vol_scouter

sk84sv, Gern makes a good point. If you are coming back to scouting, then become involved and dedicated to becoming a better scout. Striving for Eagle is a good goal but the value to you for your life are the things that scouting teaches not having the rank. Good luck.

Liberals claim to be so interested in personal freedom and liberty. Do what you wnat to do. Legalize drugs, etc. So why do they wish to take others rights away from them? Why do they vote for politicians who wish to move to governments that are prone to abusing peoples rights? Why are they so bent on removing the peoples rights to own guns - which unlike freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom of the press - was given its own Amendment. Without the Second Amendment, we are absolutely powerless against an oppressive government. If you are for freedom, then you cannot support

Forget Gitmo - Obama is closing it. As far as being ill, spending nearly $800,000,000.00 and then asking for another $410,000,000.00 makes me quite ill. The baby boomers children and grandchildren and greatgrandchildren will curse this generation as the worst in the history of the former Republic since Obama is leading us headlong into socialism.

Hal, Some federal officials that I have talked to would say that they found barrels of recently emptied enriched uranium. Our sources would seem to disagree. I do not argue with many of your points. Bush never explained why we needed to go to war with Iraq when we did. The democrats voted to go to war as well and so believed the same reasons. From my standpoint, the public never had any information that indicated that war was needed at that time. Even if Iraq had the WMD, why did we need to go to war then? So I agree. Returning to the thread, Obama has shown hi

Horizon, Interesting research! Provides good insights into the differences between liberals and conservatives. The most interesting point to me was when Professor Haidt pointed out that societies tend to move from conservative to liberal and then fail. Liberals need to embrace the three morals that they lack whereas conservatives display more balance. Civility does not mean agreeing but rather disagreeing in a polite manner which seems to be usually the case. For many, Obama is a hard turn to the left and the fear is the society will fail as mentioned by Professor Haidt. That sa

From what I have read, the WMD were in Iraq but were not found by the troops though they found evidence of their existence. I believe that the Bush administration felt like it was better to say that they didn't exist rather than say that they didn't know where the WMD were now. Bush was wrong about not putting the war in the budget, the patriot act, no bid contracts, and other issues. He was not one of the best presidents. That said, Obama is now lying in almost every speech. He said that he didn't like the patriot act but has done nothing about it. He keeps making class warfare.

Fair enough since the MSM implied that the shootings in Knoxville, Tennessee were due to a fundamentalist Christian faith. So if that is OK, then establishing the muslim faith as a reason for the beheading is fair.

Democracy and Islam are not compatible since the Koran is a political system as well as a religion. With the current rapid descent into socialism, I do not think that it will require Islam to strip us of more of our freedoms and liberties.

The way to stem the tide of an incoming horde is to close the borders and deny immigration to the groups that are not wanted. The only way to change the percentage of different groups in a population without immigration is to increase the mortality of the desired group or increase the birth rate of the favored group.

Gern, The answer to your query is NO.

A New England Journal of Medicine article last year compared several diets for initial weight loss, glycemic control, lipid control, and long term weight loss. The low carbohydrate (Atkins) diet was the best in each category. When I had an out patient medicine practice, I had the same results. The differences between the diets was not great so whatever diet allows you to consume fewer calories than you burn daily will allow you to lose weight. Exercise is very important and is best if vigorous and daily.

To have an eastern high adventure base is probably a good move. Even though I live in a neighboring state, the jamboree should have been moved to a central state that is cool (Montana?).

We will investigate Clinton for firing ALL of the federal prosecutors then won't we?

packsaddle, With apologies for not watching the video yet, I do not doubt their findings. As our world gets more technological, fewer understand it because they are not taught how to think! Logic and clear thinking allows one to UNDERSTAND, not memorize, science and mathematics. Mathematics is the easiest course children study - few rules, totally logical, and few exceptions (especially if taught correctly). How many times did you hear a teacher say that a difficult math concept would be covered giving the student instant concerns for learning? That I heard often growing up but n

Gern, In principle, I whole heartedly agree with you. In reality, it always boils down to politics. The party in power will make a show for political gain. That does not help the system either. As time goes on, I see the two current parties as injurious to our country rather than a solution.

What a wonderful and touching story. The Girl Scouts do so much good for the girls and their communities. Hopefully, their leader will be back. The girls are to be commended.

Gern's rip in space-time may occur as I agree with Merlyn. If young women are protected against the strains of HPV that cause 70% of the cervical cancer, it makes no sense not to get immunized. Even if the women are promiscuous, they are at least protected from 70% instead of 0%. That means that ~70% will not get HPV that would have. Not having the vaccine because it does not cover 100% is silly. As to the influenza vaccine, what is being left out is that the strains for which the public is immunized could have been an epidemic. That is probably more likely than the contrary. Si

To clarify as to the HPV vaccine (Gardisil). It is not 70% effective against the viruses that it immunizes the patient against. It is rather good in that respect. It immunizes against the strains of the HPV that cause 70% of the cervical cancer. The drug is very effective. After the strains it immunizes against, there are many strains causing the other 30%. In comparison, the influenza virus is for only 3 strains each year with many tens of possibilities.

OldGrayEagle, MRI aligns most of the spins of nuclei in the body that possess a magnetic moment. The spins are distributed randomly before and after (in a few seconds at most) as has been determined by physics before Damadian invented the medical device. In fact, the technique is called nuclear magnetic resonance since the interaction is with nuclei. The electrons will be affected but the interactions are not sufficient to break chemical bonds so there should be no damage. The only element commonly found in the body that has a large magnetic moment is iron found in hemoglobin. S

It is important to remember why we youth in scouting. We wish to teach them lessons that will help them to live successful lives with service to others. Whether the highest rank in Eagle or Second Class makes no important difference. Youth should be encouraged to advance. Becoming an Eagle scout is an important goal but it is not the purpose of the program. If a boy reaches Life and, despite encouragement to earn his Eagle, does not wish to complete the requirements for the Eagle rank, we should still be satisfied that our job has been accomplished.

What is "Alpha Dog of the Week"? I have never heard of it and I have never watched Colbert.

Well said Beavah. Most of Obama's policies and vision I find disturbing but, on this topic, he is correct to adopt the Army field manual as the standard. My only gray area is in the middle of combat where I would tend to be a little more generous allowing some harsh treatment but not to the point of torturing the enemy.

CA_scouter, I seem to remember bumper stickers saying: "He's not my president" after Bush was elected. Those who voted for Obama should not expect the 48% of voters who did not vote for him to support his socialist programs.

Trevorum, Great news!! You must be proud to have aided these young men. What an accomplishment for the young men. I hope that they receive the positive press coverage that they deserve.

Our troop had a relatively young SM who instituted a policy that if a boy had to miss too many meetings for other activities, he could not hold a POR. He didn't make a big deal about the policy but he did enforce it. Under his leadership, the troop grew and attendance improved. He did not say that boys couldn't be in the troop if not attending. Rather, he made the point that leaders need to be present to lead. Many sports have an off season and he would work with the boys to have a POR in their off season in order to advance. He would also say that scouting is just as important as band o