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There are so many foreclosures because they were selling houses to people that did not have the track record or the income to buy the house. They had teaser rate adjustable that people were stretching to pay the introductory payments then the mortgage adjusted and they could not afford the payments anymore. The other foreclosures were people that ratcheted up their debt thru consolidations to the point where there was no equity left then the market went south and they walk away. Some of the foreclosures are on people that have purchased another house in the same neighborhood paying substantially less due to market conditions. There is no reason to be bailing most of these people out. The majority of home owners are paying their mortgages as difficult as that can be sometimes.

Yes Florida has turned blue but there are some extenuating circumstances the housing bust has hit here much worse than in some other areas. This state relies on growth and construction. Further research will reveal that Florida is not really as blue as it looks we still have a Republican governor. State senate and house both controlled by Republicans. McPain was not a favored candidate here especially with Florida resident Chuck Baldwin representing the Constitution party. McPains support of the amnesty bill and some of his other legislation really hurt him here. If Jeb had been the nominee he would have easily carried Florida. We also suffer from millions of transplanted Yankee retiree's who are as blue as they come. The advertising blitz by the Obama camp was obscene even the local Tampa talk radio station aired 6-10 Obama spots during the Rush Limbaugh show and round the clock on other shows. The only other time recently Florida went blue was the Bob Dole year. Travel to Florida and enjoy the parks and some down home hospitality and our mostly great weather.

http://www.bsapr.org/

This is the council web site for Puerto Rico I find it very hard to believe that their is not a troop close enough for you to put your nephew with. He will learn much more as part of a troop boy scouting is very much a team experience. There is also a neat, judging from the pictures, boy scout camp available click on the link on the web site. By all means keep him working with the den as well but he will learn a lot from boy scouts as well.

Jacket? for those days that it is real cold here in Florida we always buy our uniform shirts one size too big so that one may wear a long sleeve T-shirt under it some of you folks up north know it as a long john shirt or if really cold a sweat shirt. Please note that you only wear the sweat shirt if you absolutely must be sweating by noon.

Looking at the event I would not recommend a new cub scout camp unless there is a large experienced contingent from the pack going with community meals planned. A visit for the day to participate in the events with the purchase of a lunch might be more in order. Most councils provide family camp experiences for cubs which are "camping lite" Meals are provided at the dining hall and there is an exciting schedule of events for the day. This camp is not offering meals other than lunch. Your family should you chose to attend would be responsible for all your own meals with the associated cooking gear etc.. It might be worth a call to see if they have RV spots available, most boy scout camps do, and bring your familiar rv that way you have its meal prep facilities and if the cub wants to sleep in a tent next to the RV he could. Essential personal equipment include sleeping bag rated to lower temp than what is expected, clothing, shoes, toiletries, light , eating utinsels, mess kit, bag to put it all in, sunscreen, bug repellent, cup, medications, and personal comfort items. There is a list here:

http://www.boyscouttrail.com/external_frame.asp?goto=/webelos/packinglist.htm

Not that element in particular but there is no good reason for any young person to be sitting around vegetating when they could be learning something useful, getting some discipline, serving their country, and making some money.

GW that's too good for them they have not done what a staff sgt does why give them the bennies that a staff sgt gets. If they want the bennies a staff sgt gets let them enlist and retire as such them they will have earned them. If they want to play politics then let them do so on their own dime and the successful will parlay that into a meaningful career with a market willing to pay money for their expertise. The real problem is most of them are convinced that they are better (smarter?) than said staff sgt but until they prove otherwise they are not. Again if the blue states want to provide one and all health insurance they are a big enough group to do so. I wish Florida had the cojones to let one and all buy into the medicaid HMO they have bid out it is way cheaper than my private HMO.

Back on the soapbox they are paying $1600 per month to volunteer service members starting salary where are the unemployed from the hood when you need them?

A suggestion rather than term limits we make all Federal elective office no salary no benefit positions no lavish government provided health care, no pensions, no leased car, no expenses strictly pay your own way. This would take us back to politicians that have a day job thus stay in touch with the real world. We have a part time legislature here in Florida. Thus if they want to labor forever for free we can work them like dogs.

I am all for the fair tax as well. It does have that prebate feature which should be set high enough that the truly disabled can marginally subsist on it while everyone pays their fair share with every purchase.

Balanced budget and pay off the national debt by selling off all federal land. Yeah those parks are nice but think of how much better they would be maintained and nicer they could be if Disney and the Busch gardens people ran them.

Buy all the current SS recipients an annuity for the difference between their prebate and their SS and make all the people close to retirement years whole on their "contributions" and flush the whole deal. check out the private retirement plans that could be had at the same cost. I think the city of Galveston is the one most cited.

Require service after high school either military or running around the world digging ditches or drilling water wells in third world countries.

Require every citizen be armed ala Switzerland unless their rights revoked by a court. "An armed society is a polite society"

Repeal all drug and vice laws if people want that stuff they should be able to get it in an open market with fair tax paid same as smokes and alcohol. Prohibition did not work before what makes us think it will work now.

All government incentives and disincentives should be removed from the marketplace why should the government make your choices. examples agriculture subsidies for not growing a certain crop, special tobacco taxes, tax credits for anything, and all bailouts or guarantees.

Return to the Senators being appointed by the state legislatures rather than being elected this is part of the checks and balances that has unwisely been eliminated with our current system. The senators are there to protect the rights of the state.

If a state wants to have single payer health care they should have at it. The states most of them are a big enough group to get decent rates from an insurance company. People and businesses could then vote with their feet moving from one state to another to pursue their own particular brand of happiness.

Your family style camping is just fine especially if these are new WEBELOS if this was a crew getting ready to cross over soon and they wanted to look sharp from a Boy scout prospective, the boys would tent together by pairs one one side of the site and the parents and families on the other side of the site. The boys side would have some rope tied camp gadgets around things as simple as a paper towel stick with twine holding it up by the hand washing station, couple of clotheslines, and a dining (shade) fly made with a tarp. A posted duty roster, a flying flag, and well stocked woodpile (if fires are allowed) are camp inspector favorites as well. Of course the site needs to be free from litter with all personal items stowed away.

Selfish and unpatriotic when it comes to taxes raising both hands very high. Already ready for the next tea party having gotten my property taxes. I must admit to being a fair tax supporter as well. I do everything within my power to reduce my income tax liability to a legitimate zero fairly consistently. Give us the "fair tax" and watch the economy hum no more income, business or payroll taxes only pay when you buy something. The savings rate would soar. Remember you tax something because you want less of it and reward what you want more of. The fair tax taxes consumption and rewards savings AKA capital investment. It could even be said to fit in to Mr O's spread the wealth around theory as all would get a prebate each month. Government check for everyone hopefully you would need to show that card to vote in the next election. All visitors legal and illegal would pay their fair share on whatever they bought. All black market kingpins and weekend flea marketers paying their share as well.

http://www.fairtax.org/site/PageServer

That would be a nice Christmas gift a 32" LCD for under $300 I would probably get one. That is quite a deal as the prices on them are $500 and over. I have enough TV's as well but these new HD ones are quite interesting. My dad has one and each TV station seems to have 4 different stations on HD you really get a lot of variety without a cable subscription. Your area may differ. They keep bringing on Christmas earlier and earlier they have gotten to the point where there are several year round Christmas stores where you can buy decorations etc any time. The rank commercialization of all holidays does get a bit wearing. Seems like every time one turns a month there is another Hallmark inspired holiday to buy cards, gifts, candy, or flowers for. I guess it is all part of our consumer driven market economy. We do have the option not to participate and for the most part that is what I choose to do. That used to land me in hot water several times a year but the divorce remedied that. My kids have adjusted they know if they need a costume or cards it is time to break out the sewing kits and craft supplies and make em. Hand made is much better than store bought.

How many times are you offering it b4 January. NLE like most BSA courses that require participation by the attendees is dependent upon them to participate or the instructors to force the participation. The only extra bell we do is we have an actual bridge built out of Styrofoam and each segments instructor places another piece of the bridge in place and our training chair has a rather moving poem about old men and bridges that he reads at the end. All of your work may be for naught though because they are changing the whole training. The current syllabus will be obsolete by the time we had planned to offer the course again in the spring.

Its too late a brand new NLE syllabus is due out in January. Why flog the expired equine? The new course is rumored to be an online one. Your best bet will be to master the new cub scout leader specific which is much longer and more involved than the old one.

Sounds like it might be a good time to call your district training chair and ask him/her if some help is needed. Some of us get involved to prevent bad experiences like yours.

Dude take a nice deep cleansing breath and count to ten. The shirt in question says Aloha Sandbar with a Tiki hut a dude in uniform with weapon and a surfboard. Who among us has not had a pleasant fantasy usually induced by a beach boys cd of a beach, a board, and some small bikini's. "Allah akabar" is what the other guys shout when they are pressing the button on their ticket to paradise and 72 virgins. The reality is the other guy is dead and you have to get up tomorrow and go to work.

You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink. We will occasionally do a Merit badge themed campout usually when a committee member parent has a bug and does all the legwork. The most recent was a the in house campground of a good sized aeronautics museum where they completed aviation and space exploration under the direction of counselors that were staff members at the museum. The boys all enjoyed it especially the new cross overs for whom it was their first MB experience. We also do a troop MB day once per year in December which is the only month we don't camp due to the impossible schedule conflicts of family and seasonal obligations. We offer choice of usually three easy non Eagle required MB's. Last years menu was Fingerprinting, computers and public speaking. They can go to our councils MBU but most do not as it is at the extreme other end of the council from us. We have counselors for most Eagle required in house if the boys want to put forth the effort. If you stay to the easy non required MB's what is the harm of exposing them to lots of different things. Don't short the requirements but lots of them are easy and then there are those which can only be done by a real serious student of the discipline in my opinion too hard for short attention spanned boys.

I second the motion that this should go to the troop committee. This is beyond a SM's call of duty and the committee is better equipped to call all the parties in and make a determination of what to do. We do this all the time, severe bad behavior will land you in front of the committee the most dreaded punishment is to being sentenced to having a parent accompany you to all meetings and trips. Most of the bad actors are ones that chafe under strict discipline at home. Kind of like PK's at Christian schools.

I'd let you borrow my dishwasher but unless you clean things very clean b4 they go in there they do not come out very clean. I guess they are all sterilized by the very hot water though.

The time requirements are indeed covered by the activity requirements. Also boys are allowed to work on any T-1 requirement at any time. There are still some out there ticked off that they boys can earn MB's from day one and do not need to wait til first class for them. There are still time requirements for higher ranks but POR's are not all "leadership" positions some are just that positions of responsibility in other words a job that needs doing and someone filling it. This way blue collar scouts can earn rank too.

Best of luck to you the young marines have a great program and not as testosterone laden as one might think as they are coed. We hosted young marines at our summer camp for a while and they are great on the range the sir yes sirs resound. We typically had a bb gun range for the 8-11 and rifle for the 12 & up. The girls typically outshoot the boys maybe its all the fidgiting.

We nick em $50.00 at recharter and $2 per meeting and $25 per camping trip and expect em to fund raise too.

Our troop went to La No Che this past summer a great time was had by all. The campsites are mostly shady and the leaders quarters are under roof with real mattresses bring a pad and a sheet ceiling fan provided. All the program areas were well run. They have a particularly excellent Native American program so Indian Lore and American Cultures are a blast. Shooting sports eat two slots and are a bit pricey. They offer water skiing several of our boys availed themselves of that. The biggest hit by far was fountain soda in the dining room. The first day we had boys trying to buy soda on the way in fortunately the spies in the group had already seen the fountains through the window. The food was not outstanding (gourmet wise) but it was kid friendly. We had two do lifeguard and they help with the early am mile swim which is actually in the lake not the pool.

National does not recommend combining Baloo with any other course They do recommend and have a syllabus for combined Webelos leader outdoor and IOLS. Baloo is needed for all pack outings whether they involve camping or not. Webelos leader outdoor and IOLS are camping specific and usually held in a camp setting one night overnight for Webelos leaders and two nights for the boy scout leaders.

What you have lined out is ok visit only with you the leader and your son and then two other adults with two each to look out for. If the roster expands you need to add one adult for each two boys you are taking. You as the overall leader are not allowed a second youth just your child as you are presumed to be in charge of the den. A call to the program director of the event to make sure that the activities will be of interest and age appropriateness to your webelos scouts would be in order. This is a great way to determine which troops your webelos want to visit and spend some more time with to determine if this is the troop for them.

The revised dvd's are available. They are still somewhat problematic mine will not run in my laptop or rather it will run but much faster than I am able to talk not properly advancing frame by frame. A dvd player with a good remote seems to be the way to go but the slides are rather hard to read on smaller TV screens. One of the other trainers was able to get the dvd to frame by frame on his laptop newer software I guess. He even owns a projector which solves the small screen problem