We contacted Google’s media relations as soon as we saw what former Scientology spokesman Mike Rinder posted to his blog yesterday. It was a mailer from the Orange County chapter of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), the Scientology front group that advocates against the psychiatric profession.
The mailer claimed that CCHR Orange County had secured a “grant” from Google and would be receiving $10,000 in advertising each month, which would be used in the organization’s “anti-psych campaigns.”
A Google rep answered our inquiry, referring us to the eligibility rules for Google’s Ad Grants program, called “Adwords for Nonprofits.”
The program provides in-kind donations from Google in the form of $10,000 worth of advertising a month for use by organizations that meet the eligibility requirements — namely, that they be registered nonprofits that have current charity status, abide by nondiscrimination guidelines, and maintain functioning websites with substantial content.
We asked if Google would confirm that Citizens Commission on Human Rights had received a grant, but Google won’t talk about individual cases.
We then asked for a statement about Google’s grant going to an organization that promotes the idea that the Holocaust was caused by psychiatry, and didn’t hear back.
Oh yeah, about that. CCHR was created in 1969 as a Scientology front group that really has only one goal: to demonize the American mental health industry. Scientology leader David Miscavige has been quite open — at least when he’s speaking at private church events — that he wants to “booby-trap” and destroy the psychiatric profession.
The crown jewel of CCHR’s efforts is its bizarre museum on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, “Psychiatry: The Industry of Death.” And one of the key ideas that the museum promotes is that Adolf Hitler tried to annihilate the Jews of Europe based on ideas that psychiatry and psychology were responsible for. (The unspoken corollary is that Scientology has all the answers for mental health, as long as you go along with its beliefs that we’re all immortal beings that have lived countless times and get whisked to Venus or Mars to have our souls implanted with false memories between lives. Seriously. You can look it up.)
And now, Google is apparently helping CCHR get the word out.
We want to make two further observations. First, Scientology needs more advertising like it needs more bad press — it’s swimming in both. Scientology spends millions to saturate the Internet with its ads, and it could spend much more — it has more than a billion dollars in liquid cash raised from wealthy donors, former executives tell us. It’s placed ads during the last two Super Bowls, for heaven’s sake. Is that really the kind of organization that Google set out to help with its “Adwords for Nonprofits”?
(Speaking of Scientology ads, we’ve noticed that just in the last few days, there’s been a big push at YouTube with ads that were made about a year ago. They’re long — five to seven minutes — and describe some of Scientology’s ideas about work and life. We saw one on the “admin scale” that could make watching paint dry exciting. And here’s one on “targets and goals” that could solve your insomnia problems.)
Secondly, while Scientology makes medical claims and attempts to infiltrate schools, those institutions can’t get the same boost from Google.
Ad grants are not available for “hospitals and medical groups” and “schools, childcare centres, academic institutions and universities.”
Anyway, we’re sure CCHR is thrilled with Google’s help as it continues its plans to “booby-trap” psychiatry. Isn’t the Internet fun?
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L. Ron Hubbard down under!
Our video source has another “quote video” for us this week. In this case, it’s advertising a lecture L. Ron Hubbard gave in Melbourne in 1959. Bridge Publications sells the Melbourne Congress for $125.00, and here’s your sneak peek!
Once again we turned to Marc Headley for his thoughts on the production of this video…
This one has Tony Pinder as our “walking guy” against cityscapes. There were very few black people at the Int Base. Out of several hundred employees, I think we had about 3-5 black folks there at any given time.
Tony was one of them. He was a British guy who was the On-Line Video Editor and did that for years. When I left the On-Line bay was becoming obsolete with the advanced of the non linear (digital) editing bays, and I am sure Tony just became an Editor that tweaks the edits after they were done in the Off-line bays. Tony was one of the few staff that got to stay up day and night during event production periods and constantly tweak videos based on David Miscavige’s every whim.
For the famous nine-minute Tom Cruise video, that video had thousands of tweaks. Miscavige was practically camped out in Video Editing when that video was being made. If you think your job might be stressful at times, imagine David Miscavige sitting behind you all day and all night, not only watching you and what you’re doing but conducting all his other business in your office. He would take in all sorts of meetings in the bays, have people coming and going, yelling, screaming, assigning people to various punishments and so forth and then switch back to tweaks on the video like this was all normal for the leader of a religion to be doing.
At the 1:50 mark we get to Tom Armstrong and Leroy (Byron) Turner. Back in the late 1980’s Tom Armstrong was on a Sea Org “mission” that went to run Scientology’s Narconon Chilocco in Oklahoma. Later he managed to get up to the Int Base as a “writer.” He was one of the few guys that could write perfectly in LRH’s handwriting. He was eventually in the Props department and made up most of the documents and handwriting props you see in all these videos. Leroy was in the Engineering Department of the Estates Division. He and usually one or two other guys were responsible for maintaining hundreds and hundreds of equipment items all over the property.
The rest of the video is all extras from who knows where, and there is an unfunny LRH joke that got a great laugh track added. To make sure the video climaxes at the end, we have it wrapping up with Hubbard throwing out one of his useless “powerful” datums that will blow your mind.
Thank you, Marc!
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Scientology tax return of the day
We have a great one for you today. It’s the 990 of Narconon Vista Bay in Watsonville, California. Business was good in 2012 at the Scientology drug rehab facility, which took in $12 million in revenue.
But what really caught our eye are the substantial salaries being paid Vista Bay’s executives. It turns out deceiving potential patients about Narconon’s connection to Scientology is a pretty lucrative pursuit.
Vista Bay president Daniel Manson was paid $303,175 in salary and other compensation.
Daniel’s wife and executive director Angie Manson made $287,919 and you have to assume life is good at the Manson household, with more than half a million in combined income that year.
Other salaries…
Kathi Horton, Treasurer: $104,860
Nathan Tuddernham, Secretary: $135,779
Matthew Guernaccini, Senior Dir. Production: $173,143
Juan Carlos R. Ubillus, Senior Dir. Expansion: $157,959
Dana Guernccini, Public Registration Supervisor: $129,668
Michael DiPalma, Dir. Public Registration: $263,020
Have a look yourself…
2012 Narconon Vista Bay 990 return
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Mark Bunker has a treat for you!
We know some of you are going to want this…
And finally, yes, thanks for sending us notice about the story out of Oklahoma that two employees of the state Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse say they were fired in relation to their investigation of Narconon Arrowhead, Scientology’s flagship drug rehab facility, where three patients died in a nine-month period in 2011 and 2012. We’re looking into it and hope to have more information than what was in that limited report.
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Posted by Tony Ortega on April 19, 2014 at 07:00
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Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…
BLOGGING DIANETICS (We read Scientology’s founding text) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25
UP THE BRIDGE (Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43
GETTING OUR ETHICS IN (Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING (Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43
PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | Scientology’s Private Dancer
