Posts Tagged ‘american founding documents’
Ring, Ring – This is a Police State — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, Yesterday my attention was drawn to an article written by Buck Sexton which appeared on The Blaze, “Calif. Appeals Court Approves Cell Phone Searches During Traffic Stops”. I didn’t know cell phones were that big a deal; okay, maybe we shouldn’t text while shifting and most of us would agree that hands free [...]
The Declaration of Rights of the Stamp Act Congress
October 19, 1765 DECLARATION OF RIGHTS The members of this congress, sincerely devoted, with the warmest sentiments of affection and duty to His Majesty's person and government, inviolably attached to the present happy establishment of the Protestant succession, and with minds deeply impressed by a sense of the present and impending [...]
The Bill of Rights to the United States Constitution
In force December 15, 1791 The First Congress, at its first session in the City of New York, September 25, 1789, submitted to the states 12 amendments to clarify certain individual and state rights not named in the Constitution. They are generally called the Bill of Rights. Influential in framing these amendments was the Declaration of [...]
The Articles of Confederation
1777 The same continental congress which passed the Declaration of Independence, appointed a committee "to prepare and digest the form of confederation to be entered into between these colonies." On July 12, 1776, the committee reported a draft of these articles; and after many changes the congress adopted them on November 15, 1777. They [...]
The Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, on July 4, 1776. John Hancock was president of the Congress and Charles Thomson was secretary. A copy of the Declaration, engrossed on parchment, was signed by members of Congress on and after August 2, 1776. On January 18, 1777, Congress ordered [...]
Can I get a Witness? — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, There’s an article by Michael E. Ruane in the Washington Post, Gettysburg battle bullets found embedded in tree 148 years later . Historians call these Witness Trees since they stood at the time of the Civil War battle; bullet fragments captured in them testify of that terrible conflict. ‘“The real witnesses to [...]
Defending Core Tea Party Beliefs — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, I’ve been challenged to defend “core Tea Party beliefs” and requirements directed toward our government by someone who claims I’m out of touch with reality. He’d visited one of my recent articles and left a comment which listed the following as “unrealistic” core beliefs found on one of the “official [...]
Entering Police State (for your own good) — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, There’s a story out of New York by Taylor Hatmaker, Secret Service raids Apple store artist for snapping 1000 spy photos , that caught my attention the other day. The secondary title was a bit more accurate, “A young digital artist secretly recorded shoppers peering into computers at New York Apple stores”; too [...]
If you don’t know where you came from… — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, Have you ever heard the expression, “If you don’t know where you came from how can you know where you’re going?” This weekend many of us celebrate our Independence Day. I say many of us; but there’s a significant portion which doesn’t share the pride swelling inside as an American Flag is paraded down Main [...]
Progressive’s Perfect Storm Against God — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, You may recall a movie made not too long ago, The Perfect Storm, in which weather systems combined making for a devastating mix. We are witnessing the makings of a different kind of “perfect storm”, one brought about by years of pain staking efforts by progressives; call them what you will, these folks are the [...]
Patriotism or Sedition? — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, An interesting discussion took place during the last hour at church this past Sunday; a bunch of old geezers talking about the undeniable responsibility to support our government. You’ll be happy to know I remained silent most of the time; groaning only occasionally as the Spirit dictated. Whenever government and [...]
We Started Out a Christian Nation — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, My goodness; but my last article, Mother Earth Rights - A Rose by Any Other Name , set off a firestorm of controversy. My Facebook account went off like a Roman Candle trying to “set me straight” for having expressed my summation of historical facts. Here’s what got some folks upset, enough to waggle a finger in [...]
Mother Earth Rights/A Rose by Any Other Name — TF Stern
By T.F. Stern, For all the marbles here in America, the communist agenda must first eradicate the widely accepted idea; rights come from God and are bestowed to individuals while powers are granted unto government by the governed. If this one thought is ever lost in the shuffle then communism will have won out and government will [...]
An Open Letter to All Locksmiths — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, This article was originally posted on Fiercely Independent Locksmiths of America’s website as, An Open Letter to all locksmiths regarding Proposed Texas Legislation HB2577 , SB1400 and HB1867 . I read the introductory line regarding proposed legislation on the GHLA website and have to wonder why, “It is important that [...]
Inalienable or Unalienable Rights? — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, I admit to having holes in my education, some might clarify that statement and ask if I knew the difference between a crack in the sidewalk and the Grand Canyon; but a gap is a gap, let’s just say I got out of high school, took some college level classes and some how made it this far. For years I’ve found myself [...]
A Mountain of Words — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, The Declaration of Independence offers a starting point, a glimpse of liberty and all its transient meanings. Our basic structure of government is based on the acceptance; change that, demands the acceptance of a separation between natural rights of individuals and powers granted to their government. “We hold these [...]
Video Gaming and the 1st Amendment — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, Here we go again, another extremely violent video game to shock the public with graphic mutilations and sexual implications; Bulletstorm takes gaming to another level of brutality. Bulletstorm promises to reward player’s ability to mutilate, destroy or sexually assault victims in the most graphic realism possible with today’s [...]
Unwrapping Government Mandates — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, This past week the Wall Street Journal had an article by Ashby Jones which explained why Federal Judge Roger Vinson struck down Obamacare as unconstitutional, citing abuse of the Commerce Clause as well as the Necessary and Proper Clause. Judge Vinson’s remarks unwrapped basic flaws in legislation which overstep the bounds [...]
The Ultimate Form of Wealth Redistribution — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, According to a recent AP story , the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the use of embryonic stem cells for research and testing on a couple of projects; spinal cord injuries by one company and a vision related problem which affects roughly 30,000 people called Stargardt disease. A dangerous president is being set; our [...]
Fighting for Agency Doesn’t Mean I’m Crazy — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, One more piece of the puzzle fell into place as a light bulb flickered in my mind; I’ll explain. It occurred to me why so many of my fellow locksmiths, particularly those in positions of leadership; why they don’t take my warnings regarding the DPS/PSB more seriously, some have implied my sanity was in question. I’d remarked [...]
Yearning for days gone by — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, My folks have a painting in their living room, a pastoral hunting scene by Currier and Ives. It serves as an historical reminder of days gone by, rural landscapes with horses and dogs chasing through the brush, their riders dressed fashionably for the ride. Glancing through the internet I found a similar painting by Currier and [...]
More strivings within — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, This morning one of the hymns landed on my unsettled soul at the close of our meetings, More Holiness Give Me . I’m getting ahead of myself; time to set the stage. These past few months one of my projects has been to create and establish Fiercely Independent Locksmiths of America (FILOA), on a shoe string budget from petty cash [...]
Say Good Bye to God – Feds Take Over Schools — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, Most folks were unaware of the hidden perils within the recently passed Health Care Reform bill many now call “Obamacare”; remember, “We have to pass it before we know what’s in it”. One item of interest turned out to be the federal government taking over all student loans; private lending institutions will no longer be [...]
The President’s record speaks for itself — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, Dan Pfeiffer, White House Communications Director, posted an article on the White House Blog entitled, America has spoken, will the GOP listen? listing what he believed to be shining moments in the Obama administration. Most of what I read were lame attacks on the Republican Party which had voted against the road to socialism and [...]
Paradigm — T.F. Stern
By, T.F. Stern, Several years ago I heard the word paradigm for the first time and hadn’t a clue what it meant; glad I took the time to learn this one. A friend explained how he’d observed a woman and her out of control children on a train while on his way to work. The woman seemed oblivious to the fact that her children were misbehaving and, [...]
The Law of Gravity — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, Police officers are charged with enforcing the law without favor, the law of gravity being no exception. A story on FoxNews courtesy of the Whittier Daily News explained how officers were searching for a burglary suspect in Pico Rivera, California. “A man fell through the ceiling of a Pico Rivera shop on Saturday, landing in [...]
Remembrance Cycle — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, I was trying to put my finger on why some Americans have forgotten, or discounted to a certain degree, that we are at war with radical Islam; more accurately, radical Islam is at war with us. Former President Bush called it a War on Terror and resolved to make those who attacked America accountable regardless of where they hid or [...]
UN World Governance Goals — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, If you want to spend a few hours reading nonsense then I highly recommend the “UN Position Papers” , a set of documents intended to prepare the nations of the Earth for world wide governance with equal security of energy, food, quality of life for every human on the planet with a heavy emphasis on man made global warming [...]
Red Flag Warning EPA Ammunition Ban — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, There is yet another assault on an individual’s God given right to bear arms; this one coming from of all places, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). First let me give a tip of the hat to Say Uncle and by extension the National Shooting Sports Foundation where I first learned of an underhanded attempt to ban traditional [...]
Obama is neither Christian nor Muslim — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, Recent polling results would have our attention pulled toward the issue of Obama’s faith; is he Christian or Muslim? The answer would have to be, neither; Obama is a statist and has no faith in anything other than big government, bigger government and eventually total government. There’s an old lawyer joke which goes, [...]
Symbols Unlock Our History — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, This past week I posted a very short article showing a logo design which will be used for a new locksmith association, Fiercely Independent Locksmiths of America (FILOA). The new association is the result of frustration in dealing with a long established association which lost its primary focus, to represent the locksmith industry. [...]
Citizenship or Servitude — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, One of the principles of our constitutional form of government has to do with the flow of power from the individual, to a group of individuals and then to our government which is permitted to govern us through powers granted it by that group of individuals and eventually the individual. There is a stipulation buried deep within [...]
Amnesty One and Two — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, Call it coincidence if you will; but the Fox News website had an interesting combination of headline stories laid out one above the other. The first, Investigators Recommend Rangel Get Slap on Wrist , was close enough to, Lawmakers: Amnesty Plan in the Works? …close enough to the casual observer one might come to the conclusion [...]
Statists Distrust Everyone — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, There’s an AP article by Rodrique Ngowi about competitive lock picking in the Houston Chronicle that caught my eye, one of those less than front page items off to the side intended to make you look at another advertisement. Go read the linked article; it’s enlightening and fun. Imagine for a moment what kind of hobbies these [...]
Diversity and Tolerance — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, A leading headline this week had to do with Julea Ward, a student expelled from Eastern Michigan University’s graduate student counseling program because she held to her Christian belief that homosexuality was not moral. I guess this falls into the lefts all encompassing “diversity and tolerance” unless that diversity and [...]
Who can be a member of FILOA? — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, To be considered for membership in Fiercely Independent Locksmiths of America (FILOA) you have to be at least 5’ 10” tall and weigh no more than 250 lbs…; no that won’t work, gotta’ come up with some realistic membership rules. I read a short article by Steve Farrell over at The Moral Liberal on Fundamental Rights of [...]
Report to Homicide Division — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, When I was a young police officer with only a couple of years experience, being told to report to the office hardly ever meant you’d done a great job. “Report to Homicide Division”, goodness, what did I screw up this time? I’d gotten back from vacation and the note was waiting the minute I stepped in the door. Upon [...]
Madison’s Notes — The Federal Convention of 1787 — July 16
Liberty Letters, 16 July 1787, James Madison (Editor's Summary: Agreeing to the whole report (thus far), while the equality of votes in the Senate issue heats up, large and small states asked to meet separately early the next morning to attempt to come up with possible solutions or compromises to end this impasse. Besides that big issue, some of [...]
Madison’s Notes — Federal Convention of 1787 — July 14
Liberty Letters, 14 July 1787, James Madison (Editor's Summary: Discussed: how to admit Western State (and on what terms), the origination of money bills, and the equality of votes in the Senate as a check in favor of state rights and also in favor of the smaller states against the larger. The debate focused mostly on this Senate issue with [...]
Madison’s Notes — Federal Convention of 1787 — July 13
Liberty Letters, 13 July 1787, James Madison (Editor's summary: Debate renewed regarding the proposed equality of states within the Senate (the second branch). Discussion continued as to whether numbers or wealth are best for determining representation and taxation. Spelling has been updated and almost all shorthand removed except where Madison [...]
Ishmael or Isaac — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, Some of you may have gotten an interesting email recently explaining how the U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp honoring Islam. There was a picture of the stamp along with a request to boycott it and notify all your friends to boycott the stamp. I looked up the stamp on Snopes.com history to see if there were any listings to back [...]
Madison’s Notes — Federal Convention of 1787 — July 12
Liberty Alerts, 12 July 1787, James Madison (Editor's Summary: Gouvernuer Morris moved to add to the clause empowering the Legislature to vary the Representation according to the principles of wealth and number of inhabitants a "proviso that taxation shall be in proportion to Representation." General Pinckney agreed, Mason, Butler, Wilson [...]
Madison’s Notes — The Federal Convention of 1787 — July 11
Liberty Letters, 11 July1787, James Madison (Editor's Note: Discussion regards periodic census resumed, the purpose, said Randolph, "redressing inequality in the Representation. Sherman was against to numerous a House. It would "shackle the legislature. Better to elect a smaller group of "good and wise men, and then confide in them." Mason [...]
Madison’s Notes — Federal Convention of 1787 — July 10
Liberty Letters, 10 July 1787, James Madison Editor's Intro: Debate over how many members will be in the first House of Representatives. More discussion on apportionment, and the need for an initial and periodic census. I've removed some of the shorthand, and updated the spelling. Steve Farrell Mr. KING reported from the Come. yesterday [...]
Madison’s Notes — Federal Convention of 1787 — July 9
Liberty Letters, 9 July 1787, James Madison Editor's summary/best quotes: Patterson as to counting slaves in the rep. formula: "What is the true principle of Representation? It is an expedient by which an assembly of certain individuals chosen by the people is substituted in place of the inconvenient meeting of the people themselves. If such a [...]
Moribund Free Market? — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, There’s an article on Bloomberg by Lorraine Woellert and John Gittelsohn which explains how taxpayers are on the hook to Fannie and Freddie for somewhere between $160 Billion and $ 1 Trillion. I was unfamiliar with one word they used; not being the sharpest pencil in the box I get to use the dictionary and thesaurus more often [...]
Madison’s Notes — The Federal Convention of 1787 — July 7
Liberty Letters, 7 July 1787, James Madison 1 "Shall the clause allowing each State one vote in the 2d. branch, stand as part of the Report"? being taken up — Mr. GERRY. This is the critical question. He had rather agree to it than have no accomodation. A Governt. short of a proper national plan, if generally acceptable, would be preferable to [...]
Madison’s Notes — The Federal Convention of 1787 — July 6
Liberty Letters, 6 July 1787, James Madison Mr. GOVr. MORRIS moved to commit so much of the Report as relates to "I member for every 40,000 inhabitants" His view was that they might absolutely fix the number for each State in the first instance; leaving the Legislature at liberty to provide for changes in the relative importance of the States, [...]
Madison’s Notes — Federal Convention of 1787 — July 5
Liberty Letters, 5 July 1787, James Madison Mr. GERRY delivered in from the Committee appointed on Monday last the following Report. "The Committee to whom was referred the 8th. Resol. of the Report from the Committee of the whole House, and so much of the 7th. as has not been decided on, submit the following Report: That the subsequent [...]
Madison’s Notes — Federal Convention of 1787 — July 2
Liberty Letters, 2 July 1787, James Madison On the question for allowing each State one vote in the second branch as moved by Mr. Elseworth, 1 Massts. no. Cont. ay. N. Y. ay. N. J. ay. Pa. no. Del. ay. Md. ay. Mr. Jenifer being not present Mr. Martin alone voted Va no. N. C. no. S. C. no. Geo. divd. Mr. Houston no. Mr. Baldwin ay. Mr. PINKNEY [...]
