The Battle of the Battle of Liberty Place

White League propaganda. These are the fellows honored by the Battle monument.... (Wikimedia Commons)

When the Battle of Liberty Place monument, a memorial honoring those who died in an attempt to overthrow the city government after the Civil War, came down two weeks ago, contractors did the work in the middle of the night wearing kevlar and face masks.

WaPo: Tensions rise....

8/16:  I wrote the following in January.  While I think what I originally wrote is more nuanced, honest and well-meaning than what I've heard from various "unite the right" types in Charlottesville, I'm bummed to hear some of the same things I wrote coming out of those hate-twisted mouths (that Vice video for example).  Unlike the POTUS, I will not hesitate nor mitigate, I thoroughly repudiate those neo-Nazi über-trolls, and any similar arguments are coming from and heading towards an entirely different place than those dudes'....

It irks me a bit that this article conveys the message that everybody against removing Confederate memorials are either racists and/or apologists for slavery.  Camo-clad, pistol-packin', Trump-lovin', flag-wavin' good ole boys sittin' on the porch with a moon-pie in one hand and a Mason jar of RC Cola in the other.  That said, take a good look at that cartoon.  One would hope that the Liberty Place monument's defenders are ignorant of exactly what it was they are defending when it comes to this particular chicken-fried obelisk.  Sadly, I can't escape the fact that many of them know exactly what it means.  David Duke certainly did when he tried to hold a rally there.  And I'd bet the phoned-in threats that made spiriting it away like thieves in the night a necessity weren't made by kindly old ladies dividing their Golden Years between the Daughters of the Confederacy and the flower-arranging club.

I think that somehow contextualizing these kinds of monuments would be better than just taking them away in the dead of night.  Are we eventually going to take down any memorial to the Confederate war dead?  If you look at the history behind the Liberty Place monument, and the literal white supremacist messages inscribed upon it, it's hard to lament its removal.  But its presence at least reminded people of the events which it honored, and those are events worth remembering.  I would suggest a kind of counter monument that incorporated the original, a way to re-interpret both the event itself and the earlier monument that sought to glorify it.  Becoming a kind of monument about a monument.  A meta-monument.  Or shit, just take it down and put it in a museum.  But doesn't stealing it away under cover of darkness send a message of fear, or give the impression that there's more support for it than there actually is?

It's like the KKK gravestone in Deland, Florida I've written about.  It would be a forgotten bit of local folklore if removed.  As it is, the stone radiates a kind of forlorn air, covered as it is with the stains of piss and beer bottles, perhaps other effluvia.  It reeks of defeat.  At worst, neglected; at best, covered with marks of loathing for what it represents, pooh stains on a white sheet.  The dank drapery of a defunct douche-bag.  But trying to erase history is always a bad move.  That grave inspired a lot of research on my part, edging me me towards investigating many facets of African-American history I might not otherwise have been motivated to learn about.  I felt I had to counteract a monument to the despicable.

Some kind of interpretive stelae for the Liberty Place monument may have been more powerful than a midnight removal.  Imagine coming across a glorious obelisk and then learning it carried blatant messages of white supremacy and sought to honor a white supremacist army?  A good number of people would check it out, learn something about how the end of the Civil War didn't necessarily mean the end of racial bloodshed and armed civil strife.  About how the League operated in the open, explicitly agitating for the overthrow of the Reconstructionist government and then trying to make it happen through intimidation, murder and in Liberty Place, armed insurrection.  And where they failed in violence, they succeeded through democracy.  Democrats regained control of the state legislature in 1876, two years later.

So now they're preparing the removal of statues to Generals Lee and Beauregard and President Jefferson Davis, and the situation is fraught with tension, primed for some kind of violent reaction.  Interesting story.  I wrote about the decision to remove the statues back in 2016 and had some more cogent comments.  As a historian, I'm simply loathe to cover up the past, no matter how loathsome.  Although I'm not really torn up about it, I do think it would be a shame if the next targets are monuments to Confederate war dead.  People should be able to honor their ancestors.  I know, why would I bother to defend these people?  I just don't "get it".  I do get it, but this kind of controversy doesn't do nuance very well.  Some of those soldiers were despicable men, but many of the grunts were just kids, protecting their lands and their sovereignty.  Call me naive, but I've always been in the "better to let ten guilty men go free than convict once innocent man" camp.  One of the pitfalls of actually believing in the ideals of the Founding Fathers.  Beauregard and Lee I could care less about.  History will remember them.  But who will remember those poor young dudes they led to the slaughter?

In any event, the people have spoken, the monuments will fall.  I really do hope they do something though, to explain the story of Liberty Place.  That was pretty messed up.  The White League that initiated the insurrection was a nasty bunch.  The whole business had started in 1872 over a disputed election and had already led to one conflict, or massacre, at Colfax, where 150 freedmen were killed by a white militia.  At least 50 of them had been killed after having been taken prisoner.  These were not the gallant warriors of myth, and many of these militiamen were part of the White League that later tried to capture New Orleans, and succeeded, until Federal troops moved in and ousted them.  No one was ever prosecuted.  The 1891 monument interpreted the ensuing events in order to honor the insurrectionists and in 1932 the city added an inscription stating that the election of 1876 vindicated the insurrectionists, recognizing white supremacy in the South.  No tears here to see it go, but mightn't it have served a better role as a kind of elaborate public urinal?

If the vow to set these statues in a museum is honored, I think the public would be better served than placing them in secret warehouse next to the Ark of the Covenant and the alien cadaver.  The monument is a powerful shock to our modern sensibilities, which is a good sign that times have changed.  That they had to take such extraordinary precautions to remove it shows just how much times haven't.

So I guess this is a contradictory mass of feelings about the issue after all.  Many people want them removed and I think I want them to stay for the very same reasons.  A question, then, not of the goal, but of the strategy on how to attain it.  Or maybe not.  I don't want people to forget this stuff.  I want them to remember....

Ouroboros

Two recent posts featured on other websites:

Masonic Republics
A lil' look at monuments in Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires and Blagnac.

Sunshine State
KKK and Freemasonry in Florida.  Did I really use the SWAG method?

I link back as both a courtesy and an encouragement to read the other interesting posts these sites contain.

Update 6/6

Thought I'd add

Order and Progress in the Dérive: Freemasonry and Positivism in the Urban Landscape of Rio de Janeiro
An elaboration of Masonic Republics.

The Sunshine State

In March 2011, I dissed Alex Jones' The Order of Death documentary (Power, Corruption and Lies) for a variety of reasons, one of which is his claim that Albert Pike, whom Jones calls the leader of world Masonry, founded the KKK.  Both claims are demonstrably false.

In the comments that followed, however, Terry Melanson and I discussed the links between Freemasonry, the Knights of the Golden Circle and the KKK.  Whether the KGC could be described as "Masonic" is debatable, of course, but I'd have to say it was:  three degrees, passwords, grips, hailing signs, etc.  Freemasonry was, like it was for so many other groups, the KGC's model, and membership was not mutually exclusive.

Sad to say, the same is true of the KKK.  Whereas the original Klan had no degrees, the second group (1915-1944) had four and the ladies auxiliary, three.  Freemasonry influenced its rituals and more than a few Klansmen were drawn from its ranks.

All this exposition is really just a prelude to the following two pictures.  I mentioned the first in an April 2011 post about political vandalism, but at the time I'd forgotten the second.  I don't think the pictures prove anything beyond the fact that membership in a Masonic Lodge and the KKK were not mutually exclusive, but it will do little dissuade people from thinking one group was the arm of another.

Meet Roy L. Cook, Klansman and Mason, waving his freak flag high from beyond the grave in Oakdale Cemetery, Deland, Florida.

Ignoring these photos won't make them go away, best to bring them out into the daylight.  Personally I don't see how one could belong to a group promoting universal fraternity and another white supremacy, but there you have it.

This KKK-sponsored page features a photo of Cook's Klan headstone, but not the Masonic one; it does, however, feature the stone of Imperial Wizard James Colescott (1897-1950).  Colescott led the Klan from 1939-1944.  His stone bears the square and compasses.  The page also pictures the stone of one Samuel Grady Roper (1891-1951)--with the square and compasses--and says it belongs to yet another Imperial Wizard.  Trouble is, the Sam W. Roper (b. 1895) who led the Klan in 1949-1950 died in 1986 (after having retired as second director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation).  So, given this blatant error, any info on the site must be weighed accordingly.

The Cook grave is located in Deland, Florida.  Colescott died in Coral Gables.  Roper, in Gainesville.  All of them were contemporaries, Klansmen and finished their days in Florida.  Which is not surprising; even a cursory glance at Klan history reveals that Florida has always had a particularly strong, and violent, Klan presence.

Florida, the Sunshine State!

(Gid and I are both Florida natives, we can thus rag on Florida with impunity!)

An Authentic Exposition of the "K.G.C.". "Knights of the Golden Circle."

Fascinating history of the KGC and the historical context, it is after all subtitled "A History of Secession from 1834 to 1861."  It was written by a member of the order and published in 1861.  The rituals and degree structure described in this book clearly indicate the influence of Freemasonry; whether it was founded by men who happened to be Masons is unclear, as Freemasonry is not mentioned in the text. An Authentic Exposition of the "K.G.C.". "Knights of the Golden Circle."

First, or military degree of the Knights of the Golden Circle.

First degree of the Knights of the Golden Circle. The KGC was a Texas-based secret society.  Their objective was to create a confederation of slave-holding states in parts of Mexico and the West Indies, extending slavery; the group's plan thus mirrored the objectives of secession, a cause they actively supported during the Civil War.  Legend has it that they hid the fabled confederate gold allegedly sent off for safe keeping as the waning days of the war. Others have linked them to the KKK.  I'll follow this soon with a length exposition of the group.

Date: 1861K.G.C. First, or military degree.  

**** 

See the comments after Power, Corruption and Lies for some previous and brief discussion of Pike, Masonry, the KKK and the KGC.

....and then bomb it.

Back on July 24, 2010 (Smash it Up) we reported that the so-called "Illuminati Pyramid" in Blagnac had been damaged.  As you can see from the following picture, a portion of one of the bronze tablets symbolizing the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen is still missing a piece.

At the time we asked: 

Did it come loose? Had it become wonky, forcing the municipality to remove it for repair?

Or was it vandalized? Did some angry guy come along and bang it off? Was this a political act? Will we see more of this in the future?

Well, it has happened again and there's no doubt this time it was an act of vandalism, albeit not likely for political reasons.  As the second shot makes clear, it's more of the "carve a heart on a tree" kind of vandalism than anything else.

  

This monument's in constant evolution.  In February 2010 the city covered up the mosaic on the floor of the basin into which the water from the "Temple of Supreme Wisdom" flows.  This mosaic map of the world was probably leaking and causing damage to the surrounding earth; several paving stones have in fact sunk and/or otherwise become unaligned.

Anyway, this kind of thing isn't unique.  I titled my brief post on the Georgia Guidestones "God is stronger than the NWO" after some graffiti left on that cryptic monument which has come under repeated attack.

Anyway, I'm sure I could go on to a survey of political vandalism, history is rife with it:  Pharoahs and Ceasars effacing names from monuments, Spanish Republicans decapitating statues of saints, etc. but to be honest, I'm a bit too lazy.

Personally, I find tagging to be an annoying form of semi-permanent territorial pissing and have little tolerance for it.  Then again, back when I was a college student we used to impress people by taking them to the town cemetery to see the enormous headstone of one Roy L. Cook (Royal Cook!), which  features the initials KKK and a tilted cross, in flames.  That stone bore the marks of repeated abuse from various liquids and food items and I myself pissed on it more than once.  Googling it, I find Cook appears in a book entitled (Haunted Deland : the ghosts of West Volusia County).

So, I understand the urge to desecrate that which one doesn't particularly appreciate.  On a related note:  in Gainesville, not far from that burning cross in Deland, that pastor dude went ahead and burned a Koran, something he'd threatened to do last year among much media hand-wringing.  Riots have erupted in Afghanistan and at least 16 people have been killed; seven of these were UN relief workers who were shot after rioters stormed their compound.  Which of course helps said pastor make his point.

But anyway, I don't have any particular point with this last paragraph.  It seems relevant though.

Now I can spend the night wondering whether or not an open display of KKK pride justifies pissing on someone's grave....please tell me yes, dear readers!

Power, Corruption and Lies

Gabriel Moulin, 1907.

I had an opportunity to watch The Order of Death (Alex Jones' documentary on the Bohemian Grove) the other night.  It's a deft piece of propaganda and like all propaganda, it's filled with an unfortunate bevy of distortions and half-truths, if not outright lies.

Bohemian Grove is a campground in northern California owned by the Bohemian Club, a men's social club founded in San Francisco in 1872.  Initially membership included journalists and artists, but it soon accepted businessman into its ranks.  Today the club holds an annual gathering at the Grove which includes a largely GOP crowd, but includes a smattering of liberals, too.  This is not some conspiracy theorist's wild imaginings.  Guests have included the likes of Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Kissinger, George Shultz, Helmut Kohl, Colin Powell.  The list goes on.  Not only such well-known figures but a long list of power players in industries from petrochemical and media to defense.  Celebrities are involved.  Harry Shearer and Steve Miller, of all people, are members.  So are Mickey Hart and Bob Weir, formerly of the Grateful Dead.

But what do they do?  Given the highly secretive nature of the proceedings, a lot of what goes down is fairly well-known. (Tellingly, the Patron Saint of the Club is John of Nepomuk, who was martyred by the King of Bohemia for refusing to divulge secrets the Queen revealed to him at confessional; one of his attributes is an angel holding its finger over its lips in the universal gesture of silence and at least one of the BG camps is adorned with this very image).  It would appear that revelry and heavy drinking are involved, male bonding, pissing in the woods, etc.  A series of "Lakeside Talks" are held, where members or special guests weigh in on policy issues of the day.  Theatrical productions are performed.  Perhaps most famous is the "Cremation of Care" ceremony.  The Cremation of Care is a kind of skit where members dressed in red and black hooded robes carry a coffin to the foot of a large stone effigy of an owl and set it alight.  Inside the coffin is a human figure called "Dull Care".  According to an article that appeared in Spy Magazine, club literature "boasts that the Cremation of Care ceremony derives from Druid rites, medieval Christian liturgy, the Book of Common Prayer, Shakespearean drama and nineteenth-century American lodge rites."  (This photo archive of images from 1909 has lots of images from the theatrical productions).

Alex Jones actually walked right into the camp and from a hidden vantage point filmed the goings on.  As the coffin is set alight, howls and screams come out from the owl and fireworks shoot forth from behind its head . Strange hi-jinks for anyone, let alone the power elite.

The prospect of a bunch of influential men gathering in secret among the redwoods to discuss foreign and domestic policy matters raises a series of valid questions, the foremost of which regards the appropriateness of such an arrangement in a free and open, democratic society.  To what extent policy is hatched here, if at all, is a big unknown.  Policy is hammered out in Congress, to be sure, and these kinds of conclaves are carried out all over Washington in various think tanks and consortia.  Which doesn't put this in perspective at all.  More to the point is to what extent these parallel policy structures subvert the democratic process of free and open discussion.  On one hand the Constitution guarantees the freedom of like-minded men to gather and discuss the problems of the day.  This is what political parties are all about, after all.  But the Grove smacks of something beyond that.  It doesn't help that this boys' club burns coffins before an enormous owl.

Carthage Redux

One big problem with Jones' documentary is that he links the Cremation of Care ritual to the continuation of Molech worship.  Without any ado whatsoever he pronounces this as fact.  Molech was a Semitic deity and research supports the idea that indeed, human and animal sacrifice was performed in the god's honor.  But this is not a proven fact; the extent of these sacrifices remains unsettled and even the very existence of human sacrifice remains debatable.  Yet there is no indication that Molech was associated with an owl.  None at all.  There are some representations of the Molech idol which bear a passing resemblance to our owl, but these are the stylings of much later fabulists and in any event, do not represent owls but bulls.  So, unless Jones has access to some codices the experts are not aware off, this link to Molech seems to originate from somewhere in his nether region; in other words, he's merely pulled it out of his ass and stated it as fact.

So, what of it?  Child sacrifice is a handy metaphor for warmongers, but stating it as fact, without hint of irony or satire, is merely wrong.  Jones' choice here involves either deliberate lies, blind prejudice or ignorance.

If the owl is not Molech, what does it represent?  I think it's a safe bet to say it represents wisdom.  In his book on the Illuminati, (Perfectibilists), Terry Melanson  points out that in the Bohemian Club library there is an owl statue which is an exact replica of one originally discovered in the temple of Pallas Athena on the Acropolis.  Like her Roman counterpart Minerva, she is often pictured with an owl signifying wisdom.  Melanson, in a footnote, notes that Jones seems to have been the first person to make the claim that the owl is Molech.  If so, it's pretty much standard folklore now.  The Internet conspiracy sites repeat it ad nauseum.  Which makes his distortions all the more frustrating.  It's almost comical how people twist the historical evidence to fit their beliefs; I saw one site where a guy pointed out to another that there is no historical connection between the owl and Molech.  The first guy responded that it wasn't an owl, but a devil with horns.  Bohos merely called it an owl!  Given the prevalence of owl images on everything associated with the Club, from napkins to programs to its official seal, this makes it unlikely.

Melanson also proposes that the Club's motto "Weaving spiders come not here", along with the owl, refer to the myth of Arachne and Minerva.  In this story, Arachne, a skilled weaver, boasts that she can best anyone at the loom, even the goddess Minerva.  Minerva, peeved, takes her up on the offer and a contest ensues.  Arachne indeed demonstrates remarkable skill, along with remarkable arrogance.  Minerva, angered by Arachne's impiety, touches the latter's head and makes her feel shame, whereupon Arachne runs off and hangs herself.  Feeling pity, she brings Arachne back to life and transforms her into a spider to recall for all time this moral lesson.

Melanson suggests that for the BC, this might be directed towards outsiders, or weaving spiders; that is to say it's a warning to mere mortals who would presume to elevate themselves to the status of the god-like Bohemians.  Maybe so.  But isn't it also possible that the motto is directed towards the members themselves, as a reminder of humility?  Meaning that for all their worldly power and riches, they should not themselves assume they are gods among men.  I advocate neither interpretation, but propose a plausible alternative to demonstrate that we are all speculating based on limited information from a discrete organization.  A far cry from fact.

For a more thorough and fact-based interpretation of the owl symbolism, see Melanson's Owl of Wisdom.  I was especially delighted to learn of the Schlarrafia, a social club founded in Prague (Bohemia) in 1859 by artists and actors, much like the Bohemian Club.  Their symbol:  an owl representing wisdom.  A branch existed in San Francisco as early as 1884 (BC founded in 1879) and the club had a similar philosophy of leaving "Dull Care" behind them when they met:

"As soon as he [the Schlaraffian] enters a 'castle' [or 'Temple'] and comes under the rule of Uhu, the great horned owl of Minerva, he is expected to forget all foolish things of everyday life."

This is why I love Terry's work.  I've been visiting BC-related websites for the past few days and this group wasn't even mentioned.  I go there in search of a link for Perfectibilists and land on this.  Great stuff, but it's getting me away from the intention of this post.
 

Bohemian Grove Seal, photo by Wikipedia User "Stef48"

Another thing which would support the idea that this represents wisdom (dare I say "enlightenment" or "illumination"), is that the owl was erected in the 1920's to replace an earlier sculpture.  Here's the National Park Service:

September 3, 1892: Bohemian Club Summer Encampment. A large 70 foot statue of Daibutsu Buddha, modeled after the Daibutsu of Kamkura and constructed of lath and plaster, is erected in an area later to be known as the Bohemian Grove. This statue gradually deteriorates over time, and by the late 1920's there is very little of it left.

I don't think the Bohos are secret Buddhists, they just get their wisdom symbols from wherever they see fit.

1909 Grove Annal, cremationofcare.com

Finally, I have also seen some Bohemian Grove images which feature both the owl and a skull, in this example crowned.  Some will automatically read this in a sinister light, but, like many such images, might it not be read as a symbol of the transience of life, another reminder to the mighty that their time too, will pass?

Still, it's hard not to see occult meanderings when pictures like another one floating about the internets pop up.  This image from 1915 is worth reproducing here because it's such an eye popper.  The caption explains: "To purge himself of worldly concerns, a member of the elite Bohemian Club participated in a 1915 Cremation of Care ceremony—complete with candles and a robed and hooded comrade to guide him."

Gabriel Moulin, 1915. Cremation of Care Ceremony; photo shamelessly hustled from National Geographic.

So, the Cremation of Care always signified the same thing, even as the ceremony became burning an effigy of Dull Care. I'm speculating here, but perhaps in this image the man is himself Dull Care.  The shedding of worldly concerns is necessary because life is transitory--as symbolized in the 1909 Annal--and one must take the time to eat, drink and be merry.  But I can easily see why people interpret this as some kind of occult death and rebirth ritual, maybe even something borrowed from those aforementioned "American lodge rites."  (We have compiled an extensive and certainly incomplete list of instances where the phrase "Dull Care" is used, from antiquity to the 20th century; I feel that the phrase's widespread use de-mystifies it....and the rite).

I'd like to take this opportunity to present another Moulin photograph from 1909, representing what I assume to be one of the Grove plays.  While the photo above is widely circulated on Christian websites, the following is not, because it does not fit the narrative of Molechian subversion.  Actually, given their logic, one could merely state as fact that this is a mockery of the Cross and it would be accepted and widely circulated as such.  I can't say it isn't a mockery of the Cross, but my intuition and common sense tell me that it's exactly what it appears to be:  a play portraying a group of knights, perhaps crusaders or grail-seekers, glorifying in a Christian revelation.  Several other pictures from this play also reveal Christian symbolism.  Which is exactly why they're not reproduced, even though other pictures from the same archive are.  So, standard fare really:  deception and selective evidence from the self-righteous.

Moulin, 1909.  Online Archive of California.

Enter the Masons

Jones lost me in his documentary at the very end, where his proof linking this to a greater conspiracy consists of growling things like "Skull and Bones, KKK, New World Order, Freemasons" over and over.  Hey, they're mentioned in the same breath, they must be linked!  Jones' attack on Freemasonry is old hat and particularly weak.  He goes off on a rant about how the Freemasons and the KKK are all arms of the same monster.  Along the way he spouts at least two untruths.

The first involves the invocation, a propos of nothing, of Albert Pike, who Jones refers to as chief Freemason of the whole wide world!  Well, anyone who knows anything about Masonry knows this is bullshit.  There are several strains of Freemasonry in the world, the biggest of which are sometimes referred to as Blue (Anglo-Saxon) and Red (Continental/French) Masonry.  Red Masonic Lodges are under the authority of Grand Orients; blues under Grand Lodges.  Neither recognizes the authority of the other.  Among Blue Lodges, each country has its own Grand Lodge and each U.S. state has it's own Grand Lodge, none with authority over another.  To put it simply, no single person can have authority over two Grand Lodges, let alone all of them.  Pike wasn't head of world Masonry, not even U.S. Masonry--because it doesn't exist as a single body.  He was the Supreme Commander of the Southern Jurisdiction of the Scottish Rite.  Not all of the Scottish Rite, mind you; there is a Northern Jurisdiction and these are two separate and independent bodies.  Pike was a clever dick and a colorful figure, resting head of the Southern Jurisdiction for a long time, but his authority finished there.

So anyone who tells you otherwise is either misinformed or lying.  I suppose deluded and blinded by prejudice are acceptable other options.

Another distortion is that Pike "founded" the KKK.  Jones uses this exact phrase.  See the choices above.  There is absolutely no iron-clad proof Pike was even in the KKK.  There were some writers who claimed this to be true, but there are problems with these claims.  The arguments can be seen here, and I will leave you to decide.  He may have been a member at some point, but this "may have been a member" is a far cry from saying he founded the organization.  Alex Jones has done his research so he cannot be unaware that his claim is debatable; to present it as anything otherwise is a deliberate deception.

What's so odious about this is that he's using deceit and lies while bombastically denouncing those who use deception and lies to maintain power and control.  And Bohemian Grove is full off that monkey business.  Yet when it's so cavalierly linked to non-existent bugbears like Molech cults, Jones does a disservice and one might rightly begin to wonder, like any good paranoid, if he himself is a disinformation specialist, or at least a mere huckster in search of coin.  Nothing sells like Satanic cults among the elite, ignoring the very real abuses of power and public trust they perpetrate on a day to day basis.

Some of those Bohemian Grove images are pretty weird, and along with other elite groupings like Skull and Bones, the death imagery is startling to the contemporary eye.  But mightn't this death imagery reflect the much more tenuous relationship to the land of the living mankind endured during the time when these groups were created?  Jumping to conclusions based on nothing at all gets us nowhere in unraveling the mystery of what it all really represents....

None of this should be taken as a defense of the Bohemian Club or Albert Pike, mind you.  I'm just sick of looking for useful info on the Internet and coming up with the same garbled cut and pasted bullshit, based on one man's self-serving untruths, repeated ad nauseum until one can no longer approach the topic without the taint of imbeciles, religious fanatics, the lazy and the mad.