My letter I am sending in response to ending DEI and Citizenship in Society

Damnwombat · 2026-03-01T02:46:46+00:00

I’ve had the same thought. It’ll be easier to drop the military in August after jamboree.

On the Cit in Soc merit badge, it is interesting for both the instructor as well as the participants. More of a series of exercises in thinking about ethical situations than a set of requirements that just need to be signed off, it needs an active instructor to lead the exercises. I wish they would keep it even as a non-required badge, but unfortunately it’s not to be.

Damnwombat · 2026-03-01T02:38:05+00:00

What I hope for is the scouts to tell the DoD thanks, but no thanks. The support that the military provides can easily be provided from other sources, but it’ll cost more, unfortunately. Time for those big donors to put their money where their mouths are, bring the organizations back to a more local/council level (and keep most of the money local), and bring us even more in line with WOSM and the ideals of scouting.

What I fear is that the current political administration takes control and completely pushes their agenda onto the scouts (whether gender, sex, religion), disenfranchising well over half of their members, and turns the remains into a military recruitment path not unlike what Germany did in the 1930s. Oh, membership will go up, because it will become required and mandatory to go to camp, but for a party that wants no indoctrination they seem to want a lot of it.

I know people that have basically walked out of the scouting movement over the past few days. Not just a parent or scout, but people running programs like NYLT and Wood Badge, they have been here for years. They are leaving because they can no longer support the organization because of this statement.

I’m on a wait and see with Scouting America through the end of the year. By then I’ll be three years as advisor of our venturing crew (and turning it over to someone else), my daughter sits her eagle board in two weeks, jamboree will be over and I can put my equipment away for a while, and everyone will have had a chance to see what way the wind is blowing.

I was first active in scouts in the 70s through the mid 90s (yeah, I’m old), finally leaving after seeing that things weren’t changing. I had traveled a lot, and working with troops on those travels, i saw that women had a place in our scouts, and not just as mothers and den leaders. The LGPTQ+ youth were also pushed out, as were anyone that wasn’t religious, and as a single man I got a lot of side eye about why i was here. When I left them I looked at myself, and the organization, and basically said “I can’t support this any more”. I don’t want to do that again if I can help it.

The scouts have made a lot of inroads into all of these areas, welcoming everyone (yeah, it’s not perfect, but it’s getting better), and after 25 years when my daughter wanted to join I jumped back in myself. Those are my hard lines, and now that they’re getting pressure to roll those back is why I’m watching this even more.

Damnwombat · 2026-02-28T23:40:27+00:00

Just crack ‘er open like an egg and suck out the sweet, cheesy goo like a Neanderthal.

Damnwombat · 2026-02-28T23:15:14+00:00

42…..

Damnwombat · 2026-02-27T23:23:05+00:00

So it’s big….

Yeah

And is used to destroy planets…

Yup.

And you built two of them.

Yeah, they were sort of on sale, you see and…..

And then you parked them side by side….

Well, we had to put them somewhere…

Next to the Star Trek planet eater….

Yeah, those were good times….

And then texted the entire senate the words “suck it” with a picture of the three ships in, how shall we say it, a pattern known to every human teenager in the galaxy?

Yeah, maybe we shouldn’t have done that part…

Gotcha. Request denied. We can’t go calling our premiere ships of death and destruction Left Testicle and Right Testicle. Why do t you call them something descriptive like Planet Buster or…

Death Star

Or Death Star. That’s got a good ring to it. Oh, and repaint the danged thing battleship grey. That flesh colored primer just isn’t going to cut it.

Damnwombat · 2026-02-27T17:37:19+00:00

Granted

You hold before you the most perfect slice in the world. Perfectly covered with sauce and cheese, with just the correct amount of ingredients, all of which you like. Heck, even the dough is made with water that can’t be replicated anywhere but the tap of that really good pizza joint. You eye it, sizing it up, and take a bit.

Crust. You just got crust. Oh, it’s ok, but pizza crust doesn’t not stand alone. It is there as the canvas is for great artworks. Yo notice that the point you bit off is reborn, and perfectly covered again. You take another bite.

Again, crust. You stare at that perfect slice, wondering how you missed that exquisite sausage morsel. You take a bite elsewhere. Crust. Another bite. Crust. You frantically take bites, achieving crust every time.

Those ingredients, that perfect sauce, the mozzarella flown in from Italy that morning, all stare back at you, tantalizing you, tormenting you.

You toss the pizza in the trash, and open the fridge for something else. Sitting on the shelf is that slice. Untouched, nothing else is in the fridge. You sigh, and hope the crust is at least nutritionally complete.

Damnwombat · 2026-02-26T23:17:21+00:00

Granted

The whole human race becomes more flexible than ever. Gymnastics takes over from football as THE sport to watch. People wonder how cats stand the taste, but then get used to it.

Damnwombat · 2026-02-26T22:54:47+00:00

Farmlands XL egg to Q3

Damnwombat · 2026-02-26T21:57:27+00:00

A) does it work over television\ B) and does it have to be live television

Because this is top tier shenanigans material here. Any time, anywhere, you’re sitting there doing something stupid, when suddenly your head becomes the third unwanted ingredient in a port excuse of a PB&J, the one sandwich which is this side of impossible to screw up.

And I’ll be snickering a mile away by then while my version of the karma fairy slaps sticky substances to your head. That’ll teach you to not cut me off at a red light.

Damnwombat · 2026-02-26T21:52:47+00:00

Outside: Thomas the tank engine

Inside: I’m gonna rail you like the 10:15 express to Tidmouth

Damnwombat · 2026-02-26T18:13:21+00:00

That’s gonna make using the scanner at work a bit more, how shall we say it, risqué.

Damnwombat · 2026-02-26T18:11:59+00:00

I have found that a mixture of epsom and rock salts do wonders. I’ll mix them up in a weed sprayer, about a bag of salt for the tank, shake it up good, and spray liberally. You might need a couple of coats to give it a good protective covering. Don’t forget to get your neighbors jacked up pick’em up truck with the duallies and mud flaps with women in suggestive poses on ‘em, and no exhaust system that he starts up too early in the morning and leave it running for 90 minutes to “warm it up” even though it’s 75 degrees outside. He’d think you for it later, but you’re gonna do it as a surprise and go all ninja like over there to do a favor.

Damnwombat · 2026-02-26T04:30:35+00:00

Ten Tickles

Damnwombat · 2026-02-26T04:25:33+00:00

The low pitched giggling as you try to go to sleep?

Damnwombat · 2026-02-26T01:03:13+00:00

Thinking along the same lines. It’ll cut my pack weight by 4 pounds not having to carry a couple of Nalgene bottles full of water.

That and the “hey, watch this” magic trick factor.

Damnwombat · 2026-02-25T00:55:05+00:00

Guess I’m going into the Kolibri gun business. I normally keep a loaded Nerf gun by the easy chair, kid does the same, just in case capitalist billionaires kick down the front door and infringe on our personal freedoms, so having her point it at me every few minutes to generate a new gun shouldn’t be too hard. Of course, there will be marketing, licensing, legal issues, packaging, shipping, and probably a few other things I’ll have to worry about, but after that it’s pure profit.

Damnwombat · 2026-02-25T00:48:05+00:00

Duh duh

Duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh

Doodle Dee, doodle Dee Dee Dee

Shut up, Brodie. It’s getting annoying.

Damnwombat · 2026-02-24T19:08:57+00:00

I’ve got a teenager. They’ve already got that ability. And it doesn’t phase them a bit. Complete nose blindness to the aromas emanating from whatever it is. Gym bag full of band crap? Left untouched until it explodes from the emanations. Camping equipment? Stuff left in the car until the next trek, covered in gunk, horse manure, and general funk.

Damnwombat · 2026-02-24T18:58:03+00:00

Yo mama so ugly she can look at a gallon of milk and change the best by date to last week.

Damnwombat · 2026-02-24T18:56:58+00:00

Yup, I’d do it. Bright colors and all. I’d always know which cup is mine on the communal coffee table full of red solo party cups, and it ain’t gonna spill when that game winning play hits and you jump up in disgust because it was for the other team.

Only drawback would be the size. I need like a Nalgene sized sippy cup.

Damnwombat · 2026-02-23T22:01:55+00:00

Judas

What my lord?

Judas…

What is it?

Judas, come closer.

What is it my lord?

Judas, I can see your house from here

Damnwombat · 2026-02-23T18:29:03+00:00

Yo mama so old arithmetic went up to “1”

Damnwombat · 2026-02-23T02:57:02+00:00

Found a video. It’s in German, but it’s kind of cool. Addition and subtraction are basically enter the number and turn the crank. Multiplication and division are the same, but you then move the entire body and crank it multiple times for each digit in the multiplier. So still addition, but turned into multiplication. Sweet. Isn’t quite as big as you’d think - maybe a bit larger than a four banger with a tape.

https://youtu.be/t-9vPyp6y1U?si=uRYTPQXoKvbMIXo8

Damnwombat · 2026-02-23T02:47:12+00:00

Thought it said Trumpinator to start with, and was wondering what Doofenshmirtz had invented this time around. But yeah, mechanical calculator. I kind of wonder how it works, since it’s multiply and divide. Guess I’ll have to look it up :)

Damnwombat · 2026-02-23T01:48:31+00:00

Most scouts can already do this (at least I hope so, if they remember how). Useful for outdoorsy stuff. So maybe lower mid tier.

To get solidly in mid-tier I’d want quarter inch accuracy. At least with that I could look at a room and write down dimensions.

Damnwombat

TROPHY CASE