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 and Football Excesses
Pbrown111 at English Wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, acknowledging the season of football excesses, assists the keeper in providing revised lyrics to some of the traditional Camp Randall songs: If you want to be a Badger—- “If you want to be a butthead, just come along with …
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Kickass Resigns as Predator
WayneRay, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, does the keeper a favor by passing along the following proclamation which addresses the keeper’s desire to revise his predator status: “I, being of suspect mind and dilapidated body, “And having passed on predatory killing tools to younger clan members, “And marveling …
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Kickass Gets a Vasectomy
/ C.Suthorn / cc-by-sa-4.0 / commons.wikimedia.org By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper has probably not made any more life altering decisions than most men but cites an incident way back when he was a columnist for the Milwaukee Journal and, in the mode of writing about everything, did a column for the Journal’s “Insight” magazine …
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The Couch Potato’s Guide to New Hollywood: The Legacy of Meryl Streep
Jack Mitchell , CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter Meryl Streep is nearly universally acclaimed as the finest actress working in cinema or on the stage today—or any other day. Her name is synonymous with the absolute gold standard of acting, and she has appeared in some of the most outstanding and unusual films …
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Kickass and “If You Build It…”
National Archives at College Park , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports on the keeper’s “If you build it they will come” experience in the thick tangle of asters and cattails beside Vermont Creek when he stood in the bright sunshine and imagined old departed trout friends lurking back …
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Kickass and Outhouse Occupants
Photo by Robert Linder on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, supports the keeper in his efforts to adjust to the absurdity of “minority rule” whereby gerrymandered Republican narcissists have locked themselves in what might be considered—judging from odious emissions–the political/public outhouses, thus denying all kinds of relief to a desperate public. That earthy analogy reminds …
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Kickass and Flowing Water
Markheffron2, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in observing the downstream nature of all things, and in considering how the moving water of flowing streams has been such a powerful source of pleasure through his many years. From boyhood nights alone on Miller Creek, to being …
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Kickass and Treeson
Portable sawmill, Hog Wood by Robin Webster, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, views trees different than the keeper does, but both do so with great respect; and there is guilt involved with the keeper as he views the many trees that were ground into pulp to publish the countless …
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The Good People of Texas
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter They say everything is bigger in Texas—the hats, the cars, the buildings, the population, the reputation—even the problems. This is the state that produced the larger-than-life personalities Willie Nelson, Matthew McConaughey, Larry McMurtry, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Buddy Holly—to name only a few. Texans have a lot to …
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Kickass and the National Mother
Photo by Pixabay from Pexels By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in lamenting the fact that their great state of Wisconsin is being rapidly converted from a beautiful, enlightened, compassionate field of dreams into a septic system drain-field for the greedy, narcissistic rich. And apparently all the citizens can do is keep flushing the Republican-owned …
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Kickass in the Land of Odd
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper, fresh from days of self-indulgence over a milestone birthday, wakes up to find himself traveling down a road in the Land of Odd in the company of odd characters seeking the following from the Wizard of Odd: McConnell—a conscience, McCarthy—honesty, …
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