Archive for December, 2008
Belonging II-Motorcycle Clubs
Motorcycle clubs, also know as MC’s, have been around since 1903. They come in a variety of forms, but they all follow a similar doctrine. The media and Hollywood has generalized all motorcycle clubs into hoodlums who terrorize law abiding citizens. Just a few examples of movies with negative impacts on this culture are The […]
22Dec2008 | Cole James | Comments Off on Belonging II-Motorcycle Clubs | ContinuedDrug Court – Systemically Flawed
A quick check of the court briefs in the local newspaper gives startling evidence of losing the war on drugs. The paper reported six people sentenced to prison – all for drug charges – five methamphetamine and one cocaine. We are talking about rural northwest Missouri. The first Drug Court was established in Dade County […]
21Dec2008 | Ohg Rea Tone | 2 comments | ContinuedThe Modern Retreat to the Castle Keep
The worry is not that we are getting more or less safe, but that our perceptions of safety are changing. We have recreated the walled and gated villas of the past and, between our fenced yard, our attached garage, and our parking garage at work, can go entire days and weeks without seeing someone from our neighborhood, let alone someone from around town. We are creating a sense of safety that is grounded in separation rather than reality. We are raising a generation of children who are housed in homogeneous zones that have a comfortable, rhythmic vibration of sameness.
20Dec2008 | bryan | 2 comments | ContinuedSelling Your Home Using A Lease Option
The housing market today is in shambles and it’s no secret. You will be hard pressed to sell your home at fair market value. Even if you can afford to sell for less it has become about impossible. So what can we do short of letting the bank take it back? If trying to sell […]
20Dec2008 | Cole James | Comments Off on Selling Your Home Using A Lease Option | ContinuedMedicine and Money: Traveling for Health Care
When the debate over providing health care for all citizens arises people often look to other countries, less wealthy, that manage to take care of their citizens. Sometimes the point to Canada or England; and the favorite of the opposition to taking care of children is France. The French are a convenient target for all things not good for America.
19Dec2008 | Ohg Rea Tone | Comments Off on Medicine and Money: Traveling for Health Care | ContinuedWhat’s the Matter, Don’t Like Actually Reaching Across the Isle?
To date, the Obama engine has been fueled by a rhetoric of change and hope. The “change” part of that language is not referring to a change in the political party in charge of ruining the government, it is a change in the fundamental way that we approach all of the decisions that we make fromt he top down. Rick Warren invited Obama to speak at his church, and Obama has invited Rick Warren to speak at his innauguration. Some say that this will alienate progressives, and I think that, to some degree, that is true. But let me ask you this: What is more progressive than going beyond sitting around a table together, but removing the table entirely and finding a way to stand together?
18Dec2008 | bryan | 1 comment | ContinuedDoes Obama err by leaning on Lincoln?
Then Sen. Barack Obama at the dedication of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, Springfield, Ill., April 2005. (Chicago Tribune photo by Pete Souza.) by Frank James President-elect Barack Obama really has a thing for Abraham Lincoln. The latest manifestation of what appears to be his Lincoln envy is the way Obama intends on […]
16Dec2008 | Ohg Rea Tone | Comments Off on Does Obama err by leaning on Lincoln? | ContinuedBush and Cheney are WMD’s
George W. Bush, mixed with equal amounts of Dick Cheney, produces Weapons of Mass Destruction. These two men, more than Saddam Hussein or Osama Bin Laden, have themselves destroyed mass numbers of humans. And about 5,000 of the dead are American service men. We can not even begin to count the number of innocent Iraqi’s killed in a war of vengeance.
The lethal combination of Bush and Cheney needed only a spark of inflamation. The entire Republican Party has bought into this mixture of vengeance and lusts after another opportunity to mix their potions of destruction.
16Dec2008 | Ohg Rea Tone | Comments Off on Bush and Cheney are WMD’s | ContinuedEverything Happens for A Reason
Son, “Everything happens for a reason.” How many times have we heard that? And how many smart people have we heard make that comment? The statement is usually made in the context of spirituality or religion – seldom in the context of science. But the statement is only true in the context of science. And […]
16Dec2008 | Ohg Rea Tone | Comments Off on Everything Happens for A Reason | ContinuedThe Prophecy of Ohg Rea Tone – 2009
Prophecy is only valuable if it presents opportunity for change. Absolutes are for the cynical, for those who presume their destiny is predetermined. Free will suggests we have something to say about our life. In the tradition of ancient Bible Prophets we will offer some conditional prophecy for 2009: If we reward failure, failure will […]
16Dec2008 | Ohg Rea Tone | 1 comment | ContinuedRespecting Our President
“The King is dead. Long live the King.” The man is dead, the office lives on. Separating the man from the office is a constant struggle in troubling times. President George W. Bush has had a troubling eight years as our Chief Executive. Many of us did not agree with his decisions – and that is putting it mildly.
15Dec2008 | Ohg Rea Tone | 6 comments | ContinuedPay Day Loans and Porn
There are scavengers among us. They prey on the poor, the oppressed, and, strangely enough, the military. There are some things that the poor, the oppressed, and the military have in common. Loneliness, desperation, and a lack of money. I think that it is time to call a rat a rat. Two of the industries […]
13Dec2008 | bryan | Comments Off on Pay Day Loans and Porn | ContinuedSorry, We’re Booked, White House Tells Obamas
By Helene Cooper Michelle, Malia and Sasha Obama met Barack Obama’s campaign plane in Colorado on Nov. 1. (Photo: Damon Winter/The New York Times) Updated | 3:12 p.m. CHICAGO—The White House has turned down a request from the family of President-elect Barack Obama to move into Blair House in early January so that his daughters […]
12Dec2008 | Ohg Rea Tone | Comments Off on Sorry, We’re Booked, White House Tells Obamas | ContinuedHealth Insurance Corruption: Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics
The devil is in the details! The Fireside Post reports and comments on a broad range of material, including debt, spending, health care, and social justice – usually at a global or macro, level. But the devil really is in the details. Allow me to attempt to crystallize some details into something manageable for most […]
12Dec2008 | Ohg Rea Tone | 1 comment | ContinuedThe Counter Culture Personality
I recognize that there is an inherent selfishness in many of the current social movements. Coordinating efforts to reduce waste and to organize distribution to the needy are certainly valuable, and could be more effective in reducing waste and assisting the needy than digging through the trash. Sometimes, though, it is our individualism, maybe even […]
12Dec2008 | bryan | 1 comment | ContinuedThe Freegan Insurrection
My wife and I have been attempting to evaluate our lifestyle for some time now, hoping to live out our values as followers of Jesus and to create a sense of equity in our lives with the less fortunate. We have taken up recycling and composting, selling off our excess and getting back to the […]
12Dec2008 | bryan | Comments Off on The Freegan Insurrection | ContinuedSurnames are Sacred Cows
In 1986 a friend of mine was named the new Abbot of a Benedictine Monastery. I was proud to just be a friend at the ceremonial induction. The trappings of a basilica, with sunlight filtered through ornate stained glass windows, candles burning with gentle flames, rows of black robed monks walking in cadence to the […]
12Dec2008 | Ohg Rea Tone | Comments Off on Surnames are Sacred Cows | ContinuedIs Bailling Out the Big Three Like Bailing Out Your Neighbor?
The Senate yesterday failed to reach an agreement on the bailout package for the auto industry, meaning that it will probably be January before the industry can get any help. This is something that is being “cussed and discussed,” as my grandfather would have said, in many circles. Everyone has an opinion, and everyone is […]
12Dec2008 | bryan | 1 comment | ContinuedSanta Claus Is Coming – So, You Better Watch Out
My family has been working on simplifying our life for years. We have sold most of our stuff, paid off our debts, downsized in apartments, streamlined our food budget, etc. We drive old cars and shop at the thrift store. We are not saints and are not trying to be, but the lengths that we […]
12Dec2008 | bryan | Comments Off on Santa Claus Is Coming – So, You Better Watch Out | ContinuedThe Poverty Paradigm – Misunderstanding Charity
We talk charitably about social justice, often with the liberal view of defending the disenfranchised. Taken out of context we might be seen as classic do-gooders who only enable irresponsibility. That is the common refrain for shallow, heartless capitalists who do not realize that there is profit in assisting the impoverished. Dr. Muhammad Yanus, an […]
12Dec2008 | Ohg Rea Tone | Comments Off on The Poverty Paradigm – Misunderstanding Charity | ContinuedThoughts on Misunderstanding Charity
The holiday season is upon us, and everyone is geared up for the giving season. I think that a conversation on the merits of charity is essential at this stage of the game. I read an article on Trying To Follow a while back about clothing drives. It has some great fodder for conversation. In […]
12Dec2008 | bryan | Comments Off on Thoughts on Misunderstanding Charity | ContinuedThe Future Is Not What It Used To Be
I studied electronics at The Electronics Institute in Kansas City. That was a long time ago. We studied vacuum tubes. Vacuum tube radios and television and radar systems. It was the dawn of the transistor – we talked about transistors in class, and experimented with diodes in building full-wave bridge power supplies. Resonant circuits were […]
12Dec2008 | Ohg Rea Tone | Comments Off on The Future Is Not What It Used To Be | ContinuedObama’s Chicago Vulnerablitiy
Here we go again. Washington partisan politics 101. The political corruption in Illinois will dramatically affect the Obama Administration. This is not about guilt or innocence – it is about perception. And particularly the perception of vulnerability. When Bill Clinton won the Presidency in 1992 there followed some corruption news in Arkansas. This gave rise […]
11Dec2008 | Ohg Rea Tone | Comments Off on Obama’s Chicago Vulnerablitiy | ContinuedThe Staying Power of Hannah Montana – and Miley Cyrus
I have written before that I know more about 1521 C.E. Europe than I do about pop culture in America today. But this magazine of ours has prompted me to look around. I even wrote a post on Lindsay Lohan. Hannah Montana’s name came up recently because she was selling out a concert in Kansas […]
11Dec2008 | Ohg Rea Tone | 2 comments | ContinuedHe Ducked Back Down the Alley …
By Jack Healy Gov. Rod Blagojevich, center, leaves his home through a back ally Wednesday. (Mark Carlson/Associated Press) They wrote songs about the “Streets of Philadelphia” and “The Sidewalks of New York.” But as Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich demonstrated this morning, Chicago is a city where the alleys rule. With hordes of reporters and photographers […]
10Dec2008 | Ohg Rea Tone | Comments Off on He Ducked Back Down the Alley … | ContinuedMeanwhile in Chicago
Posted by michaelscherer The Good Governor Blagojevich is back on the job, per the Chicago Tribune. [Spokesman Lucio] Guerrero said Blagojevich is back at work in the James R. Thompson Center and has met with staff to discuss the state budget and short term loans to help alleviate some of the state’s money pressures. Guerrero […]
10Dec2008 | Ohg Rea Tone | Comments Off on Meanwhile in Chicago | ContinuedWhy Government Management of Auto Companies Will Not Work
The advocates of government intervention in our lives are having a great time. They are advocating the regulation of banking, which seems to be smart in light of recent revelations about banking management. And they are advocating dictates of management for the auto industry, this is not nearly as smart as they think. History for […]
10Dec2008 | Ohg Rea Tone | 1 comment | ContinuedTabloid Voyeurism Sells
We are not talking about the National Enquirer here folks. We are talking about Cable News, Network News, Print Newspapers, Print Magazines, and of course the internet boom in journalistic voyeurism. We just gave an example – the use of the term ‘journalistic voyeurism’ is much more interesting than say, ‘Journalistic practice.’ The Fireside Post […]
10Dec2008 | Ohg Rea Tone | Comments Off on Tabloid Voyeurism Sells | ContinuedDo What You Do On Purpose
‘I have talked and written at length in articles for this magazine about the lifestyle choices that my wife and I have made for our family, but I feel it would be appropriate to spend some time on why we make those choices. Having a purpose in your decision is as important as the decision […]
10Dec2008 | bryan | 1 comment | ContinuedThe Irony of Google Advertising
We operate in a Google world. When the lawyers on Boston Legal want to research something they say, ‘let’s Google it.’ I wrote a post on Googling my name to search my family tree. This online magazine is closely associated with Google. We allow Google to generate advertising based on our content. The results are […]
10Dec2008 | Ohg Rea Tone | 1 comment | ContinuedA Chat About Laughing – A Social Regulator
My son and I chat every day – usually on line – (We live in different States). Sometimes we cut and paste the conversations into an article, usually when it is relevant to something that is being discussed here at The Fireside Post of when it is relevant to a current event. This one is […]
9Dec2008 | bryan | Comments Off on A Chat About Laughing – A Social Regulator | Continued5 gifts that can change the world
It is that time of year when I scramble to get the last gifts before all of the other saps try scrambling to get the last gift, thus, I beat the crowd My family has been trying to get away from the obligatory knick-knack purchases that we have always ended up getting for those that […]
9Dec2008 | bryan | 3 comments | ContinuedAxioms of Simple People
The world often seems over populated with simple people. Simple people generally expose themselves rather quickly. They may be conservative or liberal, Democrat or Republican, Christian or atheist, black or white, rich or poor. We recognize them through their life axioms. The simplified axioms seem harmless on the surface – but that is the problem. […]
8Dec2008 | Ohg Rea Tone | Comments Off on Axioms of Simple People | ContinuedThe Worst Church Marquees and Why They Are So Wrong
This has been a burr in my saddle for years. Longer than that, I guess. Before I made the switch to regular church attendance, the oh-so-clever church marquees were a beacon of tacky religion that always made me wonder why people would gather in a place like that. Now, they are just embarrassing and they […]
7Dec2008 | bryan | 4 comments | ContinuedUnited Way – Mission Lost
I have written before on the United Way. The continued degradation of their mission by participating agencies continues. This is just wrong. The United Way folks should look at their original intent – their original mission. Clearly the purpose was to Unite. Not only to unite social service agencies in their individual missions, but to […]
6Dec2008 | Ohg Rea Tone | Comments Off on United Way – Mission Lost | ContinuedThe Scout Initiative: Naming Social Injustice
I have been thinking more about how to deal with social injustice, and I dug up this clip from To Kill A Mockingbird. There are layers of great stuff in this clip: There are several examples here of the actions that make a social movement. When Atticus learns that the Sheriff is not around, he […]
6Dec2008 | bryan | 1 comment | ContinuedTHe Finer Points of Space Exploration
I was eight years old when the Soviet Union launched the first orbiting Satellite, sputnik. The space race began as a competition of pride between two countries determined to prove them selves as more advanced than the other. It became something of much greater importance. Our space exploration has produced, energized, and accelerated some of […]
6Dec2008 | Ohg Rea Tone | Comments Off on THe Finer Points of Space Exploration | ContinuedA Conflict of Ethics
All of us have ethics. We may not think consciously about them – but we have them. Sometimes these ethics are in conflict with each other – when that happens we find Hamlet, struggling with self doubt, pondering, “To be or not to be?” Ethics do not follow a smooth continuum of linear progression, with […]
6Dec2008 | Ohg Rea Tone | Comments Off on A Conflict of Ethics | ContinuedThe Two Nap Dilemma
My children are in different stages of development. That makes life hard when you are trying to be appropriate with them and maintain your own sanity. My son doesn’t really need two naps during the day. He has been sleeping for about an hour in the morning and for a little over two hours in […]
6Dec2008 | bryan | Comments Off on The Two Nap Dilemma | ContinuedThe Internet: From Organized Reporting to Organic Journalism
On the internet, articles are typically written and distributed by persons rather than organizations, Organizations tend to be intimately involved with issues, where people tend to be intimately involved with other people. Some think that this devalues the articles or the authors online, but one cannot deny that internet material is typically apologetically about the […]
6Dec2008 | bryan | 1 comment | ContinuedThe Christian Message and Economic Prosperity…
We have mentioned Dave Ramsey and Joel Osteen on this magazine, and I thought it might be a good idea to spend some time on the difference between a minister and a motivational speaker. I think that the line can get pretty blurry. In order to do the subject justice, we have to mention the […]
6Dec2008 | bryan | 3 comments | ContinuedClean Body, Clean Mind?
Columnist Lee Dye reports: Maybe what the world really needs is a hot, sudsy bath. Researchers in Great Britain have found that even just washing your hands may make you less harsh in your judgment of others. Their study, published in the journal Psychological Science, asserts that feeling clean can “reduce the perceived seriousness of […]
5Dec2008 | Ohg Rea Tone | Comments Off on Clean Body, Clean Mind? | ContinuedOJ Defines the Media, Media Defines OJ
OJ Simpson is in the news again – a regular for the past forty years. Ironically – OJ’s celebrity status was a product of the media – but the media was defined in many ways by the celebrity of OJ. The excitement OJ generated on the football field directly contributed to the excitement of televised […]
5Dec2008 | Ohg Rea Tone | Comments Off on OJ Defines the Media, Media Defines OJ | ContinuedOJ – Celebrity Tragedy
OJ Simpson has been a darling of the media for forty years. Few celebrities reach this level of achievement, we might think of Elvis and the Beatles. We could debate the similarities of these celebrities – rags to riches, riches to rags, stardom and tragedy. But OJ is strikingly different. Elvis Presley was a confused […]
5Dec2008 | Ohg Rea Tone | Comments Off on OJ – Celebrity Tragedy | ContinuedObama’s Team Chemistry – the X-Factor
President Elect Barack Obama is forming his team for governing the United States of America. The buzz in the media centers around the personalities and talents of selected team members. The entertainment value of media questions has been noted by the President Elect, “I know you are having fun with this,” when asked about previous […]
4Dec2008 | Ohg Rea Tone | 1 comment | ContinuedPalin – Everything That Is Wrong With America
Sarah Palin is on the airways. Most notably defending herself against accusations of incompetence by ‘anonymous’ members of the John McCain Campaign staff. With tags like diva and whack job, Palin took some personal hits. If Palin is the future of the Republican Party – then the future of the Republican Party is in deep […]
4Dec2008 | Ohg Rea Tone | 48 comments | ContinuedA Gay Jesus and Catholic Art
“Corpus Christi” is a play written by an Irish Catholic named Terrence McNally, first performed on Broadway in 1998 and revived for two weeks in October. It is a controversial interpretation of the life and work of Jesus Christ, so it can be considered a part of the crazy-quilt reality of living as a Catholic […]
4Dec2008 | Ohg Rea Tone | Comments Off on A Gay Jesus and Catholic Art | ContinuedObama’s New World Order
By Karen Tumulty and Mark Thompson It was hard to miss the message that Barack Obama was sending with the powerful tableau lined up behind him onstage in Chicago. “I assembled this team because I’m a strong believer in strong personalities and strong opinions,” the President-elect said of his national-security picks. The top three members […]
4Dec2008 | Ohg Rea Tone | Comments Off on Obama’s New World Order | ContinuedBarack WHO?
Posted by Karen Tumulty After Sarah Palin got fooled by a prank call from “Nicolas Sarkozy,” you can see why a politician would be skeptical: WASHINGTON (CNN) –A Florida congresswoman – convinced she was being prank-called by a Barack Obama sound-alike – hung up on the actual president-elect Wednesday. Florida Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen was told […]
4Dec2008 | Ohg Rea Tone | Comments Off on Barack WHO? | ContinuedA 4.5 percent mortgage for all?
by Frank James Who wouldn’t want one of those 4.5 percent mortgages that are now being considered as a way to revive the economy? Sign me up. But there’s evidently some disagreement about whether such mortgages would be available to those who would be refinancing, like me, or available only to those purchasing a home. […]
4Dec2008 | Ohg Rea Tone | Comments Off on A 4.5 percent mortgage for all? | Continued