Mark Knows It All

In its history, The United States of America has only been invaded by foreign countries three times: the British in 1812, the Japanese in 1941 and by the Afghanistan/Taliban sponsored Al Qaeda in 2001. Whether or not one agrees with American policy in Iraq, I don’t think there exists any debate on the propriety of the subsequent American led Afghan invasion. The Taliban represented one of the most, if not the most, repressive regimes in modern history. Music was banned. There were mass executions in soccer stadiums for the most trivial of offenses. Women represented a slave class subject to complete control of their spouses. If they disobeyed their spouses, they could be executed. Female circumcision was widely practiced. The country was ruled by a group of Islamic clerics implementing the "Islamic" laws of the "religion of peace". NATO joined in the effort in Afghanistan, and is currently in charge of Afghan operations. NATO and the United States propped up Hamid K...

When I was younger, my wife and I made it a point to see all movies nominated for Best Picture of the Year prior to the Academy Award's television show. As I got older, I switched to seeing selective winners. After paying to see American Beauty , an Academy Award winner which in my humble opinion was one of the worst movies ever made, I simply stopped going to the movies on a regular basis opting instead to buy the DVD’s of movies on the level of Porky’s 1, 2 (my favorite), and 3 , and Clueless . This year’s nominees for the Academy Award for Best Picture looked particularly bleak, making me think that Hollywood needed a good dose of Prozac. Brokeback Mountain got the headlines. It isn’t that I am homophobic, but I can see that sort of thing for free at home on Will and Grace , Six Feet Under , Queer Eye for the Straight Guy: and going really hard core, Queer as Folk on Showtime. Oh my!!!!!!!! I was also familiar with the topics of Munich, Good Night and Good Luck , and Capote ...

My neighbor grows cabbages in her front yard. I don't mean close to her house. She grows 'em right smack dab in the middle of the lawn, complete with a fence to discourage those wascally wabbits. Not only cabbages, but also various asundry other vegetables. My neighborhood certainly isn't the most luxe in my area, but it can hold its own. It is an older neighborhood with big wooded lots and towering old growth trees. It borders the country club, but the newer houses on the other side of the golf course are larger and much more expensive. Yet visually it is certainly among the most attractive areas in the county. So I suppose I should be angry with the constant gardener. But I'm not. Alice is one of the many people in my community who enrich my life. She is a sweet elderly lady, a widow. When we moved here, she was the first to welcome us. She is always there to greet you with a smile and a big hello. She still works part time selling ladies cosmetics. She plays bridge w...

If I were a geneological expert, I would do a linealogy on the breakup of AT&T. The United States had spawned, through the miracle of capitalism, one of the most successful and enviable communication networks in the world. Ma Bell, in addition to making our phone system dependable and sure, was also the quintessential widows and orphans stock on which many a financial plan was built. Then along came MCI and Sprint, who decided they wanted a piece of the long distance action, and wanted to use AT&T's infrastructure to do it. The courts agreed, and in a monopoly busting frenzy, midwived the birth of Ameritech, Nynex, BellSouth, Bell Atlantic, Southwestern Bell, Pacific Telesis, and US West taking away "Telephone's" local service. AT&T kept the long distance business, while being forced to allow Sprint and MCI to use its telephone wires for their cut rate service. In addition, big, bad AT&T was subject to continual governmental supervision, while its new ...

I was born in 1950. As a middling baby boomer, I have experienced all of the downside that my generation has had to face: overcrowded schools; excessive competition for admission to "A" colleges; overcrowded job markets; high interest rates and expensive housing; mid-life job losses; increasing health care costs. Not much attention has been paid, however, to the new muck through which the Boomers are now slogging. Our parents, particularly the females, are living longer and longer. My mother is 86. On her side of the family, I have an aunt and uncle who are 90 and 92 respectively. I have another aunt who is 98. And on the other side of the family, there is another group of aunts all in their mid 90's. The health of these individual varies from good to total dementia, but none of them are able to function totally independently. All of them require a degree of care and looking after. The fastest developing area in my law practice is Elder Care. While many of my clients are ...

As a lawyer, I am trained to be an advocate, to zealously represent my client using reason and logic to move an unreasonable and illogical opponent to the more enlightened point of view: mine! That mindset is hard to lose, making me and many other lawyers somewhat obnoxious and often disliked. I tend to be more obnoxious and disliked than most. It carries into our personal lives, thus making our spouses, by default, advocates also. How else can they win an argument in the predictable battles that accompany any marriage? It also follows us into the many little battles of every day life. There, obnoxiousness is raised to an art form. Lawyers don't like to lose, no matter how small or trivial the issue may be. That is true especially in dealing with the ignorant pinheads who make modern life unbearable....Let me rephrase that. Especially in dealing with people just trying to do their best, doing their jobs, even if the result may not be exactly what I would have wanted. Saturday was a...

This past week, a close, personal friend of mine died. I knew Sally for almost 30 years. Rarely do we come across people in this life that we can hold up as role models. Sally was at the top of my list. While some people wear their faith on their sleeve, hers was quiet and steadfast. Some would call her a pillar of the church, but that doesn't quite fit her. She was more like the main steel support beam that holds up the floor; not fancy, but the building couldn't stand without it. She was a brilliant woman in a brilliant family. Her credentials were endless. First as a psychology professor at Youngstown State University, then as Dean of the Graduate School and then as acting Youngstown State Provost. Her community affiliations are too numerous to mention. She was a stealth, feminist activist in the Episcopal Church, and therefore many of her accomplishments started with the words "the first female...." Her primary area of expertise was death and dying. She was a nati...

An adult coming of age movie entitled Garden State made the rounds last summer. A friend of mine told me it was worth watching, so I bought the DVD. If you are a fan of movies filled with generational angst, which I am, this movie fills the bill. But if you are easily offended by casual sex, drug use, spoiled brats, and generally slovenly behavior, stick with Casablanca . Let's face it. A movie in which one of the protagonists is a grave digger who steals the jewelry off dead bodies prior to their being put in the ground is not exactly The Brady Bunch . Included in the movie soundtrack is a song called In The Waiting Line . It is a "head" song. Translated: play it while getting stoned. The lyrics ask the musical question: "Do you believe in what you see?" And that, my friends, is the topic of this week's essay. Animal House is the quintessential college frat house slob movie. It was fairly raunchy when it was released in 1978. By today's standards, i...

Eating out used to be easy. You picked up the telephone and called a restaurant and made a reservation. Now, with the mega-restaurants, it has become somewhat more challenging. These chains take the attitude that their food is good, and the "folks" can just wait in line to get in. The Cheesecake Factory, Brio, Brava Cucina, Outback, think nothing of telling you that there is a 2 hour wait on a Saturday night. My wife and I have solved the problem by nurturing our inner coot-itis. Translated, we eat at 4:oo on Saturday afternoon. The wait then is usually just 15 minutes. Throw in an Early Bird special, and we are ready to retire in Miami. But every now and then, you gotta do what you gotta do. A case in point was this past Friday night. I have been craving Chinese food for the past several weeks. In Youngstown, good Chinese food is hard to come by. That leaves the choice of doing without, or driving to The Sesame Inn in Pittsburgh, or to PF Changs in Cleveland. Of the two choi...

I enjoy singing and belong to an ad hoc choir called Seraphim. We practice every Monday night and offer three public performances each year. The origin of the choir appears to have been rooted in a local Methodist church, and was then supplemented with current and former members of the Youngstown Symphony Chorus. This past year, it hired a new director, who brought in several new members who sang under him at the various churches where he served as choirmaster. The result is a group of people of various ethnic backgrounds and religious beliefs sharing in their love of music of all types. Kris, our Seraphim director, currently is Chairman of Music at Mary, Mother of Hope Catholic Church in New Castle, Pa. This is a big, old fashioned, Gothic Catholic Church with a brand new paid for pipe organ worth several hundreds of thousands of dollars. It is a magnificent place to sing with unbelievable acoustics. Seraphim performed its Christmas program at the church. Sadly, Christmas was marred...

Sorry, gave you a bad link. Below is the TREASON referenced article from Time Magazine Posted Thursday, May. 23, 2002In the hours after September 11th, FBI agents in Minneapolis shared a macabre joke. For weeks prior, they had tried to interest FBI headquarters in Washington in Zacarias Moussaoui, now known as the 20th hijacker. They had begged FBI Headquarters to give them permission to seek a search warrant of Moussaoui's computer. They were denied. In their frustration, they joked that headquarters back in Washington must be infiltrated by agents of Osama Bin Laden. Why else would their work have been thwarted? This disturbing story is told in a 13-page, single-spaced letter written to FBI Director Robert Mueller by Colleen Rowley. The letter, portions of which TIME magazine has obtained, chronicle the efforts of Rowley, the Minneapolis Chief Division Counsel, to get the FBI interested in Moussaoui. Moussaoui was arrested in August on a visa violation after the Minnesota flight...

Treason is defined in Webster's Pocket English Dictionary as "giving your country's secrets to the enemy". Those leaking the NSA surveillance story to the New York Times, and the New York Times itself, are traitors. I am not sure who is worse. The Times sat on the story for over a year, claiming to do "follow up reporting" to their initial information. It only decided to go public with the story when one of its reporters quit and wrote a soon to be published book mentioning it. The Times had to go to press before the reporter's book made it to the bookstore. That is even worse. I would hope that the person who leaked the story at least had some noble intentions. The Times was worried about money and reputation, and was willing to betray this country for both. The war on George Bush by the left wing media has gone beyond the pale. What options did the New York Times have other than publishing this story and giving this information to the enemy? It had sev...

One of the frustrations of Christmas is trying to match the hype with the reality of what is a very emotional holiday. Norman Rockwell and the Saturday Evening Post gave us the first visual of what Christmas was supposed to be. In the golden age of television, it got worse. How could you compete with a Cleaver Christmas, or a Perry Como Christmas, or an Andy Williams Christmas? Television movies took it a step further, going to both extremes from "miracles in the snow" to "Griswold Christmas fiascos". And now we wax nostalgic with Ralphie in the modern day classic "A Christmas Story", which will be run on a cable channel for 24 hours on Christmas Day. The reality is Christmas is the most stressful time of the year. It is spelled W-O-R-K for most of us. Another spelling might be M-O-N-E-Y, also for most of us. Then there are the crazy family members coming out of the woodwork, some you can dispose of, others you are stuck with no matter what you do. On a sa...

A quote attributed to Teddy Roosevelt has been making the internet rounds over the past several weeks. It is provided below. Before printing it here, I researched it. He actually did write this on January 3, 1919, three days before his death, to the President of the American Defense Society. Americanization was a favorite theme of his after his Presidency. I like the quote because it is right on point to the most dangerous threat this country has faced from within for a long time. My wife was born and raised in a little town outside of Mansfield, Ohio. When she first came with me to Youngstown to live, she was continually asked "What are you?" She always replied "an American." When pressed, she would add "from Mansfield." It took her awhile to realize that Youngstown locals wanted to know her ethnic extraction. (It is German, English, Irish, Welsh, with a touch of American Indian. Anyone want to open a Casino?) All four of my grandparents were from Italy. ...

The best commercially baked Italian cookies that I have ever tasted anywhere, bar none, were purchased at the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Italian Festival over these past several summers. Joyce's Cookies operated a huge stand at the festival that was usually mobbed by people with fists full of money lined up to buy these wonderful confections. They weren't cheap, and neither were the ingredients. You could tell by the flavor and texture that no corners were cut in baking these outstanding cookies. I am cookie freak at Christmas time. This year I told my wife, instead of getting our cookies at the place we normally patronize (good, but not great), we should buy some Joyce's Cookies instead. The hunt was on. The only thing I knew about Joyce's Cookies was that it was based in McKees Rocks, PA. This is an old mill town along the Ohio River, about 5 miles from Pittsburgh. You get to it by taking PA Route 51 off of I 79. It is the back way into Pittsburgh. I call ...

The Butler Institute of American Art is the oldest museum in the United States dedicated solely to American artists. One of the gems of the Mahoning Valley, it has expanded several times through stunning additions to its main building, and the purchase of the surrounding historic buildings and churches. One of the mainstays of the Christmas season for years has been Christmas at the Gallery . This was a high end craft and artisan show. EVERYONE in the "see and be seen crowd" shoved their way into the opening night gala, and returned the next day to purchase their stuff. And it had some really nice stuff. This year, I couldn't find Christmas at the Gallery anywhere on the holiday promotional pages of the paper. Nor was there the usual television advertising. I wondered what happened to it as I was one of the regular attendees. Then I saw an ad on television for the " An American Holiday at the Butler ". I looked at the ad, and it hit me. The Butler Art Gallery h...

Years ago, Robert Henderson, the current pastor at Lord of Life Lutheran Church in Chagrin Falls, gave a sermon at Zion Lutheran Church in Youngstown, where he was serving as an intern. It is a sermon that has stayed with me over the years, and those of you who know me have heard me quote it from time to time. As we prepare for Thanksgiving during these very scary times, allow me to paraphrase his sermon. It has a message worth repeating. A lady had spent a very long day shopping at the local mall, getting ready for the holidays. Before going home, she decided to rest a bit in the food court, and have a snack. She stopped at one of the stores and bought a dozen cookies. She then found an empty table in the very crowded food court and deposited her bag of cookies, her packages and coat, and went to buy herself a cup of coffee to go with her cookies. Upon her return to her table, she found another gentleman had occupied one of the empty seats at the table she had claimed as her own. He w...

It is the 14th of November. The days are getting longer. The air is getting colder. The Halloween candy is only half gone. Chestnuts are roasting on the open fire. Jack Frost nipping at your nose. Yuletide carols being sung by a choir.... Now I know why we are supposed to say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas. If you start them in October, somewhere in your seasonal greeting you have to account for Halloween and Thanksgiving. We drove to Sharon for dinner last night. Peeping Tom that I am, I noticed that several houses had their Christmas trees up and lit already. After dinner, we made a trek to Kraynaks, home of the famous, or infamous, Christmas Tree Lane. We have twinkle lights year round on some sort of artificial plant growth thing on our porch, and the lights had burned out. We went to buy a line of lights and ran into elbow to elbow November Christmas revelers buying out ship loads of that cheap, imported Christmas...well...stuff. I wonder if the owners actually select ...

The most under-reported story of the this past election was the stealth victory for the Republican Party. In their analysis, Fox News, CNN, and the major news networks focused on the Democratic gubenatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia, and the defeat of the Schwartzenegger initiatives in California. Although pundits tried to spot a trend, there was none. Democratic governors in both states were replaced by Democratic governors with the same margin of victory as in previous years, both races extremely close. And California....well....is California. California is a blue state, and short of some cataclysmic politcal event, will contiue to be a blue state notwithstanding temporary aberrations in the the governor's office. The big story is Ohio. No Republican has ever won a Presidential election without carrying Ohio. No Democrat can carry Ohio without winning Mahoning County by more than 64%. Regardless of scandals swirling around Columbus, cointgate, and Governor Taft, reform...

After more than a week of violent riots in the outskirts of Paris, the mainstream media is finally beginning to pay attention. Last night, over 1300 cars were torched, not only in the outskirts, but towards the tourist areas of Paris, as well as other cities throughout the country. Unfortunately, the media, CNN in particular, has sanitized the story in political correctness. France has a population of approximately 60 million people. Its "immigrant" population of makes up 6.3% of its population. Included in that "immigrant" population are over 5 million Muslims , making it the largest enclave of Muslims in Western Europe. It is the young, Muslim, population that is rioting in the streets. After its initial reporting, CNN has ceased using the word "Muslim" in describing the rioters, and has begun to use the word "immigrant". It is so pronounced and obvious, it is clear that the CNN politically correct censors have decided that using the term Musl...