Mark Knows It All

I opened up my email last week, and tucked in between the email from the Zappo’s wanting to sell me a pair of shoes and Citibank offering me another “got to have” low interest credit card was an email from a law school chum of mine that I talk to several times a year. He was passing on a message from another of my law school classmates that it was time to plan for our 35th class reunion (Ohio Northern Law School/Class of 1975) in spring of 2010. Ouch. 35 years? Hard to believe!! It sure doesn’t feel like 35 years, but then again…. I have never been a fan of school reunions. My insecurities float to the surface like scum on a pond. Believe me, there is a lot of scum. I looked at myself in the mirror: my balding head, my expanded girth, the rings under my eyes, my sagging chin (not that I ever had one to start with), and the various wrinkles and growths that magically have appeared on my face over the years. As a comedian once said: How did a hair grow there? All I could think of is that...

With spectacular sets, pimped up music, and lighting alone that is worth the cost of admission, American Idol has topped American television ratings for the past 8 years. It is a star machine, producing Oscar, Grammy, and CMA Entertainer of the Year award winners. Are you an American Idol fan? I am. In an era of recession, shrinking 401(k)’s, and “big brother” government pounding at the door, it is a treat to sit back and watch talented young people try to grab the brass ring. If you haven’t been watching, this year’s group of singers is probably the best group presented in the past several years. The last couple of seasons were a tad dicey to the point where I was tuning the show out. Not one of them was particularly outstanding. But this year…there are several who are on the road to show biz success whether they win the competition or not. At the end of the day, this is basically an old fashioned variety show. There is a certain comfort level for those of us who grew up watching The...

I was thumbing through Business Week the other day, and came across an article about the new Verizon wireless home telephone system called the Verizon Hub. It claims that the home phone has been reinvented. Wow! I was SO impressed. This baby is a wireless console that you use in place of your land line because, as you know, people are deserting land telephone lines in droves. Millions upon millions of people are canceling their land lines every year. This Verizon console integrates all of your wireless functions, including your Blackberry, your broadband, and of course, you wireless telephone. In addition, you can watch movie trailers, buy movie theater tickets, monitor traffic, monitor your “little darl’ins”, send photos and videos, and keep you calendar….all from the Verizon Hub. And you don’t need a telephone line. Technological nirvana has been achieved. I don’t know about you, in my purpose driven life, the purpose for using the telephone is to call somebody to talk, and hopefully...

I don’t know where to begin to comment watching events unfold between General Motors and Barack Obama. Where does the Federal government get the authority to fire a CEO of a major corporation? I know. I know. “Thems that pays the piper picks the tunes.” And I know that General Motors approached the Feds for money. And I know that for all intents and purposes, but for the Feds, GM would be bankrupt. Nonetheless, there is something unseemly and inherently un-American about what is happening. Let’s start with GM itself. It has had long standing quality problems and union contracts which would sink a battleship. Its cars were…let’s just say…bad. They rusted within two years. They rattled. They were in constant need of repair. And GM, as well as Ford and Chrysler, were blown away by the engineering and galvanized steel of the Japanese imports. GM is currently carrying legacy costs which, in effect, change the nature of what it is. GM no longer makes cars to make money. It makes cars to pay ...

Finally, the Obama administration is taking measures to repair the issues that are at the heart of our economic problems. This comes under the category of better late than never. The heart of the economic malaise we find ourselves in has always been those so called “toxic” assets, and their attendant valuation by a flawed mark to market rule. It caused a paper loss for the banks and a credit freeze when the banks were forced to stop lending because of minimum capital requirements. Just so you know, cash flows into banks have never been higher, and absent the toxic asset, banks would be making more money now than any previous time in history. They are sitting on tons of cash, but can’t loan it because of fear of further bond markdowns. What is so irksome, and tragic for our country, is that the primary problem was known in September. The original TARP request for funds was to be used to fix the bond problems…but was used by the Bush administration for amything but after it got the money...

There is no better representation of man’s common experience than music. I learned that lesson many years ago when I was in St. Petersburg, Russia. The Soviet Union had just collapsed, and western business entities were moving in at a rapid pace. The Hotel Europa in St. Petersburg was one of the first luxury (and extremely expensive) western hotels attempting to do business there, and my business partner and I left our standard, Russian run, affordable hotel to sneak a peek at how the other half was beginning to live in this magnificent city. It was the week before Christmas. St. Petersburg is dark 20 hours/day and very cold that time of year. In the lounge of the hotel, a Russian lounge piano dude was attempting to play Christmas music. Living in an atheistic society for all of his life, it was clear he had no knowledge of western Christmas music, and my partner and I kind of laughed as he struggled through some tunes that sounded vaguely familiar but off the mark. He looked at us and...

If I were to choose one thing that could result in the downfall of the United States as we know it, I would choose death of personal responsibility. It’s not only responsibility’s demise, but the institutionalization of rewarding irresponsibility. In our country today, we punish those who act responsibly, and celebrate those who don’t. What lesson are we teaching our children? How can our culture survive? The deck is stacked against those of us who work hard every day, try to provide for our families, and live by some semblance of a moral code. Let’s start with the entertainment industry. Look at the role models being held up to our young people. Gangsta rappers, drug users, promiscuity is the road to riches and success as we celebritize those people whose behavior is abhorrent by any measureable standard. The Octo-mom gets a new house and 24 hour free help to raise her 14 kids. Has anyone helped you raise your children lately? The key to success is not hard work. Do something outrageo...

There are different ways people vote. The obvious way is at a ballot box on Election Day. The other way people vote is with their wallet. Using the latter measure, Barack Obama is in BIG trouble. One only has to look at the rapid decline in the stock market since his election to know that, at least where money is concerned, there is a vote of no confidence. There will be bear market spikes over the next few months, but the long term trend is bleak. There is not enough money in the world, literally, to service and pay the debt Obama and the Congress are racking up. To quote Margaret Thatcher: “The trouble with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money!” The assault on the American business community is in full force, and it effects everybody. The stock market is telling us in no uncertain terms that Obama’s economic plan will not work. Why is the stock market important? Do you have a pension fund? Are you a member of STRS or PERS? Do you have an employer funded 40...

When my son was deciding where to go to college for undergraduate school, we looked at a number of universities which were offering him scholarship money. Some of these schools were pricey, with tuition pushing the $30,000.00/year range. Of course, the scholarship money would drop the price down to fifteen grand, but geez. He decided to attend Youngstown State because the tuition was substantially cheaper, and the scholarship money went much farther, not to mention the quality of education at YSU is second to none. But at the end of the day, why would anyone pay $30,000.00 for freshman English, Math, and History? We did not regret our choice. President Obama alluded to making education one of his priorities. Who can argue with that? Public education in this country is pitiful. But in typical liberal fashion, his intent is to throw gobs of money at the problem. That has never been the solution, and never will be the solution. The Feds have been throwing money at education for years, and...

Isn’t always interesting how when the price of oil goes up, the price of gasoline moves in tandem almost immediately even though the gas you were buying was refined from oil purchased at a lower price? It’s even more aggravating when the price for a barrel of oil goes down; the cost of a gallon of gas only creeps down, reluctantly, slowly. But it is downright infuriating when the cost of a barrel of oil is going down, and the price of gasoline goes up. What’s with that? Well, here’s the answer. The Associated Press ran a story written by Chris Kahn and John Porretto about this very issue this past Monday. It was featured on AOL, so those of you read the article, accept my apologies. If you haven’t, you will learn something. The price of oil as reported on the business channels or in the newspaper is a benchmark price for West Texas Intermediate Crude. Believe it or not, it is actually drilled in Texas. I didn’t know that we had any oil left in Texas. Yippee-I-O Ki-a. This is an extreme...

The reason I married my wife was because she was the only girl I ever dated that could eat her half of the pizza. She would fight me over the last piece. And given that I considered pizza to be one of the major food groups, it didn’t take me long to conclude she was the girl for me. How often do you eat pizza? I have it for dinner at least once each week, and probably at least once each week for lunch, not to mention a slice here and there for snack. I eat less now than I did 10 years ago, but then again my stomach is 10 years older so I have to watch now. It likes pizza a lot less than I do. Nonetheless, on a Friday night when we are just too pooped to pop, pizza is the answer, stomach be damned. I eat my pizza with pepperoni. My wife doesn’t like pepperoni, so from time to time I have to surrender to toppings of sausage and black olives. My wife likes Brier Hill pizza…tomatoes, peppers, olive oil and parsley with lots of black pepper….that is way too healthy to be considered pizza. ...

The economy is steadily getting worse, and we have the keystone cops in Washington running the show. Unfortunately, the longer this goes on, the more difficult it becomes to solve the problems, and Congress isn’t helping. It also doesn’t help that Obama is saying one thing, but his Democratic counterparts on the Hill are ignoring what he is saying. It is one of two things: either he agrees with what they are doing but giving the public rhetoric; or, he has lost control. Notwithstanding, in Mark’s humble opinion, here is what needs to be done to fix the problem: 1) The banking crisis is the immediate problem, but the long term problem is energy. It is at the root of our balance of trade problems and was the tipping point that pushed the economy over the edge last summer. The proposed bailout package should provide funding to accelerate development of alternate power sources for cars, including a super battery that can take a car 100 miles on a charge; accelerate development of natural g...

When it is snowing outside…when the Dow is tumbling…when a Democrat occupies the White House…it’s time for comfort food. Some people eat to live. I live to eat. I LOVE eating. When I’m happy, I eat. When I am depressed, I eat. I am sure there is some psychological reason for it, but I don’t care. I love food. So when the going gets tough, I get comfort food. What kind of comfort food do you like? Sunday dinner with chicken and mashed potatoes is always at the top of somebody’s list. Then there is pot roast and swiss steak. Mac and cheese is another favorite. I like mine plain. I watched a Tyler Florence blurb about making it with peas and onions. I don't think so!!! The universal comfort food is chicken soup. My mother used to make chicken soup. My father didn't like it and called it hot Kool Aid. He liked Campbell's chicken soup. There is no accounting for taste. For the kids there is grilled cheese and PB and J sandwiches. Of course, now one has to watch out for the Salmo...

If I learned nothing more during my late mother’s recent illness, I learned that the state of senior care in Ohio is abysmal. We as a society should be ashamed of what we have done to our senior citizens. As one who is looking at age 60 just down the pike, I am personally frightened for myself and my wife. With the huge number of aging baby boomers just over the horizon, it will only get worse. I have come to the conclusion that nursing homes are nothing more than a place to warehouse people until they die. Minimally, they are depressing. Many of them are smelly with poor ventilation. Some of them are dirty. They are grossly understaffed. Most of them are over-crowded. There is a shortage of beds in any of the facilities that are tolerable, and the mad dash to find a place for one’s loved one is something akin to herding cows into a pen…you take what you can get. Physicians work for nursing homes on a full time basis, or close to it. They visit the patient once each month, and in betw...

It is time to say goodbye to President George W. Bush. Bush bashing has become a national pastime. The press has bordered on obscene in its treatment of him. Turn on any of the late night television shows or television programs like The Daily Show or SNL, and it is a continual litany of hate. Any and all objectivity from New York and/or Hollywood media news types is dead. Journalism is dead. We are the poorer for it, and we will pay the price. History will treat Bush much kinder than his contemporaries. His handling of the September 11 debacle was magnificent. He inherited 20 years of foreign policy blunders culminating in the worst attack on American soil in history. He defined the means by which terrorism can be defeated, and you will see President Obama pay lip service to the whiny civil libertarians, but his actions will be more in line with President Bush, except the New York Times won’t be leaking classified information to undermine him. You see, when an attack occurs, you don’t...

Have you ever felt like you have failed at “being all you can be”? The media is the message, and the media is continually telling us we have to be all we can be. Unfortunately, I have yet figure out what being all I can be is. Or maybe I know, and I am too darn lazy to worry about it. After all, wouldn’t being all you can be involve a whole lot of effort? It’s too hard. I am happy if I can get out of bed in the morning. So…I have taken a different approach to measuring my success or lack thereof. Instead of looking at those ahead of me, as my sainted parents taught me, I have decided to look at people who have really screwed up and say: “At least I didn’t do that!” Look at the Blago dude in Illinois. I always wanted to be in politics, but c’mon…going door to door listening to constituent complaints. Ya! Right! And who wants to deal with that press thing. So I am not a successful politician. But I can look at Governor Blago’s "pay to play" scheme as he tried to sell a Senate ...

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...