Mark Knows It All

The tragedy in Aurora, Colorado, has given this nation pause. Pyramided on top of the school shooting in Chardon, OH, and the Giffords shooting and the Virginia Tech massacre not to mention Columbine, America is once again asking the question what is wrong in our society that this keeps happening. Unfortunately, there is plenty of blame to go around, and none of it is fixable. Sure you are going to get the anti-gun lobby screaming and yelling, and maybe they are right but I don’t think so. The issues are much more profound. We have lost our way in this country. The foundation upon which America was built is crumbling. For over two hundred years we were rooted in the Protestant work ethic and individual initiative. Our moral code was rooted in the church. Our support group was the family. Help and charity came from within, and we were a generous people. Not anymore. Families are no longer important as alternative life styles have risen to the surface. Marriages are delaye...

I try to keep the Mark Knows It All blog somewhat a-political concentrating on quality of life issues. From time to time, however, something happens which is so politically offensive that I have to comment. Two such things happened over this past week. Barack Obama, in a candid off the tele-prompter moment, finally said what he believed. Those people who are successful didn’t get that way themselves. They owe their success to the government. Really? He was right about one thing. He said that there are lots of smart, hard working people out there who don’t succeed. That’s true. Most small businesses in the United States fail. But we are all in there trying. I consider myself to be a hard working lawyer, and there are lots of lawyers who are financially more successful than me. So what? I admire them. These guys and gals are the ones I aspire to be even at my age. They make me work harder and smarter. That’s how it’s supposed to be. A friend of mine opened a small business several ...

My chorus is doing some outreach concerts over the next few weeks. One of them is for the South High School alumni. This is an older group with a lot of veterans from WWII and Korea, and they requested some patriotic music. Our director pulled out the old war horses: God Bless America, Battle Hymn of the Republic, Shenandoah, America, the National Anthem, and God of Our Fathers. These are the songs that stirred America’s soul. But this time, as we practiced them tonight, it didn’t seem the same. Ronald Reagan’s Morning in America has turned into a nightmare. Here is a country where half of working Americans pay no income tax. Here is a country that saw 85,000 people go on Social Security Disability last month, while only creating 80,000 new jobs. Here is a country on the brink of a second recession after never really recovering from the last one. Here is a country where people are all but strip searched before boarding an airplane. Here is a country where government is ...

Our washing machine went kaput over the weekend. The repairman came today to see if it could be salvaged. It needed a new switch, and would cost $250.00 to fix. He suggested that we buy a new washing machine rather than spend so much fixing up one that was a few years older than God. So off my wife went to Sears to see what could be had. She came home with amazing news. A mid price washing machine…a Samsung top loader… delivered and installed would cost around $1,100.00. Holy Crap!!! My wife said that this washer was midrange in price. They had some cheaper, but if the water was too hot they would melt. Now I know it has been awhile since I looked at washer/dryers. We have two sets in our basement, one we bought 35 years ago ourselves, and one that came with the house…now over 40 years old. Obviously we got our money’s worth out of both and we should quit our bitchin’. But Geeze Louise. Add a dryer and you would be pushing $1800.00. Back in the day you could buy both for...

Have you ever read a travel magazine? There are several of them around from local mags like Pittsburgh or Cleveland Magazine to those dealing with world travel such as Conde Nast Magazine and Travel and Leisure Magazine. They are filled with wonderful photographs, timely tips, site seeing and restaurant recommendations, and all sorts of things to make your travel experience more enjoyable. Even the advertisements are spectacular including ads for exotic airlines that offer sleeping quarters, gourmet meals on trains, hotels with penthouse suites, and $10,000 watches and $75,000.00 cars all demonstrated by beautiful people the likes of which I will never see at the Elmton in Struthers. I used to subscribe to several of these literary gems and daydream about what it would be like to travel to exotic places, go on a luxe safari with servants scurrying about catering to your every whim, staying at the Ritz in Paris or experiencing a private audience with the Pope in Rome, or dancing a...

Okay. So it’s 4 AM. I am awake with my eyeballs on my cheeks and can’t go back to sleep. I turn on the television and what to my wondering eyes does appear but a PBS show showing me how grow things green…nevermind that green is exactly how I am going to look come noon. Notwithstanding, I dutifully poured myself a cup of coffee and watched the show to find out everything they are so willingly ready to tell me I am doing wrong. I get tired of these lecture wag the finger kind of shows. These folks are all alike. They all have that “peace of God” expression on their face because they have insights into life I must be lacking. Everything will be alright if only we are green, environmentally sensitive about every aspect of our lives. Just do this or do that…it only takes a minute…and all the world’s problems will be solved. Today, they showed me how Thomas Jefferson grew his green garden. I didn’t know gardens were any other color. Most things that grow are green. It’s called ...

Call me suspicious. But the Democrats have opened the Pandora’s Box of speculation with an awesome display of party disunity. This past week important Dems like Diane Feinstein, Cory Booker, Ed Rendell, Mark Halperin of Time Magazine, the Huffington Post…and last but not least…Bill Clinton have opened a barrage of pokes and jabs at Barack Obama. Starting with Cory Booker who defended Bain Capital and then moving to Bill Clinton who called Mitt Romney’s business background “sterling” and then undercutting Obama on the Bush tax cuts saying they should be extended…well…this type of stuff just doesn’t happen. The fact that all of this occurred within the space of 10 days should give one pause, or at least a raised eyebrow. Why would they do this? This is a party that has been in lockstep with the Obama administration for the past three years. Barack has used the bully pulpit to bully his party members into submission. So what’s with the dissention in the ranks? Something is askew...

I have been warning about the erosion of freedom in our country for several years now. We as Americans have been too willing to accept the crap handed out by government official do-gooders with agendas. The most dangerous of these governmental whack jobs is Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York. It is clear that he has a food fetish, and he ought to check himself into a mental institution to find look for an explanation as to his pre-occupation with what you put into your mouth. Mayor Bloomberg, who is obsessive compulsive about weight, has now proposed a ban on Big Gulp drinks in New York City. This goes with his ban on trans fats, his ban on salt (he actually tried to make it illegal for restaurants to put salt shakers on tables); his calorie display on restaurant menus…ad nauseum…no pun intended. What is NOT funny is that there will be no end to his desire to determine what you are allowed, or not allowed, to eat. If he can Big Gulp drinks, he can begin to issue edicts as t...

Today is Memorial Day. It has been gratifying over the years to see the importance of this day re-emerge in American priorities. This year in particular, with the winding down of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, it takes on special meeting as the nation remembers its fallen heroes defending our nation in a post 9/11 world. I didn’t serve in the military. My draft number was so high that ‘Tricia Nixon would have been drafted before me during the Vietnam War. Those were horrible days. We are now several generations away from the Vietnam War in which Americans suffered 45,000 casualties. Those returning from the war were scorned and spit upon. It was disgraceful. It was heartening to hear President Obama apologize for those actions today. Whether you agreed with the war or not, those returning deserved better than this nation gave them. We are also seeing the Greatest Generation, those that fought in World War II, shrink in numbers as they leave this life hopefully for a better p...

I watched a movie on the Hallmark Channel tonight. Of course I watch the Hallmark Channel.  I watch Lifetime too. I curl up on my chair with my Kleenex and Makers Mark. Can life get any better?  Haven't you heard about us compassionate conservatives?  Don't mess with us. At any rate, tonight Hallmark showed a movie about Barry Watson kissing some girl at a summer camp called Pine Lake. The movie was set somewhere in America’s northwest, fluttering a nondescript state flag because the movie was actually filmed in Canada to skirt union rules. The story line involved young Luke who is a "philanthropic entrepreneur" (is that like a white Hispanic?) who buys the summer camp of his youth from his uncle only to find it sinking, literally and figuratively, under heavy expenses and safety code violations. While walking through this muck filled dilemma in an uber picturesque setting with lots of rain, he reunites with his childhood sweetheart Zoe (wo...

Those of you who know me know that my political persuasion is somewhere between Goldwater Conservatism and Libertarianism. The government should stick to those things that it is supposed to be good at, like building roads, sewers, and water lines and national defense. I am an anti-tax guy. So why am I an advocate of public financing for the arts? Today the Mahoning Valley Power of the Arts initiative is having its Call to Action rally at the Butler Institute of America Art. The Ohio Revised Code provides for the establishment of Arts and Culture Districts in each of the counties. These districts are self taxing entities akin to Boardman Park, Mill Creek Metro Parks, and the county library. They are established by the County Commissioners when presented with a governance code, and operated by a Board of Trustees appointed by the Commissioners with certain qualifications, or the operational duties can be assigned to an existing arts organization in the county so ...

Whether we like or not, money makes the world go around. There are a number of ways to say it. He who pays the piper picks the tune. Then there is the “Golden Rule”: He with the gold, rules. How about: “Money isn’t everything. It’s just most everything.” Then there is Sophie Tucker’s “I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor. Rich is better!” And let’s not forget John Rockefeller’s answer to the question “How much money is enough?” He replied “A little bit more!” Those among us who spew platitudes argue that money isn’t everything, that money can’t buy happiness. Actually a recent study at the University of Kansas determined that it does buy happiness...at least to a degree. A generic family income of $75,000.00/year seems to be the magic number. People are happier above that number than below that number. BUT, there is also a leveling off. The happiness quotient seems to top at $75,000.00/year which leads me to believe what they actually were measuring was contentment ra...

I have been fortunate in my life to have come from a rather large maternal and paternal extended family living the gambit of the American economic experience. Within the confines of my aunts and uncles and cousins you will find those who are the wealthiest of Americans, those who sold shoes at Strouss’, folks who worked in the steel mills, folks who worked at General Motors. You will find a notorious and nationally known Congressman. You will find doctors and lawyers and teachers and social workers and grocers. You will find Mafia types. You will find inter racial marriages. You will find those who have and had a tough way to go coping with welfare and food stamps. I have seen all of America’s economic classes up close and personal. What I haven’t seen among this wide ranging group of people is class hatred and envy because all of us…and I mean all of us…came from Italian immigrant grandparents who literally did not have a pot to pee in when they came to America. They c...

Forty years ago this month my wife and I got engaged.  We were marrying young by today’s standards.  She was barely 20 and I was 21.  We met at Ohio State where we were both on blind dates with other people.  Back in the day, the dormitories were still sex segregated.  Guys were only allowed in the lobby of the women’s dorms.  Women had to be out of the guy’s dorms by midnight and the doors were locked.  There may have been rioting in the street, but Ohio State was still operating under 1940 rules.  The dorms still had maid service.  Can you imagine that today? Tracey Winbush is a friend of mine, and this past week she asked me to be a guest on her radio talk show Tracey and Friends (WSOM AM600 M-F 12:00-3:00).  We were talking about fracking, and I learned that this fat white guy can talk for three hours about a subject I know nothing about.  That’s why I am a lawyer and in politics.  At any rate, the stud...

This spring, in addition to the outstanding weather, northeast Ohio has been treated to some boffo night time planetary shows.   If you missed the conjunction of Jupiter and Venus several weeks ago, you should be ashamed.  Look up every now and then.  I am not an astronomer, but I know spectacular when I see it.  You can do it!!!  Put that smart phone away and treat yourself to the best free show in town.  The almost month long display ended with both planets lining up next to a crescent moon, mother nature taking her well deserved curtain call. Tonight we got another sky show.  My wife and were driving home from Cleveland just a little past dusk.  As we got onto the Ohio Turnpike from Route 44, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the sunset was one of the most beautiful I have ever seen.  Cars slowed down on the on ramp…talk about distracted driving; which was upstaged as we turned east on the turnpike proper. Behind the trees...

I have always tried to separate my political views from my religious views. It is becoming more difficult to do as each day passes. This year is special because Easter and Passover are celebrated the same weekend. The Resurrection story takes on new meaning…events real time, so to speak. Minimally, it showcases Christianity’s common history with Judaism. Here in America, it highlights our Judeo-Christian culture’s roots. Whether we like it or not, on both the sacred and secular levels, Christians and Jews are forever bonded together here in America. But this year, something is amiss. There has been uneasiness in the nation. There is a pervasive discontent. People are angry. Scarier still, people are angry at each other. I’m not sure people know why they are angry and feel disjointed. But I have been writing about it for three years, and now America is beginning to wake up to what is happening here. People always operate in a box of their life experience. The Jews in Nazi Ger...

Okay. So I had to go to Panera’s in Canfield this morning to deliver some papers to a client. I dutifully packed my baliche and drove in the AM traffic and parked my car and strolled into the coffee shop. And what to my wondering eyes did appear but a whole bunch of people sitting around drinking coffee, eating bears claws, and having a good time. But was I drinking coffee? Was I eating bears claws? Was I having a good time? Nooooo. I was delivering papers to my whacked client who may or may not pay me. Then I had to go to work. I had to get my coffee to go…and all of the coffee urns were empty. The ladies who worked there had to confer about what to do. I think they must have exceeded the 8 – 9 AM quota. Where do I sign up for that life? When do I get to wile away the morning sipping java and eating pastries? What am I doing wrong? There are two phenomena in American culture that are a real hoot. The first is the mall walkers, of which I am one. That is a subject for anoth...

THE DAD' GUM GUV'MENT from the Tony Award Winning Musical BIG RIVER Query me this. Do you really think the government is good for you? Do you really believe # 3 of the three big lies: 1) The check is in the mail. 2) I will respect you in the morning. 3) I'm from the government and I am here to help you. Has the government made your life better? Forget whether you are right wing or left wing, or Tea Party or Occupy Wall Street. Look at the people that go into politics. There are folks who view it as a "job". Don't call them after 4 or ask them for anything.  Then there are the folks who have an axe to grind. They are dogmatic with a point of view that more likely than not is as whacky as they are. Case in point: the global warming brigade. Then there is the anti-salt brigade. Then there are the right to lifers and the pro choicers. It goes on and on. It's no wonder we are so messed up. Our political system is geared to bring out those who think the...