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 BeyoncĂ© 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 CroĂ»ton
  • 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: part VI - A Novel by Thomas A Hall - parts 1,2,3,4 and 5 at the bottom of the page

"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"…

Picture
Monday

The morning was hot, with a warning of the summer to come.  Angel took a run through the neighborhood and, sweating in the sticky, humid weather, remembered how nice the morning jogs had been in Bogotá.  There in the hills of Colombia, the morning temperature was nearly always cool and crisp.  Stopping by the art deco house at the end of Van Buren Street, she sat on the seawall and watched the yachts and fishing boats go by on the Intracoastal Waterway.  She thought of Diego’s “fishing boat” and pondered the massive wealth that allowed him to have a half million dollar boat waiting for his occasional visits to the USA.  “Yep, I’ve been on the wrong side of the law,” she thought ruefully.  Even as the thought came to her, she rejected it.  “No, I am on the side of truth, justice and the American way,” she said to herself and laughed.

She remembered how determined she had been years before—determined to avenge her father’s death.  She had joined the DEA with the single thought that she would stop drug dealers from ever depriving another family of their father.  Years of fighting the good fight had worn on her, however.  She saw the poor coca farmers in Colombia who struggled to feed their families and also saw the drug users in the US who cravenly sought to escape from their everyday lives into a world of fantasy.  As time wore on, she came to view the entire “War on Drugs” as a waste of lives, money and time.  She still thought the drug dealers were venal purveyors of death, profiting on the misery of others, but she also knew that human beings were ultimately responsible for their own choices and Americans were intent on feeding their drug habit—no matter the cost to their country, family and selves.

Thinking about this always brought her back to her last day on the job with the DEA.  On the outskirts of Medellin, she had been part of a task force tracking a mid-level drug dealer.  They had received a tip that the dealer was going to be visiting his mother in the small village where she lived and he grew up. 

The task force staked out the mother’s house and waited.  At the appointed time, a long, black Mercedes Benz drove up to the small home.  As the passenger stepped out, the team leader’s voice barked in her earpiece, “Go, go, go.  Take him down now!”

Angel and the rest of the task force converged on the Mercedes.  When he saw what was happening, the man ran into the house with Angel following.  As she ran through the front room, she glanced down a short hallway to the right and saw her prey disappearing around the corner at the end of the hallway.  She shouted, “Alto!  Policia!” but he kept running.  She ran after him and, at the end of the hallway, cautiously peered around the corner, quickly pulling her head back.  As she did so, there was a blast of gunfire echoing in the small space and bullets ricocheted off the wall behind her.  She poked her pistol around the corner and fired in the direction of the wicker sofa she’d seen in her quick glance at the small room.  Six shots later, she waited to hear any return fire.  Instead, she heard a wail, a scream of such pain, that she chanced a look around the corner.  The drug dealer was on his knees holding his mother’s body.  One of Angel’s bullets had torn through her heart.  She must have come through the back doorway to see what was going on just as Angel sprayed the room with bullets.

“Mami,” the dealer cried.  He wept as he held her and said, “I’m so sorry, Mami,” over and over.

Angel entered the room with both hands gripping her Glock pistol in front of her, the barrel pointed at the dealer.  She yelled, “Drop your weapon and lie on the ground.”

The dealer continued to weep and cling to his mother.

Angel repeated her command as she approached the dealer slowly across the small space between them.  As she came closer, she radioed her colleagues, saying, “I’ve got him.  Come in through the back door.  I’ve got a situation here.”

As she heard “Roger that” in her earpiece, she stood three feet from the dealer.  Again, she ordered him to drop his weapon and lie on the ground.  Instead, with a sudden speed that surprised her, the dealer pulled his pistol from under his mother’s body and, instead of pointing it at her, raised it to his head.  “You can’t hurt me now,” he said and, with that, pulled the trigger.

Angel thought again of the bloody, gaping wound and remembered how the left side of his head simply exploded as the bullet exited his skull.  He fell backwards and, as he did so, his grip on his mother loosened and she slid from his lap onto the floor.

Other task force members came storming through the same back door that the dealer’s mother must have used only to find Angel standing over the two bodies crying.  “I have killed a family,” she said. 

Her team mates protested, “No, they brought about their own deaths with their choices.”

“I wanted to stop drug dealers and avenge my father’s death,” she said, “but I didn’t get into this to kill their mothers.  This whole stupid drug war is a hopeless waste of lives.”  She paused, staring at the bodies on the floor through tear-soaked eyes, and said, “I can’t do this anymore.”

She remembered looking around the small room—a typical room in a peasant farmer’s house— and thinking, “They just wanted to put food on the table and better themselves.  I have destroyed them.” 

She resigned the same day.

Shaking the memories away, Angel determined to change subjects.  She contemplated the money she’d accepted from Victor Cruz.  “That will come in handy,” she thought.

Standing up, Angel began to run back the way she’d come.  As she ran, she thought about the last few days and considered next steps.  “I need to hear more of what Diego learned from that guy, Evan.” she thought.

As she approached her house, Angel saw that a black Ford Explorer was sitting in her driveway.  Looking towards the front door, she saw Don Wilson standing there.  He turned as she ran up.  Angel stopped, leaning forward, resting her hands on her knees and taking a couple of good, deep breaths before saying, “Hi, Don.”

Don smiled and said, “Hi, Angel.”

Angel asked, “What brings you by?”

Don answered, “Well, I have some news…and it’s not very good.”

Angel looked at Don more closely and said, “Come on in.  We can talk inside.”

She unlocked the front door and invited Don in.  He stood in the doorway awkwardly.

Angel said, “Hey, come on in!  Can I get you something?  I need to feed Oscar so let’s go into the kitchen.”

Don followed Angel through the living room and dining room towards the kitchen.  Sitting on a stool at the counter while Angel got out Oscar’s food, he began to speak.  “Angel, I’ve got some bad news.  George’s body was found washed up near the Broad Causeway.  It looks as though he was shot a couple of times and his body was thrown into the bay but, after two or three days in the water, it’s hard to be sure of anything else.  One thing that was notable was this, while one bullet had clearly passed through his body, the other one appeared to be cut out.  Someone wanted to make sure that no one else would be able to trace the bullet back to a weapon.  The medical examiner has the body now and will give us his report soon.”

Angel had her back to Don while he spoke.  Knowing that he would be measuring her reaction, she turned and said, ‘George is dead?”  Her voice was quavering slightly.  She hoped Don would interpret that as a sign of her shock at the news.  In actuality, it was a sign of her shock that the body had been discovered so quickly.  She realized now that Diego had not bothered to permanently dispose of the body.

Hearing the tone of her question, Don said, “I’m sorry to drop it on you this way, but I wanted you to know.  I realize that you two weren’t together anymore but, still, I figured you’d want to know.”

Angel stooped to put the food bowl on the floor and stroked Oscar’s long hair.  After a moment, she stood up and said, “Thanks for thinking of me, Don.  I don’t know what George was into these days.  I do know that he was getting increasingly weird years ago, when we were together.  He was obsessed with finding Victor Cruz and other drug dealers and seemed less and less interested in abiding by the law to get them.  Still, I don’t know what he was doing now.”

Don nodded and said, “Yes, George’s fanatical drive to stop drug dealers was becoming a matter of concern for a while.  That’s why we had him here in the States for so long.  He only went back to Colombia a few months ago…after he received a clean psych review.”

Angel was surprised by this news.  She hadn’t realized that George’s hatred of drug dealers had been so extreme that it concerned the gung ho cowboys of the DEA!  She said, “I wonder if the psychiatrist, psychologist, or whatever, got it right?”

Don said, “Yeah, I wondered about that myself.  However, I guess it doesn’t matter now.”

Angel, suddenly inspired, said, “Don, it does matter.  If George was flipping out, he could have simply messed with the wrong guy locally and ended up in the bay.  On the other hand, if he wasn’t flipping out, it may be that he was simply the victim of a crime.  In either case, knowing his mental condition could help you get some leads, right?”

Don answered, “Sure, I guess that’s true.  However, it will be the Bay Harbor Islands Police Department that carries out the investigation.  We’ll be advising them, of course, but those ideas should go to them.”

Angel nodded her agreement.  Then she asked, “What can I do to help?  I’m still trying to figure out what George meant when he told you “The virus would take care of everything.”

Don looked sharply at Angel, but she maintained a concerned, but innocent, air.

“I probably shouldn’t tell you this, and I only just found out myself, but the two agents that were killed in Colombia a little while ago died from some kind of viral infection.”

Angel looked at Don, thinking to herself, “Man!  Was I as stiff as him when I was with the agency?”  She had to admit, “Yeah, I probably was.”  She knew Don Wilson was a good man, an earnest, caring man, but she also knew that he was another true believer in “The War on Drugs” and would never be able to accept her working with Diego. 

She responded to his information with, “What?  You mean there is a virus?”

Don looked uncomfortable, but answered, “It seems there is.  Although they died weeks ago, I only just learned from an autopsy conducted in Washington, that this was the cause of their deaths.  Since that is the case, and since George was talking about a virus, I think it’s too coincidental to be ignored.”

Angel said, “I don’t know, Don, but I do know that George was so focused on stopping drug dealers that anything he was into would be about stopping them.”

Don said, “I suppose that’s true, but I just don’t know how George would be connected to the virus he was talking about and, if he was, why Henderson and Allegre were killed.  I mean, they were some of his closest friends!”

Angel thought to herself, “Henderson and Allegre?”  She remembered them for their antics in Colombia.  They were younger than George by a few years and looked up to him.  He had been the guy who showed them the ropes “in country” and they remained loyal to him. 

She replied, “I understand.  Have you checked into his background?  I mean, was he doing something on the side that would give you some clues as to his meaning?”

Don said, “Well, to be honest, up ‘til now I didn’t think it was my business to check into his private life.  Obviously, we will be doing just that as we try to figure out how and why he was killed.”

Angel, although determined to keep her activities hidden from Don, found that she was feeling guilty about not telling him what she knew of the virus.  As she thought about it, the phone rang.  She glanced at the kitchen clock.  Sure enough, it was 10:00 a.m.  She said, “Excuse me,” and picked up the phone.  “Ola, Mami,” she responded to Diego’s “Buenos Dias.”  “Yes, Don Wilson stopped by.”  She looked at Don and smiled, “Mami, says hello.”

Diego said, “Okay, call me when you can.  I have some things to discuss with you.”

Angel replied, “Si, Mami.  I’ll call you later.”

As she hung up, she turned back to Don and said, “Sorry, I didn’t want to tell her about George over the phone.”

Don said, “Of course.  Well, I need to get going.  Are you going to be okay?”

Angel smiled and said, “Don, George was my ex, but he and I both moved on.  I hadn’t heard from him nor seen him in years.  I’m sorry that he’s dead, but I’ll be fine.”

As she said the words, she realized that, in fact, she did feel sorrow for George.  She now knew that he wasn’t trying to kill her in that hotel room.  Obviously, he thought he was going to get a shot at Victor Cruz.  Still, she couldn’t understand why he would have been in the air conditioning vent.  While it gave him a hidden vantage point, it also trapped him in a spot with little or no mobility.  “Why did he do that?” she wondered.

Don said, “I understand.  Please keep that information about Henderson and Allegre to yourself and, if anything comes to mind that could help us solve George’s murder, you know the number to reach me.”

Angel nodded and said, “Will do.  Give my best to everybody back at the office.”

She walked him to the door.

As Angel showed him out, Don turned to her, looked keenly at her and said, “You’re sure that you’re okay?”

Angel said, “Yes, really.  I’ll be fine.”

“Okay, I’ll see you.”

He walked down the front steps and over to his car.  Angel stood there at the door until he started the engine and backed out of the driveway.  As she closed the door, she began thinking of Diego and wondered what he’d learned from Evan Rodriguez.  She picked up the phone in the living room and plopped down on the sofa.  Putting her feet on the coffee table, she dialed Diego’s number.

“Hola,” she said as Diego’s voice came on the phone.  “How are you?” she asked.

“Muy bien.” answered Diego.  “As I said last night, your friend confirmed that Juan Arvelo was working with Javier Carlos Rodriguez Blanco.  He also told me that the woman was a liaison for Juan Arvelo and the others were his security.”

Angel answered, somewhat briskly, “Good to know.  Now, why didn’t you dispose of George’s body more securely?”

Diego paused before responding.  Obviously, he was calculating from her question that George’s body had been found.  Finally, he said, “When you killed him, you were just a tool to be used by Victor in smoking out our adversaries.  It didn’t seem important to hide your ex-husband’s body forever.  Besides, I took the time to make sure there were no bullets to be traced back to you, and our hotel staff just thinks a young woman trashed a hotel room registered under Victor’s alias.  They know nothing of the activities in the room.”

Angel allowed a trace of annoyance to creep into her voice as she replied, “Okay, but the DEA is now aware of one of their agent’s death.  They are going to begin checking into George’s after-hours activities and will soon know about Halpan and the rest.  I would think that it is only a matter of a day or two before they make the connection to the house in Golden Beach and our friend Evan Rodriguez.”

Diego said, “Then we need to find out more from Mr. Rodriguez.  For instance, where is the virus?  How much of it exists, and how can it be handled safely?”

Angel agreed, “You’re right about that.  We need to know those things and he might have answers.  However, what I want to know, as well, is where Blanco is in all of this?  I mean, is he the leader or was he the follower of George?  I know that George wanted to get Victor and hated drug dealers, but from what you say, Javier Carlos Rodriguez Blanco hates all of mankind.  Could he have been using George while George thought he was using Blanco?”

Diego said, “Si, that makes sense.  Why don’t you meet me at the Muvico in Pembroke Pines?  We can meet there and then go visit Señor Rodriguez and ask him these questions.”

Angel agreed and said, “I can be there in an hour.  Will that work?”

Diego said, “Make it an hour and a half.”

“Done.” said Angel and she hung up the phone.  “Okay, Oscar, time for me to get going!”



 

Driving

Angel drove north on US 1, passing the old building on Cleveland Street where Jaco Pastorius, the great South Florida electric bassist lived in the early ‘70s before he became famous.  She remembered how her father would mention the building every time they passed it when she was a girl.  Her father had grown up in Cuba loving American jazz and when he managed to get to the States, indulged his love by listening to local musicians like Ira Sullivan, Jaco, Eddie Higgins and the great drummers Bobby Economou and Duffy Jackson.  Before Angel was born, he met Jaco and was invited back to his apartment on Cleveland Street after a gig to hang out.  Angel remembered how he would get excited every time he talked about the thrill of sitting in Jaco’s seedy apartment listening to the world’s best bass player jamming with a couple of other guys and then getting invited to play congas with the informal group.  She smiled as she remembered her dad’s pride in that experience.

Turning west on Sheridan Street, she drove out of Hollywood and into the suburbs of Pembroke Pines, a sprawling community of shopping centers and single-family homes that had sprung up in the last twenty years.  She scrolled through her midi files on the Blackberry, which she had plugged into the Mini’s sound system, and played Jaco’s first album.  As the opening notes of “Donna Lee” came through the system, Angel smiled. She thought, as she often did when traveling through that part of the county, of the way the area had looked when she was a kid.  “Cow pastures, orange groves and limerock mining operations,” she thought and wondered which was better, that or the suburbs.  “Well, at least it’s friendlier than Boca Raton!” she said to herself out loud.

She was in a good mood.  Passing through the intersection of Sheridan Street and Flamingo Road, she proceeded west.  As she neared Volunteer Road, she idly noticed a large, Ford 350 pickup truck waiting at the stop sign.  She glanced down at the speedometer while thinking that she needed to get some cat food and tea bags on her way home.

Wham!  The pickup truck rammed the right, front side of the little Mini Cooper, sending it careening left into the median island where it was stopped abruptly when it ran into a palm tree.

The air bags had deployed when the truck hit the car.  When the Mini hit the tree and suddenly stopped, the air bags were partially deflated and Angel smashed her head into the driver’s side window.  Sitting in the car, she groggily tried to sort out the situation.  She looked around and saw steam rising from the crushed front end of the car.  The hood was pushed up so that it filled half of the view out the windshield in front of her.  She heard a man’s voice saying, “Ma’am!  Are you okay?”

She passed out.



Thomas A Hall

You can read parts 1 through 5, here, by following the links
1. http://www.weeklysouthernarts.com/angel-chapter-1---a-novel-by-thomas-a-hall.html 
2. http://www.weeklysouthernarts.com/angel-part-ii.html
3.  http://www.weeklysouthernarts.com/angel---pt-3.html 
4.  http://www.weeklysouthernarts.com/angel-part-four.html
5. http://www.weeklysouthernarts.com/angel-part-v.html