METRO EVENT | The Rag Blog : Mike Davis on ‘Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster’

Posted on September 30, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

Noted author and urban theorist Mike Davis will present ‘A California perspective on Texas-as-the-future’ on Thursday, October 30, in Austin.

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The Rag Blog presents Mike Davis at 5604 Manor in Austin. Photo © Don Usner. Poster graphic by Carlos Lowry / The Rag Blog.

Event: The Rag Blog presents scholar/author Mike Davis
Subject: “A California perspective on Texas-as-the-future”
When: Thursday, Oct. 30, 2014, 7-9 p.m.
Where 5604 Manor Community Center
Address: 5604 Manor Rd., Austin, Tx 78723
Benefiting: New Journalism Project
Suggested donation: $10

AUSTIN — The Rag Blog presents City of Quartz author, urban theorist, Marxist scholar, historian, and political activist Mike Davis — speaking on “Texas vs. California: Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster. A California perspective on Texas-as-the-future” — on Thursday, October 30, 7-9 p.m. at the 5604 Manor Community Center in Austin.

A discussion and informal gathering will follow — with snacks, beer, and wine available. The event benefits the New Journalism Project, the Texas nonprofit that publishes The Rag Blog and sponsors Rag Radio. Suggested donation is $10.
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METRO | Lamar W. Hankins : Facing evil in
East Texas

Posted on September 29, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

We look at how the Church of Wells cult recruits members into its fold, and the almost total emotional control the three ‘elders’ have over the group.

church of wells brothers

Church of Wells “brothers.” The group is heavily male-dominated.

By Lamar W. Hankins | The Rag Blog | September 29, 2014

WELLS, Texas — The Church of Wells, located in and around Wells, Texas, 17 miles northwest of Lufkin, separates itself from the world because of the evil it sees in the larger culture. But the Church of Wells itself is the source of an evil much worse than what it preaches against and separates itself from. Leaders of the Church of Wells — called “elders” though all three are in their twenties — systematically destroy the freedom of mind, conscience, and volition of their members.

On August 11, I wrote about the death of a baby born to a couple who are members of the Church of Wells [“Child murder in Texas” by Lamar Hankins, The Rag Blog, Aug. 11, 2014]. The infant, Faith Shalom Pursley, was born with a routinely treatable birth defect, but received no medical care because her parents and at least one of the Church of Wells “elders,” Ryan Ringnald, decided to deny the baby medical care in favor of praying that she would get well and, after she died, praying for her resurrection for15 hours before reporting her death.
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METRO PODCAST | Thorne Dreyer : Lamar Hankins discusses a major scandal at the Church of Wells cult in East Texas

Posted on September 24, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

Lamar talks about the revelations in his chilling investigative report for The Rag Blog, entitled ‘Child murder in Texas.’

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Lamar Hankins on Rag Radio in the studios of KOOP-FM in Austin, Texas, September 12, 2014. Photo by Roger Baker / The Rag Blog.

Interview by Thorne Dreyer | The Rag Blog | September 24, 2014

Lamar W. Hankins, a columnist for The Rag Blog and a former San Marcos city attorney, joins us on Rag Radio to discuss his investigative reporting about a major scandal involving an East Texas fundamentalist church.

Lamar’s Rag Blog article, “Child murder in Texas,” about the very cultish Church of Wells, went viral, attracting tens of thousands of readers, well over a thousand Facebook shares, and more than 250 impassioned comments.
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Tom Hayden :
Marching for a green economy ‘built to last’

Posted on September 24, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio commits to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2030, calling it ‘a moral imperative.’

climate march figures

From left, Jane Goodall, former Vice President Al Gore, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon march in Sunday’s climate march in New York City. Photo from Getty Images / The Democracy Journal.

By Tom Hayden | The Rag Blog | September 24, 2014

NEW YORK — With hundreds of thousands of marchers converging on the United Nations climate summit, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio took the opportunity to declare a massive initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2030, calling it “a moral imperative.”

The 111-page plan, called One City: Built to Last, was strongly supported by the City Council and a diverse network of community-based organizations. Its major focus will be on retrofits of the city’s public and private buildings. In city-owned properties the goal is to cut emissions by 30 percent below 2006 levels in three years.
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Shepherd Bliss :
‘Village Building Convergence’ rocks
small-town Sebastopol

Posted on September 23, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

The two-day event was designed to ‘improve our experience of community… by transforming public spaces and making them into special places.’

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In Sebastopol, California: Painting the village red… and yellow, and… Photo by Marty Roberts / Cittaslow Sebastopol.

By Shepherd Bliss | The Rag Blog | September 23, 2014

SEBASTOPOL, California — Participants in the ambitious 10-day First Annual Sebastopol Village Building Convergence (VBC) painted murals on streets in this small Northern California town and filled the Grange Hall, the Permaculture Skills Center, and other sites from September 12-21.

On the final day, a colorful, active parade marched from the weekly farmers’ market in the downtown plaza through a newly-painted street with murals of salmon, dogs, coyote tracks, a Spirit Bird, and other wildlife. Over 400 people, including many children, participated in that painting. One theme of the march was climate protection, coinciding with the People’s Climate March (PCM) in New York City and elsewhere around the planet on Sept. 21.
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Harvey Wasserman :
Gorgeous global march shows how to win
the climate fight

Posted on September 22, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

Huge environmental action in New York teaches us that the answer to change lies with the grass roots.

don't frack with us

People’s Climate March in New York City, September 21, 2014. Photo by Shadia Fayne Wood / peoplesclimate.org

By Harvey Wasserman | The Rag Blog | September 22, 2014

NEW YORK — The massive People’s Climate March, the most hopeful, diverse, photogenic, energizing, and often hilarious march I’ve joined in 52 years of activism — and one of the biggest, at 400,000 strong — has delivered a simple messag​e: we can and will rid the planet of fossil fuels and nuclear power, we will do it at the grassroots, it will be demanding and difficult to say the least, but it will also have its moments of great fun.

With our lives and planet on the line, our species has responded.
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METRO EVENT | Beverly Baker Moore : Support your local musicians’ health

Posted on September 22, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

Have fun, celebrate live music, and support a great cause during HAAM Benefit Day throughout Austin, Tuesday, September 23.

haam image

Support your local musician!

By Beverly Baker Moore | The Rag Blog | September 22, 2014

Event: HAAM Benefit Day
Sponsor: Whole Foods Market
Benefiting: Health Alliance for Austin Musicians
Lineup and Info: MyHamm.com
Place: Throughout Austin
When: Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Hours: 6 a.m-past midnight

AUSTIN — Live Music is at the heart of Austin’s highly touted scene. As much as Austin loves its musicians, most of them live a “seat of the pants” lifestyle, which feeds the soul better than the pocketbook.

The musician’s life is not usually one of steady paychecks, the kind with social security and health insurance deductions, and so their lives are far from secure and their assets are often fleeting. It’s one thing to write, play, and sing music for one’s “supper”; it’s another to face health care needs with little to no resources.
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Kate Braun :
Welcome the return of Autumn by celebrating the Fall Equinox

Posted on September 22, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

By paying attention to balance in our lives, we promote harmony, which tends to make life more comfortable.

autumn scene

Note to folks in Texas: This is what autumn looks like!

By Kate Braun | The Rag Blog | September 22, 2014

“Autumn has returned… Trees are falling asleep…As though time has stopped for a while…”

Monday, September 22, 2014, is the Fall Equinox. You may also call it Mabon, Harvest Home, Second Harvest, or Cornucopia; all are names for the same season. Select from among the colors red, orange, russet, maroon, brown, deep gold, and violet for your dress and table or altar coverings. Decorate with gourds, pine cones, acorns, apples, ivy, autumn leaves, textured fabrics such as velvet and corduroy, and scales or balance beams. This is a festival of abundance; be abundant in your decorating.

Lord Sun enters the sign Libra today. Libra’s symbol is the scales, which signify balance. Daylight and dark hours are equal today, another manifestation of balance. By paying attention to balance in our lives, we promote harmony, which tends to make life more comfortable. By making sure to give time to personal and spiritual, as well as professional, activities, it becomes easier to maintain a better day-to-day balance in all aspects of life.
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Thorne Dreyer :
PODCAST | Texas public interest crusader Craig McDonald, whose complaint triggered the Rick Perry indictment

Posted on September 22, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

On Rag Radio, Craig McDonald says the Perry case is about ‘coercion and abuse of power,’ and that only the Texas media has gotten the story right.

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Craig McDonald on Rag Radio in the studios of Austin’s KOOP-FM, September 5, 2014. Photos by Roger Baker / The Rag Blog.

Interview by Thorne Dreyer | The Rag Blog | September 22, 2014

Texas public interest crusader Craig McDonald, once cited by Rolling Stone magazine as among the nation’s top “Renegades, Mavericks and Troublemakers,” is our guest on Rag Radio.

McDonald is the founder and director of Texans for Public Justice (TPJ), the public interest anti-corruption nonprofit whose complaint against Texas Governor Rick Perry led to a felony indictment charging Perry with “coercion of a public servant and misuse of official capacity.” The group also filed the 2005 criminal complaint against House Majority leader Tom Delay that resulted in several felony convictions and, ultimately, DeLay’s resignation.
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METRO | Lamar W. Hankins : Funeral Service commissioners thumb noses at Texas families

Posted on September 17, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

As far as I can tell the four public representatives were chosen not for their interest in supporting consumer protection, but because of their political connections to Governor Rick Perry.

cemetary scene

Funerals: Who’s standing up for the consumer?

By Lamar W. Hankins | The Rag Blog | September 17, 2014

AUSTIN — In the last year and a half, the seven members of the Texas Funeral Service Commission (TFSC) have shown their disdain for regulations that protect Texas families. Twice during this time, the combined Texas affiliates of the national Funeral Consumers Alliance, asked the TFSC to modify its funeral rules to better protect Texas families.

The Funeral Consumers Alliance of Texas (FCAT), serving the areas in and around Houston, San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas-Ft. Worth and working under the able leadership of Jim Bates from North Texas, presented rule-making petitions requesting certain rules changes.
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Tom Hayden :
From Vietnam to Iraq, lessons never learned

Posted on September 17, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

We cannot trust the ‘best and brightest’ to have the answers any more than students trusted their pedigreed elders 50 years ago.

tom hayden ann arbor 1969

Tom Hayden speaks at the Vietnam Moratorium in Ann Arbor in 1969. Photo by Jay Cassidy / Courtesy of Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan.

By Tom Hayden | The Rag Blog | September 17, 2014

[The following remarks, provided to The Rag Blog in advance, will be included in a speech that Tom Hayden will deliver tonight, Wednesday, September 17, 2014, at Angell Hall on the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor, on the lessons of Vietnam for Iraq. Angell Hall was the site of the first Vietnam teach-in in 1965.]

ANN ARBOR, Michigan — I am joining many peace groups around America in expressing opposition to the escalation of the Iraq War into a quagmire that is likely to be costly in lives, tax dollars, and our tarnished reputation.

Ann Arbor is the place, along with Berkeley, where the young American peace movement demanded a teach-in, an end to campus business as usual, an end to intellectual conformity, and congressional hearings as we confronted the growing horror of the Vietnam War.
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Jonah Raskin :
BOOKS | Cultural historian McNally takes readers on a long strange trip

Posted on September 16, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

For those who lived through the era and still care about issues of class, race, and gender, ‘Highway 61’ is the book to read about American music.

on highway 61

On Highway 61 will awaken memories and stir the heart.

By Jonah Raskin | The Rag Blog | September 16, 2014

[On Highway 61: Music, Race and the Evolution of Cultural Freedom by Dennis McNally (October 2014: Counterpoint); Hardcover; 384 pages; ; $28.]

Dennis McNally’s publisher might have persuaded him to call his new book A Dead Head Looks At American Music, or The Head Dead Head’s Guide to Jazz, the Blues and Bob Dylan. After all McNally served for many years as the Grateful Dead’s publicist and historian. The author of A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead, he knows the Dead and the Deadheads, too.

His forte as an author lies in his ability to look back at the history of American music through the eyes of the Grateful Dead and from the perspective of the cultural upheavals of the Sixties.
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