This was written and posted elsewhere by friend, fellow bassist, and all-around local legend Ron Jarvis:

"I got a letter about renewing my dog licenses. They said a new option this year was the ability to renew online. I tried that and the website didn’t work.

OMG! THE PORTAGE COUNTY DOG LICENCE SYSTEM IS A WORTHLESS PIECE OF LEGISLATION! THAT MEANS THE ENTIRE PORTAGE COUNTY GOVERNMENT SYSTEM JUST DOESN’T WORK! IT’S TIME FOR REVOLUTION IN PORTAGE COUNTY! ON TO RAVENNA!

Actually, I will probably just mail them a check like always."

Sometimes, somebody says it perfectly. Ron just did.

Pass this around - maybe he'll start blogging himself. He really should.

http://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2013/12/01/best-anti-obamacare-satire-ever/

http://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2013/11/30/small-business-saturday-much-better-than-black-friday-or-cyber-monday/

http://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2013/11/29/black-friday-shopping-reminder-f-walmart-and-the-gravy-train-they-rode-in-on/

Lots more at the link, including info on ethical retailers who are more deserving of your custom.

"No matter how big a motherf***er you are, sometimes you’ll have to pay for what you’ve done to all those mothers. Even Walmart’s CEO has to account for his abuse of that company’s “associates”. Mr. Duke was forced out after the National Labor Relations Board announced its intention to prosecute the company for crapping on its workers.

Walmart, you see, really hates the idea of unions. Or anything that might increase labor costs, like, you know, paying a living wage, providing benefits, and so on. And anytime an “associate” (which sounds a lot like “oh s***”. Coincidence? Not in this case.) objects to being treated like a toad in front of bulldozer, Walmart retaliates. Even the NLRB can’t believe the crap that Wal-Mart is pulling, so they are going after the company."

http://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2013/11/27/the-cranky-thanky-post/

"This writer is thankful to live in a nation that allows a dyspeptic, contrarian old SOB to vent his spleen via blog on an almost-daily basis.

Also for a good wife, two excellent daughters, two grand babies, dog, cat, an extended family and a s***load of friends, fellow writers, musicians and sundry acquaintances.

And finally, as someone who was once rendered homeless by a stroke and a truly evil ex, massive gratitude is hereby expressed for a warm, dry house, and plenty of food and drink.

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all in (and out of) the Cranky Nation.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky"

Nothing whatsoever else at the link. Enjoy your day, fellow DUers. I am also very thankful for all of you, and for this community.

http://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2012/11/21/the-hidden-threat-of-religious-exemptions-from-the-health-care-law/

I wrote this post over a year ago. Evidently Maddow brought the same point up recently. Sucks to have not been wrong.

Snips:

Consider a more extreme (but highly probable) scenario: the First Church of Christ, Scientist. These people do not believe in medicine: they are faith-healers. So if your employers were Christian Scientists, they could deny you any and all health care coverage. You’d get nothing. Except, perhaps, for a bunch of nimrods praying by your bedside as you died of appendicitis. This is a legal church, as legal as the Catholics, Babtists, Methodists and entitled to the same tax and legal benefits as any other religious entity.

If employers are allowed to use their personal beliefs to avoid paying for health care that they find objectionable, this writer submits that many tightwads will quickly “convert” to some sort of faith-healing sect in order to save money by denying their employees the care that that need. Soon, there would be few, if any, people covered by employer-based health care plans.

Think it couldn’t happen? Think again. In a society that rewards greed and glorifies ignorance, it is not only possible; it is predictable.

More at the link. Also, here:http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024100087

http://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2013/11/27/hobby-lobby-is-a-threat-to-your-religious-freedom-and-your-health-and-your-wallet/

Snips:

Remember Animal Farm, where everyone was equal, but some were “more equal than others”? That is what the Supreme Court is all too likely to decide. Don’t scoff, they did it before with the Citizen’s United ruling, in which they decreed that while we all have the right to freedom of speech, rich people have more free speech than do the rest of us.

We are talking about a potential assault on the very principles on which our nation was founded, and on which our Constitution was based. The idea that your boss’s religious beliefs can overrule yours is not all that different from having your government’s religious beliefs likewise trump yours. This would completely take away our constitutional freedom of religion as hitherto guaranteed under the Establishment Clause.

More at the link.

http://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2013/11/26/wingnut-republicans-want-the-president-to-be-assassinated-coincidentally/

As noted last week, the same hate speech that helped get President Kennedy killed is being used against President Obama. Of course, with the manifold new technologies that have appeared over the past fifty years, there is even more hate speech and incitement to be found these days, so we can say that the Prexy is in a whole helluva lot of danger. Coincidentally, he’s our nation’s first Black Chief Executive.

Also on the 22nd, a Birtherbot threatened to kill the President. On the anniversary of Kennedy’s killing. Coincidentally.

On the following day, treasonous, seditious, child-molesting scumbucket Larry Klayman held a rally in DC, calling overtly for the overthrow of our legitimately elected government. Covertly, he called for Obama’s assassination. Coincidentally.

On the same day as that “rally”, a “Christian militia” group declared that they have the right to kill the Prexy.. Coincidentally.

This writer is not the sharpest tool in the shed, nor is he the brightest bulb on the shelf. But it seems pretty interesting that all of these high-profile death threats against our President took place within 48 hours of the anniversary of another Presidential assassination. Coincidence, the threateners say; why, there’s no connection between between their groups, not at all, honest, pinky swear. Coincidence.

And hey, maybe that’s so. But even if these exceedingly similar death threats are not connected, it says a lot about our nation that they are happening at this time. And by an amazing coincidence, what it says is nothing good.

Links to sources at the link.

http://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2013/11/25/congressman-steve-stockman-not-just-bats-insane-hes-a-secretive-crook-too/

Short version: he has violated Federal laws and is telling reporters to pound sand. Details and source material at the link.

http://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2013/11/25/benjamin-netanyahu-cant-tell-fantasy-from-reality-ignore-him/

Just a few hours ago, Ol’ Bibi (yes, he really likes to be called that) denounced the preliminary deal with Iran. You might not see that as a problem: after all, Iran has threatened to annihilate Israel on more than one occasion. So, perhaps Bibi is not talking s***?

Nope, he’s talking s*** all right: you see, back in October, right after the talks started, Mr. Netanyahu denounced “the deal” as “a bad deal”… when there was no deal. That’s right, the Israeli Prime Minister was denouncing something that did not exist.

So why listen to him when he denounces something that does exist?

Fuckity Von Fuckington, this shit is un-fucking-believable.