For me, “one of those days” usually occurs on a Friday morning deadline when I don’t know what to write about.

It’s not that I don’t have things to write about, as I always have things to write about. But internally, on days like this, I ask myself if I should write about this or that thing, especially if someone out there decides the topic in question is “controversial” or “unsafe,” the worst possible sin in the world today, the topic makes someone feel “offended,” or it “hurts their feelings.”

And in a country where freedom of speech and the press is the First Amendment, should that question even have to be asked? Sadly, in today’s world it does. And it’s asked increasingly often in today’s cancel culture. Which leads to the following.

Moreover, there are topics I write about on which I do the worrying as to whether or not I might upset an advertiser or subscriber (subscribers please note, I generally ignore your feelings on topics because you tend to be wishy-washy, and you’ll love one column one week while hating the column the next week) but in the end, I tend to press the “send” key anyways while worrying about who might unsubscribe or cancel their ads.

But to be completely honest (and you should know I am if you are a consistent reader) pressing that key comes with a lot of consternation at times. As a matter of fact, I’ve only unsent one column in all my writings, and that was because I got a fact wrong in (what some might call) a screed about a group buying advertising who wanted to basically purchase my opinion and support in this space with their purchase of several full-page ads.

Oh, I still published the column, but had to reprint the entire press run of the paper, because getting it right in the minutiae of detail in what I write about is just as, if not more, important than the column itself. As a matter of (literal) fact, when it comes to publishing a newspaper, getting it right and factual is paramount above all else, obviously in our stories, but also even in silly, 900-word rants upon which my picture appears.

Speaking of which, I have new glasses. So, I need to update that. Not that folks don’t recognize me. They still hurl insults with abandon whenever I write a column they disagree with, although the subscription cancellations seem to have subsided. Apparently, I’ve weeded those out.

Not sure I should have put that last comment out there, because, karma, but as I said, hitting “send” always carries risks.

So, let’s look at a couple of topics in the news lately (one just this morning) that prove my “why I worry about what I write about” theory: Chuck Norris and the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA).

Yes, I realize one has nothing to do with the other, unless you made a movie where Chuck is a TSA officer saving the day. I mean, how cool would that be? Then again, that movie would expose just how poor a job the government does running the TSA. After all, we should buy those heroes gift cards, because their employer stopped paying them. Which, to me, would indicate the problem for government employees tends to always be their employer, but what do I know? But I digress.

So, here’s how I see the TSA problem. Our politicians are trying to make it our problem through our travel inconvenience and scapegoating TSA employees, because the federal government is playing politics with the immigration disaster it has created through bad policy. And both sides obviously want the problem to continue, so they have something to run on in the next election. So, obviously their solution is to find a way to divide the people on immigration, because they have no intention of enforcing any of the myriad immigration laws on the books already.

What bothers me most? The people who can’t see that. And the people don’t even realize this. The TSA is already funded and always has been. If you would care to recall, there was an amount added to your airline ticket after 9/11 to actually fund the long lines and ridiculousness of placing all those potential liquid explosives into the same trash bin next to the line you are standing in. As a matter of fact, the charge showed up as its own line on your ticket to sell you the need for the TSA (and the more important needs of the federal government), another massive bureaucracy that it controls.

So basically, the TSA is funded – unless the government did something like take all those dollars and spend them elsewhere. Which appears to be exactly what it did. So, the funding set aside to pay TSA employees now falls under the purview of “Homeland Security,” whose funding can only come from Congress, an entity whose sole purpose is to overtax (or print monies) to fund its ever-increasing need to fund things that demand more funding. This is what makes using the TSA, in its inconveniencing of the people who travel, the perfect fall guy for congressional incompetence in not wanting (again) to do its job.

As for Chuck Norris in all of this? He’d never let it happen if he was part of the TSA or Congress. There isn’t a terrorist on the planet who’d dare challenge Chuck in even trying to get on an airplane. Imagine the cheers (and confidence) we’d have in our TSA (admit it, you might be polite to these folks – and you should be, given their impossible task – but how much confidence do you have in the process?) if they did a whirly-kick on a terrorist or problem traveler every so often?

And if Chuck did that to another member of Congress, on C-SPAN no less, he’d be an even greater American. And while each of those things would make him a hero – or yes, villain, depending on how your party is telling you to think depending on how they are abusing power on any given day – those aren’t the real things that will make Chuck remembered as bad for all too many.

No, that would be the fact Chuck was a God-fearing, law-abiding, successful, patriotic American. That’s why for all the good social media posts coming out early, there will be bad posts coming out later. That’s how things roll in America. And even Chuck Norris isn’t immune. Isn’t that how it’s played out with the TSA? We hired them as heroes, keeping us safe from terror in the skies. And now all they are is a giant bureaucracy screwing up our travel, screaming at us to take off our shoes and open our laptops and making sure something 3.2 ounces doesn’t make it on board.

We ALL outgrow what people say we’re supposed to be doing.

I mean, I’m well past the whole “Craig’s great, he says the things we’re all thinking about” portion of my career. That doesn’t work anymore in today’s social media environment.

Doesn’t mean I still won’t say it. After all, at some point, they’ll come for me – and you, too. I would say if God himself came down to live among us, it would happen to Him as well today. But He’s already done that. Chuck knew it. That’s why he lived unafraid. We should all try it.

If we could all live like Chuck Norris, we wouldn’t need the TSA. Travel sure would be easier, faster and cheaper. But where’s the power in that in D.C.?

In Truth and freedom.

Craig Hall is owner and publisher of The Business Times. Reach him at 424-5133 or publisher@thebusinesstimes.com