That’s a great Fun Fact! I’m a Ross fan. He seems like an insightful, kind guy. Even when he’s being a bit catty on one of those ‘comment about the red carpet fashions’ shows, his comments are more funny than they are catty, and usually right on point.

Not sure what treatment or procedure has made tc’s face so puffy.

(Sorry about the late reply; I just now saw your comment.)

Hello Kim. I just wanted to share with you this little bit of news: http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=31899
That Pope Francis, quite the gentle man.

No, that is not my real name. Yep, I am a Monkees fan and stole it from them. It is also the name of the last ep of the tv series.

Cool, then. Glad someone was paying attention. Not cool to try to turn Gold into Chicago.

In the early years of dianetics and Scientology, Hubbard was a master at backing off a little bit. He know when he was pushing his luck too far and, now and again declared an ‘amnesty’ or a ‘new breakthrough’ which promised to address the concerns of members.

More often than not, this was hand-waving. Nothing really changed, but it did give the appearance that the CofS was responsive.

Of course, Hubbard was ‘Source’. He could do that kind of thing. After his death, the new regime had less flexibility. They could (and have) changed a lot of Scientology doctrine and practice, and edited out the most embarrassing passages in Hubbard’s writings, but have had to pay lip service to its supposed infallibility.

Scientology practices are not going to change in any important way now, because of this and the utter inflexibility of Miscavige, who has set himself up as the protector of ‘standard tech’.

In fact, I wonder if this isn’t also the case with the Brethren. I suspect that, under press scrutiny, they went through the motions of reviewing their ‘disfellowship’ policy, but nothing really changed.

The ability to bring in ‘new revelations’ gives you some wiggle room but, when you are operating a high-control group, there is no such thing as giving people a little freedom. Too much compromise and the whole thing will fragment.

Miscavige has the additional problem that, even if he was capable of modifying the worst abuses of Scientology, he would lose far more members who would accuse him of ‘squirrelling the tech’ than he would attract apostates, and the CofS could not sustain a period of internal controversy.

The similarities with some of the practices of the Exclusive Brethren are interesting. Watched the documentary on them you linked to, and what was even more interesting the news that upon the death of their founder at the time and the assumption of power by his son, the sect actually modified their disconnection policy, reviewing how old cases were handled in an attempt to perhaps modify some of the criticism aimed against them and bring some apostates back. Can’t help but wonder if that could ever happen with $cientology. Somehow I doubt it though b/c they don’t have a scripture that teaches forgiveness, humility and love, and hence they don’t possess those qualities. The also don’t truly value families in the same way as the brethren obviously do. Fascinating. Thanks for sharing.

I am so sorry that your son is disconnected from you. I can’t imagine how painful that must be. I pray that he comes to his senses soon. Scientology is a cult, period.

A der… I swear I am so brain dead sometimes. That last reply I did to you the other night was supposed to say (refresh) because I posted a political cartoon for you to see. Sheesh, I do that every time.

I know I am a bad person, but I want one of these. For real, in my house. But I know it is not a good idea and you really should be a reptile expert not a dork who just likes alligators. And live in Florida at least.
Wonder if Flag could wiggle codes and put in a moat with alligators. I’d come to see that. Draw bridge, murder holes, You know they want to.