WEEKLY SOUTHERN ARTS
"Sometime the boogaloo 
  • Home
  • From The Publishers
  • Summer 1970 - Fishing with Alligators
  • The Fire-Starters
  • Jimi Hendrix Was The Roy Buchanan of Rock & Roll & Other Rural American Stories
  • Real Genius
  • Guns, Faith and Murder
  • A Blue World
  • Nova Explains
  • Satan's Jr. High
  • The Million Dollar Store
  • The People Who care
  • Jesus and The Red Words
  • Sniffing Out White Supremacy
  • Artistic Con-cepts
  • “The Word From The Streets”
  • A Voice from the Crowd
  • How a White-man Became a Black-man In Order To Find His Whiteness—His Alright-ness.
  • Camille Bertault: 2 Views of a Secret
  • Judy Garland - "Soul Singer"
  • Robert & Jimi and the Twenty Seven Blues
  • The Last Vestiges of Mueller’s Collusion Case Just Died...and Nobody Noticed
  • The Great Pretenders
  • Imagine
  • Me and Junior Parker
  • The Republican
  • "Kill The Pigs!!!"
  • "Another of Trump's Henchmen Falls!!!"
  • Saving ISIS, Killing America
  • Cyrus The Great Strikes Again
  • The Big Lie - "Fear Russia Love China"
  • “The Russians are Coming!” (again)
  • "Impeach This!"
  • “Trump Backs Turkey Down”
  • Congressman Elijah Cummings Died last night at the age of 68.
  • Sweet Home Chicago (The Obama Shakedown)
  • Blind as a Bat
  • "I cannot Tell a Lie"
  • If Only Obama Was Still President, Syria Would Be Swell
  • Impeachment Fever
  • The Ballad of Hunter & Joe
  • "God Will Do It!"
  • Jeffrey Epstein & The Mysterious Case of The Infinite Pedophile Monkeys
  • The World is Insane: pt 4095 - “What is Less Than Zero?”
  • The Magic Bullet and The Lonely Death of Jeffrey Epstein
  • The Facts about Illegal Immigration
  • Chicago
  • Liz Warren Hits The Road
  • Traitors & Lies
  • “If The World Was Fair”
  • "The Few, The proud, The Insane: The Democrats"
  • "GOD & UNCLE SAM"
  • A Minor Complaint
  • Murder in The Meantime
  • The 22-yr-old Bottle Blonde
  • “Jerry “The Toad” & other Sesame Street Lessons”
  • "Riffing in Tongues"
  • The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence Revisited
  • The Few The Brave The FBI
  • Jesus and Liz Warren Want to Forgive You
  • The Witch Hunt Ends? Not Even Close.
  • Divine Guidance
  • The Crocodile & The Politician
  • Uncle Joe Apologizes
  • Why I Hate, Hate Crimes
  • It's Only a Matter of Time
  • Let It Rain
  • Dumb & Dumber
  • ....of Poets & Scientists
  • Goodbye Pork-Fried Rat
  • Hearing Duane Eddy
  • Is It Alright...To Be White?
  • "Hell is Real!!!"
  • Mauled by Reality
  • The Cult of The Secret Unknowing Marxist
  • Resist the Devil and He Will Flea
  • The Unwitting Socialist
  • Personal Stories
  • The Magula Report 2019
  • "The New Blood & The New Deal"
  • “The Wall"....and other, mostly silly conversations.
  • The War for the Soul of Mankind: “Stan Getz vs Eric Dolphy”
  • The "Others"
  • White Cracker-Ass Niggas
  • New York Gives The Thumbs Up To Mass Genocide
  • Rudy & Nat
  • A Close Shave With The Well-Intended Bigot
  • This is What Happens When My Favorite Band “The Mellow Herb” Comes To Town
  • The Hemispherical Brain Activity of a Wayward Somnambulist
  • Gun "Race With The Devil"
  • “Half Of All Millennials Think Barack Obama is More Important Than George Washington!!??”
  • "The Dow Posts The Biggest One Day Gain In History."
  • Good Morning Comrades
  • Sharks, Zombies & God
  • A Road Home
  • You're Getting Sleepy....Very Sleepy
  • Stupid People
  • Jezebel and Ahab Make a Comeback
  • Stevie Ray Vaughn: Derivitive Hack or Genius
  • Music & Reminiscence
  • “The Giant Facebook Id-Monster Attacks”
  • “Bullshit...it’s a Damned Invasion!”
  • Bobby-Jack
  • Lowell George searching for authenticity
  • For The Love of Krazy Kat
  • How I Came To Understand That Fighting The Power Was Useless. Unless...You Fight The Power By Giving Power to The Power To Fight The Power
  • Within the Lifetime Of The Average American...The U.S. Population Could Realistically Exceed That of China & India
  • The Problem of Blasphemy In a Secular Society
  • The Waitress and The Power
  • A Message From The Democrats After The 2018 Midterms
  • On This Day Before Election Day, These 5 Things Should Be Remembered As You Vote
  • A Lie Is As Good As The Truth....as long as it's a good lie
  • "Evil Republicans Suppress The Minority Vote"
  • The Enemy of Mankind
  • The Mob
  • Why Chinese Tariffs?
  • A Caravan To Nowhere
  • Ant Farm
  • “They’re Coming For Your Social Security!”
  • The Witchfinder Speaketh
  • Eating Sawdust & Voting Democrat
  • Muslims Kill Washington Post Journalist”...and other stories best left untold
  • Orwell's Nightmare
  • The Sobbing Walrus
  • A Telling Lie
  • Tribal Marxism
  • A Pimp and His Stable of Political Whores
  • "Evidence?.... I Don't Need No Damned Evidence!"
  • A Post Modern Lynching
  • Talkin’ Blues: A White Social Justice Warrior Meets a Bluesman
  • Pocahontas Wants To Impeach President Trump
  • A Belated Tip of The Hat To John McCain's Funeral
  • "Colin Kaepernick Fights The Power. My Brothers!"
  • Jack Ryan: Promoting Jihad & The Brotherhood of Man
  • Rediscovering Willie "The Fruitbat" Johnson
  • The Allegation
  • Message in a Bottle
  • A Coven of Witches
  • The Communist & The Exalted Cyclops
  • America vs Satanic Goat Worshipers
  • Forcing Transgender Penis Cakes on America
  • The Iidots Lament
  • Irritating Post: no. 529
  • Irritating Post: no. 642
  • My Brain is a Liar
  • My New Rap "Alligators"
  • Helpful Hints in Logic
  • The Unredacted News
  • A Loss of Composure
  • The Myth of Objective Fact Checkers
  • Surviving Politics
  • The Pit or The Pendulum
  • Do Not Forsake Me. Not For a Dollar. Not For a Dime.
  • Repeller of The Amorites
  • Sometimes I feel Like a Motherless Child...but only sometimes
  • Welcome To The Freakshow
  • Part One: The Monster Is Summoned
  • A Sideways Glance at Reality....
  • The Ballad of Trey Gowdy
  • Lies, Spies, and Thighs at The FBI
  • The Ballad of Charlie Crockett
  • Children in Cages
  • A Poem For Clifford Odets
  • Anthony Bourdain
  • Like Billy Eckstein Singing to an Empty Club at 1:00 AM on a Saturday Night in 1975.
  • A Letter From The Democratic National Committee
  • Bent
  • "There Were No Spies in The FBI and Other Fictional Tales"
  • The New Rules For Radicals
  • Blood In The Water
  • "3000 American Businesses Colluded with Russia For Profit"
  • I Spy (For The FBI)
  • Free Shit—and Bears
  • Cute Dog Videos
  • How The Press Aided and Abetted Terrorists
  • The Iran Deal Myth
  • The Scouts
  • Pinko Muthafuckas
  • Kelly Joe Phelps
  • Johnny Winter and, 1970
  • Happy Days Are Here Again
  • RAGe Against The Machine
  • Carlos and Buddy
    • How The Bird & Darwin Took Flight With a A7#9 Chord
  • Just a Few Glaring Examples Of Media Scummery
  • They Call it Stormy Monday
  • "I Gotta Take A Wiz" or, "How Starbucks Destroyed the World"
  • Who Needs War?
  • Why The Devil Don't Come Around No More
  • 2+2 Really Does = 4
  • The Tangled Web
  • Shadow Banning
  • What Changed?
  • Oblivious But Concerned
  • "Give Up!"
  • Jesus: The Spirit of Man and God That Illuminates The Darkness
  • Mickey Baker: Goin' To Kansas City
  • "Washington Saves America from Pot-smoking Mass Murderers"
  • Nontraditional Thoughts
  • Attack of The Trillion Dollar Omnibus Bill
  • Hearing Junior Wells “On Tap'' one more Time
  • Just Words
  • Muddy and Me
  • Racist Debtaes About Terrorsim
  • Fidel's Utopia
  • Unwitting Hypocrisy is The Best Kind of Hypocrisy
  • Excess Baggage
  • Excess Baggage pt. 2
  • Fake News Is The New Real News
  • The Death of Billy Graham and Manufacturing Consent
  • American Youth: The Rise of The New Media
  • Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Talk About Slavery and Shit
  • Just Smoke
  • Monkey in a Box
  • How The Children of Sal and Dean Destroyed The World
  • On This Cold Winter's Morn
  • The Crime of the Century
  • Evidence: What The Hell Is It?
  • They Were Pissed: America, Jack Kerouac, and the Beats
  • Negotiating The Maze Of Life and a Blues Shuffle.
  • Everyone Is Hitler (In their own Way)
  • The Mystery of The Giant Balloon Shark
  • Subterfuge and Its Discontents
  • God Debunks Global Warming
  • Day Two: God Continues To Debunk Global Warming
  • Strzoking Russia
  • The Al Franken Effect. Or, How to Destroy America and Lose Elections
  • The Big Maybe
  • The News Apocalypse
  • The Guitarticle (Guitar article)
  • The Nation of Lucifer
  • Slurring Pocahontas
  • Why Everything Good Said About Net Neutrality is a Lie
  • .....and behold, The Cause of Your Demise Is Upon You
  • The Trans-boy That Cried Wolf
  • Believe Nothing
  • Donald Trump Blasts The Heads Off Of Tiny Woodland Creatures
  • The Problem of Hypocrites
  • Roy Moore: Serial Pervert
  • I'm So Frustrated
  • The Devil's Whisper
  • Science Can't Dance
  • You're Gonna Have To Serve Somebody
  • Louie C. K.
  • Common Sense
  • Hunting For Witches
  • Living in The Age of "tRump"
  • The Devil is a Hustler
  • The Skinny
  • Eric Dolphy
  • ISIS Rode in On a Donkey
  • "The Manafort Indictment"
  • The Truth About the Middle East
  • Dennis Budimer's "Alone Together" Revisited
  • The Halloween Edition
  • The 20th Century Was Groovy
  • The Salesman
  • The Dossier
  • Elmore James
  • Isle of The Poor
  • The Patriarchy is Alive and Well
  • Moving Napoleon
  • Guns and Guerrillas
  • Playing Four
  • Hollywood and Scumbags
  • Why Everything You Think, Is Wrong
  • Killing Yourself With Terrorism
  • Being Liberal
  • Laced With Hate
  • A Message From Occupy Democrats
  • A Taxing Dilemma
  • What Really Happened with Aid in Puerto Rico
  • Colin Kaepernick and Beyoncé are geniuses. Part 1
  • When the Levee Breaks
  • The Second Coming of Anthony Weiner
  • How to Never Lose a Fight
  • Creating Chaos out of Meaning
  • Crime and Punishment
  • The Man in the Mirror
  • Guitar Gods of the Sixties
  • Entopy: A Play in One Act
  • The Ragged Tale of a Poverty Stricken Economic Genius
  • The Dreamers
  • Hey There Georgy Girl
  • This Is Not a Defense of Joel Osteen. Or is it?
  • The Ballad of Poindexter Glockenspiel
  • The Big Dummy
  • More Florida in Pictures and Text
  • How Do I Hate Thee
  • Florida in Images and More Images
  • "How To Solve The Healthcare Crisis and Why It's So Damned Hard To Fix"
  • The Big Lie
  • The Demise of the West
  • “Good Times! Good Times! You know, we talkin’ bout Good Times!”
  • "Justice My Ass!"
  • Wolves in Sheep's Clothing
  • The Coming Apocalypse and How to Avoid it: a Historical/Biblical Perspective.
  • "Muthafuckin' Chains!"
  • Lies Our Father's Told Us
  • Poetry and Politics - a few mixed verses
  • The Inner Man
  • The Vampire and The Carpet Salesman
  • Comey Speaks!
  • A Word From Nostradamus about the Comey Hearings
  • The Towering Babble
  • Chain of Fools
  • I Got Ramblin' on My Mind
  • Telling Ourselves Stories
  • Shit! Make Me Wanna Holler!
  • Even More Reasons Why The Paris Accords are Total Horseshit.
  • When Life Imitates Satire
  • Jethro and Becky Sue Come To America
  • Random Apocrypha
  • Why The Paris Climate Accords Are Total Horseshit
  • Urban Stories
  • The Kingdom of God: a personal rant
  • Urban Week @ South Beach
  • Serpico Revisited
  • The Road To Surf-dumb. Or, is it The Road To Serfdom?
  • This is Not a Political Article
  • My Hometown
  • What Does This Mean?
  • We're All Fools Sometime
  • One Pill Makes You Larger
  • "What a Maroon!"
  • Secrets and Lies
  • A Tale of Wine and Murder
  • "White House Under Siege!"
  • The Amateur Narcissist
  • Like a Rock
  • The Greatest of Ally of a True Idiot is.....
  • How To Prove someone's a Witch
  • Jesus Was a Sly Dog
  • An Open Letter From The Democratic National Committee
  • The Power of Language
  • The Existential Croûton
  • Random Facebook Thoughts
  • A Play "The Poverty Racket"
  • The Demise of the 4th Estate
  • Love To Hate My Enemies
  • Feelings, Oh, Oh, Oh, Feelings
  • Art or Reality
  • The Prison Yard Blues
  • Who is Richard Spencer and Why Does He Matter?
  • __an excerpt from "The Power of Voltron "
  • A Plea From a Progressive
  • ANTIFA - The Anti Fascists, Fascists
  • Conspiracy Theory
  • 4 More Poems, 4 More Pictures
  • "Are You Freaking People Insane?"
  • 4 Pictures 4 Poems
  • The Ballad of Carlos Slim
  • Pretending What's in Your Head is True
  • The Cognitive Dissonance of a Faithful Democrat
  • The Human Snakepit
  • George Freeman - Unsung Master of the Jazz Guitar
  • The Price of Milk
  • Suspicious Minds
  • Bill O'Reilly Sexual Predator?
  • The New Soldier
  • Orwell Revisited
  • Larry Coryell - The Godfather is Dead
  • A Tiger Beat
  • South Florida - HOT & COOL
  • Jean Paul Sartre & the Existentialist Mojo
  • Culture Matters, Immigration Matters, Sharks Matter
  • Thomas Sowell
  • A Tree Falls In Central Park on a Gay Banker
  • Black Codes From The Underground
  • Does an Idiot know they're an Idiot?
  • A Poem for Pooh
  • It's All or Nothing Baby!
  • Racism is Alive and Well
  • "Shut the Hell Up!"
  • Jerry Seinfeld - Social Pariah
  • A Man Must Nurture His Pet Peeves
  • Not the Usual Immigration Article
  • Man Talk, with Donald Trump pt. 1
  • Man Talk, with Donald Trump pt. 2
  • The Bad Seed
  • Dogma Never Sleeps
  • Trump and Clinton Debate
  • Was Jesus a True Pacifist?
  • Brexit Was the Shot Heard Around the World
  • Obama, How Great Thou Art
  • War is Good
  • The Willful Ignorance of Intellectual Children
  • What about All Those Peacful Muslims?
  • Terror! What Terror?
  • Biff and Shorty Play The Blues
  • Forty Miles of Bad Road
  • How Obamacare Became the law of the land: And Other Fairytales for Adults
  • Genteel Republicans vs The Alt-Right
  • Should Drugs be Legal?
  • The Prophet Speaks
  • The Dream Sequence
  • Voting 3rd Party and the Moral Low-Ground
  • Sayonara America
  • What does Never Trump Mean?
  • Barack Obama is the Most Brilliant Man Ever to be President?
  • If God Created War, Does That Mean That War is Good?
  • Never Let Your Enemies Define You
  • Facebook, Science & Religion
  • Bullshit by the Numbers
  • Bullshit by the Numbers - part II
  • The Heated Quest for the "No Information Voter"
  • I Love The Dead
  • Those Who Lurk
  • Battered, Bruised and Beaten
  • Trump and Hitler
  • America in Black and White
  • Trans-Athletics
  • Playing a Rigged Game
  • Who was that Mass Murderer?
  • The Kidnappers
  • The Game
  • Terror in Nice: A Variation on a Theme
  • The Idiots Guide on How to Destory the World
  • Terror in France
  • A Fictional Conversation Between a Pastor and a Historian About the Bible
  • The Immoral Necessity for Scapegoats
  • Who Really Shot Those Eleven Cops? Was It Donald Trump?
  • Killer Cops and Cop Killers
  • Happy 4th of July
  • How Do You Cast Your Vote When You've Only Got a Few Bullets Left?
  • "Yes, She's a Lying Sack of Shit....but She's our Lying Sack of Shit."
  • All Apologies
  • Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up
  • Goodbye Scotty Moore
  • If a Bluebird Plays the Blues Why Can't it Play Free Jazz
  • Terror in Turkey
  • When David Slew Goliath
  • The Life & Death of a Global Fat Cat
  • Intentionally Censoring the News
  • The Brits Leave the EU
  • Chick, Christian, Roy & Kenny G
  • Who Really Committed Mass Murder in Orlando
  • The Tale of the Prince and the Shrew
  • A Dying Father's Last Father's Day
  • Mass Murdering, Terrorist's Father is Obama and Hillary's Best Friend
  • Why Cream still Matters 50 Years Later
  • Misguided Anger and Partisan Politics
  • The Deep Guilt of the Religious Left
  • Radical Islam! What Radical Islam?
  • Denial is a River in Egypt
  • A Response to all the Haters
  • Why Muhammad Ali was my Hero (in spite of being a Racist)
  • Why Trump Matters
  • The New Progressive Racism
  • A Tragedy in Cincinnati
  • The Evil that Men do (Women too.)
  • Differences? What Differences?
  • Racism Revisited
  • Battling Immigration Straw Men
  • Blood Quantum
  • Fighting Transgender Straw Men
  • Logical Fallacies about God and Money
  • Progressive Straw Men
  • Everybody is Robbing You Blind
  • On The Road To El Donaldo
  • Dear Mark: About Donald Trump
  • Identifying the Enemy
  • Why I Will Vote For Trump
  • I Totally Agree With Myself
  • Teaching Americans Where to Pee
  • Goodbye Lonnie Mack
  • Bernie Wants You To Pay His Fair Share
  • Bruce Springsteen vs. North Carolina
  • Mr. Smiley Is an Idiot
  • Why Does College Cost So Much?
  • Black Power and Bad Vibes At Whiteness History Month
  • How Facebook Showed Me That We're Doomed
  • Muslims kill Muslims by means of White People
  • The Slap
  • America Wants a 3rd Party Candidate
  • Jesus Loved Everybody
  • Call it what it is.
  • Belgium vs. Turkey. Which One is Worse?
  • Barack, Fidel and Che
  • How He Gonna Get His Money pt. 2
  • How He Gonna Get His Money
  • The Turn of The Screw
  • Dear America: Now, about Trump....
  • The Attack of the Anti Trumpers
  • Did You Know that America is Socialism....and boy, ain't it Swell
  • Trump - Prophet or Blowhard?
  • Black Lies Matter, All Lies Matter
  • The Donald and the Debate
  • Leonardo and The Bear
  • The Thunder Rolled and the "Trump" Blows em all to Hell
  • Fragmented Fairytails
  • Cars That Never Were but Should've Been, Part 6
  • Building The Perfect Beast
  • America: A Tale of Two Cities, Part 1
  • Uncle Bernie in New Hampshire
  • The Big L
  • The Diary of a Former Leftist
  • Free Speech not Hate Speech?
  • State of the Union
  • Losing My Religion
  • Don't Take Our Guns Away Until We Kill Those Honky Bastards
  • Bye Bye Europe
  • "Trump is a Racist!"
  • "Hell Yeah! I've Got Obama Care!
  • Trumponomics
  • Woman of the Year
  • Malicious Intent and the Art of the Microaggression
  • Muslim No-Go Zones - Myth or Reality?
  • Donald J. Trump and the Muslim Migration to America
  • There Is No God But Allah?
  • Roadhouse - The Reboot
  • Sometimes You Just Can't Win
  • A Few Thoughts Regarding Trump
  • Cars That Never Were But Should've Been, Part 5
  • You Can Have My Steering Wheel When You Pry It From Cold, Daed Hands
  • The Great Debate
  • Al, Thomas and Paul - Malthusians Then and Now
  • A Prophet Debates Global Warming and other retated Dogma
  • Memes, Scapegoats, Propaganda
  • Little Hillary and Her Monsters
  • A Prophecy for America
  • The Basketball Metaphor
  • Vladimir Putin: An American Hero
  • Little Things
  • The Democrats Debate
  • It's All Ablout da Benjamins
  • Remember When?
  • Mass Shooter
  • Cars That Never Were But Should've Been: Part 4
  • Should A Muslim Be President in America?
  • The Strange Case of Ahmed Mohamed
  • Debt and Other Devious Angels
  • Bernie Sanders is Caesar not Jesus
  • An inconvenient Truth
  • Who's really a Native American?
  • The Rebirth of the Silent Majority
  • Money That's What I Want!
  • The Syrian Crisis and the Memeing of America
  • Why Societies Have Generally Valued Men More than Women
  • The Problem of Evil
  • A few Thoughts on a Few Things
  • The Authentic pose of a Black White Man
  • Sweden: Socialist Utopia or Progressive Madhouse?
  • Why Dogs Matter
  • Guilty Until Proven Innocent
  • Was Jesus a Socialist?
  • "The Donald" A Man for the Ages
  • Harvesting the Wheat - or - Karma's a Real Bitch
  • Cecil The Lion
  • Cars That Never Were but Should’ve Been, Part 3
  • Secrets and Lies
  • Can Minorities Be Racist?
  • I Was Just Thinking....Hmm?
  • Iran Deal - Good or Bad?
  • Jihad or Not Jihad? That is the Question.
  • "Let's Do Lunch" with Planned Parenthood
  • America The Contemptible
  • Marriage, Bigotry and Cooties
  • The Things We Care About
  • The Simplicity of it All
  • A Dissenting Opinion
  • Cars That Should've Been, But Never Were: part II
  • Live Now, Pay Later
  • I Am, Whatever I Say I Am!
  • Bernie Sanders is the Dumbest Bastard on Earth
  • Cars That Never Were But Should've Been
  • Bruce Jenner
  • The Good Society
  • A Personal Jesus For My Own
  • Take a Ride on a Hell Bound Train
  • Requiem For a Car Show
  • Obama Channels Neville Chamberlain in Dealing with Iran
  • The Short Life of a Political Lemming
  • The Strongman
  • The Broken Window
  • The Selective Outrage of The Anti Israel Left
  • When the Blind Lead the Blind
  • Top Brass With Class
  • Living In A world On Fire
  • Lying Liars and the Lies They Tell
  • What The Hell Is Esotericism?
  • Unicorns, Free Healthcare and other Mythological Creatures
  • Heroes and Dunces
  • A Few Thoughts On a Few Things
  • The Return Of Super Fly
  • Should You Ever Bet On A dead Horse?
  • Money For Nothing
  • Across The Great Divide
  • Tom, Jerry, Eddie & Sydney
  • The Folly of Foibles
  • Who really killed Eric Garner?
  • The Art of The Sale
  • Political Bullshit and All That Jazz
  • Oh, The Horror of It All
  • To Torture or Not To Torture, That is The Question
  • Selective Justice
  • Executive Action
  • Give Us Your Tired, Poor and Ambitious
  • Johnny Winter, Ahhh-Yeahh!
  • Homeless and Transgender "Let My People Pee!"
  • Are We Insane? You Betcha!
  • Ebola and Racism
  • You're a Racist, Just Admit It!
  • To Discriminate or Not to Discriminate, That is the Question
  • The Life of an Imaginary Historian
  • Why Most Debates About The Minimum Wage are Bullshit
  • The Return of the Infinite Monkeys
  • Politically Correct Genocide
  • Language and the illusion of Meaning
  • Obama vs. Reagan
  • Is Barack Obama our Most Successful President Ever?
  • White Racism Black Racism
  • The Race
  • Should People Be Free to Discriminate?
  • Science, Religion and Brother Neil
  • Welcome To America
  • The Reincarnation of Jimmy Carter and the Return of Scarface
  • SCOTUS, Condoms and Collateral Damage
  • The American Dream
  • Attack of the Bloated Leeches or "Why Does the Economy Suck pt. II"
  • Why Does the Economy Suck?
  • Jaco Pastorius - A Passage in Time
  • How can we save the world, from people who want to save the world?
  • A Short Political rant: pt I
  • Jerry Reed, Tom Jones and the Original Guitar Heroes
  • Part Two: The Politics of the Eloi and the Morlock
  • Angel: part 7
  • Wayne Cochran "Going Back to Miami"
  • Blessed Assurances and other Iron Clad Guarantees
  • James Brown & the Art of the Indefinite Rhythm
  • If the Bible Say's it, I believe It!
  • Go For a Jog, Go to Jail
  • Life as Theatre and The Well-Intended Sociopath
  • Rory Gallagher & Taste
  • Utopia and the Militant Socialist
  • Matt Damon & the Teachers Union vs. the Capitalist Pigs
  • The Fight of the Century
  • The Last Damned Healthcare Article You'll Ever Need
  • The Gospel According to Mark
  • You Might Be an Idiot if.....
  • How To Interpret Political Speech and other Forms of Gibberish
  • Polygamy and the Search For Morality
  • The "Big" Gulp
  • When a Lie is the Truth and the Truth is a Lie
  • Jim Hall - The Subtle Radical
  • Making Deals With the Devil in Iran
  • Dennis and Mary
  • Thank You Lord For the Good Things You have Done
  • Excersise In Futility
  • Is Obama The Antichrist?
  • The Case for Limited Government (and that includes a limited military)
  • The Weekly Southern Blog
  • Angel: part VI
  • The Esoteric Agenda
  • Ted Bundy & The Hunt For The Devil
  • Things I wish the President Knew Pt. 3
  • Really Now, I'm Syria
  • What Will You Do?
  • Charlie & Clint: Dead & Deader
  • God Loves Me and Has a Plan For My Life...Right?
  • Trayvon & George : An American Hate Story
  • Is God's Grace Ecclesiastical White-out?
  • Jury Duty
  • The Left's Contradictory Love Affair With Gays & Muslims
  • Hee Haw and Grandma and Grandpa
  • Little Tommy & The Blues Kings
  • Gay Marriage: Part II
  • Kayaking "The Big Cypress" with Crocodlies
  • The Birth of The Jazz Guitarist
  • Running With The Bullshit In Pamplona
  • Divided By Abortion
  • Gay Marriage
  • Life on the Fault-line
  • Out of the Wild
  • A Generation Out Of Touch
  • Morning Faith with a Cup of Joe
  • For The Children
  • Made up Facts & True Beliefs
  • The Unforgettable - Nat 'King' Cole
  • Slavery Was Big Business....and It Still Is!
  • Garage Band - The 1960's
  • A Man's Best Friend is his Dogma
  • Voting With Our Private Parts
  • Investors of the World, Unite
  • Good Intentions...bad results
  • The Plural of "You"
  • How to Get God to Give You What You Want: Redux
  • We Have Not Yet Begun To Fight
  • Polls–Divination or Manipulation?
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Angel -  A novel by Thomas A Hall - Part one


"She used to work for the government. She just killed her husband. She’s in bed with drug dealers—and she may be the only person left who can save the world"… 


Today
Angel turned as she heard the creak of the front door. Slipping the safety off her Glock 9mm automatic, she didn’t bother to wonder how they’d gotten the key.

Stepping silently back into the shadowy corner of the room, she waited for the assailants. “How many?” she wondered. 

A small red dot appeared on the wall to her right. “Ha! Thanks.” she thought grimly. 

She watched the hallway entrance to her left and, both hands gripping her gun, prepared to fire at the first sign of the intruders. Her eyes narrowed as she realized the laser targeting sight wasn’t moving. Either the attackers knew where she was or were quieter than she thought possible. 

Figuring that both possibilities could be true, she turned toward the only other access to the room, the door opening into the bathroom.  As her head swiveled, she caught a brief movement.  Was it light on a gun barrel?  It was in the air conditioning vent! 

Without a moment’s hesitation she aimed two quick rounds at the soffit containing the ductwork behind the vent and then squatted, compressing her lithe body into the corner.  There was a grunt and then a terrible scream.  She turned back to the hallway to see if anyone else came toward her.  After waiting a full sixty seconds, she decided to move toward the laser light.  Grabbing a compact from her purse on the nightstand, she opened it and carefully held its small mirror to her left and gingerly moved it into the hallway.  There on the floor, propped up with what she recognized was her own wadded-up hotel bathrobe, was a pistol with its laser targeting sight switched on and pointing to the far wall. 

Lowering her own gun, Angel thought, “Good idea, but you let it play too long.” 

She quietly moved through the hotel room, checking the bathroom, living room and closet.  “Okay, time to see what I can see,” she said to herself. 

Moving back into the bedroom, she noticed that there was now a pool of blood gathering on the floor and an ooze of red dripping from the new holes in the soffit near the ceiling. 

Pulling a throwing knife from its hiding place under her right sleeve, she pried open the air vent.  There, to her surprise, was her ex-husband, blood and foam lining his lips. 

“George, what the hell are you doing here?” she wondered as she replaced the knife in its sheath. 

With no sign of emotion, she checked his neck for a pulse.  There was none. 

Obviously, if George was in the air conditioning ductwork, someone else put the pistol in the hallway.  So, where were they? 

Cautiously moving to the door of the room, she looked to see if the door was truly closed.  Without touching it, it appeared so.  She then moved into the living room and, with the lights off, looked out the corner of the window.  There was no one in sight, still, that didn’t mean someone wasn’t waiting for her.  She thought about her options.  She could sit there until someone came looking for her—someone who may, or may not, be a friend.  On the other hand, she could go out the window and, perhaps, find whoever sent George after her and set the pistol as a diversion 

“The pistol,” she thought, “I’d better take a look at it.” 

Moving back to the hallway, she risked turning on a light so that she could examine the weapon.  It was a Colt .45 automatic with a laser sight mounted on top of the barrel.  She looked at it, but didn’t touch it.  Kneeling down with her head nearly on the carpet, she looked at the clip in the butt of the grip.  It wasn’t a clip at all!  There was an almond smell coming from the grip and what appeared to be putty where the clip should be.  With a start, she realized that the gun was actually a bomb. 

“Pretty devious,” she said, admiringly. 

Well, that sealed it.  She was going out the window before someone grew impatient and set off the bomb. 

The hotel was one of those modern designs, a beige box with only minimal ornamentation, which depended on lush landscaping to provide relief from the severity of the architect’s “vision.”  “Another victim of the Bauhaus movement!” she had thought to herself when checking in.  Now she examined the window and, determining that it wasn’t designed to be opened, aimed downward and shot it in the left corner.  The window shattered but didn’t fall from its frame.  Picking up a small chair from the desk in the room, Angel threw it at the window.  That did it!  A glistening stream of glass followed the chair to the lawn below.  Wasting no time, she slipped over the windowsill, using the curtain as a guard to avoid cuts.  She dropped lightly to the ground and rolled immediately to the side and hid behind a large hibiscus bush. 

She was glad her room was on the second floor.  It would have been tougher, though not impossible, for her to drop from a higher room.  Looking around, she surveyed the side yard of the hotel and the parking lot beyond it.  Nothing.. 

“Okay then, let’s do it,” she said to herself. 

She tucked her pistol in its holster under her jacket and walked nonchalantly away from the hibiscus and towards her car.  The purple Mini Cooper was parked at the far end of the parking lot where she could see it from her room and where, due to the distance, no one else parked.  She pulled the remote from her pocket and triggered the doors to unlock, the windows to go down and the engine to start.  Everything seemed normal.  She looked through the window into the interior.  So far, so good.  

Looking around first, she bent down and peered under the car.  There, behind the driver’s side front wheel, was a packet of C4 explosive taped to the axle with wires extending up into the engine compartment.  Seeing no one’s booby trap other than her own, she opened the car door and flipped the front seat forward.  Reaching down, she pulled up the back seat.  Under the seat cushion, there was a short-barreled AA12 fully automatic shotgun and a round canister containing thirty-two 12-gauge shells.  In addition, there was another Glock 9mm automatic and four clips of ammo, burglar tools, handcuffs, a retractable metal nightstick and a small gun cleaning kit.  Missing from their places were the Glock in her holster and the Evo 9 silencer she kept on it. 

Feeling better after completing the inventory, Angel put the seat cushion back in place and, moving the front seat back, sat down in the car and turned off the engine.  She adjusted the rearview mirror so that she could see the front door of the hotel and waited. 

It had been ten minutes since she first heard the creak of the hotel room door.

Surveillance 
As she watched the hotel entrance, Angel allowed herself to think about George in the air conditioning vent. “Poor George,” she said out loud, “He was always better at talking than doing.” 

She wondered who it was that put him up to such a task.  She never considered that he might have thought of it himself.  First of all, he wasn’t a tactical agent.  Second, he was always inclined to recruit others to do the difficult tasks.  That was how, she thought ruefully, she had come to be in this business in the first place. 

“In the end, he wasn’t much of a husband,” she mused, and then thought, “and not much of an assassin either.” 

She did a quick scan of the area, letting her eyes drift, almost unfocused, across the landscape seeking anything out of place.  Seeing nothing, she returned to watching the hotel entrance and thinking about George.  Two years of married life in Colombia had begun reasonably well but, by the time the assignment was over, the marriage was done—too many deceptions from George had taken the joy out of the marriage.  Still, she had been grateful when, at the airport, George had kissed her on the cheek and said, “You’re the best partner any DEA agent ever had, Angel.” 

“So what made him try and kill me?” she said to herself. 

Without an answer, she looked at the hotel’s reflection in the mirror.  A man in a custodian’s uniform walked through the door and stood, lighting a cigarette and idly glancing around the entranceway.  In the mirror, he was too small and indistinct to make out clearly, but there was something about the way he moved that caused Angel to sit up.  She knew that too casual manner.  Apparently doing nothing, he was, in fact, surveying the entire parking area.  Moving away from the entrance, he strolled towards the side of the hotel where Angel’s room was.  As he rounded the corner, he saw the chair and broken glass on the small lawn.  Looking up, he saw the blown out window opening and abruptly turned and started to walk back to the entrance.   Instead of going into the hotel, however, he walked toward a black Cadillac Escalade. 

Angel said to herself, “A custodian with expensive tastes in vehicles.  Gotcha!” 

She started the engine of the Mini and waited.  The Caddy pulled out of the parking space and headed towards the hotel exit. 

Angel allowed the Cadillac to pull onto State Road A1A before she backed out of the parking space and followed.  Staying several cars back, she tailed the big vehicle through the tourist traffic, paying scant attention to the beach on her right.  As they drove north, both she and the “custodian” she was following left the City of Sunny Isles and entered the rich beachside community of Golden Beach.  The Cadillac turned into the driveway of a large Mediterranean Revival mansion near the beach pavilion in the middle of town.  Angel drove right on past, turning in at the pavilion and circling the Mini around. 

As she sat, watching the traffic pass by, she again considered her options.  She could, of course, simply kick in the mansion door and start shooting; however, she was unlikely to get answers to her questions and could end up meeting more resistance than she was prepared for.  Opting for a more patient approach, she opened her laptop and entered the address of the beachside mansion into the Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser’s on-line database.  According to the database, the house belonged to a corporation, Granada, LLC.  A search for the company led to a private-investment fund based in the Cayman Islands. 

Angel wondered if anyone in South Florida directly owned their own property.  Everyone seemed to go through various tax shelters, with the Cayman Islands figuring prominently as a base for the shelters.  So, what was the game here?  Drug laundering?  Terrorism?  Both? 

Googling “Granada, LLC,” she searched for any published accounts of the business.  There was only one reference, a small article in El Herald, the Spanish language version of the Miami Herald newspaper, noting that the firm had provided start-up funding for a bioscience research firm in Miami.  Another Google search for the research firm, Halpan, led to several articles noting the firm’s beginnings, announcements of promising research, and a brief article noting the closing of the firm two months earlier.  The owner of the firm, and the subject of one article’s interview, was Juan Arvelo, of Golden Beach and Bogota, Colombia. 

Angel gasped, “Juan Arvelo?” 

She increased the size of the photo accompanying the article.  There was “Juan Arvelo,” otherwise known by her as George Ramirez, her ex-husband and recently expired attempted assassin.


Yesterday 
Angel was at home in Hollywood feeding her long-haired Maine Coon, Oscar, when the phone rang.  Grabbing the phone while setting down Oscar’s food, she answered, “Hello?” 

A young woman’s voice was on the line, “Ms. Arvelo?  Will you hold for Mr. Wilson?” 

Angel stood up and said, “Mr. Wilson?” 

She stared out the kitchen window at the heliconia and wondered why “Mr. Wilson” had sought her out.  She hadn’t been hiding but, on the other hand, she hadn’t expected to hear from Don Wilson again after leaving the Drug Enforcement Agency the year before. 

A quiet masculine voice came on the line, “Angel?” 

She said, “Hi there, Don.  What’s going on?” 

Don Wilson, Caribbean Region Director for the DEA, said, “I don’t know, Angel.  Maybe you can tell me.  This morning, we received a call from George Ramirez telling us he was resigning immediately.  He sounded peculiar.  You know how George was always a talker—always going on about anything and everything?  Well, he was telling me that everything was going to get better and when I asked, “Better than what?”  He said the “virus” was going to fix everything.” 

After a pause, Don asked, “Angel, do you know anything about a virus?” 

Angel said, “No, Don.  I sure don’t.” 

“Okay.  I just thought, you know, he might have spoken with you?” 

Angel said truthfully, “Don, I have hardly spoken to George since we left Colombia five years ago. He went on to other assignments up north and I kept working in South America.  I heard that he was moving up the ladder in Washington, but that was second hand info.  I think the last thing I heard was that he was working on a task force that was planning another action in Colombia.” Don sighed and said, “Yes, he was working on another project in Colombia and had been there for the last six months.  However, that project was put on hold when two of our undercover agents in Bogotá were found dead two weeks ago.  It became clear that the operation was compromised.” 

Angel said, “Really?  Wow, I guess I got out at the right time. “She thought to herself, “That’s the truth.  If I was still in the agency, I would have been there.”  She also wondered why she hadn’t heard of the agents dying. 

Don said, “Yes, I suppose you did.  You really haven’t heard from George?” 

Angel said, “No, Don.  I really haven’t heard from George.” 

The conversation continued through brief pleasantries, with Don inviting Angel to join him for lunch someday soon and her promising to do so.  After they hung up, Angel set the phone down and idly pushed Oscar off the counter where he had jumped, “That was weird.  What was George talking about?  The virus? And why didn’t the deaths of two DEA agents in Colombia make the news?” 

She brushed back her shoulder length red hair and stood there, silhouetted in the sunlight streaming in through the kitchen window.  She thought of how George had showed her around in Colombia, she the brown-skinned, red-haired tomboy.  Lean and outdoorsy, she was the kind of young woman who looked as though she would be more comfortable camping than hosting dinner parties.  Still, she had created quite a stir in Colombia with her looks and her fluent Spanish. 

Determining to go about her intended schedule of daily events, Angel put on some cross trainers and headed out for a run.  Her favorite route took her by the bulge in the Intracoastal Waterway called “South Lake.”  The “lake” was carved out to provide the fill needed to turn swampland into buildable dry land back in the 1920s.  There was an exact duplicate a third of a mile north, on the other side of Hollywood Boulevard, appropriately, if unimaginatively, called “North Lake.”  She jogged past the kids fishing under the “No Fishing” signs and laughed to herself at the eternal constant of kids ignoring adult’s rules.  Making the turn onto 12th Avenue, she heard a car coming up behind her.  Glancing back, she saw that it was a black Bentley swinging wide to avoid her, or so she thought.  Suddenly, the vehicle swerved and screeched to a halt just in front of her.  Angel tensed and prepared for a fight. 

“Angel Arvelo?” asked someone through the car’s open rear window. 

“Who wants to know?” she responded. 

“That’s not important,” said the voice in the car. 

Angel thought she recognized the voice, but she couldn’t be sure.  She was, however, sure that the accent was Colombian. 

The man said, “There’s someone who wants to meet you.  Can you be at the Tropic Resort in Sunny Isles tomorrow?” 

Angel replied, “Who are you and why would I go anywhere for you?” 

“Because I’m told that you are for hire, former DEA agent Arvelo.” 

Angel nodded and said, “I’m kind of picky about my clients.” 

The man laughed and Angel knew who he was.  Victor Cruz, the most wanted man in the Colombian cocaine trade.  Unlike so many others, he was well educated and had once traveled in well-regarded circles of society in South America.  She thought of all the effort she and others, George in particular, had spent trying to catch this monster and how many times they’d failed.  Failed and died, in some cases.  How many times had she listened to the tapes of his voice, watched the fleeting video footage documenting his appearance?  It seemed a lifetime ago, yet, here he was, three feet away.  Outwardly, she showed nothing. 

Again, the man laughed and spoke to someone inside the car.  The front passenger side window came down and there, on the passenger seat, was an open attaché filled with bills.  Victor said, “That’s $50,000.  Consider it a retainer with more to follow.” 

Angel looked at the money, then looked at Victor and said, “Hand it here.  For $50,000 I can go to a hotel.  What am I to do when I get there?” 

Victor’s voice was mocking as he said, “Yes, I thought you would agree. As to what you are to do, you are to do nothing. I will contact you there tomorrow.” 

The driver closed the attaché and held it up for Angel to grab the handle. She did so and noted that it had a pleasingly full feel. She said, “I’ll be there after 2:00 p.m. I’ve got a nail appointment at 12:30.” 

Again, Victor laughed. She recoiled inwardly at the mocking sound.He said, “Of course, Agent Arvelo You must look your best tomorrow.” He nodded to the driver and the car pulled away. 

Angel stood there, holding the attaché and watching the car as it turned the corner onto Harrison Street and headed west. She wondered to herself, “Angel, what are you doing?” and turned back towards her house. 

When she got home, she stashed the money from the attaché in her floor safe hidden under the dining room table, keeping out $3,000 in hundred dollar bills, poured herself a shot of Johnnie Walker Black over ice, and sat down in the living room to think. What was going on? Why did Victor Cruz want her to be at the Tropic Resort tomorrow, or anytime? She thought back to Don Wilson’s call. Was any of this related? She considered calling Don and telling him about Victor’s unexpected appearance but thought better of it. She didn’t work for the DEA any longer and felt no responsibility to bring them to the party. “No,” she thought, “I’ll just follow this for awhile and see what happens.” 



Thomas A. Hall