Crises of Conscience

Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter The world was shocked when Brian Thompson, the CEO of United Health Insurance, was recently murdered in broad daylight on a busy street in Manhattan. Reports confirmed a gunman clad in a gray hoodie who fled on a bicycle and then escaped on a bus and that shell …
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Kickass and Polio

Attribution: National Archives at College Park – Still Pictures , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper’s two best boyhood pals came down with polio during the epidemic of the early 50’s. Both cousin Rob and neighbor Darold suffered lifetime crippling effects, with Rob henceforth walking only …
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Kickass and Handsome Rescuers

Attribution: Gamze YeĹźildoÄźan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper recognizes the unfortunate evolution of the word “fall” from to “fall” in love, or to “fall” for a fast-talking car sales pitch, to its current age-related dominance as to “fall” on your face or your ass …
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Kickass and Body Parts

Attribution: FE2656BA, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, will be working with the keeper to bring the business of human spare parts out of the medical shadows and into the strip malls with the auto parts dealers where it will be more accessible and perhaps even competitive.  Based on …
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Kickass and UW Health

Attribution: Av9, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper, fresh from exposure to the sprawling UW health care system as he retrieves Phyllis from her hip replacement surgery, concludes that the modern hospital may be both the ultimate point of civilization’s advance and the most complex …
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