Scientology has constantly attacked Leah and I for testifying in the Paul Haggis civil case where he was accused of raping a woman. The plaintiff never reported it to law enforcement, instead sending a demand for payment in exchange for her silence. Paul was the one who reported this to law enforcement and was told there was nothing they could do about it. The jury didn't know all of this as it was precluded from the case. Leah and I testified about our knowledge of scientology's Fair Game tactics (including how other people like Paulette Cooper and Gabe Cazares had been framed for crimes … [Read more...]
Taryn Kelly Rinder
My daughter, Taryn, was born on 22 January 1978. Today she turns 45. I thought I would take the opportunity to reprint the letter addressed to her and her brother at the start of A Billion Years. And also to put some photos of her here. As you may know if you read my book, after I escaped in 2007 my personal belongings were sent to me, without ANY of my photos or anything that memorialized my life in the Sea Org. Since then, scientology has spent inordinate amounts of money creating internet hate sites about me, many focused around my children and ex-wife. They have used some of my photos … [Read more...]
STAND League Outrage: Blocked on Social Media
Scientology hypocrisy on display for the world once again. Now they are whining about someone blocking their hate tweets! In this piece they attack Rick Caruso's campaign manager because an ad "outraged tens of thousands of scientologists across the city" (they couldn't gather tens of thousands of scientologists across the entire country at this point). And then he blocked some of them who called him a bigot: Shocked Scientologists took to Twitter demanding to know if the Caruso campaign approved of its manager blocking constituents after they called out his bigotry against … [Read more...]
A Billion Years Event: Scientology is Losing Its Mind
On Wednesday November 30th I am doing an event at the University of Pennsylvania with Professor Marci Hamilton. This is causing great consternation in the hallways of OSA/Stand League. They tweeted about it using my daughter's account and even created a new video where she whines how she just got a "copy and paste" reply to her form-letter complaint to UPenn. Seriously, only scientology could come up with something like this -- a whineTweet for Thanksgiving. I thought Thanksgiving was supposed to be a day when you remember what you are thankful for, not an excuse to circulate the … [Read more...]
No Justice for Paul Haggis
This recent article in Variety makes my blood boil. While scientology has continued to support and protect Danny Masterson, who has been trying to avoid his day of reckoning in court at all costs, Paul Haggis, who they have accused of being a "rapist" has been trying desperately to get INTO court to clear his name. Masterson is being criminally prosecuted, in addition to the civil case filed by his victims. Paul Haggis has never been criminally charged -- or even investigated. Unlike Masterson's victims, Paul's accuser did NOT go to law enforcement, Paul did. He asked them to … [Read more...]
Episode 39: Former A&E Executive Devon Graham Hammonds
This week we talk with our guardian angel at A&E, Devon Graham Hammonds. Devon was VP Programming (she has since moved on and is now an executive at the production company that produced the show) and oversaw The Aftermath show in every respect. We talk about how the show came to be with a lot of behind-the-scenes glimpses into what it was like to make The Aftermath -- including the Fair Gaming of everyone concerned and the challenges the network and production company and everyone who worked on the show faced. We also cover why the show ended (it was not, as scientology crowed … [Read more...]
Episode 34: Journalist and Author John Sweeney
Our friend and scientology nemesis, journalist, author and podcaster John Sweeney, joins us this week. John was for many years a correspondent for the original TV investigative magazine show, Panorama. He did a program about scientology for Panorama in 2007, where I was one of the "handlers" on behalf of scientology. It was a catalyst for me leaving -- I was in London defending scientology and Miscavige from the "chaos merchants" at the BBC. After I had left, I did a second Panorama show with John explaining some of the things that had happened in that first program. We had a lot to … [Read more...]
Twitter Cracks Down on #ScnPsychoTerror
Thanks to some excellent and diligent work by friends on Twitter, led by the formidable Stefani Hutchison, two of the primary scientology psychoterror accounts have been suspended and the first "Stand League" account also. If you missed my post of yesterday concerning scientology psychological terrorism, please read it. One prong of scientology terrorism campaigns has been to abuse social media and the internet with endless lies about people they target. Scientology has the ability to devote huge amounts of tax-free money and free labor resources into creating an overwhelming volume of … [Read more...]
Episode 19: Christie Collbran Rinder
This week Leah and I speak with my wife, Christie. I will add the link as soon as it is live. While there is always a lot of interest in me, Christie has her own story. She is much more than simply my other half. Her entire immediate family, just like mine, disconnected from her when she began to question things and tried to communicate this to them. When our son, Jack, was 6 months old we visited LA and tried to see Christie's parents to introduce them to their grandson. Her mother was sent away to the Freewinds. Her father, who I have never met, is a former pro-linebacker … [Read more...]
The Dark Triad
Frequent commenter Mike Westen has written a follow up article on his blog to his earlier Scientology and Status, entitled The Dark Triad. With his permission I am republishing it in its entirety here: This is a follow up to my previous article, Scientology and Status. virtue signalling noun [U] UK (US virtue signaling) /ˈvɜː.tʃuː ˌsɪɡ.nəl.ɪŋ/ An attempt to show other people that you are a good person, for example by expressing opinions that will be acceptable to them, especially on social media — Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary & Thesaurus To take a … [Read more...]