From a TikTok star hitting a golf ball into Grand Canyon, to Ohioan Alan Shepard golfing on the moon, we bring it all home to Common Sense Ohio.

Kristina Johnson resigns from THE Ohio State University - what is all the secrecy about?

The U.S. Senate passes the Respect for Marriage Act - maybe it's time to get the government out of marriages?

Is the government turning into the "thought police" with Twitter?

Deer hunting is full-on. Keep an eye out for the orange army, and please be safe.

Ohio Supreme Court changes with Kennedy in and O'Connor out.

Ohio needs to eliminate our income tax. We lived without it for 175 years.

A look at the Rhoden family case decision in Pike County, with more to come in 2023. Here's what we talked about on Lawyer Talk in 2018.

Kroger, kiosks, and sports betting begin January 1, 2023.

Singles want partners who vote.

And Steve gives us a Christmas fact of the week, the story behind Irving Berlin's White Christmas and Bing Crosby.

Stephen Palmer is the Managing Partner for the law firm, Palmer Legal Defense. He has specialized almost exclusively in criminal defense for over 26 years. Steve is also a partner in Criminal Defense Consultants, a firm focused wholly on helping criminal defense attorneys design winning strategies for their clients.

Norm Murdock is an automobile racing driver and owner of a high-performance and restoration car parts company. He earned undergraduate degrees in literature and journalism and graduated with a Juris Doctor from the University of Cincinnati College of Law in 1985. He worked in the IT industry for two years before launching a career in government relations in Columbus, Ohio. Norm has assisted clients in the Transportation, Education, Healthcare, and Public Infrastructure sectors.

Brett Johnson is an award-winning podcast consultant and small business owner for nearly 10 years, leaving a long career in radio. He is passionate about helping small businesses tell their story through podcasts, and he believes podcasting is a great opportunity for different voices to speak and be heard.

Copyright 2024 Common Sense Ohio

Recorded at the 511 Studios, in the Brewery District in downtown Columbus, OH.

Steve: December 2. Christmas right around the corner. Yeah, everybody did all their Christmas shopping on Black Friday. And Cyber whatever it is Monday, it's like Black every week, all day long. There's sales for the entire month of November this year. And then, uh, Cyber Monday, I mean, it's still going going on. I still get my ads on Facebook and wherever. But you won't see ads yet on Common Sense Ohio. Although, uh, we do have some people knocking on our doors. So would you like to be a sponsor on Common Sense Ohio? Here? Right at 511, channel five. One one. Just, uh, reach out. Um, we actually have a website, commonsenseohioshow.com. Commonsenseohioshow.com? What is Commonsense Ohio? Well, that's Norm, Brett, and me talking about no, Norm, Brett, and I talking about issues relative to Ohio as a launching pad for issues relative to the country, as a launching pad for issues relative to the world, relative to wherever you're listening, trust me, you don't want to miss this. It's all common sense. And, uh, you're going to say you're just a bunch of political block? No, uh, we try to look at things carefully, uh, honestly and with a full dose of common sense in a world that seems to have been turned upside down. So without further ado, off we go.

Norm: Well, uh, and since it's Cyber December, it's 50% off on following Common Sense Ohio because 50% off of $0 means.

Brett: We owe them.

Norm: Zero.

Steve: But, uh, no truthfully. Uh, we got some folks that we're talking to about sponsoring segments of the show and there's going to be more of that getting offered. So, uh, this is your chance to get in at the ground level and get a good price for sponsorships.

Norm: Brett is really irritated about something before we get into some Ohio cases.

Brett: So recently, a TikTok star I think I've got her name, but I'm not going to say it doesn't really matter. Hit, uh, a golf ball into the Grand Canyon videoed. It, recorded it. So it's where her 10 million Zillion followers can have a good laugh, but she caught shit for it. They had like 900 comments saying, what the hell are you doing? Yeah, so, um, somebody saw it, put it into the Grand Canyon police and she ends up being charged with three misdemeanors, three federal violations. Class bead misdemeanors, which to me doesn't mean anything. But you know, the level of what problem that would be it's for tossing items into the Grand Canyon.

Steve: That's a crime.

Norm: It is.

Steve: So it's like somebody decided we're going to make it a crime to toss items in it. Like not just some other canyon, not all canyon, Grand Canyon, but the Grand Canyon.

Brett: Two is littering, and three, creating hazardous conditions with disorderly conduct. Okay, so she was cited for two of before I start, though, she takes the video down. Okay, so she's covering her tracks. She was cited for two of the three, which I think it was creating hazardous conditions with disorderly contact and tossing items in the Grand Canyon, not littering.

Steve: Okay, whatever.

Brett: So that carried a maximum fine of $5,000 and six months in prison. She was ordered to pay $285. She paid it in two checks, uh, uh, for some reason. And her case was resolved through a collateral forfeiture agreement. No convictions on a record.

Steve: Yeah. All right.

Norm: Okay, man, calm down.

Steve: I can see the eyes.

Brett: We have no teeth to do anything to protect our beautiful land.

Steve: People who burned down cities.

Brett: That's true. Okay?

Steve: They didn't get prosecuted. That's only half expected. But we will prosecute. Like, if it were, uh, a task force ten pound marijuana case, they'd be all over. Look, I'm representing folks in federal court right now that, uh, just make your eyes roll. And, uh, they're coming at them with guns blazing. I'm just like, this is lunacy. Look, I represent people who deserve to be prosecuted. I also represent people who could be prosecuted. But sort of ticky tack, I guess.

Brett: I'm looking at this as a common sense point of view. So Norman, I could go through frickin baseball. No, we're going to get fined.

Norm: First of all, the golfing crime of the millennia has to be Alan Shepherd on the moon, hitting a couple of golf balls on the moon. Right. NASA had no idea that he put these in his pocket, flew them to the moon, and, you know, Alan Shepard was the first American astronaut in space. It wasn't John Glenn. John Glenn was the first American to orbit the Earth. Alan Shepard was our first astronaut. Okay? If you recall. So he went on an Apollo mission with an extendable golf club, kind of like a Popeal Pocket Fisherman style, and a couple golf balls. Okay? So in terms of golf ball pollution, I think that stands as probably the worst crime of the century in that category. And if we're gonna punish this TikTok person who's on a, uh, Chinese communist, uh, platform, I'm all good with that. But then we need to dig up the bones of Alan Shepard and we need to prosecute him too, for, uh, international, uh, pollution crimes. The boon is not a national park, okay?

Brett: Actually, it is a rural park.

Brett: I got you. Okay. Sounds good.

Norm: Thanks, Dexter. We have a dog in the studio.

Steve: Yeah. Dexter. This makes no common sense, but I.

Norm: Will say, Brett, if we're going to apply the law to one person, it should be applied to everybody.

Brett: I will say it just kind of burns me I got you. That we're doing this to our, uh, protected lands, and it's just a fine.

Steve: All right, so here's how you have to analyze this. First of all, there are lots and lots of crimes that we all commit every day that don't get prosecuted. One, because we don't get caught. And even if we do get caught, the police will say, yeah, all right, you learned your lesson, young man.

Norm: Well, maybe you do. I'm completely innocent.

Steve: Um, here's the analysis. The issue is, uh, what are the purposes of sentencing a criminal prosecution in federal court? If you look at 18 USC. 35 53, there's some factors. And among the factors are the need to protect the public from future harm. In other words, is this girl going to do this again and cause harm to the future? How do we deter others from committing the same act? And then the person's character, uh, their motivations and just sort of individual circumstances. And then what you have going on here was some prosecutorial discretion where the prosecutors were trying to determine how to handle this. And the problem with this is, I think what you're saying is, how do we deter others from doing this? If this girl can get away with whacking a golf ball into the Grand Canyon right. How do we deter others? Well, you might think, actually, that if I had that in my head that I'm going to go start knocking balls into the Grand Canyon before, I'm probably not going to do it now, because I realized that, uh, this girl got lots of attention, had lots of problems. And if you think that getting investigated and prosecuted, even with this outcome, is an easy thing to go through in federal court, it is not. And, uh, she probably hopefully so they.

Brett: Made it painful for her for the whole process. Well, I'd like to which it didn't say it did. So we don't know.

Steve: All right. Well, enough of the girls. So I guess the bottom line is, I think hopefully I would like to think that that's enough deterrent. So other Ticktockers on the chinese communist platform that they're using to spy on our country, uh, liberally, without any sort of restaurant. Although maybe there is some restraint now.

Norm: Well, you know, Joe's in, uh, Xi Jinping's, uh, uh, back pocket. So, hey, listen, what I'd really like to put into Grand Canyon well, there are several things, but I would like to, uh, start up a couple of BMWs and just, you know, or, hey, man, a, uh, Honda Odyssey and just put a brick on the throttle and watch that sucker go right over the edge, man, that would be badass.

Steve: Well, let me just add one thing.

Norm: Grew golf ball.

Steve: And then we'll move on. Because, Norm, you would say, what the heck does a Grand Canyon have anything to do with Ohio? Well, Norm did it for us because through several degrees of separation, he took your golf ball. Grand Canyon story to the moon with Al Shepard. And everybody knows that Ohio is the home of Neil Armstrong, John Glenn, and lots of pioneer space travelers. So here we are right back in Ohio.

Brett: Always bring it back to Ohio.

Norm: Bring it back to Orville and Wilbur, for God's sake, if we're going to get into aviation. Uh, so Curtis Lame from right around here, uh, uh, the guy who, uh, oversaw the dropping of the atomic bombs, uh, over Japan.

Steve: Uh, yeah, totally.

Norm: Paul Tibbets. Tibbets was from Columbus and ran, um, uh, the aviation, the private aviation company out at Port Columbus. So, yeah, Columbus has a lot of, uh, uh, aerospace, uh, pioneers.

Steve: We've passed common sense. Let's keep going.

Steve: Trustees oh, I smell something.

Norm: Right, uh, very fishy.

Steve: The board passed a common sense no.

Norm: According to the Columbus Disgrace, uh, Dispatch, they, uh, reported that the board of trustees asked for her resignation. Uh, she has not said that in her comments, and Ohio State hasn't said that. But somehow the Dispatch, um, they must have confirmed it, or at least they're alleging that in their reporting. Weirdly. This is a little weird. And frankly, this bothers me. When a hetero person resigns, I think this is always weird. In a resignation statement, she claims she talks about her administration as being her and her wife or partner. I don't know if they're married. Um, but, uh, she talks about them as an entity, as the administration that they accomplished together many things at Ohio State and always bother I don't care if Gordon Gee said that about his wife when he left. I just think it's weird we didn't hire your husband or your wife or whoever. We hired you. That always bothers me. So anyway, I'll wrap this up, guys, and you guys jump in. But this is a public official working for a public organization with public dollars. And I agree with the Ohio State University Lantern, the student run paper there, uh, which came out with an editorial that there needs to be transparency here. In view of the fact that this is all public money, in view of the fact that when other presidents and other coaches, whether it's Urban Meyer, Jim Trestle, but any high profile person at high estate's leaves. We generally know granular detail. We all know shit about this.

Steve: Well, high profile, low profile. It's our tax dollars. And this is what people don't always understand. This is a government run, under university. Uh, we own it. We own it like our tax dollars.

Brett: Pay for the university gave them the land.

Steve: Yes, they operate at our leisure, at our discretion. And I couldn't agree more with the Lantern here, is that I want to know. In fact, maybe we need to do a common sense ohio Public records request on this. And I'll take it all the way to the highest court, which we're going to talk about shortly. But, um, uh, we should have full access to what this individual made, what the structure was, what she, uh, did to, um, warrant a resignation. If there's emails, I want them. If there's texts, I want them. If there's nothing private about what you do when you're in the public eye, there is nothing private about what you do. This is not a top security or top, uh, security position.

Norm: Uh, she's a fundraiser.

Brett: That's what she is, right?

Steve: She's a figurehead fundraiser. Meaning how much, Norm?

Norm: 1 million a year.

Steve: 1 million a year.

Norm: She got a raise from, uh, Drake. They're paying her more. She came over from the Obama administration in the New York State of State colleges. She was the head of New York State's college system, and they recruited her from there prior to that, she was Obama's, one of the undersecretaries of the Department of Energy, uh, in the Obama administration. And apparently she's an entrepreneur, she's an engineer. Uh, she very accomplished, you know, and I'm not saying a thing bad about her at all.

Steve: She just got a better offer.

Norm: Who knows?

Brett: The only thing I read was that, uh, she was head to head with a couple of board members.

Norm: Yeah.

Brett: And she, uh, was, I guess, the blame of a few key people that resigned from Ohio State, that they must have been beloved. I don't know who.

Norm: The negatives that the Dispatch reported in Axios and some of the other news organizations, which you can find all this online, uh, is that she was behind the firing or severance of, as you say, Brett, a couple of senior OSU officials. I don't know anything about that or who they were.

Steve: I guarantee it has something to do with a disagreement about some sort of woke policy. That's my prediction.

Norm: And also her staff, according to the Columbus Dispatch, her staff expressed, quote, concerns unquote to the investigative firm that was doing the, uh, performance review. Uh, so that's it. That's all we know, and we don't really know that officially, that's all behind the scenes jibber jabber that the Dispatch picked up.

Steve: Look, I'm not saying I don't even know what this woman looks like. I don't know if it's an affirmative action hire, whatever it is, but it's a political position in a lot of ways. Oh, sure, they hire people that are going to be figureheads for the agenda. And, uh, my guess is the agenda is either unpopular or they hired somebody who maybe not was qualified to do the job. Because, look, we can say it's a figurehead job, it is this or it is that. But as I've often said, those who think that they can go run a large corporation, an international company, which is essentially what Ohio State is. Now, um, all I do is ask you to go try. Because if you think you can do it, be, uh, careful, because those aren't easy jobs to do. You have a lot of people to manage. It takes a skill set, it takes a time commitment, and it takes a certain personality trait to be able to do it. And, uh, if this person maybe wasn't qualified to do those things and was hired for other reasons, like Obama support or some political reason, then maybe they just put her in there and she couldn't get the job done. She, uh, wasn't, uh, keeping the peace. She wasn't moving things forward the way people want.

Brett: Well, it seems to be something to that point. Like you said, she resigned prior to a performance review. Something's going on with that, then we'll let you resign before we do, which is fine. And if she wasn't doing the job, then that was the proper choice, quite frankly.

Norm: Yeah. So we'll obviously fill in the blanks as the show gets to know more information if it ever comes out. It's funny to speculate on who they might bring in. Jim Tressel's, the head of, uh, what's it called? Uh, youngstown state. Um, bring in Jim Haha, huh? Uh, bring in Gordon Gee for the third time. Please, God, no. Please. I mean, just the bow tie is enough right here. But, um, anyway, so, uh, they're going to do a big search and blah, blah. Uh, they're going to try to figure out who, uh, they're going to hire, and some consulting firms going to make a ton of money on that deal. Um, uh, I don't want to say anything bad about it because I don't know anything. I don't want to say anything positive or negative, other than why don't we know?

Steve: Here's the problem I don't know. It's hard not to because there's a lack of transparency.

Norm: Yeah, she could clear it up. Why doesn't she say something?

Steve: It's like the Warren Commission and the Kennedy assassination. The secrecy itself garners the skeptical, uh, negativity. Uh, but she could be under a.

Brett: Gag order, too, that she was given the option. Resign, but she got to shut up.

Steve: There is no such thing in a public sector like that.

Brett: I wouldn't think so, though. Right. But the agreements that shouldn't have been.

Norm: Made we do have a Sunshine Law in Ohio. Uh, but anyway, um okay, guys, next thing. So, uh, this week, the, uh, US. Senate approved the Respect for Mary Jack, which is kind of a smart ass appellation name. Uh, it's the same orwellian crap. It's a disrespect for it.

Steve: They're called I don't care what political agenda you're behind. It's always the opposite.

Norm: So the idea of this action infrastructure.

Steve: Bill, my ass, none of that. Somebody was getting fixed because of that boondogg.

Norm: The idea of this act is to put into federal law the Obergefell, uh, case and to jam it down to religious organizations or people that just have religious beliefs, want to run their company according to their First Amendment tenants, um, cake decorators or whoever. They just don't want to have to call Ala Jordan Peterson and other the professor down at, uh, Ohio University, uh, down in Athens. They don't want to have to be compelled to call an elephant a giraffe, or to call somebody's gay partner or spouse. Uh, they don't want to have to necessarily hire, uh, that person or put that person in a position, uh, where they supervise children, uh, or be forced to recognize, uh, that as a legitimate marriage in their heart, in their mind, uh, in their speech. Um, uh, Rob Portman, who allegedly is a Republican, who allegedly is family friendly, voted for this. His son is gay. I'm not outing his son. It's, uh, well known, and it's in the media. And Senator, uh, Portman has acknowledged that. And I'm in no way against gay unions. Many gay friends, many lesbian friends that are married. Uh, I've sent wedding gifts. Uh I love them. I love all people. But to force somebody to call somebody's lesbian spouse, their wife or their spouse, or to have to recognize that at a religious level, that's what this act does. So what it is setting up. So Cruz, Mike Lee, other senators tried to get, uh, some language inserted into the bill. They were unsuccessful, and Portman did not back them up. That would, uh, relieve any sort of federal prosecution of organizations that don't want to recognize gay marriage. And they were unsuccessful. So now you're going to look at the little sisters of the poor. You're going to look at the, you know, the guy that maybe that used to own, uh, the chain of stores. I don't know. He had his own case. He just sold the company. There's a number of people that have the cake decorators, et cetera. Uh, so they're going to start coming after those people with violations of federal law, uh, using this respect, uh, for Mary Jacked bill.

Steve: Yeah, it's a bunch of nonsense. Respect for m its respect for what they want. It's commanding, demanding, and punishing those who don't agree with them.

Norm: It's cultural warfare. The conservatives haven't passed a bill that said, uh, you can only say that a man and a woman are married. And if you don't say that, we are going to come after you for some violation. It's a crime. But they're going to do that in reverse to other people who feel differently. And that's completely bullshit.

Brett: The economics will take care of it, if you think about it. So let's say we have, uh, a group of podcasters just for the sake of bringing it to Channel Five one one. They're looking for studio space, and it's all about the gay life, the podcast. That's what it's about. And they can't find a studio to save them, by the way.

Steve: Open ours.

Brett: Exactly. But we're open to do it because they told us that story that's like, we can't find a place because we're getting knocked down because it's about our issues, about gays. Like, here's the studio, the market fixes it. The market fixes this.

Steve: We don't need the government to fix that problem. All we need them to do is get off our back so we can fix it.

Norm: Well, let's go back to the Norm Rand Paul solution, which is get government the hell out of marriage.

Steve: Yes.

Norm: No more marriage licenses. We don't need any of it. It's all crap.

Steve: Well, here's the argument.

Norm: It all should just be a religious ceremony. Uh, you can be a witch doctor, you can be an atheist, you can be a Catholic, you can be a Presbyterian, I don't care. Have your little ceremony, throw the rice up in the air, wear anything you want, spray blood or all over yourself if you're a voodoo doctor, I don't care. Do whatever you want? Why is the government in the business of recognizing or not recognizing this marriage or that marriage? Uh, it's all crap.

Steve: Why do I have to spend money to get married?

Norm: Exactly.

Steve: Give the government money to get there.

Brett: Therein lies the answer.

Norm: Therein lies.

Steve: I think the government ought to be, out of all marriages, man, man, woman, woman, woman, man, woman, man, woman, whatever. Like, whatever it is, whatever.

Norm: Why don't we go back to and, uh, I think Clarence Thomas, in his language on the Dobbs case, sort of indicated this is a state issue. It's a state issue. And in this state in Ohio, up until several years ago, we used to have common law marriage. You didn't go to the courthouse and pay diddly squat. All you had to do was cohabitate for seven years, I think it was, and hold out to the community that Sally over here is my wife, and Sally says, uh, Norman is my husband. And if you hold yourself out as a married couple and you cohabitate continuously for I think it was seven years, but a bing, the courts would recognize that as a marriage. It was as legitimate a marriage as if you went down to the Franklin County Courthouse and paid your stupid little fee. So I think the pioneers had it right. Just let people do whatever the hell they want, and if they want to say they're married, fine, they're married. That's it.

Steve: Well, at the end of the day, uh, the lesson to be learned is look at the names of these bills. And it's almost always the opposite of what they say they are. It's almost always the case.

Norm: You're right.

Steve: And if the government, if anybody lesson number two is probably lesson lesson number two is if you think the government's going to fix something like this, you are insane. It is utter insanity that's what are they going to do, create a bureaucracy to deal with, uh, marriage issues? That's exactly what's coming. And we're going to spend millions of other dollars, like Biden is right now at the White House on this state dinner that he's planning. It's going to cost us, what, like a million dollars?

Brett: Yeah.

Norm: Well, I mean, if you look at the government, the federal government, the White House's obsession with Twitter right now, it's pretty obvious based on what Elon Musk is releasing over time as he's digging through the archives there and coming up with their trust and safety notes and committee emails and all that crap. It is coming out now that the government is deeply, deeply interested in what people think. Not what people do, but what people think, what their attitudes are. And the government wants to condition that in certain thoughts about COVID or certain thoughts about, uh, the climate change or whatever the topic is about gay marriage here we are talking about this, that certain precepts are just going to be we need to smash that we need to censor it. We need to take it out of the social conversation and off the public square. And this is amazing to me how our First Amendment rights to I mean, what could be more central than your religious beliefs? And here's the Senate telling people what to think in terms of deeply held religious beliefs. The government seems obsessed with what people.

Steve: Think, uh, and changing what people think.

Norm: And changing what it is.

Steve: None of the government's thought this is the thought police. This is dangerous, dangerous stuff.

Norm: I'm not a hater. I love everybody. But it is legal to hate. This is what bothers me. It's totally legal.

Steve: I can hate you if you're not gay.

Norm: It's not a crime.

Steve: Woman or a man. Or I can hate you because I don't like your hairstyle.

Norm: So now it's wrong. We all know it's wrong to hate people like that, but it's legal to hate people. There are things that are morally wrong. Maybe, I think, some kind of relationship, um, or something. Maybe it's not morally right, in my view, but I don't have the right to stop somebody else from thinking the opposite of me.

Steve: Well, you know what? As we enter the Christmas holiday, maybe.

Norm: You would ask, what is happening for America?

Steve: What is going on here? Because the government's job is not to dictate our morals.

Norm: That's right.

Steve: Never has been, never has the founders understood this, that if you try to do that, it is an impossible chore that ends in disaster, like, unmitigated country, fall apart disaster. We, uh, get our morals from God, if that's what you believe in. Well, Steve, from your internal compass, Steve.

Norm: Wasn'T that the entire point of us not being a religious state? That's the entire point of the First Amendment, is that we don't have a particular the government doesn't have a particular church. Unlike Germany, which, uh, has an official church. England has an official church. Iran has an official church, right? Saudi Arabia has an official church.

Steve: If you're not part of it, you go to jail, right?

Norm: And those churches, the imams or the Archbishop of Canterbury or whatever, so you go through history, and you can see where they issued missives and they put people to death.

Steve: If they disobey me of this meddlesome.

Brett: Priest, there was an official church status a few thousand years ago. That was when somebody came down and basically said, no, we don't do that here.

Norm: What the progressives and the liberals are doing, in effect, is creating a secular humanist, secular church, where there's this set of beliefs, and the government is going to police Twitter, police Facebook, police Google, which, of course, some of those are self policing. And the government. This is what Elon is going to reveal, and he has revealed some of it. Where these committees, these groups, these various social platforms have been coordinated and colluded with the White House to tamp down or to deplatform. People who have politically incorrect views, which means they're creating a church. We are creating a religious.

Steve: I mean, look, this is not new. Uh, this is marks up and down, right and left. You got to get rid of the religious and replace that. So you can just take total control of the useful idiots.

Norm: The state is the religion.

Steve: Yeah, the state becomes the religion.

Norm: And Hitler had the same idea, the exact same idea.

Steve: Got to get rid of the religion. And, uh, that's absolutely necessary if the government is going to cram down morals because it can't compete with people's, uh, devout religious beliefs. So anyway, let's shift gears on I got to talk about, uh, the Orange Army. It's out. I'm not talking about Clemson, talking about the deer hunters.

Norm: You might be going there talking about the deer hunters.

Steve: Uh, it is, uh, deer season. Mean gun season. It's been deer season for a long time because I think it comes in around end of September, uh, maybe early September for uh, archery. But we've got to respect, uh, those out there in Orange folks. Uh, I am one of them. Uh, I only hunt on private land now, but, uh, there's a lot of folks on public land. I encourage everybody to be safe. And, uh, I was down in Hawkin County hunting Hawking County, Ohio, which is uh, a gorgeous part of the state. It's become quite, um, chic, ah, to go there and vacation and get your weekend cabin rentals and old man's cave. And if you haven't been to Hawking Hills area of Ohio, please come and visit. It's gorgeous. Uh, but I just want to tip my hat to some of the local establishments and I mean local mom and pop places who went out of their way to take care of the hunters. I walked in, they've got lunch made at a very reasonable price. They hand you a box lunch of noodles and potatoes and the kind of stuff I shouldn't eat. But you do because you're hunting. And uh, everybody I ran into was just overtly friendly, overtly courteous, and more than happy, uh, to encourage, uh, us to be there and uh, have a good time.

Norm: Uh, well, gee, Steve, you walk in their businesses holding a shotgun, surprise that they're polite to you.

Steve: Guess what? Nobody got hurt. Nobody was shot. I didn't do that, by the way. And I don't know what they would say if I did it, but they probably wouldn't care. Uh, no, they were shot so they wouldn't get a shotgun in everybody's, uh, truck down there.

Norm: Sure.

Steve: And guess what? There's no crime and violence.

Brett: Yeah. And you saying that it's really encouraging when you find that group that you just know that's good, supportive. They just love being and doing what they are doing. You walked into, uh, you've been through with hunting. I have found it through just owning a jeep and just a jeep wave it's just that commonality when you can find something like that. It just makes your day.

Norm: Made in Toledo.

Brett: Yeah, it makes your day when you just wave and they wave back and you know that hunters got your back.

Steve: It's asshole. Of course, everybody's got this sort of common idea of what, uh, respect and some commonality to it, I guess is the best way to put it.

Norm: But, uh, an armed society is a polite society.

Brett: And you've got it with racing norm.

Norm: Sure.

Brett: That's your group.

Norm: And unlike hunters, racers will pay. Man, we will put a fender on you, man.

Steve: You try to hunt where somebody else is and see how that goes.

Norm: Yeah, there are rules with every group, though.

Brett: Every dog pack has their rules.

Norm: And it's not always polite.

Steve: Right now you're right.

Norm: The other thing and listen, hey, I'm a firm believer in the Second Amendment. I target, you know, I can defend myself. But, uh, this is not a negative. I live in Lincoln County, is the largest land mass county in Ohio, and I think we're the second largest deer take every year in Ohio for any county, largely because it's a huge county. And until intel comes in and ruins everything, it's pretty much rural. At any rate, please, hunters, have a good time. Do not get inebriated and do not, as happened in Johnstown one year, do not shoot at farmers, OK? On their tractor. Those are not dear. You may see a guy in a brown coat right on top of a green tractor, m bimbling by out there.

Steve: In the field somewhere making noise.

Norm: Making noise. Right. Don't draw a bead on that guy. That is a human on a tractor. Um, so just saying. Uh, and also, do not go over a fence. Put your gun over on the other side of the fence and then climb over and retrieve your gun by the muzzle because they do go off if the trigger gets snagged on a little thorn bush or something. So that's very idiotic. Keep your safety on. Use your brain. Um, because I want you to have a good time and bring that deer meat home.

Steve: Yeah, fill up your freezers.

Brett: That's right, exactly.

Norm: Give it to the homeless. Give it to a food shelter. Like, if you don't want that deer, don't leave it out there. Be a good steward. Get that meat, get it to some kind of a food bank. Uh, sometimes, uh, they're processors. Uh, and I don't know them off the top of my head, but there are processors. If you're donating a deer that will oftentimes, I'm told, do that at no charge or for minimal charge in order for it to go to a charity.

Steve: Yeah, I don't know those.

Norm: So Steve would know better than me.

Steve: But you're my own. But I don't know.

Norm: But that's a thing. That's a thing. I know some hunters do give, uh, their meat, uh, to, uh, charity which is a great thing.

Steve: Yeah. So enjoy the sport of it. Enjoy the camaraderie of it. Make it safe, as I think that's the lesson or is. And then if you can get back, get back. I mean, I think, uh, there's something very, um, satisfying about being able to go into the woods, uh, hunt, and we'll call it harvest, but really, we're saying kill your food and process it and eat yourself. Uh, try to do that, uh, at least once in your life. It may change your perspective on the world a little bit if it did mine.

Norm: Yes. Hamburgers don't come out of, like, a slot in the wall at Walmart. That is me that was on a hoof. And hunting kind of takes you back to the reality of where we get our sustenance Supreme Court changes. Yeah. Uh, so, Sharon, uh, Kennedy won the, uh, contest to become the new chief, uh, justice at the Ohio Supreme Court. Uh, she was elected. She's pro Second Amendment. I think I mentioned in a previous podcast that she was campaigning at the Ohio Gun Collectors Association. Um, meet, um, uh, bimonthly. Meet, um, and, uh, I spoke with her. Incredible, um, person. She is a former street cop from Hamilton, Ohio. Went and got her law degree, practiced law. Uh, worked, uh, I think for the Attorney general in Ohio. She worked as a prosecutor for a while. Um, and, uh, eventually, um, became a judge and ran for chief justice and won, uh, on her way out. And don't let the door hit you in the ass. Maureen is supreme, uh, Court Justice Marin O'Connor, who totally screwed up redistricting in Ohio, as Frank LaRose on this very program detailed for our listeners, um, allegedly a Republican who must not understand that when you're in the majority, that's one of the perks. Like Obama said to John McCain, elections have consequences. Hey, Mo. Right. Mo. You needed to let redistricting happen, okay? Because that's fair. That's what's been going on since, you know, who was a Boy Scout. And we lost a Republican congressman, uh, to the progressive side down in Cincinnati. A rock rib conservative, Steve Shabbott, was redistricted out of his district and will no longer hold congressional, uh, district number two in, uh, the Cincinnati, um, area, uh, any longer, because I think they redistricted. They did three or four plans until finally one was sort of ordered to be, um, put in place. And, uh, all of this was to appease Marin O'Connor. So she is gone, and I do not know what her fixation or problem was, but she definitely had one. And I don't think she understands that redistricting is part of the spoils of political warfare. You get to do it if you win, and you get to have that.

Brett: It looks like, outside looking in. She was just trying to make a point because she knew she was going to leave anyway.

Norm: Yes.

Brett: Right. It's that short term, I guess. Okay. I know I'm walking out. I just want to make a point. Well, she came key pushing that redistricting. She was jeopardizing, uh, the election date.

Norm: Yeah, the election itself.

Brett: And I applaud her, uh, stick to the sheep was trying to make a point. But you can't jeopardize an election just to make a point.

Norm: Right? I agree with everything you said. This is the idea that there is some kind of perfect solution to everything. Well, no, there isn't perfection and there isn't complete fairness in the world. And when more people vote one way, then the other way, guess what? The majority gets to decide a few things. That's one of the perks of having a majority is getting to dominate having one more vote than the other side on redistricting.

Brett: Is a redistricting, uh, situation in Ohio thing, or is it going state to state? I've not paid attention. I don't know.

Norm: No, each state gets to do its own redistricting plan. It's not a federal thing, okay? It's a term as federal offices, like the US. Congress districts, they're drawn. But it's a state operation, just like the US. Constitution reserves to the states the, uh, right to run elections state by state. And that's why you have, like, Alaska, uh, having the top two vote getters in the primary run against each other. And in this year, it was two Republicans were the top vote getters. It was Murkowski, uh, against the other person, the other Republican. And, uh, you know, and in California, they have their own runoff system. Georgia has a runoff system, ohio does not. So each state gets to set up its format. And redistricting is part of that gotcha.

Brett: I guess I have it well. And again, don't pay attention to Indiana news or Michigan news if redistricting is such a problem there as well, too. I'm assuming it might be.

Norm: Oh, it's contentious.

Brett: I would imagine it is.

Norm: It's contentious, but it's a state responsibility. And you would think that Ohio, with a Republican governor, Republican Senate, Republican House, and a Republican Supreme Court, could get its act together.

Steve: You would think, no, they're all politicians.

Brett: They all have their predecessors and agendas.

Norm: And I keep saying to all these Republicans, why are you not repealing the state income tax? Right. That's my big bitch, is why ohio is not like Tennessee. Florida, Texas. Uh, I think Arizona is another one. But we need to join those states that do not have an income tax. And then you don't need to give away the store to bring an intel to Ohio. When you do that, these companies will come. They will come because they will not be paying an income tax, and neither will their employees to the state of Ohio. And you talk about an economic draw. That's an economic draw. And Ohio lived without an income tax up through the mid 70s when Governor Gilligan and then the Democratic majority came in after Watergate and took over Ohio. Uh, there was a big wave after Nixon, as you guys probably know, in many states, flipped to the Democrats because of their disgust over Watergate. So that happened in Ohio, and that's when we got the income tax. The state of Ohio, for 175 years before then, lived without an income tax, somehow paved the roads, somehow paid for everything without an income tax, and then boom, we got one. So now that the Republicans have since what, Voenovich or Bob Tapp owned the state of Ohio, why the hell aren't they not repealing the income tax?

Steve: Yes. Because they're politics.

Norm: They like to spend money, don't they?

Steve: Just power corrupts.

Brett: And once you have that passive income, why give it up?

Norm: And look at the wine going around and he has this discretionary pool of money now, and he gives these little bobbles to this cause and that cause like it's his personal wallet. Hey, it's our tax money. Mhm.

Steve: Well, speaking of Dwind, let's talk about the road in case down in Pike County.

Norm: Cool.

Norm: Or five years ago.

Steve: I mean, just a tragic, awful homicide case where an entire family was essentially slaughtered, kids included, I think. And it was, uh, all over some sort of personal vendetta marijuana, uh, a feud in the hills of Pike County perhaps? That, uh, when it first happened. I remember, I think at the roundtable, I told Jeff, uh, and Jared in the group and then Bill Rest assault, uh, I told them all. I was like, you mark my words, there's government corruption at the heart of this. There's going to be local sheriffs involved in this in some way, shape or form. Because you just can't have that kind of large, uh, scale marijuana operation long, uh, term without law enforcement knowing. And, uh, somebody is getting paid off, somebody's involved, somebody is part of it. And it turns out that it took the Attorney General's to come in, or the state of Ohio to come in and actually prosecute the case and do it effectively. Because, uh, I'm guessing that corruption.

Steve: Execution style, like slaughtered in their sleep. Nasty stuff.

Norm: Just so people know the facts. There might be people who are not familiar.

Steve: Yes, really nasty stuff. And, uh, surprisingly, it was tight lipped for the longest time. People would not cooperate. There was no statements. Everybody was going to trial and the evidence was tight. Um, I got a sniff on one of those cases early on, but it didn't pan out, so I can talk. Really, I never didn't even talk to anybody. But there was talk of getting referred one to us upstairs. But uh uh, eventually somebody snitched and sort of let um, the cat out of the bag. And they got their first jury trial conviction this week. Uh, and uh, the person who snitched, incidentally, pled guilty to a life in prison agreement. So if you think about that, that's a pretty remarkable deal. Maybe the only thing that would be worse than, and maybe for some it wouldn't even be worse is death penalty. But um, you get life without parole. We call that LWAP life without parole. Uh, that means you don't get out. You're spending the rest of your life in prison and you still have to cooperate and you wave your right to a trial. So I don't know what the motivation was for that person to snitch, but he did wow. Against this KINFoak and they got their conviction. What's interesting is DeWine came out talking about it. You know, you'd say, what's, what's the governor got to do with it? Well, he was the age at the time, I think it was getting prosecuted. And uh, so he has that special connection, which is insane because the governor should not have a special connection to such a thing. Um, and whenever the executive branch starts to talk about justice getting done at the local level, it's always political. And, uh, so Dawian can say, well, look, I have a special connection to this because I was prosecuting it. And as the Attorney general, perhaps he did, but as the executive, he should just say the local public.

Brett: Let the bandwagon go by. Mike.

Steve: You don't need to weigh the flag on that one because there's always, I mean, I don't think it happened here, but I always ask for rhetorically. To people, it's like, well, what if they got it wrong? And people just look at me like, what do you mean? What if the guy is not guilty? Like, what then? Are you still going to wait? Is it still justice? What if the DNA lied? What if the witness lied? What if the eyewitness testimony weren't so accurate after all? Just stay the hell out of the trenches. You don't need to be down there. That's my job. That's my take on it. Uh, more to come.

Norm: Are there more defendants?

Steve: Steve yeah, there's more to come. I think two or three more that are going to all go to trial and uh, maybe not now.

Norm: And isn't the official explanation or the, isn't the prosecution along the lines that this was a child custody matter that went awry and that's what made somebody get emotional and killed eight people was over child custody because they didn't kill the kids, right?

Steve: That some kids got killed?

Norm: Well, I think they were teenagers. But the babies at issue in the child custody case, they were not killed.

Steve: So they were spared. I don't know, but that might be the motive. Look, I always say the motive is usually the obvious thing. And child trustee is a good motive. Uh, money is typically, it's like drug money is usually what's behind things.

Norm: There was a money dispute, I think, that came out in the trial, that one family member owed another. Like there was money, but they were saying that that had been simmering. But this child custody thing could have been what, the match that lit the.

Steve: Fire, threw it over the edge, or the straw that broke the camel's back?

Brett: Because they don't discount lineage when it comes to that.

Steve: That's right.

Brett: Save time.

Steve: Uh, you would say, what motivates murder? Money and sort of these crimes of passion when there is a strong emotional tie to something that, uh, it could.

Brett: Be the last son to carry the name.

Steve: Could be something like that.

Brett: Simple as that. There's something to that, if you think about it. We have one boy, he's the last one to carry. I know it's a common name, the Johnson name, though. So yeah, I'm m not going to but you think about that every once in a while and you kind of go money.

Steve: It's got the big two then. Money and passion in uh, drug territory. Which is money.

Brett: Right.

Steve: It's always about the money, my shrink once told me.

Norm: Exactly.

Steve: Well, what else you got, Norman?

Norm: Uh, uh, something I don't know much about, but I was surprised to learn, and I don't know why I'm surprised, because they have liquor stores inside of Kroger now, but I was surprised to hear that Kroger plans pardon me, to have kiosks, uh, for online sports betting.

Steve: Uh, sports betting cometh is January. January, yes.

Norm: And um, Kroger apparently has applied to have these kiosks in its stores.

Steve: Well, the government's been gambling for years. They just call the lottery. They don't call gambling. So the old numbers racket that the mob used to run is now the lottery that the government runs.

Norm: Yeah. So talking to one of my brothers who knows more about this than me, um, he said basically, ah, Ohio has been unable, most of the states have been unable to stop sports betting that people are doing here in the state.

Steve: Of Ohio anyway, with the internet, it's impossible.

Norm: It's impossible. So the state can't stop it.

Steve: I mean, with VPNs like virtual private networks and the internet, the prosecutions are almost too far or too difficult to pursue.

Norm: So Ohioans are already doing this fan duel thing or whatever. They're already betting on everything. And betting on is Trump going to win the Republican nomination? Uh, are we going to have, uh, 20 tornadoes next year? You can bet on anything. I mean, there's somebody who will take your bet on almost any, uh, looming, uh, thing that's, uh, going to happen. Sports, weather, uh, politics, whatever. You could bet on anything. And uh, they do that in Europe, they do it in England, and I guess, uh, they do it, um, in the Caribbean. A lot of these companies are based in, uh, Bermuda, Bahamas, whatever. And I guess the government hasn't been able to stop it, so they're just jumping in.

Steve: Might as well tax it.

Norm: Yes.

Steve: So, you know, there's this notion of what's the government's business in gambling and why should they prohibit it. It's like along the lines of drug use.

Norm: It's a moral thing.

Steve: Yes. Is the government have business telling you you can't gamble if you want to gamble. And there's actually some decent, even libertarian arguments in favor of outlaw gambling because of some of the, uh, potential for crime and some other issues that tend to follow it.

Norm: Um, yeah, we have casinos now, and look how many years Ohio dragged its feet. Did not want to have casinos. Finally, we got surrounded. Pennsylvania had them.

Steve: Michigan about the money.

Norm: North, it's always about Indiana, Kentucky, everybody.

Steve: Around us, it's all going to happen.

Norm: Ontario, Canada. Everybody had gambling. And Ohio was the last one.

Steve: And think if you're a bar or restaurant owner, this, uh, is huge for you, because it's another seat on the stool ordering another drink, another cheeseburger, another spending three more hours there to finish the game. As opposed to going home at halftime, uh, and gambling because they're going to have the kiosks at the bars and you'll, uh, be able to gamble and watch the ball.

Brett: Gamer and divorce lawyers are going to love this too.

Steve: Right.

Brett: Uh, criminal defense lawyers, because you're going.

Steve: To have two more beers when you shouldn't have. You're going to drive home because your angry wife or angry husband is there waiting on you to say you said you were going to come home in halftime and help me do the dishes. And instead, well, I had to watch the game because I had a $100 you bet on the game.

Norm: Exactly.

Steve: Domestic violence, drunk driving, divorce, all the scourges that go along with gambling.

Brett: There he goes. And on a positive note, singles want partners who vote. There was a, um, survey on Tinder, which I'm not part of. I just read the story. 47% for what? Just to go vote? Yeah. So politically active, let's put it that way. I think it's positive. 47% of single surveyed not voting, saying that. 47% of singles surveyed saying that not voting is a deal breaker. So they're dating. They're talking about voting. If you don't vote, I'm not going to deal. I'm not going to vote.

Steve: That is a horrible way to pick a mate.

Brett: Kind of, yeah. 53%.

Steve: Value different.

Brett: It's different. 53% said regular voting makes a match more attractive, interesting. And then singles are into nostalgia, too. They're going mini golfing, driving movies, and they're drinking less.

Steve: That's a shame.

Brett: What a strange survey. What a strange survey.

Steve: They're so skewed, too, because what's somebody going to say? Would you date somebody who doesn't vote? It's like, well, no, I want my spouse to vote.

Norm: Yeah.

Steve: Right. It's like, how many people are just going to say, well, no, I don't care if my spouse votes or if my partner votes.

Brett: Right.

Steve: You almost feel shamed for not caring.

Brett: Like, I don't care if they don't care. It's just interesting.

Steve: The question is shaming in and of itself.

Brett: Exactly.

Steve: Well, I'm going to do something. This is December, and that means that Christmas is right around the corner, as we started with. And I think we're going to do is every show in December. I'd love to say there'll be twelve, but there won't be. You, um, get a normal twelve days of Christmas.

Norm: I do, yeah.

Steve: Instead, we're going to give a Christmas tidbit at, uh, the end of each show. Are we ready for that now?

Brett: Do it.

Norm: Yeah, sure.

Steve: All right. So my favorite Christmas song, Christmas Carol, one of them, I don't know if I have a favorite, is White Christmas. Irving Berlin, I think, was Jewish, actually, and wrote the most awesome, most Christmas.

Brett: Music that is great was written by a Jew.

Steve: A Jew, right.

Norm: Well, uh, Christ was a Jew.

Brett: Correct.

Steve: The Jews almost get it. Right.

Brett: And I don't mean it to sound like it sounded either, quite frankly, to.

Steve: Share half the Bible.

Brett: Uh, yeah.

Norm: My boss is a Jewish carpenter.

Steve: Yeah. So white. Uh, Christmas. And I think I read an interesting tidbit about it. Um, for those who know, Ben Crosby was in the movie White, uh, Christmas, and he sang that song. And first, I think, when he sang, he didn't like it. There was other songs you liked better that were upbeat and more chipper. Uh, but then World War II happened and, uh, I think the country was sort of somber. So what was interesting to me is Bing didn't want to sing that song to the troops and accused he was going to refuse to sing it. Didn't want to do it. Wouldn't do it. And, uh, the reason he wouldn't do it is it might surprise you he didn't want to depress the troops because the song has this longingness to it, this sort of sadness to it. This idea that, um, Christmas has a nostalgia, a, ah, family nostalgia that's since been lost somehow in the shuffle. Or maybe the year got, uh, away from you. And here you are. Uh, and one of my favorite thinkers, my favorite podcasters, my favorite writers made, uh, this point last year at Christmas time, Andrew Clayton and I read his book. He's got a book called, um, uh, something. It's a new series of fiction he's writing on, but it's about Christmas. Uh, and uh, he made this point that he was sort of answering the question, uh, what about Christmas do we love? And it's this longingness for things that were better in the past. You almost have that. Like, I remember sitting when I still drank alcohol and I would stay up a little bit later than everybody else and have a drink and sort of stare at the Christmas tree. And something about that was very satisfying, but sad at the same time. Um, but then not so sad at the same time. And I think that song, White Christmas, hits that nail square in the head. It gives you that longingness for the past. And that's why Bing it turned out to be one of his best hits ever. But that's why Bing didn't want to sing it to the troops. I think he ultimately did. But, uh, that's my Christmas fact of the week.

Norm: Well, uh, and I think it's interesting that it is one of those, um, um, emotional, um, kind of, um it makes you wishful that's the word wistful to go home. And it's interesting how common that is in humanity. So while you were talking about White Christmas, one of my favorite Christmas Eve songs was, I think this interesting. It's a German song, uh, often very popular with the British troops as well as the German troops in, um, World War One is Lily Marlene. And, you know, ah, it ends with these lyrics. Bugler tonight don't play the call to arms I want another evening with her charms then we will say goodbye and part I will always keep you in my heart so, a sad song, obviously a trooper wanting to get back to his girlfriend. And it's interesting that the Brits and the Germans on opposite sides of trench warfare love the same song. So I think those sentiments are universal. And of course, we know about the Christmas truce where the Brits and the Germans came out at Christmas and played a soccer game. I mean, it was the World Cup of all World Cups. Right. They played soccer during Christmas truce. Uh, these are just young boys, right. And they're in the most horrible circumstances. If you ever read Eric Maria remarks. Incredible book. All choir on the Western front. It's fictional, of course, but it's based on, you know, the experiences of thousands of common soldiers who don't have any political understanding of why they're even at war.

Steve: Yeah, exactly. They'll go actually, there's all sorts of stories in World War II and I'm sure World War I in the Civil War of at Christmas time, the troops sort of cross lines and go hang out together. And then the next day or two.

Norm: Days later, uh, sharing cigarettes, singing songs, passing a beer bottle back and forth. Come on.

Brett: Because none of them wanted to be there.

Norm: No.

Steve: Well, they realized that it really is a fascinating portal, uh, into the psychology of a soldier.

Norm: It sure is.

Steve: It's like their ability to do that and then do the other. I'd have to give that some more thought, but I wanted to correct myself. Andrew, uh, Kavan wrote, uh, when Christmas comes It came out right before Christmas last year. Great book, a good novel. Uh, he has been sort of blacklisted by Hollywood or by the powers that.

Norm: Beast.

Steve: So he's sort of producing these books. I mean, a phenomenal writer.

Norm: Well, he's a friend of yours. In mine, we shook his hand.

Steve: We shook his hand. We met him and, uh, he was over at the Stage Right Theater. Uh, and, uh, we'll do more of that. But, uh, there is a new sequel, uh, to that book came out this year called A Strange Habit of Mind. Cameron, uh, Winner is his character. He's doing a whole series with this Cameron Winner character. Really good. He really dug into it and developed Winner's, uh, character a little bit more than he did in, um, uh, the Christmas, uh, book. So, anyway, check those books out. When Clayton said it, when I heard him talking about this last year, it really hit home, this longingness of Christmas. And, like you said, normal wistfulness of it. And that song, perhaps among others, or among all others, captures it for me.

Norm: Yeah. Beautiful. Yeah.

Steve: All right, well, with that, we're going to wrap up Common Sense Ohio with a forlorn note about Christmas, but then a positive one at the same time. That's the point we're trying to make. Uh, so what is common sense, Ohio? That's a common sense look at all things, uh, that exist out there in the world. So if you've got a thing that exists in the world and you want us to talk about it, even if it's not Ohio, we'll find a way to relate it. Because, sort of like Kevin Bacon, everything is just six degrees of separation from Ohio. Sort of like Neil Armstrong and, uh, Norm story. So, uh, just give us a shout. You can look us up now@commonsenseohioshow.com. Norms got a blog, and he is very prolific about it. Uh, he's writing faster than I can read them. Uh, so check that out. You can see that at the website. Uh, if you want your own podcast or it's easy to go to Circle 270 Media, uh, or Mypodcastgy.com, you can check them out. And, uh, you can come right down here at Channel Five one one look to make your point earlier. Brett. I don't care if you're gay. I don't care if you're not gay. I don't care if you're a woman. I don't care if you're a man. I don't care. I don't care. I don't care if you want to use our studio and you're willing to negotiate a reasonable rate with us to use our studio, uh, the point is that we do not discriminate here. Norm, uh, loves everybody. At the same time, he hates everybody.

Norm: I don't hate anybody. I might use a sign language of the middle digit, uh, now and then to, uh, a Honda Odyssey driver or a Toyota Sienna driver, but no, I don't do that. I don't road rage at all. I usually back off and I give them a lot of space because I do love everybody. I don't want anybody to get hurt. On the highways. Please don't text. Pay attention to what the hell you're doing. Put down the cup of coffee. Don't do mascara. Just drive. Have your frickin minivan. Good God.

Steve: All right, well, with that, uh, public service announcement, we will wrap it up talking about all things common sense in Ohio and elsewhere. At least until now.