It would seem that not a few readers were upset with my column last week in which I compared our sacred Social Security system to Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.
Never mind the clear reality that if a private insurance company tried to run something like Social Security, its officers would be jailed. Doesn’t matter. Social Security is part of our national religion of dependence on government and is not to be trifled with.
So, am I upset that some of you were upset? Are you kidding me? I’m the whale. Your angst over my pontifications is my plankton. I feed on it. Besides, the anger you showed over my Social Security column was a gnat bite compared to some of the rage I’ve stirred up over the years.
Examples? Sure, why not? Maybe I can get you even more riled up than you were last week. It’s good for your circulatory system, and I’m here to help.
We’ll start with Hurricane Katrina. As people were gathering on rooftops around New Orleans waving SOS signs, guns, food stamps and whatnot, I went on the air and suggested that maybe we should “save the rich people first.”
Oh, the humanity.
I can see the steam coming from your ears now. Hear me out. My reasoning was that New Orleans was going to have to be rebuilt. Businesses would have to be saved or started, jobs created, investments made, houses repaired. New Orleans was going to need residents who could drive economic growth.
So, save those who depend on government first, and what do you have? A bunch of welfare recipients sitting around waiting for producers (who aren’t coming) to get things moving again.
On another occasion I actually made people mad enough that some Virginia legislators tried to pass a resolution demanding that any radio station carrying my show in Virginia cease and desist “forthwith.” Don’t you just love the “forthwith” stuff? Veeerrrry official.
Just how did I yank their chain? I was commenting on the tragic 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech, when Seung-Hui Cho took two handguns to the campus and killed 32 people, wounding many more.
My crime?
I wondered out loud how all of these people seemed to just wait for their turn to be shot without anyone trying to do something to stop the carnage. Nobody advanced on Cho. Nobody tried to retaliate.
I reminded listeners of a story from a few years before when a gunman entered a high school in the upper Midwest.
As I remember it, the gunman shot a school resource office in the hallway and then came into a classroom with guns blazing. An unarmed student in that classroom rushed the shooter. Even though he took one bullet, he still managed to tackle the shooter and drove a pencil into his neck to subdue him.
So, I said, we have one student who disarms a shooter with several guns using a pencil and not ONE person at Virginia Tech tried to fight back?
You can just imagine the outrage that followed. How DARE I suggest that someone should have fought back.
By the way, I’m still on those Virginia radio stations, but I use a fake driver’s license when driving through that state.
One more thing: A little slogan I recite on my show from time to time. Simple words, really, that deliver a harsh truth. You should hear the howls from the non-productive class when I come forth with this one.
“The rich keep getting richer because they keep doing what it is that made them rich. Ditto for the poor.”
There? Got your boxers in a bunch again? Good. If you aren’t complaining, I’m not doing my job.
Neal Boortz's column will appear every Saturday. For more Boortz, go to boortz.com
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