Podcast 002: Political Unrest and Insider Tours




Uncommon Sense: the This is True Podcast show

Summary: In This Episode: Now we’re getting up to speed! My brother the recording studio engineer helped with balancing the microphone for my co-host Clare Angelica, and those tips helped with my side too. This is much more the “studio quality” I was aiming for in the first place.<br><br> <br> <br> Most Politicians Would Be<br><br> on the Other Side of the Table<br> The Missouri Parole Board was apparently pretty bored with its job, deciding whether offenders who were up for parole would get out, or stay in prison. Parole Board member Don Ruzicka, a former state legislator, admits he came up with a game to make hearings more fun: if a Board member or other employee said one of the “words of the day,” they’d score points. For instance, “platypus,” “hootenanny,” or the Johnny Cash song “Folsom Prison Blues” — say one, and score a point. In one hearing, Ruzicka asked an inmate what he had stolen, and then replied, “That’s a pretty rare item, about like a platypus.” Every time someone scored, it led to laughter from the Board. A report by the state Department of Corrections’ Inspector General concluded from listening to recordings of the hearings that the Board members “were trying so hard to embed the words or song titles into their questions or statements that they were not focused on the proper questions to ask nor were they actively listening to the responses from the offenders.” Ruzicka has resigned. (RC/WDAF Kansas City) …Suggested words to work into the I.G. report: “malfeasance,” “indictment,” and the Green Day song, “American Idiot.”<br> <br> Show Notes<br> <br> * I mentioned Clare’s women-pirate-romance trilogy again:<br> <br> * <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B009VNFA2U/thiistru-20">The Siren’s Sea: Revenge</a> (<a href="https://www.createspace.com/4919679">paperback</a>)<br> * <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B01JDIRLTM/thiistru-20">The Siren’s Sea: Redemption</a> (<a href="https://www.createspace.com/6472224">paperback</a>)<br> * <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B073BGMHFT/thiistru-20">The Siren’s Sea: Reawakening</a> (brand new: paperback not out yet).<br> <br> <br> * Tying in to the story above, the Randy’s Random post from last month: the extremely heavily shared meme <a href="https://randysrandom.com/term-limits/">Term Limits</a>. (And there happened to be a follow-on Wednesday on RR, but made long before it was published there: <a href="https://randysrandom.com/control-alt-especially-delete/">Control, Alt, and Delete</a>.) Clare made the first one, and I made the second. Notice how hers is much-more shared!<br> * The actual percentages of voters by party affiliation, according to the Gallup Poll (released January 11, 2016): 29 percent Democrat, 26 percent Republican, and 42 percent Independent. In 1988, for comparison, it was 36 percent Democrat, 31 percent Republican, and just 33 percent Independent — but even then, about one-third Independent. (<a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/188096/democratic-republican-identification-near-historical-lows.aspx">Source</a>)<br> * How is that Independent majority represented in Congress? The current Senate is 52 Republicans, 46 Democrats, and just 2 Independents. The House is 240 Republicans, 194 Democrats, 1 vacancy, and no Independents. (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/115th_United_States_Congress">Source</a>)<br> * For those who don’t know the name, Joe Scarborough served in the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 2001 as a Republican from the 1st district of Florida, and is now the co-host of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morning_Joe">Morning Joe</a> on MSNBC. He was named in the 2011 “Time [news magazine] 100” as one of the most influential people in the world. Here’s a news report about him <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/07/11/morning-joe-co..."></a>