PseudoScientology

“The Church of Scientology can delete auctions from eBay with no supervision under the VeRO program, and has used this to delete all resale of the e-meters Scientologists use. This is to stop members from buying used units from ex-members instead of buying from the official (and very expensive) source. Given Scientology’s record of fraud and abuse, should eBay give them this level of trust? Will this set a precedent for other companies that want to stop the aftermarket resale of their products?”

Scientology abuses eBay’s VeRO program to practice religious, price discrimination

By the time Bill (not his real name) left the Church of Scientology a few years ago, he had amassed quite a collection of Scientology material—mostly books, tapes, e-meters. But ex-members of Scientology (especially staff members) find themselves in a difficult spot in this regard when they leave Scientology: their books, tapes, and e-meters are only valued by Scientologists, who, quite inconveniently, are strongly discouraged (read: disallowed) from communicating with ex-members—as any ex-Scientologist will tell you.

Not surprisingly, he turned to eBay, where a Scientologist buyer can remain blissfully unaware that his seller is a declared suppressive person. But every time he attempts to sell his e-meter on eBay, the listing is removed within hours by the Church of Scientology, which claims that the listing violates their intellectual property rights. See screenshots of the auctions while they were up here [update; personal info redacted] and here, and respective “Invalid Item” eBay pages here and here. And it’s not just Bill—I’ve watched numerous e-meter listings from other sellers removed before they even receive a bid.

If you’re uninitiated to eBay, you’d probably think that for each of these removals, the Church of Scientology informs eBay of the violation of its rights, eBay considers the merits of their argument, and then only then does eBay yank the listing. But that’s not what happens at all. Instead, eBay effectively deputizes Scientology, which logs into eBay and removes the listings itself…

This is not a new development—it’s been going on for nearly 8 years, as this Slashdot story shows. But it’s high time eBay did something about it.

More at RealityBasedCommunity.net 

‘I Have a Dream’ Becomes Obama’s ‘I Have a Con’

The traditional media, cable talking heads, and quite a few large progressive blogs have regurgitated the Obama story like a pack of nomads wandering in the political desert in search of sustenance; people bankrupt of political or factual integrity looking for the answer and refusing to see what was in front of their faces all along. The question is whether the journalists who bought into the Obama hype, along with the cable talking heads who propped his campaign up, and the Obama blogs who didn’t care one whit about the facts or his record but were only interested in spreading their Hillary hatred, have got so much invested they won’t have the honesty, the integrity, and the moral courage to back peddle on their craven cave in before it’s not only too late for them, but too late for the Democratic party.

Barack Obama isn’t an original. He’s the first 21st century L. Ron Hubbard of politics, Elmer Gantry, name your huckster.

“I have a dream” just became “I have a con.”

Taylor Marsh blog.

Regardless of Ms. Marsh’s critique of the supporters of Obama, it is interesting that she invokes the name of L. Ron Hubbard, by comparison, as a huckster. Too bad L. Ron isn’t available for rebuttal … my, wouldn’t that be fun!

Family feud in Tom’s church
New York Post’s PAGE SIX.COM

(Scary photo of David Miscavige)

SCIENTOLOGISTS are at war with a member of their own family — the outspoken niece of the church’s powerful leader, David Miscavige. Jenna Hill Miscavige, 24, the daughter of David’s older brother Ron, recently came out in support of Andrew Morton’s “Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography,” and slammed the star for “supporting a religion that tears apart families, both in the media and monetarily.” Since then, Jenna claims she’s been subjected to harassment. “The church has contacted several of my friends, telling them that I am smearing the church and I am going to be declared a suppressive person and asking my friends if they would disconnect from me and, in at least one case, insisting that they do,” Jenna, who lives in San Diego, tells investigative journalist Philip Recchia. “At least eight friends have removed themselves from my MySpace page,” she said, and blames the church for it.

MORE.

But wait … the best part is in the comments… (more…)

Special Alert to Governments regarding a Dangerous situation involving Tom Cruise’s Scientology Cult and the Disappearance of a Senior Scientology Executive

Mike Rinder the #2 person in Scientology (after the Tom Cruise and David Miscavige pair) has fled his post and is hiding or has disappeared. Mike Rinder was the last head of Scientology’s infamous intelligence agency called the Office of Special Affairs (OSA.) (In budget and scope the Scientology’s OSA rivals that of intelligence agencies operations of many small countries.)

Mike Rinder now is in grave personal danger because Scientology’s leaders cannot let him debrief to any government intelligence agency what he knows. Mike Rinder has all the information to put David Miscavige the current leader of Scientology as well as many other key Scientology executives and Scientology attorneys in jail.

Mike Rinder needs to get himself and his family into a government witness protection program immediately. It is now simply too dangerous for Rinder to be on his own unprotected another day.

It does not matter how much Scientology hush money David Miscavige may have already given to Mike Rinder to “buy” his silence. (This amount could be as much as $50 Million because of what Rinder knows.) David Miscavige will without a doubt turn on Mike Rinder to neutralize him and any threat he could ever present because David Miscavige has been hand trained by Scientology’s paranoid and fanatical founder L Ron Hubbard.

Because that is how he has been trained by Hubbard, Miscavige WILL eliminate any possible future threat. He will never be able to trust in Mike Rinder’s paid silence or rest knowing that Mike Rinder at any time can put he and the other top Scientology executives and lawyers in jail by simply turning states evidence.

What exactly does Rinder know? He was the head of Scientology super secret OSA for decades. What doesn’t he know?

MORE.

Have you seen this man … does anyone out there know more about this? If he wants, Rinder can come to my place … I’ve got an apartment downstairs, plenty of food, security, change of clothes, disguises — everything! Contact me Mike — I’m here for you. I’m willing to provide safe haven for you, so contact me as soon as possible.

Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine, offers an opinion.

A leap beyond faith
LA Times Opinion

People are suspicious of Scientology because of its cult-like secrecy, its overly aggressive response to and legal attacks against critics, and especially the hypocrisy of comporting itself as a faux religion in a society willing to reward corporate success but not religious greed. (more…)