Lori Hoeck

Here’s a set of lyrics against SOPA

Let the Buffalo Roam
by Lori Hoeck

Micro-managers be gone!
No more regulatory chains.
The internet’s ours–
a new frontier for our brains.

Don’t let them in
“Keep your grubby paws off!”
When government steps in
There’s more red tape than trade-off.

Entrepreneurs must be free
—products speak for themselves.
Don’t let bureaucrats guarantee
progress remains on the shelf.

I’m don’t want a Wild West,
just a place the buffalo roam,
where seldom is heard of a censored word
and I can still make money from home.

Creativity abhors control.
We don’t need stifling laws.
Freedom is a God-given right.
Yes, we will fight for the cause!

The Judgment

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Somewhere in the near future

“Trent Johnston, stand.”

The community judge’s voice filled the sweat box of a room, chilling Trent to the bones. He’d heard the tone before — the arrogant voice of someone trying to squeeze their viciousness and bullying into overly kind words. Appearance always mattered more than truth in the what once were called halls of justice.

The sweat-covered and all-too-eager bailiff started to wave the five community officers standing behind Trent to get him to his feet. Before they could move, Trent stood. Back straight despite the recent pummeling from the five behind him. His eyes stared like lasers, but were unable too meet the shifting eyes of the man before him.

“Trent, you stand before us today accused once again of Mongering. I can’t let this slide this time.”

After spending 10 of his last 18 years on unforgiving city streets, Trent placed a mask of contempt over his face. Scrapping and scraping as an urban wild child, the child of a convicted Monger parents, Trent knew what was about to happen.

“You would think your parents’ exile to UrbanPrison should have taught you a lesson, but no.”

The judge, a fat man in skinny community, looked at the FedState’s record of Trent’s LifeNotes and shook his head.

“Perhaps your parents’ Mongering tainted you. It says here you were an accessory in their first offense for conspiring to start unsanctioned, untaxed, and unsupervised community gardens on the rooftops.”  The man’s jowls jiggled as he shook his head and muttered a tsk, tsk noise.

“You know that Mongering — or anything related to buying and selling apart from the FedState’s benevolent care — is what caused the horrors of American arrogance and oppressiveness that left this world nearly dead from the greediness that is capitalism and the unchecked marketplace.”

The FedState propaganda rolled off the judge’s tongue like a wannabe’s badge of honor.

“Equally heinous, is that your parents sought to withhold their hybrid plants from discovery by the FedState so they could sell them for profit. These super-producing plants would have disrupted farming throughout the nation, causing farm-camps to no longer need half their workforce.”

Trent felt the revulsion for his parents roll around the room like a sickly smell. None of these community organizers, as they liked to call themselves, gave a damn for the families that relied on his parents’ work to avoid starving through the Dark Days after the Collapse. All they cared about was feeding their power through intimidation and lies.

“Young man, now we turn to your crimes. First there was the incident with the Oldsters on Jackson Street when you were 12. You willingly and knowingly deprived Community Workers — our own hard-working C-Dubyas — from helping those seniors by undercutting their services with black market goods and services…”

Trent could barely restrain himself from blurting out, “Your C-Dumbies were selling them dumpster-food from restaurants and calling it recycled foodstuffs!” He remembered the beatdown he’d received trying to argue that point so many years ago and remained silent.

“…and then at age 15, you sought to teach classes of first aid to your peers, thus undermining the credibility of our C-Dubyas on the Med-Force…”

The list of offenses, once honorable acts of citizenship, went on and on.

“At least I did my parents proud,” Trent told himself as he heard his supposed crimes against the FedState and Community. Finally the judge reached the most recent event.

“And now to yesterday’s incident. You have been accused and now stand convicted by my authority for once again undermining the credibility of our Community by using your Monger-learned first aid skills on a little girl struck by traffic. Bystanders all agree in these signed reports that you did not wait for the Community Ambulance Service and Med-Force to attend to her, but instead interfered, and by doing so, delayed proper treatment.”

Trent spoke for the first time. “She would have bled to death if I’d done nothing. But doing nothing is just what you leeches want, isn’t it? Make us afraid to act and you suck all our personal decision making out of us.”

The punch to his kidney from behind him dropped him to his knees. Most community officers preferred shooting, stabbing, or punching in the back because of a general adherence to cowardice. Trent recalled his parent’s words, “It used to be ‘To Protect and Serve.’ Now it’s ‘To Force and Convert’.”

In his agony, Trent couldn’t see, but he could feel the dog pack and mob mentality surge. He knew the five were practically salivating to be given the go ahead. He pictured the judge’s small smile of satisfaction race across his face and the bailiff’s fingers twitch with anticipation of forming a fist.

Trent knew even if he did make it through the next few minutes, he’d end up in UrbanPrison with too many injuries to survive the brutal welcome such a place was famous for. Fortunately for him, his parents had secretly taught him how to fight, both striking and grappling styles. He’d rarely used his skills, but now someone was going to pay.

Just as Trent steeled himself to launch into attack mode, the door burst open in the back of the room. All eyes turned to see who would dare interrupt a powerful community court session.

“Stop this immediately!” A familiar voice of authority brought everyone but Trent to attention. The figure crossing the floor toward them came surrounded by armed soldiers. Trent knew only two groups in the nation carried weapons — FedState Blackcoats or underground rebels in the Liberty League.

None wore black coats.

“Help him up,” the leader said, pointing to Trent. The armed men rushed to comply while the five bullies melted aside.

As strong arms gently lifted him up, Trent suddenly knew that voice. It was the voice behind the Liberty League’s Speak Free media broadcasts. The man, known only as Rafael, had an unmistakable Hispanic accent.

Walking up to the judge, Rafael growled his words. Trent could barely hear them. “You worthless wannabe bureaucrat. You would beat and imprison the man who saved my daughter’s life just to make yourself feel big and important?”

Drawing a menacing breath, Rafael added quietly, “What are you trying to compensate for little man?”

Trent noticed with satisfaction that the judge’s power was running down his pant leg. It made the judge speechless for the first time in a long time.

Now that he had the man’s full attention, Rafael made his words slice like a knife. “You will quit your job today. You will make all the reparations you can to the lives you’ve ruined. Do this and you will live.”

Turning away in disgust, Rafael made a quick hand gesture and his team quickly moved to tie and gag everyone but Trent. As they did, Trent found Rafael’s hand shaking his. “I owe you one, young man. Thanks to you my daughter is alive.”

Trent, unused to unabashed appreciation, simply nodded.

“Trent, the Liberty League needs men like you. Will you join us?”

“Yes,” came the immediate reply.

For the first time in 10 years, Trent felt like he was going home to a place where things were right instead of upside down, a place where honor, character, and merit were valued. Without a look back, he followed the Liberty League into a future he would help shape.

GLENN BECK FOR NEWCOMERS or GLENN BECK 101

Love him or hate him, Dr. Glenn Beck of radio, book selling, and Fox News fame is a lightning rod for the storm of public opinion on the direction America is headed.

Why does Glenn Beck inspire his large TV and radio audience into huge book-buying and reading frenzies on the Founding Fathers while his detractors demonize, belittle, and revile him as a hate-mongering, fear-mongering, and racist charlatan?

GLENN BECK EXPLAINED
To understand the Beck phenomenon, you have to use metaphors, analogies, and a bit of story telling because that’s what he does. Simply trying to label him or force his words into a black and white soundbite won’t give you even a hint of who he is or what he thinks. He defies easy profiling. Most authentic — or crazy people — do.

So which is he? Crazy or authentic? Let’s explore this through my version of the frog boiling analogy:

If you walked into a huge library, it’s doubtful you would know every book housed there. And you probably wouldn’t notice if certain types of books — let’s say all those with the color purple on their covers — slowly disappeared. And what if at the same time, all the books with pictures of cats slowly disappeared — how many people would notice right away?

The first to notice these kinds of changes would be people attuned to the color purple or cat lovers. Cat lovers who love purple would be even more aware, even if just at the back of their minds, that something was amiss.

BECK’S GIFT OR CURSE
If you weren’t attuned to these losses, the library would seem normal. Your life isn’t affected, so you wouldn’t notice any changes. If a person developed a suspicion that something odd was happening, the librarians would probably not attribute it to someone trying to mess with the library. The idea of someone pilfering books with purple covers or books with pictures of cats is too easy to dismiss.

Beck is gifted — or cursed — with the knack of seeing societal patterns and expressing them to an audience. In his mind, the patterns reveal to him a few elitist librarians with an anti-library agenda who are slowly changing the library from a place of learning to a place of indoctrination. He sees the library’s once vibrant power of knowledge dissipating into propaganda-filled books espousing doctrines and ideologies contrary to the historical role of libraries.

In the real world, the library of course is the United States of America. Beck sees a small, powerful minority working hard to alter America at a fundamental level. The transformation or shift has been ongoing, but recently sped up by the Obama administration.

Beck fans are those who wake up and see the same patterns Beck reveals. If you don’t see the patterns, you think he is a crazy man ( “Why would anyone want to get rid of books with the color purple on their covers?! That’s crazy talk!” ). If you do see the patterns, you start to see more of them forming a coherent framework that motivates you to do something to stop the fundamental transformation.

THE PATTERNS REVEALED
What are these changes Beck’s awakened fans think are so troublesome that they read tons of his recommended books and launch Beck into best-seller orbit? Here are three:

The core values of personal liberty, a free market, and individualism once honored by Americans from past generations are being replaced by:

1) tolerance for every idea around instead of wise discernment and a understanding of good vs. evil

2) anti-capitalistic ideas favoring huge, invasive government designed to redistribute wealth so all can share in what are being labeled as human rights

3) rewriting history to minimalizing patriotism, the Constitution, and God as Neanderthal concepts that cause national arrogance leading to war and injustice

The Green Movement and Global Warming provide cover and the emotional fuel to scam the world into complying to green initiatives that will:

1) line the pockets and give greater power to those people, businesses, and unions rushing quietly to be on the inside of the green machine

2) use pro-green political correctness and governance to nudge, manipulate, or intimidate businesses into a collective-minded economy

3) use the greater good argument to force changes in individual habits, buying choices, and energy usage

Those in power working to make these changes claim to do so because they believe human civilization has been held back by the core values once honored in America, and a more enlightened and intelligent elite should use government to legislate human behavior for the betterment of all people.

This requires:

1) those in power must deem themselves more able and worthy to make the decisions for the good of all

2) this elite, ruling class of bureaucrats will eventually make decisions once reserved for private citizens and businesses

3) the average citizen will need to let go of whatever personal liberty or belief systems that run contrary to or slow down the move toward social justice for all in a new world order of collective goodness

IN A NUTSHELL
According to Beck and his fans, what made America a proud nation filled with hard-working, charity loving, and innovation-creating people — able to solve problems, weather the tough times, and leave a legacy to their children of a better country — is being replaced by a government becoming a monopoly and heavy-handed player as its elitist leaders shepherd the misguided, uniformed, and anti-intellectual bulk of voters into a better, safer, and kinder world. In the course of this fundamental transformation from Truth, Justice, and the American Way to Choice Control, Social Justice, and the Collective Way, certain parties are making sure they get the biggest piece of the power and money pie.

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You can see that if even a wee bit of this Beck perspective is true or if we are on a slippery slope headed anywhere near this future, then a majority of Americans won’t stand for it. This means the Progressives working to quietly create this New World Order must never awaken Americans to the reality too quickly. That’s why so many Progressive blogger, media types, and the Center for American Progress must try to belittle, besmirch, and blame Beck for every evil under the sun — they can’t handle a fully awakened — and engaged — America.

Now you must decide for yourself — not from reading the Huffington Post, not from liberal bloggers, not from anyone else, including me — if Beck is crazy or authentic. The only way to know for sure is to watch or listen to him with an open mind for a few days. Try, on your own, to refute what he says. Look up things, read, become informed. Because if Beck is right, Americans need to discuss and decide which way they want this country to go and do it as “We the People,” not “We the Uninformed.”

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Photo: Gage Skidmore

FROM THE NORTH STAR PAPERS (a work in progress)

NOTE: This is written mainly to my nieces and nephews

Comments are closed because family and friends know how to reach me by email.

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THAT OLD FAMILIAR GUT WRENCHING FEELING

I once counted myself among the membership of the cult-like Worldwide Church of God (WCG) in the 80s and 90s. I, like many family and friends of mine, learned first hand the power one man, one organization, and one belief system can have in creating a culture of conformity and control.

Rooted in rule-keeping (legalism) to gain and maintain salvation, the WCG leadership used the coercion of “you must” and the equally powerful, but seemingly more benign, “you should” to keep the membership on the same page.

“You musts” included at one time or another:

You must understand WCG teachings and dress appropriately to attend.
You must tithe 10 percent of your income, another 10 percent is saved to attend the Fall Festivals, and some years, you must keep a third tithe of another 10 percent for the less fortunate.
You must attend church on the Sabbath and only dire illness should keep you away.

“You shoulds” included at one time or another:

You women should not wear make-up
You should allow annointing to heal you, not medical doctors
You should find a job that doesn’t make you work on the Sabbath

Strong authoritarian leadership from the pulpit was known to insist women stay with abusive husbands. One woman I know felt compelled within this culture to marry a heavy-handed man so she could learn submissiveness. Another clan of folks considered it normal for men to spank their women as “correction” of bad behavior.

As with any cult or perversely authoritarian culture or system, obedience to the expected behavior patterns were rewarded with actions of inclusiveness. Non-obedience created a chastising that might come from direct ministerial council or be frowned upon, gossiped about, and perhaps even brought up in public.

Because the WCG insisted its teachings were the only way to salvation and any contact with “the outside world” could poison a member’s thinking, members tended to only socialize with other members. The close-knit bond increased a natural enforcement of behaviors and conformity.

Having lived within the WCG system for over a decade — but survived to tell the tale — I’m viscerally aware with every fiber of my being of any attempts by others to push their agenda on me. I instantly recognize the patterns of control with the subtle and not so subtle You musts and You shoulds.

The key to awareness is knowing when someone is “shoulding on” me or someone else. When someone tries to “should on” me, they come from a parental position and insist on a behavior or attitude change. This person tries to dictate with large or small amounts of guilt, shame, or a superior sense of knowing that my thoughts are inferior, less important, or simply ignorant.

It is a matter of trying to change me with external influence.

Those who don’t should on people, come from a different frame of mind. They understand lasting change comes from within, not from enforced conformity or arrogant correction or group-think. Instead of insisting on a person’s change to their perspective, they live their ideals without hypocrisy, they focus on their own inner work and issues, and they are supportive of the person, preferring to love the sinner, but not the sin.

It is a matter of allowing a person to change from within and based on a deeply personal revelation or growth.

Most of my family and WCG survivors understand the previous paragraphs. I wrote them to bring awaken those memories and feelings of being under victimizing authority so the following will make sense.

You see, those memories and feelings are surfacing again for me. I’m shaking my head and fearfully wondering why others don’t see what I see.

Let me show you:

FLAT EARTHER?
I hear people insisting that I buy into the Green Movement and Global Warming as much as WCG pastors asked me to buy into “we are the only church that will survive and be saved.” If my research into the subject of our planet leads me to other conclusions, I’m called a Flat Earther (WCG talk would be “Worldly”).

I’m from a generation which saw Pluto lose it’s standing as our furtherst planet from the sun, which was told Vietnam soldiers were baby killers, and which watched Watergate unfold. But my skepticism about the vast finances and global governmental change surrounding the Green Movement is viewed as conspiracy theory, bad science, and disastrous to our planet. My opinion on the matter is viewed as regressive, stupid, and dangerous. I “should” know better.

HATER?
I hear people insisting that health care, housing, jobs, education, and pensions are a right everyone should have. I’m told government can make these a right and fund them with taxes because human rights are more important than individual rights. The collective, the group, the human race are more important than my pursuit of happiness as a wealthy business person.

I’m from a generation that was taught by parents and grandparents that “anyone can grow up to be president in the United States and you can be anything you want to be.” My grandparents in Oklahoma carved out a farm from prairie land because that’s what they wanted. They made me believe effort, character, a good name, common sense, and a constant thirst to learn would help me make my way in the world.

When hobos from the nearby railroad tracks came by for food, my grandparents told the men they could swap chores for food. When a neighbor house caught on fire, everyone pitched in during and afterward to help them get back on their feet. When someone died, the best food in the world arrived at the bereaving family’s door.

What did I learn from such an upbringing?

Adversity and challenges make us stronger people and bond us together.
No one can hold me back but myself.
If at first you don’t succeed, find another way or make one because “can’t” never succeeded.
Loving your neighbor as yourself takes work, but giving and generosity to those in our community builds character and friendship.

Of course my grandparents and parents put a lot of stock into “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps” and “There is no such thing as a free lunch, ” and “whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.”

The result of such messages and the legacy of personal responsibility created perseverance, patience, resiliency, courage, and personal drive. I never felt the world owed me anything, but I owed society a fully engaged, thinking, and civic-minded individual. I believed fully in the idea “Leave it better than you found it,” whether that was a wilderness trail or a community.

So when I hear those who argue for goods and services to be re-distributed equally to all, I wonder what message this sends to society.

Will this create a greater sense of personal responsibility?
Will this give hard workers the incentive to continue at normal levels?
By taking money from the wealthy, what motivation do they have to produce more?
How does this type of human right ethic create true, internalized generosity?
How does re-distribution not create a sense of entitlement vs. perseverance, patience, resiliency, courage, and drive?
Why would someone feel obligated to improve society if society is already there to improve them?

CONSPIRACY THEORIST?
I hear people insisting that government must take more control, create more laws, and institute more regulations to save, to improve, and to guide our country. The recent health care bill alone is slated to create over 150 new boards or commissions*. The IRS ranks will swell with new employees (an agency that is allowed to act on guilty until you prove you are innocent). The Federal government now holds over half of mortgages and the federal government was responsible for up to 95 percent of all new home mortgages in the fourth quarter of 2009.** And student loans are no longer available from just any bank, the government wants to run and regulate them.

Large, invasive governments always lead to cronyism, corruption, and eventually censorship. Currently the typical federal worker is paid 20% more than a private-sector worker in the same occupation.*** That means my tax dollars and yours go to fund and fuel a quickly growing national bureaucracy that often hides within layers and layers of red tape.

If you’ve naturally birthed a baby at home and tried to get documentation later, you know what I mean. If you’ve dealt with any government service like the revenue services, post office, or local housing regulations, you know what I mean. If you’ve found yourself in court, you know what I mean.

But I’m told that I’m a hold-out, regressive, ignorant, or a conspiracy theorist if I don’t think big government is a good idea or even a better idea. If I was to march with the Tea Party folks to protest the colossal government I see being created with things like health care, I’m considered another Timothy McVeigh. Witness NYC Mayor Bloomberg’s conclusion jumping about the recent Times Square bombing attempt: “…homegrown, maybe a mentally deranged person or someone with a political agenda that doesn’t like the health care bill or something.”****

LOW ROAD?
I hear people insist the free market, capitalism, and big business create an environment where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer:

“… changes are needed to keep this capitalism from really killing us–treating workers like road kill, treating the Earth like a sewer, and lowering our living standards–which is what is happening right now… “*****

If I think it’s not the system that’s broken, but what’s really needed are old fashioned American values, Godly character, and incentives to be more generous, then I’m hopelessly blind. If people offer these kinds of solutions, they are drowned out by “SAVE US, BIG GOVERNMENT:

1) Create huge tax breaks to all who either give to charity or develop workable and self-funding programs to aid literacy, health care needs, or other causes.

2) Create huge grants to viable, proven, and quickly self-sustaining programs, business, or ideas that help re-train those out of work, that break the cycle of poverty in a community, or that teach people how to develop their own small businesses.

3) Give huge tax breaks to companies, businesses, and individuals that help fund health care clinics, provide college scholarships, or otherwise powerfully impact their communities.

4) Empower people to use their skills in true volunteer work by creating and promoting a national volunteer clearinghouse online

5) Empower those using social media to fundraise for worthy causes.

6) Create a national challenge to inventors to come up with a job-creating product or service. First prize is Congressional decree that winner will never again have to pay taxes.

7) Create a national lottery that plays 4 times a year. All proceeds generated will go to grants for innovative technologies.

At the same time, put civic duty, citizenship awareness, character-building back into the school curriculum along with the understanding that personal merit and personal responsibility create value and societal improvement in and of themselves.

As you read this, you don’t have to agree with me. But please don’t ask me to agree with a president, a government, and a media that tells me my opinion, my beliefs, my religion, my choices and my respect for the Constitution and the rule of law are dangerous, hateful, fear-mongering, backward, stupid, or killing the planet.

More importantly, tell me why social justice and environmental justice and the rigorous application of political correctness seem so familiar?

Don’t you remember a time when certain jokes, music, and behavior was deemed “worldly” and to be avoided?
Don’t you remember when people tried to control you, but you kept an inner fire burning inside for the liberty of thought and action?
Don’t you remember the burning in indignation when those in power or position had the rules bent for them?
Don’t you remember the hypocrisy of it all?
Don’t you remember how easy it was to put on a fake face for church or for parents, but you hated doing it because it wasn’t you?

And what of all those divorces and the break-ups and fractioning of congregations — did they happen because people truly bought into and internalized the past controls or because they were finally free of those controls and able to think for themselves?

MONSTER?
I hear certain people saying that social (economic/environmental) justice is an integral part of God’s plan for humanity. I hear that “Arizona’s SB 1070 must be named as a social and racial sin, and should be denounced as such by people of faith and conscience across the nation…Arizona is deciding whether to wage war on the body of Christ.” (Bill Wallis).

I don’t recall mandated redistribution of wealth by government that is a republic in the Bible. I don’t recall Christ involving himself with politics or political correctness of his day, or he would have taken on Rome’s racist, oppressive government.

I do recall this statement by Christ: “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.”

If Christ had been coerced, mandated, regulated, or guilted into sacrificing himself, it would mean nothing. God does not force himself on anyone. He does not force people to do take certain actions. Choice matters to God, that’s why he let Adam and Eve make a choice. He could have easily stopped them “by stepping on their throats with his boot” (paraphrasing the Obama administration about BP oil), but intimidation, control, and manipulation are not his style:

“Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve…” 1 Peter 5:2

“Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” 2 Corinthians 9:7

To re-paint Christ as a political, social do-gooder is simply wrong. He came to change hearts and minds from the inside out with his Holy Spirit and Holy Word, not from the outside in with ever-growing enforcement of “this is what you should eat,” “this is how you should think,” “this must be done!” “Our planet and animals demand action now!” or “this is how we make life better.”

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Look, you know me. You know I’m trained in self defense skills like pattern recognition and uncovering emotional predators. I’ve had my fill of parental authorities who mold the “law” and “truth” and “science” and “facts” to their convenience of the moment. I understand the manipulation of power and the subtlety of control.

With this perspective, I want you to know I feel the US is changing toward something more WCG than free. I think corruption, special interests, and cronyism are so rampant that less than 1 in 100 politicians and half of federal employees have integrity, and the bureaucracy is exploding with more such people and no real checks and balances anymore. Add to that the power to silence dissenters with demonizing, belittling rhetoric because they are deemed unworthy and too dangerous to the welfare of the nation. Add to that an endless bureaucracy that like a catfish in a huge lake never stops growing. Add to that a polarized media.

We have debts individually and as a nation that could crash and burn with one major earthquake, a series of dirty bomb attacks, or a cyber attack on the right infrastructure. We have a divisiveness pitting dems against repubs, red against blue, the coasts against the heartland, intellectual elites against blue collar workers, and the list goes on. The next crunch of mortgages about to hit is for commercial properties.

Yes, this problem has been part of several presidents’ legacy, but the tide has turned to make it far worse. Yes, I’ve lived in the Vietnam years, during the Cold War, and watched 9-11, so I know America is a strong, vibrant nation able to recover from much. But those instances came when less was on the table. Now the table is full and looking wobbly to me.

I know the progressives believe “if not now, when?” for fulfilling everyone’s human rights, health care rights, job rights, and housing rights and for saving the planet, but sometimes invasive or even exploratory surgery isn’t something a sick patient can undergo and survive.

Patterns. They are everywhere. The most irritating is that I feel a set up or trap about to be sprung. If walked into a room and felt this way, I’d take all the precautions necessary to judiciously assess and respond to keep myself and others safe.

This is my attempt to let you know there’s danger in the room.

Don’t assume you are safe and nothing will happen. Remember 9-11?
Don’t assume the authority figure across the room has no agenda. Remember Watergate?
Don’t assume the smiling person insisting you give up your money, property, or liberty to him is really going to use it for the benefit of all. Remember the Soviet Union?
Don’t assume what is considered “settled science” is truly settled. Remember Pluto?

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* http://projectworldawareness.com/2010/04/health-care-bill-159-new-boards-and-commissions-created/

** http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/19/paul-volcker-says-mortgag_n_469415.html

*** http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-03-04-federal-pay_N.htm

**** http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brent-baker/2010/05/03/cbs-features-ny-mayor-bloomberg-speculating-bomber-was-mad-about-obamac

***** http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Joel+Rogers.-a018710717

Serendipity can power some amazing things in our lives, especially when we have to pinch ourselves to believe how wonderful a turn of events can become.

After writing about Dark Hearts, emotional vampires, and narcissists on my Think Like A Black Belt site and writing a few posts on this site (here and here), I found kindred spirits from my readers’ comments and via emails.

We all shared the experience of having a toxic relationship sometime in our lives. Perhaps it was a boss, a spouse, or relative, but the feelings of worthlessness from constant subtle and not-so-subtle sabotage by someone close to us was a common theme. So was how we change ourselves to become strong enough to deal with it.

COLLABORATORS
In the discussions, Betsy Wuebker of Passing Thru and I found a similar desire to put a more concrete face on the toxic dynamics in a way that would help empower others. From that wonderful collaboration came the free ebook, The Narcissists: A User’s Guide. (You can get more details here or download it here.)

As the title ironically indicates, we wrote to ease the sense of powerlessness people feel in a toxic relationship and put readers more in control of their choices.

When Betsy and I put our finishing touches on the ebook’s first design, I received an offer I couldn’t refuse.

AWESOME OFFER
Deborah Dorchak of Sirius Graphix emailed me about a blog post I’d written, and we discovered our mutual interest in martial arts and emotional self defense. I asked her if she would like to also get a sneak peek at our upcoming ebook.

Realizing she was a serious ebook designer, I warned her in an email, “…it’s not pretty as an ebook, but hey, we decided to go less for look and more for much-needed content…”

After reading our ebook, she replied that Sirius Graphix was doing a big campaign to promote their ebook services in February. She asked if Betsy and I would want to participate. All she asked was that they’d be able to use it as an example in their portfolio.

HOLY BUCKETS??
As Betsy described in her post The Magic of Collaboration, “Holy Buckets! We didn’t even need to think about it! We were writers, not designers. Sirius could give us the visual aesthetic we coveted.”

Not only was I blessed to have a great co-author who could cut to the chase, inform and empower, but now we had help from Sirius Graphix with their powerhouse designer Deborah. Her unique and stunning work reflects an author’s heart, story, and message. When the ebook re-design was complete, it was as if Deborah let the design concept flow from us instead of plopping a design option on us haphazardly.

Eliza Fayle of Silver and Grace echoes my sentiments in her review of the book,

“Then {Betsy and Lori} sent me the final product, designed by Deborah Dorchak of Sirius Graphix. My reaction to this? ‘Holy Shit!!!’…The Narcissist: A User’s Guide is a work of art by the authors and the designer. Clearly this is combined effort of a team who truly believe in the book’s message.”

No doubt about it. Serendipity rocks. My thanks to Betsy, Sirius Graphix, and our online friends making the ebook launch of The Narcissist: A User’s Guide a wonderful success.

————-

Thank you for visiting,
Lori Hoeck

Have you ever been so perplexed by a relationship that it drove you crazy? Perhaps you are in one right now.

Do you feel like you’re the one who is always wrong?
Do attempts to set boundaries only meet with disdain and anger?
Are new suggestions shot down or sabotaged?
Do attempts to withdraw from the relationship create more firestorms of drama?

You just might be dealing with narcissist.

Don’t you wish there was a resource you could access that would explain what was going on and give you some answers?

Betsy Wuebker of PassingThru.com and I are collaborators on a new ebook The Narcissist: A User’s Guide. In it, we discuss such topics as:

• What creates a narcissistic personality?
• Why can involvement with a narcissist hurt you?
• Questions you can ask someone to help determine if they are a narcissist.
• What can I say to set a boundary with a narcissist?
• Is the price of caving in worse?
• Why do some people seem immune to narcissists?

****UPDATE: The ebook, The Narcissist: A User’s Guide, is now available! Just click HERE.

Our ebook is beautifully and professionally designed by Deb Dorchak of Sirius Graphix.

Check out a preview:

Deb writes about how this came about at the Sirius Graphix website. (Read her take on narcissists in this excellent post: “Sith Lords in the Real World.”)

Betsy says she started this project thinking it would be wonderful if it helped just one person. Read her side of this wonderful story at  What Goes Around, Comes Around.

Here’s one person’s reaction after reading the ebook:

If you’ve ever had to deal with a narcissist, you are going to LOVE “The Narcissist: A User’s Guide” by Betsy Wuebker and Lori Hoeck.

If you’re dealing with a narcissist right now, this ebook is a must. It will show you that you are not alone, that you are NOT crazy, and that there ARE ways to cope with the narcissist in your life – including leaving them, and learning to avoid entering into a new codependent relationship in the future.

I’ve read many self development books and ebooks, and this is by far one of the most empowering guides I have ever come across. Highly recommended!

~Vered DeLeeuw
Professional blogger and social media consultant

——

I’ve never had an ad on my websites, but I’ve discovered something worth shouting about — Tanka Bars.

Having grown tired of carb-laden snacks, sugary snacks, and filler snacks, I wished for something else. My body and mind prefer a certain boost I get from protein. Cheese is great but too many calories. And taking time to fix a meal with chicken or beef, or having to “nuke” leftovers, wasn’t so much fun.

Enter the Tanka Bar! My newest food hero. Tanka Bars are an outrageously tasty, healthy, and fun snack food.

The Tanka Bar is an Authentic Native American Food, made from  historic Lakota recipe combining tasty, satisfying buffalo and sweet-tart cranberry. Yes, buffalo!

I’ve been cooking with ground buffalo for months and love jerky, so I wondered how the Tanka Bar would taste.

From the first bite, the Tanka Bar hit me with one strong thought: This tastes great — like real food. The chewy blend of flavors satisfied my taste buds and a comfort food need.

To my delight, I realized this was like no snack bar I’d ever had. It didn’t taste like something store-bought or pumped with artificial junk. Not too sweet. None of that slight aftertaste that comes with most packaged foods.

I tried two types of Tanka Bars, the regular and the Spicy, Pepper Blend. My family all liked the spicy. That doesn’t mean it’s really spicy, though. A relative who doesn’t usually like things spicy, now raves over the perfect blend of snappy, flavor-laden goodness.

In the bar are 7 grams of protein, only 70 calories, and zero grams of trans fats.

This food-snack is great for:

• Firefighters and EMS people who need more than a candy bar to keep going
• Parents who need a quick boost without having to fix a snack
• Anyone into physical training, sports enthusiasts, or lunch-break exercise folks
• Senior citizens, kids, adults who may not normally choose healthy snacks
• Survival kits at home or in the car
• At work, when the candy machine might otherwise call
• For a quick, out-the-door snack when you’re on the go

Please check out the Tanka  Bar website for more information by clicking on the running image to the right.

It Ain’t Like They Say …

The mountain top seems so far
a distant, aching call.
This day I’m broken, bruised,
cursing yet another fall.

The glory they say is ahead,
or in the journey itself.
I’ve been at both points before,
I know it’s a lie to self.

There is no one point.
No shouts of “I’ve arrived!”
And the journey’s just a journey.
Shit, it’s so utterly contrived.

Listen, it’s all about the moment –
shitty or stellar matters not –
when you finally say “Screw it,
I’m not staying on this spot.”

Choices made — no matter where,
no matter the peace or strife –
Make the person what they are,
and the quality of their life.

_____

Venting. Again.

Thank you for visiting,
Lori Hoeck

Pain

This headache screams as it reams my scalp
with a pain both dull and sharp,
My skull is pounding, hounding me,
like satan breaking a harp.

The pain reliever has yet to work,
Can’t they make this drug faster?
A thousand years — the wait grows long,
My woe is like disaster.

I whine and whimper like a sick pup;
feeling worthless, wimpy, and weak.
Here I am unable to act.
My brain has sprung a leak.

How much more wailing to go?
Has this writing helped a bit?
Why yes, this poem sucks so bad,
I laugh and say “Aww, f*ck it!”

—-

Some days ya just gotta whine a bit.

Thank you for visiting,
Lori Hoeck

REAL NOT REHAB

pop stars on par for flyin’ far
fall ill with the pills and thrills
shoutin’, poutin’, givin’ us an outin’
of their desire to be REAL

i laugh, cause i walked the path,
been there and back about the wrath.
they think, and make a stink, that it’s them, within,
but they’re wrong — it ain’t no song, the bong, or about the strong

it’s not the story, the glory or taking inventory
not in a bottle or who ya throttle or coddle;
yes, the pain, the rain, sorrow ingrained –
they are real enough, make life so tough

but the core, the safer shore is far more;
get out of the rut, kick your own damn butt
’cause the REAL ain’t some deal you can cut
REAL comes from a direction, a connection, an election
not from the same, shamed disinfection

if fame is your only game in the lame fast lane,
if gold’s hold made your heart withhold,
if “tough and cool” guides your inner tool –
time to change and rearrange, get a home on the range
where the buffalo roam beyond styrofoam mange

you think I’m mad, gone all bad, maybe even been had
but the truth will set you free, not me, not yo mommy
Christ is the rock, the lock, the one with the flock

He offers REAL ’cause he lived the deal, sealed it up whole
He’s always ready, steady, a heavy lifter for your soul

earthquakes and mental breaks can shake your bones
but Christ’s love is from above, all about love, not stones;
it heals, gives grace wheels, acts as a shield
and yeah, it’s as REAL as it gets, the perfect fit
He ain’t gonna beg or nag ya; he ain’t gonna leave –
no need, ’cause his creed is  “Just believe.”

—-

For the pop stars who feel their shining light of talent isn’t enough.

Thank you for visiting,
Lori Hoeck