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Taylor Swift is “New Money”
The headlines state that Taylor Swift gave $100,000 to the family of a shooting victim at the KC Chiefs Super Bowl Parade. The media reports she is worth around one billion dollars. The media (Forbes) also reports the Hunt family, owners of the Chiefs, are worth around twenty-five (25) billion dollars. There is no report […]
19Feb2024 | Gary Clark | 1,928 comments | Continued
Pondering the Impact of Individuals on History
There are two broad categories of historical interpretation. Generally they are narrative history and chaos theory. Narrative history comes into focus with biography. Often a biography of a historical character, usually a leader during times of strife, will suggest that that person was responsible for navigating through the crisis. Chaos theory says that the conditions […]
20Jan2024 | Gary Clark | 1,477 comments | Continued
The Fireside Continues for another 3 years
Well, Executive Administrative CEO type decisions have overruled the Operations Manager. The firesidepost has been funded for another three years. Life goes on. It is great, we started this adventure in 2007 – we might make it to 20 years.
6Oct2023 | Gary Clark | 29 comments | Continued
Shutting Down thefiresidepost.com
The hosting service for this site has become too expensive. Also, bluehost, the host of this site has double billed us – they billed my son and they are billing me. They like to automatically charge your credit card. They did send me a notice saying they were charging me at the end of October […]
22Sep2023 | Gary Clark | 41 comments | Continued
COVID – Three Days In
Sunday night, January 16, I went to bed with a slight headache. I did not take any medicine for the headache. Fever and chills visited me through the night and Monday morning (MLK Holiday) I went to urgent care. By then my symptoms were headache, cough, runny nose, fever, chills, and some body aches. I […]
19Jan2022 | Gary Clark | 30 comments | Continued
Psychology, Cognitive, Jung, Literature, Astrology – What’s It All About
My life has been invested in the search for sanity. That search took many paths. Currently my discussion with others on the same journey has included comparisons of the different yet divergent paths. I am a lay person – mostly. After I retired from a career in information systems I entered a counselor-in-training program at […]
11Oct2021 | Gary Clark | 967 comments | Continued
I’LL BE THERE
DON’T KNOW WHERE THERE IS BUT I’LL BE THERE
14Aug2021 | Wainright | 1,235 comments | Continued
Another Homeless Man Dies
James (not real name) and his younger brother Bud preferred drinking in the shade on a hot day. Their friends Wayne and Keith and other homeless people sometimes joined them. The old police station at 710 S 9th still has the radio tower. The base is about twenty feet by twenty feet and the tower […]
12Aug2021 | Gary Clark | 29 comments | Continued
Struggling with Family Prejudice In The Time of Trump
I am old; a senior but not yet elderly. My adult life has been a quest for sanity. I have said that many times, but I am just now beginning to understand what sanity means. Sanity is an escape from family of origin dysfunction. Sanity is discovering and alleviating ignorance and prejudice – racism, homophobia, […]
26Jul2021 | Gary Clark | 2,085 comments | Continued
Rescue Dogs and Christians
A friend said, “My favorite breed of dog is Rescue”. I have had a couple of rescue dogs; they are like Christians, you never know what you are going to get. Our first rescue dog was in 1971. We called her Pal. She was a pal, snuggling and warm and loving. She had black curly […]
11Jul2021 | Gary Clark | 969 comments | Continued
When It Feels So Right, But Is So Wrong
We begin to understand the indignity of denial. When we continue abrasive, cruel prejudices in denial of the truth we diminish our humanity. It appears that some people enjoy their prejudice. It only appears so. Those people live in fear. They fear opening Pandora’s Box. They fear the evil that will surely befall them if they abandon their sacred values. The real indignity is in holding on to those values which are negative, hurtful, and unjustified.
6Sep2020 | Gary Clark | 776 comments | Continued
Chronic Maladies Get Brushed Off as Just Aging
I have a condition called peripheral neuropathy – in both legs and some in my right arm. I have to wear braces to walk. This condition ‘came on’ in my late sixties. I am not diabetic. I was an outpatient at St. Luke’s Neurology in KC all summer (2019). After extensive testing from everything from […]
16Feb2020 | Gary Clark | 41 comments | Continued
Medical Care, Penny Wise – Dollar Foolish
The past two weeks saw me struggling with the local medical community. In short, I was misdiagnosed three times in a span of five days resulting in delayed treatment and extraordinary unnecessary costs. Welcome to the modern world of administering health care based on dollars rather than sense. On September 19, 2019, I noticed a […]
3Oct2019 | Gary Clark | 1,236 comments | Continued
The American Ideal of Meritocracy
My father was a working man. He taught us through osmosis that loyalty to an employer was a good character trait. He also, as an unintended consequence of his success, taught us that work-over-time pays off. I have seen this in some of my friends too. Is this an example of meritocracy? The title of […]
18Mar2019 | Gary Clark | 1,189 comments | Continued
Well Dang, I Have Foot Drop
I have a diagnosed medical condition that I did not know existed a month ago. I am using the proper noun “I” often because this is all about me. I believe this problem has existed for some time because I wrote about it in 2012. Humor is often my escape from the cruelty of reality. […]
9Apr2018 | Gary Clark | 24 comments | Continued
Kelly Ann Conway on Domestic Violence
Kelly Ann Conway, some sort of advisor to the President of the United States, was on CNN this morning. She was present on the set of State of The Union with Jake Tapper. A little back story – A Presidential aid, Rob Porter, has been accused by two ex-wives of domestic violence. He denied the […]
11Feb2018 | Gary Clark | 20 comments | Continued
Baseball Rebellion
I did not play baseball as a child. I hardly knew such a thing existed. One Spring day, long ago, I was wandering the St. Joseph, Missouri, streets with my brothers. As we passed the Noyes Baseball Field I noticed several of my school mates dressed in uniform and playing baseball on the well manicured […]
26Nov2017 | Thomas Franklin | 15 comments | Continued
When The Emotionally Unbalanced Vote, They Always Vote For The Extreme
Lookout Friday! Here they come! The emotionally unbalanced have found their candidate. Donald Trump is someone who should never have happened in America – but he has – and it is because one political party began catering to the emotionally unbalanced about forty years ago, and the fall of economic prosperity by American citizens fed […]
20Oct2017 | Gary Clark | 19 comments | Continued
A Few Thoughts On Tiger Woods Recent DUI
From a friend: A few thoughts on Tiger Woods. Regardless of whether you like him or not and for whatever reason you like him or not, I think the police dodged a bullet on this one. We’ve all seen the videos, some of you may see a drunk, some may see a drug addict, some […]
4Jun2017 | Gary Clark | 1,038 comments | Continued
AARP Is A Communist Plot To Destroy America!
Allow me to first reveal my bias. I am a member of AARP. I am over sixty years old. I am a male. I am educated. I know how to type. There! Now you know my background. AARP is very obviously a communist plot to destroy America. We need only look at the AARP Bulletin, […]
16Mar2017 | Gary Clark | 1,197 comments | Continued
Single Payer – What Is It and How Is It Better Than What We Have?
The health care debate rages on. Our system has been flawed from the beginning. Powerful Unions negotiated with employers to provide health insurance. Good for the Unions and unionized workers, not good for everybody. Insurance companies liked the deal because they could negotiate big lucrative packages. Actuaries ruled the day. It is actually simple math […]
10Mar2017 | Gary Clark | 1 comment | Continued
Trump – Nostalgia Is Not What It Used to Be
Donald Trump, the so-called President of the United States, is fundamentally ignorant of history, literature, philosophy, and the humanities in general. Trump epitomizes the romantic ideal, completely unaware of his failure to understand reality. This is a common trait of people who are intellectually lazy, and particularly the intellectually lazy who are born with the […]
5Mar2017 | Gary Clark | 0 comments | Continued
The Homosexual Paradigm – Personal Experience
(Originally posted May 1, 2012. Re-posted out of a sense of need for the current discussion). There is no universal homosexual paradigm – but there are strong paradigms that drive our society. Previous generations of Americans often ignored the Gay community – you stay in your closet, I’ll stay in mine. Today we find the […]
1Mar2017 | Ohg Rea Tone | 8 comments | Continued
Denying Freedom Of Press is Impeachable Offense
It is being widely reported today that the White House has selectively denied access to a news conference by the White House. The first amendment is clear: Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or […]
24Feb2017 | Gary Clark | 2 comments | Continued
The Pain of Awareness
Awareness is generally thought to be a good thing. Certainly we advocate being aware of one’s personal budget, of politics, of education, of science (Climate Change), of job opportunities, of our health, and even an awareness of our ignorance on various topics. I think it is useful to be aware of proper use of the […]
24Feb2017 | Gary Clark | 6 comments | Continued
Fireside Issues | Gun Violence
We have to protect our society. It is a moral imperative. We have to stop arguing about which guns you can own and which guns I can own. That has mostly been settled. The real culprit here is an industry unchecked, riding the wave of public opinion to profits beyond your imagination.
22Feb2017 | bryan | 1,198 comments | Continued
Fireside Issues | Abortion
If you want to end the practice of abortion, as I do, you will have to do that in partnership with women and providers.
29Jan2017 | bryan | 3 comments | Continued
Electronic Medical Record – Great Idea, Problematic With Lazy Docs
Get out the cheese and crackers because I am getting ready to whine. It was long, long ago, about 2005, that my primary care physician was an accomplished in Internal Medicine. I had switched to his practice when I was fifty years old, reasoning that as I aged I would need someone with a more […]
16Jan2017 | Ohg Rea Tone | 1 comment | Continued
Big Stick Diplomacy
President T.R. Roosevelt is quoted as having said, “Speak softly and carry a big stick”. Don’t you just love those easy clever witticisms? Bumper sticker diplomacy at its finest. Wit is not the same as wisdom. Clever is not the same as wisdom. Wisdom speaks softly and carries a big stick – and carries the […]
10Dec2016 | Gary Clark | 1,077 comments | Continued
Page Displays In A Mobile World
thefiresidepost.com launched in 2007. We had some success. Success caused a ripple in our egos – my son’s and mine. Some people liked our political commentary while others preferred our essays on recipes. Where should we focus? was the question. By 2008 we determined that we had an online magazine. Our magazine knows no bounds […]
2Dec2016 | Gary Clark | 1 comment | Continued
thefiresidepost.com is Back On Line. Bluehost, SiteLock, and Malware
What a pain in the whazoo. Sorry for the down time folks. We are back on line. Here is the deal as I understand it. I am not a good wordpress site administrator. My son usually does that work but he actually has a real job so I have been taking care of updating our […]
1Dec2016 | Gary Clark | Comments Off on thefiresidepost.com is Back On Line. Bluehost, SiteLock, and Malware | Continued
Artistic Interpretation of Trump Victory
Ben Franklin was a Founding Father who used political cartoons as a means of persuasion. With biting with he would cause a person to reflect and reconsider. And that was not his day job. Some people are just naturally gifted at imagery and symbolism used a tools for thoughtful discourse. I am no expert on […]
13Nov2016 | Gary Clark | Comments Off on Artistic Interpretation of Trump Victory | Continued
USA 2016 is Analogous to Iran 1979
This is a bold commentary by someone with limited actual knowledge. My recall of history says that the invention of the internal combustion engine, followed by Henry Ford’s assembly line and mass production – put the oil rich countries of the Middle East on the map. My memory says the Saudi family took charge about […]
9Nov2016 | Gary Clark | Comments Off on USA 2016 is Analogous to Iran 1979 | Continued
My Psychiatric Nerve
I have problems; always have had, likely always will. One of the problems is in naming my problems. Naming problems is categorically dependent. When naming a problem, do I use the language of religion, psychiatry, layman, political party – or some variation of modern self-help-ism. As with most spoken words it depends on the audience. […]
7Nov2016 | Gary Clark | Comments Off on My Psychiatric Nerve | Continued
New Fireside Post Format
Well, here we are, almost ten years into the grand experiment of a father and son chat on the internet. We quickly became thefiresidepost.com and have had a couple of major upgrades since. My son, the Administrator of this magazine, got a new job, went back to school, had more children, yadda, yadda… He became […]
27Oct2016 | Ohg Rea Tone | Comments Off on New Fireside Post Format | Continued
When Peaceful Protest Becomes A Lynch Mob
The near riots and riots in recent memory have the same feel as the mob rule of a hundred years past – the difference being the color of the skin of the protestors. Make no mistake about it – these protests are about justice. Immediate justice. In every case the protesters are compelled to […]
23Sep2016 | Gary Clark | 2 comments | Continued
Clinton Trump Debate Can Go Off The Rails
WOW! We are in for a treat. Maybe I should restate that – if we like fireworks we might like the Clinton Trump Debates. If we like the idea of diplomats debating world affairs we are probably not going to enjoy the evening. Let the debates begin – with more potential for fireworks than any […]
30Aug2016 | Ohg Rea Tone | 1 comment | Continued
“Conservative” Does Not Mean Smaller Government
Ronald Reagan hijacked the term “Conservative” and twisted it to his own political purpose. Remember his famous quote, something like this: “Government does not solve the problem, government is the problem.” The dingbats get goosebumps every time they hear that quote. More military they say, but less government. The government should leave my social security […]
24Aug2016 | Gary Clark | 1 comment | Continued
thefiresidepost.com is back – Down Because of User hits
Some computer got a hold of thefiresidepost.com and started adding subscribers automatically – they hogged the entire server and we were shut down while we searched for a solution. We are going to delete 95,600 subscribers. Anyone who currently subscribes to thefiresidepost.com and want to continue subscribing must sign on and sigh up again. We […]
26Jul2016 | Ohg Rea Tone | 1 comment | Continued
When “Political Correctness” Inhibits Honesty
I have some friends, 300+ on facebook. They represent every aspect of American society. Rich and poor, old and young, educated and uneducated, wise and not-so-wise, liberal and conservative, black and white and gray, and some very opinionated. I have been reluctant to post dramatic political points of view for fear of alienating someone – […]
16Jun2016 | Ohg Rea Tone | 2 comments | Continued
Introduction from a Casual Observer
Hello everyone! My name is Josh Clark and I’m the newest contributor to this most intriguing online magazine. I feel compelled to give some backstory on myself as an introduction. Foremost, I see myself as a poet. I say this unapologetically. I have no true passions in life to speak of, save three–writing, love, and […]
1Jun2016 | Josh Clark | Comments Off on Introduction from a Casual Observer | Continued
A Vet on Jules Street
From a facebook post by my Brother’s son: A Vet on Jules Street (A haibun) It seems like an odd duality really, in regards to time. Memory can do this. I’m taken back to when I was a boy sitting on my Grandparent’s front porch on Jules Street; so many years ago, but just yesterday. […]
23May2016 | Ohg Rea Tone | 1 comment | Continued
Sadness, Depression, Grief, The Deep Struggles of Life
Let’s get personal about the issues of sadness, depression, and grief. I can see these things playing out in my family – my parents, siblings, in-laws, my children, my nieces and nephews. These sensations are not all-or-nothing. There seem to be degrees of sadness, a continum. My personal life has covered the spectrum. I believe […]
17May2016 | Ohg Rea Tone | 1 comment | Continued
Shouts of Despair Go Unheard
I work with others. Mostly volunteer work – but I find my self in the horrid trenches of the front line battle against despair. The Four Horsemen of Terror, Bewilderment, Frustration, and Despair march the earth seeking human souls. What do I see? What do I hear? Last week a man happened upon me – […]
17May2016 | Gary Clark | Comments Off on Shouts of Despair Go Unheard | Continued
“…misogynistic narcissist or the underwhelming oligarch?”
My son, Bryan, used the title of this post in a sentence the other day. He was referring to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Well? What do you think? I looked up the words to be sure I understood what Bryan was suggesting – very interesting. Donald Trump is a misogynistic narcissist – among other […]
4May2016 | Gary Clark | 1 comment | Continued
“…an organized, nationwide system of care…”
Civilized industrial nations have searched for many years for an appropriate response to public health. Individual health care financing in the United States was somehow attached to one’s job as a part of the benefit package. A good job came with good health insurance. By 2008 there were fifty (50) million individuals without health insurance. […]
18Apr2016 | Gary Clark | 3 comments | Continued
Our Social Media Audience Influences What We Share
Coming to you straight from St. Joseph, Missouri – a place I call home. Our homes are built on many years of experience. What appears to be clutter is often a memory of time gone by. Most of my social media ‘friends’ are from around northwest Missouri. St. Joseph schools educated me, work took me […]
3Mar2016 | Gary Clark | 2 comments | Continued
The Progressive Vote Will Not Be Cast For Hillary Clinton
NPR and MSNBC want you to believe that it doesn’t matter who the nominee is. Tow the line anyway. the person, the character of the nominee is irrelevant. Fox News wants you to believe the same thing. They are wrong.
1Mar2016 | bryan | 1 comment | Continued
Is Ted Cruz The Republican Obama?
Bear with me please. Barack Obama stormed the castle in 2008. He conquered the dragon – and no one saw it coming – well, perhaps Dick Durban. But everyone today concedes that Obama is a masterful politician. Like him or not, agree with him or not, Obama came to play hardball. He came with masterful […]
15Jan2016 | Gary Clark | 1 comment | Continued
A Rebuttal of Trump Criticism….
My colleague, Nancy, posted this on facebook – we thought it rose to the level of an observation worth documenting and sharing. Two videos follow – one with Chuck Todd and a second with excerpts from a ‘focus group’ that seems to portray Trump supporters as fearful, less educated, and naive Americans. (Note: Nancy is […]
15Dec2015 | Gary Clark | 3 comments | Continued