BS-87

The forum's infected with a malicious JavaScript. I got the malware from it on my computer and it's the "Vista Security 2011" scam that's been going around that infects your computer and tries to get you to buy the program to remove the stuff it plants on your computer... Fixed it with a System Restore, but had to go back a month and also run Avast! and Malwarebytes to do a bootscan... Avast! found it and there were like 20 different malicious JavaScripts. I'd suggest everyone check their computers...

I'm averse to making this a Ron Paul thread, but it's looking like Dr. Ron Paul may actually become the nominee... http://www.foxbusiness.com/on-air/freedom-watch/index.html#/v/4688041/its-ron-pauls-world-were-just-living-in-it/?playlist_id=157991

They should definitely know how to communicate with adults. They should also be able to interact one on one with adults. They can do both of these things safely, it just requires the right medium. There is no danger in a scout and a leader having a conversation on a bench in front of the trading post at camp. There is danger in a scout and a leader having a one on one conversation in the leader's van in the parking lot while everyone else is in the campsite. When it comes to things that are fuzzier, like the internet, you need to account for the fact that the internet is t

You're assuming that one of the parties would bring the conversation to light. In cases of abuse, how many times does the scout immediately tell people what happened? How easy would it be for an abuser to use the internet, especially IM and texting, to keep the communication with that boy secret? I'm aware of how IM's and texting work, but if you nobody but you and the boy are aware of the fact that you two are talking via these mediums, it becomes dangerous. Abusers will not follow rules like that. If you're IM'ing a scout, take a minute to give the scout's parent a call

The internet is a public place, but many of the forms of communication on the internet are like going into that public place's coatroom, turning off the lights, and locking the door. If you wouldn't do that to talk to a scout in person, don't do it on the internet. Always protect yourself. It would be easy for a kid to alter an email you sent them, print it, and then report you. It may not hold up in the end, but you'll enjoy a good round of your name being dragged about in the mud. Is it really so hard to CC another adult leader on your communications with scouts?

This raises an interesting question. What if your CO decides that the pastor will always serve as the COR and all of a sudden you have a gay pastor! You'd have a gay person as a registered leader!

Basementdweller- You're not the TSA's type. They prefer to feel up children. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20054000-503544.html That and former beauty queens... http://travel.usatoday.com/flights/post/2011/04/susie-castillo-dallas-fort-worth-tsa-screening/168193/1

The issue that comes up is that they still live at the camp for the summer, and they're the example that the young men who aren't of age yet are looking up to. While it may not be legal to tell them they cannot go to the bars, the Camp Director should probably take them aside to ask them exactly what example they're trying to set.

Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both. - Ben Franklin There is no doubt that Beavah's example is how terror groups expect to win. They may say their ultimate goal is to kill as many of us as possible, but they're equally as happy with disturbing our life as much as possible. They may not hate us because of our freedom, but they certainly don't feel we deserve our freedom. From the looks of it... they may be right...

To bring this conversation to a similar yet different place, what about members of a Summer Camp Staff that leave camp on weeknights to go to the bar. They're not on camp property, not in uniform or staff shirts, and "off-duty". Camp Directors know better than to let more Camp Staffers leave camp than would be needed in an emergency situation, and so that's not at issue. So the point here being, is this unacceptable since only this small group that goes to the bar on weeknights knows and doesn't share stories of this activity with anyone but amongst themselves? My per

You've listed reasonable things that fall under the category I listed for necessary federal laws for preventing cheaters. You've conceded the programs that should be localized instead of federalized, which are also the ones I feel strongest about. For some reason anyone reading this would assume we disagree when it's pretty plain that we don't. The only difference is I list deductively reasoned launching pads and you're inductively pigeon-holing the to reach the rational application. Actually sounds like a pretty effective form of policy-making...

You joke about local economies, likening it to bartering in Botswana, but the fact of the matter is that there's something to be said for local economies. This is because it makes the most relevant laws those that are applied and enforced in the community. The community's ordinances should be the most relevant laws in our life. The state's laws should be law of the land that we live by punishable by incarceration. The federal laws should ensure everyone's playing fair and therein preventing civil wars between states, and also protecting the nation's borders. With a st

"It's one that the always-less-government neocons seem not to understand." I agree with you Beavah, and was merely presenting the purist stance. Although some may argue that while having things like the interstate make trade ultimately cheaper it also makes the development of culture much more difficult. We're here to further the debate, not use foul language like "neocon" Also, the neo-neocon is what you're describing, the type who are contradictory in wanting less government but then asking for more regulation on social issues like the drug war and abortion. Bush era neoc

Beavah and I agree on something. I should probably go make a note of this someplace... That we also agree consumption tax is preferable to tolls etc... gets eerie. I need to play devil's advocate here though and opt for the purist stance that the free market would create far better roads and care for them much better than the government ever could or would. In fact, we'd probably see a whole lot more alternatives to cars and gasoline if this were the case from the start. Let's add the govt's creation of interstates to the list of things wrong with America. Weren't the

The consumption tax part of this equation is not the problem. The problem is installing tracking devices in all vehicles. We're fast approaching a world where it's impossible to completely drop off the radar... Bringing that back to Scouting, isn't that half the fun of camping? I'm not insinuating tracking devices in cars is going to kill Scouting. What I am saying is that there's an allure to being able to disappear and decompress. It may just be my predilection towards liberty when confronted with anything with the possibility of being used for control/tracking. Whe

jrush - Maybe the GOP will wake up when they realize this. http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/05/cnn-poll-still-no-front-runner-in-the-battle-for-the-gop-nomination/ "Who does best against Obama? Paul. The congressman from Texas, who also ran as a libertarian candidate for president in 1988 and who is well liked by many in the tea party movement, trails the president by only seven points (52 to 45 percent) in a hypothetical general election showdown. Huckabee trails by eight points, with Romney down 11 points to Obama. "

Blancmage - The Obama administration does not unequivocally deny this ever being an option. Their current stance does prove that we won't have answers on this question until 2013 or later. Tracking vehicles and taxing them accordingly starts sounding a little bit too statist for almost every American's tastes. Judging from how the government as a whole is moving towards the statist end of the spectrum, I wouldn't be surprised if Obama doesn't start talking seriously about it. If he doesn't, his successor is sure to unless his successor is libertarian leaning. With how angry th

I read the fine print. The administration cannot politically support this VMT yet. How soon until an administration does though? There's already a hefty gas tax. Oil is Freedom's lubricant. Makes sense Beavah would oppose lubricating freedom. (totally joking btw) What's appalling is that the CBO is even suggesting something like this...

The CBO is proposing a VMT tax, or tax on miles driven. They're proposing putting a tracking device in all vehicles and having the tax collected at fill stations. There is no way that this can be serious... and yet it seems the Obama administration may move this slowly towards legislation... This would be a punishing and debilitating tax for rural America... http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/159397-obama-floats-plan-to-tax-cars-by-the-mile wow...

Well said qwasze. I'm not saying more education is the panacea. I'm saying more education is the chemotherapy to kill this cancer. It may not work in many cases, and it may be unpleasant, but if it gives us a fighting chance we've got to do it. It's great to hear peridochas's Troop has an outside expert come in! When I was a boy we'd have the police chief come in to talk to us about it every year, who does your Troop bring in? OGE brings up a valid point as well... a sad but valid point... but it makes you question who boys would talk to first...

Oak Tree - You're right that we can set all the mandates we want and get nowhere. That is why I ask the questions I do. We really need to understand what couple of things we can do to be most effective. YPT for all adults is a great plan, but if we're requiring folks to take it every two years, it had better have great updates and additions every year instead of sticking to sometimes archaic rules. Some things I see missing from our efforts to prevent child abuse... -In YPT, a section on how to recognize "grooming" behaviors. It's more obvious than you may think. -YPT as it

"The scout said Stibal fondled and performed oral sex on him at his family's cabin near Paynesville, Minn., and at a drive-in theater in Cottage Grove. That led to the first-degree convictions. Two second-degree counts involved sexual touching at Stibal's home and at an Eagan movie theater." No two-deep or rule against one-on-one could have prevented this. That is correct. In cases like this, we need our boys to know what the rules are and what is inappropriate. Odds are these boys were aware what was going on when being... performed upon... was wrong. What they didn't realize at tha

It doesn't matter if it happens at a scout event or not, and this is definitely an education problem. The kids should know what suspicious behavior is. The parent's should know what suspicious behavior is. The leaders should know what suspicious behavior is. The greatest enemy to any abuser is education. They're very conniving more often than not, and the Scoutmaster in this story took great care in carefully cultivating a few individual boys. The important part is that these boys were "consenting" or at least not resisting to what was going on because they didn't understand what wa

This is awful... But it's also why we have such strict policies. When the units I commissioned were huffing and puffing about requiring YPT to even be a Committee Member, it was stories like this that served as the best reference as to why it needed to be done. Every adult involved in scouting needs to be informed on how to recognize abuse, and what the procedure is for reporting suspicions or violations. I'm thinking something we're going to see soon is a training course for boys as well required every two years on how to "Recognize, Resist, and Report" We have good resources a

It's important to be able to provide undeniable proof of such momentous actions. And so we decided not to bomb the compound so we could remove the body. It's important so that you can refuse to provide undeniable proof of such momentous actions. And so our government threw the body in the ocean and will not release the photographs.