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 On Tuesday, Barbara Walters once again came to the rescue for Scientology, this time sticking up for the church’s “educational programs” on The View.
Whoopi Goldberg started the discussion by bringing up Jaden Smith’s infamous tweet, in which the 15-year-old actor encouraged kids to drop out of school. Jenny McCarthy then brought up Scientology, which the Smith family has been said to dabble in. At that point, Walters spoke up, saying, “I’m not going to speak about Scientology in general, but Scientology has a pretty good educational program. They’re not telling people to drop out.” That surprised Sherri Shepherd, who remembered that the program had recently had a guest who said just the opposite. “She said they pulled her out and put her in a camp. What kind of school is that? It’s like it was a hard labor camp. She built the doggone — the huts that they lived in.” Shepherd was speaking, of course, of Jenna Miscavige Hill, who had visited The View in February. And Jenna has a message for Barbara Walters. Continue reading JENNA HILL RESPONDS TO BARBARA WALTERS ON SCIENTOLOGY EDUCATION
 We’re certain that Scientology will soldier on for years to come. But for now, we can’t help feeling that the End Days are upon us.
Continue reading Scenes from Scientology’s Armageddon
 Charlie Frago at the Tampa Bay Times has big news this afternoon. With the Church of Scientology facing a 5 pm deadline today to turn over more information about its scheduled October 6 grand opening event for its “Flag Building” (also known as the “Super Power Building”) the church sent word that the event would instead be postponed indefinitely.
“I don’t remember a calamity like this that played out in the public ever before,” former Scientology spokesman Mike Rinder told Frago, and we have to agree. This appears to be the most obvious evidence yet that Scientology leader David Miscavige is quickly losing control of an organization gripped in crisis. Continue reading MISCAVIGE BLINKS: SCIENTOLOGY POSTPONES SUPER POWER INDEFINITELY
 Claire Headley is taking us on our journey to train as Scientologists. She and her husband Marc were Sea Org workers who escaped from Scientology’s International Base in 2005. She spent years working with Scientology’s “tech,” and was trusted to oversee the auditing of Tom Cruise. Go here to see the first part in this series.
Claire, it seems like we’ve come a long way now. Where do we go next after finishing the Expanded Grades? CLAIRE: Next will be NED — New Era Dianetics. The premise and theory of this level is covered in L. Ron Hubbard’s book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. It used to be that Dianetics auditing was first on the grade chart. That was before my time. Then later on, the grades were added as prerequisites to NED. The idea behind it was that the grades would address a person’s particular life problems, so by the time they get to Dianetics they’re in better shape and will keep their gains on this level. But really, to sum it up, this is where you will run out all your engrams and go Clear. THE BUNKER: Wait a minute. You mean, we’re going CLEAR this week? Continue reading Scientology’s “Bridge:” Claire Headley Gets Us to CLEAR!
 When Jenna and Dallas were in New York in February, we got to see the whole family of Jenna Miscavige Hill’s memoir comes out today, so we thought we’d give her a call to talk about several different things. Back in February, when her book, Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology And My Harrowing Escape, first came out, we called it “one of the most complete and compelling narratives of how someone grows up in, and falls under the spell of, this organization which wields so much power over its members through interrogation, intimidation, and control.” At the time, Jenna was just beginning an extensive publicity campaign that has hardly let up in the seven months since. We asked her about that, and about some recent news stories that she says were exaggerations of what she told reporters. Continue reading Jenna Miscavige Hill Talks to Us As Her Book Comes Out in Paperback
 Hey, Oblivion ‘s out on DVD! After Tom Cruise made a disastrous decision to be more public with his involvement in Scientology in 2005, he’s been relatively low-key about the church, and he’s not been seen at many of its major events. Now, we have evidence of Tom’s presence at a surprsingly small-scale church event, and it’s caught top former Scientologists by surprise. They tell us this is an important new development, and confirms not only Cruise’s continuing loyalty to Scientology leader David Miscavige, but also that Miscavige is treating the next few months like it was the church’s last stand. Continue reading TOM CRUISE IN CLEARWATER: Scientology Gathering Big Names For Product Launch
 We’re back in our underground bunker after a rather eventful trip to the Texas hill country.
The cats genuinely seemed happy to see us. The dog even came over for a rub. We’re still in recovery mode, and we hope by tomorrow to be more caught up on the things going on in the rest of the Scientology Watching world that need our attention. We have Narconon news to catch up on. More court documents to show you. A couple of interviews that we’ve meant to get done. But we had to put everything on hold for what turned out to be a fateful couple of days at the Comal County courthouse. For today’s Sunday Funnies, we thought we’d pick out a few of our favorite images that commenters created and posted during our Texas adventure. After that, we have a set of mailers and fliers from our tipsters. And for last, we’ve saved a bit of secret internal church planning for its upcoming IAS spectacular that we’re going to share with you just because we can! Let’s get it on. Continue reading Scientology Sunday Funnies: Texas Memories, Valley Whales, and Top Secret Plans!
![We said Judge Dib Waldrip was Ricky Gervais with Colonel Sanders' facial hair. Did we nail it or what? [Source]](https://tonyortega.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Judge_Dib_Waldrip-300x211.jpg) We said Judge Dib Waldrip was Ricky Gervais with Colonel Sanders’ facial hair. Did we nail it or what? [Source] After two days of live-blogging here in New Braunfels, Texas, we left the Comal County courthouse yesterday afternoon with more questions than answers in the harassment lawsuit brought by Monique Rathbun against the Church of Scientology. But after our last entry in yesterday’s report, we learned some additional details about where things stand as Judge Dib Waldrip considers a couple of motions filed by both sides. To review, on Thursday opening statements and testimony were presented in a hearing to determine if a temporary restraining order that prevents Scientology from continuing to surveil Monique Rathbun would be converted into a temporary injunction, lasting the life of the lawsuit. That matter was not finished at the end of the day. Continue reading THE TEXAS POST-GAME REPORT: Scientology, Monique Rathbun, and Judge Dib Waldrip
 Good morning from New Braunfels, Texas, where we will be providing a second consecutive morning of live-blogging from the Comal County courthouse.
Yesterday, Judge Dib Waldrip allowed opening statements and testimony in Monique Rathbun’s request to convert a temporary restraining order into a temporary injunction in her harassment lawsuit against the Church of Scientology. But today, the temporary injunction hearing is being put on hold as the church’s motion to disqualify Monique’s attorney, Ray Jeffrey, becomes the focus. Continue reading MONIQUE RATHBUN VS SCIENTOLOGY, DAY 2: Texas Showdown Shifts Gears
 Day One just ended in the temporary injunction hearing of Monique Rathbun’s harassment lawsuit against the Church of Scientology and its leader, David Miscavige.
We live-blogged the first half of the day’s session, which included opening statements by attorneys on both sides. But then Judge Dib Waldrip called for a ban on recording devices during Monique’s testimony in the afternoon, so we had to quit live-blogging and went back to pen-and-paper tech. It was old school time! Monique gave two hours and twenty minutes of testimony guided by her attorney, Ray Jeffrey, and after a short break, she then was cross-examined by Church of Scientology International’s San Antonio lawyer, Les Strieber, for another hour or so. Continue reading MONIQUE RATHBUN’S TESTIMONY: Day One Finishes in Her Temporary Injunction Hearing
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On Tuesday, Barbara Walters once again came to the rescue for Scientology, this time sticking up for the church’s “educational programs” on The View.
![We said Judge Dib Waldrip was Ricky Gervais with Colonel Sanders' facial hair. Did we nail it or what? [Source]](http://tonyortega.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Judge_Dib_Waldrip.jpg)
