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

Lamar W. Hankins :
METRO | Some questions for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton

Posted on July 1, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

Where do you draw the line on accommodating the religious beliefs of public officials?

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton at February 18, 2015 press conference. Photo by Erich Schlegel / Getty Images.

By Lamar W. Hankins | The Rag Blog | June 30, 2015

SAN MARCOS — In his official opinion as the Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton summarized his conclusions about the duty of certain public officials to issue same-sex marriage licenses if they have sincerely held religious beliefs against same-sex marriage:

County clerks and their employees retain religious freedoms that may provide accommodation of their religious objections to issuing same-sex marriage licenses. Justices of the peace and judges also may claim that the government forcing them to conduct same-sex wedding ceremonies over their religious objections, particularly when other authorized individuals have no objection to conducting such ceremonies, is not the least restrictive means of furthering any compelling governmental interest in ensuring that such ceremonies occur. Importantly, the strength of any particular religious-accommodation claim depends on the particular facts of each case.

These conclusions give rise to questions about the duties of various other government officials in Texas who may have religious objections to the behaviors of some Texans.
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Posted in Metro, RagBlog | Tagged Constitutional Law, Gay Marriage, Ken Paxton, Lamar W. Hankins, Metro, Metro Bloggers, Rag Bloggers, Religious Freedom, Separation of Church and State, Texas Politics | Leave a comment

David P. Hamilton :
Mapping the Middle East mess

Posted on June 29, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

The artificial boundaries after the British and French carved up the region are increasingly irrelevant.

Sykes-Picot map of 1916: “A” goes to France, “B” to Britain. Image from the National Archives / Public Domain.

By David P. Hamilton | The Rag Blog | June 29, 2015

“One day during the [Versailles] Peace Conference [ending WWI], Arnold Toynbee, an adviser to the British delegation, had to deliver some papers to the prime minister. “Lloyd George had forgotten my presence and had begun to think aloud. ‘Mesopotamia, yes, oil, irrigation, we must have Mesopotamia; Palestine, yes, the Holy Land, Zionism, we must have Palestine; Syria, h’m, what is there in Syria? Let the French have that.’”
— Paris 1919 by Margaret MacMillan, p. 381

It took more than the musings of British Prime Minister Lloyd George to make it happen, but that’s more or less how the current countries of the Middle East were created. Their boundaries were essentially drawn by the British and French after WWI to suit their own interests.

The Ottoman Empire, having joined the wrong side in the war, was being dismembered by the victorious European colonialists. The British forces occupied Baghdad and controlled the valleys of the Tigres and Euphrates Rivers. Hence, they got the oil, which they knew to be there in abundance, plus Palestine for sentimental reasons. The French got the leftovers, primarily the coastal regions where the French-speaking Maronite Christians lived plus a bunch of desert to the east.
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Posted in RagBlog | Tagged David P. Hamilton, Imperialism, Middle East, Rag Bloggers, World History | Leave a comment

Elaine J. Cohen :
METRO | Casting Judith’s ashes into the big river

Posted on June 23, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

Josefina gently poured Judith Rosenberg’s ashes from the bag in the carved wooden box from Mexico.

Julia Quiñones, left, and Josefina Castillo pour Judith Rosenberg’s ashes into the river. Photos by Sister Pam Buganski of the South Texas Human Rights Center (STHRC), Falfurrias, Texas. Special to The Rag Blog.

By Elaine J. Cohen | The Rag Blog | June 24, 2015

AUSTIN — The muses are, once again, tugging at my sleeve. Kleio, Kalliope, and Polyhymnia are jockeying for lead position. Recently I joined a small pilgrimage to Mexico with the ashes of our friend, Judith Rosenberg. We met activists from both sides of this border, on the banks of the Rio Bravo, to cast the last materia of Judith into the fast flowing river that separates Mexico from the USA.

Before we left Austin, I asked Josefina if it had been Judith’s explicit wish to have her ashes put into the Rio Bravo/Rio Grande. Josefina answered that Judith had simply asked that they be put into a river. Then she looked at me and we both shared an almost Gallic shrug as she said, “What other river could it be? There is only one river in our story. It is the river that is the border that shapes our work.”
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Posted in Metro, RagBlog | Tagged Austin Tan Cerca, Deaths, Elaine J. Cohen, Josefina Castillo, Judith Rosenberg, Metro, Rag Bloggers | 5 Comments

Kate Braun :
Summer Solstice brings the longest day,
shortest night

Posted on June 21, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

Light and dark are opposites that represent the balance we strive for in our daily lives.

Sun and moon wall sculpture. Image from Breathing Space.

By Kate Braun | The Rag Blog | June 20, 2015

Sunday, June 21, 2015, is the Summer Solstice. This is the longest day and the shortest night in the year. Lady Moon is in her first quarter in Leo, a fixed Sun sign; Lord Sun is in Cancer, a cardinal water sign. Balance is shifting!

Instead of seeing Lord Sun’s power manifesting more and more as each day brings more daylight time, from now until the Winter Solstice (December 21, 2015) we shall see less daylight each day. Remember that Light does not automatically represent Good, that Dark does not automatically represent Evil. Like the Yin-Yang sign ([), light and dark are the opposites that, in the proper proportions, give a visual representation of the balance we strive for in our daily lives.
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Posted in RagBlog | Tagged Astrology, Celebration, Kate Braun, Metaphysics, Rag Bloggers, Ritual, Summer Solstice | Leave a comment

Beverly Baker Moore :
METRO | Music in the neighborhood:
The John Bush Band

Posted on June 16, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

This raucous family band offers a dose of variety and potluck every Sunday in South Austin.

The John Bush Band performs at the One-2-One Bar. Photo by Beverly Baker Moore / The Rag Blog.

By Beverly Baker Moore | The Rag Blog | June 16, 2015

AUSTIN — Patio music is great Austin music, for sure, but it will soon be hot — like it likes to get — and then outdoor music is not so enticing for some of us.

I have no plans to give up live music outside or inside, but I don’t go out every day and I don’t wander into venues just for grins. I need to pace myself, it seems, and so I want three things from my live music experiences these days: to be among friendlies, to be away from the hyped scene crowds, to be physically comfortable.
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Posted in Metro, RagBlog | Tagged Austin Music, Beverly Baker Moore, John Bush Band, Metro, Music in the Neighborhood, One-2-One Bar, Rag Bloggers | 1 Comment

Alan Waldman :
TELEVISION | ‘Hustle’ is Brit series where lovable rascals con greedy, rich bastards

Posted on June 3, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

A fine cast, tricky plots, and snappy dialogue make this program a fun, compelling pleasure.

Hustle is a compelling pleasure.

By Alan Waldman | The Rag Blog | June 3, 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.]

Hustle is a lively British con-men-vs.-slimy-aristocrats series that ran for eight seasons and 48 episodes, from 2004 to 2014. Four series and 24 episodes air on Netflix, and many are free on YouTube, such as this one.

Hustle follows a group of con artists who specialize in “long cons” — extended deceptions which require greater commitment, but which return a higher reward than simple confidence tricks. First the “marks” think they are getting away with something, and then the tables are turned.
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Posted in RagBlog | Tagged Alan Waldman, British Television, Criticism, Hustle, Rag Bloggers, Tony Jordan | Leave a comment

Steve Russell :
Use writing talent without losing it

Posted on June 2, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

The acid test of good writing is how it sounds when read aloud. When you write like an artist, people would pay to hear your words recited.

By Steve Russell | The Rag Blog | June 2, 2015

This goes out to young people who are articulate in the written form of English and therefore perhaps a dying breed. It was inspired when one of my editors hurled a really painful remark my way. He said I write like a lawyer.

A legal education will seriously bollix your writing. People think lawyers are trying to be too subtle, to make every word choice carry too much freight.
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Posted in RagBlog | Tagged Creative Writing, English, Grammar, Rag Bloggers, Steve Russell, Writing Tips | 3 Comments

Jonah Raskin :
Stormy Weather: A Rag Blog interview with Bryan Burrough, author of ‘Days of Rage’

Posted on June 1, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

“The underground is not a place but a way of life. You can be underground most anywhere, from the Upper West Side of Manhattan to Hermosa Beach, California.” — Bryan Burrough

Days of Rage is Bryan Burrough’s sixth book.

By Jonah Raskin | The Rag Blog | June 1, 2015

Bryan Burroughs has probably written the book about America’s radical underground at least for our time. Researching Days of Rage: America’s Radical Underground, the FBI and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence, he talked to dozens and dozens of people, read almost all the literature, and studied the salient documents.

Days of Rage is Burrough’s sixth book. Previous works include Public Enemies (2004) that was made into a gangster film with Johnny Depp as John Dillinger and Christian Bale as FBI agent Melvin Purvis.
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Posted in RagBlog | Tagged Bernardine Dohrn, Bill Ayers, Books, Bryan Burrough, Days of Rage, Interview, Jonah Raskin, Marilyn Buck, Radical Activists, Rag Bloggers, Sixties, Weather Underground | 1 Comment

Elaine J. Cohen :
METRO | The heartbreak of children behind bars

Posted on June 1, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

The children we have come to know during our regular visits to detention centers have now spent an enormous part of their short lives behind walls.

Political cartoon by Christopher Cardinale / San Antonio Current.

By Elaine J. Cohen | The Rag Blog | May 30, 2015

This is the most recent in a continuum of reflections on the women and children refugees that the government obstinately continues to detain at Berks in Pennsylvania, and at Karnes and Dilley in Texas. Please note the use of the word “detained,” a gentler, softer word than imprison, incarcerate, jail, or oppress.

KARNES COUNTY, Texas — On the way home from the Karnes Family Detention Center recently, we were sharing some of what we had heard in our separate visits with different moms and their kids. Felicia’s Prius gets 51 miles to the gallon; it has been the perfect vehicle to transport a changing crew of visitors from Austin to the hundreds of women and children currently housed in GEO’s version of what a “nice” family detention center looks like.
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Posted in Metro, RagBlog | Tagged Elaine J. Cohen, Family Detention, Immigrants' Rights, Karnes County Family Detention Center, Metro, Rag Bloggers | 2 Comments

Bob Simmons :
Elevators Reunion: (I Done Got) Levitation
at Psych Fest 2015

Posted on May 22, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

Like Icarus, the 13th Floor Elevators, a band that should have a special alcove in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, flew too close to the sun.

Tommy Hall of the 13th Floor Elevators at Levitation 2015. Photo by Bob Simmons / The Rag Blog.

Text and photos by Bob Simmons | The Rag Blog | May 22, 2015

Sitting in the shiny Airstream trailer looking at Tommy Hall and seeing him for the first time since 1968, in what, like 46 years? We are at the 2015 Reverberation “Psych Fest” in Austin, with its nearly 70 bands, 20,000 people, and one or two old hippies for use to compare and contrast. And who would do that better than Tommy, a walking talking true cultural artifact if there ever was one.

I am awash in remembrance of what it was like all those years ago when the 13th Floor Elevators were encouraging their fans to “let it happen to you.” As a student at UT in the 60s I admit gladly that I was one of those who decided to indeed let it happen, in fact, to work actively to make it happen to me and anyone else who would listen. “Proselytizing ‘R Us,” some cynics might have said. But hey, if it worked for the Beatles, Jimi, and everyone in Golden Gate Park, why not for us? Pass the sacrament Jack. Just put the little Janis blotter stamp on your tongue and let nature take its course.
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Posted in Rag Bloggers, RagBlog | Tagged 13th Floor Elevators, Austin History, Austin Music, Bob Simmons, Elevators Reunion, LSD, Psych Fest, Psychedelic Drugs, Psychedelic Rock, Rag Bloggers, Rock and Roll, Roky Erickson, Sixties, Tommy Hall | 7 Comments

Thorne Dreyer :
RAG RADIO PODCASTS | Interviews with Burt Neuborne, Rev. Jim Rigby, Jesse Sublett, Barbara Hines, and Professor Dumpster

Posted on May 22, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

On these podcasts we discuss the first amendment, religion in a secular society, organized crime in ’60s Austin, immigrant rights and family detention, and sustainability through performance art!

Author and musician Jesse Sublett in the studios of KOOP Radio in Austin, Texas, April 24, 2015. Photo by Roger Baker / The Rag Blog.

Interviews by Thorne Dreyer | The Rag Blog | May 22, 2014

Rag Radio 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 following podcasts are from recent Rag Radio shows that have not previously been posted to The Rag Blog.

∗First Amendment Scholar Burt Neuborne, Author of ‘Madison’s Music’

Read the show description and download the podcast of our May 8, 2015 Rag Radio show with Burt Neuborne here — or listen to it here:

∗Rev Jim Rigby on ‘The Role of Religion in a Secular State’

Read the show description and download the podcast of our May 1, 2015 Rag Radio interview with Rev. Jim Rigby here — or listen to it here:

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Posted in RagBlog | Tagged Barbara Hines, Burt Neuborne, Interviews, Jeff Wilson, Jesse Sublett, Jim Rigby, KOOP Radio, Podcasts, Professor Dumpster, Rag Bloggers, Rag Radio, Thorne Dreyer | Leave a comment