BadenP

As far as the number of beads I have two sets one from Philmont WB and one from Gilwell WB classes each of these sets represent very special experiences so they are both in a case with other momentos from those classes. I have never felt the need to wear them to prove anything to other scouters, and since both sets are made from wood from those locations if they were lost they are not easily replaceable. However I am still proud of completing both courses and the friends I made in each. Brent, excuse the comment I made to you in my previous post, it was unscoutlike, even though made in jest it was uncalled for.

I think you should wear all your beads and every knot you can think of, some people might even think you are in the service, lol. It is still just showing off and bragging looking like a five star general in a boy scout uniform with beads, knots, and medals galore, time to get back in touch with reality gentlemen. Remember the program is first and formost for the boys not to pump up your own personal egos. I removed the material that was not in keeping with the Scout Oath and Law. Eamonn. (This message has been edited by a staff member.)

Well guys Italy has never had an extradition treaty with the USA so thats why RP has been able to live a carefree life, not to mention that most of Europe has a very different view of the crime he committed, and lastly the statute of limitations still applies. Another example the state Attorney General of Massachusetts had an arrest warrant issued for Cardinal Bernard Law for conspiracy concerning priest abuse issues but he has been given sanctuary by the Vatican and will never see the inside of a courtroom or a jail cell. So you see crime does pay if you are rich enough or powerful enough or just well connected.

SR540 I commend your troop on their uniforming pride. As to those few other boys who wear their uniform under a hoodie, lets look at it from another angle, at least they are coming to the meetings, maybe not regularly, and they are wearing their uniform, hidden though it may be,which tells me they are getting something out of your program. Maybe they are having problems at home or elsewhere? Maybe they just need that individual attention or invitation from you to really feel like they belong, and then just maybe at a future meeting they will feel secure enough to take off that hoodie and participate more actively with the troop, who knows one of them may even try for Eagle. All they may need is a little encouragement, just my 2 cents.

The truth of the matter is that the statute of limitations has long since passed in Polanski's case, like it or not. As far as Benedict is concerned, during the height of the abuse cases being brought to light(2002-2005), when in essence he was running the Church, he did instruct the bishops of the church to quietly and quickly settle all cases under the table of which hundreds were and never brought to the publics attention. I know this from the bishop in my own archdiocese who received this order from Rome signed by Cardinal Ratzinger, aka Benedict, during a case of a teenager in my youth group who was abused by the parish priest. It was settled for a cash payment under the table, under the threat of excommunication, it never went to court, and that priest is still at large serving in another parish today. As far as Roman P. is concerned he is scum in my view but his crime pales in comparison to Benedicts. So Merlyn for the first time I have to say I agree with you, especially about Benedict and the abuses that the hierarchy of the RC church has yet to be held accountable. To date not one bishop or cardinal has served time for his crimes, and only a handful of the guilty priests.

Sr540, The difference is one is an outward obvious and visible symbol while the others are internal feelings or symbols, not really in the same ballpark when you think about it.

Ok Merlyn Let me add this, at this point in scouting I do regret that people like yourself have ruined relations between scouting and schools, but you know what I am not going to lose any sleep over it. As far as the issue of gays in scouting is concerned, that is Nationals call not mine but either way I can live with it. However, I still view you as the little boy at school telling tales on others to get them in trouble,or starting some misinformation to get others riled up, in other words a little fink. You still use the same kind of tactics as an adult with your one man crusade of pure nonsense that some buy into while most others ignore you, as everyone should do.

Merlyn Tell me something, do you see yourself as some kind of prophet trying to convert all of us wayward scouters to your gospel message concerning the BSA? If you do then I would think by now you would have realized few are listening, and those that do are trying to convert you. So my question is why do you continue to beat a dead horse on every topic you post, is this your only avenue of human communication? If so then wake up son no one is buying your act.

You know the venturing pants issue or the lack of pants at the beginning brings up an interesting debate. Since most of the uniform problems talked about in all levels in scouting revolve around the pants what if National decided to make uniform pants an option rather than required them , as is the case in most cub packs and in many troops. It seems to work in Venturing with a myriad of different styles of "uniforms". Most of the early boy scout troops could not get or even afford uniforms and yet scouting seemed to flourish, did you ever think why this was? I guess the question would be taking it out of the military definition and using the definition of a symbol of recognition, what could be considered a valid scout uniform that identified the youth as scouts.

Feed the troll and he hits you with a stick, lol. PLEASE DON'T FEED THE TROLL, THANK YOU!

This question has always been a minefield in Venturing especially with some very narrow interpretations, such as emb021's. If a crew elects to wear other than the official spruce green shirt you can have the venturing logo, and unit id on that shirt or sweatshirt, some very nice ones are available from national supply. As far as awards such as bronze, gold and silver, I have seen them at council and regional events worn on the crews chosen uniform shirt or sweatshirt and no one challenged it. There is no offical rule in venturing stating that these awards can only be worn on the official spruce green shirt, and not on the uniform shirt the crew has chosen, even though the venturing uniform purists will deny it.

The sole purpose of an EBOR is to make sure all the t's are crossed and the i's are dotted so that his application gets through National without a hitch. Re examination and interrogation of the candidate is not only inappropriate it is against National BSA policy. If his book, etc. are all signed off it is not in the purvue of the EBOR to re determine whether or not he passed all his requirements, that has already been done. The questions asked should be about the experiences he had in scouting and what they meant to him, and not whether or not he has scout spirit, that should be apparent, or how he practices his faith. Any EBOR that severely crosses the line with innappropriate questioning can be rendered null and void at a drop of the hat and a new one established by any Key 3 member, and the SE. As a new DE unfortunately one of my first tasks was with the Dist Chair and the Dist Commish dismiss the District Advancement Chair of many years because of improper conduct and questioning at the EBOR's, and numerous complaints from SM's and other volunteers and candidates.

Unfortunate event indeed, it seems the Census Bureau is becoming as hated as the IRS. You notice its always the part time worker trying to make a few bucks that receives this abuse,and what is the agency doing to protect their workers, absolutely nothing. I worked for the 1990 census for 3 months, before I was offered a decent job, and I can tell you the Census part timers are not treated very well. I was never so happy to resign from a job in my life. My condolences to his family.

Lisabob It is not the kids as much as what the new technology is doing to their formation process into adulthood, creating such a dependency that they are not fully developing their communication skills and cognitive processes. Many teens today can not write a comprehensive report or deliver a well organized and detailed oral report without the greatest of difficulty. Many educators blame the fact that teens do not read as many books or write letters anymore, instead using the language of tweets, twitters, and the internet to communicate as the number one reason their written and oral skills are sorely lacking. After all if you are texting to, my bff omg jane lol it made me rofl, all day long how can we expect them to be competent with the English language. In another decade this problem will become significantly worse. Our societys tecnology has created this problem so how do they plan to correct it?

Maybe you don't buy the attention span argument but recent studies done by educational and teachers groups have come up with it becoming a major problem in trying to teach the youth of today, and they are the experts. Your greed theory about youth interested in sports as a motivating factor is a little outdated, except maybe in poor inner city areas.

Eamonn In the fast paced twitter and texting world of todays teens one thing that has suffered is their attention span which is down to about 10 minutes tops. Their feelings of commitment are also about the same length of time. Unfortunately scouting takes a longer term of commitment by both the teens and adults in order for program to be successful, which is in sharp contrast to their own reality. I think the question then becomes, with this ever growing problem, is do we adapt scouting to this new reality or do we force the teens to adapt their own reality to commit to scouting?

Pack First of all I referenced the movie because I doubt very much whether anyone had actually read a book about the crisis. And you miss the point entirely or you made it depending on the view, yes we put oil first and walked away from a job half finished. The result was we let an evil occur and allowed terrorists to rise to power in Afganistan, and over 3,000 Americans lost their lives on 9/11 to appease the Saudis who did not really need our help in the first place. The president, his advisors, and the Congress all made a huge error in judgement resulting in that area of the world becoming the most unstable and dangerous that now threatens all humanity. By the way pack are you avoiding sports arenas, transportation terminals, and amusement areas per the new heightened threat alert? Yet another result of not learning from the past.

Have any of you seen the movie based on a true story, Charlie Wilsons War? The USA armed and supplied those Afgan fighters with all the latest war machines and used them as pawns to force Russia out of Afganistan, so we did not have to become directly involved, which they did accomplish, and then we left those people with a country totally destroyed and no way to rebuild. As the movie pointed out if we had back then spent a few million dollars to rebuild schools, hospitals, transportation, and irrigation systems we would have had a stable country instead of the mess we have today and most importantly 9/11 would have never happened. Our failure then allowed Al Queida and the Taliban to rise to power by providing the people what we would not, a new infrastructure and a sense of security. No American lives ever needed to be lost in Afganistan or NYC on 9/11 if we had done the right thing back then, and instead of a fierce enemy we would have had a strong ally today. Now we are face yet another full scale incursion into an area of such hostile terrain, and where a small group can hold off a much larger one for a very very long time, as the Russians found out firsthand. I truly hope for the sake of our troops that this time cooler heads prevail and wisdom wins out over warmongering. "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

Twocub FYI, look up the regional office website for your area, look at the directory of the staff, and you will see that your assumptions are in error. In fact most of the paperwork for the events you describe and many others were actually processed at the regional level. The other problem will be getting regional events planned, like sea scout regattas, venturing rendevous, and others will now be much harder to organize. Is that a good thing, you tell me. Yet National in its wisdom will create multiple higher level ACSE executive positions each with their own staff, watch your council FOS quotas go much higher next year, another well thought out plan by Bobby M.(This message has been edited by BadenP)

OGE How do figure the service will be "BETTER". All Mazzuca is doing is promoting some of his buddies and you watch the quality of service start to slide. FYI after meeting and talking to Wayne Brock he couldn't lead a den of Cub Scouts let alone National, lol.(This message has been edited by BadenP)

Yeah, thats all we need more deadwood executives at National. I agree with SR540, regional handles a lot of volunteer and professional needs more locally then a centralized core of do nothing ACSE's would be able to do. Besides imagine all the massive travel expenses National would incur sending these bozo's all over the country to put out local fires. Not a very logical or well thought out plan, but again this is Mazzuca's standard MO, act first and worry about the consequences and costs later.

And the fact that what you are doing is in your mind a good thing, you really have missed the whole point, sad, sad, sad. I am through with your diatribes of self righteous stupidity, you really do need to get some professional help Merlyn, and very soon. Don Quixote and yourself do have an awful lot in common, especially self delusion. To dream the impossible dream!

Merlyn May you relish in your hollow, lonely, and empty quest to rid the world of the BSA. You will fail in the end, but the damage you do along the way will come back to haunt you in the end and be your final epitaph. You must have had a very bad experience with the BSA in your past that fuels your anger to such extreme levels. Depriving youth of the scouting experience because of some minor legal technicality is nothing more than spiteful and vindictive, and certainly nothing to be proud of. I truly do feel sorry for you.

AHHH you see yourself as a one man caped crusader fighting against the evil BSA. "I have helped stop thousands of illegal charters", man Merlyn do you hear what you are saying? Living in a delusion must be a wonderful thing for you to justify your cause without a cause or any real substance. Say mer do have a batcave to wage this holy war of yours against what, taking scouting away from youth that could have learned some good skills and had some fun, wow what an accomplishment. I truly feel sorry for you, misguided, bitter, and deeply troubled person that you are.

Not at all Merlyn, tell me do you sometimes feel like Don Quixote, constantly tilting at windmills over things no one really gives a crap about. Have that glass of wine allowing you to calm down, then you can go out and get a life and some worthwhile causes to fight for. Good luck to you.