Piece Of Art

Famous Freemasons and baseball go hand in glove. Rogers "The Rajah" Hornsby, an original member of the Baseball Hall of Fame is listed on Masonic sites among the famous. The baseball stars are a who's who of famed Freemasons: Grover Alexander, Ty Cobb, Carl Hubbell, Branch Rickey, Honus Wagner, and Cy Young, to name a few. It is no mystery that some leaders of their time would be Masons. But what of the question, were the initial symbolic foundations of baseball Masonic? I'm talking about baseball here because I am a guest on Tim Binnall's The 3rd Annual BoA: Audio Baseball Special for Sunday, April 5, 2009, on Binnall of America (also featuring Greg Bishop, Adam Gorightly, Richard Dolan, and Paul Kimball). For the broadcast, go to: BoA Audio Baseball Special . Opening day for Major League Baseball will soon be upon us, although, with the international tournament catching on fire, the World Baseball Classic has created a new world order, so to speak. One can ...

Seven patients and a nurse were killed during a Sunday (March 29, 2009) morning shooting at a Carthage, North Carolina, nursing home. At its peak, the ancient metropolis of Carthage was the "shining city," ruling 300 other cities around the western Mediterranean and leading the Phoenician (or Punic) world, during an era of extreme violence and wars. The modern shooting happened at about 10 a.m. Sunday, March 29, 2009, when a gunman burst into a Carthage, North Carolina nursing home and started "shooting everything," killing seven residents and a nurse and wounding at least three others. The man accused of carrying out the attack was shot by a police officer, and his condition "is currently unknown," Carthage Police Chief Chris McKenzie said. A police officer was shot in the leg and was treated and released, McKenzie said. The slain patients ranged in age from 78 to 98, Moore County District Attorney Maureen Krueger said. The victims were identified as res...

A Milton police officer saw Kerby Revelus (left) beheading his younger sister Bianca, 5. Samantha Revelus, 17, and her sister, Bianca, 5, were killed at their home in Milton, Massachusetts, on Saturday, March 28, 2009. Police shot the girls' brother, Kerby Revelus, 23, after an officer saw him decapitate the younger girl. A surviving sister, 9-year-old Saraphina, was recovering at a Boston hospital after having surgery. In September 2004, Kerby Revelus was charged with assault and battery after another sister, Jessica Revelus, then 17, called police and said her brother, then 19, had punched her in the face during an argument over a phone bill. Kerby Revelus admitted he punched his sister, and told police he was upset with her because she owed him some money, according to a Milton police report. Jessica Revelus declined medical attention and told police she did not want to get a restraining order against her brother. "Ms. Revelus told me that she was not in fear of her brother...

As the 10th anniversary of Columbine creeps closer, positive news as well as the negative can occur. One such story presented itself a couple weeks ago when a Canadian university student prevented a firebomb act against a United Kingdom high school. It may be forgotten by the general public that besides the shootings at Columbine, the final act of the scenario was suppose to be the school going up in flames. That has been remembered by some who would copycat the Columbine event. Andrew Chung at the Toronto Star has written a detailed article summarizing a recent incident: A Concordia University student who helped thwart a potential firebombing at a British high school is being recognized for his efforts on both sides of the Atlantic. J. P. Neufeld was on an online forum Tuesday [St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 2009] morning when he spotted a new posting entitled, "This is it," threatening to attack the school in Norfolk in the east of England. He immediately telephoned p...

Called the "Suicide Forest" as well as the "Sea of Trees," the Aokigahara Forest is known for two things in Japan - breathtaking views of Mount Fuji and suicides. The location is so infamous, I highlighted it in my book, The Copycat Effect: How the Media and Popular Culture Trigger the Mayhem in Tomorrow's Headlines (NY: Simon and Schuster, 2004). Now it is back in the news, being discussed by wire services and media globally, in line with current stock market and related woes. Japan's suicide rate, already one of the world's highest, has increased with the recent economic downturn. There were 2,645 suicides recorded in January 2009, a 15 per cent increase from the 2,305 for January 2008, according to what the Japanese government has reported to CNN. Suicide rates are a priority for the Japanese government, which has pledged to cut the number by more than 20 per cent by 2016. However, officials fear the number will rise with the economic crises adding...

The new Nicholas Cage movie, Knowing ~ filled with cryptic numbers, predictions, disasters, and strange MIB-type entities ~ appears to understand there are cinematic occult dots to connect, and also is having fun with the "Fayette Factor." I also propose it is one of the darkest Stargates around. I originally wrote and posted an earlier version of this on February 15th, but I am moving this to the top because the film opens March 20th and I have now seen it. At "1:12" on the following YouTube trailer, you will see a quick view of the "Lafayette Street" entrance to a subway station. It's movie science fiction. Even though the setting of the film is Boston, this "Lafayette St." stop is in the New York City's subway system during the time frame of the film. There is a message in the moment. The name game is played daily, and apparently drifting into the movies. One word, "Lafayette," which can be translated from the French as ...

Two Greater Manchester teenagers have appeared in court on Monday, March 23, 2009, accused of planning to blow up a school and a shopping center. The youths, aged 16 and 17, had a plan to strike on April 20, 2009, a court heard. Police sources confirmed the date was chosen to mark the 10th anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre in the US. Both youngsters appeared flanked by security guards in the dock at Tameside Youth Court. They are jointly accused of a single charge of conspiracy to cause an explosion likely to endanger life and injure property between November 1, 2007 and March 15, 2009. The elder boy is also charged with possession of child pornography. The teenagers and the school targeted cannot be identified for legal reasons. It is alleged they had a plan of a school, which has hundreds of pupils and the plan of a shopping center and had the knowledge and method to carry out the attacks on April 20. That date is the 10th anniversary of the school massacre in Columbi...

A serial killer fan has stabbed four in a town near Liège, Belgium. The Belgian attacker said he was inspired by the recent drama in Winnenden, Germany in which 15 people were killed. In Seraing, near Liège, a man stabbed four people in a café Saturday night (March 21, 2009). He said he was inspired by the recent drama in Winnenden, Germany in which 15 people were killed. He is also a self-professed fan of serial killers. One of Saturday's victims was in critical condition, but is now reportedly out of danger. The perpetrator has been arrested on charges of attempted manslaughter. He is being kept in the psychiatric ward of the prison of Lantin. The incident took place in a café/restaurant in Seraing, near Liège. The attacker, a 26- year-old man, was with his mother and her boyfriend. On arrival at the café he took out a knife and started stabbing wildly around him. He stabbed his mother's friend and three others. The man was detained by the police immediately after the inciden...

Ben Hoyle, The Times Arts Correspondent, has written a detailed account of the news that Nicholas Hughes, Sylvia Plath’s son has died by suicide. The son of the poets Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath has taken his own life, 46 years after his mother gassed herself while he slept. Nicholas Hughes hanged himself at his home in Alaska after battling against depression for some time, his sister Frieda said yesterday [March 22, 2009]. He was 47, unmarried with no children of his own and had until recently been a professor of fisheries and ocean sciences at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Dr. Hughes’s death adds a further tragic chapter to a family history that has been raked over with morbid fascination for two generations. He was only a baby when his mother died but she had already sketched out what he meant to her in one of her late poems. In Nick and the Candlestick, published in her posthumous collection Ariel, she wrote: “You are the one/ Solid the spaces lean on, envious./ You are the...

Slumdog Millionaire reopened in American theaters on March 20, 2009. It's time to take a look at one thread in the film and where it leads us. An intriguing undermentioned synchromystic element of the award-winning film Slumdog Millionaire is its references throughout to The Three Musketeers ( Les Trois Mousquetaires , 1844). The movie's hero Jamal refers to his brother Salim and himself as Athos and Porthos, and the female of his attention Latika as the third Musketeer. The book is shown in flashbacks of the orphanage's classroom and in importance to the ending sequence regarding the last question asked on "So You Want To Be A Millionaire?" The Three Musketeers ( Les Trois Mousquetaires ) is a novel by Alexandre Dumas, père (French for "father", akin to 'Senior' in English). It recounts the adventures of a young man named d'Artagnan after he leaves home to become a musketeer. d'Artagnan is not one of the musketeers of the title; ...

The Washington Monument is not the only famed Masonic obelisk in the United States of America. Texas has the grand San Jacinto Monument, which is actually 15 feet taller than the Washington Monument and said to be the world’s tallest memorial column. Every year in April the people of Texas, many of them Masons, gather at the foot of the San Jacinto Monument near Houston to celebrate the Texas victory at the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836, which established independence for Texas.... On the battlefield at San Jacinto on April 21, 1836, the Army of Texas commanded by General Sam Houston, and accompanied by the Secretary of War, Thomas J. Rusk, attacked the larger invading army of Mexicans under General Santa Anna.... Measured by its results, San Jacinto was one of the decisive battles of the world. The Freedom of Texas from Mexico won at San Jacinto led to annexation and to the Mexican War, resulting in the acquisition by the United States of the states of Texas, New Mexico, Ar...