D J Shin, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in acknowledging that planet Earth has obviously been designated by the rich one percent as the celestial garbage dump, and is rapidly being overrun by greedy rats and gorging fat cats to the point of being unlivable. …
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Category:Social Commentary
Kickass Upgrades Booze Relationship
Photo by Anastasia Belousova from Pexels By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, passes along the keeper’s observation that in the long, agonizing relationship between humans and booze, the advent of wineries is carrying the day; and it is being carried largely by women, which lifts it several steps up from the tradition of men hanging out in …
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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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Kickass Unionizes Social Media
WisPolitics.com, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, will be assisting the keeper on this Labor Day weekend in unionizing those—including himself, who frequent social platforms, like this one; and as a first condition asks for the elimination of comments about the stupidity of others, which should reduce the platform …
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Kickass and Reader Letter About Dog Killing Cats
Javier B, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, notes on the keeper’s behalf that two-way communications is not a recent Facebook thing, but was one of the delights of writing a newspaper column back in the keeper’s day. Letters from readers kept a columnist’s ego somewhat in check, and in …
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More Than Rain
Kristian Pikner, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter Southeastern Wisconsin had a relatively quiet and dry summer—up until last week. On Saturday, torrential downpours dumped up to four inches of rain in some areas, causing flash floods. Then, on Tuesday evening, a strong line of severe thunderstorms crossed into the area, ushering in …
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Kickass and McCoy Refugees
Jonathunder, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, indulges the keeper as the plans for using Camp McCoy in the Afghanistan refugee program prompts memories of 1980 when some 14,000 Cubans were housed at McCoy after escaping Fidel Castro’s regime. The keeper, a Milwaukee Journal columnist at the time, was also …
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Kickass and Getting Out of War
Photo by Ian Hutchinson on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, notes that the keeper has some experience in participating in exits from foreign conflicts, having lost friends while helping take the kinks out of Korea’s 38th parallel 70 years ago. That the parallel has stood the test of time as a barrier against the spread of totalitarianism …
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Kickass and Titanic Planet
Willy Stöwer, died on 31st May 1931, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper and Phyllis in acknowledging that they are passengers on the Planet Titanic and it has been steered into the galactic iceberg by greedy narcissists; and the only way out is to jump overboard, …
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Kickass and Missing Children
Photo by Phyllis Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper and Phyllis in wondering what happened to the children: In one of their meandering forays on a recent flawless summer afternoon across many miles of those wonderful winding driftless-area roads, past hundreds of interesting farms, and through dozens of communities of …
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Passing the Smell Test
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter While we were recently visiting the family cabin recently—which is shared by three extended families—my wife started poking through the refrigerator. It contained a variety of half-used bottles of salad dressing, hot sauce, mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup, and various other sundries. She was—of course—checking expiration dates. Some of the …
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Personal Space
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter On July 11th, billionaire Richard Branson launched himself fifty-three miles into the atmosphere—to the very edge of space, taking a slight edge in a three-way race between himself and other multi-billionaires Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk to establish a space tourism industry. Bezos plans to launch his self-funded …
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