eisely

Chaplain's aide is a youth position that is often overlooked or not emphasized. I was trying to do a little research on "scout's own" and came across the following item on the BSA national web site. I had not seen these requirements before. Anybody have any thoughts on this?

1. The chaplain aide must be mature and sensitive and have earned the respect and trust of his fellow Scouts.

2. The chaplain aide must be at least a First Class Scout.

3. The chaplain aide must have received or be working on the requirements leading to the age-appropriate religious emblem for his faith.

Buckley was not mistreated by the National Review. He resigned. The following was pasted in from the National Review Online as written by the editor, Rich Lowry.

Buckley is certainly free to endorse anybody he wants to, but he should not expect kind treatment from those who may feel betrayed by him. Not that I feel betrayed. I didn't even know who Chris Buckley was until this came up.

__________________________________

A Word on Christopher Buckley [Rich Lowry]

Chris is up with a post at The Daily Beast, "Sorry, Dad, I Was Fired." Id like to clarify this firing business. Over the weekend, Chris wrote us a jaunty e-mail with the subject line "A Sincere Offer," in which he offered to resign his column on NR's back page and said that if we accepted, there "would be no hard feelings, only warmest regards and understanding." We took the offer sincerely. Chris had done us the favor of writing the column beginning seven issues ago on a "trial basis" (his words), while our regular back-page columnist, Mark Steyn, was on hiatus. Now, Mark is back to writing again, andI'm delighted to saywill be on NR's back-page in the new issue.

Just one other point: Chris says that his Obama endorsement has generated a "tsunami," that e-mail at NRO has been running "oh, 700-to-1" against him, and that there's a debate about whether to boil him in oil or shoot him. Chris is either misinformed or exercising poetic license. We have gotten about 100 e-mails, if that (a tiny amount compared to our usual volume), and threats of cancellations in the single digits (we never like to lose any readers, but circulation is way up this year). No doubt part of what upset these readers was the dim view Chris expressed of them in his first Daily Beast post. So it goes. It's an intense election season and emotions are running high. We continue to have the highest regard for Chris's talent and wit, and extend to him warmest regards and understanding.

UPDATE: The Daily Beast headline has been changed to "Buckley Bows Out of National Review."

I concur that it seems to vary by district and council. Our district in a different council in Southern California required tour permits for camporee. We moved from there in 1996. I do not know what their current requirements are.

The district where we now reside does not require tour permits for camporee. The same argument about a "council event" not requiring tour permits applies here.

Our troop is not chartered to a local PTA, but we do meet at a local public school. The school district tried to impose severe usage fees several years ago, but apparently not discriminatorily against the scout troop. The motivation was simply money.

Jesse Helms sponsored federal legislation that passed and was signed by the president that prohibits discrimination against scout units by schools that receive federal money. As I understand the legislation, it does not prohibit usage fees, but states that the scouts cannot be treated any differently than any other organization. There was a school district in Florida that tried to discriminate against BSA and this law was adopted to counter that.

If there is a fee and the chartered organization does not want to pay it, then the unit has little choice but to suck it up and budget for the fees.

Lisabob is certainly correct about FDR's use of the radio. It is probably fair to say that he was the first "great communicator" president of the last century.

Biden does provide some entertainment value, but this steady stream of misstatements should give any voter pause about Biden's real capabilities.

Apparently FDR first appeared on television in 1939. TV was exhibited at a World's Fair in New York that year.

Going back to the original post, I think this is a good idea. I tried to persuade our troop to do this some years ago and was voted down. If you are going to do this, have the boys think through the list of gear and go buy it. If purchasing is to be done at the troop level, have the quartermaster do the shopping with some adult oversight. If they leave something off the list, they will figure that out in time. Having such a container of gear may also teach more accountability.

Our troop's gear is all oriented to backpacking rather than car camping. I would suggest that such patrol gear should be oriented to backpacking because it can still be used for car camping. I also recommend that the troop standardize at least the stoves that are to be used. This will facilitate the ability of the patrols to help one another in the field when one patrol runs out of fuel.

Three questions:

What year did the great stock market crash occur that triggered the depression of the 1930's?

a. 1930

b. 1929

c. 1931

What year was Franklin Delano Roosevelt elected to his first term as president of the United States?

a. 1928

b. 1932

c. 1936

When did commerical television become available nationwide in the United States?

a. Some time after World War II

b. 1929

c. 1940

The answers to these questions are b, b, and a respectively.

The quote below is from Joe Biden's recent interview with Katie Couric. I did not see the interview. Perhaps someone who watched that interview can confirm this. Did he really say this? Keep in mind this is the guy who thinks he really is smarter than the rest of us.

"When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the princes of greed," Biden told Couric. "He said, 'Look, here's what happened.'"

When the stock market crashed in 1929 Herbert Hoover was president and he was still president until Roosevelt was inaugurated in 1933. Television!!! In 1929!!!

(This message has been edited by eisely)

uz2bnowl raises an interesting point about aluminum canoes. There are a great many small manufacturers of aluminum canoes scattered around the country. It is hard to comment on the hull design characteristics of all these manufacturers without seeing their products or trying them out. One thing that a buyer can evaluate is the thickness, or gauge, of the aluminum sheeting used in manufacturing the hull. Besides initial cost the advantage of a thinner gauge metal is the lighter weight. However, such canoes are not suitable for paddling environments such as rapidly moving water where collision with an obstruction in likely. So if you are opting for aluminum canoes check out the thickness of the hull material.

AnniePoo,

I bought my canoes through REI during their big spring sales event. Basic discount was 10%. Also, if I took delivery at the store I didn't have to pay any freight charges.

Beavah,

I happen to agree that super generous severance packages for CEO's that take the company down are insane and unfair. There may be a way to attack these things and recover some of that money, but under existing law that would appear to be very difficult to do.

The federal government coming out of WWII did a great many things to increase home ownership. Fannie Mae is one of those earlier creations. I think Freddie Mac is a more recent arrival and I don't understand why we ever needed two frankensteins when one would do just fine.

The underlying justification for the existence of these two entities was that they could provide liquidity to the primary lenders by purchasing the mortgages funded initially by private sector lenders. There are a lot ways this could be done and it was never essential that any institution like these had to exist to perform this function. Purely private operations could have done it just as well and could still do it. I suspect that these institutions will be broken up and fully privatized.

The financial system as we understand it was brought under heavy regulation during the depression as a direct result of the market crash of 1929 and the bank failures subsequent to that. One of the ideas introduced at that time was government underwritten deposit insurance, and it was effective in stopping panic runs on banks. The major law was called the Glass Steagall Act that separated depository institutions from the function of underwriting securities which is what "investment banks" do. I never fully understood why investment banks were called investment banks because they did not accept deposits as a conventional bank does. Beginning as far back as the 70's there was a movement to de regulate the financial services industry and this has happened over time. Frankly, I think there was wisdom in keeping the depository institutions which are critical to the economy separate from these other risk taking activities. I think we may move back in that direction.

None of the candidates at the top of any party's ticket that I know of really knows what is going on or how to improve things. McCain's call for a commission is actually the right suggestion because you could get people who really did understand the industry to think about it seriously away from the hubbub of an active election campaign.

The action to lend funds to AIG is a bailout, but one that was far more justifiable than lifting a finger to save either Merrill Lynch or Lehman Bros. The reason is that all the insurance commitments of AIG would then be called into question with unpredictable consequences. I expect AIG to also be broken up as a result of all this. There is a good chance the government will actually make money off of this particular bailout when all the dust settles.

This mess was not created by George Bush or by any single president. These problems always originate in the legislature that makes the laws. The difficulty will be in getting the congress to acknowledge the mistakes it has made over the years. The president does not make these policies. The congress does.

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Responding to PackSaddle's post:

When fiber glass as a material for making canoes first came out, it was a lighter weight material. The newer fiber glass canoes I have encountered are all made by Coleman and they are truly heavy. DO NOT BUY A COLEMAN CANOE.

Coleman makes great lanterns and stoves, but they should get out of the canoe business. Their canoes are definitely heavier than similar sized canoes of either aluminum or the other plastic molded canoes. I refer to "plastic" but this I mean this generically. I too have a Royalex Oldtown and a Mad River canoe. If money were no object I would recommend such canoes rather than aluminum.

Another reason for not buying Coleman canoes is the location of the flotation tanks. The last time I was in a Coleman was at a scouting event in 2001 if I recall correctly. The newer Colemans had the flotation tanks underneath the seats, making it very difficult, if not impossible, to take a proper kneeling position in the canoes. So this is something else to consider when looking at any canoe.

I remember the first time I saw a plastic canoe. That was in 1993 and it had been many years that I had even thought about canoes and was completely unaware of the use of these materials for canoes. I asked the outfitter where the flotation tanks were since there weren't any. He kindly pointed out that the primary layer was essentially a foam layer with air bubbles entrained in the material so the whole thing was less dense than water. Nice.

This ediorial appeared on Monday September 15 in Investors Business Daily.

______________________________

Obama in a statement yesterday blamed the shocking new round of subprime-related bankruptcies on the free-market system, and specifically the "trickle-down" economics of the Bush administration, which he tried to gig opponent John McCain for wanting to extend.

But it was the Clinton administration, obsessed with multiculturalism, that dictated where mortgage lenders could lend, and originally helped create the market for the high-risk subprime loans now infecting like a retrovirus the balance sheets of many of Wall Street's most revered institutions.

Tough new regulations forced lenders into high-risk areas where they had no choice but to lower lending standards to make the loans that sound business practices had previously guarded against making. It was either that or face stiff government penalties.

The untold story in this whole national crisis is that President Clinton put on steroids the Community Redevelopment Act, a well-intended Carter-era law designed to encourage minority homeownership. And in so doing, he helped create the market for the risky subprime loans that he and Democrats now decry as not only greedy but "predatory."

Yes, the market was fueled by greed and overleveraging in the secondary market for subprimes, vis-a-vis mortgaged-backed securities traded on Wall Street. But the seed was planted in the '90s by Clinton and his social engineers. They were the political catalyst behind this slow-motion financial train wreck.

And it was the Clinton administration that mismanaged the quasi-governmental agencies that over the decades have come to manage the real estate market in America.

As soon as Clinton crony Franklin Delano Raines took the helm in 1999 at Fannie Mae, for example, he used it as his personal piggy bank, looting it for a total of almost $100 million in compensation by the time he left in early 2005 under an ethical cloud.

Other Clinton cronies, including Janet Reno aide Jamie Gorelick, padded their pockets to the tune of another $75 million.

Raines was accused of overstating earnings and shifting losses so he and other senior executives could earn big bonuses.

In the end, Fannie had to pay a record $400 million civil fine for SEC and other violations, while also agreeing as part of a settlement to make changes in its accounting procedures and ways of managing risk.

But it was too little, too late. Raines had reportedly steered Fannie Mae business to subprime giant Countrywide Financial, which was saved from bankruptcy by Bank of America.

At the same time, the Clinton administration was pushing Fannie and her brother Freddie Mac to buy more mortgages from low-income households.

The Clinton-era corruption, combined with unprecedented catering to affordable-housing lobbyists, resulted in today's nationalization of both Fannie and Freddie, a move that is expected to cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars.

And the worst is far from over. By the time it is, we'll all be paying for Clinton's social experiment, one that Obama hopes to trump with a whole new round of meddling in the housing and jobs markets. In fact, the social experiment Obama has planned could dwarf both the Great Society and New Deal in size and scope.

There's a political root cause to this mess that we ignore at our peril. If we blame the wrong culprits, we'll learn the wrong lessons. And taxpayers will be on the hook for even larger bailouts down the road.

But the government-can-do-no-wrong crowd just doesn't get it. They won't acknowledge the law of unintended consequences from well-meaning, if misguided, acts.

Obama and Democrats on the Hill think even more regulation and more interference in the market will solve the problem their policies helped cause. For now, unarmed by the historic record, conventional wisdom is buying into their blame-business-first rhetoric and bigger-government solutions.

While government arguably has a role in helping low-income folks buy a home, Clinton went overboard by strong-arming lenders with tougher and tougher regulations, which only led to lenders taking on hundreds of billions in subprime bilge.

Market failure? Hardly. Once again, this crisis has government's fingerprints all over it.

Packsaddle,

I have not been following these events too closely this last week. This has been my busy season through September 15 and my weekend was largely devoted to scouting.

Both Lehman and Merrill Lynch profited from the misguided attempts to separate risk from investment in the recent years and have now paid the price. I do regret the loss of jobs of the lower ranked people in these organizations who did not profit as much in the good times and did not participate in the stupid decisions that resulted in the demise or loss of independence of the companies. I emphasize that the actions taken, or not taken, by the government are not bailouts since the shareholders stand to lose everything. If anybody put all their eggs in one of these baskets that is regrettable. Never put all your eggs into one basket, particularly when investing in equities. People with investment accounts with these organizations should be OK as those are fiduciary accounts, unless there is serious fraud involved, and I have not heard any suspicions of fraud.

AIG appears to be sound, but having a temporary cash flow problem. I saw a piece late today where the governor of New York has consented to AIG using certain assets as collateral for short term borrowing. I don't know why AIG in particular is having problems. I think one of their insurance companies was insuring mortgages and all the mortgage insurers are hurting. This is also the company that suffered after Elliot Spitzer attacked the top management and forced the CEO out on trumped up charges. Thank you Elliot.

Nolesrule,

Your post deserves a longer reply than I have time for right now.(This message has been edited by eisely)

Nolesrule,

The free market also works very well in international trade. The idea you describe is a very old idea relating the flow of specie to price levels and direction of trade. If you really subscribe to this idea, and it does have some merit, the flow of cash to the other country will lead to inflation there and the trade imbalance will shift back to your country. This is a very simplistic view, but it does captures some basic concepts.

Before the use of paper money and modern banking systems, the idea that the flow of specie (commodity money, namely gold) would influence price levels and ultimately the balance of trade was a sound idea. Today central banks can to some extent reduce the impact of cash flows by soaking up the excess cash as yet another trade influencing policy.

International trade is based on specialization and the division of labor, concepts going back to Adam Smith, applied globally just as they apply in local or national economies.

The extra value created through specialization that leads to higher productivity is distributed through the market to the benefit of both sellers and buyers, absent restrictive trade practices and unfair subsidies. These latter two issues are real issues and the US has its own share of restrictions, notably quotas on imported sugar, that lead to trade inefficiencies. But the existence of barriers and subsidies only underline the point that markets will divide gains and it is a two way street.

I am not aware of any BSA policies on this matter. If there were I am sure that Bob White would have mentioned it. (BW - that is intended as a compliment, not a slam)

The only rule that I can think about that might apply regards the sleeping arrangements on outings. Adults of the opposite sex cannot share a tent on an outing.

Speaking to the adult leader directly and/or the committe chair would be your first, and perhaps only, steps.

As a canoe enthusiast I will offer some advice as well. I think the liability and ownwership issues have been addressed well.

The question is what kind of canoe to get? Just because somebody offers you a gift does not mean you should accept it.

Avoid fiber glass canoes. They are heavy and consequently have less load carrying capacity.

Aluminum canoes are probably the most commonly owned canoes by scout units. They are relatively inexpensive and they can take a lot of abuse.

When I was a scout the aluminum canoes that then were relatively new products on the market had sealed flotation air tanks in the bow and stern. I have noticed that in more recent years these spaces are filled with plastic foam to provide the flotation. While this avoids the possibility of a tank developing a leak, the foam inevitably deteriorates. Before accepting an older aluminum canoe take it somewhere and swamp it to see what happens. I presume that the conditions I describe are repairable, but I have never attempted it. I was once offered such a canoe that spread styrofoam crumbs on the water. I refused it.

Storage and maintenance will be big problems. You must have PFDs and you have to have a way of drying them out after use and storing them properly so they won't deteriorate.

Have fun paddling.

Goldwinger,

Economic actors (consumers, workers, corporations, farmers, etc.) acting in their own interest in a free society are what makes the free market economy run and has generated the economy that we have today. If you want to call this greed, so be it. I plead guilty to acting out of greed.

However, the data show you are dead wrong regarding the housing situation. I quickly accessed the data maintained by the Dept of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis on personal income. The housing crisis was becoming apparent to insiders even in 2006 and became public almost a year ago. During the ten quarters beginning in the first quarter of 2006, personal income and disposable personal income both grew every single quarter through June of 2008. The cause of the collapse in housing was not insufficient income of home buyers.

Only in the last few months has personal income actually declined and we may now be in a bona fide recession. I submit that the current decline in personal income is the result of the housing collapse, not the cause.

We do make stuff here in the US, but the answer to economic growth is not to create barriers to trade but to allow the market to focus resources where we have real comparative advantages and leave the other manufacturing where we are not competitive to others.

Responding to Goldwinger's post, I agree that the war policies have not caused the the current economic difficulties. I disagree strongly with his statement about greedy capitalists and China.

Even though I hold a doctorate in economics, I do not pretend to always understand what causes economic cycles. If I could successfully predict business cycles and turning points I would be a far wealthier person than I am.

Having said that, it is fairly obvious in hindsight that the current slowing of growth in the economy (not the same things as negative growth) is due to the same housing crisis that has brought so many financial institutions down. The boom of a few years ago was largely driven by over building in the residential home sector. This too rapid growth was a direct result of policies put in place by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to encourage more "sub prime" lending through Mortgage Brokers. The problem with Mortgage Brokers is that they never have any skin in the game. I also saw a piece lately where about 25% of the mortgages in default were clearly obtained fraudulently. Since Mortgage Brokers are the first line of defense in the system, it was the failure of these people to do what they should have been doing that helped push this whole thing over the edge.

There were also large numbers of borrowers who never planned to occupy the homes they were buying (and lied about it) as a pure speculative play. With zero down mortgages available, what was there to lose? Should these borrowers be bailed out?

All this inflated apparent housing demand beyond ordinary levels with the resulting boom in residential construction that pulled the rest of the economy along more rapidly than it would otherwise have grown.

We are now blessed with a substantial excess inventory of unoccupied houses that will be a drag on many markets for years.

The manufacturing sector remains surprisingly strong and exports are booming for some industries (e.g., aircraft, industrial equipment). Frankly I find this a bit surprising personally as the US has always had trouble competing in the world market for manufactured goods since the first days of the republic. The reason is very simple.

We have always been a high income country compared to other countries. This is one of the main reasons people still want to come here. For certain kinds of manufacturing where the technology is settled and easily acquired, the US is not competitive and it has nothing to do with evil capitalists. Think of footwear and clothing. Where we are competitive is in the higher technology goods where we have higher labor productivity and superior products, such as aircraft.

The one major manufacturing sector that I am concerned about is automotive. There the fault lays with both management and labor and I note that the US manufacturers are all asking for their bailouts now. Any bailout of these companies will also be a bail out of the United Auto Workers union. Don't wish to seem anti union here as there are many union members who are scouters and who participate in this forum. The UAW has made some sacrifices in recent contracts, but the companies are still not competitive. One of the more humorous characterizations of General Motors I saw recently noted that GM was a company that ran a health care system and made autos as a sideline. Where does one draw the line?

When I attended the Trainer Development Conference at our council a few years back, I don't recall whether there was a fee or not. In any event I would gladly have paid $5.00.

As a trainer in our district programs and the council High Adventure Team I regularly incur costs for which I do not seek reimbursement. I do not pay any fee to participate in these programs, but I do pay for my own training materials that I use. I don't know how our Woodbadge course operates, but if the pattern holds staff likely would not pay to attend.

I am amused by the language of "donation." As far as your tax deductibility goes, whatever it is called, unreimbursed expenses can be claimed as deductions, so I don't really know why people call such things "donations." To me it raises more questions than it answers.

Responding narrowly on the question of "bailouts" of firms in financial services. When the stockholders of the failed institutions are left with little or nothing it is not a bailout.

True conservatives have been pointing out for years the risk involved in the way that both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were run, but the congress would not allow bona fide reform. These institutions were also allowed to donate lavishly (bribe) members of both houses from both parties to maintain their privileged positions of the public taking the risk for private profit. Even as recently as a year ago Barnie Frank, Democrat from Massachusetts was resisting real reform. Howell Raines, Clinton's personal contribution to Fannie Mae fiasco probably deserves to be indicted for the accounting falsification that Fannie Mae engaged in during his tenure there.

There are a number of aspects of the way home owner financing has degenerated in recent years that troubled me. The only surprise in the current situation is that anybody is surprised.

Having said all that, it is critically important to the economy as a whole and the larger society that the integrity of the payments system be maintained. If this requires forced marriages of finance houses and banks and liquidation of shareholder value in the failed institutions, so be it.

Various cub scout leader training between 1989 and 1991. Began boy scout leader training subsequent to that.

Scoutmaster fundamentals 1992

New Leader Essentials and Position specific for scoutmaster 2001

Basic Commissioner training around 2003

Other advanced outdoor training unique to our council

Since our savior (not referring to Jesus here - you know, the other one we have been waiting for) has claimed that his career as a community organizer qualifies him for the presidency I thought I would point out that virtually every participant in this forum is a community organizer. Every time we organize an outing, a den meeting, a round table or other training event, or even a new unit we are engaged in community organizing. Therefore we are all qualified to be president of the United States.

One of my favorite online writers, James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal solicited from his readership jokes about community organizers. Herewith a sampling of those.

What's the difference between a community organizer and a seeing eye dog? Even a blind man can see the dog is actually helping someone.

What's the difference between a community organizer and a Chihuahua? The Chihuahua will eventually shut up.

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As an adult without a kid in the program I have to take the side of the old dudes. Clearly anybody involved in the program is obligated to stay abreast of changes, but do not sneer at these people.

Gold Winger: In your initial post I think you meant to say that "Being a good parent and being a good scouter are NOT mutually exclusive...."

Unit rivalry can show up in a variety of ways and it is not all negative. A little healthy friendly competition among units can help all units improve their programs.

Why would anybody refuse den chiefs? This hurts just not the cubs, but the older boys who may want to do this. Try to rise above the competition where appropriate.

Religious intolerance still exists although it is far less a factor than in the past. I recall that many many years ago our local mon signor of the catholic church drove my oldest brother out the roman catholic faith because the mon signor resented the fact that my brother joined a troop sponsored by the local baptist church. Today, all the units our family has affiliated with have a wide spectrum of membership. One reaps what one sows.

I have trekked into the Havasupai reservation twice, most recently in 1995. I was neither aware of nor seen any earthen dam upstream, but apparently there was one in a side canyon, or maybe it was built in the intervening years. The canyon below the village where the campground is located is not a place where I would want to be caught in a flash flood. In fact there had been a flash flood between my two visits in 1992 and 1995 that had re arranged Havasu Falls quite a bit. There is essentially no place to go in the event of a flash flood but straight up the canyon wall. Apparently these people had sufficient warning.(This message has been edited by eisely)