Monday, August 4, 2014

Ridley's Believe It Or Not August 4 History Coast Guard Day

Ridley's Believe It Or Not—August 4, 2014:  Unless a member of or veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard another meager day of holidays but you are probably on vacation anyway and are already celebrating. Hope you enjoy what is posted, along with the factoids and quote from Rear Admiral R.R. Waesche with a smile on your face, a positive attitude and a chocolate chip cookie, hopefully one of Kellies Best, in your hand.
           1. Coast Guard Day—celebrating the founding of the Coast Guard on this day in 1790 founded originally as the Revenue Marine designed to protect not lives and safe navigation and marine activities as it does today but to protect the collection of tariffs by interdicting smuggling, a function it still performs quite well in the case of illegal drugs coming into this country over and under the waters. Happy Birthday Coasties. 
           2. International Assistance Dog—celebrating for a week the contribution of assistance dogs that provide great service to those people physically challenged and giving a new very admired meaning to the phrase “working like a dog.”
            3. National Chocolate Chip Day---celebrating one of the great cookies of all time and a great source of wealth to Famos Amos and Mrs. Fields but if you want the best chocolate chip cookie in the world try Kellies Best; to order go to  http://www.kelliscookies.com/
            4. National Single Working Women’s Day—celebrating the contributions in the workplace of all the single women especially the single working moms in the workplace and in the home.
            5. Bipartisanship First Step—celebrating an easy way to take a first step toward ending the rancor and gridlock in D.C. by wishing President Obama, born on this day in 1961, a Happy Birthday.
On this day in
             a. 1977 President Jimmy Carter signed legislation creating the Department of Energy which despite billions of dollars spent has still not found a way to convert the hot air emanating in Washington into an energy source.
             b. 1987 to the future joy of MSNBC, the FCC rescinded the Fairness Doctrine for radio and television which required stations to present issues fairly; that act is the basis for the plethora of conservative and liberal talk shows—hard to find unbiased coverage of the news today.  
             c. 1993 a federal judge sentence LAPD officers Stacey Koon and Lawrence Powell to 30 months in prison for violating Rodney King’s civil rights. Too bad the federal action did not precede the state criminal as we might have avoided the L.A. riots following the not guilty verdict.
 Having experienced firsthand in Alaska the importance of the Coast Guard to maritime safety and navigation very glad of their continued existence: The cat with nine lives is a piker compared to the Coast Guard. You can kick this old service around, tear it to pieces, scream from the house tops that it is worthless, ought to be abolished or transferred to the Navy, have the people in fighting among themselves and working at cross purposes and it bobs up serenely bigger and stronger than ever.” Rear Admiral R.R. Waesche, Commandant of the Coast Guard 1936-1945 in a private letter 1935  
Please enjoy the 140 character poems on events of interest on my twitter account below (if you like them, retweet and join almost 140 growing followers and please follow me) and follow my blogs. Always good, incisive and entertaining poems on my blogs--click on links below. www.alaskanpoet.blogspot.com for poems to inspire, touch, emote, elate and enjoy. Go to Rhymes On The Newsworthy Times for comments on important and breaking news events that should be of interest.
© August 4, 2014 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet

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