The always on-the-ball Tracey McManus has filed a new story about downtown Clearwater, the City Council and scientology. It would appear that the recently elected city officials have had a bit of a wake up call. The conciliatory language they were spouting a few months ago when they were trying to get elected about how they intend to "work with the church of scientology" is now being replaced with expressions of frustration. Tracey's reporting in the Times has been documenting the massive buy up of downtown real estate by scientology and scientologists for years. The alarm bells should … [Read more...]
The Big Lie of Scientology “Arbitration”
I have previously written a number of blog posts about the lie that is scientology's so-called "arbitration" -- a procedure more akin to the Spanish Inquisition than to modern day justice. They operate on the same principles as those inquisitors -- we will torture you until you finally break and give in to what we dictate is the righteous path to be followed. You are not permitted to disagree with us. You are not permitted to even speak or offer evidence in your defense. And we will continue to torture you for as long as we see fit, you are completely at our whim. You can read some … [Read more...]
Tampa Bay Magazine: Scientology Edition
This month's edition of Tampa Bay is evidence of how hard scientology is still working to "safepoint" the Clearwater community. There is a concurrently published YouTube video on this subject: Tampa Bay magazine is typical of this sort of publication you find in many major cities -- it's glossy pages feature full page ads for the restaurants they review, ads from realtors for the homes they highlight, ads from lawyers who write columns in the magazine and a bunch of "social" shots of the local luminaries attending events in the area. There is no real reporting, it's all puff … [Read more...]
Scientology Stacks the Phony Arbitration Deck
Kirsten Thorne/Caetano/Pederson Sarah Heller Shooting the episode with Mark Bunker in the park -- Sarah Heller called the CWPD to evict Mark but refused to come out of the office where she was hiding: Emily Jones in happier times with her parents Phil & Willie and her brother Mike: Emily representing Author Services: The billboard Phil and Willie put up: Amber O'Sulliven: Other posts on the subject of scientology "arbitration": Scientology "Arbitration": They Make Up … [Read more...]
Where Is David Miscavige?
Of course, he is at Flag. Right where the plaintiff's lawyers said he is in their filing in the Baxter/Guider damages case. Yet Miscavige's attorneys filed papers filled with the usual bluster and feigned incredulity that anyone could be so stupid as to believe David Miscavige is in Florida. This after they used the same line in California when he was trying to avoid service there -- then proclaiming he is in Florida. See the recent blog post at Tony Ortega's site: David Miscavige lives in Florida when he's sued in LA, and in LA when he's sued in Tampa. In their latest rant … [Read more...]
Clearwater Follies
Leah and I were speaking with our old friend Mark Bunker, who was telling us about the injunction scientology obtained against him and other members of the Lisa McPherson Trust back in 1998. Amazingly, scientology still seeks to enforce this injunction against him to this day – its language prevents him from protesting in front of some specified scientology buildings and from coming within 10 feet of any scientologist (it’s a mystery how he is supposed to know who is or isn’t a scientologist…) but they tried to get him thrown out of his condo because a scientologist lived next door, and pull … [Read more...]