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Arielle Levin Becker of the Washington Post wrote about John Philip Sousa’s professional stature as regards his past association with the Marine Corps Band: If there’s any question about the place Sousa has in the band’s memory, a visit to the director’s office settles any doubts.  Sousa is immortalized in four photographs and paintings, including one of him in a Navy uniform, and perhaps in a fifth — there is speculation that, in the front row of a Civil War-era photograph of the band, a young Sousa is hiding between two trombone players. The baton that [departing U.S. Marine band...

The reporter walked into his office expecting a normal day at work: cup of coffee, call some sources, the usual routine. But this wasn’t going to be an ordinary day at all. His editor had other ideas. Darker ideas. The editor wanted an article on the new Dan Brown novel called “The Lost Symbol”, about a conspiracy by Freemasons in Washington. The long-awaited book features Robert Langdon, the hero of Brown’s previous smash hits “The Da Vinci Code” and “Angels and Demons,” on a dramatic quest in and around Washington’s most famous landmarks to find a secret hidden long ago...

Tickets are now on sale for the first-ever Masonic Inaugural Ball held in Washington, D.C. William R. Singleton Hope Lebanon Lodge #7 is hosting the first-ever Masonic Inaugural Ball in honor of President-elect, Barack Obama and Vice-President Elect Joseph Biden. Tickets are limited, so you are encouraged to purchase yours quickly. This first-ever event will be held at 8:00 p.m.: Stars Bistro 2120 P Street, NW Washington, DC While other inauguration balls are costing $125-$500 or more per ticket, we’ve arranged for an evening with some amazing food, a great DJ, and brotherhood, all for $65 per ticket, we’ve also...

According to The Schnitt Show, a radio program available in several Florida markets and XM radio, a birth announcement for Barack Obama was discovered in a 1961 Honolulu newspaper. See link for a PDF image of this announcement.

The decision on granting a hearing challenging President-elect Barack Obama's U.S. citizenship is still pending. The "Washington Times" reports that the U.S. Supreme Court held a private conference Friday morning to discuss whether to take up a lawsuit but it was not on the list of court orders for the day. According to the "Times" a Supreme Court spokesman said the decision to hear the case will most likely be announced next week.

The Vatican is to publish a book which is expected to shed light on the demise of the Knights Templar, a Christian military order from the Middle Ages. The book is based on a document known as the Chinon parchment, found in the Vatican Secret Archives six years ago after years of being incorrectly filed. The document is a record of the heresy hearings of the Templars before Pope Clement V in the 14th Century. The official who found the paper says it exonerates the knights entirely. Prof Barbara Frale, who stumbled across the parchment by mistake, says that...

There is a belief abroad in many conservative circles that the U.S. is "a Christian nation". This belief is found in perhaps its most extreme form in the Mormon doctrine that the Constitution of the United States is a divinely inspired document. Less extreme versions hold that Christian piety was an shaping influence on the thinking and writing of the Founding Fathers, and Christianity therefore has (or ought to have) a privileged position in the political and cultural life of the U.S. The Mormon doctrine is unfalsifiable. But claims about the beliefs and intentions of the Founding Fathers are not,...

IN LOS FELIZ, across from a 7-Eleven on North Vermont Avenue, a few dozen men in their early 20s to late 80s share a dinner behind closed doors. Some wear full tuxedos with bow ties and jeweled cuff links, some have shoulder-length hair, and others wear open-collared shirts that reveal the slightest filigree of tattoo arching across their chests. Over Italian food, retired lawyers and judges sit elbow-to-elbow with owners of scrap metal yards and vintage clothing boutiques. They hold forth on philosophy, the weather; they rib each other and joke about saving room for cannoli. As they reach for...

It's been nearly a quarter of a century since Freemasons in Utah rescinded a 60-year ban that prohibited Latter-day Saints from joining their fraternity. And while many remember the religious division that had characterized Freemasonry in the Beehive State from pioneer times, Glen Cook believes he is evidence that things are changing among his Masonic brethren. Cook, a Salt Lake criminal defense attorney and Brigham Young University law school graduate, is believed to be the first member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to be elected grand master in Utah in nearly a century, overseeing the activities...

Freemasons open a lodge at Buckingham Palace... but the Queen isn't amused By SARAH OLIVER - More by this author » Last updated at 23:59pm on 8th March 2008 Comments A Royal Mason: The Duke of Kent is the organisation's Grand Master A branch of the Freemasons secret society is being formed by members of the Royal Household and police who protect the Royal Family. And their decision to call it The Royal Household Lodge has put them on a collision course with Buckingham Palace – as has their plan to co-opt the royal cipher – EIIR – for their...

SCOTTISH MASONS' MYSTERIOUS SIGNATURES IN STONE TO BE RECORDED By 24 Hour Museum Staff 08/02/2008 Courtesy Historic Scotland Mysterious symbols carved into Scotland’s medieval churches, castles and bridges are to be studied and recorded in a new scheme supported by Historic Scotland. Masons’ marks are enigmatic signatures cut into stone wherever they worked, and hold clues as to dates of construction as well as the craftsmen who worked on the structure. However, little is known about the identities and life stories of these men who played such an important role in creating the country’s most cherished buildings from the Middle...

Lesson 34: The First Commandment "Come let us praise the Lord with joy:  let us joyfully sing to God our savior.  Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; and make a joyful noise to Him with psalms.  For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.  For in His hand are all the ends of the earth:  and the heights of the mountains are His.  For the sea is His, and He made it:  and His hands formed the dry land.  Come let us adore and fall down:  and weep before the Lord that...

After decades of indirectly criticizing the Catholic Church through friendly media outlets, the powerful Mexican Masonry has now directly gone after Catholic bishops, accusing them of pretending to “control” Mexican politics by demanding the right to education and information. The previous Mexican Constitution, because of Masonic influence, stripped the Church of the right to own schools and communications media. Recently, the Mexican bishops announced they would begin a campaign to regain these rights. The Grand Lodge of the Valley of Mexico, which brings together 12,000 Masons, reacted to the proposal by calling a press conference in which Great Teacher Pedro...

NAFTA Superhighway Has Giuliani As Key Player Submitted by admin on Tue, 2007-06-26 20:28.A NAFTA superhighway extends North through Texas into Oklahoma and Colorado, and it's a four lane huge superhighway.On March 23, 2005, U.S. President George W. Bush, former Canadian Prime Minister, Paul Martin and former Mexican President, Vicente Fox, authorized the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), now under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Most Americans have little to no knowledge of this seemingly innocuous sounding unofficial treaty and therefore believe there is little reason to be alarmed.However, what could be misinterpreted as legislation which has...

A hot and fetid June night on the small Mediterranean island of Malta, and a Christian sentry patrolling at the foot of a fort on the Grand Harbour had spotted something drifting in the water. The alarm was raised. More of these strange objects drifted into view, and men waded into the shallows to drag them to the shore. What they found horrified even these battle-weary veterans: wooden crosses pushed out by the enemy to float in the harbour, and crucified on each was the headless body of a Christian knight. This was psychological warfare at its most brutal, a...

What's true and what's not about the Masons is the topic of a recent book by an expert in the history of religions. Father Manuel Guerra Gómez, who is an author of 25 books on sects and other topics, recently released "La trama masónica" (The Masonic Plot), published in Spanish by Styria. Father Guerra is a diocesan priest of Burgos, and a retired professor of the Burgos headquarters of the Faculty of Theology of Northern Spain. In this interview with ZENIT he says that "the Masonic method, atheistic in nature, reflects historical relativism and leads to the socio-cultural relativism that...

Weekend Edition Saturday, May 5, 2007 · In the 18th century, the word on the cobblestone street was that Freemasons were an occult group promoting a pagan agenda through the American government. After all, members themselves call Masonry "the craft." And the Masonic founders of America built the roads around the U.S. Capitol in the form of a five-pointed star – a pagan symbol. Then there is that "seeing eye" pyramid on the dollar bill – a known Masonic symbol. Some conspiracy theorists have argued that the pyramid is evidence of a Masonic cabal within the U.S. government. (Historians pooh-pooh...

HAVANA -- In a nation dominated for generations by President Fidel Castro and the Communist Party, one group is emerging as a refuge for those chafing under the constraints of daily life on this Caribbean island. Widely popular before the 1959 revolution, Cuba's Masons suffered a precipitous decline in ensuing decades, but the group has since recovered its appeal, as some Cubans look for an alternative to the uniformity inherent in the nation's one-party system.

When the old spymaster thought he was dying, his eldest son came to visit him at his home in Miami. The scourges had been constant and terrible recently: lupus, pneumonia, cancers of the jaw and prostate, gangrene, the amputation of his left leg. Long past were his years of heroic service to his country. In the CIA, he had helped to mastermind the violent removal of a duly elected leftist president in Guatemala and assisted in subterfuges that led to the murder of Che Guevara. But no longer could you see in him the suave, pipe-smoking, cocktail-party-loving clandestine operative whose...

Says Its Philosophies Are Incompatible With Church ROME, MARCH 2, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The Church has not changed its ruling on Catholic membership in the Masons, said the regent of the Apostolic Penitentiary. Bishop Gianfranco Girotti made this statement Thursday at a conference on the topic of Freemasonry held at the St. Bonaventure Pontifical Theological Faculty. The bishop presided over the congress held in cooperation with the Socio-Religious Research and Information Group of Italy. Officials of Masonic associations and grand masters also took part in the meeting. Bishop Girotti reminded his listeners that the Church has always criticized the concepts and...

Q: A member of the RCIA program was told by another member of the parish that if they were going to become Catholic they needed to terminate their involvement with the Masonic lodge before they could join. Is this still the case in the United States? -- T.N., Howard City, Michigan A: This question is more canonical than liturgical. The Church's position with respect to membership of Masonic lodges, even though canon law no longer explicitly mentions the Masons, has not substantially changed. The new code states in Canon 1374: "A person who joins an association which plots against the...

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Congratulations to Craig Heimbichner who identified the most Masonic symbols in the creepy and twisted "portrait" of Paul VI presented to, and accepted by, Paul VI in the 70's. (Hit the link for the original post and the picture printed by Smithsonian Magazine in April of 1977.) And the symbols are: 1. Three pillars 2. Two columns 3. Cresent moon 4. Various Pentagrams 5. Sphynx at the top of the pillar 6. The columns and angles combine to form a square and compass 7. The point within the circle at the top is an old Illuminati symbol 8. Above Paul...

Is Masonry just a harmless fraternity?In the past century, enrollment in the group has plunged in both Europe, where it was once a huge threat to Catholicism, and the U.S., which now has over half of the world's Masons (despite the closing of its halls in many cities).  It is not a movement on the upswing. And the average member of Freemasonry, as it is more formally known, is not aware of the deeply occultic origin of its rituals. Many don't even know that the Catholic Church has consistently condemned them. Freemasonry had its origins in masons who built the...

Is the Devil in the Details of D.C. Streets?Laris Karklis -- The Washington Post

[John] Wayne, arguably the No. 1 all-time cinema hero, bought into the most valuable tenets of the Shriners' fun brand of freemasonry – friendship, morality and brotherly love. Who wouldn't want to join a fraternity with tenets like those? Apparently, a lot of us these days don't. In 1975, the same year Universal Pictures released "Rooster Cogburn," the Shriners opened Afifi Shrine Temple next to the Scottish Rite Temple, on nearly 20 acres in Tacoma's West End. They needed more space to accommodate a growing membership that numbered roughly 8,700 Afifi Shriners plus their circus calliope, old clown jalopies, parade...

The Man Who Stepped Out of LineIn this post-feminist age where men are still learning remedial masculinity, we have a model of manhood lived heroically which we would do well to emulate. In the early twentieth century Poland gave us that manly priest, John Paul II, but also his hero, Maximilian Kolbe, priest, missionary, spiritual father and martyr of brotherly love. St. Maximilian’s feast day is August 14th, the vigil of his beloved Virgin Mary’s Assumption and the day which commemorates the conquest of virile love over the totalitarian creeds of his generation. As men, we could all learn a...

John Hawkins apparently has taken on a mission to prove that the Bush Administration is not creating a North American Union to replace the United States, or a new currency -- the Amero -- to replace the U.S. dollar. Recently, in a blog debate on this website, I exchanged views with Mr. Hawkins. When Mr. Hawkins declined to respond in what the editors termed “Round 4” of that debate, I concluded Mr. Hawkins allowed me to have the final word because he lacked a convincing rejoinder. Now, we see Mr. Hawkins wants to carry on the debate but this time...

IS THE NEW CATHEDRAL TO PADRE PIO IN SAN GIOVANNI ROTONDO ACTUALLY A "MASONIC TEMPLE"? I have just received and am in the process of studying a special issue, #381 (March 2006), of the Italian religious magazine “CHIESA VIVA”. It is my understanding that in March 2006 this special issue was sent by the publisher/editor of “Chiesa Viva”, Dr. Monsignor Luigi Villa, to Catholic & 'catholic' priests, Bishops, Cardinals, as well as a selected group of Italian lay persons including members of the judiciary. This entire special issue deals with only one subject, that being the inauguration in July 2004...

PARIS, July 18, 2006 (AFP) - A Paris judge has been sent to a psychiatric hospital after going on a drunken rampage with a Masonic sword, legal sources said on Tuesday. Police were called to the home of Philippe Bonnet of the Paris appeals court after a guest staying there alerted them to his unusual behaviour. He attacked the two officers with the sword, slightly injuring one, before being overpowered with a flash-ball, a non-lethal weapon used by French police. He was then taken to a psychiatric hospital. Two weeks previously, the judge had threatened his host with the weapon...

With virtually no mention in the mainstream media, Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez convened on June 15, the first meeting of the North American Competitiveness Council (NACC), an apparently extra-constitutional advisory group organized by the Department of Commerce (DOC) under the auspices of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP). A March 31 press release on the White House website, under the title “Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America: Progress,” announced the formation of the NACC. The press release noted that the NACC would meet annually “with security and prosperity Ministers and will engage with senior government officials on an...

A Mexican customs facility planned for Kansas City's inland port may have to be considered the sovereign soil of Mexico as part of an effort to lure officials in that country into cooperating with the Missouri development project. Despite adamant denials by Kansas City Area Development Council officials, WND has obtained emails and other documents from top executives with the KCSmartPort project that suggest such a facility would by necessity be considered Mexican territory – despite its presence in the heartland of the U.S. The documents were obtained with the assistance of Joyce Mucci, the founder of the Mid-America Immigration...

In a ceremony steeped in Masonic tradition, Mount Vernon officials and local Masons laid the cornerstone for a museum yesterday morning at George Washington's historic estate. The Donald W. Reynolds Museum and Education Center will house theaters, exhibits and life-size models of George Washington at three pivotal periods in his life: ages 19, 45 and 57.

Serbia must choose between its past and its present How hard can it be to arrest a man recognised wherever he goes, in a country roughly the size of Scotland? Vojislav Kostunica, the Serbian Prime Minister, has asked the international community to believe that if the man in question does not want to be found, the answer is, effectively, “impossible”. This answer is not acceptable. It is entirely appropriate that Belgrade’s failure to surrender Ratko Mladic to the UN war crimes tribunal as promised led yesterday to the suspension of talks with the EU on possible Serbian membership. Mr Kostunica...

SERBIA was plunged into a political crisis last night after Brussels suspended talks leading to EU membership as punishment for failing to arrest one of the most wanted war criminals in Europe. The European Commission said that it was halting negotiations on closer links with Serbia after the deadline to deliver Ratko Mladic to the Hague war crimes tribunal passed on April 30 with the fugitive still in hiding. Relations between Belgrade and the international community plunged to new lows as Carla del Ponte, the chief war crimes prosecutor at the UN, declared that she had been misled by the...

The minutes from Aitchison's Haven - which could be the oldest recorded stonemason lodge in the world. DAN BROWN'S next book The Solomon Key is said to speculate on the role and influence of Freemasonry. In much the same way that The Da Vinci Code has its climax in Rosslyn Chapel, it may well be that the best-selling author's latest work will also find its roots in Scotland. For if Brown's new novel is looking at alleged Masonic conspiracy in the US, then there is a strong and vocal body of Masonic historians who believe that the whole of...

When Mozart Stunned Rome; God at the Pub Wolfgang's Memory Caught a Pope's Attention ROME, JAN. 26, 2006 (Zenit.org).- As any good music aficionado knows, 2006 marks the 350th anniversary of the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Opera houses worldwide are featuring "Don Giovanni" and "Figaro," while Mozart biographies and boxed sets of concertos and sonatas proliferate in music stores. Even Rome was enchanted by this great composer and, indeed, the child prodigy from Salzburg was warmly received in the Eternal City during his brief sojourn here in 1770. Mozart is often associated with the Freemasons -- he joined the...

Question: Who’s afraid of Jews in the boardroom? Freemasons in the basement? Reds under the bed? Black helicopters in the sky? Answer: A surprising number of otherwise sensible people. Even under the new shadow of terrorism, old fears live on, breeding bogeys that knot together in a vipers’ tangle of menace. Regrettably, Catholics do their share of worrying about the Judeo-Masonic-Communist conspiracy and/or the imminent arrival of the Antichrist to rule over the New World Order. Their anxieties are often fueled by anti-Semitic screeds, polemical histories, eccentric economics, and even heavenly messages. Fear-mongering is standard fare in the pages of...

The publisher says the clues are already out there — on the cover of The Da Vinci Code THE ink is not yet dry on the eagerly awaited sequel to The Da Vinci Code, but already fans of the publishing phenomenon believe that they have deciphered clues to its plot. The CIA, the Freemasons, the Mormons and an unfinished pyramid on the US dollar bill are all expected to figure prominently in Dan Brown’s next adventure when it is published this year or early next. Fevered speculation has been building among the author’s legions of fans since it emerged...

Pope was investigating Knights Templar before his election "The Insider" mailing list article, 30 April 2005. *** The new Pope, Benedict XVI, was actively investigating secret societies including the Knights Templar and the Illuminati, it was revealed yesterday. Details were exposed by a local newspaper in Hertfordshire, England. Cardinal Ratzinger was head of the Inquisition, the arm of the Church set up to investigate, persecute or eliminate heretics. But the curious thing is, we now know that he started his investigation shortly before he was elected as the new Pope. Did he know something? He certainly made no secret of...

I signed up here because I think you would know something about this, In my business, I travel a lot to small towns throughout the US. For the last couple of weeks I was touring Eastern North Carolina, and I noticed something strange. In every town I went to -- and almost all had no more than 1-10 thousand residents-- there was a Mason lodge. Some had two or even more! This is scary. Is Eastern North Carolina the secret headquarters of the illuminati?

From Vatican II-Before and After A promotion of ecumenism was ushered in. The New Theology demanded that Catholics dialogue and collaborate with Muslims, heretics, and schismatics (excepting the schism of Archbishop Lefebvre, who clung to the pronoucements of previous popes and would not accept ecumenism). Vatican II was the first such gathering to omit the condemnation of Russia and Communism in general. Ignoring the warnings of Pope Leo XIII, Pius IX, Pius X and Pius XI, who said we could not refrain from condemning this incomparable evil, the Vatican-Moscow Agreement, or Ostopolitik, was struck. Simply put, the agreement called for...

So I get home last night and in the mail is an 8 page letter addressed to me with an invitation to join a "secret society". It seems I have been identified by some secret group of famous people who must remain anonymous right now as having "traits" that they are looking for to join their group. This must be something REALLY special, because they apparently only open themselves for new members every 7 years. Not only that, there is no cost to join. All I have to do is respond and I get a free book that details all...

Gelli probed in Calvi murder Ex-head of shady lodge thought to have ordered Mafia hit (ANSA) - Rome, July 19 - Former right-wing subversive Licio Gelli is under investigation in the murder of 'God's Banker' Roberto Calvi . Gelli, 86, is suspected of commissioning the murder . Also joining four suspects facing trial is former smuggler Silvano Vittor, police said on Tuesday . Gelli's lawyer said his client was "amazed" at press leaks of a questioning session earlier this month . The lawyer denied Gelli's alleged statement that police should "look to Poland" for those who ordered the banker's murder...

JULY 4 is a date firmly fixed in the consciousness of all Americans. Perhaps it should also be imprinted in the mind of Scots with a sense of history. Who was involved in the building of the White House? And who helped to start the American War of Independence? The surprising answer might be Scottish freemasons.

I know we like to post news stories on this board and go OMG OMG OMG teh udder side teh suXorZ!!11! It's rare that anyone really writes anything somewhat original so, here, I'll do something like that. I'm amazed at some of the twists that are going on in political and legal life right now. So much so that I really think it's worth commenting on. In some ways, we're going in the absolute wrong direction. Now before you get a knee jerk reaction and say i'm a "traitor" or some DUmmie here to quiety say "It's because of Bu$hco...

I'm sure that many of you have now read "Angels & Demons". It answered for me (a Canadian) a question I'd always had about the American dollar bill ... "what in hell is that pyramid with the big eyeball on it on the back of the bill ???" It's a Masonic symbol. But the questions STILL remain: 1/Why do Americans have a Masonic symbol on their currency? Do most Americans even have a clue what the Masons stand for? 2/ How do Americans reconcile themselves with the two contradictory messages on the back of the bill: Novus Ordo Seclorum (New...

Folks, Zenit.Org is featuring an interview with Massimo Introvigne, director of the Turin-based Center for Studies in New Religions, regarding the existence of the so-called "Illuminati," and their links to the Freemasons, the Knights Templar, etc., as well as the resurgence of their myth in Dan Brown's "historical" novels, Angels and Demons and The DaVinci Code. This is my favorite quote:Those who want to persuade us that a secret Illuminati cabal did lead the world from the Renaissance to the 19th century, and continues to do so today, have a very difficult burden of proof, and never even came close...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Here is a list of the principal public documents and decisions issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 1981 to 2005 when Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was prefect of the office. He was elected Pope Benedict XVI April 19. -- March 12, 1983: Notification reaffirming the excommunication of traditionalist Archbishop Pierre Martin Ngo Dinh Thuc, formerly of Hue, Vietnam, and his accomplices for the illicit ordination of priests and bishops. -- Oct. 4, 1983: Notification to Archbishop Raymond G. Hunthausen of Seattle that an apostolic visitation of his archdiocese would be conducted, focused...

She is a national hero in her homeland, hailed for plucking her little sister from their family home as it was consumed by flames. Now, Nastya Ovchar, her body burned extensively during the rescue of her sister, lies in a room at Shriners Burns Hospital Boston, half a world away from her home in the Ukraine. If they made a movie about Nastya, they could well call it ''The President and the Little Girl," for it was the intervention of a national leader who had endured his own share of physical suffering that assured the 5-year- old could receive lifesaving...