Impolite Company

You may have seen that Mule Radio recently decided to refocus and that they will soon only host Mule Design employee shows.

First, I/we want to thank the folks at Mule for their support. They heard about Impolite Company before it was even officially a “thing” and invited us to be a part of their network, even knowing that it would be a tough show to sell to advertisers.

Special thanks to Caleb Sexton who not only encouraged us to do the show, but did all the editing and other technical aspects of getting each episode “published”. Ttttttttrust me when I tell you that he made us sound a lot better, in so many ways.

Second, as you’ve (hopefully!) noticed, it has been awhile since we released a new episode. That has nothing to do with Mule Radio and everything to do with Lindsay and my schedule for the past few months. Lindsay is currently studying for a huge test for her day job, after having been through her busiest time at work, and -- oh yeah -- having to move with little more than a month’s notice. That came after a busy time for me, and the combination of everything sort of knocked us off the rails for awhile.

However, we both want to continue to do the show, and we plan to be back.

(Warning: source link contains gross pop-up ads. You may prefer the Instapaper-formatted version.)

Quoting from the above:

On a recent Friday afternoon, with budget negotiations winding down, Arizona state representative John Kavanagh was racing against the clock. His position as House Appropriations Chairman afforded him the opportunity to stuff whatever minor extra provisions he wanted into the budget before it went to a vote the following Monday, and he only had a few hours left to do it.

What was Kavanagh frantically trying to accomplish for his constituents at the last minute? Extra funding for education, since Arizona spends less on educating its children than all but three states? No, Rep. John Kavanagh was trying to secure an extra $900,000 gift for the GEO Group, the billion-dollar private prison corporation whose state lobbyists came to him at the last second begging with upturned hats. The $45 million already earmarked for the maintenance of low- and medium-security facilities wasn’t enough, they said.

The Arizona Department of Corrections didn’t ask for the extra money, nor did anybody push for the prison funds to be included in the Senate budget.

“This came out of nowhere — I mean that,” Arizona House Minority Leader Chad Campbell told the Arizona Republic. “No one said a word about it. It wasn’t in the Senate budget, it didn’t come as a request from DOC. There’s something really shady here.”

For Kavanagh, there was nothing shady about sweetening the deal with nearly a million extra dollars. On the contrary, he says, it was a moral imperative.

“If somebody cuts you a smoking deal and helps you when you’re down, and you get more money back, I think you morally have a responsibility to increase the payments,” Kavanagh told the Arizona Republic in a taped interview the following Monday.

A moral responsibility to help a private company which was already being paid $45 million.

It actually gets worse:

Arizona is one of four states (along with Virginia, Oklahoma and Louisiana) in which state governments are bound to contracts guaranteeing a 95%-100% occupancy in facilities leased by private prisons.

Think. About. That. They are obligated to keep the prisons full.

Matthew 25:31-46 (New Revised Standard Version)

(31) “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. (32) All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, (33) and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. (34) Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; (35) for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, (36) I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ (37) Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? (38) And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? (39) And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ (40) And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family,) you did it to me.’ (41) Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; (42) for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, (43) I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ (44) Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’ (45) Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ (46) And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

TL;DR: “Dear Arizona state representative John Kavanagh and everyone else who allows this to happen: Jesus says He hopes that you enjoy the eternal fire of hell.”

Personally I’ve always found SpongeBob to be annoying, but just because I don’t like something doesn’t make it a sin, so I’m going to have to say no.

Poor planning on our part. Yeah, sorry about that.

December was a pretty busy month for Lindsay’s “real world” job, and when we finally were able to find time to record an episode it was getting close to Christmas, so we figured people might not have time to listen. Then we neglected to tell Caleb that there was an episode waiting. Now, Caleb is a fantastic and talented editor (seriously, there isn’t a single episode where Lindsay and I don’t say “Caleb will have to fix that”) plus he’s really good at separating ‘wheat’ and ‘chaff,’ verbally speaking.) but TurnsOut™ he is not omniscient. (I know! We were surprised too!)

Anyway… long story short: it was our fault, but here’s the good news! We’re back! In fact, we have a new episode available right now!

Episode #19: January 20th, 2014: He’s Still Got That ‘New Pope’ Smell

We’ve plan to release on a more reliable schedule, and we’ve already started working to get a little ahead.

GOP Congressional Candidate: Duck Dynasty Star Is 'Rosa Parks Of Our Generation'

Oh hell no.

Worship on the run: A new kind of church (The Christian Century)

Biblical Literalism's Tight Grip - Bryan Bibb