Justifying bigotry isn't easy, but sometimes it's funny.

Cate and Elizabeth Wirth have been spouses for a long-time and they are raising their 10-year-old son. The two women enrolled the boy in Cub Scouts and volunteered with the troop regularly. Recently the troop was asking for some parents to increase their volunteer work and the two women said they would.

Everything was going fine. Since they had been involved with their son's troop for some years they decided they should just let the Scout official they were working with know that they were spouses. You would think this would have been apparent but there are none so blind as those who refuse to see. District Director Erik Tanney, then told the women that they were forbidden from volunteering because "we wouldn't want you pushing your lifestyle on the boys."

Try to get your head around that for a moment. Exactly what would "pushing your lifestyle on the boys" mean in the case to these two women? Would it mean turning the boys into lesbians? Exactly how would that be possible? And if the boys were turned into "lesbians" wouldn't that mean they would be interested in girls? Isn't that precisely what the Boy Scouts are trying to foster. along with helping old ladies across the street—provided they can prove they are heterosexual, though hopefully not with the Boy Scout in question. How stupid do you have to be to think a lesbian can force her lifestyle on a male?

It is no surprise that the Mormon cult made the Boy Scout's their youth group and it is alleged that one in nine scouts now is from that sect. This means the church, which is very antigay and was the main force behind Prop 8 in California (while dishonestly hiding their role), has a great deal of influence over Scouting. For the record the Scouts will also discriminate boys who are atheists or gay as well.

I think the Scouts have the right to be bigoted and stupid. They have the right to exclude anyone they want. Similarly, other people have the right to think the Scouts are a despicable organization unworthy of any support. That sort of voluntary refusal to deal with one another is perfectly acceptable. I believe in the freedom of association. That also means the freedom to NOT associate.

That said, the matter is complicated when the Scouts line up looking for tax-funded handouts. When the Scouts, or any other group of uniformed bigots, received subsidies from the state that means the little SOB's are using the power of the state to take, under threat of force, money from unwilling individuals to fund their organization. When they do that, it is no longer a voluntary relationship. It is more akin to rape, which I don't think is a value the Scounts are teaching. The Scouts must be free to teach kids Mormon bigotry if they wish. Other people must be free to boycott the Scouts as well. But the Scouts have NO right to seek state funding or subsidies. And when I say "state" I mean government at all levels—as in "the state."

So the Scouts ought to lose ever club house they have if it is provided by any level of government. No government agency should be involved with the Scouts. There shouldn't be a penny of tax money used to promote the Scouts anymore than tax funds should promote any private club that discriminates. There ought to be a complete separation of state and Scouts. They should only be funded by people who share their values and that isn't me.

A truly frightening story.

There is no doubt to me that the US is becoming a "police state." By that I mean a nation where the police have ceased to protect individuals but become agents of the state. Instead of keeping the peace, remember they were once called peace officers, they have become law enforcement officers. Their function is more and more that of enforcing state policy and protecting the government.

When I was a youngster the very idea of police officers breaking into homes in the middle of the night, armed to the teeth, guns drawn, and screaming at terrified citizens, was unthinkable. Now these armed thugs do it routinely, over the most trivial of offenses. Even the smallest of town, for no conceivable reason, has SWAT teams. We have police forces using tanks as if they are in the center of some war. As horrifying as the militarization of our police has become, what the Explorer Scouts are doing is truly disgusting.

Across the United States we are witnessing the Scouts training young people to be armed government agents. This is directly related to the escalation of violence which the police are using routinely in the United States. Thirty years ago dogs weren't routinely killed by cops. Today it happens over and over. And I can assure you, that in the last thirty years, it wasn't the dogs that got more violent and deadly. It was the police. As I've said before, having anything to do with law enforcement today, is potentially deadly to you. Now we have the Scouts training youth to act like violent cops.

Here is what the New York Times reported on this trend:

“United States Border Patrol! Put your hands up!” screams one in a voice cracking with adolescent determination as the suspect is subdued.

It is all quite a step up from the square knot.

The Explorers program, a coeducational affiliate of the Boy Scouts of America that began 60 years ago, is training thousands of young people in skills used to confront terrorism, illegal immigration and escalating border violence — an intense ratcheting up of one of the group’s longtime missions to prepare youths for more traditional jobs as police officers and firefighters.

“This is about being a true-blooded American guy and girl,” said A. J. Lowenthal, a sheriff’s deputy here in Imperial County, whose life clock, he says, is set around the Explorers events he helps run. “It fits right in with the honor and bravery of the Boy Scouts.”

The training, which leaders say is not intended to be applied outside the simulated Explorer setting, can involve chasing down illegal border crossers as well as more dangerous situations that include facing down terrorists and taking out “active shooters,” like those who bring gunfire and death to college campuses. In a simulation here of a raid on a marijuana field, several Explorers were instructed on how to quiet an obstreperous lookout.

“Put him on his face and put a knee in his back,” a Border Patrol agent explained. “I guarantee that he’ll shut up.”

What the fuck is happening to this country? This is what we are teaching teenagers! I cringe to think how far down the fascistic road this country will go before things change for the better.

The Explorer Scouts say no one has criticized the program. Apparently the only problem they have is police officers who work with them molesting the youth they are training. Now they require them to have "sexual misconduct training" to try and prevent the problem.

It should be no surprise that Homeland Security, the American Gestapo, is heavily involved in these programs. One Border Patrol agent for Homeland Security said the reason for the training is "to create more agents." Worse yet: "Explorer posts are attached to various agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation... that sponsor them much the way churches sponsor Boy Scout troops." One government agent said the program's emphasis "is on terrorism, illegal entry, drugs and human smuggling."

Anyone who is supporting the Scouts at any level really needs to reconsider. I won't even buy Girl Scout cookies anymore.