Ridley's Believe It Or Not January 16 History National Religious Freedom Day

Ridley's Believe It Or Not—January 16, 2015:    Trust your Friday is off to a good start getting ready for the weekend and you are still following at least a few of your 2015 resolutions. As always, I  hope you enjoy the holidays and observances, factoids and a quote from Thomas Jefferson,  with a smile on your face, savoring a plate of hot and spicy food, blessed with a positive attitude even though you know you will have to wade through tons of spam in your inbox, and secure in the knowledge that if you want to find a gift for a memorable event like Valentines’ Day soon approaching, you know that the Alaskanpoet can provide you with a unique customized poem at a great price tailored to the event and the recipient.  You need only contact me for details.

       1. National Religious Freedom Day—celebrating on the anniversary of the passage of Virginia’s Statute for Religious Freedom authored by Thomas Jefferson on this day in 1786  one of the great freedoms of this nation totally absent in the Muslim world—the ability to worship the religion of one’s choice free from the dictates of the government.

        2. Appreciate a Dragon Day—celebrating not that great Starbucks coffee—Komodo Dragon or the Peter, Paul and Mary song Puff the Magic Dragon, but those creatures of folklore and myth whose voice has been immortalized by Sean Connery.                                                                       

       3. 1985 Number One Song—celebrating the number one song on this day in 1985 Like a Virgin by Madonna, great singer but long since removed from the title of this number one song.                                                                                           
        4. International Hot and Spicy Food Day—celebrating the end of bland and tasteless food with dishes laden with spices and sauces like Tapatio.
        5. Anti-Grammarian Day—celebrating the birthday on this day in 1910 of one of the great pitchers in baseball, Dizzy Dean who was the last National League Pitcher to win 30 games in a season and in a broadcasting career was famous for mangling the English Language, e.g. “He shouldn’t have swang at that pitch.”
On this day in
      a. 1581 in a blow to religious freedom the English Parliament outlaws the practice of Catholicism.

      b. 1883 the Pendleton Civil Service Act was passed creating the U.S. Civil Service which given the next impossible ability to hold workers accountable or subject to being fired like in the case of the V.A,  continues to plague us today.

       c. 1920 the League of Nations held its first meeting in Paris.

       d. 1986 the first meeting of the Internet Engineering Society met to promulgate uniform internet protocols.
       e. 2001 in a better-late-than-never moment, President Clinton awarded posthumously the Medal of Honor to Teddy Roosevelt for his actions leading the Rough Riders at San Juan Hill, Cuba during the Spanish-American War.
Reflections on religious freedom and Jefferson predicted the corruption of Islam by the jihadist fringe: “Because religious belief, or non-belief, is such an important part of every person’s life, freedom of religion affects every individual. Religious institutions that use government power in support of themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths, or of no faith, undermine all our civil rights. Moreover, state support of an established religion tends to make the clergy unresponsive to their own people, and leads to corruption within religion itself. Erecting the “wall of separation between church and state,” therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society.”  Thomas Jefferson Can you possibly imagining living under Sharia where if one converts from Islam to Christianity that is a capital crime.
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© January 16, 2015 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet
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