“’What got everyone re-energized was the debt ceiling,’ said Ann Becker, president of the Cincinnati Tea Party, who attended a meeting in Mr. Boehner’s district of more than 200 people Saturday to discuss a long-shot challenge to him for the GOP nomination.” That was a quote out of the Wall Street Journal where Cincinnati Tea Party President and personal friend Ann Becker made nationwide news following the straw poll results in Eaton, Ohio trying to determine who will run against John Boehner in the upcoming primary. Traditional big government oriented Republicans like John Boehner, John Kasich, Mitch McConnell and many others specifically in the Ohio and Kentucky region are facing major challenges—which is how things are supposed to be. The Wall Street Journal is one of the last of the respectable papers in America, so it was wonderful to see Ann make the news.
A lot of people throughout the country do not know that Southern Ohio is ground zero for the heart and soul of the country. The primary resistance to public education solidified in this region, it is the front yard of major GOP Republicans and is the heart of a current civil war within the Republic Party situated specifically in Butler County, Ohio where old school cronyism is meeting up head on against the new rebels of the party who are insisting on Constitutional purity. At the heart of many of those activities in many different capacities has been Ann Becker. So it was good to see her mentioned in the Wall Street Journal.
Many traditional Republicans like John Boehner and the money machine that funds him primarily coming from the Carlos Todd Republicans, are bewildered as to what people like Ann have been yearning for. They thought that all they had to do was come out against abortion, stand for lower taxes with lip service, and present a resistance to same-sex marriage that the religious base of the Republican Party would fall in behind. The well-known business method which people like Carlos Todd of Butler County—a developer who has used political involvement to ensure the stability of his investments—is that you pay to play ball and if someone wanted to work hard, got to know all the right people, that anybody could make it in America.
But that’s not how things were supposed to be, and people like Ann have stood against it—and behind her legions of much more radicalized advocates for Constitutional purity are calling for the heads of Carlos Todd’s Republicans. Ann was always level-headed and understood all sides of an argument. She even ran against me in 2005 in support of the Lakota levy. By 2010 she joined me in opposition, but we did not always stand together on those battle lines just as now there are many who wish she’d take a sword to the head of the GOP when other methods are already well under way that don’t make such a mess. But the underlying current to the politics of Southern Ohio whether it is the efforts of the West Clermont School District to stand against organized labor control of the school board, The Liberty Township Tea Party fight against the IRS and being in the middle of the civil war in Butler Country where John Boehner/Todd Republicans are fighting against Tea Party activists, or Ann Becker’s efforts to dethrone the Speaker of the House in Washington D.C., and my overarching attempts to throw a light on all forms of collectivism spanning through all those fields. There are few places in America where the war wages more vigorously than Southern Ohio, and Northern Kentucky. Not to be taken lightly, Rand Paul is from the area, and is taking the political message of people like Ann Becker to the front lines of a presidential race. Paul is too liberal for me, but he does represent the future and I’m rooting for him.
Few people know it, but the Doc Thompson Radio Show on The Blaze is broadcast from Southern Ohio across the entire nation and they have directly taken on virtually every House and Senate seat up for grabs in the 2014 election. They broadcast from a secret location and often not in the same place day-to-day. Other popular personalities from Southern Ohio are Libertarian Girl who is also personal friends with Ann Becker and is bringing a youthful following to the libertarian movement pulling votes from traditional Republicans and activating young people who might otherwise be inclined to vote for a Democrat.
The landscape is changing rapidly, and the end result will be something different. It is hard to tell at this time exactly how, but one thing is for sure, the Grand Ol’ Party will not be a bunch of old men protecting their real estate investments in the future, and they will either adopt, or they will become extinct. They will either get on the train, or they will be run over by it—because going back to the old ways won’t happen. Too many people are awakened now to return back to those complacent times.
People are still apathetic, but as Ann gave me a series of very important news reports of which the Wall Street Journal article was only one, this new upcoming generation is different and is not tolerant of stuffy old Republicans like John Boehner. There are still plenty of people who will vote for Boehner, probably enough to keep him in office, but that is changing quickly. Two years from now, Boehner may lose his base completely at the rate of change that we are seeing. Even if he hangs on to win the primary in 2014, the next time won’t be nearly so easy.
Just four years ago when the Ohio Education Association put out a press release, every newspaper, television station, and news report followed their statements without question. Now, those same outlets are taking OEA reports far less seriously because there is a lot of scrutiny thrown in the direction of that government based labor union that wasn’t there before. Southern Ohio has been a place where much-needed gasoline has been thrown on a fire that was already started by Glenn Beck, John Stossel, and many other high-profile commentators who began questioning the status quo. Like Ann said in the Wall Street Journal, “What got everyone re-energized was the debt ceiling.” It did, and everything mentioned was an offshoot of that issue. My opposition to public education is driven off the extraordinarily high cost of public education forcing taxes higher on people who may not support the liberal viewpoints of the government schools. Boehner has done nothing to stop the national debt but use his majority in the House of Representatives to lay down for the President to run him over. The Republicans have been complicit in the crime of looting the nation, and people like Ann have stood strong against very strong forces who demand the status quo. But that status is no longer relevant, and the cracks in the system are growing into crumbling supports of a structure that will come crashing down very soon—because there’s no money, intellectual will, or credible aptitude to continue the charade.
I am proud to know Ann Becker. She has done some great work, and she will always be near and dear to me—because her fight for liberty, justice, and honor started a chain reaction that cannot be stopped now—and she will always be known as one of the first. It’s a pleasure to know her.
John Stossel is a regular at the yearly Atlas Society events, which is a large group advocating the Objectivist views of Ayn Rand’s work in philosophy. You can see Stossel’s speech from the 2013 conference below. One thing that jumps out at such events is the large number of people who are involved from all levels of society. If this event were directly compared to a recent Ohio Education Association meetings of a same general type, anybody would conclude that the Atlas Society members were much better prepared for life, had vastly more intellectual capacity, and were generally better people in virtually every category. However, the OEA is much more widely known and accepted in political circles where the Atlas Society is still considered a “fringe” group, but this is changing rapidly.
I am not a group oriented person. I avoid them like a plague—even those where I generally agree with the participants, I quickly become disenfranchised when too many people are in association. The reason is not that I dislike the people; it is that I value my individualism to a greater extent. Group associations are corrosive to personal authenticity so I avoid them. Objectivists are closer to my personal epistemologies in virtually every category except for their position on drugs, personal relationships, and religion. Objectivists are more likely to be sexual swingers which is not something I find attractive. So there are issues where my values do not completely align with Objectivists, but in many more ways than not, they are best positioned to represent my general philosophy.
Ayn Rand essentially was advocating for the freedom of the human mind to be creative without the restriction of group oriented psychological anchors. In business, to her, the activity of an entrepreneur was a creative enterprise that had great value and most groups–socialists, governments, hoards of second-handers imposed themselves into that important attribute destroying production. Being productive is what Objectivists are all about, productive in the way they cook their food, make their money, even how they maintain relationships—everything is centered on productivity. Productivity in this case is the creation of something new whether it is art, a material item, or even an ideal.
Contrary to this is most every faction of human existence where the goal is to avoid productivity. Group oriented activity is all about sharing burdens so that one does not have to go it alone—and in that process individual productivity is lost. This is why such group associations are essentially evil—because they hamper individual creative input. In my life I create something in virtually every hour of every day. I typically get up at 5:30 every morning and I go to bed often very late. In those waking hours I am creating, whether it is for business, art, philosophy, or personal growth—I am always looking for ways to create. One of the most despicable moments for me is when someone comes to my door wanting to sell something—not because I don’t want to buy Girl Scout cookies from the little girl down the road or hear a sales pitch from a representative of a local church—it is because of the lost time robbed from me to be personally productive. While I’m standing on my porch listening to someone else’s needs, I am not being productive, personally—and it bothers me. Without shared values to unite people in such a conversation, I will always come away emptier than I began while the other party will leave filled and I will have also lost my productive time.
I have spent hours upon hours alone and closed to my thoughts being productive and been quite happy because the enterprise was not so much to get a pay check, or have someone else recognize my value—but in conducting my life as an individual contributor to my own authenticity which is fulfilling in itself. Only people at the Atlas Society understand these traits. The local teachers union has no comprehension of these things. They are simply parasites off the tax payers. The local firemen have no idea about such things because their entire existence is built of personal sacrifice. The local church has no idea because they are built off sacrificing this life for the next. The local business has no idea because to them everything must be sacrificed for the greater good of the company. The unifying theme of all these groups is the term, “sacrifice.” It’s the old notation left over from our Neanderthal past that something must be given up so that something can be created and this just isn’t the case.
Creation occurs from a free mind. It is not something that can be concocted by force as government believes. There are no kings, queens, college professors or figures of authority who can use force to “create” anything—whether it be a work of art, a magnificent novel, a painting, or a business. The more rules that government creates only serves to destroy creativity in the human spirit. It does not “create” fairness, it only limits creativity.
This is why the only organization that is really doing the right things for the right reasons that I can see is the Atlas Society and those similar attempts to take the work of Ayn Rand and take the next step. The people in that room with John Stossel, and the people who are involved with the new Atlas Shrugged films, and the site Galt’s Gulch are truly pioneers in a time where all the elements of oppression are aligned against them. They are literally on a new frontier of human thought which can be a scary place, but it is good to see that they are up to the challenge and facing the tribulations against creativity with a boldness that will become the headlines of future folklore.
In case you missed the opening of the Ohio Education Association’s recent 2014 Collective Bargaining Conference you can see what union President Becky Higgins did that would be hilarious if it wasn’t so indicative of a sinister progressive plot. If you own property in the State of Ohio, you are putting money into the pocket of this lady and her conspirators at the OEA. You don’t have a choice because they basically run public education and are locked arm in arm with politicians in Columbus. The point of the conference was exclusively how to further solidify that relationship and nothing else. The difference between now and a few years ago was that there wasn’t any media which showed how stupid these people really are. They had fancy public relations people who could make people like Becky Higgins appear brilliant and sophisticated so that during tax increase time in local school districts people actually thought they were getting a superior product. But in reality what we have been getting all along is seen in the following video. Watch and try to hold down the puke:
Watch the rest of these videos too. They paint a picture of what these people really are. While watching think how many thousands of dollars you have been forced to give them as a property owner.
It is ironic that Higgins picked that Pete Seegar classic, “If I had a Hammer.” Do you dear reader know what that song means—besides being a favorite tune from the vile, dirt ridden, pot smoking, greasy hippies of the 60’s when Peter, Paul and Mary made the song into a Top Ten hit? The song was first performed publicly by Pete Seeger and Lee Hays on June 3, 1949 at St. Nicholas Arena in New York at a testimonial dinner for the leaders of the Communist Party of the United States, who were then on trial in federal court, charged with violating the Smith Act by advocating the overthrow of the U.S. government.[1] It was not particularly successful in commercial terms when it was first released. It fared notably better when it was recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary more than a decade later. Their cover of the song, released in August 1962, became a Top 10 hit. It was a song dedicated to progressive politics as the communist push in America was in full swing, and the OEA is a progressive, (communist) organization built on the backs of that communist push. Their desire is to use the labor union hammer to pound society into a collective unity as described by that Seegar song. Here are the words.
If I had a hammer, I’d hammer in the morning
I’d hammer in the evening, all over this land
I’d hammer out danger, I’d hammer out a warning
I’d hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters all over this land
If I had a bell, I’d ring it in the morning
I’d ring it in the evening, all over this land
I’d ring it in danger, I’d ring out a warning
I’d ring in love between my brothers and my sisters all over this land
If I had a song, I’d sing it in the morning
I’d sing it in the evening, all over this land
I’d sing it in danger, I’d sing out a warning
I’d sing in love between my brothers and my sisters all over this land
Well I got a hammer and I got a bell
And I got a song to sing all over this land
It’s the hammer of justice, it’s the bell of freedom
It’s a song about love between my brothers and my sisters all over this land
The important lines of that song are “it’s the hammer of justice; it’s the bell of freedom. It’s a song about love between my brothers and my sisters all over this land.” The freedom they are talking about is not the kind of freedom that is sought in the American Constitution, it is the freedom of the hippie, the free love saps and bra burning bitches mired in pot smoke and corrupt thinking to do what they want, when they want to, to whomever they desire. It is the freedom to take from the rich and give to the jobless hippie, the scum bag, and the derelict. If we are all family, according to the song—brothers and sisters—then we should all care for each other like family all over this land. What they really mean is that whatever personal decisions are made by losers, thieves and depraved social menaces should be forgiven as the value of the good and pure can be robbed and used for the good of all over the entire land. This is the crap that is being taught to children in school by these progressive organizations—specifically the OEA who by law has their very communist hands in our pockets provided to them by our scum bag politicians and their yellow spins of urine soaked courage.
Just a few years ago, before there was an Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom, Cox Media had a monopoly on spreading the “progressive message” in newspapers. Now they don’t because blog sites, YouTube and independent media are showing the world what people like Becky Higgins and her OEA members are really about. They are about the hammer of justice and the bells of freedom and all the brothers and sisters of hippie hallucinations pounding the property owners into oblivion until they are taxed out of their properties and into collective ownership of everything.
I have warned people for years of this plot, and slowly people are beginning to put together all the elements and see these things for the real danger they possess. When people wonder why I haven’t been in the local papers or in the Cincinnati Enquirer or on WLW radio for a while it goes well beyond the time that I called school levy supporters a bunch of fat assessed prostitutes—it is because this blog has more readership on a daily basis and gets far more exposure—and they don’t like it. They don’t like the competition. So my time is better spent here than there—and that is why people like Higgins is now exposed where 10 years ago she would have been lauded as a genius for education and the children under the OEA’s care. Now dear reader you know the truth and they can’t hide it with games and fancy press releases. The Ohio Education Association is all about the merits of that stupid song “If I Had A Hammer,” a song dedicated to communists and low life progressives who have always wanted to subvert the American Constitution. And these low life OEA members are given our tax money by other big government loving politicians who confiscate our wealth from property value and use it to do as they said in the interviews from the conference—“change the world one child at a time.” Aren’t you glad you voted for that last school levy? Because if you did, you voted for your own destruction and are an idiot. Your vote keeps people like Becky Higgins in power and in control of Ohio’s youth for a goal that goes well beyond the hopes and dreams of parents. They are essentially intent to fulfill the hopes of the communist push advocated in the Soviet Union in 1917 and have never stopped. They just changed their name to “progressive.”
They can wish they had a hammer, but they don’t. However, I do have a foot, and they are under it. Guess what comes next. Because I hate these people and what they stand for. Now, here is a song from my youth to clear your poor mind dear reader of that vile hippie filth, and what I plan to use against the OEA’s progressive war machine. I’ll take this song any day over that old communist crap! Turn this one up…………..because this is one of my favorites!
In a tight race for Butler County Commissioner during the 2014 primaries where the current Commissioner Cindy Carpenter is defending her seat against two strong and highly educated challengers, the temptation to cross the line and break the law is ever-present. Even though such law breaking is considered fashionable these days because our prosecutors and Justice Department officials are essentially shills for corruption—nobody enforces the 6 months in jail for candidates who mislead the public with campaign literature—to “pad” their credentials. Carpenter after one term as commissioner has proven to be a Democrat with a Republican name and has sought to cover up the fact with a hostile presentation of herself toward those who disagree with her. That kind of nonsense is seen on her resume. Knowing she is being challenged by George Nafziger who is highly educated and loaded with a professional past and Christine Matacic who is essentially a well-connected crony career politician from Liberty Township, Carpenter apparently felt she needed to beef up her resume to stay relevant—and she appears to have violated the law. Credentials are supposed to be important, which is why there is a law to prevent such temptations from occurring. That law is Ohio code 3517.21 specifically section (B) item (2), but who’s being specific. Politicians work in generalities and prosecutors are terrified to enforce such laws. If Cindy keeps her seat then retaliation is quite possible against them. In fact right now there is quite a lot of turmoil between Butler County Republicans. Do they throw their money behind the current commissioner in Carpenter because if they are caught trying to defect, there will likely be reprisal against their projects—which government is embedded in at every corner. If they support Matacic, they might as well support another big government liberal as Matacic’s brand of Republican office occupation is essentially the same. To complicate matters both career politicians are women—and nobody wants to be called a sexist for supporting George Nafziger over two potential women—even if they aren’t really conservatives. So typically what happens is inaction, which is why it appears that Cindy Carpenter violated ORC 3517.21 knowing nobody would likely call her on it.
A big alarm for any women that one might meet is how many times she’s been married. Sure, that’s old fashioned, but I’m that kind of guy. If you go back beyond the four husbands that Cindy Carpenter has had back through the years to her high school year book, searching for the information found on her campaign literature indicating that she is a member of the Fairfield High School National Honor Society; her original name of Cindy Sears is not listed. If Cindy was in fact a member of such a society, there would be some mention of it—but there’s not. It is possible that there was a misprint in the yearbook during her senior days at Fairfield, or that she was an Honor Society member in some other period of her life, but typically this isn’t the case. It is likely that it looked good on paper, so she put it on her resume. Now if that was the only issue we might call it a mistake, but it’s not.
Carpenter listed also on her current campaign literature for County Commissioner that she “attended Miami University” which is different from her 2000 election literature for Clerk of Courts where such a credential wasn’t mentioned. So a simple investigation into the Miami University records and its branch offices under all her possible names has revealed that she never attended the university. Checking under her various married names, giving her the benefit of doubt that she may have taken a class in basket weaving or something during the last 14 years still no mention that Cindy attended Miami University. The Miami University Office of the Registrar has searched under all her names, Cindy Sears, Cindy Vogel, Cindy Ertel, Cindy Carpenter which was her previous husband’s name. She is now married to a guy named Baker, so Cindy Baker was searched, and still nothing. This means one of two things, the Miami University Office of the Registrar made a mistake and lost the records of Cindy’s attendance, or Cindy is counting the times she drove through the campus as having attended there. That wouldn’t surprise me because reading through her resume it is certainly padded. She lists virtually every time she attended a meeting for something as a credential. For instance, she lists things like, “collaborated with Lt. Governor Mike Dewine to bring Federal Medicaid Waiver programs to Ohio,” and “presenter of Advocacy Session at the Ohio Department of Health Annual Conference.” You get the point. At least her more recent resume is a bit more concise. On her 2000 literature she literally listed every time she stepped into a federal government bathroom. The only reason its relevant is that it shows the lady is desperate to prove her “social value” and will literally report every time she interacted with a public official as a credential, so going a step further and making things up isn’t beyond belief—especially when the records can’t be dredged up from the past.
If the local media had any testicular fortitude, they would do these investigations themselves—but they dare not because if Carpenter retains her seat, they don’t want to be “blackballed,” by her. So they stick to the powder puff stuff. There are also a lot of respected Republicans—like her good buddy Sheriff Jones who are well aware of what ORC 3517.21 means because his jail is supposed to house its violators. But his rational will likely be that this is just politics and there isn’t any harm in these things. Everybody is doing it—so what’s the big deal. But the same could be said for traffic violations, or drug sales—or even immigration issues—everybody is hiring illegal immigrants who are funneling drug money up and down the I-75 corridor destroying children’s lives right in our own back yard—but hey—everybody is doing it—so it’s all good. See no evil—no foul no jail, no problem. What are rules anyway, especially if nobody follows them?
Cindy’s many husbands, her altruistic tendencies, and willingness to push legal boundaries as she has had a recent tiff with the Butler County Prosecutor and was even caught lying on 700 WLW radio with Bill Cunningham demonstrate a pattern of behavior that is dangerous to any elected office. CLICK HERE FOR REVIEW. Her behavior paints a picture that is not favorable to Cindy Carpenter who is using her previous husband’s last name because of the name recognition. (THE AUDIO THERE PROVIDES THE EVIDENCE). Even if she doesn’t go to jail for her apparent ORC 3517.21 violations she certainly shouldn’t be re-elected so that Butler County has four more years of her chaotic management style. Better people are available for her commissioner seat, and they should get a crack at the job without her infusion of manipulation seeking to preserve some deep rot in her mind running from three decades of misplaced priorities. The list of husbands behind her is a record that no padded resume can hide—and is a more important indicator of her priorities as a person than the time in 1999 when she attended a Fred Pryor Seminar on conflict resolution and confrontational skills, or the time in 1998 that she attended a class at Solar Comp to learn how to use Windows 95, or the time in 1994 where she attended the Ohio Republican Party – Nuts and Bolts Seminar. All that and more is on her past resumes explaining her work history and value for the seat of County Commissioner. All that and apparently even things that didn’t happen. Cindy Carpenter is the kind of politician that nobody wants once they see beyond the glitter and the charm to the person who is really sitting in that seat. Worse is the reason that she’s there—to provide meaning to a life that has loads of personal issues hidden behind altruistic intentions at the expense of tax payers. And that is the real crime behind her actions. It’s not so much that Carpenter should go to jail for violating ORC 3517.21 as much as she should be punished for using a government office to mask her own deficiencies. And if the padded resumes and conflicting presence is looked at beyond the thin veil of social courtesy, a person who should not hold public office is revealed. A person who uses the office to bring meaning to a life that is otherwise void of it, and a person who seeks such a seat to fill themselves at the expense of everyone else.
Most young people are not paying attention to the current events in the Ukraine, or the unrest in Venezuela, or the posturing of China against Japan. They don’t know that President Obama’s administration is attempting to use the FCC to control news content, or that the IRS has been involved in corrupt activity. The sum of all these events are clashing with the teachings that young people are getting from government schools leaving them unsure who to trust or what to believe. So they aren’t participating, and are focused on the events of pop culture. They are not reading books, going to Tea Party rallies, or even searching for a way to save the world. They just want to get by and enjoy their life to some small degree. This has opened up the entertainment market to an explosion of comic book sales, movies, and fantasy driven entertainment. The world of fantasy is far better, and easier to understand than the deceitful world of the present—so it is there where many of the contemporary minds of youth reside.
When I was a kid the very first cartoon I enjoyed watching was Popeye the Sailor, followed closely by Speed Racer. Over the years, I enjoyed Starblazers,Spiderman, Looney Toons, and Godzilla as some of my favorites and I took the messages of those simple stories into my adult life unfiltered. To this day the thing I enjoy doing most is the “right thing.” I learned this from Popeye at age 3 and still remember vividly those early cartoon moments. Those cartoons had tremendous influence and many people my age and younger share this enthusiasm with me. Not everyone has preserved their love of those early cartoons to the extent that I have, but most people hold reverence for the cartoons of their youth. These cartoons have the power to either build up a mind or destroy it. For instance, Bevis and Butthead on MTV did a great deal to destroy culture while the same animator tried to redeem himself with the Fox cartoon King of the Hill. Currently Family Guy, the Simpsons, and American Dad—all laced with deep progressive philosophy–are the current trend which is writing upon the minds of countless young people the thought processes they will carry throughout their life. Teachers want to believe that they are what shape a child’s mind, and politicians caress themselves hoping that Common Core will unite the nation’s children to a government-run message of productivity. But in reality, cartoons are shaping young people and giving them the foundation thoughts which take them into adulthood.
This is why I am currently ecstatic over the new Disney production of the Star Wars: Rebels animated series coming to the Disney XD channel this fall. Shown within the videos on these pages are the main characters and the content. I think the show will be unlike anything ever done on television since Disney produced Zorro, and Davy Crockett for a generation who now attends Tea Party rallies. When I talk to Tea Party types and really get down to the nitty-gritty with them what they want is justice as defined for them by the temperament created by those old shows from the 50s and 60s. It’s more complicated than that of course, but the foundations of their thoughts are rooted in the values of those old Disney productions–having a mom and a dad at the dinner table with them, and church on Sundays. They find the behavior of the current political trend reprehensible, and this leads to a desire for rebellion. This is the primary cause of most discontent discourse throughout the world—specifically in the Ukraine, in Syria, even on college campuses.
Star Wars: Rebels has the ability to explore the nature of rebellion without it being explicitly investigated by earthly reference. The creators at Lucasfilm have the ability to explore the deep anxieties of the individual spirit to crave freedom without being political. They don’t have to deal with race relations, political parties, economic philosophy, or any polarizing trait—they can simply tell the story of how a rebellion formed to overthrow an empire. It’s a deep human craving that transcends party politics and because of that, I think this is the most important story that will be told in my life time. I’m sure it will be fun, and entertaining, but more than that—it is giving to a new generation of young people a sense of value—a value that is not presently available to them.
I think often about Popeye the Sailor and some of his messages which were “I am what I am and that’s all that I am,” and Wimpy’s statements about, “I’ll pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.” These basic values I have taken with me throughout my life. Wimpy’s comments taught me a great deal about debt, while Popeye was always very proud of who he was—flaws and all. I know how much those simple stories meant to me, and I can only imagine how much impact the new Star Wars: Rebels will have on a new generation of young people. The previous Star Wars cartoon; The Clone Wars on The Cartoon Network after five seasons is just now starting to have an impact on a very skeptical viewing audience. I watched every single episode many times. My wife and I watch them together on Saturday mornings and love them dearly. But in many ways, Rebels will be a lot better. Clone Wars for me always felt like a modern commentary on our current situation. I’m sure the film makers had no intention of doing such a thing—these things have happened over human history many times and aren’t specific to our time. But there is always a little sadness in knowing that all the heroics performed in Clone Wars will result in the creation of the Empire. In Rebels, the Empire is already in control. Now it is up to heroes to save their society from the control of tyrants and that is an important distinction.
Millions of young people are going to watch Star Wars: Rebels and it will become their favorite television show. They will grow up and take those messages, and values with them into their adult lives just as modern-day older people revere the good ol’ days of Disney shows like Davey Crockett and Zorro. As simple as that sounds, it really is the foundation principles behind most thought processes. Just as people from my generation think differently because of the static patterns given to them from their entertainment culture—particularly cartoons, new cartoons like Star Wars: Rebels will have a far greater impact. I would say that it is the most important contemporary work of art currently being done anywhere in the world because it brings with it through story value.
For many, they will dismiss Star Wars: Rebels as just another cartoon designed to sell action figures at Target and Wal-Mart. But it’s more than that, and will show the real impact on television this fall. Needless to say I’m excited about it because there will be dramatic change ushered in behind this simple cartoon. With the distribution power of Disney, they are uniquely positioned to do great good in the world and Rebels is just the start. When George Lucas sat down to close the Star Wars deal at the Brown Derby at Hollywood Studios in Florida he knew what he was doing. His Skywalker Ranch had been set up specifically for the purpose of creating such wonderful shows like Star Wars: Rebels. Lucas knows that education is the most important thing you can give young people, and he knows that public education is failing. That’s why he has spent a considerable amount of his fortune on education. Much of that money has been wasted on the current education system, like tossing a cup of water into the ocean and expecting to see the waters rise in proportion. Real education comes from foundation patterns, and in our society, cartoons are the origin. This is why millions of people flock to Disney World to retouch the stories of their youth and bring renewed appreciation to lives otherwise plagued by cynicism. Star Wars: Rebels will mean a great deal to a large number of young and old minds, and the sum of that value will be a benefit to us all.
Great leadership is not being taught in the many classrooms across the world. In those places instructions by people who are only scratching the surface of understanding are bold attempts to lead a team to victory. Only a handful of people in the entire world understand—sadly, but lucky for me the Glazer family in Tampa Bay is one of them. The owners of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers understand that leadership is not so much in the obvious recognition of being a leader—it is in setting the table so that others can succeed as individuals. The Glazers were the first to have a pirate ship in their north end zone that fires cannons when the team scores. They are experiencing two of their first players going into the Hall Of Fame under their ownership in Warren Sapp and Derrick Brooks with more on the way. They have produced many coaches for the NFL who have went to other teams and had great success, and they have produced several players and coaches who are now in the broadcast booth. The Glazers in Tampa are trend setters who benefit the NFL experience in ways that nobody in this current time will ever give them credit for—but years down the road in hindsight will be recognized as the most modern-day molders of the success in the NFL. It’s all about setting the table for unlocking individual success for the goals of a team—and the Glazers understand how to do that. When an idea of theirs does not work, they quickly get off it and try something new which is unique to them. Over the last 5 years the Bucs have made four coaching changes and recently after a 4 and 12 year they fired the entire coaching staff and front office for a complete rebuild with old Buccaneer coaches and players to launch a new decade of dominance. And to put a period at the end of their intentions, the Glazers have decided to remarket themselves with new uniforms that are quite spectacular and have the potential to unlock in their players, coaches and fans a new generation of Hall of Fame producing players that will take their organization where they want to go. It’s all about setting the table so that everyone else can enjoy the meal they’ve prepared. The Glazers are setting the table for the NFL’s next ten years with leadership that is uncommon in its scope and understanding.
I’m not keen on the high school and college process of vetting great players for the NFL. I don’t want to support public education just so that a school can produce the next Warren Sapp, or Gerald McCoy. It is up to talent scouts to find the kids to fill the game of football, not tax payers to fund the process from the front—even though that is how it’s done. But regardless of that, I do enjoy the game of football for a lot of reasons—most of them because of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. For 17 years I have watched the old uniforms and emblems released by the Glazers revolutionize the NFL. If the Bucs have not been the greatest influence on the game of football, I can’t imagine who else has been. While most of the sports related press focuses on quarterbacks, running backs and the stats in the win column, the Bucs invented the Tampa Two defense, and the kind of marketing that has generated tremendous revenue for every team in the league. It is because of the Bucs that the Patriots fire their muskets when they score—in direct answer the Buccaneer cannons in Tampa. It is because of the Bucs that other teams sought more aggressive color schemes as it is well documented how the Bucs have a higher winning percentage when they wear their red jerseys. Since 1997 when there was a uniform change the Bucs had a swagger about them that seemed provoked by their new uniforms which carried them to several playoff appearances culminating into a Superbowl win. The uniforms were so hated by other teams that the Oakland Raiders actually filed a law suit against the Bucs in 2003 which was thrown out due to the fact that it was filed in a California court while intellectual property issues are handled by federal courts.
Everyone is looking for an advantage. Most NFL players are as good as all the other ones, and most of the coaches are just as good as everyone else. So to gain a tactical advantage, team owners are always looking for the right leadership traits to carry their teams to higher levels of revenue streams. The best way to do that is to win and after a series of failed attempts to find the right coaching staff to carry the Buccaneers to a return to constant playoff appearances—the Glazers elected to spend the money on a complete makeover from top to bottom—even down to the uniforms. There is nothing better to unite the minds of the young players on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers team than being the first to have such an audacious helmet with the proud flag displayed boldly on the side, or having a chrome grill on their helmets. The Bucs a few years ago were the first to use iPads for their playbook, and now have a reputation of always looking for the latest and greatest in technical innovation to give their players an advantage over their opponents who are often just as good if not better.
People who have worked with me in the past are often frustrated that I do not care much for traditional management priorities. Rather I spend most of my effort on team building and setting the table for other people to have success. My success is when I remove the opposition for others to have success so that I can utilize a strategy of my choosing using the mass of a team to overwhelm the barriers of the task I want to achieve. That is easier said than done and won’t cause me any lost opportunities to reveal here. Often doing such things is like dragging a herd of donkeys up Mt. Everest one by one. The trick isn’t so much as seeing how it’s done, but knowing what to do and when. I do a lot of speeches, hand punching and deep psychological analysis to discover how to uncover hidden human potential—because it is there that an advantage always resides. Most people are skilled, and in the NFL everyone is fast, everyone is strong, everyone is smart—so to gain an advantage other elements have to come into play.
The Glazers understand this very well. When you land at Tampa International Airport, the Buccaneer flag that flies over One Buc Place—the training facility for the football team, is unmistakably huge. You can see it clearly from the airport. There is nothing like it anywhere in the country. When players come to Tampa to play for the Bucs they have to look up at that giant flag which essentially greets everyone who visits the Tampa area by air. The players have to live up to that high level of commitment provided by the Glazers represented by that giant flag.
I have spent many Sunday afternoons watching Tampa Bay Buccaneer football games and have seen a lot of excitement over the years—even when they lose. There is almost always a swagger about the Bucs which makes their football games more exciting. But that swagger does not come so much from the players, but from the Glazers who set the table for that swagger to find a home. The swagger comes from untouched human potential locked away from the world through various social restrictions. The Glazers ignore those restrictions so to unlock that potential for their use—and they are far more right than wrong. I fire cannons off my front porch when the Bucs score because the Glazers started the trend. I have enjoyed my game experiences in Tampa so much that I seek to duplicate Raymond James Stadium at my house on Sundays. I hang my flags everywhere—a few of which were actually given to me by the Glazer family, and I blast smoke machines all over the house and create quite a festive environment. I have yelled so loud at the television during some of these games that I have shattered glass. Nobody sleeps in my house during a Buccaneer football game, because they are exciting, and that excitement was created by the Glazers—not so much the players themselves. The player potential was always there, but the Glazers unlocked it for the entertainment of the fans.
Now with the new uniforms, this will only increase and I am excited about it. On the night of the announcement seen on the first video above with Warren Sapp revealing the new logo my wife was begging me for an evening in the hot tub—which would normally be a coveted activity. But I told her that I had to see the Buccaneers new logo first. Once I saw it we could get in. She came to me in a state of seductive undress, but the NFL Network indicated that it would be the last story of their broadcast, so I held up my finger to wait another 15 minutes. She then pleaded with me to turn it on at the hot tub, but I was glued to the screen. I wanted to see the new logo on the biggest screen possible. Finally, after waiting all day—and watching the NFL Network for 50 minutes, Warren Sapp revealed the new helmet and the next decade of my life flashed before me. The old uniform entertained my children as they watched my excitement during Buccaneer football games hoping the Bucs would score so I would yell at the television and fire off the cannons from our porch filling the house with smoke. Most of the time the smoke is so thick that nobody can even see the television. Now the new uniforms will usher my grandchildren into the same kind of behavior because the new logo is exciting and will lead to many more exciting games giving me something to cheer for—if only because it’s so cool.
I love the new uniforms and the Buccaneers as an organization who understand that leadership is not in the observable feats, but the hidden ones. Sometimes it really is as simple as a uniform change—and in this case—it’s a change that will have a dramatic impact on a team who really needed it. The table for success has been set, and now it’s time to eat. But the cuisine is not chicken, mashed potatoes, and corn on the cob—it’s the competition. And they are ripe for mass consumption.
Congratulations to the 1851 Center for making the Ohio Education Association “ENEMY LIST” as provided on the agenda page of their OEA 2014 Collective Bargaining Conference which can be seen in full at the bottom of this article. I have been on their enemy list for a number of years and am very proud of it, specifically covered on Session H-1 during this conference and H-4 EXPOSING OUR ENEMIES: ANTI-UNION AND ANTI-PUBLIC EDUCATION FORCES, parts I and II. It is good to have such social parasites name you as an enemy. It’s like a cockroach damning your name just before your foot crushes it—it makes you feel good. As far as education, these OEA members are the cockroaches of our children’s lives. They are openly destroying their minds with a war against traditional value replacing those values with a progressive education that will doom them for life—and that is something which should anger every single person with a child in a public school.
Oh, you don’t believe me? Then dear reader, watch this video.
I have said much on this issue and have been in front of it for a number of years. So I’d like to welcome the 1851 Center to the position behind the battle lines with me with great fanfare. Please enjoy the press release from Maurice Thompson from that center covering their response to this new honor. It is wonderful to learn that these government unions see a group dedicated to preserving Ohio Constitutional Law as their enemy—because it reveals what the OEA has always been about. The pressure we have applied to them has revealed their true intentions all along—which is confirmation of all the years I’ve made the statements against them.
1851 Center responds to unearthed Ohio Education Association “Agenda.”
Columbus, OH – The 1851 Center for Constitutional Law today issued the following response to news that Ohio’s largest teachers union, the Ohio Education Association, has named it to its “enemies” list:
Today, the 1851 Center learned that OEA invests its time in identifying its enemies, and that deliberating on how to “deal” with them.
The Agenda for the OEA 2014 Collective Bargaining Conference outlines its “Critical Issues Sessions.”
What the OEA “considers critical” is identifying and destroying its “enemies.” Session H of the OEA’s annual meeting was entitled “Exposing Our Enemies: Anti-Union and Anti-Public Education Forces.” There, the OEA explains, “Participants will learn the scope and main goals of key local and national anti-union and anti-public education groups pushing the corporate school reform agenda. Participants will explore key major opposition and corporate reform players, including the Koch brothers, Students First, ALEC, Tea Party Patriots, the 1851 Center for Constitutional Law, and the Ohio School Board Leadership Council. Participants will learn how to identify . . . enemies and key players in their own communities. . . ”
Equally disturbing, the other “critical” sessions were largely devoted to how these government employees could obtain less accountability and more public funds for themselves at taxpayer expense: Collective Bargaining, Negotiations, Compensation, Teacher Rights and Working Conditions, Bargaining Teacher Evaluations, and ensuring the rights of lesbian, gay, transgender, and bisexual employees.
Not one of these sessions concern how to become a better teacher. That apparently is not considered “critical.”
These are the people who have captured the power to educate Ohioans’ children and intercept Ohioans’ funds. And this is, literally, their agenda.
They did not share this agenda willingly. But we will share ours.
We support defending constitutional rights and limiting government. As to education, this simply means the following:
Freedom of educational choice for Ohio parents and children.
Fiscal restraint and responsibility, rather than persistently resorting to increasing property and income taxes to fund public school districts.
Freedom for Ohioans who are or wish to become teachers to decide for themselves whether to pay a labor union.
Transparent ballot language and no use of public resources to pass levies.
Are these principles “anti-union” or “anti-education”? You decide.
But if supporting freedom of choice, educational opportunity, limited taxation, and fiscal responsibility makes us an enemy of the Ohio Education Association, then we proudly stand as an enemy of the Ohio Education Association; and we are honored to appear on this list. Perhaps dissimilar from the OEA, our allegiance is to the betterment of Ohioans and their children; not to the union self-interest that consistently operates to their detriment.
The 1851 Center maintains that Ohioans would be better served with public servants who spend more time concerning themselves with educating Ohioans’ children, and less time attempting to plot political victories and milk already-struggling Ohio taxpayers.
But this won’t happen under our current set of rules; and so it’s time for those rules to change.
We remain committed to protecting you and your family from these people.
So what is going on in the videos below where the new Tea Party majority school board at West Clermont is running up against the heavily entrenched education union establishment? If you watch the videos provided you will see what appears to be three Tea Party oriented school board members being exposed openly for their lack of internal understanding by the two entrenched pro labor union supporters. The primary issue of contention is the desire of the three to change district attorneys who are protested by the two and a majority of the radicalized audience. What is most telling is the insistence by the two pro union school board members to mire down the management process into a collective unity where minor decisions are discussed by the group at large. This of course is how it is supposed to be, but these types for decades have used such red tape to advance government expanding agendas by wearing down their opposition arguing over little things when the big things get lost in the details. The argument over preserving the current legal counsel who is in tuned to “education” interest as opposed to a new attorney firm that is rooted in business and commerce tells the entire story. The education attorney obviously represents the union interests to the appeasement of the collective mob. The business oriented law firm obviously leans in the direction of management—which is the school board. That single issue articulates the entire debate and makes the two pro union supporters on the school board obvious violators of the public tax revenue. Watch the videos for yourself.
Obviously there are fellow school reformers in that district which I am affiliated with and I inquired about this with them for clarification—which they provided. There is a large organized effort to defame, demonize and dethrone the three conservative board members now in majority there. This started before they even were sworn in literally once the election results were finalized, by the prior board and school administrator’s that may have broken the same Sunshine Law they claim current board members have in that video. This is the way it always is with these government employees, they cite the law when they want something and ignore it when it works against them.
The woman on the far right of the screen doing most of the talking is Tammy Brinkman. Jim Lewis who is one of the Tea Party school board members should take “action” against her as she went around the school district slandering Jim’s name indicating that he was convicted of domestic violence, when in fact it was not true. She said so much to many people on election day, even right next to a lawyer for the county who by reaction should provide testimony. Jim should take that action otherwise that Brinkman lady will continue to be corrosive to the process of reform.
The man next to her is even stranger. His name is Steve Waldmann, and he is a member of Jim Lewis’ church and is a supposed friend of his. He was promoted by Jim, and endorsed by the PAC run through local conservatives to elect conservative candidates. What occurred next, however, was a political Benedict Arnold move. The guy showed up at a gathering to plan their coming agenda and told the three conservatives that he hates the Tea Party, and indicated that he wanted to be president of the board. He verbally abused all these people. At that point, he formed an alliance with Ms. Brinkman. It was also known that he was good friends with the former superintendent, Gary Brooks, but Jim didn’t think (and regrettably still doesn’t think) Steve would break ranks. If Jim wants to be smart, he’ll not trust this guy any longer as he has revealed his cards in the video. The betrayal is obvious against the three school board members who spent most of the meeting speechless and floored—but they should expect this. These education people are crazy—deeply entrenched and are using the same old tricks that they always have to drive up their labor costs, their ridiculous vacation schedules, and maniacal work hours. The only way to deal with them is to crush them spiritually, and by process—otherwise they will seek to crush the conservative school board members the other way. There won’t be any hand holding with these pro-government school people. They won’t compromise, yield, or be reasonable—so the only move against them is to crush them. Jim and the gang have to possess the heart to do so—otherwise more meetings will occur just like the one seen above.
Thirdly, there is a person who came in dead last in the election that is involved in all this as well. His name is David Schaeff, an IRS employee with young kids not yet in school. He is allegedly furious at the election results and is working in tandem with these people, and the group West Clermont United–more or less levy supporters who are more rabid than usual because of their sudden loss of control. He wants to embarrass the new school board members as much as he was embarrassed on Election Day. He appears to be out for revenge.
Lastly, the three people in the majority are not strong people. They are common everyday people and are in fact the type of people who should be school board members. They represent the interests of their school district and are far from polished professionals. They are unprepared, and outmatched in this fight. These people are nice and mean well, but ill-suited for the job. There is little focus and not one of them has the ability to speak with authority on any matter. They deserve some of the criticism, but this stuff would not occur if they were better organized. So they need to get organized and polish themselves a bit into more sharpened edges, because things will only get worse and they need the resolve to do what they need to do. They have the majority, and the high ground, so they need to use it with confidence. The fact that they are not polished is a strength of theirs, and they need to use it to bring in people to the process who are otherwise too intimidated by people like Brinkman to participate. Their naïveté is an asset, and they need to utilize it in direct contrast to the entrenched union machine and all their cronies.
The site Plunderbund (left-wing union site) has put a target lock on West Clermont. This Sunshine law alleged violation is being put forth via those 2 board members, and David Schaeff. Schaeff looks to have filed a FOIA request for district documents and communication related to the matter. Regardless they will allege what they can and will for the foreseeable future until one of the three, or all of them punch the pro-government school people square in the nose metaphorically. The two losers are upset that they aren’t in control and really wanted to be Pres./Vice-Pres. It really does come down to power and what gets lost in all of this is any effort to care for the “children.” It’s all about the teachers, administrators and their control of the education funding for their own interests and nobody else.
So there is a lot more going on than meets the eye—of course. But the summery is that the Tea Party oriented school board members need to prepare themselves better for a fight and not just assume that their majority will give them the ability to solve problems. The other two school board members have openly advocated that they intend to mire the board down in processing regulation and inaction so to embarrass the three and regain the majority protecting the union solidarity of West Clermont. So my advice to them would be to stop playing so nice and treat them accordingly. And show up for the meetings ready for the kind of nonsense they saw in the start of 2014, because it will only get worse unless the challenge is met head on. There is a reason that the Plunderbund site has a fist as their symbol. That isn’t for hand shaking—it’s for fighting—and is the only way to beat those people. If they don’t get their way, they intend violence legally or illegally—so provoke them into making the first move so that the media can finally see what they are all about.
For anybody who thinks Doc Thompson and Skip LaCombe’s lambasting of the global warming advocates during their below radio show on The Blaze—heard daily at 6 AM to 9 AM—is unfair, wait until you hear this next story. But first, Doc had a good time with the sheer stupidity of Barack Obama and John Kerry’s gallivants around the world costing massive amounts of emissions from their private airplanes to speak specifically on global warming issues. The hypocrisy is quite obvious—and articulated with great fanfare during the following broadcast. Listen to it here:
Well, as stupid as all that sounded, it’s not even the dumbest of the global warming advocates most recent approach. Al Gore—who is the poster boy for global warming because of his Academy Award winning film on the matter has turned to fear of alien invasion so to propose a continued belief in the mystical field of global warming. If there was any indication on how weak the green movement’s real position truly was it is seen below with a flyer Gore issued through his group Climate Reality Project.org which was passed out at the 2014 International UFO Congress.
Truth is often stranger than fiction, and Al Gore’s missives are often stranger than both. Robert Schaefer writes:
I just got back from the 2014 International UFO Congress, the largest UFO conference in the world, where somebody was passing out the following to the attendees (a double-sided paper on orange stock). Looks like Al Gore is using Extraterrestrials to help fight Global Warming!
You can see the actual flyer at the link below—it is hilarious.
KEEP EARTH COOL, KEEP ALIENS OUT is what the flyer says boldly on one of the two sides. It goes on to say, “Did you ever wonder why aliens haven’t colonized Earth yet? They need earth to warm up first!” Yes—the global warming advocates have turned to alien invasion as their primary reason to advance their “green” agenda. They are advancing the argument of a literal alien invasion if the earth becomes too warm.
Obviously this is a laughable proposal. What science are they basing any of this on? How many aliens has Al Gore’s group interviewed to determine that they are waiting for the earth to warm up before they invade? The answer is none of course. Yet the declaration was presented as a literal fact—just as they do all their global warming data. Gore like the rest of his progressive friends believe something—so therefore to their minds—it becomes a reality. They commit this crime against reality with virtually everything from their avocation of economic socialism to civil rights violations. They are always looking for their interpretation of reality over what actual reality presents.
Al Gore is a con man selling snake oil as an elixir to all aliments. The basic concept that mankind can completely terraform the entire earth is audaciously naive. Mankind with all their cities, roads, and machines are simply colonies of a species not much different from a beaver who builds a dam across a river, or a bug that collects leaves to build a nest. Mankind is an animal who uses the tools of the environment to advance itself. Global environmentalist, as Doc and Skip made wonderful fun of, are insisting that human evolution needs to stop right at this moment and that our species actually needs to regress into a hut dwelling culture fearful of everything and everyone. Since fewer people are accepting Al Gore’s present arguments they have turned to preposterous levels of fear now to continue their advance—which should clearly indicate how flimsy their argument was from the very beginning.
The global greenie nut case is a small-minded person who is technically a sub human—meaning they have undeveloped intellects unable to grasp the voracious volume of earth and space in general. Earth will not be around forever, and the sun will burn out in a few billion years so if mankind wants to survive beyond these events—they need to head into space—otherwise it will be all over sooner or later. This is a fact. But to suggest that there are fleets of aliens in space waiting for earth to heat up so that they can invade is a new low that is beyond rational comprehension. Yet Gore’s group passed out the material anyway without a care in the world to the actual nature of reality.
This alone is why no advocate of “green science” should be given the time of day—specifically Barack Obama, and John Kerry. They are of the same mind arrived at by the same methods. They are all former pot smoking hippies who concocted these theories in marijuana smoke and their political roots into progressivism and the philosophy of Immanuel Kant. They were given the benefit of the doubt in the beginning, but now the science has caught up to them. Now as their theories have been disproven they have resorted to alien invasion so to provoke enough fear from the masses to continue supporting their stupid global warming hypothesis. Luckily, people are finally starting call them out on it. That was never truer than Doc and Skip on The Blaze Radio Network. The job of the media is to expose this kind of stupidity, and at least with Doc’s radio show—Al Gore isn’t getting a free pass—as he never should have in the first place.
I think Polaha is the perfect John Galt, which was something I was very concerned about. One thing that became very evident to me while watching the film rendition of Ender’s Game recently is that the film was too intellectual to achieve blockbuster status in Hollywood. I remember when Blade Runner first appeared and was considered a box office disaster. It was because the film was way out in front of the Hollywood trend in 1982. Ender’s Game was very good, but people not familiar with the book would likely be lost. The film cost a lot of money and barely made back its production value with a worldwide take. Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley and a wonderful performance by several young actors could not compete with Thor which came out a week later and soaked up the box office dollars. Ender’s Game was considered by modern Hollywood standards to be a box office failure—but so was Blade Runner which is now considered a masterpiece of science fiction. Many years from now Ender’s Game will be considered in much the same way. It is a very intellectual film, and difficult for pop culture enthusiasts to embrace. In many ways, this is the case of the Atlas Shrugged films. The work that John Aglialoro put into these three films has been astonishing and will not be appreciated in the short run with gigantic box office takes—but many years down the road. The Atlas films will be known as a benchmark for change in Hollywood, and the type of films they produce—and the kind of material that home theater owners wish to devour. The fart jokes and topless teen films of old will give way to the intellectually stimulating films of Ender’s Game and Atlas Shrugged Part III because there is value in those later productions which has staying power where the old models of mindless Hollywood tripe is presently outdated and due for extinction.
Aglialoro has been a resilient figure of sheer tenacity. I admire the guy greatly. He had the film rights to Atlas Shrugged for many years and has succeeded where box office Hollywood tycoons like Clint Eastwood, Angelina Jolie and several others failed. Hollywood did not want to make Atlas Shrugged, which is the second most popular book in the Library of Congress behind only The Bible. The message of Ayn Rand’s work is one of true individual freedom, particularly intellectually—and this has operated counter to the message of progressivism which took over Hollywood studios in conjunction to Rand’s work on Objectivism philosophy. Aglialoro did not make much money on the first two films which I enjoyed. He took a massive beating from critics, but anyone who has read The Fountainhead understands why those critics hated the first two Atlas Shrugged films. Ayn Rand understood it clearly, and so does John and Harmon Kaslow whom I’ve had the pleasure of meeting a time or two. Kaslow is another one of the producers, and I think is a wonderful guy. CLICK HERE TO REVIEW. I was very touched by Harmon when he was in Cincinnati and we talked about the impact that the Atlas films was having on literature. He admitted then how much working on these films had changed his life. There was an authenticity to him that was obvious, as if he had just discovered for the first time in his life a real Galt’s Galch. These guys were making a movie not so much for the box office success, but in dedication to a philosophy that was unique and formed on the heels of thousands of years of human failure. The first two films are basically set up movies for the final act which will be Atlas Shrugged Part III. It will be the first film where the mythical John Galt finally makes an appearance and it is there that the overall philosophy of the previous two films come together. Aglialoro could have simply backed out of the project after the harsh criticism of Part II, but he retooled and came back with a vengeance for Part III and made an excellent casting decision with Kristoffer Polaha.
Even four years later people are just now discovering for the first time Part I and Part II. When they watch them on DVD and Netflix they are then discovering Rand’s written works and delving into them carefully. This has been a pattern that takes some time. For some people this journey could take 10 to 15 years to fully comprehend some of the concepts. When the films were first released only people who were already intellectually comprehending Objectivism were able to understand the John Galt message. So many people were raised on various degrees of collectivism from all political facets that they simply couldn’t put their mind around the ideas conveyed in the movies. Critics were actually terrified of the ramifications of a John Galt approach to life in the way that a child afraid of the monster in their closet feels exposed when the covers of their bed is ripped away leaving them open and vulnerable to the darkness. Their hatred of the Atlas Shrugged films were not in the production values as they declared—which were quite good—it was in the vulnerability that the film’s content exposed in them intellectually.
Aglialoro had to create a production company that could make an Atlas Shrugged type of film because nobody in the entertainment industry was prepared to do that kind of work. This is no different from when George Lucas had to invent Industrial Light and Magic to create Star Wars. In 1975 and 1976 there were no special effects companies able to make Star Wars, so Lucas had to create them—even though special effects films had been done in the past. As time went on, the Star Wars films got better as Industrial Light and Magic gained skill. Lucas was so embarrassed by the first Star Wars film by his standards that he went back and fixed his issues with the 1997 Special Editions. In the same way, Aglialoro has become more proficient as a film producer. The Atlas Shrugged movies have increasingly grown in quality with each one climaxing into Part III. The difference between Atlas Shrugged and Star Wars is that the later took everyone by surprise where the former had an entrenched Hollywood machine defense against it. Hollywood is still uneasy with all this new production ability that people outside of their studios have access to. They loved the days when anyone who wanted to make a movie had to come to them—and they could control what was green lit, and what got rejected. Now anyone who wants to make a movie can, and Hollywood hates it—because it means change that is not to their advantage.
Movies are about ideals and the visual format presents them in a way that makes concepts assessable to regular people who might not otherwise read a 1000 page book and a speech from John Galt that takes three straight hours. There are certainly plenty of collectivist films made, but very few that represent values of true individual achievement. Ender’s Game was certainly one of these films—where one little kid in his teens became the savior of Earth with a rigorous level of skill and competition which fell fully on his shoulders. There was nobody else who could do his job—and that is a message that the current entertainment culture despises. They want altruistic films about sharing and overcoming faults—not an Overman who literally carries the entire world on their shoulders the way Ender Wiggans did, or John Galt does in Atlas Shrugged Part III. Hollywood used to make those types of films with John Wayne, Zorro, and the Lone Ranger, but they moved into less strong characters that were more appealing to the “everyman” and their belching, farting grossness.” This left few studios to even understand how to approach a film like Atlas Shrugged. So John Aglialoro had to create a production company that could make a film like Atlas Shrugged Part III. The endeavor was not easy, but the world will be better off because he fought through tremendous opposition to deliver the final, and likely the best film of the Atlas series.
Kristoffer Polaha is the perfect John Galt. He’s a person of value; he loves his wife, his children and is extremely charismatic. During the interview above he made it a point to explain that he was a man of religion and was a wonderful find from the Atlas production guys. Even though I have made comparisons to Star Wars when discussing the path to actually making a film like Atlas III the void is not a technical one—it’s a philosophic one. In this respect Atlas Shrugged Part III and the films which came before it are more likely to resemble the box office prowess of a film like Trouble with the Curve by Clint Eastwood. These are not films that will smash box office records because they are more intellectual than action oriented. In the case of the Atlas films, they are about big philosophic ideals which run counter to the current mainstream, and take time to be accepted by the movie going public. In that regard, Kristoffer’s rendition of John Galt is likely to resonate for decades as the character has the potential to be as impactful to society as Clint Eastwood’s Man With No Name character from the Leone westerns. The difference between the characters is essentially Galt uses philosophy, where Eastwood’s “No Name” character used a gun. Both stand for individuality in raw form and will resonate powerfully to the movie going public. But the nature of the delivery will be unusual, and will take audiences time to adjust to.
John Galt is literally one of the strongest characters to ever be introduced to a story. Galt does not have the crutch of a superpower, or even financial means. He is not the quickest gunman, or the best pilot—he is simply the best at everything and is without a flaw of any kind, which is difficult for traditional narrative story telling. John Galt is unique to the world of literature and film—and audiences will be confronted with a problem in dealing with him. Women will love him because as anybody who knows anything understands that the number one trait women crave in a man is confidence—followed closely by smell. John Galt played by Kristoffer Polaha will cause women to swoon in a big way. They will LOVE John Galt. For men, they will have a much more difficult problem. Girly men, movie critics, progressive psychopaths, and men easily dominated by their wives will not understand John Galt and will not have context to relate. They may enjoy the message of John Galt from a libertarian point of view—but the character himself will not be one that they will relate to. It’s not like they can go out and buy a new Hummer because Arnold drives one, or join a gym to get big muscles like Sylvester Stallone—John Galt will require men to build their minds up intellectually to even comprehend the character and that will take a number of years. That is the primary reason nobody but John Aglialoro has attempted to bring John Galt to the screen in all these years. Several have tried, but nobody has succeeded because the task in doing so meant that Aglialoro had to build a production company from the bottom up just to comprehend the character of John Galt. For those who have not read the book the nature of the character upon their first introduction will be difficult—like meeting an alien from another world for the first time who comes from a much more advanced culture. John Galt is that type of character.
John Galt is the product of American philosophy—not the work the Scottish, the English, or the Greeks. He is not molded from the minds of the orient. He is not a god from South Pacific legend or a Norse god from the icy Arctic waters. He is uniquely a product of American philosophy created during a time when the benefits of 100 years of American achievement produced the most powerful country on earth which began to be attacked under the European premise of progressivism. This period would be approximately 1790 to 1890. Galt is a rejection of that European premise of progressivism infecting American culture from 1890 to the present and is a direct product of American ingenuity, and a commentary on what it means to be born free in The United States. John Galt has the potential to be to America what Miyamoto Mushasi is to Japan, or King Author is to Europe. John Galt is a character of epic scale and to play him the producers wisely found just the right guy in Kristoffer Polaha. John Galt is all about viewing productive enterprise as a creative endeavor. For Galt, creating a new railroad, a new building, or a new kind of metal, electrical power, or any technical achievement is the highest work of art—more important than the Mona Lisa or the collected works of Edger Allen Poe and his cut off ear. The businessman is not a symbol of greed and decadence the way 100 years of progressivism have instructed 99.999999999999% of society. But an act of the highest moral order and that is something that is very unique from a narrative standpoint that is not easily accepted, and is declarative against those who fall short of that vision.
As I watched the proceedings on the last day of shooting during Valentines Day, as everyone just wound down after the aggressive 20-day shoot I realized I was watching history in the making. It is a kind of slow cook that will not make a huge splash in box office numbers right out of the gate. It will sort of simmer for a decade or two like many of the progressive policies did on the backs of several occult mystics and superstitious knuckleheads from the past. Atlas Shrugged Part III is an achievement, like climbing a tall mountain that nobody thought possible and those who hoped nobody ever would using superstition to keep anybody from even trying. But John Aglialoro and a small army of dedicated supporters did, and the result will appear in around 500 theaters this upcoming fall of 2014. And the world will be a lot better off because of it—which makes me immensely proud.
Soon the world will know who John Galt is, and particularly women, will fall in love with him. Kristoffer Polaha will be the dream of millions of women who want a spouse like him, and millions of men will yearn to be.
The Gunfighter's Guide: 