Category Archives: RagBlog

Her Crime? Sex Work in New OrleansMore than half of the people on Louisiana’s Sex Offender Registry – which was designed for rapists and child molesters – are indigent women convicted of sex work By Jordan Flaherty / The Rag … Continue reading

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Textbooks in Texas : Rehabilitating Joe McCarthy?

Sen. Joseph McCarthy displays one of his many reports on Communists he found in the woodwork. Photo from Wisconsin History.What did you learn in school today?Efforts to vindicate commie-hunting senator By Justin Elliott / January 15, 2010 See ‘Who stays … Continue reading

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Jonah Raskin : Tom Hayden, Abbie Hoffman’s Ghost, and ‘Dirty Water’

Bill Sharpsteen’s Dirty Water:How a community took on City Hall and won By Jonah Raskin / The Rag Blog / January 14, 2010 [Dirty Water: One Man’s Fight to Clean Up One of the World’s Most Polluted Bays, by Bill … Continue reading

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Haiti and American Colonialism : The Story Behind the Story

A member of François “Papa Doc” Duvalier’s Tonton Macoutes death squad, center, with Haitian soldier to his right. Note the look of terror on the woman vendor’s face. Image from Latin American Studies. How did Haiti become so poor?Haitian earthquake: … Continue reading

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Partners in Demise By Carl R. Hultberg / The Rag Blog / Life has a strange way of intertwining existences in ways that defy human reason. Like puns or anagrams that seem to reveal hidden meanings, passings away are also … Continue reading

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Scientists : Dolphins are ‘Non-Human Persons’

Bottlenose dolphin Delphin and her baby Dolly at a zoo in Duisburg, western Germany. Photo by AP.Behavior studies:Dolphins are second smartest animal ‘The neuroanatomy suggests psychological continuity between humans and dolphins and has profound implications for the ethics of human-dolphin … Continue reading

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Richard Lee FUCK A DUCK ANYTHING FOR A BUCK By Richard Lee / The Rag Blog / January 10, 2010 BOCAS DEL TORO, Panama — I’m watching the financial channel here in Panama, in Spanish, in the middle of the … Continue reading

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‘TV Everywhere’ : Pulling the Plug on Web-Based Video?

Say goodbye to free online television:Comcast launches ‘TV Everywhere’By Josh Silver / January 6, 2010 On Monday, public interest groups called on federal authorities to investigate a plan by the largest cable, satellite and phone companies that threatens the future … Continue reading

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Life During Wartime : Courts Release Terrorists!

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE Political cartoon by Joshua Brown / Historians Against the War / The Rag BlogThanks to Dr. S.R. Keister /The Rag Blog

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MUSIC / Dynamic Compression : Yes, It Really is Too Loud!

Christopher Clark graphed the peak levels of and RMS levels of three hit songs a year over the past three decades. Here is a link to a PDF of his full poster, “A Visual History Of Loudness.”The loudness wars:Why music … Continue reading

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UT-Austin’s Kuperman : Bomb Iran’s Nukes

Image from Crusader Rabbit.UT non-proliferation ‘expert’ calls forMilitary strikes against Iran nuclear facilities [Alan J. Kuperman is] ‘director of the Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Program at the University of Texas at Austin,’ but his Christmas eve call to war relies on … Continue reading

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Dark Ages Redux : Trickle Down Feudalism

Doge Enrico Dandolo preaching the Crusade. Gustave Doré (1832-1883) / Wikimedia Commons.The reincarnation of the Dark Ages:White evangelicals are the new Crusaders In place of mote-defended castles surrounded by thatched-roof shanties will be ‘gated communities’ (sporting high-tech surveillance to keep … Continue reading

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