Rich Hoffman's Blog, page 476
September 5, 2012
Ben Swann of Channel 19: Asking Obama about his “KILL LIST” which includes Americans
I don’t know if my favorite home town reporter in Cincinnati is Ben Swann of Channel 19, or Brendan Keefe of Channel 9. I’m a big fan of both reporters. They represent “excellence” in reporting to the highest degree. But in this particular case, on this particular day Ben Swann had the testicular fortitude to ask President Obama in a face to face interview about the presidential kill list that has caused a lot of anxiety among people who have been paying attention. Watch this!
Be sure to write Channel 19 and let them know you support Ben Swann and his hard-hitting reporting. Most reporters would have been satisfied to even get an interview with the president, and would have never risked asking such a tough question. But Ben Swann, acting out of journalistic integrity drove all the way across Ohio on a Sunday afternoon to interview Obama in northern Ohio, and when he got in front of the President, he asked him one of the hardest hitting questions Obama has had to answer in person during his entire term. That took guts—serious guts.
Many of us are on that list, so thank you Ben Swann. It is the job of a reporter to keep politicians in check so that secrecy can’t shroud sinister intentions. And the Obama Kill list is one of the most sinister leaks to ever come out of any White House. It was Channel 19 through Ben Swann that put the president in the hot seat, where he belongs, and did everyone in America a tremendous service.
Click Here to see what people are saying about my new book–Tail of the Dragon
Rich Hoffman
http://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/ten-rules-to-live-by/
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com
Atlas Shrugged Part II: Be the first to see the new preview!
Are you ready for Atlas Shrugged Part II? I am, and let me say that this time it’s a lot easier to get this film booked than the first one was. To date, Atlas Shrugged Part II is set to be released on October 12th 2012 and it is scheduled to play in more than 422 cities, and yes Cincinnati is one of them. (CLICK HERE TO REVIEW MY EXPERIENCE HELPING WITH PART ONE.) In fact, I will be a part of a conference call within just a few hours of this writing that will more specifically strategize the opening of Atlas all across America, and I can promise more than one theater in Cincinnati. To find out if Atlas Shrugged Part ll is coming to a city near you, click here for a link where you can look up its availability. If it isn’t coming close to your city, ask for it!
But tonight is a special night, because the preview for Atlas Shrugged Part II has just been released, and you can see it below. Enjoy, and get ready for your own trip to Galt’s Gulch!
Pass this along to a friend. America needs to see this film, and they need to see it on opening day! Because this story is coming true as it was predicted over 50 years ago by Ayn Rand and we are truly in a fight for our very lives. America doesn’t have time to read the book, they need to see this movie!!!!! NOW!
Click Here to see what people are saying about my new book–Tail of the Dragon
Rich Hoffman
http://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/ten-rules-to-live-by/
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com
Whip Cracking Philosophy: Yes, ‘The Symposium of Justice’ is available on Kindle
I spent part of the weekend with my friend Gery Deer discussing things much more pleasant than politics, specifically literature and bullwhips. He asked me now that my most recent book Tail of the Dragon was out, when I planned to write a sequel to The Symposium of Justice. I told him that I was already planning it, the title as of now is Overmanwarrior: The Trial of Fletcher Finnegan. Gery and I go back a bit. For more info on the two of us, check out this article done at Yahoo News:
http://voices.yahoo.com/ohio-production-company-plays-major-role-futuristic-3151948.html
Gery loves my first book and has always been one of its greatest supporters. He showed me how he was prominently displaying The Symposium of Justice on his online bookstore which can be seen at the link below, and we reminisced about the many adventures we had over the years because of that novel.
http://astore.amazon.com/gldentcomwri-20?_encoding=UTF8&node=2
Gery’s wife is a tremendous reader, and the last two times I’ve seen her, she had her face planted in her trusty Kindle. I told her that I didn’t understand why the Kindle was so popular and she showed me how she could download a lot of books into it and read them on the run. She absolutely loves it. She also mentioned to me that she noticed I never advertised The Symposium of Justice in its Kindle version, and I realized that mostly the reason was that I haven’t accepted the technology. I am still very much in love with traditional books that I can hold in my hands and smell. These download versions are such a new concept that I just can’t accept them the way others have.
The Symposium of Justice is a favorite book among those who have read it, particularly those in our little whip community. The character of Fletcher Finnegan/Cliffhanger is an interesting twist to the traditional Zorro/Batman type of character. As written, Fletcher Finnegan is a combination of Howard Roark from Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead and Zorro. He’s very complex, athletically perfect, and has a tremendous intellect. He is by all definitions a perfect man. He is the type of hero that everyone wants to be, and he lives his life without any fear. The plot tension comes not from his weaknesses but in his interaction with a society that strives to beat him into submission any way possible and the reader’s desire to see how he can survive such a social gauntlet.
My characters are all like this, because to be honest, that’s the only type of character I think is worthy to write about. In my recent Tail of the Dragon Rick Stevens has been found to be of the same caliber of strong, fearless quality as Finnegan. Although I did go out of my way to put Rick Stevens in situations that would show him to be more “human” than Fletcher Finnegan was in The Symposium of Justice, because of the incredible blowback I received from the progressive literary community, which at that time was not so well-defined. Reviewers back when I released that book didn’t know what to think about such a strong character, because socially we have become so used to whiny, snot-nosed, beta men. Nobody but children openly like and admire such strong characters as Fletcher Finnegan. However, the problem is that The Symposium of Justice is a very “adult” book so kids weren’t the ones buying it, it was adults.
Slowly, over time, people have started to show their love of Fletcher Finnegan. Maybe it has something to do with the re-emergence of Ayn Rand’s strong characters from The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged that is contributing to it. Or maybe the Obama Presidency has left a yearning for such characters that wasn’t there in the years immediately following the 9/11 tragedy which placed The United States on the defensive and trillions of dollars of over-reactionary, panic driven debt. Or maybe it’s because people have been reading my blog and are hungry for the kind of characters who live the lives I paint in the millions of words I’ve posted hoping to share my thoughts about how the world should be, and not willing to yield to in our current social state. It’s probably a little of all those elements that is giving The Symposium of Justice new life for a new generation of readers.
There is a scene that occurs in The Symposium of Justice that is so contrary to a typical action story that many who read it the first time through didn’t know what to think. The scene occurs in the chapter titled ‘Salad Bar Goddess’ where a hit man named R.L. Justice tracks Fletcher Finnegan and his family down to kill in front of a crowded restaurant in the town of Fort Seven Mile. The hit man, a traditional tough guy from the south side of Chicago, and feared as most sinister in his profession realizes that upon seeing Fletcher’s wife Misty, the town’s popular city council woman, Justice realized that he was sent to kill the perfect man, because nobody but a perfect man could have a woman as beautiful both physically and spiritually as Misty Finnegan. Once Justice figures out who Finnegan is, he makes eye contact and for the first time in his life sees a man looking back who has not one ounce of fear in him. Justice realizes that even if he could kill Fletcher Finnegan, that to do so would be a crime against humanity and suddenly Justice realizes that he is nothing but an assassin for a corrupt system that seems to only exist to stamp out people like Fletcher Finnegan. It is a life changing moment for R.L. Justice to meet Fletcher Finnegan. No words are spoken between the two men, but the communication that flows between the individual lives of the two radically different men completely alters the direction of the professional hit man. Realizing that his life has been a terrible waste, and that he is simply a puppet to his puppet masters, R.L. Justice decides to do one good thing in his life after that pivotal meeting. He leaves the restaurant, and gallantly throws himself out onto a highway in front of an oncoming truck, and kills himself instantly. That’s the kind of novel that The Symposium of Justice is.
My wife loves the character of Cliffhanger/Fletcher Finnegan. She thinks that young people should have such a positive character in their lives. Finnegan is everything I always wished Zorro to be, but lacked. Finnegan doesn’t bother to pretend to be foppish as Don Diego did in the Zorro stories. Finnegan knows that people don’t know about his vigilante antics as the masked Cliffhanger because society wishes not to acknowledge him socially. They refuse to see what is right in front of them, so there is no need to hide. It is that revelation which confronts the old, seasoned hit man R.L. Justice who considered himself an expert at dissecting human beings in order to identify his targets, and even he did not see who Fletcher Finnegan was, until it was too late. So obviously, I have thought about a sequel to The Symposium of Justice and have been anxious to begin it. My wife has been pushing me for years, and it was one of the first things Gery always mentions to me in our meetings over a long period of time.
So I am going to take the advice of Gery’s wife and embrace this whole Kindle thing. The least I can do in these tight economic times is let people know that they can get a Kindle version of The Symposium of Justice. It costs only $7.99 at Amazon.com and can be downloaded today. So while you’re out there reading my new book Tail of the Dragon, feel free to download The Symposium of Justice and enjoy the obscure exploits of Fletcher Finnegan as he fights the Dark Knights of Order. It’s a contemporary tale with an unusually strong central character that is my idea of what every human being should strive to become. It’s a fan favorite of all my whip friends who love that Fletcher’s weapon of choice is a bullwhip, but it’s not his physical prowess that defeats his enemies—it’s his mind. A man who can do both is the most lethal weapon imaginable, and a society of such men and women are what I as an author strive to see.
Click the picture to enter the world of Fletcher Finnegan without further hesitation. Even though I’ve explained one of my favorite scenes, it is not the only twist and turn in that first writing endeavor that I professionally completed. It is only the beginning of a deep and intricate story that goes to places only literature can imagine.
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Click Here to see what people are saying about my new book–Tail of the Dragon
Rich Hoffman
http://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/ten-rules-to-live-by/
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com
September 4, 2012
The “Egregious” behavior of a West Chester Trustee: Editing history to keep the public trust
It didn’t take a little bird to land on my window this time to inform me that there is something amiss in our community, again involving the West Chester Trustees. It appears a disrespectful indiscretion is deliberately being conducted regarding the transparency of the Trustee meetings as President Cathy Stoker after the August 28th 2012 meeting showed her intentions to append in the public record comments made during the June 26th, and July 10th meetings.
The controversy is over the construction of a crosswalk on Eagleridge road in Beckett Ridge to accommodate Trustee Lee Wong’s neighbor. The $5,000 project was initiated without a vote well before the trustees met to discuss the matter. The scenario is one that is typical in many small governments; where favors are given to those who are in the “know” and friends of people in high places receive the benefits. In this case Cathy Stoker and Lee Wong were caught colluding behind the scenes to make a simple crosswalk legally happen by building a consensus through the public meeting putting Trustee George Lang on the spot to approve the crosswalk before he had full knowledge of what was happening. It’s an old consensus building trick that disguises the intention, is legally worthy but is ethically challenged to say the least. Once Lang realized the depth of the maneuver, he put up a defense, but it was to no avail. Cathy and Lee are able to collude with each other since they are such like-minded progressive thinking politicians, and can out-vote Lang, which happens often. To review this case and watch the videos that is causing so much trouble, CLICK HERE.
Having disagreements are part of politics, and hashing out the truth through conflict can be very healthy. And part of learning that truth comes from the transparency of the public documents generated by the Fiscal Officer Bruce Jones who attends these trustee meetings so that the people of West Chester can reflect on what transpired in their community government. However, because of all the attention that the crosswalk issue had generated it appears that Trustee President Stoker has become concerned that some of her statements needed to be appended, which is a gross violation of public transparency. At the conclusion of the August 28th meeting Cathy instructed the Judi Boyko to work with Tim Jester and WCTV to append the June 26th Trustee meeting minutes responding to so-called erroneous statements made by Fiscal Officer Bruce Jones about the process surrounding the crosswalk incident.
The content of the “erroneous” statements are fairly minor and reflect disagreements with the politicians at play. They are of such a nature that Bruce Jones said to Cathy Stoker, “Furthermore at no time at the meeting o May 22 did you Cathy comment to the effect that you were out there watching traffic on Eagleridge. It’s not in the records.” Cathy’s response in the appended meeting notes were that she did indeed comment during that meeting to the effect she had watched traffic; as Mr. Jones himself admitted in his email to Mrs. Stoker on July 13 wherein he stated, “originally did not recall your comment about sitting in our car observing traffic at the intersection…I again reviewed the videotape and at the 43:15 minutes into the 5/22 video you made that comment.” The comments are those kinds of disagreements, all of which can be seen at the previous article I wrote on this matter.
The trouble is when a trustee like Cathy has a clear vote always in their favor with Lee Wong and a government employee who makes $140k per year like Judi Boyko to eat out of the hand of whoever sits in the presidents chair at a trustee meeting, seeks to append bickering records from public view because they know that people may catch the manipulation that is going on and start adding two and two together, deep trouble is not far behind. Clearly, the intentions of Cathy Stoker and Lee Wong from the previous article were to use public money to build a crosswalk in Beckett Ridge where Wong’s wife is a member of the homeowners association and there appears to be some bragging that has went on about how Lee being a trustee in West Chester could get a crosswalk put in for his friends and neighbors. The issue is not the merit of the $5,000 crosswalk which may or may not be needed; it’s the process that put it in play to begin with. Lee Wong, Cathy Stoker and Judi Boyko already had the whole project in motion before the May 22nd meeting was put to a vote, and that’s not how things work. Then when Cathy got caught in the manipulative scheme, she sought to manipulate the public records to cover her tracks, which is why she instructed Judi to work with Jester and WCTV to “append” the trustee notes.
When politicians get caught doing these kinds of things, it does make me very angry. When I had similar problems with the Lakota School System, after three votes by the community to reject a tax increase, the school system instead of forcing a 5% reduction in salaries and benefits among their unionized work force to balance their budget instead raised sports fees, cut busing, electives, and sought to undercut the work I was doing behind the scenes with No Lakota Levy to help pay the sports fees for children who most needed it. Their response to me was to stand outside Kroger by Lakota East and smear my name and the good work I was trying to do, which led to a very public spat that Cathy Stoker felt she was mandated to speak on. In The Cincinnati Enquirer Cathy Stoker said about me, “the language used by Mr. Hoffman is not only egregiously offensive, but reflects badly on the No Lakota group that Mr. Hoffman supports.” Clearly, Stoker is the kind of politician that seeks to hide her actions behind appended notes and polite backstabbing. I prefer to fight out in the parking lot and when these manipulative types find themselves painted into a corner, the try to sanitize history, and when someone gets angry about it, they call them “egregiously offensive.” What they really want is “shut up and take it!”
What is “egregiously offensive” to me are trustees who appear to be keepers of the public’s trust, as Cathy illustrated herself at my expense in The Cincinnati Enquirer telling me that I should hold my temper when I see the nasty political games that I’ve witnessed, only to allow the people who run the show like her to “append” documents, twist the facts, and attempt to cover up scandalous behavior with public consensus before everything hits the fan. These types of people hate transparency, they love it when nobody watches what they are doing, because it’s all too easy to cut deals and use public tax dollars like a child uses Lego building blocks to construct anything their imaginations can conger up. Nobody really cares about the procedures, the safe keeping of the public treasury because when they run out of money they just look for a tax increase or a new tax all together. It’s the looters life for those kinds of politicians.
For me, it’s not the comments between politicians resulting in the discussions from the various trustee meetings that are the problems. I expect conflict in a trustee meeting. I expect George Lang and Cathy Stoker to fight it out. I expect Lee Wong to call George Lang a rich suppressor who lives in big mansion while he lives in the lowly neighborhood of Beckett Ridge. (Yes, Lee actually said something to that effect) I expect those public representatives to have disagreements. To me, it is perfectly fine for Bruce Jones to call Cathy a liar, and to force Stoker to defend herself. That’s politics. It helps put the truth on the table. What I don’t like is a person who seeks to eliminate the opposition so that there is nobody to call them on their manipulative tendencies and collude with others for the benefit of the few. And manipulating public notes or altering them with chaos to cover tracks is disingenuous to the keeping of public records. It defeats the purpose.
To me calling people publicly who will do anything for money a “prostitute” as I’ve done on more than one occasion is far less “egregious” than telling a township employee to meet with the people at WCTV so that the record can be altered to cover up the betrayal of public trust. Yet that is how Cathy managed to get a crosswalk built for her friend Lee Wong without a proper vote or discussion beforehand. She conducted her meeting in an underhanded way to leave openings later for editorial manipulation in the chess game of politics. If she got caught, she’d say she really meant this, or really meant that, and if she got caught flat-footed, then she’d just have the records altered to reflect her version of reality. Yes, that is far more egregious than calling people a bad name, or even disagreeing with their politics. The open manipulations of the public trust, including the media who turn a blind eye toward these occurrences are all just a little guilty of “egregious” behavior that is in direct violation of the public trust. And those violations are never more evident than in a trustee president who wishes to append public comments, because if she weren’t trying to cover something up, she wouldn’t care to begin with.
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Click Here to see what people are saying about my new book–Tail of the Dragon
Rich Hoffman
http://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/ten-rules-to-live-by/
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com
Tail of the Dragon; The beast released
Reblogged from Abundant Truth:
Today is the day!
Tail of the Dragon has finally been released!
I already wrote a review of the book a few weeks ago. I got a chance to read an early copy of it since my father-in-law is the author who wrote it.
Rich Hoffman and I have a lot in common. I met his daughter when we were both very young.
More on 'Tail of the Dragon' from a guy who was there in the start of it.
September 3, 2012
‘Tail of the Dragon’ is Released: The written word is superior to politics 100% of the time
After months of discussing it finally my new novel Tail of the Dragon is being released. My publisher is using Baker and Taylor to distribute the book so it will be available everywhere as they are one of the largest book distributors there is. American Book put a nice review and sales link at the article below as well:
http://www.americanbookpublishingblog.com/importance-of-the-quality-of-your-book-endorsements
Clicking on the picture to the right will take those who want to get Tail of the Dragon for themselves to Publisher’s Direct which my publisher directly supplies. But Tail of the Dragon will be up on Amazon and all the major carriers as well, so the book should be easy to find without trouble. My friend Matt Clark up at WAAM, Ann Arbor did an interview with me talking about the book’s release. When it comes to Tail of the Dragon, Matt has had me on his radio program many times. He has been to my new book what 700 WLW used to be over the Lakota Levy that I was fighting locally in Cincinnati until the blow back from a “blackballing” attempt by the teacher’s union working with their media contacts caused a monumental rift in the Cincinnati market that reminded me of the fallout from the Eastwood speech during Mitt Romney’s nomination. Matt talks to me about all that in the video below:
There is always the assumption that politics is an option that everyone considers a cherished social accreditation. When the radical unions who have their fingers in everything realized that I was not going away over the public school funding debate they had to do something to attempt regain control. In an indirect way their hands are clean, it’s their fingers that are dirty. It is the lobby of organized labor that is often the real villain as the employees of the system march to the parameters of thinking established by union labor. They set the rules of all political engagement.
I have been working on Tail of the Dragon for a few years and before that book I wrote a novel called The Symposium of Justice. I’ve worked on screenplays, been to film festivals with various projects, and been a professional bullwhip instructor for stunt coordinators in film and from my perspective the issues of local politics, or even national politics, are very minor compared to an actual achievement as an author. I knew what I was doing when I let the Enquirer come to my home and photograph me using bullwhips to articulate why Lakota needed to balance their budget. I knew what the radical elements within the public education industry would say as they jumped all over my love of traditional values since many of them are progressive and I told the reporter as much during the interview. It was those pictures taken over two years ago that resurfaced during the “blackballing” article done by the Enquirer discussed in Matt’s radio interview above. For an example, and review click the link below:
“Blackballing” is where the media or a political entity cuts you out of having access to them. It’s a kind of castigation for not following the proper rules of engagement. During all the levy fights of the last couple of years I have been able to speed dial various reporters in print, radio, and television to get my stories out about why the Lakota school system is wrong for wanting to increase taxes, countering anything that the pro levy factions might bring up. I am not the first to do this. I knew before getting involved that others who have come before me have been used by the media to generate stories until the comfort level of everyone involved got too testy, then the media collectively pulls the plug, “blackballing” whomever the controversial figure may be.
I knew from my friend Arnie Engle over in Fairfield who has been harassed every way a man can be harassed because of his opposition to school levies, and my friend Jennifer Miller, the former school board member in Mason who was harassed to no end because of her desire to do a “good job,” and my good friend former Lakota School Board member Sandy Tugral who was ran out-of-town labeled a “kook” by organized labor that if I put myself out there that the same types of people would come after me. The people mentioned suffered various degrees of vandalism to their private property, especially Arnie. They have been publicly ridiculed. And they have all been “blackballed” by the media once the media was done with them. I knew that if I put myself out on a limb in a local levy fight I would become a major political target.
So I gave my Enquirer article dressed in my cowboy hat and my bullwhip to let the people who would come after me later know that they would do so at their own peril. Most people assume that a career in politics is in the back of the mind of any activist. Nobody considers that a person might actually only be concerned with doing the right thing, so to their minds, appearing on the front page of The Cincinnati Enquirer announcing my resistance to a local tax issue dressed over-the-top was political suicide. Nobody considered that my intent was to take my measure beyond the touch of traditional politics, because I knew it was only a matter of time before the “blackballing” attempt would be made in my direction—since that is the only way that public education can maintain their tax payer scam.
Here is a link to that Enquirer article mentioned above, when things were still on good terms:
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20100922/NEWS0102/9230322/Man-wants-to-whip-proposed-Lakota-levy
Blackballing is how the school controls the media in the first place. The Enquirer was given a choice after No Lakota Levy started Yes to Lakota Kids helping needy children pay their sports fees, if they did not fall in line with the union controlled politics of public education, they would be “blackballed” by the school, in this case, Lakota. That is why the media is so quick to come after people who align themselves against the established political order. The media will use people to help create a series of good stories, just like a person might eat a nice meal not to be full, but simply for the taste. But in the end, the media will shit them out without regard once they are done with them, and I knew eventually that day would come.
The fault that I noticed all my friends mentioned above had fallen victim to in their various political fights is that they tried to do it through the established order of politics, where all the union controls are already implemented. They tried to become school board members, or run for some kind of office so they could get on the inside and attempt to create change from within, which of course doesn’t work. I decided not to try that, because my primary focus is that of an author, and because I have no intention of ever being elected into public office. I have no fear of doing, or saying anything that might cause me trouble down the road, so traditional politics was worthless to me. As an author I can operate without the fear of being “blackballed,” because the written word cuts through the immediacy of politics.
That is the advantage when you write novels, and run around the country with bullwhips and live a life that is superior to anything that politics can offer, is that you are free of their reach. So when the organized labor apologists attempted to “blackball” me I was already prepared. Their frustrations were already evident since they could not threaten physical violence on me. Who in their right mind was going to attack a bullwhip expert who could make mince-meat of them quickly in a personal conflict? So they attacked my media contacts.
What they didn’t know was that my media contacts were not limited to only Cincinnati, since my field of endeavor is literature, controversy is actually good marketing and works to my advantage. So the more “blackballing” they attempted to inflict on me, the better it has been on my literary endeavors. The “blackballing” would only work if I wanted to run for some type of public office, and cared what people thought about me in being “electable.” But my business is not in such popularity contests. My job is to tell stories and give insight from “the front of the train,” not adhere to the politics in the back. CLICK HERE FOR A REVIEW ON THIS METAPHOR. Literature trumps politics, which is why politicians eat out of the hand of Hollywood actors. Just ask the Republican Party about Clint Eastwood. Clint knows that he has more value to American society than some manager who wants to run for office and is a prisoner to all the silly political rules that the media has established to keep their stories within their editors 500 word limits, and their 3 minute TV story blocks. Books, movies, music and other art is where more detail is explored and entertainment gains more value beyond the politician. So the mistake of those who took on the union controlled school systems protected by a media afraid of being “blackballed” is that they played the games of politics instead of the rules of literature. And when I did that Enquirer article two years ago starting everything that followed, I never intended to beat them with politics, but with the written word.
None of that matters now. I’ll still of course be involved in issues that affect my local community, because it’s my responsibility. But I am not a prisoner to their political rules of engagement, my new book Tail of the Dragon as we discussed it on WAAM, in Ann Arbor, Michigan and many media outlets to come are what I do for a living. It is the result of a lot of hard work and that hard work is beyond the reach of silly politics and the media “blackballing” that goes on to keep everyone in their respective social categories. In my case the goal of a novelist is not to be “liked” but to be “respected.” And to gain respect, you have to say what you mean and not speak the “double-talk” of politics. And sometimes that means calling a group of levy apologists “latté sipping prostitutes with asses the size of car tires” because it’s the truth as a novelist sees it, and not some comb-over politician who simply wants a desk with a nameplate and the respect of a community for a tax payer funded job title.
It’s harder to write a novel, get it through a publisher, an editor, and a public relations staff than to fight a silly school levy that labor unions, media reporters, and thousands of insecure parents feast off of. So it pleases me greatly to announce that my new book Tail of the Dragon is now available to the public at the links provided, and that as a body of work is beyond the reach of the media “blackballing” that goes on, or the political controls of the small-minded name-plate gods. It’s a work onto itself that is far superior to any act of politics and is why I put my efforts there, beyond the reach of the “blackballers” in the back of the train.
The reason I mentioned all the above upon the release of my novel is because I’m not the kind of writer who articulates from a mountaintop on just pure speculation. I write from experience. In this case at the same time that The Enquirer was photographing me with my whips in my back yard I wrote the below article about my book Tail of the Dragon, August 23rd 2010. Much of what I experienced above over the last 2 years found their way into the plot of that action packed book. So dear reader, when you experience the corruption and betrayal of the novel’s characters as seen through the eyes of Rick and Renee Stevens, you can rest assured that there is more truth in the story than pure fantasy. And you can also rest assured that I was writing the plot for the novel that has been my real life all along paragraph by paragraph, and there was a method to the madness from the very beginning.
http://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/08/23/my-new-book-the-tail-of-the-dragon/
The sum of all these new experiences will find their way into my next book called The Trial of Fletcher Finnegan. (CLICK FOR A PREVIEW) But until then, I hope you will buy, and enjoy the book–tell your friends about it and help make it a success. Because I put a lot of myself into the writing of these stories and I construct my future plots based on real events with the knowledge that the written word has the power to move mountains, and alter lives–while exposing the ugly aspects of our daily existence. Tail of the Dragon does that and more, and I sincerely hope you enjoy the wild ride that starts by clicking on the picture below. 
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Click Here to see what people are saying about my new book–Tail of the Dragon
Rich Hoffman
http://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/ten-rules-to-live-by/
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com
September 2, 2012
Clint Eastwood at the RNC: Explaining what the ‘empty chair’ meant
I waited a couple of days to calm down before stating my opinion of the Eastwood speech at the RNC Convention just prior to Mitt Romney being officially nominated as the Republican nomminee for President of the United States. The panicked Romney aide behind the stage at the Convention who said cringing as the speech time on stage exceeded the 5 minute mark and was way off-key from the typical stuffy Republican stage setup, “You don’t edit Clint Eastwood” was absolutely correct. You don’t “edit” Clint Eastwood. Eastwood is one of the most recognizable names in the world not because he sat quietly while others told him what to do, but because he has often embarked on wild chances and taken great risk upon himself and others in the building of his international persona. He has an elevated level of understanding of what audiences want to see, and his speech certainly reflected it. His knowledge of what an audience wants to see far exceeds the knowledge of the typical 30 to 40-year-old PR specialists handling Romney’s campaign, and they are not qualified to “edit” Clint Eastwood.
I knew what to expect when Clint Eastwood took the stage because I have watched the film icon give hundreds of interviews over the years, and most of them are just like that. Eastwood does not like to use notes, Teleprompters, or come across with flattened authenticity. To understand what Eastwood thinks deep down inside all anyone has to do is watch some of his most personal films, like White Hunter Black Heart, and Bronco Billy. Nothing Eastwood said on stage just minutes before the heavily scripted acceptance speech of Mitt Romney came as a surprise to me.
I was impressed to learn that Mitt Romney personally invited Eastwood to speak. It shows that Romney as a manager can identify talent thinking outside the box and will likely surround himself with good people like Paul Ryan when he gets the presidential job. But Romney was not giving Eastwood any kind of break in letting him speak. Unlike the speeches by Paul Ryan, Scott Walker, Marc Rubio and many others that were carefully scripted, Eastwood was not, and the Romney people wouldn’t dare ask the legendary actor to do such a silly thing. Romney like all politicians sought from Eastwood credibility, and to show that prestigious members of the Hollywood community supported Republicans, and that not all Hollywood was in the corner of Barack Obama. That message was so important to Romney that he had Eastwood give the last independent speech before his own introduction, and he got what he wanted in Clint Eastwood. To me, that shows great vision and instinct even if the Romney handlers were dumbstruck by the performance.
I was however baffled by the criticism, many saying that Eastwood looked like a stumbling fool on stage, a senile old man. Eastwood’s hair was a wreck, his manner seemed unorganized, and he was crude and insulting. But the biggest criticism of all is that he sucked all the air out of the room and had people talking about his speech the next day instead of Romney. Well, news flash, I could have told the Romney people exactly what Eastwood was going to do. I was so unsurprised by his speech that my wife and I hardly noticed it because in the Hoffman house, Clint Eastwood is the closest thing to a religious icon anyone will find. Over my dresser are two pictures of Clint Eastwood carefully framed and I look at them every day. My DVD collection has every single Clint Eastwood movie ever made, and they have been watched, and watched, and watched again. I even have the T.G. Sheppard album that features a duet with Clint Eastwood called “MAKE MY DAY.” For many years my family has ushered in each New Year by watching all 5 Dirty Harry films on New Year’s Eve and New Years Day. No football games, no parties, just Clint Eastwood movies with him playing Dirty Harry. Every young person in my family who has had to drive around in a car with me has had to listen to me playing that song while we drive. I simply love the man. I admire his grit and ability to age well every bit as much as the toughness he exhibited in his youthful movies that made him an international star. Eastwood has not been afraid to piss off people before, people he had admired greatly, specifically John Wayne when that cowboy icon was up in arms over Eastwood’s film direction, and acting in the movie High Plains Drifter, which Wayne felt was an insult to the American Cowboy image he helped to craft. Eastwood’s portrayal in that film as a “hell hound” returning from the dead to punish an entire town for the betrayal of their sheriff crossed many established lines of thinking in the early 1970’s. It is so refreshing to see that the 82-year-old Clint Eastwood is still not afraid to take a chance to make his point and is much smarter than the people around him. Even after a lifetime well lived, Clint Eastwood is still authentic to his own personal beliefs and cannot be swept up in the tide of politics. Eastwood showed up as a favor to the Romney Campaign and at no point did he get wrapped up in the glitter. To Eastwood, he knows just him being there helps Romney. But Romney does not help Clint. The sacrifice was purely on Eastwood’s end.
When I give public speeches and other presentations I do not use notes because I learned it from watching the many lectures of Joseph Campbell, and interviews with Clint Eastwood. The reason is that carefully prepared speeches come out sounding fake. It is much better to speak from the heart. Now on the downside, a public speaker without notes sometimes rolls through sentences while stringing together thoughts. People expecting Eastwood to give a polished performance like his younger speakers at the Convention have simply become used to the well oiled machine that has become the political norm. When Clint Eastwood went on stage, I know he was thinking he had to hit all the marks the Romney people told him to hit, but he was going to do his own thing as he usually does. Knowing Clint Eastwood, he went up on stage with a metaphorical idea he came up with while listening to the other speeches of the evening, and he wanted to use the “empty chair” to convey how we all feel about President Obama and politics in general. Most of the directors at the RNC failed to grasp the metaphor, and that is their problem. Eastwood figured that it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission, so what the hell. Everyone in the room wanted somebody to take a shot at President Obama that was stylish and worked on any levels, and Eastwood had the guts to do it.
When people say “if I were to die tomorrow” they mean they would do things differently if they knew they did not have to live with the consequences which implies that they would be willing to live with little lies in their lives if they know they have to wake up tomorrow and face the music. In Eastwood’s case, he has lived his life this way for a long time, and now that he’s 82, he could die tomorrow. He could die at anytime, and he knows it, and is comfortable with that knowledge, but he’s not about to leave this earth being a stooge for a political looter, who simply wanted to use Eastwood’s image to prop up his own credibility.
Clint Eastwood detests–especially in politics–over grooming, too much make-up, and cardboard cutout people. Oddly enough, some of the appeal of Paul Ryan is that he represents an Eastwood style of politician, no-nonsense, fit, smart, and practical. When he first took the VP position his own hair and clothing was a bit sloppy, and that is appealing because it shows that Ryan cared more about his work than his appearance. But in two weeks once the Romney handlers began to “manage him—Ryan received a nice $300 haircut and is getting a taste of the “looters life” and it is obvious that he’s starting to like it. You can see it by the way he scowled at Eastwood’s speech looking at his watch in quit protest. I would offer to Ryan not to forget who he is, and to not get too wrapped up in images. When Eastwood, one of the greatest film directors of all time went on stage with his hair a mess—without a single speech note—without a care about his future and how the Romney people might scowl at what he said—he did every bit of it on purpose. Clint Eastwood had a very good idea that what he was about to say would be analyzed heavily, criticized, and belittled. He knew that the finger-pointing politicians would run for cover and attempt to distance themselves from him within seconds. Eastwood’s intention in his speech was for one last time in his life on a big stage to show everyone viewing just what is wrong in politics, and why people have lost faith in the two-party system. Everything he did was on purpose to be analyzed, and talked about for years.
Eastwood’s goal on stage that night at the RNC was not to be liked. He was already liked. Mitt Romney simply wanted to show the world that movie stars like him too. That was the entire purpose of bringing Clint Eastwood to the RNC convention. Nobody gives a damn about the crap a politician says. And it should come as no surprise that a movie actor could show up and take all the attention from the other looters in the room. And nobody gives a rat’s ass about what the media thinks, because those are the same idiots who “made” Obama. It’s the heart and soul of America that Clint Eastwood was speaking to and that is why the people who enjoyed his speech did, and the people all caught up in the wrong aspects of politics called it “strange,” and like “an episode of Twin Peaks.” Even Glenn Beck belittled the Eastwood speech, which really lowered Beck’s grade in my book. I was planning to go see Beck when he comes to Cincinnati in a few weeks, but based on his comments over the Eastwood speech, I don’t think I will value what he says. I might listen to him every now and then on the radio, but I won’t go out of my way to see him in public like I did when he came to Wilmington. Beck like Ryan, Anne Romney and Scott Walker based on their comments and behavior over Eastwood is looking too closely at the established order of things, and it is that order that people are sick of. Beck has done a good job asking for courage among politicians, and out of all people, he should understand what Eastwood was trying to do. But even he is too wrapped up in the “established” thinking to see what’s really going on, and that is disappointing. Like Ryan, Beck is becoming too big, and his concern over his own legacy is starting to overtake his reasonable assessment. Politics should not be so well rehearsed, it should not be so scripted, and it should not be praised as royalty. When Eastwood took the stage he did so as a rebel who didn’t comb his hair, and was going to speak from the heart. That should be honored.
The drifting from sentence to sentence that Eastwood was doing, especially after the 5 minute mark was because the red light was flashing, telling him to wrap up his speech. When I speak in public, I get told often to wrap it up, because if people let me, I will talk all day. But in Eastwood’s case, he knew that the directors of the RNC event were not happy with what he was doing, and that what he was saying was going to hurt. But he had to do it anyway, and he controlled his emotions very well, picking carefully which thing to say next so that it was right at the edge of acceptance, without crossing the line. It was not that Eastwood was a senile fool on stage, but a man walking a tightrope, and he was in no hurry to fall. He took one step after another to deliver one of the most scathing rebukes of a sitting president ever delivered on such a large public stage, and he did it with all the bravado that made him one of the biggest movie stars in the world. Mitt Romney got what he wanted whether he was consciously aware of what he was asking for or not. As I said before, Romney is showing a good instinct for hiring the right kind of people for the job, and bringing Eastwood to the convention was a brilliant idea. But I would caution those same Republicans not to distance themselves from what Eastwood did and said. Clint Eastwood did the Republican Party a tremendous favor at his own personal risk. The politicians involved should accept it at its value, which is great, and not distance themselves from him. To do so is to betray what they proclaim they are fighting for.
The American public is sick and tired of contrived, plastic, politics. They want to hear things told from the heart, and they like to see the soul of the person speaking. Glenn Beck is a great public speaker, and even he writes down notes in outline form so he can deliver punctual presentations to the public and not bounce around when he gets stuck in front of 60,000 people like Eastwood was doing. But notes are still a crutch, and it takes great courage to stand in front of so many people with only your intellect as your alley, which is why Eastwood does not speak with notes. It’s also why he’s 82 years old and still able to speak with such authority as he did at the RNC convention. His wits were clearly about him, as he delivered a speech that worked on many levels, not just a superficial, visual one.
If I was disenfranchised with politics before the Eastwood speech, I am certainly more so now, based on the political response to it. The Republicans are the good guys in my book and even the good guys are deeply tainted. I can see where the next line of battles will occur in the years following the buffoon Obama, and it will not be with the professional politicians in the room at the RNC convention or their handlers. I stand with Clint Eastwood completely over anyone else from the RNC event. It’s not that the man can do no wrong in my eyes. I can think of a few times he has let me down, as in making the film Tightrope, and a few others, but I trust that Eastwood makes every attempt to be honest with himself, and his intellect has benefited from his honesty. So when he says something, I trust what it is. I may not agree with it all the time, but I know there was a thought process that delivered the thought, and it didn’t come from some snot-nosed speech writer fresh out of college who doesn’t have a lick of experience in real life. I don’t want to hear Romney deliver a carefully controlled and well-orchestrated speech given to him by a hundred such handlers. I want to hear the authenticity of what a man is, not what kind of image he can conger up for himself. It is a sad state when it is an actor who is the most real person in a room, and at the RNC convention, Clint Eastwood was the most honest. Anne Romney should still be grateful that a person like Eastwood is supporting her husband and not make sly comments about how there should have been more contrived video of her family instead of the Eastwood speech. Nobody gives a shit lady. Don’t even think about turning into another Washington princess before the seat from the previous fat ass duchess has left it.
It should say everything to everyone watching the Eastwood convention speech that an “empty chair” was the most interesting thing that happened at the RNC convention. The empty chair worked on many levels of psychology. It obviously represented President Obama who has spent his entire presidency running for re-election, and not doing the job he was elected to do. But it also represented the emptiness present in politics. I would not put it passed Eastwood that the idea came not while on the plane from California, but while the Romney people where giving him their talking points to incorporate into his speech. The idea for the chair was meant as a warning not just to Obama, but to the Republican Party to not just become more empty minds in empty seats holding public office. It was a warning not to be afraid to shake it up a little, and be unpredictable, because that’s how you get the media eating out of your hand instead of the other way around—and that is a lesson that the Republican Party hasn’t been able to achieve since Ronald Reagan was president, who like Eastwood knew all the tricks of the trade because they are actors who have mastered public image. The Eastwood speech was not a debacle, it was a brilliant metaphor intended for minds too dim to see it. But the resonance of Eastwood, in what felt like one last public performance was a potent one that sadly shows how bad our political system really is. It revealed that even people I thought “got it” still don’t and I won’t bend over backwards ever again to listen to what they have to say, because the mind behind the thought is still in its infancy.
Yesterday Romney came to Cincinnati. I was invited, but I did not go, mainly because of the ill feelings I have after listening to the controlled finger-pointing after the Eastwood speech. In a couple of weeks, Glenn Beck is coming to town and I was planning to attend, but won’t be now. I’ll still support both people, and in Beck’s case I enjoy 80% of his work most of the time. But to jump on the Eastwood bashing bandwagon tells me a lot about these people. When it comes to picking and choosing, I’ll stick with the “Man with No Name” over the “Name” of a politician or political commentator. Because there is far more value in the man who arrives at 82 years of age and has not been seduced by the glittery lights of politics over the men who are enamored by it and became that way in a much shorter span of their lifetimes. I will not go out of my way to see those first people speak in person. But if Eastwood announced that he was coming to Cincinnati tomorrow to eat a hamburger but would not be giving any public statements I would drop what I was doing and attend, because there is more manliness in the authenticity of sticking to a set of beliefs than the person who follows the trends of belief. The world is so full of the later, and is in desperate need of the former. The value of a wordless bite into a hamburger by Clint Eastwood holds more merit than a whole string of convention speeches by polished politicians and their puppet handlers of orthodox opinion. The aide was right, “you don’t edit Clint Eastwood.” His brand is proven, and if you ask him to speak, you take what you get. In the case of politics, a movie actor is much more important than a roomful of politicians, and that sad fact is a reality that cannot be covered up with fancy lights and balloons, but is exposed by the presence of a simple–empty–chair.
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Rich Hoffman
http://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/ten-rules-to-live-by/
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September 1, 2012
“Shoot Extreme” in West Chester Part 2: Tactical Targeting for Civilians
This posting assumes that my previous article about the new indoor target range Shoot Extreme has been read. Click here for review. Shoot Extreme is the tactical indoor target shooting range located in West Chester, Ohio. It is the first of its kind anywhere in the United States, where real guns can be used in the fashion that has become popular with paintballing. While paintball can simulate combat, the weapons are unique to paintball. The huge advantage that Shoot Extreme has over everyone else in the simulated combat training business is that their guns are real, so it allows the shooter to become very familiar with a specific weapon.
In my trip to Shoot Extreme the genius of the concept was quickly evident. Ownership of Shoot Extreme revealed to me that in its current state, he is at phase one of a multi-phase plan. Currently there are two lanes (mazes) of interactive targets that a shooter must engage within 3 seconds while in the course. The two lanes are of two different difficulties, lane one, easy to intermediate, the second is the advanced lane. The interactive targets in this case happen to be zombies, to simulate human style targets and they are cleverly positioned throughout the simulated interior of a building dressed up like a haunted house. The lighting is challenging because it’s dim to dark in most places which accurately simulates most situations of nighttime home intrusion scenarios. The zombie theme is wonderful because it makes it fun and much less serious since replication of human targets crosses the line for many people.
For even experienced shooters I highly recommend lane one first because I have to admit, my first couple of shots in the course were loaded with mild anxiety at the thought of shooting at a human like target, its one thing to think about shooting at a live target, it’s quite another to actually do it. In lane one it takes 19 shots to get through to the end. It takes a “double tap” to kill the final two bosses which appear nearly simultaneously. Additional ammunition is available for $10. The cost of admission gets you 20 shots and is currently $20 dollars to get two clips of ten shots, a gun rental of your choice, a tactical holster and a run through one of the target courses. Basically the cost of shooting is a dollar a shot, and most of the guns available are traditional 9mm and .45 simi auto pistols. Shoot Extreme provides the best training possible with a full staff available and their gun rental department is vast as they maintain many commonly used service weapons, including Glock, Beretta, Sig Sauer, Smith & Wesson, and other arms.
When I went through lane one I picked the Beretta 92F since it is such a reliable weapon and seemed like the one that would be most useful in a zombie apocalypse. It’s a 9mm and holds plenty of ammunition. But with a ten round clip, a reload in the middle of the course would be needed. And this is what makes Shoot Extreme such a treasure for target shooters. The zombie apocalypse target shoot forces shooters to keep track of their ammunition under duress, just as it would be required in an actual combat situation, which is probably the single most important tactical teaching tool that this course provides. The second benefit is that it gets a shooter used to shooting at a target that simulates a menace.
Typically under normal target shooting there is very little urgency to perform, and react to the target. The shooter is in complete control, however, in an emergency, control is in the command of the aggressor. So normal target shooting does not properly train the mind to deal with situations of aggression. In a real hostile situation, if an intruder entered a home and a shooter was commissioned to defend their home with their own Beretta 92F they would have to overcome their anxiety to pull the trigger on a hostile, and they would have to get used to keeping track of their ammunition in low light conditions under duress, and possess the ability to determine a friend from foe while geared up and ready to fire at the first moving target they see.
To date, only Shoot Extreme in West Chester gives civilians the opportunity to exercise these types of skills. When a visitor enters the double doors to the Shoot Extreme building located at the intersection of Tylersville Road, and Cincinnati-Dayton Rd, a state of the art, technologically equipped lobby is there to greet. After a release form is filled out, shooters stroll into a room where they are checked by a metal detector to ensure they don’t bring live guns into the facility, so everything is tightly controlled. From there, a shooter steps up to a counter and selects their holster, and a technician will present dozens of potential firearms converted to fire Simunition, which functions the same as regular ammunition, but fires a plastic round that could easily strike the bare skin of a human being and not penetrate. It will sting a bit, but will not cause any harm. In fact advanced shooters at Shoot Extreme are organizing four on four matches where they shoot at each other in special competitions. So there is no danger of death, but this is certainly a step up from paintball. A BIG step up! Once a shooter has their guns and holster, a guide takes shooters through one by one. The guide hangs back while the shooter engages the targets and does not get involved unless they need to. For instance, while I was going though, my Beretta jammed up, which is part of the shooting experience. In a real situation, a shooter would have to solve this problem while still in danger. My guide was able to step in and pause the action while we cleared the gun. He was able to restore my ammunition level to compensate me for the lost rounds so I didn’t have an unpleasant experience. The guides are also there to help in case a shooter finds themselves in a panic situation passing out due to the anxiety.
I moved through my course rather fast and my guide stayed well behind me not interfering. I had a lot of technical questions which he was able to answer as I thought of them, but at no time did he encourage me to slow down, or speed up. He just hovered back there in case something went wrong, which for me was only mischambered ammunition after a series of rapid fire targets.
The environment is decorated just like a haunted house but the thinking is opposite from that experience. When a monster jumps out, the typical reaction in a haunted house is to jump away from the action. In this scenario as the walls are smeared with blood, and other chaotic markings overwhelm the senses, the zombies make a bellow noise and growl at you and the must be engaged with aggression. You have to determine where they are and kill them within the 3 second limit. If you don’t strike them with a clean hit, within that time, they flash red to let you know you failed to engage that target. Toward the end of the course are two bosses that require “double-tapping” to bring them down. They require four shots between the two in about 3.5 seconds. One is at close range and the other is in the distance and even if you know what to expect, would be a challenging shot.
If shooters would like to get used to the idea of firing guns at interactive targets, Shoot Extreme features a traditional range that can be viewed from the lobby, and is filled with torso targets that are very similar to the zombies in the course. I did not shoot on this course before I went through the zombie maze, and I did lose a couple of shots because I went for head shots, and head shots don’t always register completely, since the hit sensor is in the torso. So a torso shot is the most effective way to bring down a zombie, and that can be practiced in the traditional target range for similar pricing, about a dollar a shot along with the gun rental—so it’s very affordable, and a cheap way to shoot, a really good bargain for such a non traditional target range. I did shoot on the traditional range after my zombie hunt, because I didn’t want the experience to be over, so I was able to see how the zombies worked in lane one by studying how the targets behaved without all the zombie dressing that makes them look like monsters in a haunted house.
Shoot Extreme is a happening place, and a palace of tactical shooting. It is a great benefit to the community of West Chester and the surrounding areas as it gives civilians a chance to do what only military personnel has had access to in the past. I will emphasize that every gun owner and Second Amendment supporter I know should make a regular visit to this fantastic target range. This particular venue enhances experiences like that enjoyed at Target World. It is not direct competition, but is an added enjoyment, and skill set that is designed to take the personal firearm skills of a shooter and elevate them in ways that can only be experienced in such tactical scenarios. But the competition level is never intended to be intimidating. There are not in-your-face scores to rub in the face of shooters who don’t do well. The experience is intended to be personal, and to be done again and again until the skills are mastered, so novice shooters don’t have to be concerned about not stacking up against those who have a lot more experience.
The time spent at the Shoot Extreme facility can be over within 15 minutes, or shooters can hang around for hours immersing themselves in the environment. For me, it will make a wonderful business lunch visit from time to time. There’s no better way to talk business than over lunch with guns present, so I would think once word gets out among the business community, that many such lunches will become commonplace. Right outside of the Shoot Extreme facility is a wonderful little Chinese restaurant as well as other options that could easily be enjoyed during a lunch hour from work.
Obviously I can only gush over Shoot Extreme. It’s the result of a dream from an owner who represents the best in what America has to offer. He’s an entrepreneur who was able to take his real life service experiences in tactical training and bring it to everyday people, and that is a real gift to our society, especially those who are looking for new ways to enjoy, and protect the Second Amendment. Shoot Extreme gives shooters a chance to get over their fear of firearms that has been drilled into our society from gun grabbing politicians, and teaches how to properly use a gun in the type of scenarios that it will most likely be used under target acquisition and threat assessment. Because of Shoot Extreme, our society is well on its way to becoming just a bit more safe, and ultimately free.
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Click Here to see what people are saying about my new book–Tail of the Dragon
Rich Hoffman
http://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/ten-rules-to-live-by/
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com
