Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Jem Finch, a young boy, is shocked when, in the face of overwhelming evidence proving his innocence, a white jury convicts a Black man of raping a white woman. It seems, however, as if nearly everyone else in the novel (with …
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Divine Intervention
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter During the Spike Lee movie Jungle Fever, the character Gator is so badly addicted to crack that he breaks into and robs his parents’ apartment. For his father, it is the last straw in a prolonged and agonizing struggle to wrest his son’s soul from the clutches of crack …
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MAGA Land
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoffrey Carter American culture has entered what might be called a fractured state, divided along splintered planes of competing realities. A majority of us are still living in the real world, but a substantial portion of our population is living in a carefully manipulated alternative existence—a sort of ideological twilight …
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The Politics of Paranoia
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoffrey Carter We’ve reached a strange crossroads in the American experience. Homegrown terrorists threatened to violently disrupt a presidential inauguration. As a result, over 25,000 National Guardsmen were stationed at the Capitol Building. The FBI is investigating possible collaboration between members of Congress and violent factions of the far-right, allegations …
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Falling Star
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoffrey Carter During the past few weeks, I’ve heard more than a few people say that Christmas just doesn’t feel right this year. I think I know what they mean. My family and I have followed all our usual traditions—hanging the lights, trimming the tree, baking the cookies, and wrapping …
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Kickass and Margaret’s War
By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, notes that Mondays can be problematic, particularly this one that has everyone waiting—for the vaccine, for crucial stimulus help and for the narcissistic king to get the hell out of the White House. With this in mind, Kickass stands aside today as the keeper announces that those who …
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Conditional Love
By Geoffrey Carter Artwork by Michael DiMilo It’s almost over. We’re just waiting for Donald Trump to be done with his tantrum. I’m sure he’ll file a couple more lawsuits, but that’s just posturing. He lost the election. Despite his promise that “you’ll have to drag me kicking and screaming” from the White House which—hopefully—won’t …
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Kickass Climbs a Mountain
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that on that beautiful Saturday when the world celebrated freedom from the clutches of sadistic narcissism, the keeper and Phyllis escaped the confines of their coronavirus exposed-facility and more or less climbed a mountain. The “mountain” was an old one—at least 500 million …
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Bottom of the Basket
By Geoff Carter Artwork by Michael DiMilo As future generations look back on this period in our history twenty or thirty years from now, I’m sure they’ll be scratching their heads and wondering what the hell happened. In four short years, we’ve gone from world leader to global laughingstock. We’ve watched over two hundred thousand …
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The Worst of Times
By Geoffrey Carter Artwork by Michael DiMilo 2020 began badly—and quickly worsened. In early January, devastating brushfires in Australia ended up killing wild animals by the billions and destroying millions of acres of land and property. About a week later, scientists first detected the coronavirus in Wuhan. It swept across China, Europe, and began its …
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Kickass and the Third Insect
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper hesitates to repost a photo, but after several sharp-eyed viewers—Jan and Gene among them, pointed out the presence of a third insect in the keeper’s butterfly-wasp photo, and Gina claimed to have photographed an invisible wasp, it was obvious that …
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Kickass and Butterfly Wasp Photo
By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, often called upon to console the keeper over his shortcomings, steps up now to moderate his—the keeper’s excesses in claiming a camera coup in the area of nature photography. Having long been intimidated by photo friends who consistently produce sensational shots of scenes and sunsets and wild critters …
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