Tag: Tea Party

Glendale Tea Party Rally and the Opening of Atlas Shrugged: the film averaged $5,608 per screen, GREAT JOB!

What you see above is the back cover of The Coming Insurrection written by The Invisible Committee. It’s in the philosophy section of my second favorite book store in town, the Barnes and Nobles at Newport on the Levy. I have read that book in two trips to that store. I started it on a trip to Newport about 5 weeks ago where my wife was looking for an exotic cookbook, so I had some time to knock out about 50 pages, then I finished it on Friday night.

I didn’t buy the book because it is what I’d consider evil. I wouldn’t want to put a dime into the pocket of its publishers. I don’t believe in banning books, but fear nothing in reading the mind of my enemy. And that’s what those people, and any who wish to think like them, are. Let’s be clear about that. But fighting with guns and knives and sticking the decapitated head of my enemies on a pike is getting a bit ahead of things. After all, we are still able to attempt a diplomatic approach where the rule of law still has some weight, and as long as it does, I’m happy to participate in the battlefield of ideas with superior thoughts. But the threat from these fringe leftist groups is looming, and they intend to break down that diplomacy which will be to their detriment. For when and if they succeed, they will find that the only protection they had from people like me was that precious law they sought to overthrow and rewrite in their image. I feel such a warning is only fair; after all, they started the threats of violence. Richard Trumka has insinuated as much and given his connections to the White House, I can only conclude based on the arrogance of President Obama that a violent insurrection from those fringe groups is coming. And when it does, they won’t find complacent participants to steamroll over.

Part of that diplomacy and avoidance of some violent future is in the Tea Parties all across the United States. It’s laughable that many in politics consider the Tea Party group extreme, because as far as Tea Partiers go, they are a lot more peace-loving than I am. On April 15th 2011 it was a particularly important day for those of us that hope for a peaceful resolution to the growing tendency of a new kind of civil war within the United States, this time over class warfare. I was full of exuberance on this particular rainy evening as my wife and I attended the Cincinnati Tea Party Rally in Glendale, Ohio where Doc Thompson was the master of ceremonies.

It was a wonderful event set up in the town square that reminded me a lot of Glenn Beck’s rally in Wilmington, Ohio just a few months ago. Seeing people attend these meetings, hearing speakers like Doc and Mike Wilson, and meeting Senator Shannon Jones it gives me hope that intelligence may actually get our nation under control from the types of people who are openly seeking to rob us all with our eyes wide open, and avoid the future I hinted to above. Does saying such a thing make me an extremist? Hey, gas prices are headed toward $5 a gallon, and government seems to be accelerating the problem pushing us to electric cars. Public employees are threatening to repeal S.B.5 in Ohio with a rally of their own in downtown Hamilton on Saturday April, 16 2011. The people in that crowd were led by people like David Pepper. Look into the faces of freedom’s adversary. Here the Hamilton County Commissioner advocates his narrow view of the world with those like him, conspirators in the economic decline of our nation.

Here are those same types of people at a Seattle Tea Party Rally showing themselves in action and the contents of their minds.

This is the kind of guy our President is. I see his Health Care Bill as a direct assault on my country, and my personal sovereignty. I think his union support is an alliance of thieves, and I don’t appreciate him speaking to my representatives the way he does in this back-room meeting. If I were in that room and he spoke to me like that, I would have smashed him like a bug. That’s no threat, I’ve done it before to people over less, and his tone is “fighting words” by any definition. Very disrespectful.

That tone is no different from an invitation to a parking lot fist fight and I would have obliged him instantly. I can’t believe this guy is our president. I don’t have any tolerance for his “Chicago” style politics. Obama, Bill Ayers, Trumka have openly threatened violence, and I’m the type of person that will meet that blow for blow. I can beat people like that any way they want to play. They don’t have the intellect to rely on, so if violence is their game, fine. Big mistake on their part.

The rally at Glendale was very metaphoric. As I stood in the square filming and taking pictures there were three trains that passed by the station there, each at least 20 to 30 cars each. That meant there were 60 to 90 train cars going someplace coming from somewhere and that made me feel happy. The reason was that I had butterflies in my stomach over the premier of Atlas Shrugged Part 1 down at Newport on the Levy and I had read a lot of bad reviews from the Hollywood establishment and I loved the book and really wanted the movie to be good. The reviewers criticized the film for not adopting to the modern age by getting rid of the train oriented story line. And here I was watching three trains roar by in a half an hour from the CSX Line. Trains are a sign of an economy where things are happening. So it was my first inclination that the reviewers were missing the point of the film and were wrong about it. I had promised the booking agent for the film that Cincinnati would be a great market and I promised a sellout at the Newport on the Levy location, so all during the rally with the Cincinnati Tea Party I was thinking of our next destination which was the 8:20 PM showing of Atlas.

My wife and I left the rally to arrive at Newport in the drifting rain. The lights were on at Great American Ball Park across the river as the Reds were playing the Pirates. We arrived at around 7:45 and much to my relief, Atlas Shrugged was SOLD OUT! I have never been so glad to not be able to buy a ticket. We picked up tickets to the 10:45 show and headed to the Claddagh Irish Pub which is a favorite of ours when we go to Newport. We had a few beers, and watched the Reds game on the big screen while a major storm rolled in across the river outside. We like Claddagh because it’s a medieval looking place full of cubbyholes for the kind of meetings I attend a lot, where your neighbor can’t listen to what you’re saying. If offers the good kind of privacy for passing time, especially with your wife.

But that only went so far and after an hour or so, we went over to our favorite book store where I finished reading The Coming Insurrection. I became angry at the tone of that book, especially what was on the back cover shown in that picture.

We went to our movie; I was relieved that it was good. I already put up a review, so there isn’t any reason to repeat it here. Needless to say the weekend numbers were reputable. The film made a respectable $1,676,917 gross, averaging $5,608 per theater. The producers are considering expanding to over 1000 screens for the next weekend so that’s great.

I went to bed with hope that a violent future can be averted. If enough people become educated, watch movies that aren’t controlled by radical left-winged filmmakers which is just about everyone, and reading books that pander to a liberal publishing industry, while liberal unions are pushing for even more taxes to pay for their very expensive public wages, if the Tea Party continues to do its work and films like Atlas Shrugged are shown to people who haven’t or won’t read the book, this country has a chance.

The voice of reason has been quiet on the front of small government types and the loud mouthed big government types have had the microphone for way too long. John’s work on Atlas Shrugged is encouraging. I hope it goes a long way to waking up enough people to hold off the looters, and leaches attached to public service.

We are not a democracy. We are a republic. Union jobs are not middle-class. If they are public jobs, they work for the tax payer and the tax payer is not required to increase their budgets just to pay for labor we don’t need for a government that just wants to keep growing and infringe itself upon us. For too long we’ve let these big government types have their way with running our government and it’s time to stop. They can stop with reason and of their own accord but if they have in mind violence, they’ll get back more than they can imagine because they don’t have a right to steal from the rest of us. And they don’t have a right to a job. And they don’t have a right to over-regulate our states and nation just to create a job. Just visit your local BMV to see them in action. And on a Friday night, the cops with the checkpoints to issue out speeding tickets and DUI’s in order to drum up business for the courts, and god forbid the tax looters of all kinds.

If there is anything that one must reflect on tax day it’s, why do we pay so much in taxes, and why are there so many that want us to pay more!

I like the trend and I hope that the pendulum will continue to swing to the right and bring things more to the middle, because the radical talk I’m hearing from the left are fighting words that can only lead to one end, and that’s not what they want, believe me.

It’s not radical to not accept threats issued by these radical leftist groups, unions and public officials. It’s not radical to demand that government shrink. It’s only radical to the people foolish enough to take public jobs thinking that government was the way to build a career. The clash is inevitable with these people because they built their livelihoods on the backs of those that supply all the money and are tired of carrying the extra load.

Some of my personal critics have said about me, “you don’t work well with others. You don’t collaborate.” No……I don’t. When I’m hired for a job, I am the dictator that functions as the sole decision maker. Why, because to me, it is a wasted effort to carry around everyone else. I compare collaboration to hauling around a wheel barrel full of rocks, the minds of co-workers and other management being the sluggish rocks that do very little but slow you down and add weight to your load. My view of government is the same. Most of them are just dead weight that doesn’t contribute anything productive to the world around us. We throw money at them just to give them a job, and to me that is a tremendous waste. And the same thing applies to this whole big government versus small government issue. Government is not there to give you a job. Anybody that thinks so is sadly mistaken, and you should do yourself a favor and start looking for another line of work. It’s fair warning from fair people. Don’t make the transition any more difficult than it needs to be. But don’t make threats. And don’t play Chicago politics………………it’s a fair warning.

The Coming Insurrection might work in Europe where their minds are soft and their hearts are softer, but you can forget about it in the United States. Don’t even try it.

Rich Hoffman

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

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 WAS SOLD OUT AT NEWPORT ON THE LEVEE: MY REVIEW OF THE FILM

I read all the reviews for the Atlas Shrugged Part 1 film as they began to pour in on April 14, 2011. The reviews were predictably not kind for all the same reasons that Frank Oz was overlooked in 1981 for an Academy Award in his portrayal of Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back. The reason back then was that the Screen Actors Guild did not regard puppeteers as actors. The Directors Guild also clamped down on George Lucas for putting all the credits at the end of the movie instead of the beginning which prompted Lucas to quit the guild and make Return of the Jedi using Richard Marquand, who at the time was not a member of the guild. Marquand at the time had only a few credits to his name, The Legacy and the TV movie Birth of the Beatles.

I am reminded of that little piece of history because so many critics seem hungry to criticize Atlas director Paul Johansson for his lack of experience directing only One Tree Hill episodes. The criticism that the film received a flat screen treatment meaning it seemed to resemble a high production value television show is sophomoric and is uttered strictly from the mouths of the unions, and have no merit. What are they comparing Atlas to as far as a film of value, something like Jackass 3-D? Atlas Shrugged is an ambitious film that takes on a lot of ground. I personally think they went too fast in the development of the story. They could have gotten away with another 50 minutes of film time, something the producers may want to release as a director cut when the film comes out on DVD. There were exposition shots of the government action in the macrocosm that needed to be there to develop why building the train line was such a big deal, and people who have not read the book might find it difficult to follow the story without repeated viewings. Because the cut of the film is trying to fit into under 2 hours at 1 hour and 40 minutes Atlas focused on the microcosm of the characters Dagney and Rearden. I understood it because I know the book so well, and people who do know the book will be happy to see that the filmmakers went to a lot of trouble to stay true to the nature of the book.

I see the film version of Atlas Shrugged as an experiment rather than a literal film meant to be taken on its own. It’s a work of philosophy put into visual form, and it requires a level of sophistication to begin with. Film is supposed to be like that. I can think of Koyannisquatsi, the great film by Godfrey Reggio that featured just a series of sped up images taken from all over the world to articulate the evolution of man in the current age into a society oddly similar to a microchip. Powaqqatsi a few years later did much the same to the soundtrack of Philip Glass.

I thought of those films while watching Atlas Shrugged. The filmmakers of Atlas were capturing the images of the book without attempting to duplicate Ayn’s work. The most notable and effective elements of this filmmaking style was John Galt in the opening scene only referred to in exposition by Rand where Galt stops Midas Mulligan on a rainy street and convinces him to leave the “outside” world. The other was the scene involving Hugh Akston. I thought the part of the film involving the static electric motor and Akston’s knowledge of it was hurried through due to the films running time, but when Askton hit the screen there was instant uttering’s of approval from the people in the theater watching the movie with me. All Akston had to do was appear on screen and the members of the audience were satisfied with the visual rendition of his character. In this way, the film version is interesting and fun because it serves as a visual companion to the book instead of a replacement, which I think many traditional thinking people might not understand.

Atlas Shrugged is an independent film. I’ve seen a lot of them, been to more than a couple of film festivals and seen a lot of bold attempts by young, and old filmmakers. Independent film has emerged as a powerful force because Hollywood does get stuck in its business model, which has been controlled by the political left, and has virtually ignored the portions of the market that go to Tea Party rallies and read books like Atlas Shrugged. To Hollywood, films like Hangover, and the next Scream film is the safe bets that fit into their understanding of things. Atlas Shrugged is about a foreign world to many on the political left, and they are not used to seeing views that are conservative in nature competing with their ideas and they don’t like it.

Atlas Shrugged because of the amount of characters and scale of the story will not work as a traditional film, with a lead like Angelina Jolie as Dagney and Brad Pitt as Rearden with a top-level director making over one million for his work along with all the supporting characters of John Galt, Francisco, James Taggert, and the other 50 or 60 characters that would all require SAG minimums depending on the scale driven off Jolie’s 20 million minimum and Pitt’s 20+ million per picture. Before anybody shot one frame of film there would be over 80 million in just wages alone committed to the film, which is why the movie had not been done up to this point. And a movie like Atlas Shrugged will never pull a ROI at the box office if the budget exceeds 100 million. This is a film for thinking people, so the scope of the film must match the intention, and that is to bring an epic story to thinking people and keep the budget to where the filmmakers can actually produce parts 2 and 3 without the contingency of waiting for DVD sales to refill the budget coffers.

My wife and I sat till the last credit scrolled across the screen at approximately 12:45 in the morning. I had to catch the late show because I attended the Tax Day Rally in Glendale where Doc Thompson was the MC. We left that event to catch the 8:20 showing at Newport on the Levee. I arrived about 7:45 to find the film sold out! Crowds of people swarmed around the ticket windows trying to get a ticket to Atlas Shrugged. So we bought a ticket to the 10:45 showing and killed our time at a nearby Irish Pub and enjoyed the storm that swept across the Ohio River while we waited. Our late show was about half full, which surprised me. What also surprised me was that many of the viewers were by themselves. I can’t recall seeing a movie that had a majority of the audience showing up by themselves. Now, the left normally would criticize those types of people as loners, and belittle them. But wishing them not to exist will not make them go away. These loners are the people who reject TV shows like How I Met Your Mother, or Two and a Half Men. These are also the types that reject reality TV shows, so their only entertainment is books, and the History Channel, because Hollywood isn’t making their kind of movies anymore. Atlas Shrugged is their kind of movie and many of them clapped at the end and stayed for most of the credits.

I sat with my arms crossed taking in what I had just seen and watching the reaction and found that the John Galt theme was racing through my head, which is a good sign. That means it was an effective soundtrack. I realized that Atlas Shrugged was the kind of movie that moves so fast and covers so much ground in such a short time that it requires repeated viewings. One viewing will not do it.

It was well acted. I thought Dagney was a believable person. In fact, the characters weren’t so beautiful that they were beyond the realm of reality which I think helps the film a lot. Again, with A list actors, that would have been a problem. Our society has become used to seeing extraordinarily beautiful people in leading roles, and that takes the situations out of our contemporary realities. When we leave the theater people don’t look like what we see in the films. So films take on a mystic of escapism. Atlas Shrugged is not out to do that. It seeks to place itself into the mind of the viewer’s experience, which is another reason for the cast to appear as it was. I thought the casting of Francisco D’Anconia played by Jsu Garcia was very good. Also of Paul Larkin by Patrick Fischler, that actor captured perfectly the treason of the good friend that was supposed to be of Mr. Larkin. Grant Bowler who played Rearden was excellent. This film is an obvious set-up for the part two which goes down the psychological rabbit hole, and I can’t wait to see Bowler stand in front of the federal court and tell them he does not acknowledge their authority or right to exist. Bowler will be able to pull it off.

I knew Tayler Schilling was going to nail Dagney in the first scene where she woke up to a phone call from Eddie Willers, also played very well by Edi Gathegi, in her apartment sleeping on the couch. A picture is worth a thousand words and Tayler got it. The character of Dagney is not an emotional person, and she played it straight until the incredible scream at the end of the movie. Here was a person that spent the whole movie trying to fulfill a promise to Ellis Wyatt, to get him a railroad, to repair the damage done by her brother to Wyatt’s business. Dagney is fulfilling a promise that she believes in with her entire soul to execute only to have Wyatt quit at the end and run off with John Galt.

Now the criticism that I’ve read is one from people who don’t understand what the big deal is. “Why is she so upset?” “What’s going on?” “So what, the guy left and burnt down his oil field. All conservatives are a bunch of greedy, oil loving bastards, serves them right!” Besides the fact that fuel costs were excessively high and Ellis was one of the only hopes in the United States for bringing the costs back down, why don’t people make the connection between oil and their own prosperity? Reardon asked the question in Atlas Shrugged, “What’s wrong with people?” Paul answered, “Why ask questions that have no answer?” He’s right, because the reason for those statements is because there are an alarming number of people in our society that no longer feel the pressure of a promise, because to care about a promise to a friend, wife or business partner, you have to care, and sadly, many people no longer care about things like a promise. So the lack of understanding directed at the confusion of Dagney’s motives in the film is more of a commentary on modern life, which is what Dagney is screaming at. She is afraid of becoming what we actually are. I would pay to see Atlas Shrugged 20 more times just to see that last scene. I thought it was vividly powerful. I loved how the camera pulled back to reveal the sign that Ellis left as his oil fields burned while she stood helpless to stop it. The reason for her “robotic” behavior is because she is determined to succeed no matter what the cost. My wife nailed Dagney’s performance by saying, “she reminds me of the terminator from Terminator 3.” And she’s right, Dagney will not be stopped. If she wants something, she will achieve it. And the scream represents that with all her ambition, with all her good will, all her energy, cleverness, and innovation, she could not stop Ellis from giving up. She saw the look in his eyes when Ellis was in her office chastising her for her brother’s incompetence and she thought if she did everything right, that she could keep Ellis from leaving wherever all the “men of the mind” were going.

I also read criticism of how the exposition was displayed with news broadcasts and this was somehow bad. I don’t agree. I think it was wonderfully done in this film. It reminded me of how the director Paul Verhoeven used newscasts from the film Robocop to propel the complicated aspects of the story along. Hollywood and critics in general have gotten used to the type of films produced in the 90’s and 2000’s that pamper to their every wish. This is something that Roger Ebert and Gene Siskal started. Those two reviewers created an industry of film critics and gave them much more power than they deserve. Movie reviewers have become breakers or makers of box office results, and that’s not necessarily healthy. Because the views of the reviewers become the editors of public opinion, and if those reviewers are progressive types, then studios will cater to those reviewers to get the “thumbs up.” I actually respect Roger Ebert quite a bit. He’s usually right on. But when he runs into something above his intellectual capacity, he gets stumped. You can see how Siskal and Ebert used to bounce off each other in this review of White Hunter Back Heart, which is one of my personal favorites films.

Ebert was fair from his perspective in his review. He knows Atlas Shrugged is loved by millions so he was careful in his comments. I think his mistake is he should have reviewed the film more the way he’d review an independent film like Koyannisquatsi. He like many people who go to see this film will mistakenly watch this film as a literal film, not as an atmosphere of images reflecting a philosophy. That’s the reason for the cityscape shots and the views of the mountains. Once all the films are completed, it will make sense. This first film is just an introduction. It’s also an experiment in filmmaking that I think is very healthy. It’s bold and deserves credit for that boldness alone. The merit of Atlas Shrugged will be felt down the road. It is the first step of bringing a new kind of entertainment to popular culture so it will suffer from opinion in the short run, but will stand the test of time over the long haul.

For the rest of us, those that don’t have to struggle to understand it, we can enjoy the treat of seeing on film the images we’ve painted in our minds while reading the book. Some of my favorite scenes were the opening with John Galt in the diner with the pouring rain outside, different from in the book, because Galt made an instant appearance in this film. I also liked that he was in Akston’s diner at the end. The appearance of Galt in the diners reminded me of the many day’s I’ve spent in such places at 3:30 and 4:30 am in the morning reading, writing and listening to the stories of the “night roamers,” those loners of society that everyone overlooks, but come out when everyone is asleep. It’s a subconscious understanding from people who understand John Galt and his motives, not an image intended for the masses looking for Batman. Subtle little changes to the book like that I thought were fun and artistic. But I’ll say that the bridge that Rearden built was magnificent to look at. Watching the train run down that track was fantastic.

My review of the film is that I like it a lot. I think it will be better when viewed with the other two films. For the DVD release I hope they can lengthen the running time with more exposition that had to be cut to keep the film under two hours. (the reason is to squeeze more showings in a day, very important for recovering a films costs.) And I think the film needs to be watched in the context of an artistic piece, just to sit back and enjoy the sights and sounds without trying to follow every word. The film moves too fast to be watched once. Repeated viewings are essential.

So go see it not just once, but several times!

Rich Hoffman

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

Kasich’s Epic Clash with the Voice of the Common Man

It is rare that any state, locality, or federal entity runs into a politician that is competent and intelligent. It is rare to find a politician that is a self-made man not looking at politics as a stepping stone to career advancement. It is rare that a politician actually puts the honor of their office first, before anything else. It is rare to meet a politician that has the guts and fortitude to endure the criticism of special interest.

It also is rare to see a politician that will take on an old-time friend and conservative that prides himself as the conservative voice of the common man, and in the times when it really counts between those two old friends, it is obvious who meant what they said over the years and who was all talk.

That’s what the State of Ohio has in Governor John Kasich and it’s evident in this video shot at 700 WLW when Kasich was on the Bill Cunningham show for a fiery showdown of ideas over the casino issues, retirement and the controversial stance the governor has taken on “collective bargaining” specifically the S.B.5.

I’m not one that tosses praises around easily. So it is with great merit that I say that I can’t recall a politician in my lifetime that matches the passion of their mouth with actual action. John Kasich is a rare person that has greater ability in management than he does in his ability to speak, which is exceptionally good. I was deeply impressed with this exchange between Kasich and Bill Cunningham.

I suspect that Kasich is like many in Ohio and he doesn’t want casinos in the state. That would explain his behavior toward the casino deal that Cunningham is so against. I can remember when Cunningham in the mid 90’s was completely against the casinos so that would explain why Kasich is so surprised in Cunningham’s defense of a socially liberal concept, such as casinos are.

Kasich should be representing the position that all businesses have an equal opportunity even if he doesn’t like them. There is a Hustler of Hollywood store near my house that I can’t stand. I think it ruins the small town of Monroe, Ohio with its presence. But, every time I drive by it, it’s full of people looking for their pornography fix and all the tax collected through each sale is paying taxes. I don’t agree with the pornography, but I vote by not going, and I won’t be going to a casino in Cincinnati for many of the same reasons. If the business model fails, it fails. I’d be happy about it, but I won’t do anything to bring it about either, because it’s a business that has the right to attempt. If it finds a market, even if that market is evil, so be it. It’s not for me to decide what’s evil for someone else.

Kasich needs to have the same position on the casinos. You can’t expect to tax them out of existence like we attempt to do with cigarettes and alcohol. Those are all anti-business stances. But, that does not ruin the great banter that Kasich engaged in. It was refreshing to see such a person in the position of a governor.

This clash of ideas is something that will resonate for quite some time because of the truths revealed. And we are better for it.

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

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

Obama is an Illegal President: He’s spent over 10 million hiding his birth certificate

We have an illegal president in the White House. That is the only conclusion one can reason when it is considered that Obama has established a defense fund that has spent more than 10 million dollars keeping his “birth certificate” from public disclosure. Why? The only conclusion one could equate from such action is that there’s something wrong with his birth certificate, otherwise such a document would be readily provided.

Part of the money spent by that defense fund was in public relation campaigns to invent the whole “birther” disclaimer which paints anyone that questions this issue as some wacko conspiracy theorist. It has taken someone like Donald Trump to put this issue back on the table, because Trump understands how the game is played and knows there is something fishy about the whole situation.

Of course the ladies on The View are like the rest of America, they don’t want to admit that they elected a guy that has a questionable citizenship standing who has appointed judges, signed bills into law and ran around the world acting as a President of the United States, when the fact is, America was in such a hurry to prove that we aren’t a racist nation that we openly overlooked any perils that were in the way. Below, Bill Cunningham of 700 WLW who is sometimes a conservative leaning radio personality, and sometimes a liberal leaning personality but is a practicing attorney addressed the whole “birther” issue in great detail. If you want a clear understanding of the Obama controversy listen to this broadcast which is extremely good.

As stated in the interview, there is a preponderance of evidence that Obama was born in Hawaii. What that means is that there are some newspaper reports, and some other documents that lean in the direction of birth in Hawaii, but it appears that Obama claimed otherwise to get financial aid. So on one side of the story or another, Obama has lied in his past. He’s either claimed to be a foreign student for admission into Occidental College or he was really born in Kenya and his grandparents placed the notification in the newspaper in Hawaii. I think many Americans would forgive him for the first offense. Because the second offense is much more serious, which is why over 10 million dollars and much public relation debate has been created to combat even bring up the question.

People like George Soros, and he’s not the only one, with his Open Society Institute, do not think citizenship is important, because the goal is to bring down the borders of the United States anyway, so a president with citizenship problems is not an issue to people of this nature. With the amount of organizations that Soros is involved in by way of financial contributions, it is completely conceivable to understand how using the term “birther” as a way to attack the credibility of anyone that brings up the Obama citizenship issue keeps Obama from going through the process of serious investigations by congress, and is used to shape public opinion.

For a list of all the organizations Soros is involved in check out this link.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2625790/posts

Look…….this isn’t some right winged conspiracy. This isn’t an attack on a black man in the White House. Nobody in the United States cares about that kind of thing anymore. I know a lot of level-headed people and Obama being black never even comes up.

This is an issue of whether or not the president of the United States is illegally in place, because if he is, he needs to go as a matter of law.

What I see is that nobody in congress, the senate, federal judges; anybody of any government merit has the backbone to admit such a monumental failure. Nobody wants to suffer through the embarrassment. It is obvious that the press doesn’t want mud on its face either, so there is a uniform lack of will to enforce the will of law.

We all remember the controversy when Bill Clinton didn’t release his medical records, most likely to cover up his syphilis problem and other issues, but he avoided the controversy with the same reluctance as Obama has with his birth certificate. The question we have to ask ourselves is why we’re electing people like this into the White House? What is it about our nature that even puts idiots like this in office with all this baggage to hide? Can’t we do any better than this? Are these types of people the best we have to offer from American civilization?

The answer is of course not. Most Americans think these people are jokes. In many ways the best of us have declined to be a part of the political process. We tend to our lives and let the fools go to office. We see those fools in our school boards, township trustees, city councils, state and federal governments because the best of us have better things to do and generally leave politics to the fools of our society. The problem is, those fools think we are the fools and they are marching our country into a direction most of us don’t want to go.

I’m all for globalism as long as the globe wants to adapt American ideas. I certainly don’t want anything to do with what the rest of the world is doing so keep your global progress. When countries like Brazil, France, and China start controlling the sex trade industry in their counties, they can tell us to control our pollution issues. Otherwise, their opinion isn’t wanted. And I don’t want a president that can’t even produce a birth certificate that spends millions of dollars keeping it from the public and travels the world bowing to the leader of every country, taking us in that direction. Obama is a joke. I’m sure he’s fine to play basketball with, but as president………come on. Get real.

If we are stuck with this joke for a few more years because everyone is too weak to actually demand that our public officials live by the actual rules of our law, then I say the law goes our way too. Ignore that speed limit sign, those demands to buckle up, forget the DUI laws. And for taxes, forget about April 15th, just send in your taxes whenever you feel like it. Heck, it’s just rules and laws. Who cares……..right?

And don’t even ask the question of whether the President is an American citizen because he has issues with his birth certificate, because all those “globalists” (that are attempting to break down our borders and scrap our Constitution) might call you a name……which might hurt your feelings. That’s more important than having an illegal president in the White House.After all……..it’s just a law, and according to our politicians, laws are meant to be broken.

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

GO SEE ATLAS SHRUGGED: Watch the movie, learn how the scam works, and vote this November against “collective bargaining”

I am proud to announce that I just spoke to the booking agent of Atlas Shrugged and he assured me that a print of the film will be sent to Newport on the Levee and it appears now to also be showing in two other locations within Cincinnati. This is good news for a film that was originally slated for only New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Now, because a lot of you participated in the action requested on this site, the producers of Atlas Shrugged are showing the movie in Cincinnati. So pat yourselves on the back.

A few years ago I was speaking to an agent about my script, The Lost Cannibals of Cahokia that won awards in the horror and action adventure category at the Indie Gathering Film Festival, and the people that read it there liked it a lot. But a film festival in middle-America is different than the culture of Wilshire Blvd and Santa Monica. And this agent I was talking to about pitching that script to the studios of Hollywood were the type of people that lived that “cultured” life in LA, which is nice, but far removed from what is really going on in America.

Their criticism of my story and a subsequent script that also won a few awards called “The Overman” was “your characters are too strong. They don’t appear to have any weaknesses. People identify with characters that have faults. You need to alter your leads to have something in their lives that they fear, and must overcome by the end of the movie. Also, you’re film is too bloody. And I find it hard to believe that any of these characters could survive the dangerous situations you’ve created for them. It appears to be unrealistic.”

I could only shake my head. Some of the most powerful characters in film history exhibited such traits so the agent was wrong. I thought of Indiana Jones, James Bond, Lara Croft, The Man with No Name, the list in my mind went on as to popular characters that are the kind of personalities that people love. And one of those characters that will soon come to film but has only lived in literature is John Galt.

John Galt is one of those characters that people will love once they meet him in the movie Atlas Shrugged which comes out on April 15th 2011. I think it is important for films like Atlas Shrugged to have success for all my personal reasons, because I have learned over the years that Hollywood certainly has an agenda and that agenda speaks loudly on television and film. The agenda is that people should not strive to be too good. People should not pay too close attention to the world around them. And people should focus on the “collective.” They routinely shy away from stories with strong characters, even though the box office shows a great hunger for such characters. And it is very rare that a major film makes it through the jungle of opposition and ends up on the screen with an anti-progressive message.

And that’s what Atlas Shrugged is; anti-progressive.

In the film you will learn:

• How government regulation chokes off business.
• How people who invent new, and better products are bribed by the government to not reveal those products to the market place for fear of putting older companies out of business.
• You will learn the secret behind farm subsidies.
• You will see how corruption migrates from the smallest character on the street all the way up the political ladder.
• You will see how unions shape public policy through corrupt politics.
• You will see what the true nature of American pride is.
• You will understand the definition of merit.

Those are just a few of the topics from the film and this is just the first movie of a three movie series.

There will be a lot of people that will misread the messages of the film. I’m already reading that liberals think the film endorses high speed rail. The trains in the film are there because trains were important in 1957 when Ayn Rand wrote the book. So to stay true to the book, they built the story around “trains.” The gist of the story is how government destroys innovation. It openly explores the greatness possible in the human race and shows the reason for the decadence of the many that fall short of greatness. But the theme is one of greatness, something progressives avoid like the plague.

So now that the film is coming to Cincinnati, GO SEE IT! If you want to spend your hard earned money on something useful, see that movie on April 15th. Sell it out! Spread this message around to your friends and make sure they see it too. Because in my mind, filmmakers that have went against the grain as much as the producers of Atlas Shrugged have “deserve” our support, because if they get it, Hollywood will be inclined to make more films like Atlas Shrugged. So your participation in the opening is sort of a vote. Your ticket to that film is the same as voting in a voting booth on election night. The Hollywood Reporter will be ready to declare Atlas Shrugged a failure because nobody in Hollywood wants to see this film become successful, because of the anti-progressive message.

By seeing this movie you will do more than enjoy a good movie. You will send a powerful message to a progressive establishment. This film hopefully is the first of a wave of films and stories that will emerge in our society that grabs hold of what Americanism truly is. In American art, it is time to explore the American identity so that future generations can embrace that spirit. That’s a spirit not created in war, such as World War II. It’s not an identity created in the Revolution, or the Civil War. The American spirit was created in its inventions, and its industry. In its skyscrapers and its film culture. It’s in the farms all across the country on a Sunday afternoon with an AM radio blaring a baseball game from a garage.

I have seen the American culture intimately in Wild West Arts shows that I’ve been a part of. It’s watching the guys from the Single Action Shooting Society (SASS) dressed like cowboys and dueling each other in quick drawl competitions. I’ve seen the face of the American in the white man, the black man, the woman, the Indian, the handicapped. The American is in the small town and works from sun up till sun down. They come up with a better way to do jobs because they want to spend more of their time doing something else, which only a rich culture can incentivize one to do. All those facets are explored in Atlas Shrugged for the first time in film history. And you will now have a chance to see it. So go…….see the movie and get on the train that will deliver you to truth and understanding of the world we live in and understand why things are the way they are.

And consider also that if this movie does well, and has a good running at the theater, the film should hit the DVD market around September, just in time for the very important election that we will see in Ohio over S.B.5. It will be a great thing for those of us defending Ohio from collective bargaining if voters can begin to understand what the genius behind Kasich’s plan truly is, and how collective bargaining only helps those in the unions, leaving the rest of us bankrupt. All those themes are explored in this film, so go get in line now, and see this film again and again and again and again………………………!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then go read the book, and see the movie again!!!!!!!

Rich Hoffman

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

The Betrayal of Rock Ribbed Republicans: The faces behind the mask.

If Rock Ribbed Republicans such as what has been said about Senators like Bill Seitz are truly conservatives, then it is no wonder that our budgets are so out of control in government. If Seitz represents the best and most responsible of our state representatives then we’re in a lot of trouble.

I listened in disbelief to Bill Seitz on the Bill Cunningham show while the two of them spoke about how unfair S.B.5 is to the public worker. Cunningham has declared himself a supporter of the Tea Party and takes pride in the fact that he has spoken at rallies for the Tea Party. Yet his views, and policies are bewilderingly in support of big government, this coming from a man who has declared for over 20 years that Clinton is a fool, made a lot of fame calling John McCain and Bob Taft too liberal, big government politicians and is one of the first to call President Obama by his full name, Barrack Hussein Obama, so to remind Americans of Obama’s Muslim pride. Between these two men I heard two firm, establishment Republicans that love the old way of politics and can’t see the hard things that must be done to bring our government under control.

I was suspicious of Willie when he came out in support of the Lakota School Levy. Part of me understood that he was making a sound business decision, because it was well-known that Lakota administrators and teachers were threatening to boycott any business that didn’t support a school levy. Willie owning a sports bar in West Chester wouldn’t want bad things to happen to his business, and I understand. But I was disappointed when he came out openly on the air in favor of the levy right before the election. It seems that people like him are so in love with public education sports and all the ornaments of education that he is willing to overlook all the obvious problems surrounding education funding. At 10K per child who in their right mind wouldn’t understand that if you spend that much money on education, yet don’t see the results in the children, that something must be done and tax increases are not acceptable. Anyone that owns a business, and Willie does, knows that he could not afford to pay dishwashers, waitresses, cooks and hostesses $20 dollars an hour, because it would destroy his labor costs. He’d have to increase the price of his meals to pay for the wages. Yet from him, it seems acceptable to allow teachers, police and firefighters to make infinite amounts of money, because all you have to do to pay for it is to raise taxes. I can understand that people like Willie are in need of lots of police services and firefighters. I mean Willie is a guy that got stuck on his roof a few years ago, and could not get down on his own. So people like that represent a certain helplessness among people who will always vote for more and more safety personnel to save them from themselves, so their views are corrupted with their weaknesses.

But worst of all is Bill Seitz. Here is a guy that I watched stand on the steps of the capital building and demand Governor Strickland show leadership. He has over a decade in the state house and is considered a hard-core Republican. Yet, he believes that management should not be in charge of their costs. What is the purpose of management if not to regulate costs? The unions and management in the public sector are not equal, as he insists it should be!

This is troubling because people like me don’t even recognize the right of the unions to exist. If public money is involved, no union should be in place. If a private company wants one, and can afford one, they can have them. I can vote by buying a product from those businesses or not. But with pubic sector unions, I don’t have a choice. I don’t have a choice but to support a teachers union, which asks for too much. I don’t have a choice but to support a FOP organization, which will lobby to put more cops on the street than we need, and they’ll seek to justify themselves by setting up DUI checkpoints and speed traps. It’s a corrupt, bad system and I don’t want ANY of my money to go to a public union! PERIOD!!! End of the story! If those employees don’t want to work under those conditions, don’t take a public job. Now, people like the Senator and many media outlets that just accept blindly this whole idea that unions and management should coexist in some way, will call my views radical, or extreme right-winged. Those people are naive fools and have helped perpetuate this whole system of costly formalities that only serve to drive up costs to communities.

I listened to Seitz and Willie, both men seem intelligent, work in law, yet can’t grasp the basic principle that unions are a creation of people who occurred well after the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution of Ohio. Those Constitutions were also the creation of people which we have all sworn to live by. Unions were not agreed by all. They just grew like weeds in a garden that nobody picked which rob the fruit of our labor from proper nourishment. They are an accident that should have never happened and were born of bribes and complacency, by people like Seitz that gave them credibility and lawyers like Willie that defended their right to exist. Such crimes as these are obviously difficult for them to admit in these late years of their life, because such an admission is simply too introspective. An admission would mean that everything they had built their lives around for over 50 years would be rooted in some small little corruption where deals were made at the expense of the public, and they played their part to a deep inner shame.

It must be terrible to view the world with such warped glasses so as to distort the true vision that is before us all. I can only speak for myself, I am glad that I am not corrupted with such distortions. It may be considered extreme by those that wish to see the warped fantasy of their lives and believe they have behaved ethically, but I am happy to have seen such weeds of thought for what they are, a corruption created from ineptitude and justified by the weak which chose to disguise their cowardly behavior with a shroud of conservatism when at their core they are no better than the collectivist oriented liberal.

That is why they don’t understand the intent behind S.B.5 and wherever they look they see “unfairness” because they are the types that find themselves stuck on the roofs of their homes needing help to climb down. It’s easy to talk tough and proclaim that one is a lover of freedom and propionate of self-reliance. It is easy to stand in front of a crowd and say we need a smaller government. But it is hard when you take money yourself or find yourself defending something that is inheritably wrong, because you have a past that benefited from that wrong, and chose to hide those evils behind patriotism. Those are the worst kind of people because they are never what they seem. Out one side of their mouth comes one thing, but out the other comes the despicable.

Rich Hoffman

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