Mark Knows It All

My wife and I went looking for autumn this past weekend, and we found it in the Laurel Highlands. What a beautiful place, and only 2 ½ hours away. Located is Pennsylvania southeast of Pittsburgh, I mostly knew this region through the signs we saw on the Pennsylvania Turnpike on our way to somewhere else. We visited the outskirts of the area on a trip to Ligonier two years ago and fell in love with the place. This year we jumped head first in the heart of the region. The main artery through the Laurel Highlands is Route 40, better known as the National Road. This was the first federally funded road built around 1811 beginning in Cumberland, Maryland, to all points west. The toll booth is still there. Although parts of Route 40 are now freeway, the old road is maintained for those looking for scenery instead of speed. As beautiful as Route 40 is, the true heart of the Laurel Highlands is State Route 381 (merging into State Route 711 north to Ligonier), and its smaller tributary roads, wh...

A trend that has been happening in the United States for quite some time has accelerated in the Obama administration. That trend is the establishment of a new elite. Conventional wisdom believes that it is the fat cat wizards of Wall Street that have made all the money these past 8 years. That is true to an extent. But the more interesting story is what has been happening in the middle class. Just who are the new elite? Union members and government employees! No matter how you slice and dice it, in the mass making of manufactured goods the American worker cannot compete with the Chinese guy making a $1.00/hour working 12 hours per day with no benefits. The same goes for India. This has decimated our manufacturing base and destroyed union jobs. It is easy to point the finger at government policies for the mass exodus of jobs from the United States, but mostly the problem is folks who prefer to buy $8.00 Chinese made blue jeans instead of $30.00 American made blue jeans. Those folks walk...

It’s time to say enough. Over the past several weeks I have linked to various videos showing indoctrination of our children by left wing elements of our education system. I have also written extensively about the bias of the press. For awhile, the press feigned independence. But they have stopped that now. The pro-Democrat/anti-Republican stance of NBC, CBS, CNN, and to a lesser degree ABC is now generally accepted. It shows in their abysmal ratings, and in the stellar ratings of Fox News. But just in case you have any doubt left, watch this: It shows young students from the Ron Clark Academy singing the praises of health care and Obama on CNN. They can’t sing about Jesus. They can’t say Merry Christmas. But they can sing praises to Obama, and on national television. It is sick. It is propaganda. It is dangerous. It needs to stop. Obama is NOT the Messiah. He is the President of the United States. The man is servant of the people. Not the other way around. One should always respect th...

I truly believe that the Mahoning Valley will be the growth center for Ohio for the next ten years. The reason is clear. The rest of the state, for that matter the nation, is going through what we went through 30 years ago when the steel industry collapsed. More people lost their jobs in the Mahoning Valley in the years following 1977 than are currently employed by General Motors nationwide…and there was nobody there to help us. Over the past 30 years, although the area has continued to lose established large company manufacturing jobs, the area has done an outstanding job at establishing a highly diverse small business base which has held its own during the current recession. There are approximately 3500 new call center jobs in the area. It has become a warehouse/distribution center. A local specialty pipe manufacture is expanding. Several technology companies have moved into the area or have been “homegrown” in the business incubator/tech center downtown. While cities like Toledo and...

Over this past week I had an occasion to attend a business meeting with a friend of mine with an eye to doing some business out of town. The meeting was in Pittsburgh. Since my friend lived on the way, I picked him up at his lovely condominium located in Columbiana County. It is gorgeous unit in a beautiful development. I have known my friend for quite awhile, and he is a mover and shaker. He started his career in Chicago, which his hometown. Staying with the same company, he was transferred to the Cleveland office, then to the Youngstown office, then retired and moved to Columbiana. He flies back to Chicago on a regular basis to visit his family, but he is one of us now. It struck me, as I walked through his gorgeous home, that is amazing how he started in Chicago, and ended up Columbiana. I don’t mean that in a pejorative sense. I like it here, and I like it here a lot. He does, too. That’s why he stayed. The point is, isn’t it funny where we end up…and how we got there? I think it w...

I have always been a proponent of legalized gambling in Ohio. As I watched other states build casinos, I wondered how Ohio could let gambling revenue leave the state. Our budget is in shambles. Our schools are in need of funds. Our libraries are closing. The demographics of the state, especially in southern Ohio with its strong fundamentalist bent, tend to stack the deck against gambling initiatives. Initiative after initiative has gone down to defeat in Ohio. They are now trying it once again. This time, the constitutional amendment would allow one casino each in Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland, and Toledo, with the state revenue being shared equally by all of Ohio’s counties. The Cincy casino will be located close to an area decimated by job losses, numbering in the tens of thousands over the past 5 years with the closing of Airborne Express and numerous auto manufacturing plants and its attendant suppliers in the Dayton area. The promise of 35,000 jobs is almost too good to pass up,...

Two things happened to today which spells trouble for the Democratic Party as it currently exists. Van Jones quit as the Green Jobs Czar, and Jim Traficant had a welcome home party attended by 1200 very Traficant loyalists. What does a black man from Oakland, California, and Jim Traficant have in common? Nothing, and that is exactly my point. Let’s start with Van Jones. For those of you who watch NBC, CBS, ABC, and CNN…you probably don’t know that Van Jones was the radical extremist among us. If you want to know what a President’s policies are or will be, look at the people he surrounds himself with for advice. Van Jones is a black activist whose past is stunningly radical. He compared George Bush to a crack-head; he stated overtly that he was a communist; he stated all the wealth should be given to Indians because America took their lands; he blindly supported a black cop killer; and signed a letter of support for the 9/11 Truth group which claims Bush was complicit in the 9/11 attack...

If there is one constant in the life of the Mahoning Valley, it is the Canfield Fair. For the most part, it looks the same today as it did when I went for the first time over 50 years ago. If there is change, it is slow. No technology here. It might not be the largest county fair in the country, but my guess it would be close to the top of the list. Even when attendance is down, the figures are staggering. What is even more interesting is that it is smack in the middle of the rust belt, and is adjunct to what is thought to be an industrial area. Who grows corn here? Well, a lot of people. The northeast quadrant of Mahoning County may be industrial, but the rest of it is about as rural as one can get, and so are the adjoining counties. 11,600 acres of Mahoning County land grows corn, producing 1.4 million bushels/year. I have mixed feelings about the fair. In this area, it is the traditional end of summer. For students, it the last fling before school starts. It is alternately beastly h...

Do you remember the movie Deliverance? What a great flick, and one that gave me nightmares for many nights. I can remember that dead hand shooting out of the lake at the end of the movie like it was yesterday. Although Dueling Banjos is still one of my favorite tunes, I never watched the movie again. Once was enough. Of course, nothing like that can happen around here…bein’ all urbanized and everythin’…or can it? I must have led a fairly sheltered life when I was kid because my family rarely drove south (or north for that matter) for any family trips. We tended to drive east or west. It was only after my friend moved to Steubenville that I discovered the beauty of the Appalachian part of Ohio. West Virginia is just about 30 miles away…so Dixie is just 30 minutes down Route 11. It was originally part of Virginia, after all, and they owned slaves there clear to the end of the Civil War. Between here and there lies Columbiana County. It is a beautiful part of Ohio, with stunning views and...

Jim Traficant has been in the news lately as he will be returning home in September after his unfortunate incarceration. I read all sorts things about the man in the Vindicator. He certainly is unpopular with certain Vindicator columnists. The radio commentary seems to be mixed. And no one knows what the impact will be on the local political scene when he gets back. The Scrappers scrapped a Traficant Release Night. But the welcome home dinner seems to be close to sold out if not sold out entirely. I only voted for Traficant once. I thought he was an embarrassment to the community. He certainly got this area some notoriety, lots of it bad, from his bad hair and television tirades. No one, including me, condones any illegal behavior while he was in office. As a lawyer, I certainly question his judgment on his decision to represent himself in his last legal entanglement that ended up with him in jail. Not a good thing!!! But in light of what has been going on in Congress, I have been thin...

My wife is a gardening dynamo. She loves to get out and dig in the dirt. Some of the plants and shrubs around my house have been moved so many time they keep teeny tiny bags packed right next to their stems. “Taking root” is not an understood concept among our fauna population. That being said, we take great pride in our back yard. It backs up to small woods which we have landscaped. It has a lot of old growth trees and shade, so getting anything to grow means manipulating branches and scarce sunlight to hit just where you want. It is a continual work in progress. I am always amazed at how the garden grows. It is fairly bleak and glum during the winter. Because of falling branches and trees, many of our new evergreen plantings have been damaged. It really shows in the winter. But the critters love them so we leave them alone. At the beginning of March, I look at the barren yard and wonder will anything grow this year. Then comes mid-March, and the little shoots start to poke their head...

What does one do with Andy Warhol, aka Andy Warhola, aka Andy Varchola? Such a talent! Such a life! Such a perversion!! This past weekend my wife and I visited the Andy Warhol Museum, operated by the Carnegie Museums, on Pittsburgh’s north shore. It took us about 2 ½ hours to get through the thing, and mostly wife told me to get that look off my face. Let’s start with the facility itself. Costs $15.00 per person to get in (not worth it) unless you are over 55 making the cost $9.00 (worth it) or a member of the Carnegie Museums…free and worth it!! It is in the old Volkwein’s Music Publishing Building on the north shore. There is a parking lot cattycorner with a $6.00 fee unless there is a sporting event at either the baseball or football stadiums about 3 blocks away, then the fee goes to $12.00. The museum occupies the top four stories of the seven story building, with offices and restoration facilities occupying the bottom three floors. Elevators are available to get you the top. There...

This past weekend some friends of ours asked them to join them at the Mount Carmel Festival at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church. They picked us up, and my buddy took Market Street downtown driving through Youngstown’s South Side, and the Uptown district. It was pitiful. Outside of government buildings, a random well fortified convenience store, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Buildings, it was void of much of anything. Empty storefront was followed by empty storefront. Scary people walked on the sidewalk. Sitting on the stoop of one vacant building was a lady dressed in pink…obviously stoned out of her mind. It was fairly depressing. Looking at this mess, it struck me why I am a conservative. Youngstown has an unemployment rate of about 12%. Right now, it is a little higher than usual, but not by much. Since the mills closed in the late 1970’s, our unemployment rate has always been high. What is disturbing is that many of these folks are not only unemployed, but unemployable. They have b...

I was raised Roman Catholic, and my wife was raised Lutheran. Back in 1972 when we got hitched, mixed marriages were still frowned upon, and we were met with raised eyebrows by skeptical family members. My cousin telling my wife that non-Catholics are heathens and going to hell is one example. My wife’s uncle telling me the only good fish-eater is a dead-fish eater is another…so much for the ecumenical spirit. Looking for common ground, my wife and I stumbled across the Episcopal Church and found a home. I loved its rich and beautiful liturgy and music, while its protestant attitude was comfortable to my wife. We attended an Episcopal Church for the next 28 years. It is a relatively small United States denomination (2.1 million members) with its roots in the Church of England, separated by revolution. It believes in apostolic succession (the laying on of hands in an unbroken chain from St. Peter). Because of the American Revolution, the Church of England refused to consecrate American ...

Last week, I had the occasion to have dinner with a group of my family members. Included in the group were my Aunt Rosemary who was married to my father’s deceased brother Lou; my Uncle Bud who was married to my mother’s deceased sister Dee; and Jerry who was married to my late cousin Marilyn. Of course, my mother and father are both deceased. So there we sat in the Springfield Grill having a wonderful time. Although I come from a rather large extended family, my mother and father, Rosemary and Lou, Dee and Bud, and Marilyn made up my core family. These are the folks with whom we would spend most of the holidays and celebrations. My mother and father did a fair amount of traveling with Dee and Bud (belonging to my mother’s side of the family) and Rosemary and Lou (belonging to my father’s side of the family). Marilyn, Dee and Bud’s daughter, and I were raised in a duplex and viewed ourselves more like brother and sister. It dawned on me, looking around at these folks last week, that th...

One of my favorite stories stems from my being a member of the Board of Directors of a certain organization that has a kitchen facility attached to it. Money, as is everywhere, is tight. Capital improvements are always an issue, and the club has a rule that any expenditure above a certain dollar amount has to be approved by the Board. At a meeting last year, it was brought to the attention of the Board that the deep fryer in the kitchen was kaput, and the kitchen needed a new one. The cost for a commercial fryer would be in the $2,500.00. A spirited discussion ensued. It was noted that the deep fryer was located in an inconvenient location in the kitchen, and that it probably would do everyone well to move it closer to where the chef said it ought to be. But when they measured the space, the counter was to cramped to move the fryer to the ideal location. It was suggested that the fryer could be accommodated if they could add some additional counter space. Of course, that would involve ...

If you are to pick one thing that is wrong with America, I would start with the Michael Jackson story that has developed over this past week. His untimely death has certainly dominated the news cycles. While you were moon walking, American troops pulled out of Iraqi cities while sectarian violence escalated; there was a coup in Honduras that overthrew a left wing president who was acting in violation of the Honduran Supreme Court orders stating he could not run for a third term and to vacate the office; and the House of Representatives passed the Cap and Trade bill which will raise the cost of utilities in all of our houses by as much as $1800.00/year. Michael Jackson was a great entertainer. In his earlier years, I was a fan. But over the years he came to represent all that is wrong with America. His celebrity became a tragic joke filled with unending cosmetic surgery destroying his face and body; the whitening of his skin; his obsession with toys personified at the Neverland Ranch; h...

The American Revolution is not my most favorite period of history. But I do know that it is considered to be the Conservative Revolution. It was not a revolution rooted in the misfortune of the downtrodden like most such events, most notably the French and Russian Revolutions. The American Revolution was rooted in the privileged classes. It was a revolution to preserve property rights for those whose wealth was being taxed away without representation by an oppressive British Crown. Our founding fathers considered themselves to be proud British subjects who had recently participated with the mother country in defeating the French in the French and Indian War, establishing Britain as the primary European power in North America. These guys wanted to remain British subjects, but were faced with a King whose main goal shifted from the war toward paying off the government debt incurred thereby, as well as all of the other wars in which Britain was involved. How to do it? Disenfranchise the c...

Happy Father’s Day to all of you Dads!! Days like Father’s Day or Mother’s Day are no-brainers for writers like me. Pull out the schmaltz and throw in some hearts and flowers…we can have our readers crying in their coffee mugs in 2 minutes. (C’mon, you know I can do it!). But me being me, I view Father’s Day as a chance to vent my continual frustration about the diminishment of the roles of fathers, and men generally, in our society. Watch television and the talk shows. The media likes to portray men as sperm donors first, and dumb and stupid second. Female celebrities are continually impregnated by men to whom they are not married, and to whom they may or may not marry at some time in the future, while they parade their “baby bump” in skin tight tops strutting up and down Rodeo Drive or as they go clubbing at night. It diminishes men. It diminishes the miracle of child birth, and it diminishes the mothers…and I use the term loosely. Let’s not even go to the single women who traipse ar...

I took my car to Big Jim’s the other day for a wash and wax. Big Jim’s has been a fixture on Route 224 for years and years, and the people who Big Jim’s employs have worked there just as long. I got my formica card showing the type of wash I was getting; watched the carpet guys clean the mats and vacuum the floor, then went to pay my 12 bucks. I handed my car wash card to the cashier, and she asked, “Are you a senior?” I was taken aback. Something was askew. I’m not a senior. I don’t look like a senior. I don’t think like a senior…well…maybe. I feel like a senior!!!! But as Fernando said on Saturday Night Live years ago, it’s not how you feel,it’s how you look, and I look maahhhvelous!!! Maybe not marvelous!! Those bags under my raccoon eyes are a little disturbing. I asked her to define senior. “Are you 60?” she asked. No, I am 59…six months to go. “That’s okay, honey, I will give it to you anyway.” She replied. A reprieve!!!!! Such a deal!!! Not sixty, but I still get the discount!!!...