremely excited for the upcoming 2013 season. I have a feeling it’s going to be a fun year to be a Buc fan!
Game day at the Hoffman House is a fun day for my family. I put on quite an extravaganza for every game. During the fall, the game can be heard streaming from my garage on the radio broadcast from Tampa and the televisions inside my house are on the game as I monitor the details over computer screens. I thoroughly enjoy Tampa Bay Football games, and this year there will be more to cheer for than there has been in a long time. For me, the cheers are not so much for points scored, but for points prevented as I cheer for a return of the great Buccaneer defenses of the past, and the rise of a new age of The Buccaneer Way that will raise the bar for the entire NFL, and drive the American economy with a wonderful example of capitalism at its finest in a game only understood by free people in free lands who love to sip beer and eat chicken wings as the leaves outside our windows begin to fall.
“If they attack first………..blast em’!”
I have kept the clip shown below to myself for the most part until now so not to interfere with the development of the motion picture The Delivery of which I served as a film consultant and stunt double performing all the fire whip stunts. (CLICK TO REVIEW and see pictures from the set
