The Peace Mask

Not only did Cruise get the mask back from the guard and sign it, he also added a peace sign! Now that's a mask that will go down history! Not only is it a V mask signed by Cruise himself, it also gets a peace sign on it - adding a very symbolic dimension to it!

Stunning is stunning...

Garth Brook

When I posted about Jett Travolta's funeral, I had a lot of hits from people seeking to know whether Garth Brook was a Scientologist.

Truth is that I don't know. A first search on the Internet did not reveal anything. All we know is that he is friend with the Travoltas.

I must admit that until then, I never heard of Garth Brook. This maybe due to me being a Belgian lost in space, and the fact that in Belgium we don't much care about country music to start with.

However, I did see him yesterday at the Obama Inauguration. He was good, and surprisingly he was the only artist allowed to give three songs in a row, even though there were high profile singers there, among whom my top favorite Shakira.

I reckon from that, that he must truly be a big star in the US.

Germany Subsidized Valkyrie with $10 Milliion Donation!

German critics slam Cruise

Although this article is unrepresentatively titled "German Critics Slam Cruise", it ends up writing about the warm welcome it overall received in Germany:

"The respected daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung was also pleasantly surprised by the movie.'Based on everything the film was accused of and how much could have gone wrong, you could almost call it a triumph,' it said."

This is now no big news anymore, but the article also comes up with a surprising revelation:

"Culture minister Bernd Neumann hailed the film as 'successfully helping a chapter of German history that is little-known abroad becoming common knowledge'. Berlin even subsidised the film to the tune of 4.8 million euros (S$9.4 million)."

By Jove! With critics claiming that paying to see the film is like subsidizing Scientology, I could even have titled this blog entry "Germany Subsidizes Scientology with $10 Milliion Donation!" - but that would be really pushing it a bit too much ;-)

Cruise Bears No Grudge

Cruise bears no grudge: "BERLIN - HOLLYWOOD star Tom Cruise said on Tuesday he bore no grudge against Germany despite the controversy surrounding his new film 'Valkyrie' ahead of its European premiere in Berlin. [...] 'We were making the film and all the local people were being very supportive. Then ... there was this kind of controversy that boiled up and I think if anything, it brought us closer together,' he said. 'Everyone was even more committed if that could be possible to doing the very best we could.'""

Scoop: Cruise Autographs Anonymous' Mask!

YouTube - Tom Cruise signs Anonymous-mask

You have to watch attentively what happens at the beginning because it is not obvious in first view. A security guard gets the mask of an anon and does not seem to want to hand it back. Cruise asks the mask from the guard, draws a peace sign, autographs it, and give it back to the anon!!!

Scientology Expands Building in Sydney

Scientologists hit out at criticism - National - smh.com.au

The Church of Scientology Sydney seeks to add two floors to its five-story building neighboring historic St George's Presbyterian Church. The overhaul would cost $12 million ($US 8).

The article also cites petitions and mentions anti-Scientology protests, but these are now mostly mere annoyances that actually make Scientology look good in contrast. The more significant news I find in this article is the one about expansion of the building.

A New Dawn - Welcome Mr. President!

After eight years of crossing the desert with a (unfortunately criminally not funny) retard as President, a new dawn points up. This double historic moment (first because it gives hope after desperation, second because he is the first half black president) ought to be recorded among the top moments in human history. Well, we'll see... I don't think there has been an equivalent wave of enthusiasm and hope for the US and the world since Kennedy, and yet Obama still has to deliver...

Quote of the Day - Cruise the Vampire

Ball of Fluff :

"Cruise is an actor. He was also in Interview with the Vampire. He wasn't a vampire either. Go figure."

Jonathan Ross and... Tom Cruise

johnalexwood: Friday Night with Jonathan Ross and... Tom Cruise

Funny this Scientologist had ticket for Ross' show but could not attend because it ended up being canceled after the BBC suspended Ross' show for three months in the wake of his antics together with Russel Brand. And now his ticket will be valid for the new show, opening up with... Tom Cruise! Now that's an OT win :-)

Ironically Russel Brand's new UK show - titled Scandalous - is starting to tour the country in the same week that Ross resumes his BBC shows after his suspension.

Now something telling me we will be hearing more from those two... and, to start with, the Ross/Cruise combination may be an explosive one... hold on to your seat this Jan 23!

Real Self Help Web Site

Real Self Help

This is a web site done by a Scientologist going by the name of "Fred Hare". Here is his bio. I found it through a page claiming miracle helping to heal a broken leg.The practical self help orientation of the web site, using Scientology, of course, could be interesting for people to have a practical idea of what Scientology is. However, most pages just refers to books. Did not read it in detail, though, so there may be a thing or two of interest there.

Is Close-in Pictures of Passer-By Legal?

YouTube - Clearwater Anonymous Protest – January 17th – Bullbaiting Failtroll Angle 1

This video shows an incident where a passer-by objects to being photographed and filmed. He smashes the camera, not the people. Unfortunately, what happens before the incident is not shown.

I don't know whether the guy is a Scientologist or not. Jeff Jacobsen seems to think he is not.

But anyway, would you like if masked people would take your picture and film you a few inches away from your face as you are walking the street? They were probably hurling offensive statements as well, as they usually do.

I do not know the legality of taking pictures of people against their will, and much less publishing them on the Internet. I believe in Europe that would be illegal.

However, I really do think that there ought to be some ordinance restricting people at least from coming that close in taking pictures.

Independently from any Scientology issue, do you think it is not harassment doing so to passer-by in the street? It seems to me it is.

On the whole, Scientologists have been remarkably cool in face of such behavior. I don't know if this guy is a Scientologist or not, but I can perfectly understand why he would think that this is harassment and even illegal.

I know Scientology handlers have also been doing this towards protesters. I think it also is wrong and harassment, but then we are also in a different situation here. They are filming people who are in front of their own building and who are directly addressing them. Whereas it seems to me that this guy was just a passer-by, Scientologist or not.

Requiring the protesters to be on the other side of the sidewalk in such circumstances seems to be a reasonable request, and would avoid this kind of incidents. The line between peaceful protests and stalking is easily crossed, as we have seen before. Turning this line into a street seems to make sense.

Update Feb. 1: The same video is show on this other youtube channel. However, it claims that the Scientologist was "detained by the police". This simply is not true.

It also calls the Scientologist a "bull-baiting" Scientologist (like the initial channel above). In fact, it is just the reverse. The Scientologists (if he is a Scientologist in the first place) is only trying to defend himself from in-your-face cameras. The masked anons surrounding him are the one doing the bull-baiting. Ask yourself if you would like to be surrounded by a flock of masked anons waving signs insulting your religion and holding camera to your face to film you against your will while trying to provoke a reaction as you peacefully walk in the street.

I am sorry but this has nothing to do with "peaceful protests". To me is simply is stalking and religious hate.


Related Links:

• http://anonymous-is-a-hategroup.blogspot.com/2009/01/observe-anonymous-members-bull-baiting.html
  

Steve Hassan Supports Magoo's Lies

Monica Pignotti, MSW: Inaccurate statements by Steve Hassan to CNN:"Hassan went on to say: "I have a friend, Tory Chrisman (ph), who was a member for 30 years and was OT-7, which is one of the highest levels, which John Travolta is OT-7, as well, who had -- has epilepsy and continually had seizures during her membership and kept appealing for help. And they kept giving her more and more auditing. And finally, she just went on medication and said, "Screw it," and eventually left the group. "

Monica Pignotti posts on her blog about a transcript from CNN in which Hassan, among other things, forwards Tory Christman's demonstrably false claims about her seizures.

Monica also mentions the fact that "Hassan also offers "reasonably priced" counseling at $100 for a half-hour phone session as well as other options that include people traveling to Boston to do "intense, deep work" with him for 6-8 hours per day for a period of a 3-4 days which he claims (without empirical basis) is the fastest most effective way to recover"

At this rate, Hassan may even be more expensive than Scientology who, like him, claims that psychologists are incompetent compared to their own method. By all means, that's twice what my lawyer charges, and he at least provides me with useful legal advices, not quack pop psychology based on the long debunked myth of "mind-control".

Scientology Never Convicted for Practicing Medicine without a License

Danièle Gounord » Blog Archive » Jett Travolta : une polémique indécente: "Enfin, il convient de souligner que la Scientologie n’a jamais été condamnée pour exercice illégal de la médecine, ni en France, ni dans aucun pays dans le monde."

Daniele Gounord, spokeswoman for the Church of Scientology in France, claims in this blog entry that "Scientology has never been convicted for practicing medicine without a license, either in France or any part of the world".

I don't know if true or not but guess she would not report such a thing if it could be proven false.

Anonymous Attacks a 15-Years Old Boy and His Family

You may remember the incident reported by wired.com one year ago in which Anonymous posted the home address, phone number and cell numbers of a Stockton 59-years-old man who barely knew anything about computers, claiming he was a member of the hacker group who targeted them in retaliation of Anonymous hacking of Scientology sites. The poor man then started to receive daily obscene and threatening phone calls. After receiving a death treat, he and his wife got really scared because their address was posted as well.

Now this is happening again, this time towards a 15-years old boy who dares make a decency campaign, which Anonymous has decided is "threatening free speech". Here is the article in full, which of course you can also read through the link.

'No cussing' teen faces net hate campaign:

'No cussing' teen faces net hate campaign
07:00 AEST Sun Jan 18 2009
2 hours ago
By Shaun Davies, ninemsn

A boy's crusade to stop swearing has drawn the unwanted attention from notorious internet group Anonymous.

McKay Hatch's No Cussing Club, which encourages teens to "chill on the profanity", claims to have over 20,000 members worldwide.

Hatch, a 15-year-old from South Pasadena in California, garnered wide media coverage for his anti-swearing campaign, including a appearance on Dr Phil.

But at the beginning of the year, Hatch's email inbox began clogging up with hate mail from an unknown source.

Pizza and porn deliveries became commonplace for his family, who eventually called in the FBI after numerous receiving death threats and obscene phone calls.

Anonymous appears to be behind the attacks, with threads on sites such as 4chan.org and 711chan.org identifying their members as the culprits.

And the pain may not yet be over for the Hatch family — Anonymous appears to be planning future raids and has threatened to "wipe this cancer [the No Cussing Club] from the face of the internet".

In one 4chan thread, a number of users boasted about sending bogus pizza deliveries and even prostitutes to the Hatch's house, although it was impossible to verify if these claims were genuine.

The same thread also contained a credit card number purported to be stolen from Hatch's father, phone numbers, the family's home address and Hatch's instant messenger address.

In an interview with US network ABC, Hatch's father said the boy had been reduced to tears by the flood of messages from "bullies".

Hatch himself defended his anti-swearing campaign, which his enemies were deriding as an attack on freedom of speech. "A lot of people were saying I was taking away their freedom of speech … All I was trying to do was raise awareness," the teen said.

It appears that the earnestness of Hatch's campaign, including his faux-gangster rap video “No Cussing Club Song”, may have drawn Anonymous's ire.

A line has since been posted on the No Cussing Club website, claiming that Hatch is the "most bullied boy on the internet".

Anonymous is perhaps best known for its extended campaign against Scientology and has been embroiled in a number of other controversies.

It was a 4chan user who hacked Sarah Palin's email and posted it to the site's "random" section, otherwise known as /b/, during the US election.

Anonymous is difficult to define — less an organised group than a loose affiliation of certain websites.

When enough of these users decide to take action against something or someone, they will do so in the name of Anonymous.

The group has no leaders, no set agenda and has a tendency to focus on soft targets for its own amusement.


Related Posts:

• Jan. 23: Anonymous Hacks No Cussing Club
• Jan. 17: Anonymous Attacks a 15-Years Old Boy and His Family

Magoo's Message to Travolta Now Gets Its Own Page

I now split my Magoo page to give the Message to Travolta episode it's own page. The series now looks as follow:

http://bernie.cncfamily.com/sc/Tory_Christman.htm
General entry page

http://bernie.cncfamily.com/sc/Tory_Christman_2003_Affidavit.htm
The full 2003 affidavit with my comments

http://bernie.cncfamily.com/sc/tory_christman_Jett_Travolta.htm
The Message to Travolta page with the details of her lies and censorship, as well as their justification, other testimonies regarding seizure medication, the details of what she says to the press, and the reaction of critics.

These pages are still under construction but overall already usable.