‘One of the grossest things they have ever seen?’ This is what the Morning Joe Team on the Progressive channel MSNBC said in regard to a recent NRA advertisement. Obviously these people don’t remember how poorly George Bush’s children were treated when he was president. But they have conveniently forgotten all about that now. Watch and listen how shallow the minds and memory of these progressives are.
There is no dealing with people like this from the “lean forward” channel. Wasn’t that the campaign slogan for the last Lakota school levy, and Barry Obama’s latest run for President? Progressivism is for these mush minded types, not real Americans. They haven’t a clue as to what the Constitution is about, nor do they care to learn. They wish us all to “lean forward” straight into the same brick wall that all of Europe is hitting. They are the primary example of why America must never give up their guns, because it will be these types of people who will run everything.
They can’t even remember the Bush Presidency which was only 5 years ago.
President Obama’s press conference over the debt ceiling and proposed gun control measures on January 14, 2013 was so worthless that I won’t even waste my time discussing it here. A response to his claims has already been refuted, dissected, and railed against on these pages and many others in copious quantities. Rather, I would like to refer you dear reader to the video below, which is a bit long, but is one of the better interviews that John Stossel gave while promoting his book No They Can’t which is quite good. Stossel’s book cuts to the chase in a way only an award-winning journalist of many years can in articulating the fundamental problem of any government could do—that politicians wish to rule over others as a primary concern—they are constantly on the hunt for new measures to use in order to rule over others—and are universally prone to manipulate the law in any fashion to advance their offensive against those they wish to rule. Stossel concludes that government under any condition is not emotionally equipped to achieve anything close to their intended proposals, and almost every time they involve themselves in anything, they bungle it up. So the more government there is, the more screwed up a society is. Stossel makes the argument clear in his book, which is discussed in great detail in the interview below. I would suggest a full viewing of the clip provided:
Stossel’s conclusions remind me of a book I read years ago that I used to carry around like it was a Bible. It was published in the late 1980s called A World of Ideas by Bill Moyers. The book was written at the height of Moyers PBS career as a reporter on the heels of his excellent book The Power of Myth which is still one of my all time favorites. These books were written when progressivism and communism were still undercover and functioning behind layers of deceit within the Democratic Party—before even the Clinton Administration came into power—so I saw no danger in AWorld of Ideas, only scholarly information that was quite good at the time without the political spin that might be seen today. In that classic book Moyers basic thesis was that the quality of politicians in our Republic are bad because there isn’t any clear incentive for good people to enter the world of politics.
This is true for the most part. I know a few people who are good and enter politics, but for the most part politicians are low life scum bags who secretly cry out for attention. The people of quality that I know are either rich and chose to control politics with donations, or they hide in their garages and hire accountants to work around all the stupid laws that politicians come up with. Those people don’t enter politics, of which I fall into a similar category. I have had countless requests from many community members to run for local trustee positions that are coming open, or school board titles—and during every one of those requests I think of that old Moyer’s book A World of Ideas, especially the chapter interviewing Tom Wolfe—one of my favorite writers—specifically The Right Stuff novel. A republic of any kind is only as good as the people who run it, and ideally the best people of any society should run for office, not the worst.
When I think of political office and imagine myself in one, I would likely go on violent rampages the first time the bureaucrats did a role call. It drives me crazy every time I see a meeting of any kind where they do a roll call. Every political meeting I’ve ever attended is so ghastly ineffective that I find them appalling. I don’t function well with rules or meetings that go on longer than 20 minutes, because anything longer is or more complex is to fulfill the inner whims of some stuffy politician hiding their incompetency behind the complexity. This is one of the primary reasons that intelligent people avoid politics, because they simply don’t want to deal with stupid people. But if only stupid people run for office, then the people managing all the tax money are stupid people, which is the case of modern politics in America. Most of the people who run for office would fail in the private sector. They would not be invited to charity events and treated like a big wig around town otherwise, so they run for an office to gain prestige. They are not interested in committing their years of wisdom to an elected office, because often they have no wisdom to speak of.
I once had a friend who was a former Penthouse model and was married to a big time strip mall developer around the I-275 loop. She was the classic trophy wife and her 60 year-old husband knew it. He didn’t care that people thought she was a trophy wife—all that mattered to him was that his money was able to buy a 26 year-old-wife who was loyal to him who he could show off at social events. She was from Sweden and was fascinated by politics at the time even though she was a very early version of a libertarian by nature. I was baffled when she expressed to me her desire to meet Mayor Tillery at a fundraiser event that her husband was conducting. I asked her why, because he was a Democrat—had bad breath like every other man and was an astonishingly average human being. This woman was the kind of female who could attract any man in the world that she wanted, but she found herself drawn to “powerful” people wither they were literally powerful like her husband was, or figuratively powerful like Mayor Tillery was in Cincinnati politics. It was people like her who feed the egos of politicians like Tillery and made them feel as though the work they are doing is important.
The same types of women swoon over President Obama and make like-minded politicians believe that they are doing important work, because they have a title that carries prestige in our society. Because they are in politics, they have a celebrity status that exhumes power, even though their minds may be insufficiently developed toward leadership. Smart people like the model’s husband who might not otherwise be able to attract such a woman with their looks become powerful through enterprise so that they can buy themselves such a woman. But stupid people who desire the same kind of ability are lured into politics so that they can also attract those types of personalities. The incompetent person who fears the private sector has learned that by giving away tax money to a lot of people, that they can purchase reelections for themselves and have access to the kind of men and women who clamor for powerful people—even if that power is only by title. In no other form of endeavor could an average person like Mayor Tillery have women like my old Penthouse friend excited to shake their hand—but in politics.
We’re not talking about sex when it is said that politicians scurry for office to have access to women like the former Penthouse model. This sometimes happens of course, but the end result is not a sexual one, it’s simply an attention grabber. The small-minded person wishes to be addressed as sir, or madame, or by an official title that projects social importance. These social butterflies wish to be treated with respect, even though they often don’t deserve it. They like to see beautiful women and men standing behind the rope lines fighting to shake their hands or to get an autograph—and that is the root of the whole problem.
Stossel is not wrong or reckless when he says that government can’t do anything right—because they can’t. Government can’t because they are a group of people who desire attention before anything, and President Obama is the classic case of such an attention starved human being—who might otherwise struggle to put together two dimes if he were not in public office. Obama knows it, which is one of the reasons he supports socialism, and other progressive causes—and nurtures a deep hatred for the rich. Obama desires to see the rich bow at his feat by using his perceived power to conquer them into submission so they are in awe of his power. He enjoys knowing that the trophy wives of his political rivals seek out to shake his hand against their protests, because those young ladies are drawn to the power of the politicians—the tribal leaders of their community. Women look at Obama the way the Penthouse model looked at Mayor Tillery in Cincinnati, with respect and wonder. But these emotions are left over remnants of the human beings evolution from hunter and gather tribes to the perceived human sacrifice and altruism of the agricultural based city-states. Intelligent people have outgrown the need for “tribal leaders” or “politicians.” Stupid people are still in that pre-evolution period of yesterday—they are always trying to figure out who their “clan leader” is. Like Stossel said in his book, it is the yearning for somebody else to take responsibility that leaves the good people on the outside of politics and the bad people inside—because that is where the fans are. Like the Nickelback song states, everyone wants to be a Rock Star, but not everyone has the talent to be. Others who are qualified don’t even have the desire to trade in their privacy for the constant bombardment of fans that comes with such social roles. The politician in American society can be a Rock Star with just a simple election, and that is the real problem. They get the title without having the quality of mind to back it, which is why government can’t do anything right under any circumstance. John Stossel is 100% right that when it comes to government—NO THEY CAN’T! And they never will because the mind of everyone involved is faulty.
Much of the time it is my wife who does all the nice things for the family, so she is seldom surprised by anybody doing something nice for her. But this year was different. We’ve always been a traditional family where she maintained the home and I maintained work relationships, so we didn’t have the modern benefit of a dual income household to just throw money at our whims. That benefit is something that we have both vehemently rejected out of dedication to providing for our children, and now grandchildren a constant loving female presence in their lives which far outweighs any monetary value.
I have been called a sexist my entire life because of my almost Amish-like adherence to traditional family values. My wife has been called far worse because she has so obviously rejected the feminist movement of independence from men. In our marriage which is coming up on a quarter century now, our household runs like many did in America during 1920 through 1950. I treat her respectfully, she participates in politics equally, and she controls all our family income. She cooks, cleans–is the family psychologist, maintains all the relationships with the extended family—her job is a difficult, thankless one. There is no prestige for the American woman who dedicates herself as a housewife and in my mind there is no job more important in the entire world. My wife didn’t have a career, when our children needed to be homeschooled. When my kids were little, my wife was a room mother at their school, and the teachers turned against her when during the fourth grade consensus emerged that all the little girls of that age needed to learn how to put a condom on a fake penis as part of sex education. We of course declined to sign the permission form and the teachers retaliated. Soon the administrators learned through the teacher’s lounge that my wife was “one of those women,” one of those “trouble makers,” so they made it difficult for her to even pick my kids up from school, because my kids did not ride the school bus. (Yes, my kids were too good to ride the school bus with the other kids. My wife drove them to and from school every single day of their schooling lives.) My wife had resisted a progressive platform so the school circled the wagons to push her out. We responded by pulling our kids out of the school. We were able to pull the trigger when it was needed due to political pressure in the school district of Mason many years ago because my wife did not have a career—a commitment to a business interest outside of our family home. If I had a quarter for all the times family and friends told us that we were wrong in our approach to raising our children, we’d be millionaires rolling in rooms full of those quarters. Much of that advice we were given by well-intentioned people had its source with daytime television and talk shows like Opera who we now know was intensely committed to the spread of progressive ideas. Their advice was wrong even though the masses seemed all to agree on those feminist statements. It has never been easy because the rest of society was going in a noticeably different direction and we were openly rebelling against the progressive political attack against American tradition. For a woman to stay home and care for her family in a traditional manner from 1990 to 2010 seemed to be the vilest insult against progressivism, judging by the insults that came in our direction. So the older we have grown, the more flagrant we have flaunted our position, especially once we learned the source of the advice.
As discussed at this site in great detail modern progressivism is all about destroying the American version of family, so it should come as no surprise that children share authority between their government schools and their parents which leads to much of the misguided rebellion many young people cast against their parents. It is also no surprise that divorce rates are so high because both spouses are dedicated to goals outside the family unit, and women have been told they must be equal to men in the workplace. The progressive strategy has been to remove the heart of the family—women and demean them into pursuing male-like career goals—which are empty social acceptance roles that offer very little real substance. The goal of this aimless existence is to put the faith Americans used to commit to individual family strength and instead invest into it faith towards government. In my traditional view, American women are the government; they are the only government that matters. They rule America’s households and in our family, nothing happens without the approval of my wife. She even has legislative power over every oil change I conduct on our various vehicles. I don’t buy anything without her approval, which is how it should be.
On the other side of the coin, for over 20 years now I have had to strive to make enough family income to compensate for two college educated adults because that’s what it costs to get through modern life. Most of the time I pull off that task with extra revenue generating activity like writing books, designing t-shirts, or other types of creative enterprise. In my younger days I worked various part-time jobs to pay the bills and sometimes rode a bicycle everywhere as we went for years with only one car that my wife needed to use for driving the kids to school. At one point I rode 12 miles one way to work every day for over 1 year on a first shift job and worked a second job on the way home that helped divide up the return mileage to something less exhausting. I’d peddle the remaining 6 miles home in the rain, snow, and extreme heat at around midnight and would start the whole thing again at 5 AM the next day. I never missed work, or got sick, because I couldn’t afford to. Sometimes the money has been easy, sometimes it was very hard, but always we have managed to keep my wife as the hub of the family and there is no government that supersedes her. I have always put my wife on a pedestal because that is where women deserve to be. They are not equal to men, they are bigger, better, and sweeter—and deserve to be cared for with love and understanding.
This brings us back to Christmas, for the first time in our lives, my wife wanted a vacation with me that involved actual time spent together—not on a tour bus through Europe, or on a Gondola in Venice being pushed around the canals by a heavily fragranced Italian man who looks like he’d rather be making meat balls. She wanted me to spend “time” with her—not writing books, not working on politics, not practicing bullwhips, or even back-woods hiking. She wanted to spend time with me, and since she loves Star Wars, there was no better way to spend that time than with an MMO dedicated to Star Wars that requires thousands of hours of partnership. But in order to play an MMO with another person, two computers are needed, and that cost is typically prohibitive for such a luxury item.
The gift was more symbolic than fiscal because it was a commitment to time spent rather than a dollar value—although to arrive at that moment it did require a significant financial investment. The computers had to be powerful because we know family members who have tried to play The Old Republic on a single core processor and fried their video cards from the excessive heat generated, even with the graphics turned all the way down. Because we both love Star Wars we wanted to play the game with full graphics resolution—(which are fabulous by the way), and we still wanted computing power to spare. So my son-in-law and I overdid all the specs and built the computers seen in the video above. My wife didn’t think it was possible because a few months earlier we had spoken to a Best Buy consultant about the amount of money it would take to buy computers that would play the game the way we wanted to play it, and his response was frustrating. He gave us a cost of nearly $4000 for two computers. Frustrated because we still needed a new roof, a dishwasher, and a number of other important daily items, we put it on the very back burner to revisit a few years down the road.
Over this past weekend my wife pointed out to me that we have now played The Old Republic for 20 straight days and we are only just getting started. Our average playing time is 5 to 8 hours per session. Saturday we played the game for 18 hours straight—no interruptions. My kids are all playing the game and my son-in-law who built those computers built one just like them for my one of my daughters while he beefed up his to match the specs. We have all played together and we have been playing with extended family members from out-of-state and it is everything that we hoped it would be. When my wife saw that she had unlimited computing power it wasn’t because of the pretty lights or status of having a new expensive gift. It was in being able to spend time with the people she loves in a game environment that she adores. The computers are simply a means to get there, and in this case, the powerful machines are designed to operate without limitations that prohibit such an experience.
The first thing that people reading this will ask is how can we afford to spend so much time playing a game? Well, in her case, she has the time because she is not in service to any institution outside our family. In my case, I have worked hard to get out ahead enough to buy myself the time to play the game by releasing a new book that is out making money and freeing up my personal time, so in that way, I have afforded myself the ability to give my wife more of my time which is all she really wanted for Christmas. The look on her face is as authentic as it gets and I offer the rare look behind the curtain of my family so that others can see the reality behind the rhetoric that often surrounds me.
Many of my readers and friends here have wanted to see pictures of my new grandson, and they are curious as to what daily life is like within my family. We are a close family because my wife has dedicated her life to making it so, and she deserves a lot of credit for that. It can be seen clearly in videos like the one shown above. The tickets she received at the beginning of the clip were symbolic of the kind of vacation that we have been experiencing for the last 20 days. It took her a long time to put all the elements together to figure out what was happening, but once she did, she was extremely happy, which earned for me the worth of the whole enterprise. She has taken a lot of flack for being a full-time housewife over the years, and she has patiently put up with most of the slander that has been thrown her way which sometimes gets compounded when money is tight. We know that most families cannot do as we have done, because these days so many women are embedded in the economy that if they all pulled out to become full-time mothers our national unemployment rate would jump up to 30 to 40% instantly. Many women also would be lost as to their roles as central family beacons, because there is a lot of responsibility in that job, and they have been taught not to take that responsibility. When things go bad, there is nobody but one person to point at and blame. If a child goes bad, the mother often will blame herself, and many women hide from this responsibility behind their careers, and that will not change over night. But most women deep down inside know that no matter how much money they earn, it cannot replace the impact of their love and attention for their families. Kids who have such busy mothers are easy to spot in a crowd, and these days most of our society is functioning from a hunger for their mother’s attention that they never received as children. The public schools are not adequate replacements, and mothers who make such decisions of putting career in front of motherhood are fools.
Progressives have attempted to change human behavior and they have failed. Anyone who defends those failures is an idiot, and I know a lot of them. Some people are so far into building their lives around that idioticrity that they will lash out at people like me by calling me a sexist, and calling my clothing “wife beater” attire as they did in my video A Whip Trick to Save America where I wore an Under Armor muscle shirt that was labeled by my feminist political critics in such a fashion. Those people are wrong, and have built their entire lives around being wrong. Many of the names progressive women have called my sweet wife over the years, and myself really reflect their personal feelings of guilt. I know it, she knows it, and they know it. My kids have witnessed it, everyone knows what the motives are behind the actions, and after all of that I continue to believe more and more, that a child needs a mother to be ever-present, and a family needs a string of such women to be strong otherwise failure is assured and the family structure will break down in the absence of such personalities.
The sacrifice to have a strong family by allowing the women of that family to serve no entity but their families is that money is harder to come by. But it’s worth it for those few times when enough money is made that quality time with loved ones becomes possible. In the case of the Christmas computer gifts it is not the machinery or hardware, it’s the time that playing the game will giver her with me, her children, her nieces and nephews, sisters and even parents that are scattered all over the Earth. The gift she received was time with the people she cares about, and that is the a gift that extends beyond conventional value, and is the reason for her delight on that memorable Christmas morning that had been a long time and coming—which she waited patiently to see.
One of my changes in position on public education comes not from the revelation that the labor unions have no respect, or desire to work with taxpayers over school funding issues—but in learning about changes in education methods that are far better than the traditional way of learning. To my mind first comes Rosetta Stone software which is completely changing the way that foreign language is taught to individuals, and is quite revolutionary. It is only a matter of time before math, science, and language arts is revolutionized in the same way. In fact, I believe that Microsoft Office is the most significant revolutionary step forward that any society has ever made, because it helps solve many of the basic language problems in communication with its powerful word processor and very excellent Excel Spreadsheets which I think are stunning in their conception. The Cell design in Excel is one of those very unique inventions that are having a major impact on our society, because it makes complex mathematical computations accessible to a mass audience. No longer is an accounting degree from college necessary to understand complex financial calculations. This fact alone has helped stoke the fires for the present “freedom movement” that is going on in The United States where everything is being re-considered and re-invented as the revelation that we have all been duped by the political class for many years with fuzzy math and flat-out lies has been easily revealed by Microsoft Office’s powerful, user-friendly programs. Excel by Microsoft has helped average people blow the lid off the truth that used to be concealed in the brief cases of politicians and understood only by accountants and lawyers.
There is a currency system in the game that is specific to over 17 different planets, plus the Republic itself has a kind of universal currency. A player must manage their crafting skills, their armor damage, the specs of their weapons, armor and those of their companions. They must also manage a starship of their own including the fuel to get from point A to point B, and countless other small little details that must be constantly maintained as the game is played. Not to mention there are many opportunities to play with groups of 4 to 16 players at the same time so you have to coordinate with all of them to achieve mission objectives. Most of the time my wife and I work as a team, I’ll designate that I’ll perform one task while she does another maximizing our efforts and it was during all this that I realized that much of what The Old Republic was doing is far better than the kind of things public education is trying to achieve in the old fashion way of teaching. No wonder kids are so bored in school and aren’t learning anything when they are playing games like these for fun!
I had managed to curb my enthusiasm for the first 70 hours of game play by telling myself I only liked the game because it was new, or because we had to spend several thousand dollars to play it at the level I wanted to. But after we visited the planet of Alderaan, the planet that was destroyed in the first Star Wars film A New Hope I realized that I was not only playing the best video game I have ever played, but was witnessing a revolutionary new way educating tomorrow’s youth. Alderaan graphically and politically is absolutely magnificent. The reason we spent money on buying new computers just to play The Old Republic were for moments like the environment on Alderaan, with snow-capped mountains all around the major cities that even have mist drifting in front of them. There are windmills generating power off in the distance and everything is very lush, green, and advanced. For those who know me, my favorite amusement park in the world is Epcot Center at Disneyworld, and Alderaan in the game The Old Republic is like a living breathing city of Epcot design with very complicated politics that must be unraveled by the game’s players. It is extremely intriguing and really mind-blowing how vast that world is. We tried for over an hour to get to the edge of the map world, (the programmed content of just that planet) and couldn’t do it. Alderaan alone in The Old Republic is bigger in size than most video games that might be programmed for Xbox or the PC, so in relation to the other 17 planets in the game, it is difficult to comprehend how BioWare pulled all this material off. There had to be mountains of scripts, dialogue performed by actors for many, many hours and large teams of programs just to create all the substance—but to connect it all with a storyline is baffling. To stand on Alderaan and take it all in, and look at the mist forming and drifting across the mountains in the distance it had the same kind of look as the Smoky Mountains, the Colorado Rockies, the Canadian city of Banif, or the Swiss Alps—BioWare pulled off what I would consider an impossible feat with just this one environment—the illusion of reality. Once a player is in that reality, they are open to be taught in that environment. That is why The Old Republic is so superior to any other game experience I’ve personally ever had, but also sets the stage for education in the future. This is the way education should be handled with all America’s youth. No politics, no exploitation, none of the funding issues that are plaguing modern public education with inefficiency–but instead the kind of productivity that is evident in The Old Republic that encourages a player to learn, and rewards that learning with gratifications that are remembered because they are fun to pursue.
Needless to say that I am impressed beyond measure with The Old Republic, I get the feeling that I’m involved in the start of something truly revolutionary. I remember how educators and scholastic purists had a negative reaction to the pocket calculator in the 1970’s the same way they are resisting Rosetta Stone software today for foreign language use. Many will resist too the notion that a game like The Old Republic can replace much of the current education structure with a more efficient type of learning that is far more powerful than the type of collectivism found in public schools. The Old Republic is the first of its kind and is heads and shoulders above anything else done to date—not just in the combat system, but in the story and what it teaches the player. It is gigantic in an attempt that is utterly successful and it makes me wonder what the future holds if there comes a time where The Old Republic becomes considered graphically simple as a standard that gamers today look back on titles like Pac Man and Pong from years past and shake their heads at how far we’ve come. The world is changing, and The Old Republic is evidence that not all of it is bad. The lessons learned within the context of the story are valuable, morally sound, and players can see immediately the consequences of their actions in a way that life has a way of molding over many years. On The Old Republic players can see those actions within the context of 200 hours of game play instead of 20 years of hard living. In that way The Old Republic is the best form of educational entertainment I have ever seen, and I am proud to live in a time to see it developed into a reality. I simply love the game and am a very proud subscriber, and will be for a long time. It is a miracle of everything that is good about our modern times mixed with the power of myth, which is the backbone of every culture that hopes to survive into the future. It takes more than math, science, and language arts to make a flourishing society. It requires “context” to apply all those skills, and without that context, education only succeeds in creating mindless drones. What The Old Republic does successfully, is provide “context” in a story which allows players to develop skills that are directly applied with quick and frequent rewards. That is why The Old Republic is so revolutionary, and is the first step into a much, much larger world.
Specifically in Steubenville a couple of high school football players appear to have gang raped an intoxicated 16-year-old girl that was bragged about by other students on YouTube. Fury broke out on both sides of the argument featuring the same old cover up neglect that is always present in these cases—primarily from adults who are so in love with the distraction of organized sports that they no longer recognize the rights of individuals. On the other side are the kinds of people who make a moral argument for justice on behalf of the victim. In this case of Steubenville computer nerds making up the group Anonymous hacked a deleted controversial video where an 18-year-old Ohio State student bragged about the crime with his friends, then tried to take the video down once the heat came down on them. Anonymous reposted the video which opened up the case nationwide.
But what I find most amazing is that Ohio State and now Kent State is seeking to distance their affiliation with the characters that were directly or indirectly involved in the “gang rape.” Surely Ohio State and Kent State are quite aware that the same levels of rape are occurring every single night on their campuses, particularly on Friday and Saturday nights when group parties are most prevalent. And surely the parents of every decent looking 16-year-old girl up till about the age of 23-years-old knows that their little girl has probably been gang raped in the exact same fashion as the girl at Steubenville high school. Surely the parents knew that all the years they saved money so they could send small fortunes to these colleges that this was the kind of activity their children would be involved in. If their child attends parties—especially ones where athletes are present, gang rapes of unconscious girls is common, not unique. Surely they know that the problem is wide-spread and nowhere near an isolated incident. These rapes happen every single night on their campuses, and they happen all the time in high school parties where drinking is involved. If a girl loses consciousness in a crowd of boys, she will find her cloths off and sexually assaulted nearly 100% of the time once she wakes up again. Any girl who brags that she has lost her memory at a party is trying to distance herself from the disgrace to save embarrassment—which is why these things don’t get reported more often. When they do, the girl is blamed for getting so drunk that she put herself in danger—just as what happened in the Steubenville incident. The general attitude from the public is that “boys will be boys” and collective salvation takes precedence over the individual rights of a passed–out young girl. So why do the universities distance themselves from a few boys when tens of thousands of girls and boys are conducting the same activity nightly? They are either liers, or extremely niave. I would bet on the former.
If not for New Media and some of the computer geeks who used it–the story at Steubenville would have been covered up like the hundreds of thousands of other rapes that occur every weekend at every education institution across the country. And the guilty parties are virtually everyone who has turned their eyes away from the nature of evil and embraced collectivism. It is only for New Media that a change in society is occurring forcing it to look evil in the eye at Steubenville and deal with their emotions—instead of using evasion to turn away from the responsibility. The little girl who went to the party and was allegedly gang raped by a small group of football players is ruined forever in the a way that innocence can only measure and I feel deeply sorry for her. The guilt falls on many shoulders. Women who find themselves in this kind of situation are ruined because men do not like to take on wives that have had sex with lots of other men, and now that her story is out, she will have to explain it forever not only to her future husband, but her future children, which will be embarrassing for the rest of her life.
That doesn’t mean her life will always be terrible, but there will always be that stigma that she will either have to explain, or avoid when dealing with others. But the girl is not alone, she shares a story that many thousands of young women all share these days, and they try to ignore their checkered past when they finally do marry and try to start families of their own. But the secret is always there in the back of their minds and all future relationships. It is the source of much male impotency, sexual dysfunction, and amorous relationships that occur outside of wedlock in the decades to come regarding relationships. Men like to know that their woman have been theirs and theirs alone. But a society committed to collectivism wants to destroy that sense of possession, and that is the root behind the evil. The girl was just doing what society has instructed her is “popular” and “proper.” She has been taught that getting drunk is good. She has been taught that self-respect is a bad character trait. And she has been taught to surrender her integrity to the Gods of sports.
When I go to sports events I often park in the same areas as the players do who play on the field, and it always amazes me after a game the lines of young women who form up where the players exit. All those young women are hoping to use their looks to sleep with a sports star that society thinks is so important. The women in the back of their minds hope they might become pregnant so they can have a permanent connection to those Gods of the arena, or at least be able to brag about their powers of seduction to friends which gives them social prestige. The girls who think such things are fools, but the people who taught them to think this way are worse—their parents, their school, their media driven society that turns its eyes away from evil by promoting it are the real villains. Ultimately, the poor girl who went to the party at Steubenville, got drunk and surrendered her body to the athletes at the party did it for the same reasons that the groupie girls try to bed professional athletes—for social prestige. They of course don’t mean for things to get out of hand—but often that is the case. Evil is at work in these events, and the guilt is on more hands and minds than the two football players who will be tried for the incident only now that the story has become a national story. Those football players like the girl are only sacrificial victims to a society committed to collectivism. It is society at large that sacrifices these young people once the evil of their actions are exposed in the light of day, and there is no court system in the nation that can prosecute such a wide-spread evil that is virtually everywhere. It is an evil that has grown under our current education system and is a direct result of America’s social commitment to progressivism.
Why do people think that the media is selective in their coverage and agenda driven? Well……….because they are. For instance, just a few short days after the Sandy Hook shooting in Connecticut a gunman in San Antonio, Texas was upset that his girlfriend broke up with him and went on a shooting rampage at a movie theater—very similar to the Aurora Theater shooting. The only big difference is that in Texas there was an off duty police officer nearby who was armed. So when the 19-year-old Chinese restaurant worker started his shooting rampage in anger over his girlfriend, the shooter was shot by the armed officer. The result of the shooting was just two people injured in the hospital—one of them the broken-hearted shooter. The trouble is that as big as this story was—every bit as big as any other incident across the country and deserved the same kind of wall to wall coverage on the major networks that Sandy Hook, Aurora, or any other shooting received—it was only the local news around San Antonio and a few blog sites across the country that have discussed the story. Other than those sources, the story has not received any “play” by the major networks which is odd considering the level of awareness that public shootings have been getting lately. Watch the coverage from the local television affiliate here:
Yes, many of the stories that make the major networks are agenda driven. That does not mean that the average reporter is privy to that agenda. In reality, they may be unaware of the company agenda completely when they are first hired. The agenda for a news organization is driven by the owners personal beliefs and as diverse as many think their news organizations may be, when it comes down to the original sources of an agenda driven news organization there are always only a few at the top who own everything—as it usually is—and all the reporters, editors, free-lance writers, even organizational management know what the parameters for a story are based on the kind of content their owners approve of. News organization employees lucky enough to keep their jobs for five or more years learn that agenda and stick with it for the good of their own livelihoods.
In Cincinnati Scripps is a big player, as well as Clear Channel. Gannett runs the Cincinnati Enquirer, and Cox Media controls many of the local papers from Dayton to Cincinnati. When these organizations form up story topics they will give “play” to a view point—especially a controversial one if it gives them ratings—which is understandable. This works well as long as the subject does not exceed the parameters established by management—following the guidelines of their ownership. If a story fits the parameters set by ownership then the news organizations will give the story “play.” If it does not, then the story will be canned—because no editor is going to risk their job covering a story that will anger their ownership. The reporters who survive for many years in the “business” learn what the parameters are. Those who don’t, find themselves removed in the RIF process. (Reductions in force)
CNN was the creation of Ted Turner the media tycoon from Cincinnati who set up shop in Atlanta, Georgia. Ted married Jane Fonda in the 80’s as Jane was re-inventing herself after her long known associations with communism. Ted although a capitalist, has shown many philanthropic leanings toward communism and obviously shares many of his ex-wife’s collectivist beliefs, which is reflected in the kind of stories that CNN has covered. Turner as recently as 2012 stated on CNN that he believes its good that American troops are committing suicide because it shows aversion toward war. Compare that to Jane Fonda riding a communist North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun in the 60s calling for an end to American imperialism and you have a communist marriage made in heaven. These are the kind of people who formed CNN and really all the 24 hours news programs, with only Fox News representing conservative viewpoints. MSNBC is even further to the political left than CNN openly advocating progressive causes with the company slogan, “Lean Forward.” (Where have we heard that slogan before……….Hmmmmmmm) Ted has given over a $1 billion dollars toward The United Nations, so it is obvious where his beliefs reside, and most of his companies reflect his political viewpoints—otherwise they find themselves unemployed. And his companies are virtually everything that falls under Turner Broadcasting, which includes the Cartoon Network, TBS, TNT and TruTV. If you are a Time Warner subscriber, you send money to Ted Turner’s companies.
Much has been said about the radical conservativism of Fox News owned by Ted Turner rival Rupert Murdoch. It would appear that Fox News was created by Murdoch as a 24 hour news channel answer directly to the radical left leaning tendencies of CNN. Much of the public relations action against Fox News on many networks including cartoons on Comedy Central are brown-nosing actions designed to earn the respect of Ted Turner’s money and funding. Few know that Turner has a long-running grudge with Murdoch that originated in 1983 when a Murdoch-sponsored yacht collided with Turner’s boat during the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, causing it to sink 10 km from the finish line. At the post-race dinner, Turner verbally assaulted Murdoch, afterward challenging him to a televised fist fight in Las Vegas. In 2003, Turner challenged Murdoch to another fist fight, and later accused Murdoch of being a “warmonger”, as he was backing President George W. Bush‘s invasion of Iraq. [29]
Even to this day, even though Ted is retired for the most part from many of his businesses, his loose lifestyle and commitment to collectivism can be seen in the way he socially conducts himself. Like all communist and collectivist loving people seen best during the hippie movement in The United States, monogamy is not one of their strong suits—as liberalism advocates loose sexual relationships and promiscuity. Even at age 75, Ted and his ex-wife Jane are involved in a love triangle with her new live in boyfriend 70-year-old Richard Perry. (Imagine the sex antics when they were younger) These are the kind of people who have had a huge hand in shaping the news coverage that comes into our living rooms in 2013.
In that context it is easy to see why CNN advocates gun control when it is The United Nations who most wants to see the world disarmed of all firearms. CNN will pick stories that fit the old boss’s viewpoints because his money still speaks, and all employees at CNN know that if they want some of it, then they have to toe the company line. So CNN will exploit Sandy Hook to push control legislation, and other networks will copy CNN because they are the trend setter. But CNN and the rest of the national media will not cover the story of San Antonio where an armed citizen ended a gunman’s rampage because a private citizen had a gun and was not afraid to use it saving dozens of lives—unlike Sandy Hook and Aurora where the citizens were sitting ducks because they were unable to defend themselves.
So yes, there is media bias and it is quite rampant and driven entirely by human weakness. The employees of tycoons like Ted Turner have no problem trading their journalism ethics for a pay check even if they disagree with Turner politically. And people like Bill O’Reilly may never have had a shot at becoming the number one news guy on prime time television with Fox News if not for the rivalry that started between Ted Turner and Rupert Murdoch during a yacht race in 1983. Murdoch wanted to stick it to Turner so he paved the way for a guy like O’Reilly to have a shot at writing his own ticket. John Stossel has done the same thing coming from ABC’s 20/20 which is owned by Disney and must adhere to the social positions of that very large media company. Stossel left to join the Fox Business Network to have freedom over his journalism that he didn’t have at 20/20. If Stossel had written a book like he wrote last year called, No They Can’t, which is an argument in favor of libertarianism, he would have found his job on the chopping block at ABC, but at Fox, he’s encouraged to do such things because Rupert Murdoch leans more to the political right. Glenn Beck left CNN for the same reason to join Fox, and then create his own television network with The Blaze TV which is now on the Dish Network. Thankfully for all of us, Glenn Beck will be the new Ted Turner and that will go a long way to fixing many of the problems our society is currently dealing with. Look for these improvements to begin around 2020 lasting through about 2040 when Beck will be hitting aged 70 himself. The big difference will be that such stories like those of Turner and Fonda won’t be happening with Beck. The personality differences are one of personal quality and those attributes directly find their way into their companies. All this news media is driven from a few minds that happen to be billionaires and their ownership of the news organizations and the employees who work for them are a direct reflection. In Beck’s case he has a personal friendship with billionaire Jon Huntsman which helps keep Beck fighting along in a world established by the many billions of dollars spent by radicals like George Soros and Ted Turner to advocate social progressivism.
Much of the news we see today is driven by those few minds, minds like George Soros, Ted Turner, Rupert Murdoch, NBC executive Tom Rogers and a few others. Everyone who works directly or indirectly for those people must form their journalism opinions around their bosses—just like any other business.
That is why the San Antonio shooting that occurred just a few days after Sandy Hook did not get any coverage except in the San Antonio news market. National news is agenda driven by the minds that created the organizations and cannot be trusted at face value. Unfortunately, the same people who create those organizations also contribute a lot of money into politics, so these same people not only influence heavily how Americans see the news, but also influence how the news is made in the world of politics. Unfortunately, many of the minds mentioned above are radical left leaning progressives who want gun control, they want open sexual promiscuity, and they want a drug induced society—so the news we see every day is filled with stories that support these topics. And it will continue until there is competition that threatens the monopolies of those ownerships in news organizations—and it will come. The hypocrisy was accepted in the 1990’s and 2000’s, but the scam is out of the bag now, and people are turning away from those traditional broadcasts by the handfuls. Stories like the San Antonio shooting will get coverage, and will be used to defend the Second Amendment against the wishes of old gun grabbers, communists, and hot-tempered yacht tycoons who behind all the money and power of their financial empires are still only people who breath, eat and use the rest room just like everyone else. They are flawed human beings at best, and their news reflects their ownership.
When critics of the Tea Party point and say that they (the Tea Party)“resist everything, and are stuck in the past,” the context for what Tea Party members are weary of is never explored. The issue of why they are against most new laws, every act of the political do-gooder, and insist on a return to American founding principles gets lost in the debate because more often than not the critics have no sense of history and are limited in knowledge to the shallow depths of knowledge in their own lifetimes. The more issues of governance is explored, the more evident it becomes that without a group of patriots who function not out of a love for political power, a thinly disguised grab for power, networking connections, or just a desire to be socially destructive, that politics in a democratic republic deteriorate quickly without such a presence. There needs to a group in America that can use wisdom and a firm adherence to The American Constitution to keep politics as honest as possible. Without such wisdom, without the prying eyes of a neutral party, all the well intended programs that government invents today become tomorrow’s tyranny, and now that there is a clear history in America, it is now clear that all laws created by government end up becoming monsters of self fulfilled destruction shortly after passage.
For proof of how slowly, and how destructive an idea created by government can become a social monstrosity, look no further than the Social Security system and witness the gradual erosion of that socialist oriented program which should have never of happened. These things do not become terrors in one lifetime, but over two or three lifetimes, so many of the laws created within the last 20 years in government cannot yet be measured. In that context, read the below history of Social Security, and take note of why the Tea Party is a needed–why political skepticism should be valued so that American politics can avoid a peril similar to the fall of the Roman Empire, the decline of English Imperialism, or the decline of Greek society. The decline of American society will occur without addressing the erosion of moral order currently embracing The United States or a return to Constitutional principles. And to date, it is the Tea Party that is committed to returning America to the formula that made the greatest nation on the face of the Earth over all of human history. Such a formula is valuable, and needs careful adherence. So study carefully the below history of Social Security to see how quickly it became one of the most corrosive socialist programs the world has yet seen.
Social Security Cards up until the 1980s expressly stated the number and card were not to be used for identification purposes. Since nearly everyone in the United States now has a number, it became convenient to use it anyway and the message, NOT FOR IDENTIFICATION,was removed.
Franklin Roosevelt, a Democrat, introduced the Social Security (FICA) Program. He promised: 1.) That participation in the Program would be Completely voluntary, No longer Voluntary.
2.) That the participants would only have to pay 1% of the first $1,400 of their annual Incomes into the Program, Now 7.65% on the first $90,000.
3.) That the money the participants elected to put into the Program would be deductible from their income for tax purposes each year, No longer tax deductible.
4.) That the money the participants put into the independent ‘Trust Fund’ rather than into the general operating fund, and therefore, would only be used to fund the Social Security Retirement Program, and no other Government program, and, Under Johnson the money was moved to The General Fund and Spent.
5.) That the annuity payments to the retirees would never be taxed as income. Under Clinton & Gore Up to 85% of your Social Security can be Taxed Since many of us have paid into FICA for years and are now receiving a Social Security check every month — and then finding that we are getting taxed on 85% of the money we paid to the Federal government to ‘put away’ — you may be interested in the following:
Q: Which Political Party took Social Security from the independent ‘Trust Fund’ and put it into the general fund so that Congress could spend it?
A: It was Lyndon Johnson and the democratically controlled House and Senate.
Q: Which Political Party eliminated the income tax deduction for Social Security (FICA) withholding?
A: The Democratic Party.
Q: Which Political Party started taxing Social Security annuities?
A: The Democratic Party, with Al Gore casting the ‘tie-breaking’ deciding vote as President of the Senate, while he was Vice President of the US
Q: Which Political Party decided to start giving annuity payments to immigrants?
A: Jimmy Carterand the Democratic Party. Immigrants moved into this country, and at age 65, began to receive Social Security payments! The Democratic Party gave these payments to them, even though they never paid a dime into it.
The same kind of distortion will happen with Obama Care, it has already happened with Medicare, and is present in every program that has the government’s name tag on it. Now that the government created Social Security—which was an obvious—and costly mistake, they have tried to correct the error with more rules, which has only dug the hole deeper. The only way to fix the problem of Social Security would be to reset the political system before the failure occurred, and this is what the Tea Party is starting to advocate in response to the many errors that are beginning to show up as these socialist programs are beginning to fail. The position may be unpopular, but it is the desire to come up with a populist solution that created Social Security in the first place and has made it a mandatory program that is used for personal identification tracking and an extraordinary pay check contributions at 7.65%. At the rate of decline that Social Security has deteriorated in just 70 years, it is obvious that 70 more years will lead to a total collapse of that particular program. After all, the American demographic is changing. People are living longer, the young people are not getting married at age 19 and staying married for 50 years like they did when Social Security was created—so socially the adult population of tomorrow will be much more unstable, and not able to sustain Social Security without it encompassing even more than the current contribution rate. So there are copious amounts of evidence that Social Security will change much more radically in the coming years than it has in the past—which is quite a bit—because of the decline in social quality of the participants.
Social Security is just one example of a program that started with good intentions, as it was a direct response to the Red Decade of the 1930’s push for communism, but quickly degenerated into a corrosive social element that most of American society is addicted to. Stating that such a program should be abolished or radically reformed at a minimum is the task of scholarly groups like the Tea Party who are committed to education above radical protest and social unrest to move society in the proper direction. But it will make factions of society very upset because many of them have signed their name behind the support of more programs like Social Security and if such a thing were ever abolished, it would mean that their lives have little meaning—because that is at the heart behind most new laws, small-minded men and women looking for a way to leave behind a legacy—a way for future generations to think fondly of their time on planet Earth. That is not a good reason to protect a program that is functionally against everything that being an American is supposed to represent—self reliance. Going against that current will be unpopular, but often the truth usually is. But that doesn’t make the action invalid. Instead—it’s quite the opposite.
If you ever wondered why our current government is so screwed up all one needs to do is look at the kind of institutions that instruct our society and study how they behave when confronted with trouble. It is not hard to discover the root of the deteriorating rot that infests anything that is attached to government, and public schools are “government schools.” They believe that they function outside the rules of reality because they live off of tax money which is collected on their behalf under force—and they fight over that money like dogs over a bone. And their collective intelligence is just as proficient as the only concern they have is to fill their bellies so they can live five more minutes before they are begging for another bone.
In my local community of West Chester it has been well-known that I have spent the last couple of years fighting the stupidity of the blind tax and spend actions of the Lakota school district—which I attended as a kid. Many, because I went to the school, believe that I should automatically support anything that Lakota does because I’m an “alumni” or something. I hear the same type of ignorance from fools who blindly support their colleges because as adults they love the sports program—never connecting the dots that it is in such follies that many evils are conducted. Those actions are forms of collectivism which I reject entirely. At Lakota, they have refused to acknowledge that the cause of their funding problems is that they are like rabid dogs begging for food at the dinner table blindly hungry for more and more money to consume never connecting their actions to their hunger—as if the two weren’t connected. Then to make matters worse, there are the apologists who try to sneak food under the table even when the owner of the dogs tell those apologists not to—because it makes the dogs even hungrier, and misbehave more often. Such is the role of the local newspapers against the wishes of the taxpayers.
It’s not like Lakota tried—they simply refused—just like Obama and the gang is doing now on Capitol Hill–to deal with reality. They simply ignore any part of reality that doesn’t fit their version of it. As government entities, they have their agenda, and their expectations—and they will only listen to options that fulfill their agenda—which is why they fail time and time again. Have a look:
In the course of early March 2012 The Enquirer decided to get into bed with the Lakota school district and the evidence is in their priorities of what they consider to be the “biggest story of the year.” But nowhere is there any mention of “WHY” Lakota has a budget problem. The article only mentions the result, not the cause, which is typical of these big government types. The reason is because Lakota employees make too much money, and there are too many of them. Pure and simple. The education market is changing, there are many options that are better for teaching children, and government schools are clamoring to keep themselves relevant just as the Postal System is trying to stay relevant after the advent of EMAIL. Public schools are trying to fulfill a progressive utopian vision of being the central figures in society, and the newspapers are obviously on board to help paint that picture—which is why The Enquirer has been losing readership by the droves and more and more people are turning to alternative sources of information like this blog, for their news. People see the situation for what it is, and 18,000 people voted against the foolishness of the Lakota district, and the many thousands of tax payer dollars they have spent on public relations—to help set up articles in publications like The Enquirer and The West Chester Buzz.
As The West Chester Buzz published their top story of 2012 article a levy supporter sent me an email stating, “No Lakota Levy seems to indicate that the teaching staff is paid too much and now the community is unable to afford such salaries. I contend that the labor force is overworked and, for it to consider any further concessions, that group needs to be thanked for their steadfast service of the past and encouraged to work a normal 8 hour day rather than devoting hours of free labor to a district that can no longer afford such dedication.” That statement, which the newspapers should be covering, cites the entire funding problem at Lakota, and in just about every government employee in The United States. They have all lost touch with reality and have a sickness rooted in neuroses. They simply aren’t working within the realms of reality—and therefore cannot be rationed with. “Thanked,” what are these school employees—children? Or worse—not even possessing the ability to retain information like simple dogs begging for food.
How can any sane person claim that an employee making 65K per year should not be expected to work 10 or 11 hours a day or more, and that such people are “overworked.” The average income for Lakota employees is 63K per year, which is very good compensation, but the trouble is, it’s not competitive. In the argument over what makes a good teacher or a bad teacher the public is supposed to take the word of labor radicals like the guy who sent me that comment at face value without validating the truth. In my book his comment doesn’t even deserve a seat at the table because I don’t recognize his right to exist. I have determined that the biggest problem in public schools is the labor unions who utter that kind of garbage, and there is no discussing anything with them. They are like speaking to hungry dogs who only wag their tails if food comes near their mouths. They are not the pinnacles of our society as The Enquirer has tried to make them out to appear. They are simply parasites hungry for more government expansion, mindlessly higher taxes, and more youth seduced by all the wrong things to be cast out ill-prepared into adulthood. The labor argument in this case has a monopoly on education and the government backs that monopoly, and until that organization is broken up, there will never be cost reductions in education, there will never be improved test scores, and there will never be great leaps in social advancement. The problem with government schools and their monopoly is the fact that there are no options for parents to have their child taught by ambitious teachers making only 45K per year over the one making 90K per year who is tired and beat up—hanging on till their retirement at 55 years old. The tax money in the State of Ohio is sent to the school, not to the child, and that is the source of the problem allowing labor unions to basically control that tax money. The system is ridiculous, and the press has not had the backbone to do their job—which is a disservice to everyone.
People say that all the things I’ve said above are “just politics.” It’s just the way things are, and they will never change. Well, it might be politics, but like I told one of my employers years ago, “politics costs money.” If you remove the politics, you will save millions. And the same holds true for Lakota and every other public school—remove the politics, and they will be able to balance their budget without being leeches on the rest of the community constantly hitting up the residents for more tax increases. Lakota needs competition, and the press needs to get out of the business of helping to support destructive monopolies, which The West Chester Buzz confirmed is the role of The Cincinnati Enquirer in regard to Lakota. For myself, and many on my side, the “labor argument” doesn’t even deserve a place at the negotiating table. I don’t care what they think; they are no different then dogs begging for food to me. They don’t offer a service I think is important, and they charge too much to provide it. They need to be cut out of the money stream completely and that is my 2013 position. Apparently, the media is going to settle for their role to be mere lap dogs, to the dogs begging for food at the bargaining table where the feast of West Chester is in control of the adults sitting at the table.
Being a “Bad Cop” is not the same as being a “bad guy.” But when dealing with people who have no understanding of their community imposition, of the tyranny of their collectivism, of their advocating gigantic government intrusions it is needed to have a “good cop” who will speak to the media and play the game the way progressives do, but there is a need for a “bad cop” to do all the things that the “good cop” can’t. Progressives have a lot of “Bad Cops” out there functioning fully, so the liberty movement deserves the same armament, and I wanted the role as far back as last year, primarily because the Lakota levy was gearing up for another try, and NDAA was signed into law.
The freedom I feel is similar to ending a job that one hates when you realize you don’t have to go to that particular building again and speak to all the people you didn’t like there. It’s like ending a relationship that was dysfunctional, but endured because of prior obligations. Once those obligations are fulfilled, you might be free to pursue another path leaving your mind free for the first time in a long time. For the last two or three years while representing many moderate personalities in Southwestern Ohio on issues raging from the Lakota levy attempts, to the Right-to-Work campaign in Ohio, to all the media contacts I had to maintain—I was constantly aware of what I said and to whom I said it. I had to be otherwise my ability to do radio interviews and get coverage in the newspapers and television would be limited as they tend not to cover radicals if they are on the political right—even though they do cover radicals on the political left. This left me always feeling like I was fighting a battle with my arms behind my back, and I was getting sick of it as 2012 dawned one year ago, only to see that government had a controversial new law that directly violated the Fifth Amendment, signed by the President on New Years Eve in the faraway land of Hawaii. Watching that progress it didn’t take long for me to realize that the liberty movement needed its own “bad cops” to counter all the goof-ball radicals advancing progressive causes at the expense of us all.
Now with 2013, I am free to act as I see fit without the burden of political correctness, which will be necessary to solve the problems that we are facing in America. I mean look at our dismal situation, a national debt of over $16 trillion dollars, a dysfunctional government, a communist president, radical teacher unions controlling the thoughts and lives of our children—and a whole slew of tax increases that will hit us all—at least those of us who already pay taxes. We are not in a good situation. Yes—I am looking forward to a very colorful year in 2013, one where I won’t hold back as much as I have in the past. Freedom feels good, it fills your lungs with copious amounts of fresh air, and lifts the spirit—and I am free to do what’s right without the restrictions of public sentiment. So to those who thought they had seen the worst—no, not even close. It’s time to shift gears and pick up some steam instead. It’s time for other people to play the “good cop” role, and its time for others to play the newly created “bad cop” role also. It is time to treat progressives as they have treated conservatives for years. The correct strategy with progressives is not with a pat on the ass and bribery whispered into their ears, but to treat them like dog shit that is found on the bottom of a worker’s boots. Starting in 2013, I have in my hand a scrapper ready to make sure the heel of my boots stay clean as I do my work. And it feels good!
I had said that I was going to reward myself for all the hard work I did in 2012 and celebrate the first quarter release of my new book Tail of the Dragon. Typically authors in my position might take a cruise to the Mediterranean, or schedule a few weeks in Hawaii to celebrate the conclusion and release of their novels but I had stated that I was going to do something different, I was going to invest in a video game that my wife and I had been eager to play for all of the last year, but didn’t have time–or to be honest–the machines to properly play them on. Instead of an external vacation, we were planning to go on an internal one by playing the very involved MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic, which is the latest creation of Bioware, LucasArts, and Electronic Arts with a production budget of over $200 million dollars. The Old Republic MMO is the very latest of its kind following along the tradition of World of Warcraft, and the popular, Guild Wars. MMO’s are very involved, all-encompassing, and can be very complicated. There are a lot of computer calculations that are made per second with people from all over the world playing at the same time as you are, so they require computer systems that can operate at peak performance all the time, and that required me to make a major computer upgrade just to play for myself. However, for my wife to play with me, it would require two supercharged computer systems, so after the fourth quarter sales closed on my Tail of the Dragon and with the help of my son-in-law, we built two specially designed, eight core processor, 75 Watt power-driven monsters for a few thousand dollars just to play The Old Republic which is very graphics intensive, and at times stunning to behold, especially if you love Star Wars like we do, enjoying the story lore with great reverence.
For kids who have grown up with MMOs–who have been over 13 years old since Play Station 2 came out, I think they are missing the wonder of these modern games. I have read some of their reviews of Star Wars: The Old Republic before making my purchases, and I think they have the attention span of a nat. Their expectations in the field of gaming are unreasonably high, which of course can never be satisfied completely by anybody. Because of my schedule being as intense as it had been for many years, the only type of video gaming I had time for were X-Box 360 classics like Red Dead Redemption, Dragon Age, also from BioWare, and an old X-Box game that my wife and I loved to play together called Gladius, which was an RPG co-op–an early design that has obviously carried over into Old Republic. My family, meaning my kids, my wife, and my extended nephews played Star Wars: Galaxies a lot, and World of Warcraft, but I never had the time to play with them, and found it irritating that most of the MMO’s did not have a way for players to co-op in story mode in the way that Gladius had, so I stayed away and my wife never invested much time because of it. This problem has been fixed in Star Wars: The Old Republic, which allows two separate players to do just about everything together, with two totally different storylines—and the way that BioWare pulled this off now that my wife and I have played it for over a week both day and night is nothing short of a technical miracle. For the kids who want the kind of story content available in The Old Republic, to go on forever, they are deeply unrealistic. There is no video game on the market today that is as deeply story driven as The Old Republic, and everything is absolutely epic in scope. For people like me who grew up watching the original Star Wars movies in a movie theater when they were first released, and had to wait almost an entire decade for the ability to watch those movies at home on a LaserDisk—well before VHS video tape or DVD’s, the work that has went into The Old Republic is a small miracle.
My wife is playing as a Jedi Counselor and I am playing as a Jedi Knight, and The Old Republic allows us to both play our stories in a co-op mode that is just stunning in its conception. If all married couples could find something like Old Republic to do together, I think the divorce rate in America would drop off the chart putting many lawyers out of business—because the game is simply wonderful in its co-op play. For instance, my wife and I got up at 5:30 AM on Saturday December 30th after playing the game intensely for 5 consecutive days, and we logged into the game on our two monster computers, each of them being cooled down by 5 internal fans just to keep the video card temperature down. We logged off the game at midnight that same day and went to bed but were up again 5 hours later to follow the same routine on Sunday and Monday. The story content is very intense, and every couple of hours of play there is a major climax in the action similar to most movies, where there is a plot driven introduction, a series of problems that must be overcome, then a resolution to conclude that portion of the story. In one instance on the capital planet of Coruscant—which is absolutely stunningly rendered in the game—I had convinced a member of the Senate who I had caught doing a lot of double-dealing between the criminal underworld, and the people’s business of the Senate, to resign. She offered me a lot of money to keep her name clean, which of course I didn’t take—just like in real life—and forced her to come clean with her resignation. The Senator in question was not a bad person, or evil in any way. She was doing what she felt she needed to do politically, but she had crossed the line and lost her way, and it was my job to make sure she stayed clean. In the world of Star Wars that is the job of a Jedi Knight—a defender of the Republic from not just countless hoards of bad guys, but from the corruption that is indicative in politics. Jedi are a great plot device that fills a need that is indicative in all democratic republics, such as what The United States is facing with unbridled corruption within politics. Jedi are the stabilizing spiritual force that keeps everyone honest and reminds me of the kind of philosophical leader that Plato had in mind in his book The Republic.The Old Republic as a video game excels at giving players those types of moral dilemmas every few hours of game play and so far, my wife and I have over 70 hours each invested, and we haven’t even scratched the surface of the sheer amount of content that is available.
The servers we are playing on were all full much of the time we have been on the game, so it looks like Electronic Arts strategy of offering a free-to-play option worked. Lots of people are flocking to the game, and on the worlds especially like Coruscant, there were many people running around just like any major city. They were everywhere, even in the most far-flung corners of that particular planet. But my wife and I are subscribers and proud to be. I saw that Amazon.com was offering The Old Republic for $14 dollars which will allow people to play under a preferred status. BioWare is offering the game for a free download off the web site. But I personally think they should sell the game for over $200 each, because it’s worth it. The game is that good. It simply dwarfs similar games that are console driven. The computer programming alone to make planets like Coruscant or the space port of The Republic Fleet look so great is mind-blowing. In fact, when my wife and I arrived at the Republic Fleet Space Port we were slammed in the face by the sheer size and scope of the place, the countless video advertisements, the street vendors, the sights, the sounds, it reminded me a lot of a real life Las Vegas where you can’t help but look out the window at the scope of creativity put forth by the human mind in the rows and rows of theme driven hotels and resorts. Star Wars: The Old Republic is loaded with these kinds of bewildering scenes leaving many hours of discovery open to any diligent gamer.
I anticipate that my wife and I will stay on this vacation well into the summer, so if my readers here wonder why I seem more reclusive than normal, and difficult to contact, or to pull commitments out of, blame it on The Old Republic. I haven’t turned on a television in over a week, and have only casually scanned news reports, so the benefit of the vacation has been effective in this case. There are few things that could divert my mind as effectively as something so intellectually stimulating as The Old Republic. It is a miracle of the modern age and I cherish every moment I get to play it. It is worth the thousands of dollars I spent just to play the game and then some. It is a lifetime experience that my wife and I will never forget.
Elections have consequences…….but they don’t force people to participate in a fools game, and that is what modern politics offers. Atlas Shrugged was right all along. The Old Republic is my personal Gulch and I’m thankful to have it.
The Overmanwarrior 