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Featured Obama's Inauguration
Posted: Jan. 22, 2009, 8:05 p.m. My close friend Foalpapers and I went to watch Obama's inauguration, and holy crap, what a day! It was like the entire day was one long adrenaline rush; Foalpapers and I didn't have a chance to sit down from the time we got out of his car at the Metro...
Trucker Harassed By Reluctant State Troopers
Posted: Jan. 20, 2009, 9:39 p.m. While driving up to Syme's house this evening, for Obama's Inauguration, I flipped on my radio to listen to Virginia State Police, figuring it'd be interesting tonight. Unfortunately, they were fairly over-staffed at that time, so not much to listen to...
Addicted to Hate: Introduction
Posted: June 29, 1994, 10:53 p.m. By Jon Michael Bell EXHIBIT A ADDICTED TO HATE By Jon Michael Bell with Joe Taschler and Steve Fry (Note: The contents of the following document shows the time stamp of the Clerk of the District Court, Shawnee County, Kansas and shows that...
Addicted to Hate: Preface
Posted: June 29, 1994, 9:57 p.m. By Jon Michael Bell Preface He rang the doorbell. It was winter, and with his thick gloves he could barely feel the button. No answer. He waited. A cat, caught like him on this cold night outside, walked along the porch rail. Toward him....
Addicted to Hate: Chapter 1
Posted: June 29, 1994, 8:59 p.m. By Jon Michael Bell Introductions All Around A TIME magazine article from 1950 hangs framed on the wall. It's about a college student's crusade against necking on a campus in Southern California. That student's office in Kansas today is...
Addicted to Hate: Chapter 2
Posted: June 29, 1994, 7:02 p.m. By Jon Michael Bell Daddy's Hands Mark Phelps feels nauseated whenever he remembers that night. He was hit over 60 times and his brother, Nate, over 200 with a mattock handle. Nate went into shock. Mark didn't. A boy who became a compulsive...
Addicted to Hate: Chapter 7
Posted: June 29, 1994, 6:04 p.m. By Jon Michael Bell Nightmare of Twelfth Street "Since no one else would join, my father sired us for congregations," observes Mark. "We were the only members because we had no choice. When we got old enough to make our own decisions, choose our...
Addicted to Hate: Chapter 6
Posted: June 29, 1994, 6:04 p.m. By Jon Michael Bell The Law of Wrath Nowhere was the volatile and abusive nature of Fred Phelps more visible than in the law courts. Six years before the bar, the ill-tempered reverend had already discovered the law was a perfect mattock-handle...
Addicted to Hate: Chapter 5
Posted: June 29, 1994, 6:04 p.m. By Jon Michael Bell The Children's Crusade The pastor's heavy drug use continued from 1962 until late 1967 or early 1968, according to Mark Phelps. Confined to itself and tormented by an increasingly explosive, abusive, and erratic father, the...
Addicted to Hate: Chapter 4
Posted: June 29, 1994, 6:04 p.m. By Jon Michael Bell Dog Days for the Pastor Before greatness could be thrust upon him, however, this new John Brown would suffer his dog days. At first, the new arrivals sailed smoothly into the Eastside Baptist community. Fred was roundly...
Addicted to Hate: Chapter 3
Posted: June 29, 1994, 6:04 p.m. By Jon Michael Bell God's Left Hook The air hangs heavy, torpid, and hot. Pulling the warm steam into one's lungs leaves only a disturbing sense of slow suffocation. Under the harsh subtropic sun, the magnolia blossoms slip from the black-green...
Addicted to Hate: Chapter 8
Posted: June 29, 1994, 6:04 p.m. By Jon Michael Bell Over the Wall at Westboro Listening to Fred Jr. pretend he doesn't remember a girl named Debbie Valgos is an eerie experience. It's as if one were listening to a teenager deny he borrowed the car while his parents were gone. ...
Addicted to Hate: Chapter 9
Posted: June 29, 1994, 6:04 p.m. By Jon Michael Bell The False Prophet Sometime around 1975, Phelps began to find his option to beat his family restricted. By then, Mark and Kathy had already rebelled and left, and the other children were fast becoming adults of not...