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Born the son of a nightclub singer, Mikel Weisser watched anti-war hippies getting beaten on TV during the Vietnam War and decided to devote his life to protest against unreasoning authority, but not to getting beaten. Though he spent almost two years traveling the country as a hitchhiker, Weisser has gone on to receive a Masters in Literature and a Masters in Secondary Education, publish hundreds of freelance magazine and newspaper articles and political commentary columns along with 7 books of poetry and short fiction. A former homeless shelter administrator, contestant on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,and survivor of his first wife's suicide, Weisser teaches middle school US History and Constitution, is a member of the NORAZ poets and host of the Mohave Community College Documentary series, "A Liberal Education." He and his wife Beth were married at their home in So-Hi, Arizona and live with their daughter Victoria, numerous pets and have turned their property into a themepark for "peace and love and stuff." "When in AZ, visit the So-Hi Themepark!"
Wednesday, March 17, 2010 "Dear Vets," Part 6, the Wrap Up, "Survey Said..."
When I started this series I never dreamt, and the colleague who originated the survey certainly never imagined, how many people would end up having to weigh their opinions about veterans as a result of my efforts to distribute his survey.
Thursday, March 4, 2010 Dear Vets, Part 5: "Blaming Rape Victims"?
o One of the best things about writing a column like this is getting to learn how others think. I have received so many angry letters on this series. I have been challenged often and well from a variety of angles from the curt and uncensored "F__ you"s over on the Daily Kos to thousand word commentaries,
Wednesday, March 3, 2010 Dear Vets, part four: The No Thank You Letter
I have been working on this issue in public in a town so red state it was home to McViegh: Kingman, AZ. Though i have been writing political humor for 20 years i just started writing in this community last fall. Trips to the Wal-Mart aren't always a comfortable as thye used to be.
Friday, February 26, 2010 Dear Vets, part three: You Think I Got a Complex? (1 comments)
I swear i am not making this up, but today, again just prior to tonight's writing, i had another encounter with another vet.
Friday, February 26, 2010 Dear Veterans part two: The Veritable Parable
Judging by the array of responses to part one of this column, I admit I was a bit reluctant to get to part two. Which, of course, means that the terrorists won.
Friday, February 26, 2010 "Dear Veterans," a Q&A
An associate of mine recently asked me to distribute a survey for him about Veterans. Having served in the military and believing that joining the armed forces is a way that some people express their love of country, I agreed to do it, even though i myself have been a pacifist and strongly anti-military since leaving the Navy in 1981.
Friday, August 28, 2009 Current Comedy 8/24/09: Reportage from Trent Franks' Kingman Rally,
I searched for two weeks for the question, the magic question, the one to make Trent Franks break character. I tossed in bed with it in my mind till I wrote it in my journal, then made sure I arrived at the Assembly of God in Kingman, AZ on Saturday August 22nd, 2009, one hour and forty-five minutes early.
Friday, August 28, 2009 Current Comedy 8/17/09
I call a distortionist reader to the carpet.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009 Your Freedom Day Present, Reprints (1994)
Hey, summers take a lot of time away from the office and i appreciate all you guys who read this and aim to get in some new stuff soon, but not too soon. I am taking off this morning for the 38th annual Rainbow Gathering in northern New Mexico; and, boo-hoo, then must travel to Texas to deal with my late parents property. My apologies, but there won't probably even be a reprint for the next two weeks. i miss you guys and will be back in regular production by fall. In the meantime, keep laughing at the news. it's your only defense.
Friday, June 26, 2009 Rampage of Reprints Refuses to Relent
Yes ladies and gentlemen once again I have spent my week in such other endeavors, primarily painting this week, and preparing to go on a performing tour for the next three day and thus have prepared no current comedy.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009 Slacking Reprint Again: Make Immigration Legal Nov. '07 (2 comments)
Yes, still summertime slacking but the whole "why should i have to give a ____ about Sarah Palin and David Letterman in the first place?" issue should be buried, by me. Having just returned from a poetry tour and being busy preparing new books for the next one, i slipped, missed the timing, and now Dave Lindorff's nabbed the angle i was going to take this week anyway: "Criminalizing Dissent: Obama Pot Calls Iranian Kettle Black." SO, here is a piece that was so widely reprinted it ended up on the Public Enemy site. With Anderson Cooper again doing his part to demonize immigrants ("They;re growing marijuana in yyour national parks!" -6/16/09),it's good to keep perspective.
Thursday, April 30, 2009 "Manifest Destiny" a slam poem
This is a piece i perform at slams around AZ. I wrote it in honor of the host of the weekly Mill Ave. Poetry Slam, Terran Randolph, AKA Manifest Destiny.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 Archive: "STORIES OF THE TV GENERATION #8 Jan. 1991: I GO TO WAR"
4/22/09: This week's piece, "A New Hussein" references one of my earliest pieces, the eighth, written in January of 1991, during the Gulf War. Here is that piece in its entirety. Note the original name for the column which would change to "News of the TV Generations," or NOVGEN. It ran in Springfield IL as a monthly column from 1990 til 1997.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009 Current Comedy 4/6/09: God Is Dead (4 comments)
Based on this last week's news cycle, we have conclusive evidence that god, at least as far as we Americans have dreamed up our own personal plastic Jesus on the dashboard kind of god we've been so manifestly destined to force on the world, that god has now died of elder abuse.
Monday, February 2, 2009 Artifact: Which Groundhog Will You Worship? (Dec, 1993)
This week's piece ties to the great holiday Groundhog Day. Fifteen years ago i wrote this piece about winter holidays in general, and about belief, NAFTA, and poetry as prose. It was published by the gret Anthony Moyers' underground 'zine, Unlimited Possibilities.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008 11 Laugh Lines Learned in the Latest Election
Will the tacitly accepted branding of the centrist Barack Obama as a liberal lead to a new rightward shift in the "Stereotype" of liberalism like Clinton's election did? It could be a way to right shift what the left looks like.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008 Reprint of 1992's "Making a Clinton a Carter"
Noting the similarities between Obama as the candidate of change in the tradition of Dems who either sold out or failed.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008 Diary Note: 9/22/08
My column in Bullhead City's Mohave Valley Daily News has been cut.
Saturday, August 16, 2008 Archive Artifact #3: The Nixon Option (Jan. 2005)
Chances are Bush has already committed enough high crimes and misdemeanors to be put away for life. Unfortunately we've yet to locate a Woodward and Bernstein to turn the tide of public opinion.
Saturday, August 9, 2008 Archive Artifact #2: Is Bush Actually the Devil Himself? 2002-2007 (6 comments)
Reasonably respectable news sources combine to suggest the possibility that the Bush administration is involved in something far more evil than anything Clinton could've possibly construed with a cigar. Maybe, he is Satan.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008 Rambling Introduction to Upcoming Impeachment Column
Finding One's Job imperiled at a time of political activism makes one wonder is it worth it? Autobiographical background chatter excised from the latest political commentary piece.
Saturday, August 2, 2008 Archive Artifact: My Earliest Anti-Bush Column July 27, 2000 (2 comments)
The author reprints his earliest anti-Bush political column from July of 2000, 8 years ago this week, and recounts the brutal treatment he received while attempting to stage a counter-protest at a pro-Bush rally.
Saturday, July 26, 2008 CURRENT COMEDY: The Not Really Transcripts of the Not Really Hearings (2 comments)
What follows is an attempt keep up live with the pace of the action over the nearly six hour hearing. I am not a stenographer and so many of the issues discussed required a certain amount of background info to contextualize that the quotes are few and the summaries many. However since the chances are good mainstream media may never present much coverage of this hearing historic hearing, here's my best shot:
