Court rules Freemasonry a Religion

“Early Masonic historians such as Albert Mackey, Robert Freke Gould and Albert Pike were of a single purpose in their efforts to establish a definite correspondence between the Hiramic legend of Freemasonry and the Osiris myth as expounded in the initiatory rituals of the Egyptians.”- Mason Manly P. Hall on the efforts of early Masonic historians to link Hiram Abiff to the Egyptian Mystery Religion

The Ledger | Oct 11, 2007

by Cary McMullen

A court in Los Angeles has ruled that Freemasonry is a form of “religious exercise,” comparable to Christianity and Islam. “We see no principled way to distinguish the earnest pursuit of these (Masonic) principles … from more widely acknowledged modes of religious exercise,” said the ruling. The case involved the Los Angeles Scottish Rite Cathedral and the Scottish Rite Cathedral Association of Los Angeles. The groups had leased out the cathedral for events such as dances, in apparent violation of zoning rules that restrict it to Masonic events only. The Masons had sought relief under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons (RLUIPA) act. But even though the court ruled the Masons are a religious group, it said RLUIPA didn’t apply to them, so it was a Pyrrhic victory.

Both my grandfathers were Masons. When I was a kid, one of them showed me his guidebook, which technically he wasn’t supposed to do because Masons are sworn to secrecy about their rituals. No harm done — I didn’t understand any of it, in part because it was full of strange symbols. Basically, I always figured Freemasonry was a practice that sort of supplemented Christian belief. I just wonder if the secrets of the Masons were revealed in court?

You can read a Religion News Service story about the case, via the Pew Forum Web site, here.

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Alan Watt speaks on the Freemasonic New World Order Agenda

Freemasonry Is “Religion” Under RLUIPA
In Scottish Rite Cathedral Association of Los Angeles v. City of Los Angeles, (CA Ct. App., Oct. 3, 2007), a California court of appeals rejected a RLUIPA challenge by the Los Angeles Scottish Rite Cathedral Association to the revocation of its certificate of occupancy for its Masonic Temple. The appellate court rejected the trial court’s holding that Freemasonry is not a religion. The appellate court found “no principled way to distinguish the earnest pursuit of these [Masonic] principles … from more widely acknowledged modes of religious exercise.” However the court held that the Masonic Temple, which was now largely being rented out for commercial as well as non-profit events, was not protected under RLUIPA. It concluded: “a burden on a commercial enterprise used to fund a religious organization does not constitute a substantial burden on ‘religious exercise’ within the meaning of RLUIPA.

Masons must choose lodge or church: synod
The Sydney Anglican Synod has called on all Christian members of Masonic lodges to withdraw their membership and for church facilities not to be used for activities linked with Freemasonry. The motion, passed yesterday, also “requests that councils of all Anglican schools . . . consider any association that their school may have with any Masonic lodge, and to withdraw from any such association”. Masons must choose lodge or church: synod
Egyptian Mystery Religion and the Masonic Lodge

EU treaty deal is ‘massive political deception’

“EC Governments should not try to explain the Maastricht Treaty. It is unexplainable. Treaty decisions are far too removed from daily life for people to understand”

– M. Willy de Clerq, MEP

Nigel Farage, the Kent MEP

Kent News | Oct 20, 2007

The leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party has branded the new EU treaty deal as “just about the biggest deception I’ve ever seen in politics”.

Kent MEP Nigel Farage, who was in Portugal for the summit of EU leaders at which the deal was agreed, said the new treaty was “basically the same document” as the previous EU Constitution that Labour had promised a referendum on.

He said: “I think this will mark the day when the British people and their politicians finally become divorced from each other.

“The treaty is virtually identical to the constitution, although in some ways it is actually worse. For example, climate change is now written into this when we are already bound by Kyoto.

“They have maintained the substance but changed the packaging.”

UKIP MEP Nigel Farage confronts José Manuel Barroso

Prime Minister Gordon Brown welcomed the treaty, saying that British ‘red line’ opt out clauses had been secured.

He said: “The British national interest has been protected. It is now time for Europe to move on and devote all our efforts to the issues that matter to the people of Europe – economic growth, jobs, climate change and security.”

Brown surrenders British sovereignty to Brussels at “last supper”

Mr Brown insisted once more that there will be NO referendum over the Treaty for the British people.

The Sun | Oct 20, 2007

GORDON Brown last night surrendered centuries of British power to Brussels in a “last supper” washed down with fine wine.

The PM has refused to give the British people a say in a referendum on the EU Treaty even though it is 96 per cent the same as the dumped constitution.

He casually tossed away our veto in 61 areas of law-making over a meal of grilled sole and chocolate cake accompanied by fine wines during historic talks in Lisbon, Portugal.

Mr Brown will sign the completed document in December before using his majority to force it through the Commons next Spring.

There was a delay in the talks as Italy and Poland dug their heels in as they battled for more rights.

But late last night the two nations were granted last-minute concessions.

EU leaders still had to clear one hurdle over appointing a new, more powerful European foreign policy chief.

But the agreement was all but done.

Mr Brown insisted once more yesterday that there will be NO referendum over the Treaty for the British people.

And he again insisted that the constitution — dumped two years ago by France and Holland — was NOT the same as the new Treaty.

Yet a string of other EU leaders have confirmed it IS the same — and carries 96 per cent of the measures in the original constitution.

And today Mr Brown’s own backbencher, Labour MP Kate Hoey, agreed that the treaty agreed by EU leaders at the Lisbon summit WAS virtually the same as the abandoned constitution which the Government had promised to put to the country in a referendum.

She told BBC Radio 4’s the World at one: “If he (Mr Brown) is so pleased with this agreement and if it is so wonderful, then the people of this country should have the right to decide because it is certainly 99% the same as what was agreed.”

Mr Brown insisted he has won a string of ‘red lines’ guaranteeing Britain control over foreign and security matters, tax, and law and order.

He said hours before agreeing to the Treaty: “The British national interest is protected. This issue should now go before Parliament for a very detailed debate. All the protections built in mean Britain still decides on major issues.”

Mr Brown joined the heads of 26 other EU states for yesterday’s talks.

They dined on vegetable crêpes, grilled sole with saffron rice, chocolate cake and strawberries — all washed down with local Cartuxa wine.

Nothing was signed or initialled by the leaders — that will happen at a formal ceremony in December.

The Treaty will be the first concrete step towards a United States of Europe — complete with a permanent President.

 

The Real Face of The European Union (EU)

 

A new foreign minister will replace Britain’s elected Foreign Secretary at some key international summits.

And we will be FORCED to surrender our seat at the UN Security Council if the EU has an agreed position on a global issue.

Our veto in 61 areas will go — making it impossible for us to block unwanted EU dictats.

And Britain’s ability to make deals with other EU states to stop Commission laws will be massively watered down.

Mr Brown insisted Britain’s national interest will be protected because four red lines will guarantee sovereignty in key areas. They protect us from EU laws on crime-fighting, tax and social security rules, workplace legislation and union rights and foreign affairs.

But the PM bluntly ignored warnings from his own Labour MPs on a Commons committee which last week said the red lines are meaningless.

They warned the Charter of Fundamental Rights opposed by Mr Brown will simply be imposed on us in future years by the European Court of Justice.

The opt-out from EU justice and home affairs laws is actually an opt-IN.

And if we agree to a new power in this area we will be locked in for good — even if the details of the measures change in a way we don’t want.

Shop-floor laws will also be forced on us after EU trade union leaders agreed to adopt a ‘social model’ giving workers more rights and saddling firms with costly red tape.

The treaty was drawn up to help the 27 European Union members work more efficiently.

Other EU countries happily admit it means pooling some of their powers to get the organisation to agree new laws. But Mr Brown and his ministers have repeatedly claimed there are NO drawbacks to the deal — and they insist Britain is coming out of it well.

The PM made it clear last night he now wants to take on his critics in the House when he tries to ram the Treaty through Parliament next Spring.

It is due to become law in the UK on January 1, 2009.

Mr Brown raised the prospect of bitter Maastricht-style Commons battles over the Treaty next year. The Maastricht agreement helped tear the Tories apart under John Major in 1992.

Referendum

Conservative leader David Cameron has already promised a referendum on the Treaty if he wins power.

Last night the Tories unveiled a new poster campaign saying: ‘Who has a say on the EU Treaty? Not you. Just Gordon’.

Shadow foreign secretary William Hague said: “Gordon Brown cannot walk away from his manifesto promise of a referendum.

“He has absolutely no democratic mandate to agree to this Treaty. It is not just his decision — the final say must belong to the British people.” An astonishing total of 128,000 Sun readers have demanded a referendum on the rejigged EU Constitution.

Almost 84,000 called our phone poll, while 24,000 signed our online petition and 20,000 sent in coupons.

A SECOND village has won the right to vote for a national referendum on the Treaty, it emerged yesterday.

Locals in 5,000-strong Crigglestone, West Yorks, collected ten signatures allowing them to press Gordon Brown to stage a poll under the 1972 Local Government Act.

Another village, East Stoke in Dorset, decided by 90 per cent last month that they wanted the nation to have a vote on the new legislation.

Blair: Terror threat like fascism

 

“I sometimes wonder if we’re not in the 1920s or 1930s again.”

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, left, gestures as he sits down to dinner with Cardinal Edward Egan of New York before the pair spoke at the 62nd annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner in New York, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2007. The dinner honors the memory of former New York Gov. Al Smith, who was the first Catholic nominated by a major political party to run for U.S. President. Although unsuccessful, historians say Smith’s candidacy paved the way for John F. Kennedy’s presidential bid. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

CNN | Oct 19, 2007

NEW YORK — Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has said the world must not be “forced into retreat” against Islamic terrorists as it faced a situation similar to the Nazi threat before World War II.

In his first major speech since leaving office in June, Blair told a charity dinner in New York: “Analogies with the past are never properly accurate and analogies especially with the rising fascism can be easily misleading but in pure chronology I sometimes wonder if we’re not in the 1920s or 1930s again.”

“This ideology now has a state, Iran, that is prepared to back and finance terror in the pursuit of destabilizing countries whose people wish to live in peace.”

Blair’s speech Thursday came days after U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates reiterated the Bush administration’s stance that “all options” must be kept “on the table” in confronting the threats posed by Iran. This was a reference to the option of using military action against the long-time U.S. adversary.

Addressing the issue of terrorists, Blair continued: “There is a tendency even now, even in some of our own circles, to believe that they are as they are because we have provoked them and if we left them alone they would leave us alone,” he said.

Blair, who gave strong personal backing to U.S. President George W. Bush after the September 11, 2001 attacks, added: “I fear this is mistaken. They have no intention of leaving us alone.

“They have made their choice and leave us with only one to make — to be forced into retreat or to exhibit even greater determination and belief in standing up for our values than they do in standing up for their’s.”

Blair, who now represents the Quartet of the United States, Europe, Russia and the United Nations on the Middle East, said: “Unfortunately I tell you in all frankness that this struggle is far from over.

“Out there in the Middle East we’ve seen … the ideology driving this extremism and terror is not exhausted. On the contrary it believes it can and will exhaust us first.

He added: “America and Europe should not be divided, we should stand up together.

“The values we share are as vital and true and, above all, needed today as they have been at any time in the last 100 years.”

DynCorp Likely to Replace Blackwater in Iraq

Miami Herald | Oct 20, 2007

by WARREN P. STROBEL

Troubled military contractor Blackwater USA is likely to be eased out of its role of guarding U.S. diplomats in Iraq in the aftermath of a shooting last month that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead, U.S. officials said Friday.

While no decisions have been finalized, Blackwater’s role in Baghdad is likely to be taken over by one of two other contractors who provide security for the State Department in Iraq, the officials said. They are Triple Canopy and DynCorp International.

”There will be some sort of disengagement process, but it won’t be that they’re shown the door,” said a State Department official. “As one builds down, another builds up.”

He and other U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had not received an oral report from a four-person team led by Patrick Kennedy, the department’s director of management policy.

The team reviewed State Department security operations in Iraq.

Blackwater has denied wrongdoing in the Sept. 16 shooting, the latest deadly incident involving its employees in Iraq, saying the guards were defending themselves. But reports by the U.S. military and the Iraqi government say the Blackwater guards fired without provocation.

Iraq’s government has demanded that Blackwater leave Iraq within six months.

A company spokeswoman, Anne Tyrrell, didn’t return a phone call seeking comment.

Blackwater’s current work order under a State Department contract worth $834 million reportedly runs out in May 2008.

But replacing the Moyock, N.C., company with another contractor raises several questions.

It’s unclear whether Blackwater employees in Iraq could simply switch employers. And, according to congressional officials, the State Department’s Diplomatic Security service argues that it cannot operate without the helicopters that Blackwater provides for escort and rescue efforts.

In a related development Friday, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who’s been investigating State Department operations in Iraq, said in a letter that Blackwater attempted to transport two Iraqi military aircraft out of Iraq without official permission.

In the letter to Blackwater founder Erik Prince, Waxman said an unnamed military official told his House Oversight Committee that “the Iraqi ministry of defense attempted to reclaim the aircraft, but that Blackwater would not comply.”

Waxman also alleged that Prince had misled the committee in testimony earlier this month.

Prince had said that the company’s early contracts with the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq and the State Department were competitively bid, when in fact they were sole-source contracts.

. . .

Related

DynCorp Disgrace
Middle-aged men having sex with 12- to 15-year-olds was too much for Ben Johnston, a hulking 6-foot-5-inch Texan, and more than a year ago he blew the whistle on his employer, DynCorp, a U.S. contracting company doing business in Bosnia. According to the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization Act (RICO) lawsuit filed in Texas on behalf of the former DynCorp aircraft mechanic, “in the latter part of 1999 Johnston learned that employees and supervisors from DynCorp were engaging in perverse, illegal and inhumane behavior [and] were purchasing illegal weapons, women, forged passports and [participating in] other immoral acts. Johnston witnessed coworkers and supervisors literally buying and selling women for their own personal enjoyment, and employees would brag about the various ages and talents of the individual slaves they had purchased.”

Tracking your tots schooling through microchips in their uniforms

dailyindia.com | Oct 21, 2007

London, October 21: Students at a secondary school in South Yorkshire are being tracked by microchips sewn in their uniforms as part of a trial.

The radio frequency identification system monitors pupils’ movements, and automatically logs their attendance on the teacher’s computer. It can also alert teachers if a student is likely to misbehave.

The trial involves 10 students in whose uniforms this chip was embedded about eight months ago.

Being used at Hungerhill School in Doncaster presently, the chip connects with teachers’ computers to show a photograph of the students, data about their academic performance, and whether they are in the correct classroom. It can also restrict access to areas of the school.

However, the new approach of tracking students’ movement has drawn criticism from human rights campaigners.

“Tagging is what we do to criminals we let out of prison early. It is appalling,” Timesonline quoted David Cleater from Leave Them Kids Alone, which campaigns against the finger-printing of pupils, as saying.

On the other hand, the school’s head teacher, Graham Wakeling, has denied that they were adapting a “Big Brother” mentality.

“The system is not intrusive to the pupil in the slightest. The benefit is that it provides the immediate registration of the pupil as they enter the classroom. This supports staff as they are getting to know pupils. All the information it provides is already stored on the school information management system,” he said.

He claimed that the children in the trial were the volunteers who are participating in it as a science project.

A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said it intended electronic registration to log attendance on a schools database, not “logging every detail of every pupil via covert means”.