Character Development, Citizenship Training, And Personal Fitness

Sometimes we can get too caught up in the goal of helping every scout in our program to be an eagle scout. I think that this is a worthy goal. I long for the ideal where every boy scout earns his eagle rank in spirit and in deed.

If we focus on advancement to the exclusion of the other methods of scouting, we lose the spirit of scouting and I think lose the hearts of the boys who might catch the spirit of scouting.

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it. (Mark 8:35)

I choose to trust the aims and methods of scouting. I will learn and develop myself and our troop such that we use all the methods of scouting.

Making Sense of Marriage

I great, concise explanation of the two main views on marriage and why so often those from the two view talk past each other rather than understanding.



This is also great, We are Gay and Children of Gay Parents, We Don't Support Gay Marriage

I Like Instant Runoff the Best

So Colorado has used a different system to select their delegates. There are plenty of other state that Trump has gotten way more delegate than would be his right if you counted the votes proportionally.

I say let Colorado do what they are going to do.

My favorite system of voting is the instant run off. It allows you to rank those running without worrying that you might be throwing your vote away.

And no one gets elected without a majority of the votes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant-runoff_voting

Where is the balance between civil rights?

Is it OK for a doctor to refer a patient who wants an abortion to another doctor that is willing to do it?

Is it OK for a citizen to refuse military service based on their pacifist religious beliefs?

Minimizing Harm

In considering the best policy for dangerous drug use a friend referred me to the idea of minimizing harm.

Whilst harm minimisation remains a highly contested term (Wellbourne-Wood 1999), there does appear to be a core consensus around the following principles:
Firstly, harm minimisation implies that drug use should be viewed as a public health, rather than a criminal or legal, issue. Drug users are entitled to be treated as normal citizens with the same rights and obligations as other members of the community (Single & Rohl 1997, p. 48).
Secondly, the harm minimisation approach is value neutral and accepts that illicit drugs are and will remain part of our society; that their elimination is impossible; and that further efforts to eliminate them may result in greater harm to society (Rumbold & Hamilton 1998, p. 135). Harm minimisation rejects the notion of drugs wars which inevitably become wars on drug users, rather than on drugs (Mendes 1999, p. 10).
Thirdly, whilst harm minimisation does not involve support for illicit drug use, governments acknowledge that where injecting drug user continues to occur, they have a responsibility to develop and implement public health and law enforcement measures designed to minimize the harm that such behaviours can cause, both to individuals and the community. These measures include education, drug substitution programs, needle-exchange programs, abstinence-oriented interventions aimed at
reducing drug use, and interventions aimed at reducing the supply of illicit drugs (National Drug Strategy Unit 1998, p. 17).
(Quoted from "Social Conservatism vs Harm Minimisation: John Howard on Illicit Drugs", Journal of Economic and Social Policy, 7 Jan 2001)

Drug users would gain much from "education, drug substitution programs, needle-exchange programs, abstinence-oriented interventions aimed at reducing drug use, and interventions aimed at reducing the supply of illicit drugs"

Charities and governments can offer these programs. It is important that we do not take them for granted. “The greater the distance between the giver and the receiver, the more the receiver develops a sense of entitlement.” (“That I Might Draw All Men unto Me”, Dale G. Renlund, Apr 2016)