JoeBob

I've got a couple of those boys. No longer do I ask "Any questions?" Now I ask "Any intelligent questions?" I always try to have more activities than the time frame allows. That way if one of my troublemakers tries to take over the center of attention, I can bemoan whatever activity we're not going to have time for. The peer pressure, "Shut up so we can play SPUD!" works beeter than any threats I can make.

If the mosquitos don't make 'em put on a shirt, why should we?

Make pirate flags, leather eye patches, wooden swords, fake peglegs, treasure maps and treasure chests to bury. Beat metal washers into Pirate coins. Watch your fingers! A whole pirate ship might be asking too much, but you could certainly have them walk the plank blindfolded...

It's not often that I get to skate the edges of the rules so neatly: My ADL and I are sharing an 8 man two bedroom tent with our sons. We're hosting a third cub whose dad is deployed overseas, whose mom has other kids in other activities. If we don't take him with us, he'd be staying home. 3 Cubs in one tent bedroom, two leaders in the other tent bedroom; and we've limboed under the wire!

I remember a set of flash cards comprised of pictures. 'R' is for Racer - the picture was a pinewood derby car - the code for R is dot dash dot - so the front wheel was the first dot a dash was the car body and the back wheel was the last dot. Eish and Tmo are the seven easy letters. E = Dot I = Dot Dot S = Dot Dot Dot H = Dot Dot Dot Dot T = Dash M = Dash Dash O = Dash Dash Dash

I liked the looks of the Eagle Scout rifle: http://www.henryrifles.com/h004es_eaglescout.cfm But it's only in .22. Who am I fooling? I'd never shoot a collector like that, so it doesn't really matter what the caliber is! I can attest to the shootabilty of the Henry Big Boy in .45LC. ;^) JoeBob

I liked the looks of the Eagle Scout rifle: http://www.henryrifles.com/h004es_eaglescout.cfm But it's only in .22. Who am I fooling? I'd never shoot a collector like that, so it doesn't really matter what the caliber is! I can attest to the shootabilty of the Henry Big Boy in .45LC. ;^) JoeBob

Resqman: Gawd I loved Heilein! "Glory Road" was a favorite escape.

Ballad of the Skunk Polecat (Bad language cleaned up for Cub Scouts) I'm hunt ze bear! I'm hunt ze moose! Sometimes I'm hunt muskrat. Dis week I'm take my axe forego hunt ze skunk polecat. Merlyn! Merlyn say is very fine fur. Somtimes is good to eat. I'm tell my wife, she get fur coat. Sametimes, I'm get some meat. I'm walk tree, five, emm seex miles. I'm tink I'm feel strong smell. I'm tink dat polecat she gone and died! Fur coat, she gone as well. Bye'n bye I'm see dat skunk polecat, up next one very tall tree. I'm sneak up close behind polecat. I'm tink

I'll add to the survivalist Contingent: How to rig a water-powered car generator for DC current. How to treat drinking water. How to hide in an urban area until after the looting passes. How to navigate without a GPS! How to maneuver out of an urban area and avoid snipers. Trapping. How to cure meat. Edible plants. Survivalist camping: Site concealment Sentries Alarms Booby-traps A good bit of that is prety scary. But there are other areas that I think boys would find to be quite entertaining.

Did anyone else have to pronounce that 'Oh Grey Eee!' to get it to rhyme? ;^)

From the New England Journal Of Medicine: "The Medicus Firm... conducted a survey of ...1,195 physicians from various specialties and career levels. Nearly one-third of physicians responding to the survey indicated that they will want to leave medical practice after health reform is implemented." What happens when you add 30 million more patients to an already tight-as-a-tick health care system and the reduce the number of doctors by 1/3 ? Improved access? Lower costs? Better quality? How about rationing?

BadenP: It's not only the technology that has made world wide destruction easier; it communication technology (Cable news and the Net) that have made it easier for crazies to preach their warped views more widely. During the Crusades, it took several months of travel to reach the battle in the middle east. Recruiting soldiers from England to leave their families and farms for many months and travel across France to liberate 'the Holy Land' must have taken some serious arm-twisting. In 2010, a jihadist cleric from Iran can issue a fatwah online against anyone who dares to publish ca

Beavah said: "Makin' money strictly by financial manipulation is one of those areas which is highly suspect for the latter." I am with you on that one! I understand investing in a company, but the options market seems like nothing so much as Las Vegas. Don't get me started on derivatives... JoeBob

Hmmmmm. DancesWithSpreadsheets speak with accountant's tongue. Truth in naming is a good thing. So if I had invested $1,000 in Aetna, what would my investment be worth after one year? Thanks JoeBob

Evil, evil insurance company profits: **** According to the most recent Fortune 500 rankings, health insurers are not even among the top-30 United States industries in profit-margin. Health insurers rank 35th, with a profit-margin of just 2.2 percent -- less than one-fifth the profit-margin of railroads. None of the ten largest American health insurers made profits of more than 4.5 percent, and two of them lost money. Health insurers' collective profit-margin is less than one-eighth that of drug companies and less than one-seventh that of companies that sell medical products or equipmen

DYB - The KKK was racist in it's motivations. They were not trying to spread Christianity. So you shouldn't categorize them as 'Christian terrorists'. Unless I missed the part about burning crosses in the new testament?

Ways for Cubs to get hurt in canoes: 1- Fall from one boat onto another. Canoes rock back and forth a lot! 2- Tip one canoe onto another boat. Two cubs on the same side of a whitewater boat with no paddle bracing skills are wet. 3- Tip canoe into the dock during ingress/egress. Everybody leans in when they reach for the dock. Using a paddle/thwart brace takes a good bit of co-ordination. (Handle of paddle held fast on one thwart, throat of paddle held tight on the opposite thwart, blade of paddle outside the boat on the side to exit. Canoist leans towards the bank or dock until the

Where's Big Billy Goat Gruff when we need him?

Merlyn: "All it takes to get thrown out is for that information to get to the wrong person, which can happen in any number of ways, not necessarily due to any "problem" caused by the atheist. Saying every case has to be due to the atheist causing a problem is just blaming the victim." I painted with too broad a brush, Merlyn; you're right. SIZZLE! Now that the lightening bolts have simmered down around my keyboard, let me concede the presence of many 'Holier-than-thou' types looking to elevate themselves at the expense of less Godly individuals. As a tolerant relegious person,

OGE: Sometimes I'm not on my side either. I never claimed to be a nice person, but I sometimes pretend to be one online. At the bottom of it all, isn't the health care debate really just a different version of wealth envy? Nancy Pelosi today: But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy." Transparency, anyone? PING!

To further the point OGE made; if health care is a right, then every non-payer has a right to a part of my life, ie- my money earned through my labor can be confiscated to pay for their doctoring. I'm sure that most indigents will still get healthcare at charity clinics, where funding is obtained from voluntary donations. That's how Catholics got into the hospital business in the first place. An un-intended consequence of not underwriting free healthcare might be a reduction in violence. Where's the deterent in a wounded hero resting up on clean sheets in an air-conditioned room

Lisabob: "Why you would believe that a small percentage of people who hold radical and violent beliefs are representative of the great mass of people who follow Islam throughout the world, is beyond me." As the site Bare Naked Islam puts it, "It isn't Islamophobia when they really are trying to kill you." http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1993321/posts 'Our policy of turning the other cheek up until 9/11 only emboldened Radicals. They kept escalating the violence until they hit us so hard we couldnt ignore it. And theyre going to continue waging war on us, whether we fight

Beavah, I can't quibble with much of what you said. Lisabob, you sorta make my point: If medical care was not given to those who didn't pay (read no insurance) the costs would drop significantly, and 1- more people could afford insurance; and 2- there would be a strong motivation to buy insurance. We're in a 'death-spiral' now. What is it, 70% are paying for 100% of the costs, while 30% freeload? How expensive is it going to be when only 50% pay? How long can the system support 80% riding on 20% paying? BCBS of California had to raise premiums 39% because of rising costs. What par

Merlyn: I'm proud that you disagree. Does your 'being a problem' extend beyond this forum to have a negative impact on your scouting experience? If so, then it's probably because you want to be a problem. LisaBob: "This is how religious wars get going. I hope nobody's religious entity is "telling" them to do anything about the growth of other religions..." Do you not believe the radical Muslim clerics when they tell the world that their purpose in life is to wipe out Christianity and all faiths not Islam? The individual Muslims I know are fine people (with a damn good work ethic!),