Today is Navy Day, the commemoration of the date in 1775 when the United States Continental Congress ordered the establishment of the Continental Navy, the precursor to today’s United States Navy (of which my son is a part).
The Continental Navy achieved mixed results; it was successful in a number of engagements and raided many British merchant vessels, but it lost 24 of its vessels and at one point was reduced to two in active service. The Revolutionary War was ended by the Treaty of Paris in 1783, and by 1785, the Continental Navy was disbanded and the remaining ships were sold. As Congress turned its attention after the conflict towards securing the western border of the new United States, a standing navy was considered to be dispensable because of its high operating costs and its limited number of roles. The Navy was only reconstituted in 1794 to respond to American merchant shipping being menaced by Algiers. The United States Department of the Navy was established by an Act of Congress on April 30, 1798, to provide administrative and technical support and civilian leadership to the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps (and when directed by the Congress or President, the United States Coast Guard). In 1972 Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt authorized recognition of October 13 as the Navy’s birthday.
For the last time we woke up at the Econolodge in Malden, Massachusetts, this day at 6:30 am. I set up my medications for next week, we checked out of the motel, I had toast at the continental breakfast (no USA Today on Saturdays), and we were on the road at 8:00 am.
Richard and I arrived at the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site in Brookline at 8:45 am; as we were early, we read the local paper. At 9:00 am we got my stamp at the very minimal Visitor Center for my National Parks Passport Book; we then walked the grounds of the house, and were done with my 112th National Park at 9:15 am.
At 9:30 am we arrived at the John F. Kennedy National Historic Site, also in Brookline. We saw the video, I got my stamps for my National Parks Passport Book, took the fascinating tour of the house, and got a pin for Liz Ellen. Richard and I then left my 113th National Park at 10:45 am.
Our next stop was Lexington; at the Minute Man Visitor Center for Minute Man Natjonsl Historical Park at 11:15 am, I got my stamps for my National Parks Passport Book, we saw the multi-media movie, and we got a pin for Liz Ellen. Leaving at 12:00 pm, we drove to Concord, walked across the Old North Bridge, and went to the North Bridge Visitor Center, where I got another stamp for my National Parks Passport Book and where we saw a movie. We drove past the Old Manse, Orchard House, and The Wayside, and at 1:15 pm left my 114th National Park.
We ate lunch at a Wendy’s and got an oil change for the car. At 2:45 pm Richard and I arrived at the Lowell National Historical Park. At the Visitor’s Center I got my stamps for my National Parks Passport Book, we got a hiking staff medallion for me and a pin for Liz Ellen, and saw the movie. We left our fourth National Park of the day and my 115th National Park at 3:30 pm.
We returned to listening to the audiobook of Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation by Cokie Roberts. We entered New Hampshire at 4:15 pm and entered Maine at 4:30 pm. Richard and I arrived at the Americas Best Value Motel in Scarborough, Maine at 5:30 pm. I did my Daily Update for Wednesday, October 10, 2012, then at 6:00 pm we went to the Dunstan School House Restaurant for dinner, where I got a two-pound lobster for an extra $7.95 with my buffet.
After a stop at Rite Aid for soft drinks we were back to our motel room at 7:00 pm. I did my book review for this weblog and for my Goodreads and Facebook accounts for Bite Me: A Love Story by Christopher Moore. The college football game between LSU and South Carolina began at 8:00 pm EDT. I did my Daily Update for Thursday, October 11, 2012, then my Daily Update for Friday October 12, 2012, so I am now caught up on my Book Reviews and Daily Updates. And our LSU Tigers beat the South Carolina Gamecocks by the score of 23 to 21, so LSU is now 6 and 1 thus far in the season, and 2 and 1 in the SEC.
Tomorrow we will head for Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park, the northern and eastern extent of our travels on this vacation.
Our Parting Quote this evening comes to us from Stephen Barnett, American law professor and legal scholar. Born in 1935 in Brooklyn, New York City, he grew up in West Hartford, Connecticut, and attended Harvard University, from which he earned an undergraduate degree in 1957, having served as president of The Harvard Crimson. At Harvard Law School Barnett served as note editor of the Harvard Law Review; he was awarded his law degree in 1962. Following his graduation he clerked for the United States Court of Appeals for Second Circuit Judge Henry J. Friendly and then for Justice William J. Brennan of the Supreme Court of the United States. After a few years at the law firm of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, he was hired by Berkeley Law School, where he spent almost the entirety of his career. A leading critic of the Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970, which was intended to allow multiple newspapers in the same city to survive by forming joint operating agreements (JOAs) to share revenues and cut costs, Barnett argued that the unintended consequence of the legislation was the consolidation and development of large nationwide newspaper chains. These agreements often resulted in the demise of the weaker paper once the agreement was ended. He left Berkeley Law School to serve as assistant solicitor general in the United States Department of Justice, where Barnett argued cases before the Supreme Court from 1977 until 1979; he then returned to Berkeley. His writing on issues pertaining to government regulation of the press and television helped European governments shape communications policy in the 1980s. In this regard, his book Law of International Telecommunications in the United States(1988), written with Michael Botein and Eli M. Noam, was a significant textbook. He was a fierce critic of California’s Supreme Court and the State Bar Association. His campaign to bring greater openness and accountability to California’s legal system led to significant victories, notably a 1999 ruling that compelled California’s Commission on Judicial Performance to disclose the way individual members vote. In his article ”The Dog that did not Bark: No-Citation Rules, Judicial Conference Rulemaking, and Federal Public Defenders” (2005) Barnett was critical of a practice called “depublication”, under which the California Supreme Court could, at its choice, or if requested, order that a decision by the California Court of Appeals be excluded from publication, which would mean that it would become impossible to cite the decision in later legal actions, making the court less open and accountable (died 2009): “It’s increasingly clear that JOAs perversely produce the single-paper monopolies they are supposed to prevent.”
From The Recamier 