No, Doris, people who do these things (and lie about the events of that day) are not “heroes” nor are they “warriors.” We delude ourselves. We’ve been doing it for years. We can keep complaining about the government and all we’ve been wronged — or we can move on, build our lives, and bring pride to our people. (For that matter, nobody else is forcing us to spend our money on cigarettes and booze, and showing so little respect for our bodies and our community that the remains of both are scattered about.)

And if you don’t want helicopters landing near particular sites, tell the leaders not to invite the military and/or courteously inform them where you would like them to land. Nobody was trying to make anybody angry. No, they were expending man-hours and expensive flight hours in an educational event of mutual benefit. Our people made us all look like frightened children.

One more time: Telling lies about these events honors no one.

Women are wired to seek better resource caches and virile men, just as men are wired to seek fecund women and resources. These drives play out differently in different societies and countervailing individuals (yes, sometimes the nice gal and nice guy do find each other.) Nice guys have been ignored throughout recorded history – and probably were ignored among our monkey progenitors.

I admit it doesn’t help for the many citizens of many modern societies (yes, all the ones that can trace their current social practices back to Marx and his ilk) to exist in such an extended liminal adolescent state. This is, I think, also responsible for a deranged ability of individuals to balancing their liberties with their responsibilities, and to consequently cheapen their freedoms.

Your claim of Masonry’s “child-like faith in democracy” doesn’t bear scrutiny. Firstly, Freemasonry’s illustration-by-example of rules and representative governance influenced Enlightenment figures, the moderates of which in turn favored representative democracy over pure democracy. Secondly, coming from all walks of life, Masons are as knowledgeable and ignorant, as passionate and indifferent to our republican form of government as are non-Masons. There is no uniform belief nor knowledge.

It’s a shame you put equality in scare-quotes, for Masons do believe everyone is born with God-given rights
(natural rights, for non-theists) that no legitimate or illegitimate authority (e.g., a mob) has the right to violate. Any moral rules derive in defense of those individual rights. I rather thought such beliefs were at the core of The American Mercury’s message.

I know a few Masons who, outside of Lodge, argue for the gum’mint to do this or that for the downtrodden, but most I’ve gotten to know well enough to glean perspective of are conservative with Libertarian or Objectivist leanings. We take our freedom and liberty seriously enough to be active in an organization founded to promote freedom and liberty.

P.S. To Elizabeth: Oligarchs of a feather flock together, using whatever clubhouse they find handy – tennis club, church, Rotary, Masonry, one-off secret-handshake club. But then I’m probably just not a high enough level Mason to know any better, right?

Oh, and Barack Obama isn’t a Mason.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reproduction#Same-sex_reproduction