Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, advises the keeper to use caution in all matters having to do with cats, considering the past hostility of some readers when the keeper wrote about them. But he–the keeper, cannot ignore the news out of New Zealand where a recreational competition among kids to …
Read
Category:Guns
True Colors
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter “The measure of a man is what he does with power.” –Plato “Despotic power is always accompanied by the corruption of morality.” –Lord Acton American politics has been devolving over the last decade or so. Discourse has become so gridlocked, it’s become nearly impossible for our two major …
Read
Kickass and Gun Insanity
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joined the keeper in reacting to the police report of a “serious injury” shooting in the peaceful, school-saturated westside neighborhood where he and Phyllis live in a retirement facility called Vista West. The shooting victim later died, and two …
Read
The Little Things
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Last week was bad. Really bad. Three mass shootings in California shocked the nation. Over the course of forty-four hours nineteen people were killed and dozens of others wounded. In all, over forty mass shootings have taken place in our country this January—a new monthly record. Of course, …
Read
Nightmare on Main Street
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter As I get older, I occasionally catch myself repeating things. Maybe a story, maybe a joke, maybe a memory, maybe a point. That’s just part of aging—one of its inevitabilities. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a piece about gun violence titled What’s It Going to Take? inspired by …
Read
What’s It Going to Take?
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter What’s it Going to Take? On November 19th, a 22-year-old gunman killed five and wounded seventeen at Club Q, an LGBTQ in Colorado Springs using a semi-automatic rifle and a handgun, both so-called “ghost guns” with no serial numbers. What’s it going to take? How many more must …
Read
Kickass and the Shooter
Photo by Joe on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, frequently has suggestions for the keeper in maintaining a degree of relevance in his daily ranting, but he comes up empty with the fact that Robert E. Crimo III came within several miles of the keeper and Phyllis’s residence following Crimo’s unconscionable AK …
Read
Kickass and Highland Park Shooting
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, follows the keeper as he recalls his days with the Chicago Tribune when Highland Park was one of the many locations he roamed for column writing material; and where relatives now live in the nearby community of Fox Lake; all of which is apropos …
Read
Dialogues on Criminal Negligence: An Apology to Our Children
VOA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By the Fabulous Dadbots: Dave S., Mark M., Mark O., Dennis Curley, and Geoff Carter Yeesh…. come back from my joyful, gabby, Tuesday “Slacker Ride” awash with endorphins and 14 young kids are dead in Uvalde, TX . Just passing on the Steve Kerr’s commendable rant—he is in Texas tonight …
Read
The Last Straw
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoffrey Carter It happened again. Despite the thoughts and prayers, the demonstrations, the pleas, and the warning signs, it happened again. On May 24th, nineteen fourth graders were shot down like dogs at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, by an eighteen-year-old armed with semi-automatic weapons that he had purchased …
Read
Kickass and Problem Solving
Image by Michal Jarmoluk from Pixabay By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, supports the keeper in his efforts to accept prevailing thought that the way to deal with a problem is to do things that make the problem so bad that it becomes unsolvable and therefore it is useless to even think about it; …
Read
Don’t Look at the Big Picture
Photo by Thomas Def on Unsplash By Mark Mamerow It’s just common sense, isn’t it? James and Jennifer Crumbley behaved irresponsibly, and now they’re being held accountable for it in court. The Crumbleys are the parents of the 15-year-old who shot up a suburban Michigan high school in America’s latest numbingly familiar school massacre. But in the case of Michigan …
Read