Mark Knows It All

I was channel surfing the day after Christmas looking for bargains on the shopping networks, and ShopNBC obliged me with its fur coat clearance sale. For those of you not in the know, or who are smart enough to not to care…ShopNBC is the Saks 5th Avenue of the cable shopping networks. It hocks $5,000.00 diamond rings like so many pebbles. And people actually buy this expensive jewelry on line. In fairness to ShopNBC, it has nice stuff…but nothing I can afford. God bless those who can, and have the credit line to do it!!! At any rate, they were featuring Cedrick’s Luxe Collection of various fur garments. Cedrick was there, along with the on air sales person. Cedrick is the quintessential fur coat designer with his over the top suit and silver hair and saccharine tongue. He, along with the Quacker Factory lady on QVC, makes for some of the best television around today. You don’t have to buy anything, just watch these nut cakes sell their stuff, and laugh with them, but more often at the...

Can anyone tell me what ever happened to class? While channel surfing the other day, I came across a PBS special featuring highlights from The Andy William Christmas Shows. Here was (is) a classy guy. He was clean cut. The shows reeked with family goodwill. The songs were straightforward, and so were the arrangements. He stood up there and just sang with his wonderful voice. Highlights of the shows included Andy singing with his brothers in simple but beautiful harmony. The sets and production values were as classy as the acts they were supporting. Of course, the show was part of PBS pledge week, and for $100.00 you could get a CD of the program along with another CD of the best of Andy Williams; songs like Moon River and The Days of Wine and Roses. This was class all the way. When I look back on the generation of entertainers that ended around 1980, there was one classy act after another. The Rat Pack, with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Joey Bishop, and Peter Lawford ...

Joanna sat at the kitchen table with red and green paper, scissors, and crayons spread out in front of her. Christmas was just a week away, and there was so much to do. There were Christmas cards and letters to Santa to write. There were presents to make. But most of all, Joanna was thinking about the beautiful gingerbread house her mother had promised they would make together. Joanna had seen the picture of such a house on the cover of a magazine. It was wonderful. The roof was made with marshmallows and the walls were covered with sugar plums and hard candy. Vanilla icing dripped down its sides and over the pretzel fence and gum drop bushes surrounding the house. And in front of the house, greeting all who marveled at its holiday glow, were a gingerbread Santa and Mrs. Claus. This surely was as good as Christmas could be. Puddles, Joanna's white fuzzy pup, nudged against her leg. Joanna looked down under the table and there was Puddles trying to eat the scraps of green and red p...

There is no doubt in my mind that America has raised several, successive generations of spoiled citizens. While we have experienced ups and downs in our economy, the Great Depression was the last time we saw complete economic upheaval. During the 1930’s, the rest of the world experienced the same thing, and it was a contributing factor to World War II. After World War II, the United States was the only game in town as the rest of the world lay in shambles. It was during the 1950’s that American corporations became the “nanny’ providing unionized jobs, health care and pensions to their workers. Unions said we want more…corporations said Amen. America entered into an alliance with Big Business, Big Labor, and Big Government. And they fed off each other. The old rule used to be “guns or butter”. The economy couldn’t tolerate paying for both…until the 1960’s and Lyndon Johnson’s simultaneous Viet Nam War and Great Society. Midst a time of war and plenty, the “Kum Ba Ya” generation of hippi...

Could somebody please tell me what I want for Christmas this year? Both of my friends keep asking me what I want. I’ve got my two front teeth, although one of them has been chipped since I was 15. I also tried that doggie in the window and was allergic. If I were in a beauty pageant, I would want peace on earth. The trouble is…I have just about everything that I need. I have a 3 year old 32” HDTV, which works perfectly fine, thank you. No, it is not a flat screen. Yes, it is heavier than all get out with a big tube in the back. But it will last forever, has no angle problems, fits nicely in the corner, and even though it 720 dpi instead of 1080 dpi, my eyes aren’t good enough to tell the difference, new glasses notwithstanding. I have a surround sound system attached to it. I don’t use it because I have to bend over to turn it on…very difficult at my age. It has a remote, but there are so many buttons I am afraid I would launch a NASA missile if I push the wrong button. I have a car. ...

Here we go, folks. It’s time for my annual Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) rant. Those who suffer from this unfortunate malady really, really hate winter. How we handle it, however, varies from person to person. For those of you who don’t know, SAD is a depressive disorder directly related to the amount of daylight. As summer flows into autumn, and autumn into winter, the decreased amount of daylight has an adverse psychological affect on sufferers such as me. Individuals handle the situation differently. The most severe sufferers should consult a physician and take proper medication. Moderate sufferers, such as me, can use other alternatives. One popular method is to sit under a specially designed light that mimics sunlight. My house is fortunate enough to have ample mercury vapor lighting in our backyard which helps a lot. My SAD operates differently than most. The problem kicks in with the anticipation of less daylight rather than actually experiencing it, usually right around Jun...

I am blessed with many talents, none of which is athletics. I watch with envy many of my friends who have excelled in various sports through the years, and the camaraderie among the participants resulting from those types of endeavors. There is something to be said for that esprit de corps, whether it was from football and basketball when we were younger, or golf and tennis now. Not that I haven’t tried. My father, who was an avid golfer, wanted me to follow in his footsteps. He gave me lessons upon lessons, and hauled me out to the driving range and the golf courses, where I made a complete fool out of myself. He insisted on me hitting the same shot over and over and over again to the point where I dreaded those father/son outings, and really learned to hate golf. When I got to law school, several of the guys wanted to play golf. I thought I would give it another go, and I joined them. That lasted about a month. It was a disaster. They had to apply for federal loans to repair the gol...

I never thought I would live to see the day when a black man could be elected President of the United States. Barack Obama is a symbol for all that is great about America. He has demonstrated that in America, all things are possible. He represents the pinnacle of the civil rights movement. African-Americans have served this nation well at all levels…and have risen to the top of American political life in the Armed Forces through Colin Powell, the Supreme Court through Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas, and in the Cabinet through Condoleezza Rice, just to mention a few. We, as a nation, are the better for it. Abraham, Martin, and John, along with Bobby, are walkin’ up over that hill today….smiling. The entire country wishes President-elect Obama good luck. He is going to need it. The problems facing the nation, although not the worst I have seen in my lifetime, are formidable and fraught with considerable consequences if he gets it wrong. Energy, the economy, foreign policy, infras...

John McCain is an honorable man, and he will do this country no harm. For that reason, he has my support for President. I cannot say the same thing about Barack Obama. This year, if Hillary Clinton were the Democratic nominee, I may have been tempted to vote for her. John McCain was not my first choice for president, or my second, for that matter. The McCain/Feingold Bill on campaign finance reform was one of the most un-American pieces of legislation I have seen come out of Congress in many years. It is ironic that McCain, himself, is now suffering the consequences of his own folly. Money is the mother’s milk of politics. By promising John McCain that he would accept public campaign financing, then reneging, Barack Obama snookered John McCain at his own game. Unfortunately, Barack Obama is also snookering the American public. A fawning press decided a year ago this is who it wanted to be President. The biasness in the press turned from “wink-wink- nod-nod” into something much more one...

This is reprinted from the Wall Street Journal. It is about as clear an explanation of Obama's tax proposals as I have read. Please note, that under Obama, the number of Americans paying no income tax would rise from 38% to 48%. Do you really think a country can sustain 1/2 its population paying no taxes, being supported by the other half. When it comes to taxes, the difference between Barack Obama and John McCain is arguably as wide as it's been in a presidential race since Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale battled in 1984. Sen. Obama is proposing to raise taxes more than any recent candidate, while Sen. McCain wants to cut them substantially. Most of the campaign debate has been over whose taxes would be raised, and whose cut. Here are the facts: Mr. Obama would roll back the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts for taxpayers in the top two brackets, raising the top two marginal rates of income tax to 36% and 39.6% from 33% and 35%. The 33% rate begins to hit this year at incomes of $164,5...

Please visit Mark Knows It All, the web site, by clicking on the link at the top of the adjoining column. On Wednesday morning I watched Fox News, NBC News, and CNN to see how the election is being covered in relations to issues I feel are important. At the top of my list were Joe Biden’s comments from Monday about the possibility of an “international incident” within 6 months of Barack Obama assuming the presidency, should he be elected. Biden said Obama is an unknown factor and will be tested. He made reference to John Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis as an example. Kennedy was an unknown factor, inexperienced, and it showed in an earlier meeting with Krushchev, where the Soviet Premier concluded Kennedy was weak. Even scarier were Biden’s remarks to the Obama donors in attendance that they will have to stand by Obama/Biden as the response to whatever the incident happens to be will be perceived as “wrong,” whatever that means. Biden is right. I wrote several times this past yea...

Please Visit Mark Knows It All, the Web Site, by clicking on the link at the top of the adjoining column. John McCain has run a terrible campaign. He has failed to connect the dots defining Barack Obama’s beliefs and political ideology in ways that the American public can understand. Last night’s debate at least got him off the mark towards that direction, but I suspect it is too little, too late. On the other hand, one never knows. In Bill Clinton’s first campaign for the presidency, the phrase that turned the tide was “It’s the economy, stupid!” This campaign’s icon is Joe, the Plumber, and Obama’s off the cuff comment to him that he wants to “spread the wealth around.” It is giving the voters pause. Here is a blue collar worker who wants to live the dream, and knows that taxes on small businesses will prevent him from achieving that dream. Joe can do the math. No small feat given the state of our public schools. Whose wealth does Obama want to spread around, and to whom? I don’t dou...

To quote the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, America’s chickens are coming home to roost. Use whatever euphemism you want, the events in the nation’s financial markets indicate that the party is finally over. In the late 1990’s, Bill Clinton rode the crest of the computer productivity wave to a national surplus. Contrary to the politicos’ efforts to make you think it was his economic policies that generated the surplus, it was the explosion of productivity resulting from the digital age. Bush came to office as the Clinton boom was slowing down, and presided over a terrorist induced recession, resulting in an easy-money monetary policy and the now collapsing housing boom and resultant financial crisis. Of course, there is plenty of blame to go around for the Freddie and Fannie mess, the unintended consequence of the Community Redevelopment Act as amended under Clinton and reinforced under Bush. It required lenders to loan money to nonqualified borrowers in the government’s noble, but now fai...

This has been an extraordinary week in American history, and me being me, I can’t let it pass without comment. The issues presented to our financial system have been complex and difficult to understand. I don’t understand it all myself, but I know enough to allow me to conclude that very few of the television commentators and anchors, and all of the political candidates from all of the political parties, probably know less than me. The country deserves better explanations about what is going on other than it is a taxpayer bailout. What the government did for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was a bailout. The Chase Bank takeover of Bear-Stearns was a bailout. AIG was a bailout What the government is doing today is NOT a bailout, and had it been done 6 months ago when the few voices in the wilderness were calling for it, the actual bailouts most likely would have been unnecessary. Take away the static and noise, here is what the government is doing. For various reasons, and there is plenty of...

In the midst of bank takeovers and brokerage collapses and government bailouts, there is good news tonight. Lost in the shuffle of the AIG debacle was a news story that was carried by maybe one network. GM unveiled its production model of the Chevy Volt. In one fell swoop, GM is showing America a major solution to its dependence on foreign oil…an electric car that can go 40 miles on a single electric charge, enough for 75% of American commuters to get to and home from work. Can you imagine? As I understand it, it doesn’t put that much of a strain on our electric grid as most of the cars would be charged at night when the electric usage is minimal. And the media looked away. While all of us are concerned and admittedly frightened about the Wall Street meltdown, GM is moving forward, on its own, with no government help, while dealing with its own substantial problems, to develop a car that will change our lives forever. As the government is bailing out Freddie and Fannie and Bear Stearn...

Please visit Mark Knows It All, the Web Site, by clicking on the link on top of the adjoining column. If any of you have been watching television these past few weeks, tucked in the coverage of the lipstick/pig wars, you may have noticed that the government has taken control of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. These quasi governmental corporations are set up to promote and help finance the nation’s mortgage markets. As in all things governmental, things have gone south, and the United States is now guaranteeing about ½ of all US mortgages that have been packaged by Freddie and Fannie in the form of bonds and sold to, I don’t know, pension funds, foreign governments, other financial institutions, and you. The Department of Treasury and The Federal Reserve have spent a lot of time plugging up the holes in the dikes to prevent a financial meltdown. They have done a good job in difficult circumstances. But many of their efforts have been for naught as they have lost control of the economy. The...

Please visit Mark Knows It All, the web site, by clicking on the link at the top of the adjoining column. It has been a hoot watching the media deal with Sarah Palin’s VP nomination. I have never seen such a feeding frenzy happen so fast in a long time. Daughter Bristol’s pregnancy gave fodder of the worst sort to the media vultures whose inherent sexism became almost funny. The media's sexist rants shouted from the mouths of supposedly responsible journalists approached absurdity as they spewed hate towards working mothers and unwed teenage moms, such topics usually being taboo areas of feminist protection, but only if you are the right kind of woman. Apparently Sarah Palin is not. Yes, Governor Palin believes abstinence should be taught in the schools and those same schools should not be vendors of condoms or birth control pills. While insinuating that Governor Palin was too busy politicking instead of providing proper supervision to her children, these panderers of free sex sup...

PLEASE VISIT MARK KNOWS IT ALL, THE WEB SITE by clicking on the link at the top of the adjoining column When I was much younger, my father said when his mother died that it was his turn next. That was years and years ago, and now I find myself somewhat in that position. My dad passed away 5 years ago. My mother isn’t dead, but she has been diagnosed with a number of very serious problems which means, at the age of 89, she can no longer live alone. She has resisted admitting to herself that it is time to go to an extended care facility, but deep down she knows. This week she moved there from the hospital. I was born into a family with lots of relatives. Both my mother and father each had 5 brothers and sisters. That meant lots of aunts and uncles and cousins. It took a big table on both sides of the family to seat all of us. In my family, there is just me and my brother, making all of those cousins in the extended family something special. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on you...