Mark Knows It All

Don't forget to visit http://www.markknowsitall.com/ Hope: to have a wish to get or do something or for something to happen or be true. Aspiration : a desire or ambition to achieve something. As the 2008 presidential campaign heats up, Barack Obama is in full gear selling his vision for the future of America. He is for “hope” and “change.” …and oh yes, peace. He is also for “peace.” Aren’t we all? Obama, the oratorical wunderkind with the speech cadence of Martin Luther King, is doing a fine job of telling us what we should hope for, and how he is going to give it to us. He is a riveting individual and a spell binding speech giver. Hope is a good thing, right? Obama believes Americans are “hope” deficient. Americans “hope” for universal (read “government run”) health care, even though 85% of Americans have coverage, and 25% of those who do not aren't American citizens, and an additional 14% of those who don’t can afford it but simply choose not buy it, and a portion of the re...

VISIT: MARK KNOWS IT ALL: THE WEBSITE At what age do we become irrelevant? My conclusion is the older we get, the earlier that age becomes, and it is disheartening. When I was young, I was taught to treat folks who are older than me with a degree of respect. I still do to this day. Even though I am 58 years old, I still refer to people whom I have known since I was small as Mr. or Mrs. Whoever, simply because their age carries with it something of merit. They grew up in difficult times. Now the Baby Boomers, the largest and wealthiest segment of the population, are on the downhill side of middle age. By definition, we are aged between 50 and 65. But rather than enjoying any kind of respect, the digital age quickly moved us into the age of irrelevance vis-a-vis a younger group of people who not only have no regard for us, but have no regard for each other. Such are the egocentric twenty year olds, who have redefined the word "entitlement." These are the people raised on comput...

The Westminster Kennel Club show is over, and Uno, the Beagle, was the winner. Clearly THE popular choice, he is now enjoying a blast of media hype, eating steak off a table at Sardi’s, and relegating Snoopy, the former most famous American beagle, into second place. Style is everything, and Uno has style. While style and breeding are de rigueur in dog shows, it also seems to be de rigueur in this year’s Democratic primary. What do we do with Obama? He is now the front runner in the Democratic presidential primary, blowing past a shrill and teary-eyed Hillary, who would have done well to heed the advice of the 1950’s hit “Cross Over the Bridge”, by leaving her “fickle past” behind her…and dumping that two timing, philandering husband of hers. We all love Bill, but methinks he done her in. Which leaves us with Barack. Let me start by saying I like this guy. He is the most refreshing politician to come down the pike since Ronald Reagan. When he says he wants “change”, I believe him. He g...

While talking to my son the other night, I heard a strange rumble followed by him reaching for his cell phone. I then proceeded to watch him methodically and with much dexterity rapidly push a bunch of buttons using both thumbs. “What are you doing?” I asked. “Texting.” He said. “Wouldn’t it be easier just talk to the person on the phone?” I queried. “No!” he replied, and continued to text away. I have often questioned whether cell phones represent an advancement in telecommunications, or whether it is actually a step backward. Here is a gizmo that I have carry around in a case on my belt. The reception is usually pretty awful when I use it. It can do many things, but my fingers are too fat to push the buttons. I have to recharge the battery every night. And between my phone, my wife’s, my son’s, and my mother’s, I pay a lot of money to buy “minutes” which I may or may not use. On the other hand, there is my land line phone at home and the office. Locally, I can talk as long as I want ...

This morning Fox News reported a story concerning three lawmakers in the great State of Mississippi attempting to pass legislation that would ban restaurants from serving obese people. As I understand the legislation, it would use the body mass index (BMI) to measure who could be served and who would be turned away. The story also reported that using the standards in the proposed Mississippi legislation, Tom Brady and Eli Manning would both flunk the test, and go away hungry. I also would flunk the test, but I am definitely in the obese category. For those of you new to my ranting, I have written several times over the past two and half years about freedom loss creep. It comes in baby steps, as we grow accustomed to a new governmental intrusions in our lives. And it is usually veiled in something that sounds perfectly logical at the time. On a panel subsequently discussing the Mississippi food police story, the commentators made it clear that the law has no chance of passing. The healt...

I have learned over my life that people connect at many different levels. We have family connections and business connections. There are connections based in attending the same school or working in the same office or living in the same neighborhood. But every now and then, a special connection comes along based on something that defies the normal course of things. Over the course of my choral music experience, I have made two such connections. Carol Cook died today. She was a friend, although I didn’t know too much about her personal life. I knew she has some children and grandchildren. I knew she knitted (Canfield Fair blue ribbon winner) and bowled. I knew she was feisty, and said her mind as she believed necessary. But I only knew about those things in generalities. I was never to her house. I never went out with her socially. I didn’t know her other friends. But for many years, Carol and I sang in the Zion Lutheran Church choir, and later the Seraphim Chorus. She was an alto and I ...

Heath Ledger died this past week. My wife and I were watching election coverage when the news flashed across the screen. All of a sudden the news cycle was taken over by this untimely passing, with reporters standing in front of his Soho apartment in New York City, doctors speculating how this 28 year old man could have died, pictures of the body bag being removed from the apartment as a makeshift memorial was being set up at the front door, and lurid descriptions of pills being scattered around his naked body sprawled across his bed when discovered by his masseuse. After awhile, my wife looked over at me and asked:”Who’s that?” Then my mother called me and asked me the same question. At my church choir practice, another lady asked me the same thing. This was the second young actor to die this past week, 23 year old Brad Renfro being the first. Although not as “famous” as Heath Ledger, he also got substantial press coverage on his untimely demise by a drug overdose. When the televisio...

Katie, bar the door and hide the women. Here comes Wal-Mart. Sam Walton’s corporate tribute to mass merchandising, economies of scale, and the largest importer of goods into the United States, is coming to Canfield, Ohio…or not. In what appears to be one of the worst corporate real estate development decisions in modern times, Wal-Mart has decided to build one of its “Super Centers” on one of the busiest, most dangerous roads in Ohio, the State Route 224 Mahoning County corridor. It would face I-76, the Ohio Turnpike, for “exposure”. One small problem, there is no turnpike exit within 10 miles either way for anyone desiring to get to the store. State Route 11 would give it the closest freeway access, but traffic makes it almost inaccessible now, and any more construction would completely gridlock it from 3 -5 in the afternoon when it takes almost 30 minutes to drive less than a mile to the freeway. Not only is the location convoluted, they want to build it 6 miles from the newly expand...

Henry Clay and the Compromise of 1850 One of the side stories of this year’s election is whether or not New York Mayor Bloomberg will run for president as a third party candidate. His mantra is an end to "partisan politics." He envisions a Congress in which both sides of the aisle are working together, Republicans and Democrats holding hands, solving the nation’s problems while singing Kum By Yah. Sounds good, but is it? For your consideration, I believe that our political process needs, and we as citizens of a democracy deserve, a vigorous discussion of the various sides of an issue. Sometimes there is simply no room to compromise, nor would you want one. The old joke that goes Q: “What is a camel?” A: “A horse designed by a committee”, is a perfect example of what a compromise can spawn. When you need a horse, a camel don’t cut it no matter how admirable a beast it might be. Many of the great philosophical issues that face this nation are not amenable to compromise. Eithe...

The real winner this past Thursday was Iowa and its caucuses. Maybe it was the uniqueness of the current presidential election cycle; or perhaps the excitement of the possible first woman or black presidential nominee; or the lack of a clear front runner in a crowded GOP race; or the fact that my son decided to visit Iowa to see the caucuses first hand (he took the above picture in Des Moines)....whatever it was, this was American politics at its best. People never really understood how the "caucuses" worked, but the proliferation of digital cameras and videos has finally shown how this quirky institution operates from the inside. People showing up for a meeting of about 1 1/2 hours in length, listening to speeches, being cajoled by fellow citizens to vote for whomever, then physically going to a corner of the room to deomstrate a candidate preference. It was fascinating viewing. I wish we had such a system here in Ohio. Iowa serves several functions in our electoral process:...

I decided a long time ago that no one knows better than me what I want for Christmas. So each Christmas I buy for myself a gift for my wife to give to me that I will be sure to love. This year, it was a digital DVD camcorder. I saw it on QVC, and said to her that is what you can give me for Christmas. I ordered it, and gave it to her to wrap and to put under the tree along with an appropriate card expressing her sentiments of the season. I dutifully acted surprised on Christmas morning when I opened it up. How did she know that is exactly what I wanted? But like the bloom off the rose, I sat down yesterday to try to learn how to run thing. I knew I was in trouble when the instruction “booklet” was the size of War and Peace . And it was in three languages: Spanish, French, and English. And it had lots of charts, especially to explain what kind of disc to buy that would work with the dang thing. Then I then had to make sure it was compatible with my DVD player that is attached to my tele...

"It snowed last year, too; I made a snowman and my brother knocked it down and I knocked my brother down and then we had tea." Dylan Thomas Here's hoping the whole world sits down and has a cup of tea. Merry Christmas from The Mangie Family

For those of you who refuse to believe that when you vote a certain way, you get the whole package, consider this article reprinted without permission from the San Francisco Chronicle, one of the most liberal newspapers in the United States. There are always those who know what is good for you, and they will go to any lengths to insure that you follow their dictates. If we get a national health insurance plan of the sorts that is being proposed by several of the presidential candidates, what San Francisco is trying to do will be just a small sample of the government tyring to get into your refrigerator. Food Police may seem like a joke now, but just wait. TAX IT AND THEY'LL DRINK MILK Tuesday, December 18, 2007 We heartily agree with Mayor Gavin Newsom that soft drinks, loaded with high-fructose corn syrup and caffeine, are unhealthful. But there is also something unhealthful about a politician's attempt to selectively target one source of calories for a new tax - the ...

From time to time, I have written about Seraphim, the community chorus in which I sing. Choral music has always been my passion. I have either sung in and/or directed choirs since I was 14 years old. My high school music teacher left me to direct the 9th grade mixed chorus in front of the curtain while she prepared the A Cappella Choir behind the curtain on performance nights. For 4 years of high school I accompanied the chorus and she taught me how to direct the music. I was hooked. I am an OK musician with a better than average choral baritone voice. I can play the piano and organ, but most of it is faking as my fingers don’t want to go where the music says they should. I should have practiced my Schirmer exercises. But it is enough to enable me to assist in a meaningful manner those who truly know what they are doing. What people don’t understand about choral music is it is possible to get the same effect athletes describe as an endorphin rush. To be blunt, you can get high. It does...

My apologies to those of you not from around here as I lament the passing of another local institution. Youngstown, Ohio, has always been a self contained area with its local newspaper, and numerous radio stations, and three local television stations representing affiliates with the major television networks. It created a cocoon of sorts, as we were, and still are, totally insulated from the news in the rest of the state. Akron, for example, has its own newspaper, but no television stations. The folks there watch the Cleveland stations. My in-laws are from Mansfield, again with no television stations. They watch stations from Cleveland and Columbus. Not us, we watched, and watch, all things local. Ohio newspapers have always been statewide, with folks all over the state reading the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Toledo Blade, the Columbus Dispatch, and the Cincinnati Enquirer. But not here in Youngstown. We read the Vindicator, and for the most part, only the Vindicator. When I went to Oh...

Today Mitt Romney gave his speech about faith. It was intended to quell issues relating to his Mormon religion. He made his point that no religion, including his own, would stand in the way of his doing what was right for America. But the speech was much more. I am not a Romney supporter. But I know a good political speech when I hear one. Romney gave today what will go down in political annals as the definitive statement of Faith in America. It is a topic that politicians are hesitant to address. It is a topic that has been lost in this era of political correctness. It is a topic that goes to the root of the lost values that we so sorely need restored to gain back the soul of the country. He said in part: “Perhaps the most important question to ask a person of faith who seeks a political office, is this: Does he share these American values — the equality of human kind, the obligation to serve one another and a steadfast commitment to liberty? They are not unique to any one denominati...

These past few weeks have been particularly difficult for me for a number of different reasons. So I was feeling a tad put upon when a friend of mine, Richard, told me about a musical event in which he was a participant. He thought I might want to attend. It was held at the Butler Museum of American Art during the lunch hour this past Wednesday. Richard is a music aficionado of sorts, and likes to compose modern classical music. He belongs to an organization affiliated with the Dana School of Music at Youngstown State University whose purpose is to foster and develop various artists with this type of talent. The event was designed to showcase their original compositions, performed by students from the Dana School. It was a dreary day, and my mood was not the best. My wife encouraged me, however, to attend the recital, saying I should do something for myself. As lunch approached, I left the office early and drove to the north side to watch the performance. When I got to Butler, I was su...

OK, it is the time of the year to get a little OCD about my SAD. For you sane people, that means being Obsessive Compulsive about my Seasonal Affective Disorder. Last year I first addressed the issue that December 21 isn’t the be all and end all for those of us with this particular affliction. We looked at such issues as sun rotation and tilt of the earth. Now it is time for just facts. I have saved on my favorite places the US Naval Observatory website for determining the rising and setting of the sun for Youngstown, Ohio, so I can track the progress. Now, there are two things one has to be concerned about. First, the rising of the sun. This year, the sun continues to rise later and later until December 31 where it stabilizes at 7:48 AM. It continues to rise at 7:48 AM until January 10, where it begins to rise a minute earlier every few days. It will be February before the sun rises as early as it is rising as of today, November 26. HOWEVER, even as we speak, we are close to the botto...

I don't think this would be allowed to be read in our schools today. I hope that you enjoy it. The George Washington 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation: Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor -- and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me "to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness." Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be -- That we may the...

When was the last time you experienced hard times? I don’t mean life’s daily challenges. We all have days when we wonder how we are going to make ends meet. How are we going to pay for the new furnace? How are we going to pay for our retirement, or our kids college education, or for the car repair? When was the last time you actually had to make a sacrifice? I don’t mean the annual church “every member canvass” where we are told to sacrifice for God, or giving up a new television so we can take a vacation, or writing a check to the local food bank, or buying a less powerful computer. I believe that there isn’t one of you reading this that can really remember true hard times and sacrifice. Because in the United States, we haven’t had any for a long, long time. If you CAN remember times of true hardship and true sacrifice, you are at least 70 years old, and then it's a stretch. Throughout our history, America has faced times of severe hardship that helped build the character of the n...