Brewmeister

My issue is with the presumption of this discussion starting with the first post. "Self-centered spoiled idiots" and all that. With the disclaimer that I live on the right side of the aisle so I have an admittedly partisan viewpoint, it sure does seem to me that the left's first response to any criticism is "STFU, we won!" Which is not real helpful. And to Beavah's point about fearing for the safety of the POTUS, there sure was a lot of visceral hatred toward the last president...seems to me there was even a play that explored his assassination. Each side has its wingnuts, but perha

I thought about doing an Econ 101 primer here but I suspect it would be a big waste of time... How about this instead... "First cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye."

Michelle Bachmann and other noxious outlier representatives to be elected. So on one hand it's the establishment that is doing gerrymandering... But on the other hand said gerrymandering results in "noxious outliers" being elected. You contradict yourself in your own examples.

Hmmmm...I guess making business plans based on political realities and basic math is now taking out my frustrations on people. Well, please excuse me while I go fire some people, beat my wife, and kick my dog before I change out of my jammies to go harvest the magical money tree from the orchard of gold.

Weighs 8 pounds--I wouldn't want to pack it compared to the hammock I use now (2.5 pounds) Although they claim it's stable, and the pictures seem to show it, I can't help but think that with the center of gravity being low (compared to a Hennessey or other hammock), it would still feel very tippy, or require some major guy-wiring to keep it stable.

Sorry, Beav, got confused with "da Democrat" verbiage... I believe you are wrong on gerrymandering and you are over thinking the reasons for the apparent disparity. All you have to do is look at the red/blue national election map by COUNTY. That map easily proves how the House of Representatives could easily be one way and the Senate the other, despite the TOTAL popular vote for the House. No gerrymandering required, it's just how we break down geographically.

Let's see...people who disagree with the current administration are "idiots" who are just "spouting off," "spoiled," and "self centered." Well that makes sense. I mean, it's not like anybody ever "purposely demeaned" the previous president. Yeesh.

When da Democrat gets the majority of the votes and a substantial majority of the Electoral College, how is it that da House of Representatives stays Republican? You all are trying to find patterns that don't exist and explanations for an unexplainable electorate. Look at my crazy state of Wisconsin for an example of this. Earlier this year if you recall, our controversial Republican governor won a recall election by a greater margin, over the same candidate he had faced a year earlier, despite what appeared to be a huge uprising on the other side of the aisle. Additionall

For years my father in law said that a runner on the football field who went across the sideline was "out of bounce." I finally told him that the runner could just use some other type of fabric softener.

Could it be that voters actually looked at the candidates and the message and simply found Republican house candidates more compelling?

Two states legalized pot too if I recall... So the BSA rules if I remember correctly was that it's ok to smoke, just not within sight of the boys. Is it ok to toke up at my next scout outing as long as I'm outta sight?

All this bad news lately has got me thinking. I suspect my tenure as a scout was similar to many boys. I joined Cub Scouts because my parents put me in it. I crossed over to our affiliated troop. Eventually I was done. Never really gave a thought to the whys of scouting. Returning (many) years later as an adult Scouter gave me a chance to rethink the whys. I could list a whole bunch of individual onesthe aims and the truisms, all the stuff one picks up in training and sees in the development of boys over time. Ultimately, however, the whys are really tough to put into words. As the

It's not working. Only ads for garage door openers. And there are no llamas in my garage. Not even in my special llama garage.

Is the BPSA what you recommend?

I found my old garrison cap...my son is wearing it to the troop meeting this week. He thinks it's cool...

Edit: withdrawn for pointlessness....(This message has been edited by brewmeister)

Scouting is local...

Man, it's easy to toss out insults behind the Internet shield of anonymity.

uniform (yn-frm) adj. 1. Always the same, as in character or degree; unvarying. 2. Conforming to one principle, standard, or rule; consistent. 3. Being the same as or consonant with another or others. 4. Unvaried in texture, color, or design. n. 1. A distinctive outfit intended to identify those who wear it as members of a specific group.

Brew, I think the difference is that as a Wolf boys are supervised when using knives. As a scout they are not. Sending a boy off with his patrol on a hike (no adults) with a pocket knife is different than having a Wolf using a knife at the Cub Scout Day Camp whittling station. Hmmmmmm....we're certainly not sitting over the boys shoulders. I still have the same opinion...it is silly to let the boys use knives in cubs, then say when you get to boy scouts, you can't use them until you get to second class.

I know the totin chit covers more than the cub scout whittling chip, but the first post mentioned knives, when knives are covered by the whittling chip. It seems pretty silly to me to wait until second class on knives when boys have already been using them since being a Wolf cub. Then again we have our webelos build and tend fires too so maybe I'm just a renegade...

Without derailing this into a hammock discussion there is truth to both viewpoints. There are spots where hammocks will work and tents will not and vice versa, but in most cases both will work. I just use it for comfort. Other than that it's a pain to store your gear or even get dressed versus a tent. Well, it's also kind of fun to be "that guy who's sleeping in a hammock"....

That's what I'm asking, and that's why I focused this question on affordability. I can hit the trail for the weekend with my pack, my Hennessey hammock, and enough food and water to get by. But, I don't know how to translate that into a troop setting. The challenge is to arm the group with enough information so that they can make well-informed decisions while keeping it affordable for our demographics and budget realities. it might be a case where we have to downscale expectations, or perhaps even build in more day hikes into our plop camping to make use of the equipment we have as we grow int

I seem to be getting hammered for not including my location for some reason. As I said, I'm at the same latitude as Beavah. Wisconsin.