Category Archives: Rag Bloggers

History as Politics : Remembering the Berlin Wall

Man straddles Berlin Wall in 1989. Photo from photosfan.com.History as politics, Politics as history: Remembering the Berlin Wall By Harry Targ / The Rag Blog / November 9, 2009 …you are Americans and are meant to carry liberty and justice … Continue reading

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Mexico : Drug Decrim and the 10,000-Ton Monkey

Pot smoker in Mexico City. Mexicans consume an estimated 342 tons of marijuana a year. Photo by Castillo / AP.Legalization is the only answer…Mexico’s massive drug problem As poet Juan Pablo Garcia posited long ago in his 1985 Pacheco (marijuana … Continue reading

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Surprise! : Betrayal in Honduras as ‘Golpistas’ Ignore Accord

Manuel Zelaya closes a window at the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa. Photo from AFP.Celebration was premature;United States expresses ‘disappointment’ …negotiating with the golpistas for reinstatement of the democratically elected president is like negotiating with thieves for the return of stolen … Continue reading

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Through the Gate in ’66 : Howling Wolf Au Go Go

Chester Arthur Burnett, aka Howling Wolf.When I was sixteen:Hitting the Village with my grandfather Wolf sang every song to the pretty hippie boy sitting directly in front of me, who turned out to be Davy Jones of the Monkees. By … Continue reading

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Matthew Hoh and Vietnamistan : Déjà vu all Over Again

A bright and shining lie:Hoh’s Afghanistan and John Paul Vann’s VietnamBy Richard Lee / The Rag Blog / November 8, 2009 I just got a copy of diplomat Matthew Hoh’s resignation letter from a friend in Canada. I don’t get … Continue reading

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American Health Care : Monster Run Amok

Cartoon by RS Janes / LTSaloon.Once the envy of the world…The American health care disgrace By Dr. Stephen R. Keister / The Rag Blog / November 7, 2009 Between 1910 and 1970 American medicine was the envy of the world. … Continue reading

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Real Unemployment Rate : Closing in on the Great Depression

Good times around the corner?Real unemployment rate at 17.5 percent This economic disaster was created by far too many years of Reagan-Bush-supply-side-trickle-down-union-busting-corporate-welfare-market-driven economic policy. By Ted McLaughlin / The Rag Blog / November 7, 2009 Yes, I know the federal … Continue reading

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BOOKS / Caliban and the Witch : The Creation of Capitalism

Who Were the Witches?Patriarchal Terror and the Creation of Capitalism By Alex Knight / The Rag Blog / November 6, 2009 This Halloween season, there is no book I could recommend more highly than Silvia Federici’s brilliant Caliban and the … Continue reading

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Sherman DeBrosse : Pipeline Politics and the Afghanistan War

Worth all the blood?The Trans Afghanistan Pipeline By Sherman DeBrosse / The Rag Blog / November 6, 2009 President Barack Obama recently honored eighteen fallen American soldiers at a midnight ceremony at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. Let us … Continue reading

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Alice Embree : Here’s to the Soldiers of Fort Hood

Jackie Thomas at Under the Hood Coffeehouse near Ft. Hood. Photo by Cynthia Thomas / The Rag Blog. Thoughts of Charles Whitman on the tower,And the soldiers who come back broken from war Bring the troops home and take care … Continue reading

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New Urbanism : Transportation Fantasia in Central Texas

Cloning the evil broom:Kirk Watson and the New Urbanists By Glenn Gaven / The Rag Blog / November 6, 2009 In the movie Fantasia, Mickey chops the evil broom into bits only to have them transform into a whole army … Continue reading

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Roger Baker : Debunking the Vaccine Scare

Graphic by David Dees / deesillustration.comSwine flu vaccine: The facts behind the kerfuffleBy Roger Baker / The Rag Blog / November 5, 2009 Are the big pharmaceutical companies endangering our health with risky things like swine flu vaccine? Maybe vaccines … Continue reading

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