RIP Teaching Profession: Why are kids so dumb?

What does a “master’s degree plus 30” mean to me as a tax payer?  Yet that’s what a teacher from Lakota named Mary who teaches in a blue ribbon award-winning middle school, stated as a justification for her worth when she came straight out and asked what she was worth live on the air to 38 states and part of Canada.  She was responding to my appearance on 700 WLW with Darryl Parks on Saturday April 16, 2011 during his morning show. 

Come to think of it, what good is a blue ribbon award?  Who gives it out?

The State.

Why?

To give people the illusion that taxpayers are getting the value for their money.  But why do they believe such things?

Because people buy homes in school districts based on whether or not a district is “excellent.”

Who decides if a district is “excellent?”

The State. 

Why would the state do such a thing? 

Because it justifies all the jobs of the people employed in the Ohio Department of Education, the Ohio School Board, the OSBA, and the Ohio Education Association so that they can make people feel they are getting value for their tax money. 

It is interesting that one day I drove all over the city and I noticed that Springdale City Schools, Princeton, Lakota, Mason and Sycamore all had “excellent” banners on their high schools.  That leads me to believe that getting an excellent rating is pretty easy, because so many schools have it.  So what’s the value in that? 

The answer to all these questions is that it’s all deception designed to manipulate people into voting for increased taxes on their property.  The teachers union has openly scammed against all property owners in the state of Ohio with their endorsement of these deceptive practices.  I hold them more accountable because they are the organization that provided the lobby to politicians and Ohio Department of Education members to obtain these meaningless ratings like “blue ribbon schools” or an “excellent” rating.  And the next responsible group is realtors.  They love those awards because it makes selling a home in those particular school districts easier.  So they are usually at the front of efforts to pass a school levy. 

Darryl hit the nail on the head during our radio interview.  He said the teaching profession will soon RIP.  Why?  Because technology will eliminate millions of teaching jobs in the near future.  It will not eliminate them to be mean to them, or to hurt their feelings.  Technology is the most logical next step in the evolution of the teaching profession.    While teachers should be re-educating themselves for the evolving market they are instead holding onto the past.  This is what they were doing while I was on the radio with Darryl. 

They were collecting signatures for the repeal of S.B.5. like a bunch of short-sighted looters that lack any vision.   The speaker in this clip says that we need good schools in order to teach our kids to read.  Yet with all the millions and millions of dollars we spend on education, out of the thousands of dollars each of us pay on our property taxes, 1 out of 4 people are functionally illiterate.  Because of that, our education system is a dismal failure that is in serious need of reform.  Just listen to Miss Teen USA.

So to all those fools trying to repeal S.B.5 enabling them to loot our tax money and give themselves vacations to Cancun should ask, what value are you? 

Can you honestly answer it?  Because blue ribbons and excellent ratings are just words on a banner.  The true excellence is in the quality of our society, and by the sound of that girl, we’re in a lot of trouble.

Rich Hoffman

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

Atlas Shrugged is Coming: Obama and Lakota need to see it to learn about economics

It took me a full day for the anger to steam away from my mind once I took three showers and spent hours reading to relax from the most audacious speech I can recall hearing from a president of the United States. The president’s speech was very telling, and ignorant. It is everything warned to us by Ayn Rand over 50 years ago.

Rand warned us in the epic book published in 1957 called Atlas Shrugged of everything the president said in that speech and more.  And finally, a movie is hitting the big screen from that prophetic work.  That movie comes out April 15, 2011. GO SEE IT!!!!!! What is most infuriating with the way the president stood up in front of a room full of people and declared that taxes must be increased to pay for a great America, is that he was simply saying the same mindless rhetoric that our local politicians throw our way when they are trying to pass a school levy. The thought from these people is that money equals success, so we must raise taxes to achieve more success……………………………..

………………are you freaking serious????????????????????


Where do these people come from? Obama is a so-called academic, yet did he take a single class on finance, or don’t they teach that to kids anymore?

I recently spoke about these topics but focused on the local issue of the Lakota School District finance issues to Pulse Journal reporter Lindsey Hilty which she composed in the below article.

The theme of the article was that Lakota is operating with fewer administrators than the state average, so doesn’t that mean they are operating more efficiently than other school districts?


No. Statements like that, just like the president’s speech, is full of smoke and mirrors designed to justify excessively high costs of an out-of-control government at all levels, hoping that people will be foolish enough to just look at the smoke and not at what causes it.
Read that article here:

Lakota has 58% fewer administrators per pupil than state average, report says
By Lindsey Hilty, Staff Writer Updated 1:43 AM Thursday, April 14, 2011

LIBERTY TWP. — At a time when finances of the Lakota Local School District have come under intense scrutiny from voters, officials say state data shows they are running a lean operation.

The district has 58 percent fewer administrators per pupil than the state average, and 20 percent fewer administrators than similar districts, which are categorized by size and demographics, according to the latest report released from the Ohio Department of Education in March.

In the 2009 report, Lakota had 43 percent fewer administrators than the state average, Interim Superintendent Ron Spurlcok said; however, “with our recent budget reductions and consolidations, we have seen that number grow.”
While that number may be touted as a good thing for the bottom line, he warned that it puts a strain on operations.

Assistant principals are responsible for discipline and also must sit in on all individual education plan meetings for students with disabilities.

“We realize economies of scale by running larger buildings, so we can economize where possible,” Kursman said.
However, fewer administrators in larger buildings means a bigger demand for their time, whether it is handling parent concerns, analyzing student data or reviewing teacher performance.

Many buildings now share assistant principals, she said, if the principal is called away for a meeting or to direct traffic due to transportation cuts, there is no one left to manage the building.

Levy opponent Rich Hoffman said he isn’t impressed with the numbers.
“I don’t believe any of the stats they give me anymore, because the reality is that they could do a lot more with a lot less if things really get pushy,” he said.

Hoffman said administrators could be reduced more, but they aren’t the issue.

The problem, he said, is “I think Lakota has drowned itself in salary obligations, and when you’re trying to cover 22 buildings when management of those salary obligations has been bad, it turns out to be a catastrophic mistake. Administrators get paid a lot, but there aren’t so many of them that it affects the bottom line costs, so their damage to the budget is negligible.”

There are too many employees netting more than $65,000 annually, he said, and that is the crux of the problem. He pointed to the salary lists recently published in the Pulse-Journal, and said the increase in employees in just one year who reached the $65,000 plus benchmark is unsustainable.

“You have to get the costs in line, but the costs are your salaries … None of us can afford it anymore.”
Hoffman called for tough negotiations as the board as the Lakota Education Association reopen the 2011-2012 school year contract, and said many in the community would stand behind the board as long as it was aggressive in controlling costs.

In fiscal year 2010, Lakota spent $96 million on salaries. In 2011, that number dropped $2 million due to retirements, no increase to the base salaries and a reduction in force. Employees still earned close to $2 million in step raises, Treasurer Jenni Logan said, but one third of employees, who are at the top of the pay scale, saw no step increase.
As details from legislation like SB 5 keep the district in a holding pattern, Logan said, “Inside the walls of Lakota, we’re focusing on the job at hand, which is educating our students.”

This isn’t just centered on the Lakota School District. Not even the President of the United States seems smart enough to understand the basics of finance. These people who think that showing some false numbers like “Lakota has fewer administrators,” will convince people who all the money we send their way will be spent wisely, are sadly mistaken.

Only a fool thinks that, and in the last Lakota Levy there were many fools that blindly spouted phantom facts because they were too lazy to think about the real problem. Just as the President of the United States received rounds of applause for embarrassing our nation in the eyes of anyone that has any sense throughout the world. Their collective belief is that money will make something better, when all it really ever does is compound the original problems.

It is my hope that when Atlas Shrugged Part 1 comes to the big screen that people intimidated by the length of the book will begin to understand the complex nature of freedom and the value of it.

Rich Hoffman

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

35deg 39’17.80″N 83deg 26’27.77″W—-My Little Secret: The Obama Budget Plan

There is so much wrong with President Obama’s speech on April 13, 2011 that I couldn’t possibly comment on them all without writing another book. The bottom line is that he’s a fundamental socialist. He used two examples of success, China and Brazil which are countries not tied down with much regulation, that was instrumental to those success stories.

Obama is a progressive. His mistake is that he believes like other progressives do, that money equals value, and it does not. He is completely lost, like the others of his kind. His America is not my America. My America is described below.

Speaking of progressives, they are all upset with the upcoming release of Atlas Shrugged. What is with all the Weiners that are part of the progressive movement? When I saw the sad little article from The Huffington Post about Atlas Shrugged, and the terrified attempts from a “Weiner” named Ellis Weiner to paint Atlas Shrugged as something bad and unsophisticated for mankind, I had mistaken him for the Congressman Weiner, thinking they were both the same Weiner. Read that article for yourself

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ellis-weiner/on-atlas-shrugged-as-a-gu_b_157295.html

Both Weiner’s are extreme progressives that are characters straight out of the pages of Atlas Shrugged. In that book, those characters are villains, so I would conclude that those Wieners would not like the book.

But Weiner crosses the line when he puts down the aim of the film, which will not be discovered in the part one portion of the film released. He reveals as anyone who is a fan of the book knows, that the “Men of the Mind” that have went on strike, have moved to the high mountains of Colorado to create a society of their own while the rest of the world perishes. It is obvious that Mr. Weiner just as in Congressman Weiner are a couple of people who have a limited intellectual capacity so they missed many of the deep subjects of the film. But Ellis Weiner seems to not understand that such places as mountaintop retreats of this kind exist, same as the mountain refuge mentioned in Atlas Shrugged.

Well……I’m going to give you a secret dear reader, so that you can know for yourself that fools like these Weiners live their whole lives seeing the world from the perspective of their city streets or their congressional districts. Their perspective is so warped and limited that they cannot see what is right in front of them and therefore cannot even conceive of the kind of world or ideas of a John Galt. I personally know of a place very similar to the mountain retreat from Atlas Shrugged. I will provide you with the coordinates, but shhhhhhhhh. It’s a secret. 35deg 39’17.80”N 83deg 26’27.77”W

I have spent some wonderful moments at that location. Here are some of the pictures from that place. It is one of the best kept secrets in the United States, but it is a real honest to god place and it exists for all the same reasons as in the book Atlas Shrugged.

If the world ended tomorrow, as we know it, if there were an economic collapse, that appears unavoidable at this point, and our political structure crumbles to the ground, the people who live and visit this spot on the earth will continue living and will not miss a beat. The people who know this place I’m speaking about will never miss President Obama. They’ll never care whether congress or the senate ever shows up for work again. Everything in the United States could end tomorrow and this place would still continue on.

From that place, the world is placed into its perspective. All the things that the “looters” like the aforementioned Weiner’s proclaim to be important will quickly be seen for what they truly are, just the cries of small-minded children.

When you are at that retreat it is evident, especially if you do like I do, where I download video, and radio programs onto my Ipod to watch and listen to in that remote location where power is not available, the voices of politicians sound meager in such a place. But literature, where a good book doesn’t require power, so I’ll never give them up for a Kindle, holds true from such a place. And Atlas Shrugged is meant to be read from a mountaintop and understood by the people who go to such places. It’s not intended for people like the Weiner’s.

The Huffington Post must spend hundreds of thousands of words to attempt to counter the truth which everyone knows deep down inside.

When Nietzsche proclaimed in “Beyond Good and Evil,” that GOD IS DEAD, he didn’t mean it literally so much as metaphorically. Nietzsche believed, as Ayn Rand did, and as I do that religion is used to hold mankind down. That doesn’t mean that one should not go to church or to find solace in religion on a Sunday morning. Religion is a personal thing that takes one to the thresholds of eternity. However, it was religion that ushered in progressive thought even though now progressives seek to move toward atheism and other non traditional religions. This is why the founders sought to separate church and state. They didn’t write it down that way, but it was warned against, so religion couldn’t be used to manipulate the masses through collectivism. We see that the Muslim faith is suffering from this very kind of social movement. Most of the intolerance and conflict in the middle-east is over religious topics, over who is correct and who is not. So it is concluded by thinking people that religion should be free to be practiced, but not related to government action.

The reason is that we don’t want a return to the type of foolishness that led the United States to our current position, where religious zealots of the left and right plagued our nation with progressivism, which led directly to prohibition, Social Security, Welfare, Medicare and all the other “cares,” all in the name righteousness.

In the either-or world of the small-minded, they cannot understand such a spiritual division. It is in human weakness that they feel they must impose upon others the merits of their home religion in order to eliminate from their own minds temptations which may lure them off a spiritual path. And the government do-gooder, who wishes to be the modern Robin Hood, who takes from the Rich and gives to the Poor, my allegiance is the same as the pirate from Atlas Shrugged, Ragnar Danneskjold who proclaimed in that book that his aim in life was to KILL Robin Hood! Of course this is figurative in its assessment, but the metaphor is one that intends to change the focus of value on those that take and loot, to one that creates and employees.

Such thoughts are preposterous to progressives like the Weiner’s of the world. They do not have the intellectual capacity to even understand the basics of self-reliance, and the merit of individualism. Because that is the salvation of mankind, it’s in an evolution to a man of self-reliance that pushes away all forms of collectivism and takes care of their own sector of existence. By becoming good at a trade, that individual has something to trade with others and that is the limit of the collectivism. But the Weiner’s and their kind are part of the old plague driven world of medieval Europe. Shakespeare knew that the old world of Europe was full of deception and corruption. I’ve read Titus Andronicus from a mountaintop and it reads differently there than from a library or classroom.

So now you know a secret of mine. I fear no breakdown of society because of that place. I know what the world could look like if you took away all government, because there isn’t a government at that place. It is beyond the reach of people like President Obama, George Soros and his silly Huffington Post and all the Weiner’s he likes so much. Those people are the representatives of the lead-foot travelers that are either too scared or too unhealthy to move on their own. And they do not represent the direction of the human race.

All things should evolve into improvements, not in decline, and Atlas Shrugged besides the book Thus Spoke Zarathustra is the first serious work that explores that evolution. And it is understandable that those who are close to that transition themselves would be attracted to the message. That message will be missed by the Weiner’s and those like them. Because of their limited perspective, they will cleave like fools to the world of their understanding, and will always fear the perspective of a mountaintop hideaway. The revelations that would fall upon them will shatter their reality in ways that they aren’t prepared to deal with.

I heard the Tea Party movement identified by people like those Weiner’s as being of the “extreme” hard right. They are mistaken. The Tea Party is of those types that are reaching for that next step. It has nothing to do with the current order of things. It has nothing to do with right or left. It’s about right and wrong, and passing between those dualistic principles to a place of human evolution. And that is what critics of Atlas Shrugged fear with all the essence of their being.

The world of President Obama is based on old technology of an emerging third world county, such as where the United States is headed under the Obama types.

As I’ve seen from the mountaintop the future of America can and should be this:

The future of medicine, forget Social Security and Medicare. Invest in this.

The future of transportation will be this sooner or later. Sooner if we have the guts, later if we allow another country to beat us to it.

The future of food. There is no reason to  under use our land, as we currently are.

And the future of education is not the traditional way.

This is an age of two America’s. The progressive one that will take us toward Europe. And the innovative one that accomplished those railroads across the nation like Obama took credit for, back in a day when the government hadn’t let learned to suck the life out of industry with regulation. It’s up to us all which America will win, because they both can’t co-exist any longer.

Rich Hoffman

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

Put Back a Few Cookies: Lakota Teachers took too many and didn’t leave enough for others

When you were a kid did your mother ever make cookies and put them in a cookie jar, only to have her catch you taking too many? “Now don’t eat all those cookies,” she would have said. “I made those for you, your brothers and sisters and all your friends. If you eat them all there won’t be any for the rest of them.” Well, at Lakota that’s what the teachers have done, they’ve taken too many cookies for themselves, and they’ve told the community through the teachers union that if you want to make us all happy, then you’ll just make more cookies. Problem solved. But the problem isn’t solved, because while we’re making all these cookies, we’re not being productive in other ways, when the reality is that all we need to do is exercise some common sense and fairness.

It is encouraging, yet there is still plenty of room to be skeptical, that the Lakota School Board appears to be looking for some room to gain much ground by voiding the second year of their contract with the teachers union.

The contract was voided because of the following clause: This contract shall become effective on the 1st day of July, 2010 and shall expire on the 30th day of June 2012. Contingent upon the District’s legal ability for the Board President, Treasurer, and Superintendent to sign the R.C. 5705.412 certificate. In the event that the Board Representatives are unable to sign the R.C. 5704.412 certificate the second year of this Agreement then agreed to between the parties related to the second year shall be considered null and void.”

The 412 certificate (see link: http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/5705.412 ) basically says that the District has to declare that it has sufficient revenues to meet its planned expenditures. This is Lakota’s press release: http://www.lakotaonline.com/news.cfm?story=2754

According to the Pulse Journal the move allows the board to void its contract with its teachers’ union, while at the same time, giving it flexibility to create a more sustainable long-term plan for the district, board President Joan Powell said.
“In the past three weeks as this information started coming to us from Columbus, it has become apparent that to maintain the future viability of this district, we need to look deeper than just the proposed budget reductions,” she said.
“Some fundamental changes to the contract are needed, and we have a window of opportunity to do so,” Powell said. “In light of the negative impact of this proposed state budget, we must take that opportunity. Our financial reality today is different than it was last November or last August when we executed this contract.”

Lakota Education Association President Sharon Mays said the union will continue to work cooperatively with the board to find the best solution for students and teachers, but the process now will take longer.

“I’m anxious to see the forecast, because we have not been able to look at it,” she said. “We feel as though we’ve been cooperating and collaborating, and have given up a lot of things in those memorandums of understanding. And to change direction this late in the game — now everything is slowed down.”

Treasurer Jenni Logan said deficit spending next year is expected to be $22 million, up from $13.9 million in 2011.
A $28 million negative cash balance is expected in 2013.

The stress to the budget, Logan said, is coming from three areas: the state is reducing tangible personal property taxes starting next year, Lakota is expecting less money locally, and federal stimulus dollars have gone away.

The $22 million deficit is something that has been a concern for a long time, and it is driven by one primary factor, wages. If you haven’t seen it yet, click here to see the type of wages we’re talking about. It is my sincere hope that the Lakota School Board will take this opportunity to drive those wages down. No other measure will be acceptable because no other budget cutting device will bring costs in line properly taking into account that federal money will not be there and the reductions in the personal property taxes. The days are gone where the teachers union could just blindly demand the incredibly high wages that put us in this trouble to start with.

During this next round of negotiations I proclaim that I will stand behind the school board fully if they’ll not allow the union to dictate terms to our community. I don’t want to hear any threats of any strikes from the teachers union. I don’t want to hear any threats at all. If the teachers of that union truly want to be a part of this community, they’ll dig deep and consider themselves lucky to work in such a nice district. We’re not asking teachers to work for free. But an average wage of over $62K per year is not acceptable. They asked for too much, broke the back of the community in the process, and now it’s time for them to come to the table and give back enough for Lakota to balance its budget. No other measure is acceptable.

For those that just want money, go to another district. Because soon that district will be going through the same problems Lakota is going through. So run from district to district like a thief in the night and collect your money. But for those teachers that want to work for Lakota, and want to be a part of our great community, work with us and we’ll work with you. But don’t even think of a strike or any other public relations stunt. There are people this time that will be there to expose you for what you truly are.

With all this encouragement, I hope that there isn’t some phantom intention to place another levy on the ballot in August or November, because the money isn’t there and such a thing would be incredibly arrogant. Higher taxes in our community in any capacity would be economically devastating in light of the increase in fuel costs, rise and in food costs which is directly influenced from increases in transportation costs. The amount of income that is required to purchase a $250,000 dollar home, which is what most homes cost in the Lakota School District along with the dollar shrinking in value and facing tax increases on their property is prohibitive. The only room for meeting the budget needs comes in reducing the impact of the wage costs of the employees.

The teachers took too many cookies and the community is done making cookies. The teachers need to put some of those cookies back so there’s some left for all the other teachers. Our budget is just under 160 million dollars, not a small amount. So there should be plenty of cookies for everyone. The only reason there’s not is because some teachers took too many cookies, which is robbing others from having a cookie. So do the responsible thing and put the extra cookies back in the cookie jar and play nice teachers union. Don’t be greedy. Don’t be vain. And don’t throw a fit of rage like some child that didn’t get their way. Help our school board balance their budget and do your part to make sure everyone gets along. But more (cookies) taxes, are not the solution.

Rich Hoffman

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

The Cannibals of the United States: Sacrifice the RICH!!!! Save the needy!!

On my way home today I was riding my motorcycle in the pouring rain and listening to the soundtrack to the film Apocalypto on my Ipod. It was a surreal kind of experience that I enjoy a great deal, and the simplicity of a complicated problem made itself known to me through that cryptic music as the rain tried desperately to penetrate the confines of my helmet.

If you’ve studied other cultures, their rise and fall, there are common themes. Visit any ruin of an ancient civilization and you will see that all those societies bankrupted themselves. They either ran out of water, food, or their currency. Visit Ankor Watt, Chitzen Itza, or any city in Egypt and you’ll see it. Study the past to see your future.

In Mel Gibson’s brilliant film, Apocalypto Gibson showed wonderfully the height of the Mayan Empire and displayed the problems they were having. The Mayans built huge cities, depleted their food supply and built a corrupt hierarchy of politics that sought human sacrifice to appease the mob, and to keep the masses believing that the ruling class held some sort of power with the “gods,” so that society could continue for just a bit longer hoping by some miracle that if they cut off just one more head, or paint their faces just a few more colors so the gods would take mercy on their lives and save them all. In this case the god is Kukulcan. For those of you that don’t know much about history, the main street in Cancun that all the nightclubs are on, is named after that god.

The civilization of Cahokia, just outside of St. Louis, did much the same thing. They had sacrifices which were buried in Mound 72. It is highly likely that this culture along the Mississippi River was trading with the Mayans across the Gulf of Mexico and they had cultural influences on one another. The cultures were remarkably similar resembling the type of societies found in Mesopotamia during the pre-Christian era.
During excavation of Mound 72, a ridge-top burial mound south of Monk’s Mound, archaeologists found the remains of a man in his 40s who was probably an important Cahokian ruler. The man was buried on a bed of more than 20,000 marine-shell disc beads arranged in the shape of a falcon,[16] with the bird’s head appearing beneath and beside the man’s head, and its wings and tail beneath his arms and legs. The falcon warrior or “birdman” is a common motif in Mississippian culture. This burial clearly had powerful iconographic significance. In addition, a cache of sophisticated, finely worked arrowheads in a variety of different styles and materials was found near the grave of this important man. Separated into four types, each from a different geographical region, the arrowheads demonstrated Cahokia’s extensive trade links in North America.
Archeologists recovered more than 250 other skeletons from Mound 72. Scholars believe almost 62 percent of these were sacrificial victims, based on signs of ritual execution, method of burial, and other factors. The skeletons include:
• Four young males, missing their hands and skulls.
• A mass grave of more than 50 women around 21 years old, with the bodies arranged in two layers separated by matting.

• A mass burial containing 40 men and women who appear to have been violently killed. The suggestion has been made that some of these were buried alive: “From the vertical position of some of the fingers, which appear to have been digging in the sand, it is apparent that not all of the victims were dead when they were interred – that some had been trying to pull themselves out of the mass of bodies.”
The relationship of these burials to the central burial is unclear. It is unlikely that they were all deposited at the same time. Wood in several parts of the mound has been radiocarbon-dated to between 950 and 1000 CE. Check out more about this from this article. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cahokia

Many people don’t even know that Cahokia is even there in the middle of the United States. It’s the giant hill alongside the highway on the way into St. Louis. You can see the arch of St. Louis easily from the ruins of Cahokia, yet people don’t know much about the ancient city. In fact, Cahokia wasn’t even discovered until developers tried to build a neighborhood over it. I wrote a screenplay about the place for some financial people a few years ago and we had an actress and a director, but the whole thing fell apart in pre-production. But here was the conception teaser for it. The history that I speak about is real. The modern aspect of it is fiction.

So why am I talking about cultures declining and human sacrifice? Well, listen to Porter Stansberry talk to Doc Thompson on 700 WLW. We’re doing the same thing now as those collapsing civilizations did then. We are in a state of decline. The mob you saw in the Apocalypto clip is the poor, the welfare recipients, the union workers in the modern-day. The chants are the same. If you go back and watch the clip from Apocalypto you’ll see their union ancestors chanting at the bottom of the pyramid where the high priest is basically saying the same thing that President Obama is saying now. And who is being sacrificed…..who are getting their heads cut off. The people who produce.

In a culture like the United States it is the producers that are being sacrificed through regulation, taxes, Federal red tape. New inventions are being restricted out of fairness. New medical technology is being held back so government can pursue Obama Care.

Education reform is being held back by the corrupt unions that are only trying to protect the jobs of the teachers, forget about the effectiveness on the children. It is new ideas and the producers who create them that are lined up on the great pyramid steps waiting to have their heads cut off to appease a mob of fools.

We are told that the dollar is fine, because Obama and his gang of union thugs are running Washington. Who believes that? Our government can’t even agree on what to cut out of our federal budget, because we as a civilization are paying for everything, Planned Parenthood, which should be for profit, NPR, which should have always been for profit, Social Security which should work more like a 401K and be privatized, Medicare that has more corruption than most countries can endure just on that issue alone, and needs a major overhaul.

All cultures that failed went through these steps. In fact, at Cahokia they had a thing called Woodhenge, which was a bunch of logs stuck in the ground in a circle just to the west of Monks Mound, on the East St. Louis side of the ruin. The only function of that artifact was to convince the mob that the high priests could predict the sun rise, the spring and winter equinox, and other astrological observations. The intent was to prove that they “the ruling class” had mastery over the “heavens.” All they really did was make observations, and that’s all our current ruling class of fools is doing, making observations that they sell to us as mastery over economics.

On the other hand there are people like Porter Standsberry out there that are “really” looking at the real problems coming to our culture, and people like Porter are the kind of people our government wants to cut their head off in human sacrifice, figuratively speaking of course.

All cultures that believe in sacrifice, and most agriculturally based societies do to some extent or another is limited in their vision, and leaders of those cultures should be removed immediately. Because in the world of productivity, there is no limit, only in the capacity of machinery, or manpower, but demand can be infinite. Sacrifice to the “gods” whether literal or to economic gods is foolish and short-sighted.

I saw a sign over the weekend from a woman protesting the government cuts saying “don’t cut down the economic recovery.” It is amazing that people like that are out there, that they believe there is enough money, that the recovery we are having is somehow created by government and not business owners that have decided that now that there are Republicans running a branch of government, they are investing back in business again. The woman holding that sign is no different from that mob of Mayans chanting for more blood at the foot of a giant pyramid. And the high priest will be all too happy to appease the mob so long as there are sacrificial bodies. The same type of signs are being held by people protesting S.B.5. “Keep collective bargaining.” There’s that word……collective. That is one of the most evil words in the English language, disguised as an angel, but doing the work of the devil.

For society to thrive, the rich should be encouraged and not penalized. Those less fortunate should be pushed to work not just given a check.

A few years ago I walked the streets of Washington D.C. and was about to head into a McDonalds to get a bite to eat. A beggar asked me for some change. He was sitting outside of McDonalds right next to a “Help Wanted” sign. I asked him if he had applied for a job. He ignored me and asked a woman who walked by, which she gave freely with a polite smile. The man had lost his pride and allowed himself to be a beggar. There was a job opportunity right behind him, but he’d rather plead to the high priest for the blood of another, which the priest will always be willing to oblige. There’s no shortage of those types of people, power-hungry and craving to stand on the top of a pyramid and cut off the head of sacrificial victims.

Taxes are a form of sacrifice, property taken from those that have, and given to those that have not. It’s not the head of the sacrificial victim, but it is still their property. Estate Taxes are along the same lines, when a person dies, their property, “part of their living essence and history on earth” is taken by government and handed out to the vicious mob.

Sacrifice is the kind of behavior that will only take us in one direction. And it won’t be the way of success. Clinging to old, sacrificial activity, like high taxation, cumbersome education methods, and a stifling environment that fears competition from new technology will destroy our civilization and leave us all as just one more ruin in the history of the world. That is, unless we can take our civilization back from the looters, the high priests, and other derelicts that act as a cancer upon it.

What a bunch of idiots………..

Oh, and while some may say that Mel Gibson is crazy, hey, Mel has done crazy things with women for years. He cheated on his wife, drank heavily, and was generally a wreck of a person for many years, and the media covered it up just like they do George Clooney and Robert Downey Jr. But, Mel’s a great artist and a great director. It was after he made The Passion of Christ, then Apocalypto that Hollywood turned against him. If he hadn’t made The Passion, Hollywood and the press that feeds it would still be making excuses for his behavior. That’s the world we’re living in people. The high priests with all their fancy headdresses want the mob to believe they are gods! God forbid someone like Gibson comes along and shows the truth of something. Is that acceptable to you?

It’s not to me.

Rich Hoffman

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

Mark North is Non-Essential: What does he do to earn his money if he can’t even do public relations?

What I learned today was that Mark North, superintendent of the Lebanon School System is a non-essential employee.

I write a lot about education. Within the education reform movement, I receive a lot of information from very passionate people who are doing their best to address some of the issues involving education, and today I heard from a couple of them that find themselves defending the community of Lebanon from another tax increase.

Cyd Zimmerman was on the Darryl Parks show on Saturday April 9, 2011 because the scheduled debate between Mark North and Rick McPherson was forfeited by Mark North after proclaiming that “nobody listens to 700 WLW.” In short, he didn’t have the guts to go on the air and defend his actions in the district which prompted Cyd to step in and discuss North’s absence from the debate.

After that interview I received notes from Cyd and Sandy Trugrul about Lebanon and education issues in general, that they both spent a lot of time putting together. I thought those notes deserved to be listed in their entirety below.

A Note From Cyd Zimmerman: The woman on the Darryl Parks interview below.

It’s important to preface this conversation by laying the framework as to how I got here and why I’m so angry and frustrated.
So many that are staring down the barrel of another school levy have the same feeling coursing through their veins and are confused or unorganized in how to go about change. After all, Spring now means levy season. Not good.

Radio is a tough gig and it’s easy to lose your way. So much to say, and so little time, and that happened to me.
I had caught wind of yet another school levy mid January of this year. This was on the heels of a 5.41 mill emergency levy that was passed in November of 2010. It generates 4.2 million per year. I could not believe it. I had no clue who to talk to or where to begin so I attended my first ever board meeting that following Monday. It was just an announcement that they were deciding one of three amounts to choose from in my early understanding. Nevertheless, I was alone in a sea of empty chairs. There were a couple of others and I now know one of those people was Rick McPherson filming. I left as they were just finishing up and thought to myself…I’m screwed. Where are all the people? Where are the taxpayers? I was aware of the Lakota levy last November and the great deal of press it had gotten, having moved to Lebanon from West Chester. I Googled them and was pleased to see the site still up. I contacted them through the email and asked for help. The response was immediate. I had found Rich Hoffman’s site via the NolakotaLevy.com and the journey began. I found someone commenting on the site, speaking of the levy, and contacted her. I then met Rick McPherson who was looking for others and they gave him my email.

That’s all takes, but you can’t be thin-skinned or shy. That’s not a problem if you’re mad enough to demand some answers.
On to the bigger picture and where does the money go? I went to the Lebanon School site and it was pretty well layed out. Here’s the problem. 77.6% going just for wages and benefits. I would never begrudge the salary of a great teacher. They are pillars of the community. But where is the line in the sand?? Here is where SB5 would have made a huge difference. Don’t call it a pay freeze and continue step increases not to mention the other perks still in play. This has happened and you had no say. Contracts signed before the bill. We all know it. This is all about fiscal responsibility and accountability. I have to do it in my home and I expect the same from this entity.

Broken

Someone school me on why we pay for this supers $650.00 a month car allowance, family YMCA membership which on their site is $73.00 per month, cell phone (50 bucks a month), when he makes more than the Governor of Ohio?? More than the Lieutenant Governor, more than the Secretary of State, more than the Attorney General, on and on. It’s all on the web site.
http://www.lebanonschoolfacts.com

I’m sorry, but that is borderline criminal in my book. And it’s NOT ok. And shouldn’t be with you either.

Broken

3.2% goes for supplies and materials. Hold on…3.4% is for other. What other? If it’s all about the children why is the “other” number higher? I still don’t have that answer…Do You?

I hear the phone calls have started for support of more sweaty cash. I’d like to get one of those calls. Hopefully it would not be a shallow conversation as was the one that ensued yesterday with Mr. North. He totally missed my side. Fine. He’s doing his job. Straddling the line between the unions and community must be brutal. Don’t say to me you have no intentions of having at the very least, an open Q&A or a town hall and then ask for millions. NO. Why? Because they can’t answer the tough questions on the spot. Oh sure, I can fill out the card and send it in. He said he has hundreds of cards. How much would the postage and cost be to them if I took them up on that offer? Small in the massive scope but this is the mindset I do not understand.

School bus drivers making over 16 bucks an hour? Really? Shrink wrapping the books at Little Miami because you have to be a certified librarian to hand them out? This is all just so bizarre.

Broken

This is the tip of the iceberg but some of the key points from emails I get. I understand. They ask the simplest questions. I know exactly where they come from. They are busy. It gets so deep, it will blow your mind. But I too have a life and if I had time to say on the radio what was on my mind, this touches the surface.

To those out there in our shoes…We hear you. Darryl spoke of the numerous emails last week asking him to pick your district. We never would be here without the help of those from neighboring districts, particularly Dan Varney and Rich Hoffman. These guys get it.

So reach out to us. We’re busy but you can email the lebanonschoolfacts site and we’ll respond. Keep the hate mail at bay. It won’t be tolerated and end up in spam. Our vision is clear and we won’t be bogged down with the naysayers. You had your time.

Cyd

__________________________________________________________

Note from Sandy:

I’ve been working to educate people on school funding and the effects of the “mandatory” school curriculum for over thirty years. The one and only reason I have stuck to this is because I believe that the demise of our country is at stake.

The schools, their funding, their administrators, their unions are the lowest level of government that “we the people” have any hope of effecting change. If we can’t make an impact at that level the Federal level is certainly hopeless. I have not wanted to give up on my country.

In my opinion, last night’s fiasco regarding the federal budget was a diversionary tactic for covering up other more serious issues taking place in the world. I feel sure of that. The media loved covering the situation. Another 7.++ earthquake in Japan hardly got noticed. I guess the four nuclear towers are “all better.” That’s off topic now too.

The school unions and leaders use the same tactics when going after the property owners for more money. Anyone that is against raising taxes “hates the children” and doesn’t support education. In their propaganda their job is the most important job in the country. No salary level is too high. I have heard teachers say that they should be paid at the level of doctors. Their mantra is that the future of our country depends on the great education that the children receive from the union teachers. Of course “the more it costs the better the outcomes.” Nothing could be further from the truth in that statement unless you consider the outcomes that they want to occur. These may be much different from what the average person believes should be happening.

We all notice that the cuts that the boards propose are always ones affect the children the most harshly. You have mentioned all of them quite precisely.

Many people are afraid to speak out regarding their opposition to a levy. They are afraid of retaliation to their children or to themselves. One parent told me that her child came home crying because she didn’t love him. She said, “where did you ever hear such a thing.” His answer, “My teacher said that if you weren’t voting for the levy you don’t love me.” He had heard his parent discussing that they couldn’t afford to vote for the levy. In other words, the teachers are polling the children. The teachers are working in the classroom against the parents; this for their own monetary gain. How repugnant is this?

When I checked on “who funds levies” through the years, it is always the same people with the same vested interests. In Lebanon it is highly touted and supported by LCNB. (Chip Bonny, a board member, now works for LCNB. He formerly worked for Huntington Bank. The district obtained over $1M from Huntington Bank last year to buy back the buses that they formerly turned over to Laidlaw.) (I was told by my banker that transaction was a totally irregular transaction and would not be tolerated by his bank. He also said that Bonny, no doubt, received a nice bonus for that business. It would have been the case at his bank.)
The postcard sent out by the Pro-Levy group lists Eric Meilstrup as the treasurer. He is an officer with LCNB. Steve Wilson, CEO of LCNB has served on the district finance committee and heads up the full page of endorsements listed in the local paper.

LCNB also owned (until this month) Dakin Insurance. Lebanon buys it’s insurance from Dakin.

Other special interest groups funding levies are developers, construction companies, architectural firms, lawyers and other business leaders. Small amounts are given by the teachers, who can look forward to nice raises every time a levy passes.

Over 85% of the budgets pays for salaries and benefits. Other salaries can be hidden in many areas of the financial states and could make that percentage go up.

Any cuts suggested are called “draconian” and “extreme.”
No cuts are acceptable to the schools, county, city, township, state or federal levels of government.

The costs listed to give the per pupil amount are only from the General Fund that is for the operation of the schools. They never list the huge debt owed for the costs pertaining to the buildings And other loans they get (buses, copy equipment, phones, etc.) Those projections go on for years and years into the future. Our great-grandchildren will still be paying off those debts. ironically the buildings and equipment will be considered obsolete or even trashed. By the time the final payments are made.

When they speak to the people they try to use terminology that most people don’t understand. (I call it educationese.) This way they speak “down” to you, as though you are a child. They are the “professional” and you are insignificant in the scheme of things. They are taught how to “handle” the public a part of their college curriculum. It is part of the “Training for Change Agents” text. They study how to change your beliefs and those of your children. How to change your values from Christian to Secular Humanism.
The fact is that last year the board hired at least two new administrators.

Krista Foley (from Piqua – Student Services and Mason, Kindergarten Supervisor.) She is listed as administrator of various student programs
at a salary of $95,626.

Bill Lautar, former student services director in Kettering (where he retired)
Director of Human Resources at $98,343. (double-dipper)

July 15, 2010, Western Star: Lautar said he is in the process of filling
other certified and classified positions before the next school year, including
a secretary for the transportation office, coaching and extracurricular positions and teaching positions in special education, language arts and science.”

Schools are divided in this totally ridiculous configuration.

Louisa Wright – Early Childhood, Principal, secretary, 17 teachers
Bowman – First and Second Grades, two principals, two secretaries,
53 teachers.
Donovan – Third and Fourth Grades, two principals, two secretaries,
53 teachers.
Berry – Fifth and Sixth Grades, two principals, 2 secretaries

Jr. H. S. – (Former H.S.) Seventh and Eighth Grades, two principals,
two counselors,

High School – Three principals, 1466 total students 9-12

The total enrollment is around 5,000. I see plenty of room for cuts.

There are several people listed in the salaries listed on the blog as receiving “Retirement Incentive” payments.

Many “Teacher Assistants” listed for our overworked teachers. Many substitutes listed. I am told they have a higher absentee rate than the students.

We pay the entire retirement costs for the administrators (pickup on the pickup), we pay the entire health benefits for North and other admin. I admit that I haven’t read all of the contracts. Mark North is given unlimited time off to attend meetings and to consult. (I can’t imagine him consulting at anything.) There are numerous meeting held all over the country and world. I am going to request who traveled where in the past five years. It won’t help this time around, but good to have on hand for the future. I assure you that the Lakota people travel all the time. There is a NSBA conference in San Francisco this weekend. Most of them go with their “significant other.” After all, the room is paid for.

____________________________________________________________

All the issues discussed above are out of sheer frustration. It is obvious to anyone that cares to look, that there are many things wrong with how tax money is collected and spent. The people who grab this money from taxpayers are called by society as “trusted officials” or even “leaders.” But to those who look into things as they actually are, those trusted officials are just simple looters. These looters give the appearance that they are doing something beneficial for the community, but it’s all a smoke screen. What’s really going on is a lot of nothing and the tax payer is paying for things they don’t need to pay for.

Prior to Cyd’s interview on the radio Darryl spoke about the “non-essential” personnel in government. With that said, everyone in government that got a letter from the government on Friday April 8, 2011 stating that they are non-essential personnel shouldn’t be working in those positions, because they are wasting taxpayer money. It would also appear Mark North, superintendent of Lebanon is one of those “non essential” personnel. He didn’t have the guts to go on the radio today and debate the levy. He doesn’t know how to work with the community and answer questions. And he caves under the union pressure at the beginning of negotiations. So what good is he? He’s non-essential personnel and he could save the tax payers a lot of money if he wasn’t employed.

How many non-essential personnel is Lebanon employing if the superintendent isn’t doing anything? That’s the kind of question you have to ask before any levy should ever be put on a ballot. And the fact that the question wasn’t ask should insult every person in Lebanon that pays taxes.

Rich Hoffman

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

SALARIES ARE TOO DAMN HIGH: The public sector is out of control; the legacy of collective bargaining

A crime has been committed among all tax payers. We have been told by unions that we must support our firefighters and police without question as to the actual costs, because of safety, and a sense of righteous duty. We must support our teachers because we want to save our children’s future without actually looking at why the budgets are so expensive, and what they are actually learning. We have been played by our own guilt into a scam of epic proportions, a shell game that is the direct result of “collective bargaining.”

Doc Thompson discusses this vile evil on 700 WLW. It’s an evil topic because the perpetrators having knowingly committed the crime, no different from selling someone a car knowing the transmission would go out on the buyer 1 mile down the road. Is that a crime, to knowingly commit deceptive practices against someone else? Yes, because the taking of taxes is a theft no different from a robber that held you at gunpoint and said, “give me your money or I’ll shoot.” “Pass this levy to protect our kids.” Pass this levy police levy for ‘protection.’” The ethical standard is the same, because my question is, “or else what?” Why does the implication that more money means better service even come into play? My experience is that money does not always get you the best employees, so why do people think that more money gives us anything of value? The reason is that public employees have knowingly lied to the tax payers, manipulated them using emotion, in order to secure outrageous salaries for themselves without any care for the sustainability of the tax revenue system. It is greed at its absolute worst.

I’ll use the Lakota School District as an example because it’s my school district that I pay direct taxes to, but it is beyond reason that Lakota has over 625 employees that make over 65K per year.  No private business could be so irresponsible with their payroll and expect to survive, yet government workers just expect taxes to increase to pay for their unrealistic expectations. I pay a reasonable sum of taxes to them, and like everything I spend my money on, I expect performance. When I spend more than $50 on anything I inquire about the value of the task. When I spend thousands, the same kind of money I might spend on a new car, a new television, a high-end computer, or a trip to Europe, I will look closely at the situation, and when people waste my money I get angry. When they lie to me I become furious, and even vindictive. Because lying to me is not acceptable. Manipulating me is not acceptable. Attempting to ruin my community is not acceptable.

It’s not inflammatory to say such things. It’s calling the situation for what it is. What has to happen is America has to shrink its government, and you start that shrinking government in our local communities. The list that Doc is talking about needs to be reduced by about 2/3rds of what it is. Management control must be given back to “management.” It is abysmal that Bill Cunningham, Bill Seitz, and Sheriff Jones and these types of people even endorse collective bargaining. The Sheriff I understand because he’s a “cop.” But other conservatives that support such things are out of their mind, and have largely contributed to the debacle we are looking at. It’s corrupt…….it’s corrupt because we’re paying people too much for a government that is too big and inefficient. We’ve made our management systems in government to be inbred, inefficient and completely useless, especially with the presence of public sector unions. And it won’t get any better just leaving things as they have been.

We can expect a major fight this fall over repealing S.B.5. Every one of the government people making these extraordinary salaries will show up to vote. The rest of us won’t be so motivated, unless they understand what’s at stake. If we keep S.B.5 we’ll be on the march to drive these terrible government costs down, and we’ll be able to get control of the situation. If the unions and public workers get the bill repealed, then we’ll go bankrupt within a few years. That is a certainty. The people running things are not smart enough to regulate themselves. So it will take people with real management control to step into local government on a “volunteer” basis and actually lead. But the power-hungry people who want a big desk and a name plate need to go. Those people who have achieved nothing in their lives but an elected office by using fancy, manipulative words and must be removed, because those employees are ineffective and way too expensive.

This is a fight. Don’t kid yourself that it’s not. We are in a different kind of war, not one with guns, that is counted in casualties. But one of laws, one of money, and one counted in submission to new controls. One of those controls is high taxes and high taxes will kill American society, and there are MANY that want that. Some of those insurgents lead these unions. Many that serve in office and fund those campaigns, are at war with us. Call it that! I no longer have the patience for the enormous smallness of these self-inflated ego driven fools such as senator Schumer at the federal level, and big time progressives like what we had in Governor Strickland at the state level. They have created the system we are seeing clearly for the first time, that big government costs big money, and leads to incremental losses of freedom with every new law passed to give that big government some reason to exist.

The incredibly high wages in the public sector are a power grab which lures complacent soldiers with comfortable wages who gladly look the other way while the taxpayers are spent into oblivion. It has nothing to do with fairness, or actual rights. It is all about money, and using that money to purchase the souls of the complacent public worker to the demise of everything we trust.

The salaries of public workers are TOO DAMN HIGH. And it’s time we put an end to it before it’s too late.

Rich Hoffman

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

Pay Rate for the top 625 Teachers at Lakota Schools: Yes, the number grew!

Below is the 2011 Lakota Salary list, an update from the famous list exposed on 700 WLW just 6 months ago where everyone that heard the information was disgusted, upset, and compelled to take their anger to the voting booth. If you want to look at that list again and compare it with the one below click here. And remember, Lakota has not hired another superintendent as of this writing. So there is no superintendent on the new list.

What you will see will anger you much more than that. In fact, I have been paying close attention to this issue for over a year now and when I realized the severity of the issue I became furious.

A brief synopsis of the information is this. Last year I listed the top income recipients who made over 65K per year, which came out to 434 employees, which I thought was a lot. This year, even taking off the superintendent, who resigned one week after the original list came out, the amount of employees escalated 625 employees! That means that in just one year, when supposedly teachers took a pay freeze in August of 2010, 191 more employees broke past the 65K per year barrier and became a top wage earner just because of the step increases demanded by the union contract. Last year 120 million of Lakota’s operating budget of 160 million went to just salaries and wages. Of that 120 million $31,900,416.00 went to these wonderful employees making over 65K per year. I thought that was a lot. This year, that number exploded to $47,548,105.00! An increase in salary wages of $15,647,689.00. That does not include all increases in wages, just the wages for employees making more than 65K per year! The total amount of money saved in the emergency budget reductions for 2011 which is causing layoffs, busing cuts, elective elimination, pay for play sports, etc is $13 million. Lakota spent more money on the step increases on just the employees making over 65K per year than it will save cutting all the services mentioned to save a measly $13 million. If Lakota could have stopped the step increases they could have kept all the services, teachers would have still been paid well, and nobody would have lost their jobs. But that’s not what happened is it?

When a school district complains that it does not have enough money to operate the answer is not a tax increase to close the gap. In most cases, it is not the revenue that is declining, because the community is not taking its money away from a school system, unless they move out of the district and take their tax dollars with them. When the state, or federal government takes away their contributions, as they should, it should not be expected that a local district increase their taxes to cover the cost.

The expectation that such a thought is even a possibility is a serious flaw in the thinking of school districts that have turned education into their own “cash cow” business.

Any businessman looking at the budget of Lakota Schools would look at the operating budget of 155 million to 160 million dollars, see that the expenses are projecting higher than supplied revenue and would make the needed cuts to bring costs in line. And the very first thing that would be looked at is wages, because most often that is the greatest expense in a budget, especially in a service oriented business like education.

As I look at that list there are a few teachers that I think are worth 70K to 80k per year. But only a few. I would argue that a school district should be able to pay a few of their very best and most prestigious teachers a wage of this kind. But to pay EVERYONE with tenure that amount is ridiculously prohibitive, ignorant, reckless, selfish, and misguided.

Before any district asks for a levy from the community, they should reduce their wage costs. This does not allow those districts to perform at a lower level. A district must reflect the community it’s in, and in the land of Lakota, it is expected to be as excellent as the community that the school resides in. Unfortunately for the union personnel that have managed to extort these outrageous wage levels for their members, the community of Lakota, many of them run their own businesses, or manage businesses, and must make decisions as the school board is required to make.

The top wage earners shown here are what should be looked at before there is a levy of any kind. These positions should be consolidated eliminating personnel wherever possible. If it is decided that those personnel are absolutely essential to education operations, then these are the people who should take a 30% wage cut, because they are well above the average wage of residence of the affluent Lakota School District, and these amounts are just plain malicious.

Now, is there any question as to why we need Senate Bill 5? And is it not obvious what the unions are protecting?

Rich Hoffman

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

Darryl Parks Calls them Veal: The people that pave the path to socialism

Darryl Parks of 700 WLW had an interesting topic on his Saturday April 2nd, 2011 radio show. His question was, “Why is socialism bad?” After all, he argued, people seem to want it. They want social security, they want public unions, they want health care, government jobs, they want to be regulated by government for “safety,” etc. And he’s right, at least for half the country.

I was on the Big One with Darryl to offer my opinion:

I was going for a big topic there on a 7 minute radio spot, but I liked the question and the eventual debate that followed. I meant it when I said that I do not play the lottery, ever, because I wouldn’t want to come into any money that way. I would not keep money given to me in an inheritance either, or any other random act. In fact, once when my wife and I were at a casino cruise in Cape Canaveral, I spent .25 cents on a slot machine and lost my money. I was extremely upset so I spent .25 cents on one more try. I won back .50 cents and my wife and I spent the rest of the cruise eating from the buffet and watching sea gulls fly next to the ship while reading a book, happy I made my money back and was leaving with what I started with. I was done with gambling for the rest of my life. I simply will not gamble away anything loosely that I earned with my hard work for the fantasy of hitting some kind of collective jackpot. I don’t even do office pools for the same reason, which people think is strange because such things are very popular.

Why do I feel that way? Well, for the same reason I don’t accept help from people unless I can return the favor immediately with my work or mind. The reason is simple, because in my life, when I have to define it to future generations what I am, it will never be said that Rich Hoffman was bought and paid for. It will never be said that I kissed any ass to get my way through life. It can never be said that I didn’t earn every single dime I ever made with complete honesty. For everything its worth, to me, the highest goal a man can achieve is to be a self-made-man.

People will and have said that such a position is selfish. That taking such a stand deprives people of helping you. That it takes a village to make the world go round. Well……..no it doesn’t, it takes a bit of genius to come up with unique ideas, and people who are willing to do the work of bringing those ideas to life.

If I were to win the lottery I would have been robbed of the opportunity to earn the money with my skills and tenacity. It would be like winning a football game without the other team ever showing up and the score keeper just putting some points on the board, and you automatically win. For me, the fun is in beating an opponent, to taste the blood in my mouth from a hard-fought battle, to sweat droplets from my forehead in the hot sun, or to work late into the night to outsmart a competitor. If someone just handed me a check and said, “you win, the fight is over,” I’d feel deprived of a true victory.

I understand that my way of thinking is “old fashioned,” and probably is a complete foreign concept with today’s youth. Socialism is a big part of their life, and it starts in school when they are taught that nobody is better than anybody else. Everyone is the same. Except athletes and straight “A” students that can help a school system get funding from the community by putting those students on a pedestal. But for the most part, our youth is taught that it’s bad to excel. It’s bad to be the “best.” It’s bad to be strong, faster, or more creative.

Our government created millions of welfare recipients that have put out the lights of ambition in many people. When someone is given something, and they don’t earn it by giving back something of equal value, they are robbed of their merit. This might bother them at first, but once they accept the lack of merit they lose their ambition, and this is the cause of massive failure in the welfare system.

I once attended a trade show in Chicago’s McCormick Center for one of my products. I drove up from Cincinnati and was appalled that there were so many toll booths on the way into the city. Counting all the cars going through the booths, it was obvious that Chicago was ripping people off by generating enormous sums of money with the tool booths. So on the way back home after the trade show was over, I drove back through South Chicago and was stunned by how poor it was. My plan was to avoid the toll booths and get back on the highway far to the south. I drove through miles and miles and miles of slums and getting back on the highway that was built over the slums was nearly impossible. It seemed as if the slums were desired by the city of Chicago in order to keep everyone on the toll highway, and discourage what I was doing, by driving through a crime riddled neighborhoods to leave the city.

I looked at angry faces at every stop sign at every block. I had a few arguments with men and boys that shouted racist slurs at me and I expected at any moment to have a gun fight right in the street. It was obvious to me that the good intentions of socialism as implemented in the welfare system was a massive failure, and I felt sorry for the people I was seeing. I knew that if I could have a few of those angry young boys for a few weekends, and take them on a camping trip and teach them to value themselves, I could probably help some of them a little, because what was missing was a sense of value in their lives. They had learned and accepted to live off the government, and had lost their ambition. They had lost their merit. It is no wonder they turned to crime, trying to steal back from society what was robbed from them, which is their honor. The crime began with our government “helping them.”

Anytime you make someone dependent on you, a crime has been committed because you have stolen from them some merit.

This is why when people who have lost their merit, or never had it to begin with because their parents didn’t provide them with a sense of value, and they inherit money, or win the lottery, they go broke in just a few years. The money does not make them better people. Money cannot buy merit, or honor. Money is only as good as the people who hold it. Social problems cannot be fixed by throwing money at those problems.

The same thing happens when an owner of a business works hard to build that business, and then passes it on to his kids later in life, only to have the kids screw it up. The kids don’t work the business the same because they didn’t earn it.

This is my primary problem with the whole teacher salary issue. I would argue that a few teachers may be worth 70K or 80K per year, but because of the socialist tendencies of the teachers unions, all teachers with tenure, and certain degrees make the same “step increases,” so they all make that kind of money. That’s an insane idea. All it does is drive up the labor costs for the district! That’s why the S.B.5 Bill that Governor Kasich signed recently was so important, because it will allow school boards to stop that terrible imposition of their budgets. Money does not make a good teacher, just like it doesn’t make a good person. You may pay a good teacher not to leave you because of their merit, which makes you value them over others because what they bring to the table is valuable. But to pay everyone incremental amounts of money is built along the same lines as a lottery. You’re giving people something they don’t deserve. They are just getting money because they filled legal qualifications. Not because they fought hard and earned it in competition with others.

Speaking of Governor Kasich you can tell a lot about people when they are “tested.” Here is a great video from a couple of years ago with Bill Cunningham and John Kasich talking about what should be done to regain the principles of American value. It’s ironic that Cunningham seems poised to question the integrity of Kasich. “What kind of governor will you be, will you be like Regan, or will you be like Taft?” So far, Kasich has lived up to what he said here. He’s playing hardball, and being tough, doing the hard things Cunningham challenged him on, where Bill Cunningham once he realized that a smaller government meant reducing the strength of public sector unions backed off recently and has turned against Kasich over S.B.5. Cunningham has begun the movement to undo the bill encouraging a referendum as fast as Kasich signed it. This is the difference between “talking tough,” and being ”tough.”

Kasich is a self-made man, and he governs that way. Willie did work for the public sector, so he cannot see the socialist tendencies present, because he accepted them in his past. He can justify them, but cannot speak against them now, even when it’s the right thing to do.

There have been plenty of warnings about what socialism will do to people who embrace it. If you haven’t seen it, here is a version of George Orwell’s, Animal Farm. The British animation firm of John Halas and Joy Batchelor perform yeoman service in adapting George Orwell’s allegorical novel Animal Farm to the screen. As any high-school English student can tell you, the original 1945 novel was Orwell’s spin on the rise and fall of the Communist myth. A group of intelligent animals overthrow their corrupt human owner and set up their own self-sustained farm, predicated on an idealistic credo: “All Animals are Created Equal”, “No Animal Shall Ever Drink Liquor”, “Four Legs Good: Two Legs Bad” etc. But when Snowball the Pig (read: Trotsky) is overthrown by the despotic Napoleon (read: Stalin), all idealism goes out the window, and soon the pigs are ruling dictatorially over the other animals. Before long, Animal Farm operates on but one principle: “All Animals Are Created Equal, But Some Are More Equal Than Others.” Orwell’s ironic ending, in which it becomes impossible to tell the difference between the Pigs and the Humans, is blunted in favor of a grafted-on happy ending, perhaps to mollify the kiddie trade. Maurice Denham supplies all the character’s voices, while Gordon Heath serves as narrator.

The warning signs have always been there for us in literature, whether it’s from George Orwell, or Ayn Rand, the analysis on socialism as been conducted.

Socialism is a disease that robs society of ambition and takes us down only one path, our eventual destruction.

But there are those in government who use the excuse to “help” people in order to place themselves in the managing role, so their support is simply a power grab built on the backs of slaves. They will exploit millions of people’s integrity in order to feed their own egos for power. That’s why socialism will never work.

And before anybody says that my thoughts are part of a well-funded conspiracy from the right-wing, Glenn Beck, Ayn Rand, Rush Limbaugh, or Fox News in general, or even talk radio like WLW, guess again, because the Hollywood left is programming socialism into our kids at every entry point, entertainment, education, music, and there is a lot of money in the push for socialism. The conservative push back to the right is being done because of the years and years of propaganda from the left while we weren’t paying attention. That’s why they’re so mad at the Tea Party movement. Socialists don’t want to see the nation swing back away from what they worked so hard to penetrate our culture with by way of influence.

Here’s just one example from the Comedy Central cartoon South Park. Guess popular culture doesn’t want young people to read Atlas Shrugged……………..why do you think that is?

Here is Ayn Rand arguing against socialism and President Obama promoting it.

Socialism is a terrible concept which leads to all out communism and the eventual destruction of the culture that embodies it. If you don’t want to hear me yell about it on WLW, or Glenn Beck yell about it on Fox News, or Milton Freeman lecture about it try Ayn Rand from 1961. Ayn was a little girl when socialism took over her country of Russia and she dedicated her life to combating the disease of socialism because she had seen firsthand what it did to her home country. She fled to the United States and fell in love with skyscrapers, because such a thing could have never been built without American ingenuity and the power of individuals in a capitalist society.

Capitalism works because it allows for merit. Socialism doesn’t work because it robs people of merit. To see why just look at the high cost of education in your local community, and the blank look of our children coming out of those schools, and have the courage to ask the hard question……..why did I surrender our children to a blank, meritless life of socialism?

And why did I buy that lottery ticket hoping to escape the perils of life by wimping out when times are tough. Money won’t make a person better if they lack merit to begin with. And people with merit will find that money isn’t that difficult to obtain, because the world lacks people with true merit.

Darryl Parks is right when he says that only the weak, veal type people in our society are attracted to socialism. Let’s just hope that the weak don’t outnumber the strong, because that’s when freedom dies forever. And socialism knows it. So long as the welfare system expands, so long as government continues to be a primary employer, so long as public sector unions exist, the weak will continue to put representatives into our republic that will slowly convert our society into socialism.

How do we get more people strong in our society, so we can get the country moving back toward capitalism? You have to stop pandering to people. Stop coddling that child every time they bump their head. Stop dressing your kids in elbow pads and knee pads. Stop trying to breast feed your kids even when they are 16 to 17 years old. In fact, this is the path of socialism, watch this clip of Hugh Jackman zip lining into the Sydney Opera House. I think Jackman did well. He came in too fast, but so what. He was able to make his transfer to his rappel line. But look at the women’s reactions here.


All those girls and women are probably going to have kids, and they’ll be the ones to pander to their children’s every whims, and nobody will attempt to toughen up those kids creating a society of……..as Darryl calls them………………………….veal.

Veal is good for only one thing, to be eaten. And you can’t build a country on people like that and expect it to stay strong for long. That’s when socialism takes over.

Rich Hoffman

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

Mark North is Challenged to a Debate: April 9th on the Darryl Parks Show

Rick McPherson did the unthinkable. He went on the sacred airwaves of 700 WLW during the Darryl Parks show and challenged Mark North, superintendent of the Lebanon School System to an on-the-air debate over the actions taken by the Lebanon School Board to approve union contracts prior to Governor Kasich signing the S.B.5 bill which would eliminate collective bargaining agreements. If North had held tight he could have used S.B.5 to drive down the costs of his district and avoid a school levy.

It was a bold challenge given by a man who knows that the Lebanon Superintendent is guilty of subverting the confidence of the taxpayers in the school district while at the same time encouraging them to pass a levy on the May ballot. Listen to that interview and challenge here. Darryl Parks upon hearing this information declared his support toward defeating the Lebanon School Levy with the very powerful 50,000 Watts of The Big One radio station, one of the most powerful radio stations in the country.

Mark North has two choices. He can ignore the challenge and attempt to point his finger at those opposed to the increase in taxes as simple “bomb throwers.” He’ll do that because he doesn’t have the guts to face McPherson on WLW during the Darryl Parks show of April 9th. North knows he’s wrong and has been caught doing the unspeakable, making deals with the union prior to passage of a controversial bill and proving his loyalty to the unions, and not the tax payers of the district. He also knows that he and the school board members are guilty of violating the “sunshine law” which prohibits discussions and deals such as what transpired prior to the last Lebanon School Board meeting.

If Mr. North were innocent of such allegations, he’ll gladly be prepared to go on the Big One to defend the reputation of his district under his leadership. Because in the court of public opinion, silence means your guilty. The branch of truth has officially been extended for him to defend these actions for all to hear and to settle any misconceptions the public may have about the situation.

But, the video of the meeting speaks otherwise. Unless he can prove otherwise in a debate with McPherson on Darryl Parks show the proof of the despicable acts committed under his leadership will be confirmed in his silence.

Stay tuned, because we’re just getting started.

This isn’t a witch hunt to those of you that wish to think so. This is a demand of honesty, and for the system to work as it is supposed to. This is a demand to not perform illegal activity behind closed doors, and then ask tax payers to pay for incompetence. That’s all it is. If it’s painful, well……too bad. Your public officials and your boss want to know why you behaved the way you have, and you owe an explanation. Why not provide that explanation on the 50,000 Watt FLAME THROWER, 700 WLW for all to hear?

Declare your innocence…..if you can. After all, anyone that makes $149,937 a year should have no problem talking to half a million people over 38 states and part of Canada. Show up on April 9th and the debate will occur without a representative from the Lebanon School System.

The choice is yours…………………

Rich Hoffman

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