Fun With Dick & Jane

On Wednesday The President signed legislation which once again highlights the notion that we are certainly not all equal in America.

As of this week, the penalty for my business partner murdering me, is less heinous than the penalty for me murdering my business partner. That’s because my business partner is a lesbian, and President Obama says that if I kill her, it is much worse than if she kills me.

From the Washington Post:

The legislation extends provisions first passed in 1968 that make it a federal crime to target individuals because of their race, religion or national origin. Under the law, judges can impose harsher penalties on crimes that are motivated by such animus, and the Justice Department can help local police departments investigate alleged hate crimes.

Now apparently the saving grace is that some brilliant and all knowing Judge can determine if the fact that the deceased is a lesbian has anything to do with the killing. That should be a chip shot because apparently the hatred of a lesbian is a lot higher on the scale than any hatred of lil’ ole me which would result in my murder.

So what if a gay person kills another gay person? Do they get a pass? How can we expect a Judge to determine it wasn’t some deep inner resentment of gayness?

At any rate, the President has once again made sure that we know that we really aren’t all equal. Another wall has been built in the name of political correctness. Great job Mr. President!

Sadly I ran out of recording space early on in the show this week. I’ve erased 50 hours of tape and should be ready to go next week. Sorry about that!

We began with the MA senate race. Dick thinks Martha Coakley will win. I don’t see it.

We went on to Senator Kerry and his latest earmark in the defense bill: $20,000,000 for the Ted Kennedy education senator. This is $20,000,000 that will be taken directly from the troops and poured into a project which is repetitive at best. This is just the latest in a huge series of earmarks Kerry has made in the name of Kennedy. Dick and I both agreed it is time for him to be defeated.

We went on to health care. Congress is exempting themselves from the legislation, so their 24/7 elite medical care will remain in tact. I ranted a bit about the imperialism that is Congress today and how important it is for us to elect people committed to getting rid of the special treatment. The hypocrisy of our leaders is simply breathtaking.

We talked about the president’s bid to befriend both Iran and Russia and how both countries have made him look like a fool – Iran by proclaiming we were agreeable to letting them develop a nuke. (I hope we didn’t agree to that, but with the “most transparent administration in history” how would you know?) And Russia who weeks after convincing President Obama to drop its missile shield, fired off a long range missile this week, to show us who is now boss.

We had some fun talking about the “War on Fox News”. I still don’t think we know the entire motive. Is it to defer attention from health care, Afghanistan, Russia, Iran, climate change and all the other things the President doesn’t want us talking about, or is it a shot across the bow letting us know he can out-Nixon, Nixon? Or perhaps a pre-curser to “Net Neutrality” coming to a vote Thursday.

We talked about the fact that the White House promised if we passed an $800 billion stimulus plan we would create 1,000,000 jobs by now. The White House’s own site admits they have created a mere 30,000 jobs.

And we had our usual Barney Frank report. Barney is trying to force banks to lower lending requirements, thus trying to usher in a new sub-prime mortgage debacle. What a joke.

Enjoy!

When I initially hired my business partner as an associate I knew she was a lesbian. It played no role, positive or negative in my decision. I liked her and thought she had the makings of a great lawyer. I was right.

We quickly became great friends. And given my personality, no subject was off the table. I was pretty sure she wasn’t likely to sue me for crossing the line of political correctness, which I do regularly and always have.

I was raised to believe that “differences are the most interesting thing in the world” and I still believe that. That’s why my best friend in college (a Chinese woman) and I spent hours in front of the mirror examining just how our eyes were different (I have an extra fold). It’s the same reason why, as a kid, I visited every church I could, to see the differences. And yes, as a kid I laughed at my second grade teacher’s wedding when the clergy started to talk in Greek. It sure sounded funny to seven year old me. It’s also the reason why, in the early ’60’s when they circulated a petition in my neighborhood in favor of having a popular black teacher move in, I asked my mother why on earth he needed a petition. Nothing seemed more stupid to me at the time.

For me, meeting someone who is different – in color, in heritage, in orientation or age or anything else always meant I had a huge opportunity to learn new stuff. It certainly isn’t beyond me to ask someone “what’s the best/worst thing about being blind?”, or “do you think this town is racist?, or “how does it feel to grow old?”

Inevitably, the answers bring me closer to the person I asked the question of. Questions, break down barriers. And people seem to like to talk about the things that for so many are off limits.

Not long after Amy and I started working together, we decided to go on a diet together, thinking that there was power in numbers. In our typical morning pre-work bull session, she mentioned that she had gone off the diet the night before. My reply: “You are just a tubbo lesbo”.

Her reply: “Well you are just a tubbo hetero”.

At that point I knew our trust in each other was complete.

We could actually laugh at ourselves and each other regardless of our differences. We were on the same side.

Over the years the proponents of political correctness have undoubtedly meant well. But they have served to push us apart instead of together. They have demanded that the curiosity that blurs the lines be replaced with thicker lines. And then the thicker lines get replaced by lawsuits, and hate crimes legislation.

In today’s liberal world differences are things to be ignored not explored. The things that could bring us together in understanding now keep us apart out of fear of offending. It’s time to put political correctness, out of vogue.

Joe Mangiacotta joined us today from Money Matters. He is taking over the 6-9AM spot on WESO starting net week. He plans to concentrate on local talent and talk about all things financial. I’ll be joining him next Monday at 8:00 AM for the kickoff.

WE started out discussing the awarding of the Nobel Prize to President Obama. Dick fantasized that the award went to the entire nation for its greatness. Joe and I laughed a bit too hard at that notion. We all agreed that a re-gifting was in order.

Health care was next as we awaited the vote in the Senate Finance Committee. Once again Dick complained about the cost of his drugs, and once again I reminded him that cost would not be going down as President Obama made a deal with the drug companies – they paid him off in exchange for no price regulation.

WE had an interesting discussion about the “Nanny State”. First on the list was the 6 year old cub scout who was given 45 days in reform school for bringing a spork to school. (Apparently late last night he got a reprieve.) WE went on to the potential ban on sports fishing – both Joe and Dick agreed that banning sports fishing would bring on revolution faster than anything. And we briefly discussed the proposed ban on hamburger and the fact that Larry King devoted a show to discussing the pros and cons.

WE discussed the White House war on Fox News and the gays – and much much more. Enjoy!

It was a historical show today. Unfortunately I forgot to turn on the recorder.

Sorry.

Today’s show was fun – we started with Dick’s correct prediction that Paul Kirk would be named interim MA senator (after Deval Patrick manipulated the rules to allow the appointment). This was minutes after Kirk declared he supported the “public option” and hours before it was voted down. C’est la vie.

We want on to Health care and the Congress’ gag order on Humana to force them to stop telling their policy holders what would be the changes under Obama care. We went on to the democrats unwillingness to allow the public (or Congress) to read the bill for 72 hours before the vote.

Next up GITMO and the very discouraging news that President Obama refuses press access to the camps. This is a huge and troubling change from the Bush administration. The key question is: why?

We talked about ACORN, Patrick Gaspard, ties to the SEIU, and the press. Dick gloated that 2 weeks after the whole thing unraveled he found a story on ACORN in the NY Times owned Worcester Telegram. Page 1 you ask? Of course not.

We moved on to Iran, Wall Streets $7.7m in donations to democrats this year (the bulk to Chuck Schumer) the Olympics, Roman Polanski and finally Sarah Palin’s new book.

Enjoy!