Tag Archives: scientology

Scientology’s Brutal Sweatshops Revealed [Sweatshops]

Ever wonder how Scientology produces all those crappy pamphlets and all that L Ron Hubbard literature? A lawsuit by two former elite members alleges the ‘church’ runs sweatshops, where workers are designated as religious devotees to avoid labor laws. The Associated Press report that Marc Headley and his wife Claire seek back pay and overtime that could come to $1m each for gruelling hours spent producing Scientology crap like books e-meters and DVDs for a pittance. They signed a billion year pledge and vowed not to have children. Claire claims she was even made to have an abortion. “These folks are working for a year or two or three in a row on an hour or two of sleep a night,” the couple’s attorney Barry Van Sickle said. “They’re zombies. If people had some money in their pockets or a good night’s sleep, they probably wouldn’t stick around.” Creepy Scientology spokesperson Tommy Davis, as is his habit, was outraged and denied the allegations vehemently. “We’re kind of sick of people who think that they can do this with us, people who used to work here, who can leave, who are lying – and we know they’re lying. It’s a pretty nice place to live and work, and we feel that way.” It’s weird how many ‘liars’ come out of Scientology saying very similar bad stuff about the ‘church’. Maybe they all collude?

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Scientology’s Brutal Sweatshops Revealed [Sweatshops]

James O’Keefe: Profile of a Right-Wing Nut in Facebook Pictures [Teabuggers]

James O’Keefe, the Teabugger/conservative rapscallion is pleading guilty to reduced charges for sneaking into a Senator’s office to do… something. He once ” investigated ” ACORN. So we’ve conducted an in-depth, O’Keefe style psychological “investigation” of him, using only his Facebook pictures. Some might argue that O’Keefe’s ridiculous stunts, and friendship with the odious Andrew Breitbart , come from a life of privilege, a blinkered worldview that can lead only to a disgusting, sneery attitude toward those less fortunate. We thought so too. Until we saw these pictures of a harrowing life spent… ah who are we kidding. He’s as dreadful as you thought. Here he is, decked out like Gordon Gekko, puffing on a cigar he lit with… a $1 bill. Which, according to Title 18, Section 333 of the United States Code, can garner up to six months in jail. Here’s the section in full: “Whoever mutilates, cuts, defaces, disfigures, or perforates, or unites or cements together, or does any other thing to any bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence of debt issued by any national banking association, or Federal Reserve bank, or the Federal Reserve System, with intent to render such bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence of debt unfit to be reissued, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.” It is apparently enforced by the Secret Service . This is a one-picture sociological study we’ve titled ‘rich young men who wear blazers and slacks’. Contrary to appearances, O’Keefe decries privilege! He’s fighting for the common man when he targets organizations set up to help poor people, like ACORN. Indeed, we believe he was talking about hiring an ethnic minority deckhand for his yacht just seconds before this picture was taken. You can breathe a sigh of relief. O’Keefe’s conservative credentials are now complete. He has a gun. Indeed he brandishes said gun. But there is one image that sums him up above all others. One that forestalls any need for a biography… Screengrabbed from his Facebook page. How Ayn Rand-ian.

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James O’Keefe: Profile of a Right-Wing Nut in Facebook Pictures [Teabuggers]

Peaches Admits to Nude Pics, Denies Heroin and Scientology Allegations [Update]

Rockstar progeny and Brit scenester queen Peaches Geldof admits she posed for the “private” photographs posted online , but a rep is denying the cameraman’s tale of heroin use and a morning-after visit to Hollywood’s Celebrity Scientology Center. In a sternly worded email, Peaches’ lawyer Jonathan Coad admitted that the photographs are of his client, but disputed elements of Reddit commenter Thatcoolben’s story: The incident and photographs concern private issues and activity; the photographs were taken for private purposes only The allegations that our client was carrying and injecting herion [ sic ] are also denied, our client having consumed alcohol with the other individual leading to the ‘highs’ described and portrayed in the photographs. The evident unreliability of the source emerges from the also fictitious description of their trip to a scientology center. Had you undertaken any checking or research before making this posting you would have learned that nobody who is not a member of that organisiation is permitted into such buildings. Thatcoolben has since been identified by multiple sources as Williamsburg loft-dweller Ben Mills . He has a tattoo that says ” Big Ben ” on his penis. His contemporary love life includes “on-and-off dating” Drew Grant, a writer who has since blogged about Ben for Nerve and the new blog Crushable . Ben has yet to respond to our requests for comment, and we’re told his Facebook profile and MySpace accounts have been taken down.

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Peaches Admits to Nude Pics, Denies Heroin and Scientology Allegations [Update]

Peaches Geldof’s Heroin-Fueled One-Night Stand at Hollywood’s Scientology Center—With Pictures [Rumormonger]

Rockstar progeny and Brit scenester queen Peaches Geldof makes a cameo in a Reddit forum for “WTF one-night stand stories.” A commenter describes a heroin-fueled Thanksgiving Eve sex party—and waking up in the Hollywood Celebrity Scientology Center. Here’s Reddit user Thatcoolguyben’s story about what transpired that evening, followed by the NSFW photos he allegedly snapped, neither of which we’ve been able to authenticate: Last Thanksgiving I was staying at a friends house for a few days before a trip to South America. I’d been spending most the time on the couch for the three days I was at the house. My friend lived with her boyfriend and one other girl who was “recording” her “album.” I would occasionally see this girl leaving early in the morning and coming back late at night while I was on the couch. On my final day at the house, Thanksgiving day, the girl returns at about 2:30am (Thanksgiving festivities would start in a few hours.) I’d kicked back a few beers already and was having fun sitting watching TV. She comes in and pauses for a moment looking at me. She says “have you been living here the whole time I have?” I laughed and thought this question strange, she was showing how oblivious she was to the world. I said that I had only been at the house for 2 days. She sits next to me and we begin talking about tattoos, which both of us have a good amount of. She had a cute English accent and wasn’t bad looking at all. The tattoo discussion leads to us deciding we should get each others names tattooed on each other. At 3am I grab my friends car keys, and head out. We drive all over Hollywood looking for a tattoo parlor, with no luck. While driving around we get on the topic of drugs. At this point in my life I was very into all drugs, as was she. She told me she had a bit of heroin she brought with her from the UK and asked me if I was game. I was so the hunt began. We drove all around LA looking for the supplies we needed. We drove to various pharmacies looking for needles and cotton. We finally found one, which as a look back on would be a funny sight. A well dressed guy and girl walk in an 4am looking for a 10 pack of diabetic syringes. We get them and begin the drive home. On the way back she mentions this is heroin base, meaning we need to dissolve this in lemon (I guess this is a British thing, I never have seen this in my years in NYC.) We stop at a Dennys, asking them for a stack of lemons. Once again we got strange looks but it worked. We get back to the house, where I was promptly yelled at for stealing my friends car, and getting warned what I was about to get myself into. Once all the commotion settles down, we go to the girls room and rig up. At about 5am I was high as a kite and we start to watch a movie. Things get hot and heavy and before I know it we’re naked. I go down on her while we’re still having odd conversations about mutual friends and past hookups. I was too high to get hard and she knew it. After blowing me for a few minutes she asks if I was ok. I tell her I’m to high to get it up. I then immediately remember I’d packed a Cialis in my bag. I run out of the room, bring it back, and pop it in front of her. She laughs as we continue to have a naked dance party on her bed. I finally feel the blood rush to my member and the action begins. We did it every way possible, and for a young girl she sure knew how to work it. This is where things get weird. Close to 8am she starts saying how someone was coming to pick her up. We’d continued to use all night so I was quite foggy about the happenings. I faintly remember her asking me for a ride and me driving her somewhere. I awoke at about 1pm in a sauna, throwing up all over the place. I started freaking out. I look around and see her on an exercise machine outside the room, looking in about the same shape as me. I get out of the room and people come past me cleaning the puke like it was nothing to them. I’m standing in the room groggy, in a speedo, and confused as hell. I look around and read some stuff realizing I’m in the Celebrity Scientology Center in LA. This girl ended up being a hardcore Scientologist and a D-List celebrity, and we were doing a process called Purif. I showered, got my clothes on, got her, and drove back to my friends, nodding out and puking the whole way. Needless to say when I got back my friend and her boyfriend were pissed. I had “ruined” Thanksgiving. I sluggishly passed the day along and at 11pm went to LAX and flew to South America. Not until days later when I looked through my camera of the pictures of that night did I fully realize everything. TL;DR: Did heroin, fucked a minor celebrity, woke up in a Scientology center, ruined Thanksgiving, left the country. Is Thatcoolguyben’s story real? Here’s what tracks: The girl in these pictures certainly looks like the 21-year-old, oft-naked Peaches , right down to the embarrassing tattoos . Five months before his tale takes place, Peaches was photographed outside Hollywood’s Scientology Celebrity Center with someone carrying a pamphlet entitled “CELEBRITY CENTRE TAKES CARE OF THOSE WHO ENTERTAIN FASHION AND TAKE CARE OF THE WORLD” The timing is also right since Peaches was working on her first album at the time. It’s possible these photos have been posted online before. (Since googling any permutation of “Peaches Geldof naked” gives you way more results than you care to see, there’s a chance we missed them.) And it’s always possible this rather elaborate tale was invented. Then again it’s pretty impressive that the notoriously party-hearty Peaches has made it this far in life without an amateur sex photo scandal to her name. The NSFW pics that Thatcoolguyben posted are below:

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Peaches Geldof’s Heroin-Fueled One-Night Stand at Hollywood’s Scientology Center—With Pictures [Rumormonger]

South Park Ready to Ridicule Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods may be piecing his family life back together, but the troubled golfer still has a long way to go – and is the easiest of targets – in the court of public opinion. A new season of South Park premieres on Wednesday and the episode is all about Tiger. One can only imagine the kind of South Park quotes this is going to produce. “It is such an important issue in America right now – the sex addiction outbreak,” co-creator Matt Stone joked, referring to Woods’ dalliances with tons of waitresses. “We’re all really concerned about him.” Flanked by Cartman, Tiger Woods expresses regret . Like Family Guy , South Park is nothing if not an equal-opportunity, topical offender. Episodes have mocked Tom Cruise, Scientology, Michael Jackson’s death and much more. At the very least, Stone and co-creator Trey Parker can point to Family Guy ‘s recent controversy over Sarah Palin’s Down Syndrome baby, or its minutes-long HIV chorus line. Anything regarding the Tiger Woods scandal will seem tame by comparison.

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South Park Ready to Ridicule Tiger Woods

Is Kirstie Alley’s New Weight Loss Program a Scientology Scam? [Scams]

Anti-Scientology campaign group Anonymous, and some blogs, are airing accusations that Scientologist Kirstie Alley ‘s new weight loss program, Organic Liaison , is based on quackery preached by L. Ron Hubbard, and that the company has links to the ‘church’. Alley, who is herself still not at her stated target weight of 140lbs, has been shilling for her new venture on Oprah, and it features heavily (pun intended) in her upcoming A&E reality series, Kirstie Alley’s Big Life (pun intended there too, we’re sure). Anonymous have found links between Organic Liaison LLC and Scientology — the firm’s accountant, Saul B Lipson, is a known Scientologist whose company is approved by the church and based near its headquarters in Clearwater, Florida. Along with utter quacks like Hollywood mystical doctor Soram Khalsa , the board features Michelle Seward, an active Scientologist. While this is not enough to support Anonymous’ claim that money from Organic Liaison will be channeled directly into the church, it does lend credence to the assertion that the program itself is, to some extent, based on a Scientology plan called the purification rundown . This was prescribed by L. Ron Hubbard himself, but criticized for being at best bullshit that claims to detox through vitamins, minerals, drinking vegetable oil and sitting in saunas, and at worst dangerous. As it is part of the Narconon program, that Alley has said helped her break a cocaine addiction, it is fairly safe to presume she has been through it. Organic Liaison offers to combine an organic food diet with “organic and natural diet supplements that replenish your body with essential vitamins, minerals and nutrients without the pangs of starvation or cravings you may have felt on other diet plans.” It’s certainly priced like a Scientology scam. Membership costs $10 per month, or $89 for a year, and the package of supplements, called Rescue Me, is a whopping $139 per month. One you’ve ordered the kit, it auto-ships and bills your card again every month until you stop it. The kit contains three supplements, Rescue Me (claimed detox and appetite suppresser), Release Me (claimed relaxant) and Nightingale (claimed sleep aid), featuring many cheaply-available vitamins, minerals, amino acids, herbs and aids like vitamin C, folic acid, L-Tryptophan, fiber, green tea, calcium and magnesium. The company also offers other supplements — notably Relieve Me, an anti-constipation supplement that Anonymous claim is related to Cal-Mag, a noxious-sounding dietary liquid developed by Hubbard that contains calcium, magnesium, vinegar and hot water. And that led some of those church members forced to drink it to, um, relieve themselves. The evidence, while suggestive, is by no means conclusive. What is safe to say is that thousands, millions even, of people will be over-paying for unproven herbal supplements combined with a common-sense diet. We’ll do some of our own digging into Organic Liaision, and its connection to Scientology, and see if it comes back Clear. [ Pic via A&E ]

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Is Kirstie Alley’s New Weight Loss Program a Scientology Scam? [Scams]

Amy Winehouse…A Scientologist?

Am y Winehouse is reportedly the latest star to take an interest in Scientology after ex-hubby Blake Fielder-Civil got involved with the religion. A source says: “As soon as Amy heard Blake was into Scientology, she wanted to find out more. She idolizes the way he thinks about life. Anything Blake says, Amy believes. It’s worrying because Amy might get brain-washed.” Might get brain-washed…or already is?? The 26-year-old singer, who recently reunited with Blake, was raised Jewish which friends say will make her father Mitch “go mad” as he is “really proud of their heritage.” Related Links : No Change From Amy Winehouse

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Amy Winehouse…A Scientologist?

Life Inside Scientology: Physical Abuse, Psychological Torture and Billion-Year Contracts [Cults]

The New York Times has a lengthy, front-page story about Scientology today and while it doesn’t break much new ground —many of the more salacious tales first appeared in The St. Petersburg Times over the past year—it’s worth reading. First and foremost, Scientology is nuts , and reading about its nutty, abusive cultishness never ceases to be fascinating. Laurie Goodstein’s article focuses on Christie King and Chris Collbran, second-generation Scientologists raised in the church. As teens they joined Sea Org , the church’s bizarre pseudo-navy, and signed the requisite billion-year contract “in keeping with the church’s belief that Scientologists are immortal.” Later, they became disillusioned by the abuses they witnessed, which included: Sea Org officers hitting and otherwise abusing subordinates, including teenage minors Working 16-hour days for $17/week Christie’s parents spending so much money on Scientology, they couldn’t afford to attend her wedding at Manhattan’s Scientology Center Leaders lying about church membership to fool Sea Org staff into believing they were saving the world When Chris had doubts about Sea Org, the church assigned him to menial labor halfway around the world and blocked Christie’s attempts to contact him for three months Sea Org complaints not attributed to the Collbrans include: Physical beat-downs at the hands of church chairman David Miscavige Pressure to get abortions against their will (Sea Org members may not have children) Some members gave up to $1M to the church Getting out was even worse. Since the church had the Collbrans’ passports in its possession—and since their family and loved ones were still part of the church—they had to endure a slate of further abuse: Sign false confessions about their private lives Pay the church $10,000 they “owed for courses and counseling” Become estranged from their loved ones, who, according to church doctrine, had to cut them off when they left Christie hid an intentionally pregnancy until it was too late to abort, specifically to expedite her exit from Sea Org The second reason this story matters is that it confirms and lends credence to earlier reports about Scientologists, primarily from The St. Petersburg Times . Scientology leaders and some prominent members deny stories like the Collbrans’. (Even Sea Org members say the “average Scientology member, known in the church as a public” wouldn’t know about most of these abuses.) The Village Voice ‘s Tony Ortega notes that this is good for ex-Scientologists trying to raise awareness of their cause: But mostly, it’s the St. Pete Times that wins here. With only a few weeks until the 2009 Pulitzers are announced, it’s hard not to see the timing of Goodstein’s piece as anything but accidental: the New York Times has just sent a clear endorsement of a Pulitzer for last year’s blockbuster series by the St. Pete Times. Defectors Say Church of Scientology Hides Abuses [NYT] Scientology Gets Polite Slap on the Wrist from New York Times [VV] The Truth Rundown [SPT]

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Life Inside Scientology: Physical Abuse, Psychological Torture and Billion-Year Contracts [Cults]

Anonymous Pledge to Fight Scientologist Efforts in Haiti

Anonymous, the internet-based group that has waged sporadic wars on Scientology over the last two years, has released a new letter. Prompted, apparently, by the fawning Today Show piece on Scientologists in Haiti they intend to act. The group, given to wearing V for Vendetta Guy Fawkes masks, and pictured above during widely publized protests against the church in 2008, released this message.

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Anonymous Pledge to Fight Scientologist Efforts in Haiti

Handicapping Everyone’s Comeback

They say spring is the season of rebirth. Well how come everyone is trying to stage comebacks right now? So many high profile turnarounds are in the works: Mel Gibson , Michael Vick , butt rashes and more.

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Handicapping Everyone’s Comeback