DanKroh

jhankins said "Unfortunately in our society today, "your gender is your gender" isn't as true as it used to be. Transexual issues are pervasive across the country and in every generation. It's common to see boys say "I'm a girl trapped in a boy's body" and vice versa. Gender identity is becoming a huge issue, and I think the more we polarize the gender lines, the more difficult it's going to be for kids." Transgender (transexual) issues have nothing at all do to with their environment or who their role models are. Like being gay, being transgender is something that happens in the womb (an

Lisabob, Thank you for coherently stateing what I was just too gobsmacked speechless to even begin to articulate. Very well said.

"Dan, take a seep breathe, my comments were made long before the link to the newspaper was placed. I was commenting based on the available information at the time The newspaper article is not near as incendiary as I was first lead to believe" No need for a deep breath, OGE, I realize your comment was made before the article was provided. But I find the leap from "touting his orientation" to "marketing his homosexual adventures" to be just a bit jarring (and this was one of the comments I *did* find surprising).

It certainly is interesting reading the snap assumptions that people make about this young man. First, jblake says the boy is "touting his orientation". I expected an article about how he spoke at a rally concerning gay rights, sued his school to attend his prom with a same-sex date, or some such. But instead, he was interviewed while attending a dance with a friend (of unspecified gender). Perhaps the young man isn't gay at all, but transgender. BDPT is ready to label him as having "an agenda" and "play[ing] political football with my organization", not to mention disloyal, untrustw

"Are some of you suggesting the requests of one 800 lb. gorilla be honored for the sake of change, and the requests of all the other gorillas out there who still have the same high standards be overruled?" Bacchus, the problem is, no one is trying to overrule what you do in your unit. If your CO wants to have a "no gays" policy, have at it. However, COs that DO want to allow homosexuals in their units (like the UU church) are currently being dictated to in a way that is contrary to their beliefs. Let us who think that our moral standards would be raised by eliminating this discrimination

A couple of things here. First, generally speaking, requirements for Webelos awards have to be completed while they are Webelos, which means, after they have graduated to the Webelos level in June. Completing and receiving the Bear badge does not make a boy a Webelos. Second, keep in mind that some faiths have a different emblem for Webelos level scouts than for Bear scouts. For it to count for the Webelos badge, it has to be a Webelos emblem. Third, they don't have to earn the religious emblem for the Webelos badge; they can do two of the tasks outlined is 8e, instead. Al

"Okay, the rest doesn't matter! "Nock the arrow with the Cock Feather" ? What the hell does that mean? What is "nock"? What is the "Cock feather"?" The nock is the plastic piece on the non-business end of the arrow with a slot in it that fits over the string. Nock is also the verb that is the act of putting the string into that slot. The front part of the arrow should sit on the "rest", some sort of shelf or plastic projection where the arrow can lay on the bow itself. There are typically 3 feathers as part of the fletching of the arrow, one feather (the cock feather) is a differen

"My cub hunts with 22 and he has a 20 gauge. but he can only shoot a spring action bb gun at camp. hmmmmm" Yeah, I have the same issue with the archery stuff. My Webelos son has shot his own recurve bow in state and national competitions since he was a Wolf, but nope, can't earn the beltloop or pin unless he shoots with the lousy equipment at Scout Camp! Sheesh.

"Regarding my "internet bullying", you can accuse all you want, but I don't consider exposing an anti-Scouting activist, who has no other association with Scouting to be bullying." First of all, you didn't "expose" anyone. Merlyn has always been quite up front about exactly who he is and what his purpose is here, all you have to do is look through his post history, and you would have known what the rest of us have known for years. I, for one, have never had a problem with him, perhaps because I respect his mission to uphold the Constitutional rights of gays and atheists, which unfortunate

I agree with Horizon, well said. My experience is also that the people who ignore bullying are the same people who are anti-gay. Especially when the nature of the bullying is to make fun of boys who are not "manly" enough, or the bullying includes slurs involving sexual orientation. So pro-gay folks are going to ignore the possibility of sexual abuse as well? I think not. My personal and professional experience with sexual predators makes me acutely aware of such things. And yet, I still don't have a problem with my gay friends and relatives spending time alone with my sons. Whodathu

Any place that rents ski and snowboard equipment will also rent helmets. So unless all your scouts own their own equipment, and you are going to a non-resort snow area, it shouldn't really be an issue for them to cough up another few bucks to rent a helmet. Yes, it is worth it.

Well, GHB, I do thank you for your comments. I recognize that there is distortion on this issue, and yes, it does occur on both sides. That's why I always examine experimental and interpretive methodology before taking any data at face value. I dislike few things more than scientists who let their agendas get in the way of their ethics and objectivity. "So, I'm left with trusting the data I actually know for myself, which includes things like my wannabe pedophile (now deceased) homosexual uncle, my experiences as unwilling "fresh meat" for homos to hit on in Europe in the '70's, friendshi

"One of the reason I would fiercely oppose homosexuals in Scouts is that I suspect that the sort of pro-homosexual dishonesty repeatedly displayed here is also characteristic of the social scientists and psychologists who are publishing pro-gay studies." As opposed to the proven dishonesty in their work and distortion of others work repeatedly displayed by discredited social scientists and psychologists (and people who have degrees in completely unrelated fields) who have turned their backs on actual science in their desperate need to prove that homosexuals are bad, dangerous, or sick peo

"A heterosexual boy would NOT abuse a younger Scout sexually -- by definition. If he did so, he would be functionally homosexual." Incorrect. Sexual abuse is about power, not about sexual attraction. Those that abuse others do it irregardless of their sexual orientation (i.e., who they are sexually attracted to). "(I'm well aware that many functional homosexuals consider themselves hetero. But men or boys who have or seek sex with men or boys, they are homosexual in my definition and, I think, within the BSA's definition. And yes, I know what Kinsey said. But Kinsey has been shown to

"After 10 years of reenacting, VERY FEW reenactors are, or try to be, authentic." I've often wondered what the differences were between reenactors, and recreators. In the SCA, we consider ourselves "recreators", and in that respect, recreating authenticity, and doing the research to back it up, is highly prized among most of our group. Yes, there are always the folks who show up in wildly inappropriate outfits with wildly inappropriate accessories. They are usually divided into several categories: 1) noobs (newbies), who are usually cut some slack because they don't know any better, 2) fi

vol_scouter, sorry, but you lost me. I never made any comments about fuel or waste. Or reactors. My only comments have been specifically about the effects of TMI. I think from my belief that there are significant detrimental effects from the TMI accident that you have concluded I am against nuclear energy. That is an incorrect inference. I am in favor of nuclear energy; however, I think we need to be realistic about the dangers. All forms of energy production have risks, as well as benefits. However, given that nuclear power has the potential to effect thousands of square miles (or more)

"Since you think that most of the energy R&D money is from big oil, you are going to the wrong talks. That is why you have been mislead about the risks of radiation. Most energy R&D (unless including oil money looking for new oil fields) is from the federal government." Actually, I said big oil *controls* the R&D money, not that it comes from them. However, my understanding is that a lot of the folks in the government who give out that R&D money are in the pocket of big oil, or at least greatly beholden to them, according to friends who are trying to do research in the alt

GHB, thank you for both clarifying your earlier statements and for your sympathy. vol_scouter, I've also sat through several lectures on the inconsistencies of the data from the accident itself (i.e. radiation levels) and the lack of good, long-term studies of the population (as opposed to the workers) for both cancers and birth defects. "The consistent conclusions are that there is a statistically non-significant incidence in lymphomas but otherwise the age matched cohorts are healthier than the general population." Yes, well, having now lost 4 immediate family members to cance

"You can be that way." Excuse me, sir, but I don't believe you know me well enough to make that kind of value judgment. One of the reasons I gave the caveat of "anecdotal" is because, unlike some people, I *am* cautious of presenting my personal opinions as hard facts. But I do have some personal commentary on your sources (I deleted the quoted text for brevity). The first comment on all of them is that I can only see the abstracts, not the full articles, so I cannot judge for myself the validity of the conclusions based on the data, or the validity of the methods. But there are a fe

"Of course, this does not address the 'locked in your classroom' issue. But isn't that a problem caused by panic and inappropriate response, rather than by nuclear power per se?" GHB, thanks for the pop pseudo-psychology, but you are missing my point. Those who watched TMI from a safe distance can talk about how irrational the fear of nuclear power is, but for those of us who lived through it, we have reasons to distrust nuclear power, and even more reason to distrust those who regulate and run the power plants. Yes, the power of suggestion can have dramatic effects. But I'm not quit

"The amount of radiation released at the Three Mile Island site was small and there have been no significant effects." vol_scouter, I disagree. There are conflicting accounts of how much radiation was released, and there have been no studies done, that I know of, to show an absence of long-term effects. On the other hand, I have anecdotal information from various relatives about increased cancer and birth defects among both the human and livestock populations, as well as pictures of interesting mutations of plant-life in the area. I spent a day locked in a school 12 miles from TMI in

Ok, I gotta ask because in 4 years in the biology department and a S.B. later, I never heard of "naturalistic" vs. "mutational" evolution. What, exactly, is the difference?

I'm also in a MA council (Nashua Valley) whose summer camp is just over the border in NH, Camp Wanocksett. Wanocksett has a great program, and the weeks that I have been there, there are usually a couple of troops from outside our Council, which I think is a good indicator of the quality of their program. They run 6 or 7 weeks at full capacity every week, and they are expanding with new campsites to increase that capacity. I have also heard good things about Camp Resolute in Bolton (part of Knox Trail Council).

Sherminator asked "Funny. I was just reading a story on another thread about a female Scouter who was caught doing the same thing. Was she gay?" No, but evidently using the logic of folks like maurergj, her behavior is a good enough reason to exclude all heterosexual female scout leaders. When will we be going back to that model, exactly? After all, that worked out so well for the BSA in the '80s, right? Here's just a small part of my problem with the whole, "we'll let in gay scouts but not gay leaders". What do you do when that young man turns 18 and wants to stay on with his troop

"Modern Wicca apparently is a 'big tent' that now includes some practitioners of black magic (whether the common wanna-bes or the rare real deal), as well as a 'stoner' (Nature? Wow, co-o-ol, dude!) or 'new age-y' anti-intellectual pursuit of the spiritual as 'whatever makes me feel good'. Within this category, "Nature" is sometimes 'worshiped', but just what "Nature" is, is always undefined. What it is not, is the complete collection of quantum scale particles and large-scale masses and processes that are the working materials of science." Um, No. Paganism is a "big tent". Wicca refers s