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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Morning Faith With a Cup of Joe
                           "Has the truth ever tasted so rotten"?

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In a world where personal knowledge is limited, faith becomes the necessary glue that holds together our tenuous worldviews.  Without it, confusion would abound and a lot of us might begin diving out of windows to the hard pavement below.  Tell people that their religious view may need a slight adjustment, or that their political beliefs may be wrong, and a lot of average folk will start killing and maiming in an effort to restore order to the inner world that is their thought life .  

This has driven me to the conclusion that there's a need for a column that deals specifically with issues of faith.  Something that will lift the spirits like a "Black Beauty" mixed with a shot of pure caffeine--where a man or a woman can linger awhile, contemplate their destiny, and ask questions like: Who would win in a fight, a giant sloth or a grizzly bear? (I'm partial to the grizzly bear, but I accept the possibility that I could be wrong.)  Either way, this is the place to be for important issues.   Everything that I write is, of course, true.  For instance, it would be true to say that this column was written at the Democratic National Convention.  The only thing necessary is to substitute the words "Democratic National Convention"  for "my living room," then it's true.  This is an important journalistic distinction, one used by all of the major journalists.  I will carry on with those same deep convictions regarding the truthfulness of my beliefs. 

Do I have anything of particular value to add to the conversation,  insights so profound as to change the course of nations?   Does it matter?  Of course not, I've got a forum and I'll use it, by God, to offer my opinion.   It may do nothing more than careen about the blog-o-sphere in search of like-minded folk, alienating dissenters, who are, no doubt, heretics.  But, it will have served it's purpose, opening up the cranial cavity that is my head and spewing forth diatribes against the enemies of both God and man.  And that my friends is, to say the least, super awesome!  

Faith in a Material World

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Let's start by examining this picture.  Lots of people will like this image, many others won't.  If you believe that Islam is a religion of hate, you'll probably like it.  If you think any such designation is one dimensional, and therefore bigoted, you may already have stopped reading.  On the other hand, it could just as easily be anti-Christian, in which case, you might say, "As long as the snark is pointed in the right direction, it's okay."   

Maybe I'm the problem, just another bigot looking for an enemy in order to justify my own personal dysfunction.  As long as somebody else is a jerk, I'm alright.  It can be tough to know these things, especially if you place too much faith in your own faith, 
and let's be real, that's a pretty easy thing to do. 

Never is faith more immediately apparent than in politics.  We periodically turn the reins of democracy over to men and woman about whom we know almost nothing.  The press is supposed to challenge our would-be leaders with insightful rigor, but frequently seem more interested in throwing rocks at a safe distance, like that dweeb in Junior High who would lob a projectile and then run before you could pound his head in—which is why all real men see the press as a bunch of whining punks who need a good shellacking. 

During the final weeks of the last Presidential election, former President Bill Clinton was brought out to help the struggling Obama Campaign.  Mitt Romney had dissed 47% of the nation by alleging that they were freeloaders who were feeding at the trough of the government's largess.  Senor Clinton was interviewed by an eager press, looking for a way to exploit Romney's behind-closed-doors faux pas.   How could anyone say that, just because you paid no income tax, you weren't paying your fair share?  And likewise,  just because 3% of the nation pays half of all income taxes, why would anyone have a problem suggesting that they should pay more? 

The former president, using his considerable gift for linguistic subterfuge pointed to a study he'd read.  Apparently, some economists using an arcane mathematical formula had conclusively proven that just because people didn't pay income taxes, doesn't mean that they didn't pay income taxes.  In fact, according to this formula, they paid a lot in taxes, even though they hadn't paid any taxes at all.   Mr. Clinton said he couldn't easily explain it, but he assured his audience of objective journalists that it made sense nonetheless.  And being objective, they knew that when the former president said he had no fallacious intent, he meant it, although some of the female reporters thought he said something else and immediately vacated the building.  

The point being that they dutifully spread the word that Mitt Romney had said heinous things about that 47% of the nations freeloaders....I mean taxpayers.  Like all apologists for the faith, it didn't matter if they could actually explain it, it only mattered that someone could, if not Bill Clinton, then he knew somebody, who knew somebody, who could.   If that isn't a fine example of faith, I don't know what would be!  

But politics is not the fish that I'm looking to fry, at least not now.  There will, no doubt, be many allusions to faith of all kinds, beginning with my own.  This first column will only raise questions, not answer them.  After all, the beginning of knowledge is asking questions.  Unless we're willing to question our beliefs, how can we rightly determine if our beliefs are meaningful?   Magical intuitions is the most common answer.  No one says this directly, but they certainly imply it.  How else can people who know absolutely nothing, claim to know so much?   Magic would seem the only rational explanation, which leads us to religion.


I s All Religion a Fairy Tale?

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There is an element of the fairy-tale in most faith, including most Christian belief.  It doesn't have to be that way, mind you, but it frequently is.  We’re told that if we just believe that Jesus is the Messiah, Son of God, the second Person of the Trinity, and then confess with our mouths, Jesus will come to “Live in our hearts”!  The implication being that one need only say a few special words, “Jesus is Lord’, assent to a few ideas, and presto, you’re a Christian.  With that, God writes your name down in the "Lamb's Book of Life" and when you bite the big one, you’ll go off to your heavenly home in the sky, where the streets are paved with gold and you'll live in a mansion prepared just for you.  

It makes for a great story, with a quick resolution and a big payoff.  And, maybe, the most important part is; whatever you lack in terms of good works, God’s grace will take care of and help to get you over that bump in the road called sin.

So, let's ask some questions.  Would this work for someone like Hitler?  And, could he really get into heaven if he repented of killing millions of people, turned from mass slaughter and genocide and said "Hey, I was wrong, I'm really, really sorry, Jesus, come into my heart and wash me clean"?  Just exactly what does it mean to repent?  Can a man who was so crazy to begin with, ever, really be normal?  Would he have the capacity to come to the conclusion that he was wrong, like someone having made a mistake on a math problem.  If he was crazy, and at some level just about everybody would have to acknowledge that he was, could he really be held responsible?  


From a scientific or legal perspective it would mean that, without sufficient evidence, there can be no firm conclusion, no verdict of guilt or innocence, only an unsettling, ambiguous gray.  But, where there are insufficient facts, there is always imagination—and imagination plays a fundamental role in all faiths, including the faith of a surprising amount of  Law, Science and Philosophy.

This is only one of the many problems facing modern culture, Christianity included.  There are so many unanswered questions, that to have assurance about anything much regarding why people do what they do, requires a good deal more knowledge than we currently possess.  In order for us to see the "big picture," the "big story" becomes necessary.  And, without the small details that make up the big picture, allegory and myth have always been the preferred method of understanding the world.  That was true in the far distant past, and is still true today, only now we call it television, movies and books.  


Make no mistake, myth is still the primary language of choice even if the medium has changed.   For instance, we rewrite history and call it theater, the film "Inherit the Wind" being a prime example. Change a few facts with the intent of ferreting out some hidden or historical subtext, and you can change the world's view of events that entertains while educating, or indoctrinating, depending on one's perspective.  When Fredrick March's character dies while being cross examined by Spencer Tracy in the remarkably well written (and acted) finale, poetic license replaces historical fact, but, since it's "Fiction," no one's harmed, right?  I prefer to call this "Fistory" part fiction, part history, and with new categories created in which to express our version of events, "Fistory" could be a real winner. 

So, why complain, how can we hold filmmakers or politicians accountable for telling the truth when it can be so damned hard to determine what that might really be.  The responsibility falls on the the audience (or voter) to reasonably work their way through the propaganda to get at the truth.  If they don't act, motivated by their own interests, no one will do it for them.  Faith alone, or blind faith, will never do, anymore than mystical intuitions will.  

In the biblical "Book of Acts", Herod Agrippa, "The King of the Jews" gives a rousing speech, finishes, and immediately drops dead, and the scripture says "His body was eaten by worms"!   In fact, history tells us that Agrippa did get sick, but, it took him about a week to die.  Having Agrippa die instantly after opposing God's people makes for compelling theater.  It was the meaning of the event that the early Christians were trying to convey, not the exact historical facts.  In a culture where reading and writing was rare, exacting histories simply didn't exist.  In the same manner, when Frederic March dies after a brutal cross exam by Spencer Tracy's fictional Clarence Darrow, it is the poetry, the deeper meaning behind the truth, that the writer is after.  

Most historians recognize that history is seldom ever so clear as to come without interpretation.  The need to tell stories becomes a method of sorting out essential truths beyond mere facts, a way of interpreting the data, as it were.  It would seem that people have been using "Fistory" for as long as anybody can remember. 

However, working our way through the minefield that is human perception is no easy task, so let's start with the question; what is human nature?  Do we really have free will?  Or, are we biologically predisposed to certain kinds of behavior?   Where we have more refined theories, we really don't know a whole lot more than people did two thousand years ago, or ten thousand years ago, for that matter.  This poses a moral and legal conundrum for lawmakers.  It poses the same difficulty for religion, which is where most of our legal codes are derived from.  Judaism was formed around an evolving legal code, "The Law of Moses," which functioned as the constitution for Jewish life.  It was the glue that bound the Jews together as a people.  Much later, the Hebrew Bible, which contained the Mosaic Law, completed and fulfilled that role.   For the overwhelmingly gentile-Christian citizens of the U.S., the New Testament, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights serve essentially the same purpose.  

Stepping Off the Ledge

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Let me make it clear, this isn't an attack on religion, Jesus or Christianity.  It’s an attack on a particular modern strain of Christian thought, which more closely resembles an infomercial than the "truth of the ages."  It's hard, however, to put butts in seats if you make religion too complex.  If you want to have a career as a big time preacher, with a hefty flock of paying customers, you’d better tell people what they want to hear.  And if you’re a sinner eager for a little absolution, repentance, in the modern sense, has been made about as easy as it gets.  None of this sackcloth and ashes stuff for me, just a quick confession, and if you really mean it, God will do the rest.  You don’t even have to try that hard, 'cause that would be works, and we all know what the Bible says about works. We don’t? Oh well, don’t worry about it, grace, mercy and forgiveness are on the way.  God will apparently usurp your will and nature, transform you with His power, and then you’ll be able to read the Bible and understand what it says.  You don’t have to know Greek or Hebrew—or for that matter, know anything about history.  You just go get yourself a good Bible, preferably the same Bible Jesus read, the “King James Bible,” and then begin to read all those "So and so begat so and so, and eye of the needle passages."  

Sure, it sounds like gibberish at first, but once you've found yourself a good church, with a good pastor, you’ll get it—and then all that stuff about talking snakes and original sin will become clear as glass.  Just remember, it’s all about faith, not knowledge, because knowledge is bad—at least the kind of knowledge that questions the Bible.  So, if you don’t understand, go ask your Pastor, unless he’s a Catholic, or Jehovah Witness—some of those Lutherans are starting to look pretty iffy as well.  How about a Pentecostal?  Well, it depends on whether you’re a Pentecostal, in which case it’s okay.  On the other hand, I’m not a Pentecostal, so maybe it isn't.   But I was a Pentecostal, which could mean that I was a heretic destined for hell, or, that I've become a heretic by abandoning my previous position and am now headed straight for the fiery furnace.  You can see just how messy this can get.  

This is where grace kicks in.  The problem with theology is that it isn't really faith based, but is the product of intellect, which would make it works.  But works can't get you into heaven, so faith becomes necessary.  Faith in what, you say?  Faith in the aforementioned truths regarding Jesus (The Trinity, Jesus is God, salvation by faith alone, etc.).  However, aren't these ideas?  Wouldn't that be the stuff of the mind and, therefore, works and not faith?  Not if they are supernaturally revealed, then they become faith.   Why? Because you can't take credit for it—and because you can't take credit for it, it's really faith.  If this sounds confusing, that’s only because it is.  

Here’s how you can know for sure what’s true and what’s not!   Faith, pure, simple faith is what it’s all about!  I realize I said you’d “Know,” but I really mean believe—or something like that—'cause that would be about knowledge, and knowledge is works, or knowledge is bad, unless it’s “God knowledge" and then it's good!  How do you distinguish between "God knowledge" and bad knowledge? Faith, my friend, pure, simple faith.  Man, I’m glad we got that worked out, it was starting to get hot in here!


Mark Magula

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