tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281791102024-03-13T05:15:36.722-05:00The Rag BlogThe Raghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15985130753260648425noreply@blogger.comBlogger9379125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28179110.post-61299916149458823562014-01-10T22:32:00.000-06:002014-01-10T22:53:13.559-06:00THE RAG BLOG HAS MOVED!!!
We're now at TheRagBlog.com
(And we're having a party!)
The Rag Blog has a new website!
We've moved to TheRagBlog.com and we're having a Launch Party this Friday in Austin! Please join us for The Underground Goes Overboard, with special guests Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, former leaders of SDS and the Weather Underground. Plus live music from the Melancholy Ramblers.
It's all thorne dreyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16274390474388668913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28179110.post-38269615890603825432014-01-07T18:39:00.000-06:002014-01-27T11:05:47.669-06:00Alan Wieder : Bill Ayers' 'Public Enemy: Confessions of an American Dissident'This page has moved.
In his ongoing journey, and with his new memoir, 'Public Enemy,' Bill Ayers continues to bring the radical 'spark' forward.
Image from Uprising Radio.
By Alan Wieder | The Rag Blog | January 7, 2014
Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn will speak at "Underground Goes Overboard," a launch party for TheRagBlog.com, at 7 p.m., Friday, January 17, at the 5604 Manor Community thorne dreyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16274390474388668913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28179110.post-24968332258343733112014-01-06T23:37:00.001-06:002014-01-07T12:01:54.992-06:00Michael James : Like a Bruegel Painting, 1966
The JOIN Community Union was our effort in Uptown, Chicago, to build solidarity and create an organized force for change, especially among poor people of Southern origin.
SNCC’s Curtis Hayes (Muhammad) and SDS’s Susan Lum in Uptown, Chicago,
1966. Photos by Michael James from his forthcoming book, Michael Gaylord
James' Pictures from the Long Haul.
By Michael James | The Rag Blog | thorne dreyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16274390474388668913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28179110.post-38238666463164394562014-01-06T19:16:00.001-06:002014-01-07T12:04:24.434-06:00 Bob Feldman : A People's History of Egypt, Part 12, Section 2, 1947-1948
The movement to democratize Egypt: Except for their religious beliefs, Jews shared lifestyles with those of Muslim background.
Jewish home in Egypt. Image from BBC Watch.
By Bob Feldman | The Rag Blog | January 6, 2014
[With all the dramatic activity in Egypt, Bob Feldman's Rag Blog "people's history" series, "The Movement to Democratize Egypt," could not be more timely. Also see thorne dreyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16274390474388668913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28179110.post-31116931690895558102014-01-04T12:05:00.000-06:002014-01-07T12:06:12.215-06:00Kate Braun : Waxing Crescent Moon is Time to Set New Goals
Moon Musings: The Waxing Crescent Moon -- which falls on January 4–5, 2014, is a time to set goals for positive changes in your life.
Waxing crescent moon. Image from Wikimedia Commons.
By Kate Braun | The Rag Blog | January 3, 2013
Waxing moons are times to set new goals, recognize new objectives, promote new growth, and set forces in motion to help you achieve these goals, objectives, thorne dreyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16274390474388668913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28179110.post-21607190246380032802013-12-27T22:29:00.001-06:002013-12-27T22:31:08.652-06:00Alan Waldman: 'A Bit of Fry & Laurie' Was Brilliant British Sketch Series
Waldman's film and TV
treasures you may have missed:
This was most people’s first exposure to the highly original comic genius of English national treasures Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, who wrote and performed many classic sketches.
By Alan Waldman / The Rag Blog / December 27, 2013
[In his weekly column, Alan Waldman reviews some of his favorite films and TV series that readers may have thorne dreyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16274390474388668913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28179110.post-25283579115560549632013-12-22T23:58:00.000-06:002013-12-22T23:58:03.020-06:00Tom Hayden : Progressive Dems See Opening for New Politics
Elizabeth Warren and the populists say 'No way!' to 'Third Way.'
Conditions ripe for a new politics:
An opening for progressive Democrats
The Democratic progressive base is making clear that Hillary Clinton must make an adjustment from her hawkish centrism towards the new populism.
By Tom Hayden / The Rag Blog / December 23, 2013
The sight of progressive Democrats shaming and exposing the thorne dreyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16274390474388668913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28179110.post-14388763659516791862013-12-22T23:41:00.000-06:002013-12-22T23:41:21.754-06:00Jack A. Smith : Climate Change Confab Brings Too Little Too Late
Climate change activists in Warsaw, Friday, November 22, 2013, portray, from right, French President Francois Hollande, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, President Obama, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Photo by Czarek Sokolowski, / AP.
Climate Change meeting in
Warsaw brings too little too late
Given the number of drastic reports about climate change... the accomplishments at COP19 thorne dreyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16274390474388668913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28179110.post-51768485467191578722013-12-22T23:19:00.000-06:002013-12-23T17:19:46.917-06:00Lamar W. Hankins : Opportunist Narvaiz Takes On Doggett Again in Gerrymandered 35th
Congressional candidate Susan Narvaiz and friend. Image from Facebook.
Unsolicited advice, Dept.:
A Narvaiz strategy to defeat Doggett
Narvaiz is a political chameleon who says what she needs to say and does what she needs to do to protect herself from political accountability.
By Lamar W. Hankins / The Rag Blog / December 23, 2013
SAN MARCOS, Texas -- Three years ago, when Susan Narvaiz thorne dreyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16274390474388668913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28179110.post-46421411428794198592013-12-22T22:23:00.001-06:002013-12-22T22:23:12.404-06:00Steve Horn : Keystone XL's Houston 'Fork in the Road'
Houston's refinery row. Image from Gulf Restoration Network / DaSmogBlog.
Keystone XL fork in the road:
TransCanada's Houston Lateral Pipeline
Houston's LyondellBasell refinery is retooling itself for the looming feast of tar sands crude and fracked oil bounty that awaits the Houston Lateral's completion.
By Steve Horn / DeSmogBlog / December 23, 2013
Only Barack Obama knows the fate of the thorne dreyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16274390474388668913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28179110.post-65507129905073047912013-12-19T22:45:00.004-06:002013-12-23T10:48:34.228-06:00RAG RADIO / Thorne Dreyer : November Guests Include Spiritual Counselor, Citizens' Advocate, Singer-Songwriter
Rev. Bob Breihan, Methodist minister and longtime social activist, on Rag Radio, November 29, 2013. Photo by Roger Baker / The Rag Blog.
Rag Radio podcasts:
Thorne Dreyer interviews Rev. Bob Breihan,
Sam Daley-Harris, Doyle Niemann & Mariann
Wizard, Susan D. Carle, and Slaid Cleaves
Our November guests were a Methodist minister and longtime social activist, a noted citizens' advocate, thorne dreyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16274390474388668913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28179110.post-10565975576056019312013-12-18T23:55:00.000-06:002013-12-21T11:08:10.087-06:00BOOKS / Alan Wieder : Paul Buhle's 'Radical Jesus: A Graphic History of Faith'
Paul Buhle's 'Radical Jesus':
Comic artists explore the history
and social message of Jesus Christ
By Alan Wieder / The Rag Blog / December 19, 2013
Paul Buhle, the noted historian, author, graphic novel publisher, and editor of Radical Jesus, is Thorne Dreyer's guest on the 200th edition of Rag Radio, Friday, December 20, from 2-3 p.m. (CST). Rag Radio airs and streams live on thorne dreyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16274390474388668913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28179110.post-13658720426307110542013-12-18T23:50:00.000-06:002013-12-19T09:39:25.835-06:00Rabbi Arthur Waskow : Israel, Hillel, and Idolatry
Harvard Hillel banned a speech by former Israeli Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg.
The spiritual issue:
Israel, Hillel, and idolatry
The Hillel International prohibitions make the State of Israel, and indeed only one version of it, into an idol.
By Rabbi Arthur Waskow / The Rag Blog / December 19, 2013
Recent controversies within Hillel International, the “home” for many Jewish college thorne dreyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16274390474388668913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28179110.post-77594407398709413802013-12-18T23:45:00.000-06:002013-12-19T00:28:58.209-06:00Paul Krassner : Is There a Doctor in the House?
Doctors provide free medical care at the Riverside County Fair Grounds in California's Coachella Valley earlier this year. Image from KESQ.com.
California tops in most uninsured:
Is there a doctor in the house?
The insurance industry has a preexisting condition known in technical terminology as greed.
By Paul Krassner / The Rag Blog / December 19, 2013
Although Coachella Valley in Southern thorne dreyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16274390474388668913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28179110.post-48492163782466618152013-12-17T12:01:00.000-06:002013-12-17T12:03:03.543-06:00Kate Braun : Winter Solstice Falls on Saturn's Day
Saturnalia by Ernesto Biondi, 1909.
Io Saturnalia!
Winter Solstice 2013
This seasonal celebration takes from many traditions, including the Roman Saturnalia, Druid customs, the German 'Yule,' and the birth of Jesus; and Queen Victoria popularized the lighted Christmas tree.
By Kate Braun /
The Rag Blog / December 17, 2013
Saturday, December 21, 2013, marks Yule, the Winter Solstice, also thorne dreyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16274390474388668913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28179110.post-71929713157501706372013-12-16T22:11:00.000-06:002013-12-16T22:11:21.682-06:00Allen Young : Ralph Dungan, the 'Good Liberal'
Ralph Dungan in Chile, 1966. Photo from The Washington Post.
Discretion, valor,
and the 'good liberal'
In the most patronizing tone, Mr. Dungan said if we opposed U.S. policy, we should 'return to the U.S. and run for Congress.'
By Allen Young / The Rag Blog / December 16, 2013
The October obituary of Ralph Dungan, one of President John F. Kennedy’s top aides who later served as thorne dreyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16274390474388668913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28179110.post-5301830218704249462013-12-11T23:18:00.000-06:002013-12-11T23:20:02.929-06:00Ed Felien : A Good [Angry White] Man With a Gun
Image from The L Magazine.
Pissed-off patriot:
‘A good man with a gun’
These angry white men are doing their best to bring back an idealized past that never really existed
By Ed Felien / The Rag Blog / December 12, 2013
“The only thing that stops a bad man with a gun is a good man with a gun.” -- Wayne LaPierre, National Rifle Association
Paul Anthony Ciancia believed he was that good man.thorne dreyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16274390474388668913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28179110.post-11673752829048599192013-12-11T21:29:00.000-06:002013-12-15T17:20:37.928-06:00BOOKS / Ron Jacobs : Matt Hern Writes With Bravado That Sports Do Matter
Wait a minute people:
Sports do have meaning
Engagingly written, One Game at a Time is motivated by the belief that sports do matter as much as sports fans think they do.
By Ron Jacobs / The Rag Blog / December 12, 2013
[One Game at a Time: Why Sports Matter by Matt Hern (2013: AK Press); Paperback; 176 pp; $10.63.]
Earlier this fall the Boston Red Sox baseball team blew most preseason thorne dreyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16274390474388668913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28179110.post-32515777217835881312013-12-10T13:11:00.001-06:002013-12-10T13:11:54.899-06:00Lamar W. Hankins : Right-Wing Rants and the Abominable Straw Man
The abominable Straw Man argument. Image from Linda's Bees.
Frosty the Straw Man:
How right-wing rants
poison political discussion
If we could have civil discourse about our disagreements and try to understand why we have differences of opinion, perhaps we would have fewer rants from all sides of the political divide.
By Lamar W. Hankins / The Rag Blog / December 10, 2013
The Internetthorne dreyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16274390474388668913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28179110.post-85768582153069127332013-12-10T11:23:00.000-06:002013-12-10T11:23:51.888-06:00HISTORY / Bob Feldman : A People's History of Egypt, Part 12, Section 1, 1947-1948
Police crack down on strikers in Mahalla, 1947, killing three workers. Image from Hossam el-Hamalawy / Flickr.
A people's history:
The movement to democratize Egypt
Part 12: 1947-1948 period/Section 1 -- Anti-imperialist left grows; Muslim Brotherhood collaborates with Egyptian regime.
By Bob Feldman / The Rag Blog / December 10, 2013
[With all the dramatic activity in Egypt, Bob Feldman's thorne dreyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16274390474388668913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28179110.post-77841482364557711922013-12-09T20:05:00.000-06:002013-12-09T20:05:37.317-06:00Harry Targ : My Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela, 1918-2013.
My Nelson Mandela
Real historic figures get lionized, sanitized, and most importantly redefined as defenders of the ongoing order rather than activists who committed their lives to revolutionary changes...
By Harry Targ / The Rag Blog / December 10, 2013
One of the ironies of 21st century historical discourse is that despite significantly increased access to thorne dreyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16274390474388668913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28179110.post-89022488303062009802013-12-08T20:15:00.000-06:002013-12-09T18:48:09.478-06:00Michael James : Back to Uptown, 1965-1966
Two men, Uptown Chicago, 1966. Photos by Michael James from his forthcoming book, Michael Gaylord James' Pictures from the Long Haul.
Pictures from the Long Haul:
Back to Uptown: Bye-bye California,
Chicago here I come, 1965-1966
I was glad to be back in Uptown, progressing along my path with another left turn and a big step into America.
By Michael James / The Rag Blog / December 9, thorne dreyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16274390474388668913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28179110.post-29208230282864944902013-12-03T18:00:00.000-06:002013-12-04T14:26:06.102-06:00Alan Waldman : ‘Last of the Summer Wine’ Has Kept Millions Laughing for 37 Years
Waldman's film and TV
treasures you may have missed:
British national treasure, Roy Clarke, created and wrote all 295 episodes of this droll series about three elderly Yorkshiremen with too much time on their hands.
By Alan Waldman / The Rag Blog / December 3, 2013
[In his weekly column, Alan Waldman reviews some of his favorite films and TV series that readers may have missed, including TVthorne dreyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16274390474388668913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28179110.post-65923946874712753262013-11-19T19:23:00.000-06:002013-11-19T20:03:07.957-06:00Alice Embree : Chile and the Politics of Memory
Me gustan los estudiantes. This painting by Austin's Carlos Lowry is the cover art on the Fall 2013 NACLA Report on the Americas.
The contradictions of Chile
and the politics of memory
The elections in Chile take place as the country marks the fortieth anniversary of the bloody military coup that happened with covert U.S. assistance.
By Alice Embree / The Rag Blog / November 20, 2013
“[T]thorne dreyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16274390474388668913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28179110.post-20025560237995883982013-11-19T17:44:00.000-06:002013-11-19T17:46:03.609-06:00Paul Krassner : A Tale of Two Alternative Media Conferences
Event organizer Larry Yurdin at the 1970 Alternative Media Conference at Goddard College. Yurdin, who later managed Pacifica radio station KPFT in Houston, also attended the 2013 conference. Image from goddard.edu.
Returning to the scene...
A tale of two alternative media conferences
In 1970, the keynote speech was delivered by Ram Dass, the delightfully stimulating spiritual teacher. The thorne dreyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16274390474388668913noreply@blogger.com