Skulduggery

"Geronimo's descendants have sued Skull and Bones, the secretive society at Yale University....claiming that its members stole the remains of the ...Apache leader...and have kept them ever since......According to lore, members of Skull and Bones....including Prescott Bush...dug up his grave during World War I, taking his skull and some of his bones."
Stephanie Reitz for the Associated Press, Feb. 19, 2009

If this is true, Skull and Bones (S&B hereafter) is well-named. This may seem like nothing more than a boyish prank, but what would you feel if the bones of your grandfather were kept as a ghoulish souvenir in some college fraternity house ?

In some ways S&B is like any other fraternity, providing a social life for like-minded students. However the group is characterized by a weird obsession with death and human remains: its clubhouse is known as The Tomb and its emblem is a skull with crossed bones over the number "322", which has some mysterious significance. Members allegedly steal license plates with that number from cars across America and donate them to the Tomb.

The actual history of S&B is far more nefarious than a few boyish pranks. (1) The society was founded by William H Russell (Yale, 1833), whose family had become wealthy in the opium trade. While studying in Germany, Russell became enamored of a German secret society linked to the Illuminati that used the death's head as its logo. (2) Founded in 1832 as "The Brotherhood of Death", S&B was also known as Eulogia. Members are expected to be loyal to S&B for life, and are known to favor fellow "Bonesmen" for high-level jobs in both business and government.

In October, 1942, the US government seized three shipping companies owned by Bonesmen (including the aforementioned Prescott Bush, Averell Harriman and two others) under the Trading With the Enemy Act for sales to Nazi Germany. This story was suppressed until 2002; meanwhile Prescott Bush was elected US Senator from Connecticut and Harriman was elected Governor of New York. The son (George HW Bush) and grandson (George W Bush) of Senator Prescott Bush also joined S&B while at Yale, and both went on to become President of the United States. In 2004 all electoral votes cast were for Bonesmen, since the Democratic nominee John F Kerry was also a member of the society. Other prominent members in the past have included publisher Henry Luce and McGeorge Bundy, special assistant to President Kennedy.

Conspiracy theorists love S&B, which has been linked to the CIA, Bilderbergers Group and the Freemasons, along with the Illuminati. The Matt Damon film The Good Shepherd portrayed S&B rituals and initiations, as did the biopic W. S&B has given elitism and snobbery a bad name.

I suspect that if Geronimo's bones were ever in the Tomb, they were removed to an undisclosed secure location when the suit was filed. If so, current S&B officials will lie about them, and they will never be recovered.

No, Skull and Bones doesn't rule the world, but if the kooky group has control over the bones of even one dead Indian, that it is too much power, in my view.
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(1) Wikipedia.

(2) Heinrich Himmler chose the same symbol for the Nazi SS.

DWI: Driving While Illegal

" A coalition of groups (Wisconsin Coalition for Safe Roads) has stepped up its effort to convince Gov. Jim Doyle to allow illegal immigrants to....drive.... (They are ) working people who need to drive to New Berlin and Mequon...."
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Feb. 14, 2009

The coalition is seeking to have the State of Wisconsin issue certificates in lieu of driver's licenses to people who have no Social Security card since they are in this country illegally. If someone has no social security card, how can he or she get a job anyway? Legitimate employers nowadays demand to examine them, if only to comply with requirements that payroll taxes be withheld. I suspect that many of the illegals who are working are paid in cash, and that nothing is withheld for income or Social Security tax. If so, these people and their employers are violating our tax laws and well as our immigration laws.

We have been told that illegal immigrants are doing jobs that no American would do, at least not for the same meager pay. This claim was never very creditable, but in view of current unemployment statistics, it is even more ludicrous now. I contend that for every job held by an illegal immigrant, there are several equally qualified American citizens who would gladly accept it for the same pay. Employers could not so easily evade their responsibilities to pay at least minimum wages and their share of the Social Security tax if they were employing Americans, but they should be made to comply with these laws.

Whether more immigration at this time is, on balance, beneficial for America is arguable. But even if some immigration is beneficial, the nation must be able to choose those immigrants with the skills and resources that would best serve American interests. We must be able to exclude criminals, subversives, and those infected with communicable diseases, especially AIDS. Illegal immigration makes a mockery of all these efforts. Yet prominent American politicians of both parties have advocated a "reform bill" that would allow illegals to stay here why they applied for citizenship. Since the recent economic downturn, support for this plan appears to have declined.

So, how should we respond to the demand those who have sneaked across our borders and taken jobs for which they pay no taxes be authorized to drive on our streets and roads?

"No way, Jose!"