Jonah Raskin :
INTERVIEW | Howard Machtinger on the old-yet-never-forgotten American War in Vietnam

Posted on June 5, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

Anti-war activist Howie Machtinger, veteran of SDS and the Weather Underground,  believes we should get the facts straight about Vietnam.

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Howie Machtinger, 1969.

By Jonah Raskin | The Rag Blog | June 5, 2014

Vietnam was near the heart of Howard Machtinger’s life from about 1965, when he was a 19-year-old student, to 1975, when the war ended and weary American troops came home. Vietnam is near the heart of his life once again.

In those days, he belonged to SDS and later to Weatherman and the Weather Underground. These days, he’s a member of Veterans for Peace, the organization that has launched a campaign that demands “Full Disclosure” and “An Honest Commemoration of the American War in Vietnam.”
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METRO | Roger Baker : The rise and rise of Austin, Texas

Posted on June 3, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

Suburbs experience growth explosion while Austin’s tech bubble could be the next to explode.

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Austin Growth Monster? Image from Nickelodeon.

By Roger Baker | The Rag Blog | June 3, 2014

AUSTIN — According to Forbes, as reported by KVUE-TV, Austin is the fastest growing city in the country.

According to city of Austin demographer Ryan Robinson, approximately 110 new people move here every day. That’s a net number, including those moving in and moving out. “About 150 come in and 40 leave,” Robinson told KVUE. That number includes all five counties in the greater metropolitan area: Williamson, Travis, Hays, Bastrop and Caldwell.

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Kate Braun :
BOOKS | Mariann Garner-Wizard’s informative and timely ‘Hempseed Food’

Posted on June 3, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

This book is chock-full of recipes and useful information that will fascinate readers who care deeply about what they eat, how it is prepared, and what nutrients it contains.

hempseed food

Mariann Garner-Wizard’s Hempseed Food.

By Kate Braun | The Rag Blog | June 3, 2014

[Hempseed Food: The REAL Secret Ingredient for Health & Happiness by Mariann Garner-Wizard; illustrated by Charlie Loving (2013: Lulu.com); Paperback; 90 pp.; $15.]

When Rag Blog regular Mariann Garner-Wizard decided in 1995 to write a book about cooking with hempseed, the seed of the Cannabis sativa plant, she thought it would be a quick, easy project. A longtime cannabis activist, she saw hempseed foods then just as she saw other products that could be made from the banned “marijuana” plant: fibers for paper, fabric, and building materials; oil and biomass for fuels; and valuable medicines for cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis, neuropathy, and other disease sufferers.
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METRO EVENT | Dude. It’s Hemp History Week!

Posted on June 3, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

Hemp History Week, June 3-9, 2014, promotes the re-legalization of industrial hemp in the U.S.

hemp history weekAUSTIN — Every day, more and more Americans discover the environmental and health-related benefits of hemp (Cannabis sativa). Hemp products now include foods, body care products, textiles, paper goods, clothing, auto parts, building materials, and more.

But despite hemp’s growing popularity, the outdated, misguided federal policy of cannabis prohibition still prevents U.S. farmers from growing this versatile, valuable crop. The prohibition of hemp, the non-psychoactive sister plant of “marijuana,” may in fact have been the real reason the war against marijuana was launched in the 1930s by industrialists who feared hemp’s potential.
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Posted on June 3, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer
hempseed food
FRONT PAGE | See Kate Braun’s review of Rag Blogger Mariann Garner-Wizard’s new book, ‘Hempseed Food.’
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METRO PODCAST | Thorne Dreyer : Aralyn Hughes, performance artist & ‘Queen of Austin Weird,’ on Rag Radio

Posted on June 2, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

Noted Austin storyteller Hughes is the editor of ‘Kid Me Not: an anthology by child-free women of the ’60s now in their 60s.’

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Performance artist Aralyn Hughes, with Rag Radio’s Tracey Schulz, left, and host Thorne Dreyer, at the KOOP studios in Austin. Photo by Roger Baker / The Rag Blog.

Interview by Thorne Dreyer | The Rag Blog | June 2, 2014

Our Rag Radio podcast features Austin performance artist, storyteller, and visual artist Aralyn Hughes, whose new book is Kid Me Not: an anthology by child-free women of the ’60s now in their 60s.

Listen to or download the podcast of our May 23, 2014, Rag Radio interview with Aralyn Hughes here:
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Bob Feldman :
People’s History of Egypt, Conclusion, Section 2, February 12, 2011-2013

Posted on June 2, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

The Egyptian people continue their fight against domination by foreign governments, foreign-based transnational corporations, and foreign government-selected or promoted puppet rulers.

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Egyptian basins serving as hydrocarbon exploration centers for Houston’s Apache Corporation, the largest oil producer in Egypt.

By Bob Feldman | The Rag Blog | June 2, 2014

[With all the dramatic activity in Egypt, Bob Feldman’s Rag Blog “people’s history” series, “The Movement to Democratize Egypt,” could not be more timely. Also see Feldman’s “Hidden History of Texas” series on The Rag Blog.]

In the view of James Gelvin, author of The Arab Uprising, “social media” had “certainly played a role” in the late January 2011 uprising in Egypt “but they did not cause” the  uprising because “only 20 percent of Egyptians have internet access.”
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Alan Waldman :
‘Luther’ is a dark, powerful English thriller series featuring a star turn by Idris Elba

Posted on May 27, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

This haunted detective, aided by a deranged former murderess, takes on the most treacherous London criminals.

luther

Luther is an innovative British psychological crime series.

By Alan Waldman | The Rag Blog | May 27, 2014

[In his weekly 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, and Scotland. Most are available on DVD and/or Netflix, and some episodes are on YouTube.]

Luther is an innovative British psychological crime drama television series which has aired three seasons and 14 episodes (2010-2013) so far in Britain (two here on BBC America) and has already won eight major awards and 20 nominations (including five for Emmys). Currently, 10 episodes from two seasons, including this one, are on Netflix and Netflix Instant streaming.
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Robert Sharlet :
Lament for the long forgotten war dead

Posted on May 24, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

For the fallen from Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, it’s home in a box, family and neighbors gather, a sad requiem, the flag folded, presented to the mother.

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High Peaks, Adirondacks, northern New York.

By Robert Sharlet | The Rag Blog | May 24, 2014

Nearly a half century ago this season of remembering the fallen — just after sunset on a hillside along the border of New York and Canada — the sad sounds of taps echoed through the hills and valleys. It was a warm evening summer of ’67 when hundreds of townspeople — nearly everyone living in Ausable Forks, a tiny hamlet of 500 or so souls — came out to pay last respects to a local boy, James Saltmarsh, killed a week earlier in Vietnam.

An honor guard had fired 21 rifle volleys as yet another son of the North Country of upper New York State was laid to rest. Finally, the elegiac lament of the bugle was heard, closing the burial ceremony in the breathtaking High Peaks region of the Adirondack Mountains.
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James McEnteer :
Good migrations…

Posted on May 24, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

How U.S. Customs helped me smuggle marijuana into the USA.

stuffed parrot

“Stuffed Parrot on Wood Perch” by Joan Miró. Photo © Aat Bender.

By James McEnteer | The Rag Blog | May 24, 2014

“The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there.” — L.P. Hartley

When I first discovered Mexico in 1967, everything about it was a revelation. There was no danger then, as now, from getting killed in the cross fire of drug cartels.

Driving the wild empty highways of northern Mexico was dangerous for other reasons: the terrible conditions of the roads themselves, the potholes and crumbling pavement, the lack of any shoulders on the narrow two-lane main roads that disappeared across the desert into distant mountains, unmarked construction sites, the lack of speed limits or any law enforcement, the clutter of animals (cattle, sheep, burros, dogs, vultures) or humans or stalled vehicles.
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METRO | Sunshine Williams : Don’t keep Austin weird, puleeze!

Posted on May 24, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

Upscale 168-room boutique hotel planned for the Domain to have ‘rustic Texas chic’ decor and ‘Keep Austin Weird’ theme. Hey, we’ll show you weird…

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Armadillo poster by Jim Franklin, 1976, signed by Jerry Jeff Walker. From the collection of Sunshine Williams.

By Sunshine Williams | The Rag Blog | May 24, 2014

AUSTIN — I can’t keep silent any longer. Quick, call the Vice Squad! Lodge Works Partners and Endeavor Real Estate Group are endeavoring to pimp and prostitute the Keep Austin Weird legend by keeping the “Keep Austin Weird theme central to our design” in the Archer Austin, a chic boutique hotel to be built between Neiman Mark-up and a new Nordstrom at the Domain in North Austin. (See the May 6, 2014, Austin American-Statesman.)

I submit that these tenderfoots(feet) have no idea of the origin of the KAW slogan. If they did, they wouldn’t touch it with a 10-foot(feet) pole. In the first place, the “central theme” of the original KAW was essentially SEX, DRUGS, AND ROCK ‘N’ ROLL. I’ll explain.
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Posted on May 24, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer
armadillo poster
METRO | Flash! Upscale hotel plans ‘Keep Austin Weird’ theme! Read Sunshine Williams’ shocking report cum weird Austin history.
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