Mark Knows It All

Over the past two weeks, you may have noticed in the news an increasing level of murder/suicides. In fact, it has become so common it actually has stopped making news. There have been several right here in Ohio within families, the workplace, schools, and social settings. These stories have moved from the front page of the papers and the leads on national news, to blurbs on the various online news services that may or may not make the evening television news. To quote the lady addressing President Obama at the CNBC town hall, is this the new normal? What is going on? The blame lies in several places with the additions and subtractions to what people my age would consider normal America. 1) Start with technology. We are bombarded constantly with telephone calls, text messages, emails, and instant messages. There is no break. There is no respite. Go into a store and talk to a young clerk. The only human contact these days is filtered through some digital gizmo. The lack of ability to rel...

For those of you who don’t watch Fox News, Stephen Colbert of the Comedy Channel was invited to testify in Congressional Hearings on farm workers and illegal immigrants. Stephen Colbert is host of a satirical show called The Colbert Report in which he portrays a faux conservative commentator. This, along with The Daily Show , is done in a real news format. The problem is many folks, including many young people and college age students, use it as their sole source of news thinking the programs are real. Seriously! The political content is far left. At any rate, he was asked to testify in front of the committee by California Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren as an advocate of illegal alien rights. It is unclear whether he was supposed to do it in character, but it began to garner attention on the conservative blogs and airwaves yesterday morning, particularly on the Fox and Friends early morning show. They asked a simple question. Why was a comedian, with no particular knowledge of the problem...

In case you didn’t know, stores in the European Union were banned from selling incandescent light bulbs as of August 1, 2009.. The environmental whackos decided that the light bulbs we know and love are destroying the environment. For several years leading up to the ban on “trafficking” in light bulbs, stores, museums and regular folks hoarded light bulbs to the point where some larger retail establishments and museums have years of light bulbs stashed away. Funny, isn’t it? Don’t laugh. It is coming here. As of January 1, 2012, the United States is imposing energy standards on a light bulb producer’s "fleet." Each bulb has to meet certain energy standards. The standards are written so that the incandescent light bulb can’t meet them, effectively banning their sale. Beginning January 1, 2011, packages of bulbs have to contain so much information as to lumens and such, that stores are concerned about how much shelf space the packages will take up. And the information will have...

I was reading in Business Week that Intel (ta da duh duh) is developing a new chip to be used in billboards that recognize the age, sex, and other characteristics of passers-by. It will then display a demographically correct ad for that person. Wow!! The article said that such a billboard was part of a movie called Minority Report which I apparently missed at the movie theater, and I am glad I did. That is just too creepy! In fact, life is getting too creepy. I now pay my bills through PNC Bank’s online payment service. It’s the damndest thing. It electronically pays whatever bills I tell it to. If it can’t do it electronically, the bank will actually print a check and mail it. The bank doesn’t charge for the service, not even postage if they have to mail a check. Do you know how many bills I send out each month? Postage alone must save a couple hundred bucks over a year, not to mention the cost of very expensive Quicken checks. Such a deal. I can even have my bills sent to the bank w...

Whether you are a Republican or Democrat or Libertarian or Independent, Labor Day marks the traditional beginning of the political season. This is when most Americans begin to pay attention to what is going on, and start to make up their minds who to support or not support. While Election Day is still the first Tuesday in November, campaign time is compressed with the advent of widespread absentee voting. Candidates are now forced to view two election days…the one in November, and the first day of absentee voting the last week of September. Some states have eliminated Election Day altogether, replacing it with a date that mail-in votes must be received. The wisdom of that type of election procedure is an argument for another day. No matter what, America owes a debt of gratitude to those who are in the trenches fighting the good fight for their point of view and/or their party. It is a thankless job for the workers, and for the candidates. Politicians are ranked in disdained professions...