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Post by casualplayerpaul on Jul 27, 2017 8:01:52 GMT -5
Undoing Executive Orders is easy. He's done a bit of that. So far, not any legislative dismantling. Obama was a popular President and the laws he passed remain popular. Trump is a very unpopular President, apparently incapable of leading his party towards any legislative achievements. Signing orders, giving speeches and stealing a Supreme Court seat are all, as it turns out, a hell of a lot easier than taking health care away from 20,000,000 Americans. Correct. Obama had only one real legislative accomplishment. And as it turns out, that one sucks. Congress can't seem to fix it, but that's not Trump's fault. Other than that Obama didn't really pass any laws. Generally because he's incompetent. What he did do was reinterpret laws to get his way when stamping his feet didn't work. The problem with that is that Trump just needs to reinterpret the reinterpretation. How's that Net Neutrality thing going? The Climate Scare/Paris Accord/CO2 Regulation thing? The Clean Power Plan? Obama took the cheap route and Trump is razing the buildings.
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Post by coachdoc on Jul 27, 2017 8:04:41 GMT -5
Hey. This thread is to admire Glen and his convictions and how he acts on them. Not about Obama or Trump. Glen, you da man.
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Post by casualplayerpaul on Jul 27, 2017 8:07:10 GMT -5
Duplicate. Never mind.
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Post by epaul on Jul 27, 2017 10:19:20 GMT -5
Yeah, well, Eisenhower, you know...very Lenin-like. President Dwight D. Eisenhower invoked the “bonds of common purpose and common ideals. Collectivism over individualism "We the People ..." rather than "Me the One ...", more of that insidious 'acting together for mutual benefit' collectivism crap. Clearly, we were doomed from the start. It isn't one or the other, it goes best with both. But, of the two horses pulling the wagon, which one needs a little prodding now and then?
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Post by dradtke on Jul 27, 2017 11:15:44 GMT -5
I thought the two horses were Exposition and Comic Relief.
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Post by epaul on Jul 27, 2017 11:17:30 GMT -5
Hey! You said you were staying out of this. WHY ME?
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Post by Fingerplucked on Jul 27, 2017 19:00:27 GMT -5
I was really impressed with what Glenn wrote. He gave me a feeling of hope. He made me see that, as bad as things are, some people actually do have limits. Glenn proved that people, some people anyway, can see the light.
Then I realized that I was thinking of somebody else. Glenn was not a supporter who finally said enough is enough. Glenn was in the light all along.
I still like what Glenn wrote, but without the dramatic turnaround, it’s just good solid writing, reason and opinion.
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Post by james on Jul 27, 2017 19:25:32 GMT -5
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Post by jdd2 on Jul 27, 2017 20:51:17 GMT -5
Nothing at all connected to religion in my troop. It met at the grades 1-8 elementary school where I went days. The first leader was a drill sergeant type, a hard drinker who worked for the phone company. He and another guy were killed one day in a single vehicle crash (small phone truck)--just ran off the road and overturned (outside of town a ways). Unspoken at the time--he had two boys in the troop--probably due to drinking. We all went to the funeral. There also was no pressure to tick things off a list, or accomplish. You could get a merit badge at summer camp, if you wanted to. I was a kid, but I can't imagine that there'd've been any catchup needed if some kid joined midyear.
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Dub
Administrator
I'm gettin' so the past is the only thing I can remember.
Posts: 20,004
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Post by Dub on Jul 27, 2017 23:01:46 GMT -5
One of the awards I chose to earn in Scouting is a service medal called the God And Country award. Our family went regularly to church as did many of my friends. Ours was called the "Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)," a denomination that doesn't have any dogma or rules about what one believes. Part of the award process involved discussion meetings with one of our ministers. We had some really interesting discussions about God and the nature of God and I realized he had no need for me to believe that God was an actual being and didn't care whether I thought Jesus of Nazareth was a biological son of God or not. My best guess is that he didn't think so. Nothing in my Scouting experience seemed to require any special spiritual belief on my part. The real goal was that we be respectful and halpful to others and not to think we were so smucking fart all the time. I was eight years old in 1950. No one I knew in 1950 talked about whether or not there was a God… or a Santa Claus either for that matter. No one I knew ever expressed a belief in an actual Santa Claus-Father Christmas person. We'd have thought that stupid. We accepted God at age eight because… why not? What can it hurt? We knew that Jesus helped people and Scouting taught us to help people so it was all good. We were far luckier as kids than I ever understood at the time. Our adult Scout leaders were very educated and caring people. None of them ever acted like a drill seargent nor asked anything of us that seemed untoward. The public schools I attended were among the nation's very best in the nation.
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Post by dradtke on Jul 28, 2017 8:47:24 GMT -5
Pretty much every religious sect and denomination has a Scouting award, including Baha'i, Buddhist, Christian Scientists, LDS, Hindu, Islamic, Jewish, Meher Baba, Moravian, Quaker, Sikh, and Zoroastrian, as well as an almost infinite variety of Catholics and Protestants. The twelfth point of the Scout Law is "reverent," but the Scouts don't tell you want to believe. They only ask - much like AA - that you accept that there is a higher power above yourself. (Sorry, Libertarians, that leaves you out.)
There is also a nearly infinite variety of Boy Scout troops. There is a national organization that sets rules and guidelines, but each individual troop is run by its own committee of volunteers, and takes on the wildly different characteristics of its leaders and its sponsoring organization. Some are very fundamental or militaristic, and some are pretty open or ragtag.
Oddly enough, the Unitarians have a religious Scouting award you can earn that is not recognized by the national Boy Scouts because the Unitarian church refuses to discriminate against gay people. Seriously, the Boy Scouts actually asked the Unitarians to change their religious principles in order to have the award accepted. (This may have have changed since the national committee finally changed their position, but I haven't kept up on it.) My boys started working on the Unitarian award, but turned 18 before they finished it.
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Post by Shannon on Jul 28, 2017 13:02:57 GMT -5
I normally avoid discussions such as this, but my affection and admiration for the Boy Scouts is great enough that I will make an exception.
Trump's speech was a disgrace, and the reason it was a disgrace is because the person delivering it is a disgrace.
Trump's speech should have been about the boys in Scouting. He should have congratulated them, cheered them, encouraged them, celebrated them. He should have expressed his respect for their efforts and past contributions. In short, the speech should have been about THEM.
To no one's surprise, of course, his speech was all about himself. The Narcissist-in Chief once again demonstrated that he is the Eagle Scout of Arrogance. I can only hope that none of the young Scouts saw him as someone worthy of emulation. Immolation, perhaps. {NOTE: I apologize for the poor taste of that last comment. I would never endorse immolation. I was trying to be clever with words, and failed. Please pardon the lapse in judgment.}
Just a thought - if our Congress and White House conducted themselves in accordance with the Scout Law, what kind of country might we have?
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Post by Village Idiot on Jul 28, 2017 13:47:10 GMT -5
That's a very interesting question, Shannon. And a good one.
Back to what Dub was saying: Our troop met in the basement of a very conservative church to which none of us, including the leaders, belonged. They just let us use the space because that's what people used to do. We always cleaned up, and they never had any questions. They just assumed we were good, which we basicallly were.
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Post by Shannon on Jul 28, 2017 14:21:04 GMT -5
Immolation a touch over the line perhaps? A chance to reconsider in this time and age? Yes,over the line. A poor attempt to make a clever play on words. I apologize, and will edit.
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Post by aquaduct on Jul 28, 2017 14:22:24 GMT -5
Pretty much every religious sect and denomination has a Scouting award, including Baha'i, Buddhist, Christian Scientists, LDS, Hindu, Islamic, Jewish, Meher Baba, Moravian, Quaker, Sikh, and Zoroastrian, as well as an almost infinite variety of Catholics and Protestants. The twelfth point of the Scout Law is "reverent," but the Scouts don't tell you want to believe. They only ask - much like AA - that you accept that there is a higher power above yourself. (Sorry, Libertarians, that leaves you out.) Hate to break it to you but Libertarians don't give a shit. It's the militant atheists who will throw a hissy.
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Post by dradtke on Jul 28, 2017 18:46:17 GMT -5
Shannon, your bad taste is forgiven because it was really funny. And because you know way more words than whatsisname.
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