Rich Hoffman's Blog, page 462
January 7, 2013
The Empty Feeling of Sports: Why my nickname used to be “The Animal”
The comments I’m about to make require context since much of our current society is built around the importance of sports. When I was in high school, my nickname was “The Animal” because of my particularly violent style of play in team sports. Every coach and gym teacher I ever had tried hard to convince me to sacrifice my afternoons and weekends in pursuit of some ridiculous “team” concept with practices for football, track, baseball, basketball and anything else that required strength, endurance, incredible coordination, speed, charm and personal determination—because I’ve always had plenty of those attributes and often they wanted to ride my back to their own glories. By default, I sometimes caved under the pressure as a youngster and would feel bad about it later—which is why I don’t “cave” to anybody or anything as an adult—but needless to say I would agree to play soccer to shut everybody up. Since I didn’t care about making a living as an athlete, getting a pat on the head from a coach, having the support and friendship of my team mates, or getting an ice cream from my own parents, It created many opportunities for me to show why people called me “The Animal.” I was hated by the opposing teams and that aspect was virtually the only reason I played organized sports at all until I could drive a car on my own and earn my personal freedom by working and earning my own money. When I could drive a car, my days of being driven to organized sports practices ended immediately—as I would not do such a thing out of my own self-interest. And I never have looked back with reverence at those days like many adults do as middle-agers and wish I could do it again. I did it right the first time, and I have no regrets. Some people felt I threw away massive amounts of talent because I did not “exploit” my athletic abilities. What they fail to realize is that by preventing myself from being exploited, that I preserved my core integrity which affords me the ability to say what I say below with authenticity.
As I mentioned yesterday (CLICK HERE FOR REVIEW) I noticed that grown adults were obsessed with information for the big BCS game between Alabama and Notre Dame, the playoff game between The Bengals and The Texans, and the wall to wall news coverage concerning sports statistics that mean nothing. Considering that our nation has just went over the “fiscal cliff” and requires some serious consideration by the minds of those who run our American Republic they are too busy thinking about trivial nonsense involved with sports to do their jobs as caretakers of our society. Organized sports are the harbinger of fools—it occupies their minds in a way that is pointless. For instance, with all the effort given by The Cincinnati Enquirer toward the Bengals playoff game, and all the wall-to-wall hours of discussion on talk radio and cable television dedicate to Andy Dalton and the gang what good came of any of it? The Bengals lost yet again. The teams that won will advance, the teams that lost have their seasons ended. Whoever wins the Super Bowl will be forgotten within two weeks after the game is played so what was the point? The same for the BCS title game, who will remember the victory in February?
Now again, I understand the drama of sports. My favorite football team is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. My wife and I have been known to fly down to Tampa just to watch a game at their very cool stadium. But there has never been a great victory or a sports moment so grand that it eclipsed the experience I’ve had reading even a mediocre book. Reading for me is much more powerful because it is the ultimate individually based endeavor—whereas sports are shared—collective experiences—and if you read here often then it is already known what a big “no, no” that is. I would say that much of the reason our current society is so sick, is because of the distraction it has with sports and the mental investment in collective based endeavors.
Many colleges are supported with tuitions because of their sports programs. Many public schools receive community support because of their sporting programs. Many kids play sports so they can get scholarships to attend university so they can play sports for that school and help sell the entire university with sporting events that have nothing to do with scholastic aptitude or the advancement of the human mind. Public schools even shut down and have a “pep rally” for the entire school before a big game to unify the eyes and ears of the students, their parents, and everyone else around the community. So it is very important to our modern society who wins and who loses a sporting event. For the winners it often means more money and community support of higher taxes or tuition–for the losers it means constantly reshuffling coaching staffs so people can hope to have a victory in the future.
But in the end, the victories are forgotten within days, and the loses are painted over—and nobody really cares. This fascination with sports is no different from the mob during the Roman Empire’s fascination with gladiator arena games. The fascination with barbaric games is the sign of a society in decline, and America is on that path led by the education institutions that should stand against such a thought. They betray their own cause with an hypocrisy that cannot be forgiven or rationalized.
In the case of the Cincinnati Bengals, because of their foolish love of sports, the entire city has ignored that the owner—Mike Brown, has robbed the community of many millions of dollars through the Paul Brown Stadium deal to provide a mediocre product that occasionally goes to the playoffs. His product otherwise ties up prime real-estate downtown with only eight games a year yet people accept it because they look forward every day with many thousands of dollars in personal investment toward a game like what happened on Saturday January 5th 2013 between the Bengals and the Texans. When the Bengals lost, it soon became realized how much money was wasted on the team, the stadium, and the amount of time gone forever thinking about the gladiator sport of football only to walk away with an empty feeling in the end and the proclamation—“maybe next year.” America is still failing economically, and all the personal problems people have in their lives are still there. That empty feeling people have after a sporting event comes to a close is the reality they have put off while they poured their attention into the distraction of sports they should have given to the lives they are living. Pretty soon those “maybe next years” add up to old age with their lives behind them instead of in front and a head of empty ideas shaped by sports statistics.
Sports are not the measure of goodness that so many people think it is. It is a commitment to social failure and a mental investment that never pays off. Sports can earn for the athlete some brief fortune and glory only because the social stigma tosses looted money and cheap women at the gladiators during victories. But they are always short-lived and the trade-off isn’t worth it. For those who believe it is—they have never really lived to begin with. Sports is the folly of fools and but an excuse to cast their minds into evasion—which will solve nothing and lead them individually into a slow decline both physically and mentally. Marshall McLuhan had it right when he said:
“The school system, custodian of print culture, has no place for the rugged individual. It is, indeed, the homogenizing hopper into which we toss our integral tots for processing.”
Marshall McLuhan (1911–80), Canadian communications theorist. The Gutenberg Galaxy, “Cervantes Confronted [1]
I’ll take the rugged individual over the sports star any day. I’ll take a good book over the cheap women won in a sports victory. I’ll take the retained investment of knowledge over the result of a final score every single time. Sports are the devices that makes those custodian’s of print culture seem worthwhile by glazing over the empty feelings following losses with the term, “maybe next year,” forever keeping analysis from happening today on the worth of such a faulty cause. This is why my nickname was “The Animal.” The rage I expressed on the field of play was not to impress my coaches or the fans. It was a hatred of the pawns on the field with me, and a desire to devour them with superior aptitude that I personally thought so little of—so much so that I would not even think of exploiting it for my own personal gain obtaining the riches of a society that is morally bankrupt.
[1]The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations is licensed from Columbia University Press. Copyright © 1993, 1995 by Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
Rich Hoffman
“If they attack first………..blast em!”
January 6, 2013
‘Les Misérables’ and ‘Star Wars’: A trip to the book store to buy ‘Scoundrels’
Before I get into a lengthy diatribe of translating the good experience of taking my grandson to his first book store as a 4 month old lad, I must comment on the video below featuring a middle-aged couple being hounded by their grown children after seeing the new movie release of Les Misérables featuring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crow and Anne Hathaway in a fantastic rendition of the popular play and book. The couple is noticeably emotional as they left the theater and were in the car on the way home. The sons of the couple thought the sight of their parents emotional state worth capturing for the YouTube archives. Les Misérables (usually pron.: /leɪ ˌmɪzəˈrɑːb/; French pronunciation: [le mizeʁabl(ə)]) is a French historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published in 1862, that is widely considered one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century. In the English-speaking world the novel is usually referred to by its original French title, which can be translated from the French as The Miserable, The Wretched, The Miserable Ones, The Poor Ones, The Wretched Poor, or The Victims. Beginning in 1815 and culminating in the 1832 June Rebellion in Paris, the novel follows the lives and interactions of several characters, focusing on the struggles of ex-convict Jean Valjean and his experience of redemption.[1]
I don’t have the same experience with Les Misérables as the couple above. For me, the French Revolution was a failure, and the aftermath led them to become a country continuously conquered by the Germans thereafter. But, in American society, much of the love of Paris, Mardi Gras festivals, and even the roots for socialism among the so-called educated and cultured East Coast residents can be traced back to the popular play and their love of it. For me, the characters in Les Misérables do not have enough Übermensch in them, which is all that I find worthy in works of art these days. But I was thinking of that poor couple as my wife and I took our grandson to our weekly outing to the bookstore to stock up on more books for the week. Before our shopping spree however we went to Chili’s as I watched the preview show for the BCS Title game between Notre Dame and Alabama on ESPN. As I looked around the bar, everyone’s eyes were fixated on the same information being broadcast from the flat screen televisions all around the restaurant. As we ate, I discussed all these elements with my wife and grandson, we spoke about the BCS game, Brian Kelly in leaving the University of Cincinnati to bring Notre Dame to dominance in just two years, the consistency of the Alabama program, and why the poor couple coming home from the Les Misérables movie were so sad. I explained to my grandson that many adults have turned off their minds. Football, even though I enjoy the drama of the game is an accepted entertainment that occupies the neural development of the brain’s core processes and serves as a great distraction from the helpless, out-of-control nature many people feel in their lives. Many adults have turned their minds off to many forms of mythology unless the orthodox society has determined that something has great sophisticated merit over other forms. In other words, most adults wish to believe that they have arrived in their advanced age at a place of mental superiority over children like my grandson.
My grandson looked at me gurgling milk bubbles from his mouth as I spoke for nearly a half hour without pause. I’m not sure how much he understood, but he looked at me and didn’t interrupt as my wife fed him his bottle. I was feeling relaxed as we are on the third week of our unconventional vacation in the Star Wars galaxy of The Old Republic video game, and my wife and I have been having a blast. Unlike Les Misérables or sports of any kind, the philosophy of Star Wars deals often with topics of the Übermensch so more and more I turn to it for the level of thinking I enjoy indulging in, and two solid weeks of gaming on the new MMO The Old Republic with my wife and kids solving various political problems as Jedi Knights on the worlds of Nar Shaddaa, Coruscant and the shattered world of the once thriving Taris, I am at the closest place to complete bliss that I think is possible, and I suddenly felt very sorry for my adult contemporaries who only had the BCS Title game to look forward to, or a screening of Les Misérables. To me, those are passive—or dead mythologies. But Star Wars has always been a vast and creative mythology. The concepts set in the mind a motion that unifies complex ideas under the powerful process of mythology and in human history, there is nothing like Star Wars, and sadly parents like the couple crying over Les Misérables deny themselves the same experience with Star Wars because they mistakenly believe that Star Wars is for kids alone. It’s not. For the adults who can share those mythologies with their children—and in our case—grandchildren, Star Wars is the building blocks to the next great philosophic movement.
The start of this new philosophic/religious awaking is just beginning. Star Wars the Clone Wars just had their 100th episode aired on the Cartoon Network during the second Saturday of January 2013 and Kathy Kennedy is moving the production of the new movie trilogy into the casting stage. The servers are thumping for the MMO game that my wife and I were eager to get back to after our dinner and trip to the book store—so BioWare has been successful in bringing new interest to the game which I think is very valuable. But the reason for our outing was not to buy a new video game, see a movie, or even to eat out with our grandson. The purpose of our journey to the book store was to buy the new Star Wars book called Scoundrels which just came out on January 1st and is a book that my wife has salivated over for nearly 6 months. So after dinner we headed over to our favorite bookstore and suffered through the numerous people who wished to stop our progress and gaze at our grandson who was wide awake and smiling. I was happy to show him such a place of freedom—a book store. For me personally, there is no place better on Earth. I love the smell of them. I like the people in them. And I treasure the vast vaults of knowledge contained in them. So long as there is a free press, tyranny of any kind can never take full hold in any culture. Bookstores are the backbone to freedom and this was my grandson’s first experience in one–his first of millions—I will make sure of it.
For me, when I was only 9 or 10 years older than my grandson is now, I would spend all of my time away from home in two places, the arcade and the book store. When I ran out of money in the video arcade, I would then go to the book store and read through the titles for hours and hours never getting bored. In fact, I read the Egyptian Book of the Dead complete with hieroglyphic translations during these visits before I was able to purchase my own copy many years later once I started working at age 13. Back then, Star Wars as a mythology only centered on the original trilogies and had three novels out, the novelization of A New Hope (the first Star Wars film) a novel called A Splinter in the Mind’s Eye, and a book called Han Solo At Star’s End. Now, there are hundreds of novels, and they take up an entire section of the book store. In fact, there is no other section in any book store that is larger than most of the sections dedicated to Star Wars books. And I am proud to say that my wife and I possess every single Star Wars novel or junior book ever written and have them in our personal library. She has read them all, I have read about 2/3rds of them.
The book we came to get, Scoundrels was sold out in just two days. The book features Han Solo in a Timothy Zhan story taking place immediately after A New Hope. My wife really wanted to read this one, because it takes Solo back to the time of his late 30’s. In the books that will lead up to the new films being produced by Lucasfilm and Disney where Harrison Ford will reprise his role and introduce Han Solo’s glorious daughter Jaina to the silver screen, Solo is well into his 70’s—so he’s been around a long time. (No Lucasfilm has not confirmed that Jaina will be in the new film. I just know it to be the case—my own deductive reasoning.) Well, apparently we weren’t the only ones wanting to buy Scoundrels. The book store employee who was very excited to talk about the Star Wars books he’s been reading with us, called around town to find a store that had the new book. While we waited, a young man was in the Star Wars section buying up four paperbacks while his girlfriend waited patiently. I was impressed to see his ambition as he declared to me that he “loved Star Wars.” I saw on his face a more mature and controlled emotion than the one shown by the distraught Les Misérables viewers. With that being said, I noticed that the book store had more Star Wars books than usual and it was explained to me that a combination of the BioWare game The Old Republic, The Cartoon Network television show The Clone Wars, and the announcement of a new Star Wars trilogy coming to theaters in 2015 along with a very aggressive publishing effort pumping out books like Scoundrels every couple of months–nothing is selling hotter than Star Wars these days.
I enjoyed the passion of the young man in the Star Wars section and the book store worker. I saw on their faces an enthusiasm that was much different from the patrons at the Chili’s bar watching the BCS pregame statistics. That football game will come and go and be forgotten within months. Star Wars will be remembered and built upon by the fans who read the books in a mythology that takes place over 37,000 years of interconnected story that spans thousands of characters arcs. Nothing against Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables but as a literary endeavor alone, Star Wars is the greatest single work of literature ever created—and it’s not just for kids. Adults could learn a lot.
We traveled across town and picked up the book that was being held at the counter for us. Barnes and Noble at The Streets of West Chester had a copy left and my wife erupted into delight when she put her hands on the meaty hard cover book. “It will be so nice to read a story where Han and Chewie are together again” There was a love on her face that was much more sophisticated and honest than the poor people who were broken up over the ending of Les Misérables. There is a truth in Star Wars that is eluding the rest of our 21st century society and only Lucasfilm has really managed to put their finger on it fully. I have been visiting book stores for nearly 35 years and this was the first time it really hit me that a wave of new philosophy is about to impact the human race with a freshness that modern mankind has never experienced. And it happened during my grandson’s first visit to a book store to get a Star Wars novel.
If there is one thing that I have learned on my 3 week vacation in the Star Wars galaxy it is that there is a New Hope manifesting in reality. It is percolating subtly through art, politics, and philosophy through the work of children’s stories that contain within them the answers we are all seeking. If Les Misérables is about the harsh conditions and sympathies toward revolution and oppression, Star Wars is about the hope of crushing that oppression with a balanced life of kindness defended with passion and aggression—a very different message than the one provided by the great Victor Hugo novel which Ayn Rand loved so much.
http://exaltedmoments.blogspot.com/2009/06/ayn-rand-on-victor-hugo.html
But Star Wars is the next artistic step in mankind’s long quest for truth, justice, religious purpose, and the endless desire to discover what’s over the next horizon. At least, that’s what I told my grandson, and judging by is facial expressions—he was listening intently, even if he has not yet constructed the ability to express himself with anything more than a smile.
Rich Hoffman
January 5, 2013
The San Antonio Shooting Nobody Heard About: Media bias and the battle of billionaires behind it
Why do people think that the media is selective in their coverage and agenda driven? Well……….because they are. For instance, just a few short days after the Sandy Hook shooting in Connecticut a gunman in San Antonio, Texas was upset that his girlfriend broke up with him and went on a shooting rampage at a movie theater—very similar to the Aurora Theater shooting. The only big difference is that in Texas there was an off duty police officer nearby who was armed. So when the 19-year-old Chinese restaurant worker started his shooting rampage in anger over his girlfriend, the shooter was shot by the armed officer. The result of the shooting was just two people injured in the hospital—one of them the broken-hearted shooter. The trouble is that as big as this story was—every bit as big as any other incident across the country and deserved the same kind of wall to wall coverage on the major networks that Sandy Hook, Aurora, or any other shooting received—it was only the local news around San Antonio and a few blog sites across the country that have discussed the story. Other than those sources, the story has not received any “play” by the major networks which is odd considering the level of awareness that public shootings have been getting lately. Watch the coverage from the local television affiliate here:
Yes, many of the stories that make the major networks are agenda driven. That does not mean that the average reporter is privy to that agenda. In reality, they may be unaware of the company agenda completely when they are first hired. The agenda for a news organization is driven by the owners personal beliefs and as diverse as many think their news organizations may be, when it comes down to the original sources of an agenda driven news organization there are always only a few at the top who own everything—as it usually is—and all the reporters, editors, free-lance writers, even organizational management know what the parameters for a story are based on the kind of content their owners approve of. News organization employees lucky enough to keep their jobs for five or more years learn that agenda and stick with it for the good of their own livelihoods.
In Cincinnati Scripps is a big player, as well as Clear Channel. Gannett runs the Cincinnati Enquirer, and Cox Media controls many of the local papers from Dayton to Cincinnati. When these organizations form up story topics they will give “play” to a view point—especially a controversial one if it gives them ratings—which is understandable. This works well as long as the subject does not exceed the parameters established by management—following the guidelines of their ownership. If a story fits the parameters set by ownership then the news organizations will give the story “play.” If it does not, then the story will be canned—because no editor is going to risk their job covering a story that will anger their ownership. The reporters who survive for many years in the “business” learn what the parameters are. Those who don’t, find themselves removed in the RIF process. (Reductions in force)
CNN was the creation of Ted Turner the media tycoon from Cincinnati who set up shop in Atlanta, Georgia. Ted married Jane Fonda in the 80’s as Jane was re-inventing herself after her long known associations with communism. Ted although a capitalist, has shown many philanthropic leanings toward communism and obviously shares many of his ex-wife’s collectivist beliefs, which is reflected in the kind of stories that CNN has covered. Turner as recently as 2012 stated on CNN that he believes its good that American troops are committing suicide because it shows aversion toward war. Compare that to Jane Fonda riding a communist North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun in the 60s calling for an end to American imperialism and you have a communist marriage made in heaven. These are the kind of people who formed CNN and really all the 24 hours news programs, with only Fox News representing conservative viewpoints. MSNBC is even further to the political left than CNN openly advocating progressive causes with the company slogan, “Lean Forward.” (Where have we heard that slogan before……….Hmmmmmmm) Ted has given over a $1 billion dollars toward The United Nations, so it is obvious where his beliefs reside, and most of his companies reflect his political viewpoints—otherwise they find themselves unemployed. And his companies are virtually everything that falls under Turner Broadcasting, which includes the Cartoon Network, TBS, TNT and TruTV. If you are a Time Warner subscriber, you send money to Ted Turner’s companies.
Much has been said about the radical conservativism of Fox News owned by Ted Turner rival Rupert Murdoch. It would appear that Fox News was created by Murdoch as a 24 hour news channel answer directly to the radical left leaning tendencies of CNN. Much of the public relations action against Fox News on many networks including cartoons on Comedy Central are brown-nosing actions designed to earn the respect of Ted Turner’s money and funding. Few know that Turner has a long-running grudge with Murdoch that originated in 1983 when a Murdoch-sponsored yacht collided with Turner’s boat during the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, causing it to sink 10 km from the finish line. At the post-race dinner, Turner verbally assaulted Murdoch, afterward challenging him to a televised fist fight in Las Vegas. In 2003, Turner challenged Murdoch to another fist fight, and later accused Murdoch of being a “warmonger”, as he was backing President George W. Bush‘s invasion of Iraq. [29]
Even to this day, even though Ted is retired for the most part from many of his businesses, his loose lifestyle and commitment to collectivism can be seen in the way he socially conducts himself. Like all communist and collectivist loving people seen best during the hippie movement in The United States, monogamy is not one of their strong suits—as liberalism advocates loose sexual relationships and promiscuity. Even at age 75, Ted and his ex-wife Jane are involved in a love triangle with her new live in boyfriend 70-year-old Richard Perry. (Imagine the sex antics when they were younger) These are the kind of people who have had a huge hand in shaping the news coverage that comes into our living rooms in 2013.
http://www.showbizspy.com/article/255668/jane-fonda-in-love-triangle-with-ted-turner.html
In that context it is easy to see why CNN advocates gun control when it is The United Nations who most wants to see the world disarmed of all firearms. CNN will pick stories that fit the old boss’s viewpoints because his money still speaks, and all employees at CNN know that if they want some of it, then they have to toe the company line. So CNN will exploit Sandy Hook to push control legislation, and other networks will copy CNN because they are the trend setter. But CNN and the rest of the national media will not cover the story of San Antonio where an armed citizen ended a gunman’s rampage because a private citizen had a gun and was not afraid to use it saving dozens of lives—unlike Sandy Hook and Aurora where the citizens were sitting ducks because they were unable to defend themselves.
So yes, there is media bias and it is quite rampant and driven entirely by human weakness. The employees of tycoons like Ted Turner have no problem trading their journalism ethics for a pay check even if they disagree with Turner politically. And people like Bill O’Reilly may never have had a shot at becoming the number one news guy on prime time television with Fox News if not for the rivalry that started between Ted Turner and Rupert Murdoch during a yacht race in 1983. Murdoch wanted to stick it to Turner so he paved the way for a guy like O’Reilly to have a shot at writing his own ticket. John Stossel has done the same thing coming from ABC’s 20/20 which is owned by Disney and must adhere to the social positions of that very large media company. Stossel left to join the Fox Business Network to have freedom over his journalism that he didn’t have at 20/20. If Stossel had written a book like he wrote last year called, No They Can’t, which is an argument in favor of libertarianism, he would have found his job on the chopping block at ABC, but at Fox, he’s encouraged to do such things because Rupert Murdoch leans more to the political right. Glenn Beck left CNN for the same reason to join Fox, and then create his own television network with The Blaze TV which is now on the Dish Network. Thankfully for all of us, Glenn Beck will be the new Ted Turner and that will go a long way to fixing many of the problems our society is currently dealing with. Look for these improvements to begin around 2020 lasting through about 2040 when Beck will be hitting aged 70 himself. The big difference will be that such stories like those of Turner and Fonda won’t be happening with Beck. The personality differences are one of personal quality and those attributes directly find their way into their companies. All this news media is driven from a few minds that happen to be billionaires and their ownership of the news organizations and the employees who work for them are a direct reflection. In Beck’s case he has a personal friendship with billionaire Jon Huntsman which helps keep Beck fighting along in a world established by the many billions of dollars spent by radicals like George Soros and Ted Turner to advocate social progressivism.
http://www.ftpress.com/promotions/promotion.aspx?promo=136175
Much of the news we see today is driven by those few minds, minds like George Soros, Ted Turner, Rupert Murdoch, NBC executive Tom Rogers and a few others. Everyone who works directly or indirectly for those people must form their journalism opinions around their bosses—just like any other business.
That is why the San Antonio shooting that occurred just a few days after Sandy Hook did not get any coverage except in the San Antonio news market. National news is agenda driven by the minds that created the organizations and cannot be trusted at face value. Unfortunately, the same people who create those organizations also contribute a lot of money into politics, so these same people not only influence heavily how Americans see the news, but also influence how the news is made in the world of politics. Unfortunately, many of the minds mentioned above are radical left leaning progressives who want gun control, they want open sexual promiscuity, and they want a drug induced society—so the news we see every day is filled with stories that support these topics. And it will continue until there is competition that threatens the monopolies of those ownerships in news organizations—and it will come. The hypocrisy was accepted in the 1990’s and 2000’s, but the scam is out of the bag now, and people are turning away from those traditional broadcasts by the handfuls. Stories like the San Antonio shooting will get coverage, and will be used to defend the Second Amendment against the wishes of old gun grabbers, communists, and hot-tempered yacht tycoons who behind all the money and power of their financial empires are still only people who breath, eat and use the rest room just like everyone else. They are flawed human beings at best, and their news reflects their ownership.
Rich Hoffman
“If they attack first………..blast em!”
January 4, 2013
The Hidden History of Social Security: A job for only the Tea Party to fix
When critics of the Tea Party point and say that they (the Tea Party) “resist everything, and are stuck in the past,” the context for what Tea Party members are weary of is never explored. The issue of why they are against most new laws, every act of the political do-gooder, and insist on a return to American founding principles gets lost in the debate because more often than not the critics have no sense of history and are limited in knowledge to the shallow depths of knowledge in their own lifetimes. The more issues of governance is explored, the more evident it becomes that without a group of patriots who function not out of a love for political power, a thinly disguised grab for power, networking connections, or just a desire to be socially destructive, that politics in a democratic republic deteriorate quickly without such a presence. There needs to a group in America that can use wisdom and a firm adherence to The American Constitution to keep politics as honest as possible. Without such wisdom, without the prying eyes of a neutral party, all the well intended programs that government invents today become tomorrow’s tyranny, and now that there is a clear history in America, it is now clear that all laws created by government end up becoming monsters of self fulfilled destruction shortly after passage.
For proof of how slowly, and how destructive an idea created by government can become a social monstrosity, look no further than the Social Security system and witness the gradual erosion of that socialist oriented program which should have never of happened. These things do not become terrors in one lifetime, but over two or three lifetimes, so many of the laws created within the last 20 years in government cannot yet be measured. In that context, read the below history of Social Security, and take note of why the Tea Party is a needed–why political skepticism should be valued so that American politics can avoid a peril similar to the fall of the Roman Empire, the decline of English Imperialism, or the decline of Greek society. The decline of American society will occur without addressing the erosion of moral order currently embracing The United States or a return to Constitutional principles. And to date, it is the Tea Party that is committed to returning America to the formula that made the greatest nation on the face of the Earth over all of human history. Such a formula is valuable, and needs careful adherence. So study carefully the below history of Social Security to see how quickly it became one of the most corrosive socialist programs the world has yet seen.
Social Security Cards up until the 1980s expressly stated the number and card were not to be used for identification purposes. Since nearly everyone in the United States now has a number, it became convenient to use it anyway and the message, NOT FOR IDENTIFICATION, was removed.
Franklin Roosevelt, a Democrat, introduced the Social Security (FICA) Program. He promised: 1.) That participation in the Program would be Completely voluntary, No longer Voluntary.
2.) That the participants would only have to pay 1% of the first $1,400 of their annual Incomes into the Program, Now 7.65% on the first $90,000.
3.) That the money the participants elected to put into the Program would be deductible from their income for tax purposes each year, No longer tax deductible.
4.) That the money the participants put into the independent ‘Trust Fund’ rather than into the general operating fund, and therefore, would only be used to fund the Social Security Retirement Program, and no other Government program, and, Under Johnson the money was moved to The General Fund and Spent.
5.) That the annuity payments to the retirees would never be taxed as income. Under Clinton & Gore Up to 85% of your Social Security can be Taxed Since many of us have paid into FICA for years and are now receiving a Social Security check every month — and then finding that we are getting taxed on 85% of the money we paid to the Federal government to ‘put away’ — you may be interested in the following:
Q: Which Political Party took Social Security from the independent ‘Trust Fund’ and put it into the general fund so that Congress could spend it?
A: It was Lyndon Johnson and the democratically controlled House and Senate.
Q: Which Political Party eliminated the income tax deduction for Social Security (FICA) withholding?
A: The Democratic Party.
Q: Which Political Party started taxing Social Security annuities?
A: The Democratic Party, with Al Gore casting the ‘tie-breaking’ deciding vote as President of the Senate, while he was Vice President of the US
Q: Which Political Party decided to start giving annuity payments to immigrants?
A: Jimmy Carter and the Democratic Party. Immigrants moved into this country, and at age 65, began to receive Social Security payments! The Democratic Party gave these payments to them, even though they never paid a dime into it.
The same kind of distortion will happen with Obama Care, it has already happened with Medicare, and is present in every program that has the government’s name tag on it. Now that the government created Social Security—which was an obvious—and costly mistake, they have tried to correct the error with more rules, which has only dug the hole deeper. The only way to fix the problem of Social Security would be to reset the political system before the failure occurred, and this is what the Tea Party is starting to advocate in response to the many errors that are beginning to show up as these socialist programs are beginning to fail. The position may be unpopular, but it is the desire to come up with a populist solution that created Social Security in the first place and has made it a mandatory program that is used for personal identification tracking and an extraordinary pay check contributions at 7.65%. At the rate of decline that Social Security has deteriorated in just 70 years, it is obvious that 70 more years will lead to a total collapse of that particular program. After all, the American demographic is changing. People are living longer, the young people are not getting married at age 19 and staying married for 50 years like they did when Social Security was created—so socially the adult population of tomorrow will be much more unstable, and not able to sustain Social Security without it encompassing even more than the current contribution rate. So there are copious amounts of evidence that Social Security will change much more radically in the coming years than it has in the past—which is quite a bit—because of the decline in social quality of the participants.
Social Security is just one example of a program that started with good intentions, as it was a direct response to the Red Decade of the 1930’s push for communism, but quickly degenerated into a corrosive social element that most of American society is addicted to. Stating that such a program should be abolished or radically reformed at a minimum is the task of scholarly groups like the Tea Party who are committed to education above radical protest and social unrest to move society in the proper direction. But it will make factions of society very upset because many of them have signed their name behind the support of more programs like Social Security and if such a thing were ever abolished, it would mean that their lives have little meaning—because that is at the heart behind most new laws, small-minded men and women looking for a way to leave behind a legacy—a way for future generations to think fondly of their time on planet Earth. That is not a good reason to protect a program that is functionally against everything that being an American is supposed to represent—self reliance. Going against that current will be unpopular, but often the truth usually is. But that doesn’t make the action invalid. Instead—it’s quite the opposite.
Rich Hoffman
January 3, 2013
The Next Great War: Why America has so many guns–and it needs them
I’m waiting patiently for the revolution to start. When it happens if I’m the only one fighting, that’s fine—but somehow I think that won’t be the case. Once other people see one or two people resisting the encroachment of perpetual statism happening in The United States as of 2013, they will join like others have in the past during the American Revolution and the Civil War. Whatever we call this next war within America, I will be one of the first to respond to the force that is sure to be applied and I can’t wait. I love history and we are living history. Now—before I elaborate, look at this next video and study the foolish position of the presented actors when the editor took the comments they made favoring more gun control and compared them to the kinds of films those same actors have made which feature gun violence. The hypocrisy is obvious, but is done in this video with a comic flare that should be noted.
Actors are paid to say whatever appears in their scripts. If the script says to commit violence, they act it out for the cameras. If it tells them to get naked and have sex with perfect strangers in front of a crew of 50 or more people—they do it. And if the script tells them to come out against gun violence in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting, they do it. (Sandy Hook was a false flag by the way. End of story—CLICK HERE for more.) So the opinions of these actors mean nothing—they are not leaders, or spokesmen for America. They are actors who don’t have thoughts of their own. They are like parrots; they repeat what they are told to say when they are told to say it. I can affirm that from first hand experience. Actors are not bad people, but they are not great thinkers or philosophers either—and are unqualified to give any opinions of worth. They are paid well to fill a role and to not question that role.
Guns are one of the biggest parts of American culture and that isn’t going to change. The reason that the movies those actors play in feature so many guns is because Americans love guns. Americans like to see guns shooting. They like knowing they have them in their bedrooms. They like plot lines that have guns in them, and Hollywood knows it—which is why they make movies that feature gun violence. If Hollywood tried to change that trend, they would loose billions of dollars at the box office—so taking violence out of movies will not happen. People are not going to pay $15 dollars a ticket to watch people talk about their problems. They want to see stuff blow up, and they want to see heroes save the day with guns.
Hollywood doesn’t really believe half the garbage that they advocate through donations to the Democratic Party, but they feed money to those statism monsters to keep the idiots from passing laws that will hurt Hollywood’s ability to make money. Hollywood simply pays the troll by sending their actors out to give public messages making the statism advocates happy—which is why those mindless actors came out against gun violence, while they make their livings advocating it. The message is just as hypocritical as a pornography actress coming out publicly in favor of sex only after marriage in a strictly monogamous relationship. Her words are worthless because of what she does for a living.
Guns are a fact in America and the enemies of American sovereignty are the ones who want disarmament for the same reason that it has always occurred—a potential for invasion and the capture of national resources. There are enemies who want to control America both foreign and domestic and you can tell who they are because they advocate removal of guns from our society. For them it’s a tactical maneuver not a moral one. For the global statism power grabbers using the United Nations as their personal army behind a façade of peace, they have no hope of pulling The United States into the global fold of power so long as private citizens have so many guns. There is not a utopian desire for global peace by these people. It hasn’t happened in over 100,000 of human development and it won’t leave the mind of man in the next 100,000 years no matter how pompous the progressive academics wish to believe such a thing possible. The way to curb violence is with more guns, not less because the threats to our nation are not outwardly obvious, but instead devious.
Just to put things in perspective as to why America is being targeted from across the two big ponds is that a potential invader of American resources must not only defeat the American military, but the American people also. For instance if you took just registered deer hunters in the state of Wisconsin and assumed that each of them possessed only one gun each, their number alone would exceed the guns possessed in Iran, France and Germany combined. That is a lot of guns, and it makes it very difficult for a military general to plan any sort of military maneuver against America. There are enough guns in just one state to hold off an entire army from those three countries. But states like Michigan and Pennsylvania outnumber Wisconsin in registered deer hunters. There are enough guns in just those three states to hold off an invasion from all of Europe making a direct attack against America impossible. So they are forced to attack America indirectly—through The United Nations with regulation, taxation, and treaties. Yet even with all the guns in Wisconsin, Michigan, or Pennsylvania a murder with guns is very rare in the Midwest. It is only in the big cities like Detroit, Philadelphia and Green Bay where statism is strongest that gun violence is worst. There are a lot of homes in my Ohio neighborhood with guns and nobody shoots each other when we get angry.
I know for a fact that guns make a peaceful difference because I’ve seen it first hand many times over. I once took a bet to walk from Central Parkway to the University of Cincinnati up Vine Street back when it was one of the most violent areas in the city. I walked the whole distance past drug dealers, hookers, pimps, and various thugs without a single act of violence against me. I did the same in downtown Washington D.C. I walked five blocks down K-Street at 3 A.M. then up four blocks to the north. Along the way I passed one car that had been overturned and was on fire from violence that had occurred just 20 minutes before I passed by. No police or fire fighters came until dawn when the thugs went to bed and the politicians traded positions on those same streets. Not a single incident happened to me—because all the goons, the punks, and creeps who roamed the streets at night looking for a victim thought I was armed. I wasn’t armed with a gun—because if I did get into trouble, I didn’t want the added complication. But thugs know by the look in your eye that you are armed, whether it is with a firearm, or the internal knowledge that you can handle yourself in any situation. That assurance is the key to personal and national freedom. Americans know deep in their hearts that they outnumber the entire army of North Korea, Japan, China, Germany, Russia, England, France Australia or the entire continent of Africa, so they don’t worry about an attack from any of those countries. The reason we can all travel to the mall and buy goods without worrying about a terrorist bombing routinely is because we have guns. The reason that many companies wish to do business in America in spite of the extraordinarily high taxes is because we have a stable political climate because guns force everyone to keep on the up and up. Guns keep our own military in line—making sure they stay on the side of the tax payers instead of aligning with statist power grabbers. It is because of the gun that we are safe in America from all enemies. Not just made up propaganda targets.
The domestic enemies in America are those who advocate gun control, because it is those people who wish to alter the American Constitution, and wish to disarm The United States to fulfill the wishes within The United Nations of global disarmament, and I consider that type of rhetoric to be an attack on my sovereignty within my nation. Those power grabbing people will not go away—they will continue to encroach themselves upon our American lifestyle using every tragedy as a platform for their message of war through peace. That’s what is behind the Hollywood message for gun control. That is what is behind the entire gun control argument and those who cannot see such deplorable acts are naive—and sorry to say—stupid.
When war happens, I will be there to fight for The Constitution specifically The Second Amendment—because they are coming after our guns. They will use the IRS, the ATF, Homeland Security, local law enforcement, TSA, the FBI, the CIA, the National Guard to come after those of us who stand against statism. The only thing that keeps war from breaking out right now is the knowledge that we all have guns. We sit on the knowledge that we can defend ourselves should the unthinkable happen. If gun laws are created that buys these guns back, or confiscates them entirely, that security will go away, and that is when the next war will erupt. And when it does, I’m ready and looking forward to meeting many of you in person. The country does not rest on the shoulders of some politician in Washington, or some 23 year-old girl who will take her top off for millions of people then lecture us about how we should support more gun control. Our freedoms rest behind the barrel of a gun and are only as strong as the number of them that are in houses all across the nation. When guns are threatened by domestic enemies, that is the start of the next war within the states. The first fire of that war will be when authorities try to take those guns and learn the tragic result of that arrogant miscalculation.
I’m with you Ted. It might be you me, and a handful of people, but it will be enough.
Rich Hoffman
January 2, 2013
Lakota Top Story of 2012: ‘West Chester Buzz’ and ‘The Enquirer’ beg for food
If you ever wondered why our current government is so screwed up all one needs to do is look at the kind of institutions that instruct our society and study how they behave when confronted with trouble. It is not hard to discover the root of the deteriorating rot that infests anything that is attached to government, and public schools are “government schools.” They believe that they function outside the rules of reality because they live off of tax money which is collected on their behalf under force—and they fight over that money like dogs over a bone. And their collective intelligence is just as proficient as the only concern they have is to fill their bellies so they can live five more minutes before they are begging for another bone.
In my local community of West Chester it has been well-known that I have spent the last couple of years fighting the stupidity of the blind tax and spend actions of the Lakota school district—which I attended as a kid. Many, because I went to the school, believe that I should automatically support anything that Lakota does because I’m an “alumni” or something. I hear the same type of ignorance from fools who blindly support their colleges because as adults they love the sports program—never connecting the dots that it is in such follies that many evils are conducted. Those actions are forms of collectivism which I reject entirely. At Lakota, they have refused to acknowledge that the cause of their funding problems is that they are like rabid dogs begging for food at the dinner table blindly hungry for more and more money to consume never connecting their actions to their hunger—as if the two weren’t connected. Then to make matters worse, there are the apologists who try to sneak food under the table even when the owner of the dogs tell those apologists not to—because it makes the dogs even hungrier, and misbehave more often. Such is the role of the local newspapers against the wishes of the taxpayers.
In the West Chester Buzz—a local arm of the Cincinnati Enqurier, they recently did a feature naming the top 12 stories of 2012. Among them were the Mitt Romney rally that took place just before the election, and the announcement of the Liberty Way entertainment/shopping complex, which seemed like very reasonable community minded features. But guess what number one was? Out of all the stories that occurred in a community of over 100,000 residents over an entire year—can you imagine dear reader what the number one story was? It was an article about Lakota’s budget problems featuring a March 12th article breaking down the massive cuts and layoffs the district had to make because of three tax increases that had been shot down at the ballot box, led by myself. This article appeared just two days before The Enquirer did a “hit piece” on me personally to attempt to remove me from the debate—because nobody could answer the points I brought up. (CLICK FOR REVIEW) which goes a long way to painting a picture of the kind of diabolical schemes that go on behind the scenes of West Chester politics—of which Lakota is a major player.
It’s not like Lakota tried—they simply refused—just like Obama and the gang is doing now on Capitol Hill–to deal with reality. They simply ignore any part of reality that doesn’t fit their version of it. As government entities, they have their agenda, and their expectations—and they will only listen to options that fulfill their agenda—which is why they fail time and time again. Have a look:
http://westchesterbuzz.com/2012/12/30/westchesterbuzz-coms-top-12-stories-of-2012-no-1/
In the course of early March 2012 The Enquirer decided to get into bed with the Lakota school district and the evidence is in their priorities of what they consider to be the “biggest story of the year.” But nowhere is there any mention of “WHY” Lakota has a budget problem. The article only mentions the result, not the cause, which is typical of these big government types. The reason is because Lakota employees make too much money, and there are too many of them. Pure and simple. The education market is changing, there are many options that are better for teaching children, and government schools are clamoring to keep themselves relevant just as the Postal System is trying to stay relevant after the advent of EMAIL. Public schools are trying to fulfill a progressive utopian vision of being the central figures in society, and the newspapers are obviously on board to help paint that picture—which is why The Enquirer has been losing readership by the droves and more and more people are turning to alternative sources of information like this blog, for their news. People see the situation for what it is, and 18,000 people voted against the foolishness of the Lakota district, and the many thousands of tax payer dollars they have spent on public relations—to help set up articles in publications like The Enquirer and The West Chester Buzz.
As The West Chester Buzz published their top story of 2012 article a levy supporter sent me an email stating, “No Lakota Levy seems to indicate that the teaching staff is paid too much and now the community is unable to afford such salaries. I contend that the labor force is overworked and, for it to consider any further concessions, that group needs to be thanked for their steadfast service of the past and encouraged to work a normal 8 hour day rather than devoting hours of free labor to a district that can no longer afford such dedication.” That statement, which the newspapers should be covering, cites the entire funding problem at Lakota, and in just about every government employee in The United States. They have all lost touch with reality and have a sickness rooted in neuroses. They simply aren’t working within the realms of reality—and therefore cannot be rationed with. “Thanked,” what are these school employees—children? Or worse—not even possessing the ability to retain information like simple dogs begging for food.
How can any sane person claim that an employee making 65K per year should not be expected to work 10 or 11 hours a day or more, and that such people are “overworked.” The average income for Lakota employees is 63K per year, which is very good compensation, but the trouble is, it’s not competitive. In the argument over what makes a good teacher or a bad teacher the public is supposed to take the word of labor radicals like the guy who sent me that comment at face value without validating the truth. In my book his comment doesn’t even deserve a seat at the table because I don’t recognize his right to exist. I have determined that the biggest problem in public schools is the labor unions who utter that kind of garbage, and there is no discussing anything with them. They are like speaking to hungry dogs who only wag their tails if food comes near their mouths. They are not the pinnacles of our society as The Enquirer has tried to make them out to appear. They are simply parasites hungry for more government expansion, mindlessly higher taxes, and more youth seduced by all the wrong things to be cast out ill-prepared into adulthood. The labor argument in this case has a monopoly on education and the government backs that monopoly, and until that organization is broken up, there will never be cost reductions in education, there will never be improved test scores, and there will never be great leaps in social advancement. The problem with government schools and their monopoly is the fact that there are no options for parents to have their child taught by ambitious teachers making only 45K per year over the one making 90K per year who is tired and beat up—hanging on till their retirement at 55 years old. The tax money in the State of Ohio is sent to the school, not to the child, and that is the source of the problem allowing labor unions to basically control that tax money. The system is ridiculous, and the press has not had the backbone to do their job—which is a disservice to everyone.
People say that all the things I’ve said above are “just politics.” It’s just the way things are, and they will never change. Well, it might be politics, but like I told one of my employers years ago, “politics costs money.” If you remove the politics, you will save millions. And the same holds true for Lakota and every other public school—remove the politics, and they will be able to balance their budget without being leeches on the rest of the community constantly hitting up the residents for more tax increases. Lakota needs competition, and the press needs to get out of the business of helping to support destructive monopolies, which The West Chester Buzz confirmed is the role of The Cincinnati Enquirer in regard to Lakota. For myself, and many on my side, the “labor argument” doesn’t even deserve a place at the negotiating table. I don’t care what they think; they are no different then dogs begging for food to me. They don’t offer a service I think is important, and they charge too much to provide it. They need to be cut out of the money stream completely and that is my 2013 position. Apparently, the media is going to settle for their role to be mere lap dogs, to the dogs begging for food at the bargaining table where the feast of West Chester is in control of the adults sitting at the table.
Rich Hoffman
January 1, 2013
“Good Cops” and “Bad Cops”: Becoming a Leathal Weapon for the freedom movement
Oh, it’s nice to get started on 2013. It’s wonderful to wake up in the morning and be free…………..
Being a “Bad Cop” is not the same as being a “bad guy.” But when dealing with people who have no understanding of their community imposition, of the tyranny of their collectivism, of their advocating gigantic government intrusions it is needed to have a “good cop” who will speak to the media and play the game the way progressives do, but there is a need for a “bad cop” to do all the things that the “good cop” can’t. Progressives have a lot of “Bad Cops” out there functioning fully, so the liberty movement deserves the same armament, and I wanted the role as far back as last year, primarily because the Lakota levy was gearing up for another try, and NDAA was signed into law.
The freedom I feel is similar to ending a job that one hates when you realize you don’t have to go to that particular building again and speak to all the people you didn’t like there. It’s like ending a relationship that was dysfunctional, but endured because of prior obligations. Once those obligations are fulfilled, you might be free to pursue another path leaving your mind free for the first time in a long time. For the last two or three years while representing many moderate personalities in Southwestern Ohio on issues raging from the Lakota levy attempts, to the Right-to-Work campaign in Ohio, to all the media contacts I had to maintain—I was constantly aware of what I said and to whom I said it. I had to be otherwise my ability to do radio interviews and get coverage in the newspapers and television would be limited as they tend not to cover radicals if they are on the political right—even though they do cover radicals on the political left. This left me always feeling like I was fighting a battle with my arms behind my back, and I was getting sick of it as 2012 dawned one year ago, only to see that government had a controversial new law that directly violated the Fifth Amendment, signed by the President on New Years Eve in the faraway land of Hawaii. Watching that progress it didn’t take long for me to realize that the liberty movement needed its own “bad cops” to counter all the goof-ball radicals advancing progressive causes at the expense of us all.
Now with 2013, I am free to act as I see fit without the burden of political correctness, which will be necessary to solve the problems that we are facing in America. I mean look at our dismal situation, a national debt of over $16 trillion dollars, a dysfunctional government, a communist president, radical teacher unions controlling the thoughts and lives of our children—and a whole slew of tax increases that will hit us all—at least those of us who already pay taxes. We are not in a good situation. Yes—I am looking forward to a very colorful year in 2013, one where I won’t hold back as much as I have in the past. Freedom feels good, it fills your lungs with copious amounts of fresh air, and lifts the spirit—and I am free to do what’s right without the restrictions of public sentiment. So to those who thought they had seen the worst—no, not even close. It’s time to shift gears and pick up some steam instead. It’s time for other people to play the “good cop” role, and its time for others to play the newly created “bad cop” role also. It is time to treat progressives as they have treated conservatives for years. The correct strategy with progressives is not with a pat on the ass and bribery whispered into their ears, but to treat them like dog shit that is found on the bottom of a worker’s boots. Starting in 2013, I have in my hand a scrapper ready to make sure the heel of my boots stay clean as I do my work. And it feels good!
Rich Hoffman
December 31, 2012
Review of ‘The Old Republic’: An Amazing Game produced in an Amazing Time
I had said that I was going to reward myself for all the hard work I did in 2012 and celebrate the first quarter release of my new book Tail of the Dragon. Typically authors in my position might take a cruise to the Mediterranean, or schedule a few weeks in Hawaii to celebrate the conclusion and release of their novels but I had stated that I was going to do something different, I was going to invest in a video game that my wife and I had been eager to play for all of the last year, but didn’t have time–or to be honest–the machines to properly play them on. Instead of an external vacation, we were planning to go on an internal one by playing the very involved MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic, which is the latest creation of Bioware, LucasArts, and Electronic Arts with a production budget of over $200 million dollars. The Old Republic MMO is the very latest of its kind following along the tradition of World of Warcraft, and the popular, Guild Wars. MMO’s are very involved, all-encompassing, and can be very complicated. There are a lot of computer calculations that are made per second with people from all over the world playing at the same time as you are, so they require computer systems that can operate at peak performance all the time, and that required me to make a major computer upgrade just to play for myself. However, for my wife to play with me, it would require two supercharged computer systems, so after the fourth quarter sales closed on my Tail of the Dragon and with the help of my son-in-law, we built two specially designed, eight core processor, 75 Watt power-driven monsters for a few thousand dollars just to play The Old Republic which is very graphics intensive, and at times stunning to behold, especially if you love Star Wars like we do, enjoying the story lore with great reverence.
For kids who have grown up with MMOs–who have been over 13 years old since Play Station 2 came out, I think they are missing the wonder of these modern games. I have read some of their reviews of Star Wars: The Old Republic before making my purchases, and I think they have the attention span of a nat. Their expectations in the field of gaming are unreasonably high, which of course can never be satisfied completely by anybody. Because of my schedule being as intense as it had been for many years, the only type of video gaming I had time for were X-Box 360 classics like Red Dead Redemption, Dragon Age, also from BioWare, and an old X-Box game that my wife and I loved to play together called Gladius, which was an RPG co-op–an early design that has obviously carried over into Old Republic. My family, meaning my kids, my wife, and my extended nephews played Star Wars: Galaxies a lot, and World of Warcraft, but I never had the time to play with them, and found it irritating that most of the MMO’s did not have a way for players to co-op in story mode in the way that Gladius had, so I stayed away and my wife never invested much time because of it. This problem has been fixed in Star Wars: The Old Republic, which allows two separate players to do just about everything together, with two totally different storylines—and the way that BioWare pulled this off now that my wife and I have played it for over a week both day and night is nothing short of a technical miracle. For the kids who want the kind of story content available in The Old Republic, to go on forever, they are deeply unrealistic. There is no video game on the market today that is as deeply story driven as The Old Republic, and everything is absolutely epic in scope. For people like me who grew up watching the original Star Wars movies in a movie theater when they were first released, and had to wait almost an entire decade for the ability to watch those movies at home on a LaserDisk—well before VHS video tape or DVD’s, the work that has went into The Old Republic is a small miracle.
My wife is playing as a Jedi Counselor and I am playing as a Jedi Knight, and The Old Republic allows us to both play our stories in a co-op mode that is just stunning in its conception. If all married couples could find something like Old Republic to do together, I think the divorce rate in America would drop off the chart putting many lawyers out of business—because the game is simply wonderful in its co-op play. For instance, my wife and I got up at 5:30 AM on Saturday December 30th after playing the game intensely for 5 consecutive days, and we logged into the game on our two monster computers, each of them being cooled down by 5 internal fans just to keep the video card temperature down. We logged off the game at midnight that same day and went to bed but were up again 5 hours later to follow the same routine on Sunday and Monday. The story content is very intense, and every couple of hours of play there is a major climax in the action similar to most movies, where there is a plot driven introduction, a series of problems that must be overcome, then a resolution to conclude that portion of the story. In one instance on the capital planet of Coruscant—which is absolutely stunningly rendered in the game—I had convinced a member of the Senate who I had caught doing a lot of double-dealing between the criminal underworld, and the people’s business of the Senate, to resign. She offered me a lot of money to keep her name clean, which of course I didn’t take—just like in real life—and forced her to come clean with her resignation. The Senator in question was not a bad person, or evil in any way. She was doing what she felt she needed to do politically, but she had crossed the line and lost her way, and it was my job to make sure she stayed clean. In the world of Star Wars that is the job of a Jedi Knight—a defender of the Republic from not just countless hoards of bad guys, but from the corruption that is indicative in politics. Jedi are a great plot device that fills a need that is indicative in all democratic republics, such as what The United States is facing with unbridled corruption within politics. Jedi are the stabilizing spiritual force that keeps everyone honest and reminds me of the kind of philosophical leader that Plato had in mind in his book The Republic. The Old Republic as a video game excels at giving players those types of moral dilemmas every few hours of game play and so far, my wife and I have over 70 hours each invested, and we haven’t even scratched the surface of the sheer amount of content that is available.
The servers we are playing on were all full much of the time we have been on the game, so it looks like Electronic Arts strategy of offering a free-to-play option worked. Lots of people are flocking to the game, and on the worlds especially like Coruscant, there were many people running around just like any major city. They were everywhere, even in the most far-flung corners of that particular planet. But my wife and I are subscribers and proud to be. I saw that Amazon.com was offering The Old Republic for $14 dollars which will allow people to play under a preferred status. BioWare is offering the game for a free download off the web site. But I personally think they should sell the game for over $200 each, because it’s worth it. The game is that good. It simply dwarfs similar games that are console driven. The computer programming alone to make planets like Coruscant or the space port of The Republic Fleet look so great is mind-blowing. In fact, when my wife and I arrived at the Republic Fleet Space Port we were slammed in the face by the sheer size and scope of the place, the countless video advertisements, the street vendors, the sights, the sounds, it reminded me a lot of a real life Las Vegas where you can’t help but look out the window at the scope of creativity put forth by the human mind in the rows and rows of theme driven hotels and resorts. Star Wars: The Old Republic is loaded with these kinds of bewildering scenes leaving many hours of discovery open to any diligent gamer.
The Old Republic is simply an amazing game that exceeds all my expectations and then some. I was a tremendous fan of the previous two X-Box games called Knights of the Old Republic and Knights of the Republic II but The Old Republic MMO is in my opinion the best game I have ever played. It’s also been the nicest vacation I’ve ever been on, and I’ve been on a lot of good ones. My wife and I have been having so much fun that we forgot to eat but two complete meals during the entire previous weekend. We were so wrapped up in what we were doing that we didn’t want to go into the kitchen to get food. Instead we ordered Chinese and took 10 minutes to go and pick it up. Once when our shoulders were getting stiff from sitting in the same position for about 15 straight hours we sat in the hot tub for an hour to loosen up, then we went back at it for another 5 hours before going to bed. I don’t know of any place that a couple can go and have that much fun and be clean as a whistle, and still be deeply satisfying physically, emotionally, and intellectually. The Old Republic has all the intellectual stimulation of a great novel, all the visual dazzle of a blockbuster motion picture, but all the strategic satisfaction of the most intense simulation games. In fact, at times it reminds me of a favorite game my wife and I used to play when we were first married called Star Wars: Assault on Hoth, which was a board game of sorts that was a role-playing adventure similar to Dungeons and Dragons. This was well before computer games were anywhere close to where they are now, in fact LucasArts biggest title back then was a game I played all the time on an Atari 7200 called Ball Blazer. That should put things in the proper time frame. She and I would play Assault on Hoth three or four times a week popping a bowl of popcorn and going to war together on the paper landscape. Many years later we would introduce our children to similar war simulation games such as Wiz Kids wonderful Pirates series (CLICK HERE TO SEE HOW MUCH WE ARE INTO THAT). So we are used to playing these kinds of intense strategy games as a family, and The Old Republic is simply every bit as good as I’m saying it is. It is the pinnacle of the gaming genre to date. There is nothing like it, and it may be a long time before something close to it comes again. The production values that went into the game are unusually over-the-top and not likely to be seen again. The cost to produce as much content as BioWare did with The Old Republic is just prohibitive. That is an economic reality that few who play games understand.
I anticipate that my wife and I will stay on this vacation well into the summer, so if my readers here wonder why I seem more reclusive than normal, and difficult to contact, or to pull commitments out of, blame it on The Old Republic. I haven’t turned on a television in over a week, and have only casually scanned news reports, so the benefit of the vacation has been effective in this case. There are few things that could divert my mind as effectively as something so intellectually stimulating as The Old Republic. It is a miracle of the modern age and I cherish every moment I get to play it. It is worth the thousands of dollars I spent just to play the game and then some. It is a lifetime experience that my wife and I will never forget.
Elections have consequences…….but they don’t force people to participate in a fools game, and that is what modern politics offers. Atlas Shrugged was right all along. The Old Republic is my personal Gulch and I’m thankful to have it.
Rich Hoffman
December 30, 2012
Carl Rullman for President: The Next Generation–Breaking free of the political left’s emotional hostages
As we watch the fiscal collapse of Greece, consider that they are about two to three years ahead of The United States in the debt crises–why, because public schools in the United States have been following a “global education” formula that is quite popular with superintendents like Lakota’s Karen Mantia. Watch the video below to see how similar the problems in Greece are to our problems in America over public education.
Carl Rullmann of West Chester should be President of the United States for what he said in regards to the Lakota School System floating the idea of a “permanent improvement” levy in 2013 that public schools all over Ohio are clamoring for due to dwindling state funding sources. Carl said he would not support a permanent improvement levy in the Lakota district. He said school districts should be spending their money more effectively, with the main focus on student learning—what a radical concept! Specifically, he said “As a voter, I wouldn’t support a levy because the schools are in good shape; maintenance is an operating expense not capital. Parents have jumped in and done things when busing was reduced and sports fees were raised. There are plenty of avenues for kids to engage in activities in West Chester. Schools are for education and teaching kids about the Constitution.” Well said Mr. Rullman, well said indeed!
You can read the whole article about this issue from the Pulse Journal which goes into more detail and exemplifies the financial bottomless pit mentality that many of these public education advocates utter.
http://www.pulsejournal.com/news/news/school-districts-delay-capital-projects-amid-shrin/nTczc/
Of course that article features a nice picture of kids playing on a playground designed to appeal to the parents who aren’t much older than the children they send to the school, who have not yet developed an understanding of fiscal awareness—since they barely know how to balance their own check books. But the article wisely discusses how it will be up to parents to come together in PTA groups if they want to pay for things like play grounds, band electives and other extracurricular activities. This sounds like a much better activity for those groups instead of sitting around each other’s dinner tables complaining about me, or camping outside of Kroger stores trying to smear my name publically. They might even lose some weight getting up off their butts—which is good for everyone.
In the past education institutions have allowed private fundraisers to contribute to capital projects in small amounts to make the community feel like they are a part of the process of operating a public school, but have discouraged such behavior behind the scenes keeping the fiscal numbers low and uneventful. Public education institutions universally desire increased taxes on property values for the bulk of their budgets because it fulfills a philosophical commitment that all public schools are dedicated to—centrally controlled education that is attached like a cancer cell to real estate values of a community—so that the school can use that relationship as an extortion tool when it needs funding increases keeping the government on the mind of all residents as an ominous authority figure.
When a group I was involved in tried to give $10,000 to a community fund in early 2012 shortly after a school levy defeat the public relations megaphones went into overdrive to come after me personally. When I tried to give the check to a member of the athletic staff at Lakota in front of the TV cameras of Channel 5, Channel 19 and the Cincinnati Enquirer nobody showed up from the school even though it had been arranged before hand. I knew before the check was written that the school would throw a fit which is why I agreed to do it because it took away the emotional leverage that the schools utilize to extort money away from busy parents and would expose the hypocrisy. It was after that event that I had a major melt-down with that particular institution which can be heard in more detail in a recent speech I gave. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN.
I know that there have been attempts by community members to completely pay for the band activities, and sports programs with private donations, but Lakota has discouraged all such activity because they know that if the community took control of all those funding mechanisms that they would lose the emotional leverage they use against the community to garner tax increase approvals—so the schools have dug their own holes with restrictive, and unimaginative funding models. I would argue that Lakota could nearly fund its entire $160 million dollar plus budget with donations and fees from the community that wish to send their kids to the school by-passing the tax revenue from the state completely. There is enough wealth in the Lakota district and enough overly zealous parents willing to pour infinite amounts of money into their children that could fund everything and anything that Lakota would ever need. But……………..the schools are not about teaching children, and this is the hypocritical reality behind the whole school funding mess–schools are about government control of local communities—and are designed to attach themselves to every home in every corner of the entire country linking us all to Washington D.C. in a marriage made in Hell—without giving us the opportunity for a divorce.
I don’t want to pay for public education for the next 40 or 50 years of my life. I don’t like it, I don’t respect it, I think it is destroying children, and I don’t want to pour thousands of dollars of my income per year into a failing institution—yet I’m expected to out of some yearning to care for tomorrow’s children. Well, the parents are responsible for those children—I already raised my kids and my views are reflected in Carl Rullman’s quite effective comments. He is 100% right, the schools are only tasked with basic education functions and should be concerned with learning about the U.S. Constitution, which of course is spit upon by the national teacher unions who are openly committed to global communism. Those are not the kind of people I want teaching America’s future generations—so I view any money given to those organizations as a complete waste. I wouldn’t vote for an operating levy for my public school either and I certainly wouldn’t vote for a capital improvement levy. Instead, I’d like to see the supporters of those schools to pay not just the $5000 per year in property taxes on their homes, but $10,000 to $20,000 per year in tuition so Lakota can operate at the level they expect. After all, it is they who want the service—I don’t—so they should be the ones to pay for that service.
But common sense permeates in Carl Rullman’s words, and I hope that more people like emerge in 2013 to fight these kinds of battles that are sure to emerge on the backs of our communities children. He has a lot more patience with the levy whores than I do, and he is a great voice for our community—and I thank God that he is out there in the world doing what I wish everyone did—speak his mind and resist the temptation to be everyone’s friend. Sometimes the responsible thing is to tell people NO. And in public schools, they need to learn what the word NO means—and the politicians that have provided public education with a gravy train of looted tax money in exchange for votes need to learn that meaning as well. Thanks to people like Carl Rullman, educrats are hearing “NO” for the second and third time, and are beginning to understand what it means.
Rich Hoffman
December 29, 2012
Who’s Responsible for the “Fiscal Cliff”: Most likely, you are
As the nation prepares to plunge over the “fiscal cliff” of 2013 with $16.3 trillion dollars in debt, and the promise of increased taxes on every American tax payer—not the moochers—the roughly 50% who do not pay taxes, but the actual tax payers who have their incomes taxed because they are productive; the finger-pointing begins as to who is at fault. Well dear reader, I will tell you who is at fault—and I’m happy to proclaim it as I have made my own internal arrangements to legally avoid my tax hikes. I will not stand for being robbed by the idiots who caused this mess. I will not work harder to slave for the bad decisions of the people who are at fault for the “fiscal cliff.” America is not a “good for one, good for all” kind of place. I am not “connected” to the fools of bad thought, and do not feel compelled to help those who are listed below with the mismanagement of their individual lives which has caused the current crises.
The people, who are at fault for the “fiscal cliff”— not necessarily in the order of importance, are those who are willing to pay for their food at McDonald’s with a credit card. It is the congressman who would rather play golf with the president, than to do the job he was elected for. It’s the President of the United States who believes more in socialism than capitalism. It’s the woman who puts her career in front of her family leaving the children emotionally bankrupt. It’s the father who would rather watch Monday Night Football at Hooters with his friends than to sit at a dinner table with his family. It’s the woman who is on her third husband in a decade, and on the man who just left his wife of twenty years for a 23-year-old girl younger than his own daughters. It’s the idiots who would rather spend their Friday evenings getting drunk than reading a book. It’s the welfare mother who just gave birth to her fourth child in 6 years by all different men so she can qualify for more government assistance. It’s the over-weight fool who has spent 35 years overeating to the point they can barely get up off a couch then expect someone else to cover their medical expenses as they are perpetually sick. It’s the teacher who lies to themselves that they are in the teaching profession to care for children when in reality it’s really for the money and the shopping sprees it affords them. It’s the lobbyist who would sell their country up the river in a heartbeat for a lap dance at Archibald’s on K-Street while their wives brag to their friends about what “great guys” their powerful—well connected husbands are. It’s the woman who turns a blind eye to her husband’s indiscretions in trade for diamond ear-rings on Christmas. It’s the woman who would rather work a job so she can get away from the pressure of being a mother then blame her child’s failures on a public school. It’s the man who sent his son to college on an athletic scholarship so that the boy can have a shot at professional athletics. It’s the gamblers who are still at the slot machines at a casino at 3:30 in the morning spending the last of their weekly paycheck waiting for the buffet to open for breakfast which they charge on a credit card because they’ve lost all their money. It’s the news reporter who slanted their stories to fill an ideology they inherited during journalism school; instead of using what their critical mind tells them is right. In short, the people most corrosive, most destructive, most diabolical and the most responsible for the “fiscal cliff” are those who blindly serve an institutional system in some fashion or another, and have strayed from individual responsibility. They are commanded by their social weaknesses instead of commanding their daily lives.
There are of course many more types of people who are responsible for the “fiscal cliff” and the moral bankruptcy that America is now in. But the above description paints the picture effectively. My view of those types is that they created their own problems, and it is not my responsibility to save them from their own stupidity with extra tax money—which is what additional taxes are really going to fund—more of the above behavior. The problem is, until the above issues are addressed, America will always have a debt problem because the root of the problem is greater than money. It is a rot of the human soul that the fools above seek to fill with material possession which skews all the raw data needed to solve the actual “fiscal cliff.” I realize that the best way to teach America the hard lesson it needs to straighten out the behavior above is to let them fall off the cliff, and to plummet to a painful crash. Only then might they listen the next time we come near a “cliff” of any kind. Maybe then they’ll listen when people of logic and reason tell them to be careful with their lives and treat every aspect of living as a precious moment worthy of great care. Because the debts of our society are a lot of little things that add up to trillions of dollars and the people who created that debt do not deserve to be a part of “the land of the free, and the home of the brave.” Such disreputable characters are not worthy of the honor to call themselves Americans when all they have done to contribute to the nation is debt.
Don’t ask me to pay for their bad behavior—because I won’t do it. I realize that I just insulted most of the people reading this—but tough. A thousand fools does not trump the brilliance of a creative individual who lives on the side of goodness. Such is a problem of democracy and the demise of fools who seek to cover their folly by the good deeds of the few by force of the federal government and the armies of the destitute employed by their tyranny.
Rich Hoffman
