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The Forbidden Side of ScientologyBy the Reverend Murray Luther, Jan 28, 2005Religious Hard-Sell        A while back, I received a mailer from the Church of Scientology's Citizens Commission on Human Rights. The mailer offered, "You are invited to a CONFIDENTIAL closed-door Briefing and Dinner." I've been a Scientologist long enough to know that what they were really saying. Essentially, the message was "Come to our dinner and give us the opportunity to brow-beat you into giving us thousands of dollars."        L. Ron Hubbard describes this approach as "come-on promotion." The words confidential and closed-door are meant to induce, allure and attract...

After a viewing of Fahrenheit 9/11 Muckhole Moore will be joining Channel 4 for an "exclusive" webchat. Be sure and let him know what you think of him and his documentary.

The Forbidden Side of ScientologyBy the Reverend Murray Luther, Jan 24, 05Totalitarian Religion        In 2001, following the September 11 attacks, Church of Scientology Chairman of the Board David Miscavige promptly issued Inspector General Network Bulletin No. 44, titled "Wake-up Call." The Church's official position, although not exactly a denial of the facts, completely avoided one issue worth noting. Miscavige made absolutely no mention of the terrorists' radical religious extremism. I suspect that for most Scientologists, extremism is a concept that probably hits too uncomfortably close to home. Your average dedicated Scientologist, while able to perhaps recognize the dangers of suicide...

The Forbidden Side of Scientology By the Reverend Murray Luther, Jan 18, 2005 Unauthorized Correspondent for The Church of ScientologyIndoctrinated Tyranny    One of the first things a new Scientologist encounters when studying Dianetics and Scientology is the absolute authority of L. Ron Hubbard. There's a gradual indoctrination process that takes place in which the Scientologist eventually comes to the realization that everything Hubbard says is absolutely true and completely correct. Sooner or later every Scientologist arrives at a point where Hubbard's word becomes law, not to be questioned.     Every course begins with the same Hubbard Policy Letter, Keeping Scientology...

The Forbidden Side of Scientology By the Reverend Murray Luther, Jan 13, 2005 An Ex-Fanatic Speaks Out     This is the first entry in a series of reports and commentary on the ever controversial Church of Scientology. I've been a member for roughly thirty years, and as of this writing I still remain in good standing. I've received hundreds of hours of Scientology counseling, and have attained some of the highest spiritual levels that it offers. I've also done significant amounts of training in the delivery of Scientology counseling, as well as courses in the administration of Church management policies....

Student disrupts protest Julie Piotraschke, juliep@windsortribune.com October 26, 2004 The detaining of a college student shattered hours of passionate but peaceful protesting by hundreds who lined up Monday morning outside of Island Grove Regional Park. Michael McCarthy, a journalism student at the University of Northern Colorado, was wrestled to the ground by police after he continued to smack an officer on the top of his head with a red and blue "Veterans for Kerry" sign. According to witness Monica McRae, who had come up from Denver in support of the president, McCarthy had ignored the officer when he was asked...

AMERICA AT THE CROSS ROADS OF HISTORY When the terrorists attacked the United States on September 11th, 2001, it signaled that they were no longer satisfied to only attack US interests outside the United States. It signaled that they felt comfortable enough and were savvy enough to realize that the US is no longer a unified country, ethnically, socially, politically, or spiritually. Some may believe that it never was, and that comes from a lack of knowledge about the country. Of course, there were slaves, mostly black Africans, but there were also white slaves who bought passage to the New...

Senate Majority Leader Michael Waddoups recently used what he described as “plain language” to explain his latest impudent effort to amend Utah’s liberal gun law. As far as the conservative senator from Taylorsville is concerned, only the state legislature can set policy regarding guns on public property, including Utah’s colleges and universities. May we use equally plain language to express KSL’s view . . . and what repeated public opinion polls suggest is the long-held majority view in this state: Senator Waddoups and his concealed carry cronies could use a good dose of common sense. Guns, concealed or otherwise, don’t...

Avraham Poraz, our secular "Zionist" minister of the interior, is a modern man untrammelled by bigotry and superstition. His revulsion to religious values is directed against his own people's faith, Judaism; one does not recall him expressing offensive remarks about the religious rituals of other people. His contempt for Jewish ritual was manifested even before his appointment as interior minister. How else would one judge an Israeli politician congratulating the Dutch government for moving toward a ban on Jewish ritual slaughter - shehita? The ban was never imposed because, unlike Poraz, the Dutch authorities concluded that such a move would...

To the Editor: Spectator, now for the second time in less than a year, has succeeded to quote me in a remarkably decontextualized and inflammatory manner. In Margaret Hunt Gram's report on the faculty teach-in against the war in Iraq (March 27, 2003), I am quoted as wishing for a million Mogadishus but with no indication whatsoever of the perspective that framed that remark. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that your Staff Editorial in the same issue, denouncing the teach-in for "dogmatism," situates me in particular as the premier example of an academic "launching tirades against anything and everything American."...

If a lack of sympathy was a guide to guilt, then Indonesia's best-known radical Muslim would be rightly convicted of the Bali bombings. Abu Bakar Bashir is the elderly cleric Western intelligence has identified as the man most likely to have organised Saturday night's Kuta slaughter. While he firmly denies any involvement in the carnage, there's no sign from Bashir, the head of a Muslim boys' boarding school, of sympathy for those young Westerners, about the same age as his charges, who perished in those "sinful nightclubs". In a land dominated by moderate Muslims, Mr Bashir is a genuine radical....

"What happens to animals in factory farming is not right" Statement Animal Freedom (may 7, 2002). Volkert is not and was not a member of Animal Freedom. This text is from an interview done by phone 2 years ago. Volkert van der Graaf Even in elementary school I was interested in animals, the environment and nature. I was a member of the WWF Rangers, and we did things like picking up garbage in the dunes, etc. I also used to fish, with my brother who was two years older. I used to get a kick out of catching fish. My...