Army recruitment at the Boy Scout Jamboree?

[El Supremo]

Disgusting.

[SlipperySlope]

1. Wasn't the Jamboree held on military property?

That's what I heard, but I'm not sure if it is true or not.

[jmowreader]

7. It's true

It was at Fort A.P. Hill, Virginia.

And really, that's not a bad thing. Military bases have many advantages to offer the BSA:

They're well guarded--parents don't have to worry about some asshat showing up in the middle of the night and kidnapping a few Scouts

They have good facilities--safe dining facilities, hospitals, ballfields, gymnasiums

As public property, rent is REALLY low

Most soldiers are good role models (no Lynndie England or Charles Graner jokes, please)

And if you're on an Army base, getting an Army band to play and Army units to bring equipment for static displays is very easy.

[MaggieSwanson]

2. Beyond disgusting. n/t

[Spock_is_Skeptical]

3. Totally disgusting... but I kind of expected it, really

It just figures.

[Kraklen]

4. What's that middle balloon say?

[pocket]

10. Order of the Arrow

some sort of elitist sub-set of the scouts.

[wli]

5. he wants to make them into the Bushler Youth

It really is tit-for-tat aping...

[pocket]

6. army recruiting at an anti-gay anti-atheist rally?

Who woulda thunk it.

[Meldread]

8. Exactly.

Let their little brats get blown up. I could careless.

[FreedomAngel82]

9. While I personally am disgusted since it's kids

there are some there that are soon going to be age of the draft and college I think. I remember when I was in Girl Scouts there were some older kids in the group. Bush finds anyway to make his agenda (the "war on terror") at any place he is at. Look at him. He looks like he's had an orgasm.

[immoderate]

11. Bah! If this were Clinton era, you wouldn't care.

I went to many Jamborees on military bases when I was a scout, late 50s. A good use of that territory. Good public relations. Think if this was peace time, and there was no illegal, atrocious war going on.

The military has alway courted the scouts. It's a natural relationship. I treasure my scout years. Our leaders, dads who were WWII vets, took us out in the woods, and gave us the benefit of their experience. It was great for us city kids.

BTW, I was a member of a great troop that had just too much emphasis on religion. We split off to form another troop that was secular. We had more fun.

--IMM

[ChairmanAgnostic]

12. Baden Powell had several weird ideas

In fact, I doubt the guy wou be permitted to organize a troop meeting much less start the whole organization.
In some of his writings, he thought that a military structure would give children a sense of purpose, direction and status.

You know who swallowed his ideas whole?
Some guy named Adolf. His Hitler Youth was based completely on the boy scouts.
And guess who was a big supporter during his early years?
Some guy name Prescott.

[immoderate]

13. For a while, I liked playing soldier.

But as my troop got to "pioneering," that is, we made our own little town in the woods, we wound up looking more like a MASH unit, our a bunch of mountain men.

We had atheists and gays. That's no longer tolerated.

--IMM