TAHAWK

Here's a tip: Stand outside the meeting room(s) and listen. Whom do you hear? Scouts? Scout Leaders? Adults? If primarily the last, move along. It's not a real Scout troop.

Based on thirty-eight year's experience in OH, PA and WV, twelve months per year, the "Timberline" is good for wind coming along the long access of the tent and poor in cross winds. In cross winds, the side collapses in and hits the occupants in the face - only bad after the first 2000 hits. Eureka came out with what was essentially a Timberline with a center hoop to solve this short-coming, the recently discontinued "Alpine Meadows." Eureka "expedition tents" had a model with several reinforced side tie-outs to resist the wind. Our Scouts can usually set up a TL by feel.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/333143222137

Churches, schools, and other organizations are also being targeted.

"Wilderness Survival Merit Badge Counselor, age 16, Camp Frontier: "Bear Bags are made of special material so a bear cannot smell the food and the other stuff in the bag." 11-year-old candidate: "How do you keep the bear a mile away upwind ?" Only two of 37 candidates had even touched the MB pamphlet. Several were 11 or younger and on their first campout ever. Everyone who attended all five 50-minute sessions - all 37 - received the Merit Badge with no testing of anyone on anything. A Scout is trustworthy.

The other Georgia: https://sputniknews.com/world/20131231186124958-Vandalized-Stalin-Statue-Torn-Down-in-Georgia/

I can quote my own southern Ky ancestors that the "War of Northern Aggression" was aimed at slavery. My late fraternal grandmother was National Commander of the Daughters of the Confederacy, so I've heard it all ("War is not civil!" is a favorite.). But there is no need to quote her as the Confederate Constitution expressly makes enslavement of the "negro" a civil right of the so-called "White Race" and the rebel leaders were explicit that the threat to the preservation and expansion of chattel slavery of the "negro" was THE casus belli: "No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law denying or impairing the right of property in negro slaves shall be passed." "The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States; and shall have the right of transit and sojourn in any State of this Confederacy, with their slaves and other property; and the right of property in said slaves shall not be thereby impaired." "The Confederate States may acquire new territory; and Congress shall have power to legislate and provide governments for the inhabitants of all territory belonging to the Confederate States, lying without the limits of the several States; and may permit them, at such times, and in such manner as it may by law provide, to form States to be admitted into the Confederacy. In all such territory the institution of negro slavery, as it now exists in the Confederate States, shall be recognized and protected by Congress and by the Territorial government; and the inhabitants of the several Confederate States and Territories shall have the right to take to such Territory any slaves lawfully held by them in any of the States or Territories of the Confederate States." [emphasis added]. "Vice-President" Alexander Stevens gives the lie to the myth that the rebellion was not "about" slavery: "The new [rebel] Constitution has put at rest forever all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institutions-African slavery as it exists among us-the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution. Jefferson, in his forecast, had anticipated this, as the “rock upon which the old Union would split.” He was right. What was conjecture with him, is now a realized fact. But whether he fully comprehended the great truth upon which that rock stood and stands, may be doubted. The prevailing ideas entertained by him and most of the leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old Constitution were, that the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature; that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally and politically. It was an evil they knew not well how to deal with; but the general opinion of the men of that day was, that, somehow or other, in the order of Providence, the institution would be evanescent and pass away. This idea, though not incorporated in the Constitution, was the prevailing idea at the time. The Constitution, it is true, secured every essential guarantee to the institution while it should last, and hence no argument can be justly used against the constitutional guarantees thus secured, because of the common sentiment of the day. Those ideas, however, were fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption of the equality of races. This was an error. It was a sandy foundation, and the idea of a Government built upon it-when the 'storm came and the wind blew, it fell.' Our new Government is founded upon exactly the opposite ideas; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and moral condition. This, our new Government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth. This truth has been slow in the process of its development, like all other truths in the various departments of science. It is so even amongst us. Many who hear me, perhaps, can recollect well that this truth was not generally admitted, even within their day. The errors of the past generation still clung to many as late as twenty years ago. Those at the North who still cling to these errors with a zeal above knowledge, we justly denominate fanatics. All fanaticism springs from an aberration of the mind; from a defect in reasoning. It is a species of insanity. One of the most striking characteristics of insanity, in many instances, is, forming correct conclusions from fancied or erroneous premises; so with the anti-slavery fanatics: their conclusions are right if their premises are. They assume that the negro is equal, and hence conclude that he is entitled to equal privileges and rights, with the white man…. I recollect once of having heard a gentleman from one of the Northern States, of great power and ability, announce in the House of Representatives, with imposing effect, that we of the South would be compelled, ultimately, to yield upon this subject of slavery; that it was as impossible to war successfully against a principle in politics, as it was in physics or mechanics. That the principle would ultimately prevail. That we, in maintaining slavery as it exists with us, were warring against a principle-a principle founded in nature, the principle of the equality of man. The reply I made to him was, that upon his own grounds we should succeed, and that he and his associates in their crusade against our institutions would ultimately fail. The truth announced, that it was as impossible to war successfully against a principle in politics as well as in physics and mechanics, I admitted, but told him it was he and those acting with him who were warring against a principle. They were attempting to make things equal which the Creator had made unequal. . . . The negro by nature, or by the curse against Canaan, is fitted for that condition which he occupies in our system. The architect, in the construction of buildings, lays the foundation with the proper material-the granite-then comes the brick or the marble. The substratum of our society is made of the material fitted by nature for it, and by experience we know that it is the best, not only for the superior but for the inferior race, that it should be so. It is, indeed, in conformity with the Creator. It is not for us to inquire into the wisdom of His ordinances or to question them. For His own purposes He has made one race to differ from another, as He has made “one star to differ from another in glory.”[emphasis added]. Frank Moore, ed., Rebellion Record: A Diary of American Events, with Documents, Narratives, Illustrative Incidents, Poetry, etc. Volume I, (New York: 1861), 45-46. South Carolina said in rebelling: "A geographical line has been drawn across the Union, and all the States north of that line have united in the election of a man to the high office of President of the United States, whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery. He is to be entrusted with the administration of the common Government, because he has declared that that “Government cannot endure permanently half slave, half free,” and that the public mind must rest in the belief that slavery is in the course of ultimate extinction. This sectional combination for the submersion of the Constitution, has been aided in some of the States by elevating to citizenship, persons who, by the supreme law of the land [sic] , are incapable of becoming citizens; and their votes have been used to inaugurate a new policy, hostile to the South, and destructive of its beliefs and safety." [emphasis added] Louisiana: "The people of the slave holding States are bound together by the same necessity and determination to preserve African slavery." Alabama: "Therefore it is that the election of Mr. Lincoln cannot be regarded otherwise than a solemn declaration, on the part of a great majority of the Northern people, of hostility to the South, her property and her institutions—nothing less than an open declaration of war—for the triumph of this new theory of Government destroys the property of the South, lays waste her fields, and inaugurates all the horrors of a San Domingo servile insurrection, consigning her citizens to assassinations, and. her wives and daughters to pollution and violation, to gratify the lust of half-civilized Africans." Texas: "...in this free government all white men are and of right ought to be entitled to equal civil and political rights; that the servitude of the African race, as existing in these States, is mutually beneficial to both bond and free, and is abundantly authorized and justified by the experience of mankind, and the revealed will of the Almighty Creator, as recognized by all Christian nations; while the destruction of the existing relations between the two races, as advocated by our sectional enemies, would bring inevitable calamities upon both and desolation upon the fifteen slave-holding states...." Jefferson Davis: "You too know, that among us, white men have an equality resulting from a presence of a lower caste, which cannot exist where white men fill the position here occupied by the servile race. The mechanic who comes among us, employing the less intellectual labor of the African, takes the position which only a master-workman occupies where all the mechanics are white, and therefore it is that our mechanics hold their position of absolute equality among us." Stephen F. Hale, Commissioner of the "Confederate Government, to Governor Beriah Magoffin of Kentucky after the election of Lincoln: "If the policy of the Republicans is carried out, according to the programme indicated by the leaders of the party, and the South submits, degradation and ruin must overwhelm alike all classes of citizens in the Southern States. The slave-holder and non-­slave-holder must ultimately share the same fate—all be degraded to a position of equality with free negroes, stand side by side with them at the polls, and fraternize in all the social relations of life; or else there will be an eternal war of races, desolating the land with blood, and utterly wasting and destroying all the resources of the country." Senator Senator Albert Gallatin Brown of Mississippi: "I want Cuba, and I know that sooner or later we must have it. If the worm-eaten throne of Spain is willing to give it for a fair equivalent, well—if not, we must take it. I want Tamaulipas, Potosi, and one or two other Mexican States; and I want them all for the same reason—for the planting and spreading of slavery. And a footing in Central America will powerfully aid us in acquiring those other states. It will render them less valuable to the other powers of the earth, and thereby diminish competition with us. Yes, I want these countries for the spread of slavery. I would spread the blessings of slavery, like the religion of our Divine Master, to the uttermost ends of the earth, and rebellious and wicked as the Yankees have been, I would even extend it to them." General John Singleton Mosby, the "Gray Ghost", on "The Lost Cause": “I’ve never heard of any other cause than slavery,” The U.S. Constitution, to its shame, allowed chattel slavery. The change in the Constitution that corrected that historic wrong, outlawed slavery throughout the United States. Lincoln did less by degree ("Proclamation") and even that less was of dubious legality, as was his suspension of Habeas Corpus and nearly Wilsonesque suppression of free speech. The treason of the rebel leaders is not a close question. Article III of the Constitution defines treason as follows: "Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort." Did Lee, Davis, and the rest make war on the United States? They did, expressly, starting with firing on Fort Sumter. Former rebels served well and honorably after their defeat. Joe Wheeler and Longstreet come to mind. So did former German generals and scientists. Pragmatism rules in human affairs. Many of those who now denounce the Wall once demanded it when the American working class and their unions demanded it and their votes were the great prize. That was then. Millions of immigrant votes now beckon as union membership declines. Uncle Joe was our buddy when there were German soldiers to be killed. None of which changes a single fact, the Lost Cause myth to the contrary notwithstanding. Myths have great power. The was no fog in London on the day of the Unknown Scout's "Good Turn." "The beads" were found on a dead female by the side of a trail. Scouting celebrated it''s 100th anniversary in the U.S. in 2008.

So BP "avowed" - said in so many words - that he was a "fascist." Where? When? A monarchist fascist, one must assume as he was a notable monarchist. Since you base your argument, some of which I "get," on history, you should know that, while El Duce was the model fascist, Hitler, whom you cite, was not a "fascist." He was a "National Socialist," the leader of the National Socialist German Worker's Party. He, like socialists in general, favored state control of the economy and the news media, which he imposed, and massive benefits for the workers, which somehow did not offset getting millions of them dead and Germany bombed flat. As you know, Germany is fairly negative since 1945 on statutes of The Leader, who at least never promised to cure cancer. As for the rest, imperfect clay forms imperfect men, but those causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of citizens may, in due course, become unacceptable to the public, historical import or not. Lenses, after all, not only focus light but also bend it. Very few, sadly, have much interest in history.

WW II is generally thought to have been significantly more brutal than WW I. Germany invaded the Soviet Union with a goal of "eliminating" many millions of its citizens and did so, including the planned and effectuated murder of millions of Soviet prisoners of war by starvation - behavior mirrored to a lesser degree on the Allied side in 1945. Both sides engaged in deliberate mass bombing of civilians contrary to the "laws of war," and the "good guys" did it to far greater effect. The Axis used prisoners for monstrous "medical" experiments when not murdering them out-of-hand. Japan used biological warfare on civilians in China. B-P was an aristocrat born in 1857. Had he possessed "modern" views on "diversity," it would have been a minor miracle.

I had ancestors from Massachusetts and southern Kentucky soldering on both sides during the Rebellion. Lee waged war against the United States - the Constitutional definition of "treason." Fortunately, for the Rebel leadership and for the nation, Stonewall types were not in charge on the U.S. side when it all ended in 1865. Even Jefferson Davis was spared, perhaps in gratitude for his management of the war. As for your "just" "cause," the citizens of Maryland and Pennsylvania whose property was looted in 1863 and 1864 in return, at best, for worthless rebel script would disagree that war was only waged on "armed men," as would the prisoners in Andersonville, the free Blacks enslaved and sent south by rebel armies, and the Black soldiers massacred at Ft. Pillow by Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest, later a founder of the terrorist KKK. And we have the burning of Chambersburg: "Rampaging through the town [of Chambersburg, PA], Confederate soldiers broke into houses and evicted residents, smashed furniture, heaped the pieces into piles, and then set them on fire. By eight a. m. the city was in flames. As the city burned, renegade soldiers robbed citizens, looted stores, and drank whatever liquor they could find. Some demanded ransom money to spare a home, then torched it anyway after the ransom was paid.Not all Confederates participated in the sacking of Chambersburg. The Masonic Temple was spared when an officer who was also a Mason posted guards to prevent its burning. When the colonel of the 21st Virginia Cavalry refused to obey the burning order, he was arrested and his entire unit sent out of town.Other Confederates tried to help frantic citizens retrieve household goods before their homes were burned. In the end, perhaps 550 buildings went up in flames. In spite of the widespread arson and looting, the Rebels killed only one civilian, an elderly African American. Angry citizens killed at least five Confederates by the time the raiders had withdrawn." War is brutality and violence. Blood begets blood. Neither side is due a white wash in the "Civil" War. Lists of U.S. misconduct can be compiled, but such list is needed (yet) as no one has posted here asserting that the U.S. "fought only armed men." Given Sherman's deliberate goal of breaking the will of the Rebel civilian population, that would be as feckless as asserting the myth that only "armed men" were targeted by the rebels. The "Glorious Cause" was the preservation of chattel slavery. Never have men fought more bravely, including my ancestors of the "Orphan Brigade," for a more odious cause, unless it was the Waffen-SS. Judging the conduct of past generations by today's standards is risky business and does not lead to understanding of the past, as opposed to "virtue signaling." Lee famously had misgivings about the rebellions and slavery. Most rebel leaders did not.

Depends on who is a "Founding Father." Richard B. Morris in 1973 identified the following seven figures as key Founding Fathers: John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington. Which killed an Indian? Jefferson by early advocacy of "removal" to the far West? Washington in the French and Indian War when most Indians allied with the French? An a field-grade officer, GW would not have carried a firearm, only a sword - primarily to point. But he directed soldiers to fire at Indians in battles and as C-in-C of the rebel armies he ordered attacks on Indian villages (British allies encouraged to attack the rebels on the frontier by the lawful government in London) during the Revolution. Hamilton ended up a Major General, but I find no mention of his commanding troops fighting Indians.

General Thomas Jackson regarding Union soldiers, December, 1962: "Kill them. Kill them all." Shelby Foote.

John Adams. is rare but pretty easy-to-identify exception. John Jay of New York was an abolitionist as far back as 1874, but he owned slaves nevertheless.

BSA spent more. Costs are rising. Initially budgeted at $176 million through 2013, the Summit's cost is now estimated to reach at least $350 million by the end of this year and $439 million by the end of 2015, according to Scouts documents reviewed by Reuters - That is more than the organization's $274 million endowment. To keep up, the Scouts issued new bonds last year - more than doubling their previous borrowing for the project." Former strip mine in W.Va. to become home to Scout Jamboree. The Scouts bought the land from Meadow Creek Coal Co . for several million dollars, Hartley said. Meadow Creek Coal Corporation is a privately held company in Beckley, WV and is a Single Location business. Categorized under Bituminous Coal Surface Mining. Our records show it was established in 1989 and incorporated in WV. Current estimates show this company has an annual revenue of 241223 and employs a staff of approximately 4.

Payroll to meet.

The sale of camps seems to always involve controversy, merited or not. One of our council camps - 1700 acres on a lake - was sold for about $200/acre to a company run by a former council middle manager. The sale was announced months after the fact, an hour into a raucous meeting about "the future" of the camp. The plan was to turn the property into a land fill. The locals raised some serious cane with the state government and stopped that plan cold. It seems doubtful that the feds would have approved due to the drainage of the property into "navigable waterways" of the United States. The council had been running in the red for several years., with a paid staff disproportionately large compared to membership that had been plunging for over twenty years. In due course, the auditors arrived, the SE was "retired," paid staff sharply reduced, and two more camps sold - all to return fiscal equilibrium.

Our best DE, before our SE eliminated districts, was a Queen's Scout from the UK. He managed to start several Muslim units in the "inner city." Best metrics in the council. Very popular with volunteers. Fired. Why? We are not supposed to know. But we do. Insufficiently subservient to the ever-changing cast of middle managers. Cheers!

What I agreed to before was, in part, due to my opinion of the integrity of B.S.A. at that time.

"These are really volunteer and program issues." So let's blame the volunteers, who can only "vote with their feet" and their pocketbooks. That should raise morale - and contributions. The beatings will continue ...... Why do we need BSA if the people we collectively pay many $millions have no responsibility for results? We had ninety-nine troops in the Cleveland, Ohio, area before BSA even arrived in 1912. One hundred and five years later, with a much larger population, I doubt we have that many - actually meeting - in the same area today. We have sold off three camps and part of the fourth to meet payroll. The Service Center building is in bad shape and getting worse. Leadership is often not immaterial to organization results. If they are not leaders, if it's all on the volunteers, what value do the "professionals" add for their $millions? Members of the National Board may soon be having conversations with their personal lawyers about "fiduciary responsibility" - the duty owed under law to the entity rather than it's management. I hope so. I wish them well, as the fate of a program I have served for over fifty-one years (and contributed to pretty generously) is on the line. I still hope, against hope. But I see no basis to be impressed by the performance of National employees, and some council employees, since 1970, and I am less impressed by the year. But they ask me to invest more money every month, on declining results.

You think people who come here represent the norm? Think again. Adults are the critical, diminishing resource for effective program., There were a few adult-shortage such issues in the late 1960s, but the membership bloodbath of the "Improved Scouting Program" brought the shortage of adults to the fore. BSA has done nothing to correct this problem. Indeed, as a District Chairman, I got a letter of reprimand for directly recruiting adults, actually only Eagle Scouts, as volunteers. That was, and apparently still is, contrary to policy. Something about safety. I was also told not to ask them for money as that would "interfere" council fund-raising. I had not thought of begging because The Scout Law explained, under "Thrifty," that A Scout did not beg. That was then. Adults today are less and less likely to commit to regular service - or even bowling or card-playing. Therefore, BSA should be trying to get the maximum program work out of each one recognizing good program service to encourage their gift of their irreplaceable time. BSA sees money to meet salary as the critical, diminishing resource. And primarily recognizes donations of money to meet salaries. Our council does not award ten Scouter's Keys a year. Cart, horse. Volunteers are less and less likely to have experienced actual Scouting, since it started to disappear forty-seven years ago. Fewer and fewer adults have experienced sharpening a knife (much less an axe), starting a fire, or tying knots. That suggests, to me, the need for training opportunities. Almost every organization sees training as essential. Not, apparently, BSA, as less and less focus is placed on training in program, as contrasted with bureaucracy. BSA counts indoor overnight activities as weekend campouts. Units that camp monthly, or their leaders and Scouters, are not recognized. What might BSA to to encourage camping? Absence of the Patrol Method results in a non-Scouting program for well-over 75% of youth in "Scouting BSA." Yet BSA does not train adults or Scouts in the Patrol Method - Scouting. Neither does BSA recognize or otherwise encourage the use of Scouting or discourage the use of non-Scouting. The standard BSA "Troop Meeting Plan" teaches the troop method, allocating only few minutes to "Patrol Meeting," and having skills instruction implicitly a troop function - the opposite of Scouting. Blame the inexperienced, untrained, unrecognized "sales force" as you will. There are people being paid, some quite well, to design the "Product" and train the sales force. They get raises as sales decline. They do not see that a poor product, poorly sold, will eventually bring what they most fear.

"Useless" training should be replaced by useful training. The BSA position-specific syllabus since 2000 does not allow coverage of the topics in sufficient depth so it is often boring for those with Scouting experience and shallow for those with no Scouting experience. Excellent staff can ameliorate the time deficiency only slightly with "home-work" materials and high energy. Wood Badge does not "explain," or "demonstrate" the Patrol Method. Many participants see it as modeling the adult-run troop method. After all, the "adults" (staff) run almost everything and almost all training is run by "adults, the vast, vast majority in troop sessions. Even after the big changes in 1972, and until 2001, Wood Badge patrols camped, cooked, ate, did "Spare Time Activities," and studied as patrols. Largely, that experience has passed from Wood Badge with the deemphasis on Scouting.. Wood Badge does virtually nothing with the Outdoor Method. Wood Badge once (pre-1972) covered Scoutcraft through First Class, and how to effectively teach it, in two fractions of a day and six full days. BSA pretends to cover the same, less first aid and how to teach Scoutcraft, in a single day. Change is said to be coming to Wood Badge. Change is not always improvement, as we have seen. The motivated may find "other" training on outdoor program or Scoutcraft at "universities of scouting," Baden-Powell Institutes, or Area training conference. Relatively few Scouters, and fewer Scouts, find their way to "other" training. Our last Area training conference was 300 round-trip miles away, plus accommodations and a reasonable conference fee, and we were closer than most. Some came almost 1000 round trip miles. Our council, managed by an Executive who sees the solution to uninspired training as eliminating training, has cancelled our last three council "other" training events. Neighboring councils soldier on. BSA literature on the Patrol Method or outdoor program does little or nothing to address the shortcomings of live training. The Patrol Method has not been coherently discussed in over forty years, and the Outdoor Method, once covered beyond First Class in Field Books that focused on Scoutcraft, is less and less emphasized. Some few Scouters, bless them, help correct these glaring deficiencies on the unit level, but the average Scoutmaster serves for less than a year and is pressed to get "up to speed" before he is replaced. It may be that Scouting would not "sell" in today's society. Paid Scouters have told me with confidence that it would not sell. Only one thought otherwise, and he retired after forty years at BSA. We will never know as it is not "for sale" at BSA. We can only do what we can and may do. Pray for Scouting, if you are so inclined.

Ah a Pittsburgher! The capital of Scotland will be shocked to learn that it has lost its "h," having had it for centuries. Not to mention Edinburgh, Ohio, Greenburgh, New York, Hamptonburgh, New York, Plattsburgh, New York, Newburgh, New York, and Edinburgh, Indiana, - at least some of which have residents who know how to properly pronounce "burgh" [no "g" sound]. 😃 But here's hope: Prince Valiant appears weekly in more than 300 American newspapers, according to its distributor, King Features. https://www.comicskingdom.com/prince-valiant/archive

The crossing had a Yield sign ("CROSSBUCK") and the train was required to sound its whistle at the whistle post and ring its bell through the crossing. These latter two measures contribute less to safety in an era of closed windows, air conditioning, and entertainment systems. Fortunately, the train did not derail, so the 200 passengers and the train crew were not injured.

As of December, 2018, Susan Blanchard was described in a newspaper article as a Scoutmaster of Troop 3752 in Colchester, County, Vermont. As such, she is a spokesperson for herself. What sources she has that allow her to speak to the motivation of Mark Stinnette I cannot discover, but, like Lincoln, Mark is a lawyer so he must be a bad guy. 😉 "Suzanne Blanchard, the troop’s Scoutmaster, said her daughter Sarah has participated in Scout activities for years because of her older brother. This year, she could finally earn merit badges and officially be called a Scout. All these girls that are part of scouting families have been doing this for years; they just couldn’t get the advancement,” she said. Once girls can join Boy Scouts, they’ll earn Scout merit badges and progress through the program to the highest attainable rank of Eagle Scout." Ah, Eagle. So close, and now this Stinnette guy is trying to snatch it away due to some concern about some place across the country. No!!!!