Should scientology be tax exempt? At the outset -- I am not a lawyer. I am certain those more knowledgeable than I can find fault with some imprecise terminology or descriptions I use. But I doubt they would disagree with the general picture I am trying to paint. Of course, the answer about scientology's tax exempt status for many people (myself included) is "No, they should NOT be entitled to special exemption from taxation." But why? And what is different about scientology than other exempt organizations? There is a long tradition of protecting religious freedom in the United … [Read more...]
Flag Is Limp
Jeff Mintz is not as regular as he once was, and for a while I thought he had been given the permanent heave-ho. It's a terrible thing when "good news" turns up on this blog as proof of stagnation. Then, after a month of silence, the FSC San Jose stole his thunder and put out the Mintzmeat(tm) report from herself. She even stole his format, but changed it from blue to red (Mintz had changed "Good News" to "Late Breaking News" probably because of how much fun we had with his "good news" but Ms. Dodwell seems oblivious for now). As always, I have added the latest figures to the end of the … [Read more...]
Panic In The Bubble
It seems Paul Clark is not the only one "spreading the flap" on the Razzline (see recent post "Don't Freak Out"). These guys just don't seem able to restrain themselves. By the time this program airs there won't be anyone in the bubble that is not aware of it. And believe me, a lot of people will watch it out of curiosity even though they are warned not to do so. It has really been built up BIG TIME inside the church. Normally it is pretty easy for the run of the mill Kool Aid drinker to ignore anything that is in the media as merely being the rabid utterances of the "merchants of … [Read more...]
Scientology And The Internet
The biggest problem confronting scientology is the statistic they are using to make their latest pitch for money. 8 new people on the internet every second. Who knows if this is true or not, but the number is really irrelevant. It could be one per second or 800 per second. Not a single one of those 1 or 8 or 800 people will ever find the PR about scientology they attempt to spread on the internet without ALSO finding the truth about scientology, which is far more prevalent. It's the ultimate Catch 22. Scientology is like a bunch of starving villagers in an isolated village. They k … [Read more...]
Thursday Funnies
Likely it will be omitted... There are dozens, if not hundreds, of people who have been PROMISED exactly this, but because they no longer goosestep in lockstep, their names don't appear on the plaque in the building they gave a great deal of money to purchase. They are prevented from even entering "their" building, but of course, they don't get their money back. And by the time they get around to opening these things, there will be hundreds and thousands more long gone... Maybe they should put up a chalkboard listing the names rather than an engraved … [Read more...]
Bridge Will “Finance” You
The full transformation into a bank is well underway. Why have people take out loans with a bank or run their credit cards to the limit when they can extend credit with "in house financing". Of course, this is EASY to do when you are selling from already manufactured inventory with massive markups. There is little risk of any loss. After all, these people are under the thumb of the church. And if they ever did have anyone default on their loan they would just divert a bit of the "library donation money" to cover the "loss" and carry on as if nothing had happened. "Hi Peter, If you ha … [Read more...]
SMP News
OK, here are some tidbits of interest from the Valley OTC meeting, focusing on the KCET Studios, combined with some information that has come in from several Special Correspondents. This facility has now assumed a new acronym -- SMP (Scientology Media Productions). It has fairly recently been integrated into the Int Liaison Office (a strange move when there has been NO CO ILO on post for some years, it is reported to be "held" by the CO CMO IXU). Part of SMP is Mad Hatter Studios -- Chick Corea's former recording studio that was purchased by Dear Leader as his handling for "getting … [Read more...]
Thursday Funnies
The "new" Purif. Firstly, there is the MEST. There is no "secondly".... $14 Million later -- this is Orange County "Ideal Org" Looks like they can't afford to keep the lights on.... What a forlorn looking place. And how appropriate -- fundraising for the celebration of the anniversary of the OC idle morgue opening. The sun never sets on Scientology fundraising.... Hello there! I'm writing to you as the fundraising IC for the OC Anniversary party! Did you know that every year the OT … [Read more...]
The “Ideal” Scientologist
This is a bit old now, but still relevant. The "ideal" fad is really rolling inside the bubble. -- now they have Rev. Alfreddie preaching to the converted about what an "ideal scientologist" is. My concept of what embodies today's "ideal scientologist" is seen in the illustration above. I wonder what Reverend Johnson came up with? Maybe he explained that the ideal scientologist would promote themselves as a "Baptist Minister"? The "reverend Alfreddie" is no scientology "reverend"... He plays his minister card to gain "acceptance" in "the community" because being a s … [Read more...]
Random OTC Minutes
Just some OT Committee Minutes for today as I am taking the weekend with my kids and don't want to spend time putting together a posting. I let these accumulate and then publish them sporadically. They may contain interesting information, in all honesty I haven't even read them. Probably the usual "wow, look how great we are doing, we had three people on Student Hat this week" sort of stuff. Happy reading. I am sure some of our sharp eyed commenters will pick out some of the highlights. In case you wondered, the cartoon is a comment on the deluge of documents and information that … [Read more...]