The Rag Blog

Dear friends,

For those of you who don’t know what the AIDS Walk is, its a 5 kilometer walk that raises money for Aids Services of Austin (ASA), a nonprofit organization that helps people with AIDS. I first got involved in the AIDS walk and ASA when my mom worked at ASA. This is my seventh year participating in it and probably my last because I will be in college next year. I would love for you to sponsor me this year. Anything helps. People have donated anywhere from 1 dollar to 100, so I appreciate anything you can afford to give. There is still no cure, but our efforts can help feed, clothe, and give hope to those with AIDS!

Did you know that every minute – every sixty seconds – FIVE people around the world die with HIV/AIDS? Did you know that more than 60 million people across the globe are living with HIV/AIDS, and more than 20 million individuals have already died from the disease? These statistics are staggering, but you and I can HELP.

I recently accepted the challenge to raise funds to support AIDS Walk Austin in its efforts to raise critically needed funds for HIV/AIDS prevention, education and support services in Central Texas. As part of this program, I will also take part in a 5K walk. AIDS Walk Austin gives you the opportunity to help me and help our neighbors living with HIV/AIDS.

Please support me in this important project by contributing as much as you can afford to AIDS Walk Austin 2006. It is faster and easier than ever to support this great cause – you can make your donation online by simply clicking on the link at the bottom of this message. If you would prefer, you can also send your tax-deductible contribution to the address listed below. More information on AIDS Walk Austin and its beneficiaries can be found at this link.

Whatever you can give will help – it all adds up! I greatly appreciate your support and will keep you posted on my progress.

Thank you,

Nora Hansel

Click here to visit my personal page.

But, of course, there are reasons such that we don’t really have to take full responsibility for our lives: “Disgraced former Rep. Mark Foley said through his lawyer Tuesday that he was sexually abused by a clergyman as a teenager, …” (Associated Press) After all, the Repuglicans are ‘the party of God’ whose leader takes his guidance directly from The Big Man, right?

Sad to acknowledge that the first toon explains a fair part of the second …

Now Available! Food Not Lawns, How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden and Your Neighborhood into a Community, by Heather Coburn Flores. The premier guide for ecological living in the city through paradise gardening and shared resources by a co-founder of the original Food Not Lawns grassroots gardening project in Eugene, OR. (Chelsea Green, 2006, 334 p.) ISBN 1-933392-07-X

Order your author-signed first editions today by sending a check or money order for $25 plus $3.85 S&H ($28.85) to Heather Coburn Flores, 31139 Lanes Turn Road, Coburg, OR 97408. Estimate 5-8 business days for delivery.

See this for more information.

SDS meets in Chicago
Jenny Brown
September 2006

Chicago–Student organizers representing dozens of chapters around the country gathered here for the first national meeting of Students for a Democratic Society since 1969. The legendary student group was founded in 1960, and by the late 60’s its name became synonymous with the student movement and the New Left. That ‘first iteration SDS,’ as SDS northeast regional organizer Thomas Good called it, split and scattered in 1969. Local chapters continued to be active for a couple more years.

In 2006, 150 students from University of Central Florida in Orlando, Pace University in New York, Howard Community College near Baltimore, Loyola in Chicago, and many others from Washington State, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, Connecticut and elsewhere spent three days, August 4-7, telling each other about their organizing and strategizing about where to go with a national radical student group.

The call for a national SDS meeting came in January from several chapters of student radicals that had formed under the name “SDS” more or less independently. Pat Korte, a high school student, noted in the January 16th announcement that “several fellow activists from across the country and myself decided to form a national SDS movement, only to discover that chapters already exist! Because of this we decided to hold a national conference.”

Why SDS in particular? Many students felt there needed to be a multi-issue radical student group that was about student power, there was a need on their campuses, and there was a need in the country. Korte said, “Although I have been an active participant in the anti-war and student activist movement, I have become frustrated with the groups collective inability to unify enough people under a common goal/vision to address the overall problems in our society. Historically, SDS was able to address many of these issues pertinent at the time through Tom Hayden’s Port Huron Statement.”

To read more, click here.

There is also additional information at the SDS and MDS Web sites (see the links in the right-hand sidebar), as well as here.

I watched “In the Realms of the Unreal,” Jessica Yu’s descriptive film of Henry Darger’s life, over the weekend. It’s left me in a strange, fanciful sort of mood. Perhaps Earl Gray tea and cherry, almond scones with this odd video ….

And in case you don’t get the hint, Ragamuffins, this means I’m now flat out of ideas for Singin’ on Sunday. I need your help …. This song is titled ‘Somethin’ They Ain’t.’

Once again, Uncle Lucius’ Web site is here if you’d like to learn more about them, book a gig, buy their music, etc.

The following post appeared on Zappy’s blog this morning. I thought it was worth passing along. The specific post is here, where you can also read additional comments from Iraqis “on the ground.”

Well rumors go like wildfires in Iraq, especially when the prime minister declares a sudden curfew in his capital, I mean what other cause could it be?

Are we in a “Wilayat Bateekh”?”

From: Mark Rudd mark@…
Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2006 16:18:52 -0600
Subject: They’re back, and ready to ORGANIZE!!!

Dear Friends: Perhaps you’ve heard that Students for a Democratic Society, or SDS, a defunct sixties rock group, has been resurrected from the grave. It’s true!

Myself, I’ve kept my distance up to now, thinking that they don’t need any stupid old people hanging around to screw things up, like we did forty years ago.

But I have been watching the growth of this new SDS, with more than 130 chapters on college and high school campuses. You can check out what they’ve been up to at this link. Last May I had the pleasure of meeting two young organizers from Tacoma SDS. They’ve been doing some great work organizing against the war in the Olympia/Tacoma area, which you can read about on the above website.

Last month I was recruited by a zealous grey-haired organizer, Bruce Rubenstein of Hartford, Conn, (or maybe he has no hair, I’ve never met him in person), to join the SDS old people’s auxiliary, Movement for a Democratic Society (MDS). The original MDS was founded around 1967 to provide an organizational framework for post-campus organizers. This one is intended to help the young SDS organizers with bail, fund-raising, advice (only if asked), logistical support, and who knows what else. The president of MDS is our old founder, Al Haber, one of the authors of the Port Huron Statement. Check out MDS at this link.

Somehow, I was immediately put on MDS’ board upon joining. When I looked on the website to try to figure out what the duties of board members are, I found my name alongside those of other several old comrades, among others: Tom Hayden, Carl Davidson, Bernardine Dohrn, Charlene Mitchell, Michael Rossman, Michael James, HOWARD ZINN and NOAM CHOMSKY!!!! Now I know what it feels like to be on the same board with both God and Jesus Christ.

A lot of the start-up SDS support work in the last year has been done by Paul Buhle, at Brown, and Tom Good, of New York City. Tom edits a website called Next Left Notes, which you might want to check out at this link. He has a bunch of great stuff there, plus links to everything under the sun. Check out especially Paul Buhle’s reports and essays.

My deepest hope is that the new SDS flourishes and helps build the broadest possible anti-war movement and even a new radical movement to challenge the violent fascist clique now in power in Washington.

One requisite is that they and we avoid the stupid ideological infighting, sectarianism, name-calling, and “correct lineism” that killed the old SDS. (For my mea culpas, check out my website at this link.) Unfortunately there’s already been an outbreak of this garbage, involving three old comrades, Tom Good, Jesse Lemisch, and Maurice Isserman, all good people; in response young organizers will probably just change the channel, but old people like me will certainly be repulsed and withdraw because we have better things to do with the little time left us on this mortal coil.

Let’s hope this is the last instance of the poison which is guaranteed to kill us off. Or are we incapable of learning from our mistakes?

*Anyway, the purpose of this long message, please forgive me, is to ask you to investigate joining SDS (if you’re a student or young person) and MDS (if you’re a veteran or off-campus).* We need help getting these organizations going. The intergenerational aspect of the work can be a plus, especially if the old people don’t act as a heavy hand on the young.

Speaking of which, anyone interested in helping me organize a Buddhist style self-immolation brigade? We could create instant martyrs, plus get rid of some of our more annoying old comrades at the same time.

Feel free to write me with your response at mark@…

Also, please circulate this message to your lists so that we can get the word out about SDS and MDS.

For peace, justice, and freedom, and a new and better SDS,

Mark

De Arbol Salsa or How to Get Even with a Friend Who Gave You Something That Was Too Spicy

This is incredibly tasty, but it will sneek up on you and whack you in the back of your eyeballs !!! I know you think it should be spelled “sneak,” but not in this recipe – see for yourself what happens to your spelling after tasting it ….

To complete the story: one of Carolyn’s colleagues (Naomi, whose recipe for Shan Salad appears in this book on page 284) gave her two cans of a prepared Thai-style curry paste. I used one to cook some little leftovers (some chicken and a little salmon, plus lima beans and chicken stock), and Carolyn found it way spicy, and could not eat it – I thought it was okay, but darned mouth-biter hot !!!

One 1-quart plastic bag, stuffed with (dry) de Arbol chiles (about 5 ounces)
Juice of 2 limes
3 large shallots, husked
5 cloves of Italian garlic, husked
1 cup homemade tomato sauce (no salt, no nothing)
2 tablespoons cumin
1 tablespoon Mexican oregano
1 teaspoon fresh minced (or ground) ginger
1 teaspoon dried mint leaves (from our garden)
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon black pepper

Bring 1 quart water to a boil while you stem the chiles. I tried to remove seeds, too, but it became dangerous with all the chile dust flying. I think I got about half of the seeds out. Give the chiles a quick cold water rinse to remove the dust and dirt. When the water boils, pour enough over the chiles to cover them. Soak them for a long hour.

In the meanwhile, put all the remaining ingredients into your food processor or blender and go drink a beer while you recover from the chile dust.

The tomato sauce I used , homemade back in April of 2002, was supposed to be tomato paste, but it didn’t want to go there, even though the Roma tomatoes were beautiful. By writing this, I mean the sauce I used consisted of Roma tomatoes, period.

When the chiles are softened, use a slotted spoon to get them into the food processor, cover it, and see if the blade will turn. If it will not, add a little chile soaking water and try again. Mash everything for about 40 to 50 seconds, then pour it into a pot and bring it to a very slow simmer, covered. Watch out, as the salsa is like lava.

Oh, yeh – give it a taste, using a tortilla chip and see what happens to your sinuses, your eyes, and your spelling …