Mark Knows It All

I read on AOL news today about two 13 year old boys from McMinnville, Oregon, who are being prosecuted as sexual predators. While in school, they slapped some members of the female sex on the butt. There are some additional allegations that they touched a breast, but it appears that the butt slapping is the bulk of the issue. Numerous students have stated that this is common behavior in the school. Originally, they were charged with several felonies. The county prosecutor has now seen the light, and dropped the felony charges, and is prosecuting a list of misdemeanor charges that could result in a year in “juvy hall” and the boys being required to register as sex offenders for the rest of their lives. An offered and refused plea deal would give the boys probation, but the sex offender registry would be required. Let’s see. Today on television I saw a ½ hour infomercial for Girls Gone Wild . I saw a promo for show called LA Ink hosted by a fully tattooed babe named Katmandu. I saw nume...

I have seen, lately, numerous articles and television commentary about the legacy of George W. Bush. Currently, his disapproval rating is 65%. He is tied with Harry Truman when Truman left office. The only president with a worse disapproval number when he left office was Richard Nixon at 66%. “W” also holds the record for the highest approval rating in October, 2001….93%, which gives credence to the saying “the bigger they are, the harder they fall”. I can give you a litany of reasons why I don’t like George W. Bush, most of which would be the antithesis of most of the reasons Americans don’t like him. Other than his position on immigration, I am a supporter of his domestic and foreign policies. If he is guilty of anything, it is his failure to lead. Any first year political science major will tell you the President has very little real power. The strength of the Presidency is the power to persuade. It is the ultimate bully pulpit. Here, he has failed miserably. Domestically, Presiden...

The Youngstown Vindicator recently ran several articles about the traffic on State Route 224 through Boardman Township. It is a highly congested road, a prime example of unbridled growth with no planning, such as access roads. Although I have seen busier roads many other places, I have rarely seen the atrocious driving for which Rt. 224 is famous. ODOT lists it as the 6th most congested road in the state, and it is regularly on the top 10 list for accidents, albeit most of them of the fender bender variety. I drive up and down that road at list once each day, and more often than not several times each day. And although my observations may be anecdotal in nature, I think I can safely say that the Vindicator article should have been headlined to read “Bitchy Women Terrorize Local Highway”. In my travels to and from work, I am the victim of an occasional male aggressive driver who more likely than not is under the age of 25. But on a regular basis, the women top the men in bad, distracte...

For this month’s winner in the “Lord, you can take me now, I have seen it all!” category, I offer to you Animal Planet’s television show: “Who Gets the Dog?” I saw this piece of TV magic this morning while flicking through the channels for something other than infomercials and preachers. Don’t get me wrong. I like Animal Planet , and I am a fan of such shows as Pet Star hosted by Mario Lopez, who must be a candidate for sainthood as he is continuously upstaged by dogs who can dance on beach balls and acrobatic cats. I also like Animal Police , where we see the ASPCA seek out the dregs of humanity whose mistreatment of animals shakes my faith in human nature. Not to mention that the new Terri and Bindi Show . Bindi is the terminally cute daughter of the late Steve Irwin of alligator and sting ray fame. I don’t know, the promo picture shows this little girl with a snake wrapped around her neck. I thought they were through exploiting her after Mr. Irwin dipped her in the lake with snap...

The following article appeared in this week's edition of the The New Republic to coincide with the release of the movie A Mighty Heart, which deals with the death of Daniel Pearl, the journalist killed by Islamic terrorists in 2002. It was written by Mr. Judea Pearl, father of Daniel Pearl. When I started to read it, I initially thought here is a liberal trying to justify a conservative position on moral relativism. But when I finished, I concluded that this is an eloquent, albeit a tad heavy, statement on the problem of moral relativism as I have read. It is certainly much better written than anything I could do myself, and I feel worth reading by everyone. I am probably violating 50 laws by reproducing it here, but it is something that everyone should read, especially in light of recent events in Great Britain. Here are the links to THE DANIEL PEARL FOUNDATION and THE NEW REPUBLIC . Moral relativism and A Mighty Heart Back to Focus by Judea Pearl Only at TNR OnlinePost date:...