Free Republic

Scouts to earn skateboard badgehttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7183888.stmLast Updated: Saturday, 12 January 2008, 00:50 GMT A revamp of the scout movement will allow boys and girls to earn badges for skills such as skateboarding, making a fruit salad and racing quad bikes. The Scout Association said 40 new badges marked the largest ever overhaul of the activities of the movement. Chief Scout Peter Duncan said: "Young people today have a larger choice than ever before of activities to fill their spare time with." The new badges will be launched this weekend at the scouts' winter camp. The event for the 500,000-strong movement is...

Old fashioned values stand firm in a high tech world http://www.villagevoice.com.au/article/20070806/LFS07/708030330/ http://tinyurl.com/34qcm3 Source: Village Voice Balmain Author: Nicole Hasham Posted: Mon 6 Aug, 2007 In an era when pitching a tent generally means clipping plastic poles to a dome-shaped piece of nylon, knowing how to tie a knot may seem a little quaint. But for the young members of the Leichhardt 1st Scouts group, knowing how to square lash two wooden poles can mean the difference between a good night's sleep and a face full of canvas. "When we camp we use old army tents like they used in World...

Scouting the future http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article2158120.ece http://tinyurl.com/2abldd July 29, 2007 Hal Iggulden, co-author of The Dangerous Book for Boys, believes the Scouts – 100 years after they were founded – can solve the crisis in 21st century manhood Roland White In a school playground way back in the 1960s I made the first significant moral choice of my life. My best friend had asked me if I’d come to a meeting of his Cub Scout pack: just to see what it was like. On the other hand, a girl in our class also wanted to know whether I’d be at all interested...

Celebrating Our Survival: Why May 16 is Special for Scouting http://www.scouter.com/features/0026.asp May 3, 1999 By MaryAnn Gardner The founding of the Boy Scouts of America in 1910 was the establishment of the National organization. It opened the door to fun and learning in the outdoors to thousands of American boys. It's founding, however, did not guarantee that the organization would survive. Certainly, Baden-Powell had supplied the basics for Scouting in America along with Ernest Thompson Seton, founder of the Woodcraft Indians, and Daniel Carter Beard, founder of the Society of the Sons of Daniel Boone. Seton and Beard brought emphasis...

Scout’s honor? Time to bring the Boy Scouts of America up to date http://www.pasadenaweekly.com/article.php?id=3353&IssueNum=17 http://tinyurl.com/k96l2 By Hannah Naiditch About two years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that the Boy Scouts of America could use membership criteria that excluded homosexuals and atheists. It was a big victory for the Scouts, but its rules have backfired. Its donations have declined because it is in conflict with many of the donors’ anti-discrimination policies. Recently the Boy Scouts made news again. The California Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Berkeley did not violate the rights of the Scouts when the city revoked their free berthing...

The year 2007 would have marked the 100th birthday of Boy Scouting in England. Unfortunately, the British Boy Scouts, founded by Lord Robert Baden-Powell as the first Scouting group in the world, is now a dead organization. The recent decision by U.K. Scout Association executives to make chaos of the Scout Oath mangles the program far beyond anything Baden-Powell might recognize. Instead of being required to pledge their loyalty to "God and the Queen," members of the Scout Association can now opt to swear allegiance to any combination of things. Muslims can pledge to Allah, Hindus to Dharma, and atheists...

Nearly a century has passed since Lord Robert Baden-Powell founded the Boy Scouts in Great Britain. It has been a century filled with radical ideologies that recruited young men into Hitler Youth and the Communist Party, that populated the American youth cult with hippies and druggies, and that replaced fathers with fanaticisms and mores with MTV. Young men might have annihilated this world had it not been for the Boy Scouts. The Boy Scouts have always been a great threat to the utopian dreams of the ideologues. In the 1920s, the national secretary of the Young Communist League warned Lord...

John Derbyshire brought up an interesting aside while blogging on The Corner about a recently constructed treehouse he built for his children. He mentioned a man who deserves utmost veneration through the ages for his humanitarian work. That man who's life still positively impacts millions is Lord Baden Powell; the founder of Boy Scouting. Lord Baden Powell came from an utterly different era. His book "Scouting For Boys" proves this beyond any shadow of a doubt. People now laugh at the title and ridicule the Boy Scouts of America until their sorry windbags run out of hot air. What they...

THE Boy Scouts' official handbook has been blacklisted by the government—because it could be used as a training manual by Osama bin Laden. For almost 100 years the scout and cub movement has sworn by Scouting For Boys, written by founder and Boer war hero Lord Baden-Powell. It teaches youngsters survival in the wild. But forget Akela, it's al-Qaeda Whitehall fears. Anti-terror chiefs are convinced fanatics will use the book. Under the Terrorism Act 2000 merely owning a copy puts you in the frame. Labour MP Bob Marshall-Andrews confirmed: "I've seen it on a list of books in an indictment....

Phila. council flouts Scouts' antigay stanceA new policy on sexuality is likely to bring discussion as the national convention starts here.By Linda K. Harris and Miriam HillInquirer Staff Writers Defying the national Boy Scouts policy of refusing membership to gays, the board of the Scouts' largest Philadelphia-area council has unanimously voted not to discriminate against homosexuals.The decision puts the local council at odds with the national organization, which holds that homosexuality is inconsistent with the traditional moral values espoused in the Scout Oath and Law.But the Cradle of Liberty Council, the nation's third largest - serving 87,000 youths in Philadelphia,...