tvashtarkatena

Fan clubs are good. Ups the self esteem. I'm more fan than idol - of the woman working in my garden right now. Now if you'll excuse me, I think the coffee is on. Enjoy your weekend, Dave.

9 year olds, Dude.

I'm just sad the BSA allows itself to be bullied by its own board members. And 9 year olds. Let's not forget all those obnoxious 9 year olds. And those poor, bullied Mormons. First Mitt, now this.

I called the ranger, but he was on leave for a week and just got back to me. He's got the following info now: Last weekend we drove to the Sibley Ck (HLP) turnoff in an Outback, which had barely enough clearance. Otherwise, its the plowed parking lot near the Monogram/Lookout TH for yeez. There has probably been some further melt, but the rutted snow's pretty consolidated and isn't compacting very quickly. Snow up high was beautiful. Shirtless temps and blue bird skies didn't hurt too much, either. The more folks call in with road reports, the more updated the NCNP road conditions report will be. Road patrols this time of year are few and far between.

Apparently I've won free tix to another stalkabully concert. FW, meet Dave. I'll be posting another conditions report on the Freshiezone soon - another opportunity for you to stand up to Tvashie the Mean, Hero. My parents are from NYC, BTW. I've never been to Berkley (School of Music) Eventually you'll get a life, DD. Divorce can do that to you, but it ends at some point if you decide not to wallow in it. Good luck.

Do a good turn daily, or as often as needed.

We need to sochully engineer a program that kicks KKK his BB-like nutz every time he posts the word sochul in any form or conjugation. BAYUM!

Today's conservative movement is actually a hyper radical departure from the liberal democracy we've been trying to build together for a couple of hundred years, now. Destroying the church/state barrier alone violates THE fundamental idea of America - the world's first secular democracy in modern times. THAT was the innovation, the departure from a shittier past, and these cuntz wanna return to that shit. Fuck that.

Even progress is bad now? Does that work with your boss?

It should also be noted that the open ghey policy proposed applies on a troop by troop basis - so nobody's 'cultural sensitivities' would even be violated. Strictly voluntary, troop by troop. The Kristians and Moms are just pissed because some troop, somewhere, is gonna have a gay kid. Assholes.

Oh, and who can forget the woodsman's pal: poison fucking oak.

I'd be pretty sad for all those kids like me who REAAAAALLLLY need to get out of the house and have a little fun to boot. I didn't have too many alternatives - Scouting was an "acceptable" activity cuz it was run by our local parrish - and 4H sucks (fur and poo - got my own, thanks) ,despite having probably the highest serious injury rate of any troupe in BSA history. Broken hips, ribs, arms (me), wrists, teeth (me again)...sheeeit, a parent couldn't afford just the insurance and lawyers it would take to keep a kid in Troop 114 for a single accident season these days. We were all rockin' the Vietnam gear, though. Trenching tools, jungle hats. How many of ya'll hiked with anti-bungi spike insoles? Kids these days. We drank water out of the creek, cooked over fires, and slept on piles of dry grass for pads. Being a Catholic troop, half the kids were borderline retards and the other half bound for prison. The first time I didn't get lost was when i finally decided to hike outside an official Scout outing and do my own navigation. Good times, fo sho.

Neckerchiefs, shorts, knee socks, and sashes are ghey? Kakester, you'r FB posts are all over my wall now. Should I friend you?

I probably should be. Working on me website. Fkn boring, but its about time for an upgrade. That, and I've had a chip implanted in your brain so I can monitor your thoughts. So far - blue screen.

Um...they pretty much disbanded in 1980, so I guess you might have been all of 9.

"you go after the King, you best not miss"

thus his deep fascination w/ early nazism, which was riddled w/ boy-buggers so clearly, knowing this horrific background, you reject the BSA and would rather nobody joins rather than adjust their participation req'ts to be more open, right? KKK trying to state one of Ivan's opinions for him is kind of like watching a dog trying to get a sandwich out of locked glove box. The machinery just aint there.

hmm...pretty sure the aclu ain't part of the governmetn, just a buncha private citizens dedicated to making the government due what it's supposed to, by the rules. We're only Big and Scary if you drop a steamer on the Bill of Rights. Surprisingly, it happens all the fuckin' time. We love it when people cave in under threat of suit. Often, it just takes a friendly letter addressing our concerns and letting the party know that we're aware of the situation. Way, way cheaper and less risky. Hey, you can LOSE in court, ya know? Common example: I had a student come up to me after a talk who asked what recourse he had with an administration that would not allow an LGBT club chapter to be established on campus. I gave him the number of our intake line, made a call to our intake person to let them know what was going on. He called, somebody in the state office wrote a polite letter asking a few question and BAM - there's an LGBT club on that campus now. No fighting. Who likes to fight? And lets not forget those Evil Lobbyists. After all, wouldn't you want your legislature, most of whom are not even lawyers, nevermind civil rights lawyers, to write constitutionally questionable legislation, get it passed, then have to be sued after a whole bunch of people suffer for years, rather than have an expert lobbyist like our Shankar (Young Lawyer of the Year Award for WA, 2010) be able to review and suggest language that doesn't violate the state and federal constitutions? As any engineer knows, the longer you let a design flaw go unaddressed, the cheaper it will be to fix it, no? In the real world, legislators often come to the ACLU, rather than the other way round, prior to dropping (introducing) legislation for a constitutional review beforehand. It's not an adversarial relationship. Being a lobbyist is an incredibly difficult job that few are cut out for. You have to be ultra smart, and unflappable in dealing with a huge variety of nutjobs that wind up in the legislature. Our lobbyist had one legislator threaten to castrate him in the morning before asking him to join him for a motorcycle ride that afternoon. And you lose most of the time - campaigns for reform take years and sometimes decades before bearing real fruit. Steady progress and persistence is the key. I 502, for example, happened after a 14 year campaign to reform drug policy in WA. Lobbying is a vital part of good government. Legislators often don't know their ass from a hole in the ground - having an expert at hand is a huge help in making better, more informed policy. Yup, corporate lobbying, that is, lobbying that is not for the overall public good, is an issue. Not all lobbyists work that way, however.

Let's also not forget that the BSA discriminates against adults who would otherwise love to give back to an organization that meant so much to them growing up, but who are unwilling to follow discriminatory policies for any organization. I know, I know, they should just shut up and lie. Thugs.

Who said the gov't was going after them? Social Engineering Thugs come in many forms, but mostly manifest themselves as Lawyers and/or members of the ACLU You'd be surprised how good a hot, young civil right attorney looks in jack boots, particularly when those jackboots are crushing the nuts of some unprepared Kristian counselor who pulled his legal theories out of the Book of Job. Smart is, indeed, sexy.

About a third of all American Scout troops are sponsored by the LDS. Guess it's not much of a secret why they've chosen to hold the gay line of late. LDS has also been a major donor for anti gay campaigns all over the country, most famously CA prop 8 to rescind a previously passed marital equality law.

SCOTUS has already ruled, but the case served to highlight the discrimination. The BSA may have technically 'won' in court in 2000, but the word was out and the damage done. They will eventually lose the war. Their only way out of this mess, which will continue to grow, will be to go with the tide of social justice, now or in the future, and drop their disciminatory policies. Their funding and membership will continue to dry up, otherwise. That's been an issue of great concern for them.

9?? That would be Cub Scouts jesus, whatever, it's all the same organization. i did the gambit from age 7ish to 17, and the religious part did in fact help push me away... Well, I remember nothing at all about religion in the Cub Scouts. It was all about what amounted to "play dates" with your friends, and if you were lucky home-made cookies from your Den Mother. Yeah, that and the Pine-Wood Derby. You were a Cub Scout? Holy shit, I knew you were a pussy, but seriously... Even at 9 I knew you just didn't join the Cub Scouts

PS Ivan: If my translieration is correct, 'soshul engineering' is Double Plus Bad Old Speak in far Right circles. Only a thug would take a gay kid hiking, I will admit that. "Patrick Fitzmichael, WILL YOU STOP REARRANGING THOSE WILDFLOWERS!!!!"

I joined BSA at age 9, but I do realize that it's probably a lot better to discriminate against 10 and 11 year olds, you know, from a moral standpoint.