How Glenn Beck Ruined My Birthday

Tomorrow I will post my goals for the year.  Today is my birthday.  9/12.  Pretty cool date.  As a fraction reducible to ¾.  Late summer but with fall like weather usually.  Pretty joyous occasion for me until Glenn Beck screwed with it.

Not that I ever was a fan of Mr. Beck.  His politics and mine are more than a little different.  Not necessarily polar opposites but definitely not in the same hemisphere.  But when Mr. Beck took my birthday and used it to promote some right wing propaganda, I was more than a little peeved.  For those of you who don’t know, here is the basis for Glenn Beck’s “9-12 Project.”  (absence of a link here is purposeful. I don’t want anyone else to get brainwashed.)

“At the origin of America, our Founding Fathers built this country on 28 powerful principles. These principles were culled from all over the world and from centuries of great thinkers. We have distilled the original 28 down to the 9 basic principles.”

The website lists the 9 Principles, accompanied by quotations from George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. The 9 Principles are:

1. America is good.
2. I believe in God and He is the center of my life.
3. I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday.
4. The family is sacred. My spouse and I are the ultimate authority, not the government.
5. If you break the law you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it.
6. I have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but there is no guarantee of equal results.
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.
8. It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal opinion.
9. The government works for me. I do not answer to them, they answer to me.

The 12 Values are:

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

It’s really hard to argue that any of those are unimportant, but I do have some hang ups:

First of all, the 28 principles are only what Mr. Beck believes were the Founding Fathers values.  Secondly, his 9 principles are clearly to promote his own as well as the Tea Party’s agenda.  Thirdly, why 9 principles and 12 values?  To exploit the deaths of thousands of innocent Americans for one’s own political/financial gain is the only reason I can see.  Unless he really did just want to screw with my birthday. So I’ll be a little passive aggressive; my own rewrites on what he really meant.

1.  “America would be the greatest country in the world if we elected a Tea Party president.”
2.  “I believe in my God the rest of you are wrong.” Or “Jesus loves me but he can’t stand you.”
3. “The liberal media should quit pointing out the lies on Fox News.”
4. “We are afraid of gays.”
5. “Justice is blind but the privileged people can afford laser surgery or glasses.”
6. I have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but Mexicans, gays, liberals, Muslims, poor people, etc. do not.
7. Social Security, medicare, welfare, free health care were designed for the people mentioned in number 6 and they don’t deserve it.
8. I can say whatever I want but liberals better shut the hell up.
9. I don’t have to listen to President Obama.  George Bush told me so.

So, I’ve decided to start my own project.  Just to keep the theme alive I’m thinking of calling it the 2/10 project.  Here you go Mr. Beck:

Two principles

1. All people are created equal.  Not just rich, white, American men who run businesses.
2. We all have a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and so do all humans around the world. Whatever God, god or other supreme being we believe in created us all and didn’t create some to live in poverty, and some to live as captives, and some to never know happiness.

Ten Values

1. Caring
2. Understanding
3. Knowledge
4. Hope
5. Imagination
6. Individualism
7. Fairness
8. Trust
9. Service
10. Charity

Those are the principles and values that I would call my 2/10 project.  By the way, February 10^th; Glenn Beck’s birthday.  Revenge!