Rob Power,
Of the three hosts recently dropped from KNEW's lineup, Larry Elder was my
favorite. Larry Elder may have been a Libertarian Party member at one time, but
like Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), he joined the Republican Party. Regardless of Larry
Elder's party affiliation, his political philosophy, like Rep. Paul's, is
libertarian. Larry Elder's show was informative and exciting to listen too. It's
a real shame that he was replaced by Michael Savage, a neo-conservative. Larry
Elder has a website that can be found at <A HREF="http://www.larryelder.com/">http://www.larryelder.com/</A>
<A HREF="http://www.lewrockwell.com/">http://www.lewrockwell.com/</A> recently carried an article criticizing Boortz or
Lionel for claiming to be Libertarian and occasionally advocating
unconstitutional government. I don't remember the name and date of the article and it's
writer. Neil Boortz has a website found at <A HREF="http://www.boortz.com/">http://www.boortz.com/</A>
I hope I am not violating any laws by including the following Neil Boortz
graduation ceremony speech in this e-mail. I think the speech is good and should
give you some insight into Neil Boortz' political philosophy. I don't know
when or where this speech was given.
All the best,
Don Fields
The Neil Boortz Commencement Speech
I am honored by the invitation to address you on this august occasion.
It's about
time. Be warned, however, that I am not here to impress you; you'll have
enough
smoke blown your way today. And you can bet your tassels I'm not here to
impress the faculty and administration.
You may not like much of what I have to say, and that's fine. You will
remember
it though. Especially after about 10 years out there in the real world.
This, it goes
without saying, does not apply to those of you who will seek your careers
and
your fortunes as government employees.
This gowned gaggle behind me is your faculty. You've heard the old saying
that
those who can - do. Those who can't - teach. That sounds deliciously
insensitive.
But there is often raw truth in insensitivity, just as you often find
feel-good
falsehoods and lies in compassion. Say good-bye to your faculty because
now you
are getting ready to go out there and do. These folks behind me are going
to stay
right here and teach.
By the way, just because you are leaving this place with a diploma
doesn't mean
the learning is over. When an FAA flight examiner handed me my private
pilot's
license many years ago, he said, 'Here, this is your ticket to learn.'
The same can
be said for your diploma. Believe me, the learning has just begun.
Now, I realize that most of you consider yourselves Liberals. In fact,
you are
probably very proud of your liberal views. You care so much. You feel so
much.
You want to help so much. After all, you're a compassionate and caring
person,
aren't you now? Well, isn't that just so extraordinarily special. Now, at
this age, is
as good a time as any to be a Liberal; as good a time as any to know
absolutely
everything. You have plenty of time, starting tomorrow, for the truth to
set in.
Over the next few years, as you begin to feel the cold breath of reality
down your
neck, things are going to start changing pretty fast .. including your
own
assessment of just how much you really know.
So here are the first assignments for your initial class in reality: Pay
attention to
the news, read newspapers, and listen to the words and phrases that proud
Liberals use to promote their causes. Then compare the words of the left
to the
words and phrases you hear from those evil, heartless, greedy
conservatives. From
the Left you will hear "I feel." From the Right you will hear "I think."
From the
Liberals you will hear references to groups --The Blacks, The Poor, The
Rich,
The Disadvantaged, The Less Fortunate. From the Right you will hear
references
to individuals. On the Left you hear talk of group rights; on the Right,
individual
rights. That about sums it up, really: Liberals feel. Liberals care. They
are pack
animals whose identity is tied up in group dynamics. Conservatives and
Libertarians think -- and, setting aside the theocracy crowd, their
identity is
centered on the individual.
Liberals feel that their favored groups, have enforceable rights to the
property and
services of productive individuals. Conservatives (and Libertarians,
myself among
them I might add) think that individuals have the right to protect their
lives and
their property from the plunder of the masses.
In college you developed a group mentality, but if you look closely at
your
diplomas you will see that they have your individual names on them. Not
the
name of your school mascot, or of your fraternity or sorority, but your
name. Your
group identity is going away. Your recognition and appreciation of your
individual identity starts now.
If, by the time you reach the age of 30, you do not consider yourself to
be a
libertarian or a conservative, rush right back here as quickly as you can
and apply
for a faculty position. These people will welcome you with open arms.
They will
welcome you, that is, so long as you haven't developed an individual
identity.
Once again you will have to be willing to sign on to the group mentality
you
embraced during the past four years. Something is going to happen soon
that is
going to really open your eyes. You're going to actually get a full time
job! You're
also going to get a lifelong work partner. This partner isn't going to
help you do
your job. This partner is just going to sit back and wait for payday.
This partner
doesn't want to share in your effort, you're your earnings.
Your new lifelong partner is actually an agent. An agent representing a
strange
and diverse group of people. An agent for every teenager with an
illegitimate
child. An agent for a research scientist who wanted to make some cash
answering
the age-old question of why monkeys grind their teeth. An agent for some
poor
demented hippie who considers herself to be a meaningful and talented
artist ...
but who just can't manage to sell any of her artwork on the open market.
Your new partner is an agent for every person with limited, if any, job
skills ... but
who wanted a job at City Hall. An agent for tin-horn dictators in fancy
military
uniforms grasping for American foreign aid. An agent for
multi-million-dollar
companies who want someone else to pay for their overseas advertising. An
agent
for everybody who wants to use the unimaginable power of this agent's for
their
personal enrichment and benefit.
That agent is our wonderful, caring, compassionate, oppressive
government.
Believe me, you will be awed by the unimaginable power this agent has.
Power
that you do not have. A power that no individual has, or will have. This
agent has
the legal power to use force - deadly force - to accomplish its goals.
You have no choice here. Your new friend is just going to walk up to you,
introduce itself rather gruffly, hand you a few forms to fill out, and
move right on
in. Say hello to your own personal one ton gorilla. It will sleep
anywhere it wants
to.
Now, let me tell you, this agent is not cheap. As you become successful
it will
seize about 40% of everything you earn. And no, I'm sorry, there just
isn't any way
you can fire this agent of plunder, and you can't decrease it's share of
your
income. That power rests with him, not you. So, here I am saying negative
things
to you about government. Well, be clear on this: It is not wrong to
distrust
government. It is not wrong to fear government. In certain cases it is
not even
wrong to despise government for government is inherently evil. Yes ... a
necessary evil, but dangerous nonetheless ... somewhat like a drug. Just
as a drug
that in the proper dosage can save your life, an overdose of government
can be
fatal. Now - let's address a few things that have been crammed into your
minds at
this university. There are some ideas you need to expunge as soon as
possible.
These ideas may work well in academic environment, but they fail
miserably out
there in the real world.
First - that favorite buzz word of the media, government and academia:
Diversity! You have been taught that the real value of any group of
people - be it
a social group, an employee group, a management group, whatever - is
based on
diversity. This is a favored liberal ideal because diversity is based not
on an
individual's abilities or character, but on a person's identity and
status as a
member of a group. Yes - it's that liberal group identity thing again.
Within the great diversity movement group identification - be it racial,
gender
based, or some other minority status - means more than the individual's
integrity,
character or other qualifications.
Brace yourself. You are about to move from this academic atmosphere where
diversity rules, to a workplace and a culture where individual
achievement and
excellence actually count. No matter what your professors have taught you
over
the last four years, you are about to learn that diversity is absolutely
no
replacement for excellence, ability, and individual hard work. From this
day on
every single time you hear the word "diversity" you can rest assured that
there is
someone close by who is determined to rob you of every vestige of
individuality
you possess.
We also need to address this thing you seem to have about "rights." We
have
witnessed an obscene explosion of so-called "rights" in the last few
decades,
usually emanating from college campuses.
You know the mantra: You have the right to a job. The right to a place to
live.
The right to a living wage. The right to health care. The right to an
education.
You probably even have your own pet right - the right to a Beemer, for
instance,
or the right to have someone else provide for that child you plan on
downloading
in a year or so.
Forget it. Forget those rights! I'll tell you what your rights are! You
have a right to
live free, and to the results of your labor. I'll also tell you have no
right to any
portion of the life or labor of another.
You may, for instance, think that you have a right to health care. After
all, Hillary
said so, didn't she? But you cannot receive health care unless some
doctor or
health practitioner surrenders some of his time - his life - to you. He
may be
willing to do this for compensation, but that's his choice. You have no
"right" to
his time or property. You have no right to his or any other person's life
or to any
portion thereof.
You may also think you have some "right" to a job; a job with a living
wage,
whatever that is. Do you mean to tell me that you have a right to force
your
services on another person, and then the right to demand that this person
compensate you with their money? Sorry, forget it. I am sure you would
scream if
some urban outdoorsmen (that would be "homeless person" for those of you
who
don't want to give these less fortunate people a romantic and adventurous
title)
came to you and demanded his job and your money. The people who have been
telling you about all the rights you have are simply exercising one of
theirs - the
right to be imbeciles. Their being imbeciles didn't cost anyone else
either property
or time. It's their right, and they exercise it brilliantly.
By the way, did you catch my use of the phrase "less fortunate" a bit ago
when I
was talking about the urban outdoorsmen? That phrase is a favorite of the
Left.
Think about it, and you'll understand why.
To imply that one person is homeless, destitute, dirty, drunk, spaced out
on drugs,
unemployable, and generally miserable because he is "less fortunate" is
to imply
that a successful person - one with a job, a home and a future - is in
that position
because he or she was "fortunate." The dictionary says that fortunate
means
"having derived good from an unexpected place." There is nothing
unexpected
about deriving good from hard work. There is also nothing unexpected
about
deriving misery from choosing drugs, alcohol, and the street.
If the Left can create the common perception that success and failure are
simple
matters of "fortune" or "luck," then it is easy to promote and justify
their various
income redistribution schemes. After all, we are just evening out the
odds a little
bit.
This "success equals luck" idea the liberals like to push is seen
everywhere.
Democratic presidential candidate Richard Gephardt refers to
high-achievers as
"people who have won life's lottery." He wants you to believe they are
making the
big bucks because they are lucky. It's not luck, my friends. It's choice.
One of the
greatest lessons I ever learned was in a book by Og Mandino, entitled
"The
Greatest Secret in the World." The lesson? Very simple: "Use wisely your
power
of choice."
That bum sitting on a heating grate, smelling like a wharf rat? He's
there by
choice. He is there because of the sum total of the choices he has made
in his life.
This truism is absolutely the hardest thing for some people to accept,
especially
those who consider themselves to be victims of something or other -
victims of
discrimination, bad luck, the system, capitalism, whatever. After all,
nobody
really wants to accept the blame for his or her position in life. Not
when it is so
much easier to point and say, "Look! He did this to me!" than it is to
look into a
mirror and say, "You S.O.B.! You did this to me!"
The key to accepting responsibility for your life is to accept the fact
that your
choices, every one of them, are leading you inexorably to either success
or failure,
however you define those terms.
Some of the choices are obvious: Whether or not to stay in school.
Whether or not
to get pregnant. Whether or not to hit the bottle. Whether or not to keep
this job
you hate until you get another better-paying job. Whether or not to save
some of
your money, or saddle yourself with huge payments for that new car.
Some of the choices are seemingly insignificant: Whom to go to the movies
with.
Whose car to ride home in. Whether to watch the tube tonight, or read a
book on
investing. But, and you can be sure of this, each choice counts. Each
choice is a
building block - some large, some small. But each one is a part of the
structure of
your life. If you make the right choices, or if you make more right
choices than
wrong ones, something absolutely terrible may happen to you. Something
unthinkable. You, my friend, could become one of the hated, the evil, the
ugly, the
feared, the filthy, the successful, the rich.
Quite a few people have made that mistake.
The rich basically serve two purposes in this country. First, they
provide the
investments, the investment capital, and the brains for the formation of
new
businesses. Businesses that hire people. Businesses that send millions of
paychecks home each week to the un-rich. Second, the rich are a wonderful
object of ridicule, distrust, and hatred. Few things are more valuable to
a
politician than the envy most Americans feel for the evil rich.
Envy is a powerful emotion. Even more powerful than the emotional
minefield
that surrounded Bill Clinton when he reviewed his last batch of White
House
interns. Politicians use envy to get votes and power. And they keep that
power by
promising the envious that the envied will be punished: "The rich will
pay their
fair share of taxes if I have anything to do with it.' The truth is that
the top 10%
of income earners in this country pays almost 50% of all income taxes
collected. I
shudder to think what these job producers would be paying if our tax
system were
any more "fair." You have heard, no doubt, that in America the rich get
richer
and the poor get poorer. Interestingly enough, our government's own
numbers
show that many of the poor actually get richer, and that quite a few of
the rich
actually get poorer. But for the rich who do actually get richer, and the
poor who
remain poor ... there's an explanation -- a reason. The rich, you see,
keep doing
the things that make them rich; while the poor keep doing the things that
make
them poor.
Speaking of the poor, during your adult life you are going to hear an
endless
string of politicians bemoaning the plight of the poor in America. So,
you need to
know that under our government's definition of "poor" you can have a $5
million
net worth, a $300,000 home and a new $90,000 Mercedes, all completely
paid for.
You can also have a maid, cook, and valet, and $1 million in your
checking
account, and you can still be officially defined by our government as
"living in
poverty." Now there's something you haven't seen on the evening news.
How does the government pull this one off? Very simple, really. To
determine
whether or not some poor soul is "living in poverty," the government
measures
one thing -- just one thing. Income. It doesn't matter one bit how much
you have,
how much you own, how many cars you drive or how big they are, whether or
not
your pool is heated, whether you winter in Aspen and spend the summers in
the
Bahamas, or how much is in your savings account. It only matters how much
income you claim in that particular year. This means that if you take a
one-year
leave of absence from your high-paying job and decide to live off the
money in
your savings and checking accounts while you write the next great
American
novel, the government says you are 'living in poverty."
This isn't exactly what you had in mind when you heard these gloomy
statistics, is
it?
Do you need more convincing? Try this. The government's own statistics
show
that people who are said to be "living in poverty" spend more than $1.50
for each
dollar of income they claim. Something is a bit fishy here. Just remember
all this
the next time Peter Jennings puffs up and tells you about some hideous
new
poverty statistics.
Why has the government concocted this phony poverty scam? Because the
government needs an excuse to grow and to expand its social welfare
programs,
which translates into an expansion of its power. If the government can
convince
you, in all your compassion, that the number of "poor" is increasing, it
will have
all the excuse it needs to sway an electorate suffering from the advanced
stages of
Obsessive-Compulsive Compassion Disorder.
I'm about to be stoned by the faculty here. They've already changed their
minds
about that honorary degree I was going to get. That's OK, though. I still
have my
Ph.D. in Insensitivity from the Neal Boortz Institute for Insensitivity
Training. I
learned that, in short, sensitivity sucks. It's a trap. Think about it -
the truth knows
no sensitivity. Life can be insensitive. Wallow too much in sensitivity
and you'll
be unable to deal with life, or the truth. So, get over it.
Now, before the dean has me shackled and hauled off, I have a few random
thoughts.
You need to register to vote, unless you are on welfare. If you are living
off the
efforts of others, please do us the favor of sitting down and shutting up
until you
are on your own again.
* When you do vote, your votes for the House and the Senate are more
important
than your vote for president. The House controls the purse strings, so
concentrate
your awareness there.
* Liars cannot be trusted, even when the liar is the president of the
United States.
If someone can't deal honestly with you, send them packing.
* Don't bow to the temptation to use the government as an instrument of
plunder.
If it is wrong for you to take money from someone else who earned it --
to take
their money by force for your own needs -- then it is certainly just as
wrong for
you to demand that the government step forward and do this dirty work for
you.
* Don't look in other people's pockets. You have no business there. What
they
earn is theirs. What your earn is yours. Keep it that way. Nobody owes
you
anything, except to respect your privacy and your rights, and leave you
the hell
alone.
* Speaking of earning, the revered 40-hour workweek is for losers. Forty
hours
should be considered the minimum, not the maximum. You don't see highly
successful people clocking out of the office every afternoon at five. The
losers are
the ones caught up in that afternoon rush hour. The winners drive home in
the
dark.
* Free speech is meant to protect unpopular speech. Popular speech, by
definition,
needs no protection.
* Finally (and aren't you glad to hear that word), as Og Mandino wrote,
1. Proclaim your rarity. Each of you is a rare and unique human being.
2. Use wisely your power of choice.
3. Go the extra mile ... drive home in the dark.
Oh, and put off buying a television set as long as you can.
Now, if you have any idea at all what's good for you, you will get the
hell out of
here and never come back. Class dismissed.