WELCOME
Simple and easy are not the same thing,
not by a long shot. I write that now so you
don’t think what I’m about to suggest is
effortless. At the beginning, it may feel
like you and your family are making huge
sacrifices, but I believe so strongly that if you
commit to the process, you’ll wonder how
you ever lived any other way. I’m talking
about clearing away the clutter, both
literally and figuratively from your life,
to pave the way for a simpler and infinitely
more fulfilling exsistence.
I like the story behind the often-
used acronym, KISS: “Keep it simple
stupid.” It was coined by a man named
Kelly Johnson, a lead engineer at the
Lockheed Skunk Works, creators of the
Lockheed U-2 and SR-71 Blackbird spy
planes. The story goes that Johnson
handed a team of design engineers a
handful of tools and mandated that the
jet aircraft they were designing must
be able to be repaired by an average
mechanic in the field under combat
conditions with only those tools. John-
son knew that his engineers were smart
enough to conceive wildly elaborate
means to fix any and all problems,
but he also knew that neither those
engineers, nor their complex solutions,
would be around to fix stuff that broke
at the worst possible time in the worst
possible place. Sometimes we can get
too smart for our own good.
The other example of simplicity
that I love is found in the Shaker dance
song, Simple Gifts:
‘Tis the gift to be simple, ‘tis the
gift to be free,
‘Tis the gift to come down where
we ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the
place just right,
‘Twill be in the valley of love and
delight.
These are two wonderful ideas, but
you know I’m not an aviation engineer
or a Shaker. However, I’m integrating
both approaches in my own attempt
to simplify both my life and that of my
family, and I think you should, too.
Over these last months you’ve
heard me talk about how my family and
I are getting rid of as much of our stuff
as possible. I bet my stuff is just like
your stuff—it gets dusty, probably has
a charger of some kind, and I use it a
lot less than I thought I would when I
bought it. With most of my things, when
02 FUSI ON | ENTERT AINME NT & E NL IGH T E NME N T | JA N U A RY / F E B RU A RY 201 1
I decided to spend the money, it wasn’t
because I wanted the thing. Instead,
I had convinced myself that I needed
the thing. I was wrong. Everywhere my
family and I looked, there were more
“things” than we knew what to do with,
and those were just the things we saw
on an everyday basis. Then there was
all the stuff we kept in our basement.
We had boxes and boxes of even more
things—old things that we had replaced
with the new things that were slowly
taking over our house. There’s noth-
ing wrong with the old things in our
basement—we just replaced them with
new things because we could. Sadly,
acquiring more and more new stuff is
one of the main ways that our society
gauges “success.”
This is where we get jammed up.
Rather than focusing inward to make
ourselves happy and feel success-
ful, we buy stuff that usually doesn’t
get used anyway. (Honestly, when’s
the last time you dug out your bread
making machine?) Instead of drown-
ing in our material possessions, I want
my family and me to escape their pull.
Instead I want to focus on our relation-
ships with one another, our friends,
family, and God. Like with most “ad-
dictions” (and over-consuming material
things can be just as dangerous as any
drug), admitting that we had a problem
was the first step in our recovery. Unlike
what the novelty t-shirt says, I feel that
“He who dies with the most stuff loses.”
In addition to liberating myself from
my iStuff, I also realized that all of our
things could be sold and that money
could be used to help others. I’m for-
tunate that I can afford to use the extra
money in such a way, but the money
Photo Courtesy of George Lange
you have invested in the things clut-
tering your attic and basements and
living rooms (likely thousands of dollars
worth) could be used to get yourself
out of debt or to begin a food storage
program (not just a good idea, a great
idea). Not only is all the excess stuff in
our lives holding us back, but it could
be sold and the proceeds put to better
use helping yourself (and others) move
forward.
So in the end my approach to
simplifying my life is a happy mar-
riage of “Keep it simple stupid” and a
Shaker song. In redesigning my life,
I’m factoring in the tools I’ll need to fix
it right at the beginning. By knowing
that my family, friends and faith will be
what I rely on to get me through the
hard times, I won’t need any old or new
gadgets and knick-knacks to distract
or serve as some kind of retail therapy.
And by using the money made from
selling my old stuff and saved by not
buying new stuff (that’s only destined
to end up as new old stuff), I get to
help others. That feels good. As the
Shaker song says, “And when we find
ourselves in the place just right, Twill be
in the valley of love and delight.” Amen
to that.
Sell what you can, don’t buy what
you can do without, store some food
for yourself, and help others fill their
bellies as well. All good advice to fol-
low and pass along. What could be
simpler than that?
 VOLUME 6 | ISSUE 7
JANUAR Y / FE BRU A RY 2 0 1 1 BY THE NUMBERS
1907 year of the first Times Square ball
EDITORIAL
Editor-in-Chief
Glenn Beck drop in New York City.
Creative Director
Kevin Balfe
Managing Editor
77 number of feet the Times Square ball
Liz Julis descends from December 31 at 11:59pm
to January 1 at 12am.
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

8 percentage of Americans who keep their

Keith Ablow | John Bobey | Rick Bovay
Stu Burguiere | Wilson Garrett | Steven Gore
Tyler Grimm | Stephen McDowell | Greg Pesci New Year’s resolutions past January 20.
Larry Schweikart | Meghan Storm

CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS
29 inches of snow expected to fall in
George Lange | Paul Nunn Barrow, Alaska this winter.

LAYOUT & DESIGN

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J ANUAR Y/ F E BRU A RY 201 1 | E N TE RTA I N M E N T & E N L I G H TE N M E N T | F U S I ON 03

 Between The Headlines:
WATCHING THE HOUSING BUBBLE BURST
Last month, we looked at how the recent financial crisis could be understood through newspaper headlines that ran as
the economic turmoil unfolded. For now, the worst of the financial chaos seems to be at bay. But one sector of the economy
that is still riddled with uncertainty is the same place it all began: housing.
Three years after the Great Recession
started, the housing market is still in tat-
ters. In 2010, banks repossessed a record
number of homes -- over 1.1 million. Not
to mention, there are currently around 5
million homeowners more than 60 days
late in their mortgage payments.
The story of how we got here is now
fairly well known: various governmental
policies instigated an undue amount of
“moral hazard” in the housing sector; this
led to a buying frenzy, including many
mortgages being taken out for homes the
borrowers couldn’t afford. When recipi-
ents of these loans began defaulting, the
institutions that were underwriting them
(directly or indirectly) took a serious hit.
This distress eventually spread through-
out the rest of the economy.
The evidence of government culpability
in the meltdown is undeniable. Notably,
the government sponsored entities (GSEs),
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, operated
in an inordinately risky manner with little
oversight. For these mistakes, taxpayers
were ultimately left footing the bill – cur-
rently around $150 billion and counting.
A look at media coverage before, during,
and since the housing bubble burst pro-
vides valuable insight into the irrational
behavior that was fostered by the federal
government. It also gives context to the
remaining problems in housing that could
be used to steer us toward the clear.
Home Security?
As early as 2002, media outlets, such as
The Economist, were reporting skepticism
04 FUSI ON | ENTERT AINME NT & E NL IGH T E NME N T | JA N U A RY / F E B RU A RY 201 1
By Tyler Grimm
about the exuberance in the housing mar-
ket. In a piece titled,
“Going through the roof,”
the magazine spoke of unusually fast
increases in home prices and observed,
“You might have expected the early
1990s house-price crash to have made
homebuyers wary.” A year later, the
magazine ran another article,
“House of Cards,”
which suggested that the stock market
bubble of the beginning of the decade
had been replaced by a bubble in property
values.
But these and other warning signs were,
by and large, ignored. The early 2000s
engendered a lust for house buying that
was largely ignited by political pressure
to increase home ownership. While
Democrats often get pegged for igniting
this frenzy, Republicans certainly deserve
a healthy portion of the blame.
In a June 2002 speech, George W. Bush
stated, “the single greatest barrier to first
time homeownership is a high down pay-
ment. It is really hard for many, many,
low-income families to make the high
down payment.” In the same speech, he
set the goal of increasing minority home
ownership by at least 5.5 million by 2010.
To this end, he laid out a number of tax
credits and subsidies aimed at helping
Americans buy homes.
To the President’s credit, he did push for
the reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie
Mac well in advance of their collapse.
Nevertheless, his aggressive “affordable
homes” agenda makes him at least com-
plicit in what transpired.
Nothing to See Here
Throughout the decade, there were many
familiar faces assuring the public that Fan
and Fred were fine.
Among them were Peter Orszag, the head
of the White House’s Office of Manage-
ment and Budget for the first 18 months
of President Obama’s administration, and
Joseph Stiglitz, another favorite liberal
economist. In a 2002 report that served
as an audit of the GSEs, the pair conclud-
ed that based on “historical experience,
the risk to the government from a poten-
tial default on GSE debt is effectively
zero.” To further ensure taxpayers, the
paper included the caveat: “Even if the
analysis is off by an order of magnitude,
however, the expected cost to the govern-
ment is still very modest.”
A year later, when some problems were
brought to light, Barney Frank famously
declared that he was not concerned and
wanted to “roll the dice a little bit more
in this situation towards subsidized
housing.” Afterall, the American dream
seemed to be reaching new heights –
home ownership would soon hit an
all-time high of 69 percent.
And the good times seemed to keep
on rolling. A June 2005 cover of Time
magazine featured a cartoon picture of a
man hugging a house with the headline
 “Home Sweet Home:
Why we’re going gaga
over real estate.”
The article gleefully announced, “The
stock market may be dragging, but home
prices are soaring, fueling a national
obsession with real estate. Your house is
now your piggy bank, ATM and 401(k).”
A couple of weeks later, the Discovery
Home Channel began a new series called
Flip That House, a reality show about
people buying houses and then reselling
them at a profit. And what wasn’t to
love? Between 2000 and 2005, home
prices increased by over 30 percent and
40 percent of all new jobs created were
related to the housing sector.
It was also around this time that some in
the mainstream media began questioning
the underlying strength of the property
market.
A mid-2005 headline in New York
Magazine about Fannie Mae asked,
“The Next Enron?”
This sentiment was echoed in other publi-
cations. But those at the helm would hear
nothing of it.
Likewise, Business Week ran a feature
called,
“How Bubbly Is Your
Housing Market?”
in which they predicted, “After one of
the greatest booms in history, housing is
likely to cool off in 2005.” The article
stated that housing prices “won’t collapse
nationally” but that some areas of the
country could experience declines.
It wasn’t until the end of 2005 that in-
disputable trouble in the housing market
began to appear. Many soon realized that
housing prices were not, in fact, going to
increase forever.
The Flip Side
“Home is Where
the Worr y Is”
J ANUAR Y/ F E BRU A RY 201 1 | E N TE RTA I N M E N T & E N L I G H TE N M E N T | F U S I ON
was the title of a mid-2006 Robert
Samuelson column in the Washington
Post. Similar headlines soon began to
pop up in papers across the country. But
a willful ignorance pervaded the housing
industry and no one realized how truly
bad the situation could get.
Some even continued to fan the flames.
An op-ed in The New York Times, dated
March 29, 2007, criticized the notion that
promoting home ownership amongst the
poor was anything but beneficial. The
article was titled,
“‘Irresponsible’
Mortgages Have Opened
Doors to Many of the
Excluded”
and contended that subprime loans were
a marvelous innovation that did not pose
a threat to the economy. That piece was
written by the current chairman of Presi-
dent Obama’s Council of Economic Ad-
visors, Austan Goolsbee, the top advisor
in the White House. Among Goolsbee’s
conclusions: “the mortgage market has
become more perfect, not more irrespon-
sible.”
Soon, all optimism about housing prices
would fade.
In early 2008, banks began receiving
increasing amounts of so-called “jingle
mail,” which is a nickname for envelopes
with keys in them from homeowners who
have simply given up on paying their
mortgages. And in March, Bear Stearns
became the first major victim of the crisis
– its demise blamed almost entirely on
exposure to subprime loans.
By the summer, it was clear that there
was reason to panic. Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac verged on collapse and
had to be taken into “conservatorship”
(a fancy term for nationalized). With
more than $5 trillion in mortgage backed
securities and debt, the government took
the firms from “government sponsored”
institutions to full-fledged government-run
corporations.
Problems proceeded for another year and
in December the Treasury Department
announced that it would give Fannie
and Freddie unlimited support through
at least 2012.
Home Free?
With the recent shift in congressional
power, there is some hope that Fannie
Mae and Freddie Mac could undergo
serious reform – or elimination – but
pressure from special interests makes
this an unlikely prospect.
Furthermore, despite the well-document-
ed failure of the federal government in
the housing sector, they have not given
up. In fact, a new initiative, called the
Home Affordable Modification Program
(HAMP), was a part of the $700 billion
TARP bailout fund. The idea was that
HAMP could allow the federal govern-
ment to subsidize the modification of
mortgages to keep people in their homes.
While on the surface this may seem a
compassionate idea, the reality is that it
is just prolonging the pain.
Neil Barofsky, who is the special attorney
general for TARP, recently declared that
HAMP is failing and the American public
is barely aware. “They say for example
that they’ve helped more than 1.3 million
people through mortgage modifications,
but more than half of those have failed,”
said Barofsky.
The Columbia Journalism Review, a
media watchdog group run by Columbia
University, ran an article titled,
“Press Mostly Misses
the Inspector General’s
HAMP Report,”
which pointed out that HAMP’s serious
problems were not getting their due
attention from the mainstream media.
This is all evidence of the fact that the
housing market is far from stable. Until
Washington realizes that it shouldn’t be
in the business of selling the American
dream, we shouldn’t expect home values
to head too far north anytime soon.
05
 INTRODUCING
A new lifestyle for 2011 and beyond
In November of 2009, Glenn
spent a weekend at The Villages in
Florida, where he announced that he
would be holding an event at the
Lincoln Memorial in Washington,
DC. There he would unveil “The
Plan,” a book that would establish
a hundred year path for America,
leading to a restored nation. But over
2009 and 2010 the idea for the DC
event transformed into a celebration
of Faith, Hope, and Charity. Glenn
argued that in order to restore our
nation, we must turn back to God and
embody the values of our Founders.
On August 28, 2010, at the Re-
storing Honor rally, Glenn recognized
individuals who embodied these values
and spread the message of Faith,
Hope, and Charity to the masses. He
called for Americans to never forget
that one person could change the
06 FUSI ON | ENTERT AINME NT & E NL IGH T E NME N T | JA N U A RY / F E B RU A RY 201 1
world, and that the next George
Washington could be an eight-year-old
child in the crowd. After his inspiring
speech, the crowd went on their way
to take the message back to their com-
munities and that was it, right? Wrong.
Before he had even started his
speech for the Restoring Honor rally,
Glenn was already thinking about what
was next. What comes after this mas-
sive gathering on the Mall?
Inspired by the rally, Glenn started
to develop a new action plan tied to
the message of 8/28. In the same way
that Walt Disney developed a televi-
sion program in order to advertise for
Disneyland, Glenn decided to take his
program and create an advertisement.
But the Glenn Beck Program, both on
radio and TV, would not be an adver-
tisement for a theme park. This new
idea would be an advertisement for the
future of the country. It would be an
advertisement for the great American
experiment and show the world what
America and its citizens could be.
So what is this new plan that Glenn
has envisioned? It’s simply called “e4.”
E4 is a series of connecting ideas,
focused on strengthening the individual
and enabling them to strengthen their
communities. Comprised of 4 “es”
(shocking we know): Enlightenment,
Education, Empowerment, and Entre-
preneurship, each of these separate
ideas builds on the other, leading to a
more simple and honest way of life.
The first concept, ”Enlightenment,”
an idea Glenn has named “e1,” acts as
the overall anchor to the whole theory.
Enlightenment focuses on many of
the ideas and values presented in the
Restoring Honor rally, ideas such as
the importance of Divine Providence as
well as Faith, Hope, and Charity. These
values orient the individual towards
God and provide a spiritual foundation
upon which the individual can build.
For too long, man has been turned
away from God or misinterpreted his
 The American Dream
purpose for the individual and the
country. Rather than follow the “get out
of my way, I’m on a mission from God”
attitude of Manifest Destiny, “Enlighten-
ment” teaches the individual to stand
in the flow of God and to find their path
through Divine Providence.
“Education,” or “e2,” tells the story
of how we, as a nation, got to where
we are today. It’s the story of America
told from all sides, not just the perspec-
tive favorable to whoever might be in
power that day. Education builds upon
the foundation of “Enlightenment” as
the individual gains an understanding
of the Founding principles and a full
understanding of how America came
to exist. Only after fully understanding
the past and developing a connection
to it can the individual live fully in the
present and push forward to develop
a stronger, brighter future.
Once the individual learns the story
of America and her Founding principles,
they can learn about the strength of the
J ANUAR Y/ F E BRU A RY 201 1 | E N TE RTA I N M E N T & E N L I G H TE N M E N T | F U S I ON
individual spirit and become the next
man on the frontier, George Washington
or Martin Luther King Jr.. This phase of
Glenn’s theory is “Empowerment,” or
“e3.”
The crux of “e3” lies in the power of
the individual, their strength of charac-
ter and ability to overcome impossible
odds. Through Empowerment, the
spiritually oriented individual, much like
pioneers of the past, gains personal
strength through an understanding of
Founding principles.
Once the individual becomes
spiritually enlightened, educated, and
empowered, then they can look toward
the future. The fourth and final phase
of Glenn’s new theory, “e4,” sees the
individual going out into their com-
munity and starting new businesses
and generating new ideas. “Entrepre-
neurship,” (the fourth “e”) represents
a brighter future for our country. One
filled with innovation and ingenuity.
This phase, more so than any other, is
America’s greatest resource and crucial
to her continued success.
So what is the action plan for “e4?”
In addition to following the 4 “es,” clean
out your life and prepare for what’s
coming. In order to refocus yourself
spiritually and reconnect with those in
your community, you need to rid your-
self of all the clutter that’s in your life.
Recently, Glenn announced his
intention to reduce his personal belong-
ings by half. Think about doing the
same. Sell whatever you don’t need.
Take the money, pay down your debt,
stock up on food, and prepare yourself
and your family to be the best you can
be in 2011. In doing so, you ensure
that you and your family can handle
whatever may come in the next year
while at the same time clearing the
space and baggage that distracts you
from what’s important in life.
07
MORALITY AND RELIGION:
The Foundation of Free Societies
An Op/Ed By Stephen McDowell

Many people today think that
religion should be kept separate from
government, but in truth, the faith of
a people is the most important aspect
of civil society. George Washington
wrote in his “Farewell Address”
in 1796, “[of] all the dispositions
and habits which lead to political
prosperity, religion and morality
are indispensable supports.”
Our Founders believed that it was
not just faith in any god or religion that
formed the foundation of free societ-
ies, but it was specifically the Christian
religion and faith in the true God. In
fact, signer of the Declaration Benjamin
Rush wrote in 1806: “Christianity is the
only true and perfect religion, and that
in proportion as mankind adopts its
principles and obeys its precepts, they
because the best forms of government
in bad hands can do nothing great or
good. A people must be prepared from
within to live in liberty.
The republic’s power is the internal
principles that reside in the lives of the
American populace. Any people who
desire to live free must be self-gov-
erned, work together in union for the
common good, recognize the value of
the individual, protect property rights,
and be knowledgeable and moral. No-
tice from the diagram that the founda-
tional building block of a free nation is
faith in God. Each one of the principles
that must be a part of people’s lives
for a free nation to be established and
maintained requires the indispensable
support of the Creator.
The uniqueness and value of man
comes from his being created by God.
Man becomes self-governing as he is
subject to God and His truth. Morality
cannot exist separate from religion.
Man’s most precious possession, his
conscience, responds to right or wrong
put in his heart by his Creator. The
strongest force to bring union among
a people is a common faith. Education
that will propagate liberty must sow
seeds of truth. All truth originates with
God.
For the fundamental rights of man
to be secure from government, the
people must recognize that these rights
are endowed by their Creator, and not
granted by government. If people think
that government, or man, is the source
of rights then government can take
away these rights. But if God gives
rights to men, they are inalienable.
A fundamental question in securing

Enlightenment
will be wise and happy.”
All nations are religious. All nations
are built upon some religion, that is,
upon some set of presuppositions
about life, law, right, truth, and morality
that is ultimately rooted in the faith of
the people. A people’s faith determines
a people’s character and worldview,
which in turn determines how free,
prosperous, just, and virtuous the na-
tion is. In short, the religion of a people
is the life-blood of the nation. It is the
primary seed that produces fruit in
every sphere of life.
President John Adams wrote that,
“[our] Constitution was made only for a
moral and religious people. It is wholly
inadequate to the government of any
other.” Why is this? Only a moral and
religious people can provide the power
or principles necessary to support our
unique form of government. Diagram 1
depicts the power and form of our con-
stitutional republic. The pillars in this
diagram represent the framework of our
free nation and include such concepts
as constitutionalism, decentralization of
power, separation of powers, election
of representatives, and separation of
jurisdictions. This framework has been
an important component in the United
States becoming the most free and
prosperous nation the world has ever
seen. But more important than the
form is the power of our republic. In
fact, the form cannot exist without the
power. Good structures are not enough Diagram 1. The Power and Form of Free Governments

08 FUSI ON | ENTERT AINME NT & E NL IGH T E NME N T | JA N U A RY / F E B RU A RY 201 1

liberty for all men is: “Who is the source
of law in a society?” In reality, the
source of law in a society is the god of
that society. If man is the final source
of the law, then the law will constantly
change as man’s worldview changes.
God is the source of true law and His
law is absolute. William Blackstone,
the great English legal scholar, said that
no human laws are of any validity, if
contrary to the higher law of God.
Historically, the Christian faith has
been the source of laws of liberty. This
truth was once well known by Ameri-
cans. The chamber of the U.S. House
of Representatives contains 23 marble
relief portraits of noted lawgivers. Most
of them were Christians and had a
Biblical view of law. Only one is seen
full-faced and is the greatest lawgiver
of all—Moses.
Certain aspects of the laws of
liberty are revealed by God to all men
through creation and their conscience,
in what our Founders called the “laws
of nature.” However, the primary way
that God has revealed His law to man
is through “the laws of nature’s God”
as revealed in the Holy Scriptures. To
the degree that nations have applied
the principles of the Bible, is the degree
to which those nations have prospered
and been free.
The Christian faith is not only the
source of the ideas of liberty, but it
also produces the internal character
necessary for a people to live free.
Christianity has produced the power
in the people that leads to liberty and
prosperity.
On June 8, 1783, not long before
Washington resigned his commission
as General of the Army of the newly in-
dependent American republic, he wrote
a letter to the governors of the thirteen
states communicating a number of
important points he believed necessary
for the support of the new nation. He
concluded:
I now make it my earnest prayer,
that God would have you, and the
State over which you preside, in
his holy protection, ... that he would
most graciously be pleased to
dispose us all, to do Justice, to
love mercy, and to demean our-
selves with that Charity, humility,
and pacific temper of mind, which
were the Characteristics of the
Divine Author of our blessed Reli-
gion, and without a humble imita-
tion of whose example in these
things, we can never hope to be
a happy Nation.
His advice for the preservation and
advancement of the new nation was to
imitate the character of Christ Jesus,
the founder of the Christian faith. If we
follow his wise counsel, we can have
the highest hope for the future fortunes
of our nation, but if we turn aside from
this eternal truth we will cease to exist
as the land of the free.
Stephen McDowell is co-founder of
the Providence Foundation, a Christian
educational organization whose mission
is to train and network leaders to trans-
form nations. As President of Provi-
dence Foundation Biblical Worldview
University, Stephen has trained people
throughout America and from over 100
nations. He has traveled throughout
the world where he has consulted with
government officials, assisted in writing
political documents, advised political
parties, and started Christian schools
and Biblical worldview training centers.
He has authored and co-authored over
20 books, videos, and training courses
including America’s Providential History,
Liberating the Nations, and Building
Godly Nations. To learn more about
ideas presented in this article, see
these and other books published
by the Providence Foundation
(www.providencefoundation.com).

FOUNDER-CATION An Op/Ed By Larry Schweikart

How important was education to the Founders? As early as 1765, John Adams wrote in his Dissertation on
the Canon and Feudal Law “The preservation of the means of knowledge among the lowest ranks is of more
importance to the public than all of the property of all the rich men in the country.” Although some modern
conservatives disparage public schools (or “government schools” as they are sometimes called), it might
surprise many to find that virtually all of the Founders agreed with the basic premise of public education, and
that many of them insisted on the concept of “free schools” (i.e., schools paid for at the public expense
so as to be free to anyone) as the best means to tear down aristocracy.

Dr. Benjamin Rush, for example,
found the idea of public schools so
obvious that he said “to a people
enlightened in the principles of liberty
and Christianity, arguments... will be
unnecessary to persuade them to
adopt these necessary and useful
institutions.” James Madison agreed,
stating: “It is universally admitted that
a well-instructed people alone can be
permanently a free people.” And so did
James Monroe in 1801: “In a govern-
ment founded on the sovereignty of
the people, the education of youth is
an object of first importance [and] the
means of acquiring it made not only
practicable but easy to every citizen.”
Thomas Jefferson, seeing the only
“safe depository” of public powers
as resting in the people, argued that
if those who governed thought the
people insufficiently enlightened, “the
remedy is not to take it from them, but
to inform their discretion by education.”
How, then, did the entire concept of
public education become so distrusted
and even hated by many modern lovers
of liberty? The answer lies not in how
schools are funded but in what they
teach. First and foremost, the Found-
ers understood that the essence of
education was religion and patriotism.
Schools, if they taught nothing else,
had to prepare students to know of the
existence of God and to appreciate the
liberty they enjoyed. As James Madison
said, “An institution which endeavors
to rear American youth in pure love of
truth and duty . . . endeavors to awaken
a love of country; to soften local preju-
dices; and to innoculate Christian faith
and chastity [and it] cannot but acquire
. . . the confidence of the wise and
good [emphasis in Madison’s original].”
Note that Madison can hardly be called
a fan of “institutionalized religion,”
and is often cited in the “separation of
church and state” arguments.

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Education
To Benjamin
Franklin, an uneducated
man “is not fitted for
discharging the
proper Business
of Man [i.e.,
politics].”
One of the
first laws passed
in colonial Massachusetts was to
require every school in every town—
as it “being one chief project of that
old deluder, Satan, to keep men from
knowledge of the Scriptures”—for the
purposes of teaching children to read
the Bible. Both Rush and Fisher Ames
wanted the Bible to be the primary text-
book in all schools, and even Thomas
Jefferson as president made the Bible
a primary text for all Washington, D.C.
schools. In the popular vernacular,
education had to include instruction in
the virtuous life, which was viewed as
inseparable from living a well-rounded
existence or having a successful politi-
cal system. Benjamin Franklin, continu-
ally mis-identified as a Deist, called the
WHY YOU MATTER...
If you have ever wondered
whether your life has meaning—if
you have a real and specific purpose
on this good earth—you are by no
means alone. Nearly everyone asks
this question at some point, but too
few of us really search for the answer.
Maybe because we fear learning that
we are dispensable.
What if we were never born? Would
10 FUSI ON | ENTERT AINME NT & E NL IGH T E NME N T | JA N U A RY / F E B RU A RY 201 1
“general virtue” a gift
more likely obtained
from the “education of
youth, than from the exhortation of
adult persons (his emphasis).”
Just as the Founders saw the con-
nection between God and knowledge
as obvious, so too they all insisted that
a patriotic history was necessary for
the survival of the Republic. “Children,”
declared Adams, “should be educated
and instructed in the principles of
freedom.” Madison, in particular, found
value in understanding and remember-
ing the Revolution, the “origins and
outset of [which] contain lessons of
which posterity ought not be deprived.”
In 1821 he further argued “No stud-
ies seem so well calculated to give a
proper expansion to the mind as Geog-
raphy and History.” What would they
have said of modern multiculturalism?
An Op/Ed By Dr. Keith Ablow
it really matter? What if we never
strived to follow our hearts? Would
anything really be lost other than the
transient pleasures of self-expression
and satisfied ego? Does it really matter
very much, in the long run, whether
we are free to follow our dreams, or if
we only partially pursue them, or keep
them completely under wraps?
I promise you it does.
I promise you that you are, as an
individual with your particular intellect
We know, because Pennsylvanian Ben-
jamin Rush (considered the father of the
American education system) observed
that students “must be taught how to
love [their] fellow creatures in every part
of the world, but... must cherish with
a more intense and peculiar affection,
the citizens of Pennsylvania and of the
United States of America (emphasis
mine).” Lest Rush be misunderstood,
he explained, “I do not wish to see our
youth educated with a single prejudice
against any nation or country.” But
he found it “repugnant alike to reason,
revelation, and the ordinary dimensions
of the human heart, when we require
him to embrace with equal affection
the whole family of mankind.” Rush, it
should be recalled, served in the Revo-
lutionary army as George Washington’s
chief physician, and noted that patrio-
tism demand that a citizen be taught
that “this life ‘is not his own’ when the
safety of his country requires it.”
These examples only scratch the
surface of what the Founders saw as
the dual “legs” of an education sys-
tem—religion and patriotic history—that
prepared Americans for civic life. While
they mentioned science, mathematics,
grammar, none saw anything as impor-
tant as teaching the youth to respect
God and to honor their country’s past
and its values. The American education
system went awry when it departed
from those principles. How and why it
did so is a story for another time.
Larry Schweikart is a Professor of
History at the University of Dayton, and
the author of Seven Events that Made
America America. Portions of this
essay were taken from his forthcoming
book What Would the Founders Say?
(Sentinel, 2011).
and emotions and instincts, indispens-
able to the future. To the extent that
you follow your heart and become the
person you were meant to be, nothing
short of that is success and anything
short of it cheats all of us of your true,
real, undeniable potential to make life
better not just for yourself, but for every
living being. If that sounds too optimis-
tic or too dramatic or even too anxiety-
provoking let me explain why you might
consider it simply this: The Truth.
 Human beings are not born into
chaos. We come to this life with pre-
faces to our autobiographies already
written, and some chapters already
outlined. Our parents and siblings have
experienced joys and sorrows and tri-
umphs and defeats which will inevitably
influence our own journeys. What’s
more we appear at a particular time in
history, in a particular civilization, with
specific socioeconomic circumstances
and the urgencies of history in motion.
To deny that the stage is set for our
arrival would be to deny reality.
What’s more, we are not born as
blank slates. Our souls are not ac-
cidental machines. We come prepro-
grammed by God with individual talents
and intentions, some known to us from
our earliest years and some left for
us to discover as we learn more and
more about ourselves. Children of four,
five and six years old already gravitate
toward one kind of experience and
away from others, be it drawing, sports,
math, drama, just to list a few. They
are more or less social, more or less
aggressive, more or less imaginative,
more or less sensitive, and more or less
ready to defend others. To the extent
that they are loved and encouraged to
pursue their inclinations and beliefs
and hopes, they begin to gather cour-
age to include themselves in a more
complete way in the dramas unfolding
around them—dramas that have been
in motion long before
they were born.
In short, they
whether only our towns, families, friends,
or all of civilization will receive our gifts,
we don’t know the way that God will
amplify what is real and purely ex-
pressed in our hearts and minds. It may
be that one of your daughters will be
encouraged enough by watching you
create a sculpture, then another, then
another, without successfully selling
any of them, to then forge ahead on
her own, despite all the naysayers,
and create a brilliant novel or a leading
edge company that employs 10,000
Americans. It might be that saying
what we think about the world—even
if it brings criticism or conflict—galva-
nizes the intentions of others, including
someone else’s child who is watching
and listening and learning. Sure, run-
ning for a local office might lead you to
statewide office and then to national
office. You might be Abraham Lincoln.
And if you are, you must walk that path.
But running for office with intention and
integrity can also signal anyone who
knows you or hears of you to do the
same. It can encourage people to fol-
low their hearts and speak their minds
and contribute their best to all of us.
One of my patients—a violent man
who had already been jailed—told me
that he stopped before killing a woman
because he remembered one teacher
of his in sixth grade telling him that she
thought he was “a good kid, deep
inside.” By becoming a teacher, and
Em
a good one, and speaking her mind, and
reaching out to another human being,
she saved a life more than a decade
later. Do you see that that was a mira-
cle? Do you understand now that you
have the potential to manifest miracles,
too? Are your eyes filling with tears
now, like mine are?
When people are not free, they can-
not bring their best to their own lives
or the lives of others. But neither are
you free in a time of liberty or tyranny,
in light or darkness, to abandon what
is best in you, what you must bring to
this earth in the middle of this great and
ultimately triumphant, glorious story we
are writing together.
We need, for reasons that we may
not (and need not) know in this very
moment, every gift of true intention you
can summon from the center of your
soul. None will be squandered. All are
parts of God’s great plan.
You belong on this earth, in this
moment, to contribute every good
thing you can. Take heart in that, and
Godspeed.
Dr. Keith Ablow is the co-author, with
Glenn Beck, of the upcoming book,
The 7: Seven Wonders that Will
Change Your Life.

begin to truly love

themselves.
pow

Not every one of us

is Moses or Abraham
e

Lincoln or
rme

Albert Einstein.
But they are
good examples
nt

of what would be
lost to civilization
had they
been
stymied
in their
quests
for self-expression.
Had just those
three individuals
gone missing
from the planet,
or been discouraged from
pursuing their gifts, much
would be different for all of us.
Every single one of us has the
canvas of our own creativity upon
which we must paint with clarity and
real heart. Every one of us has inven-
tive impulses, political thoughts, chari-
table desires or intellectual passions we
must crystallize and share. Because
we can’t know for sure

J ANUAR Y/ F E BRU A RY 201 1 | E N TE RTA I N M E N T & E N L I G H TE N M E N T | F U S I ON 11

ENTREPRENEURS:
Leading the Way Out
An Op/Ed By Greg Pesci
Entrepreneurs, free to pursue their
economic dreams, built America!
They are, and always have been, its
creators of jobs, growth, and wealth.
In 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville wrote
in Democracy in America:
“It may be said that, in the United
States, there is no limit to the inven-
tiveness of man to discover the ways
of increasing wealth and to satisfy the
public’s needs.” He continued, “the
primary reason for [America’s] rapid
progress, their strength and greatness
is their bold approach to industrial
undertakings.” What impressed De
Tocqueville most about business in
America was “not so much the mar-
velous grandeur of some undertaking
as the innumerable multitude of small
ones.”
Data from the Census Bureau (Busi-
ness Dynamics Statistics) demonstrate
that since 1977 American entrepreneurs
in firms less than five years old have
been responsible for literally all the net
job creation in this country. For more
than 30 years, new companies have led
job creation in America. Recently, Carl
J. Schramm of the Kauffman Founda-
tion stated, “new and young companies
and the entrepreneurs that create them
are the engines of job creation and
eventual recovery.” With 9.8 percent
unemployment, if we want to create
jobs in America we need to free up
entrepreneurs and not burden them
with increased taxes or regulation.
Especially encouraging during
these hard times is evidence that past
recessions have not prevented entre-
preneurs from founding companies and
creating jobs. Since 1977, America has
averaged roughly 600,000 new firms
formed each year. Through good times
and bad, that number has remained
fairly constant. Even more encouraging
for today’s entrepreneurs is the fact that
half of today’s Fortune 500 companies
were founded in a recession or bear
market.
In the 1970s, conventional wisdom
said that America’s time as a vibrant,
innovative economy had passed. We
experienced Vietnam, Watergate, high
interest rates, high unemployment, and
double-digit inflation. We were told
ours was a future of scarcity and sac-
12 FUSI ON | ENTERT AINME NT & E NL IGH T E NME N T | JA N U A RY / F E B RU A RY 201 1
rifice, and that what we really needed
was increased government control and
higher taxes (sound familiar?). Presi-
dent Carter presided over a period of
general “malaise.”
Yet, in the midst of this “malaise,” a
different future was being created. En-
trepreneurs in the private sector were
busy founding new companies and in-
novating. These entrepreneurs had the
faith and guts to take action and pursue
their dreams. Their innovations were
a powerful force for leading America
out of the malaise and into economic
growth. Maybe you have heard of a
few of the companies founded during
this period when supposedly America’s
best days had passed: Apple; FedEx;
Microsoft; and Southwest Airlines. The
efforts of these entrepreneurs have
stood the test of time. All four of these
companies were listed on Fortune’s
2009 List of the 10 Most Admired Com-
panies in the world.
The efforts of today’s entrepreneurs
hold the same promise for America’s
future. They are not looking to the
government to create jobs or waiting
for others to do so. They are out there,
by the hundreds of thousands, creating
jobs for themselves and others. These
Americans are generating the innova-
tions that will refresh and renew our
economy. A future “Google” is being
created right now.
Following are just two of the rea-
sons I believe this to be true. First,
entrepreneurship is not just for the
young. This is an important fact for an
aging America. A Kauffman Foundation
report states that the average age of
U.S.-born tech company founders is
39 years old. More than twice as many
founders were older than fifty than were
younger than twenty-five. Between
1996 and 2008, more people between
the ages of fifty-five and sixty-four
started businesses than did people
between the ages of twenty and thirty-
four. These “seasoned” entrepreneurs
bring considerable life experience and
wisdom to the tasks of innovating and
starting new businesses that create jobs.
Second, despite the sometimes po-
litically charged discussions surround-
ing it today, history demonstrates that
immigration has fostered entrepreneur-
ship in America. If we can settle on a
Entrep
rene
urship
reasonable and enforceable immigration
policy, it can continue to do so into the
future. Many of the world’s best and
brightest still want to come here and
we should welcome them. Immigrants
are much more likely to work as entre-
preneurs, creating small businesses
and associated jobs. In every census
from 1880 to 1990, immigrants were
more likely to be self-employed than
natives. And they are starting a dis-
proportionate number of high tech, sci-
ence-driven companies. A recent study
from Duke and UC Berkeley found
that 52% of engineering and technol-
ogy startup companies founded from
1995 to 2005 in Silicon Valley had one
or more immigrants as a key founder.
These new immigrants remind us of
what is so great about this country, and
why our ancestors came here.
Perhaps President Reagan best
described how entrepreneurs can lead
this country to a better day:
Entrepreneurs have always been
leaders in America. They led the
rebellion against excessive taxation
and regulation. They and their off-
spring pushed back the frontier,
transforming the wilderness into a
land of plenty. Their knowledge and
contributions have sustained us in
wartime, [and] brought us out of
recessions... Governments reduce
deficits by controlling spending and
stimulating new wealth, wealth from
investments of brave people with
hope for the future, trust in their
fellow man, and faith in God.
Entrepreneurs will lead the way out.
Bring on the entrepreneurs!
STU’S 3RD TO LAST PAGE
Good Sportsmanship
Through Total Humiliation
It was late in the game as Wisconsin
quarterback Jon Budmayr dropped back to
pass deep in his own territory, scrambled left
to avoid the rush, and noticed wide receiver
Jared Abbrederis streaking deep down the
field in single coverage. Budmayr threw it
as far as he could, and it was a good thing,
because it cleared the outstretched fingertips
of Indiana’s safety by only about four inches.
Abbrederis caught the ball as the leaping
defender fell to the ground and walked in
for a 74 yard touchdown.
It was a spectacular play, but not be-
cause it won the national championship,
or even one of the thousands of mean-
ingless bowls sponsored by car rental
companies. It was spectacular because it
made the score 76-13. This wasn’t a run up
the middle. It wasn’t a screen pass that the
receiver broke for a long touchdown. This
was a highly ranked Wisconsin team, beat-
ing up on an overmatched Indiana team
by mercilessly airing it out even though
they were already leading 69-13 deep into
the second half.
Good.
Wisconsin went on to win 83-20 but if
you listened to analysts afterwards you
would have thought they murdered a litter
of kittens just born at the local nursing
home. “How could they do that? Where
is their sportsmanship? How disgraceful…
running up the score like that. Damn kit-
ten murderers.”
“Running up the score” is one of the
worst phrases in sports. It’s just ridiculous.
Your specific goal during a sporting event
is to score more points than your opponent.
Why do we consider it so terrible to do
your job really well? It’s like complaining
about your meal being too yummy, your
wife being too hot, or your doctor for
curing your cancer too quickly.
Yet, college football sees running up
the score as such a big concern, they actu-
ally removed margin of victory as a com-
ponent of their computer rankings. Now,
a team’s mediocre 2 point win could be
just as impressive as a 30 point blowout.
It makes no sense at all.
But isn’t it a universally accepted fact
that running up the score is a crime on the
same level as genocide? Probably. But, I
aim to change that perception.
“It’s bad sportsmanship.”
Bad sportsmanship? The job of a
sportsman when playing sports is to win.
Photo Courtesy of ©iStockphoto.com/Pete Saloutos
J ANUAR Y/ F E BRU A RY 201 1 | E N TE RTA I N M E N T & E N L I G H TE N M E N T | F U S I ON
By Stu Burguiere
Following the rules is good sportsmanship.
Deciding not to try your hardest for a
portion of the game is the opposite of
good sportsmanship. A true sportsman
has enough respect for the sport to try his
hardest for the entire game.
“It makes the other team feel bad.”
This is typical participation-trophy-
culture nonsense. I don’t think it’s the job
of one team to worry about the feelings
of the other team. Football is not about
feelings. There’s no crying in baseball.
There’s no therapy in badminton. There’s
no Zoloft in curling. You get the idea.
Sports builds character, and sometimes
that character gets built when you get your
ass kicked and you’re still able to go on
with life. Get over it, man up and move on.
“Come on, it’s just insulting to the other
team!”
Really? What’s worse? Having the
other team beat you by a lot of points,
or having the other team have such little
respect for you that they won’t even try?
We should all feel far more insulted if the
other team thinks so little of you that
they won’t even run their normal plays
with their backup players. It’s like a bad
manifestation of the nanny state. I’d be far
more insulted by the other team thinking
they needed to stop playing to manage
my feelings.
“There’s just no need for that.”
Actually, yes there is. Let’s say you’re a
team with a star senior quarterback and
a freshman backup. That backup needs
game experience, and handing it off
twelve times in the fourth quarter does
nothing for him or your team. When you
stop running your normal playbook as a
coach, you abdicate your duty. It makes
sense to pull your starters to avoid injury,
but your backups need real on the field ex-
perience, and you should give it to them.
Let’s take it to the extreme. You lead
80-3 with the ball at the opponent’s 12
yard line with :03 left. Don’t kneel. Kick
the field goal. In college, even a kicker on
a good team might get 20 FG attempts in
an entire year. Why wouldn’t you expand a
key player’s experience by 5 percent when
the downside is a meaningless hit on the
feelings of the other team?
“It’s just in bad taste.”
Really? And giving paying fans 40
minutes of football when they paid for 60
isn’t?
“Bottom line is the game is over. You’re
just trying to embarrass the other team.”
No, the bottom line is that the game
is never over until there are zero seconds
left on the clock. Ask the Houston Oilers,
who led 35-3 in a playoff game against the
Buffalo Bills and their backup quarterback
Frank Reich in 1993. The Bills came back
to win 41-38.
Or, ask the University of Minnesota who
blew a 38-7 lead in the third quarter of a
bowl game to eventually lose 44-41 to
Texas Tech in 2006.
Or better yet, ask Plano East high
school, who trailed Tyler John Tyler 41-17
with just over 3 minutes left in the game.
Plano East scored a touchdown, recovered
an onside kick, scored another touch-
down, recovered another onside kick,
scored a third touchdown, recovered a
third onside kick and scored a fourth con-
secutive touchdown to take the lead with
24 seconds to spare. That was unfortu-
nate, not because they stole the game…
because with :24 seconds left on the clock
Tyler John Tyler ran the next kickoff back
for a touchdown and came back to win the
game.
To avoid the need for such miracle last
second plays, perhaps all teams should
simply adopt the game plan of Haven
High in Kansas seen in their game against
Sylvia. It was during this game they raced
out to a halftime lead of 20 touchdowns.
Their opponents were so annoyed by the
drubbing they were taking, they began to
kick off and then just sit down. Maybe the
idea was to force Haven High to feel so ter-
rible about themselves for running up the
score that they would have to stop.
It didn’t work. Haven kept scoring until
the game finally ended in a squeaker...
256-0. Sure, they could have avoided
running up the score. But, I doubt we’d be
talking about that game, which happened
in 1927, if they hadn’t.
So, I say, long live Haven High for
proudly running up the score and teach-
ing Sylvia a couple of lessons in universal
law. First, if you live your life depending
on others managing your feelings for you,
you’re going to wind up a massive failure
in life. Sorry. Second, if you name your
football team “Sylvia”, you deserve to lose
by 38 touchdowns.
Send Stu hatemail at Stu@glennbeck.com
13
 Teddy Popov felt his neck and shoulder muscles tense
as he watched the digital clock countdown on the monitor
in the cabin of his Gulfstream V. The leather seat had
sunk deep under his weight and the armrests pressed
hard against his girth, confining him, constraining him; the
jet now seeming less like a fortress in the sky, and more
like a thirty-five million dollar flying prison.
BY STEVEN GORE Sixty-seconds until he had to give his report to Prime
Minister Vladimir Putin. Popov thought of the clichés:
tables turned, things upside down, reversals of fortune.
How different it had been when Putin had first come
to him seeking his blessing, seeking his protection.
In the lawless world of Russia, anointment by Boris
Yeltsin wasn’t sufficient. Everyone... everyone... needed
protection.
Putin flying to Budapest a decade earlier, arriving at
Popov’s dacha, a handshake, a triple kiss, and an offer:
a hundred million dollars a year skimmed from oil exports
and the sale of arms and nuclear technology to Iran, much
of the money laundered through Tri-World Investments in
the Bahamas.
Why? Because Putin understood that he had had
to pay, and pay well, if he wanted to survive his term as
President.
Yeltsin had lived through his presidency because
gangsters like Mogelevich and Mihajlov and oligarchs like
Khodorkovsky had allowed him to live. And Putin had
lived though his because Popov had allowed him to live.
Popov again focused on the clock. Thirty-seconds.
But now the tables had turned, up was down, left was
right, and the powerless were now the powerful.
Putin had consolidated power like no leader since
Peter the Great and had reduced the maffiya and the

chapter thirty-eight oligarchs to dependent serfs. They were alive only

because Putin allowed them to live, free only because

BLIND
Putin allowed them freedom.
Popov thought of Khodorkovsky plummeting from the

MAN’S
heights of Russia’s wealthiest man down to a penniless
prisoner of the state, begging his guards for toilet paper

BLUFF
and cigarettes.
Volkov: dissolved in an acid bath at the Moscow
Chemical Works.
Linchenko: headless in Bitsevski Park.
To read previously published chapters, log onto
http://www.glennbeck.com/fusion/7days/107days.pdf Mogelevich—

14 FUSI ON | E NTE RT AINME NT & E NL IGH T E NME N T | JA N U A RY / F E B RU A RY 2 01 1

 The screen flickered. Putin ap-
peared, a practiced, KGB operative’s
expression on his face implying he
already knew the answers to the
questions he would ask.
Popov glanced past the monitor
at his assistant, Andrei, lounging on
the couch, shaggy hair dangling over
his eyes, oblivious to the man on the
screen gripping the high wire on which
the two of them now balanced—and
felt like firing a slug into the center of
the idiot’s forehead.
Putin spoke first: “Tell me.”
Popov breathed in through
clenched teeth, and then said, “The
woman has disappeared.”
“Disappeared?”
“Escaped.”
“Escaped?”
“Okay, okay. She was freed by
Charlie Miles.”
Putin directed a forefinger at Popov.
“Tell me the truth the first time or else
I’ll find someone who will.”
Popov caught his breath as his
mind completed Putin’s threat with
an image of his own headless body
splayed out in Bitsevski Park.
“Yes, Vladimir Vladimirovich, the
truth.”
“Has she contacted her father?’
“I assume so, but I don’t know how
or where.”
Putin exhaled, shaking his head.
Popov grasped his meaning: Popov’s
people should’ve been surveilling
Senator Becktel. If they had been, then
the hunt for Ashleigh, and perhaps Nick
Roberts, might already be over.
“And Roberts?”
“Still alive.”
“Where?”
“Moving. Always moving.”
“Toward Ashleigh?”
J ANUAR Y/ F E BRU A RY 201 1 | E N TE RTA I N M E N T & E N L I G H TE N M E N T | F U S I ON
“I assume.” Popov thought of
Charlie Miles breaking free of Andrei’s
grasp, leaping down to the dance floor
of the Bellagio Bank Nightclub, fleeing.
“And probably with Miles on their trail,
if they haven’t already joined forces.”
“What about Becktel?” Putin
asked. “Have you approached him
about his willingness to share informa-
tion on his daughter with us for awhile
in exchange for the lives of his par-
ents?”
“I...” Popov’s voice failed him.
“I... I was afraid of putting on too much
pressure... I mean...” He watched Putin
frown. “I mean... I’m wondering wheth-
er he’s adopted his own agenda—”
Putin made a cutting motion with
his hand. “Let me worry about that. I
want you focused on his daughter and
Roberts and Miles.”
“But—”
“Becktel has understood his ulti-
mate task for decades and we’ve now
laid the groundwork for him to execute
on it.”
“Groundwork?” The word quaked
in Popov’s brain. “What do you mean,
groundwork?”
“We’ve led the Americans to believe
that we’re poised to arm our nuclear
warheads.”
Popov’s mouth went dry as he
imagined his jet wheeling over the
Midwest, racing away from a blossom-
ing mushroom cloud. “Why would you
do such a thing?” “A bluff. Americans
tremble when things become chaotic,
when things, shall we say, become
interesting. Holes in their security sys-
tems always emerge in times of crisis.
Always. Always. Always. And the only
way we’ll get to Little Big Boy is if we
force them into exposing those holes.”
“How will you mange to—”
“Becktel. And his first step is to
make President Warner panic and
declare DefCon 3.”
Putin paused for a moment, then
smiled and said, “I trust you remember
what the Chinese say about crisis and
opportunity.”
Popov nodded, thinking to himself,
but not saying aloud: I also remember
what they say about how dangerous it
is to live in interesting times.
The screen went blank.
Popov raised his hand from the
armrest and wiped away the sweat
shimmering on the leather. He looked
again at Andrei, now asleep, mouth
hung open, inert: a human turd.
Popov poured himself a shot of
vodka, threw it back and swallowed
hard against the burn. Then another,
and another.
Staring at the oblivious man, a
movie began playing in Popov’s mind:
Andrei handcuffed to a suitcase, the
last of the six nuclear bombs inside,
stumbling, dragging it through the
streets of Washington DC, perhaps into
the bare thorns of PRIMROSE; Roberts,
Miles and Ashleigh in chase, closing in,
charging into Popov’s crosshairs—
Popov issued a quick order to the
pilot, then reached toward the con-
sole and slid out a drawer. His fingers
touched polymer, then closed around
cold metal.
A few moments later, the plane
banked hard and Andrei opened his
eyes. He found himself looking up the
barrel of Popov’s Yarygin pistol.
“I see you are finally awake, my
little hare.” Popov smiled. “It’s time
to go taunt the fox.”
15
 Welcome to Wilmington

Wilmington, Ohio
is like many town
limits to discover s across America
a quaint main stre . You enter the cit
townsfolk greetin et filled with fam y
g you with a frien ily owned busines
in time. Dig a litt dly “Hello!” and bu ses,
le deeper though ildings seemingly
munities face: un and you see the frozen
employment, fam reality that so man
businesses leavin ilies struggling to y com-
g town taking wo get food on the ta
rk with them over ble and
Wilmington, Ohio se as. But what sets
apart from other
spirit, perseveran struggling comm
ce, but most of all unities is their
tomorrow will bring , their unyielding
a better day. hope that
With one of the hig
would expect this he st un em ployment rates in
town to be desolat the state, you
for better prospe e with people ab
cts elsewhere. In andoning it
rallying together, stead, you find a
helping their neigh community
their town and th bors and revitalizin
eir community bu g not only
anyone who visits t also the spirit of
. hope in
This past Decem
ber, Wilmington op
and his staff. Ou ened their doors
r day there was no to Glenn
cles as well. The t just magical bu
people we met we t full of mira-
hope ran deep in re amazing and th
but we will never the comm e spirit of
forget this amazing unity. We may be back in New Yo
port Wilmington town. Please, he rk
by donating to th lp us continue to
owned businesse eir local charities sup-
s. and supporting th
eir family
Check out any of
these sites to lea
Clinton County an rn more about
d Wilmington, Oh
http://wilmingtong io.
eneralstore.com
| http://www.ci.wi
http://www.clinton lmington.oh.us
countyohio.com
Wilmington Photos Courtesy of George Lange
Polaroid Photos Courtesy of ©iStockphoto.com/Stephanie Swartz