Tag: Rich Hoffman

‘Tail of the Dragon’ Interview on the Doc Thompson Show: Detroit is a “WAR ZONE.”

“Tail of the Dragon is a cross between Smokey and the Bandit, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” That’s what I told Doc Thompson during his 1270 AM radio show in Detroit during the interview that can be heard below at the link. Doc Thompson and I go back a few years, and have fought many school levy battles and public union campaign issues on the airwaves of radio. Doc had me on to discuss a new crisis that is going on in Detroit where the police presence is advocating its support of Proposal 2, which is a state constitutional change to guarantee collective bargaining rights for public employees. Ironically this is one of the major villains that have wrecked the economy of Detroit leaving the town a devastated “war zone.” My visit to the Doc Thompson Show came on the heels of a police union stunt headed by Joe Duncan who had 400 of his officers passing out fliers to fans of the Tigers first playoff game against the Oakland A’s, declaring the city unsafe for entry. Doc and I had seen this kind of behavior before with Senate Bill 5 in Ohio during 2011, and it just so happened that this kind plot line matched the story of my new book.

On the flier Joe Duncan and his officers declared “Enter Detroit at Your Own Risk,” as fans poured into Comerica Park. “Detroit is America’s most violent city and the city’s police force is grossly understaffed.” The intention of the fliers was the old fear game that all public unions use to advance their cause—which is not safety, but financial security. Unions on the backs of the unwitting participants such as Duncan and his officers are caught up in a plot to hatch communism in America designed long ago, and has been gradually accepted over a long period of time using fear tactics of terrorism to advance their agenda. The protesting police officers don’t care about the history of communism. They are working a dangerous job, and they simply want to get paid as much as they can for doing that job. From their perspective it’s only fair. But what they don’t understand, or have the historical background to decipher is the communist infiltration in America during the Red Decade of the 1930’s brought labor unions and collective bargaining ideas to the closest thing of pure capitalism ever known in the world and corrupted it with the taint of collectivism.

Proposition 2 in Michigan is attempting to go the opposite way as Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana who are all working to reform their public unions from extortive control over public services. Seeing the writing on the wall, the Michigan public unions are seeking to protect themselves from these changes by putting “collective bargaining” into the state constitution, which is why the police were at the Tiger’s playoff game looking for sympathy and votes for Proposition 2. They want to ensure that collective bargaining is in place for their entire careers, because it represents why they got into public service in the first place—because the money is great and the retirements come early and is profitable. But what they don’t know is that collective bargaining is the direct result of the Bolshevik Revolution started in Russia in 1917 and is a product of communism. Most likely the police passing out fliers at the baseball game have never heard of a Bolshevik let alone read the Ayn Rand classic about the start of communism in Petrograd from her novel We The Living. I would doubt they read a TV Guide let alone a 75-year-old novel that describes why the police are the modern-day pawns of the communism movement in America.

Detroit is not dangerous because of the amount of police there are. Detroit could hire a 1000 police and they still could not stop all the crime that is happening there. What is happening to Detroit is the same thing that has destroyed the Soviet Union and is currently destroying China. It’s the same thing that has wrecked the economies of Greece, Spain and is about to push France under—which is the influence of Socialist International as a political party advocating a world-wide push toward global communism. In the past Detroit had too many labor unions, so the business left to manufacture in regions where the labor is cheaper. Taxes are too high, there are too many public housing developments, there is simply too much government involvement. Detroit is a victim of socialism and the destructive experiments of communism coming out of the Red Decade. It is those policies of social engineering that had destroyed the Motor City which once boasted a thriving economy into the crime ridden battleground that it is today. It is those same policies that created collective bargaining and a gradual acceptance of communist thought in America hidden on the backs of trusted public sector workers like firefighters, cops and teachers. The blueprint for this Trojan horse of communism in America was outlined in the book We The Living published in 1936 and Detroit is the result of the communist attempt in America.

This was all predicted by Richard Cloward, which I discussed in my book Tail of the Dragon using the fictional Governor Wellington Royce to pontificate the frustrations that many progressives feel to this very day, which is people have unpredictably voted with their feet. Cloward wished to collapse capitalism in the 1960’s in favor of a communist insurrection by toppling the American economy that was overwhelmed with welfare demands. In Detroit, as in every major city in the United States with the exception of New York and Los Angeles, the people with money did as the producers in the book Atlas Shrugged did; they left and took their money with them when taxes became too high. When the money and businesses that made the money left Detroit because of the unions, both public and private, the high taxes, the government bureaucracies, it left Detroit with only the poor government dependents to pay into the tax base draining the city budgets, and crime has exploded as a result. These are hard concepts to discuss which is why I placed them into the context of a very intense story in my book Tail of the Dragon. Detroit is only the most obvious victim of these progressive policies that have masked the intentions of communist infiltration in America.

Detroit is in trouble today because they let themselves be seduced by the fear mongering of many public workers like Joe Duncan in the past, which used fear the same way that a terrorist does, to change social behavior. The crime is high in Detroit because the productive people who created jobs and made all the money in the city left, only to leave the weak to fend for themselves on government programs in perpetual need of more money from a tax base no longer present. Joe Duncan and his officers only want to get paid, because their union has made promises to them that they accepted as an American idea, even though collective bargaining was born in Petrograd, Russia at the start of the communist revolution that began in 1917. The result of such communist dreams is the condition of present day Detroit.

The best thing that Detroit could do for itself is to rid itself of public unions, collective bargaining, and lower tax rates so businesses might wish to return. Detroit needs to create economic stimulation so that the poor and jobless can have a job and become a part of the free enterprise system and force government to get out of the compassion business. Compassion cannot be created by government or enforced through force, and that is at the heart of collective bargaining. It is only good for the recipients of a government pay check. It is treacherous for those who have to actually pay the bill. With that said the worst thing Michigan could do in this upcoming election is vote in favor of Proposition 2. Voters in that “dangerous” city will have to take a hard-line in the sand and stick to it if they wish to save their city. No amount of tax money, police hires, or increases in government welfare can save them from the Cloward strategy that bankrupted their city for aims that are foreign to most Americans. The only way to save Detroit is by voting NO on all tax increases, and expansion of government services, especially those involving collective bargaining.

Rich Hoffman

Tail of the Dragon

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‘Tail of the Dragon’ on WDTN’s “Living Dayton”: Zuri Hall interviews Rich Hoffman

I enjoyed my visit with Zuri Hall and Nathalie Basha on the noon time program Living Dayton to promote my new book Tail of the Dragon. I was very impressed with the production quality and the executive producer handling of Rhonda Roberts to perform their brand of a daytime news/lifestyle program on Channel 2 in Dayton every weekday from noon to 1 PM. The show is a nice mixture of national and regional news mixed with lifestyle segments dotted throughout each episode. It had a living newspaper feel that Zuri and Nathalie are the heartbeats giving it life. I had been looking for a good television program to do the kind of interview that Zuri and I did on October 9th, 2012, that captured the mood and feel of the Great Smoky Mountains as shown in my new book. Living Dayton was the perfect forum with just the right mix of news—which is my background, and personality interaction that is so common with creative arts like book and movie promotion. To see the clip from the episode of Living Dayton click on the link below which goes to the Living Dayton website, or watch the clip that I took some creative liberty with to create a video advertising Tail of the Dragon.

http://www.wdtn.com/dpp/living_dayton/tail-of-the-dragon

As I was on the set of Living Dayton watching Zuri and Nathalie work my friend Gery Deer who does a lot of work with WDTN television working closely with Executive Producer Roberts told me that the whole set had recently been redone in High Definition. The High Def upgrade gives a program like Living Dayton the color it needs in today’s market, pertinent for daytime television. Gery told me that this was the same set that used to host the Phil Donahue Show prior to moving to Chicago in the 1970’s where the famous Ayn Rand interview took place that I have exhibited at this site. It was interesting to see the set where Donahue started in a day when he built himself into a national name from this same stage. Nathalie and Zuri are on track to do something similar with their new show. Nathalie joined WDTN in January of 2012 as host/producer of “Living Dayton” a one-of-a-kind, local lifestyle talk show. Prior to joining WDTN, Nathalie was working and living in her native Los Angeles as a multi-platform host. Nathalie hosted for E! Entertainment and The Insider, and worked as a red carpet correspondent for GBK Productions and Agenda Magazine’s online entertainment site. Zuri Hall joined WDTN in December of 2011. Prior to becoming producer/host of Living Dayton, Zuri beat out hundreds in the search for the next Face of MyINDY-TV. At WNDY-TV, she represented the station in commercials, PSAs, and public appearances; covered local events, games, and concerts; and interviewed celebrities, from Grammy-award nominated rapper B.o.B. to famed Hollywood director, Rob Reiner. Only one year after having graduated from The Ohio State University on academic scholarship, she won her first Emmy in the “Outstanding Host – Talent” category. So needless to say, I was impressed with the level of talent and quality of the production.

As I was interviewing with Zuri I thought about the gradual transition that I had undergone in the last two years, from a political activist trying to make sense of an impossible situation centering on political theater that put me on TV often and gave me a lot of opportunity to do a lot of talk radio. But much to my frustration, no amount of logic injected into the debates would ever go anywhere. The political system at its core is essentially corrupt, and cannot be saved directly. Over the last couple of summers my long time friend Gery Deer had been trying to talk me into using my other creative talents to reach more people without getting pulled into the black hole of politics. And in many ways, the reason I wrote Tail of the Dragon was to take what I had learned in political activism and apply it in a story that articulated properly the very complicated news stories of our day, because out of all the interviews I had ever done, they end up lost to most people because taken as isolated issues, they are never portrayed correctly upon the tapestry of living that is quite involved, interconnected, and difficult to understand. The best vehicle for grappling with the kind of issues that I am interested in is a novel, and this is how Tail of the Dragon came to be.

Thanks to Zuri in a lot of ways, I can say that this interview was one of the most pleasant that I’ve ever had. I had several realizations during the interview that occurred at the point in discussion talking about the kind of road that the real Tail of the Dragon is, where I realized that I was stepping into a new door, professionally. Even though I had done dozens, maybe hundreds of interviews in the past on other projects and issues that I’ve attached my name to, this was the first interview that I had done over a body of work that I’ve produced designed to attack the big themes, where I could sit back and not be personally attached to the subject matter intimately. It was very nice to sit on a couch with a competent hostess and discuss themes without having to have my name on the line to succeed or fail a political issue like I experienced in my various levy campaigns—where it was my name alone that stood between antagonizing anger, and financial success. As I sat on that couch speaking with Zuri, I realized that I liked it—a lot.

I enjoyed the emotional distance being an author gives to the subject matter and this interview afforded me the proper distance I have been creatively craving for a very long time. Doing that interview with Zuri made me want to write more books so that I could give more such interviews, because the depth of the communication was so much more robust than what I’ve experienced in the past with more targeted, and more emotional issues. It was quite a pleasure to go through all the work it takes to write a novel, to get it published and go through all the production tasks, to have it culminate in an interview with Zuri Hall on a couch reflecting the past of Phil Donahue mixing with the future of these two hospitable hostesses. And when you come upon such doors, you turn the knob and go inside.

Rich Hoffman

If you like my work at this site then check out my books shown below, along with quotes, interviews, reviews, and ways to find them.  Clicking the pictures below are your doors to even more adventure:

 
 

The Box Office/Political War: Cutting the collectivists out of ‘Atlas Shrugged Part 2’

When I put my support as aggressively as I have behind Atlas Shrugged Part 2 there is a good reason. A movie is a way that information the rest of us already know can be shared with those who are coming to know it. There is no reason to have petitions signed, to hold up banners at rallies, to even vote, if a majority of the adult population continues to be treacherously stupid and undo all the work that has been attempted on their behalf. This is why I now write full-time, because I feel this is the best way to help the world around me, by giving readers ideas that will help them undo the intentional evasion they have been taught to practice. My new book Tail of the Dragon is intended to deliver the message of freedom with the ornamentation of an intense car chase. Because I know the character of Rick Stevens requires an action packed plot to help the hard medicine go down easier, since he is an unyielding, personality that many people aren’t accustomed to dealing with, the intention is still to celebrate freedom and individuality. I am not interested in any other kind of character. Thousands of other kinds of characters have been created, but only a few handfuls of the strong individual types that I am interested in have been created. That is why the name of this site is called OVERMANWARRIOR. If the average man these days is one who is addicted to evasion, to a mediocre blandness in their existence, then I aim to be more than that—an overman who strives to exist beyond the limits set by collectivists to ruin the human race.

When many thought I had lost my mind months ago by publicly calling my political opponents latté sipping prostitutes with asses the size or car tires, I knew what I was doing. They thought I was playing by the old rules of politics that they had established. But I wasn’t. I was reflecting the front of the train mentally where people are beginning to realize that you cannot argue with some political ideologies, while others are out-right dangerous, and cannot be reasoned with. When those ideologies are confronted, they must be crushed without apology because no matter how nice you are to those types, or how much you attempt to cooperate with them, they have their agenda, and they will lie, steal, and manipulate anything it takes to destroy you. So compromise is not a definition compatible with the current war we are in. And at the front of this war of ideas are books of old and books of new along with movies competing with the entertainment that has captured generations. The battle is being fought there, for the hearts and minds of audiences in music, movies, television and books.

This is why Atlas Shrugged has been so important in fueling the Tea Party movement, because such burning movements need food for the thoughts, so that context can be placed on the argument. And the movie version of Atlas Shrugged increases book sales, which ultimately gets more people thinking seriously about free market economies and personal liberty. Communists have The Communist Manifesto and they have used it like a club to hammer America into the kind of mixed economy, mixed political ideology that America is enduring presently. So it is only fair that those of us who reject those ideas are using Atlas Shrugged as our own club to beat down the communists, who are virtually everywhere like a termite nest in a hollowed out tree. From the outside the tree looks healthy with leaves on the branches until a great storm comes and breaks the tree in half with a heavy wind to reveal how much damage the termites have done over a long period of time. So for me, and it appears the makers of Atlas Shrugged Part II–we are at war, and we are working toward common goals. We are at war against collectivism and the machine that was built-in the entertainment industry to advance communism through the college professor who taught young media students journalism, to the story editors who work for the major Hollywood studios, to the producers who associate with Communist Party USA directly or indirectly through the Democratic Party, to the film critics who work for the newspapers. It is time to challenge them with material that represents capitalism, and individual strength against the collective.

Playing such a game does not call for handshakes or tip-toeing around the issue. I can declare that I won’t do it anymore. Playing nice with those collective advocates isn’t going to happen on my end of the deal ever again. And I’m not alone in this stance. Increasingly over the last year it has been understood that collectivists do not deserve compassion, they do not deserve understanding, because they truly want to destroy the version of America that we love, so the gloves are coming off. To get a sense of this all one has to do is look at the way John Aglialoro has approached the release of Atlas Shrugged Part One as opposed to Atlas Shrugged Part Two. In Part One he had a big opening and invited Hollywood to view the film along with other media professionals and they did exactly what Ellsworth Toohey did in The Fountainhead, which was attempt to crush Atlas Shrugged Part One because they didn’t like the message, because they wanted to suppress it in favor of collectivist oriented entertainment, which has had a monopoly for a long time in America—too long. Aglialoro’s trust in the media business to treat him fairly cost him dearly, millions of dollars of lost box office receipts because the system shut down access to the film. Later, once Part One hit Netflix and came out on DVD, people rented it, and watched it, and enjoyed it, once the media hype had died down.

This time, for Part Two, it’s a whole different story. Aglialoro and his team prior to the October 12th release of Atlas Shrugged ‘Ether Or’ have had a premier in Washington D.C. and two screenings in Los Angeles, and not a single member of the traditional press was invited. Aglialoro said of the decision, “They won’t like it, so why give them the sword to cut off our own head.”  His approach was to invite those they know are with them to see and write about the film leaving the media out of the loop. More or less, the Atlas Shrugged film group is by-passing the traditional media, the studio system, all the channels who control the flow of information, and they are well aware that it will ruffle feathers, which is the point when you’re at war. John Aglialoro, when talking about the media’s response to Part I said, “The movie critics en masse immaturely bullied Atlas Shrugged mercilessly. Not because the cast or producers made a technically or artistically inferior movie, but because of its philosophical message of individualism. That’s what’s unforgivable. The critics prostituted their profession for politics.” Ahhh, it’s so nice to hear someone else say that, to have the balls to put his personal fortune on the line to make a film the establishment will absolutely hate while he is hanging by a thread at great personal risk to himself, he tells the media that they “prostituted themselves.” That’s the measure of a man, and the new way that the battles will be fought for now on in this war of ideas.

So understand that we are at war, and what’s at stake is freedom over collectivism, and money is the ballot box. This is why I am so intent to see Atlas Shrugged Part II successful, because in this kind of war I am the media. So are you dear reader, because you can’t trust the traditional sources on this matter. They support only one kind of idea, and that is the one advocated by collectivism, which is a crime against truth. If the ideas of collectivism were so strong, they would not fear competition from the theories of individual liberty and laissez-faire capitalism over the crony capitalism of a mixed economy. But they do fear it, and wish with all their power to shut down the message. I plan to use the literature that gained traction in the past to pound my wishes into the future, and I plan also to add to it with new work for future generations. But surrendering life to the quicksand of the collective is simply not an option. Peace with the collectivist is not desired. Their way of life can only be cast away from the continent of The United States because they have proven a desire to rule with a dictatorship of the proletariat, and the damage they have done to millions of people and the human race in general has been, and is unforgivable. Much harsher language will come in the days that have not yet seen the sun. That is a promise.

In the meantime, prepare to see Atlas Shrugged Part 2 at a theater near you on the weekend of October 12th. Go see the movie for no other reason than to stick a fork in the eye of those who have embraced collectivism at the expense of personal freedom.

Rich Hoffman

If you like my work at this site then check out my books shown below, along with quotes, interviews, reviews, and ways to find them.  Clicking the pictures below are your doors to even more adventure:

 
 

Altruism is the Mask of Modern Evil: The do-gooder’s of injustice spin a complicated web

Altruism is one of the most sinister forms of human behavior ever to take hold on the human race, and it is so dangerous that like a parasitic organism disguising itself as part of one’s own body with full intention to continue feeding off that body, or else kill it, altruism allows bad negative behavior to be disguised as good. When people declare that they willingly gave to charity, or donated their money to the Boy Scouts, or made a great sacrifice for the good of everyone else, what is really being said is that there are fundamental lies in the life of the propagator that are being concealed. While it is genuinely nice to help others with whatever difficulties they are enduring, such action may not technically be good. It is the definition of “good” that is at fault, the measurement of “good” that is most at error and allows bad people to believe they are acting honorably, and with justice for the “greater well-being.”

When a school levy is proposed to a community, it is propagated on behalf of the “good of the children” when in fact it is a lie, it’s the good of the labor unions and teachers’ bank accounts. When a police or fire levy is proposed to a community it is for the “safety of the neighborhood” that is the mantra of destruction, for the levy does not go to helping make anyone safe, as the work is currently being hired out to complete. It is to protect the pay increases and pensions of the workers without having to increase their personal production to increase their revenue streams. The neighborhood is used as the cover story to hide the greed and evil of lazy public employees wanting to pay off their bass boats while believing to themselves that socially the action is for the “greater good.” Consider the Washington congressman who attends a charity dinner for a “needy cause” but the reality is that the congressman is there not for the cause but to network with lobbyists so that they can learn how they can enrich themselves through the money being funneled into their direction. There are millions of possible variations to these examples, but in short altruism is used as a mask to hide much evil—so much so that any good created from those enterprises is destroyed by the actions in reality.

This behavior trend was never more evident than in the Texas cancer doctor, Dr. Burzynski who has managed to produce a cancer treatment for various cancers including breast cancer and prostate cancer that bypasses many of the violent surgeries that our society has become accustomed to. Throughout the 90’s up to the present there was a lot of panic over Burzynski as the FDA tried to throw him in jail for producing a drug that was a major threat to the pharmaceutical industry. (CLICK HERE FOR REVIEW) Logic would declare that Burzynski had discovered a cure for most cancers, and was able to save thousands of patients from destructive chemotherapy. But the problem is not so simple because of social altruism. Think of how during NFL football games the players wear pink shoes and ribbons attached to their uniforms to raise awareness for breast cancer. Think of the public relations industry that is behind those pink ribbons, think of the speeches and fundraisers that so many politicians attend—millions are affected in some way or another to the altruism of breast cancer awareness. Many dirty minds are allowed to conduct their lives as parasites off the human race under the guise of goodness, because they are promoting “women’s health.” Yet there is nothing more beneficial to women’s health than curing breast cancer, as Burzynski is well on his way to doing. Yet he has spent over twenty years defending himself from jail just because he invented a way to cure cancers that would put all the parasites that thrive off those miserable conditions out of business.

Altruism is evil not because it occasionally, accidentally does good to a small few; it is evil because it seeks to hide evil behind the mask of goodness. If the trend of altruism were removed from human society, that mask would not be able to hide such evil, and the evil could then be dealt with in a straight forward way. For each person who heard of Burzynski’s cancer treatments who said, “oh, but what will happen to my job if people are cured of cancer,” each of them are committing a sinister evil in hoping for the continued death and decay that cancer creates just so they can continue to be employed making the stupid pink ribbons that are passed out at football games and other social events to project a belief in goodness. When someone proclaims that society should “sacrifice” their time and money to great causes—look out, there is a villain among you. The great causes are in most cases an artificially created crises designed to use emotional turmoil to bring about financial gain to the villain.

Think of the man who cheats on his wife Saturday night with a grotesque orgy of sin, drinking, gambling, and sexual forays in the bright lights of Vegas then catches the red-eye flight back home to attend church with the family on Sunday. The members of his congregation see in the pews with them a great man who loves his family. They think even higher of the man because he placed a $200 donation in the basket. The man’s wife, the children and the congregation from their vantage point believe the man to be virtuous because he gave a great sum of money to the church to help give the entire congregation a church to gather in to rejoice in the presence of God. What they don’t know, that behind the mask of altruism the man took the $200 from a prostitute who passed out in his Vegas bedroom and that he won over $5000 at the tables that his wife will never know about because he plans to spend that money else ware. The $200 is cover under the mask of altruism to hide his crimes and camouflage his intentions.

If altruism were frowned down upon in our society, ironically things would improve a great deal socially. The thieves who hide behind large charitable organizations, the pudgy socialites of community foundations, the school levy advocates, the fire chief who appears about to give birth crying for a new fire truck, the cancer awareness parasites, the Sunday morning do-gooder, they are all harboring evil by allowing goodness to be eaten away from the inside out through the social recognition of altruism. Unfortunately goodness has been captured in this way by bad people, who are allowed to believe they are good due to the definition of goodness being corrupted by evil, and we are not talking about isolated incidents—this is a widespread tragedy. In almost every case, if the tendency toward altruism is examined honestly, many evils will be seen just below the surface. For those who claim there is not enough altruism in the world, behold, there is your thief. Examine their lives carefully and you will find a villain seeking to hide their crimes behind the banality of altruism.

Rich Hoffman

If you like my work at this site then check out my books shown below, along with quotes, interviews, reviews, and ways to find them.  Clicking the pictures below are your doors to even more adventure:

 
 

‘Anthem’ Book Review: Walt Disney and his ‘Epcot Center’ Dedication to Ayn Rand

There is no doubt in my mind that if Uncle Walt Disney were alive today and away from friends and family who carefully guard his past, that he would not deny that it was Ayn Rand’s book Anthem that set in his mind the first lingering necessity to build a theme park dedicated to mankind’s future called Epcot Center. Ayn Rand and Walt Disney along with many other professionals working in the creative industry had shared a genuine fight against communism in the period of The Red Decade to the 1960’s. The Red Decade is a term coined by journalist and historian Eugene Lyons to describe a period in American history during the 1930s characterized by a widespread infatuation with communism in general and Stalinism in particular. Lyons believed this idolization of Joseph Stalin and exultation of Bolshevik achievements to have reached its high point in 1938, running deepest amongst liberals, intellectuals, and journalists and even some government and federal officials, saturated American life during this period. Rand, Disney, Reagan, Cooper and many others took a harsh stand against this communist spread and were deeply concerned about what it would do in The United States. CLICK HERE FOR A REVIEW. Few know that Ayn Rand corresponded with Walt Disney about making her novel Anthem into an animated feature. The story appears to have resonated strongly with Disney the rest of his life, so much so that the large plaque shown to the right can be seen at the American Heritage Pavilion at the Epcot Center which opened 6 months after Rand died and Disney had passed away with a drawing of the conceptual amusement park taped to the ceiling of his hospital room so it was the last thing he saw while he died.

I have said it before; Epcot Center is my favorite place on planet earth. I am most happy, most comfortable, most excited about the future of mankind when I visit the Epcot Center. I fully believe that Disney desired to build the theme park to prevent the future that is at the beginning of Ayn Rand’s Anthem. It is becoming increasingly evident that the human race has had to reinvent itself not just once, not just twice, not just three times, but many, many, many times over millions of years and Ayn Rand was aware of this tragic trend. People who hate Ayn Rand’s work are the kind of people Rand as an author was trying to warn society about. And for those who want an easy way to understand Ayn Rand, and are mystified as to why her book Atlas Shrugged is so beloved, and why to this day The Fountainhead is quietly cherished, it is her book Anthem that grabs hold of the themes that would become her legacy, for it is aptly named. The last two chapters of Anthem are two of the most declarative, and profound statements in human literature by an author of any kind or time.

In 2012 communism has already corrupted much of society and the entire globe is marching backwards on a predictable path that was clear to Disney and Rand many years ago. Rand sets Anthem approximately 200 years into the future of the present and in that society the word “I” has been eradicated from all human knowledge. The time we presently live in was called The Unmentionable Times and the entire society assumes that communism has taken full hold, and is the governing world power. The result is that innovation has been eliminated and society has regressed back into a primitive form. In Anthem, there is much celebration when their future society has spent 50 years developing and gaining permits from the World Council to invent a candle. When the hero named Equality 7-2521 discovers evidence of our present civilization in a box of unused light bulbs he takes it to his masters thinking they will be very happy. They of course are not. In fact, they are furious, and desire to burn him in a public execution. While reading about these events I couldn’t help but think of all the executions done during The Dark Ages, and clearly this was what Rand was concerned with in her plot device. The theme is that collectivism socially by its very nature regresses backwards and to such an extent that the people in Equality 7-2521’s time are not even allowed to contemplate the events of “The Unmentionable Time.”

Modern readers may wish to snicker at Ayn Rand’s premise in Anthem. They may find it hard to believe that such a thing could ever happen which is understandable in a world of smart phones, air planes, and the Internet. But Rand had watched the process happen first hand before she fled the Soviet Union which was chronicled in her book We The Living. She watched the backwards social advancement of collectivism and she hated it. When she came to The United States she wrote about life in Russia under communism in We The Living that the publisher Cassell put in print. But they turned down Anthem saying that “the author does not understand socialism.” Rand was trying to publish Anthem during The Red Decade and few people today understand how powerful the communist influence was in America, because after the Cold War, our grandparents didn’t talk about it. Even Ronald Reagan gave communism a chance until he made a film and witness firsthand the destruction by socialism in the small tenements around Elstree Studios, in England. People today laugh at Ayn Rand and her anger at collectivism because they do not have the context of history in their understanding. Few people know today what life was like before FDR’s New Deal, which was a direct response to The Red Decade. They assume that labor unions always existed, that there was always Medicare, always Social Security, always a time when money wasn’t backed by gold, and that public education was always the center of every community. In reality, most of those things happened after Anthem’s publication because Rand saw it coming, and tried to warn Americans to not follow the demise of the country she had just ran from.

But Uncle Walt listened, and he corresponded with Rand, specifically about Anthem. And his answer to the crises exhibited in the novel that humanity might not forget the achievements it had so far gained was a new amusement park dedicated to the cause. It would appear that Disney wanted to fight collectivism through creating a place that would not allow technology to fall under the rule of proletariat dictatorships. Epcot Center was intended to stop the constant periods of invention, then regression that has impeded the human race for many beginnings over time. That is why even with all the controversy surrounding Ayn Rand, even with all the modern progressive types who run Disney World and the many youthful employees who have been raised under philosophies of collectivism, that Rand’s quote is prominently displayed at the American Heritage Pavilion. Disney was very concerned about making good family entertainment which they still are great at today, but Uncle Walt—the man behind the billions and billions of dollars generated by the Walt Disney Company is one of Ayn Rand’s “men of the mind” from Atlas Shrugged, and he knew it. A world without people like Walt Disney, or the modern day equivalent in George Lucas would be a desolate world already well on its way toward the beginning of Anthem.

I was pleasantly surprised that Rand didn’t stop in the dystopian arena that surrounded stories of the period like Soylent Green and Brave New World. Anthem goes beyond those grim visions and actually earns its title in a bold way that would later become The Fountainhead. Anthem is a bold declaration to the world of the human right to be an independent man. The book is awesome and if you’ve ever visited the Epcot Center and find that you love the place you will love Anthem. If you are the type of person who finds Epcot Center boring, you will probably hate Anthem, and Disney had people like you in mind, that’s why there is a Downtown Disney. Go shopping and eat some ice cream if you are that kind of person. But for the thinkers, the lovers of life, the energetic minds striving to see what is next for the human race fighting against collectivism to achieve those next steps against the tide of communism that is attempting to place us all in shackles, Anthem a book that you must read.

For the advocates of collectivism who are perplexed as to why John Aglialoro and Harmon Kaslow spent small fortunes against conventional Hollywood logic to make Atlas Shrugged Part 2, as fans show up to see the film in spite of the bad reviews and why Ayn Rand books are flying off of book shelves in perplexing quantities, all you need to do is read that plague from Ayn Rand displayed proudly at the Epcot Center to understand that Anthem is more than a warning on the direction of mankind. It also exhibits perfectly the two different directions of two different types of people functioning in America today and the battle that is presently being waged. The fight of our day is to avoid for the first time that human beings have breathed air into their lungs to revert into collectivism after having small tastes of freedom. If we ever did, the Epcot Center would be available to remind mankind of what it’s giving up in order to have a world of the inclusive “WE.” (collectivism)

The heart and drive of Anthem is to rediscover a very simple concept that we all take for granted, the meaning and understanding of the world “I.” Anthem is in a fashion a treasure hunt not for gold or unlimited riches or political power. Anthem is a treasure hunt for the value of a human being—which is defined with the noun—“I.”

Rich Hoffman

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‘We The Living’ Book Review: ABSOLUTELY STUNNING–Thank you John Aglialoro

Stunning is the best way to describe Ayn Rand’s classic novel, We The Living. Absolutely stunning! I feel upon completing that novel similar to what I felt when I finished Allen Eckert’s novel The Frontiersman—by asking the question, “why hasn’t this book been read by every single eighth grader in America?” Because We The Living should be read by every single person who either calls themselves Americans, or wants to become one. The book is absolutely knock-your-socks-off—stunning. The entire time I was reading the book, I kept thinking back to my teenage years when the restaurant chain Wendy’s used to air commercials like the one shown below at the height of the Cold War during President Reagan’s time in the Oval Office.

I used to think that commercial was a gross exaggeration of what life in the Soviet Union was really like. I thought it was just propaganda designed to steer people away from communism and toward capitalism. But I now know because I read We The Living, that life in the Soviet Union was about 20 times worse than what was shown in that old Wendy’s commercial and I am literally stunned that academia in The United States embraced communism to the high level that they have, because We The Living takes readers on a very intimate journey into the lives of many characters who are struggling to live under the Dictatorship of the Proletariat brought about by the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917.

I suppose I have to thank John Aglialoro who is the financial mind behind making Ayn Rand’s classic book Atlas Shrugged into a movie. It was because of the upcoming Atlas Shrugged Part II film that I picked up We The Living to enjoy while I waited for the movie to come out. I waited so I could celebrate Ayn Rand in the weeks leading up to the film’s release with a book that I hadn’t read by her. If not for the Atlas Shrugged movies I may never have picked up We The Living because honestly I have had no desire to read about life in Russia, even though I have always been curious about it. When I think of Russia I think of snow and communism, neither of which I am particularly fond of. I like snow a little bit, but I absolutely despise communism. Collectivism for me has always been a dirty word, well before I ever bumped into Ayn Rand’s work. I feel that way to such a degree that I don’t even let people call me, “brother,” including when I was a part of a large motorcycle group in Ohio. I withdrew as Vice-President of that group because I recognized the collectivism in the bikers as I was making a documentary of how motorcycle riders were, so “independent.” I abandoned the documentary when I acknowledged that most bikers were behaving with collectivism down to the simple process of riding in formation behind a pack leader on the highway which to me was unacceptable. As I delved into the Easy Rider Chillicothe Rodeo and learned that public displays of sexual intercourse and drunkenness were important parts of the culture, I felt so disenfranchised that along with college fraternities, athletic institutions, academic politics and labor unions determined collectivism was a rampant problem that threatened the sanctity of The United States by intending to crush individual identity.

Today Ayn Rand is so hated, so despised by all the members of groups like the ones mentioned because her opinions threaten their existence. Yet the truth is the truth. It cannot be escaped. The hatred for Ayn Rand will be on full display once again when John Aglialoro, Harmon Kaslow and the rest of the Atlas Shrugged film team release ‘Either Or,’ (Part II of the Atlas Shrugged trilogy) on October 12th. Fans will love the movie. Collectivists, democrats, progressives, communists, intelligentsia, hippies, welfare recipients, neurotic parents, bleeding heart liberals, tree hugging green tech advocates, most of the viewership of Comedy Central, MTV, and fans of daytime soap operas will hate the movie. In fact if forced to watch the film they will wither about as though Holy Water had been cast upon their foreheads during a Catholic exorcism ritual inciting demons to flee from their bodies when Atlas Shrugged Part II hits screens in spite of all their efforts to keep the world from reading Ayn Rand or seeing a movie adaptation of her literary work. The question then comes to pass, why is she so hated? If so many people think one way, and only a few think the way she did—in a democracy—aren’t the majority entitled to rule over the majority? The answer is———a resounding——NO!

To understand who Ayn Rand was and how she thought, reading her book We The Living is absolutely essential. I can understand why Rand’s later characters are so hated by collectivists. John Galt and Howard Roark were the way they were in Rand’s later literary work because it was revealed in We The Living the true relationship that Ayn Rand had with her very first love as a 17-year-old teenager in a man named Leo. Leo in the book We The Living was trying to live a good life under a Soviet system that absolutely would not allow for such people to exist, and all during the book I kept thinking that life in America is not very much different. The heroine of We The Living is Kira Argounov which is the literal antithesis of Ayn Rand herself living in Petrograd in the year of 1924 trying to start a life with the man she loved, which was impossible without allowing her personal identity to be smashed into collective soup.

We The Living was the first time I had ever gained intimate knowledge of what life was like behind the Iron Curtain. This was my first realistic glance at what went on behind the Berlin Wall, and why people risked life and limb to climb over, to get away from the oppressive, Soviet dominated East Germany. We The Living takes readers on a journey into the bread lines at the co-operatives, into the minds of the communists ruling as Karl Marx’s proletariat, into the minds of the bourgeois, into their education system, into their economic engine, into their whole philosophy. The genius of the book is in how effectively the characters are developed so that their demise into having their individuality stripped away completely is revealed from the years of 1924 to 1926. In just a few years, once proud families were stripped down to nothing, forced to live like insects in public housing seized by the state, and begging for a job run by the state so they could receive a food ration card. The living conditions were absolutely appalling. The way the communists gained control of each and every person’s life in Russia was revealed in graphic detail and their motivations for doing so was also exposed. Many of those methods can be found in the modern United Nations Agenda 21 initiative, which was written by former fans of open communism, now calling themselves socialists and progressives.

For me the most heart-wrenching scene was when a young couple was thrown into Siberian jails because of their counter-revolutionary intentions against the great Dictatorship of the Proletariat. The couple simply wanted to eat, and because they didn’t belong to any of the trade unions, they couldn’t get a job, and therefore couldn’t get a food ration card. So they plotted to overthrow the government by passing out flyers in factories urging people to stand up against the communists. They were sentenced to 10 years in Siberia at different prisons which they both knew was a death sentence because nobody came back from Siberia. They typically died from suicide or consumption, there just wasn’t any food in that frozen land but what was brought in by train. The couple rode for most of the trip together in a train holding each other as long as they could. Then at a particular train stop the woman was ripped from the arms of her man and put on another train to head to a different prison and that was the last they would ever see of each other ever. It was a terrible scene beautifully written. I often thought of Steven Spielberg’s Schindlers’ List during these kinds of scenes where the content was just terrible, but the delivery was magnificent.

The book is filled with scenes like that; all of them absolutely catastrophic. It is no wonder that it took three years to get published in the United States in 1936 and was rejected by a dozen publishing houses before Macmillan finally considered it over the violent protests of Granville Hicks, who would later get revenge on Ayn Rand through the New York Times when he was sought out by them to review Atlas Shrugged twenty years later. The owner of Macmillan overruled Hicks by saying “I don’t know whether the book will make any money, but that it was important and ought to be published.” Hicks was revealed to be a card-carrying member of Communist Party USA as was many members of the media, academia, and labor unions in the period of the 1920’s to the 1950’s. They were later forced to go underground into hiding behind the Democratic Party disguised as political progressives. And it was clear that the Soviet Union Dictatorship of the Proletariat planned for the entire world to be converted to communism. They had extremely elaborate plans to move their utopia of misery to every nation on earth, and many in the United States were willing to help them do it, because they didn’t see the real conditions of what the people in the Soviet Union were undergoing. All they saw was the idealistic utterances broadcast from Moscow through the G.P.U, and later the K.G.B.

During my reading of We The Living I kept thinking of modern life in America and how much communism has shaped the way many people think. I thought of the green movement, particularly the smart meters that are going onto all of our homes for all the reasons that the government in 1920 Russia controlled the food supply, so that the citizens would have to follow instructions in order to eat, and if they stepped out of line, the card would be taken, and the people would starve. This control was not taken over night, but gradually, over a ten-year period. The same thing has been going on here in The United States over the last thirty years. Government, which leans toward communism by its very nature, is gaining control of the food supply, and is placing a particular emphasis on power supply. If the government can control how much electricity flows into a home, they can control the behavior of the people who live in that home and this is how so many people in Russia allowed themselves to be ruled by a Dictatorship of the Proletariat, because their everyday lives were completely focused on just trying to eat. They didn’t have the time, or mind to question anything about freedom—because they were just trying to survive moment by moment, which was by design.

It would seem that a book written over 75 years ago would resemble very little of the modern world, but on virtually every page I read something that reminded me of what I read recently in my local newspaper, or heard from some politician declaring that the rich in America make too much money and that they should give some of it to the poor. That statement started in the Soviet Union in the opening days of communist rule chronicled so effectively in We The Living and we hear it today under labor unions, and politicians—particularly on the Democratic side. After reading We The Living it is not far-fetched at all to consider that communists would plot with great care to place a president into power like Obama. For those who have seen the movie Dreams of my Real Father, you know what I’m talking about. The communists have planned for such things as far back as the turn of the century. Progressives started in America what the communists did in Russia. The only difference was that America had a culture of independence that was difficult to overcome, and it would take a long time—but they were prepared to wait. In We The Living the communists spoke of Soviet education, which is alive and well in America right now. If you have a child in public school, they are getting that education right now. If you are going to college, or sending a child through college, then you already know the rest of the story. It is not by accident, it has all been on purpose. We The Living shows clearly what the plan has always been and we are living it today in 2012 what was planned with great detail in 1920 to implement.

If I hated communism before I read We The Living, I don’t think there are human words yet invented to describe the level I despise such a collective concept now. I liked Ayn Rand before I read We The Living, but now I think she may be the greatest author in the last 200 years. I think Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead are two of the greatest books not only in American literature, but in world literature, and yes that includes the great classics. I would say that We The Living is more important than The Diary of Anne Frank, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, or Life Among the Lowly by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Moby Dick by Herman Melville, or The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne. We The Living should be read by every single human being on planet earth.

We The Living is in its most simple form a skeleton key to understanding Ayn Rand. If only 50% of the book were true, which I think is closer to 80%, but even at fifty, Ayn Rand had great reason to hate communism and those who advocated it, which these days are a majority of the American population. Rand lost her first love to communism and she despises it for damn good reason. It destroyed everything she cared about. She was unique because she didn’t allow communism to crush her spirit the way it did so many of her friends and family. If she hadn’t gotten out of the country, she may have been crushed within a year or two of 1926 when a guest at a party she attended in Russia found out she was leaving The Soviet Union and asked her to get the message out of what was happening behind the Iron Curtain. “When you get there, tell them Russia is a huge cemetery and that we are all dying. Tell them We The Living told them.” Ayn Rand kept her promise and wrote We The Living which was criticized, and shut down in the United States for nearly 25 years. It was only after the success of Atlas Shrugged in 1957 that Random House finally re-released it to the public. Today We The Living is enjoying a renewed interest almost 80 years after its publication in large part because John Aglialoro, and Harmon Kaslow are making a modern movie of Ayn Rand’s work Atlas Shrugged and curious minds like mine are reading We The Living because we want more of what Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead offered. It is too bad that the new interest didn’t happen 60 years ago, otherwise America might avoid the pain and suffering it is about to go through. So when the bad reviews for Atlas Shrugged Part II come out, it is for all the reasons told above and more, not because the film is bad. Communist sympathizers, which extend from Barack Obama and Joe Biden all the way down to the local unionized firehouse and FOP station, do sympathize with communism. Anyone who preaches the message of the proletariat (middleclass) advocates communism and that message is no clearer upon the world stage than in the book We The Living.

We The Living is a must read. If you have not read it then you must do so as soon as possible. I would recommend closing this site right now and going over to Amazon.com and buying We The Living right now! Don’t rent any movies, don’t go to any public meetings, don’t watch any sporting events until you have read this book and understand that the communism of that book is as real today as it was then. IT IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW IN AMERICA FOR GOD’S SAKE, and Ayn Rand was trying to warn the world, and they didn’t listen, because the communists were already in place the way the party began to come into power in 1915 in Russia, when the world thought the Bolsheviks were “small potatoes.” It is not an overstatement to say that this is an emergency. It might have taken nearly 80 years to get the message out, but don’t let it become 81 or 82 years. Get the message today so you can act tomorrow, because you have to know who and what you’re fighting. In America we let the communists change the names of what they are without calling them on it, and we are paying for it dearly. 12 years of the Bush presidents, 8 years of Clinton, and now 4 years of Obama have delivered America to the doors of communism as it was established as a world revolution in Petrograd–1924 after the revolution of 1917. And it took one little woman out of the millions trapped in that country of collectivism to escape and report to the world what was happening, and that the wave was about to hit them too. That warning came in her book We The Living, but people didn’t listen. So she knew that she had to provide a blueprint for how to rebuild society after communism collapsed it. That is why she wrote The Fountainhead, and Atlas Shrugged, so people could see for themselves how things “should” be, since they were unable to act based on what “was” happening. We The Living is just a stunning portrayal of life in the Soviet Union and a vision of what intelligentsia has in mind for America, and provides the evidence to even the dullest minds what the intent has always been. It is a book that must be read, must be understood, and must be communicated to every friend, family member and loved one. It is in my mind the most crucial, historical novel of our time, not because its content is uplifting, but because it’s all too real.

Rich Hoffman

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Demise of China Part 2: Madame Fatale’s ‘Cavern of Terror’

This is part 2 of an article I wrote previously.  CLICK HERE for a review.

 

I was thinking of Hong Kong, communism and China in general while my wife, daughter, son-in-law, and I spent the weekend at the Halloween Haunt at Kings Island.  I love the Kings Island amusement park best during the cool October evenings, with the fog machines creating an eerie atmosphere as dressed up monsters roam around the park terrifying people.   This year new to the park, is an attraction called Madame Fatale’s Cavern of Terror.  As I stood in line I thought of how Lakota—my home school district could justify with a straight face sending public employees to China while opening the doors to that communist country in a mutual exchange.  I had to remind myself that the public unions that run Lakota and every other school in the country are in love with the communism of China, and without question Lakota sees such outreach programs with communist China to be wonderful, and beneficial to children everywhere.  As I looked around at the fantastic attraction at Kings Island I couldn’t help but think that China could not produce a Kings Island on their own.  As a communist country, they didn’t even think of such leisure activity for their population until they took over the lease of Hong Kong from the British government in 1997.

Disney built an amusement park in Hong Kong and since then, China has been attempting to copy the idea of amusement parks slowly trying to accept little bits of capitalism.  China didn’t have a choice.  Hong Kong was a capitalist city in their homeland but run by the British government seized in the Opium War (1839-1842).   England developed a flourishing economy while the rest of China stayed committed to communism 100 years later in 1949.  This caused economic drudgery for the 1 billion people living in China except for the fortunate 5 million people living in and around Hong Kong benefiting from capitalism.  Since 1997 China has been letting reluctantly the influence of capitalism expand their economy financially, but socially, they are in serious trouble leading them to a cliff of which their country will not avoid. 

These thoughts brought me back to my question, why does Lakota pride itself for a relationship with China?  Why has The United States allowed itself to become indebted to China’s economic wealth?  Unfortunately the reason is that the communists in America currently calling themselves progressives wish for The United States to be more like China, but what they don’t understand is the reality behind that decision.  The evidence of such a fatal flaw in recognition can be seen in the kind of amusement parks America has as opposed to the copy cat regime of China.  Kings Island would not exist in China under their own ingenuity.  Because of communism, the people of China would have to see it done first.  As a communist country short on imagination, they would never come up with a concept for a Halloween Haunt like Kings Island did. 

Wild economic creativity is a very specific benefit of capitalism, and America in general.  The kind of ingenuity that was on grand display at Madame Fatale’s Cavern of Terror was easy for the capitalist producers working at Cedar Fair Amusements.  Not so easy for amusement park workers in China who have to look at American websites to figure out what’s cool and what’s not.  Of a particular note was a new trick used in a haunted house that I had never experienced before.  One of the monsters in the maze said my name as I walked by, which did cause me to give the guy a double-take.  I saw that he didn’t attempt to make eye contact with me and as I was going up the stairs out of the pit of catacombs I noticed that he made no further attempt to communicate with me.  Instead I saw a woman speaking to the monster with a sheet of paper in her hand.  I spent the rest of the evening trying to figure out if I knew the guy from somewhere and if I did how he could have recognized me so quickly in such poor light.  As I reasoned through the events leading up to that particular confrontation I realized that the attraction which was entirely indoors had used some type of face recognition software similar to what the TSA are using to match my face with the records they have in the Kings Island season pass database.  The woman would tell the monster the names of a particular person as she got them off her computer between groups passing through that zone.  It was a neat trick that certainly got my attention. 

But in China, doing such things takes great effort, whereas in The United States creativity is actually taken for granted.  China is feared all over the world because of its land mass, and its vast numbers of population, but they are in serious trouble because of their communist, collectivist oriented society.  After adopting communism from The Soviet Union the Chinese have imposed upon themselves the same kind of economic restrictions that crushed Russia two decades prior.  Additionally their social engineering policy of only one child per family is having devastating consequences.  Currently China is full of males looking for war with Japan over some territorial islands for the primary reason that there are not enough females to domesticate the males.  The men do not have the ability to have their own woman to share a life with, and have sex.  They have to share women like all communist societies advocate so strongly.  But that doesn’t exactly work, so the male population in China is strung up very tight.  Currently in China there are between 120 to 130 males for every 100 females.  There are more than 35 million people missing in China according to birth records, and the logical belief is that those people were girls born into families who wanted a boy, so they killed the girl.  One thing that the communists didn’t consider in their masterful social planning is that fathers would want a son to carry on their family name, and if the State only allowed them to have one child per family, they didn’t want to waste that on a girl.  That kind of culture is what public schools like Lakota are promoting to young students learning the merits of communism. 

Using the same reasoning ability to add up the facts as I did over the haunted house name identification incident, it is not difficult to see where China is headed.  They have a heavily male population that must pay for sex in brothels, because not all men can have a woman, or they must become homosexual—which is another communist platform item.  Homosexuality is advocated by communists because it destroys the traditional family and gives the state the authority role over young people.  This has created some very unusual internal problems in China which can be explored more deeply in the article below. 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/02/chinas-great-gender-crisis

When President Obama speaks of putting America to work building bridges and roads, and hiring more teachers, cops and firefighters, he has in essence copied what communist China has been doing for a number of years, especially since taking over Hong Kong.  China to keep its citizens working has been building many “ghost cities” which are giant public works projects designed to keep the economy moving along.  But the trouble is nobody lives in them.  There are not companies to fill them, and no people to reside there.  They are just constructed cities designed by master planners for people who will never arrive.  They were built to cover up a serious economic problem that China is about to be crushed under—the failure of communism. 

1.1   million workers in China work for Foxconn who probably makes your iPhone if you have one.  Foxconn had to close one of its factories after major riots over oppressive working conditions broke out recently in Taiyuan, leaving 79,000 workers out of a job.  The reason companies like Apple and other global electronics companies, including Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Microsoft use the Foxconn factories in China to make their products is because the union jobs in America would simply be too expensive.  I don’t blame them as American companies one bit for seeking out the most competitive advantage to their profit matrix.  I blame the communist government of China because they don’t give people a choice of economic options.  Thorough China’s collectivism they have socially engineered themselves into destruction.  They work where they’re assigned.  End of story.  The State controls virtually everything even down to the sex life of its citizens.  When the pressure becomes too great, the citizens simply kill themselves or riot out of desperation.  Read more about this terrible situation below:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/24/technology/foxconn-factory-in-china-is-closed-after-worker-riot.html?_r=0

Communism is failing China in a huge way and the media in The United States along with the President and other academic types are keeping the failures quite because they are in denial.  Many of them have long advocated the utopia of communism in The United States and refuse to see the facts for the facts.  I suspect many of them would go through Madame Fatale’s Cavern of Terror as I did and would be shocked when a monster called their name out of the fog infested darkness.  But they would probably leave it at that, and not pursue the truth any further by adding up the facts to figure out how the monster knew their name.  They would simply accept the act without figuring out why it happened, and this is what all communists are guilty of.  This is why millions of people are dying in China right now—today!  This is why the worst civil rights abuses in the entire world are happening in China with the killing of millions of young girls.  If the crimes against women in China were added to the crimes against women in Islamic faith, women’s rights groups all over the earth would be in a deserved outrage.  But they are not, because they are not advocates for individual rights of women, but collective rights of humanity, and they cannot turn their attention against collective based organizations like the Islamic religion or the political philosophy of communism.  There is no place on earth where worker rights are so extremely oppressive as in China right now, today in that far away land where communism rules with an iron fist, accepting crony capitalism so long as their business partners outwardly support progressive causes—so everyone can sleep well at night. 

That same night my family and I attended the Halloween Haunt at Kings Island we also went to Skyline Chili at Kings Mills, a delightful restaurant featuring Cincinnati’s world famous chili.  From the dining room window I could see the Eiffel Tower of Kings Island and all along the circumference of the room a model train ran around the parameter.  I enjoyed watching the train as we ate our dinner and I contemplated how wonderful capitalism is.  Around the counter the employees waiting to serve a new customer talked casually.  Their minds were not on riots like the conditions at the Foxconn plant in China instigated.  They simply wanted to get off work in time to play World of Warcraft meeting up in cyberspace with their guild friends.  For the young people working at Skyline Chili the world is open to them, and there are limitless options for them to fill their time.  At the Foxconn plant in China where the riots took place, the workers live, work, and play all the same facility in service to the State, like all good communists must do without question. 

I would support public education in America if they publicly denounced their affiliation with labor unions and disguised communism.   I would feel better about my district of Lakota if they did not send employees on “goodwill” missions to a communist country that is currently killing millions of their current citizens behind smiling faces and letting American youth believe everything is alright.  Nobody gives a damn so long as their iPhone works, and they have the latest addition.   As I watched the train round the tracks at Skyline Chili I realized that what I hate most about labor unions—all labor unions—is that they use communism to erode the world of what’s good and wherever they gather they bring misery.  Even where they don’t gather, they bring misery because it forces people to flee their collective wrath.  In the case of companies like Apple seeking to offer a good product at a good price, they can deal with the communism of labor unions in The United States or they can deal with the communism of China and their forced work labor restrictions due to economic limitations.  American companies have the upper hand in China because the communist country has no ingenuity on their own, so they rely on America to give them their jobs which can be produced cheaper in China than in the United States.  But China with all its power or its population cannot make a haunted house like what was found at Kings Island in Madame Fatale’s Cavern of Terror.  And for me, that is the most frightening thought I had all evening.

Rich Hoffman

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Demise of China Part 1: The History of Communism and why it grows in Public Education

While it is true, I have less patients for the public education system in America now than I did when I first started fighting school levies, the reason for it is in the diagnosis that in its current form, schools as they function now cannot be saved. Government schools should be erased from the board of thought and reinvented without the influence of labor unions or any government involvement. If you send your child to a public school, you are destroying their minds. That is my opinion after much research. The evidence of my research has revealed without question that communist infiltration into the America public education system in the 1940’s and 1950’s has caused many of the social and economic problems we see today in 2012. The modern labor union’s social/political position and what they desire to teach students, and how they wish to erode away the value of private property through taxation—incentivizing non-ownership, apartment dwellers and other lease agreements as shelters of taxation–public housing like what Russia had in Petrograd are all too clear the strategic intentions when taken in historical context.

It is unlikely that a school district’s modern superintendents or their administrators know anything of the history I am about to unleash upon these pages in a two-part symposium focusing on why China wishes war with Japan, and the true modern cost of communism that China is currently experiencing. It is unlikely that they have thought too much about the communism they are advocating in their modern politics—the attempt to teach the American youth of the struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeois, the importance of “green technology” (modern communism) or the dangerous breakdown of family values advocated by intelligentsia in America and how this breakdown occurred through subtle communist propaganda. The participants probably know very little of what they are really doing, or why they do it. They have accepted collectivism as their social role so they only look at their responsibility in that collective, and do not consider the philosophic implications because such a thing would require thought, and they have surrendered that ability. The communists attacked America in the period after World War II not directly, but subtly and that attack can be felt to this very day in any child in any school in America. And every American who pays taxes off their property has been forced to accept that communism just a little each year with every increase in school levies gradually sapping off the wealth of property ownership by attacking the bourgeois and redistributing that wealth to the proletariat. Teachers are not paid so much money through their unions because those positions are socially important. They are paid so much to shut their mouths, not ask questions, and teach what the state tells them to teach. For me the final straw came during the Chicago Teacher’s Union Strike of 2012.

Author Ayn Rand wrote a pamphlet for the, entitled Screen Guide for Americans, where she wrote: The purpose of the Communists in Hollywood is not the production of political movies openly advocating Communism. Their purpose is to corrupt our moral premises by corrupting non-political movies–by introducing small, casual bits of propaganda into innocent stories thus making people absorb the basic principles of Collectivism by indirection and implication. The principle of free speech requires that we do not use police force to forbid the Communists the expression of their ideas–which means that we do not pass laws forbidding them to speak. But the principle of free speech does not require that we furnish the Communists with the means to preach their ideas, and does not imply that we owe them jobs and support to advocate our own destruction at our own expense. Texts taken from The Passion of Ayn Rand by Barbara Branden, p. 199. You can also see that guide for yourself by CLICKING HERE.

But to understand how this communism came to our communities in 2012 we have to study the events that led up to it, to the Russian Revolution, which was an event that the political left has salivated over for 100 years. By understanding how communism spread, and why it was appealing, one can then see how we found it in our own back yards and why. The history below is a bit dry and encyclopedic. But it is necessary in understanding the modern political landscape.

Russian Revolution

Russian Revolution, series of events in imperial Russia that culminated in 1917 with the establishment of the Soviet state that became known as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The two successful revolutions of 1917 are referred to collectively as the Russian Revolution.

For centuries, autocratic and repressive czarist regimes ruled Russia, and most of the population lived under severe economic and social conditions. During the 19th century and early 20th century, various movements arose aimed at overthrowing the government. Russia’s unsuccessful involvement in World War I (1914-1918) added to popular discontent, and in 1917 these events resulted in revolutions in February and October.

The February Revolution

The immediate cause of the February Revolution was the collapse of the czarist regime under the strain of World War I. Russian industry lacked the capacity to arm, equip, and supply the millions of men who were sent into the war. Soldiers went hungry, and casualties were enormous. Goods became scarce, and by 1917 famine threatened the larger cities. The czar, Emperor Nicholas II, ignored warnings of social and political unrest, and in February 1917 workers occupied the streets of Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg), demanding an end to the war and the removal of the czar. The troops of the Petrograd garrison were called out, but after violent clashes, the workers convinced the troops to let them pass their line of defense. Nicholas dissolved the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, but the deputies elected a provisional committee to act in its place. On February 27 the revolution triumphed. The Petrograd garrison joined the revolution, and the united workers and soldiers took control of the capital.

Two new bodies exercised effective political power. They were the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies and a provisional government formed by a committee of the Duma. The Soviet tried to cope with the problem of food supply and issued its famous Order No. 1, which placed the military under its authority. The Soviet was composed primarily of Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries. Led by this moderate majority, it recognized the newly established provisional government as the legal authority in Russia.

The Provisional Government

After Nicholas II abdicated on March 2, the provisional government took power. The revolution then spread throughout the country, as soviets functioned with authorities in communication with the provisional government. The government was led primarily by Pavel Milyukov and generally favored an immediate constitutional monarchy and ultimately a republic. Aleksandr Fyodorovich Kerensky, the minister of justice, was the only representative of moderate socialist opinion in the provisional government. The provisional government enjoyed widespread popularity at first as it disbanded the czarist police and repealed limitations on freedom of opinion, press, and association. Its power was limited, however, as it had no firm basis of authority.

The provisional government pledged itself to win the war, but the Petrograd Soviet called for peace. The antagonisms between the government and the Petrograd Soviet resulted in open conflict. The soviets throughout the country became an instrument for revolutionary socialism, as the government continued to postpone action on pressing problems and as the workers and peasants became increasingly convinced that their problems could be solved only by the soviets.

Growth of Bolshevik Influence

The revolution had surprised even the working-class parties that had been agitating for revolution, and only in April, after the return from Switzerland of their exiled leader, Vladimir Ilich Lenin, did the Bolshevik Party assert itself. Lenin advocated opposition to the war and proposed that the party establish a proletarian dictatorship. He declared that the Bolsheviks should issue propaganda to convince the workers of the soundness of Bolshevik policy before seizing power. Revolutionary Leon Trotsky agreed and joined the Bolshevik Party, which was in the minority in the Petrograd Soviet. Events favored the Bolshevik cause. Milyukov, by continuing to support the war, provoked armed demonstrations by workers and soldiers, and the Soviet ordered all troops to remain in their barracks during the protests. Milyukov resigned, and the government was reorganized to include representatives of the socialist parties.

The Bolshevik Party was still a minority at the first all-Russian Congress of Soviets in June. The government, like its predecessor, subordinated all problems to the prosecution of the war, leading to a massive demonstration in July by workers, soldiers, and sailors. The demonstrators converged on the Tauride Palace, where the Congress of Soviets was in session. Caught by surprise, the Bolshevik leadership at first attempted to restrain the masses, but then placed itself at the head of the movement. The Congress of Soviets denounced the Bolsheviks and summoned troops to disperse the demonstrators. The support from the troops in effect recognized the Soviet as the supreme governing authority in the country. Kerensky became prime minister, and a second coalition government was formed.

The July demonstration produced a wave of political reaction. Lenin was denounced and went into hiding in Finland; Trotsky and others were arrested. Because the Kerensky government took no steps to improve the economy, unrest continued, and Bolshevik influence again increased. After a failed attempt by the military to take the city, the Bolsheviks, supported by the soldiers and workers, secured a majority in the Petrograd Soviet, leaving the provisional government virtually powerless.

The October Revolution

On October 24 the Military Revolutionary Committee, under the direction of Trotsky, stormed the Winter Palace, headquarters of the provisional government. Kerensky escaped into exile. While the insurrection was in progress, the second Congress of Soviets, with a Bolshevik majority, began its deliberation. Most of the Menshevik and Socialist Revolutionary delegates withdrew from the congress.

In November the Congress of Soviets took up the issues of peace, land, and a new government. First it proposed an immediate armistice. Then it abolished most private property. Finally, the congress, led by the Central Executive Committee, became the country’s supreme authority, with decisions to be carried out by the Soviet of People’s Commissars. Among the leading Bolsheviks elected to this council were Lenin, Trotsky, and Joseph Stalin. The congress gained widespread support, and banks and industries were nationalized.

The new government ended Russia’s involvement in World War I by signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on March 3, 1918. The treaty, which surrendered the Baltic states, Finland, Poland, and Ukraine, infuriated many Russians. Opposition to the Bolshevik Party, by then called the Russian Communist Party, erupted into a civil war that lasted until late 1920. Lenin’s government, operating out of the new capital in Moscow, began a policy of crushing all opposition in the so-called Red terror campaign. Suspected anti-Communists, known as Whites, were arrested, tried, and executed.

After winning the civil war, the Russian Communist Party took strict control of the country, crushing all opposition. On December 30, 1921, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was formally established when the ethnic territories of the former Russian Empire were united with the Russian Federated Socialist Republic.

As communism spread across the largest landmass of the world in Russia Mao Ze•dong (mou¹ dze¹dòng¹) also Mao Tse-tung (tse¹-t¢ng¹) bought into the theories of Karl Marx and Lenin and started a revolution of his own. Mao was born in 1893 and died in1976 as the premier Chinese Communist leader and theorist. He founded the Chinese Communist Party (1921), he led the Long March (1934-1935) and proclaimed the People’s Republic of China in 1949. As party chairman and the country’s first head of state (1949-1959) he initiated the Great Leap Forward and the founding of communes. He continued as party chairman after 1959 and was a leading figure in the Cultural Revolution (1966-1969). In the 1970’s he consolidated his political power and established ties with the West. To see more on the history of China and the impact of this communist uprising, CLICK HERE.

In America while all this activity was going on in the Soviet Union and China spies and communist infiltrators into Hollywood, book publishing, the media, and government positions ushered in new concerns for the poor (Harrington’s Other America, 1963) helped lead to Pres. Johnson’s “Great Society” programs (Medicare, Water Quality Act, Higher Education Act, all 1965). Concern with the environment surged (Carson’s Silent Spring, 1962). Feminism revived as a cultural and political movement (Friedan’s Feminine Mystique, 1963; National Organization for Women founded 1966), and a movement for homosexual rights emerged (Stonewall riot in NYC, 1969). Pope John XXIII called the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), which liberalized Roman Catholic liturgy and some other aspects of Catholicism. All these movements were set off by insurgents working within The United States in the fashion that Ayn Rand warned about in 1947, in much the way that the Bolsheviks came to power in Russia.

Opposition to U.S. involvement in Vietnam, especially among university students (Moratorium protest, Nov. 1969), turned violent (Weatherman Chicago riots, Oct. 1969). New Left and Marxist theories became popular, and membership in radical groups (Students for a Democratic Society, Black Panthers) increased. Maoist groups, especially in Europe, called for total transformation of society. In France, students sparked a nationwide strike affecting 10 million workers in May-June 1968, but an electoral reaction barred revolutionary change.

The seeds for communism were planted by the time Ronald Reagan became president, the names were changed to protect the Cold War fears from the public, and were advocated in America by the Democratic Party funded by labor unions with money stolen from the property of tax payers to fund their own demise. The intention of communism under Lenin was always a worldwide conquest of the proletariat over the bourgeois. He managed in just a few short years to spread communism to almost the entire landmass of Asia and most of Europe disguised as socialism and mixed market capitalism to gain gradual acceptance over time. And yes, the communists came to America to plant their seeds and they started in Hollywood where they still work closely in relationships established closely with politicians to “shape” society into the beliefs of communism.

[1]Excerpted from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition  © 1996 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Electronic version licensed from INSO Corporation; further reproduction and distribution in accordance with the Copyright Law of the United States. All rights reserved.

[1]The World Almanac® and Book of Facts 1997 is licensed from K-III Reference Corporation. Copyright © 1996 by K-III Reference Corporation. All rights reserved.

Stay Tuned for Part 2 on October 2, 2012

Rich Hoffman

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What Samuel L. Jackson Really Means: Go back to sleep, just like his ‘Star Wars’ character Mace Windu

I found it ironic to see that Samuel L. Jackson put his namesake on a Obama advertisement targeting the immature youth of America with subtle inclinations of socialism in a catchy, gutter-strewn, Wake the F**k Up video that is circulating around YouTube. I have sat in the outdoor restaurants of Brand Blvd in Hollywood and spoke with entertainment types about philosophy till the small hours of the morning on occasion and what they believe is essentially communism as it was passed down to them from mouth to mouth during the Cold War. To their credit, they believe they are doing the right thing for humanity in advocating “fairness” but in reality they are simply mouthpieces for communism. Jackson’s role in this Hollywood position of socialist propaganda is ironic because one of his best roles over a long career is that of the Jedi Master, Mace Windu from the Star Wars films, a role that he appears to be living out in the real life.

In Star Wars the Jedi Order which Jackson’s character was one of the elite caretakers of, allowed itself to be seduced by a Sith Lord hungry for power who simply wanted to dismantle the Republic in favor of a dictatorship. The Jedi for all their wonderful intuition, special powers, and discipline could not see it coming because as a group of social protectors, they had fallen into neglect due to their collectivism, which allowed a Sith Lord to become Emperor of the entire galaxy right under their noses.

It would appear that Jackson was the perfect man to play such a role in Star Wars. Mace Windu was an outwardly strong man, just like Samuel Jackson, but his philosophy was flawed because he failed to act correctly due to his philosophic position. Jackson, like most of the Hollywood political left have been “seduced” by communism called now by the name of “progressivism” and they have paved the way to dictatorship through their philosophic ignorance.

But looking deeper this new Obama advertisement cleverly produced with Hollywood production standards reflects just how deep and how desperate Obama supporters are. It also shows exactly why many who oppose Obama wish to take the nation back to a period of time before progressives destroyed the values that made America such a unique place, void of European collectivism and communist philosophy. The Obama socialists of today must target the young and immature young people in America in the same way the Vladimir Lenin used the strain of World War I to motivate the young people of Russia to form the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party to overthrow the government and usher in world-wide communism.

Democrats and any member of any Labour Party in the entire world are advocating socialism as their political philosophy. France just recently openly elected a socialist president so finally after many years of hiding their belief in communism and the embarrassments of Russia and China, communists and socialists are dusting off the name from behind the masks they have been wearing like “Democrats,” “progressives,” “Labour Party,” and other soft names for hard-core collectivist philosophies. Hollywood during the McCarthy hearings were not a witch-hunt as card-carrying communists in The United States cried out as they used the First Amendment to hide their true intentions of destroying American capitalism from within so the spread of global communism could flourish as Lenin had advocated on behalf of writers such as Karl Marx, Bernard Shaw, and H.G.Wells. Hollywood was seduced by the “fairness” of Russian communism as Lenin advocated it. Because of the independence culture in America, there was a lot of resistance to such collectivism, so it arrived later and much more slowly through the youth culture communicated through labor unions and actors like Samuel Jackson.

Like the Jedi in Star Wars actors such as Jackson have failed to see the threat of communism as it bloomed right under their noses under a weak philosophy of collective fairness. To this very day on Brand Blvd, and bars all over Santa Monica, California it is socialism that the creative types in Hollywood are advocating, but because they have little personal knowledge of history, they do not know that the Democratic platform of Barack Obama is not open communism because the names have been changed and hidden by the Civil Rights activism of the candidate’s skin color, using race guilt to usher in Lenin’s communism through mindless actors who simply read scripts for a living.

In Star Wars the threat to society is the Sith Order. The Jedi failed during The Clone Wars because of their sensitive, collective policies of “fairness” and the Sith use this to their tactical advantage. Order is restored in Star Wars when strong individuals join the battle to restore freedom to the galaxy that has become embroiled through collectivism under a tyrannical empire. Darth Vader does not become evil because of his brash and reckless ways; it’s because of his commitment to sacrifice himself for the sake of his pregnant wife. The Sith Lord uses this to turn Darth Vader into service to the state which he controls. Star Wars is a work of philosophy, not simple science fiction.

The failures are in philosophy. The Democrats like Jackson and his fellow actors are wrong in their position, just like the Jedi were wrong in the Star Wars films failing to see the Sith Lord they were helping to maintain power. Obama is the anti-colonial Sith Lord of communist reality to the Samuel Jackson’s of the world. Young people are particularly infected such as the actress Natalie Portman and Anne Hathaway because they are too immature to know better, and the tyrannical Obama regime understands this, and they exploit it with ads pandering to their rebellious zeal.

My son-in-law and I had a long talk the other day about politics and the role of philosophy in the day-to-day lives of all people. As I told him, people can have differing opinions and the spirit of debate is wonderful for getting to the heart of the matter, but there is only one right answer. People can argue and debate on how to get there, but there are not multiple correct answers to any given problem only different ways at arriving at the correct answer. History shows us that the communist were very wrong in their utopian beliefs and the world has suffered for it in dramatic ways for over 100 years. That philosophic path must be rejected completely and scrapped now. The path toward a fully functioning society that advances instead of declines is along the lines of the video below and that is the most up to date trend in politics.

Samuel Jackson and those like him are behind the times following a flawed philosophy that can only lead to a dictatorship of the proletariat. This doesn’t make them bad people, it just means that their philosophy which governs their lives is a foolish one, because it has been proven incorrect, and one that is crushing the world wherever it rules. America, because of its roots in capitalism has held communism off for a very long time as the only bastion of freedom for the human race in the entire world. If America falls to the political labour parties masking communism humanity will regress backward in precisely the same manner as shown in the great American novel Atlas Shrugged. The people who hate Ayn Rand and that great classic book feel the way they do for all the reasons that Samuel Jackson showed in his pandering video advocating Obama socialism for America. It’s not that they want America to Wake the F**K Up. They in reality wish them to Go Back to Sleep, and to not pay attention to the work of the Sith Lords who wish to overthrow our Republic with mechanisms the touchy, feely Hollywood actors fail to see. Jackson like his Star Wars character Mace Windu has been tricked into supporting a dictator hungry for power with intentions nobody but a Sith Lord could know behind the layers and layers of manipulation that is disguised beyond masks of philanthropy and good tidings.

Rich Hoffman

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‘Only in America’: Larry the Cable Guy visits ‘Tail of the Dragon’

Only in America starring Larry the Cable Guy filmed an episode that will be shown on August 7th 2013 on The History Channel with my friend Ron Johnson who runs tailofthedragon.com. Ron took Larry on the ride of his life in his Mustang down the Tail of the Dragon and back again in what will surely be a hilarious episode of that upcoming television show featuring unique places and people of America. The Tail of the Dragon, which is the featured location of my new novel of the same name, captures this same spirit only in a literary format that is part of a trend pointing Americans to their cherished landmarks in a rash of patriotism that has only recently been appreciated due to the threat of modern politics to eradicate it.

As Ron was telling about his weekend adventures with Larry the Cable Guy Justin Binik Thomas was reviewing my book version of Tail of the Dragon. Justin Binik Thomas readers here might remember I covered as a victim of the IRS because of his involvement in the Cincinnati Tea Party and the Cincinnati 9/12 project. Justin has attended some of the exclusive Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom meetings in the past and I saw him again at FreePac in Cincinnati where I was signing copies of my new book while also working the Atlas Shrugged Part II booth. I gave Justin a copy since the book had just come out, and I thought he’d enjoy it. He took a week to read it, and then sent me the following email with a blurb that he posted on Amazon.com.

Rich – Your book is exceptional. The race/chase scene had me on the edge of my seat. “Tail of the Dragon” is a dynamic action-packed thriller seamlessly integrating love for America, homage to our history, and true liberty. We ‘live’ it first hand through NASCAResque race through the hills of Tennessee and North Carolina – a trip that captures the hearts of the citizens and even the President of the United States

– Justin Binik-Thomas, Owner, Conservative Media Group

His comments meant a lot to me because like Larry the Cable Guy’s fascination with the Tail of the Dragon as an actual place on the Tennessee/North Carolina border, readers of my novel understand the intent of the story without any difficulty. I didn’t tell Justin much about the book, I simply handed it to him as a gift. Justin didn’t know what to think. He was essentially in the same situation as the average Amazon.com buyer knowing very little about the book or the plot line before reading it.

Needless to say every time a new reader expresses their enjoyment of Tail of the Dragon it gives me great delight, especially when they are coming to the material for the first time. The common reaction that many new readers have is they immediately detect the feeling of Americana that I intended to portray in the story without getting particularly political. The focus of the story is to celebrate what makes an American, not to appeal to any particular political class. Another recent review that showed up on the Amazon.com site in response to another previous comment captured this sentiment.

Lucy Louise says:

I recently read “The Tail of the Dragon” and found the book truly exciting. The author takes the reader on an exciting race for justice that really takes your breath away. I could not lay the book down. My pulse raced as I read to make sure that Rick Stevens completed the race. Normally, I am not a race car fan, but this book kept me right in the car. Mr. Hoffman’s writing skill created visual reality. I hope this book is made into a movie. The ending was perfect. We are looking for a real hero these days and Rick Stevens sure filled the bill. I am buying copies for gifts. Thank you, Mr. Hoffman, for hope. Hope for real patriots that believe our nation is worth saving.

Well Lucy Louise, you are very welcome. The best part of that comment is that the reviewer intends to pass out copies of Tail of the Dragon for presents which is the ultimate compliment. Christmas is coming up and it fulfills my deepest wishes to know that fans of the book think enough of it to give as a present to others. Because the message of Tail of the Dragon is clear, and is often only hinted at in television programs like Larry the Cable Guy’s Only in America. The essence of being an American is an elusive quality that has allowed the meaning to be hijacked by foreign philosophies and it has always been my hope that readers of Tail if the Dragon the novel would find themselves understanding better that rare quality which makes Americans—Americans. By the early comments I have great hope that this task has been executed fully. The story of Tail of the Dragon whether we’re talking about the real place that Larry the Cable Guy filmed his television show at or my fictional novel which explores the concept of freedom demanded by mankind derived uniquely through American philosophy is essentially about the celebration of Americana. The source of the material is the mythical place called Tail of the Dragon located deep in the mountain hills of the Great Smoky Mountains on the western frontier. It is there, where America is as alive as anywhere in the entire country and a place where freedom cries out loudest. The battle lines of politics are as articulate and well-defined there as anyplace on earth.

So thank you Justin and for everyone else who are leaving nice comments on the Tail of the Dragon’s new Amazon.com site. It is for the reasons revealed in those comments that I wrote the book with high hopes to capture an elusive truth known Only in America. So in January look for Larry the Cable Guy’s new TV show featuring the actual Tail of the Dragon from the seat of my friend’s Mustang. But until then and after then, the novel Tail of the Dragon will dig deeper than any cinematography can explore, into the roots of what makes such a place possible, into the heart of an American, and the blood called freedom that feeds them.

Rich Hoffman

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