Article submitted by Number 6

What is lawfare and how does this relate to the cult?

In the post 9/11 era, new terms and new ideas to describe how war is currently being fought today have popped up in the media, in the press, in the think tanks and on blogs on all sides of the spectrum. One such term is lawfare. On page 55 of the book Unrestricted Warfare, it calls for the use of “international law warfare (seizing the earliest opportunity to set up regulations)” along with a set of other types of warfare that an enemy with more firepower cannot withstand for long. Since 2001, the term has been used to describe how individual supporters of terrorism have tried to silence people who expose them.

Take the case of Khalid bin Mahfouz, a Saudi Arabian billionaire who sued American author Rachel Ehrenfeld for libel in the UK because in her book Funding Evil she named him as a major contributor of money to terrorist organizations. British libel laws place the burden of proof on the defendant, and given Dr. Ehrenfeld’s limited resources even with government documents as proof, she lost. In 2008, Governor George Pataki of New York signed Rachel’s law, which grants protection to American citizens being sued by what are called libel tourists. The laws of the US and the UK are different when it comes to freedom of speech and the protection of that right.

Lawfare, to give you a tl;dr (too long, didn’t read) definition, is the use of a country’s legal system by an individual or corporation to utterly crush their adversaries. The term is currently used in the context of the War on Terror, but the definition should be broadened to include any other individual or group who tries to ruin an adversary in court, including and especially, the Church of Scientology.

But wait, there’s more…

Oh, Amy, Amy, Amy.  The hits just keep on a-comin’.  *rimshot* 

Amy Winehouse had an exciting weekend.  Not only did she call singer Kanye West a nasty name for which her momma should wash her mouth out with soap for:

Towards the end of the set, the singer’s comments between songs became increasingly bizarre. Firstly she asked: “Are there any black people in the crowd? Where’s Don Letts?” before ‘Love Is A Losing Game’, then launched into a tirade about Jay-Z and Kanye West.

She said: “Let’s hear it for Jay-Z. The man has got bollocks to come here, and play the tunes you don’t even know you remember. Imagine if it was a c**t like Kanye West. ‘C**ts Like Kanye’ - that should be his next album title.”

But she also made an unwise decision to go into the crowd to sing her hit Rehab, and practically incited a riot:

The troubled 24-year-old singer, who has a long history of drug abuse, seemed to rain blows on the man as those surrounding him reeled back in astonishment.

Television cameras captured the incident, which happened after she had descended from the stage to sing her most famous hit, Rehab.

Crowd members claimed the singer lashed out in response to a derogatory comment about her husband Blake Fielder-Civil, after she spent much of the show making slurring references to ‘my Blakey’. [...]

Her publicist said she had reacted instinctively when someone tried to pull her trademark beehive hairdo.

Festival organiser Michael Eavis’s version of events was that the man had made a grab at Miss Winehouse’s breasts.

However, the alleged man in question has a different version of what happened:

James Gostelow, 25, from London, came forward today claiming he was was the fan struck in the head by the singer.

Mr Gostelow claimed she turned on him after someone in the crowd behind him threw a hat at her.

He came forward to clear his name after some reports said she was groped.

Mr Gostelow told the BBC he was that reveller - but he did not think Winehouse was aiming at him. [...]

Mr Gostelow said it was not too sore but ‘more shock than anything else having got up early to see her then being hit by her’.

He said: ‘The crowd was going absolutely crazy, everyone was pushing and shoving but that’s part of it.’

Asked if he would consider contacting the police, Mr Gostelow said: ‘No, I would never want to take anything so far, and at the end of the day it’s all part of being at the front to be honest with you, and being crushed by thousands of people here at Glastonbury.

‘It’s part of the experience I suppose.’

Okay. First, I’m not even a famous person, but I’ve been to enough things involving famous people to know that for someone on Amy’s level of fame to descend into a crowd of people is sheer madness, bordering on lunacy.  In short, a very stupid decision.  She was practically at the end of her set, she knew the crowd was in a frenzy, yet she chose to climb down amongst them.  What did she expect?

Oh wait, I forgot…I’m thinking with a non-drug-addled brain.  My bad.

And for her to call Kanye West anything is just silly.  Kanye is definitely not one of my favorite people.  He’s arrogant, smug, and full of himself.  But the word Amy used was highly derogatory and she was out of line.  I mean, she shouldn’t be up there insulting her fellow musicians…it will come back to haunt her.

But what was with the comment to start with?  She’s basically calling Jay-Z a has-been and making fun of Kanye because he wasn’t there, as well as giving off a decided unfavorable vibe towards black people.  It seems that Kanye isn’t the only person arrogant and full of themselves.  I think perhaps Amy has let her fame go to her head, and she isn’t quite the common girl from Camden Town that she wants us to believe she is, for all her willingness to brawl in the dirt.

Nothing like shooting yourself in the foot, huh?  Maybe she just got tired of shooting up through her foot and decided to try something different.

Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler is finally admitting the real reason why he went to rehab…after saying he needed a “safe environment” to recover from foot surgery, it turns out that wasn’t all he needed:

“To have your feet done, to have your leg done, you have to be on narcotics,” Tyler told The Associated Press on Friday. “You have to be on sleep aids at night. I don’t know about Joe (Perry) but I was off and running and I didn’t like the me that was me.”

Tyler released a statement in late May saying he checked into a rehab facility in search of a “safe environment” to recover from several foot surgeries and physical therapy. Tyler said the procedures were to correct longtime foot injuries resulting from his physical performances as the singer for the blues-rock band.

“This was a month ago, so I just put the brakes on and checked into detox and just pulled the plug on all of it,” he told the AP on Friday night at the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square, where he and bandmates were promoting “Guitar Hero 3: Aerosmith.”

Steven completed rehab in 1986, shortly before the band got their second wind which still continues today.

I don’t get it.  This is a very successful singer who enjoys fame all across the globe.  He knows that he has many fans, young and old, who look up to him and enjoy his music.  So why not just be honest and tell the truth from the get-go?  Not like some of us didn’t figure it out for ourselves…but that makes it worse, to be shown up in your half-truth after the fact.

It takes a lot of guts to go to rehab, and he should know that the eyes of his fans would be on him.  He could have not said anything, gone quietly away, and then come back and said, “Hey, I’m sorry I disappeared for a while, but I had a problem with painkillers I had to take care of, and I did…and if I can do it, so can you.”  He could have been an inspiration to others struggling with dependency.  Maybe he should start performing in flip-flops.

Like so many who don’t tell the truth about why they went to rehab, he’s sending out the message that there’s something wrong with getting help for one’s addictions.

I can’t lay all the blame on Steven, though…he undoubtedly got horrible advice from his publicist.

Regardless, I wish him all the best in his continued recovery.

Madonna’s “facial reconstructions” aren’t as wonderful as she thinks - Awful Plastic Surgery

Michael Lohan produced more offspring? Say it isn’t so - WWTDD?

Pamela Anderson (hereafter to be known as “Pot”) called Jessica Simpson (hereafter to be known as “Kettle”) a few names that rhyme with “switch” and “door” - Pop Crunch

It’s official: Hancock sucks - IDLYITW

Angie Everhart and Prince Andrew? I like him, but he ain’t no Joe Pesci - Janet Charlton’s Hollywood

On Saturday morning, yet another town in northeastern Missouri was inundated by the ever-advancing floodwaters from the Mississippi River.  The small town of Winfield, Missouri, was the latest casualty in the fight against the flood, with its makeshift sandbag levee failing in the early morning hours.

To date, countless small towns, hamlets, roads, and homes have been overtaken or somehow damaged by the Flood of ‘o8, with damages reported in the billions of dollars, while recovery estimates are calculated from months to years.  The states of Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana have all been hit in some way since March with floodwaters and residual effects of too much snow, too much rain, and not enough riverbed to hold it all.

So far, there are twenty-four people reported dead and 150 injured.  Tens of thousands of Midwestern folks have been displaced, living anywhere from the houses of friends and relatives to motels to Red Cross shelters to their own rooftops.  Millions of sandbags have been filled by town residents and volunteers from several states away to shore up existing levees and create new, temporary ones.  I can’t possibly link to all the sites with stories about the floodwaters and the people trying to survive.

However, there is a question I would like to ask:

Where are the celebrities?

But wait, there’s more…

 

In an interview about his appearance in the new movie The Love Guru, Justin Timberlake says he has OCD and ADD.  Yeah, and?

Question: Do you have the OCD where you have to fix everything? (he’s adjusting all the recorders that got put down in front of him)

Justin Timberlake: I have OCD mixed with ADD, you try living with that.

I do, Justin.  Why do you think I try to center my photos and have an equal ratio of left and right ones…or at least alternate them with no left-left right or right-right-left?  It’s always left-right-left, or right-left-right, but usually starting with the left.  If it’s just one, it’s always on the left.  I totally had to go into HTML on this post and clean up all the extemporaneous formatting that was making it wonky.

And why do you think my articles can get so long?  It’s because I start writing and not only do I feel like I’ve got to explain every thought in my head in excruciating detail, but I often get lost and forget what I’m writi

Wanna ride bikes?

Wow, the slimy tentacle-like reach of Scientology managed to ensnare yet another creative type, bassist Justin Meldal Johnsen. Here’s his Scientology course records.

I was checking over at Enturbulation.org when I discovered this thread.

Now, as anyone who knows me well (all three of you) I am a HUGE NIN’s fan, and have been a fan since Pretty Hate Machine was released back in ‘89. Trent Reznor is one of my idols, and here’s a link to the bio Eric and I did on him for our Encyclopedia of Record Producers book. I am also keenly aware of the fact the Church of Scientology is run by sinister individuals who maintain a cult-like control over the organization and mistreat members and critics alike.

I am hereby swearing to the world at large, if Trent Reznor gets sucked into Scientology by this Justin fellow, who is probably a swell, but mislead, guy — the gloves will be off.

Trent is one of my heroes, and if it’s not bad enough I’ve had to write of Beck, Will Smith and even Tom Cruise due to their affiliations with Scientology, I just don’t know what I will do. By the way, not so coincidentally, Justin used to be in Beck’s band as well.

Here’s a strange fact for you. Trent Reznor was living in the Sharon Tate/Roman Polanski house while writing his fabulous album Downward Spiral. This is the same house Sharon Tate, her unborn child and her friends were murdered in by the Manson family. Charles Manson became a Scientologist while in prison. While he was rejected by the group for being “psychotic” he was deeply fascinated and influenced by their mind-control techniques, which he then applied to his “Manson Family” who as you know, became murderers under his control.

Weird, but true. STAY THE F AWAY FROM THE KOOL-AID TRENT.

Who has an incredibly painful bunion protruding from her foot?  Hint…she has about a zillion pairs of shoes to choose from, most of which look quite painful and are very expensive, some of which were given to her as gifts.

Answer after the jump!

But wait, there’s more…

Glosslip is absolutely thrilled to announce we will be interviewing Gerry Armstrong. For those of you who’ve been following our 6-month coverage of the anti-Scientology movement fronted by the internet activist group Anonymous, then you should also be familiar with the name Gerry Armstrong.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE SHOW LIVE. Remember: ARCHIVE AVAILABLE AFTER SHOW.

Like so many ex-Scientologists, Armstrong has played an integral role in exposing the Church of Scientology and its many frauds and abuses against its members and society at large. Gerry, who was forced to exile himself in Canada because of Scientology’s vicious “fair-gaming” is one of the most erudite and credible witnesses to the madness of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.

Not only did Gerry Armstrong work closely with Hubbard while serving as a member in the organization’s pseudo-military sect called the Sea Organization (or Sea Org, SO for short), but he was designated the task of coordinating a biography project on Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, which included the gathering and collecting of historical data and records, as well as, interviews with LRH’s family members and closest associates.

These efforts led Armstrong to discover many fraudulent claims made by Hubbard about his past, including his naval service and education records. When Armstrong submitted his findings to the Church of Scientology, he was disconnected from the Church and declared a suppressive person.

It would be almost impossible for me to document the lengths the CoS has gone to in order to silence Gerry Armstrong, but suffice it to say, in many ways, Gerry Armstrong may possibly be the Church of Scientology’s most dangerous critic.

Or to put it another way (as suggested in this brilliant article by Bruce Livesey for Masionneuve Magazine), Gerry Armstrong is to Scientology what Salman Rushdie is to Islam. Also, do read another great article by the Village Voice’s Tony Ortega on Gerry Armstrong.

I strongly encourage anyone interested in knowing more about how dangerous the Church of Scientology is to its critics to read about Gerry’s struggle to be free of their tentacle like clutches. Here are some important links to check out before tuning into this interview with Scientology’s most determined and courageous critic.

Gerry Armstrong’s official website.
Gerry’s wiki page.
Bruce Livesey’s wonderful article about Gerry’s and his long battle with Scientology.
Gerry’s wife Caroline’s page
Suppressive Person Defense League
Holy Smoke - historical references to CoS’ legal assault on Gerry Armstrong

A special picture for our friends at Anonymous after the jump:
But wait, there’s more…

Teen movie queen Vanessa Hudgens has revealed how you know you’re in a successful relationship…it’s when you don’t have to work at it, because that would be, like, hard and stuff:

“If you really love someone, you shouldn’t have to work at it,” the 19-year-old tells [COSMO Girl]. “You finish each others’ sentences and have the same sense of humor.”

Oh, really.  And here I’ve been spending the better part of two decades attempting to do things like work out our problems and resolve differences and make an effort.  What was I thinking?

The article also describes how Vanessa, when Zac walked into the room, ran over and gave him a big kiss and rubbed his belly in an affectionate way, and this spoke more than her words can say.  If that’s how people gauge true love, I truly despair for young people today.

Let’s ask little Vanessa her opinions on this same subject in about twenty years, when Zac Efron has a bit of a potbelly and his career is in the tanker.  I guarantee she’ll have a different opinion, because this sort of thing only happens in silly teen movies and Barbara Cartland novels.  Sure, after a while you know what the other person is thinking, but that is just a byproduct of spending time together, not necessarily the sign of a successful relationship.  And having the same sense of humor is nothing more than two people who…share the same sense of humor.  Um, HELLO?

A friend of mine once told me that true love is when you’re willing to wash the other person’s dirty underwear.  I’d take that a step further…a successful relationship doesn’t just happen, it is a choice.  You make a choice every day to have a successful relationship when you are picking up their nasty, smelly, stiff socks off the floor for the umpteenth time (that day), when you are listening to Beethoven’s Fifth Fart Symphony, when you’re tripping over the trash that they were supposed to take out yesterday, when they have a headache (again)…

You see, so many times this is exactly where people make their mistake.  Once the “honeymoon” phase of the relationship is over, and there comes a time when the relationship actually requires work, and it isn’t as easy as it was in the beginning, and that sense of humor is working your last nerve and the sentences you’re finishing are the ones in the middle of an argument, people think there is something “wrong” with it.  Then they think it’s time to trade in the one with mileage for a newer model, thinking that because everything is “easy” again this must be “right”.  I know it isn’t as cut and dried as that, and some relationships that take work really are destined for failure, but you get the idea.  It is completely irresponsible for anyone in the public eye to promote this skewed view of relationships.

Yes, it is definitely a choice, and something one has to work at every day.  Anything that you care about takes work, and that includes relationships.  No matter how much “in love” you are with the other person, there will come a time when that relationship will require a degree of work.  But when you are truly in love, and truly in a committed relationship, those choices aren’t a burden to make.  There’s the difference.