Jonah Raskin :
NBC’s Brian Williams and the causalities of war

Posted on February 10, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

Brian Williams helped to further wound the already wounded U.S. news media. Healing those wounds will take a long time.

brian williams

Brian Williams fudged the facts. Image from ET Canada.

By Jonah Raskin | The Rag Blog | February 10, 2015

Most of us exaggerate and embellish at some time or another. We say that we run faster and further than we have actually run. We claim to be better, richer, wiser, and more experienced than we are.

It seems to be part of the human DNA, though news anchors and reporters aren’t supposed to magnify their roles in the making and unmaking of contemporary history. They’re supposed to hew to the facts and tell the truth.

So it came as something of a shock recently when it was revealed that Brian Williams, NBC’s anchor and the managing editor of the nightly news, had fudged the facts about his experiences in war-torn Iraq. He did it again and again for more than a decade as though no one would catch him, as though he was invincible.
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James McEnteer :
The Tardy Boys and the Secret of the
Haunted Castle

Posted on February 9, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

After a while the castle lifted off from the planet
and we shot into the galaxy.

gillette castle haunted

Gillette Castle during a bad trip! Tricked up image from Pinterest.

By James McEnteer | The Rag Blog | February 9, 2015

The spring of 1967 was gorgeous in Connecticut. We’d been going crazy the entire school year. The college was buzzed, high on drugs and youth and the ’60s. Now we could finally get back into nature, busting out lush and verdant around us, bright flowers here and there among the trees coming back to life. Connecticut’s back roads wind around villages, woods and water. Ian and I got in the car and took off into it all. It was way too nice to go to class.

In wooded hills above the Connecticut River we came to the gate of Gillette Castle State Park. A locked chain hanging across the road had a sign that said: “Closed for the Season.” The road disappeared ahead into the green woods. We parked the car and followed it. Intense smells of the forest waking up woke us up.
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Alan Waldman :
TELEVISION | ‘Artful Detective’ is highly enjoyable Canadian historical mystery series

Posted on February 8, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

Set in Toronto, circa 1895-1901, and featuring a clever police inspector who often invents techniques to fight crime, this long-running skein is a real treat.

artful detective crop

Detective Inspector William Murdoch devises forensic techniques that were radical for the time.

By Alan Waldman | The Rag Blog | February 8, 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.]

Originally titled “Murdoch Mysteries,” but currently called “The Artful Detective,” on the Ovation cable channel, this turn-of-the century police inspector series is great fun, not only for the clever crime cases but because its plots weave in famous historical figures.

In some of its 112 episodes over eight seasons (airing 2008-2015 — 103 of which had been shown in the U.S. as of October 2014 — we met Arthur Conan Doyle, Buffalo Bill Cody, Harry Houdini, Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, Emma Goldman, Henry Ford, Winston Churchill, Annie Oakley, H G Wells, Jack London, Queen Victoria, Orville and Wilbur Wright, Henry Ford, and possibly the real Jack the Ripper.
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James Retherford :
LITERATURE | Wild things

Posted on February 4, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

Jonah Raskin’s ‘A Terrible Beauty: The Wilderness of American Literature’ is a fresh look at American letters from the bottom up.

Arrival of the Developers

Arrival of the developers! “Kindred Spirits” by Asher Durand, 1849.

By James Retherford | The Rag Blog | February 4, 2015

Like a true nature’s child
We were born
Born to be wild
— Steppenwolf, “Born to be Wild”

Native Americans in Sonoma County … tell me that their ancestors didn’t understand how and why white men were able to cut down sacred forests and not be struck down dead. Global warming, they tell me, is nature’s revenge.
— Jonah Raskin, A Terrible Beauty

in a world gone crazy
Everything seems hazy
I’m a wild one
Ooh yeah I’m a wild one
— Iggy Pop, “Real Wild Child”

To many, and I do not necessarily exclude myself from this group, American literature, taken as a whole, can seem like something of an oxymoron, and its feckless treatment at the hands of friends and frenemies has done little to dispel the notion.

Lampooned and lambasted, fawned upon and mythologized, deconstructed and reconstructed and unreconstructed again and again, so much mind-numbing jargon has been heaped upon the corpus of American letters that the subject has all but drowned in critical excess. Even America’s own writers have been guilty of piling on.
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Jack A. Smith :
Have Obama and the Democrats actually
become liberals?

Posted on February 3, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

Wow, this is like Christmas every day for the next two years! Of course, none of it will happen.

President Barack Obama In Boston For Fundraising Event At Symphony Hall

The fire-breathing Obama with Elizabeth Warren at the 2015 State of the Union Address. Photo from Getty Images.

By Jack A. Smith | The Rag Blog | February 4, 2015

Has the 2015 center-right Democratic Party transmuted literally overnight into its old center-left visage of the mid-1960s — the party of Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, poverty programs, voting rights, desegregation, and more?

As he begins his seventh year in office, with negligible accomplishments behind him, President Barack Obama suddenly appears to have transformed into the candidate liberal voters thought they had elected in November 2008 — the candidate of “Yes we can!” and “Change we can believe in.” The liberal Nation weekly even headlined its editorial in the February 6 edition: “Obama Gets His Mojo Back.”
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Michael Corcoran :
Crisis at Pacifica Radio

Posted on February 2, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

The iconic Pacifica Radio network, one of the last remaining broadcast outlets for progressive voices, is facing an increasingly uncertain future.

wbai banner at demo

Marchers carry WBAI banner at NYC People’s Climate Justice March, September 20, 2014. Photo from The City Project.

By Michael Corcoran | Truthout | February 2, 2015

Pacifica Radio, one of the most iconic and last remaining outlets for progressive voices on the radio, is facing an increasingly uncertain future.

The network, which consists of five radio stations and dozens of affiliates across the country, has been full of dysfunction in recent years. The dysfunction has been caused by heated infighting caused by two factions vying for control of the network, the loss of important grant money, dwindling listenership, and near-constant fundraising and accounting hiccups.
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Murray Polner :
Who is Eric Fair and what did he do?

Posted on February 2, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

With all our folk tales about our innate goodness and freedom-loving ways, the Real America has always tortured when it wished to do so.

eric fair torture graphic lg

Screen grab from The New York Times.

By Murray Polner | The Rag Blog | February 2, 2015

Before we Americans become bored with all that talk about torture and move on to our next distractions about celebrity breakups, sex, and political scandals, and the arrival of Republican demolition crews dedicated to wrecking Obama’s timorous and second-rate presidency, a few barely noted references to our gambol with torture are in order.

Quick, My Fellow Americans: What, specifically, are “Enhanced Interrogation Techniques,” (EIT) the officially-approved euphemism CIA apologists and its defenders have been proclaiming without bothering to define them? What was it before it was “enhanced?” Stuffing a man inside a tiny box for eleven hours? Dressing him in women’s underwear? Feeding him rectally?
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Kate Braun :
Candlemas celebrates Lord Sun’s renewal

Posted on January 31, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

Candlemas falls on the day before the Full Moon, which could add the energy of “making things happen” to your event.

candlemas art

Candlemas image from Winchelsea Church.

By Kate Braun | The Rag Blog | January 31, 2015

“Spring Fever, spring is here at last/Spring Fever, my heart’s beating fast/Get up, get out, spring is everywhere.”

Monday, February 2, 2015, is Candlemas, also called Imbolc, Candalaria, and Brigit’s Day; a fire festival celebrating Lord Sun’s renewal and vigor. In 2015, Candlemas falls on the day before the Full Moon, which could add the energy of “making things happen” to your event.

The same date as Groundhog Day, Candlemas celebrates spring in all its forms. Notice the sprouting bulbs. In my garden, it’s narcissus; in other parts of the country it could be crocus or other spring-bloomers. You may use representations of these flowers in your decoration, but you should not include cut flowers as it is taboo to pick or cut any plants on Candlemas Day. You may also include Corn Dollies, Candle Wheels, and Brigit’s Crosses in your decorating scheme.
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The Rag Blog :
METRO EVENT | It’s a Rag Blog Happy Hour! With special guest, author/activist Jonah Raskin

Posted on January 30, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

Rock out with us at Maria’s, Friday, Feb. 6 — and also catch Jonah earlier that day when he joins host Thorne Dreyer on Rag Radio.

jonah raskin austin 2

Jonah Raskin dances at Maria’s at Rag Blog Happy Hour in 2011. Photo by James Retherford / The Rag Blog.

AUSTIN — Please join the Rag Blog/Rag Radio community at an informal Happy Hour gathering Friday, February 6, 5:30-7:30 p.m., at Maria’s Taco Xpress in Austin. It’s free and everybody’s welcome.

Event: Rag Blog/Rag Radio Happy Hour
Guest: Author, activist & former Yippie Jonah Raskin
When: Friday, Feb. 6, 2015, 5:30-7:30 p.m.
Where: Maria’s Taco Xpress
Address: 2529 S Lamar Blvd, Austin, TX 78704
Cost: Free
Who can come: You!

Our special guest is Jonah Raskin, who will sign copies of his latest book, A Terrible Beauty: The Wilderness of American Literature, which has been called the first work of cultural criticism to look back at writing in the United States from the perspective of the contemporary environmental crisis.
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William Rogers :
METRO | ‘Fight for $15’ comes to UT-Austin

Posted on January 26, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

One reason workers aren’t making a living wage at UT is that there has not been an across-the-board cost of living pay increase in more than 10 years.

employees union capitol demo 2

Members of Texas State Employees Union rally for State Services and Higher Education at the Texas State Capitol in Austin, Jan. 13, 2015. Photo from David Ramirez.

By William Rogers | The Rag Blog | January 26, 2015

On opening day of the 84th biennial session of the Texas Legislature, about 50 members of the Texas State Employees Union (TSEU) stood together in front of the Capitol grounds to deliver a message to lawmakers: stop privatizing state services, give all state employees a fair pay raise, and fully fund the state employee pension fund.

Some union members also carried signs demanding that the University of Texas at Austin raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour.

TSEU is part of the UT Save Our Community Coalition, a student and community coalition that is bringing the Fight for $15 to the UT campus, located a few blocks north of the Capitol.
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The Rag Blog :
METRO EVENT | Acclaimed documentary ‘Shadows of Liberty’ to screen at UT-Austin

Posted on January 26, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

‘Shadows of Liberty’ reveals the extraordinary truth behind the news media: censorship, cover-ups and corporate control.

shadows of liberty
AUSTIN — The University of Texas at Austin Journalism School and the Texas State Employees Union are presenting a free screening of the internationally acclaimed documentary film, Shadows of Liberty, Tuesday, January 27, 2015, from 6-7:45 p.m. at the Belo Center for New Media on the UT-Austin campus.

Event: Screening of ‘Shadows of Liberty’
What: Documentary film about failures of corporate journalism
When: Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2015, 6-7:45 p.m.
Presented by: UT-Austin Journalism School & Texas State Employees Union
Where: Belo Center for New Media, 2.106, UT Campus
Address: 300 Dean Keeton St. W, Austin 78712
Price: Free & open to the public

According to the film’s website:
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James McEnteer :
Dog days in Quito

Posted on January 20, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

Terrified by the noise of the fireworks, Suki had panicked and bolted over the fence and down the street.

suki at home crop

Suki before her road trip.

By James McEnteer | The Rag Blog | January 21, 2015

QUITO, Ecuador — Our dog ran away on New Year’s Eve. We didn’t notice. We were watching the dozens of firework displays in the sprawling urban areas visible from our house overlooking the valley. Bright, colorful explosions, large and small, burst high up in the chilly mountain dark before, during, and after the midnight hour. Our dog, Suki, a large, long-haired brown-and-white Akita with the face of a panda, often roamed around at night. We didn’t think to look for her.

The next morning we were still not alarmed when she didn’t come immediately to breakfast. But by noon with her still a no-show, we got concerned. We called her. That was usually enough to bring her bounding back home. But not this time. By nightfall we were genuinely alarmed. What could have happened? Where could she be? Was she hurt? We prowled in the dark with flashlights, calling her name.
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