NightSG

That's a far cry from learning camping skills hands-on in the woods from them, or going through a first aid or water rescue challenge right alongside them.

Right, which is a part of the BSA leadership training model. As I said, it lets those Scouts start seeing what they can aspire to over the next couple of years right away, and learn directly from the older Scouts who are in those positions. Plus having 10-11 year olds in the group both increases the number led and enhances the leadership experience of the PL, ASPL and SPL.

Uh, yes, they do. I was an 11 year old Scout in a regular troop. I had my Arrow of Light, so I could have joined just before 11, but my birthday was two weeks after 5th grade completion anyway and we traveled out of state for most of that time. What regular troops don't do is split out age groups for any reason; having the full 11-17 range in the troop together with no age restrictions on positions of responsibility allows them to start taking on leadership roles as soon as they're ready, as well as ensuring that, right from the start, those 11 year olds are seeing (sometimes not much) older Scouts being effective in leadership roles.

CAN happen. It's not encouraged by anyone other than the Church. That's like blaming Chevy for making cars that are capable of going faster than their crash safety features are designed to save you. The short time-in-rank requirements up to First Class are to help Scouts not get too bogged down on waiting when they've completed requirements ahead of time, and Star, Life and Eagle all have minimum times equal to the minimum time required serving in certain capacities while at the prior rank. I'm also fairly certain the move to add six more options to the "while a ____ Scout, serve as _____ for 6 months" was Church driven so they could have more boys pushing through those requirements at any given time. (Seriously? Patrol Leader qualifies now?) To my knowledge, (and I'll likely see Larry this weekend, so I'll ask him if he knows of any) none of the non-LDS Scouts around here in the last 30+ years made Eagle before 16, and I've certainly never heard of any leadership pushing them to do more than First Class at 13. (And that only because 13 and FC is (or was, in the late 80s) the requirement for Jamboree and other major activities.)

If that counts, then we really need to find something else to call female parents, because everybody knows the old term is just half of a really dirty word in modern English. Then explain how it really matters; does the way we follow Christ change one bit whether he was the literal Son of God, God Himself formless but stuffed into a human suit to come down for a few years, some part of God's essence given human form, or some other relationship we're entirely incapable of understanding in this state? If an angel stopped by tomorrow to give you a note signed by God that says "Hey, you guys have all got that one point mixed up, and your brains simply can't handle even an approximation of how it really is, but Jesus still lived as the perfect example for you, suffered and died for your sins, and acts as your mediator in prayer regardless of how We are actually related, so Son is probably as good a word as any you have" would you consider your faith so irreparably shaken as to go join the Hari Krishnas, or would you do exactly the same things that you've done all your life? Do you really believe that if everyone got those, that even one person who possesses any measure of faith in any representation of Christ would change anything about their lives other than to find some other point of Scripture to bicker about? I mean, you're probably one of those heathens who will follow the green eyed impostor right into eternal torment, and have tuned out those of us who follow the true brown eyed Savior as spreading heresy, but it's possible there could be some hope that you will see His brown eyed Light of Truth someday.

The "service project" I referenced was actually in a teeny tiny inbred hick town hundreds of miles from any sort of civilization called Spanish Fork Utah. (Mainly because my former HT companion won't even admit what his was, and several others I asked didn't make Eagle because they didn't do one at all.) Clearly there was nothing else around that he could have done besides be a day or so worth of free labor for the stake center's existing project. And the worst of the "leaders" I've had to deal with are inordinately proud of having grown up in or near SLC before deciding to oh so generously bestow their presence upon the heathens of Texas. You mean like: Made a video to teach people how to read the expiration dates on food cans and gathered food for a local food bank. Collected breakfast food for a local food bank and got people together to serve for one dinner meal. Sanded, painted and put wheels on little cars to be sent out to poor countries. Collected books for Timp Regional Hospital. Collected clothes, toys, and food for a local crisis center. Cleaned up weeds and trash at Lakeview Academy playgrounds. Provided canes for the residents of the Parkway Health Care Facility. Police emergency child kits. (I dunno; maybe he stuffed kids in boxes and mailed them to cops.) Replaced smoke detectors in over 150 homes for LDS Church. (Let the infidels burn.) Collected action figures and toys for children at Primary Children’s Hospital Heroes for Heroes program. Collected, sorted and cleaned children’s books and bookcases to put in dentists’ waiting rooms. Cut white boards and material into handheld white boards for Mountainville Academy. Cleaned and painted 483 linear feet of curbing for bus parking at Eagle Crest Elementary in Lehi. Designed and made 10 wooden puzzles for special needs children. Painted house numbers on curbs for the Geneva Heights Second Ward area. Collected many bags of clothing for The Road Home homeless shelter in Salt Lake City. Set posts on trails in part of Eagle Mountain to mark mileage for runners. Built wooden toy puzzles for Kids on the Move. Made, stuffed and sewed 100 dolls for the children at Primary Children’s Hospital. Collected supplies for activity and comfort for those in waiting room at Orem Community Hospital. Organized a clothing drive for Builders Without Borders. Gave emergency gas shut off keys to the Pleasant Grove Fire Department. (Seriously? Like, three minutes on eBay?) Organized a food drive for the Salt Lake Rescue Mission. Helped with an art room easel clean-up. (Gee, that must have required seconds of planning and coordination.) All from UtahScouts.org. These are mostly reasonable for the hours of community service requirements on lower ranks, but realistically, they don't come anywhere near meeting the requirement to "plan, develop, and give leadership to others" at a level that should be expected of an Eagle candidate. As best I can recall, the museum repairs were the smallest project done during my time, since they only involved about half the troop and a dozen or so adults with the skills and tools for the skilled labor parts of the project. The biggest involved at least four troops and several dozen adult volunteers to clean up litter and repair camping facilities on a few thousand acres of Army Corps of Engineers park land.

To quote a local Baptist talking to one of the missionaries about trinitarian-vs-anything-else "It's been a thousand years or more since anybody worth listening to gave a rat's ___ about that, one way or any of a dozen others. Makes about as much difference as His eye color in how we follow Him."

Unfortunately, in the modern BSA culture, it's a coin toss as to which one.

No, it's not, but since you're certain that God personally told you that they didn't do exactly what they did, you might as well just go play in your echo chamber.

Plain and simply, no I am not. I do occasionally feel a little bit sorry for the LDS "Eagles" who feel bad that I don't respect their unearned rank when they can't tie knots specifically set out as requirements for lower ranks, after any real Scout has tied those knots in real use so many times they're as easy as a shoelace bow by the time they make Star, or when they get called out on "leadership skills" that make the incompetent twit "running" the night shift at McDonald's look like Teddy Roosevelt by comparison, or when they have to admit their "service project" was digging out some dead landscaping on part of the stake center's lot. They're completely lost in the real world when daddy isn't there to hold their hand and sign off on the requirement, or the infidels won't accept "because a Seventy's cat's dental hygienist said so and the First Presidency didn't take time in GC to repudiate each point and excommunicate the cat, therefore God said so" as an irrefutable argument. It's really their parents' fault that they weren't in a real troop where they would have to meet the actual requirements, but then they go on and do the same to their kids.

The Church gutted the leadership training model the BSA had been successful with for years, cheapened its highest award by handing it out to kids who couldn't even meet Tenderfoot requirements, and basically did nothing in its favor except throw money at it.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1949-Boy-Scouts-Of-America-Handbook-Vintage-Original/183208219395 Have him read that, and a current BSA Handbook of Making Hotel Reservations and Finding a Good Restaurant Because Camping is Dangerous. He'll see that Scouting has been dead for a few years already.

This. I'm still in occasional contact with 3 Eagles from my old troop, and all three of them coordinated serious Eagle projects on their own, of substantial benefit to the community. In fact, some of the repairs one did to the local history museum are still going strong 25 years later. $33/year to national, plus generally no more than $24 to the local troop. And every troop I've dealt with allows monthly payments, so you're talking $5/mo. Even then, the churches sponsoring the troops will often cover any shortfall, so a Scout from a truly destitute family won't be turned away. Don Smith retired from Scouting just about the time I joined, after 20 years as Scoutmaster of Troop 39. His son Larry took over from him, and 25 years later when Larry moved up to District leadership, his son Cory stepped up as Scoutmaster and is still running the troop now, carrying on the now-51-year tradition in spite of working ~75 miles away. The main thing that Don passed on to his son, his grandson and any Scout or leader who would listen is to stop leading so actively; put the most responsible boys in charge, and just be available when they need help. Cory was about three years ahead of me; he was my Patrol Leader when I joined, moved up to ASPL when I made Patrol Leader, and SPL shortly after that when the previous SPL's interests turned more to he girl who eventually became his fiance, and I ended up as the backup ASPL, mostly because I didn't have the sense to hide the first time the new ASPL couldn't make it to a meeting. (It's usually not an issue, but sometimes the position is actually required for ceremonial or paperwork reasons, or just so the SPL can handle something without the Scoutmaster having to take over the rest of the troop.) The times I had to stand in for an absent ASPL made me realize that if I ever need 40+ alley cats herded, Cory is well and truly qualified for the job. When I ran across some of my old Scout stuff a couple years ago, there were more of his signatures on my requirements than any of the adult leaders. When his Eagle Court of Honor was held, the fellowship hall at First Methodist was crowded. Both local troops turned out in full, most of the parents, a fair number of grandparents, and I think most of the Baptists heard there was going to be food, so they showed up too. Same for all the other CoHs I remember. Then I went to one for an LDS Scout. I felt sorry for the kid; the only other boy there in uniform (or what passed for it - the BSA shirt with faded jeans is, IMO, ok around camp or for weekly meetings, but not appropriate for those participating in a CoH) was his brother, and I'm sure that was only because Scoutmaster Dad made him show up. It was the smallest chunk the cultural hall could section off, with extra space between the seats, and it was still only about a third full. It was more like a Court of BSA Says We're Supposed To Do Something Formal So Let's Get This Over With. And it's not that it had become too commonplace to warrant the formality and attendance common in non-LDS troops; the bishop commented afterward that it had been almost two years since they'd held one at the ward, in spite of having over a dozen Scouts in uniform, covering pretty much the entire age range evenly, at Sacrament Meeting a few weeks later. I can only assume they didn't want any more there, as when I asked around, Troop 39 wasn't informed, and would have gladly attended to honor any Scout receiving his Eagle rank...even though the cheapskate Mormons only had (generic, slightly dusty, probably found in the cabinet) cookies and juice instead of a full meal. Right; you can't manufacture experience, and changing Scoutmasters that often makes it a matter of pure luck when you get a good one. SLC called; you're going to have to come up with a more convincing line if you expect them to pay you. Where the heck were you looking? Our adult leadership spent most of their time hiding behind a pile of paperwork to force the SPL and ASPL to run the meetings. We had a Scoutmaster with 2-5 assistants (whatever number it took "on the books" to result in generally having two present at each meeting and activity) for a troop that averaged between 25-40 boys in attendance at weekly meetings. AFAICT, the troop has shrunk, due to reduced interest in general, (and more in the last couple of years - the area is still predominately several variations of Southern Baptist, so the recent changes haven't gone over well with the chartering churches) and the other local troop merged with it to bring the numbers back up, but it's still around a 10-1 ratio. I've never seen or heard of a non-LDS troop with over a 3:1 ratio, even counting Venturers over 18 as adult leaders. That's a special thing that BSA used to be very good at preparing boys for; reality. Which is absolutely useless in teaching them to lead anything other than a small group of LDS children. If you can only handle being around people who share your exact set of beliefs to the letter, you're not growing as a leader, or even as a functioning member of society in general. Do you write press releases for police departments? "We don't know anything at all about these 7,950 identical isolated incidents in our city over the last three days, except that they are not related to each other or to terrorism."

I was going to direct you to their website, but it's giving a SQL error. (Seriously. I mean, can a joke write itself any more thoroughly?) Must be hard to find good IT help in that community. I can read a map just fine. I can find my way by map and compass, and even to some extent by map and stars. If I wanted to carry all the associated gear, I might even be able to do some fairly accurate celestial navigation. OTOH, no amount of common sense will make a regional map useful in navigating the idiotic mess that many cities have become; unless you carry a pile of neighborhood maps, you're going to waste a lot of gas backtracking out of dead end neighborhoods, or looking for a one way street that goes the right way. Pretty sure I've done more miles without GPS than with. Even now, I tend to only use it for the last few miles, once I start needing to get through the sort of messes described above. When I broke the screen of a friend's 3rd gen Kindle, I tracked down a NOS one for $15. Fire 7s are often available for under $40 shipped. How many hardcopy books can you buy for $40, compared to the thousands you can fit on even something that outdated by current standards? Sure, I personally prefer to have a KJV Bible and a few other books in hardcopy, but realistically, I spend more time reading even those texts on my Fire than the actual paper. They look at me funny for showing up to watch a GC session in bike gear; (mountain shorts, not road Lycra) I can't imagine the reaction if I came to Sacrament Meeting in bunny slippers with morning hair.

Cross referencing through 4-5 books makes for a pretty heavy load. They're half Asian engineer. What makes you think they'll have personalities? Might as well just go ahead and buy them a stack of accounting books.

An AR-10 will give you .308 with the option of a quick barrel change to .243. Plenty of power, insane long range accuracy and ammo in either is easier to come by than 6.5 or .300AAC

1) Apply for anything, and even if you're applying for graveyard shift janitor, make sure the first 2-3 times they see you (picking up and/or returning the application and the interview) you show up in a decent suit with a fresh haircut. Yes, an MBA will mean you're overqualified for menial labor jobs, but often the first interview is with someone who also has some say in hiring for higher positions that may not be posted externally yet. If hired, stick with the shirt and tie through training unless the job dictates other clothing. Even then, look as sharp as is appropriate; Dickies work shirts and pants are stain and wrinkle resistant. I've been hired for entry level jobs and promoted 2-3 levels before finishing training twice because I was the guy who showed up in a suit, and everybody else even remotely qualified for the better job was in a t-shirt. I've also been the last man standing in a couple of general labor positions because I was the one who showed up on time and looked professional. 2) Apply for jobs in lower cost-of-living areas. Ask for the going rate for your current area. Worst that can happen is you waste the time to fill out the applications, while the best is they offer your desired salary in a place where that has 10-50% more buying power.

It's not even automation; back in the day, unless it was to help out a kid in need, you didn't pay someone else to mow your lawn when you had your own kids big enough to reach the mower handle. Same for any number of other things that people pay to have done now. I remember going to the store on a single speed bicycle for a few things we needed when I was about 13, (and likely would have been sent long before that, but up to that point we were living 6 miles out of town on a hilly road) but sending a kid these days would probably get the parents investigated for neglect.

Yeah, it's a terrible thing. We should avoid books that command it. 🙄

Or Ashley Madison.

So you do eat pork behind his back? Why aren't you trying to have a solid relationship with your father?

We can't even keep the Asians out and there's a huge ocean in their way. Now, as to fixing their marriage, do you happen to know if he has any unreasonably intense fears, or what the most significant traumatic events in his life have been? Also, do you have any practical experience at waterboarding?

So reward the childish manipulation by giving up something you don't truly believe you are commanded to. Letting your spouse dictate your beliefs through such a demented system is a great way to make a solid relationship.

Buying pure crystalline caffeine and smoking it in a crack pipe is probably a bit much.

I think Ecclesiastes 8:11 provides the general idea.