Click here for the story:

http://www.bsalegal.org/bsa-legal-blawg-200.asp?i=102

Well the liberals are on the attack again. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Boy Scouts of America, that it has the right to exclude gays from it's membership and leaders based on the First Amendment's Freedom of Expression, and the fact that to do so compromises the ideals the Boy Scouts hold sacred. BSA is considered a private organization and has a right to determine it's membership requirements. The libs favorite venue for changing law, the Supreme Court, didn't see things their way, so they will try to exact revenge on the Boy Scouts any way they can.

In this case, it's to break a deal that BSA has had with the city of brotherly love since 1928. The Philadelphia City Council in December 1928 allowed the Scouts to use the land rent free "in perpetuity" . The Scouts built their headquarters with their own money and have maintained it since then. Now the City Council in a 15-1 vote is cancelling the lease and plans to charge the scouts $200,000 per year to lease the property if they don't adopt the city policy of nondiscrimination based on sexual orientation.

Is $200,000 a year worth an organization's personal ideals? I say yes. If the Cradle of Liberty Council were to give in to this blackmail, then it would compromise the organization as a whole. The day that happens, BSA will cease to exist. There would be such an outrage among parents, Scouts and Leaders nation-wide that I fear the loss of membership would cause the organization to fall apart.

Liberals love to be able to have the government take care of them, and they live and die by their right to push the boundaries of Freedom of expression passed the limits, but let some organization preach traditional values that made this country the greatest in the world... well they must be destroyed, and they must not be allowed to be helped by the government in any way. So much for freedom.

If BSA must leave their Philadelphia home, then that's that, but the building is still theirs, and I would not let so much as a single brick be left standing above ground level for some liberal group to use. Raze it to the ground.

I have been to many Leave-No-Trace lectures, and talked to many others who have also. I seems to me that everytime I talk to someone about LNT, it just gets more and more extreme. Some of my boys attended a LNT session at summer camp in Wisconsin last week, and the scout staffer teaching the class suggested that the boys take a PVC pipe with a sealable cap hiking with them. The purpose of this pipe was to contain your own excrement to pack it out rather than bury it in th woods.

Are we as Scouts and Scouters forsaking the art of woodcraft for LNT? Can we truly go into the wilderness and leave no trace? LNT assumes that man is not a part of his environment; that he is an outsider. We are just as much a part of our environment as the animals and plants. I agree with the principles of LNT, but the application is in my opinion is going too far. LNT disourages the use of campfires in favor of fuel burning stoves. This seems to be more harmful when you consider the process of refining crude oil into fuel, or the extraction of natural gas. LNT encourages others to disperse in pristine areas to avoid making trails. I assure you there will be less damage if you have one trail rather than multiple trails. Wildlife establish and reuse trails. It takes very little time for grass to grow over a trail. Take a look at you own yard. If you fail to edge the concrete sidewalks they will soon be covered over.

Woodcraft skills which were once the crowning jewel of Scouting have been pushed to the back burner as "Survival Skills" meaning they are only to be used in emergency situations.

When we learn to live off of the land, we better appreciate our environment... how to master fire, how food chains work, how our ancestors lived.

Again, I agree with the princples of LNT, but we must not lose sight of the fact that we too are of this planet, and we must not lose the skills that allow us to become one with nature. If you truly want to leave no trace, then stay home. As for me and mine, we'll see you in the woods communing with nature as we should.

Check out these links:
http://lnt.org/
http://www.foresthistory.org/Publications/EH/July2002/Turner.pdf
http://www.ncstaff.net/oed/TheImportanceOfTraditionalWoodcraftSkillsPage.htm

Check this guy's blog out. If you ever wanted to know what goes on at Wood Badge Training, this guy gives an accurate blow-by-blow account:

http://simple-america.com/blog/2005/11/15/wood-badge-training-is-over/

See details on a previous post