Cruise, control yourself

Let's face it, most actors don't have a background in science. It's understandable because you'd expect that they got where they are by learning "the craft" and probably never had the time for much outside that.

Even so, that doesn't stop them having at least a smattering of common sense. There are a whole bunch of actors who at least appear to have some: Anthony Hopkins, Sandra Bullock, Morgan Freeman and George Clooney, for example, come across in interviews I've seen to be reasonably smart people.

Not so Tom Cruise, however, and that's a shame because his soapboxing about scientology (sorry, I can't bring myself to capitalize that "s") just makes him look more and more like a total goon. Cruise's tirade against psychiatrists is straight from the spirit of L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of $ciento£ogy. I just hope I can take my mind off Cruise's crap when we go to see War of the Worlds, because I'd hate it if being reminded of scientology spoils the movie for me.

Cruise was studying to be a catholic priest before he became an actor and I suppose that might explain part of it, but when you think about it you might realize that there's something not quite right; if he knows something about religion, how is that he can't tell scientology from the real thing? Because, sure as eggs are eggs, scientology is not a religion. It's a scam that messes with people's health and minds to make money.

A long time ago L. Ron Hubbard said that the quickest and easiest way to make a lot of money was to found a religion. Then came his book "Dianetics", in which El Ron claimed to have scientific proof that every disease, from the common cold to cancer, is caused by nasty racial memories and that we can be cured of all illnesses by just cleaning out these memories. After the book came the "church" of scientology. Voila, El Ron had founded his religion. And it's still with us today.

You might think it's harmless for people to believe what they like. If you think that, you should read this. Or this. Or this. Or most especially this. In fact, take a look at the Operation Clambake homepage to find links to a wealth of information.

(If you think those pages are biased, check out the Wikipedia entry - Wikipedia is open to all to edit and as a result articles that are contentious tend to balance out over time, and these articles have been there a long time.)

With all the bad experiences of people who have been victims of scientology you'd think something would have been done about it, but of course that's not so (at least, not in the USA - the governments of Germany and Greece aren't as easily fooled, though, and those countries have outlawed scientology). The "church" continues to pretend to be a religion so that it can maintain its tax-exempt status; it continues to persecute ex-members that speak out against it, sometimes to the grave; and it still makes money hand over fist (generally by persuading its victims to give them all their money). And, it claims that all the bad publicity it gets is unfounded smear campaigning, and its own members fall for it. Including, it would seem, Tom Cruise.

Well, I suppose there is one good thing about Tom speaking out and that is that he raises the profile of the whole "church". Maybe with the lights on them, a few more people will take a good look at scientology and start asking some tough questions. We can hope.

Last one to leave the country, please turn the lights off

This article about how they might repeal the 22nd Amendment and make it possible for Dubya to stay in the White House for yet another destructive term is just plain scary.

Kate pointed it out to me yesterday and to be honest I thought it was some kind of joke at first, but Kate was adamant that it was for real so I thought I'd better do a bit of checking.

It's for real. A bill was introduced in February that if passed will repeal the 22nd amendment. This makes it possible for a President to serve more than two terms.

The scary part is of course just as I said: there's a danger that Dubya could stay in power to continue his policies of destroying the economy and the rights of individuals, and taking the country back to the middle ages in terms of scientific progress and religious tolerance. What a lovely thought.

However it seems that the guys that wrote the bill are Democrats. The interpretation is that they're hoping that this will open the door for Bill Clinton to put Dubya's crap in black sacks on the White House steps.

Me, I hope they're right. In the last election I thought Dubya's record (like lying the country into a fake war and hyping terror threats to give the government an excuse to attack personal freedoms) would be enough to clear him out, but thanks to his other record on rigging election results he got in despite all that. So, I'm not going to get so overconfident in 2008.

If they repeal the 22nd amendment but the Dems get in regardless in 2008, fine. If the Repuglicans stay in - and especially Dubya - I don't think we'll be staying here to watch what's left of the place crumble around us. Rats leaving a sinking ship we may be, but when the rats are leaving because the captain's blowing holes in the hull with a shotgun and hoping a crucifix will save the crew, that's a different story.