BulldogBlitz

i think i remember a different rule when i was in the program in the mid 80s. POR was defined as something of substance, like SPL or ASPL. Chaplain's Aide, Library, etc. where little or no leadership actually occurs were not valid positions for a Life to use as credit toward Eagle. For First Class, Star, and Life the positions could be of the non-leadership end of the spectrum.

Life (not the rank) is full of choices, and if someone has decided that band, football, job at Dairy Queen is more important, then so be it.

isn't america fun? an admittedly small portion of people request catering to their special needs to the detriment of the whole. whose rights are more important? your right to live "progressively" or someone else's right to remain in the status quo?

i am in the market for a completely new uniform. the last one i wore was 100 pounds ago - hehe.

i will go to the local scout store and look at what is there. If they have the old one, it fits right, and is discounted -- i'll buy it. if the new one is there and it fits -- i'll consider buying it instead of the older one. as my wife likes to point out, i get value out of all my clothes and shoes. i'll wear it until there is a publicly visible hole. :^O

"Boy Scouts cannot carry and use zippo lighters. "

The only ones which are prohibited are the left handed version of zippos.

i had 6 years of summer camp (that 7th was the pinnacle for me with philmont trail crew). 5 of those years were at the council camp. my first summer camp (also at council) was rough. i remember it well. the next year our leaders said "we'll go elsewhere". we did. i wondered why. i didn't understand it. i do now, but didn't then. i had fun at both camps. we returned to council camp. things had changed (which i see was the reason). the long and short of it, as a boy, it didn't matter to me that i wasn't getting 5 merit badges. i was having fun. i was being a boy, period. then again.... i did stay as a tenderfoot from 81 until 83. advancement wasn't fun. i did kick it in gear though when a leader finally sat me down and asked me what i thought i was doing, but i am glad that i had that time to just enjoy and learn new things without the aim of "must be Eagle by 14".

whoops...back on topic... going out of council for summer camp doesn't mean you don't support council. telling everyone that will listen that you'd never ever consider going to the council summer camp does mean you don't support council though. i'd prefer to try to fix what is considered broken rather than going outside (on a regular basis).

i'll add a couple of late cents to this discussion. i'm an environmental engineer. fourteen years of my fifteen year career have been spent as a consultant to refineries and chemical plants (as of last year, i stepped out of consulting and directly into a plant opting away from travel). i've been interested (as we all) in the price of oil and how fast gas shoots up. This is a multi-tiered problem, and finger pointing goes all the way around (as always).

The price of crude jumps $1. The corner gas station (which I am in sight of right now), starts the day at $3.859. The market opens, crude does the $1 jump, no gas delivery on this day - so the corner gas station owner still has the underground tank full of gas he paid $3 for yesterday. He's a corner gas station...associated with one of the big companies. He has one competitor on an opposite side of the highway so they aren't really competing in the micro-capitalist market. He/she gets the message that a delivery truck is on the way tomorrow and the price is now $3.15. He/she runs out and changes the price on the sign (and in the pumps) to $3.999 - mind you, still with the gas they had at $3/gal. Two days later, he's got the storage tank of gas that he paid $3.15/gal. The market opens, crude takes a $2 drop, no gas delivery, but he gets the message that a tanker is on the way and it is $3.05/gal. He drops his price to $3.959.

Price at the pump is overall controlled by the refiner. They are quick to pass along the increase from raw materials. On the micro level, the individual stores can opt to raise or lower their price - seems to help some of them lower the price when walmart is sitting on the corner with their murphy stations. Free market... they are quick to pass along the cost... slow to pass along the savings. These are the same guys that were crying (literally) in congress 10 or so years ago when the price of gas was hovering right at $1/gal.

now... as for why there aren't refineries being built. that'd be an environmental issue mainly. "not in my backyard" is a pretty well beaten drum. i'm always amazed that people will buy a house (or start a $$$ housing development) near a chemical plant and then complain that there is a chemical plant near them. this same plant can find it difficult to expand because the permitting process allows for public comment and concern. a new refinery would meet the same scrutiny. also, since they'd like to put the refinery near the tap, the taps in this country seem to have little room for more pollution - pollution which is inherent in processing of crude oil.

after last years spike in gas, i did some looking into the "why". speculation. crude is a publicly traded commodity of sorts. the price goes up and down based on speculation - speculation that a predicted busy gulf hurricane season will threaten houston's refining capacity... or other. Many of those speculations are overly aggressive. depending on which end of the stick you are on, it is a problem in the market (good one for some... bad for us in general).

who benefits from having $4/gallon gas today? big oil... sure. saudi... sure. bush... only if he is getting some kickback from exxon. democrats? (high oil price they can all point to bush and say "see, those darn republicans only want big oil to benefit"). the congress wields a whole lot of power right now, power which they refuse to use to tap reserves, do off shore drilling, etc. at the end of the day (or at the end of the day in november) we will have elected yet another politician. the basic policies will remain the same based on which party is in control.

"It talked about how engineers invented the lawn mower. Then the self-propelled lawn mower. Then a riding lawn mower. Then a riding lawn mower with a canopy. Lo and behold, engineers then invented treadmills and tanning salons because people we not getting enough exercise nor sunlight. The net effect? Energy consumption! "

i resemble that remark (engineer). the net side effect to that lineage is job security.

On a different site, this seems like a topic that would get way out of hand very quickly.

BSA discriminates, no? Are girls allowed to become cub scouts, weeblos, or boy scouts? Women can be leaders, but there aren't girl cub scouts (or are there? and i am just a neanderthal trapped in the cave). Why should we strive to include every group? These are the values we have grown up with.... belief in God and Country. If I am a atheist, satanist, or communist (or whatever anti-scout oath), why would I want to join the BSA? Why would I want someone to force the BSA to "include" me?

I suppose I am looking at it in simple terms. Vegetarians know not to go to a steak house. ;-)

at a camp, i would imagine there are a few jobs that a girl could be adequate. however, the reverse situation, a boy applying to work at the girls camp would come under much scrutiny. When I was Program Director at a summer camp, we didn't have that problem, but there was a girls camp within 10 miles or so of ours, so there were other camp employment opportunities for girls and women.

The one occasion that I've had to see a girl at camp was one of the special needs troops that came to camp one year had a female assistant. She had segregated sleeping arrangements (in the winter cabins). She was a distraction for the high strung group of guys I was with. No one ever crossed a line in front of her, but there were certainly comments made behind her back. I can only imagine the problems that a female life guard would present.

the world crest is one that has me a bit confused. i've been gone from scouts for nearly 20 years, and i know skill awards are gone (hey, i earned them all... can i get a knot ;-> ) and a few other changes. last year when i saw a scout at our church, i asked him about his world crest - i thought it was for participation in an international event like a world jamboree. he couldn't really tell me why it was on his uniform, only that it was there when he got it. well everyone in the troop had one, so it didn't seem likely that all of them bought second hand uniforms from world jamboree participants.

as for where it goes, it goes over the left pocket. if there is a lot of space, i'd err in the side of keeping it closer to the pocket.

"Maybe BSA is trying to drive women out of the program with uniforms that are not only not flattering but don't fit either."

my chauvinistic views aside, i don't think that will be the result. the troop attached to our church shows up to once a quarter to do a fund raiser of some sort. of the 30 scouts there (leaders and boys), there will only be 2 or 3 uniforms - and by that i mean shirt and pants - never mind correctness beyond that. i've already been given a tip that i may want to shop for my pants elsewhere as they don't fit a majority of the adults in a comfortable way.

as a scout, i think i tried to wear both sashes one time to a court of honor. i definitely see the reasoning for "not" wearing the OA sash to a non-OA function such as a court of honor, but wouldn't have a problem with the very few scouts wearing their OA sash who don't have enough merit badges for a merit badge sash. the OA is after all the national honor society of campers and courts of honor are special occasions.

Sheath knives... I have one distinct memory of them - urban legend or not - they were not allowed within our troop. When I was a scout through the 80s, this was the time when Rambo was big. Shortly after Rambo hit the movies, there was a scout that brought this ridiculously large sheath knife (complete with compass on the end, and hidden compartment for him to carry matches, fishing line, etc.). He wore it with pride - and of course believed himself to be the real life incarnation of John Rambo. One camping trip is all it took for the leaders to institute the new rule of "no sheath knives". This scout was running through the woods with the knife attached to his belt. He tripped and fell....

no, that didn't happen, but the hilt did put a hefty bruise on his stomach. Upon inspection of the knife and the comparison to the boy, it was not the right tool for any job that he'd need to do (the next summer that boy did end up with stitches because even the smaller knives were unsafe for him).

back when i was in scouts (81-87), i sewed my patches on - after my mom did the first batch. when i had enough to put on a patch blanket, i had already understood the magnitude of sewing that many patches at once (the merit badge sash did me in). i paid someone $1/patch in 1989, and at that time it was well worth it to me (and apparently to her).

as i sit on the edge of getting back into scouting and realizing that i will have an adult uniform... i'm glad that the patch blanket is done (for now)... and all i have are uniform parts to deal with.

I just found this site today - via a long and winding bounce around cyberspace looking at old patches available on ebay. I'm an Eagle Scout (c/o '85) from Troop 32, Memphis, TN. Live in Austin, TX now and my son is 9 (neither he or I could really get into the flow of cub scouts or how it even dovetails with Boy Scouts). Last night, I decided to jump the gun and volunteer for leadership at the troop sponsored by our church. Flashbacks ensued... as well as questions about "why?" - since my son wasn't of age. Last night, I did realize how lucky I was growing up in the troop that I did. I've been wanting to get back into scouting for a long time now, and have finally tipped the scale in favor of this moment.