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NJCubScouter

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Everything posted by NJCubScouter

  1. I decided that yesterday was not a day for debate, and apparently most others agreed as well. But today is today. eisely says: I saw a quote from Napoleon recently to the effect that, "History is an agreed fable." Another quote from some source I saw a long time ago is that, "History is the propaganda of the victors." As indicated by my quotation earlier, I have heard these sentiments in more pedestrian form as "The winners write the history books." But Napolean's quote does add something to it. There is some truth to these, but we must rise above cynicism. There is
  2. Wow! I sure hope a number of those parents signed up to be leaders, though.
  3. Hey, I wonder when and why they discontinued the patch for the Warrior Patrol. That was my patrol. Too militaristic maybe; or maybe it was the idea of portraying Native Americans as being overly militaristic. (I see there's an "Indian" now, but he's not fighting anybody.) When I look at these patches I remember we had a Bat, Cobra and Panther patrol in addition to the Warriors. Maybe a Wolf too, it's been awhile. No "Pedro Patrol," good gosh, I wonder how many boys pick that one. I also suspect that the "Badger Patrol" is not in the Top Ten. Colors have changed too. When I started a
  4. Yaworski, you respond to one sentence taken from the middle of my post, but you miss the point of the whole thing. I never said anything about "crying" or about removing words from a language. I didn't state any criticism or condemnation or make any value judgment about the settlers' treatment of the Native Americans. (Mind you, I could, but I didn't.) That is not what this thread, or my posts in it, are about. All I am saying is that the facts should be taught in school. All the facts, not just the section of the facts that make us feel good. The facts about the English settlers,
  5. I alluded to this earlier, but I want to expand on it a bit. I don't want anybody to think I am picking on the United States or its history. What I am criticizing is the way history was taught in the past. I want to be fair, and point out that U.S. history is by no means alone in the sugar-coating and twisting of history for reasons of "patriotism." To give an example, I thought of a figure from medieval British history who is universally thought of as a supremely evil, wicked man -- King Richard III. His distant cousin and immediate successor, Henry Tudor (King Henry VII) is th
  6. I would hope that on the anniversary of 9-11 we would focus on things like remembering those who gave their lives because they were Americans, honoring those who performed herculean efforts (and in some cases sacrificed themselves) to save others, and also to honor all of those millions of Americans who contributed to the relief efforts, and ourselves as a nation for the way we came together in this time of tragedy, for the common purpose of recovering from our wounds and bringing to justice those who attacked us. If I have missed any specific aspect of what I am talking about, I think yo
  7. You know, as recently as a couple of months ago, we could SOMETIMES have a discussion of routine topics (outside of "Issues and Politics") without it turning into an argument with personal jabs, or "bashing" references to people's affectional orientation (which are totally irrelevant to the topic.) This ideal seems to be becoming more and more difficult to achieve in this forum. Can't we all just get along?
  8. Stressbaby, I just read your second post. If you were to tell me that this troop had been using this method for 10 years and it was working fine, membership was up or steady, boys were advancing and learning and attending and leading and everything else with no regular meetings, I might say, hey, whatever works. But you say it is a NEW troop and though you didn't say so specifically, I get the impression that the "results" so far are inconclusive at best. That being the case, I personally would not want to have my son experimented on in this manner. If I may also "read in" to your posts, c
  9. In other words, a troop that ONLY camps, does service projects and special events, and during or after these events, the PLC meets to plan future events, and the patrols meet? It seems to me that you would be missing part of the program. The last time I attended a Boy Scout meeting (as opposed to Cub Scouts) was 1976, but I cannot imagine that the program has changed so that you can deliver it without regular troop meetings. And although my son's Cub Scout dens have NOT met weekly as mine did back in the 60s, both of the troops that I have inquired about so far for my son, meet weekly. Not
  10. Venturer2002 says: I believe that this thread was intended to bring attention to the double standards used in judging scouts by certain forum posters. Well, I believe this thread was started for the purpose of creating a childish spat -- which for some people appears to be the favored level of discourse.
  11. OGE, as they say, even a stopped clock is right twice a day. I'll leave it to others to interpret exactly how that applies here, as I run quickly in the other direction, under my assumed name.
  12. I think many organizations do something comparable. The bar associations that I have been a member of have an officer with the title "President Elect." He or she is between the President and First Vice President in the hierarchy, and at the next rotation of officers (usually annual) automatically becomes the president. The First Vice President is then usually elected President Elect, but I don't think it is automatic. One question I would have about doing this with the SPL/ASPL is, how would it work in a troop with more than 1 ASPL? Maybe that is no longer in vogue, but I remember tha
  13. Sexual harassment, sexual misconduct, sexual abuse, comment with sexual content... I think we are getting hung up on terminology. It was at the very least a comment with sexual content, and it was coupled with a refusal to give the younger Scout back his property. The older Scout clearly crossed a line, and what we are debating is (or should be) how far across the line he went, or maybe exactly which line he crossed. Serious consequences are warranted. Reasonable minds can differ as to whether removal is necessary, but I think it is clearly one of the range of options reasonably available
  14. Yaworski says: You're absolutely right. Calling homosexuals "gay" is "calling them names." They are "homosexuals" and should only be called that. To call them "gay" implies that heterosexual people are unhappy. I think you need to brush up on your lexicography. According to the online Webster's dictionary I just consulted, one of the meanings of "gay" is "homosexual." So "gay" is correct, regardless of whether any particular gay or straight person is happy or not. I know, I know. You probably think the dictionary writer is a "poof." As for the rules of the board about na
  15. Bob says: "This boy is not a scout, he is a thug hiding in a scout uniform." To which Yaworski says: I was going to respond but you're not worth the time. To which I say: No response is necessary. If the kid did what the original poster said he did, he is a thug. Maybe some long for the good old days, like when I was a Scout, and bullying and hazing were laughed off by the adult leaders. I don't. (This message has been edited by NJCubScouter)
  16. Our pack basically does all its fund-raising (other than dues) through the popcorn sale. Our net last year was probably in the $1,700-1,800 range. It is a big, big deal in our council especially on the Cub side of things. Our council has a variable rate structure for popcorn. The max to the unit is 37 percent, which you get IF you do a show-and-sell (probably at a certain minimum level of committment, last year our pack bought $2,000 worth (price to the customer) and is doing the same this year.) AND your unit representative (the "popcorn kernel", ha ha) must attend all the mandatory o
  17. Listen, this "names" business is very simple. The rules of this forum allow a member to choose a user-name that either does or doesn't reveal his "real" identity. I followed the rules. I wonder, Yaworski, whether you follow the rules. Your use of the word "poofs" is a slur against a group of people, it just doesn't sound so offensive to us in the US because it is generally not in use here. You probably get some leeway from the forum moderator because of that. (If most of the people on this board were British or Australian, the result might be different.) If, however, you use this
  18. Thank you for your comments, BobRussell. I just want to point out that when you say people from my district could identify me from my profile, actually I tried to make my profile vague enough so that would probably not happen. All my profile says is that I am an Assistant Cubmaster somewhere in the Patriot's Path Council, which covers 4 counties and parts of others (in the most densely populated state in the country), that I used to be a Den Leader, and that I was a Boy Scout and held all the standard youth leadership positions. That has to describe a couple hundred guys, right? A co
  19. Bob, I may be imagining this, but it seems to me that the BSA may already have gone through one phrase of calling "training" "development," at least to some extent. If I recall correctly, when I took what is now called JLT, it was "TLD": "Troop Leader Development." This would have been in 1973, when many changes in terminology had just been made, as you know. Whether the adult training programs had their names changed also, I don't know. When I get home I will check my old uniform, which I am pretty sure has the "TLD" patch on it. I remember that when my father did WoodBadge a couple
  20. Yaworski (notice I don't play games with your name): You are a funny guy. You read into other peoples' posts whole paragraphs that are not there and are not even meant, while at the same time you complain that other people read into your posts things that you clearly do mean. Without citing chapter and verse, I did not say I was offended by the statement in question. Most of your statements that I find offensive are insults directed at forum members. Also, I for one have no interest in who you would like to engage in reproductive activities with. (I think I need the triple-G, the
  21. Ed says: I have been told I must attend training classes for my job that I didn't want to take for one reason or another. I went & basically it was a waste. But can you really say you learned nothing? I think it would require a great deal of work (and maybe a hidden set of headphones and a walkman) to sit in a class and learn absolutely nothing. I bet you did learn something, and I bet the DE's in OGE's class learned something as well. If I remember his post correctly, it has had a positive impact on at least one of them. I think that that's inevitable. For myself, I r
  22. I don't know why I bother, but... Yaworski, who exactly was it who critized you for saying "I don't consider most women Scouters to be "chicks" or otherwise sexually attractive to me"? Or any words to that effect? What day was the post? What time? I don't see it. Here's what I did see: In the topic, "Talk About a Reversal of Fortune," eisely made a statement, "I don't care what the motivation was for the DE's taking woodbadge." We all (including you, Yaworski) knew what he meant. He meant it doesn't really matter whether a DE goes because he wants to or because his CE/SE tol
  23. Ah yes, Yaworski, your posts definitely rank right up there with the Declaration of Independence.
  24. Ed says: The Scouts in my Troop don't dance with each other. I was refering to the type of dancing these guys might do at school dances. Is that sexual harassment? I think not. Ed, the term you used in the post I was responding to was "sexual meaning," not "sexual harrassment." The type of dancing you were referring to has sexual meaning, that is the whole point of it. Just as the words and actions of the boy in question had sexual meaning. Forget sexual harrassment. It was a sexually-oriented action. Does an action with sexual meaning have a place at a school dance? Well, we c
  25. That's ok Yaworski, I'll let the readers judge for themselves whether my interpretation of what you said was correct or not.
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