Jason Beghe on Marty Rathbun

Legendary Village Voice editor Tony Ortega has an interview with Jason Beghe about the St. Pete Time’s articles slamming David Miscavige.
Today, the St. Petersburg Times unveiled part two of its devastating series on David Miscavige, diminutive leader of Scientology.
An indication of how much this series is hitting Scientology to the bone: rare and vehement denunciations by Miscavige himself, and [...]

The Truth Rundown

Talk about flaps.  David Miscavige must be packing his bags to go live in that cave with Osama Bin Laden.   Marty Rathbun is spilling the beans.
This account comes from executives who for decades were key figures in Scientology’s powerful inner circle. Marty Rathbun and Mike Rinder, the highest-ranking executives to leave the church, are [...]

Scientology 0n Trial in France

From the Independent:
The Church of Scientology in France went on trial today on charges of organised fraud.
Registered as a religion in the United States, with celebrity members such as actors Tom Cruise and John Travolta, Scientology enjoys no such legal protection in France and has faced repeated accusations of being a money-making cult.
The group’s Paris [...]

Palin Pallin’ with an OT? You Betcha!

Last week, it was all over the blogs that Sarah’s Palin’s brain trust for the 2012 election included big-time Scientologist, Washington D.C. insider and husband of Greta Van Susteran, John Coale.
The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza broke the story and since then, Gawker has been all over it like fur on a weasel.
Gawker also is taking a look [...]

Jeff Stone’s Unethical Behavior

This is why we need newspapers.  Reporters like Julia Glick from the Riverside Press-Enterprise do us all a favor when they bring to light the unethical behavior of local politicians like Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone who touts his sister as a volunteer for the county, yet last year he paid her $40,000 more out [...]

Turning Hubbard House into Museum

The Phoenix New Times has a great, lengthy article about Scientology converting a house  in which Hubbard once lived into a museum — without permission, of course. 
Jeff Jacobsen is interviewed for the article and he predicts the outcome:
The Scientologists will prevail in reopening their museum, Jacobson insists, either with the help of their deep-pockets legal [...]

How Good People Turn Evil

Psychologist Philip Zimbardo is interviewed in a great piece from Wired Magazine about how easy it is for good people to do evil things and what we need to do to try to stop that.
People are always personally accountable for their behavior. If they kill, they are accountable. However, what I’m saying is that [...]

Michael Shermer Article

In a strong and provocative L. A. Times op-ed on Anonymous, Michael Shermer of the Skeptic’s Society pulls no punches.
Imagine reading this press release:
Hello, Jews. We are anonymous. Over the years, we have been watching you. Your campaigns of misinformation; suppression of dissent; your litigious nature, all of these things have caught our eye. … [...]

Death of Shawn Lonsdale

The St. Petersburg Times reports today on the apparent suicide of Scientology critic Shawn Lonsdale.
It was a lonely end for a man who emerged out of nowhere in 2006 as a thorn in the side of the Church of Scientology.
For a few months in mid to late 2006, Lonsdale stood alone in downtown Clearwater beside [...]

Theater Tech

There’s a good article in Britain’s Telegraph about Milton Katselas and his Beverly Hills Playhouse, one of the most respected acting classes in Los Angeles.
Students have left Katselas’s school, the Beverly Hills Playhouse, because of the unspoken pressure they felt to join the Church of Scientology, the [...]