GernBlansten

Which political ideology is more likely to allow disent from the core ideals? If some of your positions are liberal and some conservative, are you either? I would think liberals welcome that diversity. Whereas conservatives tend to be an all or nothing crowd. One liberal thought and you are labeled a liberal and must atone to be brought back into the fold.

TM, Is your calling to the SM position a long term or short term proposition? If you are only going to serve for say 12 months or less, I would take one issue and do my best to change the course of the troop with that one topic, then when the next SM steps up, encourage him to take another. If long term, then perhaps a gradual change of attitude (troop, not your's) is in order. One thing I think is detrimental to the patrol method is the age segregation of LDS troops, and could be the hardest to deal with. Good Luck.

We have an Eagle candidate who turns 18 next month. He became a Life scout when he was 14 and was very active for the next 2 years. The last two years, he has not been active except to finish up a few merit badges and his project. The CC didn't want him to advance because he has never seen the scout at any meeting (in the last two years). We decided the requirement as written was met since he was active 4 years ago, but not in the last 6 months. We have a a lot of Life's who get distracted when they turn 16 only to return later to finish up.

I hear ya Kahuna. I was a card carrying ditto head back in the 90s and know Limbaugh well. His hypocrisy over his drug abuse and serial divorces took the shine off him for me though. But I do think Coulter really hates liberals personally, not just politically. I've read a couple of her books. Its amazing that she has hooked up with Bill Maher. I guess opposites attract. One thing I did read somewhere from an insider, was that Hannity's shtick is just that. He doesn't really believe the stuff he writes or says, but it sells and he's good at it.

Kahuna, Most of the hateful comments coming from the likes of Coulter and Limbaugh are brushed off as humor or satire. I submit for review a book by Ann Coulter called "Treason". The tone of this book is that all liberals are treasonous. Limbaugh laughingly calls feminists, feminazis. O'Rielly is just a plain old mean bully. I think you could make the claim that each of these commentators HATE liberals. No, I take that back. They hate their liberal views. Hows that?

It seems odd that in one thread we talked about how uneducated voters are, and in this one we criticize the news and radio, which have a potential for educating them. It seems that you don't like news that doesn't meet your standards . . . thats democratic. Yes, the difference is the 24 cable news and talk radio have the potential for education, but fall into the gutter of partisan propaganda and spin. The problem with the media is its primary job is not to educate, but generate revenue. They do this by selling advertising. Advertising rates increase with viewer/listener ship. Most people don't like to hear opposing viewpoints. They turn off those stations that offer it. Most of the people who don't read newspapers or get their news from alternative sources, are drawn to conservative talk radio. Thats why liberal talk radio has such a hard time getting a foothold. Most of the people who would listen to liberal talk radio simply don't listen to talk radio. They get their information from other sources, probably biased to their viewpoint. We all gravitate to what makes us feel comfortable and doesn't challenge our own opinions.

Isn't it really sad that our nation is so divided? We are at war. We face a common enemy in radical Islamic fundamentalism. Yet we can't even call each other Americans. We are either Liberals or Conservatives. Dems or Repubs. Lefties vs Righties. Us vs Them. Blues vs Reds. The atmosphere in Washington is so acerbic that nothing meaningful gets done. At the local level, talking about politics to someone from the other camp usually devolves into a shouting match. I too blame the 24hour "news" and rise of talk radio. The hateful drone from the likes of Coulter, Limbaugh, O'Reilly and Hannity do nothing but widen that divide. Its their winner take all attitude that fuels the fire. This country desperately needs a uniter, not a divider.

I hear there's a good cowboy movie out that has won a bunch of awards. But I doubt it would be scout appropriate!

Perhaps the conservative movement is finally understanding the meaning of conserve. Hoorah! Good on these men and women.

This Everlasting War on Terror will drain our economy and send us into the history books to follow the great empires of the Soviet Union, the Romans, the Greeks and the British Empire. The terrorists will win when our economy collapses under the enormous debt we create to "fight" it. I only hope a true conservative comes along to reverse this trend.

Sorry Rooster, you lost me when you say that GWB doesn't represent the conservative movement. Actually, I agree with you. Republicans aren't conservative anymore. They want open borders. They want to meddle in the affairs of foriegn nations. They run up record setting deficits that our grand children will be saddled with. They abuse the civil rights of the people. They want to be in your bedroom. They want to make medical decisions for you and your family. They claim that conservation is not an energy policy. What's conservative about that? BTW, the war in Iraq is off budget. It is funded by emergency appropriations. It has cost over $440 Billion so far and is not included in the $2,770,000,000,000 asked for by Bush.

First off, I have never heard that there is an effort to not show the 911 footage. What really bugs me is when it is used to rally us, motivate us to act against others. It incites emotions in every one of us that while justified, should not be acted on while under its spell. When you see the footage, ask yourself, "why are they showing me this again?". If its in a historical text, or an analytical text, then no problem. But if its to rekindle the anger and rage we all experienced that fateful day, then I want no part of it.

Talk about being hypersensitive Rooster. You sure get your feathers ruffled easily. Lets just talk about the size of government. Bush just submitted a budget that swells the size of government to record levels. He funds this with the greatest defecit spending in history. He has created more government agencies staffed by more government employees than any other president. Beavah's comment: And it creates huge waste, because by forcibly concentrating resources in "government" it attracts leeches and villians, and then generates bureaucracy to try to protect against leeches and villians. It eventually reaches the point that the leeches, villians, and those seeking a "better society" are spending other people's children's and grandchildren's money.

Should some of your neighbors be given enforcement powers and allowed to take away your property (taxation) because they feel they can do a better job for society with your money than you can? That's a very different thing than taking money for roads, bridges, and defense that everyone uses. It creates huge divisiveness, because it leads to debates over whose view of "just society" should be promoted at others' expense. Christian "just society?" Islamic "just society?" And it creates huge waste, because by forcibly concentrating resources in "government" it attracts leeches and villians, and then generates bureaucracy to try to protect against leeches and villians. It eventually reaches the point that the leeches, villians, and those seeking a "better society" are spending other people's children's and grandchildren's money. Talk about hypocrisy. If I read that last paragraph correctly, Beavah was extolling the virtues of conservatism by laying the down the failures of liberalism. Yet his final paragraph defines the current conservative movement to a tee.

The USAFA is very nice, but I'm afraid 40,000 people would destroy its beauty. It would be cool to camp under the B52 on display though.

There are some topics that are just too volitile to engage in. This would be one of them.

Ft. Carson is a stones throw from where I grew up. Spent some family weekends on base when my brother was stationed there during Vietnam. Pretty dusty and chewed up by all the tanks and artillary practice. Not what I would consider a garden spot of Colorado.

I'm not saying we should turn away uninformed voters, I'm just saying that we shouldn't make it easy for them. Make the ballots so that only the informed voters know what they are actually voting for. Those who don't know the issues or the party affiliation of their candidate can vote randomly.

While I agree that limited refining capacity causes the price spikes we see at the pump, it is not the core problem. Our problem is dependance on foriegn oil. Our ship is sinking. We have a hull breach. Building more refineries is just like getting a bigger bucket to bail. Someone needs to go down below and fix the hole. Its time to get wet and dirty and fix the root cause before we loose the boat. The past three presidents have promised to do this, but we haven't seen any commitment to get it done.

Same could be said for the military. Is the government the best resource to supply this need? Clearly its inefficient and could be delivered by private industry much cheaper. But the military is critical to our national security and should not be outsourced to the lowest bidder. Its a valid role for government to play. Energy has become just as critical to our national security too. Conservatives don't have any problem with the government having a monopoly on the military. Why not the energy industry? One of the biggest problems America faces with big oil is that they have become too big. Mergers and acquisitions have reduce the number of players to a few giant corps. This has driven out competition and created a monster. Throughout the 90s and this century, anti-trust has gone to the wayside in favor of these mega-corps. Regulations against these mega-corps have been reduced in the name of free-market economics. We have faced this before. Congress reacted with breaking up Standard Oil into several smaller, competing companies. It was a temporary fix. Those companies have congealed into their former state.

Yes, I do contradict myself on my call to nationalize big oil and fund alternative energy while still considering myself a paleoconservative. But they say the exception makes the rule. Well this situation has reached a point that drastic measures are called for. I think a paleoconservative understands that sometimes you need to take 2 steps back to make 3 steps forward. A neo-con on the other hand won't conceed that. Its their way or the highway.

Here's an interesting perspective on the mix of religion and politics. http://www.rmbowman.com/ssn/JesusSociety.htm

Trevorum, there are those who cannot distiguish the difference in those three stances.

Yes Ed, we did get Saddam. But that whole Iraq thing just isn't working out like we planned, is it?

Our troop recently adopted TroopMaster. Our records keeper claims it is heaven for managing medical records. I haven't seen it and she hasn't called me into the room yet to update my son's and my records.