Tag: philosophy

Senator Bill Coley Protects S.B.5: Ben Dribble of the Lakota School Board sticks his foot in his mouth

Over the last couple of days I have received dozens and dozens articles, comments from newspapers, video reports from news stations all over Ohio and Kentucky over this crazy school funding issue. Members of the Ohio Education Association seem baffled that voters are not interested in their rhetoric, as they have been in the past. People like me are not impressed with the silly stunts the OEA is trying to pull off with their 54 contracts signed this spring as S.B.5 goes into effect today, July 1st to attempt to appear that they are working with communities……..finally. With the unions, it’s all smoke and mirrors, as usual.

Unions don’t understand where the cost savings is in S.B.5, according to them. They don’t understand because those same OEA members believe they should be paid extraordinary amounts of money for teaching positions when new options such as electronic courses that could drive down the costs of education and are being resisted by the union. Now the OEA is trying to downplay S.B.5, as if they were nonchalant to the bill, even though they have aggressively gathered 700,000 signatures of their members and their families and friends to get the bill repealed.

Senator Bill Coley was on the Doc Thompson show on 700 WLW talking about some of the ways that school s can drive down their costs, and he also discusses how even with the 700,000 signatures the unions won’t be able to repeal the S.B.5 Bill, enabling unions to continue to drive up the cost of education in uncontrollable ways. Bill explains how Ohio is the first state in the nation to advance a program that will allow teachers to still make good money, but will also drive down the cost of education. But it’s competition that the teachers will have to deal with, and that’s why the union resists anything new.

A nasty email came to me the other day saying, “Mr. Hoffman, you won’t be happy till teachers are making 35K per year.” Let me say that people who think like that have gotten on my last nerve. They are fools who have played the system for years and brought all our budgets to the level they currently are. They have taken advantage of state and federal money that was passed out like candy on Halloween, and now that the governments are broke, schools and their unions believe that the budget gaps are supposed to be paid by tax payers.

Here’s the problem…….taxes are already too high. They always have been, but now that the money isn’t there from external sources, the local taxpayers are being asked to cover the difference; it is showing just how out of control the spending always has been. In schools, too much is when the budget exceeds your income. If you are losing state and federal money, then the school has to cut its costs to fit the budget. If the school has too many teachers and administrators that are making above 60K per year then it will have to dump some of those expensive employees to meet their budget. It’s pretty simple really. You don’t ask tax payers to cover the difference, because that difference is unrealistic.

I also hear quite a bit that schools are the pinnacle of a community, and that if tax payers don’t pay extraordinary amounts of money to public education then that somehow means the community doesn’t support it’s schools. This is nutty thinking by people who are grossly out of touch. Who says that money makes something good? Why can’t we have a great school at half the cost? And who says we need union labor to teach a kid to read? I’ve worked with union labor plenty of times and they always over exaggerate their importance. The typical union employee would make watching TV sound like they were making a sacrifice.

I don’t care if the labor is union or not, only if it is too expensive or correctly priced when it comes to an organization. I personally don’t want to pay money into a union because they have their roots in socialism and I don’t like socialism. But if a union wants to get together and play cards or whatever, they are free too. But they don’t have a right to collective-bargain for my money taken from my property. Whenever there are cost over runs, it’s most always because there isn’t any management controls.

I read the other day that Ben Dribble of the Lakota School Board mentioned that one of the requirements of a superintendent was to pass a levy………………………..what? So that is what a member of the school board believes? That costs just go up uncontrollably by some mysterious force and that taxes must therefore increase to meet those cost increases? People like Ben Dribble won’t know what to do with S.B.5 which actually gives school boards management control over their costs. So it may take some time for districts to find school board members that can actually manage costs, but eventually, these cost overruns will be dealt with.

Lakota like all schools must realize that even with the decrease in state and federal funding that property tax revenue will decline even further as more people move out of the district because of foreclosures or decreased property values once they go through property reassessment. Homes that were bought on the top of the housing bubble need to be devalued and should not be taxed at the higher rate. And when that happens, Lakota will lose even more tax revenue.

Apparently people like Ben Dribble and the OEA believe that it is feasible for property owners to cover the budget gap no matter how big that gap is. They believe that because they don’t understand the value of money, which is why the cost of education is so high to begin with. They are out of touch and are elements in education that need to be removed before any budget decisions can actually be discussed.

Thank goodness S.B.5 is now effective. Now let’s see if anybody has the guts to use it. Because the task of education is to get better than it is now, and also more effective without driving up the cost, anything less is not acceptable. The changes that are needed won’t happen without S.B.5 remaining intact, because it requires those changes to meet the new challenges presented. And so far, unions are standing in the way of that change and that makes them a detrimental force standing in the way of progress.

Rich Hoffman

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

Progressive Roots: The liars are calling the truth a lie, which is normal

 

 Progressives don’t know history, nor do they care about it.  All they seem to understand is that their bellies are full by some mysterious event called a job, which they seem not to know anything about how the jobs are created, just that they are there.  Like ants when they realize that a human being has just accidentally crushed a nest they had spent a lot of time building, progressives are seeing their dreams established by Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Second Bill of Rights, erode away. Van Jones has been hired by some of those ants to attempt to hold their dream of America together.

These ants are now fluttering about in frantic fury, attempting a new way to present their old message as millions of Americans are beginning to finally reject the infestation that the progressive has created into the fabric of the United States.

Labor unions rooted in socialism and progressives trying to create a European Utopia, as envisioned by Sir Thomas More 1478-1535, have planted so many seeds into the United States quietly, that many people just blindly accepted that all these big government desires were the way it was always supposed to be. More was an English politician, humanist scholar, and writer who refused to comply with the Act of Supremacy, by which English subjects were enjoined to recognize Henry VIII’s authority over the pope, and was imprisoned in the Tower of London and beheaded for treason. His political essay Utopia (1516), speculates about life under an ideal government. More was canonized in 1935. Progressives love Thomas More. Notice that he was canonized during this progressive period where in the United States; Franklin Roosevelt was imposing his own form of Utopia on America through the New Deal. It was in this spirit of More, that progressives sought to rebuild society. 400 years later, the man who had been imprisoned and killed in England was suddenly a hero.

FDR had no right to impose on America his New Deal. Roosevelt endorsed numerous new federal programs and agencies to reduce unemployment and restore prosperity, resulting in increased government involvement in the lives of Americans. The intent was good, and at the time, people wanted the relief. Yet this was a moment that the United States Constitution was trampled with disrespect. It is this America that is being destroyed because it was a false America to begin with, brought to us by a president who was playing with socialism, but calling it, “The New Deal.”

(2) The stock market crash of 1929 marked the beginning of the Great Depression. Unemployment increased and economic security was threatened. Farmers lost their land, workers lost their jobs, and many Americans lost their savings as thousands of banks closed. Campaigning on promises of a new deal for the American people, Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt won the presidential election of 1932.

Upon taking office in 1933, Roosevelt immediately supported a flood of new legislation. Laws established federal inspections and insurance for banks and mandated regulations for the securities market. Several bills provided mortgage relief for farmers and homeowners and offered loan guarantees for home purchasers. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) employed thousands of young men, while the Agricultural Adjustment Act helped raise agricultural prices. Congress established the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to develop the Tennessee River region. The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) provided for a vastly expanded public works effort and a program to regulate American business.

Hopes for early recovery proved illusory, and a second flood of legislation began in 1935. Sometimes called the Second New Deal, its measures included higher taxes for the rich, strict regulations for private utilities, subsidies for rural electrification, and what amounted to a bill of rights for organized labor. Guided by Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, the National Labor Relations Act gave workers federal protection in the bargaining process and established fair employment standards. The federal Fair Labor Standards Act mandated maximum hours and minimum wages for many workers. The Social Security Act of 1935 created a retirement fund, unemployment insurance, and welfare grants for local distribution (see Social Security). After 1937 opposition to extending the New Deal mounted, and by 1939 public attention had become focused on foreign policy and national defense.

The New Deal expanded the role of the federal government— particularly in economic regulation, resource development, and income maintenance— and created a number of agencies that remain in existence. Although the New Deal failed to stimulate full economic recovery, it helped the government develop policies to limit the impact of later recessions. Where Roosevelt left off in domestic policy, trampling all over the U.S Constitution, Lyndon Baines Johnson picked up.

Johnson (1908-1973), 36th president of the United States (1963-1969). He became president on November 22, 1963, hours after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Texas. Johnson’s domestic program, which he called the Great Society, was an extension of the New Deal enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s and 1940s.

Within three months the new president had the satisfaction of seeing a new civil rights bill pass the House and a new tax cut bill get through the Senate. In February he asked for two further measures: a law to protect consumers from unsafe products and deceptive packaging; and a program known as Medicare, an extensive scheme for hospital and nursing-home care for the elderly through social security (see Medicare and Medicaid). The president’s greatest legislative triumph was the passage in June of a sweeping civil rights bill outlawing racial discrimination in public accommodations and by employers, unions, and voting registrars.

All these presidents were well-intentioned, just like most progressives are. However, there are plenty of thieves willing to take advantage of those political positions for their own quests for power. People like George Soros without question have plans to build their own social utopia, and they will use people like Richard Trumka, and Van Jones to get it. If you ever want to know the truth, always follow the money. Then it will become obvious what the motives are.

And now that those utopian dreams are in jeopardy, there is frantic movement hoping to pull everything back together again. Progressives are attempting to put on a kinder, gentler face now, where in the past they used extortion and protests to impose themselves on presidents like Johnson and Roosevelt. And the Constitution was trampled upon with well-meaning audacity and now those who reside in power fear losing that power to the strength of the Constitution, because that is the current trend.

This leaves progressives with car salesman like Van Jones to put on a good face to the movement and hope that Jones can sell America back onto progressivism by convincing them that lies are the truth and the truth are the lies. “We aren’t broke,” Jones says. “Just take money from the rich, and everything will be fine.” Such irresponsibility is the last resort of the insect that has spent its whole life building a nest for the security of society with the secret desire to being the king. Such is the desire of all propionates of any utopian culture, which brings to my mind the words of William Goldring.

“Utopias are presented for our inspection as a critique of the human state. If they are to be treated as anything but trivial exercises of the imagination. I suggest there is a simple test we can apply. . . . We must forget the whole paraphernalia of social description, demonstration, expostulation, approbation, condemnation. We have to say to ourselves, “How would I myself live in this proposed society? How long would it be before I went stark staring mad?”

William Golding (1911–93), British author. “Utopias And Antiutopias,” address, 13 Feb. 1977, to Les Anglicistes, Lille, France (repr. in A Moving Target, 1982).

Encarta® 98 Desk Encyclopedia © & 1996-97 Microsoft Corporation
All rights reserved.

Yes, Van Jones, yes, Richard Trumka, we need to take a wrecking ball to the world you are defending, because it is not American by the definition of America. Progressive views do not belong in the America I want to live in. The America you built belongs in the Soviet Union and Europe at large. The promises and rights progressives like Jones and Trumka talk about are simply the Ten Planks of Communism. Those are not part of America. They are the wonderings of humorists like Thomas More and Karl Marx.

But as the ant house is destroyed, and they all run around in anger, it is important to know that it’s good that they are so upset even if we feel sorry for them. They had no right to set up an ant colony in a capitalist system with the intent to wreck our lives. Their demise is purely their own fault and no amount of kind words and manipulation can cover up what they really stand for, an America that trades freedom for security, and independence for a big brother to hold our hand as we cross the street filled with dangers created by that same big brother in order to make their presence appear useful. It’s coming to an end in a battle that is about to end their experiment of destruction.

Rich Hoffman

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

Top Twenty Useless College Degrees: Why are we paying so much for college?

Here’s a great little article; the top twenty useless college degrees.  Click on the link for the source article. http://www.thedailybeast.com/galleries/2011/04/27/20-most-useless-degrees.html

 I’ve put them all here for your convenience.  Special note, look how many graduates each year graduated with these degrees, each spending 50K to 100K for their educations only to find out there aren’t jobs in those fields of any value. 

Just think about the number on the chart, over a million kids entering these fields that are virtually useless degrees.  There are either an over-abundance of jobs in these fields, or the jobs don’t pay enough to justify the cost of the education.  In same cases it’s both issues. 

1, Journalism

AP Photo

Median starting salary: $35,800

Median mid-career salary: $66,600

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: -4,400

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: -6.32

Undergraduate field of study: Communications

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 78,009

 2, Horticulture

Getty Images

Median starting salary: $35,000

Median mid-career salary: $50,800

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: -15,200

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: -1.74

Undergraduate field of study: Agriculture and natural resources

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 24,988

3, Agriculture

Getty Images

Median starting salary: $42,300

Median mid-career salary: $59,700

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: -9,100

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: -0.88

Undergraduate field of study: Agriculture and natural resources

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 24,988

4, Advertising

AP Photo

Median starting salary: $37,800

Median mid-career salary: $73,200

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: -800

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: -1.71

Undergraduate field of study: Communications

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 78,009

5, Fashion Design

AP Photo

Median starting salary: $37,700

Median mid-career salary: $72,200

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +200

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +0.81

Undergraduate field of study: Visual and performing arts

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 89,140

6, Child and Family Studies

Getty Images

Median starting salary: $29,500

Median mid-career salary: $38,400

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +36,100

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +12.33

Undergraduate field of study: Family and consumer sciences

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 21,905

7, Music

Getty Images

Median starting salary: $36,700

Median mid-career salary: $57,000

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +19,600

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +8.16

Undergraduate field of study: Visual and performing arts

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 89,140

8, Mechanical Engineering Technology

AP Photo

Median starting salary: $53,300

Median mid-career salary: $84,300

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: -700

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: -1.45

Undergraduate field of study: Engineering technologies

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 15,112

9, Chemistry

Getty Images

Median starting salary: $42,400

Median mid-career salary: $83,700

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +2,100

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +2.48

Undergraduate field of study: Physical sciences

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 22,466

10, Nutrition

Getty Images

Median starting salary: $42,200

Median mid-career salary: $56,700

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +5,600

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +9.24

Undergraduate field of study: Biological and biomedical sciences

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 80,756

11, Human Resources

AP Photo

Median starting salary: $38,100

Median mid-career salary: $61,900

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +12,900

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +9.61

Undergraduate field of study: Public administration

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 23,851

12, Theater

AP Photo

Median starting salary: $35,300

Median mid-career salary: $59,600

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +16,900

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +10.88

Undergraduate field of study: Visual and performing arts

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 89,140

13, Art History

AP Photo

Median starting salary: $39,400

Median mid-career salary: $57,100

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +500

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +11.46

Undergraduate field of study: Liberal arts and humanities

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 47,096

14, Photography

AP Photo

Median starting salary: $35,100

Median mid-career salary: $61,200

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +17,500

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +11.54

Undergraduate field of study: Visual and performing arts

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 89,140

15, Literature

AP Photo

Median starting salary: $37,500

Median mid-career salary: $65,700

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +30,900

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +9.37

Undergraduate field of study: English language and literature

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 55,462

16, Art

AP Photo

Median starting salary: $33,500

Median mid-career salary: $54,800

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +88,100

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +10.57

Undergraduate field of study: Visual and performing arts

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 89,140

17, Fine Arts

AP Photo

Median starting salary: $35,400

Median mid-career salary: $60,300

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +25,800

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +11.62

Undergraduate field of study: Visual and performing arts

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 89,140

18, Psychology

AP Photo

Median starting salary: $35,300

Median mid-career salary: $62,500

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +19,700

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +11.59

Undergraduate field of study: Psychology

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 94,271

19, English

AP Photo

Median starting salary: $37,800

Median mid-career salary: $67,500

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +30,900

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +9.37

Undergraduate field of study: English language and literature/letters

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 55,462

20, Animal Science

AP Photo

Median starting salary: $34,600

Median mid-career salary: $62,100

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +500

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +13.15

Undergraduate field of study: Biological and biomedical sciences

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 80,756

 

Rich Hoffman

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

HUD Power Grab: The Intent behind entitlements

They try at every turn to embed themselves into your life any way they can. Government’s latest attempt is in the expansion of public housing in Cincinnati.

Doc Thompson covers the HUD issue that is being imposed on the city of Cincinnati which is a detrimental power-grab instigated by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. Doc covers some of the flaws in this plan from a social stand point on his 700 WLW radio show.

Channel 9 also did an article on the fine details of this situation listed below.

______________________________________________
Posted: 06/06/2011
• By: Tom McKee
CINCINNATI – The Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) will know by the end of the week how much it will expand its public housing in Hamilton County to settle a discrimination finding with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

A Voluntary Compliance Agreement (VCA) is expected to be signed between CHMA and HUD that will stipulate where some of the housing will be located.

HUD found that CMHA failed to put public housing units that it owns in numerous Hamilton County communities, including Green Township, where the agency’s former board chairman lives.

Green Township currently has 27 CHMA-owned units within its borders, but may be required to add more as a provision of the settlement.

Also this week, Hamilton County Commissioners are expected to approve a Cooperation Agreement with CMHA that will add 375 public housing units to the 482 already in suburban communities.
Scheduled meetings include…

MONDAY – June 6
–11 a.m. – Hamilton County Commissioners staff meeting
– Cooperation agreement to be discussed
–11 a.m. – Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority special board meeting
– Executive session to discuss voluntary compliance agreement
WEDNESDAY – June 8
–11 a.m. – Hamilton County Commissioners regular meeting
– Cooperation agreement approval expected
THURSDAY – June 9
–9 a.m. – Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority regular board meeting
– Approval expected on voluntary compliance agreement

The cooperation agreement does not affect the City of Cincinnati, which has 5,269 public housing units.

_________________________________________________________

Public housing is one of those topics where government has exceeded its reach. It has no business in creating housing for citizens, because to do so, it must take resources from productive people and give them to people who are not productive. Government can only do this as a kind of theft.

Listen to this professor in the clip below. I can’t believe people pay him to teach, because he has a lot to learn.

The mentality is similar to the type of government that is bankrupting Greece, where their retirement age of 55 is drowning the country with expectations which is collapsing the country. I have friends in Europe that have 4 plus weeks of vacation and are working under this assumption of a retirement age. When they travel the world, even though they have moderately low-level jobs, I ask them “who does your work when you’re gone?”

They just give me the deer in the headlights look. “That is not my concern,” is the reply. That answer continues to baffle me every time I hear it. How can a country like Greece, England, pick your European country, subsidize vacations and retirement plans. Who pays for it, because while these people are on vacation, or retired, they are unproductive citizens? They are citizens of their home country, yet they are doing nothing to contribute to the positive growth of the nations GDP.

Nobody is arguing that people shouldn’t be able to take a vacation. But the amount of vacation or the retirement should be contingent on how much that citizen has saved up to be able to give themselves a break. Because if they can step away from their jobs so easily, then they are not productive enough, and in government, this is very often a case, the idea of a job is one that is created so that a worker can clock into their position, do their time, productive or not, then go home to their regular life. If they want to take a day off or go on vacation, they do so without a drop in performance from their employer. This is totally wrong, this whole entitlement culture.

That is the kind of mentality behind HUD. Government is in a business it should not be in, giving out Federal dollars as contingencies to implement their policies that don’t belong to them. And because the housing is provided and not earned, it is not respected. This leads to abuse of the property, and it leads to the decline of the citizens that live there. Crime runs rampant in such communities; drug sales and prostitution are the norm.

Public housing is something that we should be cutting back on, not expanding. It is a road that leads to one place, utter failure both financially and socially. It does not catapult people back on their feet, but more often than not, flattens their tires in life keeping them from advancing themselves. Because it pays to sit still and collect the check, the housing and the food. The entitlement concept is rooted in foolish European socialist ideology. It has appeal because it basically provides something to people for nothing but what doesn’t get discussed is that something comes from a nation’s wealth, or potential wealth. No society can function sufficiently when people just retire at 55 and stop being productive, relying on a workforce that is under 55, which might only be a fraction of the employed citizens to support everyone else.

The entitlement culture is a lie……it was a scam to get politicians elected into power, and the check is due but nobody wants to pay. People naturally want the free ride that was promised to them from people who didn’t have the right to make the promise in the first place. Entitlements are a premise based on nothing, and they are undeniably wrong and must be removed from the vocabulary of human beings……….All entitlements.

 

Rich Hoffman

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

Wild West Heroes: The Foundations of America!

The following clip was taken from the Annie Oakley Wild West event that I frequent each year with some of my friends. When David P. Little a political consultant hired to attack me saw this video he attempted to take the confederate flags in this video as a way to portray me as a racist. What progressives who think like Little  simply don’t understand is that these Wild West events are important to American culture. Each year that I’ve participated in the Annie Oakley event it has been a way that I reset myself.

I consider the people in that video to be some of my best friends, even if we only see each other once a year. They are good people who know what America is supposed to look like. In American culture, the cowboy is very important. I like to use cowboy metaphors to explain complicated topics because using the premier symbol of individualism in the world, the cowboy; it helps put everything else in perspective.

Here are some examples of what I consider to be some of the best that America produces. Guns are very important to Americana. The six-shooter is as important to the United States as the Samurai Sword is to Japan.

Progressives and their globalist views, have sought to destroy American heritage which I find repulsive. I appreciate the beauty of a gunman that can handle a six-shooter effectively.

It is sad that progressives have successfully turned even the sight of a gun into a symbol of death.

Knife throwing is another heritage that is essential to American culture. I know several knife throwers personally and every one of them are wonderful people who appreciate life more, because they routinely dance with death.

So when you see a person that is keeping the Old West alive with a cowboy hat, guns, or a knife, thank them. They aren’t just paying homage to a time when people didn’t wear deodorant, had to kill their food daily just to eat, and water was hard to come by. They are keeping the spirit of liberty alive, a time that individuals sought freedom so badly they’d risk life on the frontier to have it. They despised the world of Europe so intensely, that all the discomforts known to man was more preferable.

You might recognize this guy from the first video. I’ve known Chris for a while, and he’s the real deal. He travels the world as an ambassador of the Western Arts.

That is what I think of when I think of the Wild West. And that’s why I enjoy events like the Annie Oakley Festival. In such places, America is alive and well, and simplicity reveals the truth behind the progressive deceptions that has sung our country to sleep like a patient on the operating table under anesthesia.

Here’s another guy from the video above. This is another one of my close personal friends. You may have seen the newscast Gery and I did for a Dayton TV station.

It is in fact quite healthy to consider that if the government proves too big to replace, as it is needed, and those who crave power so diligently refuse to take their hands off that power, as is proper in our republic, then it will be the very law enforcement and military that we have which will be turned against us. And in such times should they unfortunately come to pass, that the skills of the cowboy will come into play. So keeping those skills alive is essential to preserving the nation we call home.

Here’s an exhibition I did for the World Stunt Organization at a film festival.

If it all falls apart and the law is turned against us, then, well that’s the plot of The Symposium of Justice, a book I wrote several years ago. Back then, it seemed far-fetched. These days, not so much, but that is a story for another time.

Rich Hoffman

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

The Far Reaching Schools: DO NOT QUESTION AUTHORITY BECAUSE THEY WILL FIND YOU

If society is looked at without emotion, like an archeologist examines a civilization long over with neutral observation, then it is easy to see the problems. Since my love in life puts science first, before anything, then it is not difficult to look at our current civilization and detect where we are going wrong.

Doc Thompson did a great segment on the far-reaching culture of modern public education, where they attempt to extend their authority well into the private lives of children, all in the name of “protecting” them from bullying, or even from their own parents. Listen to that broadcast here.

When I see adults blindly submitting to authority, such as when they are pulled over by a police officer, it’s almost like a switch goes off in their minds that when they see the uniform of a police officer, they immediately revert into a mode of submission. The officer says, “Put your hands up where I can see them,” and automatically the hands go up without any conscious control. The same thing happens when an officer pulls over a speeding driver, the cop puts on the lights, and the immediate reaction is for the driver to pull over. To some extent, it’s probably good that this mechanism is in place, because society would probably have more conflict involved. But on the other hand, the same tendency that makes human beings become compliant to police officers also makes people prone to believe all symbols of authority, which includes politicians and spin doctors.

This is very bad, because even though people like the President of the United States are seen as leaders to the rest of the world, people tend to listen to him as though he actually carried a level of authority. If the President calls for war, there are people in the military that will carry out the order even if it means their deaths. If the President says society needs to care for the poor, then suddenly people will become more aware of the poor. This tendency is consistent all the way down the chain of command all the way down to a child’s local soccer coach.

The adults I know do not question enough what is going on in the world around them, and this is happening because they were taught very early to respect authority. In American culture what is required to maintain an honest republic is a respect of authority, but independence and free-will must be embraced by the culture even above authority in order for it to last. American children are learning to respect authority from their parents, their family, their siblings, friends, and public education.

Public education is spending too much money, and too much time teaching children to respect authority in my opinion. They are creating a society of grown-ups that automatically freeze up in the face of authority figures, and this is a very bad thing. As I said, a little authority is good, respect for mankind and others in general is important, but blind obedience is terrible for the sustainability of any culture. It leaves society vulnerable to tyrants.

This move by public education to intrude into the personal lives of the students we send to these schools is reprehensible and must stop. And it will not stop until parents demand it to stop. It’s not just an economic factor, because more teachers require more asserted authority, and we not only pay for those teachers, but we pay in how they teach our children to blindly accept authority and not embrace the nature of freedom.

The bottom line behind most everyone that pursues the life of an authority figure is that they wish to position themselves in a lucrative paying field of endeavor, where they can make a very good income, while also satisfying some inner inferiority complex that resides within them. They often are not people who should be followed under any circumstance what-so-ever. They should be despised and ridiculed for what they are, and that’s tyrants. So they need people to believe that their authority is needed to hold society together. But what they are really doing is destroying the very fabric of what makes American society unique, and fruitful.

So long as there is a fear of authority in American society, the republic from which that society is built will be flimsy, and easy to topple, which is how they want it. Because to the tyrant, they only care for gratification of the moment, and there are a lot of tyrants wondering about in positions of authority.

It sickens me each time I see people complying without question to the demands of an authority figure. And that process begins when the teacher tells a young child in public school not to run down the hall. The nail to the coffin is driven home when a teacher has the ability to reach into the private life of the child and police what the child says on Facebook, or even what they say on a private web-site. Once the child accepts that type of authority they will grow up and become weak-kneed adults that believe easily what a sappy politician tells them. Those adults will become terrible, over-emotional voters that will not know what’s good from bad, because their decision-making skills are tainted with the corruption of compliance.

Rich Hoffman

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

The Next Three Days Review: A Great Film………………what would you do?

I was looking for a movie to watch that fit a theme I have been working on in my Tail of the Dragon novel when I saw that Paul Haggis had directed Russell Crow and Liam Neeson in a story that explores what happens when the law is not necessarily your friend, when the system is turned against you completely. That story is called The Next Three Days.

The film is different from the story I worked on. Mine is all this along with a bit of Bonnie and Clyde mixed in. But this film intrigued me greatly. I loved it!

Paul Haggis was the screenwriter for a couple of Eastwood films that I love, Million Dollar Baby and Flags of our Fathers. He also had a writing credit for Terminator Salvation. Haggis also directed Crash, which was brilliant, so another film directed by him was something I was not going to miss.

I’m not going to reveal the details of this film. It is full of surprises and it’s a wonderful film. In the film, I can’t blame the decisions Russell Crow’s character made. It asks the hard questions like, how valid is “the law?” Is our legal system just? What is right and what is wrong and do they hold true if the perspective shifts?

I think we have become too reliant on law enforcement much in the same way as we have with teachers. We expect the police to keep us safe, which is unrealistic, because police really aren’t much of a deterrent. All they can really do is show up after a crime has been committed and build a case hoping that they can gather enough evidence to find the bad guy and bring about justice.

I don’t think the ineffectiveness of police officers in preventing crime is worth the freedoms we give up to have them. In a scene of the film shown in the preview where the police break down the door to Russell Crows home and came into his house forcefully, I became infuriated. I can say that if the same thing happened at my home, someone would have ended up hurt. There isn’t a force on earth, no gun, no club, no taser, nothing that would allow me to submit to a forceful entry into my home against my will. Property in America is everything, and when law enforcement can enter your property for the “greater goods security” then there simply isn’t any freedom.

In a lot of ways, that’s what The Next Three Days was all about. It took most of the film to arrive at that message, which doesn’t make it a bad film at all, but the movie was certainly targeted at the types of suburbanites that live around Paul in Santa Monica, a town that lives in its own insulated reality. So the characters in the film go through the transition that if they want freedom, they must take it. Nobody is going to give it to them. If they trust the legal system, it will let them down, just like education does. There is no easy fix.

I mention the film here because movies are a way to explore ideas, and a film like The Next Three Days is one of those types of films that everyone should see, then consider what they would do if they found themselves in the same situation. I suspect many people would do the disgraceful thing, and that’s to accept the rule of law, move on with another spouse, and live a nice safe life.

But, as shown in The Next Three Days, the law is only as good as the people who run it. If the lawyers, prosecutors, Supreme Court, and cops are lazy, and they are, because they’re government workers, then there is always a chance to become a victim to their complacency. So when that happens do you just take it and let their incompetence ruin your life?

I say no. It might have taken the characters 3 years to get to the point that I would have been at within a few hours, but the merit is still what it is, that when a force of any size, or complexity threatens your sovereignty, then war to defend your position is perfectly justified. It is in fact demanded.

That’s why I recommend watching this film and asking the question, how effective is law enforcement? Is it what we really want? Does it represent what being an American is all about, or are we willing to toss those ideas away in favor of an imperfect pursuit of safety.

Watch The Next Three Days for a thrill, excitement, and much-needed contemplation.

Rich Hoffman

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

The New Overmanwarrior.com: A Father’s Day Present to Launch the Future

One of the challenges in analyzing profit and lose responsibilities as an occupation, mixed with entertainment, being a “watch dog political activist,” culminating with multiple writing endeavors it is inevitable that a web site presence is needed. I started Overmanwarrior.com last year to meet the growing need to maintain some sort of window into the world I participate in, since there are clients that want that information, fans of my book; The Symposium of Justice that enjoy keeping up with what I’m doing, and my activity working with bullwhips for various entertainment venues. I named the site overmanwarrior.com because of a term used in my book The Symposium of Justice, and it seemed most fitting for what I’ve been doing.

The political work I’ve been doing is an added element that was not anticipated when I started Overmanwarrior.com. That work came out of necessity, because it’s happening in my community, which makes me obligated to act when I see that something is wrong. I am not one of those writers that sits around writing about what the world should be, but lacks the courage to implement my thoughts. I cannot in good consciousness write passionately about the corruption that is taking place in books like The Symposium of Justice, which was very controversial when it came out. Time has proven it to be ahead of it’s time. My new book which is due out in 2012 and is under contract currently in the editorial phase is just as critical of the social norms built around a political superstructure that is crushing on the human spirit. On this book, I didn’t aim so far into the future as I did with Symposium, because the battle is right in front of us.

It would be hypocritical for me to write so passionately about these topics and still allow corruption to take place in my own back yard without me applying the same level of work in fighting tyranny in real life. I’m not that kind of person.

I never planned to be an activist. I despise political politicians. I want the minimum government possible. I do not want large public school organizations that are over staffed and too expense teaching kids to “comply.” I do not want to deal with a society of brain dead followers in American society. That leads to my extreme dislike of police authority. Nothing against those in law enforcement occupations but I don’t want to support anything resembling a police state. I understand that police need to have the ability to go after criminals, but to my eyes, I see criminals still selling drugs. I still see prostitution going on. Murders still happen. People still break into homes. I believe that the greater deterrent to crime, physical assaults, and murder is the Second Amendment. It is out of a socialist desire for larger government, to give law enforcement jobs to do, that the gun control legislation is pushed forward, so with such views, that I explore in my fiction, I cannot turn my eyes away from reality.

This has led to a collection of media appearances that I’ve been a part of that have accumulated over some time. My work as an entertainer and my work as a “watch dog” are unique in a kind of merging involving both entertainment of political awareness, so I needed a website update that reflected these two aspects of my life, since both aspects are simultaneously important to any curious investigation into my life.

To do this, I turned to the person that designed the No Lakota Levy website. I had designed the first Overmanwarrior.com and many complained that it was too busy and not as effective as it needed to be. I developed the Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom site which evolved into what it is now, and took over as my personal platform, but the blog is sort of all the contents of my house, where the website is the door to that house, and I needed a new door. When I had to formalize resistance to the No Lakota Levy effort to counter the effort of the OEA, and other organized groups that seemed “hell bent” to increase my local taxes for no good apparent reason, it was the website that had started a successful campaign.

As a group, the No Lakota Levy group had access to professional web designers and public relations people. But I was hesitant, because we needed a unique web presence that was on the cutting edge. We wanted a better site than what the Lakota website had. So I turned to my daughter.

Her work on that site gave her accolades from public relations professionals, and media specialists everywhere. It’s not because of the technical aspect. There are many young people these days that understand how to write code for web design. But there aren’t many that have artistic ability that actually surpasses the technical ability. For No Lakota, I gave my daughter a series of production notes explaining what the website needed to accomplish. She nailed it. She produced a website that far exceeded my expectations, properly utilized video and social media into a top notch flash oriented website.

Once I learned that American Publishing wanted to publish my second book Tail of the Dragon, and that the marketing of that book would involve nationwide media attention, I needed a website that provided a door to my extensive collection of media, primarily all the work I’ve done on Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom, and my YouTube efforts which is equally vast. I needed this door because this second book will be put on a much larger platform than my previous work so everything needs to represent that level of professionalism.

This door to my life needs to be simple, yet inviting into the world I’m involved in, and it needs to stand out. I didn’t want it to be just another website that is the standard these days. I wanted something that was current, state-of-the-art with a world-class design. So again, I turned to my daughter. She knows me; she has the technical ability, and what she is still learning she is able to use existing programs where another firm may be able to create the whole thing in code. But she has the ability of vision that is unique, where maybe a handful of people in the country could actually pull off a job like this based on my written instructions.

Did she do it? YES! I told her I need something that embodies my “watch dog” work without sacrificing all the work I’ve done in entertainment. My roots as a western arts advocate needs to be there, without being overstated. It needs to be patriotic, because I am. But it also needs to represent my literary work, which in this stage of my life is becoming increasingly more important. With those basic descriptions, she came up with the new Overmanwarrior.com site and I love the results.

With the creation of this new site, it launches a new level of commitment to the type of life that is before me. From the doorway of this site daily updates of my work on Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom will be uploaded by a Twitter feed. Some of my favorite articles out of the hundreds and hundreds I’ve written are archived as sample work. There are many video’s seamlessly incorporated into the design along with other links that will take the visitor on an extensive journey without being too complex visually. I’ve also done many hours of radio that is also listed at this site which supports my “watch dog” work and is easily available.

Tail of the Dragon is going to be a tremendous work. I am very proud of it, so far, and it’s going to give me an opportunity to discuss nationally, an issue that is even more taboo than teachers, law enforcement. What it is, why we do or do not need it, and what are the solutions to the problems. It’s an exciting book that I wanted to see written, and since it wasn’t, I wrote it. My new website of Overmanwarrior.com embodies this spirit along with everything else I’m doing, and I’m proud that out of all the thousands and thousands of dollars I could have spent having this site designed for me, that my daughter was able to hit it beyond my expectations.

I am happy to announce that as of June 20, 2011, Overmanwarrior.com has taken the next step into a larger world as the ideas explored continue to increase. The unusual task for me, the client, and my daughter the designer is how to represent a guy that is very active as a “watch dog” while not being the least bit politically interested, yet deeply involved in entertainment and business. This site is it! And she was successful in every way possible…….again!

She told me that the completion of this site and the many hours she put into its design was a Father’s Day present. Nobody could have done anything for me better than this, so yes, my Father’s Day was wonderful.

Rich Hoffman

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

Educate Ohio and The Original Argument: My Speech and a Special Gift

A friend of mine gave me a new book. Every time I get a new book, I have a good day. This particular book was The Original Argument, by Glenn Beck and Joshua Charles, at an event I was speaking at called Educate Ohio.

The event had about 30 to 40 school board members, teachers and education reform advocates where I gave a presentation on how excessive wages under union contracts are bankrupting school districts.

After the meeting I learned how the book came into my friend’s possession. The book had just be released and a woman had bought 50 of them and was passing them out at the Lebanon Racetrack, a popular meeting place for the Lebanon Tea Party, and she gave my friend 5 of them and told her to pass them out to people who would do something with the book. My friend then gave me one of those 5, which is a treasure to me greater than gold.

I read the Federalist Papers and the Anti-Federalist papers last summer. They were respectfully hard reads because of the old dialogue, but it was those books that inspired me to start this site, Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom. I wanted this blog site to be a kind of modern Federalist Papers using all the tools of the modern age to paint the picture of America’s situation. I had heard that Beck and Joshua were attempting to update the Federalist Papers into modern language that everyone could understand, and that’s what The Original Argument is. It is wonderful that finally every day people will be able to read this book and actually understand how the American government is supposed to be.

One of the speakers before me at the Educate Ohio Conference was Paul Lambert from Columbus, who said something in his presentation that made me connect the two things together, Glenn Beck’s new book, and this education event. He said, “Schools are one of the last things in our republic that we still actually control locally.” He was right; our school districts are one of the last bastions of America that are left. We elect our school boards locally, and we pay for them locally, at least for the most part. And we see that our schools have gotten away from us, they are being run by large unions that have their eyes on state and federal money that they can turn around and use indirectly to manipulate the political process, and it’s happening right under our noses.

When I gave my speech, there were many people there that were from Pickerington, Ohio where the new superintendent for my school district of Lakota comes from. This has been another issue that has exploded on the scene over the last couple of days and I am deeply disappointed in our school board’s decision to hire this person. Here is a preview of my comments that will appear in the Pulse Journal this coming Thursday. Click on the article to go to the I-Team Investigation video on double-dipping superintendents and learn the real story behind the scam. Click here to hear the radio broadcast done by that same reporter on 700 WLW. This is important!
____________________________________________________________________

I thought Ron Spurlock was doing a great job as superintendent of Lakota. He was innovative, energetic, had the ability to unite people, and he was cheaper. So it is baffling to me why the school board elected to hire a double-dipping superintendent from just up the road for $165,000, about $50,000 more than they were paying Ron, and they spent 50K to find her. Didn’t anybody learn anything from the Channel 9 I-Team report we did in May?

I’m sure Mantia is a nice lady. I’m willing to give her a chance, so long as she doesn’t ask for more tax money. My problem is in the absolute preposterous understanding of economics. The school board spent $100,000 dollars that it didn’t need to. Why?

Did the school board think that getting a superintendent from outside of the district like Mantia is what the No Lakota Levy people wanted? She’s more of the same. You’re personnel costs are too high, and decisions like what was made in hiring Mantia perfectly exhibits the folly. You had a guy right in front of you and you hired a woman playing the system. And we are supposed to believe we should increase our taxes even higher than they are now to pay for this lack of understanding?

Lakota doesn’t need more revenue to fund their inflated ideas about what education is. It needs to dump its high dollar, ineffective teachers and administrators, keep people like Mr. Duff, but dump the ones you plainly know do not deserve 75K per year, and replace them with ambitious, cheaper labor fresh out of college. Don’t tell me you don’t know the difference between a good teacher and a bad one. Here’s a hint, the bad ones are working just for money, and just like superintendents that retire the minute they turn 55 then seek to be rehired so they can double-dip. Let those bad teachers go to another district. It will create a job vacancy for us.

If Lakota wants to stay excellent, it can’t just tread water. It’s has to become sustainable over time.

_____________________________________________________

 

The arrogance of the school board to play politics in plain site is an obvious sign of disrespect. The people I talk to are aware of it, but aren’t sure what to do about it, because things have always been this way in their lives. People are only now waking up to it because the money is running out, and it’s not so easy to just toss money at corrupt people anymore to just shut them up. People are finally starting to look at how things are supposed to be.

As I packed up all my notes, and presentation material from my speech, I looked at the book that was left for me in the back of the room under my camera tripod, The Original Argument, by Glenn Beck, given to me by someone that had it given to them, who simply wanted to wake people up so they can understand how to defend themselves. A woman that bought 50 copies of the book with her own money and gave them away in all hope that someone would learn, and just possibly one person out of that 50 would do something to stop the madness.

As my wife and I left the building into the hot June sun, I thought about Paul’s words about how schools are the last things we still can control, and the woman who hoped that the foundations of the country would be re-learned. I watched the people leaving the Educate Ohio Conference and I saw that the battle lines were right in front of me. This is the stand that must be taken, and it must be defeated before any government reform can precede, this debate over school funding, and education content.

I ran my fingers over the cover of that book and took a moment to be grateful that such a literary achievement could even be published, and purchased, and brought to my hands with the best of intentions, because it’s not too late for an army of thought to gather in order to combat the massive tyranny that has hid itself in complicated legislation and ancient language. Holding that book gave me the feeling of rebirth in America, and that good would triumph over pure evil.

After my speech I thought of several people who had approached me, and as I unlocked my car to get in and drive away I reflected about what I said to them. “What are we to do, how can we stop this massive corruption?”

I told them, “They’ve already lost. They hide like cockroaches because they have to. They can’t talk about the facts because they rely on your emotions to control you. If you do like you’re doing, come to conferences like this, read, and pay attention, you will beat them sooner than you can imagine. Just keep focused, stay with the truth, and give them no place to hide. And you’ll get your country back.”
We’ve already won. The trouble is, the bad guys don’t know it yet because they’re too stupid and arrogant to see that they’ve been caught. All people need is the truth, and it will literally set them free in every way possible.

Rich Hoffman

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

Lakota’s New Superintendent is a DOUBLE DIPPER: It’s all about plunder…I mean kids

All it took was one guy from our No Lakota Levy group to show just the slightest inclination to break away from the main group before the district fluffed their wings and assumed that an opening was available to sneak on a school levy in November. This news came on the heels of Lakota’s new superintendent announcement of Karen Mantia. As I listen to Mantia and her priorities I can’t help but wonder why her primary focus is on our children’s retirement.

She has a reputation supposedly of thinking outside the box, but most of what she’s said so far sounds rather typical. How does she know that retirement will even be an option for the children of tomorrow? With all the life extension methods that are up and coming in science, retirement could be pushed to over 100 years old by then. People may live to well over 100 maybe even 150 years old. Retirement is a baby boomer idea that is quickly proving unrealistic. People just aren’t dying at 70 any more like they used to. So that seems like a strange priority. I would think that if she’s so well-educated, she’d be aware of these scientific advances. But she’s new, maybe she was just nervous and said the first thing that came to her mind.

It looks however that she is a double-dipper. Click here to watch a special report done by Channel 9 on this very issue. She retired from Sycamore in July 31, 2006 – likely after having 30 years of service. If she was 55 when she retried, her retirement is 66% of her salary. If she was making $100K when she retired, she will be bringing in $231K and that’s not counting the other benefits that are undoubtedly in her contract. If that’s the case, that’s a major issue with me, as a tax payer I’m paying for her retirement package, indirectly, but the money still came from somewhere, and now she is being paid by Lakota $165,000 per year, which is more than the last superintendent that I thought was paid too much. Lakota also spent 50K to find her, and she was just up the road. It doesn’t make sense to me.

But I’m happy to give her a chance. She’ll be alright with me until she asks for more money.

As to the article in the Pulse Journal where the Pro Levy people exploded in exhilaration that Mark Sennet showed signs of defecting. Read that article here:

‘No Lakota’ group split on next levy

Some would OK ‘conservative’ levy in November; others don’t want any levy.

Staff Writer 11:32 AM Thursday, June 16, 2011

LIBERTY TWP. — Members of the No Lakota group are in disagreement about whether they would support a levy if Lakota puts one on the ballot.

West Chester Twp. resident Mark Sennet spoke to the board of education Monday, saying the No Lakota group would support a “conservative” levy in 2012 if the board would bypass the election this November.
However, No Lakota member Rich Hoffman, who has typically spoken on behalf of the group, said no discussion had occurred at a meeting about supporting a levy, and he was holding fast to his stance on never supporting a levy.

Hoffman said there may be a split in the group, but he thinks the 50-and-older crowd will stand with him.
Sennet said Lakota officials have made “a valiant effort to try to work and control spending,” but people still need time to recover from the economic crisis. He said he and several developers would be on the board’s side if it waited for November 2012.

“We acknowledge that there were changes made,” he said. “The businesses had to make changes. The citizens had to make changes, and we were glad to see the union and teachers and board agreed to a pay freeze. But if the levy were to pass, then I guess that would be good for the community.”

Board member Ray Murray said he was pleased the business community is recognizing the district’s transparency and how it is listening to the community.

“There are going to be people who are not going to ever say yes to anything, and there’s nothing you can do about it,” he said. “We’ve got to generate more revenue. We can’t survive on a 2005 budget.”
Former For Lakota levy chairwoman Sandy Wheatley said the board and district representatives have been mending fences with those in opposition since the last election.

“Everyone has kind of stepped up to the plate to do their part,” she said. “Now, with all those pieces in place — because this is the only way Ohio has left us in terms of ways to fund schools — I think the community will see this as now it is time for us to put the last piece together by doing our part to support the tax issue. … Perhaps the residents now will be better critical thinkers around if what they are hearing is accurate information.”

Board president Joan Powell said the board will meet for a work session at the end of the month to study an updated five-year forecast and discuss options.

__________________________________________________________________

Mark and some of the other developers in our group have always been about trying to reduce the rates of tax on the properties they are holding that aren’t making any money in a tough economy. Mark just wants to get through a tough year and he’ll probably support a levy. I’ve always known that defection of a few of these guys was inevitable. They were welcome to ride along as long was we all fought for a common cause. We have many supporters of many different degrees of belief.

I do take offense however at Ray Murry’s comments where he says some people, (like me) will never support a levy.

Why would I support a levy when I can see in the light of day that labor costs are the number one problem at Lakota, and the teacher’s unions are the primary culprits that drove up those costs? Why would I think that a silly contract agreement that freezes actual step increases is enough? That’s only a three-year band-aid. Heck, three years ago I remember the teachers union in 2008 threatening a strike demanding higher wages. That wasn’t that long ago and I remember it vividly. When the union did that, I decided that public sector unions had no place in any tax payer organization. So there is no reason to even discuss a levy when so much money at the top is used on union activity. Unions drive up the labor costs not just for a couple of exceptional employees, but for everyone! There are no controls over how much a teacher can make. They are free to get a degree which immediately drives up their salary regardless of whether or not their degree actually contributes to a child’s education, because I don’t think it does. Unions just cost too much, so while they are in place, and I don’t want my money being scrapped off the top by them, why would I support them? If the union was out-of-the-way and the community could see the actual cost of what education costs, then I’d be more inclined to support a levy. I already pay a lot in taxes each year, so it’s not like people who don’t want more taxes on their property don’t support their schools and the kids that go to them. People like me don’t support public unions.

If that is a radical position, too bad, but it’s the facts. People like Mr. Murry are trying to justify why the school board has not been acting as a management protection, because they can’t. They are just figureheads. Lakota will attempt another levy because they have a new superintendent, they think our No Lakota Group is split, and they don’t know how to do anything else. Like Ray says, “We’ve got to generate more revenue. We can’t survive on a 2005 budget.” I’d say, “Why not?”

$10K per child is too high for poor performance, and the United States is not in first place in the world education market, and Mrs. Mantia’s Global Program won’t do anything to help. It’s just another way of dressing up what kids are already supposed to be learning in school.

But the state is cutting funding. The federal government is cutting money too! Hey, folks, get used to it. The gravy train the unions used with all the free money that was lost in bureaucratic nonsense is gone, and the expectation is that local communities are going to cover the difference. No, we won’t be. That’s simply not going to happen.

What’s going to happen is that schools are going to have to cut back their real costs, their wages, or they will become extinct. Property owners are not going to cover the cost of the outrageous expectations the unions have negotiated for themselves. Unions took advantage of government, as they always do, of the fact that nobody had any real skin in the game. When state and federal money is coming, it was easy to divide up the spoils, and they did. As a group, the teachers unions got greedy. Now that is coming to an end as states try to balance their budgets. And property owners do have skin in the game……their property!

So if Lakota chooses to put a levy on the ballot this November, or even in 2012, without cutting the wasted cost in excessive wages schools are enduring, then the No Lakota Group will be there to fight them.

During the last levy attempt of 2010 we held back. I personally had a lot more to throw out, but for the sake of the community, I held back a lot. If Lakota elects to go after the tax payers again with another levy before the teachers union reduces the wages for their top wage earners by 30%, or while superintendents like Karen Manita draws retirement from Sycamore where she retired at exactly 55 years old, then turned around and took another job so she could double-dip, then quit that district to come to Lakota, get a 20K raise then stand in front of everyone and tell the residents of the district is “for the kids.”

Hiding behind kids, exploiting the hard work of property owners to create lucrative jobs for themselves does not necessitate a levy request until the run-away costs are controlled, and if that means getting rid of the union, fine. If that means the union takes a pay cut, but stays put as an organization, fine. If S.B.5 gives school boards the ability to dramatically cut their labor costs, then fine. But it is not acceptable to ask for more money from the tax payer to cover the cost of lost state and federal revenue. We are not picking up the bill when the unions took too much, and they did in 2008. It’s time for them to give back, or move along so we can hire cheaper teachers, that will still keep Lakota one of the best schools in the state. Because failure, of any kind, is not an option.

Rich Hoffman

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