June 30, 2007 by gpstevens.

It’s amazing what the media does not want you to know. Well it apperas that the governor of ohio has appealed the ruling on the private club exemption to the smoking ban. Read on.

5.25.07 - Columbus, Ohio – Ohio Governor Ted Strickland today asked Attorney General Marc Dann to appeal the Franklin County common pleas court ruling on the private club exemption in the state’s new smoking ban law.

“I believe we established a reasonable rule that enforces the smoking ban while also honoring the exemption established in the law for certain private clubs including veteran’s clubs,” Strickland said. “I am troubled that many citizens, including many veterans, voted for the smoking ban last fall with the understanding that it included an exception for private clubs, only to be told later that the ban doesn’t include a real exception. In order to make sure that these citizens have every opportunity to have their point of view considered, I have decided to appeal the court’s ruling.”

The governor consulted with the Department of Health and the Attorney General’s office to reach his decision.

Source: Ohio Governor

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May 23, 2007 by gpstevens.

As a friendly reminder to my readers and friends, please do not click on, or respond to emails from websites threatening that you need to update your account information on ANY website that needs to know your personal information and or passwords or credit card info. Thos sites are almost 100% false. Delete them! Dont even click on the link. Don’t answer any phone call that wants any personal info from you regarding any personal info about an online account that you may have created. Always keep in mind that there are people out there that have nothing better to do but steal from you and they can in fact wipe you out financially. Always be suspicious, protect yourself, and remember if it sounds to good to be true it probably is too good to be true. Consider yourself warned. If you have any questions feel free to contact me via email at gpstevens@gmail.com.

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April 20, 2007 by gpstevens.

I’m sure many of you have seen the commercials on TV about a free credit report. Freecreditreport.com is a scam. It aint free. But the federal government is obligated to give you a free credit report once every year. The following is from about.com, and it’s legitimate. Don’t get scammed. 

Government Mandates Free Credit Reports for

All Consumers

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March 28, 2007 by gpstevens.

OHIO DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
Proposal would ease smoke ban
Clubs whose workers are members may be exempt
WHAT HAPPENED?
• The Ohio Department of
Health proposed revised rules
that would exempt clubs whose
employees are members from
Ohio’s public smoking ban.

• The move marks a turnaround for the health department, whose attorney previously stated such an exemption would be inconsistent with the voter-approved law.

• If the Joint Committee on
Agency Rule Review does not
interfere, the smoking-ban rules
could take effect in late April.
 
 

By JIM PROVANCE
BLADE COLUMBUS BUREAU
COLUMBUS — Private clubs whose employees are also members may have won a reprieve from the state’s new ban on smoking in public places.

The Ohio Department of Health yesterday proposed revised rules that, if accepted by a legislative review panel, would carve out the exemption such clubs have sought since the day voters approved the law on Nov. 7.

The move has clubs such as the Veterans of Foreign Wars rejoicing but has placed health organizations like the American Cancer Society in an unlikely alliance with bars, restaurants, and bowling alleys that consider the clubs as their competition.

“I can now see some of these organizations changing their membership requirements to allow servers, who are not currently eligible, to become members,” said David Corey, lobbyist for the Bowling Centers Association of Ohio. “The Moose, Elks, Eagles, and all of those. Look out, Nellie!”

The move was an abrupt turnaround for the department, whose attorney previously stated such an exemption would be inconsistent with the voter-approved law. In fact, the department proposed something similar in an early draft but then removed it.

“Private club representatives have consistently asked ODH to fashion rules that reflect the exemption they believed they had under the law passed in November,” said the department’s acting director, Anne R. Harnish. “Changes made after a thorough review by our lawyers allow us to do that.”

Gov. Ted Strickland “consulted” with the health department on the change and supports the language, said spokesman Keith Dailey.

“He believes this is a reasonable rule that enforces the ban and also honors the exemption established in the law for certain private clubs, including veterans’ clubs,” he said.

The text of the law approved on Nov. 7 provides for an exemption for private clubs as long as “the club has no employees; the club is organized as a not-for-profit entity; only members of the club are present in the club’s building; no persons under the age of 18 are present in the club’s building; the club is located in a free-standing structure occupied solely by the club; smoke from the club does not migrate into an enclosed area where smoking is prohibited under the provisions of this chapter, and, if the club serves alcohol, it holds a valid D4 liquor permit [for non-profits].”

The law defines “employee” as “a person who is employed by an employer, or who contracts with an employer or third person to perform services for an employer, or who otherwise performs services for an employer for compensation or no compensation.”

The revised rules, however, added a provision stating that private club members are not considered “employees.” A department press release accompanying the new rules states this would be true regardless of whether the member is paid.

Staff of the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review, a bipartisan committee consisting of House and Senate members, opened the door to changes when it questioned the first set of rules.

“It’s a matter of economics for us,” said Bill Seagraves, commander of the Ohio Department of Veterans of Foreign Wars. “We can’t afford to lose business. We have to struggle now with maintaining our membership.”

He said he interprets the proposed new exemption as allowing qualifying clubs to go nonsmoking part of the time when events are held with the general public present while allowing smoking when the public isn’t there.

“The purpose behind Issue 5 was to protect all workers in every public workplace in Ohio,” said Tracy Sabetta, spokesman for the cancer society. “If a private club has employees, all businesses should be on a level playing field. They all must be covered.”

Jacob Evans, lobbyist for the Ohio Licensed Beverage Association, said the exemption adds to the list of objections bars and restaurants have raised to the ban since they failed to defeat it at the polls.

“Creating an exemption for private clubs that compete directly with private businesses gives them a leg up,” he said. “That is very much a concern.”

The rules are subject to a hearing before the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review on April 16. If that panel does not interfere, they could take effect as early as April 30.

The law went into effect on Dec. 7, but enforcement has been placed on hold under court agreement while the rules filling gaps in the law are completed. Many have complied with what has so far been a toothless law, but others have ignored it, knowing no fines could be imposed during this period.

The department also proposed another change in the rules to state that an anonymous complaint alone could not justify a finding that a violation indeed occurred.

Contact Jim Provance at: jprovance@theblade.com or 614-221-0496

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March 20, 2007 by gpstevens.

Ok folks I have been away from my blog for way too long, but I’m back with some more points to ponder. So as Larry McReynolds likes to say before every NASCAR race, DW reach up there and pull those belts tight one more time!

Todays topic is about the Ashtabula drivers. I’m sure you all know what I’m talking about. Now I don’t want to on too long on this but this subject always gets my blood boiling. Let’s start with the most obvious. I don’t in any way want to come off as insensitive, honestly people, alot of our beloved senior citezens need to be taken off the road. A lot of these people remember using horses and buggys to get around, and now they are driving Cadillacs. We are putting powerfull 2 thousand pound vehicles under the control of someone wearing a diaper. Do you really want an angry senior citizen with poopy pants coming at you head  on Lake road at night? On the serious side I’m worried about them as well. Driving a car is one of the ultimate freedoms in this country. Did you know that in a lot of Islamic countries it is illegal for a woman to drive a car? I completely understand that many of these people do not want to give up this privelege, I know I don’t look forward to the day when they tell me I can no longer drive a car. But we have to save them from themselves. They think they are driving ok when you and I both know thats not true. So when grandma starts showing up with mysterious dents and scarpes on their vehicle, its time to take the keys. Of course at that point you become their personal taxi service so be prepared.

Now we come to the attention deficit disoder (ADD) drivers of ashtabula. These are the people that don’t understand that the light will turn green shortly, it’s probably not the right time to send (or read) your latest text message. For the ladies out there: you only have a few seconds to fix your hair or check your makeup, I know the light is taking too long but you don’t have a few minutes either. The person behind you probably got their look together BEFORE they left the house so you should drop to the end of the longest line so you won’t be holding up traffic. For the ADD male driver: checking out the cute girl walking or driving along while you sit at the red light is probably not a good idea. I can almost guarantee that your lady friend will know down to 1/100th of a second when that light turns green, so you better be ready. Also as a warning, and I speak from experience, while your checking that hot chick out someone is going to pull out in front of you or do something stupid to ruin your view. So I’ve come up with the 3 second rule. You have 3 seconds to check out the girl (or guy for the ladies) and then you must look back to where you are going, after you do that you have another 3 seconds.

Recently I worked first shift and observed another phenomenon that I like to call the Mc Donalds drivers or MDD. The MDD drivers are those people trying to get to work as fast as they can because they didn’t get up early enough to get themselves together and have plenty of time to get to work. So these people run out the door at the last minute, make a quick stop at the Mc Donalds drive-thru for that quick cup of coffee and then get to work with at least 30 seconds to spare. These are the people usually in huge pick-up trucks or SUV’s. Now they are jacked up on caffein and in a big hurry and you’d better get outta their way. If the light is yellow they are going to go-for-it no matter what. In fact I recommend waiting 3 seconds after the light turns green before going thru the intersection just to be safe. One last thing on the MDD drivers. They have a tendancy to unexpectedly need to run back home or mysteriously change directions because they have forgotten the way to work, so give them some room.

Lastly we come to what I like to call the absolute idiot drivers or AID’s. These are the people who do every other stupid thing you can think of to piss you off. These are the people that should be taken from their cars and beaten in public. They don’t pay attention, they cut you off, they make semi-truck right turns and sit in the middle of the road or parking lot like there is nothing going on in the world but what THEY are doing. These people are more dangerous than any other driver because they have no freaking clue as to what they are doing. Always be on the look-out for the AID driver. They don’t see you hear you or even know you exist. They will sware on a stack of bibles that you weren’t there and pass a lie detector test because it’s true. They really didn’t see you there.

I’m going to end right here stay tuned for part 2.

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March 3, 2007 by gpstevens.

You may or may not know that I don’t like to read alot of joke and funny emails. I don’t mind getting a joke or two here and there but most of the time it’s just too much to read along with all the other stuff I read on a regular basis. One thing I do enjoy reading is news articles and information, and every now and then something shows up that really makes you think.

Julie sent me an email that was a copy of a letter that someone wrote to their local newspaper about drug testing. Basically the guy wanted to know why he has to pass a drug test just so he can work and pay taxes while people who receive public assistance and basically dont work for their money don’t have to pass a drug test?

Now that got me to thinking. Let me see if I understand this.

 I have to work 40 hours a week to pay my bills, pay my health insurance, buy food and gas so I can get to work, and with what little I have left over I can party as I see fit. But in order for me to live this way I have to pass a drug test. But people who receive public assistance can do all that plus they don’t even have to get out of bed in the morning and go to work, and they DON’T have to pass a drug test? 

Now I understand that from time to time people need a helping hand and the government is willing to help out. I have been on welfare several times in my life and to be totally honest I stayed on way too long because it was easier to stay in bed than it was to get up and go to work everyday. But if I would have had to pass a drug test in order to get my check every month I would have starved to death because when you’re a lazy bastard what else do you have to do but get high? I did more drugs on welfare than I ever could working a real job. You never had to worry about getting laid off of welfare, after all the government never runs out of money right? All of you stupid people were going to work everyday to pay for my drugs; and the best part of all was, you had to pass a drug test to make sure you weren’t getting high while you were working for my dope. Genius! While you were brewing a hot cup of coffee at 5:30 in the morning so you could wake up and go bust your ass for some boss that you can’t stand the sight of let alone work for, I was sleeping off a hangover. And when you came home from work to your screaming kids, and your nagging wife or husband, I was just lighting up my first joint while I watched TV and ate breakfast at 5 O’clock in the afternoon. Lastly when you looked at the TV guide a saw that there was one of your favorite ovies coming on but you couldn’t watch it because you had to get some sleep, me and my friends who were also on welfare were getting bombed and watching that movie for you. Afterall, we had the day off.

Seriously people, something has to be done about this. If I have to bust my ass and pass a test, then those lazy bastards should have to pass one too. Or maybe I’ve got this all wrong. We should raise the minimum wage to around $25 an hour and then those of us who have been working hard should quit our jobs and let those people who have been bitching about low paying jobs aren’t worth getting off welfare can start taking care of us. I also say we should make people who get social security take drug tests as well. I’m pretty sure there are quite a few dope fiend senior citizens out their driving their little motor scooters around Wal-Mart high as a kite on drugs that we pay for.

I say enough is enough. We want to have the day off too!!

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February 16, 2007 by gpstevens.

I’m truly amazed at the media, and the celebrities that dominate the news. I thought I’d seen it all when a former baseball player died and their was a family fight over whether to cut off his head and freeze it or just bury the man. Well that story has ended and Ted Williams’ head is now in cryogenic freeze. Now poor Anna Nicole Smith’s body is sitting in a cooler in Florida waiting for the rich people to and the courts to decide who has the right to bury her and where she will be buried.

Apparently the American people love this crap because the ratings go up with every mention of her name. Now I find the story interesting, and I would like to know how she died but for crying out loud can we at least bury her? It’s been 9 days already, can we bury her yet??

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February 8, 2007 by gpstevens.

I just watched one of the most moving films/documetaries of my life. It’s a film called March of the Penguins. It is particularly about the Emporer Penguins that mainly live and breed in Antarctica. I first want to preface my remarks here by saying that I highly recommend everyone watch this film. It is stunning in its sheer beauty of photography, but quite refreshingly, the story outshines its pictures.

There is no way I can ruin this movie for you if you haven’t seen it but I want to give a little background to it before I actually comment on what it means to me. The movie chronicles the life style and the breeding cycle of the Emporer Penguin. They live and breed in the most harsh envioronment on the planet earth. They walk for a little less than twenty days, almost if not more than seventy miles to the place where each one of them was born and have been born for thousands of years. The average tempreture there is around 80 degrees below zero with winds of over 100 miles per hour. They meet, mate and breed and endure 8 months of winter that exists nowhere on this earth. Once the mother produces the egg, she passes the egg onto the father for protection from the cold while she returns to the sea to feed. The father will guard the egg and go without food for over four months. The mother will walk the seventy miles or so to get food for herself and her egg. She has now walked 140 miles, basically starving, to get food for her young. Meanwhile the father will stand starving protecting the life of the newborn chick for another month while he himself is starving. During this time many of the eggs and or chicks will not survive. In fact some fathers themselves will not survive. The mothers meanwhile having made it back to the sea risk death themselves from the predators in the water that are hungry too.

The mothers who survive the second journey and have now filled their bellies with food must now make the 70 mile journey a third time. Upon their return, both parents help and nurture the chick until it can thrive outside the protective cover of their parents feet and stomachs.

During the next several months the sea ice begins to melt and both parents take turns returning to the sea feeding and caring for the newborn chick until finally the chicks can make it on their own. Finally, the parents return to the sea leaving their chicks behind for the last time never to see them again for 4 years. The chicks meanwhile will stand at waters edge for another month until finally, they jump into the water never to return to the breeding ground for four years.

There are many stories in nature that are similar to this but this one stands out for so many reasons. In an age where we have suicide bombers and parents that throw their children into garbage cans or do the most unspeakable things to their kids, here is a story of great love, dedication and sacrifice. Watching this film helped me remember that the hand of God reaches all creatures great and small. Somehow in His infinate wisdom he has given us an example of perfect love that even a child can understand. Maybe if more of us could watch this film, perhaps we would love our children more than we do, and the world would be a better place. 

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February 6, 2007 by gpstevens.

Ok I’m sure everyone is fully aware that it is as cold as a witch’s tit in a brass bra around most of the country. I mean most of us up here in northeast Ohio are used to the cold but this is rediculous. Schools are closed, roads are treacherous, walking is a chore, and I’m really getting tired of cleaning the snow off the car 4 or more times a day. But right in the middle of this cold snap here comes these so called scientists’ telling us that global warming is at an all time critical stage, and guess what? America will be hit the hardest.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or the IPCC just recently released a report that says among other things that; ” the United States, the West will be hardest hit, scientists say. Heat waves, droughts and intense hurricanes are likely to increase in the coming decades. Air temperatures in the Southwest, particularly from California to Texas, are projected to rise in the summer about 10 degrees by the end of the century, assuming there is a moderate increase in greenhouse gas emissions. A reduction in emissions might keep the temperature rise to 5 degrees.”

Now I’m going to try to keep this blog short but who are these people trying to fool? They release this report right in the middle of a winter blast that is bringing half of the country to it’s knees. Maybe it’s just me but its hard to convince people that the house is on fire when we are frantically looking for more blankets to keep warm at night. When I’m scraping the ice of the windshield for the third time in a day I just don’t see the global warming thing. When the car won’t start because the battery is dead because it’s so freaking cold, I find it hard to see any evidence of global warming.

I’d like to announce a new phenomenon. It’s called talk to Jesus (or God) weather. It goes a little something like this:

When I walk outside of my nice warm apartment to get in my car to go to the store or work and the first words out of my mouth are; Jesus, it’s cold! It aint global warming yet. Or when I leave work or whatever to go home and I walk outside and say things like; “God damn it’s cold.” It aint global warming. When the rate in crime drops to zero at night, it aint global warming. When I open my home heating bill and say “Jesus, how am I going to pay for this?” It aint global warming.

I’m going to keep it short but for Christ’s sake, talk to me about global warming when I’m standing in front of my air conditioner in my underwear trying to dry the sweat off my ass right after a cold shower, but not when I’m trying to defrost my testicles after a short trip to Walmart.

Global warming my ass! I got polar bears sniffing around my trash cans outside here. If we have global warming right now I think they need a new thermometer. C’mon spring!!   

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February 4, 2007 by gpstevens.

I am like most people. I like TV. There is something on TV for everybody. Whatever you

like you can find on TV. You got news, weather, sports, movies, music, even shop on

TV. From the History channel to Animal Planet, you get it all provided you have

cable. But there’s something suspicious going on with TV. In this blog I’m going to

point out a few things that will change the way you watch TV forever. Here we go.

First: Ever notice how when your watching TV and a commercial comes on you grab the

remote to see whats on the other channels only to find that, Hey! They’re in

commercial too!  Why is that? The television networks know that most people have a

very short attention span. They know we are going to grab the remote and surf the

channels, so they schedule almost all commercial breaks at the same time so that

you will somehow see an advertisement from one of their sponsors no matter what

channel you go to. Often times the same types of commercials come on at the same

times to capture a specific audience. Thats why you never see a commercial for

Viagra during the cartoons. Conversely you never see a commercial for Co-Co Puffs

during American Idol. Why is that?  Maybe a bowl of cereal would be really good

during American Idol but the TV gods don’t think so. A box of cereal costs around

$4.00 but a new Chevy truck costs around 30 grand. Kids don’t have any money to buy

a truck but you do. So lets advertise the truck to you and Capn Crunch to the broke

ass kids. Do I have your attention yet?

Second: The gender gap. OK, so your watching TV, a commercial comes on, you start

surfing channels and you see more commercials, but you wonder whats on that channel

anyway. Well, what kind of commercial is on? I’m willing to go out on a limb and

say that if you see more than one commercial about feminine hygeine products, there

is a pretty good chance that there is no sports on that network right now.

Conversely, if you see a commercial about “Built Ford Tough”, followed by a Bud

Light commercial, it’s a pretty sure bet that the Oprah Winfrey show is not on that

network right now. You see the TV gods know who’s watching what, and when. But what

about when men and women are watching the same show you might ask? Well the TV gods

have that figured out as well. The harsh reality is, we live in a male dominated

society. Almost every major network is run by men. One exception is the Lifetime

channel. Since these networks are owned and run by mostly men they do things from a

male point of view. So while you and your signifigant other are watching American

Idol, you will see all the girlie commercials for women, but the women will be

really sexy so the guys will pay attention. Think about it. You never see a fat

broad talking about tampons on TV at ANY time. Who the hell wants to see that? That

would make even a fat kid spit out his Co-Co Puffs. One the other hand the

commercials about Viagra and Cialis all have relatively good-looking guys in decent

shape in them. So the women see those commercials and think, hmmmm, he wouldn’t

need Viagra if I got my hands (or mouth) on him. But if you put a big fat

pot-bellied guy on TV talking about he needs Viagra, when he hasn’t even seen his

penis in the last 15 years, we all go running from the room screaming in horror, or

pissing our pants in laughter. Who the hell would want to buy Viagra after seeing

that? As a side note. How come in all the fast food commercials there are never any

fat people in the resturaunt. Everyone stuffing a whopper in their face is in great

shape. When I go to a fast food joint I always see some kid that should have been

on a diet since kindergarten. He or she is usaully accompanied by his very large

parents, but they all have diet Cokes’. You see the TV gods know that if they

showed you fat people eating at Wendy’s you won’t go there out of fear that you’ll

wind up like those fat bastards you saw on TV. Which brings me to another thought.

Why is it in almost every diet commercial they keep showing us food? Well the TV

gods have that figured out too. First they know that 25% of the American public is

over weight, so we all need to go on a diet right? But if we all got skinny we

wouldn’t need those diet foods anymore, and thus their sales would drop. But we

can’t have that. Sooooooooo…, they shows us that delicious food because they know

we won’t eat just one diet meal but two, or three. But we feel better about eating

that low fat crap. Instead of saying I had a Wendy’s triple with the works I can

say I ate 6 or 7 low fat veggie burgers and 3 diet pepsi’s because im dieting.

Please! So the next time you see a fast food commercial look around at the people

in them and think of what they are trying to tell you about who eats that crap.

Third:The Mind Job. This might be a little hard to follow so read carefully. There

is an annoying commercial on TV about a product called HeadON. “HeadOn, applied

directly to the forehead.” “HeadOn, applied directly to the forehead.” “HeadOn,

applied directly to the forehead.” That commercial is one of the most annoying

commercials known to mankind, and the TV gods knew it. They knew that people would

get sick of it. Especially when they used to run it 2 times in a row. So now they

have a commercial about the same product only with a twist now. First you get the

“HeadOn, applied directly to the forehead.”, but then a person walks on the screen

and starts saying it in anger like he or she hates the commercial but loves the

product. And therin lies the trick. The original commercial used to say “HeadOn,

applied directly to the forehead.” 3 times. Now the new one you hear “HeadOn,

applied directly to the forehead.” 4 times. But you feel better about it now

because they like you, hate the commercial too, but oops!!! Now you can’t get that

slogan out of your head, so to speak. Moreover, now they put in a testimonial so

now you think, hey, thats probably a good product. You like it now because someone

“allegedly” feels the same way you do. But the only thing you really have in common

with that person is that you both hate that commercial. This is classic reverse

psychology. The TV gods made you hate something first and then like it second so

you think you made an informed decision.

So the next time you walk into a store, stop and think before you buy something.

When you look at a product on the shelf do you see the commercial in your mind? Are

you buying it because you think it’s a good product or are the TV gods messing with

your head? “HeadOn, applied directly to the forehead.”

Scary aint it?

–
To err is human. To really screw things up requires a computer.

Greg Stevens

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