Kudu

Here is an account of the Plano situation from a Scouter in the area: > If it is true, was it written by an evil atheist whose only joy comes from > stealing the icing from little children's' Christmas cupcakes, or by a > Christian martyr intent on proving his or her victimhood? :-/ Ok, now I've gone and read the suit, which you can yourself find at Liberty Legal's website, here (pdf file) http://www.libertylegal.org/pdfs/Plano%20Case.pdf I've lived in Texas all my life, as a non-christian, (which is one of the reasons my daughters will never go to public schools), and it's a little difficult to express how the atmospheres in the schools are. You kind of need to live it to believe it. You're dealing with people who sincerely believe everyone who doesn't go to their church will burn in hell forever, and that it's really, really important to get all the other kids to go to their church because they'd be sad to think of their friends burning in hell. Basically, I think it's a little of both, except that the "evil athiests" are likely Christians. When you read the suit, you see that there's a group of parents who are consistently making demands of the administration -- take these books out of the library, let my kids pass out tickets to Prestonwood Baptist Church's sunrise Easter Service, let my kids pass out pencils that say Jesus is the reason for the season (and they will NOT give any gifts if they can't be religious gifts), etc, etc. The administration probably went overboard, and I think the napkin/cupcake color ban probably occurred. But understand that regardless of the napkin/cupcake situation, the suit would have been filed for all the other reasons. Administrators are stuck in a bind in trying to balance the one students rights of expression against other students right not to be harassed (a la Santa Fe ISD, the "football prayer" case, in which the administration abetted long-standing and severe harrassment.) I don't envy them. My personal solution - - early dismissal on the day of the Christmas party or any singalongs or whatever, and have the event after the dismissal. That way parents who don't want there children subjected to it can make arrangements to take their kids home. Or, have the party at night. Basically, make the party opt-in instead of opt-out and let whoever wants to bring whatever they want to. Incidentally, my sister was looking at sending her kids to Prestonwood Academy (URL here: http://www.prestonwoodchristian.org/ ) and her ex was really upset when my parents said they wouldn't help with payment for that school. It took awhile for my sister to get it, because she thought the objection was only about the inadequate science education they would get there. Then I told my mom check out where these kids go to college, and my mom sent that to my sister, and she started looking for other schools. A side note, but seriously, what the parents want is for the public school curricula and atmosphere to be like that of religious schools, and they will be satisfied with nothing less. And that's whats really going on in Plano ISD, imv.

Patrol Competitions generated a lot of excitement and Patrol identity for us! My Scouts' favorite prize was always a trip to play laser tag :-/ We ran our Patrol Competitions for two months to cover one season with a month between competitions (when we ran them back to back). It helps to have physical objects to hang on the Patrol Flags to count the number of points earned. You can structure the colors of these feathers or bits of ribbon to represent the skill for which it was won, with a bead to represent the season in which it was earned and the color yarn to represent the year. You would be surprised at how proud Scouts become of their Patrol Flag! The whole idea is to reinforce behaviors that you would like to see in your Troop. For me, this was songs, "new" Scout games, and tarp shelters. Weekly ribbons tended to reward preparation, and the larger monthly campout ribbons rewarded implementation. In a true Patrol Competition, you can only add points and never take them away. For details, see: http://www.inquiry.net/patrol/compet_intro.htm The first time you do it, it helps to have most of the details worked out before you introduce it to the PLC. I'm surprised that you use the term "PLC" for "Court of Honor" down-under :-) Kudu

Same with the cupcakes. OK, I haven't been paying attention to that stuff. Your version seems to be consistent what John Gibson (Fox News) is saying. I think its a great story, and I'm surprised that the urban legend Websites haven't picked up on it yet. The cupcake icing detail is just too perfect. You know what they say about "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn't." I can see having these discussions with you is not going to be easy. *Shrug* You really don't like Christians, do you? It depends on the Christians. I don't like political religious fundamentalists. What - were you the one kid in your school or neighborhood who wasn't? I was an angelic Anglican altar boy :-/ As a teenager I read everything written by the pop Anglican author, Alan Watts, except for one out-of-print book, Easter, Its Story and Meaning, which I couldn't find in any bookstore or library. Exactly where do your religious beliefs lie? I don't believe in any supernatural stuff what-so-ever, so I would be in general agreement with the Anglican Professor Rev. Baden Powell. But (except for the "argument from design" stuff) I also like Baden-Powell's "Practical Christianity" and "Religion of the Deep Woods" spiritual basis for Scouting, which is derived from his father's book, The Order of Nature, See: http://www.inquiry.net/ideals/beads.htm If you tell me it has to do with Saturn, and you aren't aware of the human sacrifices, I'm going to be awfully disappointed! I find Abraham's willingness to gut his son more interesting :-/ As for the poinsettias, I believe I included the proper title for the story: The LEGEND of the Poinsettia. I love legends, but I don't see them as much of a basis for claiming victimhood. Kudu

It is listed on a National Catholic Committee on Scouting order form for $2 at the followig URL: http://www.nccs-bsa.org/business/nccsItemsForm.php

The Plano schools did not allow green and red plates and napkins, and icing on cupcakes. The way I heard it, the Plano schools did not special order red & green napkins, and instead used the white ones they already had on hand. This was interpreted as not allowing them. From here in Dunwoody, how much evidence do you want? Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Since your wife is an employee it shouldnt be hard for her to get something on official stationary. Send it on to Bill OReilly. Still waiting for the numbers on those Aztec webpages. Well, I usually let that kind of fish in a barrel stuff go, but OK, you write: 1) Suddenly, the bouquet of weeds burst into blooms of brilliant red, and all who saw them were certain that they had witnessed a Christmas miracle right before their eyes. From that day on, the bright red flowers were known as the Flores de Noche Buena, or Flowers of the Holy Night, for they bloomed each year during the Christmas season. There is a movement in Mexico to make Pepita a saint, which should mean that previous to this incident poinsettias did not turn red. Are you saying that the story is really true? 2. With 564 websites, all with the exact same language on the legend of the poinsettia, it sounds like that is a pretty popular and well excepted version of the Christmas plant. How many websites can you find, all with the exact same language, that explain the Aztec history? Case closed. That is so priceless that I simply refuse to spoil it :-/ I'm glad you now understand the "Merry Christmas" greeting and federal holidays issue. No, I said that I dont understand what you believe the federal holidays issue proves. As far as the Merry Christmas greeting goes, we simply dont know how many airline employees are oppressed Christian victims who are forced to say Happy Holidays when they really want to say Merry Christmas. Perhaps the best solution is to make them all take lie detector tests, sign a certified statement as to their intentions, and wear a disclaimer statement that reveals what they really mean :-/ It wasnt that long ago that Christian fundamentalists were lamenting the fact that Merry Christmas had lost its meaning and had become secularized because the phrase was used by retailers to sell stuff. They were correct, of course, because Merry Christmas was once the very meaning of Happy Holy Day, which Christian extremists now denounce as not being Christian enough. I'm curious - are you also nostalgic for the human sacrifices and slavery of Saturnalia? Im not aware that Saturn demanded human sacrifices, but some people consider Abraham virtuous for his willingness to murder his son when the god that he worshiped demanded a human sacrifice. Likewise biblical justifications for slavery were commonly used by mainstream Christians in this country not so very long ago. I really am nostalgic for the days when Christian fundamentalists hung Santa from a tree and waved their Bibles at him. At least there was an honest spiritual statement behind it. I don't understand the subtle nuances of southern culture, so maybe some Christians have found a way to use poinsettias and "Christmas colors" to be mean, and--who knows--maybe some non-Christians really have taken the bait. The culture has changed, and forcing non-Christian school children to participate in school pageants about the virgin birth of the baby Lord Jesus is now regarded by many of to be just plain creepy. It is hard to see Christians as the victims there. But claiming that schools in the deep south don't allow "Christian colors"? That is a masterstroke! Fox News is entertainment, and as long as Stephen Colbert is on vacation, it is the best entertainment around. Kudu

There are extremists who would homogenize the holidays into a secular "end of year" celebration The whole reason that Christians chose December 25th is that it was the solstice, which used to mark the end of the calendar year. The holidays/holy days have always been an "end of year" celebration. - ridiculously manifested by such petty nonsense as removing poinsettias and banning red & green decor. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence! This sounds suspiciously similar to the O'Reilly Factor story about a Texas school district that told students they couldn't wear red and green because they were Christmas colors. It was an urban legend. Face it, Christian extremists get better publicity when the story is about banning pagan symbols.

Why should the airlines say "Merry Christmas" on December 25th? For the same reason the federal government and most businesses are closed today. Can you figure that one out, or do I need to explain further? I guess you need to explain further :-/

airlines who say "Happy Holiday" even on Christmas Day (I flew yesterday) Holiday means "Holy Day" which would include Hanukkah, which started yesterday, didn't it? It is also Saturnalia, and a few other holy days. Why should the airline recognize only one particular holy day? Kudu

I'm so proud of you, being able to perform simple Internet research, sitting in front of your little computer. Or do you maintain all this knowledge in your head, same as Cliff Claven? Yeah, like it is just a coincidence that 564 Websites all tell the story in exactly the same words as yours :-/ Call me old-fashioned, but I get nostalgic for the good old days when Christians denounced all symbols of Christmas that did not include a manger as pagan. Nothing says "Christmas" like the old annual newspaper wirephotos of Christians circled around an effigy of Santa hanging from the poplar tree, with their Bibles raised in anger! Kudu

I hunt, and I'm also a member of PETA (People Eating Tasty Animals!). Most of us who are concerned with the ethical treatment of animals make a distinction between hunting and, say, the prolonged suffering caused by forcing food down the throats of geese and ducks with a funnel for months to enlarge their livers for foie gras. Years ago, our politically incorrect "Red Skins Patrol" hunted when they went on Patrol campouts almost every week. Their favorite prey was rabbit, but often they had to settle for the fried squirrel they added to the Patrol's staple "Campbell's Pork & Beans." They used homemade spears for hunting, and adopted from Baden-Powell's Scouting for Boys, the Australian aborigines' method of using a piece of wood as an extension of their forearms to increase the force of their hunting spears. Kudu

From that day on, the bright red flowers were known as the Flores de Noche Buena, or Flowers of the Holy Night, for they bloomed each year during the Christmas season. Silly me, I thought that because the pre-Christian Aztecs in Mexico prized the plant as a symbol of purity, your elementary school was anti-Aztec. But if the creationist botany textbooks in Georgia state that prior to the eighteenth century the poinsettia did not change color, then you are correct. Kudu

Is that a war on Christmas, or just my imagination? Just your imagination. Red (and gold) were the pagan colors for the active or male aspects of the gods, and green (and silver) were the pagan colors of the female aspects. As for poinsettias, aren't they associated with the solstice because the green leaves naturally turn bright red this time of year? Proof of Intelligent Design, I'm sure, and the war on sun gods. I've been trying to find something in the New Testament about this, but so far no luck. Of course it is possible that Jesus said "Giveth thou the poinsettia to thy teacher in remembrance of me" and nobody remembered to write it down. Kudu

1) Since when do most people act in their own economic interests? :-) 2) Scouts and their parents don't vote on BSA policy. That is done by the institutional heads of the sponsoring organizations. So if the majority of the institutions that sponsor BSA Troops are conservative churches, then it stands to reason that the vote of these institutional heads will be consistent with their church's official policy. Someone who understands the inner-workings of BSA national policy can explain this more accurately, but my guess is that even if the families of the Scouts in a Troop sponsored by a local Catholic church are 50% protestant and 50% liberal Catholic, that churchs vote on the national level will be consistent with its official policy and not the opinions of the Scouts and Scouters. 3) The BSA's policies are what they are. Liberals often complain that their churches & institutions would never sponsor a BSA Troop because of the BSA's current fundamentalist policies. My guess is that historically, when the BSA's policies were perceived as being more mainstream, liberal institutions did not sponsor Boy Scout Troops as consistently as conservative institutions. Maybe EagleInKY's experience is the opposite of mine, but my perception is that when most liberals, leftists, and libertarians think about how to serve youth, they do not think in terms of getting their knees dirty around a campfire once a month. So we exceptions to the rule tend to volunteer at Troops sponsored by more conservative institutions (I am libertarian, but I volunteer in a Catholic Troop--go figure). 4) As long as the BSA can hang onto its religious monopoly on Scouting, this trend is not going to change. The BSA will please the religious right with its politics (which--as far as I know--have no effect on my recruitment efforts). Until the BSA stumbles on some new gimmick , it will continue to try to keep its numbers up with pop culture activities that dilute traditional Scouting. Currently this includes stuff like "Scout Nights" at sports events, campouts on sports playing fields and local parks, pop corporate-management training which makes it easier for dad to get time off from work to attend Wood Badge, soccer leagues rather than traditional Cub Scout programing, etc. 5) If the BSAs religious monopoly on Scouting can be broken, niche Scouting will allow liberal institutions to sponsor Scouting free of the BSAs dogma. European-style Scouting is based on Baden-Powells admonition to keep Scouting all-volunteer, which means that you have low overhead because you do not have to support local and national offices full of paid workers. My best guess is that the success of a decentralized, no-frills form of Scouting will depend on its appeal to moderate Republicans--maybe the general world-trend in Traditional Scouting toward a rigorous "Boy Scout" program open to girls, for instance. Generally speaking when you are trying to organize an alternative Scouting program on the local level, the efforts of one moderate Republican equal 10,000 liberals :-/ Faced with real competition in the marketplace, the BSA will act in whatever it considers to be its economic interests, as it did when it mandated racial integration despite the Mormon's threat to leave over the issue. Of course first the monopoly has to be broken. Watch the battle between Pan Am and TWA in The Aviator, then multiply that by the "religious war" factor to get an idea of just how nasty this is going to be! Kudu

Merry Orthodox Solstice to everyone! The holiday called "Sol Invicti," or unconquered sun, in honor of the Syrian sun god, "Sol" was celebrated on 24th & 25th of December, which was when the winter solstice fell at one time. By the fourth century, many Christians were referring to December 25 as the day of the "unconquered son," in defiance of the emperor. In 350 AD, Pope Julius I decreed that the nativity should be celebrated on the same day as all other sun gods, namely, December 25. So happy Sol Invicti to y'all too! Kudu

As developing countries suck up the manufacturing jobs tensions have boiled over with the Labor Unions and the projectionist crowd. At least in my Troop, Boy Scouts has been dominated by the children of manufacturers, unionized laborers, and tradesmen; the people that stand to be most affected by this change in the capitalist system. The potential change that stands to effect the BSA most profoundly is the YouthScouts challenge to the protectionist policies that establish the religious right with a monopoly on Scouting in the United States. If the YouthScouts challenge succeeds, it will open the door to European-style decentralized models of Scouting which will directly undermine the BSA bureaucracy, indoor uniform, Patrol Method subservient to Leadership Development, and the religious-fundamentalist interpretation of Duty to God. Niche Scouting associations will appeal to some libertarians and moderate Republicans, perhaps for unexpected reasons such as a Scouting program open to girls. If convenient, some liberals will eventually tag along :-/ http://youthscouts.org/news.html Kudu

kahits writes: The best connection is the middle school that just happens to be across the street from the church that the troop has their meetings. No other pack is even close to this area of town, and those that are nearby, are so high profile, they don't even have to recruit. All 3 of the feeder packs has their kids going there, so it's really their domain to recruit scouts from. I wouldnt worry about stepping on the other Troops toes by recruiting Boy Scouts from the middle school domain in which their Scouts are students. The best audience is sixth-grade students as early in the school year as possible. In the middle school in which we recruit, the principal likes us to wait until things settle down a bit, which usually translates into late September. By then the Webelos Scouts who crossed over in the previous spring will be firmly established in their new Troops, or will have failed to return in September (around here about 100% of the Webelos who do not attend summer camp do not remain Scouts). The more you push the dangers of Scouting (the 3-Bs: anything that breaks, burns or bites), the more boys will want to join. Usually about half of my audiences sign up as interested in joining. Of these 40 boys, 8 to 20 may actually register. I interview each of them for their Scout rank Scoutmaster Conference and ask them why they joined and if they were Cub Scouts. I find that about half of them never were Cub Scouts, and the other half dropped out of Cubs years ago because they thought it was boring. If you wait too long in the school year and try to recruit after the sixth graders receive their first report card, very few, if any, of their parents will allow them to join Scouts or any other activity that distracts from their studies. If you cant recruit before the first week of October, consider waiting until the following May and pitch it as a summer program that does not interfere with school. If you normally do not meet in the summer, you will have to rethink this policy. If you recruit in May, most of these Scouts either will not be able to afford summer camp at such short notice, or will already be enrolled in a non-Scout summer camp or other summer program. Unlike Webelos crossovers who normally do not remain in Scouting if they do not attend summer camp the first year, my experience with public school kids is that they will all continue as long as you provide a Scouting program for them that first summer. They are also a year older than Webelos, which can be a plus. For those who missed it, my school assembly recruitment dog and pony show can be found at: http://www.inquiry.net/adult/recruiting.htm Kudu

When they have campouts, the boys pitch their tents in a line. The SPL and other boys in PoRs go first, followed by the highest ranking scouts without PoRs, all the way down the line to "scout" ranks. Mike F's advice is excellent. With some preparation your son will learn how to present a case to adults in a knowledgeable and respectful way. That is the lesson to be learned. Having been to Wood Badge you may think that once the trained adults realize that they are not using the Patrol Method, things will start to change. Don't bet on it. I've never seen it discussed, but over the years I have been amazed at how much energy some adults will devote to deconstructing the Patrol Method even when it is firmly established in a Troop. Especially charismatic former Cub Scout leaders! They keep silent through training, and sometimes smoulder for years until they are in a position to "make things more efficient," then look out! But maybe it's just me :-/ Kudu The Boy's Game Immediately upon arrival at a camp site, a Troops Patrols establish their "duffel-lines." The Troop Leaders Council gathers and makes a survey of the site for the purpose of giving their Patrol Leaders a chance to select campsites for their Patrols. As soon as the selections are made, the Patrol Leaders are dismissed, each Patrol Leader leads his Scouts to their site, and they go to work while the Scoutmaster and the other Troop Leaders keep hands off, possibly going into a huddle about special activities to take place later. Youthe Scoutmasterand your assistants should be present to advise, but you should not volunteer any. And most important of all, you should not go near the Patrol set-ups until after the Patrol Leaders come to you and announce: "Camp completed, sir!" www.inquiry.net/patrol/hillcourt/boy's_game.htm

Most adults multiple rechargeable batteries that need to be charged: cell phones, 2-way radios, weather radios, cameras, even those million-candlepower flashlights! By the time you get to the camp office to ask, they will be running out of outlets. So if you bring along a multiple outlet strip they will be very happy to see you. Kudu

I guess anything that comes close to cotton, but is more durable would be a good option. I think you are better off with the traditional material, cotton. Baden-Powell wrote somewhere that the principle purpose was to cool the neck and protect it from sunburn. As far as "durable" goes, here are the results of some stress tests: http://www.inquiry.net/images/mm088a.jpg captainron14 writes: You should be wearing the "50 year" bar between your CSP and your Troop number. Why just the 50 year bar? If the Troop was founded in 1938 they should be wearing a 65. I think the custom combination Troop numbers are available in multiples of five years. We have a "60" year bar combination patch. I'm into making DVD's thru my kids sports and music recitals, so that would be a great tool to give or loan to packs, dens, and Webelos, to further understand that history is something that is a part of experience, even for this currently small troop. You can assign a "special project" for a Scout's Position of Responsibility (POR) advancement requirements. I asked one of my Life Scouts to scan all of the ancient photographs & newspaper clippings which we then made available as CD-ROMs. He also did raw optical scans of the text for some other Scout's future searchable Website history project maybe. this currently small troop You don't have to rely completely on the feeder pack if you have access to a public or private school during school hours. I wrote an effective recruitment dog & pony show that you can use. The best part is that it will reinforce your own convictions that boys do not necessarily consider Scouts to be uncool if it is just presented convincingly as an adventure, see: http://www.inquiry.net/adult/recruiting.htm Kudu

I'm with those who are against structuring free time, the next thing you know you will be pre-arranging "play dates" :-/ Scoutcraft competitions and "recreational" games like "capture the flag" are as old as Scouting itself. But there is no game that will "develop leadership and teamwork" as well as the Patrol Method. The perceived need for "leadership games" and "team-building activities" is almost always a sign that a Troop is not really using the Patrol Method as it was designed by William Hillcourt. Scouting is a game, and artificial "games with a purpose" to pick up the slack are redundant. The key to what you are looking for lies in your interest in "Patrol Cooking"! Try finding a summer camp that offers Troopsite cooking rather than a central dining hall. Hiking to the cafeteria in Patrol lines is not the Patrol Method! Make sure ahead of time that your campsite is arranged so that the Patrols are all set up in their own distinct areas. This may involve moving some of the tents. We camp in late July, always at a different camp, and for some reason we find that the adjoining Troop campsites often are not rented out that week, which helps to spread out our Patrols as Baden-Powell intended (I believe he suggested a minimum of 200' between Patrols). Our Scouts usually start the week enrolled in five Merit Badge classes, which in the real world makes washing the dishes in the morning without a lot of yelling difficult at best. Our work-around is to have the Patrols cook the adults' meals, and to have the adults wash the morning dishes in return. Some Troops turn their backs on Merit Badge factory summer camps altogether, and plan their own summer camps as was detailed in the early Scoutmaster handbooks. Now that is true "Boy-ownership of Summer camp"! Some practical advice can be found at The Inquiry Net: http://www.inquiry.net/outdoor/summer/camp/troop Kudu

I must dig out my copy of the Service Library 1927 booklet Scouting With a Neckerchief or my copy of Reimer's classic Matching Mountains with the Boy Scout Uniform. Both the entire Scouting With a Neckerchief and the Neckerchief chapters of Matching Mountains with the Boy Scout Uniform can be found at The Inquiry Net: http://www.inquiry.net/uniforms/neckerchief Kudu

Besides all those nonChristians out there, where did all the people go from the millennia before Christianity? Dante took a stab at answering your question in his trilogy, but this complex theological issue is best explained on "South Park." If you don't subscribe to cable, then you will either have to rent the DVDs or suffer eternal damnation. Kudu

This year the best holiday defense is a good holier-than-thou offense. Simply explain that the word "holiday" is from the Old English "hAligdg," from hAlig holy + dg day, and that Jesus is deeply offended that he does not consider His birthday to be a holy day. Merry Christmas!

The design was certainly in style at the time. I heard that it was especially stylish among women, many of whom wore it as a blouse because it was a relatively inexpensive de la Renta original. Too bad Google wasn't archiving it all at the time. Kudu

I'm looking into high tech fabrics that can be used for these neckerchiefs Make sure that it is soft. We bought a bolt of "wrinkle-free" material that felt OK to me, but the Scouts hated how "scratchy" it was :-/ I found this bit of vintage inspiration on the stave: Here are some more diagrams and instructions on making staves: http://inquiry.net/outdoor/skills/b-p/staff.htm It sounds like you might be interested in my Kudu/Inquiry Net: 2,000 pages of Traditional Scouting information, check out the list of Scouting skills on the left side of the the above URL. Native American skills from your area (including an old sign language dictionary written for Scouts): http://inquiry.net/outdoor/native Songs and dances listed by tribe: http://kudu.net/outdoor/native/dance/by_tribes.htm An overview of Traditional Scouting (including the entire texts of Ernest Seton's Birch Bark Roll and Dan Beard's The Boy Pioneers/Sons of Daniel Boone handbook at: http://inquiry.net/traditional Kudu