Archive for January 16th, 2008
Tom Cruisin’
Wednesday, January 16th, 2008Earlier I wrote a little blurb on Scientology frontman Tom Cruise. Well, there’s a video circulating around the net that the Scientologists don’t want you to see, and they’ve pressured YouTube and Gawker.net to remove it in it’s entirety.
Well, I found part of it on You Tube and decided to link it here for your viewing pleasure. Maybe that British Scientologist who was following me around Buffalo after the Beast article will see it and move out here to Chicago to stalk me some more.
And who knows how long this will be allowed to remain on the site, so I apologize if by the time you read this it’s been taken down.
Oh, Those Dangerous MySpaces!
Wednesday, January 16th, 2008The bigwigs at MySpace have finally decided to cave into the pressure being put on them by idiot parents and try to ‘protect’ its younger users from the threats that sicko pedophiles pose on the website.
That’s all well and good, but some of the ideas they have, and are going to put into place, really won’t work. They just aren’t practical.
Although this is my opinion, I’ve been discovering in my travels around the interwebs that this opinion is shared with bloggers from all corners of the globe. Here’s the gist of what they want to do:
1.) Set all profiles of 15-and-under users to private, and prevent those profiles from getting any sort of communication from any adult they do now know.
2.) Default all 16 and 17-year-old users’ profiles to private, which they can change to public if they so wish.
3.) Deny any registered sex offenders access to the site.
While all of those are pretty good ideas, how does MySpace propose to enforce them? Any 13-year-old can go on there and create a profile with the britdate set to 1982. It’s not difficult.
Also, suppose Joe Smith the Molester wants a profile on MySpace but he’s a registered sex offender. How does he get around that? Easily, by signing up as Bobby Jones, the nice guy from Detroit.
MySpace should be thanked for the effort, but politely told that none of this is going to work.
What would work, on the other hand, is better parenting. I’m so sick of hearing parents declare to the media that their child was raped or put in danger because of MySpace or some other internet bases social network. I ask you this, parents: Where were you while your child was chatting it up with Chester the Molester online? Why are you not monitoring your minor’s internet activity, when you hear every day about a child who falls prey to some online predator? WHy are you not protecting your child?
It’s sad to say, but I truly believe that a lot of these “parents” are hoping their child will get injured due to a MySpace rendezvous so that they can try to sue.
’nuff said.
Scientology Revisited
Wednesday, January 16th, 2008Back in 2004, Chuck and I paid a visit to the new Church of Scientology building in Buffalo. It was their grand-opening Gala, and for some reason they invited us. We were at the time, freelance writers working mostly for the Buffalo Beast, and independent newspaper circulating in the city. A lot of talk of Scientology has happened recently, what with Tom Cruise showing his true colors to the world and Katie Holmes turning into a robot, as seen in a recent guest appearance on ‘Regis and Kelly.’ There’s also a new unauthorized biography of Cruise that states that his and Holmes’ daughter, Suri, is the spawn of bad Sci-Fi writer L. Ron Hubbard himself. The author of the book goes so far to compare her birth to ”Rosemary’s Baby.”
A few years back, the boys from South Park did an episode about Scientology that starred Tom Cruise, John Travolta, and Galactic Overlord Xenu. Non-surprisingly it was blocked by Mr. Jerry Maguire himself, and now can only be found in various places around the internet.
With this newfound fascination with Scientology, I’ve decided to re-open my interest in this goofy religion. Following is the article Chuck and I wrote, which appeared originally in The Buffalo Beast. This time, though - the punctuation is there and a spell check has been run so it’ll be a much better read:
The Beast Goes Scientological
By Rob Gerke and Chuck Notaro
It’s been said that there are two sides to every story. I’ve found this to be true in almost everything I’ve experienced or thought about. The case of Scientology is no different. It has its supporters and its detractors. I, myself, have never given much credibility to a religion that was founded by a science fiction writer. I’m not even much of a Sci-Fi reader any longer. But I’ve never been one to openly express an opinion about something unless its an informed one, which is the reason I paid a visit to Buffalo’s new Church of Scientology this past Sunday when it celebrated its grand opening.
I’ll admit, I knew next to nothing about Scientology before I attended the opening ceremony, and honestly, I’m not sure it’s any clearer to me now.
Let’s start with the basic question: What is Scientology? In founder Lafayette Ron Hubbard’s words, Scientology is an “applied religious philosophy.” Does that clear things up for you? If not, Hubbard goes on to say that it is the “study and handling of the spirit in relationship to itself, universes and other life.”
Scientologists believe it to be a path to enlightenment gained through auditing. This is where an upper-level Scientologist evaluates you, and through certain scientific method, helps you gain control of your true self. Your inner spirit. Your “Thetan,” as the Scientologists call it.
