LongHaul

From everything I've been hearing and reading about the Dubai company it is part of the UAE government. It's fully owned and operated by the UAE government. The other "foriegn" companies are based overseas but this time we are actually turning our ports over to a foriegn country. I don't see this as just Bush bashing. Congress can set whatever rules they want relating to port management it doesn't mean they will be followed. Last time I heard hijacking and murder were against the law everywhere in the US and that didn't stop those determined to inflict harm upon U.S. Giving the UAE inside

Scoutingagain, You used the term "friendly Arab country". Can you tell me which of the Arab countries fall into that category? I cant think of any Arab country that fully supports our efforts to bring the terrorists to justice. How many Arabs have been brought before Arab courts to answer charges stemming from 911? What happened to the money trail which lead to Dubai? Even the Saudis dont fully support our War on Terror. How can we justify allowing these same people to control a U.S. port of entry? My suggestion is to turn the ports over to the military. Those men and women a

I do stand corrected it's 6 ports not 8 Whew! thats a relief. That same guy who did such a great job of anticipating Katrina was telling the press how they had checked the Dubia company out and found no irregularities. He assured us we would be as safe with the UAE in charge as we are now. I find that frieghtening. Bush was quoted as saying "This administration does not discriminate against Arab intrests." I wonder how the people in Iraq feel about that statement. LongHaul

In preparing for yet another training session I was going over the current edition of the GTSS, which I hear is being totally redone. I understand that National has taken the GTSS away from the profesional scouting staff and hired a profesional from the Risk Management sector to revamp the entire guide. They hope to have it available in print by August 2006. Anyway, I went online to check for current revisions and low and behold I found a new one dated January 9, 2006. It applies to Venturing Crews attending Boy Scout section camps. The old rule required a Venturer to be multi registered

Even if we give him the doubt about "being aware of it" He was on the news today saying "We had the Brits managing one(a port) why not the Arabs?" I wonder how many of the 911 terrorists got money from the Queen. Eamonn you have any contacts who may know how much the Queen ponied up to level the towers? His people are trying to give control of 8 US ports of entry to the UAE and he doesn't know anything about it? Like I said all ya gotta do is wait for it, the hits never stop. LongHaul(This message has been edited by LongHaul)

Seeing as how Trevorum brought up the Cheney thing again, even though I've already said I think taking shots at Dick on that one are out of line, I knew I wouldn't have to wait long before this administration gave my cause to cry WHAT? So! How do ya all feel about turning over, what is it 8 of our ports to the UAE? I mean only 2 of the 911 terrorists were actually from Dubai even though most of the 911 terrorists were receiving money from there. Hey we only actually inspect 5% of what comes in that way anywhy so whats the worry right? Besides with our efforts in Iraq going as they are we ne

Beavah, I dont know where you are from or what your back ground is but I think you should A. speak with a lawyer about insurance regulations and when the insurer can refuse to pay a claim, and B. Think about what you are saying before you say it. Your BSA liability insurance is subject to the condition that you follow the rules, if you dont coverage can be denied. Talk to anyone who has had a serious accident on an outing and had to defend themselves in court when the law suits started. The Age appropriate guidelines are the center fold section of the GTSS sold by Natio

Flying Pig, A Horizontal Wall is one on which the climber is never more than 2 feet off the ground and traverses the wall side to side. Belaying is when the climber is tied to a rope being monitored by another. Bouldering is basic or intermediate climbing carried out on relatively small rocks that can be traversed without great risk of bodily harm in case of fall. BSA requires that a scout must be belayed if that scout is to be four feet off the ground such as crossing a rope bridge or climbing a tower or climbing wall. Belaying is NOT age appropriate for Cub Scout Aged boys. Exceptio

Eamonn, I'm not sure what you are referring to when you ask me where "this" can be found in the Youth Protection Guidelines. If you mean the specific incident in question it's not. I was referring to all cases of abuse. Pointing a gun at someone after threatening to shoot them is felony assault I would think that falls under the YP guidelines. The difference in this and the incident you describe about the fight is on of pre meditation. Your scout allowed his anger and frustration to escalate to violence. The offending scout in the original post was described as as having bull

Eamonn, I agree with 99% of what you are saying. The absolute last thing we as leaders should do is give up on a boy. The offender in this discussion is the boy who needs us the most. Then there are the rules we are asked to follow. Youth Protection clearly states that we must report all cases. Does threatening to shoot a fellow scout fall under YP? Does bullying fall under YP? Does assaulting a youth member with a hand gun fall under YP? If we choose to keep this in house how are we different from the people in Grand Teton Council that failed to stop the sexual abuse on their scouts?

Eamonn, are you saying that the incident should not be reported to the SE and Chartered Organization Head but should be left to the discretion of the Troop Committee alone? LongHaul

Klcbaskets, I encourage you not to allow this to be swept under the rug. Ive been Scoutmaster of our troop for over 10 years, with time off to get married and start a family I still have over 30 years of registered association with the Scouting program. I say this to assure you I am not new to this type of behavior or the Scouting Program. Your sons may move to another troop but the possibility of them being in a position to be assaulted by the offending youth still exists. Camporees, Council summer program, Order of the Arrow Fellowships. Bullies return to the easy targets. My advice

Hereajo, A short while back we had a thread about the Grand Teton Council which revealed an incidence of ongoing child abuse and assault. Boys reported infractions and leaders relayed information and council staff ignored allegations. Boys were repeatedly put at risk and adults in positions of responsibility failed to protect the boys. Going to another troop solves the problem for the victim for right now but it ignores the real problem. If you and every other adult that knows about this, including the victims parents, do nothing to bring this incident to the attention of the local coun

Scoutingagain, you wrote However, I do wish to dispel the notion that accidents can happen to anyone. I agree that we cant afford" to have a momentary loss of focus in certain situations but the fact that we do is why we call them accidents. Realistically they can happen to anyone. I dont think you are claiming never to have been involved in an accident. You probably never shot anyone unintentionally or maybe youve never been in an auto accident but no accidents of any kind? Harry Whittington was guilty,according to your reasoning of not knowing where Dick Cheney was or what VP Cheney h

Behavior that warrants expulsion from the Troop, Knowingly AND willingly putting your life or the life of another scout in jeopardy. In our Troop that is carved in stone. A couple of cases in point. In another troop a scout had a Bic lighter that was out of fluid so he threw it in the camp fire. The residual gas exploded but no one was hurt. This led to scouts deliberatly throwing lighter into the fire to watch them explode. Which led over time to scouts using lighters with more and more fluid in them and seeing who would stay closest to the fire the longest becuse there was a delay in the

I have no love, and little respect for the current administration. I will be the first to stick a pin in Bush at the smallest convenience but this whole thing is ridiculous. The press is so worried about when the white house knew and why it took so long to inform the American public that even I must cry foul. Cheney screwed up, no argument, hes human we humans do that now and again. The man shot another human being by accident, the man was possibly a close friend, I really doubt that Vice President Cheney is anything except mortified and filled with utter remorse at this point. How would

I hope we dont allow this thread to die out. I would really like to get back to discussing the ACLU and our respective opinions of the organization and its effects on our collective lives. Some have taken issues with the ACLU trying to change the Constitution while others see their actions as simply forcing us to live by the Constitution. Some feel the ACLU is trying to take God out of everyday life, while others again see it as forcing us to live by the Constitution. If the Supreme Court says any reference to God by official means is unconstitutional then if we want God in public we need

I'm so bad at remembering names it should be illegal. I can remember hundreds of names and faces of the people I went to high school with 40 years ago but remembering the names of people I meet today really takes effort. As SM I've tried many different "tools" to help me overcome my problem, the one the boys responded to best was this. I made a deal with each new scout that when he was given a task to perform, be it kybo duty or KP he could come to me and ask me what his name was, if I couldn't recall it within 5 seconds I would do the task for him. I've washed a lot of dishes and fetched

OGE, Then why all the court cases about gays in scouting. Why don't they just shut up and join up? They want their preferences to be openly known. If preferences were to be kept personal we would't be having this discussion. It's the "I need public validation" section that got us here. On the adult app thee is a place for gender, why? If we are all one what difference does it make? If BSA changes it's policy and accepts gays shouldn't those parents who would prefere that their son not be tented with a gay scout be entitled to some consideration? My question remains that if we fee

OGE, My question was in the last sentence. What policies do we put in place to address the inclusion of gays and girls. The girls part is already addressed in the Venturing and Explorer programs but what about the gay scouts. Your suggestion that we ignor the fact that they are gay doesn't work as I tried to point out. The gay leaders we now have are leaders becasue they kept their preferences to themselves. It's an issue now because gays have decided they need to be openly accepted as gays. Ok assuming BSA changes it's policy and admits them how do we as leaders address the issue

OGE, Your statement to the effect that there is no room in scouting for sexuality leaves me wondering if Im missing something in your posts in this thread. I went ahead and looked the word up in the dictionary and found these entries; sexuality n. 1. The condition of being characterized and distinguished by sex. 2. Concern with or interest in sexual activity. 3. Sexual character or potency. Now I can see a case being made for example 3 but how can you say that the first two arent/shouldnt be part of scouting, in this case being part of would mean being addressed as to policy. You accep

Any chance we can get back to discussing our views on the ACLU? Or should we just start another thread? LongHaul

Thanks emb021, the fine print will get you every time! LongHaul

embo21, Want to know how wierd when it comes to rank patches? When a boy was accepted to serve as Staff at our summer camp he got a credit to allow him to buy 2 new uniforms at a discount. The rule is that Staff must wear full field uniforms with ALL the appropriate badges. The problem is that the Scout Shop would not sell them the rank patches. As Scoumaster I had to go to the Council office and raise the roof before I was sold the patches and then just to stop the disruption. I would like to know where you are getting your information as to using the Venturing pin to represent

Would I support the decision? If you mean would I pass knowledge of the decision along to my SPL and let him and succeding SPL's decide Uniform or No, then yes I would support the decision. If you mean would I like it! Then NO, I believe the uniform is an integral part of the program. I signed an agreement to abide by the policies of the National Corporation and I am bound to it whether I like the policy or not. The uniform is a tool, I believe a usefull and successful tool, but only a tool. A true eagle Scout is an Eagle Scout uniform or no. We are Scouters 24/7 because we believe in t