Scouter99

Merlyn is the last person I'd expect to fault the CA Supreme Court for discrimination.

Now, now, TAHAWK, Rick in California state of mind says it's so, and liberals have the corner on reality, so you can take your HuffPost, NYT, The New Republic, and TIME, and put them down the chute where liberals put history that doesn't match this week's facts like a good MiniTru employee. It was true until Fox said it, now it's not true. It's simple, TAHAWK. Get on board the fact train.

Volunteer or martyr?

Last week's episode of Invisibilia on fear led in with an interesting study on child independence. http://www.npr.org/programs/invisibilia/377515477/fearless?showDate=2015-01-16 This article from The Atlantic also discusses the same study as well as the backlash against overprotective rearing in some communities http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/03/hey-parents-leave-those-kids-alone/358631/

Wiki editors are bored people. The comedy website SomethingAwful.com has a game called wiki groaning where you open a wiki article on a fake thing, say, hyperspace from Star Wars, and a comparable real thing, and groan at how much more detailed the fake thing's article inevitably is.

Ah, no. Michelson and Morley remained advocates of the aether and did not trust the results of their failed experiments, along with others who continued to check for the aether until 1930, 25 years after Einstein's Special Relativity, and 45 years after the experiments to prove the aether failed. Let alone that scientists invented then assume aether existed for a century before deciding to test for it. Why is that? Because, as TAHAWK said, scientists are humans and they are invested in things like anyone else. Some physicists refused to accept Einstein's work because he was a Jew, in Bri

Oh, boy, after a few semesters of history of science, don't even get me started. Party affiliation didn't stop these dogmatic dopes from centuries of belief in the aether, an indiscernible subtle fluid dreamed up (very anti-scientifically) to fill the gaps in Newton's mechanical universe, which denied the existence of vacuums, and was still championed in the 1920s. Or then there's phlogiston, the magical substance in everything but, ya know, never existed. Aristotle's geocentric universe which is blamed on medieval/Renaissance Christians but was embraced by ancient pagan Greeks despite the

We've gone off track a bit here into discussing philosophy of Scouting rather than this specific incident, which is fine. What we must remember is that Scouting is a movement, it is not static, the program changes, things are updated, things are changed for better and for worse and sometimes changed back. But like any movement, the vision is set somewhere, and it is our job to work toward that vision, not our own. And with that said, I will be "that guy" at this point and point out what Baden-Powell had to say about Scouters who think they know better: "Where a man cannot conscientiously

Your question seems to betray a basic misunderstanding of the MB program. First, MBs are not part of the troop program. Many troop activities align with MBs (just peruse the list in Troop Program Features) but troop activities should not be merit badge school. MBs are an individual pursuit. The scout grows through conferring with his SM about what MB he'd like to work on and getting feedback from the SM, then by getting the names of counselors and contacting them on his own, then by scheduling meetings with the counselor. The program is set up in a certain way to get certain results in

Here we go again, SM is always right especially when he's wrong. Listen to Tahawk, his response is correct and right. The only question here is whether or not the issue is a deal-breaker for the scout. He has a SM and Committee who are willfully ignorant and he's not going to endear himself to them by doing their jobs for them, and he's going to have to deal with them for 6 more years. If I were your son, I might find particular satisfaction in pretending your SM isn't as dead wrong as he is, and letting the MB counselor give me the MB in two years or whatever. He knows your so

I started making the headdress in Bill's 1950s Handbook for PLs for fun, which lasted about 2 hours, into a third of annoyance before I got over it. I allowed the perfectionist in me to kill it altogether when I realized that ALL the imitation eagle feathers are oriented one way, so it was going to be impossible to create a symmetrical row of feathers, that is, on the left side of my forehead, they would all be tilted right. And since they were all tilted, the finished thing would look like it was sideways all the time.

I always wonder what the smart alec adults who say this say to a smart alec kid who gives them an attitude about something. If I were the kid I'd just show them my back.

This form is good for collecting contact info and letting you know which of your events the boys would be particularly interested in: BSA Adventure Survey. You can print your own, or order a 100-pack at ScoutStuff.org for $5. There's a guide to the process here: http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/BoyScouts/TroopOpenHouse/school_rally.aspx

What I'm hearing in these sorts of questions is that people ought to kill a lot more people. When non-violent groups get offended about something, they get chided and told to grow up, that we live in a free country (or relatively free, as Calico pointed out). When offended people blow something up, the tune changes to "responsibility." It's the free speech version of "if you don't want to get raped, don't wear daisy dukes in mean streets." Christians have been protesting Piss Christ almost as long as I've been alive, it took some Muslims shooting up Paris to get the AP's attention

In my state, there is the criminal database, and the CPS database--they are not the same and someone can be in one and not the other. I ran background checks on the CPS system for a while (crummiest job ever), and I don't know about your state and/or criminal databases, but at 20 years your husband's issue would've been seen by me, his form sent to my supervisor, and then sent back to me with a note that it was beyond the time limit and was not to be sent to the requesting entity (school, daycare, what-have-you).

Uhhhh, yeah, pricing at Bass Pro is $2,210 for the .22s, $1,440 for the Weatherbys, $330 fr the Remington 12, and $1,050 for the Remington 20s.

Wow, whoever came up with that really screwed you.

If they're not giving you the impression that they've had any kind of change of heart (they're not coming around and their parents are snots) then what's to worry about? Don't even give them one, and don't let anyone sign off their Scout Spirit requirement. Eagle is in one sense just one more rank, in another it is the award that signifies a Scout has achieved BSA's aims--these boys haven't, it's part of the requirements, don't sign them off. When the council pulls rank and gives them Eagle anyway, tell the rest of the troop exactly what you think about it, calmly, and inform everyone th

Truck in real food and pay more than 5 cents an hour. Private restroom with locks that work built by someone other than 13-yr-old arrowmen who don't know what a square or level are or how to use them.

I was planning a ceremony last year and discussing my progress with the committee. I told them I planned to invite the Reverend to give the invocation, and a Jewish CM/dad interrupts and emphatically says "a non-sectarian prayer." Right, I'm going to tell a minister how they cannot pray in their own church.

Pretty much done. Over a decade with this unit, pretty much running it, new SM chosen that the boys hate, parents can't stand, and volunteers won't work with. His idea of Scouting is the Mickey Mouse Club and I'm not fighting him. Been a year and the troop is pretty much dead, I go out and back between despair and (I hate to admit) told-ya-so satisfaction. I hate it for the boys, but the adults have exactly what I predicted the night they told me, and good for them. I've found a new joy in saying no and having a life outside Scouting, and you guys don't have to suffer all my vitriol