July 10, 2011

Bohemian Grove – Men Only

“Weaving Spiders Come Not Here” is the motto of San Francisco’s Bohemian Club. The motto is supposed to represent the club’s edict against doing business during its annual Bohemian Grove retreat, which commences on Thursday on 2,700 acres, 75 miles north of the city. As club spokesman and member Sam Singer explained, “It’s a group of gentlemen who are really genuinely interested in arts, theater, jazz and rock ‘n’ roll.” The retreat gives members a chance to “get away from work. It’s forbidden to talk about or solicit business at the club or grove.”

The “weaving spiders” motto also provides cover for a club that discriminates against women.

“Weaving Spiders Come Not Here” is the motto of San Francisco’s Bohemian Club. The motto is supposed to represent the club’s edict against doing business during its annual Bohemian Grove retreat, which commences on Thursday on 2,700 acres, 75 miles north of the city. As club spokesman and member Sam Singer explained, “It’s a group of gentlemen who are really genuinely interested in arts, theater, jazz and rock ‘n’ roll.” The retreat gives members a chance to “get away from work. It’s forbidden to talk about or solicit business at the club or grove.”

The “weaving spiders” motto also provides cover for a club that discriminates against women.

Thus, in the Bay Area, good liberals and civil libertarians, who would not dream of joining a club that refuses to admit blacks or Jews, raise their glasses in a club that discriminates against women.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul, is a member. Vaughn Walker, the former federal judge who overturned California’s same-sex marriage law, is a member. MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews is a member.

Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart is a member. Ditto band member Bob Weir. There are more big names on the right, starting with former President George H.W. Bush, former Gov. Pete Wilson and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

Business titans have long bankrolled the retreats. A roster of 2010 members released by norcaltruth.org – the club does not release its membership – includes a couple of Rockefellers and the ubiquitous Koch brothers. Hence conspiracy theories about sinister deals cut amid the redwoods.

Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt is a member. William R. Hearst III, trustee of the Hearst Corp., which writes my paycheck, has been a member. I have friends who are members.

John McCain has addressed the group. Ditto Francis Ford Coppola. Like good Democrats, Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton have avoided Bohemia. “When I first started and they acquired my services, it was to help handle protests at the grove and the City Club,” Singer noted. “Over the years, it’s gone from a thousand people to literally one person.”

That one person is Brian Romanoff of norcaltruth.org, and he told me he doesn’t go there to “protest” so much as to “reach out and inform the members” as to why they should make retreat policy seminars – on Afghanistan or nuclear power – public.

He thinks some members are “probably guilty” of war crimes. He doesn’t reach out to them. “I don’t really want to get to know Henry Kissinger.”

Sonoma State sociology professor Peter Phillips attended the retreat in 1994. The club was the subject of his doctoral dissertation. He told me that he met a lot of “ordinary rich guys” and “some very important people.” Some men kept coming back to the same camps every year to discuss intimate issues – their prostates, wives – in an atmosphere analogous to a men’s group.

Phillips also saw and heard a lot of networking. “They’re very clearly talking politics and business constantly.” No weaving spiders? “I proved the opposite, quite clearly. I heard conversations about business. ‘If GE comes in on the deal, we can get the Japanese to join’ – three men walking down a trail together.”

Note to Mr. Hearst: I believe in the right to free association. I do not want the government to encroach on men’s right to socialize among themselves, or force men to share gyms, bathrooms and poker games with women and shutter fraternities.

The Bohemian Club has a right to exist. California courts have upheld the club’s right to exclude female members, but ordered it to hire female staff at the club and at the grove’s food facilities.

I also believe in free speech, but that doesn’t mean I would say things I believe others have the right to say. I do not believe the Bohemian Club is a social/theater/music club – although I believe the former member who told me that’s what the club’s emphasis used to be.

Now I buy Phillips’ summation – that the retreat presents powerful “men celebrating their male eliteness, which is kind of how the world works.”

The male-only bastion’s discriminatory polices hurt women trying to compete in business and politics – and everyone in politics knows it.

COPYRIGHT 2011 CREATORS.COM

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.