Skull and Bones has been FULLY diversifeid... it's not to be worried about

[DLCfromGA]

I am currently a student at Yale and know a good amount about the society system in general. I have read DU and people have said that S&B checks "bloodlines" in its members and is only for a certain elite in this country...

Fact of the matter is that's not the truth anymore, and John Kerry has done a lot to bring S&B to its current position. I have known 5 poeple who were known to be in S&B... only one was a white male (two got their taps through the African American Cultural House). Kerry was instrumental in getting S&B to accept women.

Sure, S&B is still home to the "elite"... But now, it is home to the "meritocratic elite" rather than the "aristocratic elite," though many will question how different those two are.

The bottom line is that the Skull and Bones and Yale secret socieites are in no way sinister like some here and other conspiracy theory loonies generally depict...

[thebigidea]

1. in other words, you're dying to be tapped

[oceanpoetry]

2. so its just coincidence then

that both candidates are Skull and Bones. Nothing to see here, move along.

[IckiIckiPooPoo]

3. the fact

you label everyone worried about this "loonies" bother me quite a bit.

[DLCfromGA]

4. Not everyone...

Just the ultra right wingers that think S&B and other societies are some satanic cult...

There is a subset of the right wing agenda that definitely has this view.

[mdmc]

5. And the reports of nude wrestling?

Women in Bones? Come now.

[lostnfound]

8. Search for Buckley & Skull & Bones..

you'll learn of his court order to stop S&B from admitting women when the undergrads decided they wanted to start doing so.

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

[Crachet2004]

6. No offense, but evidently the association can be for life...

plenty of time to become 'sinister' after graduation. Why scare the kiddies?

[OhioStateProgressive]

7. Well

Those of us loonies in non elitist Universities know that a coincidence it mustn't be.

[mike1963]

9. I mostly agree with you. I didn't go to Yale, but I have 3 friends who

did, AND were S&B. They are not plutocratic assholes by any stretch of the imagination. The fact is, -all- "fraternal" organizations are by nature secretive (what other commonality would distinguish them from, say, the glee club?)

I pledged a frat in college but didn't become a 'full member' because it didn't ultimately converge with my positions and the rapid conversion I was undergoing (from conservative to progressive) at the time. But I simply view that as a political disagreement, not that they were intrinsically and exclusively evil per se.

So, I won't fault Kerry (or Bush) simply on the basis of their participation in something that may or may not be corrosive to American principles. Simply put, it depends. It isn't a geometry problem...not all assholes are Republicans and not all Republicans are assholes, even though the correlation does appear to be close.