Trevorum

Loyalty to your elected leaders is fine but, good lord man, open your eyes!

But torture is such an unpleasant word. They call it "agressive interrogation".

What the constitution has to say is still to be decided, but it's pretty clear by now that President Bush and the other Republicans who are running the country are OK with torturing people.

ASM416, that is a great idea! I wish we had thought of that when we were putting together the budget for our fall camporee. It's too late now, though. I am going to suggest it to the troop that is planning the district's spring camporee. Our events usually return $2-3,000 to the district and an AED would be a magnificent acquisition for our H&S team. Thanks for the idea!

rat, you don't say what kind of patches, but I'll suspecting there are a variety of sizes & shapes. first off, don't staple patches, don't tape patches and never ever ever glue patches! that said, check out regular photograph sleeves at an office store or a bix box retailer. the pages come with pockets for different sizes of pictures and you are certain to find a selection that matches your needs. you also might want to cut insert cards for each pocket to better display the patches (but don't use construction paper - high acid content!).

It is absolutey astounding to me that in the space of six short years, torture has come to be an acceptable practice by the USA. While telling ourselves that 'the ends justifies the means', we have become what we have always fought against; we have become the barbarians. Under Bush, America has truly lost the high road.

Welcome JW! Glad you've joined us! (I think I'll always picture you as 'red-beret-guy' ) LAAC was my first council, too, a looonnng time ago!

Actually, the best hat in the summer is a straw wide-brim cowboy hat (the classic example of function over form). Shades the face and head, ventilated and cool. The only problem is that it isn't crushable. For really cold winter weather, you need your ears covered. A balaclava is good (or is that a Turkish pastry? I always get those confused...)

umm ... Unconditional Protocol?

Kudu's model sounds interesting. I wish I could be an ASM for six months or so to observe and see how that troop of scouts does things. But our troop is more like Acco's.

Beav, yep! This one's interesting, under history of the Scout Law, [cheerful] Baden Powell is quoted: "The punishment for swearing or bad language is for each offence a mug of cold water to be poured down the offender's sleeve by the other scouts"

OGE, Yep, your dad's a good example of what I mean. Have you ever read about how pigeons navigate? My theory is that some people are sorta the same way, with microscopic magnetic particles in their brains. Other people, well, they get lost a lot!

The thread about promptness (or lack thereof) and the inability of some people (who shall not be named) to accurate sense the passing of time got me to thinking about other sensory disabilities. My job requires field navigation and orientation skills and, over the years, I've worked with a number of people who have absolutely no sense of direction. They get lost even with a compass in hand. Those impaired folks have mostly changed careers (or work for the gov't). I've also had the opportunity to teach orientation to bunches and bunches of scouts. Some take naturally to field navigation while other poor fellows, well, they get lost a lot. So I've concluded that some people have a natural aptitude for orienting themselves in the world, while others have no clue. Sort of like math.

Fuzzy said, "...swimming is not taught in the deep end first." Yeah, that was my problem. I didn't know that part. As a 3 year old, I saw everyone having a great time in the pool at day care and I just went ahead and jumped into the deep end, not knowing that swimming is not instinctive to our species. I think nearly drowning that day gave me a deep mistruct of water over my head.

Prairie, I just checked, but nope, no sevens. You should ask the good folks on Patch-L - I'm sure someone on that list will have any patch you're looking for! goto http://www.gilwell.com/patchl/

I used to get frustrated with people who were late. I thought it was discourteous and rude. My lovely bride - bless her - has no sense of time. She is predictably late for anything. After years of giving her futile advice, I have just accepted the way things are. I've come to realize that she actually has an impaired sense of time passing - she can not accurately guess how long it will take to do things or how long things have taken. For her, time is a measureless dimension impervious to calibration. I should add that she has a marvelous sense of direction and never gets lost.

Rereading you post, I see your question about alternative requirements. This may be an option if a physician examines him and concurs that swimming is beyond his ability at this point. We have a fellow with Aspergers syndrome in our troop. For the first year at camp, he wouldn't go near the pool. The second year, he stood in the shallow end. In consultation with his parents, we developed some alternative requirements for 2nd and 1st Class. By the 3rd year at camp, he had developed enough self confidence to overcome his fear of drowning and earned his Swimming MB straight up. He's now working on his Eagle project. The caution is not letting his fear become an excuse for him never trying. If the physician, his parents, and the SM agree to alternative requirements for 1st Class, he should know that this does not automatically exempt him from the Swimming MB. He should still pursue swimming lessons at his owm pace.

Michelle, I've been there. As a kid, it took me three years to pass my swimmer's test at summer camp. Here I was, SPL and I still had a red buddy tag. It was embarrassing. But still, I couldn't do it. (Much later, I connected the dots with my near drowning in preschool). Eventually, I got the Swimming and Lifesaving MBs and made Eagle, but those were two tough badges for me. To this day, I am not comfortable in water over my head. Anyway, my advice is (1) don't push. (2) Invest in quality swimming lessons, preferably one-on-one to start. Some instructors are better than others - find someone with lots of patience who has helped kids with this fear before. (3) If neither of his parents swim, it will be doubly tough and may boil down to your relationship with him. Let him know that your love and respect is unconditional and is not tied to his ability to swim. (4) Be patient. My best wishes are with this fellow! -Trevorum

Welcome, Tim! Scouting as an adult is just as much fun as it was when we were kids!

My bride swears that I look like Harrison Ford; I tell her she looks like Helen Hunt. Too bad they never made a movie together.

Howdy Owl! Top on my list is Buffalo Trails. Out in the Davis Mountains of far west Texas. Gorgeous, rugged country. Terrific program for all ages, excellent staff. Dining hall with very acceptable food (no dining hall can match patrol grub). Swimming & livesaving, but minimal aquatics. Also a great place is Camp Constantine, west of Fort Worth. Top notch aquatics program. Lost Pines near Bastrop is a good camp, too. Great staff.

mm - ahhh, but they discontinued the Masonry MB (a red herring?) Brian, I agree with you that this muddle must have been achieved by committee. But I also agree with pack that, individually, the members of those committees are not ignorant of Buddhism; they just can not see a way out of the dilemma. As someone (Gern?) said on another thread, Buddhism is the "elephant in the tent". The more liberal members (Jews, Catholics, etc.) of the Committee (and here I'm not talking about the Religious Relationships subcommittee, but some top-secret policy committee made up solely of career professionals) are no doubt fully accepting of Buddhism as a historically validated ethical system, regardless of its theology. I suspect the more conservative members (Mormons, Baptists, etc.) would prefer not to have any Buddhists in BSA because they realize they are in fact atheists, but can not expel them now after 85 years of faithful membership. And so everyone goes along uneasily, knowing that (most) Buddhists are atheists, but not willing to say anything about the emperor's clothes. As I said before, I suspect that if the issue were raised in a high profile case, BSA would be backed into a corner wherby it would have to revise and clarify the DRP to include reverent non-theists. hmmm... Do you know any Buddhist Eagle candidates with the last name of Scopes?

Before the camporee, I had never even seen one (well, other than in movies). Once we told them of the event, the scouts seemed to be able to figure it out on their own. Our SPL and a few other older guys designed the thing and then they practiced at two troop meetings. The 1st one was mostly teaching lashings and the second one actually assembled the thing and made a few practice swings. They learned a lot from those practice swings and had made a few design changes at the actual event. Their design was simple. Two tripods with a freely turning cross beam (axle). The tripods were lashed together to make a stable base. The arm was lashed perpendicular to the axle, with the short end towards the field and the long end away. The counterweight (they collected rocks and put these in a basket) is hung from the short end. The sling is attached to the long end, which had a release mechanism.

Jon - the fellows had one hour to build their siege engines and then the range was live for one hour. Each troop had one practice shot and then three tries for distance. Mark - We didn't win the event, but I was proud of our troop - we were one of only two troops whose trebuchet was 100% designed and built by the boys!

At our fall camporee last month we had a trebuchet competition. The scouts had to assemble their trebuchets on site using only spars and rope. The ammo was 1 pound paper sacks of corn starch. And, it was great! Ten troops lined up facing the field, with scouts lashing their spars together into siege engines of a variety of shapes and sizes. The judges had staked the field with distance markers and the projectiles exploded with a satisfying burst upon impact. The scouts had a great time and were comparing notes about variable arm length, sling to arm ratios, and other design features. They wanted to "storm the castle" again the next day! So we started talking about making this a regular camporee event for our district. One scout said we should do this every year like cubs do the Pinewood Derby!