Even though his health had been failing since 2006 after a series of strokes left him partially disabled, Malcolm Glazer’s death is truly a sad loss for the entire world. The Tampa Bay billionaire was instrumental in upgrading the quality of life for the popular Florida city and has poured millions of dollars into charitable organizations that they wouldn’t have had otherwise—if not for his industriousness, and productivity. He is one of the people in the world that I admire the most and I came to know of him through his ownership of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers NFL team. But he was much more than that and is truly a great human being. After his passing Jon Gruden had this to say about the loss of his former boss.
“He was a friend and a trailblazer. I’ll miss him and I thank him for believing in me. My condolences to the Glazer family and to the Bucs organization.”
Malcolm Glazer’s history by Bucs Nation Blog www.SBNation.com The Buccaneers’ announce Malcolm Glazer’s passing earlier today. (May 28, 2014) The Buccaneers have announced that the second owner in franchise history, Malcolm Glazer, passed away at the age of 85. After a period under Hugh Culverhouse’s ownership that was marked with ill feeling between players and the owner, Glazer’s purchase of the team saw a huge turnaround in the team’s fortunes. Under his ownership, the Bucs went from the worst team in the sport by a considerable margin, to Super Bowl champions in just seven seasons. Below is the Buccaneers’ statement in full: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are saddened to announce the passing of Owner/President Malcolm Glazer earlier this morning at the age of 85. A dynamic business leader, Glazer helped mold the Buccaneers into a model franchise and one respected league-wide. Since being purchased by Glazer in 1995, the Buccaneers franchise has earned seven playoff berths, five playoff wins, and captured its first Super Bowl championship in 2002. Known among his league peers as a pioneering thinker, Glazer infused his team and employees with the determination and dedication to be the best in the NFL. Glazer’s commitment to building a championship organization has provided the foundation for continued success, on and off the field. Glazer’s input was instrumental on the league level as well, as evidenced by his time serving on the NFL’s Finance Committee. He also played a major role in Tampa becoming a host for the Super Bowl on several occasions. In 1999, Glazer launched the Glazer Family Foundation, which is dedicated to assisting charitable and educational causes in the Tampa Bay community, highlighted by the opening of the Glazer Children’s Museum in 2010. In its 15 years of existence, the Foundation has donated millions in programs, tickets, grants and in-kind contributions. In 2005, Glazer purchased Manchester United. Since then, the club captured five Premier League titles (2007, 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2013), as well as the 2008 Champions League title. Born in Rochester, New York as one of seven children, Glazer took over the family watch-parts business at age 15 following the death of his father and then continued his foray into the professional world, investing in other businesses. Glazer owned or was a substantial shareholder of a diverse portfolio of international holdings and public companies, including: First Allied, Zapata Corporation, Houlihan’s Restaurant Chain, Harley Davidson, Formica, Tonka, Specialty Equipment and Omega Protein. A resident of Palm Beach, Florida, Glazer leaves behind his wife, Linda, six children and 14 grandchildren. Mr. Glazer’s long established estate succession plan has assured the Buccaneers will remain with the Glazer family for generations to come. Linda Glazer, along with their five sons and daughter, will continue to own and operate the team as they have throughout the family’s ownership. A private family funeral service will be held for Mr.Glazer. The opportunity for others to remember and celebrate Mr. Glazer’s life will be announced at a future date. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in his memory to All Children’s Hospital, St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital, and Shriners Hospitals for Children – Tampa. http://www.todayspulse.com/news/sports/report-tampa-bay-bucs-manchester-united-owner-glaz/nf8js/
What few people have acknowledged is that if Glazer had just been happy with the family watch parts business at the age of 15 and had not moved into other investments and risky business ventures, it is likely his family would have struggled all their life to make ends meet, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers would still be looking for a winning season, and the city of Tampa would be an armpit of strip joints and seasonal condo owners serving a fishing community. Glazer literally put the city of Tampa on his back and carried it with his innovation, and self generated wealth.
For anyone who has read the Allan Eckert novels about the Miami Valley region from the period of 1750 to around 1800 you will understand why the following message brings great sadness to me. Progressives have attempted to claim the position of the Native American viewpoint, where shortsighted, pretentious, European settlers running from one tyranny to another brought with them to the New World a Victorian audaciousness that still persists among those who currently reside along the coast from Virginia to Maine. Those people pushed the Native American from one treaty to another across the settled continent of a wild frontier without a thought as to the long-term implications. Native Americans like Tecumseh fought to keep their land, but were pushed off for the proposed greater good—the European version of it—the same one that now desires socialism over capitalism. In those novels I personally identified with the Simon Kenton character most, Daniel Boone—George Washington and Andrew Jackson as close seconds. I understand those people, and their relationship with Native Americans was not so contentious. If left to Kenton, he would have been able to live alongside the Native Americans—he’d also own most of the Ohio River Valley—but that land was taken from him by snot nosed courts again in the European tradition of shortsighted consumption.
At the end of the road that I live on, thousands of Native American hunters traversed by canoe from their settlements near Xenia, Ohio down to the hunting lands of Kentucky exploring the edge of the world between the river that divided modern-day Ohio and Kentucky from one another. Without question they often camped where my home is currently built as it provides a high vantage point overlooking the valley where Trenton currently resides. It was good hunting ground with topography suitable for feeding a small army, which the Native Americans often had. My ancestors during this period were given land by the King of England right in the heart of Liberty Township and was part of the frontiersmen that settled the area as the French were partnering up with the Native Americans from the Eastern Lake Erie region—specifically Pontiac and his people the Ottawa who went on a bloody crusade against the English settlements which lead to the French and Indian War. The Treaty of Greenville took place right up the road from my house, and the Battle of Fallen Timbers right up the road from there. Few people have any idea what kind of massacre occurred at the current town of Piqua, Ohio. Even fewer these days know why Fairfield, Ohio was called what it was, or that Hamilton, Ohio was named after the Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, or that Monroe, Ohio was named after a sitting president. Fewer know that Liberty Township, Ohio was a direct tribute to the American Revolution and that it was the wild frontier that defined America, which is why Trenton, Ohio was so aptly named after the decisive victory of Washington after crossing the Delaware with his troops to deal a stinging blow to the English forces entrenched in New Jersey.
I grew up knowing long time residents who owned vast swaths of land, much the way the modern Niedermans do. And over the years I have watched them forced off that land because of high taxation. During the last levy campaign from Lakota, the public school that infests the region with government style education that is too expensive, too liberal, and severely inefficient, the most vocal supporters—the real-estate agents who want to sell houses declared that if people didn’t like the way the world was changing, under their guidance—that they should just move. Those same idiots claimed to love Liberty Township and West Chester for the large plots of farmland and green space—yet they brought with them a temperament that wanted to see a home placed on every acre—and those same real-estate agents who most fervently supported the Lakota Tax Increase of 2013 had the attention span of a flee—not considering what the long-term implications of their hostile behavior might lead to.
I know many of the developers who built the houses in Liberty Township and they have in common among them a lack of scope. Their primary concern, much like the levy supporters at Lakota was in protecting their investments without an understanding of the long-term implications of their decisions. They worked with real-estate agents to use Lakota to sell away most of the Liberty Township land to small-minded East Coast progressives transferring to the region because of the solid job growth of the Tri-State area. Most of those people move to the area not because of the deep history but because of the green space. But with each tax passed, the farms have packed up and moved away leaving the land to be divided up and sold away to more progressive minded newcomers who love taxes, government, and someone else being in charge of their life because they are simply too lazy—or unsophisticated to do it themselves. I have seen more letters than I care too like the one below spawned from the latest Lakota levy.
Hi Rich, just wanted to write and let you know we’re leaving West Chester. I fought with you to help defeat the levy each time, but this last time I said if it passed we were leaving. So, we are moving. Don’t get me wrong, I know the levy system will follow us, but we are moving to a place where we can spread out in our own forest land, but our taxes on over 10 acres will be lower than our small lot here in West Chester. The schools have continued to increase teacher salaries as you said and I continue to be disgusted by the indoctrination of our school children and the parents who refuse to believe what is being done to their children. I will continue to follow your blog and will stand with you on the conservative issues we face, but will no longer do it from West Chester. Gods speed.
A frequent Reader,
What is the cause of urban sprawl for those conservation minded idiots of the green movement? Taxes. If one wished to drive north, west, or east of Liberty Township just 30 miles, they will discover many people like that letter writer who is willing to move away from neighborhoods, public schools, and high taxes in favor of more land, more space, and less nosy progressives. It is the same tendency that caused Simon Kenton to settle the area in the first place; he wanted to be away from the nosy politics of the East. The Native Americans already living somewhat of a free existence, certainly didn’t want to deal with the newcomers either. And today, I feel the same way.
If there are lessons to be learned from history it’s that the idiots never stop coming. You can pack up and move away from them, but within a decade or two they will be back on your doorstep looking for money, and trying to find ways to get you to care for them and their children because they are too stupid and lazy to perform the task on their own. They’ll arrive with great pretension and speak often about the “greater good” but what they really want is for you to carry them through life. They want you to care for their kids; they want you to start a tractor so they can see it driving around while they go to Panera Bread, and they’ll cry about green space when you leave because of high taxes, and they’ll call the developers who built homes in the wake of the surrendered property greedy. Local politicians lick their lips with each home sale like insects caught in the web of a spider. For every lot of land divided up from what once was a large field of corn, or a former Native American campground, is now a quarter acre money-maker that pays $2000 to $6000 in taxes per year divided 50 to a 100 ways as opposed to the former plot of land of 10 acres that paid only a fraction of that, until the surrounding neighborhoods changed the taxation structure giving politicians money to spend and ways to name things after themselves.
It is truly a loss when someone of quality leaves a community like Liberty Township and 50 fools move in to replace them—and that is what is happening. Some call it progress—those would be progressives. Some call it the wave of the future. Some call it inevitable. Some call it the legal way of providing a future for the next generation through education funding. But I call it stupid and unsustainable. For every person of quality who leaves Liberty Township and West Chester because the Lakota school taxes are too high, thoughtless migrants replace them as much lower quality people who will inevitably destroy the property values of everyone involved, not just a few. There is no way to run from stupidity. Because stupid has no choice but to suck the life out of everyone they come in contact with and expect others to pay for their deficiencies with high taxes and parasitic indulgence.
Watch this video before reading the rest of the article. The video is from Elliot Rodger the alleged gunman from the latest rampage in California and shows exactly why he went on a shooting spree stabbing and shooting to death six people. I thought of leaving this topic alone and not covering out of respect for the families until a grieving father of one of the victims blamed the NRA for the death of his son—giving progressives fuel for the fire of gun grabbing legislation. He desired to use his grief as a platform for more gun control mandating a proper analysis of this terrible shooting—which starts with this video.
The following contents come from a below linked YouTube video with some basic editing inserting additional information:
The father of one of the six victims gunned down on Friday night by Elliot Rodger blamed the NRA and politicians for the death of his only son, Christopher Martinez. He shouted with grief at a press conference: ‘You don’t think it will happen to your child until it does.’ (NY Daily News) ‘Sexually frustrated’ Santa Barbara killer promised to ‘kill as many people as possible’ The hate-filled son of Hollywood director Peter Elliot was identified Saturday as the gunman who killed six people in a murderous rampage near a California college. Chin Elliot, the mother of the shooter read a 130+ page email by her son that sent her frantically calling her ex-husband who was dining with his new wife and friends. The two parents raced to Isla Vista in an attempt to stop the slaughter they knew was coming—but were too late.
Shooter Elliot Rodger, 22, posted an incendiary YouTube rant promising a slaughter of sorority sisters and strangers on the street hours before the night of murder that ended in his suicide.
The killer stabbed three men to death at his Isla Vista apartment before he embarked on the killing spree that also wounded 13 people on Friday night.
In a 130+-page manifesto, described as a “rambling autobiography” by Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown, detailed Rodger’s life story and his plan to kill his roommates. “I would have to kill my housemates to get them out-of-the-way,” he wrote. “In fact, I’d even enjoy stabbing them both to death while they slept.”
Two of the three bodies pulled from the Rodger apartment have been confirmed as the roommates.
Rodger killed himself behind the wheel of his pricey black BMW after a deadly fire fight with Santa Barbara Sheriff’s deputies. The lone gunman carved a football-field length path of carnage, near the campus of the University of California at Santa Barbara, which included a total of 10 locations with 12 separate crime scenes, Brown said at a press conference Saturday night.
Three of the victims have been identified as Veronika Weiss, 19, Katie Cooper and Christopher Martinez.
Martinez’s father, Richard, shouted with grief and blamed “craven” and “irresponsible” politicians and the NRA for the death of his only son at a press conference on Saturday. You don’t think it will happen to your child until it does,” Martinez said as he held a photo of his son as a child playing baseball. “Chris was a really great kid, ask anyone who knew him. His death has left our family lost and broken. “When will this insanity stop,” the crying dad screamed. He added, “We should say to ourselves, ‘Not one more,” before he dropped the mic and stormed away from the podium.
A lawyer for Rodger’s father confirmed the son’s involvement to ABC News. The deranged gunman announced his plans for mass murder in a deeply disturbing seven-minute video. You denied me a happy life, and in turn I will deny all of your life,” the baby-faced Rodger says at one point before offering a chilling laugh. “It’s only fair. I hate all of you.
“If I had it in my power, I would stop at nothing to reduce every single one of you to mountains of skulls and rivers of blood, and rightfully so.”
The deadly shooting spree lasted for six terrifying minutes, with Rodger involved in two shootouts with sheriff’s deputies before he was discovered inside the BMW with a gunshot wound to his head. The chilling and creepy YouTube clip, titled “Elliot Rodger’s Retribution,” offered insights into the twisted mind behind the remorseless rampage.
Rodger’s diatribe declares both his hatred of women and his violent intentions to take revenge for years of rejection. He promises to shoot up a sorority house on the UCSB campus as payback.
The disturbed speaker says he’s a virgin who never as much as kissed a girl.
“On the day of retribution, I am going to enter the hottest sorority house of UCSB and I will slaughter every single spoiled, stuck-up blond slut I see inside there,” he announces. “All those girls that I’ve desired so much.”
“I’ll take great pleasure in slaughtering all of you,” he says later. “You will finally see that I am in truth the superior one. The true alpha male.
He then pauses for another horrifying laugh.
Rodger’s father is a Hollywood director and assistant director whose credits include work on “The Hunger Games.”According to Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown, investigators were “analyzing both written and videotaped evidence that suggests this atrocity was a premeditated mass murder.”
The gunman, of Calabasas, Calif., arrived in Isla Vista driving a black BMW and opened fire at 9:27 p.m. Friday, Brown said. Bullets were soon flying through the darkness as the shooter blasted away from behind the wheel of his car, with one witness saying as many as 20 shots were fired.
“I heard shots, screams, pain,” student Michael Vitak told KEYT-TV after the shooting.
Vitak said he watched in horror as one woman was killed and a second seriously wounded. “I hope she is going to be fine,” he said.
Eyewitness Nikolaus Becker was sitting outside The Habit Burger Grill when he heard the pop-pop-pop of what he thought were firecrackers.
To even begin to ascertain that the shooting spree in California involving Elliot Rodger could have been eliminated with more stringent gun control is to ignore the real culprit in this case which is far more to blame. Even if guns were removed from every single individual in the world—the root cause of the shooter’s behavior would persist. The evidence of this case points toward the relationship of Elliot and his father Peter as the real problem. Young men need from their fathers guidance on the matters of sexual pursuits and during a time when Elliot needed his father—there was a divorce in his family and a new woman took his father away. Divorce happens to a lot of kids, and it hurts them. But Elliot had the added complications of Asperger’s syndrome and a pampered life where values are often cheapened without reference. Often parents in cases like Chin and Peter Elliot throw money at their children hoping to appease them as they pursue their career paths. In Peter’s life, his only major film credit is The Hunger Games—so he has been busy social-climbing in Hollywood to earn his next work which appears to have interfered with the development of his son.
Are the parents at fault for the deaths caused by their son Elliot Rodger………..yes. Should they rake themselves over the coals over it–no. They are victims themselves of a society that believes families can be wrecked and rebuilt like Lego blocks openly accepting progressive lifestyles which led to the detriment of their son. Other families manage to raise children who do not go on shooting rampages, but their children are never-the-less distraught the same. They just don’t go to the added level of acting on their anxiety as Rodger did.
To stab to death his roommates is a very personal way to kill, and it would have occurred whether or not there were more gun laws. Rodger was going to kill people one way or another because sex was a mystery to him—he wanted it, and he couldn’t find it, and he was angry about it. It was his parent’s job to help him solve that problem, but they didn’t take an active role—and the result is what occurred. In a world driven by sex, a young man needs to at least experience such things and the parents need to advise him how to get there.
I have some knowledge of this problem. I had two friends who were really close to me who had similar difficulties. Both were very intelligent—in some ways too intelligent to play the mating games women often want to play—biologically. So they entered past their 18th birthdays without kissing girls and the pressure was incredibly difficult for them. Both of my friends had difficulties with their parents–one was too Christian and the other was too progressive—both led to extremes in the family environment. If my friends had been less intelligent, they might have not noticed so much, but because they were—they found it impossible to please their parents and attract a mate making sex impossible. For one I took a collection to buy him his first sexual experience—just to get the monkey off his back. Once he had his experience, women naturally detected his lack of virginity and it helped him launch into relationships that allowed for sex with girls. The other friend resisted my offer for another six years being a good Christian and all. Finally he let me buy him a private stripper which put a real naked woman in front of him. There was no sex, but it did help, and a few years later he found a woman who wanted to have sex with him and found his guilt over the stripper incident cutely naive. She married him and they are still that way to this day. I’m not typically a supporter of the silly didactic sexual stuff, but it is a primary biological need. Adults need to see that their children learn to care for their basic needs, and sex is one of them—just like eating is. Every man needs to show their sons how to behave in a confident fashion that wins the hearts of women. If that does not happen, a man does a son a terrible disservice.
Peter Rodger should have helped his son solve this problem three years prior at age 19 when it was obvious that the young man was not able to convince girls to undress for him on his own. Once the momentous occasion of sexual interaction occurs for young men, they find that all subsequent activity becomes much more natural—so a dad can certainly help a son with this problem by at least putting a naked woman near the boy so that all the emotions of such a thing can be dealt with avoiding the awkwardness more experienced girls of the same age will feel when dealing with a male virgin in the height of their sexual years. This should be done to assist the boy in living a productive life, not just in preventing shooting sprees.
This topic is difficult for people to even discuss—and ultimately that is the reason for the shooting rampage in this case. Peter Rodger could have solved the problem by taking his son to a strip joint—which are disgusting places, but far better than having such a social meltdown. It would certainly be a last resort, but it should never be neglected how important sex is to young men—especially in a society addicted to it. My rational with my friends was that we often enjoyed other things besides girls—so if they could get those primal needs out-of-the-way, they would have higher quality lives that would allow them to continue enjoying more intelligent activity without distraction. Peter should have helped his son find a girl instead of starting new relationships with new women and hanging out with the Hollywood crowd trying to find work. The son left without a father in the home alone with his mother—had to endure a female relationship without sex with a female that his father had rejected causing all sorts of mixed up emotions—because most young men seek in their sexual mates, women who are like their mothers. It would not surprise me that it was this problem that ultimately led to Elliot Rodger’s sexual frustration–how to defend the position of his father by rejecting his mother who is the aim of Elliot’s sexual fulfillment in potential mates. That duality combined with Asperger’s syndrome was destructive to Elliot’s mind and was the cause of the shooting spree. It was not caused by a gun; the act of terror was caused by a broken mind. It was preventable not with a new law, but with love and common sense.
One of the unspoken reasons which I discussed in yesterday’s article of why communism fails is a trait that I am intimately aware of. It might be said that it’s my specialty and most practiced attribute—defeating passive aggression in rivals and allies for strategic objectives. I can spot passive aggressive behavior 4 million light years away, and I have no sympathy for it when I see it. I also have no patience for it—and it is a growing trait taught in our public schools, advocated by our political system, and embraced by our business methods. It is wrong and must be changed as a fundamental behavior pattern in modern society or the GDP of all the nations on earth will struggle and collapse under the burdens placed upon their social expectations.
For the proper definitions of passive-aggression disorder I will turn to Wikipedia, because they have a nice concise definition there that is easy for a layman to understand. Without question, this is the number one attribute threatening modern business, and is the nail in the coffin for those advocating communism. Even though the push for communism in public schools has perpetuated passive -aggressive behavior in society at large, it has formed in the human mind as a natural rebellion toward authority figures. The more authority figures try to assert their domination over others—the more control those authority figures have over others, the more that passive-aggressive attitudes will form as a line of defense in the human mind. It is a trait that I understand as I despise authority figures myself. But when passive-aggression is coupled with other human frailties, such as sexual addiction, financial irresponsibility, obesity, various psychological insecurities, drug addiction, and other acts of personal liability—they are devastating to the act of productivity which makes them a national threat of epic proportions. When passive-aggressive trends are allowed to fester up like lava under the earth only to be released through a volcanic explosion, the politics of our day and economic order of all involved are threatened. So for those who are not aware of what passive-aggressive behavior is, the below definitions will begin to cast a light upon everything you knew was always there in the darkness—but lacked the vision to see clearly.
Passive-aggressive behavior is the indirect expression of hostility, such as through procrastination, sarcasm, hostile jokes, stubbornness, resentment, sullenness, or deliberate or repeated failure to accomplish requested tasks for which one is (often explicitly) responsible.
For research purposes, the DSM-IV describes passive-aggressive personality disorder as a “pervasive pattern of negativistic attitudes and passive resistance to demands for adequate performance in social and occupational situations”.
Concept in different areas
In psychology
In psychology, passive-aggressive behavior is characterized by an habitual pattern of passive resistance to expected work requirements, opposition, stubbornness, and negativistic attitudes in response to requirements for normal performance levels expected of others. Most frequently it occurs in the workplace where resistance is exhibited by such indirect behaviors as procrastination, forgetfulness, and purposeful inefficiency, especially in reaction to demands by authority figures, but it can also occur in interpersonal contexts.[1]
Passive-aggressive may also refer to a person who refuses to acknowledge their own aggression (in the sense of “agency”), and who manages that denial by projecting it. This type of person insists on seeing themselves as the blameless victims in all situations.[citation needed]
According to Living with the Passive-Aggressive Man, a self-help book, a passive man does little to get what he wants as it is too much effort to do so, and ranges from the inept “loser” type to the conformist who does anything to be liked, avoids making waves and rarely says what he feels.[3]
In social protest
Passive-aggressive behavior is not the same as nonviolent resistance exhibited in groups by social protesters. The nonviolent campaigner is working to defeat demands for social behavior required by others as a method of defiance of authority figures. The person characterized by passive-aggressive behavior is not working with others toward a defined social goal.
In conflict theory
In conflict theory, passive resistance is a rational response to demands that may simply be disagreed with. Passive-aggressive behavior can resemble a behavior better described as catty, as it consists of deliberate, active, but carefully veiled hostile acts which are distinctively different in character from the non-assertive style of passive aggression.[4]
Passive-aggressive behavior from workers and managers is damaging to team unity and productivity. Warner in the ad for his online ebook says: “The worst case of passive-aggressive behavior involves destructive attitudes such as negativity, sullenness, resentment, procrastination, ‘forgetting’ to do something, chronic lateness, and intentional inefficiency.” If this behavior is ignored it could result in decreased office efficiency and frustration among workers.[5] If managers are passive-aggressive in their behavior, it can end up stifling team creativity. De Angelis says “It would actually make perfect sense that those promoted to leadership positions might often be those who on the surface appear to be agreeable, diplomatic and supportive, yet who are actually dishonest, backstabbing saboteurs behind the scenes.”[6]
Passive-aggressive personality disorder was listed as an Axis II personality disorder in the DSM-III-R, but was moved in the DSM-IV to Appendix B (“Criteria Sets and Axes Provided for Further Study”) because of controversy and the need for further research on how to also categorize the behaviors in a future edition. According to DSM-IV, passive-aggressive personality disorder is “often overtly ambivalent, wavering indecisively from one course of action to its opposite. They may follow an erratic path that causes endless wrangles with others and disappointment for themselves.” Characteristic of these persons is an “intense conflict dependence on other and the desire for self-assertion.” Although exhibiting superficial bravado, their self-confidence is often very poor, and others react to them with hostility and negativity. This diagnosis is not made if the behavior is exhibited during a major depressive episode or can be attributed to dysthymic disorder.[1]
Millon’s subtypes
The psychologist Theodore Millon has proposed four subtypes of ‘negativist’ (‘passive-aggressive’).[7] Any individual negativist may exhibit none or one of the following:
Emotions fluctuate in bewildering, perplexing, and enigmatic ways; difficult to fathom or comprehend own capricious and mystifying moods; wavers, in flux, and irresolute both subjectively and intrapsychically.
Opposition displayed in a roundabout, labyrinthine, and ambiguous manner, e.g., procrastination, dawdling, forgetfulness, inefficiency, neglect, stubbornness, indirect and devious in venting resentment and resistant behaviors.
Contentious, intransigent, fractious, and quarrelsome; irritable, caustic, debasing, corrosive, and acrimonious, contradicts and derogates; few qualms and little conscience or remorse. (no longer a valid diagnosis in DSM)
Children who sugarcoat hostility may have difficulties being assertive, never developing better coping strategies or skills for self-expression. They can become adults who, beneath a “seductive veneer,” harbor “vindictive intent,” in the words of US congressman/psychologist Timothy F. Murphy, and writer/practicing therapist Loriann Oberlin.[9] Alternatively individuals may simply have difficulty being as directly aggressive or assertive as others. Martin Kantor suggests three areas that contribute to passive-aggressive anger in individuals: conflicts about dependency, control, and competition, and that a person may be termed passive-aggressive if they behave so to most persons on most occasions.[10]
Murphy and Oberlin also see passive aggression as part of a larger umbrella of hidden anger stemming from ten traits of the angry child or adult. These traits include making one’s own misery, the inability to analyze problems, blaming others, turning bad feelings into angry ones, attacking people, lacking empathy, using anger to gain power, confusing anger with self-esteem, and indulging in negative self-talk. Lastly, the authors point out that those who hide their anger can be nice when they wish to be.[11]
Passive-aggressive behavior was first defined clinically by Colonel William Menninger during World War II in the context of men’s reaction to military compliance. Menninger described soldiers who were not openly defiant but expressed their aggressiveness “by passive measures, such as pouting, stubbornness, procrastination, inefficiency, and passive obstructionism” due to what Menninger saw as an “immaturity” and a reaction to “routine military stress”.[13]
According to some psychoanalytic views, noncompliance is not indicative of true passive-aggressive behavior, which may instead be defined as the manifestation of emotions that have been repressed based on a self-imposed need for acceptance.
The DSM-III-R stated in 1987 that passive-aggressive disorder is typified by, among other things, “fail[ing] to do the laundry or to stock the kitchen with food because of procrastination and dawdling.”[13]
Increased public exposure to the term has led to websites like Passive-Aggressive Notes, which uploads purportedly passive-aggressive emails, notes and signs, although many of the examples are not correctly passive-aggressive in nature.
It might be said accurately that my experiences with passive-aggressive disorders are the number one reason I have turned against public education institutions and colleges. They have bred more of this behavior in society not less of it—because of their authoritarian approach to education. This has taken America’s workforce and infested their minds with the disorder making doing business with them nearly impossible. I have done well in my life stepping around the disorder in a way that does not destroy the people suffering from it—but it takes a lot of work. I sincerely wish more people would have success in overcoming it, but the problem is so pervasive that I only know of a handful of people anywhere who can accurately diagnose the effects and can side-step the attacks without destroying the opportunity at productivity.
Passive-aggressiveness is a direct result of the rise of communism in the 20th Century. It was the human mind’s defense against such a social intrusion upon their individual sanctity. The way to counter it is to respect the free will of those victimized while at the same time helping them find objectives in their lives which align their true goals with the needs for productivity. When dealing with people who don’t truly know what they want in life—it is really too much to ask to do the work for them, but often that is what is required—and it can be taxing. However, when the cause and effects are understood it is possible. Human beings and their brains are simply computer programs. If there are errors which occur during the uploading of data throughout their lives, their minds become fragmented and a simple defrag of their mental processing will get them pointed in the right direction. Ultimately, people simply want all the same things; they want shelter, food, love, and a sense of purpose. Once you can help them achieve those things, the negatives of passive—aggressive behavior can be overridden.
Social engineers, climate terrorists, over indulgent managers, power-hungry politicians, and all addicts of authoritarian regime are the causes of passive aggression because they attempt to manipulate the basic needs of human beings. If the basic needs of a human being are threatened in some way, passive-aggression will raise up to counter the effect. There are no drugs that can help this condition—they can only turn the mind off to the pain of duality. The problem is one of social context where others wish to impose upon individuals their needs—which threaten the basic needs of human beings. For instance, the social reaction to the Michael Sam kiss with his boyfriend on ESPN after being drafted by the St. Louis Rams NFL team was negative and is the cause of much passive-aggressive anxiety currently. ESPN owned by the Disney Corporation overplayed the situation because they want the political groups backed by the LGBT community to not attack their parent company. ESPN feels they must demonstrate the proper level of “progressivism” to keep lawyers representing parasitic social groups from attacking their productive assertions. Society at large wishing to find love, have babies and grow old with a spouse see such a thing as gay “love” as a threat to their core wishes, yet they cannot express their frustration because the media has stated that accepting gay activity is needed for an advanced society forcing individuals to relieve their aggression toward their anxiety—in a passive—acceptable way. Progressives have set the table in every instance, making Disney fearful of lawsuits for not embracing same-sex demographics, teaching society through public education to repress their behavioral judgment and critical thinking to accept social advances advocated by progressives. This has changed surface behavior, but not the core desires of human beings.
As an example, an obese young woman in her late twenties functioning through life without a boyfriend and a houseful of cats may say publicly about the Michael Sam kiss—“good for them. They are in love, and happy, and now Sam can play on an NFL team.” But that same young woman may look at Sam’s boyfriend and find him attractive and be resentful that there is one less man in the world available to her to marry and have babies with. She may have considered adoption, but it’s not the same as giving birth to a genetic child of her own born from the love she longs to share with a husband. She is likely to develop a severe passive-aggressive attitude toward gay sexuality that she will mask in public, but act out against in private. She would be the one to spit in the drink of a gay couple if she was a waitress in a restaurant they were attending, or short change them in an exchange of currency at a movie theater—just to rectify her deeply hidden anxiety over not having a mate in a society that is 50% male. She will find it personally devastating that two men would rather be with each other than for one to pick her as a mate. She could become a lesbian, but that won’t help her have a biological child of her own—so instead she spits in the drink of the gay couple and smiles inwardly to herself at her revenge.
After years of such passive-aggression people become very good at it, and soon they are performing it whenever their boss asks them to perform a task, or their parents demand a family get together when they have an otherwise overwhelming busy schedule, or a spouse wants sex when the partner isn’t in the mood. Soon, people’s lives are consumed with passive-aggressive disorder and they lose sight of strategic goals that might actually help them because they can’t see the forest for the trees—because their minds are so rotten with anxiety due to too much authority in their lives, which they act against their own needs without realizing it.
The problem of passive-aggression was created by the academic elite because of their love of communism, yet it also prevents communism from ever working—because communism is not aligned with the needs of the human mind—it does not provide shelter unless trust in the state can be maintained—which will fail because of the faulty nature of bureaucracies. It cannot deal with individual needs as communism is focused on collective salvation—so personal relationship issues are completely neglected. And any kind of Gross Domestic Product produced under a communist regime will be under performed because of the passive-aggressive disorders of their society. Why do people think that even with the GDP of China about to overtake the United States that Chinese workers are committing suicide off the top of iPhone factories and still seeking anyway possible to leave that country and come to America—because they want freedom first—over economic vitality. The GDP of an individual in China means nothing because it goes toward the collective and there isn’t enough passive-aggressive behavior in such places that can offset such a reality without destroying their very lives. At least in America passive-aggression can still gain traction because individual freedom is still entertained as a viable option. But communism will not end passive-aggression; it will make more of it—and in America we are already dangerously close to perpetual inaction in virtually every productive field of endeavor.
Passive-aggressive disorder is a byproduct of too much authority and not enough attention to individual sanctity. In America it is the result of a failed education system and a nation that has lost its values for individual liberty. Socially, the politics of our day have forced people with social castigation, financial hardship, and perpetual punishment if they show displeasure at two men kissing on national television—but deep down inside are a whole range of human emotions that are fighting to defend themselves from such an intrusion. And thus…………….that is the beginning of passive-aggressive disorder and the destructive events which fall in its wake.
Years ago a labor union representative in Ohio confronted me on my position against hiring too many public school employees—which was the direct cause of the school levy activity driving up increased taxation on property values in my community. At the time they assumed that I would take their “professional” opinion without question and accept their rationale at face value that more unionized tax funded employees were good and beneficial to the field of education. I was told that the school teachers making over $65,000 per year would not be so outrageously high if everyone had a similar government job.
The comment from the union operative whether they realized it or not had its roots in communism. It proved that there was something deeply troubling about the way people like the union operative saw the world. Their version of reality was disconnected from the practicality of real world application and was mired in communist theory. It was easy to see what was happening once the frame of reference had been established. Cops, firefighters, political assistants of all kinds, school teachers, IRS employees, virtually every type of government employee had learned to accept degrees of socialism in trade for fantastically high paying jobs with benefits they couldn’t get in the free market. The goal had been to spread a long-held liberal fantasy of global communist propaganda funded by attacking property values with an ultimate goal of destroying capitalism. As the union operative pointed out, by making the public sector more attractive to work for than the private—the ways of private industry would either have to compete or be destroyed. By setting wages unrealistically high, the private sector by communist theory would have to also do the same. Of course when these people are pinned down to reveal their ultimate plans and their roots, they shy away from descriptive analysis. They call themselves “progressive” thinkers at best—but usually attempt to disguise their behavior behind American patriotism when in reality they are the opposite. They do not consciously accept responsibility that their social behavior is communism.
Yet they are not as dumb as they pretend. They know what they are doing even though collectively they never admit that most public employees are deeply committed to communism by practice. They assume that most people do not know the definitions for things in a world dominated by passive aggressive behavior—where few people confront anything for what it actually is but instead dance around an ideal for fear of naming an evil which will require decisive action—which nobody wants to do. In the absence of such confrontation, the communist advocates do sometimes reveal their intentions which have always been there from the very start of their campaigns against capitalism. One such person was United States Representative from Florida Joe Garcia who recently commented positively about communism.
Garcia made the comment during a Google hangout he convened last week to talk about comprehensive immigration reform with supporters. The Democrat attempted to point out how, for all their talk about limited government, many Republicans are fine spending loads of government money on border security.
“Let me give you an example, the kind of money we’ve poured in,” he said. “So the most dangerous — sorry, the safest city in America is El Paso, Texas. It happens to be across the border from the most dangerous city in the Americas, which is Juarez. Right?”
“And two of the safest cities in America, two of them are on the border with Mexico,” Garcia continued. “And of course, the reason is we’ve proved that Communism works. If you give everybody a good government job, there’s no crime.”
Garcia’s comment states that so long as everyone had a good paying job working for government, that there would be no reason to commit crime and peace laced with prosperity would permeate the fabric of civilization. He’s not being facetious, he is literally advocating on behalf of communism—a socicoeconomic system structured upon common ownership of the means of production. To Garcia and his fellow progressive advocates communism is the endpoint of human social evolution which will inevitably come into fruition through economic and socialist advances after the demise of capitalism by legislators like the Florida Representative.
In America the game works like this, a person wants to make a good salary for doing as little as possible, so they go to school, get a degree, so they can earn a spot behind the social gatekeepers of federal jobs. In school, they are taught socialism and Marxism by liberal instructors who have long infested the education system strategically. Most of the students are raised by American capitalism and hold their nose and put up with the liberal professors because they want a government job—and being passive aggressive manipulators of their own existence believe falsely that they can maintain their sanctity by rebelling against socialism through their private actions. So they get their federal job and find themselves employees of the tax payers. To protect them from future taxpayer wrath, they join a socialist labor union which is backed by the state. They often don’t have a choice with these group associations. If they want the government job, like being a teacher, a firefighter or a cop, they must join these labor unions a trend started by President Kennedy who was struggling with severe communist encroachment during the early 1960s. After a few years of this behavior they make wages that are roughly 40% higher than the wages of the private sector due to the artificial inflation of those positions by a political class with an ultimate aim of communism.
If the layers of immigration rights are properly explored without passive aggressive diffusion—it will be discovered that American Democrats like Garcia want open boarders because most immigrants are coming from countries already riddled with socialism and are naturally antagonistic of capitalism. By overloading capitalism with such people—without giving them the benefits of capitalism—but keeping them dependent on government services—long advocating communists wearing the masks of progressivism can advance their agenda through democratic activity one small crises at a time until people have long forgotten the definitions and original objectives of American civilization.
These same Democrats often support the legalization of drug activity—because the drug sales pour money into these immigration blocks giving them the power to attack capitalism through American vice toward narcotics. American’s own desires for passive aggression are being used against them as a military objective—and have now for several decades. Those in the heart of the storm—the government employees–have kept their mouths shut because the pay has been good, and they ignorantly believed that they could take the money like a whore—and wash away the crime with a warm shower and a lot of soap—but too late they learn otherwise.
There is no question, most politicians feel toward communism as Garcia does—they just know that saying such things to a public who wants desperately to forget it—do to their growing tendency toward passive-aggressive behavior—taught to them in public schools—is a major faux pas in politics. Communism is the social practice that progressives particularly of the Democratic Party are after. Republicans do too, only they still hide behind a false desire for free markets. Most House Republicans went to Washington financially poor but quickly become rich—and they got that way by the same methods. They have money thrown at them to accept communism—which they take for the comfort of living. All they have to do is enter a passive-aggressive legal mode of talking around the strategy socially. They take their tax payer funded riches, go out to eat in nice Washington restaurants and believe they are capitalists supporting American business. But deep down inside they know it is communism that filled their pockets and made them part of the wealthy elite and they knock their wine glasses together and pat themselves on the back for being the smart people that they are—until a fellow politician breaks the code of silence and says stupidly what has always really been going on—because the representative from Florida just isn’t so good at the game of passive-aggressive name changing.
My friends at Nostalgic Ink in Mason, Ohio promised that they would have a Tantive IV Blockade Runner for my upcoming game with X-Wing Miniatures—the popular new tabletop game featuring Star Wars dog fighting tactical strategy. I checked around lunch on Thursday the 22nd and the store sorrowfully told me that their truck had not yet arrived with their deliveries. But they informed me a few hours later that it had arrived, and I promptly drove my motorcycle back there to pick it up. They had it waiting for me behind the counter and for a $100 dollars, it might have been one of the most glorious things I can remember beholding my eyes upon. My next thought was how I was going to get that package home on my motorcycle—because it was so big. You can see it in the picture below.
As much as I dislike progressive politics, a failed teaching system world-wide, socialism and all forms of statism my first love is not politics or even conservativism—but mythology. I am not a huge supporter of group behavior and love my independence, but there are a few groups I support, and one of the organizations I have the most reverence for is the Joseph Campbell Foundation. My love of mythology is my number one enjoyment without there being a close second. My love of the Star Wars Miniatures game, X-Wing has a deep history in the old X-Wing computer games I used to play with my nephews all hours of the day for entire weekends. Many times we had to run missions against those Corellian Corvettes and they were at times, very difficult—which is why I still remember them 15 years later. The wonderful people at Fantasy Flight Games have found a modern—low tech way of re-inventing the great mythological storytelling of that old video game with new gorgeously detailed models that really make modern mythology come alive in that game. That’s why I love Nostalgic Ink and many of the people who frequent those places. Likely they wouldn’t agree with me on my views on modern education, politics, drugs, and even traditional values—but they love the mythology evoked in many of the tabletop games sold in that palace of thought—giving us common ground.
But Star Wars isn’t just about spaceships and fantasy as I have elaborated often. It is about modern mythology and the perpetuation of goodness and as I have stated—the filmmakers of the series and the people at Disney now behind it—wish very much to use mythology to be a force for good in the entire world. I have said it many times, there isn’t anything happening in the world right now that will eclipse the good work that will come from the Star Wars partnership with Disney. The first traces of this attempt at goodness through mythology can be seen in the J.J.Abrams message below while on the new Star Wars set for the seventh film. The video was posted on May 21st and by the time I picked up the Tantive IV at Nostalgic Ink it had seen nearly 2 million views within that 24 hour span on YouTube. There isn’t a government on earth or organization anywhere that has the kind of ability to reach so many people. Star Wars advocates itself to be a force for good by advocating a force for change. The change they are talking about in the video is not silly progressive politics for the sake of social alliances—but real, genuine change born from human innovation to benefit all of humanity with the gifts of creativity.
Star Wars: Force for Change wants to create a brighter tomorrow for thousands of kids and families around the world. With your help and creativity we can develop innovative solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges. By acting as a Force for Change, your contribution to support UNICEF’s Innovation Labs and other innovative work for children will fund dozens of life-changing projects like these in communities across the globe: • Portable, solar-powered learning kits being built-in China, Uganda, and Burundi to ensure underprivileged children in these countries have access to relevant, high-quality educational materials. • Mobile phone application developed in South Sudan and Uganda, and used in the Philippines, that helps reunite children with their families after an emergency. • A text messaging solution in Zambia that helps families receive infant medical test results from clinics, in half the time, through mobile phones. Join us! Help create a brighter tomorrow for thousands of kids and families. Be a force for change.
Immediately following that message Lucasfilm sent me this press release which did not surprise me at all. As much as I have raved about Gareth Edwards after his spectacular work directing the new Godzilla movie he was named as the new director of the first Star Wars standalone film—staring either Han Solo or Yoda—likely the later. This to me was tremendous news as I had been saying that Disney was positioning Star Wars to be more than just a huge money-maker for their company—but again, a force for good by using mythology to reach behind political ideologies to get the human race pointed in the right direction. The hiring of Edwards and his response to the alignment I think will have a major impact on the mythmaking experience and the results on a worldwide audience.
Gareth Edwards and Gary Whitta Onboard for Star Wars Stand-Alone Film
May 22, 2014
In addition to the episodes of a new Star Wars trilogy, Lucasfilm and Disney have begun development on multiple stand-alone movies that will offer new stories beyond the core Saga. Gareth Edwards will direct the first stand-alone film, with a screenplay by Gary Whitta. The film is due out December 16, 2016.
Gareth Edwards blazed into the filmmaking forefront with his acclaimed work on Monsters, a film he wrote, directed and served on as cinematographer and visual effects artist. The skill and vision readily apparent in Monsters earned him the high-profile spot directing this year’s smash hit Godzilla.
“Ever since I saw Star Wars I knew exactly what I wanted to do for the rest of my life — join the Rebel Alliance! I could not be more excited and honored to go on this mission with Lucasfilm,” said Edwards.
Gary Whitta’s screenwriting credits include 2010’s The Book of Eli starring Denzel Washington. He is also well-known as a journalist and editor in the video game industry, as well as part of the BAFTA award-winning team on Telltale Games adaptation of The Walking Dead.
Whitta states, “From the moment I first saw the original movie as a wide-eyed kid, Star Wars has been the single most profound inspiration to my imagination and to my career as a writer. It is deeply special to me, so to be given the opportunity to contribute to its ongoing legacy, especially in collaboration with a film-maker as talented as Gareth, is literally a dream come true. I’m still pinching myself.”
So there was a lot to be excited about this week, and especially over the last 24 hours. Through all the years that I have been a member of the Joseph Campbell Foundation, George Lucas—the creator of Star Wars—has been on the advisory board so that he could help guide teaching mythology to a new generation. People like me and Edwards are the obvious benefactors. Edwards makes a living from his education in mythology, where I use mine in real world application—both I would consider equally important. If there was ever a man who deeply cared about the direction of society in a positive way—in a way that Walt Disney did—it is George Lucas. Through his deep commitment to mythology he not only produced films like Star Wars which take story telling to powerful new places—but inspired through the Joseph Campbell Foundation to teach a new generation of filmmakers like Gareth Edwards and J.J. Abrams to take movies to places that Lucas and Steven Spielberg could only dream of. Even small little companies like Fantasy Flight Games in Minnesota are helping advance a mythology that literally touches every corner of the world with messages advocating goodness through their table top game X-Wing Miniatures. As for the Force for Change campaign mentioned by Abrams, that is something I can certainly support. I could care less about being in the new movie, but I do care deeply about the advancement of goodness throughout the world, and there isn’t any vehicle anywhere but Star Wars with Disney at its back that has the power to pull it off. It is for those reasons that the new Tantive IV by Fantasy Flight Games is one of the neatest things I have ever seen for the price of $100.
The Tantive is just a model, but it’s what it represents that matters. It is a force for change that leads to good—and that makes it wonderful and worth pursuing on the cusp of a wave that is hitting the world in very positive ways.
It took me a few weeks to get around to it, but I finally had the opportunity to watch the new documentary by my old friend Doc Thompson featuring the origins and validation of the TEA Party movement which began during the Bush administration and exploded under President Obama. Now 14 years of deficit spending that is a train wreck in American history the TEA Party has risen as a direct response to the irresponsible nature of government. The documentary is very good and even better, it is free. Doc and his producer Skip LeCombe put a lot of effort into the enterprise and are offering it for mass viewing. They are asking for donations, but the heartfelt documentary can be seen in its entirety at the following link:
Written and produced by Matt Roman, along with Doc Thompson and Skip LaCombe, Intolerable was released on Tuesday May 6th featuring original music and material marking the inaugural project of File 55 Productions. It was an ambitious effort that certainly caught the eye of Glenn Beck and was featured on his radio show.
Glenn had been encouraging his audience to stop thinking and start acting when it comes to following through on various passions and projects. The Blaze Radio Network’s Doc Thompson and Skip LaCombe personified that advice.
Glenn asked Doc and Skip to talk a little bit about the purpose of the documentary.
“You know the misconceptions about the TEA Party that’s been pushed out there. I got really frustrated after our tour, and I said, ‘Let’s tell the truth about the TEA Party, so people can share it and save their friends and neighbors,’” Doc explained. “[That] is what it really is: It’s good, hard-working Americans that share your same values… You’re going to watch this. You’re going to get good information. And you’re going leave feeling good. You’ve going to have some direction for the future.”
“We offered it for free because we want as many people to see it as possible, but we’re also capitalists,” Doc said. “And then from here, some of the donations we get, we’re going to put the money toward a whole lot of other projects that we have rolling out. We have about 15 things we’re going to do in the next couple of years… We’ve got a bunch of good stories.”
As I watched the film I thought back in time a bit and remembered how the Republican Party tried to cozy up to me during this TEA Party rise. Actual candidates and the people who finance them expected me to be pulled into their web. The Republicans rode the wave of the TEA Party making it their own, and around 2012 turned on it all together. The establishment began taking drastic steps into the other direction, back toward the progressive middle. I remember well the difficult conversations I personally had with high level local Republicans in my town who hoped and prayed that I would play along nicely—which of course I didn’t.
Of course this is how they play the game in Washington and why people like John Boehner and Mitch McConnell are such bad people—at least as politicians. They talk tough on the stump speeches, but behind the scenes, where the money gets raised—it’s a different story and they expect that the friendships established will make good people overlook bad things for the good of the Party. TEA Party supporters of course didn’t go for this and stood against the establishment which is the cause of a kind of civil war in modern America. The result is that only the strongest people of the TEA Party movement are still actively involved. Gone are the crowds shown in Doc’s documentary, but we all knew even back then that the momentum would not last.
My personal crises came as Judge Napolitano was pulled off the Fox Business Channel, and my friend Doc Thompson was fired from 700 WLW radio within days of each other. Doc was being attacked for his beliefs and the company he was working for hid the termination behind a ratings drain—which wasn’t the case. And my Republican friends wanted to pull me into their world of charity events and careful politicking that was sensitive to progressive issues—which I personally have no sympathy for. I made my stand, pissed off a lot of people and relationships were fractured forever. When the smoke cleared, I was still a TEA Party supporter and my friends were left without the benefits of my friendship. It was foreign to them that a man would stand on principles and that realization made me very angry.
Many people have pointed out that my articles from the start to the present have changed over time. I can understand that. In the beginning I had hope for people like Governor Kasich, Governor Christy, Paul Ryan, even John Boehner—but after just a few years, they have all failed to hold their moral ground. They proved to be a lot of talk, but way too willing to make a deal just to stay in power. I have watched the NDAA get passed in the middle of New Years Eve, and watched Obamacare shoved down people’s throats. I have watched the Justice Department commit crimes and get away with it because they are the law. With each story, my hope for the preservation of the system as it is currently has evaporated. So the tone of my articles has evolved with that sentiment.
Doc Thompson could have just given up after he was terminated from 700 WLW and his home station in Richmond, Virginia. But he didn’t. After a lot of fighting, he become employed by Glenn Beck and has excelled from there. Most people would be happy with just a gig like that—but Doc is taking things several steps further and this new documentary is just the start. I am proud to see the documentary Intolerable be released. There is a defiance in it that is healthy for America. Anyone who watches this film and thinks the TEA Party is a bunch of racist radicals is the actual villains of society. Nobody can watch Intolerable and then turn around and say the TEA Party is not the last beacon of light for the freedom that is unique to America—unless they are part of the undoing of it.
Doc and Skip did a great job of representing the TEA Party and getting to the truth of the movement and providing context to the rhetoric that is against it. It is a documentary that has been needed, and now it can be seen by anyone anywhere who has an internet connection. So there is no excuse to not see it. So watch it, learn from it, and spread the word around. Doc Thompson has done the hard work of making it. The least you can do dear reader is give it an audience.
I work hard, and I am involved in a lot of real life crusading on many fronts, and part of my stress management—especially lately—for the last year has been the new Fantasy Flight Game, X-Wing Miniatures. It is so fun, and so exciting, that I could literally speak on it for hours and hours without a single pause. It is good in so many ways that I find it’s creativity and contents redeeming in intellectual recharging leaving me to spend much of my spare time in the world one can create within its framework as a tabletop game. My love of the game has been so intense that due to the new Epic Play format which requires a tabletop play area of 3’ X 6’ I had to find something better to set up these huge games involving the new capital ships and rules associated with them. My wife found some really large fold up tables and benches that will allow the setup of this massive game just in time for the new Corellian CR90 Corvette which is coming out this week and has had my interest for nearly a year now.
The next two weeks for me involves a lot of X-Wing playing, some of it requiring traveling. So it’s been on my mind. This very interesting Corellian Corvette ship is coming out right in time for some of these events, and just weeks after this release is the distribution of the Wave 4 ships, which will feature the E-Wing—specifically the Corren Horn card I am very eager to put my hands on. My previous weekend was busy learning how to fly these big ships, and tracking down a second game mat to encompass the second half of the gigantic play area for Epic Play and Cinematic play. My wife found a match to the one we already have from a remote distributer out-of-state and ordered it ahead of our pressing weekend events. But that left us looking for a proper set of tables that could be set up and moved around easily depending on where we were playing.
I love that the game is getting so big. It is exciting for me, because I love all the complexity of having massive scenarios of strategic opportunity. It is interesting to me to have so many variables above and beyond a few ships dog fighting to the death. And my collection is getting so large, that setting up everything literally takes up an entire large room. The Rebel Transport which came out a few weeks ago showed me quickly that more space would be needed because once the Corellian Corvette comes out; space would become a necessity leaving me scrambling for solutions ahead of its release. Below are the stats and benefits of the new CR90 as described by Fantasy Flight Games.
The Corellian CR90 Corvette in Combat
At ninety squad points, the Corellian CR90 Corvette eats up a massive chunk of your available resources, so how does it hold up in battle?
For starters, the CR90 features a primary weapon with an attack value of “4” that can fire at enemy ships as far away as Range “5.” Accordingly, if you’re approaching your squad-building with an eye toward your economy of attack dice, shields, and hull points, the CR90 forces another wrinkle into the equations. By firing before other ships are even in range, the CR90 is effectively adding actions and attack dice to your squad.
Then, how about those shields and hull points? Both the fore and aft sections of the CR90 feature their own shield and hull point values, and altogether, between the two, the ninety points you spend on the CR90 nets you eight shields and sixteen hull points. That makes the CR90 a rather difficult starship to destroy, especially when you factor in the ability to reinforce either the fore or aft section, adding an evade result to each attack against that section made during the round.
Even after the CR90 takes a pounding, it can use the recover action to spend energy to recover shields. The result is that if your opponent doesn’t throw absolutely everything against your CR90, it has a good chance of surviving and recovering to turn the tide back in your favor. Of course, if your opponent does focus all of his guns against the CR90, that means your other ships are free to wreak havoc.
Meanwhile, the CR90 can spend energy to fire powerful secondary weapons like Single Turbolasers and Quad Laser Cannons. Because you can equip up to two of these hardpoint weapons on the CR90’s fore section and another on the aft section, your CR90 may perform as many as four attacks each turn, all with attack values starting at three or four.
The CR90 also has access to a number of upgrades that simply aren’t available to smaller ships. For example, the Rebel Transport Expansion Pack introduced several members of the Echo Base command, including Toryn Farr, Carlist Rieekan, and Jan Dodonna. It also introduced the WED-15 Repair Droid, which could partner with the R2-D2 from the Tantive IV Expansion Pack to work fast repairs on your ship every turn. Also in the Tantive IV Expansion Pack, Raymus Antilles works wonders when his CR90 is supported by starfighters with Ion Cannon Turrets or Ion Cannons.
Finally, as a huge ship, the CR90 simply obliterates any small or large starships that get in its way. If a small or large starship gets caught in its path, that ship is destroyed… no attack rolls necessary. This means that the mere presence of a Corellian CR90 Corvette in your squad is likely to force your opponent to adjust his intended flight patterns.
All together, the CR90 can harness its raw bulk, its primary and secondary weapons, and its many possible crew options in order to punch gaping holes in enemy squadrons.
The new Epic Rules allow for up to 300 point squads which means there will be a lot going on during a game which can quickly become overwhelming. So it was refreshing that my wife found such a wonderful solution at Wal-Mart—of all places. For just over $300 dollars I had my problem solved so that 12 people could sit around this massive table top and play X-Wing Miniatures comfortably—and still spread out all our stat cards and squad builds without struggling to find space around the periphery of the game mats. The tables work so well I would have paid $1,000 for them—they are that good.
For me this whole hobby experience has become a bit like a model train obsession. Fantasy Flight Games has done such a good job of hitting that market and giving such well made models something useful to do. The CR90 will just add a tremendous layer of mythology to an already deeply involving game. I probably spent 6 hours alone over this past Saturday just reading through all my cards in preparation for the events coming up over the next couple of weekends. The game itself isn’t that expensive, but with ships like the CR90 costing around a hundred dollars of actual money, this is a hobby that can chew through several thousand dollars, which is where I’m at.
The money is worth it because when I set up that world and play the game, a lot of the nonsense going on outside in reality gets put on pause for me. It manages stress in ways that might otherwise become unbearably overwhelming. It allows players to live in a mythology that isn’t imposed upon by a story teller, but is happing by the decisions made by the players and it has a logic to it that fits my real world concerns. So it’s an exciting time for me—especially in the world X-Wing Miniatures. There is a lot for me to look forward to regarding that hobby, and I am so happy to have the leisure which that game brings to spend my time with and share with the people who matter most to me.
Sometimes the best things in life are the smallest—and this is one of them which ironically is growing in EPIC proportions.
You could smell it in the air on Friday. My wife and I went to an early showing of Godzilla after having a nice lunch at Chick-fil-A and already the Showcase Cinema in Springdale, Ohio was cranked up in anticipation of what turned out to be a fabulous movie. READ MY REVIEW HERE. It was simply a jaw-dropping experience and the buzz was already percolating into what would become a $32 million dollar evening after a $9 million dollar Thursday night of special showings. The theater was buzzing with excitement the likes of which I had not seen in years and the film hadn’t even thought of hitting Saturday yet. Projections had the film only doing $65 million dollars over the weekend, but by Saturday morning, it was obvious that Godzilla would crush the opening of Spiderman 2, from two weeks earlier of $91 million. My wife and I bought our Imax ticket and quickly discovered on a gigantic poster that we would be treated to a free popcorn just for buying the Imax ticket, so we picked up some wonderfully buttered popcorn and stepped into history as the best monster movie ever to be filmed played before our eyes. During the climax my wife was so excited she almost leapt at the screen laughing, pointing, and was ready to punch something.
At the conclusion a few of the employees who came in to clean up asked me how the movie was, and stated that they couldn’t wait to get off work so they could see it. My wife and I were the last to leave the theater and I told them that they needed to clock out right now, and get up in those seats and watch this movie right now. It was that incredible, history making awe inspiring—and the ramifications of it would manifest long after what would turn out to be a monumental opening weekend. I knew as the credits stopped rolling that this movie was going to explode with global business that would topple $1 billion dollars and launch new life into a film genre that will ignite the imaginations of millions of young people and I enjoyed the reverence. Unlike The Amazing Spiderman 2 which saw a major drop in business during its second week of release, Godzilla would likely see even more business over the upcoming Memorial Day weekend as word of mouth will spread like wildfire about how good the movie is.
So what does this mean? Why is the box office of Godzilla so important? Well, I have been writing a lot lately about the importance of mythology in our culture. It shapes everything from philosophy to politics and is likely the most important attribute to any human society. There are a lot of elements in our present world that makes human beings feel powerless, and subjected to abuses, so when their imaginations are stimulated with thought, there is a sense of freedom in the exchange. When a movie is as exciting as Godzilla is, and inspires so many people to go to a theater to experience it, a unifying philosophy is being painted across the canvas of human society and it is a wonderful thing to witness. When a movie does that kind of business, other studios are forced to copy, and that means that films that are losers, like Cloud Atlas, Life of Pi, and other progressive films must adapt and compete against traditional films that a majority of the world population yearns for.
There is no group hugging going on in Godzilla. The hero is Godzilla who stands as a solitary savior of mankind and the main protagonist who is on his own adventure is also the last man standing to save mankind from disaster. The rest of the characters can only watch everything happening with passive helplessness. It is in this attribute that once again traditional films destroy the box office business of collective message stories attempting to sell progressive storylines. When a traditional old-fashioned film like Godzilla does such good business the public is voting, and the votes favor tradition because other studios—due to capitalism are forced to compete or go out of business.
Japan’s Tolo studios have had the rights to Godzilla for years, and they have nurtured it along. But they knew that if they wanted to take Godzilla into the realm of international—mainstream sensation, they needed Legendary Pictures to pull off the task. Legendary Pictures put up 75% of the nearly $200 million dollar budget and hired relative newcomer Gareth Edwards to direct the film. There weren’t any film studios in France able to perform such a task, not in England, not in Germany, certainly not in China and Japan was obviously limited in their abilities. It took an American production company to achieve the objective of spreading the Godzilla message and did they ever pull it off. The risk of Gareth Edwards not only paid off, but the film will evolve into a sensation that will not be forgotten any time soon. It is a benchmark film that will take the world by storm.
This is yet another example of many themes discussed here at Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom day in and day out over a number of years now and it was quite refreshing to see the early wave of Godzilla before everything became much noisier. I was not surprised to see such a ruckus, human beings are starving from substance, and Godzilla delivers it. If Godzilla were simply about destruction, it wouldn’t do such good box office numbers, and the buildup of the character over the last 60 years has not prepared people for this kind of market desire. The old films were fun films, but not good ones. It is for the unspoken themes for which Godzilla is so popular, the one against the many, the mysteries of our own past unrealized, the protection of man’s creations over the creations of nature, the futility of those same creations against the scale of nature at times, and individual will. It’s also about hopes, dreams, and the importance of family. The scene where the main protagonist helps a little boy find his parents is just another reiteration of that main family theme found throughout the film.
History has been made and it was a fun weekend watching the events come together as the box office numbers of Godzilla came in. It felt like victory for all those who support classic elements in movies which builds the mythology not just of our nation, but now of the world. These days, it’s no longer cars that America exports that are so prized throughout the world, or the aviation industry, or even food—it is mythology which can only come from the imaginations of free people. Only in America could a movie like Godzilla be made, and that was obvious as I left the theater ahead of a box office wave which consumed the world and brought a smile to my face for more reasons than that the movie was a great one. Mythology has the answers to many of our contemporary problems and hidden within the Godzilla film is the skeleton key to healing human civilization. And the key has now been turned.
By the way, Lengendary Pictures is now working with Universal Studios and their next big monster movie after Godzilla is Jurassic World. And they love the script so much, they are already talking sequels. I am very happy! And really looking forward to it!
Lakota once again is plastered all over the Tri-State news market for sheer stupidity and carelessness among their reckless administrators and general employees. Word from within the Lakota school system has said that a former student from Adena Elementary came to the school to see his old teacher. Jeff Kline bluffed his way past the supposed beefed up security which was improved after the recent levy passage in November and enjoyed something of a hero’s welcome as he paraded the halls talking about his experiences playing for the Jacksonville Jaguars. Here is how Fox 19 reported the story.
At Adena Elementary School in West Chester, you have to check in, get a visitor’s badge and have an escort. That’s what an ex-student did last week. He committed no crime and was “who he represented himself to be,” says a school spokesman.
However, he lied about his career, saying he played in the NFL, according to police, and letters sent home by school staff.
That sent up some red flags, and leaves a lot of “What ifs” in the minds of parents. The incident has the school looking over their security plans and policies.
“We have officers that are assigned to the beat. They’re obviously going to increase their presence. When you have concerns, when parents are concerned, they want to see that presence up there,” said Capt. Brian Rebholz of the West Chester Police Department.
Police have spent time on the school grounds as students are coming and going from the property.
As to the name of the former student no media outlets are reporting it for some reason—the kid is over 18, so saving the boy from embarrassment as a former student is rather stupid—considering they say they are desiring to fix the problem going forward. Channel 19 did put up the name of a fourth grader in their report, so why the police and school would protect a person who lied their way past security to massage his ego around a bunch of children is unfathomably idiotic. The Cincinnati Enquirer has the name because they checked NFL records to see if the kid had actually ever played professional football even as a practice squad member—which he didn’t. Lakota, after the incident is now boosting their police presence, which they stated was the reason for the latest school levy—and they got caught being star struck by a former student who could have just as easily have used the same story to get into a classroom and bring harm to students. There are so many things wrong with this situation that is being ignored that it is literally unbelievable all the people involved actually consider themselves intellectually mandated to advance society as educators—and they have really missed the mark. As anybody who knows anything about dealing with such matters understands, you must identify the cause, not the effect. These news outlets have reported the effect of the issue, but not the cause. Throwing more police into the halls of an elementary school at Lakota and sending home a strongly worded letter might make all the parents feel safe and secure—but it does not solve the problem.
The former student obviously wanted to return back to Adena to fulfill some goal established during his days there as a student. This is the danger of children bonding more with teachers than their own parents as children. The parents of this NFL imposter should really be ashamed of themselves for producing such a shallow young man ill prepared for the world. I mean what was he thinking—even after he went to Adena to have all the little kids and teachers suck up to him with his made up NFL experience—he would still have to return back to his car to drive away knowing that he is a loser who hasn’t done anything yet in life. The fact that he was willing to put on a cloak of such deception speaks loudly as to his actual values. He cares more about what people think of him than what he really is, and this will lead to a disaster as this event is just a prequel.
Then there are the idiotic teachers so hungry to believe that their work with the young man led to something wonderful, like an NFL career. The fact that they so willingly bought the story says that they wished to be deceived—they wanted to believe that their adopted son—a former student of the Lakota school system, could punch out into the world and be successful based on their instruction—and all they really did was raise a liar. And who would be surprised, after all isn’t that what Lakota is really about? Aren’t they more concerned with appearances than actuality? Lakota is about raising money through taxes for their unionized teachers disguised as basically pre-adult day care. Parents drop their children off to daycare facilities up to age 5 and conduct their lives almost independently—as though they were disconnected from their children leaving the little minds to be raised by baby sitters. When the children become of age for public school, they are then placed in an older version of day care organized by the state to spur job creation among the men and women who reside within its borders. Much of what actually happens in public school is about illusion anyway—so that those busy parents don’t feel guilt and change their behavior. The employees of this ridiculous system wish so fervently that it would work and inspire children to greatness that they will soak up any little morsel of success story as a fact without any analysis contrary to their desire.
Interesting how the school board president Julie Shafer didn’t put the young man’s name up on her Facebook account like she did when I called her levy supporting friends’ fat-assed whores—which they are. They are metaphorical whores to the needs of the state at the cost of their children which sickens me. If Lakota wanted to stop the kind of behavior shown at Adena they would have released the kid’s name to put the scare into anyone else thinking of doing such a thing—but Lakota is actually terrified that future students might not do the same and become deterred from massaging their egos with the illusion that their efforts at public education are worthy—and successful. Lakota school administrators and teachers want to believe that they can teach a child to grow up and become a gladiator in an arena filled with drunken fools and scantily clothed cheerleaders to destroy other human beings with the force of their own head. Their bodies may become ruined after only 15 years of this behavior, but heck, they might get on ESPN a few times. That is success—a really good player might be able to purchase a boat in Florida and pour $10,000 into the G-String of strippers on a Saturday night before a big game. Without question these are the thoughts of the teachers giving Kline a hero’s welcome in the halls of Adena elementary with children present and watching closely the adult behavior.
Ultimately, Lakota produced a child in Kline who would rather lie about his career just to impress others—which could be said about every level of the Lakota organization. Suppressing stories are the same as lying because the attempt is to hide the truth. The parents of Kline are even worse, they surrendered the instruction of the young mind of their son to a bunch of pretentious Lakota babysitters who created such a deep yearning for acceptance in the young lad that he actually made up a story about his success to visit an elementary teacher he should have long outgrown and forgotten about. The story is actually a serious one—it’s not about lying to breach security, it’s about the deep need to lie, so to make a former teacher show once again respect to a grown man who still has unresolved issues from his childhood. Lakota just as they taught the young fellow did what they always did, they threw a few more cops at the situation to make parents sleep better at night, and will undoubtedly throw more money at the situation which is essentially like throwing gas on a fire—but it makes everyone feel better about themselves.
The cause of this tragedy is that the student, Jeff Kline, desired to actually visit a former teacher and get their approval. To do it, he had to give the school what he thought they valued to get them once again to look favorably upon him like they did when he was a child yearning for a gold star to be put at the top of his work assignments. Lakota taught Kline to strive for that appeasement at whatever cost, even if lying is the method of obtaining the objective. After all, that’s what Lakota does—so why wouldn’t their rudderless students do the same? The answer is they will do as they were taught—and to that effect Jeff Kline did.
