What are you gonna do if California goes under?

       First let me define going under. The State government can't pay its bills, loans don't cover the difference (or are denied), and the citizens vote to not raise taxes enough to pay the bills, including the debt interest payments, both now and in the future.

            For the record, I used to live in southern California, and moved out because I could see it coming, that is probable default.

            Never the less, if and when California state government goes under, the whole thing will probably drag the rest of us down, like affect our lives adversely.

            So, if this all comes to pass, what you gonna do to protect your Family wherever you live?

            One thing I read about is having the federal USA government step in to finance the deficit to protect the nation. Fine, but are you willing to work longer to pay more federal taxes just to finance the California way of life they have chosen?

            The dilemma to me in Tennessee is to bite the bullet now, and get it over with, as painful as that might be to me; or Plan B is just to try muddle through. Let my fellow American voting citizens who live in California suffer or gain by their own fate is my opinion.

            For me I was tripped off by a proposed million dollar fish ladder at Malibu Beach to help fish migrate into a creek that was a periodic wet-dry stream. Now I am not willing to pay for that from Tennessee. Maybe you are where you live, or are willing to pay for that with borrowed money you and your descendents will pay for. I say no, like, it's time to bite the bullet, now.

Dual Use

      Some of us think this way routinely.

            Here are some obvious examples:

                        Long term vice short term.  An example is the food we eat, shelf lives, storage ideas, and mostly I have to ultimately eat it; and whether it is now or later just depends on the circumstances. Otherwise I am wasting my money, especially if food goes bad.

                        A foxhole is basically a hole dug in the earth, but it can be both a military type position, and a kids play hole; and should be set up for both if one even digs such hole.

                        Manual widgets that work whether we have electricity or not obviously work in both cases.

                        Medicine. We can use it short term and long term. Storage is important for the long term. I have learned that the stated sell or use by dates in the USA can often reasonably be extended for most over the counter and prescription drugs.

                        Financial plans can have both long term and short term objectives. One example is the type of timber contract a Plantation I used to work at favored it after the Stock Market Crash of 1929, and I and many others reaped the benefits half a century later.  All the decision makers back then were deceased at the time, that is the half century later time, but all the descendents and other people like me benefited from their dual use plan.

                        Manual tools can be used whether we have electricity and fuel, or not.

                        Pet dogs are good companions, but also can be good guard dogs, too. And food for them can feed us first, with leftovers going to them rather than the garbage, within reason of course. And today's dog food can feed them, and humans if need be if times get hard. Even Lewis and Clark ate horse meat when they had it, during hard times.

                        Clothes bought for use, vice fads, can be used to keep warm both in the near term, and the far term; and by one or more.

Well the examples could go on and on, but the idea of dual use appears to be timeless, at least to me.

It's probably predictable

      Well, if you buy the idea of rehearsing things if you have the time, then follow on.

            Talk about a jack of all trades and master of none. That's my case.

            In this post, I was taught many times to rehearse things, since that gives me an advantage. Yep, I had to be taught this idea since it was not part of my upbringing or natural born knowledge.

            And my Grandmother (my mother's mother) was a good cook, and taught me a lot, but in my case not about bread making.

            Now in this post I was making bread, and in this rehearsal,  using barley flour and an electric bread maker.

            And I failed. By that I mean I ate some of the unleavened bread product, but "shared" the rest of it with my local dogs, who scarfed it just fine. Yep, I do like leavened bread more than I thought.

            So my lesson learned was this:

                        1) Sometimes one should follow the directions, like the recipe in this case. I had just winged it using ideas, and that failed, in my opinion.

                        2)  The amount of liquid in the mix is crucial, and in my rehearsal, I just screwed that part up, like had too much.

            Last, in my past I have used store bought bread mix and scrupulously followed the directions, and done OK using my electric bread maker. By OK, I mean I ate it all, and did not share with the local dogs.

            So I will lick my wounds like a local yard dog, and try again in the near future.

            Hope springs eternal.

Solar and wind energy on a budget

      Where I live it is called a clothes line.

            It is probably healthier to use than a clothes dryer, and thriftier, too.

            Every house used to have one. Some still do, I think.

            Now there is no free lunch, like even a clothes line is not perfect, like suppose it is cloudy and rainy or birds poop on it or it is the winter. No wonder clothes dryers are so popular.

            But, again, where I live in east Tennessee, I put one back in, and intend to use it, too. My latitude is 36 degrees north, by the way.

            And I don't expect to pick up all the dirt my wet clothes gathered when drying in the Saudi desert. At least my hand washed clothes, then, smelled better; though when everyone stinks together we humans usually don't notice it as quickly, or at all.

            Nothing like the old time idea of a bath every so often, whether we need one or not. And along the way baby wipes or a water wipe (even a pond swim should count) often come in handy, too. And the sex usually takes care of itself, like normal.

How does a collapse happen?

      Usually quickly, and usually unpredictably.

            The best analogy is that of the breach of a dam. It usually starts with rivulets, and ends up with a breach, like a wash out. And in this analogy, all the critters who depend on the dam and the status quo it has provided will suffer, including death.

            And nobody wakes up in the morning wanting to do a bad job, including  building a bad dam. But it does happen, like bad dams are built.

            And if it happens in the new world USA, it will probably be like the dam breach analogy.

            Already, to me, there are so many examples of rivulets already happening, that I am now hedging my bets, like even making my own electricity, and preparing for some kind of ensuing pandemic. What a shame I can even think or worry this way.

            After all, mission first, and the mission is to preserve my Family as best I can.

            And maybe I am overreacting to change, including the pace of change. But I spent a career exploiting change, so I don't think this idea applies to me, at least, very well.

            Now I also don't want to be a serf or vassal in the European old time terms, nor do I want just to be a bread basket for the rest of the World. Nor do I want to reenter the Dark Ages, and recover from that level.

            Rather, I want to just go forward in a way that benefits my Family here in the new world USA.

            And maybe it has fallen upon my generation to make this happen?  It will take a lot of work to change things, if this comes to pass. But if I can make electricity where I live, you can make our future where you live, too.

            Last, one can suggest there are better ways to be ruled than what we have in the new world USA today.  They have a point. But, I also think we the people have other choices, like the vote, and an educated proletariat. Now that is an idea we need to work at, in my opinion.

            I'm no anarchist. Now if I have a bitch, then I better offer a solution to fix whatever I am complaining about.  That's a moral obligation, to me.

            Nobody said resurrecting after a dam breach will be easy. It's not.

            And, of course, many fellow Americans don't think well of dams these days, nor my analogy. So be it. And I wish them well in life. But there are so many more who need to be supported, and I also wish them well in life.

            By the way, where I live, the water that makes my electricity will go down the mountain anyway, so why not harvest the energy from its fall before the same water still goes down the mountain as it has for thousands of years.

            Of course this idea takes the most basic education to understand, and we in the new world USA have been dumbing down our children for decades, plus living off the hard work our ancestors who did just infrastructure establisment work, to including their taxes paid . Now that may be part of the breach of the dam analogy, and implies just how long it will take to correct.  But one does have to start somewhere.

Mosquito stuff

Take care of your Family and yourself, as best you can.

I have the advantage of being so old I can remember when worrying about mosquito delivered diseases was a big deal where I lived.

Even when we lived at Cherry Point, NC (late 40’s timeframe) , the periodic mosquito fogging truck came through the neighborhood, and all the kids, including me (maybe pre-kindergarten), just ran behind it kinda dancing. I still don’t know what I was sucking in, but it was fun.

And during my time at Groton Plantation (1990’s), I note we had dug around 65 miles of drainage ditches in the recent century past (over 23,00 acres and from my GIS work), mostly to drain wetlands that bred mosquitos and ensuing malaria, often now thought of as a third world disease. Later, when we had dams washed out in this Low Country, the government policy (federal and SC state) had changed so it was 100% in favor of wetlands, including restoration. Now 3 to 4% of my Plantation income budget came from the government, so that was a big deal, to me.

And I read before TVA came into Tennessee where I now live, malaria was still a big deal in river Tennessee areas, like a big problem (maybe 80 years ago).

Last, after hurricane Katrina, a lot of mosquitoes got blown up here, mostly along the Mississippi River basin area; and sure enough, even the West Nile Virus disease reports went up big time, including where I live. We had a lot of downed dead birds here as an example of this non-scientific report.

So there are a few things you can do today.

1) Drain/dry out any wetland type things around where you live, including bird baths.

2) Buy some cheap oil and put a little of it into wetland type areas near where you live, like leave an oil sheen on top of the water.

3) Consider drugs. There are preventives for malaria, but still no known cure once one gets it. I, as an example, have taken preventives just so I did not get malaria (like in the Philippines) , and never did. By the way, malaria may not kill you, though it may; but it will sure make you sick, and come back at unpredictable times. If you know someone like this, then they can tell you better than I can. And if you have to take care of someone with malaria, that is not fun.

4) Keep your Family healthy, as best you can. Our best human defense is our own bodies, both preventive, and often even corrective.

If civilization collapses

      Then it has fallen upon us to restore it.

            In our own way, and where you live, of course.

The collapse of an American culture

Now I personally thought it would happen in the future, like after I am dead from old age. Now I am beginning to wonder if it might be sooner.

Now all of us humans know about all the doom and gloom usual forecasts, often religious, and often based on even cosmic events. Basically End of the World stuff.

But in the same vein, even in the USA during their time, many ancestors could perceive a war coming, and even the Naval Academy graduated a class of 1941 early just to get them ready. Well fast forward to today's times, and apparently many others are worse casing things, too. Like Federal warnings to banks, the USA Federal government buying a lot of ammo and other crowd control stuff, and even updates to military doctrine about domestic work. That list could go on and on... Even the President issued new updates to Executive Orders on this subject in March, June, and July. And even I, lowly I, have begun stockpiling and doing other similar things in the recent past, like even making some local electricity.

What seems a shame is that so many presently alive are now going to have to die to get peoples' attention. This is kind of like the military idea of knowing how wasteful war is when one has been through it, and lived. Yet it may happen, even in the new world USA. Here it may be called a Revolution, or a Civil War, but whatever; I even don't want to have to go through road blocks and pay bribes (sometimes called taxes). Heck, even I at age 64 may go under, too, like die. Now I will even update my tetanus shot in the near future, just in case, and as an example.

I think many of my fellow Americans may ignorantly choose this route of self-destruction, like bringing their death upon themselves and their Family, though nobody would knowingly do this. That is most likely do to our leaders leading some poorly educated serfs, or vassals if you will. So in this culture collapse idea, the seeds of poor education have been sewn decades ago, brewed over decades, and now we get to reap the lack of benefits, like poorly educated voters. There was a time, by the way, when educating our children had a higher priority.

Now I may have to relearn how to live off the land, which is difficult at best, like not my strong suite. My assumption is that I will be pretty bad at it, but being a Marine, I will persevere, best I can. I will survive, as will my Family, barely, of course, and painfully I am sure. I have a square mile of land to work with.

Last, I listen to a visiting 20's something friend who still supports and believes in all this present status quo stuff, or so he tells me. He is just the kind of person who will benefit in the end by being cold and hungry, if he even lives. I figure he has screwed up his life enough, but I still refuse to let him screw up my life with his ideas, and his vote.

My point is that the time for political debating is well over, like for the last recent past. It's (the change) is already happening in front of us. Now is the time for human culture change (already happening), all for the better, again. Thank goodness our children will figure it out since it affects them a lot, and they will change things better, I hope. Said another way, perhaps our present adult USA citizens will not do as well, like many may die, including me.

And I hope we don't have to lop off some heads, like what happened in the French Revolution. And I hope we have future smarter leaders (both elected and appointed) to handle the coming problems. Think Naval Academy Class of 1941 as an example.

Only time will tell how quickly, or slowly, it happens.

Right now I am hopeful; even as many people will die along the way.

What a waste of fine people.

It ain't me, babe!

      We may be seeing and hearing the last hurrah of the two national parties of the last 100 years in the new world USA.  They and many pundits don't see it or know it, I also think. By 2020 they should be minor parties on the way to oblivion, kind of like the Whig Party, as an example.

            The times they are a changin'!  Now times are always changing, but it sure seems to be going at a faster pace these days. Even where I live many people wish we had another choice. Yep, people have hope for change, and the "movement" has already begun to make it happen...it just takes time to manifest itself, in my opinion. I just hope it doesn't take a revolution to make it happen.  I, myself, have been through road blocks, and having a pistol in my lap to help get through it is not the way to go in the new world USA. Maybe in the third world, but certainly not here. Nor does lopping off the heads of the king and queen like happened in the French Revolution appeal to me.

            Now anybody can complain, but a leader then offers solutions, usually up to three, for his or her leader to pick from. There might even be a recommended solution.  Venting for emotional relief is of little value to any leader who usually seeks to know the problems, and the proposed solutions. Recently I suggested to my idealistic young friend that he should go down to join the local hippy settlement near here, but I suspect that he would rather just bitch, than actually do hippy work to keep from being cold and hungry. I myself think a good dose of cold and hungry will help in his future life.

            Anyway, if he is the face of the political future, then I hope to die before he can screw up my life, having already screwed up his life so far. For example, he is more casual about other people's deaths that I ever was. So again, the times they are a changin', and it affects all of us, old and young.

            So my sales pitch is to do what you can where you live, offer solutions for change where you live, if you are a leader consider these solutions, and watch the times change. Yep, it ain't me babe...it's you.

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Here's more on this post, including the author John McCrae:  http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/flanders.htm

On the nature of we humans

       What got my attention was an email this morning.  It was by a fellow who is in his 20's. Here it is:
                   I am bringing back true hippietism. Screw the modern hippie/hipster and the modern liberal. Screw the conservative and the ones that want to regualte (his mispelling)  your bedroom. Let the individual be the individual. This is not communism, this is toleration.

            Now I enjoy the company of this single friend, who I also think of as an idealistic drifter, and somewhat lazy to boot. He has expressed that he should be admired for just going to work. But he is also idealistically motivated, which appeals to me.

            And as luck would have it, there is one of two big USA hippy communes less than 100 miles from here in Tennessee (the other I think is in California). So if he even asks my opinion, I will suggest he move down there, where he will probably get a good dose of reality about we humans, including his need to work.  It's August now, so the winter is coming, and let's see how being cold and hungry affects him and his idealism. In my case, thanks to the USMC, I have been cold and hungry, and I did not enjoy the experience.

            Now my admiration for his idealism is balanced by my own questioning about what is "true hippieism"?  After all, I experienced it firsthand (my experience), while all he has done is read about it, and feel it in his heart and gut, and maybe his brain.

            That's why this post is entitled about human nature. In my case, I am torn both ways.

            After all, any unsolicited advice from me as a friend will most likely be blown off.  That's what I would do. In the same vein, that's what a parent is supposed to do, like provide unsolicited advice or requirements to their children, like a curfew time.  That idea is about human nature, too. And even the Amish lifestyle is starting to appeal to me, too.

            And on USA human culture, because I am a Marine I am supposed to be some kind of neo-reactionary, conservative pig, which I have to accept reluctantly, since it is not correct about me.

            Last, and still on the idea of human nature, is my question about what does he think is "true".  My guess is it is his sincere opinion, but I don't really know for sure, and have asked about this with no response so far.

Picking & Canning Green Beans

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KApMaw1qEDM&feature=related

Enjoy.

This flic might be made near where I live in east Tennessee. But the idea is all over.

The New World USA Defense Budget

       In the bloated idea of a new world USA defense budget, I rest my case. We tend to make the best and most expensive solution, albeit in smaller and smaller numbers.

            Yet, in fairness, some of the research does pan out to our benefit, like our National Defense, like enhancing it.

            Now numbers count, too, like swarm theory ideas. But I also trust the geeks who work so hard to come up with ideas that they develop for our benefit. Last, I think I know about the abuse that goes on, like scientists and even engineers who milk the system for their Family's benefit, vice our National' benefit. Heck, they've got to make a living, too.

            Now the obvious, to me, example, is one of lining up 100 tanks against 100 shooters. Just how do we make sure we shoot at all 100 tanks, vice a lesser number, like all aim at one tank.

            That's the kind of idea from WWII that spawned the idea of operations analysis.  And it worked back then, and it can work today, if we want it to work to our benefit.

            So if times get hard, and they are already here, perhaps we can still have a pretty good National defense, perhaps even better than what we have today,  and on a smaller budget.

            Of course, only time will tell. And we will have to give up some defense stuff, too. But in the same vein, we can grow our own gardens, in WWII called Victory Gardens, that raised up to 40% of our vegetables. Yep, our fate is still in our hands.

            Especially time will tell how we sort things out, and most especially if we get into a real war, like people dying, airplanes going down, ships getting sunk, ground soldiers dying, etc. We new world USA people are a tough and savvy breed, by the way.

            Last, just what a shame it may happen, like a real big war, but that in the end is a voter and political decision to allow it; like let our present  politicians start it, and let our probably new politicians end it.

Garden Song
(Dave Mallet)

Inch by inch, row by row,
Gonna make this garden grow,
All it takes is a rake and a hoe,
And a piece of fertile ground.

Inch by inch, row by row,
Someone bless these seeds I sow,
Someone warm them from below,
'Till the rain comes tumblin' down.

Pullin' weeds and pickin' stones,
Man is made of dreams and bones,
Feel the need to grow my own,
'Cause the time is close at hand.

Grain for grain, sun and rain,
Find my way in Nature's chain,
Tune my body and my brain
To the music from the land.

Plant your rows straight and long,
Temper them with prayer and song,
Mother Earth will make you strong
If you give her loving care.

An old crow watching hungrily
From his perch in yonder tree,
In my garden I'm as free
As that feathered thief up there.

Copyright David Mallett

By the way, even John Denver, and Peter, Paul, and Mary, recorded this song.

Just what is life?

    Warning...this is a kind of geeky article from a Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech.

            What set me off was two things. One is the present Mars landing coming due, which will look for life like on the earth, which means like us earth people, which means carbon based, and needing some water.  All in all, this is a big bucks USA operation suffering from assumptions, in my opinion. The second was a book I read around two decades ago by some English fellows, and in my mind they changed the definition of life from earthly things to the ability to reproduce, by whatever means. They offered other means to reproduce than carbon and water, like we have on the earth.

            The obvious example, to me, are the life forms around the thermal vents under the ocean and on the earth. That kind of life gets its energy from other than the sun, and its nutrients, too, like to reproduce and replicate. Who knows what goes on at Titan, for example? The answer is nobody knows.

             Think of a big successful chemistry experiment.

            No wonder other life forms, call them aliens, have such captivating appearances that infatuate so many human movie viewers. And who knows, those who create aliens might be close. Anyway, other people obviously think about this, too. As for me, I enjoy the Alien movie series, especially the imaginations of those humans who constructed the aliens and the sets. Even Predator catches my attention, where the alien was, an alien.

            Last, my intent is to suggest not all life is carbon based, and needing water. If one buys that assumption, perhaps we can advance, and defend, our earth selves better!

            One more last. While other life forms on  the earth, maybe even aliens, may be smart with good technology, don't discount we humans, too. We are smart, with good technology, too.

            That's what bothers me about a lot of the UFO types, like if they can't explain things, then it must be another life form, like an alien. This person suggests don't discount we humans of all ages and technologies, who are a smart and savvy life form, too.

            So back to the basic question...just what is life?

Do you remember?

      I was born in 1948 to give perspective to this post. Monterey and the Hemlocks is in east Tennessee in Putnam County, all USA.  My father, "Dad", died in 2002 at age 84. His ashes are in Verble Hollow here, locally.

            Most homes in my time had an outdoor clothes line.

            I’ll be putting one in soon at the Hemlocks (weather determined time) just to say we have one, too.

            Most young people don’t know what they are, I think.

            Even at Monterey I have not seen any outdoor clothes lines these days.

            Now Dad had one up, but it was made from detonating cord I assume he had scrounged, and which I objected to, and I took it down.

            Part of my past is knowing what det cord is, and what it looks like. Bummer these days.

Screwing our kids over

    You ain't seen nothing yet.

            The basic premise is pretty easy.  Like educate our children to be good workers and citizens, and along the way have self-respect and happy Families.  This is a cultural problem, to me, if we fail to do our adult responsibilities to our kids.

            And if fairness, many places are doing a good job at educating their children, and good on 'em for it.

            But in the same vein, here's two written practical consequences by Victor Davis Hansen:

                        The public schools were once the key to California’s ascendance. Universal education turned out well-prepared citizens who were responsible for California’s rosy future — one based on an excellent tripartite higher education system of junior colleges, state colleges, and universities; sophisticated dams and irrigation systems; and a network of modern freeways and roads. In the private sphere, the culture of shame still prevailed, at least in the sense that no one wanted his 16-year-old son identified in the papers (with his home address no less) as arrested for breaking and entering. And such crime was rare. Rural California was a checkerboard of 40- and 80-acre farms, with families that were viable economic units and with children who worked until dark after school. It is hard to steal when you must disc ten acres after baseball practice.

I think it is a fair assessment to say that all of the above is long past. Since about 1992, on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) testing, California ranks between 41 and 48 in math and science, depending on the year and the particular grade that is assessed. About half of the incoming freshmen at the California State University system — the largest public university in the world — are not qualified to take college courses, and must first complete “remediation” to attain a level of competence that was assumed forty years ago in the senior year of high school. The students I taught at CSU Fresno were far better prepared in 1984 than those in 2004 were; the more money, administrators, “learning centers,” and counselors, the worse became the class work.

I finally threw out my old syllabi last month: the 1985 Greek Literature in Translation course at CSU Fresno seemed to read like a Harvard class in comparison to my 2003 version with half the reading, half the writing, and all sorts of directions on how to make up missed work and flunked exams. It wasn’t just that I lost my standards, but that I lost my students who could read.

                Here's a second practical example of what is coming, or may be here right now, depending on where you live:

                                Does any of that matter? Well, yes. Those who are not educated soon inherit the reins of public responsibility. In practical terms, the symptoms are everywhere. I now expect that my county property tax returns will have common errors, from the spelling of my name or address to the particular acreage assessed.

When entering the bank, I expect people not just to not speak English, but occasionally not to write any language, and thus put a mark down, in Old West fashion, to cash their checks.

When I deal with a public agency, I assume the person on the opposite end of the counter or phone will not to be able to transact the requested service, or at least not be able to transact any other service other than the narrow one trained for. Calling any public agency is to receive a recording and then an incoherent order to press numerous buttons that lead to more recordings. Woe to the poor fool who walks into a Department of Motor Vehicles office on an average day, seeking to obtain a copy of his pink slip or find a registration form. The response is “get a number,” “make an appointment,” “get in line,” “wait,” or “see a supervisor.” 

                Well, the obvious answer to me is to vote for school board people who will advance our children for our common good, as well as these children's future self-respect and happiness.

Michael Malone: A Century of Eagle Scouts

The Eagles' service project is the single greatest youth-service initiative in history, and one that has touched every community in America in an important way.

One hundred years ago on Aug. 1, Arthur Eldred, a 17-year-old Boy Scout from Long Island, became the first person to earn the Eagle Scout rank. Eldred, tall, quiet and with a shock of dark hair, had joined scouting largely at the behest of his widowed mother, who hoped it would give some structure to his life. Yet as Eagle Scouts would continue to do throughout the next century, Eldred caught the scouting world by surprise. He was the first of an extraordinary new cohort of young men who were to prove very different from the classic 13-year-old Boy Scout in short pants.

Eldred's initial accomplishment was to complete the requirements for the rank of Eagle Scout only six months after that supreme award in American scouting was announced in April 1912. The leaders of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), assuming it would take several years for any boy to earn the required 21 merit badges, hadn't yet devised a final review system for Eagle candidates; they hadn't even settled on a design for the medal.

Unsure how to proceed after Eldred qualified for all the badges, the BSA ordered him to come down to its headquarters in Manhattan and put him through what had to be the most intimidating board of review in scouting history—led by the BSA's founders themselves. Eldred apparently passed with ease. And then, as an indication of what kind of remarkable person scouting would now have, while awaiting his award that summer Eldred saved two of his fellow Scouts from drowning.

Out of the more than 115 million boys who have passed through the Boy Scouts of America in the last 102 years, approximately two million have become Eagle Scouts, a 2% rate that has climbed to about 4% of all scouts in recent years. Some may have excelled in outdoor challenges and troop leadership, or while earning merit badges for oceanography and entrepreneurship. Yet all have been changed by the experience of what has been come to be called "the Ph.D. of Boyhood." And these Eagles in turn have changed the face of American culture in ways both obvious and unexpected.

Many went on to notable careers and distinguished service to the country. The list of famous Eagles over the last century includes movie and television stars, six Medal of Honor recipients, Nobel Prize winners, novelists, a number of astronauts (including most Shuttle astronauts), Tuskegee airmen and Japanese-American internees, congressmen, senators and governors, an endless number of corporate CEOs and university presidents, a U.S. president (Gerald Ford), and the first man to walk on the moon (Neil Armstrong). But there are other, perhaps less obvious, Eagles as well: sexologist Alfred Kinsley, Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard and Washington's disgraced ex-mayor Marion Barry.

Two summers ago, during the BSA centennial parade in Washington, D.C., the adult Eagle contingent of official marchers featured a diplomat, a journalist, military officers, a bomb-demolition expert, doctors and a department-store Santa Claus. Despite what you might think, America's Eagles are spread across the political spectrum. They include individuals across all races (scouting was officially integrated from the start) who hold beliefs as diverse as other Americans. What they have in common is that they chose a life of achievement and assumed leadership roles at a very young age.

Scouting as a whole has regularly (and falsely) suffered the indignities of various stereotypes: the ardent escorts of little old ladies crossing the street, the secret paramilitary militia, the synecdoche of all things reactionary.

Yet the image of Eagle Scouts has only risen over the decades in American life and culture—Indiana Jones, like Steven Spielberg, is an Eagle Scout, and so is Will Smith's character in "Men in Black." It is as close to a gold standard of youth as we have, which is why it is regularly noted in the obituaries of octogenarians alongside a lifetime list of other achievements.

And that reputation is deserved. A recent Gallup survey (for Baylor University) of Eagle Scouts, former Boy Scouts and men who never joined scouting found that America's Eagles are far more engaged with the world around them in almost every way—in community service, club membership, churchgoing, outdoor recreation, and the fields of education and health.

Eagle Scouting's biggest contribution to American life is the one most recognized: the service project, the "dissertation" of the boyhood Ph.D. Since the mid-1960s, all Eagle candidates are required, beyond earning the traditional 21 merit badges, to devise, plan, execute and manage a community-service project.

Most of these projects are small: a new bench at the park, painting a school building, collecting blankets for a homeless shelter. But some are hugely ambitious: restoring wetlands, building a library in Africa or a playground at a Russian orphanage, creating an artificial reef—and they consume thousands of hours.

You cannot read a small-town newspaper in America without running across the story of an Eagle service project at least once a month. But it was only recently that the National Eagle Scout Association decided to look beyond the anecdotal and tally up all of the Eagle service projects ever done. It came to the jaw-dropping total of more than 100 million hours of service. Eagle Scouts are adding more than three million more hours each year.

Those numbers likely make the Eagle Scout service project the single greatest youth service initiative in history, and one that has touched every community in America in an important way.

Mr. Malone, a veteran journalist and Eagle Scout, is the author of a new history of Eagle Scouting, "Four Percent" (WindRush Publishing, 2012).

A definition of war

    The classic definition of war is politics by another means.

            Of course there are other ways to define war.

            Usually it involves people from different cultures not really understanding the other cultures, like they will think like them, and react like them. How naive, but that seems to be what usually happens.

            And then there are world wars, usually started by regional powers like Germany and Japan. That has happened, too.

            And of course, most wars involve casualties, sometimes in the millions.

            Now, I don't want to die because of somebody else's naive mistakes/good intentions. There are alternatives for the savvy leaders.

The Bad People Factor

      Not too long ago I would have said the "bad guy factor", but now days where I live there are a bunch of female bad people, too, like I have to factor them in, too. Drugs and alcohol are often complicating factors, too.

            And I like movies, also. But it does seem more Hollywood movies in the recent past tend to glorify the bad people, kind of like glorifying the noble savage.

            Yet I live in the real world, and thus have to plan for the bad people that might adversely affect my life and property.

            Now I am pretty sure there have always been bad people around, so that is nothing new, like that is just a fact of life. What gains my attention is that it sure seems like the percentage has increased in the last decade or so. I offer as evidence two things: 1) the yard dog night activity where I live is way up;  2) the amount of condoms and empty beer cans on my property is noticeable (at least the boys and girls are practicing safe sex). Of course, in the case of the yard dogs, it could just be the local wild critters are moving in on the Compound. I don't know for sure.

            Now let me add a perspective, About a year ago I was bragging to my doctor's wife about my efforts to block access to this place. Well, she responded that that might be why couples were now "getting it on" behind "their" medical building like at 1400 local time, and that did upset a lot of the people in the building. All this in Monterey, Tennessee.

            So I do try live like a hermit on this wonderful land in east Tennessee, modern style in my case (I still watch some TV off of DISH satellite); but now fear more for my life and property than even ten years ago.

            So now I feel the need to take extra precautions, to include patrolling. And I sure am glad the USMC has a Basic School and made me attend for six months in my time, because decades later I am using many of the skills I was taught, to include first aid, and basic defense.

            And all this on my own land.

            I'll conclude this post on one more perspective.  Having lived around the world, where I now live in Putnam County, east Tennessee, things seem to be reasonably balanced between budget problems, local priorities, and the application of all this. While times may get even harder, this is probably not a bad place to live. I suspect much the same is happening elsewhere, too. So good on a lot of local leaders who help a person like me dealing with the bad person factor I have to deal with. I appreciate the work, pay taxes for it, and say thank you.