how to win book-102

8/14/2019 HOW TO WIN BOOK-102

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HOW TO WIN:

GLENN BECKS

9/12 PRINCIPLES AND VALUES

BY

KENDAL BRIAN HUNTER

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Dedicated to patriots everywhere.

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We are polarized

because we are politicized.

*

We are politicized because

government is too intrusive.

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CONTENTS:

THE 9 PRINCIPLES AND 12 VALUES.

INTRODUCTION: THE POWER OF PRINCIPLES.

CHAPTER 1: America Is Good.

CHAPTER 2: I believe in God and He is the Center of my Life.

CHAPTER 3: I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday.

CHAPTER 4: The family is sacred. My spouse and I are the ultimate authority, not thegovernment.

CHAPTER 5: If you break the law you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is

above it.

CHAPTER 6: I have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but there is noguarantee of equal results.

CHAPTER 7: I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to.Government cannot force me to be charitable.

CHAPTER 8: It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share mypersonal opinion.

CHAPTER 9: The government works for me. I do not answer to them, they answer tome.

INTERMISSION: VALUES

CHAPTER 10: Honesty

CHAPTER 11: Reverence

CHAPTER 12: Hope

CHAPTER 13: Thrift

CHAPTER 14: Humility

CHAPTER 15: Charity

CHAPTER 16: Sincerity

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CHAPTER 17: Moderation

CHAPTER 18: Hard Work

CHAPTER 19: Courage

CHAPTER 20: Personal Responsibility

CHAPTER 21: Gratitude

AFTERWARD: THE POWER OF TEACHING

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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THE 9 PRINCIPLES AND 12 VALUES

The 9 Principles

1. America Is Good.

2. I believe in God and He is the Center of my Life.

God The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that

disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained. from

George Washingtons first Inaugural address.

3. I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday.

Honesty I hope that I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to

maintain what I consider to be the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest

man. George Washington

4. The family is sacred. My spouse and I are the ultimate authority, not the

government.

Marriage/Family It is in the love of ones family only that heartfelt happiness is

known. By a law of our nature, we cannot be happy without the endearing connections of

a family. Thomas Jefferson

5. If you break the law you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it.

Justice I deem one of the essential principles of our government equal and

exact justice to all men of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political. Thomas

Jefferson

6. I have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but there is no guarantee of

equal results.

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Life, Liberty, & The Pursuit of Happiness Everyone has a natural right to

choose that vocation in life which he thinks most likely to give him comfortable

subsistence. Thomas Jefferson

7. I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government

cannot force me to be charitable.

Charity It is not everyone who asketh that deserveth charity; all however, are

worth of the inquiry or the deserving may suffer. George Washington

8. It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal

opinion.

On your right to disagree In a free and republican government, you cannot

restrain the voice of the multitude; every man will speak as he thinks, or more properly

without thinking. George Washington

9. The government works for me. I do not answer to them, they answer to me.

Who works for whom? I consider the people who constitute a society or a nation

as the source of all authority in that nation. Thomas Jefferson

The 12 Values

1. Honesty

2. Reverence

3. Hope

4. Thrift

5. Humility

6. Charity

7. Sincerity

8. Moderation

9. Hard Work

10. Courage

11. Personal Responsibility

12. Gratitude

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INTRODUCTION: THE POWER OF PRINCIPLES.

I

This book is about principles.

A principle is a compact unit of truth, which has a wide variety of applications.

Since principles are so versatileeven to the point of having an infinite variety of

applicationsit would serve us well to seek, to understand, to master, and to live

principles.

Specifically, this book focuses on Glenn Becks 9/12 Principles and Values.

These are core ideas, even patriotic principles that will renew our country and restore the

vision of our Founding Fathers. In our present political perplexity, these principles are

and I use this word literallya godsend.

Essentially, this volume is a midrash, or an extended commentary on these

principles and values. Being about fundamental ideas, many such books could be written.

It is hoped that this book will serve as flint and still, sparking thought in the reader, and

will fan a blaze of better, more ardent ideas.

Practically, these principles and values are habits that we can acquire. Spend a

day, a week, or a month focusing on each principle or value. Journal about it. Tweet your

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ideas. Blog your feelings. Improve your life. By extension, you will make improve the

lives of others, and ultimately the nation and the world.

Over two hundred years ago, at Concord Bridge, a shot was fired that was heard

round the world. Today, we need to live lives that influence the whole world. These

principles are the basis of such a life of political power holiness.

II

In Glenns first book, The Real America, he lists four steps that are essential to

change:

1. You must want it.

2. You must believe it.

3. You must live it.

4. You will become it.

The it you must want, believe, and live in order to become, is a better, more

patriotic citizen.

At the end of each chapter is a TO DO list. These are things you can do, or

questions that can perfect your thinking on the 9/12 Principles and Values. And, yes, we

did have home-schooled children in mind when we wrote this.

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ADD MOMENT: Give Glenn credit for taking the 12 Steps and shrinking them by 2/3rds.


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CHAPTER 1. America Is Good.

A person can be imperfect, yet still be a good person.

A country can imperfect, yet still be a good country.

America has had her share of critics. Surely some of it is misplaced, being a cover

for crass envy and jealousy, or a smokescreen for other nations inferiority complexes. As

Cleon Skousen pointed out in his bookThe 5,000 Year Leap, there is something special

about America, where in the space of just under 200 years, we went from horses and

buggies to landing men on the Moon. No other country, regardless of their past glory, can

claim such a feat.

As Glenn has written:

Americas promise of freedom allowed the lone entrepreneur to bring the world

the light bulb, car, telephone, movie, assembly line, artificial heart, computer,

bifocals, sewing machine, refrigerator, air conditioner, safety pin, television,

cash register, crayon, power tools, the oil well, water tower, Popsicle, blue jeans,elevator, repeating rifle, laser, polio vaccination, microwave oven, copy machine,

fiber optics, and cotton candy. (Glenn Becks Common Sense, 105)

Yes, America is a miracle.

Nevertheless, some of the criticism is justified.

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As Thomas Jefferson penned those sacred words, All men are created equal,

slaves worked his plantation at Monticello. In fact, the slavery question has been one of

the biggest reason why peoplesome sincere but misguided, other not so sincere

criticize the country.

They see this country as being nothing more than a Rich White Mans Club, and

the United States Constitution as a way of enforcing this exploitive order.

First, lets set the record straight: America did not invent slavery. She inherited it.

This evil cultural practice existed long before 1776. Read the Bible, and study the life of

Joseph of Egypt, who was sold by his brothers into Egypt as a slave. In fact, this story

shows that slavery was not exclusively a racial matterit was his brothers who sold

Joseph into slavery.

And, as to America, yes, the US Constitution as originally written (notice this

important qualifier) kept slavery in place. But pay attention to two important clauses.

The first is the so-called Three-Fifths Clause. It reads,

1Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several

States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective

Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of freePersons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding

Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.

Notice what this does not say. It does not say that slaves were three-fifths of a person, or

only had three-fifth of the rights of a white. It says that for purposes of allocating the seat

in Congress, they would be counted fractionally.

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ADD MOMENT: Do you know how St. Patrick ended up in Ireland? When he was 16,

pirates kidnapped him and sold him as a slave to the Irish.


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Glenn Beck explains:

Idiots point to this as proof that the Founders were racist Klansmen who wore

powdered wigs instead of white sheetsbut nothing could be further from the

truth. This whole section deals with counting Americans (a census) for the

purposes of representation. It does not deal with placing value on human life

Many of the Founders actually wanted to eliminate slavery, but knew theycouldnt push for it right away and still keep the Union together.

Glenn continues:

Idiots who argue with our Founders compromise have no concept of howimportant this nation was, and still is. But our Founders knew. They had such a

clear understanding of what they were creating that it would be better to

establish and imperfect Union than risk having the great American experimentfail before it ever got started. (Arguing With Idiots, 270-272)

The second clause that needs discussing is found in Article 1, Section 9. In the

historical debate on slavery, it has been universally ignored:

1The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existingshall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the

Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on

such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person.

In plain English, what that says is that importing slaves would be legal in the United

States until 1808, then Congress could outlaw it.

Do you understand what that means? The US Constitution is not strictly an

abolitionist document; it clearly allowed for slavery. But because of this clause, it is also

not strictly a pro-slavery document.

What this means is that the US Constitution is a transitional document, from

slavery to abolition.

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ADD MOMENT: Since this incremental and long-term approach the same strategy the

Progressives use, isnt this and example of the pot calling the kettle black?


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Although the document is not perfect, it was heading in the right direction.

Which brings us to the third point: the Thirteenth Amendment:

1Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for

crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within theUnited States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate

legislation.

There it is. Here and now in 21st Century America, slavery is illegal. Regardless

of what happened in the past, the Constitution as presently constituted has buried the

issue. Since section two empowers Congress to enforce this amendment, we get the Civil

Rights legislation which has perfected this amendment and the process.

This is not to say that all racial problems have been solved. But the slavery

question is a dead issue, and has become a rhetorical Red Herring.

This is one of the reasons why America is great: she has an ability to change for

the better.

One Parting Though: If America is so bad, why do we give so much away in both

coerced foreign aid and freewill charity?

TO DO:

1. Get a journal and write down your thoughts and feelings about America.

2. Talk with your grandparents about what life was like when they were young.

3. Research your family history. Who was your first ancestor to come to America?

4. Visit a military graveyard.

5. Send a letter of thanks to a serviceman.

6. Fly the flag.

7. Read a patriotic book.

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8. Review the words of the Pledge of Allegiance and the Americans Creed.

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FOR MORE INFO: Read Glenns first bookReal America Chapter 1 The Real

Americans and the Real America, and Chapter 11 The Flame That Burns in the

Real America Like Glenn, we all have our own Mt. Vernons, and then read

Glenn Becks Common Sense, Chapter I: The Reshaping and Redefining of

America, andArguing With Idiots, Chapters 10: US Presidents and Chapter

12: The US Constitution.


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CHAPTER 2. I believe in God and He is the Center of my Life.

God The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards

the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained.

from George Washingtons first Inaugural address.

I

America began with God in mind.

These lines from the Declaration of Independence make this clear:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that theyare endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these

are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

This, of course, is not to say that we are a theocracy. The Founders did not intend

thatthe First Amendment guarantees that, and we all understand that. What it does

mean, however, is our rights and our human dignity come from God.

Theres an old saying to the affect that we should never discuss God and Politics.

Yet our country was founded on a fusion of both of those ideas.

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I think we all understand the necessityhowever unpleasant it isof politics and

having a social order. But why is God so crucial to understanding America?

The philosopher Peter Kreeft observed:

The question of whether God really exists is obviously one of the most

interesting and important questions in the world for most people, especially formost philosophers. For Gods existence or nonexistence makes a difference to

everything, since God means the creator and designer and therefore the

ultimate explanation for everything. (The Philosophy of Tolkien: The worldviewbehind The Lord of the Rings, 50)

Think about that for a moment: If God does not exist, then Jews can enjoy pork

chops, Mormons can have a snort of brandy and a fine cigar, and Catholics can live it up

during Lenta year-round Carnival!

The belief or disbelief in God makes all the difference in our behavior.

It also makes all the difference in our politics as well.

The Declaration of Independence continues:

That to secure these rights [i.e. life, liberty, and property], Governments are

instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of thegoverned.

So the type of government we have reflects the religious climate and temper of the

people. For example, most Americans believe in God, and that humans are created in

Gods image, with a divine spark, or soul. Consequently, we have laws against murder,

rape, cruel and unusual punishment, and also laws to protect against fraud, robbery,

perjury, and laws to protect gun ownership.

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ADD MOMENT: That reference to fusion was not a subliminal message to subscribe

to Glenns newsletter. Honest!


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Contrast that with the Soviet Union. Its political climate was shaped by the

Communist Manifesto, which has such gems as:

Law, morality, religion, are to him so many bourgeois prejudices, behind

which lurk in ambush just as many bourgeois interests. The theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence:

Abolition of private property.

In depicting the most general phases of the development of the proletariat, we

traced the more or less veiled civil war, raging within existing society, up to the

point where that war breaks out into open revolution, and where the violentoverthrow of the bourgeoisie lays the foundation for the sway of the

proletariat.

It has been objected that upon the abolition of private property, all work will

cease, and universal laziness will overtake us.

The bourgeois family will vanish as a matter of course when its complementvanishes, and both will vanish with the vanishing of capital.

The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare

that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing socialconditions.

Can you feel the two systems different temperaments? The Communist system is about

empowering government and uprooting all things, ultimately to turn the world upside-

down. The American system is about protecting people from abusive government.

And the key difference between the two systems is how they look at God.

After all, when God is dead, something must fill the vacuum.

Usually the vacuum is filled by human ego and folly.

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ADD MOMENT: Go to your local welfare office and see if this is not true.

ADD MOMENT: Family Values, Stalin-style.


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II

From Glenn:

I remember standing in front of the statue of Abraham Lincoln years ago I

looked at him sitting in his chair, and I cried. Now, what did I know of Lincoln Iknew that he freed the slaves, but I was an eighteen-year-old kid from Seattle who

grew up disconnected from race riots or white-only water fountains. I didnt cryfor Abraham Lincoln, or the Civil War, or eve for the men fighting for either

side.

I cried for what I can only describe as an unrequited love for an America that is

always just out of reach.

We know its there. Its the passion for perfection, a perfection that we all keepstriving for. Americans have never given up. Never. We have never said, This

America is good enough, and we never will.

Thats the Real America. And I think youre reading this book because you

believe that you can help bring it back. (The Real America, 30-31)

III

Bill OReilly divided the modern world into two ideological camps, the

Traditionalists and the Secular-Progressives.

Glen has discussed the dangers of the Progressivisms at length. Glenn Becks

Common Sense andArguing With Idiots have key chapters dealing with Progressivism.

Read them. Memorize them.

But the secular aspect is the more troubling part of the equation. Simply put, we

have too many lesson of history to fool ourselves into thinking was can succeed as a

nation and as individuals without God.

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ADD MOMENT: OK, you dont have to memorize thembut read them several

times, so you can be coherent when you talk politics at the water cooler.


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In fact, secularism is necessarily part of progressivism because progressivism is

really just a code word for people wanting to play God.

And because of this secularism, untimely it is doomed to fail.

Peter Kreeft explained it this wayand his term modernist is equivalent to

progressivist:

The essence of modernity is the death of the spiritual. A modernist is someonewho is more concerned about air pollution than soul pollution. A modernist is

someone who wants clean air so he can breathe dirty words.

A modernist care about big things, like whales, more than small things, likefetuses; big things like governments, more than small things like families and

neighborhoods; big things like states, which last hundred of years, more thanlittle things like souls, which last forever.

Thus a modernist is one who puts his faith and hope for progress in precisely

the one thing that cannot progress: matter. (Kreeft, C. S. Lewis fro the ThirdMillenium, 54)

Secularism, which is essentially materialism(not materialism as being greedy for

gold and such, but the idea that the universe and people are just an accidental

collocations of atoms, a cosmic hiccup)has no power to progress. That is the secret

and the essential flawsecular Progressivism cannot progress. The whole movement is

an oxymoron.

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ADD MOMENT: Oxymoron: It is not an anti-zit cream and it is not a dumb draft animal,

but a self contradictory phrase, like a round square, wet fire, customer service at the IRS

you get the idea.


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So God is essential. Included with this is service to God and service to others. As

I wrote earlier, America is not a theocracy. There is no top-down official creed, or iron-

clad dogma we are coerced into believing. However, there is a general spiritual climate

present in America.

Benjamin Franklin summed up the American religious outlook in six points:

1. 1That there is one God, who made all things.

2. That he governs the world by his providence.

3. That he ought to be worshiped by adoration, prayer, and thanksgiving.

4. But that the most acceptable service of God is doing good to man.

5. That the soul is immortal.

6. And that God will certainly reward virtue and punish vice either here orhereafter.

There is power in these beliefs. There is power in faith. At a critical time during the

Constitutional Convention, this same Benjamin Franklin gave a moving speech:

Sir

The small progress we have made after four or five weeks close attendance &continual reasonings with each otherour different sentiments on almost every

question, several of the last producing as many noes as ays is methinks a

melancholy proof of the imperfection of the Human Understanding. We indeedseem to feel our own want of political wisdom, since we have been running about

in search of it. We have gone back to ancient history for models of government,

and examined the different forms of those Republics which having been formedwith the seeds of their own dissolution now no longer exist. And we have viewed

Modern States all round Europe, but find none of their Constitutions suitable to

our circumstances.

In this situation of this Assembly groping as it were in the dark to find politicaltruth, and scarce able to distinguish it when to us, how has it happened, Sir, that

we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of lights to

illuminate our understandings? In the beginning of the contest with Great Britain,

when we were sensible of danger we had daily prayer in this room for the Divine

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Protection. Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. Allof us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of

a Superintending providence in our favor. To that kind providence we owe this

happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future

national felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? Or do we

imagine that we no longer need His assistance.

I have lived, Sir, a long time and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I

see of this truththat God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot

fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can risewithout his aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings that except the

Lord build they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this; and I also

believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political buildingno better than the Builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our little partial

local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall be

become a reproach and a byword down to future age. And what is worse,

mankind may hereafter this unfortunate instance, despair of establishingGovernments by Human Wisdom, and leave it to chance, war, and conquest.

I therefore beg leave to movethat henceforth prayers imploring the assistance

of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly everymorning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the Clergy of this

City be requested to officiate in that service.

We cannot do it without God. We cannot win without prayer. We cannot succeed

without each other.

*

POSTSCRIPT:

Yes, religion and politics are sensitive issues. When they get mixed, they become

explosive issues. Yet, knowing full well that I am playing with dynamite, I make this

humble invitation:

To the Atheist, the Agnostic, the Skeptic, and the questionerIf you study the

lives of the saints and the faithfulJoan of Arc, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Joseph Smith,

Thomas Moore, Martin Luther King, Mother Teresayou clearly see that the quest for

God can be quite an adventure. None of these faithful people were mollycoddles. They

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were powerful, dynamic, and heroic. They lived large, and set the example for all people

of faith everywhere.

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TO DO:

1. Pray.

2. Read your faiths holy book.

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ADD MOMENT #1: If you are a victim of secular government education

(i.e. public schools), here is the lowdown:

Joan of Arc: A young girl who led French armies and was burnt at the stake.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Author ofThe Cost of Discipleship and executed by the

Third Reich for conspiring to assassinate Hitler.

Joseph Smith: Colonizer, Mayor, Lieutenant General in the Illinois national

guard, first presidential candidate to ever be assassinated.

Thomas Moore: Subject of the filmA Man for All Seasons, refused to

sanction Henry VIIIs divorces. Executed by beheading.

Martin Luther King: Leader of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s,

assassinated.

Mother Teresa: If you dont know who she is, this book is probably boring

you silly!

ADD MOMENT #2: And Jesse Ventura called religious people weak! Id like to see him

go up against Joan of Arc any day!


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3. Attend your congregations meetings.

4. Ask yourself, Why do I believe in God?

5. Peter Kreeft said The question of whether God really exists is obviously one of

the most interesting and important questions in the world. What difference does

God make? Why is it important to know the God exists? That He loves you?

6. Glenn wrote, The application of your faith will change your life. What does this

mean?

7. What is the crucial difference between Hitler and Jesus?

8. What is the relationship between love of God, love of man, and love of self?

9. Write a letter to God.

10. Read Glenns conversion story (The Real America, chapter 10)

a. Why did it take so long for Glenn to change?

b. Why did he do so much reading?

c. What is your conversion story?

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FOR MORE INFO: ReadReal America, Chapter 5 Hitler and Jesus Had One Thing in

Common and Glenn Becks Common Sense, Chapter VI: Is it a Rising or A Setting

Sun?


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CHAPTER 3. I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday.

Honesty I hope that I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what

I consider to be the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.

George Washington

Since honesty is both a 9/12 Principle and a Value, I will discuss it in the values

section. This chapter will focus on the surrounding idea of trying to be a better person

today than we were yesterday.

Benjamin Franklin, in his autobiography, mentions that at a certain point in his

life he wanted to improve himself. In fact he described it as a bold and arduous project

of arriving at moral perfection.

He explained:

I wished to live without committing any fault at any time; I would conquer all

that either natural inclination, custom, or company might lead me into. As I

knew, or thought I knew, what was right and wrong, I did not see why I mightnot always do the one and avoid the other.

That is the measure of a great soul. He saw his personal flaws, was honest about

themthe first of the Twelve Stepsand then decided to do something about it.

He continues:

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ADD MOMENT: Since truth is a unit, there is overlap among the values and principles.

Since truth is infinite, we could not contain all the necessary principles and values in

one book. But we are trying to do the best we can, within our limitations.


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But I soon found I had undertaken a task of more difficulty than I badimagined. While my care was employed in guarding against one fault, I was

often surprised by another; habit took the advantage of inattention; inclination

was sometimes too strong for reason.

I concluded, at length, that the mere speculative conviction that it was ourinterest to be completely virtuous, was not sufficient to prevent our slipping;

and that the contrary habits must be broken, and good ones acquired andestablished, before we can have any dependence on a steady, uniform rectitude

of conduct. For this purpose I therefore contrived the following method.

I think we have all felt that way. We make a list of New Years Resolutions,

and then by the end of the week, we have broken them all.

But notice that Franklin did not get discouraged. He stepped back and then

rethought the process. He went back and studied the subject of personal virtue. Then he

made a list of the specific virtues he wished to have, and then worked at them

He explained:

My intention being to acquire the habitude of all these virtues, I judged it would

be well not to distract my attention by attempting the whole at once, but to fix it

on one of them at a time; and, when I should be master of that, then to proceed to

another, and so on, till I should have gone through the thirteen; and, as theprevious acquisition of some might facilitate the acquisition of certain others, I

arranged them with that view

Notice two things. First, he did not tackle them all at once. Forget the Snake

Eating The Mouse model, where you do everything in one big swallow. You stop, then

break the task down into smaller, more manageable parts, and focus on the small task one

at a time, building up momentum.

He kept track of his progress in a small notebook, the forerunner to a daily

planner. He also had motivational quotes in the notebook. One was a Bible verse:

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Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honour. Her ways are

ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace (Proverbs 3:16-17).

He explained why he included this Bible verse:

And conceiving God to be the fountain of wisdom, I thought it right and

necessary to solicit his assistance for obtaining it; to this end I formed thefollowing little prayer, which was prefixed to my tables of examination, for daily

use.

O powerful Goodness! bountiful Father! merciful Guide! increase in me that

wisdom which discovers my truest interest! strengthen my resolutions to perform

what that wisdom dictates. Accept my kind offices to thy other children as the

only return in my power for thy continual favors to me.

This brings us to the second point: as we focus on these 9/12 Principles and

Values, we must do what Franklin did. We must use the them as stepping stones, going

from one to the next. Principle 2 is about making God the center of our lives. This sets

the groundwork for the rest of the principles.

Like Franklin, we include prayer as we move from principle to principle, from

value to value. Dont do it all in one bite, or in a week-long cram course. Focus on the

value a week at time, or a month at a time. There are 21 values and principlescome up

with some system of learning the principles and values, practicing the values, and being a

principled person.

Franklin concluded:

I entered upon the execution of this plan for self-examination, and continued it

with occasional intermissions for some time. I was surprised to find myself somuch fuller of faults than I had imagined; but I had the satisfaction of seeing

them diminish. After a while I went through one course only in a year, and

afterward only one in several years, till at length I omitted them entirely, beingemployed in voyages and business abroad, with a multiplicity of affairs that

interfered; but I always carried my little book with me.

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Franklin admitted that he was never perfect with the process. Some of the stuff was

beyond his reach. But the fact remains that he at least tired. And he was certainly heading

in the right direction.

And that is key: at least we are working the in the right direction.

TO DO:

1. Think of a person you admire. Why do you admire this person?

2. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? What are you

doing to make that change?

3. Ask your spouse to make two listsone of 5 things you do well, and the other

with 5 things that you could improve on. Set goals for self-improvement.

4. That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do; not that the nature of

the thing itself is changed, but that our power to do is increased. How could this

saying change your life?

5. A year from now, you will be a year older. Will you be the same person, a worse

person, or a better person? And ten years from now, you will be ten years old, but

what type of person will you be?

6. What type of person does God want you to be?

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FOR MORE INFO:An Inconvenient Book, Chapter 5: Blind Dating: Playing the

Powerball of Love touches kinda-sorta on this topic. And Chapter 16: How to

Remember names by Glenn something or other deals with personal improvement.

But definitely readArguing With Idiots, Chapter 7: The Nanny State. If

government is making all of the choices for us, we are like perpetual tweenagers

well-fed, well-clothed, well-housed, and well-caged. There is no growth where

there is no choice.


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CHAPTER 4. The family is sacred. My spouse and I are the ultimate authority,

not the government.

Marriage/Family It is in the love of ones family only that heartfelt happiness is known.

By a law of our nature, we cannot be happy without the endearing connections of a

family.

Thomas Jefferson

Let me begin with several ideas:

1. The family is biologically obvious.

2. The family is psychologically obvious.

3. Marriage is both a sacrament and covenant.

4. Its about power.

5. Its about education: You control the future by controlling the present.

First, the family is biologically obvious.

Although I dont endorse all of his philosophy (such as slavery), Aristotle

correctly observed that the family was the basic social unit. Stop and think about that.

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You have a man and a woman who fall in love. Then by the natural biological process,

they bring children into the world.

It does not get more complex than that. Nature and natures God intended families

to be formed and children to come into the world by these families. The importance of

families and children is hardwired into the Cosmos.

Second, the family is psychologically obvious. In addition to our biologies, we

also have a psychologya psyche, a soulwith specific needs and drives. The family

a husband and wife with childrenis suited for family life.

No matter how loving, how committed, and how charitable other people are, no

one can replace the love that a parent has for the child. In the early years the mother

nurtures the children. She is the guardian angel over the precious souls God has placed on

earth.

Later on, the father initiates the children about the peril and the promise of the

world outside the home. Not only is he the dragonslayer, he is also the sage and priest

that initiates the children into the mysteries of work, responsibility, and standing up for

what is right.

Together, the angel mother and the dragonslayer father prepare the next

generation to take on the world. Both are needed for the healthy development of children.

Third, marriage is both a sacrament and covenant.

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ADD MOMENT: Can you telecommute breastfeeding? Do you really want a

government bureaucrat to be a wet-nurse?


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We talk a lot about God in this book. Since He is infinite and eternal, He

influence affects (and effects) all aspects of our lives. He is interested in who we are. He

is also interested in whom we marry, how we marry, and what we do in marriage, and

especially how we treat our children in marriage.

That is why marriage is not just a civil ceremony, a short-term partnership

between two (hopefully sober) consenting adults. Because each soul is precious and has a

spark of divinity in it, marriage must be a sacrament and a covenant. God must be the

mediator, and at times the atoner, of marriage. We need His grace to succeed as partners

and we need His grace to succeed as parents.

In The Real America, Glenn wrote:

In the Real America your home is the center of your universe and the center ofyour home is the dinner table, the most important piece of furniture you have. It

doesnt have to be fancyit just has to be comfortable, so that everybody likes to

be in that room and around the table. (The Real America, 3)

He also compared the home to a temple, and said, the most sacred place on earth is your

home.

And he is right to use such powerful religious language. There is a spiritual, even

a divine aspect to marriage and raising a family. In addition to being a dragonslayer and a

angel mother, the parents are also priest and priestessand for a very good reason. The

only way we can succeed as parents in this twisted-up world of ours is to daily come

before the Altar of God, within the walls temple-home, and to confess our sins, sacrifice

our pride, and atone ourselves to God, to our spouse, and to our children.

Then, and only, then, can we save America.

Fourth, its about power.

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The Communist Manifesto has these lines:

Abolition of the family! Even the most radical flare up at this infamous proposal

of the Communists.

On what foundation is the present family, the bourgeois family, based? Oncapital, on private gain. In its completely developed form, this family exists only

among the bourgeoisie. But this state of things finds its complement in thepractical absence of the family among proletarians, and in public prostitution.

The bourgeois family will vanish as a matter of course when its complementvanishes, and both will vanish with the vanishing of capital.

Radicals want to abolish the family.

Reread those paragraphs several times to let it sink in. The radicalsbe they

communist, fascist, neo-whatevers, enviro-whichevers, or what-have-yousee the family

solely in economics terms. They see men as exploiters, women as prostitutes, and

children as indentured farm hands.

Yes, there is an economic component to marriage: Dave Ramey, the personal

finance specialist on theFox Business Channelcan tell you that. But Marx and Engles

did not mention love.

Love is a real thing between a man and a woman.

Husbands indeed do love their wives; wives truly their love husbands; and parents

infinitely love their children. To say that all families are loveless, with each member

seeking to stab each other in the back or to take advantage of each other is a gross

generalization, inaccurate, and ludicrous.

Of course not all families are perfect. But just because a family is imperfect or has

disobedient children does not mean we should throw the baby out with the bathwater, so

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to speak. And certainly because there are serious problems with some families doe not

mean we should turn to the government to solve everyones problems.

Wrote Glenn, Our Founding Fathers had this down: The solution lies in the

home, in the heartland, with the peoplenot with the people in Washington. (The Real

America, 105)

In the firstFederalist Paper, Alexander Hamilton warned that

A dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the

rights of the people than under the forbidding appearance of zeal for the firmness

and efficiency of government. History will teach us that the former has beenfound a much more certain road to the introduction of despotism than the latter

(Federalist, 1)

In plain English, what Hamilton said was that when people pontificate about standing up

for the rights of The Little Guy, beware. Their concern for The Little Guy tends to lead

to despotism.

In our day, not only is it a concern for non-existent constitutional rights, but also a

concern for compassion. If something is done in the name of compassion, for the

children, for the common good or in the name of both human a Christian decency,

beware. Gilded cages and golden handcuffs are on their way.

Just because something is a good idea doe not mean that we should make it

national policy. Neighbors helped neighbors raise barns, dig wells, paint houses, long

before the Welfare State came into being.

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ADD MOMENT: Imagine if getting a marriage license was like registering for a gun.

ReadArguing With Idiots, page 48 on New York gun registration laws. It could

happen.


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As Thomas Paine observed, we should not confuse government with society:

1Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or

no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have

different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by

wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting ouraffections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages

intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last apunisher. Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state

is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one. (cited in Glenn

Becks Common Sense, 117-118)

By surrendering power to politicians and bureaucrats to make us more charitable,

we may be replacing a smaller problem with a bigger problem. That is why the Founders

limited government.

The Bill of Rights is not a list of rights that government give us, rather it is a

means to limit the abuse of power by specifically listing the powers that government has

and what rights people retain. The Bill of Rights is not about limiting people, but about

limiting government.

The preamble to the Bill of Rights says:

TheConventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting

the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuseof its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added.

Restrictive clauses.

Prevent misconstruction or abuse of power.

The Bill of Rights itself codifies these ideas:

19th Amendment: The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall notbe construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

10th Amendment: The powers not delegated to the United States by theConstitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States

respectively, or to the people.

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That is what it is aboutpreventing misconstruction and abuse of government

powers. Think of what the family would be like if government micromanaged families.

You spend all day at the Post Office, at the DMV, dealing with the IRS, then you come

home and get the same thing. You would report to meddling social workers, be open to

inspections, and treated as if you were a parolee.

The

point is that

government

cannot help families; it can only hurt families. Look what government welfare has done

to black families in the ghetto.

Fifth, its about education: You control the future by controlling the present.

In Common Sense book, Glenn has this paragraph:

You try to tune out the bickering [of the television pundits] by watching an

entertainment showbut there are times when youre uncomfortable watching

them with your kids. Youre not a prude, but you happen to think that a three-year-old shouldnt be watching shows that treat sex lightly and mock mothers

and fathers. But what can you do? The other shows are worse. (Glenn BecksCommon Sense, 4)

Im glad Glenn wrote this. We should be concerned about how Hollywoods

attitudes to the 9/12 Principles and Values are influencing your children. We should be

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ADD MOMENT: ReadArguing With Idiots, pages 292-293 for Glenns take on these

two amendments.

ADD MOMENT: Ive never been a parolee, so Im only guessing here.


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concerned when our children are taught to hate their country and to hate their families.

We should be concerned when we wee shows where our boys are being marginalized, our

daughters are being pornified, and the population as a whole is being idiotized.

We must reassert the Castle Doctrine. We must take charge of thing.

Since we do not have an Orwellian Department of Family Oversight, the next best

thing the statist can do is control children by co-opting a pre-exiting government

institution: public schools.

Keep in mind that item 10 on the to-do list in the Communist Manifest was Free

education for all children in public schools.

Why? Control. You control the future by controlling the preset. You control the

future by controlling children.

Glenn has touched upon the importance of families, family issues, and education

many times.

The Real America:

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ADD MOMENT: The Castle Doctrine is a legal principle that codified the old saying

that a mans home is his castle. Dad, you are the King; Mom, you are the Queen; and

your children are royalty.

ADD MOMENT: If Lex Luthor and Dr. Doom hired me to control the world, I would do

it by controlling four thin things1. breakfast cereal, 2. cartoons, 3. video games, 4. toys

then wait for the brainwashed children to grow up.


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Chapter 1 The Real Americans and the Real America

Chapter 11 The Flame That Burns in the Real America

An Inconvenient Book:

Chapter 2. Marriage, Porn, Adultery, and Divorce: The Circle of Life.

Chapter 5. Blind-Dating: Playing the Powerball of Love.

Chapter 8. Education Through Indoctrination.

Chapter 14. Child Molesters: A Fiery Solution.

Chapter 18. Aging: Gods system of Depreciation.

Chapter 21. Parenting: The Case for Abstinence.

Glenn Becks Common Sense:

Chapter I: The Reshaping and Redefining of America.

Chapter V: The Cancer of Progressivism.

Arguing With Idiots

Chapter 3. Education: Readin, Writin, and Futility.

Chapter 7. The Nanny state: Saving You from Yourself, On Right at a Time.

Chapter 8. Owning a Home: Waking Up from the American Dream.

As you can tell, the family is assaulted on so many sides, both culturally and

politically. On top of that, our own mortal shortcomings can be used against us. But

governmentwhich is made up of men and woman as fallible as we arecannot save us

from ourselves. When they try to do it, they exacerbate the problem.

But it gets worse than that.

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Glenn has spoke about two quotes that highlight the dangers of radicalized

education.

The first is from Woodrow Wilson: Our problem is not merely to help the

students to adjust themselves to world life. Our problem is to make them as unlike their

fathers as we can (Arguing With Idiots, 70).

The second is from Al Gore, and is a paraphrase: Look, theres a lot of things

you understand instinctively but you parents dont understand because theyre too

trapped in old thinking (Glenn Becks Common Sense, 70).

Pause for a moment and let those quotes sink in.

Then pause for amount at think about what they mean.

On one side you have the Traditionalists. By Traditionalists, I do not mean people

who submit to the democracy of the dead, or blindly follow things because thats they

way we have always done them, so dont rock the boat. By tradition, I mean people who

follow things that have worked, that have withstood the test of time. In this sense, it may

be better to refer to them as Experientialists. Correct tradition endures because it is based

upon successful experience.

On the other hand, you have the Secular-Progressives. Remember how secularism

is essentially materialism, and how matter alone cannot progress. We need Gods spark to

make things operate. Also consider how, if God is gone, something needs to fill the

vacuum. What fills the vacuum is human vanity and the State. Mark Levins book

Liberty or Tyranny contains an excellent analysis of the evils of this statism.

Now put all of this together with the 9/12 Principles and Values. The radicals and

statists are trying to overturn the correct traditions, which were based on experience, that

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have kept this country together. They replace them with new-fangled schemes an pop

psychology.

They do this by controlling education. Education is the means by which children

are acculturated, and way that the mores and values and principles of a country are passed

on. As they make clear, they want to jettison these traditional values and principles, and

overwrite there own untied system upon reality.

It wont work. It never has. Read C. S. Lewiss books The Abolition of Man and

That Hideous Strength, to see why.

So why are we concerned?

The reason why we are so intent on stopping this is because of the damage that

can be done in the process. It is one thing for FDR to have the AAA slaughter and bury

pigs while millions of Americans were starving. We can deal with hunger with Victory

Gardens.

But what happens to a human soul as we let the politicians and bureaucrats

impose untested and harebrained schemes on our children?

We must assert control over our own children.

Even if we do not formally home-school our children, we must be teachers in the

home.

Even if we do not give our children formal religious education, we should at least

take them to Sunday School, and read the Scriptures to them.

We may not be able to do everything, but we must do something to raise our

children in the right.

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Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart

from it. (Proverbs 22:6)

TO DO:

1. Tell your family that you love them.

2. What do you like about your family? What would you change?

3. If you could make one change in your family, what would it be? Then make that

change.

4. How does an out-of-control government hurt families?

5. Glenn compared the home to a temple. What is a temple, and how is a home like a

temple?

6. Why is the homes dinner table so important?

7. Write the birthdays of your wife and children on a calendar.

8. Each year Glenn Beck does a Post-Valentines Day Recovery Show. Make this

next Valentines Day different somehow. Do the same for your wedding

anniversary?

9. If you grew up in a dysfunctional family, you learned survival skills to stay alive.

In your new family, what new survival skills do you need to learn? What skills do

you need to unlearn?

10. On page 8, in The Real America, Glenn spoke about the culture-clash between

Leave It To Beaverand The Sopranos. He said, talking about a hypothetical

encounter between the Cleavers and the Sopranos, that the clash would not have

destroyed the fabric of the Cleaver family life [b]ecause the Cleavers wouldnt

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have embraced it. In fact, they wouldnt have tolerated it and they wouldnt have

watched the program. What made the Cleaver family so strong?

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FOR MORE INFO: Read all the chapters I referenced earlier, and then think. Think

about your own family, your own Mt. Vernon. If your life was a rusted scrapheap,

then imagine the life you wished you had, the family you wished you had, and then

work at becoming that ideal family.


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CHAPTER 5. If you break the law you pay the penalty.

Justice is blind and no one is above it.

Justice I deem one of the essential principles of our government equal and exact

justice to all men of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political.

Thomas Jefferson.

Since justice and mercy, crime and punishment are deep subjects, let me begin

with two simple questions.

First, have you ever fallen down?

Second, have you ever flown in an airplane?

Heres the connection: We have two universal laws, one is the principle of gravity

and the other is the principles of aerodynamic lift. One is a downward force; the other is

an upward force. Both are valid principles. Both operate within their spheres of influence.

And both function simultaneously, even though they are opposite principles.

Justice and Mercy function the same way. Although they seem to be opposites,

they both can (and must) work together.

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So what is Justice? It is giving each man what it legitimately due him. It involves

actions and consequences. It involves compliance with law and moral principles, such as

the 9/12 Principles and Values.

So what is Mercy? This is a bit more complex. Sometimes to be merciful involves

minimizing punishment. Sometimes it is involves withholding punishment. So it seems

that Mercy is something that is at odds with Justice, the same way that the principle of lift

is at odds with gravity.

The problem is to understand how both Justice and Mercy interact. We know this

is possible because, after all, we know that opposite principles can function. In other

words, Justice and Mercy can interact because we know that airplanes can fly.

The Roman Catholic philosopher Thomas Aquinas made two key statements

about Justice and Mercy. He was talking in a religious context, but the under-girding

principles apply to secular situationssuch as with crime and punishment.

Said he:

Now the work of divine justice always presupposes the work of mercy; and is

founded thereupon (ST I-I.21.4)

In plain English, the first quote says that Justice always presupposes Mercy. That is,

Justice and Mercy are two sides of the same coin. Think about flying. As you fly (the

Mercy), you can walk around the cabin, and still have to have your seatbelt on when

sitting (the Justice). Mercy can exist and even flourish, but she does not cancel out

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ADD MOMENT: What Im saying is this: if you can fall down, and if airplanes can fly,

then we can balance Mercy and Justice.


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Justice. While flying (Mercy, you can still fall down inside of the plane (Justice). Both

are in effect, with different effects.

The second quote from Aquinas explains this last idea:

God acts mercifully, not indeed by going against His justice, but by doing

something more than justice; thus a man who pays another two hundred pieces ofmoney, though owing him only one hundred, does nothing against justice, but

acts liberally or mercifully. (ST I-I.21.3)

I love how he resolved the dilemma between Mercy and Justice. He said that

Mercy does not rob Justice, but it both compliments Justice and goes beyond Justice.

And his analogy is rather commonplace: Justice is paying a bill, and Mercy is

leaving the tip.

Some people pay the bill and leave a tip. Some pay a bill and leave no tip. Some

want to leave a tip and forget the billthat is, just leave 15%, when they owe 100% plus

the 15%. Some people want to eat the meal, and not pay either the bill or the tip.

Aquinass view, I think, is the correct approach to Mercy and Justice, and also to

Crime and Punishment. Crime must be punished, but we need to figure out how we can

go beyond mere Justice and involve Mercyall the while leaving Justice intact.

This is key. It is so easy, in the name of Mercy, to deny Justice or to shortchange

him. Parents do not discipline their children, claiming to be merciful, when all they are

doing is enabling a future criminal.

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ADD MOMENT: If you have ever eaten at a restaurant, paid the bill, and left a tip, then

you understand how Justice and Mercy both work and interact.


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This is the problem with the criminal system. We have been focusing on Mercy

to the point where were are excluding Justice. As Rush Limbaugh says, compassion is

no substitute for justice.

It may be due to Victor Hugos novel (and the later musical)Les Misrables. Jean

Valjean steals a loaf of bread to feed his family. He is caught, imprisoned, and tries to

escape several times. Finally release, he steals the candlesticks from the Bishop. The

Bishop forgives him, and then he has a change of heart, and spends the remainder of his

days doing good, helping out Fantine and Cosette, and being an upstanding citizen.

Thats a great message about human redemption. And if all prisoners were

potential Jean Valjeans, this world would be heaven on earth.

But the stern fact is that not all of our prisoners are like Jean Valjean.

Furthermore, 21st Century prisons are not the Bastille, the GULAG, and Andersonville.

They have weight rooms, medical care (including sex-change hormone therapy), cable

television, three square meals a day, with special diets to accommodate peoples religious

preferences. They even have laundry-mats, and we pay prisoners to make license plates!

Love can blind us. We get off track. We justify our so-called mercy by quoting

Shakespeares The Merchant of Venice:

The quality of mercy is not strain'd;It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven

Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:

It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes

The throned monarch better than his crown;

His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,The attribute to awe and majesty,

Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;

But mercy is above this sceptred sway,It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,

It is an attribute to God himself(IV.1.180-191)

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However, we need to put this quote in context. More often then not, people omit two

lines from the quote:

And earthly power doth then show likest God'sWhen mercy seasons justice.

Mercy seasoning Justice. We need to produce lift while taking the law of gravity into

account.

We also overlook Shakespeares other quotes that warn about abusing Mercy:

There is a devilish mercy in the judge (Measure For Measure, III.i.69)

This would make mercy swear and play the tyrant. (Measure For Measure,

III.ii.90)

Mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill. (Romeo and Juliet, III.i.169)

Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy. (Timon of Athens, III.v.5)

We can resolve the dilemma between Justice and Mercy by asking a simple

question: is it constructive? The bill must be paid, but do they really deserve a tip?

Maybe they deserver a rather large tip. Maybe we should just send them to the back, and

have them was dishes.

This brings us to Crime and Punishment. Some people deserve the full force of

Justice, without Mercy. Some need both Justice and Mercy. Since we are all imperfect,

and all have room for improvement, Im not sure any needs pure Mercy. But the key

question we must ask is thisis the punishment constructive.

A WORD ABOUT CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT:

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First, by definition, all punishment must be cruel and unusual, or else it would not

be punishment.

Second, when people mention that death by lethal injection is cruel and unusual,

mention that Elizabeth Smart said that she was raped 3 or 4 times each day while

kidnapped. Or, over the period of 9 months, that coms to about 1,000 times. Which is

cruel or unusualthat, or a small one-second needleprick?

Third, the Constitutional provision against cruel and unusual punishment referred

not to the death penaltythe Fifth Amendment allows for death penalty after due process

but to death by crucifixion, and the other type of horrors used by the Inquisition.

TO DO:

Answer these questions in a personal journal:

1. What is Justice? Why is it important?

2. What is Mercy? Why is it important?

3. How do Justice and Mercy work together?

4. Review the examples used in this chapterfalling down, flying, paying the bill

and leaving a tip. Form your own analogies.

5. Mercy cannot rob justice. Why?

6. If a child misbehaves, and we, in the name of mercy, do not punish him, what

happens to the child in the long run? How does this apply to hard-core criminals?

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FOR MORE INFO:Real America, Chapter 6 The Enemy Within, Chapter 8

Tolerance. Glenn Becks Common Sense, Chapter 1: The Reshaping and

Redefining of America, An Inconvenient Book, Chapter 13: Gratuities: Ive

reached my tipping Point has Glenns philosophy of tipping.


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CHAPTER 6. I have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness,

but there is no guarantee of equal results.

Life, Liberty, & The Pursuit of Happiness Everyone has a natural right to choose that

vocation in life which he thinks most likely to give him comfortable subsistence.

Thomas Jefferson

The three most fundamental rights we have are life, liberty, and property. All of

these are necessary for the pursuit of happiness.

No one person has decreed this. There is not one single authority has laid down

the law, so to speak. Rather, it is the conclusion of almost 3,000 years of philosophic

inquiry.

However, there have been giantsintellectual luminarieswho have condensed

and crystallized these three ideas into a compact format. One was John Locke, in his Two

Treatises on Government. His ideas were further distilled by Thomas Jefferson in the

Declaration of Independence. Later, a French economist, by the name of Frederic Bastiat

wrote a pamphlet called The Law, which further refined and explained the ideas.

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Here are the opening paragraphs to the pamphlet:

We hold from God the gift which includes all others. This gift is life physical,

intellectual, and moral life.

But life cannot maintain itself alone. The Creator of life has entrusted us with the

responsibility of preserving, developing, and perfecting it. In order that we may

accomplish this, He has provided us with a collection of marvelous faculties. AndHe has put us in the midst of a variety of natural resources. By the application of

our faculties to these natural resources we convert them into products, and use

them. This process is necessary in order that life may run its appointed course.

Life, faculties, productionin other words, individuality, liberty, property this

is man. And in spite of the cunning of artful political leaders, these three gifts

from God precede all human legislation, and are superior to it.

Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the

contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand thatcaused men to make laws in the first place.

What, then, is law? It is the collective organization of the individual right to

lawful defense.

Each of us has a natural right--from God--to defend his person, his liberty, and

his property. These are the three basic requirements of life, and the preservationof any one of them is completely dependent upon the preservation of the other

two. For what are our faculties but the extension of our individuality? And what

is property but an extension of our faculties?

It does not get better than that. It also does not get more compact that that. It is dense

writing, but that is to be expected when dealing with heavy ideas that plumb the depths of

the human soul and the human condition.

So we have the three rightslife, liberty, and propertyall of which are

necessary for the pursuit of happiness.

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ADD MOMENT: The French are not all bad, despite eating snails. They gave us such

words as laissez-faire, entrepreneur, and souffl.


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Now, note well what the objective is. It is not to make all people equal. It is also

not to make people happy. Rather, the goal is to provide the framework for the pursuit of

happinessthe hunt, the chance, the day-to-day struggle to realize your dream. That is

what is crucial.

Also, notice that there is no promise of equal results. Some people strike it rich early on.

Some people struggle to become successful. Glenn is one of these people. I began

listening to him when he was in Pittsburgh, and it has been wonderful to see him become

so successful.

But he started out small. It started with the bakery in Mt. Vernon. Then he got

into radio. He bounced around, became an alcoholic, and was divorced.

Then things changed. He found a great girl. He cleaned up his act and sobered up,

and then took control of his life, and got religion (Principle 2). We all should study his

model of success.

At the same time, there are plenty of other less successful DJs and talk show

hosts. Sean Hannitys cable news show has been successful; so has Bill OReillys. But

Dr. Lauras and Rush Limbaughs television careers have not been successful.

This is not a bad thing. Failure can be a great teacher. You learn where your

talents are and where your talents are. This allows you to focus on what you do best

(called your comparative advantage), and not waste time doing ineffective things.

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ADD MOMENT: Reread the Parable of the Talents, in Matthew 25:14-30 and the

Parable of the Pounds (i.e. , not # or lbs.), in Luke 19:12-27. God gives

people different talents according to their differing abilities, and people

accordingly have different results. And this is not a bad thing.


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There is also a greater concern. Sometimes it is impossible to make all things

equal. Did You ever see that episode ofThe Twilight Zone where the young girl gets the

facelift, and then she looks just like everyone else (Number 12 Looks Just Like You)?

That is a bland sameness. There is no difference to spice things up.

Also, some things are beyond are capacity to equalize. For example, I have three

friends of mine who have been kidnapped. Do we kidnap everyone to make things fair?

Im allergic to dogs. Do we commit a vast canine genocide so that I have a fair chance as

everyone else? And what would we do about the seeing-eye dogs?

Thomas Sowell calls this the quest for cosmic justice (Justice being Principle

5). We want to make things absolutely fair for everyone. But when we try, we damage

things in the process.

You may have tried this argument on someone. Suppose they got a 95 on a test.

And then suppose he professor said, Look, its unfair you did so well. You have so

many gifts and abilities, and you worked hard. So what Im going to do is take 30 points

off of your grade, and then give to your schlub classmate who was partying hard and got

a 35 on the test. Now you will both have 65, and that will be fair?

Now suppose this is medical school.

You see what I mean when we try to make things fair. It is a case of Mercy

robbing Justice, and people being hurt as we chase mirages.

And people are what matter.

*

A Final Word about competition:

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Implicit with the free-enterprise system and free-markets is the principle of

competition. Do not confuse competition with competitiveness. Competitiveness is a

character flaw. C. S Lewis explained:

Pride is essentially competitive-is competitive by its very nature-while the other

vices are competitive only, so to speak, by accident. Pride gets no pleasure out ofhaving something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that

people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They

are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others. If every oneelse became equally rich, or clever, or good-looking there would be nothing to be

proud about. It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being

above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone. (Mere

Christianity)

Competition, however, is an inherent property in the universe. It exists for several

reasons. One, because there are opposites: up is opposed to down, left is opposed to right,

light is opposed to dark.

Second, competition is assonated with the fact that there are a limited number of

things in the world, with alternative uses. We have a certain umber of cows on the planet,

and so we have a limited quantity of milkdoes the milk go to drinking, or for cheese, or

for cottage cheese, or for cream, or for ice cream, and so forth. These alternative uses,

like left and right, are in competition with each other.

But there is, of necessity, no malice involvedalthough there can be. The malice,

or the pride, or the competitiveness, is incidental to the natural property. It is something

that we, as flawed human beings, bring to the situation.

We can change how competitive (or prideful) we are, but we cannot change this

natural property. It would be like trying to outlaw gravity.

TO DO:

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1. Read the Parable of the Talents in the New Testament. Why does God give

different people different talents? Why did the Master take the one talent from the

slothful (lazy) servant and give it to the one with the most talents? Was this fair?

Was this constructive?

2. Review the analogy of the test and transferring points from a good student to a

bad student. What would this do to the good student? What about the bad student?

Is the bad student really learning, if we inflate the grades?

3. Who is competent enough to judge what is fair and what is unfair?

4. I am allergic to dogs. Is that fair? Or is that something I have to learn to live with

and work around? How could we make things fair for me, without violating the

rights of dog-lovers and harming canines at large?

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FOR MORE INFO: Read The Real America, Chapter 3: Celebrities in America,

especially about immiseration, and Chapter 6, The Enemy Within, An

Inconvenient Book, Chapter 6, The Income Gap: The Rich are Getting Richer,

Good for Them, Chapter 17: Minimum Wage, Maximum Politics, Chapter 22:

Illegal Immigration Glenn Becks Common Sense, Chapter II: Money: The Real

Opiate Of The Masses, andArguing With Idiots, Chapter 5 Unions, Chapter 6:

Illegal Immigration, Chapter 8: Owing A Home, and Chapter 9: Economics

101. Chapter 11: Universal Health Care: Why A Papercut May Soon Be Fatal

deals with misguided equalizationor samenessin healthcare.


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CHAPTER 7. I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to.

Government cannot force me to be charitable.

Charity It is not everyone who asketh that deserveth charity; all however, are

worth of the inquiry or the deserving may suffer. George Washington

I

In one word, this chapter is about control. Specifically, who makes the decisions

about how we use our lives, our liberties, and our property, and who defines happiness.

Do we as free individuals make those decisions, or are they made by faceless bureaucrats

in the Washington DC bunkers?

In The 5,000 Year Leap, Skousen makes the point that the Founders were not so

much concerned about the left-right dichotomy. After all, we need both wings of thought

so that the American Eagle can fly a steady course. Rather, their concern was about the

centralization of power. The diagram he uses is of a three-headed eagle, which you saw

adapted on pages 29-30 ofArguing With Idiots.

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ADD MOMENT: Glenn doesnt make any money off ofThe 5,000 Year Leap. Neither

do I.


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When the Constitutional Convention adjourned, they included a cover letter to

the US Constitution which explained this very principle. It reads:

Sir,

We have now the honor to submit to the consideration of the United States inCongress assembled, that Constitution which has appeared to us the most

advisable.

The friends of our country have long seen and desired, that the power of making

war, peace, and treaties, that of levying money and regulating commerce, and thecorrespondent executive and judicial authorities should be fully and effectually

vested in the general government of the Union: But the impropriety of delegating

such extensive trust to one body of men is evident -- Hence results the necessity of

a different organization.

It is obviously impractical in the federal government of these states, to secure all

rights of independent sovereignty to each, and yet provide for the interest and

safety of all: Individuals entering into society, must give up a share of liberty topreserve the rest. The magnitude of the sacrifice must depend as well on situation

and circumstances, as on the object to be obtained. It is at all times difficult to

draw with precision the line between those rights which must be surrendered, andthose which may be reserved; and on the present occasion this difficulty was

increased by a difference among the several states as to their situation, extent,

habits, and particular interests.

In all our deliberations on this subject we kept steadily in our view, that whichappears to us the greatest interest of every true American, the consolidation of

our Union, in which is involved our prosperity, felicity, safety, perhaps our

national existence. This important consideration, seriously and deeply impressedon our minds, led each state in the Convention to be less rigid on points of

inferior magnitude, than might have been otherwise expected; and thus the

Constitution, which we now present, is the result of a spirit of amity, and of that

mutual deference and concession which the peculiarity of our political situationrendered indispensable.

That it will meet the full and entire approbation of every state is not perhaps to beexpected; but each will doubtless consider that had her interest been aloneconsulted, the consequences might have been particularly disagreeable or

injurious to others; that it is liable to as few exceptions as could reasonably have

been expected, we hope and believe; that it may promote the lasting welfare of

that country so dear to us all, and secure her freedom and happiness, is our mostardent wish.

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With great respect, We have the honor to be, Sir, Your Excellency's most obedientand humble servants,

George Washington, President By unanimous Order of the Convention.

That is the question: How much power do we retain as citizens? What powers do

we delegate to the states, and what powers do we delegate to the federal government?

It is not an easy question to answer. We started with the Continental Congress,

then reorganized under the Articles of Confederation, and then finallythird times the

charmformed a more perfect union with our currant Constitution, with a stronger

centralized government.

However, even the Constitution was not perfect. As I explained in Chapter 4, we

amended the Constitution with the Bill of Rights to reign in the government from being

too centralized. We did not, nor should we, trust government with too much power.

James Madison, wring in the Federalist Papers, said:

The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government

are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are

numerous and indefinite.

The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace,

negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, forthe most part, be connected.

The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, inthe ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the

people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State.

(Federalist 45)

This is not to say that decentralizing power to the states will solve all problems, but given

the current state of affairs, it is a step in the right direction.

II

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I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government

cannot force me to be charitable.

This principle involves two sub-principles: property rights (I work hard for

what I have) and coercive compassion (Government cannot force me to be charitable).

Property rights were explained in the previous chapter. In order for property rights

to be substantive rights, we individuals must be sovereign. The bias must be in favor of

the peoplethe individuals, not government. In socialism, the government has direct

control over property; in the Soviet Union this was done by the commissars. In fascism,

the government has indirect control over property, through government bureaus, and so

forth. Either way, both are forms of statism (or governmentalism), since, when all is said

and done, the government is really calling the shotsregardless of the figureheads.

The second sub-principle, coercive compassion, deserves some explaining.

At its essence, government is force: it is capital force; it is coercive force. That is

why government has police, pepper spray, rifles, tanks, atomic bombs, ballistic

submarines, aircraft carriers, and two divisions of Airborne82nd and 101st. All of these

things exist for one purposeto force people into compliance. Or to kill them, if they fail

to comply.

And in some extreme cases, it goes beyond that. Sometimes government is a false

god.

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ADD MOMENT: Yes, government is about forcejust talk to Udei, Quisei, and Sadam

Hussein.


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The political philosopher Thomas Hobbes (not the tiger) wrote along book on

government calledLeviathan (not the movie with Peter Weller). His idea was that

government should over-awe citizens to keep them in line.

In one telling passage, he wrote about the civil compact people make, for mutual

protection. He then said:

This done, the Multitude so united in one Person, is called aCOMMONWEALTH, in Latin CIVITAS. This is the Generation of that great

LEVIATHAN, or rather (to speak more reverently) of that Mortal God, to which

wee owe under the Immortal God, our peace and defense. For by this Authority,

given him by every particular man in the Common-Wealth, he hath the use of somuch Power and Strength conferred on him, that by terror thereof, he is enabled

to form the wills of them all, to Peace at home, and mutual aid against theirenemies abroad. (Leviathan)

I hope we have this idea clear: Hobbes said that government was to be an object of

power, strength, and terror. It was to frighten people into submission.

And I hope we are clear that he was dead wrong.

You cannot use this forcethis brutal force and terrortransform people into

sweet and loving people.

I used to work with a woman. She was one of those grumpy people whose forever

frown rubbed off onto her coworkers. But here is the question: what type of thumbscrews

could I use on her to make her a more pleasant person? Or what rack or iron maiden

could I put her in to make her smile more? Would putting on a chain gang change her

attitude?

No.

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That is why government-sponsored, government forced coercive compassion

fails. The welfare system has failed. Seventy years of experience, with multiple

generation welfare recipients, prove this.

Keep in mind that we are not advocating anarchy. James Madison affirmed, If

men were angels, no government would be necessary (Federalist51). Alexander

Hamilton wrote, Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of

men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint (Federalist

15). There is a legitimate place and sphere for both the state and the federal government.

Our concern is with the Nanny State.

What is the alternative to the Nanny State? How can we slay the false god of the

Leviathan Government? Simple: the free market.

That is the difference between the two systems: centralized versus localized;

coercive versus persuasive; mandatory versus voluntary. One has people as slaves to the

state and the bureaucrats, the other has a community of freemen, answerable to

themselves and to God.

III

Wrote Glenn:

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ADD MOMENT: Get the terminology down right. The essence of the American system

is not capitalcapitalist being the Marxist term for itbut freedom. Use free market,

free choice, or the free enterprise system. Or the French word, laissez-faire, which,

roughly translated, means Get off our backs!


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Socialism, in many ways, is exactly the way we should live, except I should beable freely to give my money to others. I shouldnt have my money forcibly taken

from me and given to the government, so they can decide what should be done

with it.

In the Real America, we would all make as much money as we could possiblymake, but then wed only take what we need, and wed share the rest of it.

Government cant do that. Only God can do that. Only spirituality can do that.But socialism robs people of choice. And that is why socialism is evil.

Compassion shouldnt come from the government. In the Real America,compassion will come from the heart. (The Real America, 114, 116)

IV

Ronald Reagan:

Communism works only in two places: heaven, where they dont need it, andhell, where theyve already got it.

V

We need to bone-up on Adam Smith.

He is most famous for his long bookWealth of Nations. But before he wrote his

economic treatise, he wrote another book called Theory of Moral Sentiments.

In this second book there is a chapter called Of the corruption of our moral

sentiments, which is occasioned by this disposition to admire the rich and the great, and

to despise o

how to win book-102

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