Archive for the ‘WTF!’ Category

Updates – Strange Days.

I’ve been mulling over even mentioning this, however someone reminded me that I sort of asked for this junk to happen by getting involved. The problem with me is, If I see someone in trouble, if I see a crime being committed or somebody doing stuff they simply should not be. I have a tenancy of getting involved. There are people out there who don’t want me involved, they don’t want you involved.  So they attack people like me to frighten and drive away. I’ve seen some evidence of this happening, especially lately.

I cannot keep quiet about this stuff, because if you keep quiet, it gets worse, if you keep quiet, they win. The people who are doing this are bullies and if you allow bullies to win even a little bit they become bigger bullies. We all lose when that happens. You – me  - everybody.

Last week I went to the regular Scientology protest in Downtown Clearwater. Clearwater is a special place to Scientology, it’s a place they make a majority of their income and even in these tough economic times (I believe) they are making a profit in Clearwater. Things to remember about Scientology, it’s not about religion or freedom to them, it’s all about the money.

Protests in Clearwater are boring for the most part. We don’t have people running out and randomly assaulting protesters like in other places. We don’t seem to have the viscously rude bull baiters   (bull baiting is a Scientology skill where they make people sit around and insult each other. It’s startling when you first see it, then when you find out that they actually go to school to LEARN how to insult people it’s kind of sad.)

Last week was different. We had (what I believe) were at least four “operations” running against the protesters. I’ll describe a couple of them.  We had anomalous cars with Scientology bumper stickers slowly cruising around, there were several people walking by who stopped, pulled expensive SLR type cameras out and  made a big deal about photographing the protesters. A couple of bikini clad girls alternately rode bikes and strolled past the protest – like five times. It was all noticeable and rather unusual.

And the one which really burns me up, towards the end the protesters were camped out at Cort and Ft Harrison, this is the main drag to the beaches and there is always lots of traffic on weekends. I observed a car pull in across the street from us, a small boy of no more than nine or ten got out.  He started walking towards us, then turned around and got back into the car. He did this several times until finally “mom,” the driver of the car got out and fairly pushes the kid across the street. He came over to us and started talking about porn site he visits, all they while recording us on his cell phone.

That’s just too much! I mean, you have got to be freaking kidding me!

This could all be a coincidence. The kid, the bikini girls and the other things I didn’t mention might all be just random occurrences, but I don’t belive so. Because another thing happed much closer to home.

I had an incident from one of my co-workers. He’s a fellow we hired some years ago, a pretty smart guy to  tell the truth. A bit reckless, but he knows his stuff.

I tend to keep work separate from the protest thing (other than I’ve made my employers aware of it.) I don’t as a rule bring it up unless other people do first (which they do from time to time.)

This guy has always seemed a bit, I don’t know; odd to me. He seems to know his stuff but there are strange gaps in his knowledge. Like he seemed unaware of a lot of popular “geek” culture that several of my collages and I enjoy.

He’s also constantly trying to sell something, you can hear it the way he pitches his voice. He brags about how good at selling he is. He also regularity comes into my office to tell me about some new hacking tool or whatever. I’m polite to him, but really – I’m not into breaking into computer systems.

The other day, he walked by my office and said in a loud voice “How’s project Titstorm going?”

“Titstorm” was some thing regarding an on line. protest against  Australian Government web pages.  I’d heard about it but I was not otherwise involved. I tend to shy away from illegal activity as a rule. (Duh!)

Well I approached this gentleman and  asked “why do you think I wold have anything to do with that?”

He said, “because you run proxy servers in your office!”

“I certainty do not” I said. (which is absoulutly true.)

He said “you are blatantly lying - you always do that!”

The conversation went downhill from there. We were in front of our immediate supervisor who eventually put a stop tot he whole thing. I spoke to the supervisor about this and how upsetting that line of questioning was to me. You see, among other things I do computer security work and accusing me of such a thing is like asking a police officer how his bank holdup went last night.

Work handled the thing to my satisfaction, but I’m a bit disturbed about the larger aspects of the issue.

I don’t know if my colleague is a member of Scientology and frankly I don’t give a flaying damn. He urged us to buy products from Sunbelt Software once (a Scientology company,) but otherwise he has not attempted to bring his personal crapola to work. (until now.) The fact that he’s running scans on me is troublesome, the idea that ‘somebody’ at work has  been putting pressure on my bosses has been in the back of my mind, but I don’t like to be paranoid.

So anyway, here is how it’s going to work.  I’m not doing anything illegal. If somebody think s I am, that’s their problem – not mine. Take it to the authorities.  Stop playing little kids games.

As for Scientology.  your reputations(s) proceed you.  If you get me fired from my job, I’ll get a nice vacation where I can document and ‘publish’ the bulls&%t you people pull, not just on me, on everyone around this community since the mid 1970s. Then I’ll get a better job. You get me arrested on some bogus crap, I’ll let my record speak for me. You try to mess with my reputation? People will know what you are up to, lots of people. My reputation is for me to create, not for you idiots to mess around with. You create your own flaps.

You’d better worry about your own reputation for a change.

Popularity: unranked [?]

Now that’s Strange!

Someone swiped my Obama for Pres sign!

In fact they swiped all the political signage on my street!

With one exception!

Popularity: 1% [?]

Heavens to Murgatroyd!

OK, this was not us, there was a small amount of glass on our street, some skid marks, that was all when I got home from work yesterday.

Right in front of my house

Someone had

A really bad day.

I don’t know exactly what happened.  One of my neighbors took these photos while I was at work. Aperently someone was  driving a bit too fast, had a cell phone out and clipped a parked car on the side of the street. and flipped over.

Thankfully no one was hurt.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Coffee and Crazyness!

I did my mocha and writing ride again last night, into Downtown Clearwater.

I happened upon a protester at the corner of Cleveland and Ft. Harrison. He and some friends were doing some kind of anti-government 9/11 thing. I had a hard time reading their signage.  It was all hand written by a sharpie and really difficult to read in the dark. It said “Most people still think Saddam did 911.”

He seemed earnest in his beliefs although it was difficult for me to tell exactly what he believed in.   He was well aware of Scientology but he had some strange attitudes which lead me to suspect he was a Scientologist or very sympathetic to them. As a matter of fact he mentioned a connection with the CCHR which he characterized as an organization that was independent of the church. He said that lots of people in the CCHR are not into Scientology (that’s news to me!)

At the same time he didn’t seem too sympathetic to Scientology itself. It was a strange mixture.  He was into satanic stuff or so he said.  He seemed to think that would shock me and he mentioned two or three other things that he was dead wrong about. Like who actually authored the book “A piece of Blue Sky.”  He mentioned the Jack Parsons Hubbard ODO connection like this was supposed to be news to me.
I should have known better because his sign when I got close enough to read it extolled the virtues of http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/main.htm, a pro conspiracy smorgasbord  that’s been making the rounds for the past few years., Zeitgeist makes convincing noises but completely misinterprets history and short-strokes all over the place.

He was very vehement in his dislike to “psyches” as he put it. All pharma is evil, his Mom was on Prozac, and she got off of it and committed suicide, see! That proves Prozac made her commit suicide!

(Um yah, sure; I’m sorry about your mum dude!)

He tried to get me to talk about Scientology, “I’m your friend! You can tell me about what you know” he said. I informed him that I don’t think of him as a friend since I had just met him and knew nothing whatsoever about him. “Well I think of you as MY friend,” he said.

Sure buddy! The only people who talk that way are trying to pull one over on me.

I’ve noticed that a lot lately in Clearwater. I’ve bumped into some very chatty people who seem to dislike Scientology, want to pump me for information. They  use the term “psych” a lot. (Little protip Peter; Most people don’t use the word “psych” outside of Scientology and certainly not as a derogatory term.) I’ll also try to forget that Downtown Clearwter has about as many cameras on the public street as Fort Knox and from some of the stuff Scientology has placed on YouTube, they are probubly picking up and *recording* conversations.

Also; I’ve noticed that most people who utter the word psych don’t seem to understand the difference between Psychology and Psychiatry. That’s kind of a giveaway;I mentioned to this fellow that Psychology and Psychiatry are about as different as hairstyling and surgery, he gave me a funny look.

I always find it strange when people criticize stuff they know nothing about.  Would it not make sense to actually read up on the subject and find the real flaws instead of just making shit up? Of course you stand the risk of understanding what the mental health industry is really for, it’s not some nutty bunch of guys in thick German accents trying to tell you that “man is just an animal!”

**

“Baez,” the portly Mexican-looking Flag security guy ran out to make sure I wasn’t hassling all the Sea Org people walking around. (Hi Baez!) Someone probably ran into his office to tell him the evil SP was spreading evil or whatever evil SPs do. ( I got to work on my German accent!)

I think he’s one of the guys who was a petitioner on their goofy injunction. If so he’s publicly stated that I’m a crazy person who might very well cause harm to Scientology members (like murder them!)

Because of my craziness!

I might do something drastic!

Instead I went over to Starbucks, got a mocha and wrote for a while. (Sorry Baez! I really hope your barracks inspection went well this week! I remember those when I was a kid in basic! Barracks inspections  were a bitch! (Giving them and getting them!)  I think it’s nutty to be doing that kind of shit as a forty+ year old man, but I am the crazy one!)

There is a protest scheduled for this Saturday, 10:30 at Clearwater Coachman Park. Bring a mask and water. They say that they will march until their water supplies run out which in this heat won’t take too long!

Popularity: 1% [?]

DDoS-nao?

A really strange thing happened on Monday, Sep 8 2008. My web host blackfish.biz came under something that resembled a DDOS attack.  It didn’t look like any data was taken but the servers were hit over and over again with 4 MB requests all coming from different sources.

63.167.255.154   3.33 MB    08 Sep 2008 – 09:07
99.237.223.122   2.96 MB    08 Sep 2008 – 09:03
208.220.187.xxx  3.33 MB    08 Sep 2008 – 09:01
71.65.85.xxx        2.84 MB    08 Sep 2008 – 08:56
24.9.233.xxx        4.47 MB    08 Sep 2008 – 08:51
216.27.13.xxx      3.40 MB    08 Sep 2008 – 08:40
82.15.27.xxx        3.33 MB    08 Sep 2008 – 08:34
129.241.93.xxx    3.33 MB    08 Sep 2008 – 08:30
200.30.104.xxx    4.41 MB    08 Sep 2008 – 08:23
81.179.30.xxx      2.38 MB    08 Sep 2008 – 08:16
192.38.4.xxx        3.33 MB    08 Sep 2008 – 08:07
213.170.46.xxx    3.33 MB    08 Sep 2008 – 08:05
206.248.137.xxx  3.32 MB    08 Sep 2008 – 08:00
64.203.254.55      3.32 MB    08 Sep 2008 – 07:56
193.114.112.xxx  3.33 MB    08 Sep 2008 – 07:44

This tapered off after a few hours, as you can see, some of the requests are exactly 3.33 MB, others are random.

Weird!

But, after looking at the logs, I found the answer. Seems I got Slashdotted! Somone refered to this post and it got over 800 visits in the space of a few hours. Yikes! Lots of people still read Slashdot! I don’t know why I was getting those three MB hits over and over again, but the reason for the traffic increase is clear now.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Ok; say you told me so.

Aaaa! The freaking JOYS of home ownership!

Last year we bought a new AC unit, one with higher capacity of the old one and because of the wonders of modern technology, far more economical. I talked the fellow who sold it to us to install a cutoff switch in the drip pan. The old AC overflowed for the previous owners and damaged the ceiling. This seemed prudent to me, a drip pan over a drywall ceiling does not sound like a good idea in the first place.

Well! I kept watch on the outflow, were were getting plenty of water. I went up to check it a couple of times last year, the pan’s been dry as a bone.

The other day I noticed a few drops of water on the floor under the pan, ummm…! I peeked, yup, drip pan overflowing. Drain pipe was plugged, it was flowing but much slower than normal and the dad-gum cutoff never tripped!

I drained the pan, opened the outflow pipe and took stock of the ceiling. Some of the drywall was wet, a bunch of the insulation was too. So I pulled it out the wet stuff, there did not seem to be too much. I thought that I would allow it to dry out over the weekend and and everything would be fine.

Meanwhile, Fay churned completely around the state except for our area. We got a mere two inches of rain while other places got as much a two feet!

Saturday, I was pecking away at the computer when E’ comes in.

“Um Dad,” he says , “was the ceiling supposed to do that?”

By that he meant drop about two square feet of drywall onto the floor. I check the edges of the hole.  It’s all wet, with soggy insulation all over the place, and rotting drywall too! The part the collapsed was not even under the drip pan. It was several feet away in fact. The drip pan was not overflowing, this was old water from before I discovered the problem. There was nice dry insulation on top and an inch or two of soggy insulation.

It looks like it dropped about 50 galleons on the ceiling, we have a nice ten x six foot hole in our ceiling now. I checked the cutoff switch, it was working but it had never been set correctly, a full pan would never trip the compressor. I have no idea how long it’s been like this, days, weeks?

So what did I learn? The next house will not have an air handler over a living area, air handlers and hot water tanks belong in the garage.

Two more tropical storms in the Caribbean! uRRRR!

Last night I said “screw it” and decided to relax by riding my bike into Downtown Clearwater and writing for a few hours.

That’s relaxing?

Popularity: 1% [?]

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 described 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.

Popularity: 1% [?]

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. )

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Outrage.

Nightline did a segment on two young ladies last night. Jenna Miscavige Hill and Astra Woodcraft. Both were raised in Scientology and both have come forward with some very sad and astounding stories of growing up in the group. Their web page, Ex Scientology Kids, is direct response to several statements from Scientology claiming that (among other things) their disconnection policy is a myth. I read their page some a few months ago.

Before I get into this, a word about choices. You can make your own choices on this matter, you are free to do so. You can be complacent, you can ignore it. Or like me, you can feel the outrage. Scientology would like you to ignore it, they would like you to just go away and pay no attention to it.

I don’t choose to do that, I’m feeling the outrage, let me tell you why.

Not only from what I saw last night, I’ve heard of this stuff before. I know about Happy Vally and it’s my understanding that kids get abused in Scientology. After a while one gets to critical mass with this kind of thing, the stories can’t be ignored any longer.

The Nightline piece was bad enough, but it was when I read Scientology’s response, their rebuttal of the piece. That’s the moment I really felt angry. Their response is not a foot bullet, it’s more like a Hydrogen bomb. A hydrogen bomb dropped on their own kids, by their own hand.

Let me be crystal clear however, I have no way of knowing who is telling the truth. Ms Hill and Ms Woodcraft might be making all this stuff up. Scientology might be a benign organization. One that’s very concerned with the welfare of its members. This could be an unfair attack on something that is only meant help humanity crawl out of a dank, muddy pit and achieve,… well whatever Scientology Promises. They promise so many things.

But most people can see the truth, most people can judge if a person is lying or being honest. Ms Hill and Ms Woodcraft don’t strike me as people who are making things up.

The Nightline piece is disturbing, Ms Hill and Ms Woodcraft make serious allegations. Within the reality distortion field of Scientology they don’t sound like very much, but I choose to live in the real world, not the phony world of Scientology.

The two young ladies were talking about child abuse.

Ms Hill and Ms Woodcraft describe growing up in Scientology, they describe an abusive environment, controlling and un-nurturing. They describe being separated from their parents, “evolving” into young adults in a place that sounds like a medieval seminary or a prison camp. A prison camp replete with verbal abuse, hard labor, forced indoctrination, military discipline, forced confessionals and physical abuse. This is child abuse, conducted not by their parents, the parents were sent away and these kids were raised by others.

This is pretty bad all in itself, Ms Hill is the niece of the head of Scientology so presumably some deference was given her, nevertheless her stories are bone chilling. What amplifies this story in my mind is Scientology’s *official* response to the piece.

In their statement to ABC news, not only do they fail to suggest that Scientology condemns these practices, they seem to actually condone them, calling the practice of child abuse “church business.”

Let me explain myself, first, read the statement from Scientology to the editors of Nightline in its entirety. Then I’ll address each bit and give you my feelings in turn.

“The Church of Scientology made it clear from its first contacts with “Nightline” that it would not publicly discuss the ecclesiastical circumstances surrounding the dismissal of Mrs. Hill from Church staff, regardless of the nature of her allegations.

The Church will not discuss matters surrounding Mrs. Hill, because given the thrust of her claims, she has used her name to make an otherwise ecclesiastical issue into a family matter and a personal attack on a family member. The Church will not relinquish its dignity to engage in such a debate. Moreover, due to Mr. Miscavige’s ecclesiastical position he cannot, will not and never has commented on family matters. It would be entirely inappropriate. Indeed, it is always inappropriate to discuss family in a public forum.

Every religion has its detractors; there is no faith that can satisfy everyone’s spiritual needs, Scientology included. We wish Mrs. Hill well in her search for spiritual fulfillment.

“Nightline” clearly had its show prepared before it ever contacted the Church. Nonetheless, the Church provided “Nightline” with a wealth of information regarding the allegations raised in this piece so that ABC could undertake journalistic due diligence. “Nightline” well knows the Church cannot respond directly to Mrs. Hill’s allegations without impugning her character, something the Church will not do.

The Church of Scientology repeatedly offered ABC unlimited access to its staff and facilities for a piece on the actual story of Scientology. Under the leadership of Mr. David Miscavige, the Church has seen unprecedented expansion across the globe, in its membership, in its facilities to serve its parishioners and the surrounding communities and, most importantly, in its humanitarian programs reaching out to make this a better world. “Nightline” was more interested in pursuing a story more fitting to tabloid journalism.”

Look; I’m not a professional PR person, but I like to think that I have a reasonable command of the English Language. This statement speaks volumes on the “church’s’” position in regard to Ms Hill and Ms Woodcrafts allegations of child abuse. Remember, that is what the Nightline piece is about. Not religion, not beliefs, not space-cooties or any other damn thing, the Nightline piece was not really about Scientology per say, it was about alleged child abuse.

The first bit.

“The Church of Scientology made it clear from its first contacts with “Nightline” that it would not publicly discuss the ecclesiastical circumstances surrounding the dismissal of Mrs. Hill from Church staff, regardless of the nature of her allegations. “

So far so good. Not addressing any of the issues but not saying much of anything, a “no comment.” Ms Hill was booted out of Scientology and we don’t want to go into why.

“The Church will not discuss matters surrounding Mrs. Hill,

The above statement reiterated. Allegations of child abuse are not something that an organization should comment on other than something to the effect of, “we are very alarmed and are looking into the matter.”

They go on.

because given the thrust of her claims,she has used her name to make an otherwise ecclesiastical (*) issue into a family matter and a personal attack on a family member.

Hold the phone… did I hear that right? She’s using her position as a relative of Scientology’s Chairman of the Board to make church business into a family matter? What church business? She was describing an abusive upbringing! That is why she left. That is what the Nightline segment was about. She was not describing anything remotely like church business!
Unless….. (and I rubbed my eyes in disbelief when I realized what they seemed to be saying..)

They go on.

“The Church will not relinquish its dignity to engage in such a debate.

Very wise, there is no debate. There can be no debate. The stuff that Ms Hill and Ms Woodcraft describe should never happen, period.

“ Moreover, due to Mr. Miscavige’s ecclesiastical position he cannot, will not and never has commented on family matters. It would be entirely inappropriate. Indeed, it is always inappropriate to discuss family in a public forum.”

Agreed, no argument from me. Unless we are in fact talking about child abuse, in that case the courts are the best public forum to discuss it in.

However the issues being covered in the Nightline piece can’t be church business right? The issues that Ms Hill and Ms Woodcraft brought up was ….child abuse. In the previous line the church is stating that this is an ecclesiastic issue! Ms Hill is relating accounts of her upbringing in the Church of Scientology, not church business. Am I Right?

But Scientology’s official position is, “we don’t want to talk about church business.” That’s a very bizarre response unless they are in fact saying…

“ What you people might call child abuse is part of Scientology church business, therefore we can’t talk about it.”

Either that or the spokes-person for Scientology has no idea what they are saying, perhaps I don’t know what the f%$# I’m reading or… dare I suggest this? They are stating in print that Scientology condones child abuse as a church rite.

Yikes!

OK, here is the next line.

“Every religion has its detractors; there is no faith that can satisfy everyone’s spiritual needs, Scientology included. We wish Mrs. Hill well in her search for spiritual fulfillment. “

This is almost contrite, better than the last passage.. Once again it’s not addressing the issues; the well- wish for Ms Hill is nice however.

Point for the effort.

Back into attack mode we go, now after Nightline.

“”Nightline” clearly had its show prepared before it ever contacted the Church. Nonetheless, the Church provided “Nightline” with a wealth of information regarding the allegations raised in this piece so that ABC could undertake journalistic due diligence.

Really! They provided what? Was it something pertaining to the allegations of systematic child abuse? If so than Nightline was irresponsible to not include this information. I would be willing to bet it had nothing to do with Ms Hill or Ms Woodcraft’s allegations.

“Nightline” well knows the Church cannot respond directly to Mrs. Hill’s allegations without impugning her character, something the Church will not do. “

This I’m sure is true. Nightline was asking church officials to comment on a story about the upbringing of two young ladies in the church. Their due-diligence was to go to church officials and ask for a statement. “Nightline” well knows the Church cannot respond directly to Mrs. Hill’s allegations without impugning her character,” basically says, “all we can do is call her a liar.” But the issue once again is alleged child abuse. Is this true or not? If it’s not true, why are these people coming forward with such hair-raising tales? If it is true, what is Scientology going to do about it? Why could any response impinges on Ms Hill’s character? She’s telling a lie or she’s not.

“The Church of Scientology repeatedly offered ABC unlimited access to its staff and facilities for a piece on the actual story of Scientology. “

I don’t think giving a Nightline film crew yet another tour of the Celebrity Center or doing some Potemkin Village display is going to do any good this time. Nightline knows very well that they are not going to talk to any abused children or discuss anything of relevance. They know from experience that Scientology will whitewash the whole thing like they always do.

On the contrary, dozens of happy, well scrubbed kids will gush about how they are the happiest, best cared for, best educated little tots of the best organization on the whole big-wide planet Earth. Anyone with a high school education knows how that song goes. (Protip. Most people working for Nightline probably graduated from collage.)

“Under the leadership of Mr. David Miscavige, the Church has seen unprecedented expansion across the globe, -“

This is meaningless, no facts are offered and there is no way to verify them. The evidence suggests on the contrary that Scientology is rapidly contracting. (Don’t take my word for it, look for yourself. ) This is way off topic anyway.

“ – in its membership, in its facilities to serve its parishioners and the surrounding communities.”

Off topic again and not true so far as I know. What surrounding communities! I live a few miles from one of the largest Scientology compounds on the Earth and they have done nothing for this community. Downtown Clearwater is almost befit of businesses, no one around here goes there because there is nothing going on in Clearwater except, Scientology. They don’t seem to do anything except create controversy, something they do very well. (Need I mention Mr Mayor of Clearwater that simply parking your car on the wrong day in your town gets people stalking around your home and your name on public documents stating that they like to assassinate people. )

“ and, most importantly, in its humanitarian programs reaching out to make this a better world. “

Humanitarian programs? Handing out “ Way to Happiness” booklets does not a humanitarian program make. Showing up at a disaster site, giving touch assists and pamphlets extolling the virtues of Scientology does not a humanitarian program make. Most people don’t live in the Scientology reality distortion field, so we can’t see this as saving the planet or whatever you call it. (and this is off topic once again.)
Finally;

“Nightline” was more interested in pursuing a story more fitting to tabloid journalism.”

Child abuse is not tabloid journalism! It’s something that affects us all. Every time I read about stuff like this I cringe inside, and I weep. Tabloid journalism is crap about Tom Cruise! It’s crap about Kirsty Alley and other people no one should pay attention to.

First off, kids don’t need to be in a military organization when they are freaking nine years old (let alone six or seven.) They need to be home with their parents or at least around people who care about them. They don’t need to be making lifetime commitments before they understand what that means (little kids will do anything to make the big people happy, a billion year contract is incomprehensible to a kid, or even an adult who would knowingly sign such crap.) Little kids don’t need to be indoctrinated into a belief system before they are able to understand it. Exposed to religion, sure. I have Bibles in my home, I have a copy of the Koran, I have copies of Scientology books, I have books of Buddhism, Hinduism, and stuff you probably have never heard of. My kids are welcome to read any and all of them.

I don’t force- feed this stuff, I don’t indoctrinate and I don’t make them go to church. When they are of age, they can make their own decision, *including* Scientology (although I won’t donate a red cent to it and make sure they had both sides of the story.) Bottom line I’m very VERY much against making small children adopt my beliefs. I’m appalled that Scientology has chosen to hammer its beliefs into their kids; this alone is nothing short of abuse in my book.

And that’s the light stuff; making kids work long hours is child abuse. Making kids sign lifetime service contracts is child abuse, making kids live in barracks away from families for extended periods is child abuse. Not allowing them to communicate with their families, child abuse, physically restraining them in an institutional setting because they won’t cooperate, child abuse. Screaming at them, using coercive means to control is child abuse.

And Ms Hill was getting “special treatment,.” They were being nice to her! Please allow that idea to sink in for a while. I did and it makes my blood run cold. How could they be treating the less privileged kids?

But then, Stating that these are ecclesiastic matters? Unbelievable! Stating that child abuse, CHILD ABUSE!!! Is church business as an official stance? They actually uttered that? Someone please tell me that I’m mistaken!

As they say on the Internet; OMFG!

We saw protest s of merely 7000 people in the last few months? If this is even partly true, the next ones should be 70, 000. There should be protests EVERY DAY!

If this stuff is true, Scientology needs some work and that’s putting it mildly. Look, I’ve been at all of the recent protests; I’ve been called a terrorist for my trouble. Scientology has publicly stated that I urge people to do violence against them. I know they talk right out of their pimply OT butts about people, I’ve seen reams of their dead agenting and kill the messenger crap.

As outraged as I might be about the Nightline story, I would never urge violence. Violence won’t help them, lies won’t help them. Public exposure will help them, protests will help get that public exposure.

I urge anyone reading this to attend the next scheduled world protest against Scientology. Go HERE for more information.
Please go, disguise yourself if you want to protect your identity. I probably won’t but I leave that up to your own choice. I want them to know that I’m upset at them, because of their actions and because of their own words.

But please, show your outrage over Scientology. Show your outrage by joining me.

Please!

Scientology can go to hell for all I care, but the kids can’t wait.
They need your support.
They need you out there.
Please!

****

The Nightline Segment.

On ABC

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4722154&affil=wfts

On YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1wSTm_LEhU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRhuvkwoTOo&feature=related

Planning for the May 10th protests

http://forums.enturbulation.org/82-may-10th-protest/

Ex Scientology Kids.

http://www.exscientologykids.com/

Wikipidia entry on child abuse

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_abuse

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Signs and Portents in Clearwater.

Some friends and I went to the anti Scientology protest last Saturday. We were “protest tourists” as the ever apt Mr. PH remarked. The Anons were doing a presentation at the Royal Theator in the morning which we missed. it was on the Scientology disconnection policy . there was a pet fair going on which we did not attend (it looked very sparsely poulated from my point of view. )

We saw a very strange thing in downtown Clearwater, lots of identical signs have popped up saying “no Anonymous” and “We choose not to serve Anonymous members.” I’m not sure what they mean by this, it’s not legal to go into a public place with masks on anyway, are they really going to demand that I show them my driver’s license to do business? Do they ask this of all of their patrons or are the signs up just on protest days?

The whole thing reminds me of “whites only” signs, except these seem to make a statement of a person’s state of being, if I don’t identify myself I’m anonymous right? I don’t think I need to give someone my name just to buy a cup of coffee. Is that the going thing in Clearwater nowadays? How is this not discriminatory?

Thankfully; Starbucks’ is not hanging such nonsense in their windows. Kudos guys!

Otherwise, we were rudely photographed by someone named Ian Shillington. He’s been on Mark Bunker’s videos for almost ten years now. I remember seeing him on one video screaming at some German critic getting off an airplane.

Anyway, I asked Mr. Shillington why he was taking photos of me, he declined to say (I already knew why, but it would be nice if he told me.) Then I asked him if it was OK for me to take a picture of him, he didn’t say no (he didn’t say anything.) So I took his picture too.

This is what he looked like in the old days.

Far from being an exception, I’ve found that this behavior is getting more and more common in Clearwater. When I drive through the town I notice people pulling out cameras and photographing me. It’s OK to do that, I’m not doing anything wrong, but photographing people minding their own business seems like a waste of time.

So Why was Mr Shillington photographing me? Because (IMO) he believes I’m a terrorist, a mad bomber and an assassin. No kidding! We were commenting on the “Whites only… um “No Anonymous” signs all over Clearwater and I guess he had a problem with that. No-Anon signs are (apparently) a Scientology policy now. Anyone who objects to them must be a criminal, they should be photographed and their crimes must be exposed. If you don’t believe me, Google “Scientology critic policy.” It’s not something I made up. It’s scripture! This has been going on for decades and it’s entrenched in Clearwater society. It’s not normal! I think it’s appalling. No wonder businesses are fleeing Clearwater, who would want to do business a climate like that?

I would be just as appalled if I saw a sign saying “No Scientologists.” in a store window, to the point where I would go in and talk with a proprietor about such a thing, and probably refuse to do business with them if they didn’t remove the sign.

Intolerance is wrong. And let me be clear, If people want to believe Scientology is a religion, that’s their business. They have a right believe what they want so far as it does no harm to others.

They have no right to force their beliefs on me, they have no right to try to brand me because of my thoughts or my beliefs about them. They have no right to stick my name on an injunction saying that I did all kinds of vile things. They have no right to threaten me. They have no right to even tell me that their “business” is a religious organization.

Religion is like art, it is whatever you think it is and a self-help corporation that makes it a policy to harass people is no religion in my book, I don’t care who tells me it is. This kind of stuff needs to stop, that’s why every Scientology office was protested yesterday…..everywhere!

Anyway, we witnessed a completely peaceful protest. The Anons (I counted about 150- 200) comported themselves very nicely like the last times. The Clearwater Police did a fine job of keeping order and I didn’t see any problems. We had one rude lady yell at us and give the finger. Some people drove by and yelled at us to get a real hobby and so fourth. (Get a real hobby… hah!)

Other than the pet fair, and the protesters, Clearwater was quiet.

The only oddball thing was the fellow whom I think might be an OSA guy, who carries a sign that says “Ex Sea org” and does not really fit in with the Anons very well. He made a point to tell me that he reads my weblog. (I already knew that chum.)

You don’t comment though!Your comments will be fascinating should you decide to do so. I welcome them! Tell me what you think!

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