Attribution: Stiller Beobachter from Ansbach, Germany, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter “I fear we have awakened a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve.” –Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto Admiral Yamamoto said this after the Japanese sneak attack on the American fleet at Pearl Harbor—the strike he himself had planned. The …
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Category:Social Commentary
Kickass and the Delaware
Attribution: Emanuel Leutze, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper stuck in a patriotic mode as he climbs down from the North Church tower and pauses at the George Washington Crossing Park on the Delaware River as part of his bicentennial series for the Milwaukee Journal. As he …
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Pope Francis: 1936-2025
Attribution: Photo by Ashwin Vaswani on Unsplash Farewell to a great humanitarian and man of the people…
Kickass and Listening
Attribution: Quirinale.it, Attribution, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, lives with the burden of the keeper’s inclination to talk when he should be listening, and notes that this is one morning for everyone to listen: “We have created new idols. The worship of the ancient golden calf has returned in a …
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Wisconsin Strong
Photo by Geoff Carter By Geoff Carter I’m a Wisconsinite, born and raised. I’m usually pretty proud of that. Not always, but usually. We’ve had our missteps and our black sheep, but generally Wisconsin does the right thing. I’m especially proud of the progressive traditions and stubborn idealism evident in our state. Just last week, in …
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Kickass and the Raging Grannies
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, celebrates with the keeper and Phyllis their good fortune in having as a Vista West neighbor Donna who is a member of the local chapter of the “Raging Grannies,” an activist singing group with chapters in both Canada and the US. The Raging Grannies …
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A Man of Little Consequence
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter We watch Law and Order reruns a lot at our house. It’s kind of the default viewing choice when nothing else is on. It’s a great show; the writing, acting, and direction are top-notch. It’s realistic—or as realistic as TV can get (how can so many beautiful Assistant DAs could …
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Altered States
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter In the late 1970s, when I was still in college, a movie named King of Hearts was the popular midnight movie (before it was preempted by Eraserhead and the ubiquitous The Rocky Horror Picture Show). The film was about a French town taken over by inmates of an insane asylum during World War I. The …
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Kickass and Jim Lovell
Attribution: NASA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, agrees with the keeper and Phyllis that the message for the day should come from astronaut Jim Lovell as he celebrates his 96th birthday with the following comment: “We learned a lot about the Moon, but what we really learned was about …
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Kickass Hiding Under Bed
Attribution: Photo by kuaileqie RE on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, woke up to the dripping of the keeper’s poetry on a rainy Sunday: ‘If I had a Telsa I would sell it. “if I were a Repub you would smell it. “If the mad POTUS has his way And tells his lies with every …
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Kickass and Two Phyllises
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper not only survived a long day with the VA eye clinic and the VA emergency unit’s MRI machine, but also gained surprising proof that he actually has a brain, and there appears to be nothing significantly wrong with it to …
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Kickass and Seeing Double
Attribution: Jonathan Trobe, M.D. – University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper’s latest vision issue is seeing double, which is one thing in seeing two images of Phyllis but quite another when it comes to watching the TV news showing multiple …
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