Circle Jerks

The "Circle Jerks, Noisemakers and Trolls" in ARS page is supposed to save you the trouble of reading "noise". However some of the names on the list are nothing more than dissenters to the ARS anti-Scientology consensus. These include some fine posters such Jonathon Barbera and Nec_V20, This once again speaks load about the so-called stance of "free speech" critics award themselves.

Interview with L. Ron Hubbard

A video on YouTube contains one of the rare interviews with L. Ron Hubbard. Unfortunately, it has been very heavily edited and distorted.

For example, zoom to 2:55 where Hubbard is asked to answer the question "what is Scientology". He starts to explain the origin of the word, then the commentator at 3:38 ask him to be more concrete. He let Hubbard state one single sentence then cuts abruptly and on 3:47 jumps to another out of context sentence that for the layman would be difficult to understand. Then the commentator claims "even after three hours of talking, we never got an explanation from him that we could understand" and goes on to provide his own (irrelevant and biased) interpretation. They didn't even allow the viewer to decide this for himself by letting Hubbard speak more than two sentences, mounted in such a way to make it look absurd!

This gives the tone of the whole footage. Out of three hours the team made a 26 minutes footage containing very little of the actual interview and loads of their own derogatory comments. They just selected out the few minutes in the interview that fit their obviously biased point of view.

The full uncut version of that interview is unfortunately not available.

Another Self-Serving Definition of Anonymous

Another self-serving definition of Anonymous:

"Anonymous is the voice of the body politic and the consciousness of the Internet that has stepped offline and into the real world"

never mind that this "consciousness" is basically just swallowing anti-cult propaganda so readily available on the Internet.

Moderate Opinions about Will Smith School

A couple of moderate opinion towards the anti-Smith current regarding his future schools:

"The important point is that private schooling works best for both private and public schools when it stays private".

"As hard as I've tried - and believe me, I've tried - I have never been able to get particularly upset about Scientology."

"If Will Smith wants to spend his money setting up a school so his kids get a step up in life, I say go for it."

Hip-Hop Web Site in Racist Attack

Hip-hop Web sites SOHH.com and AllHipHop.com were forced to temporarily suspend access to their sites on Friday after being targeted this week by anonymous.

Anons followed their usual policy in such circumstances:

"when it's bad, it's not us, when it's good, it's us"

Unfortunately for Anonymous, their bible (Encyclopedia Dramatica) is replete with racist comments, which they present as "satires". If you still have doubt about this, just read Anonymous own page about SOHH, that goes into quite some details as to the motive and modalities of these attacks. Also take a look at the Nigger Manual to see if their brand of "humor" fits yours.

Sarcasticbag.com has an interesting description of Anonymous, calling them a "racist pricks," who are incapable of moving beyond the "bullshit racist language that angry sexless middle class white kids use all the time."

See also news articles at exclaim.ca and Huliq.com.

Crying Scientologist

Anonymous spots someone looking at their protest from a window and decided that this person was a "crying Scientologist" even though there is no evidence to show this person is crying. It just is someone watching at their shouting gathering in front of the CoS and probably thinking they are a bunch of hateful individuals.

Chris Forcand

News piece on how anonymous helped nail down Chris Forcand.

CoS Buys Fall School Business Center in Nashville

The Church of Scientology Religious Trust has bought the Fall School Business Center on 8th Avenue in Nashville. The Falls School building was constructed in 1898 as an elementary school, and is on the National Registry of Historical Places. Haynes says it was very important that the historic building be well preserved by its new owners, and looking at other historic buildings purchased by the Church of Scientology around the country, he was convinced there buildings character would remain intact.


Related blog entries: -NashvilleOrg-

Justin Meldal Johnsen

Scientology managed to convert yet another creative type, bassist Justin Meldal Johnsen.

Hate of the Worst Kind

Tom Newton reports another onlooker to critics and anonymous who decided that it was indeed just hate of the worst kind.

Nearly Blind

Tory, Magoo, vocal ex-member and opinion leader of anonymous, has chosen a rather fitting nick, as Magoo means "nearly blind".

Anonymous Against Free Speech

Another illustration of anonymous sense of "free speech". Scientologists are distributing their own fliers to counter anonymous fliers. Some anon get on their back with a big "lying" sign. Note also the title of the thread "Scilons pose as Anonymous" when in fact he was in plain clothes and as himself.

No Mention of Implosing Thread

Week in review 26 is out and not a single mention of the thread that nearly made enturbulation.org implosed, in which they edited posts without the knowledge of the original poster and used an SP list to feed false information to people on the list.

L. Ron Hubbard in the Guiness World Records

Having out-sprinted popular American novelist Sidney Sheldon and best selling British children’s ‘magic’ writer JK Rowlings to enter the Guinness World Records as the most translated author in 2005, Hubbard has added a feather to his cap in 2006 as most published writer, having sold more than 233 million copies internationally with 19 New York Times best-sellers; Guinness World Records certified him as the world's most published author with 1084 works exceeding the record held by Brazilian author Jose Carlos Ryoki with 1,058.

Cat Thoughts on Definitions

Scientologists like to define words. This is what one of their cat think of this.

Kathy Griffin Mistatement

Kathy Griffin makes bad taste Scientology jokes during her sketches. In this statement she shows that she has things badly mixed up as Scientology is quite contrary an oppressed minority she pretend to defend:

"I love messing with the Christians. I love messing with the Scientologists. I love messing with anything that is politically correct. The reason that I gravitate toward the gay community is that . they are unified and mobilized and they are writing laws and getting laws passed. But, at the same time . more so than any other group, they have such a great sense of humor about themselves. When you are part of an oppressed minority, you have to laugh."

UK Response to Critics

The UK government has given the only possible response a responsible government could give to a petition by critics asking legislate against the movement:

"In our approach to religious groups, the Government must seek to balance its responsibility to protect vulnerable individuals with the UK's long held commitment to freedom of worship and belief. The Government does not consider that it would be feasible or appropriate to introduce specific legislation or regulation of religious groups, their activities or their beliefs. There would be considerable difficulty in drawing up legislation in a way that did not interfere with the individual's right to choose their beliefs and lifestyles so long as they do no harm to others. There is also no obvious way in which legislation could deal with cases where adults participate in activities of religious organisations entirely voluntarily."

Watch here how critics are infuriated at this rational response and seek ways to still induce the UK into a discrimatory mindset..

The Return of Return toForever

Chick Corea has been a long time Scientologist. The breakup of his group, Return to Forever, has been blamed on Scientology. However, their coming back together demonstrate that this was not the case. Furthermore, that come back enjoys a raving success.

Beck Hensen Second Generation Scientologist

Beck Hensen is another celebrity Scientologist, and a second generation one at that.

Wall of Container

Apparently Scientology Org on Sunset Blvd has setup a wall of container to hide protesters from its followers.

Scientology Blogosphere Redux

Unlike what I thought, the Scientology blogosphere was not created by the CoS but by Grahame, an individual Scientologist who regularly answers questions on his own blog.

ICSA

FAIR, the UK anti-cult group has a website, as does the International Cultic Studies Association, with some potentially interesting papers about fanaticism and the fact that each side may be softening up their respective approach by inviting "cult apologists" to their conferences:

"In the late 1990s a dialogue began between a handful of critics and sympathizers (much credit goes to Dr. Eileen Barker for initiating this dialogue). This dialogue has resulted in many private conversations (personal and e-mail) and talks at the “other camp’s” conferences. ICSA conference speakers in recent years have included Nancy Ammerman, Dick Anthony, Massimo Introvigne, Phil Lucas, Gordon Melton, Burke Rochford, and, of course, Eileen Barker. These exchanges have, I hope, caused at least some of us to revise our thinking about contentious issues."

Sympathy for Scientology

Passer-by feels sympathy for Scientology upon watching angry Anonymous protesters in front of building. Good article.

Enturbulation.org SP List

Another illustration of love for free speech demonstrated by anon on its enturbulation.org web site. In addition of arbitrary banning from moderators towards dissenters, they also ran a script that would give some IP false information and redirect the query, maintained an "SP list", and edited posts without the posters knowledge and consent, among a variety of other complains. These were only corrected when pointed to by certain posters and when threatened by massive defection. Read details of the miserable user script to get an idea on how some anons think "SPs" should be punished.

Anonymous Self Definition

Anonymous definition of itself - note that their claim they have no leader is not true. Check out "Wise Beard Man" for one, he at least is an opinion leader.

Criticism of Abrahamic Religions

Slightly off topic but not that much - this video is a five stars humorous but true criticism of Abrahamic religions.

The Way to Unhappiness

A picture is worth a thousand words

Prank Calls

Anonymous encourages crank calls to Scientology Volunteer Ministers by saying "don't do this" and then providing all the information to do it... (removed from original page after being exposed).

Dr. Drew Pinsky is on a Roll

"Dr. Drew Pinsky is on a roll. First, he hypothesized that Tom Cruise joined Scientology to cope with memories of a dark childhood. Now he's implying Angelina Jolie is still using heroin. "Is she in recovery?" he says. "If she's in recovery, I don't see any evidence of it because people in recovery invest themselves in simple, selfless acts of service, not global self-serving acts." So let's break this down: adoption of Third World children = heroin addict."

Cruise Still the Most Bankable Star

“Love him or hate him, he has a strong claim to being the most bankable star over the past twenty years.” While there’s no way to know if he will continue to be the most bankable star for the next thirty, what’s clear is that contrary to all the negative press (e.g., couch-jumping, attempts to be "down" with Kanye West, Scientology...) Cruise is still the safest bet in Hollywood."

Macmillan Gives Up

Macmillan has caved in to pressure from Tom Cruise and abandoned plans to publish Andrew Morton's controversial biography of the Hollywood actor in the UK.

Michelle Stafford Nominated for an Emmy Award for the 7th Time

Emmy Awards night. Michelle Stafford, celebrity Scientologist, has been nominated. This is the seventh times she has been nominated, and has already won twice. She did not win this time around, though, because the prize went to Jeanne Cooper.

Anonymous Guilty of False Terrorist Threat

Anonymous cheniganism does not always go unpunished: Student Guilty Of Making False Terrorist Threat

Groupthink

Groupthink - a phenomenon that fit to a tee to both cults and rabid critics alike.

TimesOnline Article about Anonymous

TimesOnline has an article about the "vanguard of a new internet-fuelled radicalism" that appeared apparently without warning (Anonymous).

It describes how the protests are peaceful ("To the police they are these are the nicest protesters I have ever had the privilege of policing" and fun. It claims that the movement came about (from its channer origin), because "someone suggested that maybe anonymous could be a real person".

It features various descriptions of themselves , such as "We are the hive mind, the anger that leaked from the computer screen" and also have an high idea of what they are doing: "They see themselves as guardians of free speech" and "The cult failed to understand how things arise out of a mass consciousness" ... "the emergence of a new kind of democracy" ... yeah right. What it really is, is a mindless reactions to hate propaganda uncritically swallowed from popular web site on the Internet.

The journalist asks "Why not the Iraq War, nuclear weapons or climate change?" then goes on to say it is because Scientology is something they can change, when the truth is that Iraq, nuclear weapons or climate change does not threatens their freedom to exchange hentai on the Internet whereas they see the CoS as something that does and "had started screwing with the internet".

Of course some of them because true believers in the critical cause: "Initially we harassed them for lulz, but then we realised that they ruin lives. What we do is fun, but with a real cause" and some for some of them Anonymous even gave them back "a sense of purpose that they had lost".

It also claims that "Anonymous has no heroes". This just isn't true. They have "Whise Beard Man"for one, and any old guard anti-cultists that come no the pickets are cheered.

All in all the article is a bit puerile, and doesn't know, for example how these "guardians of free speech" react when Scientologists dare to distribute their own leaflets in response to the protests. The Mooning of that "old lady" reported in June 16 is one example, and here is another where they point with big sign to a "clam" distributing leaflet.

The article, however, has an excellent aside going into the lexicon used by Anonymous.

Terril Park Banned from Enturbulation.org

Another example on the way Anonymous conceives of free speech - banning dissenters from its forum. I can't find the post on Google but it is included in this link, and here is the original text:

"a friend of mine, Terril Park was actually banned from Enturbulation.org it happened on this thread. Terril is a Scientologist and has been one for well over 40 years. He is also a very good friend of mine, and we have had many good and open discussions about Scientology (he, my girlfriend and I). If you want to make up your own mind about him, here is a video that was made when he was protesting the Co$ San Francisco. How many Scientologists do you know who are willing to answer questions as openly as Terril has on the thread and also in the video? So much for free speech I suppose."

Serious Dip in Number at Protests

Anonymous finally acknowledge the serious dip in members from its protests.

Billy Lyday's Response to Scientology

At least a really funny video criticizing Scientology. Comedian Billy Lyday attended the Feb. protest and later on received a lettter from the CoS accusing him to be a Scientologist. This video is his response.

Artists for a Better World

A group of Scientologists teamed up with the New England chapter of Artists for a Better World to transform the wall of one of CoS new properties into a work of urban art. For once in these glum issues, nice photos of cheerful kids in a creative work - and nobody seems very affected by the hateful protests of Anonymous on June 14.

Crow and Kitten are Friends

Crow and Kitten are Friends - Off topic, but still an amazing story of a cat adopted by a Crow and playing together.

Effect of Anonymous on the Press

Since there have been so many claims here that the number of media reports on Scientology has greatly increased since Anonymous came on the scene, Monica Pignotti decided to check this out for herself. She did a Power search on LexisNexis that included all major world publications. It showed that the number of results for Scientology has remained pretty constant over the past three years.

Perspective on Anonymous

The social perspective of Anonymous' origin and modus operandi is a bit of a mystery to outside onlookers. Here is the perspective of a critic.

Whatisanonymous

http://www.whatisanonymous.org/index.html - Yet another anonymous site. However, the site has not been updated since April 13 and many pages are under construction, indicating that the author has either lost interest (like many anonymous) or did not have time to maintain it anymore. Some of the static information may however be useful.

Anonymous Moons Scientologist

Barbara Graham reports "epic amusement" at the June 14 San Diego protest, led by Paul Fetch (!). This is an excerpt from her account:

"a guy gave our photographer a flier. It was about anonymous. It was all lies. ... A swarm of anon went down the street and found the perpetrator, a pore little ol' lady from the org. She was little. She was old. She had a big ass stack of fliers that she probably didn't get to distribute, cuz we were on her like white on rice, and she did a beeline back to the mothership. A guy mooned her and flipped her off simultaneously on the corner of Broadway and 4th. ... I'm sorry, it was a hairy, unattractive pink booty, but we laughed. A few anons stuck with her, following her to the org, and a bunch of us cleaned up our detritus and did a parade walk around downtown. That was epic amusement! ... Saw the woman who had been handing out the lying ass "what is anonymous" faq whining to the police."

A Scientologist posted another account of the incident:

"the stunt you lowlifes pulled yesterday was even worse than the usual from bottomfeeders such as you and your tag-alongs ... Just so you know, the police received 4 calls from non-scientologists complaining about the harrassment the large group of masked hoodlums was pouring onto one lady (much younger than you Barbie) The group started out by surrounding her (20 or more of them and one of her), and ended with about 6 following her all the way up the street, taunting her (for about half a mile). On the way BA ing her, etc. You guys don't have to pass out anything really. As the saying goes, actions speak louder than words. Now, San Diego knows how cuel and evil you really are. By the way - young Asian guy with the glasses. How would your parents like it if they found out what you did to this lady? How would any of you like it if that was your mother? Shameful scum - all of you."

French Nuclear Engineer abandon recourse

The French Nuclear engineer who has been fired for being a Scientologist abandoned his recourse before the Appeal Court in France. Read the announcement in ARS and the universal support of this obvious discrimination by critics, with some of them in glee about the fact that "Hubbard's idiocy will now get him a much lower paid job, which he richly deserve for being a dumb ass". The case has been reported at the time on Cesnur, Operation Clambake, and of course the Scientology website. Watch a video about it here.

French Girl Victim of the Thunderdome

Complain in French about enturbulation.org. The dissenter, a French girl, has been copiously insulted and visually assaulted by obscene pictures, and her posts had been edited without her knowledge and consent. After she tried to delete her own post in fear they will be edited too, she was forbidden to do so and given a warning.

Record Grow?

The CoS claims record grow "this year's Dianetics Anniversary". This isn't really confirmed by the visual assessment of the Orgs, but many of the countries mentioned are countries where Scientology has been recently introduced so this may explain that.

Stuart Wyatt Arrested

Stuart Wyatt , a young man from the UK who has been actively protesting the scientology stress test carts in Plymouth, England, was arrested on June 13 for running over a Scientologist with his scooter. Wyatt has a neurological disorder "that is so serious he requires daily amounts of marijuana to function" (!!). According to anonymous, he has become a crusader for medical marijuana in the UK, even being granted the right to mail marijuana to other patients in need. However, he is being charged with the cultivation of marijuana, which indicates that this fantastic justification on the part of anonymous may not be quite true.

Paull Haggis to Script Bond 22

Paul Haggis is the award-winning filmmaker who, in 2006, became the first screenwriter to write two Best Film Oscar winners back-to-back - "Million Dollar Baby" (2004) directed by Clint Eastwood, and "Crash" (2005) which he himself directed. Paul Haggis is also a celebrity Scientologist. Author of the last James Bond (Casino Royal), he is returning for a second shot at Bond for Bond 22.

Eldon Braun Criticized by Avatar

Found out that Eldon Braun, a regular poster in ARS, has a past history of harassing Avatar and trying to extort money from it. Avatar won its suit against him and he escaped to Europe (France) to avoid paying the large fine that was awarded to the group.

Scientologists Complain of Stalking

Scientologists Complain of Stalking and Harassment

"Despite repeated claims that Anonymous raids are not intended to infringe the rights of Scientologists, I was curious about how Scientologists feel about it, so I asked a few of them for their reactions, and got a very different story."

Anonymous Disrupting and Mocking

Anonymous Disrupting event and mocking Scientologists.

Harlan Ellison on A Penny a Word

Harlan Ellison & Robin Williams discuss LRH. Harlan talks about the old days in NYC when Hubbard got a penny a word and made that statement that the best way to make a lot of money was to start a religion. Harlan has been known to embellish a story or two but it is still an interesting listening.

Scientology Kids

Another pro-Scientology kid, followed by CoS' version of Scientologykids website.

Kendra's Parents Attend Wedding

Kendra Wiseman posted last May 31: “Now I've got some awesome news for everyone: my parents came to the wedding, we're talking again, and we're trying to sort things out. Disconnected no more!”.

Scientology Kids Website

The Wins of Scientology Kids - a pro Scientology web site.

Louanne Documents Anonymous Stalking

Louanne documenting the way Anonymous stalk Scientologists by posting their photos and personal information.

CoS Denied Permit

The city of Philadelphia has denied a request by the Church of Scientology to hold a "protest" on June 14th, 2008. This is the same day the anti-Scientology group "Anonymous" applied for a city permit to protest outside the Church. For the past two months, protesters in Philadelphia were denied protest permits because Scientology had obtained the permits first. The Church's critics provided evidence proving that the Church had not actually held any protests on those days.

Chattanooga

Barbara Schwartz describes her submarine village where she supposedly lived until the age of four when she was, according to her, kidnapped by the German secret service. It's a village which is supposed to exists under the Great Salt Lake in Utah, where people don't age and produce their own purified air and water. The funny thing is that she sincerely believes such a village exists and longs to return to it.

Freedomofmind

freedomofmind Yahoo discussion group. This site was developed in cooperation with Steve Hassan. This fact alone gives the color of the group, which is most probably of the anti-cult flavor. Indeed, it says that much in its description: "Learn and discuss the tactics used by destructive groups or individuals". Although it is open to all, it also is moderated, and "the moderator reserves the right to unsubscribe anyone who ... becomes disruptive". Given the fact that to "become disruptive" is used to weed out dissenters from moderated anti-Scientology groups such as OCMB, Enturbulation.org and the anti-Scientology IRC channel, one has to wonder whether the moderation in this yahoo group is anywhere better.

YouTomb

YouTomb is a research project by MIT Free Culture that tracks videos taken down from YouTube for alleged copyright violation. YouTomb is currently monitoring 232,383 videos, and has identified 5,218 videos taken down for alleged copyright violation and 17,160 videos taken down for other reasons. This may seem like many but Viacom, the owner of Paramount Comedy and Nickelodeon TV channels, claims that more than 150,000 copyright clips on Youtube had been viewed more than 1.5 billion times. Viacom is threatening Google with a one billion dollar lawsuit.

CoS holds Conference on Hate Crimes

The Cos held a Hate Crimes Conference. Over 100 law enforcement and government officials, clergy and educators attended an interfaith conference in May at the Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre International in Hollywood to address the growing problem of Internet hate crime and to see how they can work together to improve Internet safety and security.

Eiser's Cultic Characteristics

Social Psychologist J. R. Eiser, has a good description of cultic characteristics that can be applied to many groups, including Scientology and Anonymous.

Christian Markert Exposed

Christian Markert, who had been making claims of harassment to his editor by the CoS and has been soliciting funds for a non-existent critical book on Scientology, is unmasked by critics.

Irony

Nice critical post illustrating the irony and contradiction between Scientology's claim and the reality. Note that a similar post could be done towards critics, as that sort of irony and contradiction is typical of all cults.

Two Funny Posts on Each Side

Two funny posts. One is from a Scientologist, Kat, contrasting a man's way of doing things, with a typical woman's way. The other is by a critic, Astrid, describing how her would-be German secret agent, supposed to control her, is to meet her. Enjoy :-)

Mark Bunker Accounts Restored

Mark Bunker's accounts on YouTube restored. Following the advices of Anonymous, Mark decided appeal to Viacom the YouTube's decision. Viacom had 15 days to either sue or drop the case. Following an amiable discussion between Viacom's lawyer and Mark Bunker, YouTube restored the accounts when the 15 days elapsed and Viacom did not sue.

Emission de M6 sur la Scientologie

In French. Counter-arguments towards a footage about Scientology on French TV.

Anonymous Loses Its AdSense Account

One of the original tool of Anonymous was its funny videos mocking Scientology. "Scilons" show they can use the same tools. In this video, they mock Anonymous for losing its AdSense account after they abused the system.

Vanilla Ice Join Scientology

Vanilla Ice has become the latest celebrity to be drawn to the teachings of the Church of Scientology.

Pedobear

An anti-Anonymous activist had been busy making serial posts in ARS denouncing anonymous culture as promoting pedophilia. Some of his claims can also be found on his blog, here, here, and here. He used several pages from Encylopedia Britanica to substantiate his claims. After copious insults, attacks and rationalizations, Anonymous finally removed the pics. Go on the ARS post and try to click the links. You'll get a 404. These pics, however, can still be found on the pedobear page. Funny enough, one of the rationalization used by anon was that the girl on this page obviously looks over 20. What do you think? To me, she looks around 10 or below. Strange how rationalization can even influence perceptions!