Posts Tagged ‘Atlas Shrugged’
Justin Binik Thomas ‘Ways and Means’ Interviews: Matt Clark and Channel 9 get to the heart
I was at the Liberty Township Tea Party meeting when Katy Kern read the IRS harassment letter calling out Justin Binik Thomas as an individual. Justin is from Deer Park nearly a half an hour to the south of Liberty Township, Ohio and had no connection at all to the Tea Party group in my community. So the implication of why Justin, who was a founding member of the Cincinnati Tea Party, was obvious. The IRS was letting Liberty Township know that the leaders of the Tea Party effort were going to be targeted, and unless they wanted the wrath of the IRS coming down on them—they’d keep their head down. Well, it didn’t work. The Liberty Township group hunkered down and Justin went on the offensive letting every media outlet in the country know about the harassment he received. He’s been on virtually every news program in the country as a result and made a point to fly to Washington D.C. to attend the Ways and Means hearings. Upon arrival back into Cincinnati he gave two interviews, one to Channel 9 which is shown after the below video, and a radio interview with Matt Clark of WAAM in Ann Arbor, Michigan which can be seen and heard here:
The Channel 9 Interview is now listed below with the link to the original story here:
Posted: 05/18/2013
Justin Binik-Thomas wanted to know why a question about him was among 35 the Liberty Township Tea Party was instructed by the Internal Revenue Service to answer as part of the organization’s application for tax-exempt status last year.
Binik-Thomas, of Deer Park, believes he became the only individual to be singled out in any of the hundreds of questions asked by Cincinnati IRS employees who gave extra scrutiny to applications for tax-exempt status filed by conservative groups.
The 31-year-old was so concerned that he flew to Washington, D.C., to be present during the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee’s hearing Friday.
While Binik-Thomas didn’t expect the hearings to give him answers, he told 9 On Your Side prior to his trip to Capitol Hill that he thought it was important to be there to show the face of someone who has been directly affected by the scandal.
9 On Your Side interviewed Binik-Thomas to get his opinion about what he learned during the hearing.
His responses can be viewed below:
Q. What did you learn from the hearings?
A. I left confident that Congress has taken the [inspector general's] findings, IRS admission, and constituent concerns seriously. Special thanks to my representative, Congressman (Brad) Wenstrup, for working with Ways and Means colleagues on this issue. Congressman (Pat) Tibiri and Congressman (Erik) Paulsen included my story in their questioning.
Q. Are you satisfied with the answers you got from the experience?
A. There was little new information learned at the hearing proper, but there will be followup, written testimony and committee research over the coming weeks. I hope to learn more in this phase.
Q. What do you plan to do next?
A. I will continue to work with congress and this committee to support as needed and appropriate.
Q. What would you like to hear from IRS/administration officials?
A. I would like to know why I was included in the letter to Liberty Township Tea Party, what the information received will be used for, and where the information was shared. [I’d] also like assurances that it will not be used against me or my small business in the future. The same assurances should be offered to targeted groups.
Q. What have you received in the way of support from the local community?
A. My family and community have been supportive. It is chilling to be called out by the government.
Q. What would you like the public to know about what happened?
A. The IRS has identified an individual in a letter to an unrelated group. Risks include future audits to personal or business finances. It can happen to anyone unless there are systemic changes at the agency – true checks and balances – to assure this does not reoccur.
—
You can read the full story about Binik-Thomas at the following link: http://www.wcpo.com/dpp/news/local_news/why-was-justin-binik-thomas-singled-out-in-irs-tea-party-application
What Justin said about being targeted in a letter to an unrelated group is the crux of the whole problem. The IRS used Justin’s name as a way to intimidate the Liberty Township Tea Party, and in doing so, abused their power. This is the reason that no one organization should ever have so much power that can behave like a dictatorship in such a fashion. No matter who was at fault at the IRS, the deed was done and Justin has had to embark on at least two years of fearful harassment as a result. The IRS owes Justin more than an apology.
I admire Justin’s professionalism in his responses. He has a right to state his outrage in a much more colorful manner than he has, but he’s a nice guy who is immensely responsible. As a founding member of the Cincinnati Tea Party he has shown a willingness to allow the legal process to work the way it should by working closely with his congressman to see justice done to the IRS. For Justin’s sake, I hope he gets it. But I have my doubts. The IRS is a terribly corrupt organization that stands against virtually everything America was founded upon, so unless major reforms are put in place the status quo will remain and people like Justin will be attacked again.
Rich Hoffman
“If they attack first………..blast em’!”
The IRS Ways and Means Hearings in Washington D.C.:Justin Binik Thomas and Tea Party friends seek justice
What a lot of people do not realize is that Tea Party groups are educational organizations designed to get back into touch with Constitutional ideals and beliefs that were valued upon the founding of The United States of America. In essence they are like a giant book club where members get together and talk about the merits of books they have read like The Federalist Papers and The 5000 Year Leap. That makes the recent IRS scandal against the Tea Party that much more preposterous, which has been going on for over three years now, culminating in the testimony in Washington that is currently going on. All government entities from local schools to the smallest cubical in the IRS administration offices have in their culture an inherit desire to advance statism—and anything that is a threat to their statism they deem worthy of attack. If a school levy is resisted, the advocates of the tax increase believe they have a “right” to destroy businesses and any individual who stand in the way of their funding. The IRS does the same on a massive scale acting as agents of tyranny to those who oppose statist oriented government objectives. So as a supporter of Tea Party causes, it gave me great pleasure to listen to the testimony of May 17, 2013 and hear occasional cheers coming from the crowd sitting in the balcony—since I personally know a good portion of the Tea Party patriots making such a ruckus there.
Many people are just now arriving to where many of us have been for a long time. Justin Binik-Thomas is a friend of mine who was also up in the balcony, along with Rachael Proctor who I most recently discussed in another article. They were joined with most of the organizational heads of the Liberty Township Tea Party which is one that I have supported from the beginning as it is the group that is in my home district. In February of 2013, only a few months ago I had to provide the IRS through the Liberty Township Tea Party hard copies of videos I made which were shown at a picnic that was done at a local farm celebrating patriotic themes. CLICK HERE FOR REVIEW. To understand what the Tea Party is all about, watch the video I have at that link because it involves many of the people targeted in this current IRS probe, and it can easily be seen how ridiculously stupid the IRS probe of these people truly is. I remember vividly the meeting where it was discussed how the IRS had asked the Liberty Township Tea Party about their relationship with Justin Binik Thomas, who is one of the founding members of the Cincinnati Tea Party, and the cold chill that permeated the audience at that event.
Unlike my Tea Party friends, my interest in politics extends beyond education. I am an aggressive type of individual and I sometimes do and say things many of them would never consider. For that reason I keep a bit of distance from them so to preserve my right to exercise my intentions without bringing negativity into their direction, particularly from groups like the IRS or any other government body. So privately, frequent readers of my Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom got together with Justin Binik-Thomas to deal with this whole IRS thing. CLICK HERE TO REVIEW. I’m not the kind of person who believes in mass demonstrations and protests. I don’t do the group activity thing but I do respect those who do. The people who were in that Overmanwarrior’s group were not the types who would collect in mass to show the IRS that there is strength in numbers—they are the type of people who are prepared for the next tragic steps once government organizations realize that the Tea Party will not back down. They are people like Justin Binik-Thomas who won’t be frightened away from holding leadership positions in the Tea Party organizations, due to IRS intimidation. Knowing something about media relations myself, if those steps are necessitated, I don’t want my friends in the Tea Party splattered all over the news as a negative connection to me, so I keep a respectable distance—because that is where I am. I admire their kindness, and desire to learn. That much I share with them. But I have different methods for dealing with bullies that is much more direct than a lot of people feel comfortable with. I intend to direct that kind of attention toward one of the biggest bullies around, the IRS. So the meeting we had with Justin well over a year ago in the middle of this IRS scandal was to deal with those next steps should the IRS push the issue beyond pieces of paper and phone calls.
This is where the statist government types like Barack Obama are at a loss, and why they find themselves in the center of so much trouble. America is not Europe; we have not been beaten down by thousands of years of statism under kings and queens. America was founded by rebels fleeing Europe. Rebellion is so deeply ingrained into our DNA that it cannot be easily changed leaving a subtle and constant push against statism. Even though government education has trained the minds of generations toward statism, deep in their hearts Americans hate it, and they act against it any way they can. Most of the people I know are happy to peacefully protest, as they traveled to Washington to show a unified force against the IRS. But I prepare in other ways for events that are historically probable. I do not count on government to submit itself to the will of the American people, and I expect a fight from them. So I am always in a state of preparation. But what we all have in common, my Tea Party friends and some of my “other” friends who will strategically stay in the shadows until needed–is that we are not going to yield. Submission to government is not an option. We will never submit to United Nations authority, we will never submit to the tyranny of the IRS or any other government organization. I personally won’t even submit to a local trustee or zoning board. I don’t go out looking for trouble, I simply resist the imposition of my time, money, and energy by those who want something from me, and hope to force me to act in the way they desire through “thuggish” democracy—mob rule.
What else is the motive when a bunch of union inspired thugs attempt to vandalize the property of a target, or organize a mass protest in front of a home or business? What is the point of spying on a target so that weaknesses in their defense can be ascertained? What is the point of using the rule of law through the tax code or some other government inspired imposition to arrest a target and throw them in jail just because they have charisma and a following? The intent is to “win” at their intended strategic objectives, through force. The IRS did these types of things to the Liberty Township Tea Party because they wanted to send a strong message to a Tea Party group in John Boehner’s back yard. They wanted to tie up the efforts of the Tea Party into not protesting big government and national debt, but to put them on the defensive with red tape and bureaucracy. It was harassment with the intention of “changing” the behavior of the Tea Party groups. By targeting Justin Binik-Thomas the IRS wanted to send a message to the other Tea Party groups that leaders in such groups would be targeted—so to discourage leaders from naming themselves for fear of an audit.
I am happy to see the victims of this IRS harassment enjoying their moment in the sun. They deserve to look down from the gallery upon those who intended to bring harm to their lives—and the IRS did intend to use their authority to change Tea Party behavior. Justin deserves that satisfaction as does Rachael and the representatives of the Liberty Township Tea Party who were there for the testimony. It is nice to see justice being handed out where it is deserved. I’d rather get everything out in the open so that the pretense of politeness can be dropped and everyone can start dealing with reality.
As these scandals break, and justice comes to the aggressors of the IRS and the government that supports such a tyranny, what I believe will happen may be delayed, where the federal government out of frustration just turns on the American people with out-right force. Such peaceful resolutions are the intentions of the Tea Party and I’m happy to see them getting some form of justice from the efforts and worry they have expelled. But such victories are paper in nature and easily forgotten. They are not the kind of conflict resolution that I am thinking of. It would seem that for that, I’ll have to wait a bit longer as the government recalibrates for their next psychological assault. But what we all share no matter what the method is that submission is not an option. Statist government is not what we are willing to support, and there isn’t any amount of forced imposition that can change that basic premise.
Rich Hoffman
“If they attack first………..blast em’!”
“To Walk in the Woods Where There is No Path”: Understanding the need to live a little dangerously
I am not used to as of yet reading through arguments where people I don’t know quote things I have said to validate their opinions. Yet I ran across just such a quote by accident seen below from my 2004 Symposium of Justice novel.
“Walk in the woods where there is no path. Live in conflict with those that are superior to you. You will learn, hopefully not too late, that life’s greatest fruits come to those who live a little dangerously. You’ll also find that if you make batters work for a hit, they’ll respect you more as a pitcher. If they get a home run off of you, it will mean more if they earn it.”
- Rich Hoffman, The Symposium of Justice.
I often write the things I do and move on to the next topic never thinking about what impact those statements might have on a reader. I simply offer the words in hopes of provoking thought in those who place their eyes upon my work. I told recently the story of how Peter Facinelli and I came to work on a project together and it all started with us meeting at a film festival. I was at that film festival because a college professor had read my book and wanted to do a film version of the story which matched my own intentions, so he came to my house for a weekend of picking at my thoughts regarding his screenplay version of my novel.
While staying with me during this visit, he continued to compare my work to Nietzsche extensively, which I thought was nice, but not relevant. I made only a passing reference to Nietzsche in The Symposium, but he had taken the dialogue to a whole animated level, which I thought was out of some inner need to attached meaning in his life to important things collected by his mind for the benefit of inner mythology. So I dismissed his appreciation for my work and instead wanted to focus on the shooting schedule for his film and how we would go about it. In my mind I had moved on from the intellectual concepts and onto something productive. That probably has something to do with why he was so shattered when I told him he was a terrible film director when he missed our film festival deadline with footage that was too dark, poorly cut together and virtually worthless. For me, it was just business. I didn’t think at the time that the entire reason he wanted to make the film in the first place was that The Symposium had an effect on him, and he wanted to live out a fantasy of becoming a film director with material he felt passionate about.
At another event that I was at a few years later, I had a fan who wanted my autograph and a picture because The Symposium of Justice had impacted him in such a way. As a person who never seeks autographs or pictures next to celebrities I wasn’t sure what all the hoopla was about. I had recently just returned from Los Angeles where I did the thing with Facinelli and noticed that everyone was taking pictures next to everyone else. So I stood next to whomever wanted to stand next to me for a picture. I didn’t understand it, but I played along. The good thing about Peter is that he made a point to drive me back to my hotel each day after the film shoot, so when we were in the car away from the set I asked him if he got tired of all the celebrity stuff. He laughed and said that he did sometimes, but that it was a necessary part of the job. So when I was at an event promoting the completion of my Symposium project called The Overman I signed autographs and posed for pictures playing along still not sure why anybody would want to do such a thing. An article about that event can be seen from a Yahoo News piece shown below.
JAMESTOWN, OH – Award-winning screen writer, author and stunt performer Rich Hoffman brought his most recent independent film project to Greene County, Ohio in March. Hoffman, originally from Middletown, Ohio, teamed up with Gery L. Deer, managing director of GLD Enterprises & Productions of Jamestown, to make a film that combines live action with the latest in high-definition computer generated imaging.
It took more than 12 hours to film the live action for the five-minute film short. Post production will take more than a month to complete and the film is scheduled to be released following its premier at the 2009 Indie Gathering independent film festival, August 14 in Cleveland.
The script is based on characters in situations introduced in Hoffman’s dark, futuristic, action novel, “The Symposium of Justice,” released in 2004. The project is professed to be on the cutting edge of digital video effects.
“Rich had an ambitious production schedule and a deadline that required us to do a great deal of work in a very short time,” said Deer, who is best known locally for his work as an independent journalist and entertainer but is also an experienced stunt performer and producer. “We had everything he needed to meet the production goals and, I have to say, short of a Star Wars movie, I have never seen so much green screen material in one place before; it was quite impressive.” All of the sets and background effects will be added in post production.
Green screen is a common term referring to the Chroma key technique used for mixing two images or frames together on film. In Chroma key, a color from one image is removed or made transparent revealing another image behind. This technique is also referred to as color keying, color-separation overlay, and bluescreen.
This process has been used for many years on weather broadcasts, where the presenter appears to be standing in front of a map, but in the studio it is actually a large blue or green background. In film and television production, the process is used to enhance visual effects or reduce costs on set construction.
Actors working on a green screen set perform among green-colored set pieces and backdrops. In post production, specialized computer software recognizes the green tinted background and makes it transparent and replacing it with digital effects. The actors, set pieces and props then appear to be in whatever setting required. Recent films like “300,” “Sin City,” and “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow,” have used this process to create both characters and settings.
Everyone is donating their time to this independent film project, as so many Hollywood-based productions are doing today. GLD Enterprises & Productions provided the production facility and set crew and stunt performers for filming the live action as well as various engineering and technical services.
The hope is that the final product will draw new business for the cast and crew in this sluggish economy where production capital is hard to raise. “This will be a great way to show what our group can do,” said Hoffman. Fortunately, Deer and Hoffman came into the project with an impressive track record.
In 2006, Hoffman’s script, “The Lost Cannibals of Cahokia,” won the highest award possible for a feature screenplay in the horror category at the Indie Gathering international film festival in Cleveland. Since then Hoffman has continued to develop other projects and recently returned from Hollywood where he worked on another independent production as a stuntman and fire whip specialist. A fire whip is a Kevlar bullwhip which is soaked in a specially formulated combustible fuel used for the visual effect.
Deer’s resume includes multiple performance and contest awards and work as a property consultant and designer for the 2003 Universal Studios movie, “The Rundown,” as well as roles in several independent film productions. A writer, whip stunt coach, publicist, and voiceover artist, Deer has been featured on television programs like NBC’s America’s Got Talent and The Bonnie Hunt Show. Deer is also a registered Writers Guild of America screenwriter.
The work was done on a closed set and the details of the script have been kept secret pending the outcome of the film competitions No title has been released at this time. To see photos or get more information about the project go online to www.gldentertainment.com and click on Hoffman Collaboration.
Source http://voices.yahoo.com/ohio-production-company-plays-major-role-futuristic-3151948.html
I had to finish what that director had started which is what The Overman was all about. In reality it turned out to be a sample of firewhip work against greenscreen to demonstrate how those two technologies could be incorporated. We had to shoot all those scenes outside because of the fire and the intense light from the fire making keying in colors during post-production a nightmare, but it worked well and was an award-winning effort.
The purpose of all this is that I wrote The Symposium of Justice from the heart, and many people came to enjoy it, but I moved on to the next phases of my life without looking back much or taking much time to consider what impact that novel had on people. It does make me feel good that so many people enjoyed it, and wanted to work with me just to be near the person who wrote the words.
Now it is equally strange for me to see quotes of my novel appearing here and there as validation to philosophical positions which is a strange sensation—and I think I like it. I enjoy it in the same way that The Symposium gave me access to people and places that I wouldn’t have enjoyed any other way but to put a story out to the world which touched lives in ways that you always hope for.
I might have been too hard on that film professor—(wanna’ be film director). He wanted to make the film because he wanted to bring The Symposium to life even though he lacked the emotional tools to do so. As more and more people go to the trouble of using aspects of my work to support their growing understanding, I will make an effort to be more facilitating of their expanding horizons. And if that involves a keepsake, or memento such as an autograph, I will make the effort not to appear so stand-offish.
Rich Hoffman
“If they attack first………..blast em’!”
Liar, Liar, LIAR!: Why Obama should be impeached and what he has in common with Ariel Castro
How many people are watching the terror coming out of Cleveland involving the three girls who were taken by Ariel Castro and held captive as sex slaves for 10 years and wondering how nobody detected what that diabolical molester was up to? Castro’s friends, neighbors and even family members were unable to detect the lies Castro told and instead found themselves seduced by evil. Castro even went to the trouble of attending family vigils for the lost girls hosted by family members pretending to assist in finding the girls knowing all along that the victims were chained in his basement and that he alone had the power to relieve the families of their misery. Instead he looked them in the eye and told them he’d do everything he could to find the lost girls–lying openly, and boldly driven by demons most of society cannot fathom. CLICK TO REVIEW. Yet the same type of diabolical menace is not just present from the mouths of sex abusers and child rapists but of presidents and all their minions. The same tendency to lie, cheat and steal is not just present in the embodiment of malevolence which is Ariel Castro, but also in President Obama and all those who serve under him. Obama’s employees are guilty of lies, more lies, cheating, and more cheating topped off with diabolical manipulations in order to maintain a lawyers approach to “plausible deniability” and are obviously guilty of misusing the office of President of the United States for grabs of power, and domestic terrorism. (Such as bringing in the families of Sandy Hook victims to put in the Senate rotunda to apply emotional leverage for gun control legislation. Using fear to motivate opinions is terrorism) For that reason, President Obama should be impeached immediately and with great fanfare so to discourage such tyrannies from manifesting in the future.
This isn’t the first time I’ve said such things about Obama. I suggested impeaching the President after the controversial appointment of cabinet members during 2012. CLICK HERE FOR REVIEW. So this isn’t anything new for me. But if my congressman John Boehner had acted when I suggested it then the lost lives in Benghazi might have been saved, the economy would be recovering, and the IRS scandal which was happening to members of his district due to their involvement in Tea Party groups would not have occurred. Also members of the media would not have been subjected to harassment by the Obama Justice Department under Eric Holder and countless other tyrannies that could have been averted.
Instead, Boehner calculated that my urging to impeach Obama was radical, and represented a far right-wing view-point that he dismissed. After all, his concerns were to play golf with Obama and work toward “peaceful solutions” through diplomacy. Boehner also enjoys appeasing the local socialites who know little about politics, or business finance, yet inject themselves into every discussion where money flows attempting to bring altruistic judgment through joined wine glasses and catered meals. Such socialites support Obama’s brand of socialism, especially in public education institutions even though they claim to be conservative Republicans joined at the hip to Governor Kasich. Boehner and Kasich listen to the socialist whims of such people so that the purse strings stay open for future campaigns. After all, those socialites are “rich” and their opinions carry much weight even though the quality of their minds are detriments to society, and for politicians seeking re-election the former is more important than the later. It is because of such social pressures, and lack of determination that people like Ariel Castro can operate in the open, and why con artists like Barack Obama can get away with audacious lies behind a socialist agenda to fulfill goals that exist outside of fathomable reality. The blood is on the hands of those who didn’t act in the beginning hoping that elections would solve the problem peacefully, and far less grotesquely.
But elections didn’t solve the problem, and the “socialites” planned desire to maintain community integrity with wine glasses and fund-raising dinners allowed evil to grow, not abate, and now all those involved with the great indecision are guilty of not just assisting in treachery against The United States, but in assisting evil through inaction. The crimes committed by the Obama administration all during 2012 and thus far in 2013 are on the hands of those who failed to recognize evil hidden behind a smiling face and great charisma that only a demon from the temples of hell could generate.
It is a fair characterization to level such claims at Barack Obama because it was his administration that allowed for a terrible evil to be committed with full knowledge that it was a lie. Obama and his White House staff blamed the Benghazi deaths on Mark Basseley Youssef, AKA Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, AKA Sam Bacile the director of the terrible film “Innocence of Muslims” which about 10 people saw in a southern California movie theater. Other than that one public showing only a 15 minute video clip existed on YouTube at the time of the Benghazi attack. Bacile wrote the film in prison and shot it within two months of being release with no money, no real actors, and obviously an angry rant that was shaped during his stint in prison. Nobody saw it, and nobody cared—but the film was a symbol of free speech, which President Obama is supposed to protect. Instead, Obama allowed Bacile to take the fall for an alleged gun running operation in Libya and the apparently intentional death of those involved to cover the tracks. The Obama administration immediately hoped to hide their guilt behind the free speech efforts of a nothing film shown to a vacant audience counting on the American people to believe that the violence had been ignited by a 15-minute YouTube clip. See the rest of the story at the below link.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/innocence-muslims-filmmaker-ordered-back-prison/story?id=17673952
Obama knowingly lied to the American people and with the same type of public sincerity shown by the embodiment of evil in Ariel Castro who pretended sincere emotions during a presidential election that covered the gross abuse of his employees intentionally disgracing The White House. They did what they have done on purpose, and they trusted that the press and American people would not advance the issue beyond their deceitful manipulations. The worst of all these recent revelations are that the Obama administration designated a sacrificial victim in Sam Bacile who was only guilty of being a bad filmmaker, and tossed him into jail to cover the crimes of murder that was either intentionally committed by the Obama administration, or was caused by sheer incompetence. Either way, Americans died in Benghazi due to poor leadership by the Obama administration. Then the Obama White House tried to blame the violence on a silly YouTube video hoping that the scandal would not be pressed by the public any further. They insulted the deceased with their hope to get away with the crime.
The reasons for the impeachment of Barack Obama extend well into a long list of Constitutional violations and are voluminous beyond comprehension. But the worst is the intention of the administration to pick a sacrificial victim in Bacile and throw him upon an alter stepping all over his rights as an individual to preserve the collective aims of the Obama White House. If The White House will do such a thing with one man, they will do it with any collection of people, any business, or any philosophic idea, and that makes Obama and his employees dangerous to the American experience, and detriments to all free people who want a fair chance at life success and social opportunity. That is why Obama should be removed from office so to set the parameters for all future presidents of what is acceptable and what is not. A failure to act on Obama and his crimes will establish for the entire future an understanding that it is alright for Presidents to behave in such a destructive fashion against the American people. More destruction will follow of the American way of life if Obama is not impeached, and this is a reality that cannot be hidden from. It will take courage, courage from the press, courage from the politicians that must embark on the tragic journey, and courage from the American people to look evil in the eye and act against it, instead of being seduced. It must happen because America does not want to look at itself decades from now and wonder what happened in the same way that we are asking how Ariel Castro was able to chain three stolen girls in his basement in plain site of many people who failed to act in a way to save the victims. To me, Ariel Castro and Barack Obama are one in the same. Their only real difference is that Castro tortured and molested three innocent girls over a long period of time. Obama is doing the same figuratively with the entire world, and he needs to be stopped boldly and with great conviction. One is literal, one is metaphorical, but they are both the sheer face of evil in all its destructive qualities, and bottomless malevolence.
Rich Hoffman
“If they attack first………..blast em’!”
I.R.S. Apology to the Tea Party: NOT ACCEPTED by me–I want my Saturday back!
Ok, so the IRS has apologized for harassing Tea Party groups by admitting that they singled them out for analysis, especially in southern Ohio. Big deal! Where do the people slandered by the IRS go to get back their reputations? Where does the leadership of these Tea Party groups go to retrieve all their countless hours of correspondence with the IRS in an attempt at compliance? And where do I go to get back an entire Saturday that I had to spend on a stupid IRS compliance demand? But more than anybody harassed by the IRS was my friend Justin Binik-Thomas. Justin told me of his ordeal first at a special meeting we had for some of my most intense Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom readers a year ago at a local pizza place where we blocked off the entire back room and discussed what to do about the harassment of the IRS. Click here to review and see pictures from that event.
As Justin communicated with me his thoughts on the IRS revelation on May 10, 2013 he had just wrapped up a very busy day with the media finishing up with ABC World News Tonight, among many other television news programs. He was far from “satisfied” and I couldn’t blame him. Here is the prior article about the issue with the IRS and Justin.
· http://washingtonexaminer.com/article/377566
Here is an article from The Cincinnati Enquirer about the apology from May 10th.
· http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20130510/NEWS/305100131?nclick_check=1
In essence, Justin was telling the media:
* Reaching out to liberty groups and tea party groups is political in nature – an affront to liberty. I accept the organization (IRS) has a policy against it, but would like to know what actions are taken to assure this does not recur.
* Asking a group about a tax status, unless politically motivated, is ok. What leadership does in their free time is of no relevance to what the organization does. Asking about an individual, particularly an unrelated individual, is troubling. What purpose could it serve? Why was that individual, me in this case, not contacted or informed of outreach?
* As of writing I have not received anything in writing from the IRS besides the initial denial. It would be nice to receive an apology and to receive assurance it will not happen again and that responses, if any, will not be held against me the individual.
The IRS had attacked the Liberty Township Tea Party out of blind speculation that they were involved with Justin Binik-Thomas as he was a founding member of the Cincinnati Tea Party and the assumption was that the Liberty Township group had a way of getting to Thomas. So Liberty Township was maliciously selected for “enforcement.” This essentially meant that the leadership at Liberty Township had to jump through any hoops the IRS decided like mere animals doing tricks for their livelihoods. One of the targets of this IRS inquiry were videos I made featuring Sheriff Jones discussing immigration reform and another I put together featuring the current congressional violations against the 10th Amendment.
I felt bad that my videos were under scrutiny and that some of my antics had gotten other people in trouble with the IRS. At one point in the early winter of 2013 I told some of that leadership just to blame the videos on me, that I was the sole owner of their content, and that I’d deal with the agents on my own. The Liberty Township group did a stand-up job of dealing with the IRS and took care of the situation, which was much more gracious than I was willing to provide, which probably saved a lot more headache. I provided the information the IRS was looking for, and once all those leads went nowhere, the IRS backtracked.
The entire witch hunt started as a direct assault on Justin, and the IRS was simply using mass peer pressure to force Thomas to comply, or back off his Tea Party actions. The IRS was essentially harassing the Liberty Township Tea Party as a way to get at the nerves of Justin Binik-Thomas, and that is not just wrong, it was criminal. So the apology from the IRS is nice, but way too late. It also hints at something else that is amiss.
I am very suspicious of government. I think of even the best of their representatives as habitual liars and con artists. I wouldn’t trust them to walk a dog on an empty leash. So their timing on this apology is actually alarming. The first thought that came to my mind is why are they doing it? And, why now?
Using pure deduction, based on the behavior of government in the past, the same government that lied under oath many times in the past declaring that the IRS did not do the things they just admitted to doing, I would say that the IRS as a member of the federal government is employing the old “bend but don’t break” defensive football strategy. The government knows that they are guilty over the Benghazi situation and are caught in a serious lie. They know that the Tea Party is still full of members that are very active and highly charged even after the re-election of Barack Obama. The government knows that there is an active campaign to remove Republican Governor Kasich from office in the next primaries for turning against the Tea Party, so they fear what might happen to them if the Tea Party gets even more detail out of the Benghazi hearings, which have been carried on Fox News, and extensively by The Blaze Network. The Blaze is a huge supporter of the Tea Party movement and it is getting bigger by the day. The IRS of course knows all this since they have the ability to pry into all our lives at will in the name of “revenue” for the always hungry government. During the Benghazi hearings The Blaze website had over 15 million unique visitors, which is a lot of Americans looking for the truth. So I contend that the IRS is taking a calculated move in relation to the rest of the government and yielding a little to the Tea Party in hopes of taking the edge off the really bad stuff coming out of the modern-day Watergate—which is Benghazi.
This is the trouble with a “collective” organization who thinks more like an ant colony protecting the “queen” than a society of free individuals. The IRS understands what their brothers and sisters are going through in Washington D.C. regarding Benghazi, and they are hoping to take the edge off the story with a nice little monumental revelation that seems so scandalous that it sucks the life out of the Benghazi story. But so what—what is anybody going to do to the IRS? So what if the IRS breaks the law and pisses off the Tea Party, what do they care if they make anybody angry? They revealed they lied in testimony, and that they actually target individuals whom they politically disagree with. So their admission means nothing, it gets played on the news and it makes many Tea Party members believe—falsely—that “the government” is coming around, that they are trying to be good, and honest for a change wishing to redeem themselves for sins of the past—which is far from the truth.
Experience tells me that the behavior of the IRS indicates a bigger fish to fry just outside of perception, and the attempt to throw the world off the scent is the real strategy of this sudden revelation by the IRS. So it would be my advice to those who read here frequently to not take your foot off the throats of those who seek to rule over you. Instead, push down and do not become distracted with this petty admission. I know Justin doesn’t feel happy about spending the last two years targeted personally by the IRS just because he existed. I know the Liberty Township Tea Party would like to have back the dozen or so 2 hour meetings they had to deal with just IRS compliance measures. And as for my time, where do I get back my Saturday that I wasted making DVD copies of my published videos so some pin head at the IRS can have hard copies of evidence gathered from the Liberty Township Tea Party? The answer is that I don’t, the IRS stole my time for no reason, and they don’t care one bit about it. Their apology is not one of sincerity, but of further cover-up of the many sins coming out of Washington D.C. One of my Saturday’s is more valuable and productive than the entire IRS building full of people over any given year. Every minute of my life creates jobs, hopes, and fulfills dreams for others, so wasted time on the IRS takes those things away from others which are why they are such a bad organization whose only primary role is wealth-redistribution.
The shocking revelation by the IRS is not out of goodness, but to cover up further deceit. For them to show humility toward Justin Binik-Thomas who was the real target behind the Cincinnati IRS probes is in the hope that the Tea Party becomes too compassionate to press on with the much more destructive injustices that are hidden just beyond sight. The General Petraeus affair was made of the same type of distractions. The tactical General was planning to retire anyway, so why not throw a juicy story to the hungry wolves hunting a guilty government in order to throw them off the trail? But the Tea Party didn’t take the bait and run back to their caves to eat the meat as hoped. Instead they sniffed and determined that the target was insignificant—and pressed on toward the real villain. Just the other day Obama declared to students at Ohio State that they “should not listen to these anti-government” groups. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain—was essentially what he meant. Government is feeling the pressure from the Tea Party and the strain is showing. Government knows they are guilty—all of them—of serious crimes, much more so than the situation of targeting Tea Party groups of tax exempt status then lying about it. And it is on those crimes that everyone must remain focused—which is what’s happening.
One of the Liberty Township Tea Party members in that leadership group most affected by the IRS inquiry released a statement which I will now provide on the matter. It’s from Mark Etterling, and articulates the problem very well, and provides insight to the next steps that are to come. Mark’s thoughts reflect my own.
An IRS spokesperson recently issued a verbal apology to the various Tea Party and Patriot groups whom they had specifically targeted for extreme scrutiny over their applications for 501C3 tax exempt status. Even though I can’t speak for our group, which happened to be one of those that was targeted, or any of the other groups for that matter, I can at least issue my own personal response. Your apology is NOT accepted. In fact, I’m willing to go so far in my response as to say that I would personally like to see those responsible not only fired, but also brought up on both criminal as well as civil charges for violating our civil rights via a direct abuse of power.
Exactly one month ago I wrote a commentary stating that I was fed up with all the bogus mea culpa’s. An apology based on an accident is one thing. However, an apology that is derived solely from being caught committing overt actions related to a political agenda is something else entirely. An apology isn’t enough after a school suspends a kid over eating a Pop Tart into the shape of a gun just so that the administrators can push a gun control agenda. Using the IRS to exercise extreme scrutiny against specific political groups is nothing more than an overt attempt to curtail the opposing voices of those groups. Therefore, an apology doesn’t cut it there either.
Those that are currently in power like to scoff at those of us who protest against what we view as tyrannical actions by claiming we are simply being paranoid. However, if you look up the Merriam-Webster definition of Tyranny it’s easy to see that bringing the full power and weight of the IRS to bear on a specific political group for the sole purpose of stifling their oppositional viewpoint fits the very definition of tyranny.
3: a rigorous condition imposed by some outside agency or force
4: an oppressive, harsh, or unjust act : a tyrannical act
I’m not acting out of hypocrisy just because this happens to be an incident that struck home for me. In fact, in the book I wrote two years ago I specifically stated that even though I disagree with almost everything liberals like Chris Matthews or Rachel Maddow ever say, I would still fight for their right to speak no matter how much I disagree with them. The reason is that freedom and censorship cannot coexist. The presence of one will automatically destroy the other. A person cannot profess a love of freedom and yet practice a tolerance of those things that destroy freedom at the same time. Therefore, your choice is to either tolerate the abuse of tyrannical censorship, or be as outraged about this as I am. I would suggest that no matter what your political leanings you should think about this carefully and choose wisely. Otherwise, the next time you might find yourself being on the wrong end of such tactics yourself where the tyrants will have already chosen for you.
Mark Etterling, Liberty Township
Rich Hoffman
“If they attack first………..blast em’!”
A Little Black Walnut Tree–’Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal’
My wife and I transplanted a Black Walnut tree in our yard during August of 2012 knowing that the little tree would struggle. August is a bad time of year in Ohio to move any kind of living thing that grows in the soil, but to compound matters there was a drought in August that year which meant we had to constantly water it. Then just six weeks later, the tree had already been looking withered when it suffered through the first frost of the year. Looking at the bits of ice accumulated on the tiny stump of a tree, I thought that was the end of its life. The little budding leaves shriveled up and fell off within days. All through October, November and December I looked at the little stump for a sign of life but there wasn’t any. So the plan was that we’d dig it back up in the spring and find a replacement. But as March came, then April I held out hope that the little tree would show some sign of life. Then, in the fourth week of April, little buds sprang out at the base of the tree. It was trying to grow again.
About the time that I was watching this tree I was reading Ayn Rand’s Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal on my front porch. I immediately drew a metaphoric parallel between capitalism represented by the little tree and the cruel nasty world that was trying to kill it represented by socialism. I thought of socialism because we had to remove the tree from where it was growing naturally as I was worried about mowing over it with the lawn mower. Landscaped yards always remind me of socialism as they are planned associations of plants in relationships concocted by the owner of a property that may not naturally be compatible. We had moved the tree to save the tree which brought to my mind George W. Bush’s famous socialist quote “I had to abandon free market principles in order to save the free market.” If I had not removed the tree, it would have died. But why did I have to move the tree—because I desired that my landscaping look a certain way. It wasn’t the poor little tree’s fault; it was just trying to live where a seed had fallen. As the dictator of my property, I can decide what lives and dies. My plants do not have freedom from me. They are completely reliant upon my compassion to keep them alive or to kill them at my discretion. That is why landscaping to me always reminds me of a planned society resembling socialism.
I tend to let things grow where they want to as much as possible, as they do in nature. I don’t like to tamper and trim too much unnecessarily, because I like the plants on my property to know that they have a certain amount of freedom to do as they please, and that I will let them. That also tends to be my leadership tendency when I have to lead others; I let them do their thing as much as possible as long as it doesn’t violate my overall vision. But the vision is always mine, and if something or someone gets in the way of that vision, they get cut down ruthlessly. That is the way of nature.
But that is not how it is supposed to be in a free country with free people. The government is not the people’s gardeners. The government is not supposed to transplant trees, cut the grass, and plant flowers just because they think such arrangements look pretty, or are pleasant esthetically. The government is not supposed to move businesses around, tamper with people’s cultures for bloc voting advantage, or pick winners and losers in enterprise. They are not supposed to be involved in health care, otherwise known as the watering of the population, but should allow growth to occur as robust and dynamic as the economy and the minds of the people can allow. The populations of earth should be allowed to grow to the highest trees of the California Redwoods as opposed to the well manicured trees of a football stadium, where the building is more emphasized visually than the plant growth of the landscaping.
These are the problems that are tackled and solved in Ayn Rand’s classic book about the philosophy of an economy which make excellent arguments in favor of capitalism. Reading the book felt like discovering an old archeological relic which held the keys to solving most of society’s problems, and finding such material after it had been buried away from man’s eyes for generations. Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal is a remarkable book written from essays first published in The Objectivist magazine during the 1960s. Capitalism is The Unknown Ideal because it never really had a chance to get off the ground in America, where the Ideal was invented. The result to America and to the world has been explosive economic growth that gave every individual operating under capitalism the opportunity to live and thrive based on their own ambitions.
Yet every statist oriented government in the world, which has dominated the human mind for millennia fear capitalism the way a panicky home owner worries that the grass of their well manicured lawns are growing too robust. For the property owner, it is generally accepted that the trees and every blade of grass on a property are the possessions of the owner. Governments, princes, princesses, monarchs of every kind, dictators, even United States presidents believe in their heart of hearts that people belong to the “leaders” of a culture in the same way that plant life on a property belongs to the owners and this is the cause of statist governments which find capitalism repulsive.
They fear an unmanaged economy because the evidence is that the growth can quickly overwhelm their property and remind them that it is the plant life that will always outlast their attention and place demands on the property owner–the leaders of statist governments. The growth of such plant life always threaten to overtake government which is what they fear most, so they diligently cut back any sign of extensive growth like maniacs fearful of their own shadows. Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal digs into the history of these fears and provides psychological reasoning for them in a way that is unique to this particular book.
Years ago when I studied economics at The University of Cincinnati there was not one mention of this book which had been out to the public for over 25 years at that point. The economics professor would have had much more success as an instructor if he had not attempted to explain variations of Keynesian economics and the cause and effect of business cycles but had simply taught his class upon the contents of Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal. Those business cycles, depressions, recessions, and all economic growth are caused by statist governments tampering with the robust desire for economic activity to flourish naturally, and without restriction. To maintain their control, governments are always cutting back on growth to satisfy their aesthetic tendencies which is the cause of most misery in economic development.
The book is incredibly well written, and easy to understand. But its concepts are contrary to what entire generations of civilization have been taught in their public education establishments and colleges. So most readers will go through a phase of troubled thought when reading, as they have to unlearn all the garbage that they have been taught over many years, but for the sake of review—in pulling together such remote thoughts into a single metaphor, the little Black Walnut tree and its tenacity at living reminded me of the lessons articulated in the wonderful book Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal. If every human being in the world read just this book, they would find their lives much better off. This book is the Dead Sea Scrolls of modern economics. Capitalism has been attacked and transplanted many times by over aggressive statist governments for many years. It has suffered harsh winters, frosts, lack of nourishment, and abuse of many who want to kill it. Yet, like any gardener learns when they take an extended vacation, or neglect their yard work, the grass always grows, and the trees spread out their branches. Capitalism finds a way to grow even under the harshest governments, under the most vicious advocates of socialism. It keeps crawling its way toward the light in spite of destructive restriction and gardeners who trim their yards to simply exert control over the plant life. Statist governments control economic activity in the same way, they cut, trim and manipulate to satisfy their vision, not the individual desires of the people who put them into power to begin with. This is the cause of their failure, and the reason for economic recessions.
The little Black Walnut tree for me currently is my favorite tree in my yard, because it has lived through adversity when I thought it was dead. It is for me a symbol of the power of capitalism, to tenaciously outlast oppression and survive because of a will to live. This is the same energy that drives every business in every strip mall, it drives the trains that run our tracks, it drives our entertainment culture, our varieties of food, and other consumable options. On the way to my motorcycle this very morning as I was leaving my wife was planning out her day. She was in turmoil as to whether or not to get our groceries from Costco or Wal-Mart, as both places provided unique options. I told her to visit both, and take the best options from both places. Thinking selfishly, I enjoy the blackberries that come from Costco. Their supplier is very good. But the soda prices at Wal-Mart are better, as they have my stock of Mello Yello always on supply. This is the power of capitalism. This is the power of economic growth–freedom of choice. This is why the book Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal is such a fabulous book that should rest on the bedside of every household in the entire world. It is the lost and hidden document that can solve all the world’s problems and it is a testament to the human mind to have created such a thing on printed paper. It is The Unknown Ideal that needs to be known by every living human being for the purpose of not just freedom, but economic prosperity and the necessary step of taking the human mind away from all forms of statism to enter a new age of evolution. It may be the most important book any reader could ever place their eyes upon. It has given me special appreciation for my little Black Walnut tree, which now that I can leave it alone, I hope grows to 30’ in height and is filled with squirrels and birds in the not too distant future.
Rich Hoffman
“If they attack first………..blast em’!”
Communists in America: Glenn Beck’s Keynote Speech at the 2013 NRA Convention
I have said it over and over again. Public schools have been teaching socialism to our children for years. Click here to read more. Watch the video below for proof.
Now, enjoy Glenn Beck’s keynote speech at the 2013 NRA convention in Texas.
Rich Hoffman
“If they attack first………..blast em’!”
‘Surfin’ Bird’ by The Trashmen: A song only America could produce
I have always been fascinated as to why some songs, especially the one below titled, “Surfin’ Bird by The Trashmen have been so popular. My thoughts are that as our culture had for the first time in known history achieved the ability to broadcast, and produce entertainment of a leisure nature, that mankind started at the primordial concepts of audio and visual stimulation. It is not always important to music listeners whether or not they understand the contents of a song so long as the beat is catchy. The result has been a tendency for entire cultures to mouth words to songs they have no idea as to the meaning. They turn off their minds, and all logic it might produce to enjoy the collective rhythm of a hearty tune. For me, the finest example of this type of thing is “Surfin’ Bird, which is one of the songs that I like to play on my iPod as I travel 100 MPH down the highway on my motorcycle. There is something very energetic about the music that makes weaving in and out of traffic at high speeds very entertaining.
But what does any of that mean? Well, the short history found on Wikipedia says that “Surfin’ Bird” was a song performed by the American surf rock band The Trashmen, and it is also the name of the album that featured this hit single. It was released in 1963 and reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100.[1] It is a combination of two R&B hits by The Rivingtons: “Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow” and “The Bird’s the Word”,[2] which was influenced by Red Prysock‘s “What’s the word? Thunderbird!” [3]
It is likely that Surfin’ Bird’s derives from a radio ad jingle advertising Thunderbird as a brand of cheap wine: “What’s the word? Thunderbird. How’s it sold? Good and cold. What’s the jive? Bird’s alive. What’s the price? Thirty twice.”[4] The jazz release that reflects common knowledge of this jingle is titled, “What’s The Word? Thunderbird!” and was issued in record form as Mercury 71214 in October 1957.[5] This release was written by Wilbur Prysock, and performed by Red Prysock.
The Rivingtons followed up their Billboard Hot 100 hit Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow with the similar The Bird’s the Word in 1963. The Trashmen had not heard this version but saw a band called The Sorensen Brothers playing it.[2] They decided to play the song that night at their own gig. During this first performance, drummer and vocalist Steve Wahrer stopped playing and ad-libbed the “Surfin’ Bird” middle section.[2] Despite not knowing “The Bird’s the Word” was a Rivingtons song, the similarity to “Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow” was obvious and The Trashmen added the chorus to the end of their new track.
A local disc jockey, Bill Diehl, was at the gig and convinced the band to record the track.[2] It was recorded at Kay Bank Studios inMinneapolis. Diehl entered it into a local battle of the bands competition and it won. It was then sent to a battle of the bands competition in Chicago where it also won.[2] This led to the group being signed to Garrett Records with the single being quickly released. It reportedly sold 30,000 copies in its first weekend[2] before going on to national success, reaching #4 on the Billboard Hot 100. However, authorship is credited to Al Frazier, Carl White, Sonny Harris, and Turner Wilson Jr.—the four members of The Rivingtons—after the group successfully sued The Trashmen on grounds of plagiarism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surfin’_Bird
In a lot of ways Surfin’ Bird reflects the many turbulent times that were headed for America. It is a song that makes little sense and is just fun for the spontaneity of it. As described, it was constructed without much thought from a mixed up number of sources to be thrown together for a public not hungry for thought, but for pure entertainment.
I love the song for its energy. But I find its non-thinking dangerous. It reflects accurately what is going on in our public education system, in our entertainment culture, in our social habits, in virtually every human endeavor. The trend is to surrender thought to impulse which is an animal trait that is the wrong way for the human race to migrate toward. The jingle is seductively cleaver which pulls the mind into accepting random nonsense with no meaning whatsoever. Songs like this prepare the mind to accept nonsense.
Most who read this will declare that I should loosen up and just enjoy life. I should just listen to Surfin’ Bird and ride my motorcycle 100 MPH through heavy traffic with my iPod turned up all the way and not worry about such things. But for me that’s no fun. I like to understand how things work and why, and the reason that songs like Surfin’ Bird are so loved is a subject of study that needs to be understood. The reality is that it reflected a time in America where our culture was under attack by communism in our college campuses by KGB infiltrators and the constant threat of nuclear war with either Cuba or the Soviet Union turned America from World War II patriotism to Vietnam era passivism. Not knowing what to do and having a new media culture to reflect the nation’s values songs like Surfin’ Bird were tossed out to the public in a way that only capitalism could have produced to bring American culture something only it could produce—a stupid song, about nothing that is still better than anything else the world was otherwise able to produce.
I suppose that is why I like the song so much, because it represents to me that even when America attempts to do something ridiculously stupid, it still comes out wonderfully. It is the original Gangnum Style song that hits a primal cord of rebellion even though it is laced with thoughtlessness. Stripped down to its bare essence Surfin’ Bird is about hope and enterprise. It could have never been produced by a communist country and is an example that only through capitalism–a song made up almost on the spot and recorded in a little studio in Minneapolis having absolutely nothing to say artistically, or culturally–is still better than anything else the rest of the world produced—which says a lot.
Now, I am going to get on my motorcycle and listen to Surfin’ Bird about 10,000 times over and over again!
Rich Hoffman
“If they attack first………..blast em’!”
Liberty Center $300 Million Mega-Retail Project: The gifts of many individual minds
Let’s set the record straight before getting into all the wonderful glory of the upcoming $300 million Liberty Center mega-retail project scheduled to open in my hometown. I personally believe that the $35 million remaining dollars needed for sewage and other infrastructure modifications should fall on the Steiner group who is developing the magnificent property. Government should not be involved with private business, and many of those $35 million in costs are due to the interrelationship that business has had to endure over the years from government seeking to mooch off its good ideas. The developers should front the entire cost of the project in exchange for government keeping its nose out of the entire affair and let the marketplace drive the project.
But as it is, the Liberty Center development is an impressive undertaking that is worthy of mention. I have described on these pages my love of Newport on the Levee and discussed how my wife and I enjoy spending our evenings there. I go to Newport because of the experience, because of the festive environment and wildly varied options. Other than Newport on the Levee I admire greatly the Americana complex on Brand Blvd in Burbank, California and La Isla at Cancun, in Mexico. Those are three examples of some of the finest examples of capitalism I have seen anywhere, and they are extraordinarily dynamic in what they offer shoppers. I believe that the upcoming Liberty Center will be among the best of its kind in the world as Steiner has presented it, so needless to say I am excited about it.
But I see already a desire from local politicians to grease their fingers and pick the pockets of the many businesses that Steiner is securing for this project, and I can already see the Lakota school system is ready to proclaim that the success of the upcoming project is a result of their silly government school, which is absurd. So let’s set the record straight on why the Liberty Center development will be a success, and why it will be one of the best such shopping complexes anywhere. The credit does not go to the local school, as the teachers union will undoubtedly attempt to proclaim, and it doesn’t have anything to do with politicians—other than the work to insert the Liberty Way interchange on I-75 in a key location under the tutelage of business investors. The credit goes to the fact that per capita there is a lot of wealth in the surrounding area of this proposed development, and the taxes are not yet so outrageous that residents have been able to keep a good portion of their money, and businesses have been able to turn a profit for all their risk. If there is one element that makes Liberty Way possible in Liberty Township, Ohio it is because wealth has gathered in that region as it has fled from cities and other communities filled with looting politicians who could not keep their hands out of their pockets.
Touted as the Easton of the northern Cincinnati area, the Liberty Center will include a 200,000-square-foot Dillard’s store, and about 370,000 square feet of specialty retail shops and restaurants, a 1,200-seat dine-in restaurant, luxury apartments and a hotel. Yaromir Steiner, founder and chief executive officer of the Columbus-based development company, said he also plans to build a chapel in a public square for non-denominational services, weddings and small concerts. The complex promises to feature a state-of-the-art movie theater among many other wonderful inventions of creativity.
I’m not a big shopper. I typically wear the same type of cloths for decades and couldn’t care less about fashion. But when my wife does talk me out of my reading chair for a night out, I do enjoy looking at all the products that are available in such dynamic markets. I see behind every new purse, every pair of shoes, every shirt, necklace, book, dinning ware, every product for sale in such large shopping complexes the result of someone’s mind. Without capitalism those minds have nowhere to exhibit their fine products. I even enjoy going to movie theaters to admire not just the movies on display there, but the movie posters advertising the films. Each poster is the product of someone’s creativity somewhere who attempted to sum up the contents of a movie with a still shot work of art on display to make a profit for the film studio. I love shopping complexes not for the things I can buy, but for the display of other people’s creativity.
Steiner intends with the construction of his shopping complex to attract such minds with their personal businesses, like the owners of the Apple Store, the Lego Stores, the Victoria’s Secretes, the high-end audio/visual stores, and many more. The attraction is of course the location and the type of people who will shop there—meaning they are primarily gainfully employed and not looking toward government assistance for their sustenance. That is an attractive demographic for businessmen and women. Also, the tax rates cannot be too high where the local schools, fire departments, and police departments have been kept in check protecting taxpayers from public sector union wages that are excessively greedy in socialist demands. In Liberty Township it is the Butler County Sheriff who handles the policing action. Liberty Twp. does not have its own police force, because it doesn’t need it. My neighbors have the Second Amendment, and criminals know it. That arrangement saves a lot of money and means businesses get to keep much of the profit they earn instead of paying for some cop to sit in a squad car and harass motorists with speeding citations 24 hours a day—7 days a week. The name of my community is not Tyranny Township—it’s “Liberty”—as in “Freedom” Township. Freedom is cheaper and far more fun. Tyranny is expensive as government workers expect to be paid excessively from those they seek to tyrannize. This is why there is a large concentration of wealth in the area for Steiner to provide such a retail experience.
The other two shopping complexes I mentioned, particularly the one on Brand Blvd in Burbank, California does well because the entertainment industry pays those workers well, and the shopping experience is primarily for them and their families. The one in Cancun is a tourist trap. Within two miles of that shopping complex is one of the worst examples of socialism I have ever seen, downtown Cancun, where all the workers live. Most of these shopping resorts in tourist towns are smoke and mirrors designed to appeal to travelers. The Newport complex and the one being built-in Liberty Township are different in that they host sustainable communities with the same level of appeal to dramatically increase the shopping experience of the neighborhood making every day like a vacation for local property owners.
But the credit does not go to any politician, or school. The credit does not belong to any government regulator, or administrator. The credit goes to the type of entrepreneurs who own and operate the 1,200-seat dine-in restaurant projected to be built at Liberty Center. It goes to the individual minds who take a risk with a business to offer the product of their minds with all the variety individuals can devise. It goes to the people who intend to lease space at Steiner’s development. It is they who will make the experience of shopping at Liberty Center a good one. Anybody else in the process is simply a barnacle hanging on for a ride from those who are productive, and enterprising.
Personally, I can’t wait to walk the grounds of Liberty Center and celebrate the best of what human beings can achieve. I will cherish every brick of every building for the productivity they represent, and sheer creativity of the many minds who contributed to their placement. I suspect that my wife and I will visit Liberty Center often. It would be my hope that a Joseph and Beth bookseller would find the site lucrative. They do such a great job of bringing in big name authors for book signings and speeches, that it would be a perfect venue at Liberty Center. But regardless, I am very much looking forward to the Liberty Center and the many evenings of joy that it will provide my family in the years to come. My appreciation of it will not be for one single political element, but for the creative souls brought under one tent by Yaromir Steiner. It is because of creative minds like his, that anything ever happens. And it also why Liberty Twp has the rare opportunity for such an endeavor, because to date, the looters, moochers, and scallywags of social erosion are not part of the economic factor—which is why it will be successful and a massive contribution to the culture of Liberty Township, Ohio.
Rich Hoffman
“If they attack first………..blast em’!”
Tom Zawistowski Interview: Is it moral to compromise beliefs to be part of the “team?”
A few days ago I announced my intentions to start my own political party called the Capitalism Party. I also stated that I didn’t care if I were the only member because it has become blatantly obvious that politics in its current form not only is dysfunctional and recklessly collective in its orientation, but catastrophically deficient in their moral underpinnings. For myself I made the decision that I didn’t like any of the options that have been presented by any “pressure group” currently involved in government, including libertarians, and I will simply not support any candidate who does not support capitalism as the political pursuit of my state and nation. To further validate my claims, have a listen to Tom Zawistowski who had been in the running for the Ohio Republican Party Chairmanship, who is also a respected member of the Tea Party. To understand why people like me are turning away from machine politics and starting their own fragmented parties, just listen to Tom’s explanations as to the state of Republican politics in Ohio and the nation in general.
When the question was asked of Tom, “do you think you can be a team player” regarding the upcoming election, and getting behind Governor Kasich in his next run for governor, the question provider said a mouth full without realizing their violation. Tom attempted to explain that the Tea Party movement is like herding cats, as everyone is a free-thinker who cannot be unified under a flag of compromise, as traditional politics requires. This is true, and to date, there are not enough cats in the game to make much of a difference in elections, so the Tea Party has been quietly shunned by established political rule in an attempt to maintain the status quo. The crux of the problem is in requiring free thinking individuals to compromise their beliefs to be a part of the “team” which is the primary problem in American politics at every level, and I for one am tired of it. In this regard, a candidate either stands for capitalism and is willing to defend it, or they aren’t. It is that simple.
Governor Kasich ran his 2010 campaign as a defender of capitalism. He was for business; he was for reeling in the costs of big government. He was against Obamacare. He was against taking federal money for silly intrusions that erode away the 10th Amendment through the Commerce Clause. He was for School Choice in Ohio, so he had a lot going for him that represented much of what the Tea Party stands for. They all share in common, a support of capitalism—because even if everyone disagrees on various policies—the cats all stand for capitalism as a political ideal and can unify behind such a banner. However, Kasich and House Speaker Boehner went on a golf outing with President Obama and Vice President Biden and have never been the same since. It could be noted that Kasich and Boehner were seduced by the snake-like charm of Obama and his collectivist minions because as political parties go, Kasich and Boehner have more in common with Obama and Biden than they do with any citizen in America who stands for individual liberty.
Kasich’s fatal flaw in his thus far first term is that he has attempted to expand Medicaid, which is essentially the same sin that was committed by Barack Obama—it is using other people’s money stolen in the form of taxes to purchase elections. Ideologically, Kasich didn’t fight very hard for his Tea Party beliefs. He abandoned them at the first sign of trouble, allowing the rule by force of a mixed economy to determine his core beliefs. After his golf game with Obama, and the defeat of Senate Bill 5 by the public sector unions in repealing Kasich’s reforms at collective bargaining, Kaisch turned into a progressive. Within two years of attempting to take on public unions with needed legislation, he surrendered and joined with the enemies of freedom by attempting to expand Medicaid in Ohio to purchase votes for the next election.
The Republican Party currently being led by Kaisch in Ohio expects other Republicans like Tom Zawistowski to fall in line with the party platform and “compromise” their beliefs for the good of the collective party, and that is the difference between politics of the past, and the politics that the Tea Party is pushing for. It is not Tom’s job to conform his beliefs to the party strategy of John Kasich or John Boehner as both men have elected to sell out their ideas as a compromise to the forces of persuasion—the pressure groups who routinely lobby such men with trinkets of advantage in trade for political pull. That is not governing, or leadership. It is simply appeasement in the same way that payoffs to the mob might be encouraged. If the yielding of beliefs is not achieved, then the pressure groups will pounce with collective authority to change those beliefs. This is the direct result of the type of economy that has moved away from capitalism and toward socialism. It is the direct result of a mixed economy. A mixed economy Governor is the type of man who Kasich is. When the wind blows from the Tea Party, he spoke of Tea Party values. When the wind blew from the direction of the opposing labor unions, Kasich then became an advocate of Medicaid expansion to redeem his “sins” of the past. When John Boehner was throwing his support behind Mitt Romeny for President, he spoke of ending Obamacare with a repeal the first day of Romeny’s administration. But when Barack Obama won the election through questionable means, Boehner declared that Obamacare was the law of the land, and seemed to forget that as House Speaker he has the power to fund or not fund the train wreck of socialism that Obamacare is. He simply changed his mind in response to the “pressure groups” in charge.
This is not how government was supposed to work according to the foundation of America. The Tea Party represented in politics by people like Tom Zawistowski and Matt Mayer are not running for office to respond to the consensus whims of pressure groups—lobbyists. They are running for office to maintain purity of the Ohio and federal Constitutions. This is an idea that is not understood by virtually anybody, particularly in the media. That is the reason the question, “do you think you can be a team player” is such an absurd question. It openly suggests that Tom should be willing to compromise a right idea for a wrong one depending on the nature of the pressure groups who are really in charge which is against everything anybody who believes in a representative republic stands for.
The way to beat this monstrosity of political corruption is to just make things simple and focus on the idea of capitalism. In politics, an idea is either good for capitalism or it’s not and from that vantage point, political unification can be achieved by removing the emotional elements from the debate, of which nobody will ever completely agree. A political commitment to capitalism also declaws the pressure groups that have the mouth of politicians like Boehner and Kasich on their marionette strings rendering them ineffective. It doesn’t take a heard of cats marching to orders like a bunch of mindless automatons to run a government. It simply takes the commitment to a political philosophy that carries over to the benefit of the population at large. Capitalism naturally sorts out the good from the bad, the corrupt from the saint through competitive efforts. The cheating that goes on so often of which capitalism gets the blame comes from the pressure group relationships such as what Speaker Boehner and Governor Kasich represent—a mixed economy relationship ruled by thugs who have more “pull” than others without such arrangements. Under pure capitalism, such relationships would not be possible as the best and most effective ideas would percolate to the surface in spite of the desires of various pressure groups.
If I had to make a prediction as to the direction of Tom Zawistowski I would say that people like him will migrate to a party like the one I’m talking about, the “Capitalism Party” to begin the intellectual argument that has to take place in the coming months. After all, it does free thinking people no good to vote for Governor Kasich once again. He has shown to be just as fiscally destructive as Governor Strickland, the socialist democrat was. The biggest difference is that he had a “D” next to his name so he was easy to identify. In many ways the “R” next to Kasich’s name is more dangerous because voters thought they were getting a Tea Party conservative—instead they got a sell-out, and a LBJ fascist—well intended, but desperately, and catastrophically wrong in his political philosophy. That is why people like Tom Zawistowski are leaving the Republican Party. If they are smart, they’ll join me in the Capitalism Party then things can really get moving as the debates will evolved from ones of emotion to ones of actual goodness that is not relative to opinion.
Rich Hoffman
“If they attack first………..blast em’!”
