Immediately following the revelations in the recent Tampa Bay Times article by Tracey McManus, scientology launched their version of a campaign to convince the citizens of Clearwater they are in fact good for the city. They distributed Freedom magazines to people's doors in the dead of night to try to persuade them the reason downtown Clearwater looks like the set for the latest installment of the Night of The Living Dead movies is not because they bought it up and leave most of the properties empty or massively underutilized, it is because the big bad meanies at the Tampa Bay … [Read more...]
Thursday Funnies
Anything to get them in... Magic. Music. Dance lesson. Painting. Desperation to try to get "bodies in the shop." Featured Attraction? Now it's a "jam session" at a new time Why I joined staff? It made sense. Gosh -- did they tell you about the hours and the pay? And the futility of it all? Just guess the answer to this riddle... They would use the same tagline for "Talk Therapy or Torture" -- anything a psych does is torture. Ron tells us so. Absolutely no fundraising We are done with … [Read more...]
Our 10th Anniversary
The first blog post on mikerindersblog.org was on 5 November 2009. It's been 10 years but it sure doesn't seem that long! It's been a lot of fun along the way. I have met many wonderful people here (and quite a number subsequently IRL which has been especially gratifying). Hopefully I have opened a window to discovering the truth about scientology for many. This blog would not have been possible without the support of many who have helped. While it is a labor of love (or perhaps passion) it IS labor and first my thanks to the many contributors who have provided content and … [Read more...]
“New” Tech
This "Exciting new releases" announcement showed up. First, there is absolutely NOTHING new in the realm of "Study Tech" -- it is the same stuff Hubbard announced in the 6o's and 70's. Nothing has been added. Someone has repackaged the same old same old and is now presenting it as "exciting" and "new"... Applied Scholastics (the home of Hana and Rizza Islam -- who are still appearing all over their website despite the fact that they are proceeding to trial in their case of defrauding the government with a scam using "Applied Scholastics" as a front) is apparently trying to distance … [Read more...]
“New” Ideal Orgs
The Kansas City and Columbus "ideal orgs" are supposed to open over the next 2 weekends. This is no surprise -- Miscavige probably stayed in the UK and is flying directly to Kansas City for the opening, which is why it is one week after the IAS. It is also timed so he could get a double whammy -announce it at the IAS and then show the ribbon yanking as main topics To prove massive international expansion at the New Years Event. He could not have an entire year with NO "ideal orgs." Back in the good old days he had them at each event throughout the year. Remember the hullabaloo about … [Read more...]
Thursday Funnies
JAW at it again? "Superfan" John Alex Wood elicited a "Fuck scientology" from Eric Idle. Perhaps the Pythons will have something to say about this? Well, not sure about best... But certainly poorest. How sad... His life was a mess. So he moved his family to Columbus to join staff. No doubt with promises of a place to say and good pay. Expect he will reach out to the Aftermath Foundation in about 6 weeks... Wow, what an honor This is actually a thing? Erm, what about "Done Sir"? That was last month. All … [Read more...]
How Does It Feel to Be a Scientologist?
Before delving into this latest piece to be found on the STAAD fiction site, let me proffer a more honest answer to the question. How does it feel to be a scientologist? Superior -- after all nobody else has the "tech" of life, they are all ignorant,misinformed or both Certain -- we know the answer to everything, all that is needed is to "do what Ron says." Controlled -- though they would categorize this as "dedicated" or "on purpose". But bottom line, every scientologists does what is good for scientology. Period. John Logothetis expounds with the usual scientology "talking points" -- … [Read more...]
CNN on Clearwater & More from the Tampa Bay Times
Earlier today I chatted briefly with Michael Smerconish on CNN. Unfortunately, there is no embed code for the video so you have to click HERE to watch it. It was a VERY short piece, not really enough time to explain such complex issues, but it is good to see national media paying some attention to this issue. Hopefully more media outlets than just the Tampa Bay Times will want to dig in to this. Tracey McManus also published a new story concerning community reaction to middle-of-the-night distribution of Freedom magazines. As usual, the glossy hype of scientology's PR effort does nothing … [Read more...]
Scientology Attempting to Revise Clearwater History
After Tracey McManus' bombshell article dropped on 20 October, scientology immediately began their efforts to revise history. The next day, Freedom magazines started popping up all over the city. I wrote an article addressing some of the falsehoods Scientology BS Grows Deeper Then they began trying to make a dent in the social media world to cast the article as a bigoted assault on scientology and highlight the wonderful contributions they make to Clearwater. Freedom magazine has a twitter account @Freedommag and on October 21 they began sending out tweets. This is the tweet that is pinned … [Read more...]
Scientology BS Grows Deeper
Scientology had this 116 page "rebuttal" magazine ready to distribute in Clearwater on Sunday immediately after the Tampa Bay Times bombshell dropped. It had been prepared and printed well in advance, with staged photo shoots and 116 pages of PR fluffery and outright bs ready to drop without the inconvenience of having read the article. In fact, it arrived in Clearwater mailboxes Monday morning, so it was mailed even before the article was published. A large percentage of the magazine consists of flowery pages of "I am a Scientologist" stuff. This is basically a rehash of what is shown … [Read more...]