packsaddle

...and thus spawning Scientology, I think. Interpretation isn't the problem though. The problem is when people are convinced their interpretation is THE absolute, unassailable truth. Mix in some myth and handle a few snakes and suddenly you can justify anything. More importantly, you can make a heck of a lot of money by fleecing the flocks of believers while engaging in the very practices you condemn while passing the loot.

I have a different suggestion. I'm one of those who leaves and never looks back. No anger or regrets, I just move on. A long time ago I left a great job with the power industry in the middle of a recession. People thought I was crazy. It was the best decision ever. I left home where I grew up after that and have never given it another thought. If you're of similar feelings, Pack up the boat or backpack and hit the road for a couple of weeks. Take HWMBO if she wants to go or let her stay in peace and quiet. Go find a quiet place in the woods and spend some time with only your thoughts and nature. No TV, no radio, no computer. Take a notebook and write. Eat well. Sleep as much as you want. And walk or go to any place you find interesting. And then make your decision. I did this for 6 weeks with my daughter back in 2005. I quit my cushy federal job after decades of time and took on a new position that I really like. I had lived up to my family obligations so I just removed the shackle. After a couple more years, I'll leave this position as well. No hard feelings. No regrets. Just the past receding into the distance. Maybe I'll take a job in the middle East, maybe I'll just hit the road. The troop had gotten to the point where it could do without my constant oversight so I returned to it after my trip, to work with the boys who needed guidance to eagle. Nothing more except a backpack trip or similar outing. I'm gradually fading into the past as the new leaders pick up the slack and it's working just fine. They don't really need me and I learned long ago that I will not change the stupid decisions that are made at the council level. The last of my cub scouts will complete eagle this year. I'm looking covetously at the AT. And then the Pacific Crest. Maybe the Ural Mountains. Or maybe take my boat to the Caribbean. Nice. Wife can come along if she wants to. Or not. The house will be paid for and she'll be far more comfortable without me. Life's good. I wish you luck.

I'm not sure what kind of insurance you're talking about. But while our trailer is parked on church property, it's insured by our CO property insurance policy. On the road it is covered by the policy of whoever owns the tow vehicle. The license renewal is paid by the CO, who holds title to the trailer. As for the other equipment, I doubt that much of that stuff would come under any insurance policy unless the building it was in was also destroyed. Then the CO's policy would be invoked. I'm not sure I'm answering the question that you intended to ask though.

Ed, when I was growing up I heard that same argument made by some of my church leaders with regard to race. They argued that the Bible was clear with regard to racial superiority and challenged anyone to provide quotes from the Bible that were not clear on the subject. And no one ever did, at least not to the satisfaction of the racist jerks who thought it was clear. They probably still think that way if they're still alive. But it was an idiotic argument back then. So what makes you think it isn't now? No one is going to find any passage in any book that can, as Gern has noted, support a negative contention. If it isn't clear to Trevorum or to Gern, or to me, or to someone else, then it is incumbent on YOU to show how it IS clear. Not the other way around. You can repeat your opinion as many times as you want, but it is unlikely to be any more persuasive than it was the first time if you don't provide positive support and explanation for it.

I'm surprised that The Scout isn't in on this. But despite what he claimed, I think this is another great demonstration of the way religion does NOT bring people together. Trev, I agree. Moreover, I think Father Reginald Foster, senior Vatican priest, agrees too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewTuAeMJbDs I really like that guy.

"...at times impatient while driving!" Judy, you have to be English to be allowed that level of understatement. Good luck and don't hurt yourself. There's probably more risk from the knife, though.

Hello again, yeah I've seen that checkout show everywhere except in Davis, CA. That place is really weird. People there are so polite and thoughtful that traffic will stop if they 'think' you're about to suddenly jaywalk across a street. Really! Anyway, a round limb needs to be split or sawn in order for the two sides to be nearly flat. The shape needs to be kind of long and slender but some trials with different designs will guide you to the optimum. The whittling should take place after you've produced the flats. I'd do it without swivels until they get the 'hang' of it. Remember though, the length of the string is a RADIUS. The swinging circle will have a diameter twice the length. There is a a best length that depends on the size of the wood piece and the size and length of the boy's arm. I'd start at about 4 feet and add or subtract length from there. Make sure they're clear of people and obstacles. And china shops, LOL.

Hi Judy, It's become a ritual that when we're driving on the Belt Parkway and we approach that sign to watch for wildlife, I just say, "There's wildlife here? Probably rats." And my wife responds the usual way with a slap to the back of my head. It's important to get the dimensions right and this is more fun if done trial by error. The type of wood isn't that important. Some maple or yew would do fine, I think. One thing that helps is to put a swivel on the string. One of those fishing swivels with ball bearings works best. But they work with just a string as well. Here's another simple design: http://www.toysfromtimespast.com/toys/bull.htm

Back when I was leading cubs, we made bull roarers and carved them differently to see what designs worked best and made different sounds. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullroarer goto this web site and take the (music) link to see the discussion. The boys had a lot of fun with them and got a fair amount of exercise swinging them to see whose was the loudest. Didn't see much wildlife on outings though.

This unit is over 50 years old so I had a similar experience during a major move from one storage location to another...old MB pamphlets, uniform parts, tent parts, etc. We dumped a pile of stuff that really needed to be dumped and slowly took our journey with the rest. I bet I can find similar stuff in my garage - used, of course.

My filter has the ceramic unit that can be cleaned and recleaned. I like it. But I only use if for personal needs and time is not a factor for me. I also use the 'prefilter' approach using a coffee filter or even a t-shirt. It helps. But I still boil most of it...night before, then let it cool for the coming day. I was in Russia in 1995 working on a project in one of those 'closed' cities where the USSR had been producing weapons. My co-worker and I were the only two Americans in the entire city of about 500,000 and we stayed at one of those old 'resort' facilities that were built for each type of worker (I think we were in the one for pipe workers). Anyway we were working on their water supply lake and they were very proud of their micro-filtration system for the water supply. We were also involved with upgrading that system so after a couple of weeks we finally got a tour. The lake water basically was pumped over to this central treatment plant where it was filtered to remove impurities. The micro-filtration, it turned out, had a mesh size about the same as a window screen - and actually looked a bit like window screens. Sure enough, when I got back to my room I filled a glass, looked carefully, and once in a while could see zooplankton with my naked eye, LOL. I drank a lot of beer and vodka after that. But the lake was really clean with a well-protected watershed of Ural Mountains forest. After two weeks of drinking that water I still didn't have any problems so I didn't worry much. That was one of the best trips ever. And...Russian women are breathtakingly beautiful...O - M - G!

I was a scout in the 1960s in Charlotte, NC. Integration was highly sensitive because Judge McMillan ruled that we would begin the large-scale integration of schools for the country. I remember a black troop showing up at a Scout Exposition. I remember leaders for some troops deciding to pack up and leave. I remember BSA professionals lamenting the sad situation with those leaders...and then lamenting the other side with mine. BSA wasn't exactly a monument to courage. If the organization is a money whore, it will continue to make decisions on that basis. But for practical purposes, local option already exists and BSA seems to be acting with the same moral compass it had in the 1960s.

OK, I'm curious. It seems that we all have most of the boys from outside the CO. What is going on? Are Methodists a dying breed? This CO is heavily skewed toward elderly congregation members so I guess that's a foregone conclusion. But is this true for all UMC churches? Moreover, why the heck doesn't this happen to Presbyterians? Very interesting question indeed.

Theoretically, once the water has been completely disinfected, the disinfectant isn't necessary - it must be reinfected before it poses a hazard. But we use filtration and have never had a problem. I mostly just boil it, but that depends on how much crap I have to skim off the surface first. I am waiting to see how effective the UV light treatment is.

My answer is: "for whatever and eny reason they choose" - pretty much the same as the reasons BSA can give for ejecting us. Yeah, I know it's glib but the answers are so varied and personal to each case that it can't really be pinpointed. Might be better to ask, 'Why does a leader stay?' and then use those answers to address those who decide to leave. Anyway, I'd add to the list, "Skin too thin" We have to remember that when a parent calls, yelling about one thing or another, they have really handed control over to you. If you keep your head and calmly and objectively address the concern, it has a good chance to disarm the tirade because underneath it all, those parents are really working for the benefit of the boys, same as us. It's up to us to turn something that looks and feels like antagonism into a team effort.

We have that bar and I can assure you it's mostly because of the non-church-member volunteers and not the CO. We still have plenty of things we could improve on.

My wife thinks I sleep walk through every serious convesation we have. (Vicki, you out there?) But I like the alarm idea of putting bells on the zipper or something along those lines. It actually reminds me of a song, "...rings on her fingers and bells on her toes, and a bone through her nose, ho, ho." Or something like that. I did like Ray Stevens. We've never encountered this problem. Nevertheless I am a very light sleeper and at least with my children, I was able to wake at every slightest stirring all the way until they left for college (which helps explain sleepwalking now through serious conversations with my wife).

We had a similar problem with church members putting their sons in a competing troop. I and other leaders worked with church leaders to sensitize them to the fact that they had a troop and they were not supporting it in the most meaningful way. When one of their prominent members became SM, there was a lot more visibility but we're still waiting on those boys. Until then we're still dependent on boys from all directions and that's fine with me. The only outright antagonisms I ever witnessed was from the 'little church lady' that it seems every church has and who just doesn't seem to like children. The other antagonism was in my troop when I was a boy. The Presbyterian church banned us from entering the church in uniform and banned the American Flag altogether. This was after they kicked out a really nice guy as minister because he supported the civil rights movement. I went to college soon after and never again looked back on Presbyterians with anything but ridicule.

Vermont just overrode the governor's veto: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/04/07/us/AP-GayMarriage-Vermont.html?_r=1&hp Times certainly are changing: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/03/AR2009040303026.html?hpid%3Dopinionsbox1&sub=AR

John-in-KC, yep you're right. I guess this council decided not to ask for letters a long time ago.

JoeBob, I appreciate the fact that you did that digging and then shared what you found. I'd like to sweeten the subject a bit. If you look closely at many of the little countries, including the little Caribbean Island countries, you'll find that aside from tourism, they don't have many economic resources and are continually searching for ways to fund healthcare and other improvements for the lives of their people. One thing I've noticed is that for some of those countries, one of their biggest resources is their vote in the UN. For that reason, if you keep your eyes open as you travel around, you'll see a variety of evidence of one large project funded by the USA, another funded by the old Soviet Union, and today you can find both old and new projects funded by China and Venezuela. Castro (for whatever reason) really blew it when he made his bed with the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, the Cuban people have paid that price. But this kind of commerce is really interesting and it often involves both energy and economic, as well as political entanglements. As far as the characterization by your source, that off-shore oil near Florida is 'massive', I'd advise care. It's probably massive compared to the oil produced in my back yard but if it was really that big, c'mon, we'd protect it with all the force that we've used to protect the oil in the middle east. Until it's produced it's speculative. Remember that the ANWR oil has been touted as our way to achieve energy independence even though it really represents less than a year of our total usage. Sometimes claims are justified and sometimes they're just hype.

We never read letters. We never see letters. We never get letters. We merely make sure the application is completed properly. No more, no less. If the letters are not required, then why is anyone reading them in the first place?(This message has been edited by packsaddle)

I wager it won't involve a cast iron dutch oven. But the answer is going to be highly variable. It will depend on the degree to which LNT is followed, the hunger factor, the actual need for calories, how much the food weighs, etc. I like to add water to some dirty rice or maybe some black beans and rice, and then add some dehydrated sausage slices and let it soak up the water for a while after it's cooked, maybe throw in some peanuts at the end. But if I'm hungry enough, I'll be happy with a can of cat food. I was just talkiing, this weekend, to about a dozen different individuals that had started their through-hike of the AT and were about a week into the experience. We discussed this very topic. Almost all were looking forward to an opportunity to dump a lot of weight and they were unanimous that pretty much any kind of light-weight, high-calorie food would be just great. There were two powerful cravings that two of them mentioned. One was for a big wedge of blue cheese (weird, huh?) and the other one said he was almost ready to kill for a cold beer. But I doubt that either of those things will be part of the answers to your question.

In some states, racial integration was forced by the courts. I remember it well.

I'm trying to understand the circumstances in which a boy would not already have some idea that he would get negative letters. We've never had something like this, thank goodness.