Horizon

This was all about how a couple of dirty socks weren't put away properly, and we weren't building our daily allotment of useful camp gadgets.

Maybe this does need its own thread. Do you have your Scribe run the rechartering? Does he get to review the medications every Scout and adult is taking? Why not just have the boys run the BORs then? Shucks, if 16 - they can take themselves to the campout, and carry their friends. Like I said - I want the boys to run the campout. That is where the leadership role is. Managing a spreadsheet and binder of medical forms - they can learn that later when they go to Woodbadge or some other BSA MBA program.

Everything you just listed my boys do as well - I just don't have them deal with Council forms, legal forms, or medical forms.

Had a great SPL at summer camp. Camp boss came by to talk to me about how our camp wasn't in perfect military order (my paraphrase). I told him to talk to my SPL. SPL looked him in the eye and said "We didn't come here to pretty up our campsite - my guys don't hang out at camp at all. As long as there isn't a safety problem, I am fine with not getting any awards." Camp Boss looked at me for support, received none.

Good feedback - though I disagree on where to draw the line on the paperwork I admit.

We rotate. Lost Valley near Indio, CA is our Council Camp. Nice place. Emerald Bay run by the LA Council is on Catalina Island. Awesome place for summer camp, and a great program for Venture (their Rugged program is great, and the best deal for getting a SCUBA license). Camp Whitsett offers whitewater rafting, another out of Council location. Camp Chawanakee is up in the Sierras, on a lake, offers sailing, canoeing, rowing and a mile swim all in a freezing cold lake in the mountains. By rotating, our boys don't get bored from going to the same place every year (nor do our adult

Don't know what you mean by directives. The boys want to play laser-tag/paintball, I said I would love to - but BSA won't allow it. (I DID, however, point them towards Kudu's list of wide area games...) The boys want to go shooting, I remind them that we need a range master. We have one good range master in the troop, they need to call him and see when he is available. The boys say that they want to beach camp, the troop adults take care of the reservations for next year (nly a couple places you can beach camp where we are, and they fill fast). The boys voted on where to go for summ

Well, one of my units is scrambling now to find a replacement site to camp at this weekend. All state places are full, leaving two BSA sites possibly since the National Parks are all closed

A means test sounds good, but it requires auditors. I have mentioned that I have bankrupted my parents. By that, I mean that I have ensured that they do not have any assets in their name. So if the people decide to means test my parents, my father will get coverage as a veteran of the Vietnam adventure and my mother will get anything covered since I have ensured that she can not be bankrupted by a jacked up system of physicians at $600k per year, nurses at $150k per year, and aspirin at $400 per pill. The system is far more jacked up (as my Scouts put it) than just the ACA - yet the Republi

The Civil War, by the way, was paid for with the Income Tax. http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/11/the-long-story-of-us-debt-from-1790-to-2011-in-1-little-chart/265185/

We carried the Civil War debt for years. The bigger issue is Korea and Vietnam - wars we fought without sacrificing a thing. (aside from those without the connections to dodge the war that is) The Fair Tax will trigger black market and bartering when you hit that level of taxation. It will also reduce consumption, reducing income and profits. The economic shock will not be small. The Flat Tax from Hall and Rabushka is another model for tax reform, but it too will have an impact on behavior, but less than the so-called Fair Tax. http://www.hoover.org/publications/books/8329 So you

To try to make this a bit more Scouting again (a few of you seem to forgetting the Oath and Law in your interactions)... If we want to balance the books, then you have to either increase revenue or cut spending. If you want to play with spending, CATO has put some information on a site: http://www.downsizinggovernment.org This could be a good exercise for Scouts in Cit Nation - what would you cut? Make them approach each cut from an Oath and Law perspective along with the Constitution. A flip side is to ask them what things could the government do? For this debate, do they

I picked up this book at summer camp one year: http://www.amazon.com/The-Gospel-Red-Man-Indian/dp/1585092762 The opening by Seton is fantastic, and talks about how the religion of the Native American fits with the Christian, the Jew and the Muslim. I have read that portion for a Scout's Own service. As for the scattering of our faiths, I have met and enjoyed the sermons of Erin Dunigan: http://not-church.org/tag/erin-dunigan/

For POR - missing campouts means you might be replaced. Triggers an SMC and discussion of sign offs..

With what I've seen from Trail Life USA, I can say that as a Catholic I would not want my sons to join. It seems like it is basically a Protestant organization. Presbyterians under PCUSA are NOT having the national body push gay rights. We voted on it. The United States Constitution is, in many ways, modeled after the Presbyterians (the Minister who signed the Declaration? Witherspoon? Presbyterian). To get something passed, it must come from the States first (Presbyteries), then be voted on at the Congress (Assembly), then be RE-affirmed at the NEXT meeting of the Assembly. Yes, some congreg

Guys in my troop told me I was going to hell for believing in evolution. Pushed me away from organized religion for 20 years.

Joebob - I have been watching this train wreck coming for months, and the Senate Budget Committee, under Murray, has repeatedly asked to hold a joint budget conference. The Republicans have repeatedly refused or blocked the conference. NOW they want a last-minute conference when the gun is to the head of Americans dependent on the government.

FYI on the jokes about essential vs non-essential, my company operates that way. I have had to lay off people who weren't essential - I could keep the doors open for less, I just could not grow. Once the economy recovered, we added those people back who were necessary for long-term growth. As for the government, the Office of Management and Budget defines essential vs. non-essential this way: 1.) Provide for the national security, including the conduct of foreign relations essential to the national security or the safety of life and property. 2.) Provide for benefit payments and

More accurately, both parties love their gerrymandered districts that protect them. We have them in California too, which created a Democratic Party majority and an echo chamber for both parties. The new system of district design and run offs will make things interesting. The GOP, however, has a problem: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2013/09/meadows-boehner-defund-obamacare-suicide-caucus-geography.html

The Senate has been trying to negotiate for months. The House wants to ignore a passed law, and defund instead of repeal - which they could not achieve due to a lack of votes in the Senate, and not having the presidency either. Claiming that the Democrats don't want to negotiate, when one side only has one position - kill the bill, is disingenuous at best.

Maybe if the other side of the aisle (which I still register with) would have made a proposal to help cover the uninsured, and helped small businesses with huge costs, and noticed the people going bankrupt due to health care costs, and broken the AMA monopoly on new physician training centers, etc. we wouldn't have ended up here. Or, perhaps, they could have gone with the Heritage Foundation / American Enterprise proposal that Governor Mitt Romney established in Massachusetts. Ignoring the root problem is not helping things.

His inspiration might not be right, but if he lives by Oath and Law and did the work - he has earned it. Some get Eagle without trying - they just do it because they love Scouting and wake up one day and realize that all that they need is a project. Some want a checkbox for college applications, are prevented from getting their driver's license, are bribed somehow, etc. This one sounds pretty clean in knowing about the outside influence - but was he a good Scout? I have several boys in my unit who are dragged to meetings and campouts by mothers who know nothing about Scouting,

There used to be a version with a blade and the drive, didn't spot it on first review.

If you are spending the cash, there is a swiss army knife that has a USB drive in it. I have given that some of my Eagles as they went off to college. http://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-Swiss-Flash-Drive-Silver/dp/B00A16V10G/ref=pd_sim_sg_3

I backpack regularly, with and without Scouts along. Over the past 3 years, I have tied my shoes and once used a timber hitch. My tents don't need knots, my gear doesn't need knots, and my truck is an SUV so everything goes inside it. If I have to top strap, I use straps. That said, I teach knots, have competitions, and my unit does pretty well at Camporee. But the only way I get the boys to really embrace the knots is our annual "we left the tents at home, oops!" campout. The boys have to build their own shelters, and start pulling out their handbooks to remember a few knots at times.