Murder by Numbers

Artwork by Michael DiMilo We’ve watched statistics spill off television screens and scroll across newsfeeds each and every day—for months. Milestones have been acknowledged, marked, and noted. One hundred thousand Americans dead in May. One hundred and fifty thousand in July. Four hundred and five hundred thousand, then six hundred thousand. And yet we still …
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Sick and Tired

Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter People are tired. Exhausted. They’re tired of COVID-19. They’re tired of masks and distancing and washing hands and being careful. They’re tired of other people not wearing masks—and screaming about it. They’re tired of schools closing and having their kids home all the time. They’re tired of not …
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Kickass as Predator

Photo by Sebastian Pociecha on Unsplash Kickass, the doorstop dog, having retired as a shooting hunter, still acknowledges his predator identity and the complications that come with attempting to fit killing lesser creatures into the realm of “sport” and “fun” in a society that increasingly denies the source of hamburger. Regulatory decisions that should be made by ALL …
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Kickass Embraces Duelling

Illustrator not identified. From a painting by J. Mund., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, while sympathizing with the keeper’s frustration at the lack of ways for an elderly citizen to be politically relevant, is not sure that the keeper’s embrace of dueling is the answer. But in the …
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Revenge of the Swamp Creatures

Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter On January 20th, 2021, when Joseph Biden was formally inaugurated as our forty-sixth president, America—and the world—heaved a huge sigh of relief. Donald Trump, the man who had only two weeks before instigated an assault on the Capitol Building in an attempted coup d’etat, was finally removed from …
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Kickass and Borealis Truth

Photo by Vincent Guth on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports on the keeper’s discovery that next Monday’s rare display of the aurora borealis, which will be visible as far south as Wisconsin and New York, will include colorful indicators of the truth, heretofore denied to vast numbers of the populace who believe that if …
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Kickass and Civilized Restraint

MuZemike, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, is totally impressed with the restraint exhibited by the keeper’s species as the likes of Michael Gableman and Fred Prehn and Robin Vos do their taunting buffoon dances across the Wisconsin public squares largely unmolested by the citizenry. By comparable description, Trump’s …
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American Self Portrait

Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter In the first episode of the HBO series The Newsroom, a college student asks news anchor Will McAvoy (played by Jeff Daniels) why America is the greatest country on Earth. Before absolutely emasculating her with a lengthy and provocative laundry list of deficiencies in our government, McAvoy tries to …
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