Month: February 2013

Comment on Immigrations and Oversight

by amaisanoIII, posted in social control

 Opinions & Observations

 First draft

I am not speaking against the department, the state or the intelligence community.  This piece is not intended to provide remedies for our current problems.  But until Immigrations is fixed, the Dreamers and the Documented will receive additional surveillance.

Parked cars wait across the street where undocumented and incorrectly documented persons work.  Parking lots and Big Box Stores are monitored via camera and closed circuit television.  In East Haven, CT, ‘dances and social gatherings’ are observed with the closest eyes.  Many agree that this extra attention is necessary, because “these groups” are particularly elusive.  They have common features such as facial parts, family descriptions and name overlap with repetitiveness.  It is critical to create registries and documentation to keep track of the fluctuating populations because the current systems have failed.  There is no will to absorb the dreamers [amnesty] and deportation would be particularly harsh on people and the economy.

The lack of consensus on Immigrations, Papers Please, E-verify and Employer Regulation Enforcement has created a shadow population in the United States. It is estimated that between eleven and thirteen million Dreamers and un-Documented workers are currently living in U.S. towns and cities.[estimates vary, numbers from Barak Obama’s recent ‘fix immigrations’ speech during the month of February 2013]  American Employers have become hooked on the unending low-cost labor supply.  The end game is the slow elimination of employer-provided retirement, cost of living and benefit plans.  Years of short-changing the labor and census systems have one direct result.  The failure to establish a permanent United States Immigration Policy and Accepted Universal Update will be the gateway for all residents to be monitored. Further, there will be competition for the information that is gathered.  A case by case option will form the basis for social control because low-cost labor is more important than the Freedoms granted by the U.S. Constitution… [Wikipedia defines social control as “societal and political mechanisms or processes that regulate individual and group behavior in an attempt to gain conformity and compliance to the rules of a given society, state, or social group” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_control%5D

The question without new legislation is whether or not to extend constitutional freedoms to all who walk on America’s soil, both un-documented or dreamers. Americans struggle with Guantanamo Bay, but at least it gets discussed.  Our freedoms are very flexible, but America’s laws require clarity, data points, historical perspective and continual review.  The Congressional look away only works for a short time.  Cities, counties and states need to maintain law and order regardless of how citizens abuse the written rules.  If the legislators won’t legislate, and the employers won’t bear the responsibility of correct and accurate hiring practices, ALL AMERICANS WILL BE OBSERVED with keener powers of inspection.  Smile, you are on camera!

I would like to illustrate a scenario partially based on observation, partially based on experiential compilation.  This is one starting point.  When everyone gets out of work, pockets of different people congregate for ‘dances’ and other activities. These events are permitted to continue for social relaxation, for watching the specific groups in their habitat, and for conducting Surveillance activities.

As the popular tale is told, ‘everywhere that Mary went, those Lambs were sure to go.’ And where those lambs go, the surveillance follows. It is like the mapping car cameras driving down every street drawing each square inch of travel.  In my observation and opinion, because the job creators in many states want cheap labor, the departments want to play with their toys, and some others want to promote social control, the data collection system is propagated in continuous cycles. All feet on American soil are part of this collection pool because of the inter-meshing of the twenty-four hour monitoring procedure.

The final natural question is what will be done with all of the newly collected data.  Another layer of hierarchy gets introduced called the ‘oversight.’ This layer is installed to cultivate the data farms and ensure the correct usage of observational techniques.  Information is very powerful, and because greed creates an end to end disintegration in policy, all information collected becomes useful.  From the moment of wakefulness, to every place the Dreamers and un-Documented travel and work, their family sizes, medical decisions, food selection, entertainment choices, and financial transactions become fair for recording.  And because we have a shadow population interacting with documented citizens, ALL INTERACTIONS are open for surveillance.  Powers of escalation enable continuous points of monitoring.  Each connection makes a sticking spot where data is collected.  Places where surveillance would never be required become necessary for ‘personal safety’ and legislative accuracy.

So we have all types of people following all types of people around, conducting surveillance activities. Some legitimate, some clandestine until deemed ‘necessary.’ Spy vs. Spy. See true believers, personal benefit casts a BIG net. And slowly but surely, on a case by case basis, all will have to be watched because the promoters call it ‘witness protection.’ Real Americans will require these protections because of this new, dangerous jungle. The actions in homes, parks, roads, electronic media, communications, and bedrooms will be monitored and documented. Is this place is so wonderful? ‘Keys please.’

 

America should avoid this by having an open and honest Immigrations conversation, and PASSING LEGISLATION based on a popular vote.  What a concept.

Next issue, the editor gets his pictures, and the watchers and lambs get caught in the web.  This newly acquired information gained through various methods of surveillance is TOO TEMPTING to sit on the shelf.  Many new applications will showcase the data gained from deep access. And there’s the show… ‘Amazing Temptations’

 

Inspired from a recent post in Frederica Cade’s WordPress blog.
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De-res’d: DEGREES OF DISINTEGRATION

by amaisanoIII, posted in Cyberbullying

DEVICES USED TO CREATE SEPARATION BETWEEN A CHARACTER’S PHYSICAL AND PERCEIVED PRESENCE

draft…not completed

Most people lead normal enough lives that they enjoy a good scare once in a while.  The toughest decisions are which to choose, a suspenseful book or scary movie.  Who done it and why.  When the monsters come out the stalker chooses their weapon or the nightmare penetrates the calmness, the show begins.   Terror begins to sketch out its shape.  No problem, most normal people choose to watch, and a huge money machine supports fear generation.  The viewer can always click to another channel, or get up for a snack.  The spell is broken. 

 But what if the individual couldn’t stop the show.  What if the terror keeps coming on, slowing creeping into every corner of living days.  A year or so ago, I was watching late night television.  I remembered an old Halloween KIT Vincent Price used to promote.  It allowed children to carve apples, dress them with fake hair and apparel and bake them in the oven.  Shrunken Heads for a scary season.  Tick, Tick, Tick, DING… it was just that easy.

Modern stalkers have arrays of magical jars of clay to shape and extrude from.  They just don’t create fear with their scary ‘dolls.’  The voodoo slight-of-hand steals small bits of the victim’s essence and enchants new zombified identities to multiply the depth and breadth of illusion.  As individuals proceed with daily life, jobs, family, activities, they feel slowly drained.  The real fear of this horror is unexplained loss of control of the small things.  The world still spins and cycles.  Days continually progress.  But in the recesses of the victim’s mind, a small fear takes shape until it overtakes the happy sequences.  This show won’t be made for T.V. and it doesn’t end in a two-hour format. 

When the attacks penetrate a victim’s physical and living ‘walls,’ feelings composed of exposure and alienation are generated.  “Exposure” feels like ‘the whole world is watching me,’ and “alienation” feels like ‘no one cares.’  Silent screams vibrate from the victim, but the walk of real life trudges on.  Exhaustion is no reason to stop the show,  life takes patience.  Attackers repeatedly proceed until the victim gives up, loses their identity or submits to the given terms.  Some move away or ‘transfer’ to a different life.  A few disappear or commit suicide.  ‘Just sit down at the desk and write that note,’ the “voice” silently whispers.

Wikipedia defines CYBERBULLYING as “communications that seek to intimidate, control, manipulate, put down, falsely discredit or humiliate the recipient.”  [Wikipedia, English, Cyberbullying]  Victims are most often described as exceptional people.  They often exhibit qualities of competence, CREATIVITY, and integrity.  Victims are often very intelligent and dedicated people.  This inspires jealousy in attackers, who wish to gain an advantage over or actually taking their place.  Sometimes attackers steal their work or credentials, leaving victims dumbfounded and penniless.  This extended type of bullying, stalking and DAMNATIO MEMORIAE, or the cancellation of every aspect of a person’s life, CAN occur to children as well as adults. 

The ACLU and other parent / teacher organizations have started to take notice of the damage this bullying, Cyberbullying and Cyberstalking is causing.  Customized programs for young adults can report bullying by using web apps such as BOB. This stands for ‘Back Off Bully,’ and if the attacks are warranted, networks are in place for follow-up.  Unfortunately, adults have to use a higher standard of proof.  The FBI has developed the IC3 program, Change.org has created anti-harassment petitions, and web sites allowing personal comments have been initiated to learn from ‘victim wisdom.’  Other services such as ‘Life-Lock’ and ‘Reputation.com’ protect physical and online pieces of presence, but attackers use more advanced and saturating techniques.  For example, Character Assassination can occur through implicit or explicit permissions.  Wikipedia has warned about this type of structured character destruction by explaining “the mobilization toward ruining the reputation of adversaries [is] the prelude to the mobilization of violence in order to annihilate them.”  In other words, patience and turning the other cheek in these matters has always ended in physical assault of the victims. [Wikipedia, English, character assassination]  Apparently, Wikipedia and its authors have seen this movie before.

CHARACTER ASSASSINATION is defined as a deliberate and sustained process that aims to destroy a person’s reputation and credibility.  Topic incarnate might manifest itself as receiving a phone call immediately preceding a court hearing.  When the news on the phone is worse than the meeting with the judge, a line is crossed.  This is a form of Electronic Harassment that gives new meaning to ‘you have the right to remain silent.’  Officially done to remove a part of someone’s physical appearance.  Unofficially activities such as these might be interpreted as take a fall on this one, because the next attack will be worse.  Character Assassins blend different types of methods ranging from raising false accusations, planting and fostering rumors and manipulating information. [Wikipedia]

GAS LIGHTING.  Originates from the 1938 American Release Play Angel Street (Gaslight).  In this one, Ingrid Bergman’s husband deliberately manipulates small elements their shared living environment.  He proceeded to insist to her and her friends that she is mistaken or mis-remembering details.  The husband searches for Treasure in their house, and when using the attic’s gas lights, causes the house lights to dim simultaneously.  When Bergman accurately notices, her husband continually denies her observations.  This has the effect of causing the victim to doubt his or her memory.  It can involve higher levels of organization.  For example, if a police officer issues an ‘incorrectly written summons’ of manslaughter [murder], the victim may be forced to accept lesser charges.  When multiple steps in the enforcement chain conspire to work together, details become impossible to verify. [parallel construction]  Family and Friends may be led to believe that victim is disoriented.  When the victim is unable to prove the bizarre events by the abuser(s) are incorrect (perhaps the lawyers are in on the show), the falsely accused victim has been ‘Gas Lighted.’  This plot may also occur between parent-children relationships.  Lying and deliberate false hoods undermine perceptions.  Calef and Weinshel described in their article “Some Clinical Consequences of Introjection:  Gaslighting” that this technique involves the projection and interjection of psychic conflicts from the perpetrator to the victim. [Wikipedia, English Gaslighting]

Scary Movie??? As in many cases of life, the ability to resist the scam depends on the victim’s ability to TRUST THEIR OWN JUDGEMENTS.  If you see something, say something, try to get other’s to view the story through your eyes, and most importantly, follow your instincts.  Do your best to correct and validate the facts where able, avoid extraneous conflicts and seize the moments when able.

Like all of the greatest scary movies, the victim tries and tries to elude his attacker(s).  Turning corner after corner in rapid succession; where is the next safest spot?  Unfortunately, like a masterful script writer, the attacker seems to have all of a victim’s life mapped out.  Next example of creating detachment for a victim from their life is at their workplace. 

MOBBING at a person’s job, as described by Wikipedia, occurs where poorly organized production and working methods exist.  Inattentive and participative managements allow a type of emotional assault to occur to the victim whereby they become the victim of harmful or disrespectful behavior.  When correct actions are mismarked, activities continue to single out the victim as non-compliant when clearly, best practices are being performed.  Mobbing is executed by a leader whose actions draw in others to ‘gang up’ on the victim.  In the 1980s, a professor named Heinz Leymann noted that one of the possible side effects of ‘mobbing at the workplace’ is post-traumatic stress disorder.  Somatic Symptoms and psychological trauma have also been noted.  It is very depressing for the victim to have to return day after day to this place of hopelessness, unable to reach out to anyone.  Gossip, rumor and unfounded accusations eventually force the victim to leave.  Mobbing has also been described to exist in schools, academia and during the peer review process.  Ultimately, attacks by one or a few bullies are led by people who have gained positions of power.  This type of horrifying character enjoys abusing their gained power to attack and harm the vulnerable.

People should respect their jobs and their bosses.  But when a correctly diagnosed victim wakes up identifying the specific type of attacking person(s), work is a scary place to spend your day.  Some people are stronger than others.  Some are able to look forward to other things in their lives to block out what is being done. Victims might frequently ask themselves ‘no money could be worth this treatment because this is so far away from the job description.’  INTERFAITH WORKERS JUSTICE is one agency that understands these types of complaints and provides outlets for grievance mediation.  Author Kim Bobo, writer of Wage Theft in America, started this initiative to supplement and enrich existing workplace organizations including the DOL.  Don’t wait until it is too late.  Document your feelings and actions, at least through the lens of a personal journal.  The victim’s voice and words are the greatest protection and ally.  Victim’s need to be their own defender and they should follow the safest mechanisms available.

As the drama unfolds, the targeted individual becomes increasingly confused, disoriented, self-doubting and spiritually weak.  Friends and family may begin to question an individual’s behavior.  The main objective of a CYBERSTALKER is to inflict harm, debilitation and repeated dissociation from areas of strength or solitude.  The reach of the attacker(s) are extended by leveraging electronic and communications methods to create the feeling of ‘heavy breathing on back of the neck.’  These activities at a distance act like a cloak of invisibility, increasing the fear factor, and the difficulty in pinpointing the offending parties.  Multiple people often work together in this electric harassment.  Experts have named this hostility a ‘digital pile on.’  Imagine having an unseen thumb pushing you down every time you try to look up for information.  Internet services, mobile technologies, web pages, discussion groups, instant messaging and SMS all are used.  So whether one person is using multiple entry points or multiple people exploiting one or a few, the harm and hostility is VERY difficult to stop.  A victim getting attacked while conducting daily business is especially bewildering because we as global people sign in with these tools every day.  This basically forces you not to do human activities, so virtual death occurs by getting ‘blocked in’ because of self-paralysis. 

It doesn’t have to be this way.  These attacks are vicious and unrelenting.  It IS difficult to educate authorities and close relations.  Get over the fact that people want to write you off as useless or depressed.  Be your own best friend, and trust your own judgment.  Patiently document everything with multiple sources.   Protect your identity and possessions the best you can.  First question is how hard will you work to hold on to your ideas, values, sanity, and possessions.  I look at these abuses like this;  although videotaping or recording the attack in progress is the best evidence, we do live in a more educated society.  Try your best to be clear and calm.  Fifty or more years ago these types of attacks would be near impossible to prove.  Just ask Ingrid Bergman.  Stay on top of things, and don’t do anything injudicious.

The spelling of Cyberbullying, Cyberstalking and Gang Stalking may appear the same.  Each word even sounds the same.  An example of Gang Stalking would be if you were walking in a parking lot, and an unknown person approached but maintained distance outside your safety zone, say ten or fifteen feet away.  Using their smart phone and social media, some entity at another location would send messages to be read or acted upon, directly relating your personal information.  They make ‘speak to the air’ facts that only you would know, facts that could create and emotional reaction in your brain.  What would you do, fight or flight?  One way or another, your sense of reality has been affected.  At the top of the pyramid, the attacker is usually represented or is the actual information provider, affiliate, or information supplier of a competitor or a competitor itself.  Another example of Gang Stalking would be constant pacing outside your open window, employing the same tactics.  “We’re going to break into your house, steal your mail, hurt your pets,” or use any other personal information against you to get a reaction. 

Cyberbullying employs the same tactics, but uses the devices to create direct or indirect electronic activity.  Threatening emails, texts or internet attacks are all used during Cyberbullying campaigns.  Suicides have occurred through this behavior, most notably Ryan Halligan and Megan Meier.  Victims have many other reactions including reduction of self-esteem, retaliating or acting out, and being scared, frustrated, angry and depressed.  The victims that mange to live with this stress have shown retreat from their friends and activities.  This adds to loss of control and increased exposure to attacks due to the loss of support networks.  Cyberbullying attacks are also aimed at victim’s earnings, employment, reputation, safety and intellectual property.  As the victim gets older in age, courts change the label to Cyberstalking.  And all mentioned techniques CAN be brought closer to the victim by broadcast via speakers or vibratory impulses through tooth or medical device implants.  This is called Electronic Harassment, and skull to ear messaging.

Cyberstalking encompasses the above tactics, with the additions of monitoring, identity theft, damage to data or equipment, or gathering information for solicitation of minors for sex or in order to harass.  A repeated pattern[s] of this behavior to a target by an adult, both in an on-line and off-line environment, is recognized as Cyberstalking.  CYBERSTALKING is a sub-form of CYBERBULLYING.  Teams of attackers can form together united in purpose, for money or social activities, or simply because it has been successfully carried out against them, and they gave up the keys of hope. 

The constant monitoring is a particularly vicious attack.  For example, after immediately building a computer, an electrical spike is sent which destroys your new computer.  After the rebuild, the same happens again.  Back to the store, more parts, more labor, and as soon as you get online, the electrical spike occurs again.  Same procedure can be used with the television.  Best remedy here is to use surge protectors and Uninterruptible Power Supplies.  Another example is each time you change your password; an attacker seems to break back in.  Keyloggers and activity replay schemes make all online activity exposed to cyberstalkers.  Some attackers place a victim in a state of fear by copying public pictures that are provocative, pretending to be old yearbook buddies [catfishing] or the tried and true phone pranking. [phreaking].  They may be forced into a situation to protect a worse one in the future, or to insulate something from their past.  Of course, all future activity will be recorded as well.  Motives often include romantic, business conflict, intellectual disagreement, personal dislike or extortion.  Targets often exemplify qualities that the stalker admires but finds personally lacking, and is unwilling to develop in their own persona.  Apparently these activities are fun for some people, but let it be known that all of this is illegal and attackers ARE put in jail.  Imagine getting your Federal Freedom of Information Act returned clean, and your request for harassment records denied by the State of Residence.  The best overall policy is to keep yourself as private as possible and trust your own judgment.  An elder once told me, ‘if you steal, things will be stolen from you.’  Cyberstalkers will stalk stalkers when easier targets are unavailable, or to obtain more challenging prey.

 After all the popcorn and ju-ju bees are eaten, and the soda is almost finished, the twist of fate ending hits you.  What if you stalker lives next door, or can impersonate your physical past life by using a critical piece of your identification.  It is a small piece of non-laminated paper that all databases use.  You may have moved sometime during your life, but often a fact of your first or previous residence exists as a ghost in the machine.  Many philosophers have opined that a photograph traps a bit of one’s soul.  Your original social security card often shows the first location where your number was applied for.  Or perhaps you changed your address on the card once for college, but not the house you share with your spouse.  Your SSN in its paper form is ALSO a valid data record, because your SSN number is correct.  So even though you may have moved away and correctly registered your updates, the old address is tied to a valid number.  The type inked paper form is also kept as a record.  And in your absence, someone might use that old record to create a new invisible profile.  As long as they don’t get caught by someone who remembers you, it can create a tangent path to start a new background.  Unfortunately, crimes and deeds that this invisible person commits are tied to your valid profile.  Best bet is to finish the movie.  Ask questions and pay attention to all the sub-plots.  Life can be a scary place, but by using logic and determination, it doesn’t have to be a nightmare.

BRICK & MORTAR

by amaisanoIII, posted in instructional, Uncategorized

receiving edits…

THE GOLDEN TROWEL COLLECTION

also to be viewed on Meridian Lodge #77 web site

THE CHRISTMAS CREATION

All the gifts were unwrapped, and the wonderment of the season filled the room.  I put aside all my new presents except one.  For the past few years Santa brought me sets of wooden tinker toys.  This was my favorite wish because infinite thought could be unleashed anywhere a quiet place allowed.  I looked out the window to view the pristine fresh snow which created the fresh canvas of winter landscape.  How would I combine this new set with my others…

After thinking for a few moments, I chose to build upon two other constructs made during earlier days.  The two box like wooden rectangles were made by connecting the straight holed aligning pillars.  Figure, Strength and Beauty… ordered to interlock my earlier works.  I would have to utilize the angled offset holes in the round hubs.  Spokes emanating from center hubs would link two horizontal boxes on the same level.

An Arch would create a span using two hubs, a straight line and radiating pillars dropping into lower points.  Two rectangles linked.  Before I could continue, I needed to open more of my tinker toy kits.  Due proportion would create just correspondence in all parts.  I want to expand the dwelling’s footprint, perhaps in the shape of a triangle.  Limited by my piece count, wisdom should guide me through the arrangement of ordinary materials.  Figure, Strength and Beauty is the Operative I focused upon.  I need to expand the roof too!

The call for Christmas Worship brought me out of my thoughts.  Barely enough time to get dressed.  After the Day’s Celebration, Holiday food would follow.  Spending time with family and friends would take precedence over my construction.

Worship talked about Faith, Hope and Charity… The lecture described Jacob’s Vision.  I envisioned finishing my construction, and I hoped there would be time left to finish.  I held my thoughts, secretly waiting and keeping calm.  It was the DIETY’S Day, and I needed to practice charity and squared actions.

All the family gathered at our house.  We gave thanks for the day and began eating the prepared feast.  The clock struck high noon.  All the food almost distracted me from the hour’s chime’s clarity.  Someone gave the blessing.  People came and left, all by their own schedules.

The plates were cleaned up, and extra food put in boxes and bags for visiting guests.  Outside there was still snow on lawn, but its reflection changed.  The reflection of the Star Decked Canopy beamed down a silver blue hue.  The Frozen Mosaic Pavement mirrored the Blazing Stars reflection.  The moon and stars cast no light of their own, only a re-illumination of the sun.  I recalled my mind’s trestle for my next step.  Expand the roof.

I had to add a new center hub to the original span.  That’s the good thing about Speculative Work.  Plans are better able to be reshaped during the flow.  A center perpendicular extended off of my first connections.  Using my bended knuckles as an invisible gavel, I made my appropriate connections. Reaching my last hub, I pulled two additional returns linking back to my initial opposing corners.  I dropped down extensions to give the roof dimension, and my triangular space started showing final figure and shape.

I called myself out from my work for the final time to view what appeared before me.  I could create embellishments on the interior space, but that would take more expansion sets.  Perhaps I could use some of my Christmas gift cards.  Reaching the Pinnacle of my ability and resources, the time came for rest.  Just like on the Seventh Day, it was time to pause and enjoy my work.

I would seek to use the movable parts on another day.

Inspiration taken from Official Ritual Grand Lodge of Connecticut, AF & AM, pages 166 – 168.

Facts and phrases drawn from Freemason’s Guide and Compendium, Bernard E. Jones, pages 19 – 78.

Anthony Maisano 3rd, 1/21/2013

DESTINATION

I slept in rather late.  The birds and morning sun had already begun their daily scripture.  While preparing breakfast, I recalled a drive I once took.  Not the farthest distance, but a relevant destination nonetheless…

This particular trip was a destination to prepare for, calling upon focus and dexterity.  Remarkably though, there were only three potential stopping points along the way.  I made a quick map in my mind — a plan to travel through what I remembered to be three traffic lights.  I would come upon the first illuminated crossroad when leaving my town.  Down the road, my path would wend through a checkpoint bisecting the journey.  The final caution would appear just before my final location.  I departed just after the birds stopped their early song.

Warmed by the heating sun, I started down the road.  I took no personal effects on this drive, just my thoughts.  A few twists and turns in the road, then some trees and friendly waves.  First traffic light.  Its yellow-amber color indicated CAUTION.  I realized this was not to be a local errand or quick skip to a friend’s house.  Fast look in all directions and I received my mind’s confirmation.  Familiar surroundings disappear as I leave my hometown behind.  I continue through the intersection, careful to advance through less familiar territory.

The inertial motion paces a bit faster.  This is the longest section of the journey.  Fences click by and the perimeter of my view becomes more bare.  I feel as though my periphery of sight has greatly increased.  Sides, front, and back.  Distances appear elongated. .  I see the next light.  It is colored green — only one choice.  Automatic impulse drives me on.  Passing through the intersection, the distance traveled does appear farther than I can recall.  Caution turns into confidence as the signs guide me onward.  My internal compass remains unchanged.

The rolling wheels coo quietly over the new pavement.  I sit silently casting my thought ahead, internally marching down my mind’s map.  My heart feels confident with the fact check.    Around the next turn a red traffic light slides into my view.  THREE gauges, like PRECIOUS JEWELS.  My body reacts, bringing my travel to a temporary halt.  Down this lonely stretch of road, few travelers track.  I arrive at my mind’s connection.  No external sounds heard {ears} outside my enclosure.  My eyes silently confirm {tongue} my thoughts.  The light changes to green, and I faithfully proceed {heart}.  My virtual map shortens.

I start slowly.  I am about to reach the end of my mind’s map.  A short distance later, I focus upon my goal.  God’s essence, true thought and a cautionary approach powered this journey.  I cannot remember all the data collected along the way, but I know it sits comfortably in my mind’s store.  This bundle forms a package of TRUTH.  An actual plan for not only my return home, but the bridge built for future journeys.  Truth is the divine language which all time travelers use to navigate.  It is the steady beacon which must be followed to correctly unwrap learning and action.  The destination has been illuminated by the lantern of passage.

Caution {yellow}, [new name, unsure of what’s ahead] —– 3 precious jewels…{red} listening [Ear], silent [tongue] faithful [heart] —  Truth {green}, [checkword]

Reflections on Entered Apprentice Degree…p. 47 Duncan’s Ritual

Anthony Maisano 3

9/17/2012

JUSTICE AND CONSTITUTION

The pebbled sand feels warm underfoot.  Tracing the curvature of ocean’s inlet, wending around man made dwellings.  Sitting under black sky, stars are hidden by thick clouds.  Mist and gunpowder fill the air.  The wayfaring sea pushes and pulls like moist lava.  The sea foam alternates between covering and exposing the sand bed.  The guiding moon begins to slide out of its cloudy cover.

Care must be taken because the ocean has its own pace.  The flowing grasp is smoothly subtle, but ever withdrawing and advancing.  No one hears this framed description, yet its presence is obvious.  Thoughts protected and insulated, yet exposed to the inner light.  The irregular waterline twists in a predictable and orderly pattern.  The moon begins to illuminate the field.  Light greens, blue and white become discernible.  A few stars, yet all is quiet.  Thoughts continue to expand and illuminate.  The heart beats steadily.

The water will eventually reach the place which is previously marked.  The tide’s volume is increased, in richness but not in tone.  Velvet sounds expand only because of proximity.  Time has expired for the place chosen.  The moonlight’s embrace overtakes the dark mist and in this set of visuals, all can be seen.  Thoughts and actions are silent.  An illuminated canopy stares down over the inlet.  The beam’s glow casts truth and justice.  Nothing can be hidden for very long.

The ebb and flow has overtaken point of reference.  That familiar mark has been reached.  Moments until departure.  No one hears and fewer see the steady movement.  The ocean’s tide and night cycle are part of final justice.  These can’t be stopped. Rhythmic thoughts, like the sand bed and the moon and stars, are protected by the guardian’s sword.  All recorded somewhere in the book of time.

The cycle begins again.

Reflections on master mason degree

7/5/2012

THE FLOATING STAIRS

Darkness surrounds the four walls inside of a larger scale.  Gentlemen find their way from the constraints of daily duties to meet in the vaulted roof within a hewn stone building.  Through the iron hinged door, the eternal great lights delineate the stage.   Signs and tokens, take your seats.  This is a night of learning.

Center altar encircled by three great chairs.  Curling and twisting about this consecrated area, the great stairs.  Steps of learning, set points for the craftsman’s tools to do their work upon.  These are the classical points of learning, fields of clay to be molded into greatest thoughts.  Winding around the center altar, pedastling The Holy Bible.

This is the fellows gathering.  A reminder to the old and new student the ability of sand to harden into focus.  The ashlars of human minds, capable of structuring one’s own memory lodge to be built upon the masters’ studies.  Names often recorded, rarely remembered.  Schools of study that provide the tested geometric vessel to contain all
free thought.

Soon the lectures are finished, and the bellies are full.  Fellows return to the calling of daily activity.  Cerebral boxes, pyramidal Tetrahedrons, sharpened and expanded.  Capable of holding fluid quicksilver…brilliant thoughts.  Each built from the great stairs of study.  The floating stairs occupying the space between the altar and platforms.  The illustration of where to put the grains of thought we encounter on the way home.  The next day.  Expanding into the time until the next session.  The geometrical hanging closet illustrated by the floating stairs.

anthony maisano 3                                                                      prepared for: Finishing element of F.C. degree

A FACTUAL OPINION…

by amaisanoIII, posted in free speech

Age of Masonic Diversification through Morgan’s Degree Proliferation in America

Part I  [this paper is unfinished]

The first half of the nineteenth century brought a basic enlightenment to the American Worker. The printing press emblazoned transcendent words at previously unknown rates. Publishing House owners vigorously sought to reproduce manuscripts that would incite, as well as enlighten. Text was a banquet to many hungry subjects. Typed set works replaced vocal soliloquies and eliminated variations caused by verbal recollections.

The Free Thinking Secularists seized upon this opportunity. Thoughtful printings became the torch in the dark cave for many Americans. By 1830, Voltaire was fully engaged in the social reformation of France, and even unknown laborers were able to cement their ideas into the historical record. The bible was popular in the New Colonies, but shrewd publishers became sensitive for the next bestseller. These fellows realized new ideas of men made old opinions pliable. From tavern to grocery store, people started conversations about these newly etched texts. Printed documentation created brilliant order as well as chaos, and a perfect circle of observational propagation.

William Morgan was a humble stone mason. He achieved basic mastery in creating brick walls, stone foundations, and other more specialized operative works. Morgan had arch and building construction skills at his fingertips. Like many traveling journeymen, a map of the world was etched onto his face. But before he could reap the rewards of his apprenticeship, Morgan vanished. He left behind a wife, Lucinda, a newly born baby, and a peaceful home. He was used to traveling around when work presented itself. But when he decided to write about the square, plumb and level that Speculative Masons understood, his foundational stability disappeared… as well as his physical body.

William Morgan stood 5 foot, 6 inches tall. Average height by today’s standards. He has been described as being muscular, tattooed and of Caribbean complexion. He possessed matted curly grey hair, which also populated throughout his body. He served in the U.S. Army during the War of 1812. Morgan finished his service with the title of ‘Captain’ under Andrew Jackson’s command. He then trained to become a stone mason, his next career. After serving his country, and developing a professional skill, he married in 1816. Morgan wed Lucinda Pendleton, daughter of a Methodist Minister. The ceremony took place in Culpepper County, VA.

William Morgan worked as an operative stone mason for two years, meticulously saving his wages. Morgan took his savings to York, Canada [today known as Ontario], and purchased a brewery. Becoming a business owner was near the summit of the social ladder in his day. Unfortunately, his business later caught on fire. Leaving the ashes behind, Morgan moved to Rochester, New York. He was still an Operative Mason, skilled in bricklaying and stonework. He also demonstrated a knowledge of speculative masonry as well. Morgan was versed in its rites and history. Though a property and business owner, he never could produce his references or Masonic Traveler’s Papers. This fact was later used against him by neighbors and Masonic brothers hungry for the knowledge Morgan possessed.

Morgan penned Seven sections of Masonic Ritual Work. He detailed the first three ‘Blue Lodge’ degrees, and what his peers labeled the more exclusive ‘York Rite’ degrees. Each section’s release seemed to erase a part of Morgan’s physical presence. The Anti-Masonic Party structure coalesced, and American Citizens simultaneously forgot the bliss of Eden preached to them. New political platforms were created, and elections were influenced. Masonic membership had tumbled from a place of golden membership because many Freemasons sought to conceal the rituals and any secret from general townsman deemed necessary. Some observers lost faith in the admission criteria, and the quality of character that entered into the lodges. This short period also demonstrated the change in the scale of power, tipping back toward organized religion and outcast politicians.

Morgan’s publications and subsequent physical disappearance would open a communications gate. Though he was unable to harvest this forbidden fruit, the mysteries of his work would re-popularize a hidden path. Others published their rituals and teachings after Morgan’s sacrifice. American Masonry would take seventy-five years to fully reconcile and incorporate this knowledge. William Morgan sacrificed his life to preserve the craft, carrying ritual, and freedom of speech, into the modern era.

That is the basic life outline of William Morgan’s living days. Notwithstanding the ‘why’ chapter on Morgan’s disappearance and demise, this paper seeks to explore how Morgan’s contributions, both printed and documented, preserved interest in American Masonic Membership. William Morgan, like many of his contemporaries at the time, tended to spend free moments in their local pubs. The inflammatory nature of his late texts, and the bounty offered to him for the knowledge contained infuriated masons and non-masons alike. Times like these illustrate why some men’s works need a caretaker to preserve for posterity the critical bravery exemplified. Thomas Paine had Benjamin Offen and Moncure Daniel Conway. The spirit and light of William Morgan’s work was protected by a 30-year-old printer named Thurlow Weed.

Let’s add some quick facts to Morgan’s case profile. August 7, 1826 is the generally accepted date of the first delivery of Morgan’s First Degree of Blue Lodge Ritual. Morgan delivered his second and third by August ninth. None of these three degrees were compensated for any amount close to what was promised. Today, it is illegal to withhold an employee’s paycheck “hostage.” Imagine the increasing pressure of circumstances on the young father, William Morgan.

Morgan’s works are not the first printings of Masonic Degrees. Ben Franklin published a previously penned edition in 1734, prior to his election of Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. Masonry Dissected was printed in London four years earlier in 1730. And in 1762, Jachin and Boaz was published by Sam Pritchard. Morgan was not the first to publish Masonic works or ritual details. He just wasn’t liked by the people around him.  And townsmen chose to test the power of the printing press and an American’s right to Freedom of Speech.

The Temperance Movement reached critical mass by 1828. Of course, a wave’s peak is preceded by a great force as to move the water’s figurative inertia. Morgan owned a brewery. He also was a hard working man, who enjoyed the company of fellow workers in the local pub. Relaxing with his belly full of spirits and talking about the issues of the day was common fare. Some have pointed to this camaraderie as the working man’s chance to practice speaking and expand thoughts not contemplated during working hours. Spirits provided a lubricity to the mind, and the Temperance Movement sought to stifle free thought, and free thought created during these pub times. Some men silently speculated education belonged to select groups and privileged classes. William Morgan represented a coalescing group of ‘working class values’ which later would challenge existing religious and caste system power structuring. Not everything that flowed out the exit of the pubs was constructive. But the Temperance Movement sought to shut off the taps of flowing thought. With the help of disgruntled men displaced from career politics, church leaders and followers who lost ground during the proliferation of printed and discussed ideas, and old money elitists who frowned upon the upward mobility of the journeying worker, the  Temperance Movement took root and applied the brakes to open expression. People just didn’t like Morgan’s type of person, and the educated working class he represented.

Masons in general were under societal scrutiny because of their secretive and fraternal nature. Morgan was an accepted Mason of Blue Lodge education. The Canadian Masonic Research Organization documented that Morgan was initiated into Masonic Rites in 1815, New Brunswick, Canada. He moved around wherever work took him. Lodges like to retain their members, and the unsettled journeying of Morgan’s profession could have upset some Lodge Masters. There is also a note that Morgan belonged to Perry Lodge number 320. This note is firm because he was expelled for un-masonic behavior in July 1826. This date is approximately one month before his first written ritual submission. These facts illustrate that Morgan was indeed an accepted Mason at a point previous to the population’s jealousies and greed. Because all this data is preserved and searchable contributes to the theory that Morgan, his life, writings and his biographical record, preserved masonry during a period of societal riptidal pressures. People of his day did not like Morgan himself, Masons in general, and most importantly, educated working class citizens in total.

Besides the political turmoil churning in the water, William Morgan’s life, and printing activities, is situated between two critical time points in Masonic History.  Some scholars point to TWO great Schisms in Freemasonry, 1753 and 1877.  A second group split off from the main Grand Lodge of England, choosing to pursue the very extension of masonry that William Morgan wrote about.  This group professed an extension of the three main degrees of masonry, adding a resolved set called The Holy Royal Arch.  This provided a more complete look at the third degree.  Members of this new group called themselves ‘Antients,’ and were typically composed of a more working class and more Christian set of individuals.  The remaining original group, now called the ‘Moderns,’ changed some of their secret modes of recognition to differentiate themselves.  Another famous mason who fell prey to this schism was Ben Franklin.  Author and researcher Steven C. Bullock has stated that because Franklin’s lodge switched to Antient, his Deist religious choices caused his brothers to not give him a Masonic Funeral. *

By 1813, the Grand Lodge of England folded both schools of thought into a combined United Grand Lodge of England.  This was done by a meticulous and agreed upon wording of encompassing thoughts.  In addition, by 1815, both aristocrats AND working class, education levels, and religious preferences were all allowed to meet on the level.[Christians, Deists, Pantheists, Old English origins;  a higher power, later the supreme being concept]  *

Changes moved slowly from the epicenter of Schism and Healing.  By the time of Morgan’s disappearance in 1826, Masonic differences could have made their way to America, especially through Canada.  An additional set of behavior that is witnessed through Morgan’s life is a willingness to discuss religion and politics among Masons, and more particularly, inside the Lodge.  In France, lodges moved to a greater acceptance of diversity, choosing to allow atheists to join.  The French during this period were more likely to recognize women as masons and co-masons.  These factors caused a second fracture point,  between 1849 and 1877, in the language admission requirements between the United Grand Lodge of England and the French lodges, known as GOdF.  * 

A second theory about The Morgan Affair is as mentioned earlier, Ben Franklin previously transcribed a Masonic Text.  He also is known to visit French Lodges a few times throughout history.  Morgan might have been the sacrificial lamb between the Masons and non-Masons, the developing schools of the Craft, and Protestantism, Catholicism and Atheism.  By 1815 UGLE constitutions were changed to accommodate a ‘glorious Architect’ language, although Latin countries were openly pressured to still admit atheists.  In 1849 GOdF adopted the ‘Supreme Being’ language.  There are also newer Rites created to make reference to a ‘symbol.’  In 1877, the GOdF reverted to the original Anderson’s Constitutions admission requirements.  In fact today, in 2013, the Grand Lodge of Connecticut is discussing clarifications to its Landmark’s language.  One clarification pertains to the Grand Architect of the Universe’s definition.  Morgan could have just gotten caught up in the spin cycle of his day, unable to weather the storm that still stirs to this day…  *

William Morgan’s story is retold to this day. It is a basic construct told to all entry level Masons to traditionally teach the values of temperance, caution and respect of the values Masonry teaches. Many texts point to Morgan’s disappearance as an end game of what can happen when rules aren’t followed. Society in general has used dark crayons to stain the real achievement of William Morgan’s works. He was a hard working professional actual operative mason. He proved his ability to communicate verbally and textually through his works. He could adapt to new surroundings quickly, and showed a willingness to preserve his posterity through marriage and child rearing. A regular American guy whose life is ‘caste’ concretely in Masonic and Educational history books.

The greatest achievement of Morgan’s legacy is the fact that we remember him. The man and his attachment to Masonry have outlived The Temperance Movement, American Church Repression, and all those who chose to injure self-perfection and intellectual development. This is the American flag that waves today.  Morgan is part of a select group of Americans who challenged all opposing forces. He reminds young men that a higher level of thought exists, and it is what membership in American Freemasonry states it provides arena for. William Morgan helped protect the notion of Masonry from being extinguished and erased from all historical knowledge, as today’s Discovery Channel productions and lighter publications remind us that American Freemasonry is alive and kicking.  William Morgan exemplifies many virtues a man should strive for a ctizen on the path towards enlightenment.

End of first section.

All facts verifiable unless otherwise noted in Robert Berry’s The Bright Mason, An American History…

all paragraphs marked by * based upon an article from [http://aboutsociology.com/sociology/Freemasonry#The_two_great_schisms_of_Freemasonry_.281753_and_1877.29]

American Freedoms: Definitive Methods of Expansion vs Reductions

by amaisanoIII, posted in American Constitution

An Open Letter to Mr. Limbaugh…

Here is a letter I sent to Rush Limbaugh a few days ago.  The amount of malaise shown in congressional feet dragging is becoming an unfortunate state of normality.  We, as a nation, seem to be generating the stimulus for Congressional Change.  But our Government appears to be continually falling short on bringing common sense concepts to a vote.

My point is this… the American Experiment provides for freedom expansion with an invisible ink like test as follows…  The Founding Fathers KNEW that they couldn’t envision every possible freedom or category of freedom its citizens would pursue.  In the case of Second Amendment Gun Protection Rights, assault weapons are the pursuit under  Legislative Discussion in 2013.

American Government has allowed, for short periods of time throughout history, citizens to “try” things that conservative protective minds would not normally allow.  When these test groups over-expand their boundaries by causing FEAR in their figurative neighbors, our literal authorities enforce existing legislation, halting freedom’s expansion.

This ebb and flow is called the Legislative, Judicial and Executive Progress.  It is what binds all American Citizens under the framework called Democracy.

When our children and innocent by-standers are murdered by the use of high powered weaponry, out side of the physical confines of our homes and organizational clubs, the expansion of the test group’s freedom has usurped the general freedoms specifically provided for in the words of our Constitution and Bill of Rights.  That is the beauty of our Founding Fathers’ built in flexibility.

What Congress needs to decide now is whether or not the current series of gun violence which we have witnessed through our media and conversations has been a reflection of a new cultural movement or a sparked ignition of dormant powder kegs.  Sudden escalation or slow progression, the victims of gun violence voices’  Need to be heard.

Not silenced forever.

And when legislation IS passed, or a group falsely accuses someone or some people on infringing on their given rights, American’s have an elected Executive Branch and our Judicial System to rectify the artificial and false voice.  Lastly, there is a ‘fourth branch’ which doesn’t have direct Constitutional modification abilities, called the media.

I created the device of using Mr. LaPierre’s vocal qualities speaking MY thoughts to provide an even measure of the FOR and AGAINST Assault Weapon Control argument.    Picture this…

Here’s my Letter:

Mr. Limbaugh,

[Channeling my best LaPierre]  Don’t you just think that this whole gun debate, as with debates on freedoms that have come before, are America’s test on ALL the constitutional rights granted to us?  If all the gun holding American’s spoke up as strongly for Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Privacy, Rights over the human body, Freedom of Choice and for equality and fair and humane treatment…

This isn’t Libertarian support, or bleeding Dem or wishing for the past Right Wing GOP… it’s basic intelligence.  How many people do you talk to, come on your show, write to you, claiming to support the constitution?  I sat in and helped with many We The People meetings, and I think for many individuals, freedom only applies when people selectively need it.

I know you are a very smart man, but the Constitution and Bill of Rights are a package… we can choose to ignore parts but Choice, Speech, Privacy and Equality are the source from where all else flows.  Second Amendment allows Americans, when these aforementioned four are not being protected or are being directly infringed upon in the face of tyranny, to personally ensure that the individual’s Speech, Privacy, Choice and Equality are protect through a package in the manner as if we, American Citizens of 2013, were the person or persons signing OUR names to the sacred parchments.  I hope we don’t rip the whole thing up because we can’t recognize the rights of ALL individuals, as in ALL Americans of 2013 signed that sacred paperwork.  This is how the INDIVIDUAL coalesces into the COLLECTIVE.

Perhaps some of the Fortune 500, greatest money contributors, Independently wealthy, Politically Powerful, should recognize how EVERY individual in America has these unalienable rights…AND HOW ALL INDIVIDUALS FORM THE COLLECTIVE CALLED THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, FOR THE LAND OF THE FREE, HOME OF THE BRAVE, OF THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE.  And justice for all.

No one should tear up these rights in the local selfish skirmish of who gets more and why.  Live free or die, but no one should DESTROY the our rights granted through our declarations.  And no one should take so much freedom to infringe on some one else’s, THE COLLECTIVE…

Grateful to be an American,

Anthony Maisano III

February 2013