Kickass and Andy Rooney

Attribution: Stephenson Brown, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in wondering how to get a message to the late Andy Rooney regarding a job opportunity on 60-Minutes, where Andy was a fixture for a long time. That message would advise Andy to stay wherever he is …
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By Hook or By Crook

Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Say what you will about him, one thing Donald Trump has been able to do is to surprise us —usually with his audacity. From his brazen looting of the National Treasury to his unwarranted and appalling destruction of the East Wing of the White House disgusting, and somewhat …
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Kickass and Ultimate Fighting

Attribution: Bad intentionz, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper and Phyllis barely able to contain their excitement over the POTUS plans to spend millions celebrating his birthday with people beating the living hell out of each other on the White House lawn.  Great stretches of that …
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Kickass and the Bad Kennel

Attribution: Photo by Sasha Sashina on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, agrees with the keeper that he and Phyllis and their friends are living in a once-beautiful planetary adoption “kennel” that has suddenly made euthanasia a major operational policy, has fired the clean-up crew and the high-quality employees, and now accepts only the very tallest dogs …
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Kickass and the Zoo Trade

Attribution: 江戸村のとくぞう, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, is happy to assist the keeper in trying to salvage something out of the US-China meeting fiasco by suggesting that the POTUS be left in China in exchange for the Panda bear slated to immigrate to a US zoo.  This seems …
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No-Win Situation

Attribution: Photo by Igor Omilaev on Unsplash By Geoff Carter “Winning isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.”    —Vince Lombardi “Sixteen times a year, all thirty-two NFL teams give us what we’re looking for: speed, skill, violence, fantasy league orgasms and a final score. No confusion. No doubt. No indecision. A winner and a loser.”             –Mike Barnicle  Winning has …
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Kickass and the China Posse

Attribution: Photo by Joel Danielson on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, works with the keeper and Phyllis in their efforts to help people understand just what is going on with the POTUS as he surrounds himself with a posse of narcissistic billionaires while going off to China to try to trade his war for a …
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Kickass and Being a “Bitch”

Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, stayed home on Mother’s Day, dreaming about his mother, and wondered about the uproar over the report that the POTUS called a black woman reporter a “bitch.”  In the canine world, of course, “bitch” is a respectable label for any and all female dogs, …
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Dialogues on Strait Talk: “You Shall Not Pass!”

Attribution: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Featuring the Fabulous Dadbots: Dave S., Mark M., Mark O., Dennis C., John K., Michael D., and Geoff Carter David Sanger (NYT) asks the right question;’: “President Trump’s decision to blockade all Iranian shipments out of or into the Strait of Hormuz …
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Pants on Fire

Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Last week’s Pen in Hand Blog column dealt with President Trump’s use—and abuse—of the English language, how he has dumbed down presidential rhetoric to a fourth-grade level, weaponized our political discourse, and created the most divisive atmosphere since the Civil War.  We have fallen incredibly far incredibly quickly. …
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Like Nobody’s Ever Seen Before

Attribution: DonkeyHotey, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter Linguists and educational theorists have argued for centuries over the question of whether thought gives rise to language or whether the reverse, that language affects and determines thought, is true. The once widely-accepted Sapir-Whorf hypothesis postulates that language determines thought, while Fodor’s theory maintains the …
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