GernBlansten

Another point on why Teabaggers are morons, besides the urban slang thing. They call themselves such because they align themselves with the Boston Tea Party. That was a protest against taxation without representation. Do these morons think they fall into that category? When they have a legitimate issue and a legitimate protest, I'll listen. Until then, they are just a bunch of noisy morons.

But Volscouter, The President has proven his nationality. The birthers don't accept it. They do so because they are racist. If he were of Scandinavian decent, it wouldn't be an issue for them. Its an issue because half of his ancestry came from Africa. The Teabaggers will have a valid issue when and if Obama proposes raising taxes on them. Until then, they are morons.

I think you need to subdivide the anti-Obama movements. If you take just the Birthers, I think the majority of them are racists. They simply don't like an undocumented, Kenyan born muslim as president. If you take the Tea Baggers, I think the majority of them are morons. Their cry of no more taxes when none have been proposed is stunningly stupid. And all of them would be uneffected by the rollback of tax cuts to the 1% wealthy. But the Pice de rsistance is the elderly screamers at town hall meetings shouting for government to keep their hands of Medicare. Overall, I don't think race is the motivator. But for racists, it is the sole motivator. I think in the majority of cases, we are seeing the sore loser reaction.

Brent, I'm not WB. I'm a lesser scouter. I expect much more from someone of your stature.

Brent, Would you re-read your exchange with Merlyn, then re-read the Scout Law. Do you see a disconnect?

JohnKC, I see HUGE problems with that scenario. CAP cannot discriminate by religion or sexual orientation as it is a government program. But if it partners with the BSA, they must. Sorry, but this is one marriage that is not practical, nor legal.

We have a local Venture crew who is affiliated with CAP. Not sure the arrangement. It actually seemed strange to me why they would even consider themselves Scouts. The CAP is an entirely independant organization and doesn't need any of the benefits Scouts provides. If you run your Venture crew as a unit of CAP, what's the purpose? Just run it as a CAP unit.

So how do these moments relate to WB? Do you have to have experienced them before attending WB? Does WB help you deal with them? Or does WB help you realize them?

The Republican party has not given me any reason I should vote for any of their candidates. When they start offering solutions instead of criticism, perhaps they will change my mind. The simple fact that they closed ranks around Wilson cemented my impression of them.

Could someone define what one of these moments are? I'm having a hard time differntiating normal life events from these.

Wilson's offense was three fold. He insulted the President, the Congress and the American public. He owes three apologies. He's only done one. He should have taken to the floor of Congress the next morning and issued an apology to the Congress. Then issued a public statement to the press apologizing to all of us. That would have been the right thing to do, and settled the issue. I don't expect that from anyone of his party. For punishment, he should be required to read the rules of decorum to all members of congress. Looks like they all need a refresher course.

Count me in for one who is thanking the all mighty that Obama is our president and has the God given wisdom to know better than anyone else, what provisions of the PATRIOT act we need and what ones we don't. He has kept us safer than Bush by 5 days and counting. Every day he keeps us safe, is a gift. Thank you Barry. And thank you God for giving us him.

Wouldn't that be your warm, sticky hands?

Vol is right Beavah. And so are you. How? I just had my roof replaced after a hail storm. I got three bids from local contractors, submitted my claim, got paid and hired the contractor I thought would do the best job. I didn't ask any of them who they hire. I didn't demand documentation. I just wanted my roof repaired for the estimate I was provided. Well, I suspect that of the 10 men who showed up to do the work, several of them were probably illegal. They did great work. Were very polite. Cleaned up afterwards, the contract was fulfilled. I paid the contractor. Now should I have done more? Should I have demanded every man on that roof prove his legitimacy? If I did, would my costs have increased? Probably. Greater than the settlement from my insurance company? Surely. Now, same goes for the restaurant I had lunch at today. Do I go in making demands that every employee show documentation? Of course not. But I do think the crime should not go to the alien, but to the employer. If you are caught employing undocumented aliens, you are held criminally liable. If that makes your costs go up, so be it. You will have incentive to turn in your competitors who also break the law. But we the people need to get ready for $15 hamburgers and 40% more expensive home repairs and longer wait times. The alternative is open borders. Allow the workers to ebb and flow with the economic tides. Collect taxes and make their work fully legitimate. I often wonder why the outrage at illegal immigration too. Do these people really take work from you? They might take it from my kids, but heck, they wouldn't do a great job anyhow. And man, when my roofers took their lunch break, they broke out the grill and cooked up some great smelling carne asada.

Yes Beavah. Vol_scouters claim struck a cord with me. The federal government is to blame for our declining physician population. Not because they do too much, but because they do too little. This is from someone who has demonstrated a very anti-government opinion on this forum. Its dripping with irony. So what's the solution? Why hasn't the for-profit healthcare infrastructure fixed this problem? Where are the insurance companies on providing training resources for residents? Why aren't they investing in the future of our system?

But Medicare is socialized medicine, the cost of care to the recipients are socialized to all taxpayers. You specifically called out the Federal Government restricting the number of residencies. That may be true only because Medicare funds the residencies and Medicare funding has been cut in the past 10 years. Therefore, one could say that the Federal government is restricting the number of doctors through the residency program. However, the reciprocal to that argument would be that to increase the residency slots, the Federal government would need to enhance funding to Medicare. That would be to increase socialized medicine in the US. That does make sense to me. As for the Dept Of Education applying quotas or limits to medical school enrollment, do you have any backup to that? I just find that a bit hard to swallow that the Dept of Ed interferes with private college enrollment numbers.

So let me get this straight. The number of doctors is mandated by the Federal Government. But not because of some arbitrary quota, but because of the level of Medicare funding. So in order to increase the number of doctors residencies, the Federal Government needs to increase Medicare funding. Well, doesn't that just support an argument that single payer or a public option will further fund doctors and increase the number of them practicing?

Vol_scouter, could you expand on the claim that the Federal Government determines residency distribution? I'm only aware of the NRMP which is non-governmental. From nrmp.org .... The National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) is a private, not-for-profit corporation established in 1952 to provide a uniform date of appointment to positions in graduate medical education (GME) in the United States. From the wiki ... The National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) is a United States-based non-profit non-governmental organization created in 1952 to help match medical school students with residency programs. The NRMP is sponsored by the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS), the American Medical Association (AMA), the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the American Hospital Association (AHA), and the Council of Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS).

Lisa, what I worry about is people to take their political and religious views and think that scouting is yet another avenue to indoctrinate the youth to those views. Its an abuse that cannot be allowed to continue without challenge. How many times have we heard that scouting is a Christian movement? How many times have we heard its a conservative movement? If we don't resist this, it will become it.

Would you deny me to be an ASM in your unit because of my political views?

Brent, You are the only one defending the actions of Wilson here. I think Lisa's comments are directed at you. Beware of who you associate with, or defend.

Well Brent, If you can't separate your political views from your scouting obligations, I guess I would pull my son from your influence.

If you build a 12 foot fence, they will make 14 foot ladders. The fence thing is just stupid. The only solution is to start throwing Americans in jail for employing them. They will not come to America if they can't get work. Let's see the Republicans propose that!

Yeah Lisabob, I often wonder if Brent was my son's SM, would I allow him to remain in that unit? Hmmmmmm.

How does offering tax incentives help my uninsured sister Brent? Her only income right now is unemployment. And all of that is going to pay her mortgage and living expenses. She is looking for work. If she finds it (full time), she will probably be held from getting the company plan for 3 months. If she is part time, there will be no benefits offered. What do the republicans offer that will keep her from bankrupcy if she gets sick or injured during this period? Give me concrete solutions, not wishy washy tax benefits. What keeps my sister from declaring bankrupcy if she gets sick?