Month: June 2011

Eating Alligator: The Circle of Life, and progressives don’t understand

There was some debate before my family went out to eat at the BallyHoo Grill in Gainesville, Florida about whether or not to eat alligator.  I had declared that I wanted alligator for dinner, where my wife and kids were dismayed by the thought.  “But dad, alligators are an endangered species.  We can’t just eat them for no reason.”

I contemplated the resistance and shook my head at the years of liberal propaganda that had been marketed at such causes.  It is true that alligators have been heavily hunted, and without some recognition of the animal, they would probably be hunted into extinction, maybe, only to be over hunted, or used in tourist locations as stuffed caricatures of danger.

But there is something more symbiotic going on with mankind’s relationship to the alligator, which stemmed from my desire to eat one.    I thought about why I was craving alligator.  I love dinosaurs, and the alligator is one of the few animals on the face of planet earth that is a reflection of that period, the Mesozoic Era which lasted about 150 million years and by eating the animal I wanted to participate in the spirit of the animal, even if in a small degree.  I wanted to be part of the alligator essence.  I wanted the cells in my body to identify the flesh of an alligator and mimic the structural contents of the tough meat and raw muscle.  Animals like cows and chickens are passive animals, and my body is used to such creatures, and takes them for granted.  So I wanted my body to digest a dangerous predator and to mimic its contents.

The next morning, after my meal, I got up well before sunrise and went to nearby lake from the hotel where we were staying at, and set up my camera hoping to see some alligators swimming, and even perhaps eating.  As I hiked through the woods teeming with insects, even in the morning mist, to the lakes edge, the surface of the water was inundated with tiny insects plucking the facade, some being eaten by fish.  Thus, in turn, there were alligators swimming about in the lake stealthily approaching their pry.  As the alligators would get close to where fish were eating the insects, the alligators were eating the fish.   

Much of the alligators consuming the fish were happening underwater leaving only ripples of splashed water on the surface to indicate the struggle.  This would happen for a moment, and then it would be done.  Yet, I continued tracking alligators with my camera as they purposely sought after pry. 

Near my tripod, where I had set up under the canopy of a grand oak tree draped in Spanish Moss a bird had landed on the shoreline to eat small creatures that had made homes in the soft mud.  I didn’t take the time to identify the bird because my eye was on a 7 foot alligator coming my way, with its eye on the bird.  The result of this predatory dance can be seen in this video of that event. 

As seen the alligator came on the shore to eat the bird, and it was so quick that the bird didn’t stand a chance.  The alligator ate the bird right in front of me and we contemplated each other.  Competition in nature had orchestrated this symphony of pain, radiating between pitches of survival and death.  The alligator had just eaten so it wasn’t hungry, plus it knew that I was a predator that posed a danger to it, so conflict with me wasn’t to its advantage.  I continued filming without moving away.

The alligator was a swift and cunning warrior, and that’s why I wanted to eat one the night before.  Once my family tried it, they all enjoyed the experience once they got over the initial feeling of betrayal in eating an endangered animal.  As I explained to them the night before it’s the circle of life at work here, and we are at the top and shouldn’t be ashamed of it.  I reminded them of our mutual love of dinosaurs, that life had lived on this planet for millions upon millions of years in this fashion, with the strongest eating the weakest, and life would continue on like this for eternity, because this method was built under a universal model of understanding.  Species would rise and become extinct regardless of interference and regulation.  And if the alligator wanted to survive, it would have to figure out how to beat humans as the superior animal.  Or, if humans wanted to continue to have alligators to eat, or make belts out of, then they’d find a way to farm them much the way we do chickens and cows.  If they go extinct it will largely be up to nature not the pathetic audacity of the human being.

There is another destination in Florida that is by our condo down there, it’s one of my favorite stores, and it’s called The Dinosaur Store.  In it you can see the ancestors of the alligator, and buy replicas of full dinosaur skeletons, which I think is fantastic.  It’s a truly magnificent store, unique in the world.  If you love dinosaurs like I do, this store should be your second home.  Humans are making themselves extinct with this hippie socialism that is unnatural in any realm but the human mind of a flower child.  It’s a fantasy built around protecting the weak by cutting the legs out from under the strong and it simply makes no sense.  In the modern progressive view of the world, humans are regulated from being the predators to protect the species of alligator.  Using the same logic, the alligator would be regulated by the human do-gooder to protect the fish, and of course the fish regulated to protect the insect. 

http://www.dinosaurstore.com/dinosaur%20store%20home%20page.htm

 

The hippie progressives that so disgust me do so because they are attempting to engineer all existence with their immature understanding of nature, rather than joyfully participating in the experience of living, both life and death with the same enthusiasm.  As I visit my favorite store from time to time, and look through the fossils, books, and statues that are for sale there, some species of dinosaur did go extinct, by way of a giant meteorite or just by natural selection.  But not all dinosaurs went extinct as shown by the dinosaur swimming in the lake eating a bird right in front of me. 

I’m glad I ate an alligator that night, because for me, it was the highest tribute I could pay to a creature of such magnificent quality.  I ate the animal because I wanted to feel closer to it.  I wanted to think a little more like the alligator, because I respect it, a sentiment confirmed when I watched an alligator spring forth with such quickness from a lake to eat a bird.  This did not happen in a zoo, or a park of any kind, but in raw nature, where a prehistoric beast through sheer quickness and strength beat a bird to flight for the prize of one more day of life.  And the alligator become such a dominate species because of competition, through fighting for survival.  That’s why I wanted to eat one. 

This balance of life between the alligator, the fish and the birds has been in place hundreds of millions of years.  All of human civilization has come about in a relatively temporary period between ice ages where a mass extinction of dinosaurs allowed a cerebral creature called man to emerge without being eaten, so that man could build tools and become the dominate species within just a few thousand evolutionary years.  Understanding this balance is necessary before ever speaking about extinction, or even right and wrong.  The modern progressive is a simple-minded creature that has not matured enough to understand that their existence in the scheme of the earth is meaningless; much like a child thinks its whole world is the domain of its parents.  The alligator does not care about global warming, pollution, or the cities of mankind.  It was here before the human being, and it will be here after, because it knows how to survive.

Rich Hoffman

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

Top Twenty Useless College Degrees: Why are we paying so much for college?

Here’s a great little article; the top twenty useless college degrees.  Click on the link for the source article. http://www.thedailybeast.com/galleries/2011/04/27/20-most-useless-degrees.html

 I’ve put them all here for your convenience.  Special note, look how many graduates each year graduated with these degrees, each spending 50K to 100K for their educations only to find out there aren’t jobs in those fields of any value. 

Just think about the number on the chart, over a million kids entering these fields that are virtually useless degrees.  There are either an over-abundance of jobs in these fields, or the jobs don’t pay enough to justify the cost of the education.  In same cases it’s both issues. 

1, Journalism

AP Photo

Median starting salary: $35,800

Median mid-career salary: $66,600

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: -4,400

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: -6.32

Undergraduate field of study: Communications

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 78,009

 2, Horticulture

Getty Images

Median starting salary: $35,000

Median mid-career salary: $50,800

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: -15,200

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: -1.74

Undergraduate field of study: Agriculture and natural resources

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 24,988

3, Agriculture

Getty Images

Median starting salary: $42,300

Median mid-career salary: $59,700

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: -9,100

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: -0.88

Undergraduate field of study: Agriculture and natural resources

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 24,988

4, Advertising

AP Photo

Median starting salary: $37,800

Median mid-career salary: $73,200

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: -800

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: -1.71

Undergraduate field of study: Communications

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 78,009

5, Fashion Design

AP Photo

Median starting salary: $37,700

Median mid-career salary: $72,200

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +200

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +0.81

Undergraduate field of study: Visual and performing arts

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 89,140

6, Child and Family Studies

Getty Images

Median starting salary: $29,500

Median mid-career salary: $38,400

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +36,100

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +12.33

Undergraduate field of study: Family and consumer sciences

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 21,905

7, Music

Getty Images

Median starting salary: $36,700

Median mid-career salary: $57,000

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +19,600

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +8.16

Undergraduate field of study: Visual and performing arts

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 89,140

8, Mechanical Engineering Technology

AP Photo

Median starting salary: $53,300

Median mid-career salary: $84,300

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: -700

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: -1.45

Undergraduate field of study: Engineering technologies

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 15,112

9, Chemistry

Getty Images

Median starting salary: $42,400

Median mid-career salary: $83,700

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +2,100

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +2.48

Undergraduate field of study: Physical sciences

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 22,466

10, Nutrition

Getty Images

Median starting salary: $42,200

Median mid-career salary: $56,700

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +5,600

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +9.24

Undergraduate field of study: Biological and biomedical sciences

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 80,756

11, Human Resources

AP Photo

Median starting salary: $38,100

Median mid-career salary: $61,900

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +12,900

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +9.61

Undergraduate field of study: Public administration

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 23,851

12, Theater

AP Photo

Median starting salary: $35,300

Median mid-career salary: $59,600

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +16,900

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +10.88

Undergraduate field of study: Visual and performing arts

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 89,140

13, Art History

AP Photo

Median starting salary: $39,400

Median mid-career salary: $57,100

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +500

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +11.46

Undergraduate field of study: Liberal arts and humanities

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 47,096

14, Photography

AP Photo

Median starting salary: $35,100

Median mid-career salary: $61,200

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +17,500

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +11.54

Undergraduate field of study: Visual and performing arts

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 89,140

15, Literature

AP Photo

Median starting salary: $37,500

Median mid-career salary: $65,700

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +30,900

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +9.37

Undergraduate field of study: English language and literature

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 55,462

16, Art

AP Photo

Median starting salary: $33,500

Median mid-career salary: $54,800

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +88,100

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +10.57

Undergraduate field of study: Visual and performing arts

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 89,140

17, Fine Arts

AP Photo

Median starting salary: $35,400

Median mid-career salary: $60,300

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +25,800

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +11.62

Undergraduate field of study: Visual and performing arts

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 89,140

18, Psychology

AP Photo

Median starting salary: $35,300

Median mid-career salary: $62,500

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +19,700

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +11.59

Undergraduate field of study: Psychology

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 94,271

19, English

AP Photo

Median starting salary: $37,800

Median mid-career salary: $67,500

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +30,900

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +9.37

Undergraduate field of study: English language and literature/letters

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 55,462

20, Animal Science

AP Photo

Median starting salary: $34,600

Median mid-career salary: $62,100

Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +500

Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +13.15

Undergraduate field of study: Biological and biomedical sciences

Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 80,756

 

Rich Hoffman

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

The Scam of College: The Great Society isn’t so great.

I am not a subscriber to the college experience. I have spoken against it for years, many years. I think it’s too expensive, ineffective, and politically manipulative. I went to college three times each occasion realizing that the professors I had were not the best in their fields, otherwise they’d be doing the jobs they were trying to teach, and were money traps taking advantage of hopeful people, helplessly gullible.

One of my articles here, Most Successful People Who didn’t go to College; (click here to read) is the most popular of all my work. It has had many thousands of viewers over the last couple of months. But the essence of it coincides with this Glenn Beck show from June 22, 2011. Take your time and watch this several times, because it reflects my own opinion almost verbatim.

This whole college scam was built as part of the Franklin Roosevelt view of the world; where the very educated were part the most elite social classes in Europe. These college roots go back to Europe and the social classes from that place. Americans have been caught copying off that dismal old country, and over time, as progressives moved into and overtook education the perception became that college was essential formulated into American consciousness.

Once that perception was created, colleges were able to drive up their prices due to a monopoly status which has the full backing of the federal government. What was created between progressives and the government was the urgency that parents were complacent if they did not send their children to college and pay into the whole system.

This clip is from Beck’s radio show where a caller from Columbus challenges Glenn about the hour-long show he did on Fox.

http://www.glennbeck.com/2011/06/23/is-college-worth-it/

[kyte.tv appKey=MarbachViewerEmbedded&uri=channels/451373/1385839&tbid=247719&p=1011&height=384&width=320]

I will go as far to say that a majority of the kids going to college come away with nothing useful. Much of what they learn there will have to be re-taught once they get a job. College is only worth the entrance to a job. After that, the kids are on their own. Much of what people are paying for in college tuition is the “college experience.” It’s not what goes on in the classroom, but more what happens everywhere else of a social nature.

If college were just a place to learn, that would be fine. People could pay their money, try to use their degree to get a job, and their success or failure wouldn’t be a problem. The problem with college is they are idealistic institutions that have been given false authority, built on false theories, and backed by legitimacy from the political machine. We talk about teacher unions in public school, but seem to forget that college professors are some of the highest paid employees in any statistic, and the cost of higher education is driven up by their wage levels. Tuition increases all have in common the higher costs associated with professor’s labor costs. Because of the college monopoly, a service people generally believe is absolutely essential for the success of their children, labor cost increases are completely ignored, and tuition hikes just increase, just like school levies for public school. Because the perception is an emotional one, rationality is ignored. It’s easier to ignore all the problems with college and just root for the sports team from that school because it gives empty people a sense belonging.

This is creating a nation of young people who start off their lives uttering the political garbage they hear from their professors. This lasts until these young people have children of their own and grow up, and learn to think like an American Conservative. It may take 10 years, but most people move more to the political right as they put distance between their college years and their adult lives. But worse than the politics, are the debts. I know young people with over a 100K in personal college debt where they hope they can get a job that will pay them back on that investment. But unless they work for government, which makes approximately 30% more in wages than the rest of us, the chances of the college graduate making A LOT more than everyone else isn’t very good, even if they are in a science field.

I spoke to a huge college supporter recently. This guy is a fraternity type, and holds a master’s degree in finance. He tried to argue with me that all the low-end jobs were going overseas and that America was only going to be doing technical jobs here, and that my opinion of college was wrong. “Is that so,” I said to him through gritting teeth. I was angry because it is people like him who have helped spread the lie. “Why did McDonalds do most of the hiring in the United States in May?” According to the Weekly Standard, Morgan Stanley calls it the “McDonald’s Effect,” according to Market Watch’s Washington Bureau Chief Steve Goldstein — an estimate that as many of the 30,000 of the 54,000 jobs added in May 0f 2011 were the result of a hiring binge by the hamburger chain. Where are the technical jobs he was talking about…………China, Germany, Brazil? Because they are not here and they aren’t coming here because regulation, and NAFTA have opened the door to leave the United States.

So all those ambitious young people with $100K in debt are coming out of college to work where? At McDonalds? Yes!

In my experience people go to college hoping for a silver bullet that will kill all of their future financial worries. But this is not the case. College cannot help young people get a job if the jobs aren’t there, and jobs are not created by government. Government jobs are not productive jobs, unless it’s the military or NASA where technology is actually produced. To create a job, something of use must be created and the job is to sustain that creation. America needs to get back into the business of making jobs instead of hoping a degree will lead to a life of eternal security with very little work involved. Such a thought is truly ridiculous and is the direct fault of presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnston. Those two presidents saw college as a way to advance the progressive agenda in American society, and they tricked the people of the United States to pay for their own demise while propping up the union supporters of their political antics. In the end, it’s been a massive scam that has left our youth bankrupt, both morally, but financially. And it has drained our nation of creativity and job creation.

I consider the college experience an absolute monstrosity, of unmitigated failure. I’m just glad other people are finally starting to talk about it.

Create a job. That’s the way every American should be thinking. If you want to become a scientist of some kind, go to college. But if you just want a good job, college is a scam full of false promises that will take your money and leave you empty and in terrible debt. It’s a creation designed to drain people of financial assets and replace the traditional thinking given by a child’s parents with a progressive mentality that will support the politics of madmen and their audacious world vision.

Rich Hoffman

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

HUD Power Grab: The Intent behind entitlements

They try at every turn to embed themselves into your life any way they can. Government’s latest attempt is in the expansion of public housing in Cincinnati.

Doc Thompson covers the HUD issue that is being imposed on the city of Cincinnati which is a detrimental power-grab instigated by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. Doc covers some of the flaws in this plan from a social stand point on his 700 WLW radio show.

Channel 9 also did an article on the fine details of this situation listed below.

______________________________________________
Posted: 06/06/2011
• By: Tom McKee
CINCINNATI – The Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) will know by the end of the week how much it will expand its public housing in Hamilton County to settle a discrimination finding with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

A Voluntary Compliance Agreement (VCA) is expected to be signed between CHMA and HUD that will stipulate where some of the housing will be located.

HUD found that CMHA failed to put public housing units that it owns in numerous Hamilton County communities, including Green Township, where the agency’s former board chairman lives.

Green Township currently has 27 CHMA-owned units within its borders, but may be required to add more as a provision of the settlement.

Also this week, Hamilton County Commissioners are expected to approve a Cooperation Agreement with CMHA that will add 375 public housing units to the 482 already in suburban communities.
Scheduled meetings include…

MONDAY – June 6
–11 a.m. – Hamilton County Commissioners staff meeting
– Cooperation agreement to be discussed
–11 a.m. – Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority special board meeting
– Executive session to discuss voluntary compliance agreement
WEDNESDAY – June 8
–11 a.m. – Hamilton County Commissioners regular meeting
– Cooperation agreement approval expected
THURSDAY – June 9
–9 a.m. – Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority regular board meeting
– Approval expected on voluntary compliance agreement

The cooperation agreement does not affect the City of Cincinnati, which has 5,269 public housing units.

_________________________________________________________

Public housing is one of those topics where government has exceeded its reach. It has no business in creating housing for citizens, because to do so, it must take resources from productive people and give them to people who are not productive. Government can only do this as a kind of theft.

Listen to this professor in the clip below. I can’t believe people pay him to teach, because he has a lot to learn.

The mentality is similar to the type of government that is bankrupting Greece, where their retirement age of 55 is drowning the country with expectations which is collapsing the country. I have friends in Europe that have 4 plus weeks of vacation and are working under this assumption of a retirement age. When they travel the world, even though they have moderately low-level jobs, I ask them “who does your work when you’re gone?”

They just give me the deer in the headlights look. “That is not my concern,” is the reply. That answer continues to baffle me every time I hear it. How can a country like Greece, England, pick your European country, subsidize vacations and retirement plans. Who pays for it, because while these people are on vacation, or retired, they are unproductive citizens? They are citizens of their home country, yet they are doing nothing to contribute to the positive growth of the nations GDP.

Nobody is arguing that people shouldn’t be able to take a vacation. But the amount of vacation or the retirement should be contingent on how much that citizen has saved up to be able to give themselves a break. Because if they can step away from their jobs so easily, then they are not productive enough, and in government, this is very often a case, the idea of a job is one that is created so that a worker can clock into their position, do their time, productive or not, then go home to their regular life. If they want to take a day off or go on vacation, they do so without a drop in performance from their employer. This is totally wrong, this whole entitlement culture.

That is the kind of mentality behind HUD. Government is in a business it should not be in, giving out Federal dollars as contingencies to implement their policies that don’t belong to them. And because the housing is provided and not earned, it is not respected. This leads to abuse of the property, and it leads to the decline of the citizens that live there. Crime runs rampant in such communities; drug sales and prostitution are the norm.

Public housing is something that we should be cutting back on, not expanding. It is a road that leads to one place, utter failure both financially and socially. It does not catapult people back on their feet, but more often than not, flattens their tires in life keeping them from advancing themselves. Because it pays to sit still and collect the check, the housing and the food. The entitlement concept is rooted in foolish European socialist ideology. It has appeal because it basically provides something to people for nothing but what doesn’t get discussed is that something comes from a nation’s wealth, or potential wealth. No society can function sufficiently when people just retire at 55 and stop being productive, relying on a workforce that is under 55, which might only be a fraction of the employed citizens to support everyone else.

The entitlement culture is a lie……it was a scam to get politicians elected into power, and the check is due but nobody wants to pay. People naturally want the free ride that was promised to them from people who didn’t have the right to make the promise in the first place. Entitlements are a premise based on nothing, and they are undeniably wrong and must be removed from the vocabulary of human beings……….All entitlements.

 

Rich Hoffman

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

Lebanon Looters Strike Again: Notes from a progressive school board meeting

Matt Clark did an interesting program about Democratic Senators who believe that Tea Partiers don’t deserve constitutional rights.  This is indicative of how progressives think, and this same mentality finds its way into our local school board meetings. 

Recently a former school board member that speaks to me often gave me a report of what happened at her recent school board meeting in Lebanon.  She was particularly outraged, being that she has been a board member, and knows the kinds of things that go on behind the scenes.  This meeting, right after a levy failure that was very divisive showed that the district was proceeding with a business as usual approach. 

I enjoyed her comments so much that I’m putting them up here so others can see that their districts are going through exactly the same things.  School districts are all following the same directions, and will continue so long as they are funded blindly by well-intentioned tax payers that don’t care to dig into the real issues. 

_____________________________________________

What happened tonight was typical of every school board meeting.   No one sits on the board that represents the taxpayers.    There is absolutely zero negotiating going on.   All of the board members were “crying” about how bad they feel about having to make any cuts.   They managed to approve an entirely new contract.  (Remember they approved a one year contract at the April board meeting.)  Unfortunately, we did not receive a copy of the contract that was voted on tonight.  It did sound (by what they said)  identical to the ones being passed by every other district.  Direct orders from the OEA.  They didn’t even say if it was for one, two or three years.
 
The room was full of teachers and one Lebanon police officer.   It was disappointing that not one of the Tea Party members were there.  
 
They did vote to purchase some new history books that sent chills up my spine.   Red flags flying every which way.  I have been reading about the elimination of U.S. history being taught prior to the Civil War. (Nothing about the founders or our exceptional history.)  This is exactly what was approved.  Text for United States History:  “Reconstruction to the Present.” 
 
They didn’t list a grade level for the four books they approved.   They did vote to get rid of books that North said were “100 years old.”  I do know that they haven’t budgeted money for books for at least seven years.  Maybe more.    They built a new high school and elementary and never budgeted a dime for textbooks.
          
(Lakota has hired a new superintendent “that has super skills transitioning the district’s curriculum to the Global Integration Model.”  This curriculum is to prepare this country for the “New World Order.”   She is from Pickering and won a $10,000.00 check from the Jennings Foundation – Educators Retreat.    Many people in Pickering are not happy with Ms. Mantia.  I was hoping Mark North would announce that he was moving to Pickering, but no such luck.  I almost got up and told him that he should apply, but didn’t.
 
They said they were cutting costs in a three tier scheme due to the non-passage of the levy.   They have to figure some way to cut $6.5 million that the levy would have produced.   (I think this is per year.)  They said they already cut $10 million.  (Over what time period was not clear.)   Donna said that the administrators have not received a raise in four or five years.  She said, “Not one of them (board) wanted to do these cuts, but this is just where we are.” They all declared that they appreciated the staff so much and couldn’t have gotten this far without “the association.”  We need to there there as a community –  we’re very conservative.  We can’t do more.”
 
Chip asked how many students affected by the busing changes.  North had no idea. (Then why is this a necessary cut?)  Laura asked about the gifted and North said they were working on a “strategy” used in other districts in the area.  Something about “clustering.”   (They have their own language, Educationese.)  They do have a “Gifted Building Coordinator” so I guess they can keep this nebulous position . . . . . and voted to keep many others with supplemental pay.   In fact there were pages of additional duties that require supplemental contracts.   They really didn’t have any numbers.  Just threats and tears about the affect on “the children.”  it is so bad that the “per pupil spending will be less than Little Miami.”  Everybody will be affected.  Quote was, “Cutting deep into the muscle.”  “We have to address this.”  “To be honest with you, there was a lot of fighting and arguing with the administrative staff.”  “We have to make the best of it.”   The community has spoken.” Per North.
 
Stage I:  Cut four teachers.  (One math, one music, one elementary, one Spanish.)   $450,000.00 (Divide that number by four and tell me they are not overpaid.)
 
Stage II:  Bulk concessions by the LEA – Hard freeze on the base, step increase frozen (legal council provided information two weeks ago)
Allowed to provide for the staff – 3% pay reduction (no explanation on that one.)
Eliminate YMCA athletics
All forms to be electronic (saves paper)
15% reduction in supplies (counting paper clips)
Three gifted teachers go back into the classroom
Bus stops 1/4 mile and 1/2 mile  (for some in subdivisions)
Increase in “Pay to Participate” $250.00 per sport per student for high school and $175.00 for Jr. High
 
Phase II will cut $3M plus Phase I at $450,000 only equals $3.5 million so Phase III will be next. ????????  According to them they have a $5 Million reserve.  But they are talking about cutting $3 Million more.
 
I am sure we’ll be seeing some of these threats and more in the paper.   The reporter was there from the Western Star.    He was talking to the head of the LEA.
 
Sorry so many missed the fireworks.    You’d be so proud of your elected officials.     NOT!!!!!!!!!

__________________________________________________

I’m sorry people missed the fireworks too.  You can’t see the excitement unless you show up for these things.  All I can say is that it won’t fix itself people.  You have to at least show up to the fight. 

Rich Hoffman

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

Wild West Heroes: The Foundations of America!

The following clip was taken from the Annie Oakley Wild West event that I frequent each year with some of my friends. When David P. Little a political consultant hired to attack me saw this video he attempted to take the confederate flags in this video as a way to portray me as a racist. What progressives who think like Little  simply don’t understand is that these Wild West events are important to American culture. Each year that I’ve participated in the Annie Oakley event it has been a way that I reset myself.

I consider the people in that video to be some of my best friends, even if we only see each other once a year. They are good people who know what America is supposed to look like. In American culture, the cowboy is very important. I like to use cowboy metaphors to explain complicated topics because using the premier symbol of individualism in the world, the cowboy; it helps put everything else in perspective.

Here are some examples of what I consider to be some of the best that America produces. Guns are very important to Americana. The six-shooter is as important to the United States as the Samurai Sword is to Japan.

Progressives and their globalist views, have sought to destroy American heritage which I find repulsive. I appreciate the beauty of a gunman that can handle a six-shooter effectively.

It is sad that progressives have successfully turned even the sight of a gun into a symbol of death.

Knife throwing is another heritage that is essential to American culture. I know several knife throwers personally and every one of them are wonderful people who appreciate life more, because they routinely dance with death.

So when you see a person that is keeping the Old West alive with a cowboy hat, guns, or a knife, thank them. They aren’t just paying homage to a time when people didn’t wear deodorant, had to kill their food daily just to eat, and water was hard to come by. They are keeping the spirit of liberty alive, a time that individuals sought freedom so badly they’d risk life on the frontier to have it. They despised the world of Europe so intensely, that all the discomforts known to man was more preferable.

You might recognize this guy from the first video. I’ve known Chris for a while, and he’s the real deal. He travels the world as an ambassador of the Western Arts.

That is what I think of when I think of the Wild West. And that’s why I enjoy events like the Annie Oakley Festival. In such places, America is alive and well, and simplicity reveals the truth behind the progressive deceptions that has sung our country to sleep like a patient on the operating table under anesthesia.

Here’s another guy from the video above. This is another one of my close personal friends. You may have seen the newscast Gery and I did for a Dayton TV station.

It is in fact quite healthy to consider that if the government proves too big to replace, as it is needed, and those who crave power so diligently refuse to take their hands off that power, as is proper in our republic, then it will be the very law enforcement and military that we have which will be turned against us. And in such times should they unfortunately come to pass, that the skills of the cowboy will come into play. So keeping those skills alive is essential to preserving the nation we call home.

Here’s an exhibition I did for the World Stunt Organization at a film festival.

If it all falls apart and the law is turned against us, then, well that’s the plot of The Symposium of Justice, a book I wrote several years ago. Back then, it seemed far-fetched. These days, not so much, but that is a story for another time.

Rich Hoffman

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

Van Jones and his Plight for Paradise: A promise made to him from a robber

Van Jones is obviously feeling that his communist dream and those who dream like him are seeing their maniacal plots fall away into failure, so they are turning up the heat, attempting to drum up support for the direction progressives have been pushing for years.

Van Jones is challenging Glenn Beck to a debate because he is trying to lure Beck into a fight where Beck would gain nothing, but would give Jones a larger platform to speak from. Jones can only advance, where Beck could only lose something by coming down to Jones level. It’s a tough decision.

I’ve been saying it for a long time, this is outright war. It’s a war without bullets. Watch this clip carefully. People like this seek to keep people down so they can use those same people to lean on for power.

This is the clip where Glenn Beck answers Van Jones.

It’s important to understand what’s going on here. Progressives have had 100 years of phantomlike presence to manipulate the American system. FDR and LBJ are two presidents that have moved the nation in the kind of direction people like Van Jones expect. Those two presidents used the voting base of the people Van Jones speaks about to buy themselves power, and now America is dealing with the cost of that purchase. Yet, Van Jones is speaking as though America could always continue the way it has. As though the promises made by those two idiots, FDR and LBJ, were valid promises rooted in the foundations of the country and not simply a deal with a thief. Those presidents stole from us, gave to others, and used the profit to purchase power under the guise of legitimacy.

We are in a fight for our very lives, as a nation. There isn’t any negotiation with these types of people. The desperation coming from the progressives these days is that they see that the Tea Party is not going away, like they thought they would, and there is panic.

If I were Beck, I’d probably debate Jones and destroy him for what he is. But Beck is not a guy that likes conflict. He’s a guy that is good at seeing around the hidden corners, but he doesn’t like to fight. I do. So I’d love to dismantle someone like Jones in front of a national audience, and the people that follow Jones. But such an endeavor would not stop the fight. A fight like that would be out of pure fun to expose the degradation of the progressive movement, and what they have done to our nation.

But to Van Jones, your American Dream is not mine. You were promised things at my expense, looted from me to give to your type. What is your type, beggars, looters, and thieves, who use the poor and meek as your personal weapons against a country built on freedom. People like Van Jones hopes that he can always tap into the anger of the very lazy, and gather enough force to give looters like him legitimacy within a world of robbers.

Rich Hoffman

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

The Far Reaching Schools: DO NOT QUESTION AUTHORITY BECAUSE THEY WILL FIND YOU

If society is looked at without emotion, like an archeologist examines a civilization long over with neutral observation, then it is easy to see the problems. Since my love in life puts science first, before anything, then it is not difficult to look at our current civilization and detect where we are going wrong.

Doc Thompson did a great segment on the far-reaching culture of modern public education, where they attempt to extend their authority well into the private lives of children, all in the name of “protecting” them from bullying, or even from their own parents. Listen to that broadcast here.

When I see adults blindly submitting to authority, such as when they are pulled over by a police officer, it’s almost like a switch goes off in their minds that when they see the uniform of a police officer, they immediately revert into a mode of submission. The officer says, “Put your hands up where I can see them,” and automatically the hands go up without any conscious control. The same thing happens when an officer pulls over a speeding driver, the cop puts on the lights, and the immediate reaction is for the driver to pull over. To some extent, it’s probably good that this mechanism is in place, because society would probably have more conflict involved. But on the other hand, the same tendency that makes human beings become compliant to police officers also makes people prone to believe all symbols of authority, which includes politicians and spin doctors.

This is very bad, because even though people like the President of the United States are seen as leaders to the rest of the world, people tend to listen to him as though he actually carried a level of authority. If the President calls for war, there are people in the military that will carry out the order even if it means their deaths. If the President says society needs to care for the poor, then suddenly people will become more aware of the poor. This tendency is consistent all the way down the chain of command all the way down to a child’s local soccer coach.

The adults I know do not question enough what is going on in the world around them, and this is happening because they were taught very early to respect authority. In American culture what is required to maintain an honest republic is a respect of authority, but independence and free-will must be embraced by the culture even above authority in order for it to last. American children are learning to respect authority from their parents, their family, their siblings, friends, and public education.

Public education is spending too much money, and too much time teaching children to respect authority in my opinion. They are creating a society of grown-ups that automatically freeze up in the face of authority figures, and this is a very bad thing. As I said, a little authority is good, respect for mankind and others in general is important, but blind obedience is terrible for the sustainability of any culture. It leaves society vulnerable to tyrants.

This move by public education to intrude into the personal lives of the students we send to these schools is reprehensible and must stop. And it will not stop until parents demand it to stop. It’s not just an economic factor, because more teachers require more asserted authority, and we not only pay for those teachers, but we pay in how they teach our children to blindly accept authority and not embrace the nature of freedom.

The bottom line behind most everyone that pursues the life of an authority figure is that they wish to position themselves in a lucrative paying field of endeavor, where they can make a very good income, while also satisfying some inner inferiority complex that resides within them. They often are not people who should be followed under any circumstance what-so-ever. They should be despised and ridiculed for what they are, and that’s tyrants. So they need people to believe that their authority is needed to hold society together. But what they are really doing is destroying the very fabric of what makes American society unique, and fruitful.

So long as there is a fear of authority in American society, the republic from which that society is built will be flimsy, and easy to topple, which is how they want it. Because to the tyrant, they only care for gratification of the moment, and there are a lot of tyrants wondering about in positions of authority.

It sickens me each time I see people complying without question to the demands of an authority figure. And that process begins when the teacher tells a young child in public school not to run down the hall. The nail to the coffin is driven home when a teacher has the ability to reach into the private life of the child and police what the child says on Facebook, or even what they say on a private web-site. Once the child accepts that type of authority they will grow up and become weak-kneed adults that believe easily what a sappy politician tells them. Those adults will become terrible, over-emotional voters that will not know what’s good from bad, because their decision-making skills are tainted with the corruption of compliance.

Rich Hoffman

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

The Next Three Days Review: A Great Film………………what would you do?

I was looking for a movie to watch that fit a theme I have been working on in my Tail of the Dragon novel when I saw that Paul Haggis had directed Russell Crow and Liam Neeson in a story that explores what happens when the law is not necessarily your friend, when the system is turned against you completely. That story is called The Next Three Days.

The film is different from the story I worked on. Mine is all this along with a bit of Bonnie and Clyde mixed in. But this film intrigued me greatly. I loved it!

Paul Haggis was the screenwriter for a couple of Eastwood films that I love, Million Dollar Baby and Flags of our Fathers. He also had a writing credit for Terminator Salvation. Haggis also directed Crash, which was brilliant, so another film directed by him was something I was not going to miss.

I’m not going to reveal the details of this film. It is full of surprises and it’s a wonderful film. In the film, I can’t blame the decisions Russell Crow’s character made. It asks the hard questions like, how valid is “the law?” Is our legal system just? What is right and what is wrong and do they hold true if the perspective shifts?

I think we have become too reliant on law enforcement much in the same way as we have with teachers. We expect the police to keep us safe, which is unrealistic, because police really aren’t much of a deterrent. All they can really do is show up after a crime has been committed and build a case hoping that they can gather enough evidence to find the bad guy and bring about justice.

I don’t think the ineffectiveness of police officers in preventing crime is worth the freedoms we give up to have them. In a scene of the film shown in the preview where the police break down the door to Russell Crows home and came into his house forcefully, I became infuriated. I can say that if the same thing happened at my home, someone would have ended up hurt. There isn’t a force on earth, no gun, no club, no taser, nothing that would allow me to submit to a forceful entry into my home against my will. Property in America is everything, and when law enforcement can enter your property for the “greater goods security” then there simply isn’t any freedom.

In a lot of ways, that’s what The Next Three Days was all about. It took most of the film to arrive at that message, which doesn’t make it a bad film at all, but the movie was certainly targeted at the types of suburbanites that live around Paul in Santa Monica, a town that lives in its own insulated reality. So the characters in the film go through the transition that if they want freedom, they must take it. Nobody is going to give it to them. If they trust the legal system, it will let them down, just like education does. There is no easy fix.

I mention the film here because movies are a way to explore ideas, and a film like The Next Three Days is one of those types of films that everyone should see, then consider what they would do if they found themselves in the same situation. I suspect many people would do the disgraceful thing, and that’s to accept the rule of law, move on with another spouse, and live a nice safe life.

But, as shown in The Next Three Days, the law is only as good as the people who run it. If the lawyers, prosecutors, Supreme Court, and cops are lazy, and they are, because they’re government workers, then there is always a chance to become a victim to their complacency. So when that happens do you just take it and let their incompetence ruin your life?

I say no. It might have taken the characters 3 years to get to the point that I would have been at within a few hours, but the merit is still what it is, that when a force of any size, or complexity threatens your sovereignty, then war to defend your position is perfectly justified. It is in fact demanded.

That’s why I recommend watching this film and asking the question, how effective is law enforcement? Is it what we really want? Does it represent what being an American is all about, or are we willing to toss those ideas away in favor of an imperfect pursuit of safety.

Watch The Next Three Days for a thrill, excitement, and much-needed contemplation.

Rich Hoffman

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

The New Overmanwarrior.com: A Father’s Day Present to Launch the Future

One of the challenges in analyzing profit and lose responsibilities as an occupation, mixed with entertainment, being a “watch dog political activist,” culminating with multiple writing endeavors it is inevitable that a web site presence is needed. I started Overmanwarrior.com last year to meet the growing need to maintain some sort of window into the world I participate in, since there are clients that want that information, fans of my book; The Symposium of Justice that enjoy keeping up with what I’m doing, and my activity working with bullwhips for various entertainment venues. I named the site overmanwarrior.com because of a term used in my book The Symposium of Justice, and it seemed most fitting for what I’ve been doing.

The political work I’ve been doing is an added element that was not anticipated when I started Overmanwarrior.com. That work came out of necessity, because it’s happening in my community, which makes me obligated to act when I see that something is wrong. I am not one of those writers that sits around writing about what the world should be, but lacks the courage to implement my thoughts. I cannot in good consciousness write passionately about the corruption that is taking place in books like The Symposium of Justice, which was very controversial when it came out. Time has proven it to be ahead of it’s time. My new book which is due out in 2012 and is under contract currently in the editorial phase is just as critical of the social norms built around a political superstructure that is crushing on the human spirit. On this book, I didn’t aim so far into the future as I did with Symposium, because the battle is right in front of us.

It would be hypocritical for me to write so passionately about these topics and still allow corruption to take place in my own back yard without me applying the same level of work in fighting tyranny in real life. I’m not that kind of person.

I never planned to be an activist. I despise political politicians. I want the minimum government possible. I do not want large public school organizations that are over staffed and too expense teaching kids to “comply.” I do not want to deal with a society of brain dead followers in American society. That leads to my extreme dislike of police authority. Nothing against those in law enforcement occupations but I don’t want to support anything resembling a police state. I understand that police need to have the ability to go after criminals, but to my eyes, I see criminals still selling drugs. I still see prostitution going on. Murders still happen. People still break into homes. I believe that the greater deterrent to crime, physical assaults, and murder is the Second Amendment. It is out of a socialist desire for larger government, to give law enforcement jobs to do, that the gun control legislation is pushed forward, so with such views, that I explore in my fiction, I cannot turn my eyes away from reality.

This has led to a collection of media appearances that I’ve been a part of that have accumulated over some time. My work as an entertainer and my work as a “watch dog” are unique in a kind of merging involving both entertainment of political awareness, so I needed a website update that reflected these two aspects of my life, since both aspects are simultaneously important to any curious investigation into my life.

To do this, I turned to the person that designed the No Lakota Levy website. I had designed the first Overmanwarrior.com and many complained that it was too busy and not as effective as it needed to be. I developed the Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom site which evolved into what it is now, and took over as my personal platform, but the blog is sort of all the contents of my house, where the website is the door to that house, and I needed a new door. When I had to formalize resistance to the No Lakota Levy effort to counter the effort of the OEA, and other organized groups that seemed “hell bent” to increase my local taxes for no good apparent reason, it was the website that had started a successful campaign.

As a group, the No Lakota Levy group had access to professional web designers and public relations people. But I was hesitant, because we needed a unique web presence that was on the cutting edge. We wanted a better site than what the Lakota website had. So I turned to my daughter.

Her work on that site gave her accolades from public relations professionals, and media specialists everywhere. It’s not because of the technical aspect. There are many young people these days that understand how to write code for web design. But there aren’t many that have artistic ability that actually surpasses the technical ability. For No Lakota, I gave my daughter a series of production notes explaining what the website needed to accomplish. She nailed it. She produced a website that far exceeded my expectations, properly utilized video and social media into a top notch flash oriented website.

Once I learned that American Publishing wanted to publish my second book Tail of the Dragon, and that the marketing of that book would involve nationwide media attention, I needed a website that provided a door to my extensive collection of media, primarily all the work I’ve done on Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom, and my YouTube efforts which is equally vast. I needed this door because this second book will be put on a much larger platform than my previous work so everything needs to represent that level of professionalism.

This door to my life needs to be simple, yet inviting into the world I’m involved in, and it needs to stand out. I didn’t want it to be just another website that is the standard these days. I wanted something that was current, state-of-the-art with a world-class design. So again, I turned to my daughter. She knows me; she has the technical ability, and what she is still learning she is able to use existing programs where another firm may be able to create the whole thing in code. But she has the ability of vision that is unique, where maybe a handful of people in the country could actually pull off a job like this based on my written instructions.

Did she do it? YES! I told her I need something that embodies my “watch dog” work without sacrificing all the work I’ve done in entertainment. My roots as a western arts advocate needs to be there, without being overstated. It needs to be patriotic, because I am. But it also needs to represent my literary work, which in this stage of my life is becoming increasingly more important. With those basic descriptions, she came up with the new Overmanwarrior.com site and I love the results.

With the creation of this new site, it launches a new level of commitment to the type of life that is before me. From the doorway of this site daily updates of my work on Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom will be uploaded by a Twitter feed. Some of my favorite articles out of the hundreds and hundreds I’ve written are archived as sample work. There are many video’s seamlessly incorporated into the design along with other links that will take the visitor on an extensive journey without being too complex visually. I’ve also done many hours of radio that is also listed at this site which supports my “watch dog” work and is easily available.

Tail of the Dragon is going to be a tremendous work. I am very proud of it, so far, and it’s going to give me an opportunity to discuss nationally, an issue that is even more taboo than teachers, law enforcement. What it is, why we do or do not need it, and what are the solutions to the problems. It’s an exciting book that I wanted to see written, and since it wasn’t, I wrote it. My new website of Overmanwarrior.com embodies this spirit along with everything else I’m doing, and I’m proud that out of all the thousands and thousands of dollars I could have spent having this site designed for me, that my daughter was able to hit it beyond my expectations.

I am happy to announce that as of June 20, 2011, Overmanwarrior.com has taken the next step into a larger world as the ideas explored continue to increase. The unusual task for me, the client, and my daughter the designer is how to represent a guy that is very active as a “watch dog” while not being the least bit politically interested, yet deeply involved in entertainment and business. This site is it! And she was successful in every way possible…….again!

She told me that the completion of this site and the many hours she put into its design was a Father’s Day present. Nobody could have done anything for me better than this, so yes, my Father’s Day was wonderful.

Rich Hoffman

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