What is your opinion on the Skull & Bones Society?

[CoffeePlease1947]

I had not thought much about this society until I watched the 60 minutes. The thing that concerns me is that the members are very limited (no more than 800 living at any one time). They are required to share all of their secrets and sexual history in order to enter. If they divulge any information they are considered betraying their closest friends and others can/will devulge secret information about them.

The Bush administration has 6 members of the organization including Bush himself.

I am not sure that this organization is necessarily an evil organization. But what does concern me is if John Kerry gets the nomination he might not be able to challenge Bush on some issues and concerns considering that the organization has all the dirt on Kerry and he may not be able to attack Bush without being attacked back. Kerry is still my strong second choice because Bush has the same limitations. But still, it kind of bothers me.

What do all of you think?

Mike

[Spider Jerusalem]

1. I think the paranoia is unjustified.

Skull & Bones is in many respects an organisation like any other fraternity at any college in America. It differs in that it exists at one of America's...nay, the world's...elite universities, attended by the sons and daughters of the wealthy and powerful, who are seen as those who will form our next generation of leaders in politics and business. As such, the membership of Skull & Bones consists of these people, and as part of the purpose of any fraternity is to make connections which will be useful later in life, it seems that there is something darker and more sinister and conspiratorial in its nature. WHich is hardly justified when one considers all the factors of the nature of S&B and its membership and selection criteria.

[fujiyama]

5. Still don't like the secrecy

The secrecy is what bothers me. I want a candidate that will be open about his/her past connections/ organizations and be able to face up to what they did without obfuscation. Why the secrecy?

If 6 S and B members are in the current administration, is Kerry planning on getting other members in his administration? I can't say I'm all that impressed by the actions they've taken thus far.

This administration is built on secrecy and confidentiality. They're probably the most secretive in history. Now, I'm not saying a Kerry administration would be the same way (or even similar) and it certainly wouldn't really have much of a bearing on my backing him, but still the membership is definetely questionable.

[oasis]

2. They have no murder rap to use against each other, so what's to tell?

Also they take an oath to their country to uphold and defend the U.S. Constitution. Kerry would hold that oath more dearly than any frat boy pacts he may have between involved with.

[Wonk]

3. Transcript, mp3 and quicktime here for those who missed it.

transcript
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/10/02/60minutes/main576332.shtml

3 M mp3

37 M quicktime

It bugs me.

[Julien Sorel]

4. It's more paranoia.

Kerry is a member; Bush is a member. There are hardly two more different people in America. I'd rather such organizations didn't exist, simply because they are bound to be a foucs of paranoia, but personally I don't care or feel threatened by it.

[Spider Jerusalem]

6. Don't forget Garry Trudeau.

Another member, and also very different from Bush.

[CoffeePlease1947]

7. That is not what concerns me as to who is in it, but what they know about

each other. Bottom line, you don't stab your brothers in the back, YOU do NOT do that. It is disgraceful.


Mike

[Solomon]

8. It fits with my theory that one has to "blackmailable" to enter the

halls of power in this country. If you are blackmailable then you can be controlled.

Someone who is not subject to blackmail would be a wild card. Skull amd Bones bothers me.

[GeronimoSkull]

9. Trudeau was a member of Scroll and Key

not Skull and Bones... at least according to this Doonesbury FAQ:

http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/faqs/faq_ot.html

[izzie]

10. Silly group with silly people playing at childhood things.

:tinfoilhat:

[blondeatlast]

11. I'm more worried about this closed society: Halliburton.

Little boys playing little boy games. Then they grow up (well, most anyway).

Corporations are the real closed societies as well as the real enemy. Skull and Bones is just a glorified out of proportion fraternity.

[soupkitchen]

12. Skulls and Boners

[Media_Lies_Daily]

13. Here's a couple of pretty good websites on Skull & Bones...

YALE'S SKULL & BONES SOCIETY MEMBERS
<http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/bones.htm>

Scroll down to read the members list.


Skull & Bones
<http://www.freedomdomain.com/skullbones.html>

Scroll down to read some pretty interesting information such as:

"Members of Skull and Bones & Nazis in Union Banking Corp. :

Directors in 1932

(A) E. Roland Harriman (1917)
Vice President of W.A. Harriman and Co., N.Y.

(B) Knight Wooley (1917)
Director of Guaranty Trust, N.Y. and Dir. of the Federal Reserve Bank of N.Y.

(C) Ellery Sedgewick James (1917) Partner Brown Brothers and Co. N.Y.

(D) Prescott Sheldon Bush (1917) Partner Brown Bros, Harriman, Father of Ex-President George Bush

(E) H.J. Kouwenhoven (Nazi)
Nazi banker, managing partner of August Thyssen Bank and Bank Voor Handel Scheepvaart N.V. (The transfer bank for Thyssen's funds)

(F) Johann Groninger (Nazi)
Director of Bank Voor Handel en Scheepvaart and Vereinigte Stahlwerke (Thyssen's Steel operations)

The other two members were :
(G) J.L. Guinter
Director of Union Banking Corp.

(H) Cornelius Lievense
President, Union Banking Corp. and Director of Holland American Investment Corp.

Established in 1924 as a unit of W.A. Harriman and Co. (A joint Walker, Thyssen, Harriman operation). The founding partners were George Herbert Walker, Co-founder & sponsor (Grandfather of George Herbert Walker Bush, Ex-President, on the Father's side. William Averill Harriman and Fritz Thyssen of the German Steel Trust. The office of Union Banking Corp. was the N.Y. office of the German Steel Trust.

[Uzybone]

14. Bull and Scones

not worth wasting time on

[Minstrel Boy]

15. I think, mostly, it's a silly distraction,

as is talk of "secret societies" of elites "plotting to take over the world." The elites already rule, and there's nothing secret about it.

S&B is a treehouse for coddled scions of the eastern establishment, in which to get pissed, play dress-up and network. The networking is most important, because it helps them get another leg up on the rest of us commoners.

I think that's all there is to see here.

[John_H]

16. Sounds like every other fraternity in the world

Let kids feel accepted as a member of a group, drink a lot, chase girls, and pay lip service to some mumbo jumbo about higher ideals.

It's not worth the detour from our job--to get rid of chimpy.

[Nobody]

17. What really bugs me about orgs like these

is that they're chock full of all the connections you need to get a leg up on everyone else. And they're not open to everyone. And if someone wants to get in, they probably won't.

Only the rich, powerful, white, and male need apply.

How much do you want to bet that scholarship students from the wrong sides of the tracks don't even get considered? After all, what connections do they have for the already powerful to exploit?

Now I'm going to make a huge leap here and bring up our imploded economy. In today's job market, the only way some people can find jobs is to tap what the Unemployment people call "the hidden market". That means using connections to get a job. No connections, no job.

Now let's say you are a genius with ambition, intelligence, drive, and no money and no blue blooded ancestors. Let's say you worked your butt off and earned a scholarship to Harvard.

Will you get picked to be a member of Skull and Bones? Hell no. Do you deserve the benefits? Yes, you worked hard to get where you are.

And at graduation time, who will be hired and who will be left looking? You can bet that the kid with the C average and the Skull and Bones membership will be hired a lot faster than you, the hardworking genius who got on the Dean's List 4 years in a row and graduated Magna Cum Laude.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

18. It's a networking club for the richest aristocrat's kids

That's where they learn to build loyalty to the other aristocrats, instead of to the US. All their rituals are just silly fraternity pranks, it's the long term relationships and contacts that are the problem.

[LeahMira]

19. It bothers me too...

What is this I'm hearing about them having Geronimo's skull? I wonder how people would feel if they had Washington's or Lincoln's skull? Or anyone's skull that wasn't an Indian?