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Everything about Neal Boortz totally explained

Neal A. Boortz, Jr. (born April 6, 1945) is an American radio host, author, and self-described libertarian political commentator. His popular talk show, The Neal Boortz Show, is produced by Cox Radio and is syndicated throughout the United States by Jones Radio Networks. It is ranked sixth in overall listeners, with 3.75 million per week.
   A registered member of the Libertarian Party, Boortz touches on many controversial topics. He supports eliminating the war on drugs, lowering taxes, and shrinking the size of government, while disagreeing with the Libertarian Party platform by supporting incremental tax reform, the war in Iraq, and opposing unrestricted immigration, although he opposes illegal immigration. Like most libertarians, Boortz has sided with liberals on some social issues, with limitations, such as abortion, same-sex marriage, and civil liberties, while siding with fiscal conservatives on advocating less government spending and decreasing corporate regulation. On The Neal Boortz Show, he has criticized politicians, Muslim extremism, the homeless, government schools, liberals, smokers, the obese, welfare recipients, and people who drive at or below the speed limit. On air, Boortz refers to himself an "equal opportunity offender".
   His self-given nicknames include: "The Talkmaster", "Mighty Whitey", "The Mouth of the South", "America's Rude Awakening", and the "High Priest of the Church of the Painful Truth". followed by The Terrible Truth About Liberals, in 1998. In 2005, he co-wrote The FairTax Book with Congressman John Linder, proposing to implement a national retail sales tax in lieu of federal income taxes, payroll taxes, estate tax, etc., and the hardcover version debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list and held that spot for two weeks. In 2007, Boortz released Somebody's Gotta Say It, which is a compilation from his radio show and his life.. His latest book is a follow up to the The FairTax Book, with the same coauthor, entitled The Fair Tax: Answering the Critics.

Biography

Early life & education

Neal Boortz was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, which was his mother's home. Describing himself as a "military brat", Neal's father was a World War II pilot in the Marine Corps. As a military family, Neal lived in many locations throughout the country (most notably, in the small community of Thrall, Texas). Boortz spent his first two years of High School at Tustin Union High School in Tustin, California. The family then transferred to Florida where he attended Pensacola High School for his Junior and Senior years. He graduated from high school in 1963 with a C- average and went back to the state of Texas to attend Texas A&M University from 1963 to 1967. Boortz states "I was in the Corps of Cadets. Fighting Seagram's Seven, to be exact, Ed Zatopek, C.O." Boortz never served in the military. Boortz then attended John Marshall Law School, in Atlanta, Georgia where he graduated with a Law Degree.

Personal life

Outside of his program Boortz is a relatively private person. Residing three to four months of the year in Naples, Florida, he lives with his second wife, Donna. They have one daughter, Laura. Neal is an avid pilot and enjoys spending his free time playing golf or flying. He has said that "There's nothing like flying upside down to clear your mind ... among other things." He has been known to defend aviation on-air and point out trade idocy to aviators. Since early 2000, Boortz has been a motorcycle enthusiast. Boortz often claims on air that he donates money to many charitable organizations such as Angel Flight and has participated in 2007 Ride of Angels, a motorcycle ride from DeKalb-Peachtree Airport on August 26th, to benefit Angel Flight of Georgia.(External Link) Boortz owns a Mooney Ovation2 and a Super Decathlon airplane.

Professional career and rise to fame

Before going into radio, Boortz held many jobs with one of them being a speech writer for then Georgia Governor Lester Maddox. He first began his radio career in College Station, Texas in the 1960s at WTAW-AM under the name of Randy Neal while attending Texas A&M University. After attending A&M, Boortz went to Atlanta in 1967 to visit his parents and because he liked the area, he decided to stay. He immediately began job searches in the broadcasting industry. Because of the many rejections, for two years, Boortz spent time working at Rich’s Department Store as an assistant buyer in fine jewelry where he, in his words, "had the pleasure of assisting Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.", and then another job in carpeting. Boortz went on to write speeches for the Governor of Georgia. Boortz claims that even after he started doing talk radio, it was still necessary for him to work two jobs to support his family. At other times, he held odd jobs to pay the bills. Boortz further claims that he loaded trucks for the East Texas Motor Freight, worked as night auditor at a motel, worked at the Postal Service Bulk Mail facility, sold life insurance and among other things, worked for an employment agency. In 1974, Boortz started attending law school in his spare time.
   When Boortz moved to Atlanta, a new radio station named WRNG-AM came into existence. WRNG, which called itself "Ring Radio," was Atlanta’s first talk radio station. Boortz was an avid listener and would call their morning talk show host, Herb Elfman. Boortz was a regular caller that stirred a friendship between himself and the host. One evening while watching the news, he heard that Elfman had committed suicide. The next morning Boortz showed up at the front door of WRNG and announced that he was ready to take Elfman's place. Even though the management told him that "they were going to search for a 'qualified' host to take his place", Boortz was offered to be a temporary two-week replacement. In the interim, the evening host was moved to mornings and Boortz hosted the evening. Two weeks later, Boortz was moved to the morning show and has been doing talk radio in Atlanta ever since. As an entertainer, Neal was a 2002 NAB Marconi Radio Awards finalist and Radio & Records NewsTalk Personality of the Year for 2002. NewsMax.com Magazine's "Top 25 Talk Radio Host" list selected Boortz as the ninth most influential host in the nation.
   In 2007, Boortz and his radio show was awarded the honors of "Best Radio On-Air Personality" and "Best Radio Program, Any Type" by The Georgia Association of Broadcasters. He is also a nominee for the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame 2007 Career Achievement Award. The Neal Boortz Show airs from the nations eighth (8th) largest Radio Market and is ranked the sixth overall most listened to radio program in the country. The book is one of his most frequent topics of discussion and is a common free gift to callers.
   His latest book entitled Somebody's Gotta Say It was released on February 20, 2007, He occasionally writes columns on the Internet news/commentary site Townhall.com and other online magazines. His next book is titled .

Politics

Boortz supports a complete overhaul of the U.S. tax system and the release of all non-violent drug offenders who are currently in prison. He does tend to support Republicans on a few economic issues, but clashes with them on social issues. however, some feel his views are more in line with neolibertarianism philosophy (sometimes referred to as a "republitarian") that embraces incrementalism domestically, Neal disagrees with the Libertarian platform on several key issues including his firm support of the war in Iraq, Boortz counters that the issues of the greatest importance after the 9/11 attacks are those in which terrorism has dominated.
   Prior to the 2006 midterm elections, Boortz opined that perhaps it would be a good thing to have the Republicans lose power in Congress, forcing them to wake up and stop taking their base for granted. Boortz told one disgruntled caller:
I am happy about it [thedefeat]. It's the only way to get these Republicans to wake themselves up and say, 'You have abandoned what you were put in office for.'
Boortz can frequently be heard criticizing government schools, liberals, smokers, the obese, welfare recipients, and many other large welfare or large spending programs.

Controversies and criticisms

Boortz has dealt with many controversial issues over the years. For example, Boortz believes that ADD and ADHD are "medical frauds" and a scam that teachers, parents, and drug companies use. Boortz has also received criticism because he refers to homeless people as "urban outdoorsmen". Boortz controversially refers to public education as "tax payer funded child abuse" and accuses parents of child abuse for sending their children off to "government schools". He has also expressed a negative opinion about the lack of Muslim outrage for the actions of Muslim Terrorists and the riots that erupted in response to the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy. Media Matters reported that Boortz called the Islamic prophet Mumhammad "just a phony rag-picker" and said it was "praiseworthy to recognize Islam as a religion of vicious, violent, bloodthirsty cretins." Boortz has even sparred with Bill O'Reilly, goading O'Reilly to call him a "vicious son of a bitch" on The O'Reilly Factor. Boortz has made controversial statements about Muslim extremists, leading to thought and discussions of the alleged silence of the Muslim community over the misrepresentation of their religion. At the height of the Terri Schiavo controversy, Boortz strongly criticized groups that fought against the removal of Schiavo's feeding tube. Boortz has also very harshly criticized certain victims of Hurricane Katrina who misused FEMA relief money, referring to them as "worthless parasites" whose displacement from New Orleans was "just a glorified episode of putting out the garbage."

Boortzisms

Over the years Boortz has coined or made popular many sayings. He keeps a dictionary of "Boortzisms" called Boortztionary on his website. He uses nicknames for fellow talk show hosts like “The Antichrist” for Michael Savage, “Baby Jesus” for Sean Hannity, and “The Godfather” for Rush Limbaugh. Boortz uses many names for sexual activity like “discussing the Big Bang Theory”, “the beast with two backs”, and “making tricycle motors”. He calls masturbation “Firing the Surgeon General”, which is a reference to former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders who was fired by President Bill Clinton after she said that masturbation "is something that's part of human sexuality and its part of something that perhaps should be taught." Boortz also has named politicians, like calling Hillary Clinton the “Hildabeast”, calling John Kerry the “Poodle” ("combining his allegedly “pro-French” sentiments with the charge that he's Teresa's lap dog"), calling Al Gore "OwlGore", and calling John Edwards the “Breck Girl”.Further Information

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