Ayn Rand (February 2, 1905 – March 6, 1982)

All the reasons which made the initiation of physical force evil, make the retaliatory use of physical force a moral imperative.
Ayn Rand

(Art: Batman and The Question by Gabriel Hardman)

Great Freemasons: Rob Morris (August 31, 1818, Boston, MA Died: July 31, 1888)

THE LEVEL AND THE SQUARE (circa August 1854)

Dr. Rob Morris, LLD, Masonic Poet Laureate 1818-1888

WE MEET UPON THE LEVEL, AND WE PART UPON THE SQUARE,—
What words of precious meaning those words Masonic are!
Come, let us contemplate them; they are worthy of a thought,—
With the highest and the lowest and the rarest they are fraught.

We meet upon the Level, though from every station come —
The King from out his palace and the poor man from his home;
For the one must leave his diadem without the Mason's door,
And the other finds his true respect upon the checkered floor.

We part upon the square, for the world must have its due;
We mingle with its multitude, a cold, unfriendly crew;
But the influence of our gatherings in memory is green,
And we long, upon the level, to renew the happy scene.

There's a World where all are equal,—we are hurrying towards it fast,—
We shall meet upon the level there when the gates of death are past;
We shall stand before the Orient, and our Master will be there,
To try the blocks we offer by His own unerring Square.

We shall meet upon the level there, but never thence depart;
There's a Mansion,— 'tis all ready for each zealous, faithful heart;
There's a Mansion, and a welcome, and a multitude is there,
Who have met upon the level and been tried upon the square.

Let us meet upon the level, then, while laboring patient here,—
Let us meet and let us labor, tho' the labor seem severe;
Already in the western sky the signs bid us prepare
To gather up our working tools and part upon the square.

Hands round, ye faithful Ghibilimites, the bright, fraternal chain;
We part upon the square below, to meet in Heaven again!
O what words of precious meaning those words Masonic are,
WE MEET UPON THE LEVEL, AND WE PART UPON THE SQUARE.


Rob Morris (August 31, 1818, Boston, MA
Died: July 31, 1888) was a prominent American poet and the Poet Laureate of Freemasonry after Robert Burns. He also created the first ritual for what was to become the Order of the Eastern Star.


http://www.phoenixmasonry.org/robert_morris_founder_of_oes.htm


(Made a Mason on March 5, 1846, at Oxford Lodge in Mississippi)

Sight: A Short Film by Sight Systems

Dag Hammarskjöld (29 July 1905 – 18 September 1961)

Our work for peace must begin within the private world of each one of us. To build for man a world without fear, we must be without fear. To build a world of justice, we must be just. And how can we fight for liberty if we are not free in our own minds? How can we ask others to sacrifice if we are not ready to do so?... Only in true surrender to the interest of all can we reach that strength and independence, that unity of purpose, that equity of judgment which are necessary if we are to measure up to our duty to the future, as men of a generation to whom the chance was given to build in time a world of peace.
Dag Hammarskjöld, in UN Press Release SG/360 (22 December 1953).

(Art by Alé Garza)

If Only....

I Have a Dream....

Ken Kesey (17 September 1935 – 10 November 2001)

I'm for mystery, not interpretive answers. ... The answer is never the answer. What's really interesting is the mystery. If you seek the mystery instead of the answer, you'll always be seeking. I've never seen anybody really find the answer, but they think they have. So they stop thinking. But the job is to seek mystery, evoke mystery, plant a garden in which strange plants grow and mysteries bloom. The need for mystery is greater than the need for an answer.
Ken Kesey

(Art by JG Jones)

Great Freemasons: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (August 28, 1749 – March 22, 1832)

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832)

"A Mason’s ways are
A type of existence,
And his persistence
Is as the days are
Of men of the world.
The future hides in it
Good hap or sorrow,
We pass through it-
Naught there abides in it
Daunting us- onward.
And silent, before us,
Veiled the dark portal,
Goal of all mortal;
Stars silent rest over us,
Graves under us silent.
But heard are the voices-
Voices of the sages
Of the world and the ages-
Choose well, your choice is
Brief, but yet endless.
Here eyes do regard you
In eternity’s stillness,
Here is all fullness,
Ye brave, to reward you,
Work and despair not."


Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His "Faust" has been called the greatest long poem of modern European literature. His other well-known literary works include his numerous poems, the "Bildungsroman Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship," and the epistolary novel "The Sorrows of Young Werther." ~wikipedia

(Lodge Amelie, Weimar)

Great Freemasons: William Potter Ross (August 28, 1820 – July 20, 1891)

William Potter Ross (August 28, 1820 – July 20, 1891), also known as Will Ross, was the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. Born to a Scottish father and a mixed-blood Cherokee mother (the sister of future chief John Ross), he was raised in a bilingual home. He also attended English-speaking schools. He attended Princeton University, where he graduated first in his class in 1844.

Will served in several different roles in the Cherokee Nation. By then, his uncle had been elected as principal chief. Will became clerk of the Cherokee Senate in 1843. He became the founder and editor of the Cherokee Advocate Later, he was appointed director of the Cherkee Male and Female seminaries, then served as Treasurer of the Cherokee Nation.

He was chosen by the National Council on October 19, 1866 and served for several months until the election in 1867. He was later elected to succeed Lewis Downing, and served from 1872 to 1875. After his term ended, Will Ross retired to Fort Gibson, where he became a merchant and practiced law. He died there on July 20, 1891.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_P._Ross



( Federal Lodge 1, Washington, DC)

Great Freemasons: Joseph-Michel Montgolfier (26 August 1740 – 26 June 1810)

Joseph-Michel Montgolfier (26 August 1740 – 26 June 1810) and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier (6 January 1745 – 2 August 1799) were the inventors of the Montgolfière-style hot air balloon, globe aérostatique. The brothers succeeded in launching the first manned ascent, carrying Étienne into the sky. Later, in December 1783, in recognition of their achievement, their father Pierre was elevated to the nobility and the hereditary appellation of de Montgolfier by King Louis XVI of France.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgolfier_brothers

(Initiated: 1806 Loge des Neuf Soeurs, Paris)

(His brother Jacques-Etienne had been initiated in 1784).

Jason Brennan, "Libertarianism: What Everyone Needs to Know"

Terrific interview with Jason Brennan.

The Supreme Council, 33°, S.J. USA 2013 Biennial Session

Streaming Live now:

http://www.realworldstreaming.com/scottishrite/

Nerd?

Arthur Schopenhauer (February 22, 1788 – September 21, 1860)

Meistens belehrt uns erst der Verlust über den Wert der Dinge.
(Mostly it is loss which teaches us about the worth of things.)
Arthur Schopenhauer (February 22, 1788 – September 21, 1860)

(Art by Alex Ross)

Great Freemasons: Frederick Louis Maytag I (July 14, 1857 – March 26, 1937)

"In all business, there is a factor which cannot be compensated for in dollars and cents or computed by any measure. It has no relation or connection with the mercenary and is represented only by the spirit of love which the true craftsman holds for his job and the things he is trying to accomplish."
Frederick Louis Maytag I (July 14, 1857 – March 26, 1937)



Frederick Louis Maytag I also known as F. L. Maytag, founded the Maytag Company.
http://www.nndb.com/people/533/000165038/

(Newton Lodge 59, Newton, Iowa)

Tom Woods: The Libertarian Speech I Would Deliver to the Whole Country

Famous Freemasons: Norman Vincent Peale

Great Freemasons: Hal G. Evarts (August 24, 1887 - October 18, 1934)

Hal G. Evarts, Author. (August 24, 1887 - October 18, 1934) In his early life he was a surveyor in the Indian Territory, rancher, trapper and guide. Among his writings are Passing of the Old West; The Yellow Horde; The Settling of the Sage; Fur Sign; Tumbleweed; Spanish Acres; The Painted Stallion; The Moccasin Telegraph; Fur Brigade; Tomahawk Rights; The Shaggy Legion and Short-grass.


(Lodge Unknown).

Matt Ridley: When ideas have sex

So Ben Affleck is Batman....

Great Freemasons: Jonathan Mayhew "Skinny" Wainwright IV (August 23, 1883 – September 2, 1953)

Jonathan Mayhew "Skinny" Wainwright IV (August 23, 1883 – September 2, 1953) was a career American army officer and the commander of Allied forces in the Philippines at the time of their surrender to the Empire of Japan during World War II. Wainwright is a recipient of the Medal of Honor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_M._Wainwright_%28general%29

(Union Lodge No. 7, Junction City, Kansas)

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (29 May 1917 – 22 November 1963)

A man does what he must — in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers, and pressures — and that is the basis of all human morality.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (29 May 1917 – 22 November 1963), Profiles in Courage (1956)

F.A. Hayek

Great Freemasons: Cecil John Rhodes PC, DCL (July 5, 1853 – March 26, 1902)

"To and for the establishment, promotion and development of a Secret Society, the true aim and object whereof shall be for the extension of British rule throughout the world, the perfecting of a system of emigration from the United Kingdom, and of colonisation by British subjects of all lands where the means of livelihood are attainable by energy, labour and enterprise, and especially the occupation by British settlers of the entire Continent of Africa, the Holy Land, the Valley of the Euphrates, the Islands of Cyprus and Candia, the whole of South America, the Islands of the Pacific not heretofore possessed by Great Britain, the whole of the Malay Archipelago, the seaboard of China and Japan, the ultimate recovery of the United States of America as an integral part of the British Empire, the inauguration of a system of Colonial representation in the Imperial Parliament which may tend to weld together the disjointed members of the Empire and, finally, the foundation of so great a Power as to render wars impossible, and promote the best interests of humanity."
From his Last Will and Testament (1902)

Cecil John Rhodes was an English businessman, mining magnate, and politician in South Africa. He was the founder of the diamond company De Beers, which today markets 40% of the world's rough diamonds and at one time marketed 90%. An ardent believer in British colonialism, he was the founder of the southern African territory of Rhodesia, which was named after him in 1895. South Africa's Rhodes University is also named after Rhodes. He set up the provisions of the Rhodes Scholarship, which is funded by his estate.

Historian Richard A. McFarlane has called Rhodes "as integral a participant in southern African and British imperial history as George Washington or Abraham Lincoln are in their respective eras in United States history... Most histories of South Africa covering the last decades of the nineteenth century are contributions to the historiography of Cecil Rhodes."



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_Rhodes

(Apollo University Lodge 357, Oxford)

How Many Christians Does It Take To Change a Light Bulb?

You had me at Hello

Great Freemasons: Harry Houdini

I knew, as everyone knows, that the easiest way to attract a crowd is to let it be known that at a given time and a given place some one is going to attempt something that in the event of failure will mean sudden death.
Harry Houdini

Harry Houdini (born Erik Weisz in Budapest, later Ehrich Weiss or Harry Weiss; March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926) was an American stunt performer, noted for his sensational escape acts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Houdini

(Initiated in St. Cecile Lodge, N.Y., July 17, 1923, he was Passed and Raised July 31 and August 21, and in 1924 he entered the Consistory. Immensely proud of his Masonic affiliation, he gave a benefit performance for the Valley of New York, filling the 4,000 seat Scottish Rite Cathedral and raising thousands of dollars for needy Masons. In October 1926, just weeks prior to his untimely death, he became a Shriner in New York's Mecca Temple.)

Alberta Lee Cox

It’s not enough to be good if you have the ability to be better. It is not enough to be very good if you have the ability to be great. – Alberta Lee Cox

Episcopal Crop Circles

The Brethren, by Edgar Guest

The Brethren
by Edgar Guest

The world is needing you and me,
In places where we ought to be;
Somewhere today it’s needing you
To stand for what you know is true.
And needing me somewhere today.
To keep the faith, let come what may.
The world needs honest men today
To lead its youth along the way,
Men who will write in all their deeds
The beauty of their spoken creeds,
And spurn advantage here and gain,
On which deceit must leave its stain.
The world needs men who will not brag,
Men who will honor Freedom’s Flag,
Men, who although the way is hard,
Against the lure of shame will guard,
The world needs gentle men and true
And calls aloud to me and you.
The world needs men of lofty aim,
Not merely men of skill and fame,
Not merely leaders wise and grave,
Or learned men or soldiers brave,
But men whose lives are fair to see,
Such men as you and I can be.

Great Freemasons: Edgar Guest (August 20, 1881, Birmingham, England – August 5, 1959, Detroit, Michigan)

The Temple

You may delve down to rock for your foundation piers,
You may go with your steel to the sky
You may purchase the best of the thought of the years,
And the finest of workmanship buy.
You may line with the rarest of marble each hall,
And with gold you may tint it; but then
It is only a building if it, after all,
Isn’t filled with the spirit of men.

You may put up a structure of brick and of stone,
Such as never was put up before;
Place there the costliest woods that are grown,
And carve every pillar and door.
You may fill it with splendors of quarry and mine,
With the glories of brush and of pen—
But it’s only a building, though ever so fine,
If it hasn’t the spirit of men.

You may build such structure that lightning can’t harm,
Or one that an earthquake can’t raze;
You may build it of granite, and boast that its charm
Shall last to the end of all days.
But you might as well never have builded at all,
Never cleared off the bog and the fen,
If, after it’s finished, its sheltering wall
Doesn’t stand for the spirit of men.

For it isn’t the marble, nor is it the stone
Nor is it the columns of steel,
By which is the worth of an edifice known;
But it’s something that’s LIVING and REAL.
Edgar Albert Guest  (aka Eddie Guest) was a prolific English-born American poet who was popular in the first half of the 20th century and became known as the People's Poet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Guest

(Ashlar Lodge 91 of Detroit)

Happy Birthday, Ron Paul!

Capitalism should not be condemned, since we haven’t had capitalism. A system of capitalism presumes sound money, not fiat money manipulated by a central bank. Capitalism cherishes voluntary contracts and interest rates that are determined by savings, not credit creation by a central bank. It’s not capitalism when the system is plagued with incomprehensible rules regarding mergers, acquisitions, and stock sales, along with wage controls, price controls, protectionism, corporate subsidies, international management of trade, complex and punishing corporate taxes, privileged government contracts to the military-industrial complex, and a foreign policy controlled by corporate interests and overseas investments. Add to this centralized federal mismanagement of farming, education, medicine, insurance, banking and welfare. This is not capitalism!

Ronald Ernest Paul (born August 20 1935)

Philip K. Dick

H.P Lovecraft (August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937)

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.
Howard Phillips Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu (1926)
(August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937)

:::SNIFF:::

H/T http://geektyrant.com/news/2013/8/16/thatsreally-dark-yale-stewart


(Yale Stewart's JL8: http://jl8comic.tumblr.com/

Happy Birthday, William Jefferson Clinton!

Our democracy must be not only the envy of the world but the engine of our own renewal. There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.
William Jefferson Clinton (born 19 August 1946)

(Art Bill Clinton, Lady Killer by Jason Heuser)
http://www.etsy.com/listing/125362057/bill-clinton-the-lady-killer-hq-11x17?ref=listing-shop-header-0

Cartoon

Great Freemasons: Charles Horace Mayo, M.D. (July 19, 1865 – May 26, 1939)

 
 The scientist is not content to stop at the obvious.
Charles Horace Mayo, M.D. (July 19, 1865 – May 26, 1939)

Charles Horace Mayo, M.D. was an American medical practitioner and was one of the founders of the Mayo Clinic along with his brother, William James Mayo, Drs. Augustus Stinchfield, Christopher Graham, E. Star Judd, Henry Stanley Plummer, Melvin Millet and Donald Balfour.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Horace_Mayo


("Dr. Charlie" petitioned to Rochester Lodge No. 21 in Rochester, Minnesota for membership on December 23, 1889, he was initiated as an Entered Apprentice on January 24, 1890, and eventually raised to the sublime degree of a Master Mason on May 12th. Dr. Charlie became a member of the York Rite Bodies in 1922-23.)

Fashion and Action: X-Men Classic Flashback with Paolo Rivera - X-Mond...

Fashion and Action: X-Men Classic Flashback with Paolo Rivera - X-Mond...: Paolo Rivera

Dragon Nerds

He is Everywhere

Great Freemasons: Meriwether Lewis (August 18, 1774 – October 11, 1809)

Meriwether Lewis (August 18, 1774 – October 11, 1809) was an American explorer, soldier, and public administrator, best known for his role as the leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery, with William Clark. Their mission was to explore the territory of the Louisiana Purchase, establish trade and sovereignty over the natives near the Missouri River, and claim the Pacific Northwest and Oregon Country for the United States before European nations. They also collected scientific data, and information on indigenous nations. President Thomas Jefferson appointed him Governor of Upper Louisiana in 1806.


Lewis was a Freemason, initiated, passed and raised in the "Door To Virtue Lodge No. 44" in Albemarle, Virginia, between 1796 and 1797. On August 2, 1808, Lewis and several of his acquaintances submitted a petition to the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania requesting dispensation to establish a lodge in St. Louis. Lewis was nominated and recommended to serve as the first Master of the proposed Lodge, which was warranted as Lodge No. 111 on September 16, 1808.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meriwether_Lewis#Freemasonry

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832)

A great revolution is never the fault of the people, but of the government.
Goethe, Conversations with Goethe, 1824.

Great Freemasons: Hoot Gibson (August 6, 1892 – August 23, 1962)

Hoot Gibson (August 6, 1892 – August 23, 1962) was an American rodeo champion and a pioneer cowboy film actor, director and producer.

(Truth Lodge 628 of Los Angeles)

Why did the libertarian cross the road?

Matthew Alexander Henson (August 8, 1866 – March 9, 1955)

I think I'm the first man to sit on top of the world.
Matthew Henson

Matthew Alexander Henson (August 8, 1866 – March 9, 1955) was an African American explorer and associate of Robert Peary on various expeditions, the most famous being a 1909 expedition during which he may have been the first person to reach the Geographic North Pole.
(Prince Hall Celestial Lodge 3, New York, NY)

Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25 1803 – April 27 1882)

All our progress is an unfolding, like the vegetable bud. You have first an instinct, then an opinion, then a knowledge, as the plant has root, bud, and fruit. Trust the instinct to the end, though you can render no reason. It is vain to hurry it. By trusting it to the end it shall ripen into truth, and you shall know why you believe.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882)

Condescending Eugen Böhm von Bawerk

Great Freemasons: Robert Mills (August 12, 1781 – March 3, 1855)

Robert Mills (August 12, 1781 – March 3, 1855), most famously known for designing the Washington Monument, is sometimes called the first native born American to become a professional architect, though Charles Bulfinch perhaps has a clearer claim to this honor. Mills studied in Charleston, South Carolina as a student of Irish-born architect James Hoban—who later designed the White House, which became the official home of US presidents. Both Hoban and Mills were Freemasons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Mills_%28architect%29

(Lodge Unknown)

F.A. Hayek on Corporatism and Conservatives