The Rag Blog | The Latest in News and Views from the Progressive Front

Ed Felien :
Santa Claus is an Islamic communist plot

Posted on December 10, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

Dutch sailors saw men in beards and long coats giving gifts and candy to children and food and shelter to the poor.

Sinterklaas by Bram van der Vlugt / Wikimedia Commons. The Dutch sailors probably thought they saw the spirit of St. Nicolas.

By Ed Felien | The Rag Blog | December 10, 2015

The person we know as Saint Nicolas was born around 280 in Patara, Turkey, and died about 50 miles away in Myra in 343. He was a rich noble in a prosperous seaport, and he was known for helping the poor. He was made bishop in the new Roman Catholic Church. The Emperor Constantine established the Holy Roman Catholic Church at the Council of Nicea in 325 and there were opportunities for advancement for friends of the Emperor. Nearby Antioch was one of the five centers of the early Christian faith at that time.

Muslim Turks seized the town in 1084. The Crusaders’ Siege of Antioch conquered the city in 1098. But it finally fell to the Muslims in 1268.
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Posted in Rag Bloggers | Tagged Ed Felien, Eid al Fitr, Rag Bloggers, Saint Nicolas, Sinterklass | 1 Comment

Alan Waldman :
TELEVISION | ‘The High Life’ is a zany Scottish airline comedy featuring a young Alan Cumming

Posted on December 9, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

Cumming co-wrote and co-starred in this clever sitcom full of bitchy quips, elements of surrealism, and some theatrical song-and-dance numbers.

By Alan Waldman | The Rag Blog | December 9, 2015

[In his Rag Blog 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, Australia, New Zealand and Scotland. Most are available on DVD, Netflix and/or Netflix Instant Streaming, and some episodes are on YouTube.]

All seven episodes of Scottish airline comedy The High Life aired in the UK in Winter 1994-95, but it did not have a second season, because of co-star/co-screenwriter Alan Cumming’s burgeoning film career (Circle of Friends, GoldenEye, Emma, Romy, and Michele’s High School Reunion). Too obscure for Netflix, the complete daffy series is available on YouTube, including this episode.
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Posted in Rag Bloggers | Tagged Alan Cumming, Alan Waldman, Criticism, Rag Bloggers, Scottish Television, The High Life, Vintage Television | Leave a comment

Ken Wachsberger :
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the ’60s underground press. Part II: The Fifth Estate

Posted on December 8, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

The paper, which quickly became Detroit’s cutting-edge news source, is the longest-running underground newspaper from the Vietnam era.

Former Fifth Estate staffers, supporters, and reunion organizers. In the back with raised fist is Peter Werbe; to his left is Leni Sinclair and to his right, Laura Grimshaw; and seated, in blue sweater, is the paper’s founder, Harvey Ovshinsky.

By Ken Wachsberger | The Rag Blog | December 8, 2015

[This is the second of a three-part series written for The Rag Blog by underground press historian Ken Wachsberger. Part I was about the 50th reunion of the Berkeley Barb.]

The Fifth Estate was founded by Detroit-area high school graduate and now award-winning filmmaker Harvey Ovshinsky after an inspirational summer work adventure with the Los Angeles Free Press.

It didn’t take long for the paper to become Detroit’s cutting-edge news source on issues surrounding the local antiwar and Civil Rights movements, feminist and LGBT issues, the emerging youth counterculture, and dissident GIs, all issues that the mainstream press was ignoring or relegating to insignificant locations of back pages.
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Posted in Rag Bloggers, RagBlog | Tagged Alternative Media, Anarchist Publications, Counterculture, Fifth Estate, Ken Wachsberger, Rag Bloggers, Sixties, Underground Press, Underground Press Series | Leave a comment

Qiling Wang :
METRO | Nicols the psychic found his future

Posted on November 25, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

Austin’s Nicols says he grew up with the ability to find information hidden from the normal senses.

Nicols the psychic. Photo by Qiling Wang / The Rag Blog.

By Qiling Wang | The Rag Blog | November 25, 2015

AUSTIN — Three tungsten lamps light a back room in the Austin home of Joe Nicols. With the windy, cold weather outside, the room exudes coziness and warmth. A wood shelf with a dazzling array of folk art stands at the left of the door. Some were collected from India, some from China.

Next to the shelf is Nicols’ desk — where he carries out his palm reading and psychic consultations.

“You used to get tight in your throat when you had to talk back to authority when you were a kid,” Nicols says to Vivian Chen.
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Posted in Metro, RagBlog | Tagged Joe Nicols, Metro, Psychics, Qilig Wang, Rag Bloggers | Leave a comment

David P. Hamilton :
What is to be done in the Middle East (as soon
as pigs fly)

Posted on November 24, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

Creating an actual anti-Islamic State alliance would require thinking entirely outside the currently existing conceptual boxes.

David’s flying pig. Image designated for noncommercial reuse.

By David P. Hamilton | The Rag Blog | November 25, 2015

“In the name of realism, men are quite mad, and precisely what they call utopian is now the condition of human survival.” — C. Wright Mills

The United States has successfully created a hotbed of instability and dysfunction in the Middle East. There are now wars in Iraq, Syria, Israel/Palestine, Turkey/Kurdistan, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen. Weapons are now hemorrhaging across the Sahara from Libya into Chad, Mali, and Nigeria, areas of Africa where the U.S. is busy establishing new military bases. There is a welter of conflicting alliances with diverse and contradictory goals, especially in Syria, the current epicenter of conflict.

This conceptual chaos is typified by the U.S. being the member of a coalition to fight the “Islamic State” [ISIS], which includes the principal parties who provided ISIS with its motivating ideology, Wahhabism, and which created, funded and provided weapons to this same Islamic State since its inception, (i.e., the Gulf Sunni dictators in Qatar, Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain, and especially Saudi Arabia).
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Posted in RagBlog | Tagged Bashar al-Assad, David P. Hamilton, Islamic State, Middle East, Rag Bloggers, Syria, U.S. Foreign Policy | 8 Comments

Ann Lucas :
UT-Austin confab addresses Eurozone austerity

Posted on November 24, 2015 by Alice Embree

Participants warned of dire economic, social, and political consequences from austerity policies.

By Ann Lucas | The Rag Blog | November 24, 2015

The LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin hosted a two-day conference, November 2-3, on “The Eurozone and the Americas: Debt and Democracy” that brought in an array of noted global policy experts.

The conference followed up on questions posed in 2013 at a similar conference, “Can the Eurozone be Saved?” Guests included current and former elected officials, labor leaders, experts in financial policy, and leaders of prominent anti-austerity forces from Greece, Spain, Portugal, and Ecuador. Learn more about the conference and the participants, here.

Dr. James K. Galbraith, Professor and Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr. Chair in Government and Business Relations, The University of Texas at Austin, was the primary organizer of the conference; he also gave opening remarks, and chaired a panel on “What is the Future of Europe?”
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Posted in RagBlog | Tagged Ann Lucas, Economic Austerity, Eurozone and the Americas, James Galbraith, Rag Bloggers, UT-Austin | Leave a comment

Thorne Dreyer :
RAG RADIO PODCASTS | María Martin, Michael Hoinski & Ben Sargent, Carl Davidson, James K. Galbraith

Posted on November 24, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

We visit with a pioneer of public radio; discuss the fine printing of O. Henry’s lost manuscript; get some help understanding all the political madness; and visit with one of the world’s leading economists.

Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Ben Sargent on Rag Radio, November 20, 2015 . Photo by Greg Ciotti / KOOP Radio.

Interviews by Thorne Dreyer | The Rag Blog | November 24, 2015

The following podcasts are from recent Rag Radio shows. 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.

♦ Public Radio Legend María Martin, Founder of Latino USA

Read the show description and download the podcast of our November 27, 2015 Rag Radio interview with María Martin, joined by Mercedes de Uriarte, here — or listen to it here:

♦ Michael Hoinski & Ben Sargent on the Publishing of O. Henry’s Lost Manuscript

Read the show description and download the podcast of our November 20, 2015 Rag Radio interview with Michael Hoinski and Ben Sargent here — or listen to it here:

♦ Leading Leftist Thinker Carl Davidson Helps Us Make Some Sense of the Political Madness

Read the show description and download the podcast of our November 6, 2015 Rag Radio show with Carl Davidson here — or listen to it here:

♦ World-Renowned Economist James K. Galbraith on Greece, the Austerity Movement, and ‘The End of Normal’

Read the show description and download the podcast of our October 30, 2015 Rag Radio interview with Margaret Randall here — or listen to it here:

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Posted in Rag Bloggers, RagBlog | Tagged Ben Sargent, Carl Davidson, Interviews, James Galbraith, Michael Hoinski, Podcasts, Rag Radio, Thorne Dreyer, Tracey Schulz | Leave a comment

Kate Braun :
Welcome in the new during third quarter moon

Posted on November 23, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

The closer we come to the end to 2015, the more rapidly change will happen.

Third Quarter Moon. Image from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center / Flickr / Creative Commons.

By Kate Braun | The Rag Blog | November 23, 2015

Third quarter moons are times to release the old in order to welcome the new. This aspect of moon-energy work offers a good focus to take in November as 2015 is a year to resolve and conclude things so that changes will engage us more easily, whether we anticipate them or not. It makes sense, therefore, to put our time and energies in the remainder of 2015 toward making room for the New that is sure to come.

With this in mind, recognize what you have been keeping that no longer needs to be kept. This can be an attitude, a habit, friendships, jobs, furniture, anything that has outgrown or outlived its usefulness in your life. This can also apply to home repairs that have been on your to-do list for many months.
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Posted in RagBlog | Tagged Astrology, Ceremony, Kate Braun, Metaphysics, Rag Bloggers, Ritual, Third Quarter Moon | Leave a comment

Miranda Mason :
METRO | Women’s hygiene heartache in local homeless shelters

Posted on November 21, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

Underfunded and undersupplied feminine hygiene products cause serious health risk.

Homeless in downtown Austin. Photo by Miranda Mason / The Rag Blog.

By Miranda Mason | The Rag Blog | November 21, 2015

AUSTIN — While life on the streets is far from easy, most people in need know where to go to find their next meal or a place to sleep. Shelters frequent most cities and many organizations reach out to help those who have no place to call their own.

But when it comes to the taboo issue of feminine hygiene, so many women are left without a place to turn for supplies or support.

The struggles around menstruation are tough for many women to deal with — regardless of their walk of life — but they undoubtedly add much more heartache for those who do not have access to supplies or places to help them maintain good hygiene during that time of the month.
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Posted in Metro, RagBlog | Tagged Feminine Hygiene, Homeless Shelters, Homeless Women, Mero, Miranda Mason, Women's Health | Leave a comment

Elaine J. Cohen :
METRO EVENT | Women, fair trade… and tamales

Posted on November 20, 2015 by Alice Embree

Refugiados. Acrylic on canvas by Carlos Lowry.

By Elaine J. Cohen | The Rag Blog | November 20, 2015

Event: Women and Fair Trade Festival
Date: Saturday-Sunday, Nov. 21-22, 2015
Time: Saturday, 10-6 p.m.; Sunday, 1-6 p.m.
Where: Howsen Hall, First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin
Address: 4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78741
Admission: Free, and everyone is welcome!

AUSTIN — The twelfth annual Women and Fair Trade Festival, hosted by Austin Tan Cerca de la Frontera, takes place Saturday and Sunday, November 21-22, 2015, at the First Unitarian Universalist Church, 4700 Grover Avenue in Austin. The festival is an annual Austin marketplace that hosts artisan producers from women’s cooperatives around the world.

The event will also include live music and on Saturday from 3-4:15 p.m., Austin poets Sarah Rafael Garcia, Chloe Chon, Loyce Gayo, and Kimberly Alidio will read from their work.
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Posted in Metro, RagBlog | Tagged Austin Tan Cerca, Casa Marianella, Fair Trade, Metro, Posada Esperanza, Women and Fair Trade Festival | Leave a comment

Lamar W. Hankins :
Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s unpatriotic view of Syrian refugees

Posted on November 18, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

The governor wants to bar the ‘golden door’ to freedom, rather than light the pathway for those who most need to find it.

“The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World.” Photo by Brian Auer / Flickr / Creative Commons.

By Lamar W. Hankins | The Rag Blog | Nov. 19, 2015

I have always considered the stirring words of Emma Lazarus to be the most patriotic ideal for which America stands:

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

If ever there were people who are tired, poor, homeless, wretched, and tempest-tost, it is the Syrian refugees who have made their tortuous way into Europe trying to escape the barbaric Muslim-extremist violence of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The religious nihilism of ISIS followers has made civilians powerless against the capacity for violence ISIS has demonstrated countless times, as deadly in Paris as in Iraq and Syria.
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Posted in Rag Bloggers, RagBlog | Tagged Greg Abbott, Immigration Policy, Islamophobia, Lamar W. Hankins, Rag Bloggers, Syrian Refugees, Terrorism, Texas Politics, Xenophobia | Leave a comment