Boy Scouts Wimpworld Debacle

I never joined the Boy Scouts when I was a kid. I went to one meeting to see what it was all about and decided that "I wasn't a joiner." Besides, living as I did with the woods right outside my back door, I was pretty well versed in camping and tramping skills by this point.

In a way, I've always harbored this sense that the Scouts were for losers who couldn't learn how to do most of this stuff on their own, or who didn't have any friends. Call me cynical.

Now, I am truly beginning to wonder whether the Scouts haven't entered the 21st century with all the cluelessness of your average Game Boy-obsessed, spoiled suburban brat.

While the deaths of four of their leaders was tragic, it also points to a real lack of "being prepared." Mucking around near electrical lines is something even a Cub Scout knows is bad business.

And now comes the heat. Obviously unprepared little scouts are falling like flies because it's hot at their Jamboree. Excuse me, but isn't this precisely what they have supposedly been taught and trained to deal with? If they can't deal with the heat, what can they deal with? Sure it's darn hot, but you drink tons of water, stay in the shade, wear a hat and limit your activity. Then you drink more water. Hey look, I could be a Scout leader!

My guess is that too many of these scouts have merit badges in things like hard drive reformatting and iPod downloading, instead of stuff like latrine building and summer survival skills. Honestly, if this is the next generation of hard-nosed, outdoorsy kids, I'm very worried.