Juan Cole's Misformed Comment on Religion and Murder Rates

Juan Cole starts his Terrorism and the other Religions  with this assertion

Contrary to what is alleged by bigots like Bill Maher#, Muslims are not more violent than people of other religions. Murder rates in most of the Muslim world are very low compared to the United States.

After examining Cole's claims about religions and war and political death,  I got to wondering if it was really the case that "Murder rates in most of the Muslim world are very low compared to the United States."  Turns out it doesn't seem to be the case.  It depends on whether 'most'  means 'nearly all' or 'the largest number' and whether 'very low' means simply 'less than' or a 'lot less than.'  And how defines the "Muslim" world.

 The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime actually compiles statistics on homicides which can be found on Wikipedia here.  I've made a list of US and Islamic countries, which I'm taking to be majority population, excluding countries where Muslims are a plurality or large minority.

If I had more time and wasn't so rusty on statistics, I would do a bell curve (on all countries or the subset below) and define "very low" as one or two standard deviations below the U.S,  Would you say a very low comparative murder rate would be one-half, one-fourth, or one-tenth of the United States?  Let's go with one-half.

As you can see in the table below, seventeen (17) Muslim countries countries have higher murder rates than the United  States, including Sudan, Indonesia, and Senegal. Another twelve (12) have reported  murder less than the US, but more than fifty percent of the U.S. rate   That group includes Iran, Palestine, and Turkey.   That's a total of thirty-nine (39).    By this criteria, twenty-three (23) Muslim countries have "very low" murder rates compared to the U.S. That less than most.

Another eight (8) Muslim countries have reported rates less than fifty percent (50%) but greater than forty percent (40%) of the U.S., including Malaysia and Kuwait.  By this criteria, only fifteen (15) Muslim countries have "very low" rates compared to the U.S.  That's even less than most

In sum, I think Cole's claim that "Murder rates in most of the Muslim world are very low compared to the United States" should be rejected.

UNODC murder rates most recent year (full table here)
Country	Rate	Count	Region	Subregion
Sudan	24.2	10,028++	Africa	Northern Africa
Guinea-Bissau	20.2	294	Africa	Western Africa
Kyrgyzstan	20.1	1,072	Asia	Central Asia
Burkina Faso	18.0	2,876	Africa	Western Africa
Eritrea	17.8	879	Africa	Eastern Africa
Chad	15.8	1,686	Africa	Middle Africa
Benin	15.1	1,262	Africa	Western Africa
Sierra Leone	14.9	837	Africa	Western Africa
Mauritania	14.7	485	Africa	Western Africa
Comoros	12.2	85	Africa	Eastern Africa
Nigeria	12.2	18,422	Africa	Western Africa
Gambia	10.8	106	Africa	Western Africa
Kazakhstan	8.8	1,418	Asia	Central Asia
Senegal	8.7	1,027	Africa	Western Africa
Indonesia	8.1	18,963	Asia	South-Eastern Asia
Mali	8.0	1,157	Africa	Western Africa
Pakistan	7.8	13,860+	Asia	Southern Asia
United States	4.8	14,748	Americas	Northern America
Turkmenistan	4.2	203	Asia	Central Asia
Yemen	4.2	990+	Asia	Western Asia
Palestine	4.1	145+	Asia	Western Asia
Albania	4.0	127	Europe	Southern Europe
Niger	3.8	552	Africa	Western Africa
Djibouti	3.4	29	Africa	Eastern Africa
Turkey	3.3	2,320	Asia	Western Asia
Uzbekistan	3.1	831	Asia	Central Asia
Iran	3.0	2,215	Asia	Southern Asia
Libya	2.9	176+	Africa	Northern Africa
Bangladesh	2.7	3,988	Asia	Southern Asia
Mauritius	2.5	33	Africa	Eastern Africa
Afghanistan	2.4	712+	Asia	Southern Asia
Malaysia	2.3	604	Asia	South-Eastern Asia
Syria	2.3	463+	Asia	Western Asia
Azerbaijan	2.2	206	Asia	Western Asia
Kuwait	2.2	59	Asia	Western Asia
Lebanon	2.2	95	Asia	Western Asia
Tajikistan	2.1	143	Asia	Central Asia
Iraq	2.0	608+	Asia	Western Asia
Jordan	1.8	100	Asia	Western Asia
Maldives	1.6	5	Asia	Southern Asia
Somalia	1.5	138+	Africa	Eastern Africa
Algeria	1.5	516	Africa	Northern Africa
Bosnia and Herzegovina	1.5	56	Europe	Southern Europe
Morocco	1.4	447	Africa	Northern Africa
Egypt	1.2	992	Africa	Northern Africa
Tunisia	1.1	117	Africa	Northern Africa
Saudi Arabia	1.0	265+	Asia	Western Asia
Qatar	0.9	13	Asia	Western Asia
United Arab Emirates	0.8	39	Asia	Western Asia
Oman	0.7	18	Asia	Western Asia
Bahrain	0.6	6	Asia	Western Asia
Brunei	0.5	2	Asia	South-Eastern Asia

# I don't think Cole fairly represents Maher here, at least not in the clip I've seen. 

Military Chaplains and Religious Discrimination

The religious right and their minions in the Republican Party seem hell-bent on denying rights and respect to the growing numbers of non-believers in the United States and in the U.S. military.  In so doing, they are not only showing contempt for the First Amendment, but also for our democratic society and the military, And, to top things off, they are undermining the chaplaincy which they claim to revere.

Stars and Stripes reports

Jason Heap wants to be a Navy chaplain. But he doesn’t believe in God.

Belief in a higher power, the 38-year-old humanist argues, has nothing to do with that work.

“I am aware there are many who would be reticent or militant against that,” he said. “But at the end of the day, my job is not to inculcate my viewpoints onto other people. My job as a chaplain is to be a facilitator, someone who cares for people, someone who is a sounding board.”

Heap submitted his application to the Armed Forces Chaplains Board earlier this month, in an effort to become the first humanist chaplain in military history.

He holds master’s degrees from Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University and Oxford University, and has almost finished a doctorate too. He has been teaching religious studies to teenagers in Britain for the last five years and has been conducting scholarly research on 17th century Baptist literature for longer than that.  ...

Supporters argue he would be a shoo-in to serve as a chaplain if he were a practicing Christian.

Until the Reagan years,  military chaplains, as a matter of policy were appointed from a cross section of Protestant and Catholic to roughly reflect the religious views of the nation. Since then they have been recruited disproportionately from conservative denominations which have active programs to train and place chaplains.

As a result

While just 3 percent of the military’s enlisted personnel and officers call themselves Southern Baptist, Pentecostal or a member of a denomination that’s part of the National Association of Evangelicals, 33 percent of chaplains in the military are members of one of those groups, according to Pentagon statistics.

Source: stltoday.com

 Jason Torby,  President of the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers notes that

“There are more atheists than any other single non-Christian group in the military. We deserve to be represented too.”

About 11,000 active duty military personnel identify themselves as atheist (military officials don’t include the term “humanist” on their forms) About 277,000 have no religious preference.

The MAAF has an instructive graphic and an insightful page on military religious demographics.

After an amendment to require the Secretary of Defense to appoint non-theistic chaplains was defeated in the House Defense Committee, Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) tried to get the amendment through without the support of the Committee.  It failed on June 14 by a vote of 274-150. Every Republican and 44 Democrats voted against it.

Not only did Tim Huelskamp of Kansas's First District, author of a Constitutional Amendment to ban gay marriage, vote against the amendment, he gave one of his typical bigoted speeches.

Huelskamp shows his contempt for  non-believers by referring to those "who claim to have no faith." He says that(so-called?) non-believers don't need chaplains; if they are having problems, they can go to a military counselor,  Only problem is that seeing a counselor, psychologist, or psychiatrist, rather than a chaplain, will get recorded on the service person's records and could be a negative factor is seeking promotions and even being retained at the end of a tour.  It is a way of institutionalizing discrimination against "nones," "atheists," "agnostics," and the like.

Even worse, Huelskamp invokes the memory of Emil Kapaun, who has killed by the North Korean regime which imposed a state-mandated atheism, in order to impose a state-imposed anti-atheist policy.

The fact is that non-believers, atheists, and agnostics make up  a significant and growing percentage of the American population and, even more so, among young people who are the dominant age cohort among military personal.  On  purely pragmatic grounds, the military should accommodate these soldiers. Enlightened miltaries and societies recognize this.  The Belgian, Dutch and Norwegian militaries already have humanist chaplains.* The Israeli "government employs civilian non-Jewish clergy as chaplains at military burials when a non-Jewish soldier dies in service. The MOI provides imams to conduct funerals according to Muslim customs. "** If military personnel are not treated with respect and sensitivity, their efficiency will suffer.

But military efficiency is not the sole criteria. Even more weight should be placed on democratic values.   If there are to be military chaplains, they should reflect and serve the diversity of society. An entirely Catholic chaplaincy would not be acceptable.  Nor a purely Protestant chaplaincy.  Nor a chaplaincy which excluded Rabbis.   Nor one that excluded Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, or Buddhists.  And, by the same measure, a US chaplaincy which excludes atheists or humanists is undemocratic and unAmerican--and anti-military.

Huelskamp and his allies seem to assume that there are no Constitutional  problems with military chaplains and oblivious to that fact that their barring of non-theists from serving as chaplains could undermine the  constitutionality of this service.

No less a Constitustional icon than James Madison (:"the father of the Constitution") thought that chaplains (legislative and military) were unconstitutional.

The issue  is likely to come before the Courts.

Wikipedia notes

Two Harvard law students brought a suit in 1979 arguing that military chaplains should be replaced with non-combat volunteers or contractors. In Katcoff v. Marsh (1985),^[14] The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit determined that the plaintiffs lacked standing to bring the suit and upheld the right of the military to employ chaplains. According to one analysis of the case, the court analysis described the First Amendment's free exercise clause and establishment clause as separate issues. It noted that only the wealthiest religious sects could provide chaplains for their adherents, effectively denying to other military personnel the "free exercise" of their religion.^[15] The court also established guidelines for the military's chaplaincy programs, emphasizing the constitutional boundaries governing the program's administration and operations, including accommodating the rights and beliefs of each service member, and the avoidance of evangelizing and involuntary participation in religious observances. (emphasis added)

Looks to me like the GOP-Huelskamp chaplaincy might be in some danger.  It chaplains are ruled unconstitutional blame them, not the ACLU.



*Wikipedia, Military Chaplain
**US State Department, 2012 Report on International Religious Freedom: Israel and The Occupied Territories

Country Club #13: Streets of Bakersfield

Because the great Dwight Yoakum is performing in Wichita next Tuesday,it seems right to feature one of his hits. Yoakum is a great song writer, but this is a cover of a Buck Owens tune written by Homer Joy.

It's a little strange that the local public radio station described Yoakum as a country and bluegrassperformer. Yoakum has definitely been influence by bluegrass, the first music he heard, and his has toured with the great Ralph Stanley. But his music is is hard core honky-tonk and Bakersfield,something entirely different. I certainly hope that Yoakum will emulate one his heroes,Merle Haaggard and record a bluegrass album, he hasn't yet.

Bakersfield, California,as readers may not know, was largely settled by economic and environmental refugees from Oklahoma and Texas during the 1930s and 1940's. Sharecroppers became agricultural workers living in labor camps, captured in such Merle Haggard songs as Hungry Eyes and Tulare Dust. So, if you hear the lyrics to Streets of Bakersfield as having a social, as well as, personal message.

Hey you don't know me but you don't like me
You say you care less how I feel
But how many of you that sit and judge me
Have ever walked the streets of Bakersfield?

Here's an interview with Joy about the origins of the song. (Video of Joy performing his classic.)

      Lyrics

I came here looking for something
I couldn't find anywhere else
Hey, I'm not trying to be nobody
I just want a chance to be myself

I've spent a thousand miles a-thumbin'
Yes, I've worn blisters on my heels
Trying to find me something better
Here on the streets of Bakersfield

Hey, you don't know me, but you don't like me
You say you care less how I feel
But how many of you that sit and judge me
Ever walked the streets of Bakersfield?

Spent sometime in San Francisco
I spent a night there in the can
They threw this drunk man in my jail cell
I took fifteen dollars from that man
Left him my watch and my old house key
Don't want folks thinkin' that I'd steal
Then I thanked him as I was leaving
And I headed out for Bakersfield

Hey, you don't know me, but you don't like me
You say you care less how I feel
But how many of you that sit and judge me
Ever walked the streets of Bakersfield?

Hey, you don't know me, but you don't like me
You say you care less how I feel
But how many of you that sit and judge me
Ever walked the streets of Bakersfield?

How many of you that sit and judge me
Ever walked the streets of Bakersfield?

Beck and Robertson Show Contempt for Southerners

Here's a little secret; there are big-time conservatives who want the votes or money of white Southerners, but don't really like them. In fact, the big time cons may view white Southerners with disdain or contempt--at least the 47 percent among them. Two instances recently came to light: Glenn Beck and Pat Robertson.

Radio and television host Glenn Beck  doesn't much like South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, who he regards not merely as a "Rino," but.even worse, as a "progressive". That's fine, if a little demented. What is not okay is Beck's dreadful impersonation of Graham. Not only is Beck no Vaughn Meader, but it hard to express just how dreadful. It is not really an impersonation of Graham, but a generic Southern slack jaw yokel voice, something between Gomer Pyle and the Simpson's Cletus Spuckler and Hee-Haw. A hallmark of this voice is that this is a low-intelligence, uniformed person. (It is a Caucasian version of the Amos-and-Andy dialect, and nearly as offensive)  In the second clip, Beck uses the same voice for an upset gas consumer.  This is likely the way Beck thinks about Southerners.

By the way, in the second video Beck states that "eighty  percent of  the world's oil flows Egypt and the Suez canal." But, in reality, as the National Geographic notes  "Egypt serves as a passage for just a fraction of the 15 million to 17 million barrels per day of oil shipped out of the Persian Gulf. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) notes that volumes in both the canal and the pipeline have been declining."







On his 700 Club, evangelist Pat Robertson recently said, “That's the big problem, especially in Appalachia. They don't know about birth control. They just keep having babies.” “You see a string of all these little ragamuffins, and not enough food to eat and so on,” he said, “and it's desperate poverty.”

Notice that Robertson blames poverty on poor people beings ignorant and having too many children.  This is an old right-wing theme.

But already by1986, public health researchers had found that in a central Appalachian country

professional family planning services are, in fact, widely available and easily accessible to the vast majority of county residents. Interviews with a random sample of 407 currently married women of childbearing age, 15-45 years, revealed that 87 per cent of contraceptors were using either sterilization, the pill, or the IUD, with sterilization used by close to half of all couples practicing family planning. Moreover, this widespread use of modern contraceptives and sterilization was found among all educational and income groups.

(Here are two posts with informed analysis of poverty  in Appalachia: Cynthia Duncan and the Appalachian Poverty  Project, which, incidentally, describes a poor county with an average of 2.4 children per family.)

I don't these are isolated cases, but express a viewpoint common among elite conservatives. they don't much like working class or poor whites, though they may pretend otherwise.  Progressives ought to be prepared to call them out on this.  And, should be  more intentional about including working class and poor whites in electoral and community coalitions.

Juan Cole's Misinformed Comment about Religion and 20th Century Political Deaths

University of  Michigan professor Juan Cole writes the popular and influential "Informed Comment" blog.  Sometimes, however, his posts are remarkably uninformed or, perhaps better said, misinformed.

Take, for example,  Cole's  April post apparently prompted by something  Bill Maher said. In "Terrorism and the other Religions", Cole contends that Muslims killed less than "2 million people or so in political violence in the entire twentieth century" but "compare that to the Christian European tally of...100 million."

I don't really expect Bill Maher, a comedian and talk show host to be a reliable and informed source.  Cole, on the other hands, is a professor and has offered himself up as an expert.  But in this post, Cole pads  his count of the number of "European Christian" deaths, deflates the Islamic total, under counts the number of  political deaths by ignoring Communist repression in the Soviet Union, China, and Cambodia.

Cole presents this graph

This is a dishonest, and intellectually incompetent graph.

In it Cole claims that 100  million were  killed  by "Christians of  European Heritage" and presents the graph as all-inclusive of 20th Century "deaths in war and political violence."

This is clearly  misleading.

If you  read Cole 's post carefully, you will notice that he pulls the figures out of his hat. Where does he get the 100 million figure?  He writes "oh, lets say." (emphasis added).   In other words, something nearly made up.   Cole cites 16  million deaths in WWI and 60 million.That adds to 76 million, 24 million short  of Cole's claim.

Cole credits the rest to "millions more in colonial wars".  That's unspecified and un-sourced. In discussing colonial wars, Cole mentions Belgian Congo,  the Caucuses, and Algeria. But  the atrocities of King Leopold's Congo Free State largely took place in the late 19th century and cannot all be counted in the 20th century,which is what Cole says he is doing. Similarly, it is strange to blame deaths in the  Caucuses during the Soviet era to :Christians, even with the weasel word "heritage" attached.

 Cole  writes that "some" of  the 60 million deaths in World War  II "were attributable to Buddhists in Asia."

 Some? Really, Professor Cole? Surely, a tenured Professor should be aware of the tremendous toll of death caused by the Japanese invasion of China,which experts estimate at 10 to 20 million.  Japanese military death are estimated at 2 million,while civilian deaths are placed at 500,00 to one million. A UN report estimated 4 million famine and forced labor dead during the Japanese occupation of Indonesia. There are also very large WWII death tolls attributed to the Japanese occupation.  Leaving these aside, Cole counts these more than 20 million Asian deaths as part of his "Christian European" tally.

Cole doesn't count military deaths in the Chinese civil war estimated to have been 2 million  between 1928-1936 and another 6 million between 1945 and 1949.  The Korean War (3 million), Vietnam (2 million), and Cambodia/Kampuchea all escape Cole's attention.

Underestimating Islamic War and Political Deaths

Cole writes  

I don’t figure that Muslims killed more than a 2 million people or so in political violence in the entire twentieth century, and that mainly in the Iran-Iraq War 1980-1988 and the Soviet and post-Soviet wars in Afghanistan, for which Europeans bear some blame.

 This leading Middle Eastern scholar doesn't mention the Armenian genocide carried out by the Islamic Ottoman Republic in 1915.  Called out by a commenter,  Cole responded that this wouldn't doesn't affect his estimate, despite the fact his two million figure is "mainly" in the  Iran-Iraq war and the Soviet-Afghan and Afghan civil war. Since deaths in the Armenian genocide amount to between 50 and 75 percent of Cole's total, his estimate is blown to shreds.   A little  research shows that Cole's estimate is seriously flawed.  A more realistic figure would be at least 7.4 million and perhaps as much as 12.9 million.--or more.

That's three to six times larger than Cole's estimate.

Islamic War and Political Deaths 20th Century
	Low	High
Armenian Genocide	1,000,000	1,500,000
Greek Genocide	750,000	900,000
Assyrian Genocide	250,000	750,000
Iran vs. Iraq	730,000	1,500,000
Indonesia vs Chinese minority	500,000	500,000
Indonesia vs. East Timor	100,000	100,000
Bangladesh Liberation war	300,000	3,000,000
Algerian civil war	44,000	200,000
Afghan-Soviet War (civilians)	850,000	1,500,000
Sudan (1983-2005)	1,900,000	1,900,000
Sudan (1955-72)	500,000	500,000
Somalia (1991-)	500,000	500,000
TOTAL	7,420,000	12,850,000
Source: wikipedia articles, http://necrometrics.com

Ignoring Communist Repression and Collectivation

Any toll of political deaths in the 20th Century must include the Great Purge and Collectivization in the Soviet and the Great Leap Forward and other events in the People's Republic of China.

COMMUNIST REPRESSION AND COLLECTIVIZATION
Stalin (1924-1953)	20 million
China (Mao period)	40 million
North Korea (excl Korean War)	3 million
Cambodia, Khmer Rouge (1975-1978)	1,650,000
Vietnam, post-war Communist regime (1975 et seq.)	365,000
TOTAL	65 million

Here are another set of mass war deaths which Cole doesn't count.   There is some duplication with our list of Islamic war deaths. The colonial background plays an important role in these conflicts, but would wrong to call them "colonial."

Post-Colonial Africa War and Political Deaths
Rwanda and Burundi	1.35 million
Ethiopia	2 million
Nigeria	1 million
Sudan (1983-2005)	1,900,000
Kinshasa Congo (1998 et seq.)	3.8 million
Uganda, Idi Amin's regime (1972-79)	300 ,000
Sudan (1955-72)	500,000
Angola (1975-2002):	500,000
Mozambique (1975-1992)	800000
TOTAL	12.6 million
Source: http://necrometrics.com

Summing Up: What Are the Totals 

From Cole's figure of 100 million deaths caused by European Christians, we should subtract the 24 million Asian deaths detailed above and a good percentage of Cole's 26 million colonial war deaths--fifty percent seems reasonable.   That leaves 53 million, adding 8 million from the Russian Revolution gives us 62 million.

The other components  in my total are: (1) Communist repression 65 million: (2) Asian 38 million  (3) Islamic  13 million and (4) Africa 10 million (excluding Sudan and Somalia).    That gives a total figure of 189 million.

That is nearly two times Cole's figure, but in line with the judgements of scholars.  Matthew White, author of Historical Atlas of the Twentieth Century, 2010) give the  figure of 203 million.  Zbigniew Brzezinski, Out of Control: Global Turmoil on the Eve of the Twenty-first Century (1993) presents the figure of 167,000,000 to 175,000,000 for "Lives deliberately extinguished by politically motivated carnage,":while Milton Leitenberg in a paper for Uppsala University counts 214M to 226M politically caused deaths in the 20th Century.

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Concerning the Disconceting Use of Concerting

Listening to  NPR and  sports talk radio in the last several,I've noticed people saying this or that negative development is "concerning" when I expected them to say "diconcerting."

I hope this creeping usage is stopped before it spreads further.

Here are some examples from the Grammarist blog

”But each time we hear it, it’s surprising and rather shocking, specifically as it relates to cancer. It’s quite concerning.” [New York Times (1999)]
Ne’eman’s remarks should be concerning to “every citizen who cares about what happens in Israel in terms of its values and democracy.” [Jewish Telegraphic Agency (2009)]
Construction union Ucatt said the announcement was very concerning. [BBC (2012)]
Ms Gillard omitted one of the most concerning and disheartening statistics. [The Age (2012)]

Since concerning also means about, in reference to, or regarding, this usage can  be confusing.

Besides "disconcerting," there are other, better words that could be used "unsettling," “worrisome,” “troubling,” and “alarming.” Use them.  Plea se.

Country Club # 12: George Strait and Alan Jackson

Released in 2000, this duet between neo-traditionalists George Strait and Alan Jackson, bemoans the commercialization of country music, the rise of crossover acts and crossover styles. How many references can you identify in Murder on Music Row?

Country Club #11 Randy Travis

Country singer Randy Travis is in the news this week--heart attack, stroke, and a brain operation. Before embarrassing arrests for alcoholism in the last couple of years, Travis had turned to gospel music and acting, so many may have forgotten just how great a country singer he was and overlooked his pivotal role in country music.

If some contrarian wanted to make the case that someone besides George Jones is the greatest country male vocalist, Travis is one of the few nominees that should be considered.

Brain Mansfield astutely observes on allmusic.com

Like the Beatles in rock, Randy Travis marks a generational shift in country music. When his Storms of Life came out in 1986, country music was still wallowing in the post-urban cowboy recession, chasing elusive crossover dreams. Travis brought the music back to its basics, sounding like nothing so much as a perfect blend of George Jones and Merle Haggard. He became the dominant male voice in country until the rise of "hat acts" like Garth Brooks and Clint Black, releasing seven consecutive number one

singles during one stretch.

Here are two of  my favorite Randy Travis songs. "On the Other Hand" from 1986 is a great almost-cheating song. The other is "A Better Class of Losers" live on the David Letterman show in 1991 (when paying bills on computers was rare) with some entertaining  tomfoolery.

Country Club #10 Freddy Fender

This live 1979 recording is different, more bluesy version of Freddie Fender's classic "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights." The original 1960 release had a rock and roll feel. Fender's arrest and imprisonment for marijuana possession stalled its rise im the charts. Fender served several years in prison. until he was pardoned by Gov. Jimmie Davis, a song writer (or song thief) of some reknown.

Fender re-recorded the song in 1975 and it became a big hit. There's a guitar part at the end of this version which presages the 1979 version below.



Jason Ankeny notes, on allmusic.com, that "Freddy Fender was one of the few Hispanic stars in country music, a singer and songwriter whose work was defined largely by its strong Latin sensibility."

Besides his solo work,  Fender made important contributions as a member of the Texas Tornados and Los Super Seven.

Kobach Protest Slideshow

On June 15, 2013, Kansans gathered to deliver a message to Secretary of State Kirs Kobach to ask that to stop the hate. Kobach "moonlights" as an attorney for the racist FAIR. This slide show has pictures of the peaceful citizens. Kobach's office is in his house,

Country Club #9: right or wrong

Here's a jam on "Right or Wrong"bringing together two generations of western swing and  featuring the legendary Johnny Gimble (discography from allmusic.com) with the Hot Club of Cowtown (discography from allmusic.com. I've head some great live performances by the Hot Club of Cowtown at Winfield's Walnut Valley Festival and at other venues, but never anything to equal this.

I always assumed "Right or Wrong" was a Bob Wills or, least, western swing song,but it is actually a pop/jazz ballad from the 1920s. Versions by Wills and others western swingers played only the chorus,

dropping the verses.

Andreu Nin, POUM, and Stalinism

Sometime I would like to write an essay on the subject of the democratic left, Stalinism, and the Spanish Civil War.  For now, I'll note that this week is the anniversary of the murder oif Andreu Nin by the Stalinist apparatus. Below is a little about Nin, a couple of POUM posters, and some links.

A former member of the anarcho-syndicalist CNT Andreu Nin later became a founder member of the Spanish Communist Party. While in Russia he became a supporter of the Left Opposition and for a time Trotsky’s secretary. Nin broke with Trotsky in 1935 to form the POUM (Workers’ Party of Marxist Unity) with Joaquin Maurin of the BOC (Workers’ and Peasants’ Bloc). During the Spanish Revolution the POUM had some influence in Catalonia and Nin joined the Generalidad, the Catalan government, as minister for justice, but after threats from the Soviet consul in Barcelona, Antonov-Ovseyenko, Nin was sacked in December 1936. In June 1937 Nin and most of the POUM leadership were “arrested” by Stalinist agents and Nin was executed shortly afterwards.  (wikipedia)

There is an Andreu Nin Foundation in Spain, with a very large collection of documents, mostly in Spanish. One document in English is Wilebaldo Solano's biography is "The Spanish Revolution:The Life of Andreu Nin."


The Andrés NinInternet Archive has some items in English.

And, of course, George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia is about his experience fighting alongside the POUM.and Ken Loach's  film Land and Freedom tells of a group of POUM soldiers fighting in the war,

Country Club #9: Peach Picking TIme In Georgia

Doc Watson performs Jimmie Rodgers "Peach Picking Time in Georgia." You can here the original here.

Country Club #8: I'm Moving On from Hank Snow to Ray Charles

I heard Hank Snow's "I'm Moving On" on Wichita's oldie country station early this week. It is one of the all-time best-selling country songs,one of three songs in the history of the Billboard country charts to spend 21 weeks at #1. But it is decidedly outside the usual parameters of the station which usually plays and artists about midway between today and 1950 when this one was first recorded.


As the song resonated in my mind through the week, I got to thinking that Ray Charles had covered it as part of his legendary 1962 Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music. But it didn't show up in the track listings. Puzzled,I remembered the Charles made a follow-up second volume, which was also a tremendous commercial and artistic success. Still no luck.  I was beginning to doubt my encyclopedic language of American popular music, at least the parts I know, was a figment. A little more research showed I wasn't imagining things. Charles' version of "I'm Moving On" was released as part of his last album with Atlantic "Genius Sings the Blues" That makes sense. The song is structurally a blues with an added 8-bar chorus.



The Modern Sounds LPs marked a major turn in Charles' career towards pop music and away from r&b which he largely created. While Charles "I'm Moving On" is done as a rocker and doesn't sound out of place played after "What'd I Say," the arrangements on MSCW are standard big-band or string sections redeemed by Charles's great singing.

When Charles died in 2004, NPR and other media outlets concentrated on his the later part of his career when he crossed over to white audiences and ignoring his revolutionary role in black music, prompting me to ask "Was Ray Charles White?"

Washington DC Flowers

Washington DC is a city of power, politics, and corruption. It is also a city of museums,statues, and flowers. Here are a few pictures of flowers taken on a recent trip there.

Country Club #7: George Jones and the saddest song

George Jones died today. I thought the radio reports on NPR and elsewhere focused too much on his problems with alcohol and, admittedly decades long,episodes of bad behavior, and not enough on his artistry. Many say he was the greatest country vocalist, others say he was topped only by Hank Williams. "He Stopped Loving Her Today" is Jones' signature song. I love the soaring strings in the original but I've heard them enough today. In this live version listen to what the pedal steel does to fill that musical space.
Here is how Classic Tracks starts it's analysis of the tune

It's the saddest song, and the most mournful voice, and the most histrionic production and the cruelest punchline in the history of country music. But what a magnificent cry America had in 1980 when the first track of George Jones' album I Am What I Am became the brilliant, infamous superstar's first Number One single in six years.

Country Club #6: Miranda Lambert

Miranda Lambert is one of today's country who makes good music, something above and beyond the current formulas. Here is her hit "Mama's Broken Heart." It recounts how the narrator and her mother clashed over her breakup.

You might just be a lefty...

if when you start to do a search for "stone bridges" and Google suggests "Jay Lovestone."

Country Club #5: the best answer song ever?

Originally released in 1952, Hank Thompson's The Wild Side of Life became one of the most popular recordings in country music history, spending 15 weeks at No. 1 Billboard country charts, solidified Thompson's status as a country music superstar and inspired the answer song, "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" by Kitty Wells. I think it may be the best answer song ever.It became the first Billboard #1 Country song by a solo female performer and made Wells a country music superstar.

The melody probably sounds familiar.It is a traditional folk song was used in the Carter Family's "I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes" (1929)and Roy Acuff's "Great Speckled Bird" (1936).

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

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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"