Marilyn Katz : A Different Path for Syria, and Hopefully for Chicago

Posted on September 19, 2013 by Thorne Dreyer
child at funeral crop

Child at funeral in Chicago. Image from The Old Black Church.

And for Chicago?
A different path for Syria

Will U.S. diplomacy in Syria carve a new path towards peace at home and abroad?

By Marilyn Katz / The Rag Blog / September 19, 2013

CHICAGO — The example of our leaders cannot help but guide the thinking of our youth: Might makes right and those who are “wrong” — who disagree with our worldview — are The Other, ever-more-easily transformed into an enemy to be dealt with by whatever means necessary.
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Johnny Hazard : Tanks Versus Teachers in Mexico City

Posted on September 19, 2013 by Thorne Dreyer
Striking teachers at Zócalo plaza in Mexico City, Friday, September 13, 2013. Photo by Eduardo Verdugo / AP.

Tanks vs. teachers:
Federal police drive striking teachers
from Mexico’s Zócalo plaza

By Johnny Hazard | The Rag Blog | September 19, 2013

“In addition to promoting just causes and altering business as usual for awhile (and hoping that such alterations will be permanent), marches, rallies, highway blockages, and the collective taking of public spaces, but especially encampments and occupations, re-establish community and the liberating collective creativity that has been lost amid urban chaos.”
— Armando Bartra, Mexican left intellectual

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INTERVIEW / Jonah Raskin : Occupy’s Nathan Schneider on Anarchy and Radical Catholicism

Posted on September 19, 2013 by Thorne Dreyer
Nathan Schneider, June 17, 2012. Photo from Occupy.

Interview with Occupy’s Nathan Schneider:
Anarchy, activism, and radical Catholicism

By Jonah Raskin | The Rag Blog | September 19, 2013

“It’s hard to pick a revolution about which one doesn’t have major misgivings. But they also have peak moments: the nuns kneeling before Marcos’ tanks in the Philippines; the queer crusaders emerging out of the Sixties; the cacophonous assemblies at the Paris Commune; the pockets of anarchist rule in Catalonia; the Christians and Muslims in Tahrir guarding one another’s prayers.” — Nathan Schneider

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Mike Klonsky : Forbes Calls Charter Schools ‘Part of a Corrupt System’

Posted on September 18, 2013 by Thorne Dreyer
Demonstration in New York against school privatization.

‘Part of a corrupt system’:
Forbes piece pounds charters

About the only thing charters do well is limit the influence of teachers’ unions. And fatten their investors’ portfolios.

By Mike Klonsky | The Rag Blog | September 18, 2013

An article appearing in the September 10 issue of Forbes gives a swift kick in the rear end to charter schools. According to Forbes contributor Addison Wiggin, charter schools have selective enrollments, don’t perform any better than regular public schools, and are part of a corrupt system that funnels public funds into the pockets of privatizers and corporate cronies through real estate deals and tax credits.
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Ron Jacobs : ‘Another Self Portrait’ of Bob Dylan

Posted on September 18, 2013 by Thorne Dreyer

Another Self Portrait:
Dylan’s take revisited

Dylan’s voice here is the voice of an earnest troubadour. There is little of the smoky raspiness present in his mid-sixties material or the world-weary gruffness of Dylan’s current persona.

By Ron Jacobs | The Rag Blog | September 18, 2013

When I lived there in the early 1970s, the main shopping area in Frankfurt am Main revolved around the Hauptwache U-Bahn stop.
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Alan Waldman: ‘Are You Being Served?’ Was Hit Sitcom in Britain and Around the World

Posted on September 17, 2013 by Thorne Dreyer
 

Waldman’s film and TV
treasures you may have missed:

It — and sequel ‘Grace and Favour’ — aired 81 classic episodes, which repeated and repeated on many PBS stations.

By Alan Waldman | The Rag Blog | September 18, 2013

[In his weekly column, Alan Waldman reviews some of his favorite films and TV series that readers may have missed, including TV dramas, mysteries, and comedies from Canada, England, Ireland, and Scotland. Most are available on DVD and/or Netflix, and some episodes are on YouTube.]
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Harry Targ : Revisiting ‘American Exceptionalism’

Posted on September 17, 2013 by Thorne Dreyer
Beacon to the world? Image from Wikimedia Commons.

Was Putin right?
Revisiting ‘American exceptionalism’

A better future and the survival of the human race require us to realize, as Paul Robeson suggested, that what is precious about humanity is not our differences but our commonalities.

By Harry Targ | The Rag Blog | September 17, 2013

Continued study and research into the origins of the folk music of various peoples in many parts of the world revealed that there is a world body — a universal body — of folk music based upon a universal pentatonic (five tone) scale. Interested as I am in the universality of (hu)mankind — in the fundamental relationship of all peoples to one another — this idea of a universal body of music intrigued me, and I pursed it along many fascinating paths. — Paul Robeson, Here I Stand, 1959.

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Michael James : Heart of Illinois in the Summer of ’64

Posted on September 17, 2013 by Thorne Dreyer
Boys in a pickup truck in front of the Fulton Democrat in Lewistown, Illinois, in the summer of 1964. Photos by Michael James from his forthcoming book, Michael Gaylord James’ Pictures from the Long Haul.

Pictures from the Long Haul:
Heart of Illinois in the Summer of ’64

Hanging with this band of old dudes I learned to roll smokes. I played guitar and sang with them, and in the process acquired some finger-picking guitar riffs and a staple of country tunes. I chipped in change and took regular slugs from half-pint bottles of Jim Beam.

By Michael James | The Rag Blog | September 17, 2013

[In this series, Michael James is sharing images from his rich past, accompanied by reflections about — and inspired by — those images. This photo will be included in his forthcoming book, Michael Gaylord James’ Pictures from the Long Haul.]
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RAG RADIO / Thorne Dreyer : Award-Winning Novelist and Screenwriter Stephen Harrigan

Posted on September 17, 2013 by Thorne Dreyer
Noted Texas writer Stephen Harrigan in the studios of KOOP-FM in Austin, Texas, Friday, September 6, 2013. Photos by Roger Baker / The Rag Blog.

Rag Radio podcast:
Award-winning novelist, screenwriter,
and journalist Stephen Harrigan

The author of the New York Times bestseller, The Gates of the Alamo, Harrigan has been selected to write the initial title and centerpiece work in an ambitious 16-volume history of Texas to be published by the University of Texas Press.

By Rag Radio | The Rag Blog | September 17, 2013

Award-winning author, screenwriter, and journalist Stephen Harrigan was our guest on Rag Radio, Friday, September 6, 2013.
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Jean Trounstine : Education in Prison Works

Posted on September 16, 2013 by Thorne Dreyer
Image from audaciousideas.org.

So are we listening?
Study proves education in prison works

The largest ever meta-analysis of prison education and its overwhelming positive effect on recidivism was released in August, so what are we going to do about it?

By Jean Trounstine | The Rag Blog | September 16, 2013

It was barely six months ago when I first wrote about the battle to bring back Pell Grants for prisoner education programs across the country. Pell grants are those all-important grants that my college students rely on and that once funded prisoners — 1 percent of those who received such grants across the country.
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Kate Braun : During Fall Equinox Give Thanks for Earth’s Bounty

Posted on September 16, 2013 by Thorne Dreyer
Honor Mother Earth on Fall Equinox. Image from Seeds of Good Fortune.

Fall Equinox:
A time to seek balance in all things

By Kate Braun | The Rag Blog | September 16, 2013

“Come, ye thankful people come
Raise the song of harvest home…”

Sunday, September 22, 2013 is the Fall Equinox, aka Mabon, Harvest Home, Second Harvest, or Cornucopia. Hours of day and night are equal on this day. As you concentrate on rituals for protection, prosperity, security, self-confidence, and harmony, seek balance in all things.
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HISTORY / Bob Feldman : A People’s History of Egypt, Part 9, 1924-1930

Posted on September 14, 2013 by Thorne Dreyer
Mural shows Saad Zaghlul, first Egyptian prime minister, giving the finger to the military council. Image from Egypt 2011 and Beyond.

A people’s history:
The movement to democratize Egypt

Part 9: 1924-1930 period –The Wafd government and the repression of communists.

By Bob Feldman | The Rag Blog | September 16, 2013

[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 Feldman’s “Hidden History of Texas” series on The Rag Blog.]

After an Egyptian constitution was promulgated in 1923, martial law was abolished, an election was held, and Saad Zaghlul, the leader of the Egyptian landowning elite’s nationalist Wafd party, became prime minister in January 1924.
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