John Ratcliff's Weblog

Terry and I drove down to our Lake property on Saturday. It was the first time we have been there in about three years. We went down to put up some for sale signs and to leave some advertisements at local businesses. We stayed at a little place called "Cardinal Cove" which wasn't even a mile from our property. To give you an idea how less expensive things are out in the country, when I went to settle my bar tab it worked out like this. I had drank four really awesome premium beers (a new beer I have just discovered called 'Grolsch'; a dutch beer from a brewer founded in 1615) and Terry had three Budweisers. The owner, proprietor, and barkeep, a guy named Frank, rang up our drinks and asked is we wanted to include our room on it as well. When he handed me the total it came to $67; yep that's for a night's stay in a hotel and seven beers. I video taped myself walking the entire property. Without question this is the most boring video I have ever p...

Well, I had my interview with Karl, or SoulReal if you prefer, over at the Truth, Love, Freedom site . I think it went well. It lasted for two hours and seemed to move along fairly quickly. I haven't listened to it back yet, so I don't have a clear sense of just how big a fool I made of myself. I hope I didn't say something too out of line that I will get in trouble for but, hey, sometimes you just have to blurt out whatever comes into your head at the moment. As always, my views are my own and nobody else's. I do not speak for my lodge, the Grand Lodge, or any other Freemason in the world for that matter. Still, I don't think I was quite what Karl was expecting and it covered a lot of ground. After finishing the Interview I spent some more time browsing the Revere Radio network site. I even called into a show and my short call-in segment went fine. However, once I hung up, the host's wife and several people calling in went off onto wild and crazy mis...

I really hit the treasure trove this week! On Tuesday evening I was up at lodge for the Rainbow Girls meeting and, in the basement, found four boxes filled with Freemason books. Apparently one of our loge members, who was raised in 1964, passed away and his widow donated the books to us. As I poured through this veritable treasure chest of Masonic knowledge I was amazed at all that it contained. There was a history of the Scottish Rite in the 1800's replete with many letters and correspondence at the time about the formation of this body and its rituals! I found a big collection of short lectures, each chock full of Masonic knowledge! There were pamphlets, some even in the form of what we today call a 'FAQ', each filled with insigtful commentary. I grabbed a big stack for myself and I am quickly devouring them. I have said on this blog, and on the podcast I was recently on, that I didn't understand certain parts of the ritual; mostly because we don't do a lot ...

(Note: To read an article about the latest belief systems and mythology surrounding 'free-energy' try this link .) Let's be honest for a moment, I am just not the kind of guy who is going to build a free energy device. And, it isn't even because I don't believe in perpetual motion machines, it's really just because I'm a very busy guy and I'm not very handy. However, I am proud to announce that I have just hired Archer Quinn to build one for me! His last attempt didn't work out, and he needs to go back to the drawing board. However, he's out of money, his wife is riding his ass, and he is just a step or two from having to go out and get a legit straight job. We most certainly can't have that! Now, it is not just myself who is hiring Archer but the entire Internet community at large. If enough of us get together and contribute Archer could probably avoid getting a real job for months and months, thereby providing us with an untold amount...

Is Angelina Jolie an attractive woman? Is the sky blue? Can I chew gum and pick my nose at the same time? Apparently today is the day for stupid and idiotic rhetorical questions on the Masonic blogosphere. Can a Christian become a Freemason? What an absurd question. It's not even a question, of course. It is really a passive aggressive form of rhetorical posturing. Let's put this in perspective. Why not ask the *real* question? "Why are so many Christians Freemasons?" "Can a Christian join the Lions Club?" "Can a Christian be a good person?" "Can a Christian have non-Christian friends?" Maybe these questions delve a little closer to the truth of the situation. Let's be blunt here. The vast majority of Freemasons in America, just like the vast majority of American's, *are* Christians. When I attend my lodge meetings we carefully schedule our activities around the Christian services that our brethren participate in their local ...

I know I should drop it but, to be honest, now I think I have just become obsessed. This weekend I was on my first ever podcast. I suppose it went well. I think the goal was to talk for an hour and, I'm pretty sure that I did. There were few dead silences (if any) and I refrained from stuttering, slurring my words, vomiting in my mouth, cursing, or generally making a fool of myself. Or, so I think. The only feedback I received so far was from a brother who didn't understand how it was that I couldn't understand the 3rd degree. Unfortunately going into the details of that topic is definitely inappropriate for a public blog. That said, I would be thrilled to speak to any brother by telephone or in person who is bold enough to think they can explain it to my dunderheaded self. Today my Google alert for 'Steven Greer' notified me that Dr. Greer held his own pod-cast on the Paracast network this weekend. In addition to this minor media revelation, I was also p...

There were not that many pictures taken at Lauren's graduation party, but there were a few fun ones anyway. Here they are.

Well, it's June 20th, 2008 and today is the day that Archer Quinn was going to release a free-energy device that would make Sir Isaac Newton roll over in his grave and bring all of the skyscrapers in Dubia tumbling to the ground. It also happens to be Archer Quinn's birthday. Happy birthday Archer! In the past 48 hours or so Archer has reminded me why I ever started following his story to begin with. For a while this story took a really bad turn; Archer started cursing people and he publicly 'quit' in a huff and a puff of outrage. In response, both myself and others tried to explain to Archer that he wasn't going to win many friends or followers using this approach. We reminded him that any of us following the story were only doing so based on his initial proclamation of free energy for the world on a specific time and date. I suggested, politely, that perhaps, maybe, he should focus on building his machine. And that is exactly what he did! In the past week...

I know it would be a little bit late for me to complain about how the term 'liberal' has been used as a pejorative in our culture so I might as well let it go; but to use the term 'elite' that way is just a bit too much. Can you imagine this? Here we are, trying to elect the next President of the United States, and the last thing we are supposed to do is select someone who is 'elite'? According to Wikipedia , just what defines the characteristics of someone who is elite? Attributes that identify an elite vary; personal achievement may not be essential. Elite usually denotes a person or group who is the best in a class. Elite attributes include: Rigorous study of, or great accomplishment within, a particular field of study A long track record of competence in a demanding field An extensive history of dedication and effort in service to a specific discipline (e.g., medicine or martial arts) A high degree of accomplishment, training or wisdom within a given field...

Man, I am not certain what I have just gotten myself into. Greg Stewart has recently started up a Podcast at a new site he set up called 'Masonic Central'. This is an absolutely fantastic resource for the community and pretty darned entertaining too. It looks like Greg plans to sort of walk down a laundry list of the various Masonic bloggers on the Internet and give the audience a chance to learn and hear a little bit more about each. This sounds like great fun to me. I am scheduled to be interviewed this Sunday and the next one is my friend Tom Accuosti over at the Tao of Masonry . I just listened to the first two podcasts and I thought they were excellent. That said, I also found it a little bit frustrating to listen to them as well. Over and over again the speakers would make generalized comments about Freemasonry that had little to no correlation with my own personal experience. There were also some opinions expressed that I just plain disagreed with. It was frustr...