The Great Masonic Muddle

We find it most amusing that a group such as the Hargoons--who believe a Masonic conspiracy lurks behind the Ripper crimes--are so proudly yet woefully ignorant about Freemasonry in general.

Here's the latest howler from the Hargoons:

While one of SSR's personalities is on a short break, the others have regurgitated some previously posted waffle about Bob Hinton's involvement with Freemasonry. Since it's a slow weekend we thought we'd check into some of their claims. This was just for fun, since it has been revealed that the "information" about Mr Hinton's Masonic connections was planted by an acquaintance of his precisely to prove that the Hargoons will swallow any old tosh about those they are harassing.

The results were both astounding and amusing. It also raises an interesting question: are the Hargoons so blinded by spite that they will post anything, no matter how distorted and inaccurate, to harass one of their enemies? Or are they simply so stupid and self-deluded that they really believe their "research" and "investigating" fools anyone with IQs above the double digits?

Here are their "claims" about that sneaky Mason, Bob Hinton.

The Warm Up

Claim: Bob Hinton is a member of the Lodge of Enterprise

Actually: Well, possibly, although Mr Hinton says that he is not a Mason at all. But what is the Hargoon's proof for this? Well, they went on the web and looked for a Lodge that had a website and was located in Wales. Get it? Bob is in Wales, Lodge of Enterprise is in Wales--obviously Bob must belong to the Lodge of Enterprise.

No wait, it gets worse.....

Claim: The Lodge of Enterprise is "very prominently affiliated to the Freemason Web Ring."

Actually: The Lodge of Enterprise does have a link to the E-mason webring on their homepage. A requirement of virtually every webring is that you put their webcode on your homepage. However had the Hargoons taken the extraordinary investigative step of clicking on any of the buttons in the webring, they would have received the following secret Masonic message

We haven't hosted the WebRing in years.
Sorry!

Only the centre, or hub, button leads to anything (we'll get to that next). So 20 seconds of further research shows a more likely scenario--the webmaster never got around to removing the code to a defunct webring.

Claim: "SSR2 believes they are affiliated to the Freemason webring to the extent they control it."

Again, quite possibly, although considering that the webring doesn't have a single active site anymore, we'd guess their duties as controller are not overly strenuous. Remember, this is the second time that the Hargoons have posted this piffle without even taking the 20 seconds of "research" it would have required to prevent themselves from looking like abject morons.

The Good Stuff

Here's where it goes from the sublime to the ridiculous. Remember that the Hargoons subscribe to a Masonic Conspiracy theory for the Whitechapel Murders--that is important. So how does their knowledge of Masonry add up? Read and despair.

Claim: Robert Hinton is an 8th degree Freemason. The title of the 8th degree is "Intendent of the Building". Robert Hinton's title and status: Intendent of the building.

The 'Intendent of the Building' is charged with admissions and Masonic code recognition, in other words, he evaluates the position of any member of the Masonic community seeking to gain admission to any one particular lodge, either from a Masonic group or elsewhere, by implementing code routines and evaluating their knowledge and status. This proceedure is known as 'G'. It usually involves a specific lodge related variation on the 'G' routine.The masonic handshakes and all that.

Actually: In this entire mish-mash of information, the Hargoons managed to get exactly one fact correct--that the title of the 8th degree is the "Intendent of the Building" (and that took a couple of tries and a hint from Bob, as they initially insisted it was "Intendent of the Lodge").

The Intendent of the Building is the name of the degree, not a job title. If a Lodge had six 8th degree members, they would all be "Intendents of the Building" (meaning you'd have to run an entire gamut of people checking your worthiness to enter--would make for a long meeting, no?). Likewise if a Lodge had no 8th degree members, there would be no-one to perform the duties describe above, would there?

The duties as described in the above paragraph are actually performed by the Tyler. The Tyler can be of any degree, from 1-33 (some lodges require that he be 3rd or higher, some require a particular standard of skill or knowledge), and does not even have to be a practising Mason. Another curious thing is that a Mason cannot act as Tyler for the Lodge to which he belongs. So much for Bob being the guardian and gatekeeper for the Lodge of Enterprise.

We'll say it again slowly in case the Hargoons drop by: If Bob is a member of the Lodge the Hargoons claim he is, then he can't perform the duties the claim he does. Inversely if Bob performs the duties that they claim he does, then he can't be a member of the Lodge they claim he is. And of course if Bob is not a Mason at all, theyve been taken for the suckers they are!

And how did we--lifelong non-Masons who are not even eligible to join a Masonic group--find this information? It took approximate 10 minutes of online research, including verification with independent sources.

The seven Hargoons who presumably have spent years developing a theory of a Masonic/Ripper Conspiracy didn't manage to correctly state a single readily available and verifiable fact --we can only hope the rest of their "research" does not meet the same dismal calibre as displayed here.

We'd strongly suggest, dear reader, that you keep this in mind when evaluating any claims made by SSR and their cronies.