packsaddle

Thanks for the recipe, Mozart/Stosh.

Most of the time, secondary succession will do everything needed and all we need to do is nothing.

What the heck, here's another...no clues.

Another one for all of you in the frozen wastes:

This seemed to be appropriate for the thread title. Where in the world is Packsaddle? The title of this photo is: YIKES! The humor of this is that this is the ONLY road there is...as if there is any other evacuation route, lol.

Reading should watch the treasury very carefully.

Two DEs? I'm probably going to have bad dreams now...thanks a whole lot.

I can see Twocub's point but at this time, it's done. They may have stumbled around like Barney Fife but in the end they agreed with you. I'm not sure there's anything else to pursue within the BSA arena, although there seems to be plenty to address at school. We had a situation that was a little like this which resolved itself. The boy started as a cub and he was a chip off the old block, if you get my drift. Worse, the 'block' was rich and prominent in the community so we had to put up with a lot more because so many people were afraid to speak the obvious. So eventually, the kid decided that scouting was too lame and he left while still a cub....big sigh of relief. But then it continued at school. I had to explain to my son that if he would just wait quietly, sooner or later this problem would be taken care of. Sure enough, not too long later, the doors of the bus opened one day and an angry person walked onto the bus and beat hell out of the bully...and I mean really beat him to a pulp. That was the last bullying anyone ever heard out of that guy. I don't advocate violence but these days, something like that is almost certainly in his future - the longer it takes to arrive in his life, the worse the learning experience will be. I also knew another kid who was more of a loud-mouth than a bully. His lesson happened at age 21. The humbling experience cost him an eye and almost his life. These days, he too is a lot quieter.

If you have the organizational and leadership depth to take on a bunch of additional boys, go for it. Otherwise, I'd think about getting the parents in those adjacent areas to start a new pack or two. Either way, it's good of you to think about this.

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain..... Each family in your den is free to camp as a family any time you feel like it...as a private family campout. And if other families happen to join you then that is their choice. Those BSA guidelines and rules are for official outings and it's only official if the pack or den organizes it as an official outing and files a tour permit. If your family wants to go camping, go for it. If you want to invite like-minded families to join you, then you have no obligation whatsoever to involve BSA or their rules...as long as it's clear that this is a private activity and not an 'official' BSA activity by the den. Go for it and don't give that man behind the curtain any further thought. Edited part: Moreover, this approach allows you to invite ANY like-minded family, INCLUDING those who are not members of BSA. You are private citizens and not bound by membership as long as you organize it that way. Forget about that guy behind the curtain.

Glad for the troop. I hope the thief or thieves can be introduced to some 'selective pressure', evolutionarily-speaking. Edit: this would do the trick nicely: http://cmapspublic.ihmc.us/rid=1M95WKDGL-158XGMG-22JY/emasculator.jpg

Thoughtless at best. I could tick off a few points of the law that action violated as far as I'm concerned.

So, regarding poaching: I took over a weak pack. It was struggling but there was still some interest and I had things starting to turn around. Then the DE not only started up a new competing pack, a den leader for them also started calling the parents for boys in this pack and told them that our pack was going to 'go under', why not transfer to theirs? I found out about this when some parents called me upset that they hadn't been told our pack was 'going under'...which was news to me too. I could have bitten a tire in half. The DE and council did not even bother to respond to my request for assistance or a meeting about this problem. To make matters worse, the SM of the other local troop announced (he claimed he was trying to help) that he would not allow any boys from our pack to join that troop. Finally, at the following roundup, I overhead the DE talking to parents privately trying to get them not to join this pack. [and this is one of the principal reasons I will neither trust nor respect any DE ever again] So I waited until the next fall and prepared our own handouts and waited until I heard the date for the district roundup. Then I held an independent roundup ahead of the district date and snagged a bunch of new boys got their signed applications and checks and delivered them to the council myself. A couple of years later, we took almost half of the other pack enrollment and a bunch of den leaders. That SM and some others were really steamed. I merely reminded them of the saying about what goes around.

Now I see it too. He's definitely not holding his mouth just right or something.

I should send a couple of you to the corner as well but I'll merely close this one out.

TAHAWK, I'm curious as to how that is related to the original post. Anyway, citation please? Is this related to the work of Don Easterbrook?

The term, 'Pin Head' is sometimes used to denigrate persons by comparing them to real examples of the disorder of microcephaly. So in this case the reality is that the idea might not have been a very thoughtful one. And the beauty of our system is that we can HAVE bad ideas and even put them out there for others to read or hear. And then our friends will show us the wisdom (or not) of those ideas. In science it's called peer review. In society, if the rest of us see a bad idea as wisdom, we get bad policy or trickle down economics or something. In this case the students seem to have done things right. Yes there's hope for our young people, I see it every day. That's to be expected from thoughtful people, right?

Lucy, I'm home! Really Twocub, she barely escaped an ethics investigation after playing fast and loose with the concept of 'ethics' and then instituted a new code for everyone else. The two interesting parts of the code (not all of it is bad - the conflict of interest parts are just fine) are the clause which prohibits all social media activity during work or even outside of work if we're using state hardware. And then the clause which states that all employees are required to report any violations no matter how small or who it is they're reporting. Failure to report the violation is also a serious infraction. So I'll be watching our custodian to report them next time they're on their smart phone during the day. The National Science Foundation has been promoting Twitter as a means to bring science 'to the masses' so-to-speak. Guess THAT'S off the table now!

OK, I just heard that our governor is instituting a new code of conduct in which no state employee is allowed to access or use any social media using state systems or on the job...subject to termination. So if I'm able to respond at all from here on, it will be for short periods when I'm at my personal computer and off the clock. Sorry. This might be a good time to just hang it all up.

Well maybe the Jack-o-lantern pumpkins I know are different from yours. I think they're mmm...mmm...good.

What Stosh said. Seriously, I have never noticed this problem on anyone's avatar, not even yours. I think it's your eyes.

Galloping up to defend the honor of defenseless maligned pumpkins....there is NO SUCH THING as an inedible pumpkin. Pumpkins are very nearly the most perfect food there is,,,aside from bananas or something, pineapples aren't bad either, oranges too. Edit: MMmmmmm, mangos, soursop, Barbados cherries,......mangos and more mangos....

OK, I guess I'm biased here. I happen to absolutely love pumpkin pie. I've been known to eat an entire pie in one fairly casual meal...after the turkey, etc.....without throwing up. I really like pumpkin pie but NOT made from a can. I absolutely insist on starting with the actual pumpkin (and here I have to tell you it drives me crazy to see all those potential pies ruined for a religious holiday celebration). Anyway, I respectfully disagree with that cub scout. Edit: as for making it a 'state pie', that's another matter. Stupid politicians wasting the public's time for sure. Might as well just elect the pumpkins themselves to do the legislating...about the same level of intellect and you could carve them up and eat them afterwards. Edit: THAT is a great idea. As a civics lesson, bring a few pumpkins to the meeting and have the cubs name them after local politicians. Let them draw faces on the pumpkins and names. And then let the pumpkins 'campaign' for a political position after which have an 'election' to see which pumpkin won. Of course the news media need to be invited to share this opportunity for a bit of satire hiding in a civics lesson. Anyone else think this would work?

Shame on that cleric who, in spite of being widely unpopular and unacceptable to the Iranian people, nevertheless took power against the popular wishes of the vast majority of Iranians, nearly all of whom supported their autocratic Shah. Shame on the Ayatollah for turning what had been broad appreciation for the support the USA provided to prop up the Shah's regime - as our surrogate to guard and protect our access to Middle East oil. And shame on the Iranian people for failing to take advantage of all the freedoms our support for the Shah afforded them at all levels of society, the same freedoms we enjoy...of free, honest elections, freedom to speak out in criticism of those in power, freedoms of all sorts, shame on the Iranian population for ignoring the kindness and generosity of the Shah and his benevolent rule. Edit: If only Carter had done what Jesus would have done and continued to provide massive aid to the Shah in the form of military arms and economic support. Clearly Jesus would have sided with the Shah because that would have been the moral high ground. I'm just not quite clear on which arms Jesus would have preferred, cluster bombs or lots of automatic weapons...it's a tough choice. Maybe some tanks and advanced fighter jets, yeah those would be the choice by Jesus..whatever it took to keep that oil flowing.

As you wish.