E. Walker asked about the Masons. I don’t know much about them, but that never stopped me from mouthing off.

Geroge Washington set the cornerstone of the capitol building. Unfortunately no one now knows which stone that is. Of course Washington died before the government moved to DC, so don’t correct me on my dates. They started the capitol before he died in December of 1799.

Naturally, the laying of that cornerstone was a major ceremony. When Washington put in that piece of stone, he wore his Masonic apron. He was a member of the Masonic Order.

The head of George Washington Masonic Lodge, his recognized superior in the Order, was his gardener.

No one really knows when the Masons began, but it was a very long time ago.

Masons have a huge volume of secret rituals. Many of the Founding Fathers were Masons. Masons help each other and have secret signs.

So naturally the time came, in the 1830s, when the idea of a Masonic Conspiracy became a national issue.

Millard Fillmore, who became president in 1851 as vice president, on the Whig ticket, after President Zachary Taylor died, began his political career running on the ticket of the Anti-Masonic Party.

In 1856 Millard Fillmore made a strong run for president on the American Party ticket. He got around twenty percent of the national vote. I think he holds the record for bouncing from party to party.

Masons today tend to be working-class people. I know a lot of them. You can only join if a Mason invites you. I have been invited, and I was honored, though I never joined.

You may have seen the Masonic rings which members wear.

One reason George Washington was outranked by his gardener is because it takes a lot of WORK to gain higher degrees in the Masonic Order. I understand that the Shriners, who do so much good work and whom we just consider kind of a Lion’s Club or something are actually all 33rd(?), Order Masons, the highest level.

Masons got a reputation for being anti-Catholic, but Masons do not bar Catholics from membership. The Catholic Church bans Catholics from joining the Masons because a Catholic is not supposed to join a group whose secrets he cannot reveal in confession.

A number of Catholics join anyway.

But I am sure the absence of Catholics has led to some anti-Catholic cliques inside the Masons.

When you speak of the Masons, you are talking about millions of people and hundreds of years. If you know real history, you know that any institution, including the Catholic Church, is going to to be different in different times.

I have never met a man with a Masonic ring who was not a good guy. What they were doing in 1400 AD even I don’t remember.