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Rick_in_CA

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Everything posted by Rick_in_CA

  1. dkurtenback wrote: “But this is not a math problem, it is a people problem; and the solution would benefit from considering all of the values that are alike as well as those that are different.†But isn’t that the whole point of local control? Everyone gets to apply their values to their unit? This is the problem I keep running up against - there is a group of conservatives (obviously not all conservatives) that are defining “respecting my values†as unit A being able to force their values on unit B over there even though they agree with them. That is NOT resp
  2. dkurtenback wrote: “There is a big difference between (a) living in the world that you have to live in and you don't have any choice about who else is there, and (b) voluntarily joining and participating in an organization because you want to associate with certain kinds of people. A lot of the wistful comments from progressives express a desire to have the conservatives be exposed to people they don't want to be exposed to, because it will be good for them -- they will learn that their conservative views are, well, wrong. And that is the sort of thing that gets the conservatives upset.
  3. This weekend another scouter asked me “why do you want the conservatives to leave scouting?â€Â. I answered that I don’t, I just want them to give others the same respect they wish to receive. Why does it have to be about the other side leaving? I really feel strongly about this. Ever since I was a youth in scouting, I believed one of the great things about it was that people of every faith and stripe could sit down together as welcome members of the same scouting family. I want my scouts to be able to see people of other faiths and beliefs as good and reasonable people who
  4. dkurtenbach wrote: “I suppose that there might still be some Christians in this day and age who would consider that denying the divinity of Christ is evil, but personally I've never come across one that I know about.†Unfortunately, I have. Years ago, an otherwise seemingly nice man was being unpleasant to a few members of our group (a Sikh man and his son). And when confronted, he said it was his Christian duty to confront their sin of denying the divinity of Christ - apparently by being rude to them. We asked him to leave. I just don’t understand some people.
  5. dkurtenbach wrote: “I think that the concern is this: By continuing to belong to and participate in an organization that welcomes homosexual leaders (even though they are not allowed in their own units), they would be cooperating in an ongoing moral evil. In other words, guilt by association.†But don’t many Christians believe that denying the divinity of Christ is evil? So wouldn’t cooperating with non-Christians be “guilt by association� What is so special about the gay thing?
  6. Why would an atheist be a member of a religion? Because atheist doesn't mean: "doesn't believe in religion" (though I am sure there are plenty of atheists that don't), but "disbelief or lack of belief in the existence of deities." There are plenty of religions that can fit that description. Of course, now you have to define what the word "Deity" or "Deities" refer too.
  7. AZMike asks: "Rick, so you have made the decision to pull your kids out of Scouting if you don't get the Local Option?" I am beginning to lean that way. I haven't decided yet, it depends on how it plays out. Basically, the BSA needs to decide, are they a conservative Christian organization, or do they believe their own bylaws and are "totally non-sectarian"? Are they going to continue to heap disrespect on Unitarians and other more welcoming faiths (I am Unitarian if you want to know)? A no on the local option is sending the message to non-conservatives that they are not welcome in scouti
  8. Sad news. I never met him in person, but it was always a pleasure to read his contributions to this forum. He will be missed. My deepest sympathies to his friends and family.
  9. "Czechoslovakian Option"? Really? I would walk if they were morally cowards enough to do that. For me it's basically the local option or nothing at this point. If they don't go with the local option, they are saying that they don't believe in their own by-laws ("totally non-sectarian" is incompatible with the current policy) and are caving in to bigotry. They will be saying that unless you are a conservative Christian, you are not welcome. That will be a sad day. AZMike, since you obviously don't agree with the BSA bylaws and the fact that the B "totally non-sectarian", what are you doing
  10. My layman's understanding of CA law (I am NOT a lawyer, this is not legal advice) of code 626.10 is that an adult is OK with a pocket knife on school grounds (the law applies to public or private schools) as long as the blade isn't over 2.5 inches, and does NOT LOCK. A locking blade of any length is not allowed. There is an exception for "instructive purposes" or for employees (such as kitchen staff). My point is CHECK your local laws so you don't get into trouble. There are some surprises out there! You don't want to be teaching a knife class to a bunch of cubs with plastic knives and so
  11. I have the last 24 hours link bookmarked in my browser, but to get a useful display, I have to click the more button on the bottom. Can we make that the default display? As for many of the problems people are seeing with the display of threads, one of the causes is that the software uses javascript to deliver the content. For a thread with 60 posts, it downloads all of them at once, and then uses javascript to populate the page numbers and order the posts. The supposed advantage to this, is it offloads some of the processing from the server to the browser. The disadvantage of this, is tha
  12. Nice photos. Thank you for sharing them!
  13. OK, Let me try this again. It looks like the software change eat my reply. Beavah wrote: Yah, but Rick_in_CA, yeh do realize that da BSA you grew up with that taught you those values had exactly the same policy in place then as now, right? No it didn’t. When I was a boy scout, I remember an openly atheist scout master in a friends troop. He didn’t push it, but if asked he wouldn’t hide it. He was active in the district, no one cared about his religion. Are you saying that the BSA has been booting out gays, atheist and agnostics for the last 100 years? Beavah wrote: Even as
  14. Ugh!!! Bring back the old software! This is terrible! The old software worked without javascript turned on, this one doesn’t (and for what? This isn’t YouTube). To get the latest activity, in the old site I could just bookmark the “last 24 hours†page, here you have to do an extra click. Plus it gives you only the last three entries, and you have to click "Show More" at the bottom. Then instead of a nice compact view that fit on my laptop screen, I have to scroll down to see more than a couple of entries. And it flat out doesn’t work anymore on my iPad. Definitely an example of â
  15. I reckon it feels like betrayal, eh? A stranger who doesn't care for yeh is one thing, but a friend or loved one who stops bein' a friend really hurts. Let me tell you what felt like a betrayal, it was when the BSA was hijacked by the religious-right. When Unitarian scouts were basically told "we don't like your religion, and believe it's central tenets of faith are incompatible with BSA values", that was a betrayal. When the Boy Scouts basically stopped believing in their own policy: "The Boy Scouts of America, therefore, recognizes the religious element in the training of the member,
  16. There is no need to change the BSA? It appears the BSA disagrees with you. However, you are free to go form your own organization that matches your values.
  17. Duplicate post(This message has been edited by Rick_in_CA)
  18. The question weighing on my mind is whether it will be enough to allow schools to start charting again, or whether they'll also have to change their stand on atheism. That's another topic, though. For public schools? No, it isn't.
  19. Actually, you CAN buy a fighter jet or tank here in the US. They are just large and expensive. Buying one with working weapons is a lot harder (lots of permits, but in theory it can be done). Actually a friend of mine used to collect WW2 vehicles, he owned several tanks (and he had a friend that legally owned a WW2 Sherman with working guns). There are several fighter jets in private hands in the U.S.. Paul Allen (of Microsoft fame) owns a MIG-29 (just type "mig-29 Paul Allen" into Google). The reason you don't see drug cartels fielding tanks and fighter planes, is that they are VERY cons
  20. I have to disagree with the basic premiss that society is much more violent today than when we were children. Violent crime is actually been going down. Here are the FBI statistics for homicide: U.S. Homicide Rate (per 100,000), 19502007 Year Homicide rate 1950 4.6 1951 4.4 1952 4.6 1953 4.5 1954 4.2 1955 4.1 1956 4.1 1957 4.0 1958 4.8 1959 4.9 1960 5.1 1961 4.8 1962 4.6 1963 4.6 1964 4.9 1965 5.1 1966 5.6 1967 6.2 1968 6.9 1969 7.3 1970 7.9 1971 8.6 1972 9.0 1973 9.4 1974 9.8 1975 9.6 1976 8.8 1977
  21. CalicoPenn: "As for Concealed Carry? It's cowardly. At one time in this country, guns were carried openly. If you carried a hidden gun, you were a sneak, a cheat, a thief, in general, you were a dishonorable man. If the NRA were truly honorable, they would be lobbying for open carry, not for concealed carry. Why hide your gun unless you're ashamed to be seen with it?" jblake47: "Nothing illegal about any of this in the state I reside." Unfortunately, that isn't the case in every state. Here in California, open carry (though legal) will get you harassed and maybe even arrested by the
  22. Dan, I like your idea of renting a U-Haul trailer for those few times you need one. How much does U-Haul charge for a weekend rental? I took a quick look on line, and it would only tell me the cost for a 6 hour rental.
  23. As with many things in life, how people respond to a given set of circumstances often depends on the individual. While one kid might see a prank as harmless fun, another kid might see the identical prank as being picked on. That doesnt necessarily make one kid right and the other wrong, nor does it mean that the kid feeling picked on is thin-skinned and just needs to man up. I agree with Beavah when he says that there are ways of doing pranks right, and ways of doing pranks wrong. OGEs experience is clearly and example of doing it wrong. The problem is that the line between doing it right
  24. Rick_in_CA

    Bb guns

    Scoutfish said: No, not even suggesting camps have .22 rifles, but they could use better bb guns. I'm curious, why? I remember shooting a .22 at camp when I was a cub scout, and in Indian Guides (a YMCA organization). Have there been problems with cub scouts that caused the switch to bb guns? Or is it more of an issue of the places that the bb gun ranges are located? Not trying to start a fight, just wanting to understand.
  25. First an interesting aside about water balloons. When I was in college, a group of students built a very large water balloon catapult (basically a three story tall funnelator - spread between two buildings). They launched a big water balloon from it. It flew some 600 yards (they were up on a hill) and hit a parked bicycle broad side. It bent and broke the frame, totaled the ten speed (I saw the photos, it looked like it had been hit by a truck). That put an end to their water balloon launching. The incident actually gave one of the students involved nightmares for a week. She told m
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