Another Invasion of Privacy by Anonymous

"AngryGayPope" films Scientologists as they enter their building, then posts the result on the Internet asking people to identify them.


Related blog entries: R-InvasionOfPrivacy-

Rolling Eyes and Getting to See the Light

One of the nice folks over at ESK wrote something about me that I feel is quite correct.

Critics often accuse me of being OSA or some sort of disguised/deluded Scientology agent because of my critical stance towards critics. It does not matter much to them that I am also critical of Scientology. In fact, some of them, such as paranoid Lerma, claim that this is only a "cover" to better entrap unsuspecting victims.

The fact is, however, that precisely because I take the stance I do towards critics, some Scientology members will read my pages, including its critical content towards Scientology, whereas they won't read other critical pages, and this may start them consider critical aspects of Scientology they would not otherwise. By agreeing with me on the exaggerations and abuses of critics, what I critically write about Scientology is more credible to them, especially since such criticism is reasoned, based on my own thought process upon leaving, and not wild accusations.

What happens is in fact the exact opposite than what Lermaloons claim. One needs to be quite paranoid and cultish to think that my site is a malicious and clever setup by the CoS. I just write things as I see it and as I feel correct. To think that any criticism of critics is automatically an OSA operation is quite cultic by itself, as if this kind of criticism could not be valid on its own and evaluated as such.

I thus receive from time to time emails from Scientology members thanking me for helping them to get to see the negative side of Scientology through my web site - precisely through its combination of reasonable criticism, allied with exposing the exaggerations, myths and abuses on the critics' side.

But you don't have to take my word for it, here you have a statement on a public forum.

Note - I would agree that sometimes even reasonable critics reading my site, and especially my blog where I write without giving much thought to it, may legitimately "roll eyes", and sometimes I wish I had the luxury of time to better qualify and nuance my writings, but nevertheless, the fact of Scientologists opening up as described does happen, and critics should do well to consider this angle rather than trying to dead-agent me with all kinds of rather silly cultic rationalizations:

"I'm not Bernie and don't know him, just know some of the back history. Like I said, he has been accused of being an OSA op and cult apologist many many times. I happen to think that despite his criticism of the critics -- in fact, because of it -- his site can be useful for Scnists getting out of CofS.

I think that because when I was getting out, I read every page of his site. Because he was willing to "look at both sides", at the time I found his criticism to be especially potent - far, far more creditable than a.r.s for instance which was so full of vitriol I didn't care for reading it.

Nowadays I roll my eyes and would heavily debate a lot of his points, but I still think it makes a good transition point for CofSers who may be testing the waters on the outside, even if they're fairly indoctrinated.

I don't think it's an op because it's been going on so long, and while the CofS may have once been capable of such sophistication as the infiltration you describe, nothing the CofS has done in relation to the internet in general has shown me that they are still so capable.

When he put up his page, the CofSes general "handling" for the internet was to try to remove the a.r.s. newsgroup, fill it with sporgeries, and put up spam pages. I just don't see them putting up a site that is even remotely critical of CofS, especially not at that time. But I'll allow that I could be wrong. "

Six Months into the Protests

Anonymous has a video on Youtube, six months after their initial video. While this may seem a sort of six month reports on the part of Anonymous, I believe the video is a sort of fake. Not that it is not from some anons, but it does not have the elevation of the other Anonymous announcements, such as the original video above, or the recent announcement concerning Tory/Magoo.

What is more, while the original video of Anonymous had 2 million views virtually overnight, the present one barely passed the 2,000 bar after more than 3 days. This either reflects its fake nature, or reflects more than anything the tremendous fail of Anonymous effort over the past six month. I am going to be generous and vote for the first alternative: that it simply is a fake.

This being said, we can check out the claims being made in this video as a measure of six months effort. As I said, they are voiced in a petty way, such as "Oh! By the way... how are your booksales going?" - this simply is not the style of the original Anonymous. Nevertheless, let's check them out:

1. PR Nightmare The initial and sudden rush of nearly 9,000 anons members from the Feb. and Mar. protests all over the world was indeed spectacular and phenomenal. What is more, nobody knew where these people came from. They seemed to emerge from the Internet made visible. This remains the "Epic Win" of Anonymous, and will probably remain so down history.
   
   However, as I wrote on my web page when these protests started, the big weakness of Anonymous was that they brought nothing new to the arguments that have been made before hand (apart for a weak claim to dissociate Scientology and the CoS). Much of it being culled from the "old guard" (OG) critics page, much of it outdated (Operation Snow White, more than 30 years ago!), and much of it debunked, even if the Old Guard keeps on repeating their lies as if nothing happened (Scientology Kills, McPherson, Keith Henson, etc).
   
   As a result, the numbers dipped. People lost interest. Many realized that their initial assumptions about Scientology weren't true, or at least weren't as bad as they thought, and certainly not as bad to sacrifice more interesting lulz on the Internet. Anonymous also made the mistake to moderate its fora and lost quite a few members who became disappointed with anons free speech stance.
   
   Aiming at the decrease in the numbers of Scientologists, Anonymous was the one to suffer a total stats crash, not Scientology. The numbers as of July 12 are a ripples to what they used to be. Their National/International DC event was a disaster, and their latest actions have left the press completely indifferent.
   
   After six months of protests, Scientology is still around, and they are stronger than ever. Why? Because they survived Anonymous onslaught, barely touched. All the CoS had to do, really, was to ignore anons, because, as I said, Anonymous slogans were old, over-used, and easily debunked.
   
   What Anonymous should have done was to protest against things like the German discrimination towards Scientology at the same time as they protest Scientology. Then they would have made their marks and brought something original. They should have seen through the OG bullshit sooner and dissociate them from their exaggerations and cultic behavior, while at the same time protesting Scientology on key points that can stand on their own rather than using the same old myths. Instead they chose to play along the OG line, a line that did not succeed to shatter Scientology for a decade and which propaganda cannot survive a more serious scrutiny. That was their mistake...
   
   
2. Surge of Press articles. There has been a few press at the start of Anonymous protests, and some article that followed later on, such as the Maxim article. However, the situation such as Anonymous describe in this video is totally untrue. Quite on the contrary, the press article got rarer and rarer and nowadays they basically died down. Anonymous big " Over 9000 anons" flop did not receive a single article, their latest taunt using little girls can't even make it to Wikipedia, because not a single serious newspapers picked it up, their latest July 12 protests are virtually ignored as well. Even on the whole of the six months, the numbers of Scientology-articles did not increase, as has been demonstrated through a search of LexisNexis.
   
   
3. Drastic actions. Anonymous claims the CoS had to resort to drastic actions to counter Anonymous. They cite the initial, later dropped, charge of a 15 years old for using the word "cult", ridiculously claiming that this was a result of bribing the police. They cite the "charging a crippled man for assault", when in fact the man in question was charged for possession of drugs, not for assault, even though it is true that this was uncovered after the man, an active critics, run over the feet of a Scientologist with his chair (probably by accident)..
   
   Though the CoS did try to defend themselves legally wherever they could, their action on the whole have on the contrary been very mild, and even at times so innocuous Anonymous had to twist reality in a ridiculous way to make themselves a victim. Check out the example of the case where they distort the words of A Scientologist to make it appear as harassment, when in fact that person was extremely motherly and patient with Anonymous. If anything, the CoS has just roundly ignored Anonymous, even though they also succeeded in many cases to push their protests farther and farther away from the CoS building itself.
   
   
4. Flyers. What I like about this is the irony of Anonymous getting mad for the CoS doing the same thing they do. They accuse the CoS of distributing "Flyers that contain fabrications, dramatised misinterpretations and slanderous falsities." Why should the CoS be deprived of its right of free speech to distribute its own version of the truth? Why is that making Anonymous so mad that they have to harass and old lady, virtually assaulting her until she found a refuge back in the CoS, and claiming that mooning her was an "Epic Win"? Why to they have to make threads claiming Scientologists distributing their flyers are "infiltrating" anonymous, when in fact they are in plain clothes, not even wearing masks, as they could in fact do? In a way, this is just too funny. Anonymous can ditch it out, but cannot take it...
   
   
5. Cut source of income. There is no evidence Scientology suffered financially from Anonymous protests. Quite on the contrary they are busy getting new quarters for themselves by buying expensive historical buildings around the world.
   
   
6. Ex-members. "Ex-members of Scientology have now come out and are speaking against you." Ex-members have always come out of Scientology and spoken against it. This is nothing new. What is more, there is no evidence that this has increased with Anonymous, or decreased, not even that anonymous was at the origin of any of those who came out during the protest period. For all I know, they may even have been less defections than before Anonymous. Anonymous, with their scary masks and their stalking of individual Scientologists, just confirms the CoS' propaganda against critics, and draws sympathy towards Scientologists from onlookers.
   
   Of course, Anonymous dreams of people rushing out of the CoS building and seeking refuge in their arms. This has not happened, and the best they could do was to decide that someone watching from a window (probably thinking what a bunch of idiots these people are) was a "crying Scientologist", all the while shouting in desperation "come, come to us, escape from the CoS". Instead, this makes me sorry for anons, because these are people really motivated in doing good and not bad people and in their delusions they really think what they do is helping to anything. Their lack of result must be very sad for them. The solution is getting to understand Scientology better, in its positive and negative aspects, not just buying into OG propaganda.
   
   
7. Charged. "When your leaders are facing a judge, being prosecuted for fraud, malpractice, criminal harassment, extortion, exploitation of children and perversion of justice, know that you've only got your greed...". Scientology has been around for more than 50 years. It has a long history of battling the society legally. Anti-cultists have already tried all they could to charge Scientology, but the CoS has won most of its legal battles. The reason critics cannot charge Scientology with all they claim it has done wrong is simply because their claims do not withstand legal scrutiny. Most of it are bloated and untrue, and all they can do is repeat them on the Internet where they find gullible people to swallow them, and to repeat them in turns in a stupid crowd phenomenon. If anything, Anonymous protests has just demonstrated that very phenomenon, just as their dwindling numbers and their failure to get any results either from within the CoS or from the legislature, shows the emptiness of their claims.
   
   Anonymous still seems to think they can bring any of the above about. Wake up Anonymous. Look beyond the OG claims. Yes, the intent was noble and commendable, and you should be proud of having mobilized yourself for a what you thought was a just cause. You have not wasted your time because you followed the noble impulses of your heart. But now, try to bring up your mind at that level too. Either step up your protest in a more intelligent way, or find something more meaningful to do.

Anonymous Wants No Heroes

For the first time Anonymous see through "Old Guard" bullshit.

Tory/Magoo is a very active and vocal Scientology critics and, though she does make a good few points, is virtually a paranoid loon who sees "OSA" and "Bill Yaude" at every corner and has repeatedly made a fool of herself accusing her critics of being OSA. I gave a very mild live example of this on this blog here. She is also loose with facts, as in a recent example when she ridiculously "felt" that a container in the wood was "full of PC folders".

For some time she has been treated as a celebrity by uncritical anons, asked for autographs and paid free trips around the world at their expenses!

Things changed, however, when her true nature came out during a confrontation in the "thunderdome", a sort of "bull baiting" place within enturbulation.org where anything goes. In spite of being fully warned about the rules, she became offended and started her litany of "OSA, OSA, Bill Yaude, OSA" against participants in the dome. Here is a good summary of what happened. The worst of course was when she incited her friend Tom Gorman, a bully and a thug, to physically threaten the person they thought was responsible for insulting her, and when she made the incredible mistake not to dissociate herself with his actions.

After much debates, Anonymous finally saw through that particular bullshit and issued an unofficial official statement to distance themselves from her. Their insight through the whole affair is remarkable, even though they still attribute the cause of her behavior to the wrong cause. It is the first time Anonymous see through the countless BS the OG is throwing at them. As such, I consider the following statement as a milestone, in par with the original Anonymous "Message to Scientology" that started it all: "

"(As a disclaimer this applies only to Tory and not to other members of the Old Gaurd. We consider each member of the OG on a case by case basis.)

Dear Tory:

We, the faceless members of anonymous do recognize and commend your years of efforts and successes in fighting the Scientology cult. We are appreciative of the support you have given to the chanology effort.

However, this does not exempt you from being responsible for your actions.

Your recent behavior concerning the Thunderdome and Tommy Gorman incidents have given us an opportunity to observe certain character traits that admittedly few of us had really suspected. Specifically, your deceitful and manipulative ways.

It is now clear to us that although you have left the Cult of Scientology and protest against them there is still far too much Hubbard Tech floating around in your brain. We could overlook this in light of your 30 years in the cult, however, we cannot overlook your utilization of tech against members of anonymous.

Specifically, you have used Dianetics against one of our members. You have lied about the situation, manipulated those who care about you, and shown a lack of remorse for anything other than getting caught. You have unrepentantly and hypocritically used the very LRH tech you claim to so abhor. This has resulted in another long time Scientology protester bullbaiting a member of anonymous and issuing threats of real life violence. This has jeopardized the movement and created numerous schisms. This is completely unacceptable. We will not forgive this, nor will we forget.

Henceforth your quasi-celebrity status within anonymous is terminated. We will no longer offer you aid in any form. The time of anonymous giving you financial aid for travel is at an end. The time of anonymous spreading your videos and story virally is at an end. The time of Anonymous spreading the red carpet to you wherever you go is at an end. At this time no apology or restitution is possible nor desired. You have already wasted your oppurtunity to make amends for deadagenting an Anonymous. Your pathetic attempts at a weak and insincere apology smacks of attempts to "sweep this under the rug". This is a tactic utilized by Scientologists, not by anonymous. Your belated apology is moreover an insult to the intellect of rational people.

You are still welcome to appear at Anonymous protests and pickets and we will not ask you to leave. You are a useful tone 40 face for the media, (although not the only one in the LA area) and we recognize that. However, we recommend that in your future contacts with the media you learn to keep your story straight. Instead of being a beloved person to us, you are now just a resource, and one that must be monitored carefully. Your actions have caused this outcome, and nothing else.

In recognition of your long years of campaigning against the Scientology cult we issue you this fair warning. Should you ever seek to persecute, manipulate, or request money from Anonymous ever again we shall call down the full power of the Internet haet machine upon you. You needn't doubt the veracity of this statement. Our more chaotic elements (the *chans especially) would consider you to be the juiciest lulzcow to be offered up in some time.You are a juicy target because you possess an overinflated sense of self-importance combined with paranoia and over-reactionary ways, traits that are prevalent within the cult of Scientology. We respectfully suggest that you seek professional help in properly deprogramming yourself, as it appears
you still have a long way to go before you can declare yourself healthy. Else, you may one day learn the true meaning behind many of our "lulzier" slogans.

Sincerely,
Anonymous"

Scientology Improving its Image

http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/blurbex/2008/07/25/scientology-sticks-to-you-like-lint/

"There’s no doubt that the Church of Scientology has improved its image in the last decade or so. A little less secretive, a little less scary (although still creepy), more the butt of a good joke than a genuine threat."

Now, while this statement may be surprising considering the amount of negative information to be found about Scientology on the Internet, consider the following:

My web site has been around for the last 10 years. At the time, people thought that by revealing the Xenu story through the Internet, and circulating horror stories about Scientology, the CoS will have to close doors in short order.

Yet, what happened in those 10 years? In spite of all the information available, the CoS is still around, and rather than closing doors it is busy buying historical buildings around the world for billions of dollars. The Xenu story is widely available, and yet people keep on joining Scientology. The dwindling legions of anonymous protest outside the CoS with accusatory signs and conspiracy theories, and they are being roundly ignored.

Because criticis have been putting out such an exaggerated portrayal of Scientology, the public at large ended up seeing through their propaganda, and they lost credibility. The negative publicity, combined with external information the public could evaluate, turned Scientology into "the butt of a good joke" rather "a genuine threat".

In other words, the public did not buy eventually into the myth that Scientology was a dangerous cult that kills dissidents and that brainwash its members, and which should be stopped at any cost. It has become less of a mystery, and though still universally decried, it is only viewed as a sort of lunacy rather than something from which to be really afraid of.

In this sense, Scientology indeed improved its image in the last decade and, frankly, in spite of the Internet, things have not changed that much. Whereas before hand they would say to a prospect "do you believe everything you read in the newspaper" to get people to listen to them, they would just say "do you believe everything you read on the Internet" now. People may start to listen and realize that many of the assertions made by critics simply were not correct, and so Scientology will continue to expand in spite of the negative publicity, or maybe thanks to it.

Morality: don't exaggerate, don't paint a picture grimmer than it actually is. Be honest, proportionate, and reasonable. Then, when somebody encounters Scientology, he may have real tools to question its indoctrination, rather than sensationalized and childish arguments easily dismissed and that are of no help whatsoever when the going get though.

Tory/Magoo Loose with Facts and Paranoid

I have been impressed by Magoo's ability in public lectures, but I have always been less than impressed by her constant accusations of anybody disagreeing with her of being "OSA". This makes her look foolish and cultish. This supposedly free speech activist was also always in favor of a strongly moderated group on IRC, so that "OSA agent" (read anybody who disagrees with her fanatical anti-Scientology world view) could be wiped out.

I am not the only critic with this impression, though, as recounted on this account:

"I’ve been participating in the Scientology “critics” scene since 2000. I posted for the first 5 years anonymously via remailers. OSA finally outed me and I eventually started posting under my real name.

I was in the cult for 27 years and worked for OSA. I’m basically the worst of the worst as far as Ex’s go.

I despise the cult and but have been on a mission to expose them. The only problem is that for the past 8 years I have had to deal with Scientology critics. There are only a handful of critics that actually do anything. These are the people that have anti scn web sites. I don’t have a website. I provide information (dox) for websites.

I guess I am a bit confused about the term Old Guard.

OG= what I call Scientology critics or the arscc (wdne) = alt.religion.scientology central council (which does not exist) Ars has a core group of Scientology critics that don’t always get along.

It’s a massive troll fest over there because there are a few “critics” like Tory that believes every troll is really Bill Yaude or someone from her “Secret OSA Internet Mafia”. Of which she has posted about 5 fucking thousand times.

Tory tends to hyperbole and gets real huffy when asked for dox. I’ve gone a few rounds with her on ars and ocmb over her exaggerations and being fast and loose with the facts, but all I ever got for my efforts was to be accused of being OSA or doing OSA’s work.

When I or anyone would push the point with her, she would send out reinforcements. I’ve had it reported to me more than once that Tory was pming people to defend her against me.

So for my efforts on getting Tory to not be such a showboat and being sloppy with facts, I would be called a sociopath, a liar, evil OSA, and per Arnie Lerma and the Lermaloons, under the spell of the evil gypsy queen.

As far as OCMB – they are not really critics. Except for one of two, they are basically a bunch of do nothing chest pounding retards. I suggest you ignore them. They are nothing but a pimple on anonymous ass.

I can’t thank you guys enough for seeing through this insane bullshit and calling it out. All I want to do is help by providing dox and info. You guys are smart, you can figure out what to do with it, or not.

I want to expose this cult and I know most of you want the same.

Thanks for not being insane ex cultists."

Gorman Bullies for Lerma Too

One should not be surprised to see Tommy Gorman in bed with people like Magoo and Lerma. In this post, Fluffy girl reminds us how Gorman enforced the ban of people Lerma did not like, for no better reason that they do not share his fanatical anti-Scientology views, and also how Gorman kept on bully her in OCMB:

"They can start with his tendency to libel people he does not know and to make assumptions about them. Arnie placed Tommy Gorman in charge of Factnet's Scn subforum(Arnie and Wolly are evidently friends) and Tommy immediately threw off everyone Arnie told him to, which, IIRC, was Tigger, UMike and myself. The grounds were that those individuals were supposedly mean to his friend. Yeah, that's a great reason to do that, sure. It's very Cof$-like.

Then, as a topper, Tommy posted a vile accusation about my husband and myself (that we are "perverts") on OCMB because of my husband's humorous and critical JPGs about Scn. I told him OSA didn't like the JPGs and he all but called me a liar.

He then informed me that I didn't like his commentary because "The truth hurts-LOL" to which I responded that he hadn't actually posted any truth regarding this and that anytime he'd like to get around to posting some truth, I'd sure like to see if "it hurts-LOL".

Personally, I think that he's got a learning disability of some sort or has some mental problems or both. He spent a lot of time spamming the hell out of the "your story in Scn" section of OCMB before they assigned a moderator.

I know people who've met Tommy Gorman and really liked him but I've not had the opportunity to encounter anything likeable.

He'd have far more credibility with me if he didn't attack other critics. My guess is that he doesn't like whomever Arnie tells him not to like. That's exactly why he did what he did on Factnet and OCMB.

It's sad when people leave the cult and still cannot think for themselves."

Daily Argus Hamilton

http://www.extremeink.com/jokes/2008/07/argus-hamiltons-column-for-7-25-08.html

"John Edwards was caught by the National Enquirer at the Beverly Hilton Monday seeing his mistress and their infant love child. So that's it. All last year when he campaigned against premature withdrawal everybody assumed he was talking about Iraq."

"Barack Obama continued his tour of the Middle East and Europe Wednesday where he posed for pictures of himself with world leaders, pictures of himself with the troops, and pictures of himself in foreign capitals. The worst is yet to come. Is there anything in the world more aggravating than someone just back from vacation?"

"President Bush told a Houston crowd Friday that Wall Street was on a drunk and he wondered when they will sober up. He's one to talk. The decision to cite false evidence to invade Iraq showed such sobriety that AA just added it to the Twelve Steps."

Jodhi Meares Seeks Comfort in Scientology

James Packer, the Australian billionaire, may have left Scientology, but his ex-wife, Jodhi Meares, seems to take comfort from her divorce in the Church.



Relate blog entries: R-packer-

The Thunderdome

Another way information is manipulated on enturbulation.org, in addition to arbitrary banning, is to send threads to the "Thunderdome", a section on enturbulation.org where anything goes and where the goal of posters is to seriously disturb the mental peace of anybody, using gory pictures and wild accusations. The thunderdome's effect is describe by this French girl who made the mistake to follow her thread in there. It also is the source of the incident that led Tory/Magoo to incite her thug to physically threaten an anon after he had insulted her in the dome.

Not surprisingly, many of the threads and posts that are being sent to the thunderdome, where normal discussion is virtually impossible, are simply threads and subjects anonymous is uncomfortable with (being unable to live by their free speech moto) but which could potentially develop in interesting discussions. This is confirmed by one of the participants:

"Yes, some interesting threads were sent there to die that could actually have engendered some good conversation and, indeed, actually were doing so. Perhaps it was truly the best call as flaming was taking place but thing is, if you don't have the ~right~ POV there, to the TD you will go."

Needless to say, declaring someone a "troll" or "OSA" is a favorite tactic of critics to get rid of dissenters, and in any moderated forum ran by critics this is exactly what happens. Even ARS has its list, that demonstrates how simple dissenters are so labeled. The only difference is that critics cannot apply it since ARS isn't moderated (and is the reason why the most interesting discussions still happens there rather than in moderated fora).

Daily Argus Hamilton

http://www.extremeink.com/jokes/2008/07/argus-hamiltons-column-for-7-24-08.html

"Condoleezza Rice told Iran Monday to get serious about ending its nuclear enrichment program. She's not kidding. The only reason the United States hasn't invaded Iran is because the president keeps text-messaging the go-order with his television remote"

Tommy Gorman Assaults Anonymous

Tommy Gorman is an angry Scientology ex-members and a thug whose offensive action against individual Scientologist can be seen in this video.

Gorman has now turned his "special skills" against some anonymous members themselves and they are not happy about it. Indeed, at the instigation of Tory/Magoo, he physically threatened an anonymous and his family.

Rather than apologize, he was proud of what he had done and issued more threads towards other anonymous for the upcoming protest in August.

A summary of the initial thread in enturbulation can be found here.

Note also the dishonest reporting by Tory Magoo. She dismissed the abuse as just a "serious talk" and tried to turn the reason Anonymous is angry with her as the fact that the anon member apologized - not the fact that he was physically manhandled by her personal thug.

OG Behaving Like Rock Stars

The "leaderless" anonymous movement of course has its leaders. They are called OG, for "Old Guards". Anons swallow whatever is to be found on their so-called critical web sites and listen to them for direction.

Now some of these OG behave like rock stars, signing autographs to their flock of anonymous admirers and enjoying free trips around the world paid by anonymous!!! They even lectured their obedient folks during their big flop National and International event, the "over 9000 anons" March in DC, attended by less than 200 followers!

Harassing Individual Scientologists

Another example of Anonymous "protest" of Scientology, just harassing individual Scientologists. The guy even boasts about the fact that the last time he "protested" Scientology by stalking a pretty gal for two hours, the police did not arrest him but simply sent him away.

Ex-Scientologists New Web Site

The ex-Scientologists message board is a forum that gathers to ex-members (though many posters are not ex- at all). It is created and "policed" by one "emma", who makes sure that all on the board cry in the same direction (banning those who don't). The forum now has its own web site, or more exactly, the forum is now just the forum part of a larger web site.

The new site is nicely organized, with the particularity that it works primarily as a database. Even pages on the site are just items, and they can be sorted by alpha or by number of hits. That's the nice part of it.

Otherwise, the site site is 100% anti-cult oriented and does not bring anything new. It basically is just another rehash of what you will find through zillions of so-called critical web sites.

Anonymous not Getting any Press

Anonymous has big problem getting any press those days. Apart for their usual propaganda rag, such as Glosslip or HyndiMedia or the -ist series, they aren't getting any press at all. Their big National and International March in DC didn't get even a single article, anymore than their latest protest on July 12. Even their bloated incident where they exploit little girls to try and blame Scientology didn't get credible enough to gain coverage. They are being ignored, not taken seriously, and their number are crumbling down fast. Even major articles that recently appeared about 4chan didn't say a word about their Scientology protests. They now have to resort publishing their own article, such as this one to get any coverage at all.

Daily Argus Hamilton

http://www.extremeink.com/jokes/2008/07/argus-hamiltons-column-for-7-23-08.html

"Iraq endorsed Barack Obama's plan to pull all U.S. troops out of Iraq in sixteen months. The candidates have similar plans. John McCain favors pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq in sixteen months, if time's still measured in months a hundred years from now."

More Censorship at Enturbulation.org

Another arbitrary banning from enturbulation.org, that of "Lily", the ARS posters known for blaming critics for being OSA agents in disguise because they make critics look bad with their bloated criticism.

Unlike the French girl in another case, Lily was clever enough not to let herself divert to the "Thunderdome", but stayed in the thread where discussion was taking place. Anonymous had no other "choice" to silent her than to ban her - in another glorious demonstration for their love of free speech. Even the reason they found to ban her is silly because she took care not to infringe any of the rules. What is more, they even deleted her posts from the thread!

And remember - these are the people who claim that the CoS demanding that a copyrighted and off-topic video of Tom Cruise be put down is an "attempt to crush free speech"!

Surprisingly, or not, even one anon mention that censorship in enturbulation.org does not go unnoticed:

"There have been several critics banned from Enturbulation.org over content posted regarding Noelle North & Subway. Is it fair? No. Is it censorship? Maybe. The folks at Enturbulation have been accused of conducting the same kind of censorship that the Scilons have long conducted on a much larger scale."

The Best Paid In The (LaLa) Land

http://www.fashion.ie/aggregator/gossip/92475-best-paid-lala-land

" Collectively, the top male actors took home approximately $487 million this year. As opposed to the leading ladies who brought in $244.5 million.

And of that, the highest paid male actor is surprisingly Will Smith.

Smith took home an estimated $80 million during the last year.

And another highlight for Will is that with his latest movie, Hancock, he has become the first actor ever to have eight straight movies surpass $100 million at the box office.

Crazy!

Looks like the Scientology leaders might be replacing Tom Cruise soon as their unofficial spokesman."

Daily Argus Hamilton

http://www.extremeink.com/jokes/2008/07/argus-hamiltons-column-for-7-22-08.html

"Wall Street soared as oil fell Friday, but gasoline stayed high. There's so much money in the gas station business they've installed TV screens at the pump. They ought to play porn movies so you can see someone else is getting screwed the same time you are."

"Barack Obama landed in Afghanistan on Saturday where he met with the provincial governor of Jalalabad. It was nothing new to him. To Democrats, all governors who don't run New York or Massachusetts or California are considered provincial governors."

"Iraq's prime minister Nouri al-Maliki said Friday he favors Barack Obama's plan to pull all U.S. troops out of Iraq in sixteen months. Last year Barack Obama's plan was to pull all U.S. troops out in one month. At this rate, by the time Barack Obama becomes president he'll be naming the permanent U.S. bases in Iraq after Teddy Kennedy."

"Chicago O'Hare Airport officials dispatched ambulances to assist the Mexicana Airlines jet that overshot the runway and crashed into a safety barrier Friday. No one was hurt. All one hundred and forty-two passengers parachuted out over California."

Chef Xenu Fact Sheets

An ARS poster going by the nick of "Chef Xenu" has a few factsheet of LRH compilation on various themes. Going sometimes a bit overboard, they nevertheless constitute interesting criticism, and they are coming right from the horse's mouth.

I already featured on this blog his factsheet on what a "Clear Society" would be like. Here is another one gathering quotes about disconnections, and yet another gather quotes about the Marcab confederation.

Over 9000 Anon March - Epic FAIL

Anonymous was to hold the "Over 9000 Anon March", a big rally on July 19, that would have been a national and international event gathering thousands of anons in what was supposed to be an apex in months of hard work by Anonymous. Some of the very low statistics for US cities on the July 12 protests were explained away as people preparing for the July 19 momentous event.

The event did take place but it was a pathetic show with an estimated less than 200 anons attending. This, of course, goes hand in hand with the spectacular crash in numbers during the monthly protests. Interestingly, critics are now trying to make it a sort of OSA crime to even discuss the low numbers.

Mother of Weapon Children Clarifies

The mother of the children who were prevented to enter a Subway shop together with other anons posted a clarification in ARS following some posters questioning the practice of using children as a weapon. In it, she claims that she did not know about the "no anonymous" sign until she reached the shop. Giving her the benefit of doubt I am going to believe her, but it remains that the indoctrination of these little girls (visible at the beginning of the video were they have to hold antis sign and at the end where they spout whatever is told them) is quite sickening, together with the exploitation of the incident of course.

Ironically, in an another attempt to defend herself in another forum, she highlight this indoctrination even more. Indeed, she writes:

"For example, at this very moment, a little girl is next to me, making fun of this whole argument. She is laughing. She is holding up a bottle of shampoo in one hand, and a bottle of conditioner in the other. They are talking to one another:

SHAMPOO: “SCIENTOLOGY IS BETTER! I go on first and wash the brains!”

CONDITIONER: “ANONYMOUS IS BETTER! I leave the children smart and shiny!”

SHAMPOO: “ORLY?”

CONDITIONER: “YES! RLY!!

**Shampoo and Conditioner fight**"

4Chan featured in The Guardian

After getting featured in two of America's heavyweight publications, Times Magazine and The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, UK, runs an article about 4chan. It is no quite as extensive, though, and just repeats many of the elements that already figure in the two US magazines. It only adds the latest 4Chan prank - the messing up of Google Trend - and gives some further detail on how the Swastika incident was brought about:

"It appears that a post on 4chan instructed people to Google '...#21328;'. When thousands did, they discovered that it was a piece of code which, when processed by a web browser, translates into a swastika".

Note that apart from this prank, the Guardian is just as silent as the the US magazine regarding 4Chan as the origin of Anonymous protesting Scientology.

Noelle North acting like a child...

This video was commented by critics as "nauseating", because Noelle North who was trying to enforce a "no anonymous" sign plays in it, but in fact, it is a very neat little sketch and Noelle North really plays nicely in it. Totally enjoyable.

Beck - Timebomb Music Video

A net piece of choreography

Struck

Scientology film with the following Scientology celebrities:

• Bodhi Elfman,
  
• Beth Riesgraf,
  
• Jason Dohring,
  
• Marisol
• Nichols,
  
• Jenna Elfman,
  
• Kelly Preston,
• Jennifer Aspen,
  
• Erika Christensen,
  
• Ethan Suplee,
  
• Nancy Cartwright,
• David Aranovich,
  
• Lynsey Batilson,
  
• Kelli Cobuzio,
  
• Denice Duff,
  
• Micheal Fairman,
  
• Mike Falkow,
  
• Nathan Lorch (also is the producer),
  
• Eric Matheny,
  
• Jim Meskimen,
  
• Tara Meskimen,
  
• David O'Donnell,
  
• Anthony Quaranto,
  
• Nathan Reid,
  
• Tait Ruppert,
  
• Angie Simms,
  
• Alexis Corey,
  
• Connoe Merkovich,
  
• Keenan Merkovich
  
• and Jake Moreno.

Plot: On his way to work one day, Joel (Bodhi Elfman) is impaled through the chest by a three-foot arrow. But it doesn't harm him...

Watch the trailer.

You can also watch the Anonymous mockery of the trailer, that consists of no much else than replace "Struck" with "Suck". Mildly funny.


Related Blog Entries: R-NancyCartwright-

An Interview With Cassandra Hepburn

Actress and Scientologist Cassandra Hepburn has a new movie coming out, Quentin Tarantino's "Hell Ride". In this interview she she talks about her new movie, her life, and career.

Scientologists Hanging with Anons

OT5 Karel Jeelof did the right thing - quietly hanging with Anon and listening to what they have to say.

Anon does not like it, however, and claim that he is only pretending to be nice and is only trying to "handle" them, then speak of going to picket his company in retaliation.

You can never win. Either you avoid anon and are accused of hiding, or hang out with them and are accused of being a "handler".

Scientology Agents

Another ugly personal attack page on Anonymous declared enemies, called "Scientology Agents". This can rival the CoS' Religious Freedom Watch page except that the anon page is full of obviously made-up "facts" and defamatory assertions.


Related blog entries: R-InvasionOfPrivacy-

University of Virginia Religious Movements Homepage Project moving to Douglas E. Cowan site

Dr. Cowan will be overseeing the ongoing development of the Web site and its migration to servers at his home institution. As this process is expected to take some time, researchers may wish to consult an archived version, at web.archive.

July 12 Protest Statistics - Crash in Active Anonymous Members, not Scientologists, Continues

Trend continuous to crash though, surprisingly, the London protested drew twice the amount of June, from 300 to 600! London is now 1/3rd of the rest of the world!

Some of the American cities crash (such as New York that went from 225 to 30 and used to peak at 700 in March!) may be explained by a possible confusion with the National demonstration on July 19 but this does not explain the spectacular crash for so many non-US cities (such as Sydney that went from 80 to 10 and used to have 225 in Feb!). Many other cities just got cleared from the protest map with nobody attending anymore.

See stats details.

What is Being Revised in Republished LRH Books?

Type of things edited in the posthumously revised edition of LRH books:

Not a religion:

Older versions:

"Scientology has opened the gates to a better World. It is not a psycho-therapy nor a religion."

Newest versions:

"Scientology has opened the gates to a better World. It is not
psycho-therapy." [Creation. p. 351.]

Zulu:

Older versions:

"The number of engrams in a Zulu would be astonishing."

Newest versions:

"The number of engrams in a primitive would be astonishing."

Anonymous discusses "Using Youth as a Weapon"

On July 9, 2008, Anonymous started a thread on enturbulation.org titled

"TIP: Using Youth As A Weapon"

I did not put that much attention at the time but two incidents that happened a few days after this thread makes me wonder in which way that idea didn't find its way in the mind of some anons.

The first one is an incident where Anonymous forces their entry in a Subway shop hosting a

"No Anonymous"

sign, using three masked children. The argument was "why do you deny the right of these small children to buy ice cream?", and the incident was further exploited in outraged titles about "Scientology harasses little girls".

The second incident happened slightly later, in which critics were successful to get the management of mall in the UK to ban the CoS from its premises on the (unsubstantiated) accusation that the stress test was offered to children, something the CoS denies.

See below for details of these two incidents.

Anonymous Uses Children as Weapon

A family with 3 masked kids were prevented by a Scientologist to go in a Subway shop because they were wearing masks. Later on, LAPD arrived, the Scientologist went away and they were allowed to go in.

Dramatized exploitation of the incident abound:

• "Church of Scientology Hits Below The Belt, Harasses Little Girls"

• "5 Year old denied into Subway by Scientologist"

• "Actress and Scientologist NOELLE NORTH : Tried to rob 2 little kids of their civil rights"

• "Filthy Scientology woman against 2 little girls"

However, consider this:

1. during the protest, an anon posted about the sign at the Subway shop: "

   "I was eating at the Subway deli across the street from Kaiser Medical Center (which had their own security officers assisting the Scilons) when I short, blonde-headed woman accompanied by OSAbot Ed Parkin walked in and sat down next to me preparing a "No Anonymous" sign which she taped to the window of the deli.
   
   She continues to sit at a table there monitoring the area. (Hey, it's freaking hot outside. She picked an air-conditioned place to do her surveillance). "

   This report was further clarified in comments after the incident:

   "I was the one that first reported on ARS of the sign going up. In fact, I was quietly eating a sandwich prior to the protest when Noelle came into the restaurant, sat down next to me, and proceeded to put loads of tape on the “No Anonymous” sign, then proceeded to attach it to the window, reinforcing it again with even more tape. She had the OK of the manager. Most of the employees were Hispanic - I say this because the residents in the vicinty of the Big Blue on Sunset Blvd are primarily Hispanic & they have to live with the cult & their goons every day. I suspect that manager gave Noelle the OK to hang the sign out of fear. I also watched her take a table by the door to assure that Anonymous didn’t enter the deli."

   Therefore, Anonymous knew about that ban before the incident happened
   
   
2. Anonymous recently discussed "Using Youth as a Weapon"
   
   What are the odds, then, that, knowing adult anons may have difficult to enter, they didn't use children "as a weapon", knowing that if they would be barred entry they could make the type of titles as above?
   
   
3. My impression is re-enforced by the fact that the video they show even recorded the "we are hungry" expressions of the girls
   
   
4. The video has been heavily edited and whole chunks are missing. It would have been interesting to see the video in full
   
   
5. The end of the video is particularly outrageous, as we see the little girl spouting things she obviously can have no idea of, such as "my right to free speech expression". It reminds me of terrorists using children for their propaganda.
   
   
6. For that matter, what business does anon have to bring their children at the protest? The believe the CoS is highly dangerous then bring their 5-years old at an emotionally laden protest, yeah right... In this sense I agree with a comment posted on the glosslip page:

   "I love me some anonymous, and yes, the cult sucks, but I am always bothered when parents of any stripe indoctrinate their children into very adult activities like politics or civil disobedience. I don’t care if it’s a “good” cause or not. Children aren’t able to hold sophisticated concepts like: “Scientology is run by unscrupulous people who are harming the people like the lady who stopped us at Subway. We are protesting to help the bad lady because she’s been brainwashed”. How different is it in practice than Fred Phelps making his darling little grandchildren sport “God Hates Fags” and “Thank God for Dead Soldiers” T-shirts? I’m serious, my parents used to take me to rallies against the Vietnam war and they got very hairy and I used to think anyone in a military uniform was a murderer. I learned better as an adult, but when I was seven, I just wanted to please my folks, I had no frikkin’ idea what was going on. Using young children in emotionally charged situations like a protest is a very bad idea. Scientology sucks, but lets leave the kiddies out of the fray."

   
   

Church of Scientology banned from shopping centre

The Birmingham Mail.net reports that

"THE Church of Scientology has been banned from a Midland shopping centre after a string of complaints that they had been preaching to children."

...

"We had complaints that kids had been invited to take part in a stress test and were then being asked questions about religion,” said operations manager Colin Quinton."

However, Graeme Wilson, the church’s public affairs director, said:

“Apparently there was one complaint by one person, who didn’t identify himself, saying he had seen children approached and offered stress tests.

“I understand that he did not claim to be a parent of any such children, and no evidence has been presented.

“Our stress tests are not offered to children,” Mr Wilson added.

The reasons I find the CoS report in this case more credible are:

1. Where are the evidences of the parents complaining?
2. Operations manager Colin Quinton is obviously biased at the start, as he is quoted saying

   "we wouldn’t have allowed them in if we had realised who they were"

3. False accusations using children is a favorite anti-cult tactic. One will remember the recent FLDS incident, as well as the Waco tragedy:

   "According to CAN critic Dr. Gordon Melton of the Institute for the Study of Religion in Santa Barbara, California, CAN has used a number of means to try to destroy small religious groups: they unsuccessfully tried to expand "conservatorship" to allow families to remove members from "cults"; they unsuccessfully tried to have laws passed against "cults"; they unsuccessfully sued the American Psychological Association for rejecting their views on "brainwashing." However, they have found one successful method of disrupting groups: false anonymous charges of child abuse. Anonymous reports are legal under current law. [24]

4. Anonymous has recently discussed the opportunity to "Using Youth As A Weapon"
   

Beck Wins Over His Critics

Beck's new album is so good it even wins over his critics:

"Beck, we were pretty much done with you. It wasn't so much the whole Scientology thing. Or the egomania. We just had not been that jazzed with the last few records. But then you had to go and make the record of your career. We always hoped you would get back to the "Mutations" style, but with the addition of some Bowie and some Pink Floyd spaciness, we may be falling in love all over again. Damn you."

Daily Argus Hamilton

July 16 entries

"Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt gave birth to twins last weekend in France, adding to their growing brood. It's one noisy house. The children they have adopted have already begun demanding international development aid from the children they have had."

"Miss Venezuela won the title of Miss Universe Sunday. Miss USA slipped onstage and fell legs up in a slit evening gown for the second straight year. Ever since Britney Spears started doing their choreography they get a lot more views on YouTube."

Magoo's Super Dupper OT Powerz

Tory Magoo, opinion leader of Anonymous, now has "super powers" too.

During a visit to Saint Hill, in the UK, she and fellow Mark Bunker went for a walk as of course they could not gain access to the organization.

Suddently:

"Back in the trees, a bit down the road, we found a storage container that Tory felt was full of PC folders."

This is not written as a joke or satire but in all earnest by Emmy Award winner Mark Bunker! They went on harassing the guy in that container on that basis.

Now, anybody who has a modicum of knowledge about the CoS would know that the possibility for the CoS to keep PC folders in a container outside from the organization and among the trees is practically nil.

Tory Magoo , being a long time Scientologists, should know that. But no, she FEELS that the container is "full of PC folders".

And there I thought "Magoo" meant "nearly blind and constantly confused". I was wrong. She really DOES have super dupper OT powerz after all...

Portland July 12 Protest

The Willamette Week, a local Portland newspaper, has an article about the July 12 Anonymous protest.

It gives a fairly equal time to the views on both sides, something that tends to infuriate anonymous members in their comments. Nor is the depiction of CoS' harassment strong enough for anons demonized views:

""Heckling" is an awful mild description of the treatment received by people like Mark Bunker and Paulette Cooper"

The author's depiction of the protest, however, is quite accurate:

"the group tromped off, clad with accusatory signs ("Scientology Kills," "The Church of Scientology is a Criminal Organization"), blank name-tags and spirits driven by conspiracy theory"

Scientology's point of view was parted by Gwen Mayfield-Barnard (photo).

"She maintained a matriarch's composure, calling out "There are cookies!" and gesturing to a table laden with nibbles whenever a new Scientologist walked in the door."

She reminded me of Yvette Shank, the New York Scientologist, whose warm motherly attitude transpired from one of the Anonymous videos trying to demonize her and twist her words.

The cookie note also shows what I reported earlier, that Scientologists increasingly just ignore Anonymous protesters at their door and have their own small parties inside, while Anonymous hold their "Epic" parties outside, sharing "ceak".

Mind you, even such an innocent gesture is questioned by anons, who have to ask:

"Ok, Gwen. What's in those cookies?!"

CoS Buys Historic Stevens Building in Portland

The Willamette Portland article also enlighten us about yet another historic building purchased by the CoS, the Stevens Building, bought according to the Portland Business Journal for $5.38 million in cash.

Google Trends Follow Up

LA Times featured an article last July 14 on how Anonymous tricked Google Trends with false information.

In a follow up article, it explains that these results are achieved by
searching for the malevolent terms en masse, skyrocketing them up the ranks.

It also notes about the comments to the article that

"many of those responses were immature or snide remarks, seemingly coming from 4chan members, which prompted Zoey Hampton to write: "The comments make it very clear that the members of 4chan need to get a life, as well as learn to spell and write cogently."

which is the impression I get in general when reading comments left by Anonymous members.

Some of the selected comments went along the same line:

"Indeed! As we enjoy a more free communication, so too with schoolyard bullys, semi-literates and disruptive elements."

"In days gone past it took great effort to rouse a demonstration. Today it takes only a few phrases on a disruptive website, a few minutes of discussion, and a few dozen computers running dedicated software"

"People dedicated to disrupting normal communication have found their comfort zone on the internet"

"Scientology may indeed be a cult, but these anonymous mask-wearing website-hacking "kids" (and I use that term loosely - many of these 4chan troublemakers are middle aged and living at home) are far more dangerous. Committing vandalism and hate crimes are NOT just "kids' play""

Still, LA Time is interested in continuing the discussion and posit the interesting interrogation:

"What's your take on the issue? Tell us whether you think 4chan's Google bombing is overstepping the boundaries of Web decency, or if it's just something that comes with the territory of an open dialog?"

Related blog entry: R-CryWolfComments-

Maxim Does Anonymous

Maxim, one of the most popular men's magazines in the US with a subscriber base of 2.5 million, published a very good article about Anonymous vs. Scientology.

Nicely written and documented, it contains excellent graphics.

This being said, the content is a bit lacking when it comes to Scientology itself, but it has a very good historical perspective on the development of Anonymous.

Another criticism is that the article is a bit complacent with Anonymous self-aggrandizement proclamations such as:

"A new dawn of social protest"
"Our generation movement"
"A big social experiment"

Sooner or later anons may realize how stupid they have been for uncritically swallowing that much crap from the Internet and may feel a bit ashamed for having been a participant in that "big social experiment".

One last thing, the statement that Anonymous protested "sometimes with more than 10,000 people" is a bit exaggerated. Even by their own inflated statistics, Anonymous never reached 9,000.

Jive Aces to Be Censored at the Summer Fete - 2nd August 2008

Ah, the irony!

A critic emailed the organizers for assurances that the Jive Ace team won't be allowed to "marr" the mini-festival by trying to distribute Hubbard literature.

At the same time, Anonymous feels free to stalk musical events of Scientology artists with their anti-Scientology propaganda.

Which illustrates the second law of Anonymous: "Free Speech is a one-way street", the first law being "Good is us, bad is not us".

E-Meter in action

I thought it would be fun if YouTube had some videos of an e-meter in action. The most direct demonstration I found was this one. However, this is part 3 of a three parts series and you'll get a lot of bla bla before the actual action if you are first going through parts 1 and 2. This being said, the series is probably the best introduction to Scientology I saw to date.

Searching YouTube also reveals the fact that there is little to nothing to "counter" that CoS' demonstration.

The "best" is this demonstration of what a simpler machine does, but it's borderline idiotic, because it only shows that it registers values in certain conditions and that the values changes as you adjust the level - and the video then finishes by a pompous line stating "before you join a religious group or any group, check your facts", when in guise of fact it offered barely nothing and what it offered was irrelevant. Here is a good answer to the argument from Homer Wilson Smith

Xenu.tv offers a clip about the history of the e-meter, that may be interesting in another context but does little to demonstrate anything here, and Anonymous offers a static image series taken from Wikipedia - boring and a waste of the potential of videos.

For the rest we are gratified with the usual bad taste jokes of Anonymous and their irritating mocking laugh.

I didn't bother to go much further down the list.

Anne Archer in Privileged

Scientologist actress Anne Archer, who has starred in such hit movies as Fatal Attraction and Patriot Games is now in a new TV series called Privileged.

Anonymous Tricks Google into False Results

The LA Times reports:

"Last week it was a swastika topping Google's Hot Trends. Now it's the phrase "scientology is a cult". ... In the case of the swastika, we couldn't prove that users of the popular image board 4chan were behind it (their discussion threads can pass out of existence within minutes), but this time there can be no doubt. ... As of this writing, several active 4chan threads were devoted to the mass Googling of the "scientology" phrase as well as the upside-down truck insult, all as 4chan users congratulated themselves for having propelled the two phrases to the top of the list."

Smashed Windows at Hamburg Scientology Org

The Hamburg Scientology building was vandalized and several windows smashed on July 10 (two days before the monthly protest). As usual, Anonymous follows its policy of "Good is us, bad is not us" and has denied involvement in this.

The problem with this approach, as has been already pointed out, is that no one and everybody is supposed to be Anonymous, so such denial has very little meaning. As Monica Pignotti rightly points out:

"In the end, a group is nothing more than a collection of individuals and since the individuals who make up the undefined group "anonymous" are not identified, there is no accountability or way to tell who did what, unless the individuals who did this are caught red-handed. Even then, since anonymous has no formal organizational structure, it would be difficult to prove any kind of affiliation. Its the perfect set-up to get away with just about anything. Interesting to observe how anything that conflicts with a certain image of anonymous as nonviolent gets explained away -- the creation of a nonfalsifiable argument. I doubt this is convincing to anyone but the believers, however."

Terril Park Unbanned

I previously reported the arbitrary (and abusive) banning of Terril Park from Enturbulation.org - manned by anons who pretends to fight Scientology based on "free speech" contentions and indulging themselves in similar behavior.

We now got the news that Terril has finally been unbanned, which always is at least something positive.

A Night with the Scientologists

Korshi Dosoo and three friends take the Personality Test at the Sydney Church of Scientology. The account is critical in the good sense, in that they evaluate the experience with enough knowledge not to be "sucked in", but at the same time don't buy either into the anti's propaganda that would have them scared to take the test at all. Nicely written, it is an interesting read.

Artists in Action

Artists in Action may be another Scientology "frong group", or a mixed venture, judging by its "About Us" and "Links" page. At least, that one is pleasant to look at. Another pleasing -to-see Scientology-related artistic page is the Saint Hill International Arts Festival page.

Previously I also reported about the "Artists for a Better World" group that helped transform the wall of one of the CoS properties.

The Good News Newspaper

Scientology is fond to claim that newspapers delight in negative news and that this is a factor that keeps us depressed. This paper, called the "Tampa Bay Informer", is a Good News newspaper, probably owned and manned by Scientologists. Nor surprisingly, it features, among other things, an article about the Pangea Cafe, said to be owned by a Scientologist.

All faiths welcome at Nashville hotel

"Guests can customize their stay at Nashville's Hotel Preston by choosing religious texts for their rooms. Christians can choose the Gideon Bible, the King James Version or the New American Bible; Muslims can have the Koran; Jews the Torah; and Buddhists the Tao Te Ching and Four Noble Truths. The Book of Mormon, the Hindu text Bhagavad Gita and books on Scientology are also available."

Going Public

Most of the entries in this blog, except for the last couple of days, have been back-tracked transcriptions from my news page. Now that this process is completed, I opened it up to search engines and will update it live on a regular basis, hopefully daily.

Sunday Rose is Not a Spite Girl

There has been some media gossips that Nicole Kidman named her baby "Sunday Rose" to spite ex-husband Tom Cruise and Scientology.

I found reporting such gossip so silly that I didn't even mention it in that blog. The rationalization for it was so tenuous if existing at all, and was just the uninformed opinion of a person. Besides, why would anyone be so mean to oneself by reminded himself about some unpleasant event of one's life (if any of this blather is true at all) and name a baby based on hate and resentment?

News now start to emerge that the source of the name is of course completely different:

"The daughter's name is said to be a homage to a famous Australian patron saint of the arts, and not some back-handed slap at Kidman's ex-husband, Tom Cruise, and his Scientology beliefs (as some had reported)."

Anonymous Increasingly Blocked from Protesting in Front of Orgs

More and more anons are prevented to protest in front of the CoS buildings:

• Amsterdam:

  "We're moving to Beursplein, because the surrounding stores and restaurants at the Org are unable to draw in customers during our raids. We had a very nice chat with most store owners as well as the police and mutually agreed it would be best for everyone involved if we GTFO'd to a location where we can properly party."

• Toronto:

  "We are no longer allowed to protest in front of the Org, and we must now do so from across the street"
  

• Los Angeles:
  

  "The cult and the LAPD have effectively blocked Anonymous from picketing across the street from the Big Blue location. In fact, they have blocked off a 2-block swatch entirely around L. Ron Hubbard Way forcing Anonymous to picket 3 blocks away at the subway station, corner of Sunset Blvd. & Vermont. "