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Here are two to get you started. H.R.3217/S.1459 Provides a mechanism to purchase insurance from other states H.R.502 Allows indivduals to deduct the cost of insurance premiums Learn to use THOMAS http://thomas.loc.gov/

You are joking right? Do any of these ring a bell? Remove restrictions on interstate health insurance. Tort reform. Remove state mandates. Increase the limits (or remove them) on medical saving accounts. Changes to professional licensing rules and controls on medical schools. Decouple medical insurance from employment. This whole, "Where is the alternative?" bit is getting tiresome.

He should not go though the ceremonies in January or February. Like it or not he has not finished the requirements. I don't know about where you are, but we have a district crossover in March/April. If not, there is the possibility that something could be arranged with the OA for during the spring camporee (assuming that your district has one). But if it were me, I'd encourage him to stay with the other 4th graders, relax and have a bit of fun and learn that leaders don't just run ahead, they stick it out with their crew.

We've had the Holy Cows with a completely custom patch design they came up with. Right now, 1 in 6 are using a BSA patch, all the others are from third parties. Our first years came up with Trojans. No intended double entendre so I let is go. I really didn't want to explain to a bunch of 10 and 11 year olds why they might get snickers from older scouts. Plus you can do a lot worse than having Hector as a role model (okay, like having Paris as one). So far it has not been an issue.

LOL! No news there, I've been preachy, boring and very much a geezer for years.

My kids (16 & 14) object to it because the President is preachy and boring. The son says they are "getting" to watch it tomorrow. The daughter is laughing because they are not going to watch it at her school. The more Mr. Obama talks the less the youth like him. He has gone from cool dude to boring geezer in record time. After reading the speach yesterday I have to agree with them. A "president's minute" would have served him better.(This message has been edited by jet526)

I agree with Robert Heinlein that the franchise needs to be earned (a major theme in Starship Troopers). I'd be happy is they just made it so the voter had to write out (with out any help) the correctly spelled name of the candidate. Last name would be enough. Of course this would lead to politicians all changing their name to "A" or "X". Perhaps it would just be best if government offices were filled the same was as juries. That they would have to spend most of their term trying to figure out what they were doing to actually accomplish anything would make it all the better. Add the

An article in the Telegraph about how scouts will no longer be allowed to carry pen-knives. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/6145785/Scouts-to-no-longer-bring-penknives-on-camping-trips.html

Spying? I think not. One of my WB tickets is to visit other troops to see what they do well and look for ways to improve the program in my troop. The scoutmasters know I'm coming and why. I'm tickled when others come and visit our troop. Overall, scouting would improve if we would all do more of this "spying". I echo what LB said. A scout is courteous, and he should be encouraged to listen and look for the good. As I learned from my own visits, it is easy to find things that they do poorly. Criticalness can come very easy to us. It does seem like there is a bit of "Troop Envy" g

This year we started getting Webelos in February with the district cross over in April, which was later than usual. Having the scouts coming in over the two months presented some challenges, and I'd have preferred them all at once in March.

As far as the additional training opportunity, there is the Philmont Leadership Challenge(http://www.philmontleadershipchallenge.org/index.html). The thing with scoutcraft is that there are not things that are mastered in a class. They have to be practiced. Learning the skills doesn't take much more than IOLS and taking your Boy Handbook or Fieldbook with you when camping and putting them to use. I suspect that anything more than a weekend devoted to learning these skills would get very tedious, or else would need be based on the assumption that you know how to do things but that you may no

Gee...here I thought we taught Scouters scoutcraft at IOLS. Granted it is superficial but it is enough to give novices the basics so that they can really learn it like scouts do--by being out in the woods (or desert in my case). If Woodbadge had been about teaching me scoutcraft I would have passed. I earned my First Class about 40 years ago, I have no need for a week long course in how to whip, tie, lash, chop, carve, ignite, track, navigate, acquire food, cook, stay dry/warm/cool, bury my poop and not pee on a tree. Heck, I've even learned that while being able to light a fire with some

I generally accept service hours for service rendered to other organizations. It might depend on what was done, but for the most part I count it. However, I cannot think of a scout who actually needed the hours. Other organizations may not do the same. I know one school that accepts some of the hours but not for everything.

I hope that new Eagle application also has way to ELECTRONICALLY enter the names, addresses, E-MAIL addresses, and telephone numbers for the recommendations. Like the one on the GCC site? http://www.doubleknot.com/openrosters/ViewOrgPageLink.asp?LinkKey=6039&orgkey=62

I used to be against them, but I don't know if I care any more. There seem to be only three issues that I've noticed. When they listen to music through speakers that bother others. This could be ear plugs with the volume turned up. Few things more annoying than a tinny Greenday song. Makes the mosquito buzz seem pleasant. The second issue is the scout calling home to complain or when homesick. Most of the new scouts were homesickness is an issue don't have a phone anyway, but older scouts whining about their patrol's menu do bug me. Finally, they loose the devices and start accusing other scou

While one scout could setup 67 computers, it would take some time. I suspect that he has a patrol or two helping do that.

Most of us understand it to mean "at least X of which included camping overnight". A technical reading of the requirement does yield the other.

How can they drop a whole day from the course? They are supposed to do the syllabus, and already are squeezing out a half a day. There is no room to drop another day. I'm going to call Monday and complain. What reason did they give?

Weird. B wore the ankle high (still red strip) as a participant and on staff the last two summers. Your boys could give GG a call, he went to the May NYLT at Raymond. BTW--what are you doing going through your LIFE SCOUT sons' packing list? If you are still packing for them, I'm going to give them no end of grief at their Eagle SMCs.

Love the new socks. Less expensive, better looking, don't fade, don't shrink, comfortable. I'm wearing a pair to work today. That being said. I do miss the old socks with the garters and tabs.

Yeah, this would work if they only had the 21 MBs, but who knows if it would be correct for the scout with 40. As a programmer, we give the user what they ask for, occasionally what they want and rarely what they should have.

One difference between the others. If you are still active in your troop then you should go ahead and get the green shoulder loops. $2.50 is not that much and your troop should be switching to it anyway. It can be worn with the old uniform. Badge Magic, or even some fussing from a fabric store should work for the MB sash. Take care of it and it should not need to be washed. However, learning to sew is one skill that you will find useful throughout your life (I've used it countless times but I've only used my lashing skills a couple of times outside of scouting).

I disliked the game, although complaining about the economy of the game is silly. It is a game, not a model of the real world. My problem was that it did not really teach what it claimed. The patrol with the most points tends to be the patrol that went along most of the time but which would occasionally stab the others. This is what it really taught: "Be good most of the time and you can get away with screwing others now and then."

There are no uniform police like OA uniform police. Some flaps in some lodges have long histories behind them. He might check into that. It may turn out that once he knows the story behind the flap it will be much cooler for him to wear. If he still wants to wear the trader flap then explain to him that there may be some that will not approve of his wearing the flap then let him decide what to do. It will likely only be important in a year or two when he is running for an office, by which time there will likely be another flap that will mean more to him anyway.

The scouts that work at the camp my son works at can go to church. That camp is not in operation on Sunday because of the number of LDS units. But even is they were open on Sunday the scout should be able to check out to attend church, especially for something special like this. I doubt if many on staff leave to go to church. Some will go home for the weekend and may go then. I'll check to see if the LDS staff leave or if they have a service at camp. They would need a bishop present and permission from their president.