Neal Boortz
Thursday, Sept. 20, 2001

Well, we have a limited column today. Blame this one on Nimda, one of the newest viruses. You don't even have to open an e-mail attachment. All you have to do is highlight the e-mail message or visit an infected website. That's it. Only need to hit one computer in the company network and you're cooked. Finally managed to get into the Internet and my web page online … on line but outta time.

Operation 'Infinite Justice'?

What kind of a candy-ass name is "Infinite Justice?" How about "Infinite Retribution" or "Infinite Pain"?

"Infinite Justice"? This isn't a court case. We're not filing suit against Osama Yomama. We're not asking for a temporary restraining order while a court decides if bin Laden should be permitted to continue with his terrorism.

No terrorist is going to feel his blood run cold when he hears the words "Infinite Justice."

Here's an idea. Let's go back to Admiral Yamamoto, the Japanese military leader who planned and executed the attack on Pearl Harbor. Let's call this campaign "Terrible Resolve."

A Thief With a Heart

Randy (Snord) and Spiff (Sternfaulter) hold forth every morning on one of our sister stations in Atlanta. It seems that someone stole Randy's American Express account number. The thief promptly used Randy's Amex card to (1) Donate $50,000 to the American Red Cross; and (2) buy $2,000 worth of junk on the Internet. Randy says he's going to let the Red Cross donation stand.

More of These Depressing Anti-flag Stories

With every day that passes we get more stories of the anti-U.S.-flag nitwits out there gnashing their teeth and wringing their hands over the feelings of foreign students.

• This time it happened at Florida Gulf Coast University in Ft. Myers. The head of library services at that school stopped displays of the American flag by employees. Said that it might be "offensive" to some foreign students.

• A story two days ago from California quoted people starting to be "bothered" by the sight of too many American flags.

• Lehigh University in Pennsylvania last week. A student affairs dean ordered an American flag removed from a university shuttle bus .

• The school system in Pasadena, Texas, sent children home with American flags on their T-shirts: "inappropriate attire."

• NCCI Holdings Inc., an insurance company in Boca Raton, Fla., prohibited the display of American flags. Said it may be offensive to some workers.

• Two Black Muslim firemen stationed in Opa-Locka, Fla., refused to ride on a fire engine decorated with the Stars and Stripes. Hundreds of angry people have called the city. The two firemen are now on scheduled vacations – and the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Director has ordered that county fire engines display the American flag as a tribute to the New York firefighters killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center.

• Residents at Sahuaro Hall, a dormitory on the campus of Arizona State University, posted American flags throughout their hall and printed fliers showing the World Trade Center and the caption "Remember." But Sodexho Marriott, which runs the Sahuaro Market, took down a flag one of the residents had posted in the market. Some students say Sodhexo Marriott is afraid of offending international students. Sodhexo Marriott says students need to obtain permission before posting anything in the market.

• An employee of John Elway Ford in Boulder, Colo., arrived at work Friday afternoon wearing an American flag bandana tied around his head. The manager told the employee that the bandana was "unprofessional" and violated the dealership's dress code. He told the employee he could wear the bandana all day if he wanted ... at home.

• New York's Cablevision Corporation, the owner of Cable News Channel 12, has banned the American flag from its news programming. On-air displays of the flag are prohibited. News 12 news director Pat Dolan said he became concerned when American flags started showing up in his newsroom and his news anchors started wearing flag lapel pins. Dolan says he doesn't want to give "a false impression that we lean one way or the other" or give the impression that "we may subtly endorse what the government is doing."

Just what is going on here? Suddenly it's politically correct to go out of your way to protect people from becoming offended by the sight of an American flag! Look, I have no problem with letting law-abiding foreigners attend our colleges and universities – at their expense. The idea, though, that they should be shielded from the sight of an American Flag while attending school in America is an absurdity of stupendous measure.

I would be ashamed and embarrassed to be associated with Florida Gulf Coast University at this time. The library services director has now issued an apology, which you can read at http://www.fgcu.edu/PressReleases/09-19-01statement.html OK, that's fine. But how many of you think that this apology is genuine? That apology, as well as the apologies issued by the CEO of NCCI in Boca Raton and that student dean at Lehigh, are apologies driven by public outrage, not by genuine feelings of remorse.

America has fought wars before – but not even during the Vietnam War do I remember such animosity being shown toward the American flag.

ABC Pulls Footage of Airplanes Hitting Towers

The president of ABC news has decided that ABC will no longer show footage of those two hijacked airliners hitting the World Trade Towers. He thinks it is just too horrible for Americans to watch. Gee, thanks for making that tough decision for me. After all, I'm just a helpless, overly emotional ordinary American completely unable to make my own judgments of what I want and don't want to watch on television.

And the First Peep We Hear out of Ted Kennedy Is …

… his demand for a new so-called "hate crime" law to punish Americans who attack or harass people who are or look like they are Arab or Muslim.

Be on the alert, folks. The enemies of liberty and freedom – and especially the enemies of free speech – are on the prowl. The left is going to use this tragedy to promote their "hate crime" agenda, which is nothing less than an agenda to criminalize thought.

Don't let your guard down.

They Were Just Social Activists?

The blame game rolls on. Some of this country's leftists just can't resist cozying up to the terrorists.

In the Washington Post yesterday, there was an open letter from columnist Courtland Milloy to his 11-year-old son. Milloy wrote, "I believe there are psychopaths throughout the world who are exploiting the suffering of the poor – suffering that Americans too often ignore. Terrorists such as Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein seek to mitigate this suffering by sponsoring opportunities for 'bliss in the hereafter.' Meanwhile, they get the perverse pleasure of watching the powerful squirm. Of course, America is not squirming, and somebody is going to pay. But don't lose sight of the suffering, which is systemic and deeply rooted – in colonialism, racism, religious bigotry and greed."

Yes, that's right. Courtland Milloy seems to say the U.S. brought the attack upon itself by neglecting the suffering of the people who live in poverty. More than 5,000 people are dead because of American colonialism, racism and greed. And the people who committed these heinous acts were just misguided social activists.

Can America get a break here? How can anyone even begin to rationalize the mass murder of innocent people?

The biggest threat to this republic may not be international terrorism, my friends. It may be from within – from the anti-American left.

Neal Boortz is the hugely popular nationally syndicated radio host.