CovOps
 Location : Ether-Sphere
Job/hobbies : Irrationality Exterminator
Humor : Über Serious
 |  Subject: Funny: In search of the Hill's Freemasons  Thu Oct 01, 2009 7:01 am | |
| 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 by the Masons.
But the editor was intrigued by a real-world question: How many present-day members of Congress are Freemasons? And is any member of Congress also a Knight Templar — a famous subgroup of Masons that traces its lineage to the medieval crusaders?
In a flash, the reporter realized he had spent years acquiring the skills needed to complete the quest to find the Freemasons on Capitol Hill — and finish it before the looming deadline.
I am the only man in this cubicle who can write this story.
My God!
CHAPTER 2
The reporter turns to the same exotic and arcane research tool Langdon uses in the book: Google. There, he finds a clue.
A YouTube video shows a member of Congress accepting an award from his fellow Masons in 2008. It’s Joe Wilson — the South Carolina Republican who shouted “You lie!” at President Barack Obama this month. He says he is a member of the Sinclair Lodge of West Columbia, S.C.
“For over 250 years, Masons have been a part of the fabric and leadership of the United States,” Wilson says on the video. “The grand tradition of brotherhood is a reflection of the very framework this nation was founded upon.”
No answers there, and Wilson’s office declined to elaborate.
Next, the reporter dialed the number of Dick Fletcher, executive secretary of the Masonic Service Association, a sort of national clearinghouse for Masonic information.
But Fletcher said Masons don’t keep records of government officials who are members — and wouldn’t release them if they did, for privacy reasons.
Deadline approaches. There were forces at work that no one could comprehend.
The reporter turned to an even more eminent figure, Senate Historian Don Ritchie. But Ritchie said there’s no list of Masons in Congress. Politicians have long been drawn to the group, he says, because of its grass-roots political organizing power.
The reporter heard a chime and looked up at his computer screen in astonishment. An electronic message has appeared there, as if by magic.
These are words. And they’re written in English, an ancient language I happen to speak.
It was an e-mail, from a hidden and well-placed source. And it contained a list of names of members of Congress. Hidden among them was the Knight Templar.
But which one was it?
CHAPTER 3
The reporter raced to the one place he knew he could find answers: the U.S. Capitol. Dashing into the building, he found the first of the names on his list — House Minority Whip Eric Cantor. The Virginia Republican offered a few cryptic words as he ascended the grand House stairway just beneath an enormous painting of George Washington.
More: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/27639.html |
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