Free Republic

Jack Parsons via Wikimedia Commons John “Jack” Whiteside Parsons’s life seems too improbable to be believed. But it’s all there in the biographies, Sex and Rockets and Strange Angel (the basis of a TV series of the same name), among other places, including a streaming series based on Strange Angel. Born in 1914, Parsons died in 1952 while working on an explosive special effect for a movie in his home laboratory. The explosion has been called an accident, a suicide, or an assassination, depending on the source. An obituary in the Pasadena Independent described Parsons as “a down-to-earth explosives...

I’d been planning to watch Leah Rimini’s Scientology exposé series and finally managed to squeeze in 3 of the episodes between important football games during the holiday weekend. I discovered that the church of Scientology is a billion dollar earth-centric cult ministered by an elite organization (Sea Org) that practices unlicensed psychology for which they charge exorbitant fees (up to $250,000 over the lifetime of an ordinary, non-celebrity member). It was founded by  L. Ron Hubbard, a 20th century writer of pulp science fiction before he discovered the “the modern science of mental health” and wrote the NYT blockbuster Dianetics.This...

Ad stands for rehab facilities with the particular slogan ‘Say no to drugs – say yes to life’ in Germany are under serious suspicion of being nothing more than a Scientology recruitment scheme, police warn. The sect is illegal in Germany. The enigmatic group, which believes our human souls have alien beginnings, does not enjoy the same legal status everywhere. In the United States it boasts dozens of Hollywood A-listers among its members and biggest donors. Not so in Germany, where the religious sect has been deemed “unconstitutional” since 1997 by domestic security, despite its existence there since the 1970s....

Astrophysicist and cosmologist Neil DeGrasse Tyson is defending Scientology in light of HBO's highly critical documentary on the church. HBO's documentary "Going Clear" did not show the church in an entirely positive light — Scientology has a built a reputation for tormenting members who leave it either by surveillance or harassment. The film highlights the celebrities who made the religion intriguing to the world as well as the horrific stories of abuse from former members. But Tyson, in an interview with The Daily Beast, declined to bash the controversial church, saying people are free to believe whatever they want. "So,...

It is beyond evident America that there is a massive psychopolitical operation underway in our nation. We are being beaten down on a daily basis by people who would have you believe that you are what's wrong with the world. Our kids are being overwhelmed with inappropriate sex education at very early ages, those who believe in the right to life are considered the radicals while those claiming the right to kill their unborn children are being praised. We have a president seeking to make his own people helpless while funding Islamic radicals overseas, the definition of racism has been...

Advertised as a LIVE interview of former Arkansas lawyer, liar. FLOTUS, PIAPS and Cankles. Former Secy of State under the Obama Bus and now, failed author, er ghost writer helper... Let's hope they get a couple of honest answers...right? Maybe??

Getting teens to sign up for the Affordable Care Act and learn how to obtain contraceptives through Obamacare, was the focus of an event hosted by the D.C. Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy at the Church of Scientology’s National Affairs Office in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, a gathering that featured officials from the Health and Human Services Department and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) . Wilma Robinson, deputy director of the HHS Office of Adolescent Health, said she was attending to explain “the impact of the Affordable Care Act on adolescents,” which she defined as girls and boys...

Democrat Mike Dickinson recently promised to wage “war” on the NRA, Tea Party and Fox News. On Thursday, he was confronted by Greta Van Susteren in a tense exchange that ended with an embarrassing admission. “Why do you hate me?” Van Susteren asked, immediately getting to business. Dickinson, who apparently is not actually running for Congress, said he has a problem with her network as a whole. “Well, but no, what about me? I’m Fox News, I’m ‘trash,’ apparently, so what’s wrong with me?” the TV host responded. Dickinson conceded that he didn’t have a problem with Van Susteren personally,...

British writer Robert Miller's expose´of religion's founder L. Rob Hubbard finds US publisherA British book the Church of Scientology managed to block in America is finally on sale in the US 27 years after it was published elsewhere in the world. The book, Bare-Faced Messiah: The True Story of L. Ron Hubbard, written by Russell Miller, a British journalist, and originally published in 1987, appeared in print and tablet editions in the US earlier this month. The book exposes many of the boasts of Mr Hubbard, the late founder of Scientology, about his early life and achievements as outright lies....

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BFV), Germany’s domestic security agency, is effectively giving up its monitoring of the controversial Scientology organization as part of its ongoing reforms. In doing so, it has upset officials in several of Germany’s states. Scientology is officially recognized as a church in the United States and has the backing of celebrity members such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta. In Germany, however, it is viewed as a business that seeks to present itself as a church. … The agency is currently trying to focus its efforts towards counterespionage in light of...

The percentage of American children from 4 through 17 years of age who have ever been diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) increased 42 percent from 2003 to 2011, according to a newly released study by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study indicated that more than 20 percent of 11- and 14-year-old American boys had been diagnosed with ADHD at some point in their lives, that boys were 125 percent more likely than girls to be diagnosed with the disorder, and that boys were 127 percent more likely than girls to be medicated for it. The study...

“In the days of the Malleus, if the physician could find no evidence of natural illness, he was expected to find evidence of witchcraft: today, if he cannot diagnose organic illness, he is expected to diagnose mental illness.” (1) The Malleus Maleficarum was a 15th century text which instructed Inquisitors on the proper method of identifying, trying and burning witches. Though it was many years ago that renowned psychiatrist Thomas Szasz (1920-2012) used the example of the Malleus to comment on the diagnostic practices of his fellow physicians, it seems he might have been on to something as today psychiatrists...

“It is customary to define psychiatry as a medical specialty concerned with the study, diagnosis and treatment of mental illnesses.” But according to prominent psychiatrist and academic Thomas Szasz MD (1920-2012) “…this is a worthless and misleading definition.” “Mental illness is a myth. Psychiatrists are not concerned with mental illnesses and their treatments. In actual practice they deal with personal, social, and ethical problems in living.” (1) Szasz write that “…the notion of a person ‘having a mental illness’ is scientifically crippling. It provides professional assent to a popular rationalization—namely that problems in living experienced and expressed in terms of...

Hubbard’s famously paranoid worldview is extensively documented here as well. When a negative reputation began to taint Scientology worldwide, he launched what was perhaps his most grandiose and outrageous scheme. He called it the Snow White Program. Starting in 1973, Wright asserts, Hubbard placed as many as 5,000 Scientologists as spies in government agencies all over the world, charging them with unearthing official files on the church, “generating lawsuits to intimidate opponents, and waging an unremitting campaign against mental health professionals.” In the United States, Wright says, the spies penetrated the IRS; the Justice, Treasury and Labor Departments; the Federal...

So for those of you who don’t know me I posted at Free Republic as Dengar01 from September 15th 2001 till I opused and 2 months later after questioning the finances of Free Republic my account was zotted. When I first came up with the idea of this thread I emailed TBL, NOTA and a close friend here for their opinions. I then expanded to email some ex-FReepers who were run off the site by some of the most vile creatures on the planet. Some who made up handle’s at TBL to continue their cult like obsession. I was stalked...

Heber Jentzsch, when he was still allowed to breathe free air UPDATE: HOLMES-CRUISE DIVORCE SETTLED. So far, looking like how we predicted it in our previous story. This morning, more than 10,000 Scientologists found an e-mail from Karen de la Carriere in their inboxes, written in jargon that they will understand, and informing them of the controversy surrounding the death of her son Alexander Jentzsch. As we reported first on Thursday night, de la Carriere learned about the death of her 27-year-old son more than two days after he was found, unresponsive, at the home of his in-laws in...

Rubert Murdoch has a lot of Thetans perturbed with him. That’s because the founder and chairman of News Corp., which owns Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, among other media properties, tweeted Sunday that there is “(s)omething creepy, maybe even evil, about these people.” Murdoch was referring to adherents of Scientology, like actor Tom Cruise, who prefer to think themselves as “Thetans” – a term coined by L. Ron Hubbard, the cult’s founder – rather than “people.” Murdoch followed up his original tweet with another reporting that his twitter account had been bombarded with “hundreds of attacks” from Thetans....

‘Battlefield Earth’ Screenwriter Is Sorry About That By Marc Schneider J.D. Shapiro wrote one of the most derided films of all time. Now, he's saying sorry. In early March, 2000's 'Battlefield Earth' was "awarded" worst movie of the decade by the Razzies. Few are protesting it and even more, like the folks behind 'Freddy Got Fingered,' must have let out a sigh of relief at the news. But Shapiro knows what he did was awful. Truly awful, and in an open letter published by the NY Post, he hilariously tries to explain himself. "It wasn't as I intended -- promise....

The Church of Scientology in Italy is reportedly beginning legal proceedings against the Daughters of St. Paul and author Maria Pia Gardini. Gardini wrote the 2007 book, “My Years in Scientology,” and the 2009 book, “The Courage to Speak Out – Stories of Ex-Scientologists,” both published by the Daughters of St. Paul. Gardini returned to Catholicism after being a member of The Church of Scientology and its Sea Org elite. The books are part of a growing number being written by ex-members of The Church of Scientology cult. “We live in a free country and a publisher has the...

Scientology Spokesman Tommy Davis Leaves Interview in Anger The Church of Scientology is taking a beating today. First, former member Paul Haggis wrote a scathing letter renouncing the religion, and now a video of spokesman Tommy Davis walking out of an interview with Martin Bashir on 'Nightline,' is making the rounds on the Internet. Davis was offended when Bashir asked questions about the popular celebrity religion's beliefs. "Do you believe that the Galactic Emperor called Xenu brought his people to earth 75 million years ago and buried them in volcanoes?" Bashir asked. "Martin, I'm not going to discuss the disgusting...