Catching up; Interesting Times 7.0

I’ve been off-the-blog for a while, the wife and kid were away for two weeks and I’ve been taking a break. Last Saturday there was another Anonymous protest and I ambled over to Clearwater on my trusty bike to take in the locals and see what the Anons were up to.

Like the other protests, this one had a theme. It was “Spy vs. Sci,” to highlight Scientology’s intelligence gathering wing the Office of Special Affairs. Naturally they deny that the Office of Special Affairs (OSA) is any more than a PR department, just like they deny that harassment and vicious litigation are sacraments in “their religion.” What? Litigation and harassment are sacraments? How can that be?
Scientology’s core belief is that anything said by L. Ron Hubbard is true and correct. Furthermore they have to read and sign a document called “keeping Scientology Working” which says in part,

(Hubbard describing non-Scientology-like thinking.)

This point will, of course, be attacked as “unpopular”, “egotistical” and
“undemocratic”. It very well may be. But it is also a survival point. And I
don’t see that popular measures, self-abnegation and democracy have done
anything for Man but push him further into the mud. Currently, popularity
endorses degraded novels, self-abnegation has filled the South East Asian
jungles with stone idols and corpses, and democracy has given us inflation and
income tax.

So in other words, it’s OK to attack anyone who refuses to join Scientology or is skeptical of it. That’s because freedom, democracy and all of that crap has produced nothing of value anyway. Only good old fashion tyranny works in human society.

What kind of twisted- demented person could sign such a piece of drivel?

Drivel or not, this is part of the Scientology religion and is therefore a sacrament, that is assuming Scientology is a religion at all.

This is of course utter nonsense, East Asian jungles are full of stone idols put there by thriving civilizations that lasted far longer than this one has. The only reason Scientology was able to grow at all is because of a tenancy in our society to be liberal and tolerant of new ideas.

Hubbard was nothing if not completely ignorant of history which in my experience is reflected in his followers.

But the point is that the basic tenants of Keeping Scientology Working are twofold, 1) Anything Hubbard said is correct and true. 2) any idea that Hubbard did not come up with is false and harmful. Then Hubbard makes additional statements demanding that his ideas be applied to everyone on Earth.

It’s difficult to read that stuff and NOT get a sense of dread urgency about how far this organization has run afoul. It’s my understanding that this document is read and signed each time a person takes a course. It is a sacrament of their “religion” to hold the document in high esteem and hold the tenants descried in it as truthful. Anyone who holds those words in the center of their being is (in my estimation) sick. Don’t take my word for it! I’m not a doctor. Read this crap for yourself!

Said Hubbard. In Keeping Scientology Working.

“We’re not playing some minor game in Scientology. It isn’t cute or something to do for lack of something better.The whole agonized future of this planet, every Man, Woman and Child on it, and your own destiny for the next endless trillions of years depend on what you do here and now with and in Scientology.”

I suppose if this were not a recipe for a fanatical belief I don’t know what would be. I can only hope some of these people pinch themselves and realize what they are looking like to the rest of us. Upon reading KSW a few times, it’s no wonder some Scientologists behave like loons.

***

So the protest last Saturday was small, about 30 people picketed downtown Clearwater. A couple of people wandered off the main group and were reportedly accosted by Mr. P. I’ve heard this story repeated, it seems when the Anons are alone or in small groups, Mr. P. pops out of the woodwork and begins demanding names. They had a couple of blokes covered from head to foot with voice distorters and they told me that Mr. P. seemed pretty frustrated with them.

I met a couple of fascinating people at the protest. I didn’t see Mr. P. or “KP.” But I have bumped into people who know them. Reputations run deep and the folks who have ended up running things in Clearwater have some very interesting pasts. “KP,” has got some interesting history in Clearwater.

Some of the most fascinating stuff is happening away from Clearwater though. There are minor incidents happening every day it seems like. People get accosted, followed, one lady says that some people followed her into a bar and she stayed there for over five hours. In Stockholm a couple of young girls grappled cameramen, in Battle Creek MI some folks marched out of an org and tore up protest signs.

One of the strangest tales comes from Hollywood California, a lady brought her kids to a protest and when they broke for lunch they found a Scientologist barring them from entering a restaurant. It’s unclear if the restaurant owners cared one way or the other but the Scientologist supposedly physically prevented the kids (five and six years old) to take off their masked of not go inside. The police were finally called and the Scientologists fled. Apparently the woman has nothing to do with the restaurant, she just took it upon herself to block people she didn’t like from this public place.

Now… where have I heard this before?

I remember now!

There is another story, again from California (LA this time) where they roped off several city blocks for some gathering. Apparently they were making people who live in the area walk three or four blocks out of the way to get to their homes, one old lady on a walker was seen to accost the people guarding the empty side walks, “L. Ron Hubbard doesn’t run my life,” she shouted… “Bad people!” and pushed passed the guard..

Bad people indeed, the evidence of just how bad is mounting.

Happy Independance Day!

I ventured to downtown Clearwater last night, on my bike. I’ve been restoring an old all-terrain bike that someone had placed on a curb with a “free-take it!” sign. It looked like it had been in a ditch, there was a lot of rust and crap all over it. But the mechanical bits were in fine condition. I repacked the bearings and I’ve been cleaning the other parts. It is not as good a new but it is very usable, and free!

I mounted lights and last night I took off to see the fireworks. An easy 30 min later I arrived at Coachmen Park.

Well, sure (Mr. P.) I had ulterior motives, don’t all SPs have ulterior motives? The Anons were holding a protest and I wanted to see what they were up to. There were a small group of them in a “protest paddock” that the Clearwater PD set up. It didn’t matter much, there were a lot of people walking by and talking to them. I met a couple of Anons that I had not run into before and they told me an interesting thing. The told me that someone was handing out letters with names on them.

Not cease and desist letters it turns out. I’m not sure what I would call them, dead-agenting letters? Attempts to intimidate people with their real names? After I read a few of them I can see that Scientology is still under the assumption that anyone associated with Anonymous is guilty of whatever anyone does anonymously, anywhere in the world.

Such a long, strange leap in logic but what can you expect from them?

Ironically, Scientology members have been joining Anonymous protests as Anonymous members protesting Anonymous! It’s happening in California and a few other places.

I wonder if that idea makes their heads hurt as much as it does mine?

So anyway, technically (were I to nit-pick at the level that they do,) anything that is done in the name of Anonymous is also being done with the endorsement of Scientology! Since the Scientoligists posing as Anonymous protesters are doing so under the direction of the higher-ups in Scientology, it makes it a matter of official policy as well. I really don’t think they want to go there, but common sense does not seem to be their strong suite.

Well the fellow handing out letters was none other than Mr. P. He’s apparently been hatted with handling the protesters. Most of the conversation between he and they Anons can be found here. Like before he steered the conversation into places he wanted. He kept repeating that he didn’t want to speak on camera. I still get the impression that he really does not know what to do about the whole Anon thing. ( I don’t really blame him, Shawn Lonsdale was (I think) a simple non-problem and they made him into a major headache. They don’t wan to make the same mistake with 10,000 Shawn Lonsdales.

I would be happy to have a conversation with Mr. P. or anyone over at Flag, heck I invite any of them to respond here. I have this wacky idea that anything one has to say to another should be for public consumption for ultimately, nothing it private. I hope none of the Anons make the mistake of entering into negotiations with Scientology. They really don’t seem to have anything to offer. All they can do is attack and threaten (and if you think what Mr. P is doing is not a threat, think again.) It’s more subtle than their usual thing but a threat is a threat. They will try to dead-agent the protesters like they have always done. I don’t think there is much room to compromise in any case. Compromise in Scientology lingo is just a bribe.

But Mr. P and his bosses need to remember what also happened last Friday night in Clearwater. The place was full of non-Scientologists. In fact the palce was full of people indifferent if not actively hostile to Scientology. The protesters are a group, only a few hundred people in the area have taken part. But their feelings about Scientology seem to be echoed by almost everyone in this community.

The next protest is on Saturday, July 12th, 2008. The Anons will be mustering at Coachman Park at around 10:AM.

More info can be found here. PM me if you would like to know more about what this is all about.

Interesting Times 6.0

Went to the anti-Scientology protest Saturday. (The pics were unabashedly ripped from here) There were around 40 people at peak. It was all very orderly and peaceful. I me a couple of people that I’d only gotten to know on line. The Fort Harrison is a beehive of activity, construction people are on the roof waving at us.

The only notable thing was the fact that the Scientologists seem to have decided that the protesters are not raving lunatics (not raving in any case,) and that they are in no physical danger from them. They were out and about in usual numbers (my thumbnail average is sighting about 10-12 people in Sea Org uniforms at any given time, more if it is during a shift change.) They were not out in force and they were avoiding the protest routes. The few we encountered made a big show of no making eye contact.

We had one rather rude lady hassle some of the people who stayed behind watching the rally point. She was reportedly yelling and cursing people, one fellow approached her and she did a camera grab. She came by several more times just giving people the finger and suchlike. Some of the homeless people hooted at her.

I chatted with one older fellow who claimed to have been on Hubbard’s ship back in the 70s. He made a point to tell us that “Scientology is the only religion that offers a refund!” I didn’t argue the point with him (what would be the point?,) I did mention that some people seemed to have difficulty on that score.

I asked him what he thought was going on here and he said that he had no clue. He was very nice, but rather insistent that “young people nowadays don’t bother to check out things for themselves – they really don’t know what Scientology is” He said that he was not really a Scientologist any more, I don’t know if that was true or not and it really didn’t matter. He scoffed at some of the fashion choices of the Anons, their hair especially. I gave him the line about “every generation thinking that they invented sex and Mohawks, and being wrong on both counts.” Conclusion? He was probably posing, it’s difficult to tell. He did not behave like some of the Ex Scientology people I’ve met, he was a bit more scripted for lack of a better term.

I spoke with some of the Clearwater homeless, they seem to get a kick out of the anons, one fellow was in the Nav about the same time I was. I was wearing my Ship’s ballcap and we chatted about Navy stuff. I get a little irritated at the Sea Org and their military pretense. Phony people bother me and they are phonies in my book. Some of the guys sitting around the park were pretty vocal in their support. Oh yes and so are many people passing by on the roads.

As with the last few protests, Clearwater was very quiet. I didn’t see as much as a furtive camera man although there seemed to be a few PIs around. They mostly stayed in their cars with the windows rolled up and the AC running. I said hi to Mr P. and the Flag security honcho (Mr. K.), it’s the very first time I’ve seen him at any of the downtown protests. He’s one of the folks who claimed that I encourage people to shoot Scientologists with machine guns, I suppose if he really believes that, even showing his face must be a tremendous act of bravery on his part. If he does not believe it, I wonder how he looks himself in the mirror. I sincerely hope I didn’t frighten him.

So; once again I thank the Anons for putting on a fine protest, the Clearwater Police who (as always ) did an exemplary of keeping order. Scientology – once again was on its best behavior, the “no anonymous “ signs in the store windows were amusing as allways and I think the construction people on the Ft Harrison got a kick out of the protesters. I bet next time, they won’t even look up. What are the odds?

Insanity can be defined as….

Just goes to show you how some people do the same things over and over again expecting different results. I know a teacher with a sign on her wall that defines this behavior as insanity.

A few years ago Mark Bunker was filming the Scientology Celebrity center and one of their big young goons quietly walked up behind him and they bumped. This resulted in the police being called for an alleged assault charge, the whole absurd thing was caught on camera. It came to nothing, the police were scratching their heads at a young fit man claiming that he was injured after Mark accidentally bumped him and apologized.

The other day, Stu “Killdozer,” Wyatt, a scooter-bound protester in Plymouth England allegedly ran over the toe one of the local Scientologists and was arrested for assault. From what I saw on the video, the Scientologist was deliberately sticking her feet under his scooter, something that he warned her about.

Not that this means anything, if Scientology thinks you are an SP they can use whatever means necessary to have you arrested for “crimes.” Hubbard told them that anyone who does not like Scientology is a criminal and guilty of murder and other capital offenses.

It’s right out of the old script. Bump them, cry havoc and call the cops. Say how threataned you felt, from the fellow in the wheelchair.

They have managed to shake up a flagging hive of Anons once again (good move guys! ) Stu is incognito and for some reason his PC and video equipment was confiscated. It’s going to be interesting to see how far this goes.

One thing for sure, this time it is going to be far more public and immediate.

The main Enturbulation thread is here.

Read this!

“Act as if the future of the universe depends on what you do,
while laughing at yourself for thinking that your actions make any difference”
Buddhist Advice.

And this

A small aside

– from the wacky world of Anonymous vs Scientology, this way comes….

Every day brings new revelations; every day brings me close to tears, tears of laughter. I don’t know why I find this amusing, probably the contrast between my “normal life” and watching the completely serious Scientology members trying to run their ….. um businesses in the face of world-wide ridicule. This is in stark contrast to the chan folk who don’t take anything serious. This is like a wrestling match with two completely over the top performers. It’s utterly priceless and you can quote me on that dear Mr. OSA.

Recently the New York Scientology office had a bad weekend, which was a pity because it was Memorial Day weekend. Most normal people were out and about, shopping, roasting hotdogs, hanging at the beach. Bot not Scientology! They were wrapping up their super fantastic Bookathon! Not just any Bookathon, a Dianetics bookathon.

A few Anons thought it would be fun to roast Scientologists in Manhattan (out of hotdogs I guess.) . Just to round out their weekend you understand. The Scilons had set up one of their stress tables, the Anons showed up and used “sidewalk chalk tech” to warn pedestrians of the “dangerous cult ahead.” The Scilons, after discovering that trading insults with chan-folk is as useless as perfume in a rendering plant decided to use their “call the cops” tech.

The cops showed up, carefully looked at what was happening and fined the Scilons for “vending without a licenses’” or some kind of jazz. This was only after getting yelled at by some fellow in a tie. Who was he? This was none other than the Head of the Scientology Office in New York, John Carmichael. John Carmichael was not happy at all, not only because his boys could no longer sell books on the busy New York street, but he had to pay a fine too, probably out of his own pocket. Scientology is notorious about not supporting its members about that sort of thing.

Well John Carmichael decided he’d had enough of these shenanigans, he would show those chan-folk how its done downtown in da big apple! He began to bullbait, but it didn’t work. He pulled out his trusty disposable flashbulb intimidator, it didn’t work. They shined UV flashlights into the lens (that was sweet!) He had this expression, kind of like a cartoon mouse in a trap. It was pathetic on the one hand and delightful on the other. Here was the head of Scientology in New York, one of the most powerful people on lines there, and he was getting his balls busted by a bunch of folks less than half his age. It was like Greek tragedy, it was so powerful I almost wept. But like all tragedy, the line between tragedy an comedy is very fine. Carmichael could not handle the Anons so he resorted to cussing at them, on camera, to a world-wide audience.

And who is this guy? I’ve seen his name him before! Here he visits an OG critic’s home . Too be he didn’t realize that the fellow worked as a court reporter at the time! Carmichael proceeded to bring up this person’s manhood over and over again, note we a pattern here? http://www.shipbrook.com/jeff/CoS/visit.html

What is even more interesting is the rumor (at this point) that Carmichael was using some bizarre policy, a directive sent from on-high, to insult the Anons and try to get a rise out of them. I’ve heard the same kind of language on several YouTube vids, This is right out of Hubbard’s writings so I should not be to surprised. I always am just the same. No one should be that stupid. In Plymouth England the head of the office there snatched up a bunch of protest signs and marched back to her Scientology with “kill-dozer” Stu, a scooter-bound protester running alongside yelling “she’s the head of Scientology and she has stolen out protest signs! ”

I keep thinking, these are the people we are supposed to emulate? These are the folk who are going to “clear the planet” and make it safe fo-us fuzzy headed wogs? Why are WE free to do whatever we want (within reason) and they have to hawk the seminal book-pillow Dianetics? Bridge Publications did very well with the Bookathone I think, they are happy! . They sent pallets of books (and invoices) to every Scientology location. Unless I miss my guess, the books are non returnable and non refundable. The Orgs in turn are responsible for selling them.

What a setup! They force Scientology offices to buy piles of books, what they do with them is their own business. On some of the vids, even small offices have piles of boxes of unsold books. Some of their internal vids suggest that the large orgs (like New York) have been shipped pallets. No wonder Carmichael is pissed. He may have several thousand dollars of merchandise that no one wants, bought and paid for. His sales targets are probably lower than average to begin with, who the heck has money to spend on self-help books these days, especially one as turgid as Dianetics. Not to mention the idea that Scientology makes people into madmen, as the evidence suggests.

These are not good sales points.

Then, in a fit of righteous indignation Carmichael blatts out, “You’re scared! – And I don’t blame you!”

What? You are scared, I don’t blame you? What could that possibly mean by that? That little thing Mr. P. assures me does not happen? Fair Game perhaps?

The Romans said it best “mendacem memorem esse oportet” (liars should have good memories.) Carmichael thinks fair game is alive and well, at least his words suggest that. He should understand and Mr. P needs to comprehend that they are not speaking to individuals anymore; they are speaking to the entire world!

The problem with the Internet is that it has a much better memory than any mere human. It’s got a better memory than a Clear or an OT is supposed to have. It’s free for anyone who bothers to look. That doggerel the Anons give? “We do not forget?” What do you think that means? They do not forget because they can’t forget. They can’t forget because the Internet remembers for them. Every transgression, every lie, every misstatement, every faux pas is remembered with the kind of resolution that a Clear would envy, along with every kind word, every complement and good intention. And it gets worse! Putting information on the Internet is easier than ever. We are about a year away from pen-sized movie cameras that can take hours of high quality video. They have them now, you can’t just stroll into WalMart and get one – yet. YouTube will have a “real-time” section where people can follow folks around vicariously on their computers.

I don’t know how all of this is going to end yet. It’s been very interesting so far and if I know Scientology, they will do their best to keep things interesting. They can hardly help it. Hubbard demands that they attack people or groups that are causing them problems. Trouble is, attacking a person is just like attacking the whole group. The Internet has changed everything and Scientology will either have to embrace it and change their entire outlook or they will become a high tech version of the Amish. Isolating themselves inside of electronically walled strongholds.

Clearwater could become a museum town where people keep good old US American values of the 1950s. The world will spin on while Scientology believers keep their strange ideas of static society. They will become a static society which will in turn become less and less tolerable to all the “normal” people who have gone on with real society. (There’s a cool short story here somewhere.)

***

quick note; Mark Bunker got his pulled YouTube channel reinstated. In the meantime Scientology has been busy setting up official YouTube accounts to disseminate their side of the story and a bunch of unofficial pro-Scientology accounts have sprung up, nearly all with the same language and videos. Some of this stuff (like the entire Official Scientology channel) seems to violate YouTube’s terms of service rules. In the Scientology official channel, they are simply running more than one YouTube account (they also operate the “Anonymus Hate Crime account.” I know that’s silly but I don’t understand why Scientology would make such a big deal of the rules in Bunker’s case and flagrantly violate the same rules themselves.

Some of the Anons did an all night vigil on one Scientology office and got a bucket of water dumped on them as they played a board game. Several Scientology members have made strange sounding threats and finally, lots of Guy Fawkes masks are being bought up by unknown entities.

It’s looking out to be a strange summer.

The next Anonymus Global Protest of Scientology will be on June 14th 2008. information can be found at

http://forums.enturbulation.org/110-june-14th-global-protest/

The hives hum with activity and all us mere mortals can do is watch , I have lots of popcorn!

SP3 ….just don’t!

OK, some of you have heard the hype about Windows XP Service pack 3, it opens crap faster yada-yada.

Just don’t, make a backup before you try. It will put your machine into a talespin that you can’t get out of. Make a complete backup (like a disk image ) and find some way to boot from a CD and not into the XP installer disk before you try to install Windows Service Pack 3 for XP.

Why?

Because SP3 blows that’s why. The TL/DR) version is, XP sp3 has some incompatible driver sets that will place themselves into the load-stack during the OS pre-GUI load process. This will force the system into a loop where it partially boots, does a hardware protection shutdown and automatically attempts to reboot. Once it starts this there is no known way (as of this writing) to fix it. You have to just go ahead and do a bare metal load (with format.) Yah that sucks!

This is primarily affecting HP machines that were loaded using a process called “sysprep.” However , I’ve seen it on at least two other machines and heard of it from one of my co-worker. I experimented with removing driver entries from the registry on which seemed to help, but I gave up after about 15 or so.

Bottom line, don’t DL and install this yet. Wait for the fix to come in. I hear the ISO works pretty well, I’m going to experiment a bit (after full images are made. )

Signs and Portents in Clearwater 3.0

Some of you may have read my previous post about Scientology businesses putting up lots of identical “No Anonymous will be served” signs back in April.

A few days ago, just before the last “World against Scientology” picket, a petition circulated around downtown Clearwater by some of the Clearwater merchants.

Can you guess what it says?

“Dear Mayor Hibbard;

We, the merchants of the Cleveland Street District, are writing to you to ask for your help.

In the last months, a group of masked protesters have come into downtown Clearwater to demonstrate. They have told the media and the City that they are peacefully protesting. This is far from the truth and their actions are detrimental to the conduct of business in downtown. There have been three protests, and in each they have walked through the downtown area yelling and screaming.

Their actions have prevented customers from coming into our stores. Saturday is a very busy day for us commerce-wise and having literally no sales for those three days hurts our economy and not just our personal economies. We have employees that need to be paid. We charge sales tax. These people are making it difficult for us to attract customers downtown.

The City of Clearwater is putting a lot of effort into revitalizing downtown and we hate to see it wasted due to a group of kids who should be using their time to build the community , not trying to tear it down. We do not like having to be here and they, with their masks, odd costumes , chanting and yelling, are not welcome. I do not know if the City has a law to prevent people such as this from stopping commerce as they have been doing. They do have the right to peacefully protest, but they are in no way peaceful. They are intimidating our customers (both non-Scientologists and Scientologists alike.) and we do not appreciate it.

We ask you for your assistance in this matter. We know that you have a whole city to contend with, but downtown has been in the focus of so much of your hard work.

We thank you for your attention and we look forward to helping you create a truly great downtown.

Sincerely ;

(List of 30 odd signatures.)”

I can sympathize with the merchants who signed this thing. Clearwater is nothing short of a dead-zone in Pinellas County. I live relatively close to there and seldom go Downtown (other than to patronize the Starbuck’ or go to a protest. )

But to suggest that the protests are somehow effecting downtown businesses is beyond silly. I’ve been living around here (other than a few years in the military) since 1974. I know how Clearwater has changed, I know how Sparkling Downtown Clearwater has become a tense demilitarized zone, I literally breath a sigh of relief when I leave that place and come back to the real world. This is nothing new, this did not start in January, this did not begin with some stupid Tom Cruise vidio leaked to the Internet. It started long ago. Back in 1975, when Hubbard’s Sea Org landed and began “Project Normandy.”

Why don’t I go downtown to do business in Clearwater?

• There is little going on there that I wish to take part in.I have absolutely no interests to learn more about L. Ron Hubbard or get my brain re-programmed by his followers.


• I have no desire to be photographed by strange people and sneered at by the dwindling number of business owners.
  


• I have little need to get my plates run for no reason and get accused of being a murderer.

The TL;DR reason, (besides the obvious.) is, downtown Clearwater is a creepy place where nothing happens, except Scientology.

To the west of Downtown Clearwater is one of the best beaches on the Suncoast. To the north, the towns of Dunedin with its art district, Palm Harbor with its curio shops and Tarpon Springs with its splendid history and sponge docks. To the East, the sprawling Hwy 19 corridor, full of shopping malls and other businesses. To the South, Largo, a growing suburb of Tampa , Bellaire, a charming little place with some great restaurants, Pinellas Park, has some large shopping/entertainment districts, there is the town of Seminole and then, Saint Petersburg with Baywalk, Janus Landing, the Grand Prix, great museums and I think they have a baseball team. Tampa bay is one of the top ten media markets in the US, it has a similar population and demographics as the Seattle/Tacoma Washington area.

Now, Clearwater has many things to offer — in East Clearwater that is. The downtown district and the East Clearwater Hwy 19 corridor are very different, it’s like two different planets. The Beaches resemble Downtown Clearwater like LA resembles …ahh I don’t know, Mudville? You just don’t see row after row of closed, abandoned shops anywhere else in Pinellas County like you do in Clearwater. You don’t see shops with Hubbard’s tone scale in the window or uniformed people marching back and fourth all day and night.

These cities are in no way perfect, they all have their share of problems. But all of those towns have two things in common.

• Their economies have been pretty good in the last ten years or so.


• Some are thriving.


• They do not have a strong presence of Scientology.


• They are WAY less creepy.


• They are not dominated by a single agenda, people work FOR these cities, not exclusively to get people onto Hubbard’s bridge.

Downtown Clearwater even had a nightclub, a few years ago….

http://tampabay.citysearch.com/profile/2702089/clearwater_fl/liquid_blue.html

It was closed and reopened as “The Majestic,” (with a nice lion mascot, three guesses who owned it?”)

A non-profit organization I belong to used to have meetings in a nice Mediterranean style restaurant downtown, it’s been closed for the last few years, people are using it now but the windows are frosted out, like many other businesses. There are a couple of gas stations, a Publix and a Checkers . The only business I frequent is Starbuck’s. Clearwater does have a nice library however.

Clearwater is a place people drive through to go elsewhere in Pinellas County. Which is strange because Clearwater is the second largest town in Pinellas County. It’s the county seat for crying out loud. Clearwater experienced a building boom in the past few years, just like the rest of Pinellas County. Few houses are getting built, a large high-rise apartment complex is under construction downtown with more on the way. There are a number of huge brand new complexes just south of downtown, they tore down a shopping center on the west side of Pinellas county to build it. Additionally there are lots of strange condos, all piled on top of each other. Clearwater is simply not like any other community in Pinellas County Florida.

When the merchants of Clearwater say “masked protesters are not welcome in Clearwater,” they are really saying “anonymous” Is not welcome. When they say anonymous (which is an adjective, not a noun BTW” ) they are in effect saying “People who are not of us, people we cannot identify, people who are not Scientologists, are not welcome.”

True story; I was in Starbuck’s one night last Febuary, around 9 PM and a little girl approached me, she told me that she was getting donations for the Delphi School and demanded that I put my name, address and phone number on a form. She was all of 7 or 8 years old. It was kind of odd that she only asked a few people, then her parents hustled her out. (not to mention that my 10 year old goes to bed at 9 PM but that’s quite a different rant.)

People In Clearwater are VERY interested in finding out who strangers are. When they say Anonymous (strangers) are not welcome, It is very likely talking about me, they are very likely talking about you. There are approximately 1,000,000 people living in Pinellas County, around 100,000 of them live in Clearwater. 10% of the Clearwater residents might be Scientologists. The rest are… all of us!

So, what is the message that the merchants in Cleveland Street district are communicating to the rest of us with this petition?

“Stay out of Downtown Clearwater unless you support Scientology, unless we can identify you and your intentions. Unless we can identify how you feel about our religion, stay away, don’t come here. We can and we will find who you are, we can and we will run your license, we can and we will discover your name and accuse you of crimes if we do not like you. For anyone with bad thoughts about L. Ron Hubbard is a criminal! He said so and WE believe it! We will find your crimes or we will make some up if we have to!

Do not come here, do not come here because a few people wearing masks and shouting slogans were here. THEY did not like our religion. They are criminals, they are bigots, and they are Nazis. They have bad intentions , they disrespect L. Ron Hubbard and he said, anyone who said bad things about him was a criminal, and I believe that.

Do not come here, you upset me. I have the right not to be upset by you. Even if you are doing something that is sanctioned by wog law, it is NOT sanctioned by Hubbard Law and it is not sanctioned by us! we have a right to decide what is upsetting and YOU must abide by our rules in this matter.

You; the other 90% of Clearwater residents and 99% of Pinellas county residents are NOT welcome downtown unless you have good feelings for L. Ron Hubbard and our religion. If you do not conform to our rules, we don’t want your business, we don’t want you.

Stay away… or else!

This is the climate in and around Downtown Clearwater. This is how people feel about 90% of their neighbors and 99% of the other people living in Pinellas County. I don’t know about you but, it does not matter much to me what a person’s feelings about me are, or if they have bad intentions towards my “religion.” My religion and my beliefs are none of their business and have no right to treat me like a criminal because of them. My town has a HUGE Baptist chapel, anyone protesting them? No? Why? Because they are are not trying to push things at me. They don’t usually engage in socially obnoxious behavior.

But what often happens with strong religious belief is this “feeling offended thing.” When people make arbitrary rules and attempt to push these on others, there will always be conflict. One of the “unwritten rules” in Clearwater is “thou shalt not make light of L. Ron Hubbard or the beliefs of Scientology. Thou shalt not speak of such things for they are only revealed to those who pay in advance.”

The Anons have trampled on this rule, they have killed the sacred cow, THAT is the core of all this, why? Because; those rules do not exist outside of Scientology. Because; the rest of the world does not follow laws laid down by L. Ron Hubbard. Because the rest of the world does not particularly care about L. Ron Hubbard. Because the rest of the world is not even very fond of L. Ron Hubbard. Because the powers that be in Scientology are pushing their rules into places and on people who don’t want them. Because the powers that be in Scientology have laid down their own standards, their own ethics on you and me. They expect us to be good little wogs and just follow the program.

The Anons have violated the rules of Scientology because they are free to do so. Because the constitutions in whatever country they live in is NOT superseded by Hubbard’s laws.

I’m sorry! That’s just the way it is!

Kudos to the Clearwater City Counsel for refusing to hear the request. Their comment was (paraphrased.) “We don’t need to spend very much time ruling on First Amendment issues.” That is spot on! It’s exactly correct, you folks got it in one!

This is something that “the merchants of the Cleveland Street District,” have evidently forgotten.

Why have they forgotten? Because (IMO) L. Ron Hubbard has told them to forget it!

And they believe him.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/localgovernment/article503671.ece

http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/article506348.ece

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Interesting Times 5.0

I went to the Anonymous protest yesterday morning (Saturday, May 10th, 2008.) It was a typical steamy Florida day (unlike most this spring which have been merely hot and dry. )

It was a small protest, only about forty people. Of course by old-guard standards this would have been an enormous protest. I think the largest they had was about 100. It’s finales week and most of the anons are probably hitting the books, or have gotten bored.

They mustered out of Coachman park several times for marches around the downtown area. As last time they seemed pretty well organized and disciplined. Other than someone secretly taking pictures from the building across from the Starbucks, there were no incidents.

BTW, I noticed that most of the “We Won’t serve Anonymous” signs have been removed. Some places sport “No Hate” signs instead. One or two places are still being discriminated, perhaps the word is getting out?

The interesting thing happened after the protest. A fellow was watching from inside the Library as the Anons (and several of us non-anons) chatted together. He was someone I’d seen before. Back in March there were some folks observing the protesters. One fellow was on his cell phone quite a lot and walked by several times. He was a thin, older fellow with a young lady at his elbow.

It was the same couple.

When I was about to amble on home (after vising Starbucks to bring the wife back something) I noticed the fellow chatting with some of the Anons. I wandered over and listened for a while. He was very smoothly talking about the protests from the Scientology perspective. His companion was listening and watching very closely. I want to say at this point that this account is from memory, if I missed something or misquote anyone I apologize in advance. Anyone involved may comment or offer corrections.

Here are some of the main points.

The fellow from Scientology; we can call him “Mr. P.” said that he has something to do with the legal department at Flag (or one of the Scientology front groups.) I think he said “Head of Legal department.”

• According to him, The Flag offices in Clearwater and Scientology buildings are constantly getting bomb threats, they had several this very day. They expect to get more tonight. According to him, this has been going on since at least January.


• Stuff like Operation Snow White is ancient history and was perpetrated by a few misguided people in Scientology; it was intended to be a “legal” purging of untruthful information held by the US government as per an order by L. Ron Hubbard. It got out of hand got out of hand by some overzealous people who were put into prison as a result.


• Fair Game (as in “A suppressive can be lied to etc..) is simply not done anymore. Fair game is all about the internal Scientology justice system , (he then launched into a long winded discussions of how a Scientologist can get a “pastor” or some arbitrator to rule on a dispute.) Fair game simply means that someone is denied this privilege.


• Mr P, said that they have to deal with the most hideous lies and misinformation, the stuff on the Internet is mostly untrue, why do you think they try to squash it all the time?

He kept going over and over some of the main points, specifically that the Flag offices are still getting lots and lots of bomb threats, how would WE feel if our house got bomb threats from someone saying their name is “Anonymous” and all of a sudden a thousand people show up in Guy Fawkes masks. How would WE feel if the police called us to say that someone named Anonymous was going to kill our moms?

Allow me to be clear about something, crank calls and that kind of garbage should not be happening. The Anons that I’ve met don’t strike me as the types to go around doing that kind of stuff. I suspect however that some crank calls were made although I have nothing but that absurd “Anonymous Hate Crimes” DVD for evidence. My feeling is that the people who allegedly did that should have thought twice before making those calls. Just like people in Scientology should think twice before making threatening phone calls to critics. It’s childish behavior which does nothing but trash reputations.

That’s not saying it’s impossible that Mr. P is correct, bomb threats should be taken seriously. I hope anyone doing that would immediately stop and never do it again, (BTW, don’t come to the protests and if you do , don’t ever utter words like “I sent a bomb threat” in my presence.) (You might want to… um… turn yourself in too.)

Better yet, don’t do illegal shit.

When you are caught (and I do think the people doing that junk will get caught) you had better expect to get vigorously prosecuted in criminal and/or civil court. As many people have said before, Scientology has millions of their parishioner’s dollars to spend of legal maneuvering and they don’t hesitate to go after people.

Thankfully, the information that Mr. P put out can be easily verified, he said specifically that someone had threatened to burn down the main church building today. (March 10, 2008.) The police do keep records of that information and it is (or it becomes) part of the public record.

What struck me was the way Mr. P “handled ” the anons and myself. He was very careful not to address anything directly and kept steering the conversation into “safe” areas. He didn’t really want to talk to me at all (I don’t blame him, I first became aware of Scientology when I was in grade school (that was back in the early 1970s.) ) I mentioned that his debate style was markedly different from most people in the group. He mentioned that he’d not actually been to college so he was not trained in formal debate (Well, I don’t think the people speaking to him were either.) I’m not at all sure I heard that right anyway, how in the heck can you become “head of the legal department” for some organization and not have at least a bachelors in business law?

Well as I’ve said before, I’m a captain in my own rowboat.

Mr. P has been in Scientology most of his adult life, although he’s pretty comfortable with debating us “wogs” he obviously could not grasp the idea of a wide-spread feeling that Scientology has some bad customs and needs to change.” I mentioned there were overall societal “ideals” that Scientology violates and how this causes conflict. He seemed to disagree about this and suggested that Scientology is far more influential than it really is. He also had this strange reluctance to criticize, “I don’t want to be critical” was a refrain.

At one point I asked “what do you think all this protesting is about?”
Mr. P. answered; “It was some video of Tom Cruise that got leaked out to the Internet.”
I said, ” You really think that’s all there is to it?”
Mr. P. said, “No; I really don’t know what this is all about.”

When I suggested that 6 billion people probably don’t know what Scientology is he looked confused. But, Mr. P. was very adamant about not wanting to discuss such things.

He got hot under the collar a couple of times, once when some of the anons handed him and his (wife- assistant?) slips of paper that said “if you want to get out.. call (some number.)”

“Don’t be ridicules!” he snapped. I “came here to talk to you not play silly games!”

Another when some homeless person heckled us, he said the fellow was a doctor. (I guess that was a joke…)

Some Interesting stuff “good facts” from Mr. P.

• 10, 000 Scientologists are currently living in Clearwater.


• There are ongoing investigation on anonymous activities,—FBI et al .


• A “protester ” was arrested outside a Church building just the other day.


• Scientology wanted to be left alone, certainly people have a right to protest (he called protesting “communicating” ) but that does not include the harassment, bomb threats etc.


• Scientology only takes legal actions in its own defense.


• Scientology’s tax exempt status is NOT unfair, what is unfair was the years and years that Scientology courses (religious activity or whatever you choose to call it) were not tax exempt. (I think he said the Anons should be protesting that.)


• Mr. P didn’t know who was following protesters home “If you think you are getting followed,” he said, “ it’s probably your imagination or drug dealers.”

One Anon took umbrage hearing about calls from Scientology officials to his parents. He’s in his twenties and informed Mr. P. that it was out of line on their part to contact his mom and worry her unnecessarily. Mr. P. didn’t seem to understand why this would upset someone (that speaks volumes about the issues people have with Scientology.)

They don’t like the protesting one bit, it’s distracting said Mr. P.
“How would you like it if someone were shouting that your family were all pedophiles?’ he asked, “Well that happened to us a few weeks ago. You did that” he said, pointing at one of the anon protesters (the same one who got his mom called up.) “I did no such thing, ” Said the protester,” I said that Hubbard thought Jesus was a pedophile! ”

(I don’t remember that in Hubbard’s mythology, he said that Jesus was an implanted story but (someone plz correct me if I’m wrong) he never mentioned that he was a pedophile.) (5/22/2008, amend this to read, “there seems to be some mentions of this in the OT8 material but this may not be currently utilized.”)

Someone suggested that Scientology apologize over the way they have treated the protesters Mr. P said that they would do that if it would help (!), but they wanted the leaders of Anonymous to stop all of the bomb threats. Illustrating once again how little they understand the situation.

I asked Mr. P. what they would do if they identified the leaders of Anonymous; (knowing full well how absurd that question is,) he (very smoothly) said “I don’t know, probably nothing.”

I also brought a copy of that injunction they put me on, I read him and the others the paragraph about how I (As a respondent) supposedly encourage people to use guns and whatnot to assassinate Scientology members. He actually apologized to me (with the caveat, “if we misidentified you.”)

Mr. P. also made a point to mention over and over again how people associated with Anonymous could also be associated with the alleged crimes of Anonymous. Then, in cosmic irony and in almost the same breath claimed that people should not judge Scientology by what a few of its members might have done in the past. (Pot-kettle-black my friend.)

I came away from this feeling that Scientology (or at least some people in it ) have been asked to do to do damage control. Not a bad idea. Scientology has had a terrible couple of months. Several high profile defections, no one know how many quiet ones. A growing surge of disdain from the general public. A base of activists which is getting more knowledgeable every day. Unwanted media attention. Extremely bad handling of public flaps which seem to be multiplying each week. Not to mention their cruise ship the MV Freewinds has been reportedly locked down because of asbestos contamination, (this is generating some interesting chatter in legal circles.)

Clearwater is a profit center, probably one of the few they have left. Much of their attention will be focused on Clearwater and the events here. If Scientology starts contracting (and I think they may very well do that, ) their attention will be on Clearwater and about two other places. It’s going to be pretty interesting to see which direction this goes.

They could fix things in this community if they want to but, to do so will be to give up Hubbard’s dictum of attacking people. I don’t know that they can do that. Hubbard’s writings are said to be flawless, they must find the center of the problem and eliminate it. That translates into (frequently) anti-social and sometimes extra-legal activity by members against individuals. That playbook does not work too well when people are expecting it and it won’t work at all against a non-organization like Anonymous. Trying to attack individuals (who are hooked into the Internet) is likely to make the situation worse.

To be fair however, I have not heard of any harassing activity or legal maneuvering outside of the initial flurry in March. They don’t interact with the protesters during scheduled protests, although one or two of the Anons mentioned people were bullbaiting during “flash-raids.” (Unscheduled protests.)

On the other side, the Anonymous people write and throw away playbooks all the time. One thing Mr. P brought up over and over again was (paraphrased.) “You people (Anonymous) are just treating this like a video game!”

Well yes, they are! Video games have become sophisticated immersive environments that have their own rules, their own customs and language. Even rudimentary ones are extremely complex. The rules change each time a different game is played. Many of the people in Anonymous (to my notion) are gamers. Some have been doing this for decades.

One of the tenants of Scientology (strangely enough) is life is just a game. However in their case, life (Scientology) is the only game in town and there is only one set of rules. I don’t see how they can understand let alone deal with Anonymous when they are not part of the culture and most of their members are not allowed to experience the the Internet, most are not supposed to even look.

One very interesting exchange between Mr. P and myself went something like this, it was during one of Mr. P’s explanations of the Snow White affair.

I interjected. “Well, when you guys wanted to get at the false Government records, that would be a little like me wanting to get my DA pack from you folks.”

“Yes it would,” he said.

Hmmm…...

We parted amicably, “It was nice meeting you sir,” I said.

“Oh, I’m sure we will meet again.” He said with a smile. And I swear he saluted me! I was wearing my USCSS Nostromo hat, I wonder if that had something to do with it?

Just a weekend, nothing to see here!

We had a relatively relaxing weekend. Deb was out of town Friday and Saturday so the house burned down and fell into a dark slimy pit, or not, so it would seem. E’ managed to cut himself, pretty bad too. Blood really freaks him out so I had to be daddy much of the night. Well I am daddy but most of the time he doesn’t seem to need or want one . (He really needs one—just saying!)

E’ and I met her at the local Barns and Noble for a bit of book browsing and buying, (one of my favorite pastimes. ) I also popped into Comp USA for another of my favorite pastimes

Sunday morning we went to see Iron Man (at a local digital theater where first run movies are only five bucks! Popcorn not included.) I was pleasantly surprised. Iron Man is played by nascent bad-boy Robert Downey Jr is delightfully un-serious business in most parts.

This was not exactly highbrow stuff, physical laws were shattered left and right. People crash to the ground from around 5000 feet with nary a bruise. Rockets don’t seem to need reaction mass (like Mr.’ Freeze’s empty rocket the Rocketeer’s jet pack. ) Despite that and despite the films rather predictable plot points it was enjoyable. Enough cake, gadgets and explosions to please most people.

(Overheard right after the credit roll…)

E’ “I didn’t understand, who was that guy with the eyepatch?”

Deb “You need to read more comicbooks!”

Wa? Parents are telling kids to read more comic books?