title: Rails: Why is with_exclusive_scope protected? Any good practice on how to use it?
body: <p>Given a model with <em>default_scope</em> to filter all outdated entries:</p>
  
  <pre><code># == Schema Information
  #
  #  id          :integer(4)      not null, primary key
  #  user_id     :integer(4)      not null, primary key
  #  end_date    :datetime        
  
  class Ticket &lt; ActiveRecord::Base
    belongs_to :user
    default_scope :conditions =&gt; "tickets.end_date &gt; NOW()"
  end
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Now I want to get <em>any</em> ticket. In this case <em>with_exclusive_scope</em> is the way to go, but is this method protected? Only this works:</p>
  
  <pre><code> Ticket.send(:with_exclusive_scope) { find(:all) }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Kind of a hack, isn't? So what's the right way to use? Especially when dealing with associations, it's getting even worse (given a user has many tickets):</p>
  
  <pre><code> Ticket.send(:with_exclusive_scope) { user.tickets.find(:all) }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>That's <em>so</em> ugly!!! - can't be the rails-way!?</p>