Henry Mecredy :
Engineering professors going to waste!

Posted on July 25, 2018 by Thorne Dreyer

The misapplication of the concept of competition provides cover for all this waste.

Chevrolet four-door sedan.

Ford four-door sedan.

By Henry Mecredy | The Rag Blog | July 25, 2018

A large percentage of the average engineering professor’s time is wasted. This unhappy circumstance arises because so much of the average engineer’s efforts are duplicated in a process of reinvention of the wheel that is socially sanctioned, obvious, and generally invisible.

One does not pass through an engineering curriculum without being admonished to consider the designs and problems one confronts as parts of a system. Applying this caveat to the commercial and industrial world, it is a system that pits engineers performing identical tasks — creating nearly interchangeable but trivially different goods — against one another.
Continue reading →

Posted in RagBlog | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Thorne Dreyer :
RAG RADIO PODCASTS | Philip Russell, Bruce Melton, Jay Wehnert, Glenn Smith, Pat Thomas & James Retherford, Bill Kirchen, Roy Casagranda, Patricia Vonne, Genevieve Van Cleve & Luis Guerra, Sydney Wright, Ty Richards & Andy Macintyre, Margo Sawyer

Posted on July 24, 2018 by Thorne Dreyer

Our guests include activists & environmentalists & political analysts; musicians, a storyteller, a slam poet, an architectural sculptor & a Jerry Rubin biographer; plus we discuss Outsider Art & welcome AMLO to Mexico.

Guitar virtuoso Bill Kirchen performs on Rag Radio in the KOOP studios in Austin on June 1, 2018. Photo by Roger Baker / Rag Radio.

Interviews by Thorne Dreyer | The Rag Blog | July 24, 2018

The following podcasts are from recent Rag Radio shows with host and producer Thorne Dreyer. The syndicated Rag Radio program, produced in the studios of Austin’s cooperatively-run KOOP-FM, has an international audience and has become an influential platform for interviews with leading figures in politics, current events, literature, and cutting-edge culture.

The show first airs Fridays, 2-3 p.m. (CT) on KOOP, 91.7-FM in Austin, and streams live at KOOP.org and Radio Free America.
Continue reading →

Posted in RagBlog | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Rag Blog :
METRO EVENT | Threadgill’s World HQ invites you to Thorne Dreyer’s Birthday Party on August 1st

Posted on July 19, 2018 by Thorne Dreyer

Historic Austin bands the Uranium Savages, Bill Kirchen, Shiva’s Headband, and Leeann Atherton will perform.

Art by Kerry Awn.

Event: Thorne Dreyer’s Birthday Party
What: Concert and benefit
When: Wednesday, August 1, 2018, 6:30-10:30 p.m.
Where: Threadgill’s World Headquarters
Address: 301 W. Riverside, Austin, TX 78704
Bands: Leeann Atherton, Shiva’s Headband, Bill Kirchen, Uranium Savages
Tickets: $15 at door; Advance tickets $10 here: http://holdmyticket.com/event/319660
Proceeds to: New Journalism Project, Inc.

AUSTIN — Eddie Wilson and Threadgill’s are honoring longtime Austin progressive activist and journalist, Thorne Dreyer, on his birthday, Wednesday, August 1, 2018.

It’s Thorne Dreyer’s Birthday Party and the event features historic Austin bands Uranium Savages, Bill Kirchen, Shiva’s Headband, and Leeann Atherton. It’s all happening from 6:30-10:30 p.m. at Threadgill’s World Headquarters, 301 W. Riverside, Austin, TX 78704 on Wednesday, August 1.

The Uranium Savages are Austin’s classic comedy-rockers; Guitar virtuoso Bill Kirchen sparked Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen; Shiva’s Headband was Austin’s pioneering psychedelic blues band; and blues-rock songstress Leeann Atherton is a longtime fixture on the Austin scene.
Continue reading →

Posted in Metro, RagBlog | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Philip L. Russell :
The election of AMLO: Optimism and skepticism in Mexico

Posted on July 11, 2018 by Thorne Dreyer

The election leaves in its wake a radically different political landscape.

Mexican President-elect López Obrador. Photo by Eneas De Troya, Mexico City, May 6, 2012 / Wikimedia Commons.

By Philip L. Russell | The Rag Blog | July 11, 2018

Philip Russell will join Thorne Dreyer on Rag Radio, Friday, July 13, 2018, to discuss this article and the ascendance of Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico. Rag Radio is a syndicated radio program that first airs on KOOP 91.7-FM in Austin and is streamed live here.

Listen to the podcast of Thorne Dreyer’s interview with Philip Russell here.

Philip Russell writes about Mexico for The Rag Blog. Read his earlier series about the presidency of Enrique Peña Nieto.

“Mexico turned left. No one knows exactly what that means. However, the new Mexico will certainly be different from the one which has existed until now.” — Jorge Ramos Ávalos

By now the whole world knows that Andrés Manuel López Obrador, widely known by his initials, AMLO, won the July 1 presidential election in Mexico with 53 percent of the vote. It was his third time as a presidential candidate. In that aspect, he follows in the footsteps of two twentieth-century icons of the Latin American left — Salvador Allende of Chile and Lula of Brazil — who were both elected president after two failed presidential bids.
Continue reading →

Posted in RagBlog | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Bruce Melton :
Alaskan permafrost now emitting more greenhouse gases than it is storing

Posted on July 5, 2018 by Thorne Dreyer

Alaskan permafrost has flipped from carbon sink to carbon source.

This image is of a thermokarast melt pool, or permafrost melt in Central Alaska. To get there, follow the Denali Highway (all weather gravel) east from Cantwell about 60 miles. Cantwell is about 20 miles south of the entrance to Denali National Park. There’s no gas beyond Cantwell. There are bears though.

By Bruce Melton | The Rag Blog | July 5, 2018

Climate change researcher and Rag Radio environmental reporter Bruce Melton will be Thorne Dreyer‘s guest on Rag Radio, Friday, July 6, 2018, from 2-3 p.m. (CT) on KOOP 91.7-FM in Austin and streamed live here. Bruce will join us live from Yosemite National Park.

Listen to the podcast of Thorne Dreyer’s interview with Bruce Melton here.

Climate Change is here. Alaskan permafrost is now emitting more greenhouse gases than it is storing according to work from Harvard, the Dublin Institute of Technology, Universities of Alaska, Colorado at Boulder, California at Irvine, NOAA, and others in this powerhouse paper. This wasn’t supposed to happen before the end of the century.

It’s irreversible if we keep warming and even the best-case scenario of Paris emissions reductions allows up to triple the warming we have already seen by 2050 and quintuple by 2100. Literally, only technology can save us now — which is really good news because we have the technology. The first time it was industrialized was to keep our sailors safe from carbon dioxide poisoning in submarines during World War II. (see here)
Continue reading →

Posted in RagBlog | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Lamar W. Hankins :
The patriotism platitude

Posted on July 3, 2018 by Thorne Dreyer

This July 4th we should be conscious of the ‘patriotic’ words used to evoke cheap emotion.

Patriotism at Republic of Texas Biker Rally, June 1, 2006. Photo from Alex Thompson / Flickr / Wikimedia Commons.

By Lamar W. Hankins | The Rag Blog | July 3, 2018

If any word in the English language has ceased to serve a useful purpose, that word is patriotism. As we near the observance of the day we annually observe as Independence Day, the words “patriotism” and “patriotic” will be used to evoke emotion without rationality. It is cheap emotion, devoid of meaningful content and leading to false reality. Its moral base, if it ever had one, has long since vanished.

What I mean, when I use “patriot” words, relates to the best values on which this country was founded. Those values are embodied in the French notions of “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité” — liberty, equality, and fraternity — ideas that arose out of the Enlightenment and were as important for our own break from British control as they were for the French Revolution.
Continue reading →

Posted in RagBlog | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Alice Embree :
Activism in the Trump era

Posted on July 1, 2018 by Thorne Dreyer

10,000 in Austin rally to ‘Keep Families Together’; Many Texas victories to celebrate.

Two babies without borders at the Keep Families Together rally, Texas State Capitol, Austin, June 30, 2018. Photo by
Carlos Lowry /The Rag Blog.

By Alice Embree | The Rag Blog | July 1, 2018

On Saturday, June 30, 2018, a Keep Families Together rally at the Texas State Capitol drew about 10,000 people. With heat reaching nearly triple digits, crowds gathered at noon on the Capitol steps to demand reunification of separated families and justice for asylum seekers.

Sulma Franco, a Guatemalan asylum seeker addressed the crowd in Spanish recounting her nine-year struggle for asylum. She was incarcerated at four detention centers and received sanctuary for several months in an Austin church before being granted a stay of removal. Two immigration attorneys spoke of the ordeals their clients faced. Some had their children separated “for photographs or baths” never to return.
Continue reading →

Posted in RagBlog | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

James Retherford :
BOOKS | Little big meshuganah

Posted on June 6, 2018 by Thorne Dreyer

Jim Retherford does Pat Thomas
does Jerry Rubin.

Jerry Rubin’s Do iT! and Pat Thomas’ DiD iT!

By James Retherford | The Rag Blog | June 6, 2018

Pat Thomas, author of DiD iT! and The Rag Blog‘s James Retherford, who was the ghost writer for Jerry Rubin’s bestselling DO iT!, are Thorne Dreyer‘s guests on Rag Radio, Friday, June 8, 2018, from 2-3:30 p.m. (CT) on KOOP 91.7-FM in Austin. Stream it here.

Listen to the podcast of our interview with Pat Thomas and Jim Retherford here.

CARSLOVESHELL

How can I say
“I love you”
after hearing
“CARS LOVE SHELL”?

— Do It! Scenarios of the Revolution

Socrates famously said, “An unexamined life is not worth living.” After reading Pat Thomas’ coffee table-sized tome about modern day gadfly Jerry Rubin, I wonder if the same might also be said about an over-examined life.

DiD iT! From Yippie to Yuppie: Jerry Rubin, An American Revolutionary is the first biography about the well-known Sixties media prankster, Youth International Party (Yippie!) co-founder, and (according to Thomas) prophet of 21st century i-Capitalism and social media.
Continue reading →

Posted in RagBlog | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Rag Blog :
METRO EVENT | ‘Celebrating The Rag’ at Half Price Books North Lamar on June 9

Posted on June 3, 2018 by Thorne Dreyer

The event will feature editors Thorne Dreyer, Alice Embree and Richard Croxdale, with live music by Bill Kirchen and comments by artists Jim Franklin and Kerry Awn.

Celebrating The Rag book cover with editors Thorne Dreyer (top), Alice Embree, and Richard Croxdale.

Event: Presentation and booksigning of Celebrating The Rag
When: Saturday, June 9, 2018
Where: Half Price Books North Lamar
Address: 5555 N. Lamar Blvd, Austin, TX 78751
Sponsor: New Journalism Project; Half Price Books North Lamar

AUSTIN — Join us Saturday, June 9, 2018, 2-4 p.m. at Half Price Books North Lamar for a presentation and booksigning featuring Thorne Dreyer, Alice Embree, and Richard Croxdale, editors of the nationally-acclaimed book, Celebrating The Rag: Austin’s Iconic Underground Newspaper.

The event will include musical performance by legendary Commander Cody guitarist Bill Kirchen. Plus a few tales (some tall!) from famed Armadillo artist Jim Franklin and “Funniest Person in Austin” Kerry Awn, both of whom contributed signature art to the original Rag, and are featured prominently in the book. Franklin, Awn, and book designer Carlos Lowry will also be available to sign copies of the book.
Continue reading →

Posted in Metro, RagBlog | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Steve Russell :
Half of an NSA intercept

Posted on May 29, 2018 by Thorne Dreyer

Little Rocket Man? Dotard here.

Kim Jong Un. Caricature by conescu / Flickr.

By Steve Russell | The Rag Blog | May 29, 2018

I did over half of my Air Force hitch in USAF Security Service, the USAF branch of the National Security Agency. It was our job to hoover up radio traffic from the other side of the Iron Curtain and near the battlefields of the proxy wars. Then we had to translate the untreated sludge and prepare reports that the generals could hand to the civilians running the show.

The Pueblo, that Navy vessel that got grabbed by North Korea in 1968, was part of the Navy branch of NSA. It was putting the Big Ear on North Korea.
Continue reading →

Posted in RagBlog | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Martha Mercado / Roger Baker :
METRO | Poor People’s Campaign
comes to Austin

Posted on May 23, 2018 by Thorne Dreyer

Demonstrators in 30 states call for a
moral revival.

Supporters of Poor People’s Campaign gather in Austin, May 14, 2018, at the Texas State Capitol. Photos by Roger Baker / The Rag Blog

By Martha Mercado | Photos by Roger Baker | The Rag Blog | May 23, 2018

AUSTIN — On Monday, May 14, 2018, Texas was one of over 30 states to participate in the launch of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for a Moral Revival. More than 60 people gathered at the Texas State Capitol in solidarity with women, children, and disabled people living in poverty, including two busloads from Dallas. Also in attendance were individuals from San Antonio, Houston, Pasadena, and Waco.

The spirit of Dr. King resonated as faith leaders, community organizers, and concerned citizens came together to publicize and challenge the war on the poor. Songs of freedom filled the air as people approached the rally, including, “We Shall Not Be Moved,” a famous anthem from the Civil Rights era.
Continue reading →

Posted in Metro, RagBlog | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Jim Simons :
The three-state solution

Posted on May 20, 2018 by Thorne Dreyer

We are complicit in the apartheid and occupation imposed on the Palestinian people.

A Palestinian boy and Israeli soldier in front of the Israeli West Bank Barrier, August 2004. Justin McIntosh./ Wikimedia Commons.

By Jim Simons | The Rag Blog | May 20, 2018

The thing Trump loves best is attention. Perhaps for that reason it has become easy for foreign governments to manipulate our politics. That and a weak right-wing Congress.

If it’s not Putin, it is Netanyahu. In an earlier stunt that failed, Netanyahu spoke to Congress just before the Iran nuclear treaty was ratified, bypassing the president in a breach of protocol. Now he has produced a video purporting to “prove” that Iran was in violation of the treaty, laughable except for the fact that we may be heading toward war.

The likes of John Bolton are likely planning out strikes on Iran now. Netanyahu is more blatant than Putin was in a bald-faced attempt to get such a war going. He has long wanted it. A war for us to conduct, not Israel. On May 1, Amy Goodman reported on Democracy Now! that many experts had exposed Netanyahu’s clumsy attempt to create an illusion of evidence based solely on pre-treaty documents at least 15 years old.
Continue reading →

Posted in RagBlog | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments