GernBlansten

So you'd rather spend $2,287 of your own money helping foreigners than spend $166 to help Americans? That's pretty liberal of you.

Are you saying that there will be no Death Panels? Next you are gonna say that there isn't a provision for illegal aliens to get free abortions. Just keep the government away from Medicare.

Its the panel that will haul Trig and Grandma Palin off to the Soylent Green factory. At least according to Sarah. You betcha!

I'm hoping to serve on an Obama Death Panel.

vol_scouter, quite the contrary. During the Bush years, the wars were "off budget", funded through special appropriations. Obama as put them back on budget. And the wars are not over, we continue to pour our treasure and blood on the soils of Iraq and Afghanistan. We will be there for decades.

I don't see any difference in having 6 scouts helping setup these computers than having 6 scouts paint a fence. But the real question is what benefit is the school getting from this. We are talking Windows 7 here.

What Obama spent on GM and Chrysler was about 2 months worth of Iraq. Apples and Oranges. And we didn't send 5000 Americans to an early grave to save Detroit.

Got another solution? This trend started with our folly in Iraq. http://costofwar.com/ Remember, Clinton left office with a surplus.

For a youth program, we adults sure do spend a lot of time decorating ourselves and debating and preening our decorations. Gotta have flair. At least 15 pieces, right? No spirit if you don't have flair. Heck without all the doodads, how could we tell one scouter from another? You know, what if everyone dresses the same. Uniform?

Why? We need to be trained so we know how to do our job, not because we can decorate ourselves. Frankly, adult recognition is one of the bigger problems we have. It creates cliques and prejudice. Sometimes I think the program is more for the adults than the youth.

Paging Mike Rowe.

scoutldr, Can you give us one specific item in that bill that scares the hell out of you? Just one, so we can share your scare.

One thing? I guess the biggest bang for the buck would be to allow a local option for everything. Membership, program, organization. Allow the charter orgs to run the program as they see fit. National will only publish program materials and support national scout camps.

I do enjoy the seasoned citizens screaming "keep government away from my Medicare!"

Dan, If you can't be right about the issue, at least be loud about it.

Amazing. America has reached a point where a debate on healthcare reform invokes Godwin's law. There is no hope for America. I hope our Chinese overlords will treat us well.

The time for a Venture girl to earn eagle would be 4 years, 14-18. Its not unreasonable. Most boys check out or at least stall out between 14 and 17 on advancement. They could also extend it to 21 for girls giving them 7 years to complete as they would be considered youth. The problem I see with GSUSA is they have a great program for elementary age girls, but then don't have a challenging/outdoor program for middle and high school girls. My daughter was active through about 4th grade, then lost interest.

Wow, if true, that could be a huge recruiting tool for us Venture Crew advisors.

Several of our boys used the BSA switchbacks for wet travel pants. Worked great. I kept mine for my dry camp pants. I used REI supplex zip offs for my wet pants. Same ones I used last time and at Philmont. But I took a punji stick through the legging on Heartbreak Portage and tore a 3 inch hole. More of a badge of honor for those pants. I ain't retiring them yet! I was able to keep the leeches at bay. I stuffed my pant legs into my boots while traveling. Some guys who didn't or wore shorts found leeches enjoying themselves. How were the bugs? I'm still healing.

If the gays were allowed to marry, would the promiscuity rate approach that of the rest of the population? You know, by definition, promiscuous sex is that which is engaged in outside the sanctity of marriage. So any sex by gays is in fact promiscuous. Right?

Protecting your feet is critical at NT. Jungle boots do a great job at that. In Bissett, we flew in by float plane 40 miles north of the closest road. We never saw another crew until the final day when we paddled back to the float plane dock to get extracted. A serious cut or punji stick through the ankle would have required an air rescue. That being said, our interpreter (that's what they call Charlie Guides in Canada) wore low cut water shoes. I thought he was nuts. But he was young and tough. As for the Altima knockoffs, when we arrived at base, another crew had just got extracted. They were showing off a Chinese knockoff that lost its entire sole on a nasty moose muck portage. They did what Brent did to repair it, except used zip ties. Pretty effective and resourceful. The staff was going to nail the boot to the gear shack.

But OGE, would you really waste a night on the town listening to El Rushbo? If you are gonna spend a night listening to drug addicts, at least they should be able to sing.

But vol_scouter, your argument against having gays being role models is based on their lifestyle choices which medically put themselves at risk and thus, put our youth at risk. I'm just look for consistency. If an obese scouter's lifestyle poses the same risk (or greater by modal population distribution) to their own health and transferable to the health of our youth, they should face the same consequences, right? Or is your religious views clouding your medical analysis? Or perhaps your own admission to being in the aforementioned target population? You are an enigma. Also, you state that heterosexuals do not sexually abuse same sex youth, only homosexuals do. That's contrary to evidence available. In fact, most pedophiles are heterosexual, many married with children. How in your medical opinion do you justify that position, when it contray to observed evidence?

Since they are requiring the Centenial uniform for Jamboree, shouldn't all outdated uniforms be available to the public domain? The uniforms these guys were wearing went out of "official" after the ODL was introduced, like 1980.

With all the doctor shopping El Rushbo has done, I'm sure he can still find an MD that will prescribe his drug needs. I hear there's a Dr. in Calif who recently was released by his patient that is available to administer to him. I wonder if El Rushbo needs IV anesthesia to get to sleep too?