frankj

Interesting chart referenced by lisabob. And I am in debt to her for allowing me to debate based on "gut feelings," although I suspect that my gut feelings would be acceptable to her if they agreed with her opinions. A couple of comments on the comparision. Most of the other countries cover "citizens and legal aliens," implying some limit on who is covered. The info on the US simply says 100% of people over 65 and, I think it was 82% of people under 65. How are illegal aliens to be handled under a universal system in this country, given that there are a lot of them? A friend

I thought we were having a debate, or at least an intelligent discussion. But I don't have to first show you a nation that wants to get rid of socialized medicine in order to express my opinions. I'll go back to my generational arguement. Or, more to the point, the frog in the pot arguement. A frog in a pot of water heated slowly, won't jump out and ends up being boiled, but a frog dropped into boiling water is going to try to jump out. After a while, a society gets used to the notion of socialism and socialized medicine. After a generation or two, they accept it because they haven't

I think the answer to Blansten's question as to why the British don't toss their socialized medicine system can be answered by the following. 1) The political will does not exist. There are enough socialist politicians in power to block such action and possibly, the politicians who might be so inclined to change, may just be rich enough to provide for themselves by private care, so why bother? 2) The generation(s) (?) who have grown up under socialized medicine don't know any difference and/or can't conceive of a better system. Where have most of the medical innovations taken place i

SR540Beaver asked: Do we continue chasing and depending on cheap oil or do we try to develop new types of energy to break our dependence? My answer is, Yes, that is exactly what we do, for the time being, at least. And here is why. First, using your word, oil is "cheap." Secondly, we have the technology and the know-how to get it out of the ground, or from beneath the oceans. There is no substitute for it in our current economy and there will not be for years to come. Natural gas could come into the picture and it should, as a fuel for fleet-type vehicles that can be fueled a

Further to what Narriticong was saying about executive orders, last week BHO issued one that puts on hold GWB's exec order which lifted the ban on offshore drilling. In other words, the ban is still in place, while the new administration studies the problem. This is not how you help fix the domestic economy. It is not how you take steps to insure energy security for this country. It is a good way to signal other oil producing countries that we aren't serious about developing our own resources -- go ahead and raise prices. It is a great way to tell environmentalists that if they yelp

Vol_scouter: Thank you, very much.

Gern: McCain presented an alternative health care plan during the campaign. I read a side-by-side comparison of his and BHO's and his was better. BHO criticized it by mischaracterizing it with the sound bite: "He wants to tax your health care," and he got away with it, in my opinion, because too few people took the time to inform themselves on the issues and the popular press, certainly didn't pick up the slack.

Well, I am honored. After posting off and on over the years, a declarative sentence extracted from one of my posts ends up being spun into a thread. Health care, and more specifically, the government provision thereof, has the potential to bankrupt this nation. Don't take my word for it. Read this column by George Will: http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/will010109.php3 I don't have the answers but here is what I do know, not in order of importance. 1) The public and private employers cannot continue to bear the burden of insurance for their own employees, and indir

Put me in the same column with Rush Limbaugh. Although I have not listened to his show for years, I saw the clip and agree with him. I do not want BHO to succeed with policies that lead to even greater government involvement in our lives. I do not want to end up with universal (socialized) health care. I don't want the youth brigade (or whatever name they for it) established. I don't want government to issue "refund checks" as a stimulus to people who don't pay federal income tax in the first place. Lower the payroll taxes instead on both employees and employers. I don't want federal

The auto companies got some relief yesterday from the White House, in the form of a bridge loan -- despite Congress having failed to approve relief after Thanksgiving. Is it a "legacy thing" for GWB? I think it is that, and partially a goodwill gesture of sorts, toward the incoming administration -- the problem will be their to deal with but the meltdown, if there is going to be one, won't start until a few months into the next administration as opposed to right away. In my opinion, the new administration and the Congress will not be able to resist more financial assistance. Because with f

No bailout. Short term thinking and action created the problem. The 3 automakers and the unions got themselves into this untenable position by such thinking. The unions did what their members expected them to do over the years, bargain for ever higher wages and benefits. The mananagement went along to avoid strikes and maintain production. Both groups figured the future (the promised health care and pensions) would somehow take care of itself. The future is NOW, unfortunately. The credit crisis has precipitated what was destined to happen anyway. It is short term thinking to supp

I don't work for a bank or a credit card issuer. Someone in an earlier post suggested forced caps on credit card interest. Sure, it would "benefit" credit card users who don't pay off their balances monthly, but the unintended consequence would be that companies would get out of the business of offering credit cards or they would offer them only to people who had high credit ratings. Someone with little credit history (a category all of us were in at one time) could not get access to credit, so people in this category who have the ability and the intention to stay current would be penalized

Another well-known Churchill retort: Woman at dinner table says to Churchill: Sir, if you were my husband I would put poison in your coffee. Churchill to woman: Madam, if you were my wife I would drink it.

In order: Kawasaki 350 Street Scrambler, Kawasaki 500 Mach III, BSA 441 Victor, Triumph Daytona 500, Triumph Bonneville.

It sounds like a good project to me. The fire pit could be a focal point for meetings of all kinds of community groups if the local fire dept. assn. would allow that. This would truly make it a project that benefits the community. Maybe as part of the project the Scout could work with the fire assn. to develop a few fire safety-type programs aimed at seniors, grade school children, etc. It could be a continuing opportunity for the troop to provide fire safety type presentations if the fire assn. did not want to .

We gave it up in 1992. The kids were 2 and 4 at the time. It was not part of any pre-conceived plan on how to raise the children, but I am convinced it was an important factor in their academic success and enjoyment of reading. If someone were to ask me today for advice on child rearing, I would tell them to turn off the TV. And to answer the original question, no, we do not miss it.

I applaud you for having the willingness and the agility to reward the participants in the original activity with a spur-of-the-moment canoe outing. The message that non-participants might take from this event is, "you snooze, you lose."

No, I don't care about TQM in the Scouting context, if you're talking about some new initiative because I think there already exists a quality standard, and that is simply "delivering the program." This is a phrase that has been used often in this forum. Gonzo mentioned Deming. He revolutionized thinking about quality in manufacturing processes. Later on, the hucksters, consultants and hustlers took the concepts, packaged them for corporate USA and the rest is history. scoutldr's post is right on the money!

I like Fuzzy Bears story because it reminds me of the admonition, "don't try this at home." If the tree was leaning toward some structure, it should have been cut. And doubly so, if it was dead. There is little that a pro, much less an amatuer can do to reverse even the moderate lean of a tree. Dead trees are hazardous because they may contain a rotten core and once you cut through the sound outer ring, the tree can 'go' without warning. Falling timber is hazardous whether you're a pro or an amatuer.

I'm approaching the 'double nickle' age, 55, so these memories are from the mid to late 1960's: My first campout with the troop when I had to pass the fire building requirement and was advised by 'Sarge' (one of the adult leaders) to "...gather all the firewood you think you'll need, then go out again and get three times as much!" On this same campout (November) I slept in an army surplus bag and wriggled so much at night that a wriggled the lower half of my body out the front of the tent and woke up in the morning with my legs freezing. My Dad and I going to Sears and buying a

I agree that the initial "No" should have been all that's needed. Is it possible the group raising funds is large or disorganized so they can't keep track of who has said no? This doesn't sound likely if the town is small. So there is another possibility, based on the fact that they wanted you on the building committee. You are respected in the community and your name on a donor list would help with the overall effort. One way to deal with this is to have a reason other than "I don't like your project" (You were probably not that blunt). Having some alternate charity or cause you r

Here are a couple of ideas: If I get the opportunity to "consult" on meal planning, I try and get the boys to think about the end of the meal, that is, the clean up part. I try to get them thinking about food they can cook (as opposed to Pop Tarts) and to get them thinking about stuff that is easy to clean up. A troop cookbook would be a great resource, I think. If you have enough boys for two patrols, you might want to have two notebooks, each with proven recipes and an ingredient list that the grubmaster could take to the store. The recipes could be organized by Dutch Oven, aluminum

Farther afield maybe but worth a suggestion: Ft. McHenry in Baltimore. Why? Think "The Star Spangled Banner"

Correction: that should have been "uninformed when it comes to uniforms."

A group of Scouts or Scouters may be "Non-uniformly uniformed" as a result of being uniformed when it comes to uniforms. I'm happy when they wear the shirt, I'm really happy when they arrive at the meeting with it tucked in.