‘T.F. Stern’ Archives
The Human Condition — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, Sometimes you can tell by a person’s voice that they’re going to be fun to meet; today was that kind of day. A woman called wanting work done on her Ford Explorer; something about how when it came back from being worked on the ignition key no longer worked in the doors or the storage cover. There was a familiar [...]
Mandated Ignition Interlocks for DWI — T.F. Stern
BY T.F. STERN The American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act being considered in Washington would set aside “$25 million per year to states that require the devices to be installed in vehicles of anyone convicted of driving under the influence”; however the bill also has a provision which would mandate those installations in all 50 states [...]
While You Were Fleeing… — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, Sandra Bullock played a woman in love with a stranger who happened to fall into the path of an oncoming train in the movie, While you were sleeping. Things got out of hand when she told the nurse at the hospital she was his fiancé and the story took off from there. Eventually she had to fess up for her actions; but [...]
Out of an abundance of caution — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, Last week Enfamil pulled all their products off the shelves coast to coast out of an abundance of caution after four babies died from Cronobacter bacteria; it MUST have been in the baby formula and the news media ran with the story. The FDA later made the statement, “the bacteria that are found naturally in the [...]
The Aromas of Christmas — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, Christmas time is when I’m prone to catching colds, this year being no different. My work takes me out in the elements and this past week we’ve had our share of damp and soggy air; not complaining, after this year of drought we needed the rain. Monday the symptoms started to appear so we took steps to minimize [...]
Canons and Cloning — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, The human soul responds to certain musical tones when arranged properly. Shepherds watching their flocks by night were treated to heavenly inspired messages inviting them to visit the Christ Child in a manger and we’ve marked this advent with music down through the ages. Johann Pachelbel’s Canon in D major has [...]
The Night Before Christmas, GOA — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, For all you police enthusiasts, GOA means Gone On Arrival. This time of year working night shift as a training officer I would save Clement C. Moore’s classic bedtime story for my probationary police officers. I had it printed out as an assignment to be completed as part of their training. The original poem was [...]
The Gift of Life — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, It’s Christmas time and we go about looking for gifts, enjoying store front windows filled with items of interest and trimming the tree to create a pleasant atmosphere in our homes. My wife and I attended a simple Nativity re-enactment this past Saturday, Journey Through Bethlehem, one which required an hour’s drive to the [...]
Wisconsin Third World Mentality Recall — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, Wisconsin voters appear to be headed for yet another round of recall elections; Governor Walker being targeted by the United Wisconsin coalition according to an AP article. The opportunity to alter Wisconsin’s balance of power is in play following last summer’s recall election losses of 2 Republican Senators, considering 4 [...]
Thanksgiving kicks off Christmas Season — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, Thanksgiving begins the Christmas Season, at least it has been that way ever since I can recall. After diner my folks would have us write our Wish Lists for Santa. We’d spend the afternoon dreaming of Lincoln Logs, Erector Sets, shiny new bicycles, Mr. Potato Head, telescopes, baseball gloves as sugar plums danced [...]
Prove it! — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, Truth in advertising gets more interesting everyday according to an article on the Fox News website. Take for instance a recent edict by the European Union which goes into force next month; Bottle water manufacturers saying their product rehydrates could result in jail time. “Bottled water manufacturers will not [...]
Gun Rights Paradigm — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, Our constitution provides limits on government in order to protect every individual’s God given inalienable rights. The right to defend your life, those around you and your property existed long before the establishment of government and is often referred to as a “natural right”; perhaps to assuage the small [...]
Habla English? — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, Last week at church was Stake Conference for our area; various Wards getting together to hear our local Priesthood leadership speak. There were translators on hand to accommodate Spanish speaking members in attendance which meant audio/visual requirements would have to accommodate the streaming of Spanish into [...]
Peter Pan’s Green Cake was Poisoned — T.F. Stern
By T. F. Stern, I remember watching the movie Peter Pan as a young boy and feeling physically ill at the thought of Peter eating the poisoned green cake which had been placed where the Lost Boys would find it. The shape of the green cake has changed over the years; now it’s disguised as green energy. The poison introduced in [...]
Pledges, Oaths and Testimonies — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, Several years ago there was a movie with Steve Martin and John Candy, Plains, Trains and Automobiles; but that has nothing to do with my title choice for today’s article, Pledges, Oaths and Testimonies. You’ll have to forgive me; my word association test results given to the police psychiatrist must have been [...]
Captive Audience — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, A woman’s car was having trouble on a major roadway in Houston, allegedly, so it was reported she pulled off to the side of the road; I’ll get to “allegedly” later on. An officer of the law issued her a ticket for “driving on the shoulder and decided to arrest her”; sounds a little over the top for a [...]
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 [...]
Occupy Wall Street Gibberish — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, If there was any doubt in your mind about the level of education, or lack thereof, here in America; cast your eyes on some of the demands being put forth by those intent on disrupting Wall Street as reported by Kerry Picket of the Washington Times. File this under, Gobbledygook! Star Trek fans will appreciate [...]
Officer Dan Starr is Retiring from HPD — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, An old friend of mine, Dan Starr, is retiring from the Houston Police Department next month and I was invited to the party; can’t go because of a schedule conflict and so I’ll do my best to recall a couple of events we went through when he was a probationary officer. One time we’d arrested a real winner of a [...]
Jihad Deniers — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, The high priests who run the Church of Man Made Global Warming call anyone who doesn’t become disciples of the environmental whacko movement, “Deniers”; an attempt to discredit folks who don’t agree with a junk science whose main purpose has nothing to do with saving Mother Earth and everything to do with [...]
Membership Dues Serve a Purpose — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, I had a lock job close to downtown the other day, close enough where I could stop by and visit with my old friend Jim Reed, the fellow who started me down the road to become a locksmith. We had a good visit as he chided me for having mentioned him in some of my previous writings. Jim was a good teacher and taught more [...]
Progressives Hate the 1st Amendment — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, Tolerance is fine as long as your opinion happens to fall in line with the left; isn’t that what Political Correctness is all about? This past week KPRC had one of its managers issue an op-ed piece railing against the use of the “Stars and Bars” on personalized Texas license plates. In essence it was his [...]
Don’t Do Anything Stupid — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, Years ago, don’t think I’m supposed to start off a sentence like that; but years ago a few of my close friends at church would end the Sunday meeting block by saying to each other, “Don’t do anything stupid”. We each knew how easy it was to make mistakes during the work week so we’d give this light hearted [...]
Government Approved Defense — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, Waking up in America each morning must be close to having Alzheimer’s; not really sure what memories are working and which are figments of imagination. Take for example an article by Doug Ireland posted to the Eagle Tribune, Veto override expand NH deadly force law. “Local police are concerned public safety [...]
Chicago Style Politics — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, Corruption seems to work its way into the conversation when the Obama administration gets involved; after all, it’s the Chicago way of doing things. Fast and Furious is a bomb waiting to explode on the White House lawn depending on how far knowledge of the illegal operation went up the chain of command. There are [...]
American Jobs Act and Raccoons — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, President Obama’s jobs speech wasn’t much different than rhetoric used to bilk American tax payers on stimulus packages before. Obama said, “Let’s pass this jobs bill right away”, even though it hasn’t been written or presented to Congress as yet. This morning I recognized the similarities to something [...]
Happy Birthday Dad — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, I called my folks this morning to wish dad a Happy Birthday. Mom answered; but she wasn’t feeling well and wasn’t sure she was up to taking dad out for dinner, much less making his cake. Many years ago mom wasn’t feeling well on dad’s birthday. It was a hot August afternoon in Levittown, Long Island, New [...]
Fixing Camera Issued Tickets — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, The City of Houston put itself in an interesting predicament, caught between the proverbial rock and hard place, through a series of blunders related to Red Light Camera Ticket Enforcement. Red light cameras were installed, ostensibly as a public safety measure; but in reality they were installed to generate revenue [...]
Robert Gibbs the Perfect Reverse Barometer — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, There’s a short AP article which has advice from Robert Gibbs, one of Obama’s re-election campaign strategists (“strategerists” for Rush listeners). Immediately the thought occurred, General Custer supposedly asked an Indian scout which way to go at the battle of Little Big Horn. In the movie, Little Big Man , [...]
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 [...]
Sticks, Stones and Dehumanization – History Repeats — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, Have you noticed the left’s marginalization of conservative values, more specifically folks who align themselves with the Tea Party movement? Glenn Beck touched on it during his radio show the other day; focusing on a disgusting name calling explosion which aired on MSNBC . “Well Martin Bashir really went all out [...]
…is good for the gander — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, I like colloquial sayings; used to have a picture with the most common phrases in the bathroom. “Today is the first day of the rest of your life”, not one of my favorites; but you get the idea. A line which wasn’t on the list; but easily could have been, “What’s good for the goose is good for the [...]
There is nothing like a DAME — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, Stealing a line from the hit show, South Pacific, seemed like an appropriate way to start today’s article. Far from home in the middle of the war thousands of men reminded of the fact… “…There are no books like a dame, And nothin’ looks like a dame. There are no drinks like a dame, And nothin’ thinks [...]
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 [...]
“X” Marks the Spot — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, When I was growing up, not that the process was ever completed, we had a Hobo’s “X” marked on our front door. You couldn’t see it; but all the same it was there. Stray animals wandering the neighborhood would recognize the mark and know they were welcome to stop in for a meal and safe lodgings for as long as [...]
Journal Entry July 1st 1776 — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, Journal Entry July 1st 1776 This past week has been very difficult. As mentioned in previous journal entries, many of our neighbors have been forced to house British troops. We all have had to turn over much of our food stores to maintain the troops. If these insults were not sufficient to get my blood running hot, [...]
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 [...]
An Open Letter to the Locksmith Industry — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, June 21, 2011 Texas Department of Public Safety Private Security Board 6100 Guadalupe, Building E Criminal Law Enforcement Building Austin, Texas 78752 Subject: Locksmith License Renewal Requirements An Open Letter to the Locksmith Industry Honorable John E. Chism, Honorable [...]
Bowl a Hundred, Dad! — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, Call me one of the lucky ones, I’m still able to pick up a telephone and call my Dad; but I do have to speak very loud for him to hear. Mostly I talk to him via Mom; saves a lot of yelling back and forth so we keep it simple. I tell him, “Bowl a hundred” if he’s on the way to the bowling alley to be with his [...]
Need a set of lungs, make that to go… — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, Life has a way of imitating fiction from time to time. There’s a story by Jessica Ryen Doyle on the Fox News website out of Belgium that should make your skin crawl, Doctors euthanizing patients to obtain transplant organs . ‘“Given that half of all euthanasia cases in Belgium are involuntary, it must be only a [...]
Justice System Lottery — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, In the never ending game of Justice System Lottery taxpayers in Harris County, Texas will be coughing up $3 million dollars after an appeals court upheld Shirley Nagel’s wrongful death case against Harris County in 2009. Nagel originally called police when her 52 year old son, Joel Don Casey, stopped taking his [...]
Let’s destroy another crop — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, If you’ve been locked away in a closet of late, there was a deadly E. coli outbreak in Europe which sickened hundreds and is linked to the deaths of at least 22 people. Last week cucumbers were blamed and folks immediately stopped buying cucumbers. Over the weekend bean sprouts were said to have started the [...]
Splitting Hairs on Religion — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, The Department of Veterans Affairs in Houston asked Rev. Scott Rainey to offer the invocation at the Houston National Cemetery this Memorial Day weekend along with the stipulation his prayer be subjected to approval and editing. According to a story by Terri Langford in the Houston Chronicle Rev. Rainey was originally [...]
Let them eat cake — T.F. Stern
By T. F. Stern, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said something the other day which identified one of the many problems in government, pay raises for the elite during recessionary times. Reid got his nose out of joint; it seems Interior Secretary Ken Salazar had his $20,000 raise held up by Senator David Vitter, a pro-drilling [...]
Capon Clothing — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, The month of May in the State of Texas lends itself to an interesting, not particularly appreciated; but interesting form of law enforcement. My guess is this is a national event leading up to Memorial Day weekend we are bombarded with Department of Public Safety reminders, “Click it or Ticket”; a not so subtle [...]
Who can doubt now? — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, Our grand daughter was over the other day to get help putting her "build a bear" together. She's five years old and had a chance to sew with her "Memaw". When the project was completed she went around showing off her new "Teddy" bear. While cleaning up I was about to toss the empty container in the trash when a piece [...]
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 [...]
New Word – “Frauder” — T.F. Stern
By T.F. Stern, Politics sets the tone for lots of things; take for instance the moniker placed on folks trying to prove 9/11 was staged by our own government; wahla…Truthers; a bunch of whackos. Mention the name, Truthers, and automatically folks start shaking their heads, feeling uncomfortable for being near anyone who might be [...]
