Is Religion the Enemy of Feminism?

Wichita NOW hosted a debate between Rev. Robin McGonigle and Amanda Knief on March 5, 2013. Wichita NOW President Vicki Stangl moderated. McGonigle is Senior Minister at University Congregational Church in Wichita. Knief is managing director and in-house counsel for American Atheists.

Country Club #4: Bob Wills teaches political economy

"Take Me Back to Tulsa" is a Western Swing classic, but it also has one of the most succinct lessons in political economy. In 1940, Bob Wills and vocalist Tommy Duncan put lyrics to a Wills fiddle tune.

Aocording to wikipedia

The song is a series of unrelated, mostly nonsense, rhyming couplets, i.e.: Little bee sucks the blossom, big bee gets the honey. Darkie picks the cotton, white man gets the money. Modern covers of the song, in order to avoid racial offense, tend to replace above line with: Poor boy picks the cotton, Rich man gets the money.

I've also heard "black man picks the cotton, white man gets the money."
Wills and Duncan weren't Woody Guthrie writing political songs. Wills said the lyrics were just nonsense lyrics he had learned as a boy. So, it might be said that Take Me Back to Tulsa reflects an unconscious class consciousness' Lots of country songs do.The left should listen.

Nouveau Quintest (gypsy jazz) opens Bartlett Arboretum 2013 Concert Series

Wichita's gypsy jazz group Nouveau Quintent is performing this Sunday March 31 from 2-5 pm at the Bartlett Arboretum in Belle Plaine, Kansas. It is the first of their 2013 Tree House Concert series. There are some truly excellent performers on the schedule. Definitely worth checking out. And the arboretum is an important historical, cultural, and ecological institution that deserves support.

Commonweal on the new Pope, Catholicism and Capitalism

The liberal Catholic journal Commonweal has this to say about the new Pope Francis

Catholicism has never quite made peace with capitalism, for instance, and here all sorts of esoteric Catholic objections to modern liberalism merge with a rejection of the materialism and crass commercialism of American society and the hegemony of Wall Street. The Catholic critique of the modern economy may be needed now more than ever before, and Francis’s promise to make concern for the poor central to his papacy could confound the powerful in surprising ways. 

(ht: Lawrence Gulotta )

Country Club #3: Long Black Veil

Johnny Cash performed "The Long Black Veil" with Joni Mitchell on the first episode of his CBS show in 1969. It was originally recorded by Lefty Frizzell in 1959. It was a bit of departure from Frizzell's honky-tonk sound. In 1968, the song appeared on The Band's Music from Big Pink and Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison.

Congratulations to Russsell Fox

Russell Fox, my friend and fellow member of Wichita Democratic Socialists, celebrated ten years of blogging at In Media Res.  It's an interesting, informative blog which I actually started following before Russell moved to Wichita. I recommend that you check it out.

I'm coming up on my tenth anniversary of blogging as well. My first posts were on November 8 and November 21 of 2003, but I didn't really start blogging with some consistency until June of 2004.  So if you don't see a tenth anniversary of NAR blog post in November 2013, wait will June 2014.

Country Club # 2: the man who started it all

Is this the first country video? Jimmie Rodgers (wikipedia allmusic website) is rightly called the "father of country music."

Allmusic.com observes

the first nationally known star of country music and the direct influence of many later performers, from Hank Snow, Ernest Tubb, and Hank Williams to Lefty Frizzell and Merle Haggard. Rodgers sang about rounders and gamblers, bounders and ramblers -- and he knew what he sang about. ... In an era when Rodgers' contemporaries were singing only mountain and mountain/folk music, he fused hillbilly country, gospel, jazz, blues, pop, cowboy, and folk

Rodgers recorded with Louis Armstrong and influenced many bluesmen. He was the first inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame, inducted as a fouding father in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and just this year (2013)added to the Blues Hall of Famer.

Wealth Inequality in America

The information in this video has been around for a while. I've seen quite a few blogs and articles cite. But this video created in November 2012, has gone viral because it really makes the said facts well known. One quibble: socialism doesn't mean an absolute equality of income or household wealth.

The creator describes the video thusly

Infographics on the distribution of wealth in America, highlighting both the inequality and the difference between our perception of inequality and the actual numbers. The reality is often not what we think it is.

 He also provides these references:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2...
http://danariely.com/2010/09/30/wealt...
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011...
http://money.cnn.com/2012/04/19/news/...

Country Club #1

I've been sharing a blues video (most) Saturdays for quite a while now and I feel the need to take a little break. Or more accurately, a shift. I might have picked jazz or soul or rock, but  I'm going to be sharing some country and western videos on (most) Saturdays now.

 Every music series requires a catchy title and I'm borrowing "Country Club" from Travis Tritt. (wikipedia Allmusic.com   website) I don't agree with Tritt's Republican politics, but this--his first single in 1989--is a great song and his mixture of honky tonk with country-rock and southern rocks works.

Allmusic.com says "Travis Tritt was one of the leading new country singers of the early '90s, holding his own against Garth Brooks, Clint Black, and Alan Jackson. He was the only one not to wear a hat and the only one to dip into bluesy Southern rock. Consequently, he developed a gutsy, outlaw image that distinguished him from the pack."

In a future post I'll discuss the political rationale for the series.  I think a that (many) leftists, progressives, and union activists ought to put aside aesthetic and political prejudices and actually listen to the music and hear the lyrics.

Hint: there's a little bit of class consciousness in this song and spent 26 weeks on the Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts, peaking at number nine.

Blues on a Saturday: John Primer "Hideaway"

Stand UP! Fight BACK! Rally Photos

Blues on a Saturday: Magic Slim "That Will Never Do"

Magic Slim (Morris Holt)a very fine Chicago bluesman, who had relocated to Omaha, died on Thursday February 21 at the age of 75. (Here is his wikipedia entry.) /He started his career playing bass for his friend Magic Sam, who bestowed his nickname. Slim won the W. C. Handy Blues Band of the Year six times. Having seen Slim perform live many times in Chicago in the 1980s, I can attest that the awards were well deserved.

Bill Dahl, writing on allmusic.com says "Magic Slim & the Teardrops proudly uphold the tradition of what a Chicago blues band should sound like...His guitar work dripped vibrato-enriched nastiness and his roaring vocals were as gruff and uncompromising as anyone's on the scene."

Kansans To Converge On Capitol To Defend State On Saturday

Rally To Feature Broad Cross-Section of Kansans Addressing Extremist Legislation From Corporate Lobbyists

 Topeka, KS—Nurses, teachers, clergy, elected leaders and others will rally at the State Capitol this Saturday February 23 at 2:00 p.m. to push back against an increasingly extreme legislative agenda. Kansans from a variety of backgrounds, political parties and professional backgrounds will be in attendance and among the featured speakers.

“The Governor and legislative leaders need to know that what they’re doing will not happen in some back room where nobody notices,” explained AFT Kansas President Lisa Ochs. “The people of Kansas will know exactly who is destroying the quality of life in our state, along with its future.”

Divisive, extremist bills being threatened by some legislators are known as "model legislation" from the corporate lobby ALEC—essentially a one-size-fits-all legislative template the group has introduced in a number of states.

“They’re threatening Kansas with bills that have nothing to do with our state,” Ochs continued. “They’re the same ones, written by the same corporate lobbyists, we’ve seen submitted in one state after another across the nation.”

Speakers at Saturday’s rally will include:

• State Sen. Anthony Hensley
• State Rep. Paul Davis
• Former State Sen. Jean Schodorf
• Vanessa Boyler, KU Medical Center Nurse
• Lisa Ochs, AFT Kansas President
• Rev. Joshua Longbottom, Plymouth Congregational Church Pastor
• Dave Reber, Free State High School Biology Teacher
• Resa Boydston, Kansas Neurological Institute Technician
• Randy Mousley, United Teachers of Wichita President
• Sulma Arias, Sunflower Community Action Executive Director

“Governor Brownback cannot claim to care about our state’s future while dismantling it," added Randy Mousley, President of the United Teachers of Wichita. "As a science teacher, I can tell you that slashing education and then expecting our kids to compete in a global, knowledge based economy is shortsighted and self-defeating in the extreme.” 

Rally with Public Speakers

This Saturday, Feb. 23, at 2pm

State Capitol in Topeka, South Steps

###

AFT Kansas is the oldest public employee union in the state, and represents teachers, school employees, health care workers and other public employees across our state. 

Blues on a Saturday: Jimmy Johnson "Cold, Cold Feeling"

Here's a nice Jimmy Johnson cut performed live at a Chicago blues club.

Review: Michael Austin's That's Not What They Meant About Guns

Michael Austin has written an extremely timely and informative analysis That's Not What They Meant About Guns. It is really an extra chapter on the second amendment added to his recently published That's Not What They Meant!: Reclaiming the Founding Fathers from America's Right Wing,which I also highly recommend. Austin destroys the ill informed and ignorant arguments of crazy right wing talk shows hosts like Glenn Beck and Mark Levine. There is historical background about what militias meant in revolutionary America that has some profound implications. And, an eye-opening section on how commonly-proposed gun regulations most likely pass Constitutional muster is really great.

I only have two smallish criticisms. There is a small section of Austin's conclusion("psychological effects") in my Kindle for PC download which is garbled. And, Austin's rhetoric of showing his moderation by positing, even if in passing, an liberal viewpoint on guns just as extreme and absolute as that of today's conservatives seems a little contrived to me.

The debate over gun violence is going to heated in coming months. If you want to be an informed citizen there is no better book to read.

Blues on a Saturday: Guy Clark, Jr. "Catfish Blues"

This generation's blues savior Gary Clark Jr. performed "Catfish Blues" at In Performance at the White House: Red, White & Blues. Hosted by President and Mrs. Obama on February 21, 2012 and aired on PBS on Feb 27, 2012. There are shots of the Obamas grooving and, more interestingly to me, of Booker T. on the organ. You can see the entire show at http://video.pbs.org/video/2202801749.

Political Humor from 1915

Hat Tip: Meg at Cognitive Dissonance.

Blues on a Saturday: Otis Rush "Gamblers Blues"

Having Governments Declare Hate Groups as Hate Groups is a Bad Idea

Liberals and progressives, just like right wingers, neo-confederates, and gun nuts, have been promoting dubious ideas on the White House petition site.  More than 800,000  reacted to President Obama's re-election in multiple petitions for their states to secede from the United States. After the Sandy Hook tragedy, nearly fifty thousand have petitioned for CNN talk show host Piers Morgan to be deported back to England because of his support for gun control.

Not to outdone, over 300,000 have petitioned for the hateful Westboro Baptist Church to be officially declared a hate group. It is said to be the most signatures on an individual petition in the history of the White House petition site.

Here is the text of the petition

This group has been recognized as a hate group by organizations, such as The Southern Poverty Law Center, and has repeatedly displayed the actions typical of hate groups.

Their actions have been directed at many groups, including homosexuals, military, Jewish people and even other Christians. They pose a threat to the welfare and treatment of others and will not improve without some form of imposed regulation.

Another petition , with close to 100.00 signers, references the White House petition and urges the FBI

to officially designate the Westboro Baptist Church as a hate group, urging the IRS to revoke the organization's tax-exempt status and increasing law enforcement's ability to block them from disrupting private funerals.

Not only is this is a really noxious proposal, it is also misguided. I've been asked to sign it several times on both Facebook and Twitter. I'm sure many signed it just to let off steam at the reprehensible behavior and disgusting ideas of Fred Phelps and family, which have made Westboro the symbol of anti-gay bigotry, even though it is tiny, marginal, and counterproductive group.  Its raw, unfiltered hatred is probably a net plus for gay rights, discrediting the antigay cause. The petitions makes its signers feel good, but it diverts attention from the really powerful groups which support antigay bigotry and legislation in the United States and internationally. The petitions make the statement that anti-bigotry is wrong --and the statement that we should abandon the first amendment in favor of having government agencies, whether the President or the FBI, declare some speech to be banned.

There is simply no process today in the United States to legally recognize  an organization as a "hate group."  And that's a good thing.  We don't proscribe groups because we don't like their views.  It is even allowed for individuals and groups to advocate the overthrow of the government as long as they don't advocate imminent action.

And, why, would we trust the FBI,  which in its internal documents has labelled the Occupy movement as a domestic terrorist organization, to make public judgments on whether this or that organization should be labelled a "hate group?"

As Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall argued

the First Amendment means that government has no power to restrict expression because of its message, its ideas, its subject matter, or its content. To permit the continued building of our politics and culture, and to assure self-fulfillment for each individual, our people are guaranteed the right to express any thought, free from government censorship. The essence of this forbidden censorship is content control. Any restriction on expressive activity because of its content would completely undercut the 'profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open.

The anti-Westboro petition confuses speech and actions.  It says that Westboro "displayed the actions that are typical of hate groups."  And that their "actions" "pose a threat to the welfare and treatment of others...." But there differences in what hate groups do.  The SPLC states that inclusion on the list "does not imply a group advocates or engages in violence or other criminal activity."  So far as I know Westboro has never incited attacks on gay people.  Their placards say "God Hates Fags" not "Kill Gays." They have, again so far as I know, obeyed ordinances and requirements that mandate that they conduct their protests a certain distance from funerals. 

The best way to oppose the hatred of Westboro is to either ignore them or to arrange counter-protests., not to have the government but them on a proscribed list.

In the past, the American government has put groups on proscribed lists. During the first red scare at the end of WWI, laws forbade the admission into the United States of immigrants who belonged to groups 'which advocated the overthrow of the Government of the United States by force or violence." Many states passed "criminal syndicalism" laws which in effect  made membership in radical  union organizations like the Industrial Workers of the World illegal. More than twenty states, including Kansas, made it illegal to display red flags. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer listed 12 organizations, membership in which would automatically lead to exclusion or deportation for alien members. However, the deportation proceedings aroused such a public clamor that the list,  was withdrawn. In 1947, Attorney General Tom Clark issued a list of 11 subversive organization including Communist fronts, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Nazi Party.  Within a decade, the list had grown to more than 100 organizations, even though many groups were defunct.

Membership, past or present, in these subversive groups  was a bar to federal employment. Many state and local government employees were required to sign a loyalty oath that they were not members of a subversive group, including but not limited to those on the AG's list.  Teachers were also required to sign loyalty oaths.  The Federal government required defense contractors and ports to clear their employees. Courts, at the time, held that other employers could fire employees who were members of "subversive" organizations.  In 1952 Congress passed a law "which provided that "no housing unit constructed under the United States Housing Act of 1937, as amended, shall be occupied by a person who is a member of an organization designated as subversive by the Attorney General."

Moreover, the subversive list had no real process for organizations to appeal their classification or to see the evidence against them. It took more than a decade for the Independent Socialist League an anti-Stalinist, left-wing group to get removed from the AG's list.  Lewis Coser wrote in an early 1954 issue  of Dissent:

For six years now a conspicuously powerless group called the Independent Socialist League, in political complexion Marxist and premature antiStalinist, has been on the Attorney General’s “Subversive List.” This disgraceful amalgam with Stalinist organizations has done the members of the ISL considerable harm. Yet hardly a voice has been raised in the official circles of liberalism to fight against this injustice. For what does it matter? Everyone knows that in difficult times minor injustices are unavoidable, and besides it is such an insignificant group. . . .

Now, finally, the Attorney General has filed a “bill of particulars” against the ISL. The group is not even accused of favoring “the violent overthrow” of the government; in substance and apart from the gross ignorance of the Attorney General’s charges, the ISL is accused of nothing more than being Marxist and desiring the abolition of capitalism. This, the Attorney General implies, is enough to make it “subversive.”

 (See also the July 1955 issue of the ISL's newspaper Labor Action and pages 5-8 of the  January 27, 1958 issue)

The Industrial Workers of the World was also, quite unjustly, included on the AG's list.

Let's not go down the road of governmental  proscription of organizations for being  "subversive" or "hate groups."

Wichita Martin Luther King Parade

I took some photos in Saturday's Martin Luther King Jr. parade. We marched from a South Broadway church to the Chester Lewis Reflection Square which comemmorates the 1958 Dockum Sit-In, one of the first actions to integrate lunch counters and restaurants in the modern civil rights ear. It was billed as the 34th annual, though I am told that there have been a few missed years. I remember one year when it was just too cold and rainy. 

Organizers of Saturday's events expressed a commitment to build a larger parade next year. Let's hope so. It was a good event, but it could be better. Still, we should not underestimate the importance of MLK events happening in cities and towns all across the country.