Fat Old Guy

"FOG, armed citizens weren't even given a chance on 9/11. Guns aren't allowed on planes, remember." There lies the rub. If citizens were allowed to carry guns on planes, the terrorists wouldn't have had a chance. BTW, don't yap about guns/airplanes/decompression, that's a non-starter.

"I don't see why the Cubmaster should have felt upstaged or intimidated" Probably because he views Scouting as something that he does for that one hour a week and finds it strange that anyone would wear their uniform when they are not compelled to do so. I know many Scouters who shed their shirts as soon as the meeting is over, not to keep it clean but so no one will see them in it. They are as bad as some of the Scouts. When I wear my uniform, I always meet interesting people. Little boys come up to me and announce, "I'm a Cub Scout" or adults will tell me that they are Scouters or Eagle Scouts. I once stopped at a country store on my way back from a Scouting event and stepped into the middle of an impromptu meeting of the local District Committee. They introduced themselves, bought me a soda, bought sodas for the scouts in my car and we passed some very pleasant time talking about this and that.

There might be too much focus on merit badges at summer camp. I know that a recent discussion centered around which camp is better and a large part of it was "how many merit badges are offered." My troop earned 150 merit badges at camp but since then only 10 merit badges have been earned. It seems that no one wants to work on anything outside of summer camp UNLESS it is spoon fed to them. People talk about how great it is to have a lake at camp but all of our Scouts are too busy to recreate at camp. Swim? No time. Fish? No time. Watch the clouds? Forget it. Tramp about in the woods? Not in this lifetime. If my son only wanted to work on one or two merit badges and spent the rest of the time walking in the woods, swimming, or paddling a canoe, I really wouldn't mind.

"Ok, yeah when I heard it and then found it more than once, I knew it was true." One can find the same erroneous "fact" numerous times on the Internet. (This message has been edited by Fat Old Guy)

"The largest number of medals to be awarded for a single engagement against unarmed "combatants", 18 medals on 19 December 1890 at Wounded Knee..." Why don't I hear anyone crying for the citizens of Dresden, Berlin, and Tokyo that died during bombing raids? They were non-combatants. What about the women and children that were killed by the Indians during the during the colonial era and the westward expansion?

I'm still reading the Constitution and trying to find anything about "separation of church and state."

"But in all respect, no sell, I prefer to stay paranoid against all forms and manners of governments since it is in their best interest to lie and conceal...." I'm wid chu man!

Most but not all. There's no medal for the Arrow of Light nor for the District Award of Merit.

"I agree with Bob. I think a little moderation and rationality is all he is looking for" The problem is that you have no idea what a little moderation is. You and your lot snivel about "reasonable controls" but yet you cannot express what those are and if you do get something, you want more. You have no idea what moderation is because you have no idea of what the existing laws regarding guns are.

Red Jackets, very pricey. The price just went up to $150+. Other Woolrich Jac Shirts run about $60 to $70. I got mine on ebay for $35. Looks like new.

You can and may wear your medal at any time that you desire. If you want to wear it camping, you may. If you want to wear it whilst cleaning the latrine, you may. However there are conventions for when it is appropriate to wear it just as there are conventions for when you wear a tuxedo. I would say that any ceremonial occasion such as Court of Honor, Indunction into the Grand Knights of Snoober, or your wedding would be a time to wear it. I'd also wear it anytime that you want to wear all your finery such as your religious medal(s), life saving medal, merit badge sash, etc.. I wouldn't wear it for regular troop meetings, going to little brother's pinewood derby or selling popcorn. There may also be local customs concerning wearing it at such OA things as Call Out or the secret induction ceremonies. That's just my opinion. I wish that I had an Eagle medal to wear (sniff)

"History also teaches us that the Roman army was not defeated due to the lack of personal arms in the homes of the Roman citizens." We're not talking about the Roman army, are we?

"If you don't think a person is a good counselor report them, counsel the scout, but you do not have the authority to deny him the choice or the advancement." Please explain why it says in numerous places that the Scoutmaster will assign a counselor. If the Scoutmaster has no input in which counselors he thinks are appropriate, why have him in the loop at all?

Yes, you may wear the religious medal until the day that you die. Since it isn't a Scouting medal, you may wear it on your pyjamas if you wish. :-)

"At another time in history perhaps, in other countries less advanced, certainly." State of advancement is all relative and is no guarantee. The Roman Army was the most advanced of its time. In the 1770s, the British Army was the most advanced of its time. In the 1980s, the Soviet Army was pretty advanced but was sent packing by a bunch of primitive Afghans. The US suffered some pretty severe damage from a handfull of unadvanced people about 2 1/2 years ago doing much to have prevented that attack. Neither did armed citizens but, you and yours, have long worked to keep armed citizens from being allowed to protect themselves.

" He meant the SM has the authority to assign an approved MB counselor of his choice. Right Mr. Fat Old Guy?" Yup. If I know that Mr. X just rubber stamps the Citizenship in America blue cards, I'll not allow any of my Scouts (yep, my Scouts) to use him for a counselor. Of course, I'll also file reports and wait for hell to freeze over because that's about when the District will do anything.

" but if you DO go to that camp, you can't tell the boys that they can't take certain badges - " Sure you can. The SM has to approve of the choice of counselor and sign the blue card before the Scout can begin work. If we know that the basketry counselor at camp doesn't do a decent job, we don't have to sign any basketry cards for camp.

" I havent seen any walled cities in the US." That's because we have citizens with guns.

The appropriate thing to do, since this is America, is to find a lawyer and sue Piggly Wiggly, owner of the game, and the manufacturer of the game. Go after millions for suffering and mental anguish and they may settle for enough to pay off your house and pay for college.

" was not aware that the uniforms are all assembled in the US by union labor." It's too bad that the quality isn't there.

" I recall watching a program showing how the Army (I think) builds each cartridge individually." That would probably be the Army Marksmanship Unit, a group of cracker jack shots that kick butt in shooting competitions around the world. Regular issue ammo is cranked out by the gazillions. Military ammo has a practical shelf life of 50 or 60 years or even longer. However, when you're going in harm's way, you don't want to find out that you have the 1% of the ammo that has gone bad so you replace your ammo on a regular basis but there is no reason that the "expired" ammo cannot be used for training purposes.

" While class A (field uniform) and class B (activity uniform) are not officially sanctioned BSA terms they are almost universally accepted phrases. Our council and our training staff uses the terms." Doesn't make it right. Most people that watch baseball think that a "foul tip" is a ball that goes right back to the backstop but it isn't and never will be.

Make haste slowly. You're changing a culture so don't try to force changes. Let them happen and the Scouts will appreciate the changes.

A young acquaintence joined the Marine Corps about four or five years ago and has served in Iraq. Before the mess started in Iraq, he was planning to get out and told me the reason was a lack of support. He was a granadier but had only fired three live grenades the past year. No money for training ammo. He also told me they didn't have enough live rifle ammo to practice marksmanship. Ironically, millions of rounds of "old, expired ammo" are destroyed every year. I guess that when it hits its expiration date, it can't even be used for practice.

"I had a very interesting discussion with a medical doctor who was of the opinion that potatoes were a worthless food item. Needless to say he was of course wrong" Being Irish, you'd have to disagree with that :-)