Mr. Boyce

There is a sport that I have played for many years, in many different competitive circumstances. I have gotten very proficient at it. AFTER a while, with many skills and interests, you get to the point---naturally, I think---where you want to share your interest, excitement, benefits of the activity or sport. It is almost a natural progression: novice, intermediate, expert, and then teacher. It strikes me that scouting is like this for many. Shame that our (media-whipped?) fears hurt scouting by blocking out seriously good scouters because they are deemed "creepy". (And, heck, ANYONE can say "creepy" about someone, perhaps without thinking much about it, and have a social impact and generate fears, worries, concerns.

Just a comment. My own parents were pretty uninvolved in my scouting as a boy, so your question, OP, strikes me, at least, as unusual. If he's not interested, he's not interested. Perhaps encourage him to try OA events a couple more times, but maybe he's starting to like NASCAR or hockey or home electronics or something. Perhaps he's tired of scouting. I got a ton out of my OA work. But maybe it's not for him. And perhaps you're doing some helicoptering here (I mean this humorously but respectfully as well).

Just from the perspective of a citizen, I think it's extremely useful to have boys trained as scouts. So there is a public interest in promoting scouting. The whole homosexual issue makes the error of focussing singly and solely on one aspect of scouting, and damning all the rest. As a member of the general public, I don't take such a fundamentalist, politically extreme view as this. If homosexuals organized a public safety squad and trained in CPR, I'd have no problem with local government support: it may be the case that my life would be saved, or someone in my family, etc. (And isn't it surprising how dependent upon government support so many gay groups have become? Some lurking lawsuits there, I would suspect!)

This could be a pretty expensive experiment. I would guess the national organization is pretty much giving them away (which might be a positive from an advertising point of view), since the rate of pulping leftover mags from national stands is exhorbitantly high. But I think it's a great idea! I have some BL from around 1960. A very large circulation (2.3m.) and you would be surprised at the caliber of authors the magazine had: Yogi Berra (alright!), Arthur C. Clarke and a few others. Of course, the great American magazines suffered by the mid-60s with the increasing popularity of television.

You know, I take back what I said about "where are the creepy women?" I think I dated some, and a number of them have approached me for deep and meaningful, nonsensical but earnest conversations in airports and along city streets. In these times, you've got to feel sorry for males who aren't up to speed on NFL football, baseball and NASCAR; who don't know much about auto mechanics. One value of scouting is that it presents a view of maleness that's not so narrow and commercially stereotyped. I'm not saying men should be concerned with ballet dancing. But there's more to life that professional sports. Some guys who are considered "creepy" just might be really into stamp collecting or woodcarving or bird watching. I guess I'm apprehensive since I've seen people make snap judgments that weren't based on much fact.

Eagle90: I am pretty stunned by your comment! I'm retiring MY Vasques after 29 years of service.

We've all heard about the great values that sports participation is supposed to be giving kids. .. but I think for even the general public, this notion is wearing thin. I think people like sports for their kids because it often is a dump and run, the schedule is pretty clear, the activities are very open to the world, no secrets. But I think the old notion of teaching kids Proper English Gentleman Amateur Sports Values is laughed at by most people. That's just not the focus, if it ever was. Lisabob, your troop has problems, no doubt. Someone needs to clamp down on the bully for a time; it might be a good life lesson for the bully as well. The best thing about scouts is that it puts the kids in the drivers seat. It for the first time gives them a sense of empowerment. . . that "we can DO this" feeling, which is so vital for kids to get, since it begins letting them actually start realizing their potentials.

I need to replace some old hiking boots. I'm looking for some good suggestions: I'd like something midweight.

One thing that's highly disturbing to me is the appallingly high number of sexual partners the average homosexual male has. This suggests strongly, to me at least, some deep emotional disturbance. On an anecdotal level, I have had homosexual friends who have been cruelly abused by their "partners", essentially exploited financially and emotionally.

CalicoPenn (what an odd name!): I think you've hit the nail on the head. In downtimes, it's these bigger projects that first feel the pinch; just a few basis points can throw off the pro formas.

They're all good. . . but this one's a killer: You actually own a left-handed smoke shifter.

You know, my patch style is minimalism, so I'd leave off the world crest.

Again, some of the general demonizing of adult men. Of course, everyone wants to be safe, so fearfulness can get exaggerated. I am extremely thankful to have had a young single scoutmaster--one who put a ton of time and money into it; he could relate well to us boys ("youth") and we had a great time. (Of course, when he got to being serious about getting married, he realized being in the woods on weekends hurt his prospects and ditched the troop!). At any rate, as an adult male, I'm tired of getting people thinking I'm a creep if I'm sitting on a park bench watching my son play far off, or just being by myself in public shopping or whatever. I'm just tired of it. Why isn't there a concern about creepy women? Such things exist. I'm just tired of this fearfulness, and I wonder if we exaggerate the amount of predators out there due to the media blasting every incident that happens across the country.

. . . that's why you cut OFF the collar and wear a neckerchief. And then decide not to wear the "world crest" unless you've been out of the country on scouting business.

I would be highly skeptical of those journals you mention since, as you note, the field is politicized. As you know the "genetic theory" has been discredited, so the environment must be a genuine influence. Or so research suggests. My dime's done on this topic.

Dan, I have a question you may be able to answer. If it took concerted threats of physical violence from homosexual activists to overturn the American Psychological Association's definition of homosexuality as a disorder. . . is this proper scientific procedure? I've read much. The best explanation for homosexuality remains a disorder created by a child's difficulties in relating to the genders. His or her environment and family count for much of this phenomenon. And so, too, is the "as a twig is bent, so forms the tree": a sexually immature person can be "taught" homosexual behavior and come to see himself or herself as a homosexual through the machinations of an experienced older homosexual who is preying on the youth. THIS is one of the dangers most people are apprehensive about.

Unfortunately, most of what people know about homosexuality is sound bite particles coming from television. And much of what television and other popular media understand about homosexuality has been supplied to them by the homosexual propagandists. Read the book "Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth" by Jeffrey Satinover. Your library should be able to fetch this for you.

I would happily vote YES on Prop 8! I'm very happy the Mormon Church is helping fund the Yes on 8 initiative; in fact, I also sent in a contribution. Marriage is more than just two individuals in love; homosexuality is a complex disorder and something not to be promoted.

The whole "fear of adult men" thing really has gone too far. . . not to mention that it's an inconvenience to adult men.

Just a clarification. I'm no lefty. I think as a boy ("youth") I really liked being in the woods, and time spent fiddling with clean uniforms and uniform exactitude smacked of school. I'd rather hike. I like very much scout bugling, and I think scout flag teams make a lot of sense. And hey, I appreciate the military as much as anyone.

Well, good for you! It sounds like you found something you're into! I am the exact opposite of you. As a scout, I heavily disliked whatever smacked of the military in the BSA; our guys were into it to be outdoors. That military stuff always seems to attract people excessively mooney over guns.

You know, one item the scouts apparently have recently phased out? That yellow shirt the female cub scout den leaders would wear. I thought it really looked exceptional. I liked that color yellow.

I can recall visiting a Girl Scout camp and being shocked when told that the girls didn't camp in tents, but instead used these wonderful buildings, complete with indoor flush toilets and bathrooms. .. essentially nice, new army barracks! No sleeping on the ground, hey? As for the heavy lifting, I've also seen that somehow it's the men that get whirled into doing this. It's interesting to me that SO many women disbelieve me (and others) when we say that we ENJOY getting grubby in the outdoors, eating beans and farting around a campfire, and so forth. Perhaps they disbelieve because it doesn't fit their theories (or because they haven't been around boys being boys).

I was hoping the new uniform would go back toward the classic scout uniform---knock off the Oscar doo-dads, bells and whistles. Instead, they upped it---but it kind of makes sense in 2008 to try to follow what's trendy at Columbia, Patagonia, REI, etc. At the end of the day, the boy's going to be more attracted to that. I dislike the military look. It's a gut reaction. My former troop was more conservation oriented than battle oriented, I suppose. We never really captured that "formal" look some troops practice. Regarding China. I'm tired of buying Chinese stuff. To me, it indicates a serious lack of policymaking at the federal level: we should have developed advanced manufacturing in the U.S. to a much greater extent, rather than let it all slip offshore. So much for concern about the middle class!

I wouldn't be surprised if the OA site qualified for the National REgister of Historic Places. At any rate, the national scout museum should pick up whatever OA fixtures are at Treasure Island, should it be sold.