packsaddle

OK, does this topic smack of I&P? Anyone? Seems like fun for now but it's hardly about Cub Scouts and definitely about politics.

Drive carefully! We'd hate to lose you.

LeCastor, I've written before that in my lifetime I can remember two presidents who I think were honest almost to a fault but nevertheless were honorable persons. We kicked both of them out..Carter was one of them (Ford the other, although I also give Ike a pass - I was just too young for him to count so maybe it's my 'conscious' lifetime, lol). And I have to hand Bill Clinton some credit for working with a Republican Congress to balance the budget probably for the last time in my lifetime (the first of many disappointments of the Bush administration). NJ....you could always turn off all that distraction and open a book.

Click, me too! In case you encounter this in the future, a few years back (it might have been a week ago for all I know) there was a forum member who was Buddhist and openly atheist. There was not a single member of the forums who objected when he stated his personal belief in "the higher power of reason." And that one was as perfect a response as I could imagine. As for: I say....helloooo....that computer you're staring at ain't connected to chopped liver..I hope. (sorry I've been thinking about Prometheus lately)

I guess I must be unusual because while I accept that politicians seem to be a hotbed of deceptions, I don't necessarily think life is better as a result. And as much as I'd like to be able to 'wash my hands' of the lot of them, I nevertheless understand that it is important to monitor their antics if for no other reason than to try to avoid becoming part of their collateral damage.

I will never forget the occasion...it was during that dreadful time when we were about to re-elect someone with Alzheimer's Disease... but for the time being there was a pleasant diversion at hand: Leonard Nimoy was here for an evening presentation and the auditorium was absolutely filled to standing room only. And everyone, me included, had arrived early to get the seats. So in an act of grotesque spontaneity, the student body began chanting, "Reagan, Bush, Four More Years" again and again. And I sat there horrified at what the speaker must have been thinking at that moment somewhere behind those curtains, "Beam me up, Scotty, no intelligent life here!"

Actually my earlier response was kind of a lame attempt to follow through your sarcasm (let's just let it all whimper into oblivion). ...as for ....The pun: Well, it isn't yours. It's something I detected the first time I learned of the usage of the terms trans-gender and cis-gender. Which, if your orientation is toward science (chemistry) instead of all those gooey human interactions, seems to be a play on words. Now 'transgender' is obviously a real term that is applied to individuals who have, to some extent or other, physically changed their bodies (but not their genetics). In chemistry this would be like changing the structure but not the formula. The pun comes when someone (I don't know who) apparently noticed that if there are chemicals with a 'trans' configuration (like that dreaded trans-fat we eat in many foods), that there are other isomers of that chemical with a 'cis' configuration (the good food stuff) and I supposed that they created this 'inside joke' of applying the term 'cis-male' or something like that as the other 'isomer' of people whose identity is the opposite direction (or isomer) of those who are 'trans' gender. OK, having explained that I can see that it's a really obscure play on words and probably a complete waste of time and effort. Maybe let that whimper into oblivion as well. Edit: but it was also an opportunity to pay a little honor to Spock who thought most things were 'fascinating'. He'll live long and prosper in many memories.

I find the permanent use of a pun based on a chemical characteristic to be fascinating.

Wow, I never would have thought you felt that way about the GA and war, or battle bravery, etc, Scouter99. It's for sure the first time I've ever considered that point of view. Fascinating

"Had I know this thread would devolve into name-calling, I would not have started it." I'm laughing so hard I'm slapping my knee. What part of I&P do you not understand? In this state, CC was rejected so harshly that when the state board of education was instructed to create a new set of standards, they were also instructed that they couldn't reference or even READ the CC. And worse, they were given an impossibly short time to create the new standards. I say impossible because the political process itself (nevermind writing the standards) required more time than they were given. Does the term 'stupid' come to anyone's mind here? So after the political time frame finally hit home and the SBOE struggled to figure out how to write good standards that were substantially different from CC without actually referring to the CC, the process bogged down and almost without exception, the teachers I interact with say that the problem is that any standards that are likely to replace CC are probably going to be weaker than CC. Result: we're continuing with the old standards - which compared nationally, are actually fairly good....problem is...they 'look' a little like CC. If anyone is wondering why that is, I can tell you privately. It's a good story. As for science and especially biology standards, we're also continuing the struggle there as well...but with fairly good success.

Try reading through this COMPLETE description of that particular Common Core lesson and see if anyone still has concerns. http://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/american-civil-war/resources/gettysburg-address-common-core-unit

I agree. Doesn't seem to have a program component. I think the premise is flawed. Those representatives are individuals who, in their own minds, may already meet the challenge in the OP.

2015 might be my last year of involvement. It's been a long time and I'm tired and lately I just want to play with my grandchildren. But no one knows what the future might bring. I'll just roll with it whatever IT is.

Reminds me of one of my all-time favorite quotes: "Men work to develop their evil skills. Womenâ€â€it is my beliefâ€â€merely summon them." - in 'Harlot's Ghost' by Norman Mailer

You know, I think that my eyes started to glaze over on the second line of the OP. This is an almost inevitable outcome of 'the policy'. And now, in response, I am thinking I'll return to the exquisite simplicity of....Cub Scouts.....and let the rest of this mess just fester into oblivion. BSA dug its own hole a long time ago and the only question remaining is how deep they are willing to slither into it. Edit: Haven't touched alcohol in years but I do remember the great taste of Point Special. It's funny though, while I can remember Grain Belt and Hamm's (Minnesota), I have no memory at all of any beer from Illinois. So I suspect that ANY beer from Wisconsin is likely better than beer in Illinois.

Sentinel, which of those two alternatives is the good one? Edit: KenDavis, our CO replaced their 15 passenger vans with real buses about 13 years ago due to this issue. As others have noted, it's old news...BSA is, as usual, experiencing delayed development.

Well Calico, that's all just fine but you have to admit that there is also a finite probability (however infinitesimal) that some BSA executive type accidentally dropped a slice of toast at breakfast and it landed, jam-down, on the newspaper and while he was trying to lick the jam off he noticed a small article about van safety and suddenly a clot was freed up in his brain and he remembered, OMG! we use those vans too! And he immediately called his subordinate, ordered the subordinate to issue the edict...and then turned his attention back to a big slice of cheesecake and a cup of coffee and his true passion for the only part of the paper worth reading in his opinion...the comics. All of which is merely coincidental to the inference you just made.

Sorry. I guess that might have seemed harsh but it's nothing compared to what I do to journal articles. I thought I had toned it down sufficiently...evidently not. My apologies. To me the way to get them outside and into the forest or field...is to do it. Get them out. Which for me, since this is my field, isn't all that difficult or controversial. Maybe I'm a little too critical of journalists who think they know something.

OK, before we all start to see who has the biggest dangling participle, I offer this much more reliable source of news for your consideration and enjoyment: http://nationalreport.net/

I see the sentence that ends with a preposition but not the split infinitive. I wonder how many people are going to take this seriously...seriously? 1 April came early.

LeCastor, it seems that the hijack is over....before I could 'flip the switch' on this thread...a good thing. There have been many laments regarding the inactivity of children 'these days'. I guess it really is quite different given the electronic diversions that are available. I don't have a solution to this if it really is a problem. When I was their age most of my peers were not wasting away in front of some computer game. Instead they were wasting away working on a car or some even greater waste of time. For the boys today I offer walks and hikes in the forest and fields, backpacking trips, anything to get them outside, and I create games to try to generate interest in what's out there. Being able to 'name' things is OK but the better stories are about what they DO and how they interact. It helps to be able to collect specimens and put them under a 'scope to see the truly 'hidden' world. But all that depends on boys having a spark of interest in these things to begin with and if that's not something they've learned or experienced in their families, it's a rare case that the spark is innate and I haven't found the secret to causing greater interest in, for example, spore prints, than some stupid facebook 'conversation'. It helps to ban cell phones while out there. Edit: OK, I can't stand it. The book is not all that well-written. I have a suspicion he did it as much for the money as for any other motivation. It doesn't really have many (if any) original ideas but is rather a compendium or, being generous, a synthesis of the works of others...which is fair enough if it presents something that is a bit less of a sermon in the end. It doesn't. Yes, children need the opportunity for exploration and imagination. They should not be sucked into some two-dimensional screen for their formative years. Is this really something we didn't know already? How many of the ideas of this book did ANY members of these forums not already understand? Really? So to sort of quote one of the negative reviews: 'Put the book away and take the children outside to have a real experience'.

LOL, I said 'try' after all....but then, you've never been on the receiving end of my 'dark side', lol. So what do you think is the way to untie this Gordian knot?

NJ, right. I object to that as well. Most of the time someone else pays the registration fees as far as I can tell. But BSA shouldn't be charging volunteers for this kind of thing. Training should be on BSA's nickel as well. S.P. Hellooo....non-co-ed dorms are common today and were much more common in the past. This institution does have residence hall visitation limits and prohibits alcohol unless there is administration approval in advance. This has been the 'norm' for a very long time. I note that you have laid the blame on the women. I'll let that stand as it is.

That an organization which derives benefit from volunteer workers should require volunteers to pay money in order to volunteer...is obscene.

I'll do it. I try to be equally mean to everyone. The religious beliefs of anyone involved shouldn't even be known publicly unless the trial is about some kind of religion-based conflict that relates to the faith of the conflicting individuals. If the legal battle is over something involving rebuilding a transmission, for example, or a property boundary..it shouldn't matter or even be entered into evidence what the 'faith' of each individual is.