GernBlansten

Let me get this straight. The original poster admitted being a convicted felon on drug charges. Remember, all convicts are innocent. Just ask them. Now he wants to be the SM of a unit and is worried about the background check. I say, based on what he's said, no thanks. Move on. I don't want to risk my son with someone involved in drugs. Period. And I'm accused of being judgemental and on a high horse. We kick adults out for being gay. If this guy had said he had been busted being a male prostitute but went through reparative therapy and now is straight, would you greet him with open arms too?

A better question might be, should the uniform be required?

Having skied for over 40 years now, when I was a youth, the only people wearing helmets were downhill racers. When my own kids started skiing about 10 years ago, they were mandatory for the kids. I also started wearing one. Now I won't hit the slopes without one. Too many opportunities to scramble the gray matter. If a scout owns his own gear, chances are helmets are part of the package. If he rents, most rental shops include helmets as part of the package. As for multi-sport helmets, the do exist, but are usually a compromise. Ski helmets provide warmth, where a skateboard helmet needs lots of ventilation. Bike helmets are usually single impact. They are made super light and designed to break apart on impact.

Yeah, the dude claims he was pinched for coke possession. Tried and convicted. Tough luck I guess. Really don't care if you are Christian or war hero. You are a convict. No joy on becoming my son's SM. Sorry.

Those of you who promote, support and apply a rule that an EBOR candidate present himself in a full, complete and correct uniform, should lobby the BSA to add that to the requirements of becoming an Eagle scout. If it means that much to you, then the torch should not be passed to any candidate who does not meet those criteria. Until you do, please quietly hold your disdain. We will continue to operate under the existing rules.

Probably a parlor scouter too.

"Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting, 'WOW . . . What a ride!' " Heard at an ECOH by a scout who clearly lived on the edge of adventure. Tis it better to show up at your final BSA judgement in a pristine vessel, showing the care you have taken to preserve its beauty, or to skid in sideways, showing the experiences of your journey, standing up momentarily to dust yourself off. Are we preparing our young men to be ready for college admission interviews or life's greater challenges?

Beavah makes an interesting point. Which scout demonstrates the best scout spirit. One who is the picture perfect example from the scout catalog with crisp, clean uniform. The classic parlor scout. One who either never used the field uniform in the field, or bought it specifically for the EBOR. Or One whose uniform has burn holes in it, stains from mucking through the moose muck, tears from the paths taken off trail. Pieces missing because they got snagged on low hanging adventure. Or One who shows up in his street clothes because he's simply outgrown his uniform and saw no need to purchase a new one for a meeting with adults. (A scout is thrifty)

If a young man showed up at a EBOR without a complete uniform, I suppose it would be appropriate during the BOR to ask him about it. Say he came in blue jeans and the ODR shirt, no necker, and flip flops. An appropriate question might be: "I see you don't wear the complete uniform. Is that standard in your unit?" If his response was no, his unit is a full uniform unit. Then that might lead into a whole like of questions on why he doesn't follow his unit expectations. If he responded that his unit isn't a full uniform one and he is dressed like everyone else in his unit, then that would lead down a whole different path. Follow up questions like "how do you like that?" "Do you think relaxing the uniform makes for a more relaxed troop?" Either way, it shouldn't be a cause to deny the scout his Eagle. Just a data point to evaluate the scout and the program. What if the scout showed up without a single piece of the uniform?

McCain lost my vote when he demonstrated his lack of reason and foresight when he choose Sarah as his running mate. He showed me he wasn't ready to be the kind of president America needed. Its difficult to separate party from candidate. Its the party that sets the agenda, the candidate delivers it. A strong candidate can influence party. One could say that GWB was a decent man, but his party pulled him into doing things that were not so good. I don't think he was a very strong candidate. Reagan was. Clinton was. Is Obama? Jury's out for me. But so far, I like what I'm seeing. Even Glenn Beck agrees with me. We are better off with Obama than McCain.

Catchy tune. Now I won't be able to get it out of my head all day!

So those of us who voted to remove the party who drove us to the brink of a depression and entangled us in two unwinnable wars, are just motivated by our adoration for Obama? For some of us, it had nothing to do with Obama, it had to do with getting America back on course. When the Republicans have a track record of successful ideas, perhaps I'll consider them again.

Eric, That woman stood there with a defaced portrait of our President calling him a Nazi. She was the one who brought the discussion into the gutter, not Frank. I thought Frank's response was perfect and appropriate. If only more of our representatives had his courage to call out people like this, perhaps our political atmosphere wouldn't be so acidic. Consituent or not, she set the tone and reaped the result.

She'd been closer to correct if she'd said the policy of every other industrialized 1st world nation. However, that wouldn't have made her point.

Frank won my eternal devotion when he confronted that whack job at his town hall. At a Barney Frank town hall meeting in Dartmouth, MA, a constituent asks, "Why are you supporting this Nazi policy?" Frank responds: "On what planet do you spend most of your time?" He then calls her approach "vile, contemptible nonsense." He closes by saying: "Trying to have a conversation with you would be like arguing with a dining room table." Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/19/barney-frank-confronts-wo_n_262682.html

How about their position on legalizing drugs and prostitution?

Afghanistan doesn't have oil. It has opium. There's your problem. What are we fighting for?

Are you talking about taking the bucket or the chair? I'm just saying everything you need to bring should not exceed a bucket's capacity. Not that you take the bucket. As for the chair, its a couple of fiberglass rods and some fabric. Your sleeping pad slides in it. NTier can have my chair when they pry my cold dead butt out of it.

Frankly, the only thing Obama could do correctly for you guys is to resign in disgrace. If he gets in front of the people pushing his agenda, he's not paying attention to the war. If he stays holed up in war meetings, he can't multitask and is ignoring the economy. He just can't win with you guys. So why try.

Max of 4 adults and no more than 50% of the crew. If you are a venture crew, adults start at 21.

Everything you need to take (personal) should fit in a 5 gallon bucket. If you can't fit it into the bucket, you are taking too much. But the most favorite luxury I took was my Big Agnes chair that my Big Agnes pad fits into. Its a throne for when you get off the water each day. Nothing better than to blow up your chair, kick off your boots and let the sun dry you out while enjoying a good book, listening to the scouts argue about the duty roster. Warning though, you must guard the chair. A vacant chair is fair game to poachers. Also, good jungle boots are important. As are wicking pants and shirts.

I really don't care what show Obama appears on as long as he appears presidential. His job is to push his agenda. And there's no better medium to do that than the mass market media. That means doing the entertainment shows. Good on him. He's getting out in front of an audience that probably doesn't watch the boring Sunday news shows. Bush should have done the same thing. However, his agenda didn't lend itself to good entertainment. War just is such a downer.

One problem with running Philmont treks is you need commitment pretty far in advance. For our crews going in 2010, I needed a show of hands back in the fall of 2008 to submit our lottery request. We found out in Spring of 2009 how many crews we were awarded. Then the first deposit was due late spring of 2009. Second payment is Oct 1st, 2009. Last is April 2010. So I needed to get a pretty good idea 18 months in advance to properly budget the slots. As the payment deadlines come, we lose more scouts as other commitments take precedence. In the 18 months, lots of stuff happens with scouts. Especially over 15 year olds. Even for myself, I had to cancel my slot (and my son's) because my son got an opportunity to go to Europe next summer and since he's already been to Philmont once, he wants to hike in Europe instead. Can't say as I blame him. Until that trip came up, he was pretty gungho to return to Philmont. I'm disappointed, but gave up my slot to another dad who wanted to go and hasn't been there yet. Now I'm trying to get on his trip to Europe as a chaperone.

When making your deposits, only give the minimum amount to secure the reservation. Philmont is 7. Even if you have 12 planning to go. You can always add later. This keeps your monetary exposure minimum. We had two come in at the last minute at NTiers and it was no problem adding them. We just needed to bring a check for the additional fees. Any deposits should immediately be charged back to the scouts going. If they drop, they need to find their own replacement or forfeit the deposit.

So if simple insurance reform the likes that Vol is proposing would be wildly popular, why don't the republicans propose that as an alternative bill? Seems like a missed opportunity for them to go from the party of Nope to the party of Hope.