TAHAWK

Mr. Fox, the Scxouter, has posted this: [Paragraphs created. Spelling as in original]

In the UK and the U.S., Scouting from the first was traditionally character and citizenship development, the second being inclusive of leadership development. Also, Scouting from the first has aimed at achieving the physical and mental development of boys: good people and good citizens who are sound in mind and body. We know this because the leaders of Scouting have consitently said so for 107 years. While emphasizing the importance of the spiritual, Scouting has never presented itself as religious training. On the contrary, religious training is expressly left to religions. The other aspects of the program that you mention, and very important aspects that you do not mention, were consciously selected to attract youth and to achieve Scouting's objectives. Adults have always been, and remain, critical to the program - and, at the same time, because of thier critical role, the greatest threat to the program - especially youth leadership. B.S.A needs to first address a quality "product," and only then address marketing that program.

SM Bob, but for the Scoutmasters, the scam would not be possible. The staff knows the candidates are not earning the MBs: "You pretend to give me a job I can do; I pretend to do it." The Council execs know it's wrong, are sworn to do it right, but deliberately break the rules. B.S.A. Corporate knows it's wrong and allows it to happen. The kids know they didn't earn the MBs but almost everyone else tells them "great job," so it must be OK. (Happily, I have had a number come to me after getting the Blue Card signed to work on the MB. THEY should be in charge.) Say it again: "Traditional Values" MattR, Eagle was special; something 1% achieved. You had to earn all the badges, including Lifesaving with no alternatives. It wasn't lack of caring that held people back. It was hard to achieve. Now, all the children are expected to be above average (and in OA). The focus at Summer Camp back then was on fun - and a couple of Merit Badges that were hard to earn "down the hill." The thinking was that two MBs in a week was 104 a year. That left time for fun. The notion that Citizenship and the like would even be offered at camp would have been seen as outlandish.

Absolutely not required. However, here is a course where the students do not even touch the text, are not tested, but all get an "A." "Traditional values"

No sense singling out the camp or council since it's a wide-spread practice at council summer camps to deliberately violate the rules for many Merit Badges. The councils know what they are doing. I have written acknowledgement from B.S.A. Corporate that this is a known practice and have received no indication of any plan - or will - to correct it. 2014 Summer Camp evidenced no change from all but one prior experience since 1981 in council camps in five states. It's a long-standing practice. The practice? All Merit Badges in Scoutcraft and Citizenship areas again given out without individual testing and most "Merit Badge Counselors" were not, in fact, Merit Badge Counselors. "Prerequisites" not enforced. Candidates not required to have, much less read, Merit Badge pamphlets. (I am not sure about the other Merit badge areas.) One egregious example. Fifteen candidates for Wilderness Survival and one moderately informed staffer. That meant 15.5 minutes per candidate for the week. The staffer, despite excellent presentation and interpersonal skills, did not have time to even mention all the topics of the requirements. Eight of the candidates were Scout or Tenderfoot. Six candidates were attending their first BSA camping experience. Nevertheless, the badges were given out. Not even the "three fire" requirement was enforced, so it was worse than last year. What could be done? Refuse to certify camps who show that they are structuring their Merit Badge programs to violate the rules. Demand as a condition of certification that all Merit Badge "counselors" in fact be Merit Badge Counselors and that ratios of candidates to Counselors be limited to those allowing compliance with the rules. Eliminate the Scout Executives who lead these systematic violations of the rules. OR Eliminate the rules and stop pretending. Creating rules and allowing for massive and routine violation creates disrespect for rules in general and for those who persist in such specious and untrustworthy behavior. Change the title of the award to "Potential Eagle Scout." In further news, Eagle Scout is now being awarded at a rate 700% what it was in the 1960's - and climbing.

The senior Senator from Iowa is looking into the matter. New tune: Not sure I'd say it quite like this: CBP has denied media access to the video that it says exonerates the agent from the claim of drawing his pistol. Prelude to hard drive crash? ​ CBP has also declined to supply copy of statute that it says authorizes no photographing rule. Well, they doubtless have a pen and telephone.

We already have the UNTRAINABLE patch. Won;t that do? ^___^ __________________________ Which "uniform"?

Says the regime: And in further news:

Civil and criminal.

Assuming it went down as described - boy picture agent gun seizure of camera threats, its fairly ugly. This seems accurate: See also: http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/spl/documents/Sharp_ltr_5-14-12.pdf So we have a person acting under color of law depriving a citizen - or two - of his Constitutionally-protected rights by threat of lethal force. That would be a civil wrong and possibly a criminal offense. A Google search of boy scout border canada alaska agent gun camera = 329,000 hits

Your "juggernaut" quote is from SFGate.com, writing before the Court journalized its final judgment. As the quoted language from the Court shows, the Court held that BSA had acquired a right to the trademarks as a matter of law before the Charter. "From before 1916 when the charter was passed, the strength of the Boy Scout's marks had been established as a matter of law. Again, the court in Adolph Kastor explained that the Federal Trade Commission had already found that "the words 'Scout" and "Scouting" had acquired a secondary meaning as applied to the Boy Scouting movement. 138 F.2d at 825." [emphasis added] In the 1943 Kastor case, cited by the Court in Wrenn, appears the following language by Judge Learned Hand explaining why the Kastor Company was correctly barred by the FTC from using "Scout" on its knives: [emphasis added] Cited and quoted, Boy Scouts of America v. Teal, No. 72-2319 (E.D. Pa. 04/23/1974) A court may rule otherwise in the future. For now, what we have is a series of administrative and court decisions giving BSA property in the words "Scout" and "Scouting" under trademark law before the Charter was granted and notwithstanding the Charter.

Really hard, at the least. We had four - what shall I call them? - non theist participants at NYLT this year (Jains and Buddhists) and it lengthened the time that had be devoted to come up with a program that was "spiritual" but not offernsive to the theists.

The Court in Wrenn held that the BSA's rights, as I noted, arose from trademark law AND the charter. Further, the court held that the riights arising under trademark law predated the Charter. "From before 1916 when the charter was passed, the strength of the Boy Scout's marks had been established as a matter of law. Again, the court in Adolph Kastor explained that the Federal Trade Commission had already found that "the words 'Scout" and "Scouting" had acquired a secondary meaning as applied to the Boy Scouting movement. 138 F.2d at 825." . . . "[This status was] in addition to the legislative protection provided by the charter." I wonder how many competing organizations using "Scout" or "Scouts" continued to exist by the time of the Charter. Certainly, some did.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_H._McRaven

Comment: They do that quite frequently. They just fought a legal battle with SCOTUS over their desire to discriminate against the religious owners of Hobby Lobby, in violation of a statute signed into law by President Clinton. They have ended contracts with Catholic adoption agencies over their commitment to abide by their religious beliefs. Reply: No, the Catholic adoption agencies ended the contracts, because the government would not grant those contracts to agencies that excluded gays as potential adopters. Those agencies could have either agreed to the contracts, or continued without government funding. My problem: I am missing both how the reply relates to the first sentence and the meaningful distinction between cancelling and setting conditions you know will be deal-killers. Comment: I'd say yes and no. I certainly have no objection to that if that is what the demand is for. However my experience here in the UK is that that pressure doesn't really seem to be present in scouts. When the uniform goes on they stop being boys and girls and they just see each other as scouts. It all seems to work quite well. That is not the experience reported by my friends in Canada. "Like rabbits" is what I keep hearing.

Our Council demoted the Camp Director who was running a Merit Badge Mill. After nearly two yeasr as a jr.-level DE, they fired him outright. He had other problems. The mill is running full blast at another Council's camp. "Change Camp Directors" Sounds good. Why stop there? Ending pain, suffering, and evil would also be good.

How is American business in a "mess"?

A. After trying to work with the camp and its council and being told they can't afford to follow the rules, I am working with National. B. Which point of the Law leads you to "It's un-scout-like [sic] to complain"? C. Adults can counsel but do not determine what camp the PLC selects. D. "Some" Merit Badges are given reather than being earned. E. If a camp cannot afford to adequately staff for the number of candidates they accept, how does that support the conclusion that they are entited to cheat? I'll bet you can think of alternatives. Look! You did. But as I noted, some camps cannot see how to use volunteers or absolutely do not want them, and you seem to fall into the second category: "Of course the camp staff counselors don't want the adults around. It's like being SPL in a troop with a uptight scoutmaster waiting to pounce on you at the slightest mistake." F. Note that Metrit Badge Counselors must be adults. That makes it very hard not to have adults around - unless you cheat.

Sure. They can recycle. Also, what is not "disposable"? Look in the L&F at the end of Summer Camp nad see what gets disposed of. (It's the single boots that get me.)

Indeed they do. In all cases, "could" needs to be empowered by "may." My home council has the advancement Committee organize Counselors on a rotating basis so the candiate to Counselor ratio is more like 5/1 Plus, the candidiates are told to arrive prepared to be tested on designated requirements - most of the requirements in fact. This council for this camp has no Advancement Committee. They were stunned when I asked to help ("How?") This place has no process to allow Counselors to function to supplement, much less replace, the non-Counselors. They will let you watch - even make a comment or two and coach the kids having trouble with fires -- but the mill must keep grinding. Absolutely will not have you test and they will not test. The Blue Cards are signed by the Program Director who has had zero contact with the candidates. The worst mills want no part of actual Counselors around to see what is going on. Might interfere with handing out party favors. I was told at one camp that adults - any adults -- merely being present would "bother" the staff.

Just learned Summer Camp where PLC decided to go has 45 candidates for Wilderness Survival and one "counselor" in three sessions That gives him about eighteen minutes per candiate for instruction and testing - only there will undoubtedly be no testing + time for shelter-building, such as it will be. I wonder if the "counselor" is, in fact, a Counselor. They had a Counselor for that MB but he had to leave after first four weeks, so ?????.

I've heard this song before. It is a crashing bore. I would not shed a tear If I heard it nevermore.

Rant follows. As National Council knows, many council camps do not enforce requirements for some Merit Badges. EXAMPLE: "class" of forty+ Scouts listen to lectures on First Aid MB topics for 250 minutes in the heat of Summer and, with no individual testing and even if unconscious for part of 250 minutes, all get MB. EXAMPLE: 40+ Scouts listen to lestures on WIlderness Survival (Often inaccurate: bear bag is made of special cloth so bears cannot smell contents), build functionally useless shelter (can be seen through from any angle), start three fires without using match (butane lighters OK; propane torch OK) and with no testing on any of the other ten requirements (and subparts) all who "get" three fires receive MB. EXAMPLE: entire "Scoutcraft" staff under 18 and not one of seven registered as a MBC. Handed out Pioneering Metrit Badge by Thursday to a Scout who literally could not tie one knot (I worked with him for thirty minutes and could not get him to tie a Square Knot.). Q: "What about your pioneering project?" A: "Project?" National Council tells me they do not know how to deal with this. (??!!!) Councils say they cannot afford staff to allow individual testing. Interesting the conclusion they draw from this. Many camps advertise "Camp _____ is not a Merit Badge mill." What if many homes in your town had signs saying, "Prostitutes do not live here"? National Council also says MBs given out without indiviidual testing by registered Merit Badge Counselor (that is, a person 18 or older registered with a council as a MBC) have not been earned. Enforcement? We once had actual camp inspections. This is a disgrace and helps explain why the numbers of "Eagles" have climbed from 1% to 5% to 7% in 2013 and to whatever it is now. But, you know, debasing coinage does not maintain, much less increase, its value. What are we teaching the Scouts - staff and participants?

Sort of like hailing a polite armed robber. NYT is proudly left-wing. That's OK. Others are proudly right-wing. I'd like to find "Proudly Objective." That NYT is clearly not. PLEASE ask for examples. However, the fact is that the right was disproportionately targeted, all right groups were denied certification, all but one left group was certified. So you are accurate - and ignoring the truth at the same time. Sort of like NYT hailing fall in unimployment while ignoring fall in absolute and relative numbers of the employed and increase of those on public assistance. (Those not actively seeking work do not count.) But if I was an organ actively supporting the current government, that is what I would focus on as well. The emails would have been stored, in the first instance, on a server, not indivdual PC's; there is no information on any crash of servers; there IS a back-up system that stores all emails on tape and it says ?????. Didn't trust The Trick. Don't trust the current band of pols. Power, even for one with almost no experience of using power, seems to corrupt. Didn't someone say that once? 0___0