Scientology sez: swine flu iz conspiracy!!!!

Leaked email from OSA (Office of Special Affairs) UK:

From: Graeme Wilson
Date: Sun, 3 May 2009 23:25:57 +0100
To: Graeme Reid Wilson
Subject: Mexico and "swine flu"

Dear All,

Please see below briefing and request from Gaby Gadiot, who is coordinating Volunteer Minister help to people in Mexico whose lives are being put at risk by measures taken to combat "swine flu."

It appears that the actions being taken in response to the so-called "swine flu" are causing more disruption than the flu itself. So far, 9 people have been confirmed as having died from swine flu. Compare that to 250,000 who die of "regular" flu every year around the world. Meanwhile, share prices are soaring of the drug companies selling drug in vast quantities in preparation for the heralded pandemic.

Do let Gaby know if you can do anything to help.

Best

Graeme

"Swine flu in Mexico has seen the closure of public places: schools, restaurants, markets and even churches. (including our own churches who continue to produce from their own homes). So far, this measures seem to have created a bigger problem than the flu. This has had a devastating impact on many workers, street sellers and small businesses already struggling to survive. Thousands of people have lost their sources of income. Thousands more have seen their livelihood wiped out.

"Entire families and even communities have no income, no food and are unable to keep a roof over their heads. This makes them even more vulnerable to flu. Mothers have been advised not to breast feed their babies to avoid the risk of infecting them. By not being able to go out to work, they can't provide milk.

"Please donate what you can. Just £15 provides enough milk to keep a baby alive for one month. Just £40 buys a food parcel to keep a whole family for a fortnight.

"Your donations will be sent directly to the volunteers helping these families to supply them with basic food, fresh dinking water, soap, bleach, vitamins to help their immune system etc. (they will also be getting TWTH booklet and assists as needed)

"Food, vitamins etc. will keep the nutrition in, which is important for the immune system and of course keeps them up tone and less likely to key in. THESE actions will be creating a healthy situation rather than "resisting" and concentrating on "not getting sick".

"With your contributions we can help bring order and calm into this area. Please send your donation by cheque or bank transfer to:

"In the UK:

"Effective Life Solutions
"28 Chequer Road
"East Grinstead
"West Sussex
"RH19 3BW
"Account number 76556811 Sort Code 090126"

Women's Soccer is Serious Business

Return of the Dark Eyed Juncos

When I arrived home yesterday around dusk I heard a steady chit... chit... chit...* in the woods nearby. It was softer than a chipmunk's call and then it moved suddenly several yards away and I knew it had to be a bird. But who?

Now I see several dark eyed juncos in the bushes and the memory of their calls returns to me. Of course! How could I forget.

This is the time of year when the cute little guys suddenly mob us. They'll hang around until springtime when they'll just as suddenly head west and north for their breeding season.

Fun facts: Dark eyed juncos like to make a pew-pew-pew noise kinda like sci-fi phaser sounds.#
_________________________________
Sound files here.
* Click "Chip notes (Slate-colored race)" to hear.
# Click "Kew calls ("Slate-colored" race)" to hear.

Church of Scientology guilty of fraud in France

From MSNBC.com.

updated 8:03 a.m. ET, Tues., Oct . 27, 2009
PARIS - A Paris court on Tuesday convicted the Church of Scientology of fraud and fined it more than half a million euros — but stopped short of banning the group as requested by prosecutors.

The group's French branch immediately announced it would appeal the verdict.

The court convicted the Church of Scientology's French office, its library and six of its leaders of fraud. Investigators said the group pressured members into paying large sums of money for questionable financial gain and used "commercial harassment" against recruits.

I'm glad France and Germany are capable of distinguishing dangerous sects from more benign religious groups. We have a hard time doing that in the US for a variety of reasons.

It's true that lots of religious groups have strange ideas and may promote bigotry or backward ideas. Still, it's worth noting that many largely ignore their more unpleasant official teachings and spend most of their time trying to be helpful to those who seek them out.

Scientology is another kettle of fish. It's nothing like the typical religious groups most of us know from our communities. It's history reveals that the word "religion" is nothing more than a legal loophole --a protection from the IRS and scrutiny for fraudulent claims.

Which other religion has so many associated front groups? I find the effort to hide the connections between Scientology and the natural medicine movement and the anti-blasphemy or "hate speech" movements disturbing, particularly when these groups seem to have connections to the UN and human rights movements around the globe.

The Scientology-Naturopathy Connection

About ten years ago I knew someone friendly to $cientology who also had a number of odd health ideas. She wanted people to write to authorities in support of Hulda Clarke, who I understood to be some sort of quack. I smiled politely and ignored the strangeness.

When Tom Cruise ranted about using vitamins, detox, and excercise to treat depression, I thought, "what a douche," and not much else. Naturopathy was an unknown to me then. But now the naturopathic theme in Cruise's rant seems obvious.

$cientology has been funding schools of naturopathy in Britain.

Some discussion of mercury militia and DAN! $cientologists here.
_________________________________________
Front groups:
= Ability Academy Inc. (dba, Delphi Academy of San Diego)
= Ability Apple School
= Ability Plus Academy of Colorado, Inc.
= Ability Plus Connecticut, Inc.
= Ability School of Utah
= Academy for Learning (formerly, Mission of the Children, Inc.)
= American Detoxification Foundation
= Applied Education, Inc. (dba, Delphi Academy of Sacramento)
= Applied Scholastics Colorado
= Applied Scholastics Hawaii
= Applied Scholastics International
= Applied Scholastics of Florida, Inc. (dba, Applied Scholastics East U.S.)
= Applied Scholastics of Orange County
= Applied Scholastics Outreach
= Applied Scholastics Western United States
= Association for Better Living and Education International
= Bear Hill School, Inc. (The)
= Bridge Publications, Inc.
= Building Management Services
= Canyon View Academy
= Carroll Rees Academy and Arts
= Cherish the Children Foundation, Inc.
= Chicagoland Academy, Inc. (dba, Delphi Academy of Chicago)
= Church of Scientology Flag Service Organization, Inc.
= Church of Scientology International
= Church of Scientology Western United States
= Church of Spiritual Technology (dba, L. Ron Hubbard Library)
= Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR)
= Citizens for an Alternative Tax System
= Clearwater Academy International
= Clearwater Community Volunteers, Inc.
= Criminon International
= Criminon Western United States
= Criminon, Inc.
= Delphi Academy of Boston, Inc.
= Delphi Academy of Florida
= Delphi Schools, Inc.
= Earth Organization
= Ebony Awakening, Inc.
= Education Basics and Beyond, Inc (also, The Brighten School)
= Excalibur Foundation
= Flag Ship Trust (FST)
= Foundation Church of Scientology Flag Ship Service Organization (FFSSO)
= Foundation for a Drug-Free World
= Foundation for Advancements in Science and Education
= Foundation for Religious Freedom (took over Cult Awareness Network)
= Friends of Narconon, International
= Golden Academy and Tutoring Center
= Happy House
= Hollywood Education and Literacy Project (HELP Harlem)
= Hollywood Education and Literacy Project (HELP Los Angeles)
= Hollywood Education and Literacy Project (HELP Miami)
= Hollywood Education and Literacy Project (HELP Orange County)
= Hollywood Education and Literacy Project (HELP Portland)
= Hubbard College of Administration (strangely, this entity advertises itself as "secular", but is registered as a religious entity at the IRS)
= International Academy of Detoxification Specialists (dba, New York Rescue Workers Detoxification)
= International Foundation for Human Rights and Tolerance
= Jensen Family Foundation
= Lafayette Academy
= Lewis Carrol Academy of the Arts, Inc.
= Literacy and Education Ability Resources Network, Inc. (dba, LEARN, Inc.)
= Literacy and Education Awareness Project
= Los Gatos Academy
= Minnesota Applied Study Technology, Inc.
= Mojave Academy, Inc.
= Narconon Drug Prevention and Education, Inc.
= Narconon Eastern United States
= Narconon Florida, Inc.
= Narconon Gulf Coast, Inc.
= Narconon Hawaii
= Narconon Idaho, Inc.
= Narconon Inc.
= Narconon International
= Narconon Northern California
= Narconon of Georgia, Inc.
= Narconon of Oklahoma, Inc. (dba, Narconon Arrowhead)
= Narconon of the South, Inc.
= Narconon Sacramento
= Narconon Southern California
= Narconon Stone Hawk
= Narconon Western United States
= New Era Publications International ApS (Denmark)
= New Era Seniors, Inc.
= New Mexico Ranch School, Inc.
= New Village Academy ("NVA uses study technology as an umbrella methodology woven through the subjects." )
= Phocis, Inc.
= Pinewood Academy of Literacy and the Arts
= Pollack Family Foundation, Inc.
= PROCIVICOS (Volunteer Ministers for Civil Protection)
= Religious Technology Center (from Form 1023)
= Renaissance Academy Inc.
= Say No to Drugs
= Scientology Missions International (from Form 1023)
= Second Chance Program, Inc.
= Sequoia Academy, Inc. [ref, ref]
= Set A Good Example [SAGE] Foundation (formerly, Concerned Businessmen's Association of America, Inc.)
= Shuttleworth Leadership Society International (also, Shuttleworth Academy/Mary's Schoolhouse)
= Standard Education, Inc.
= The Bryan and June Zwan Foundation, Inc.
= The Community Learning Center, Inc. (dba, World Literacy Crusade of Pinellas Co.)
= The Literacy, Education and Ability Program
= The Truth and Freedom Foundation
= The Way to Happiness Foundation International
= WISE (World Institute of Scientology Enterprises)
= World Literacy Crusade International
= World Literacy Crusade of Florida, Inc.
= Youth for Human Rights International
= Youth Specialist Centers, Inc.

International eforts:

Another organization concerned with enforcement of human rights is the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The OSCE is an inter-governmental body which consists of more than 50 European countries, as well as the United States and Canada.

The OSCE has developed a series of treaties which have recognized the vital need for infusing human rights principles into agreements considered essential to resolving conflicts.

The Church of Scientology International’s Human Rights Office in Brussels is a nongovernmental organization (NGO) with the OSCE. Its staff regularly participate in human rights sessions organized by the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the OSCE and other intergovernmental bodies and also organize regular roundtables and conferences on human rights themes.

And it's all really, really there!

Lyrics:

[deGrasse Tyson]
We are all connected;
To each other, biologically
To the earth, chemically
To the rest of the universe atomically

[Feynman]
I think nature's imagination
Is so much greater than man's
She's never going to let us relax

[Sagan]
We live in an in-between universe
Where things change all right
But according to patterns, rules,
Or as we call them, laws of nature

[Nye]
I'm this guy standing on a planet
Really I'm just a speck
Compared with a star, the planet is just another speck
To think about all of this
To think about the vast emptiness of space
There's billions and billions of stars
Billions and billions of specks

[Sagan]
The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it
But the way those atoms are put together
The cosmos is also within us
We're made of star stuff
We are a way for the cosmos to know itself

Across the sea of space
The stars are other suns
We have traveled this way before
And there is much to be learned

I find it elevating and exhilarating
To discover that we live in a universe
Which permits the evolution of molecular machines
As intricate and subtle as we

[deGrasse Tyson]
I know that the molecules in my body are traceable
To phenomena in the cosmos
That makes me want to grab people in the street
And say, have you heard this??

(Richard Feynman on hand drums and chanting)

[Feynman]
There's this tremendous mess
Of waves all over in space
Which is the light bouncing around the room
And going from one thing to the other

And it's all really there
But you gotta stop and think about it
About the complexity to really get the pleasure
And it's all really there
The inconceivable nature of nature

No Can Haz Flu Shot

From FailBlog.

Pod People Screening Exam

Warning: May provoke excessive facepalm and/or an OMGWTF BBQ!!!

From a comment at Orac's site:

I'm apparently the only one who saw just perhaps the faintest glimmer of Maher's opinion beginning to "evolve" in a postive way on this matter.

Above Maher does seem to have moved from confident anti-vax to "teach the controversy." A step in the right direction, I grant you. But not a clear sign of better things to come.

Are my readers cozy? All tucked in under the covers? Then it's time for a little bedtime story. Tonight's selection is called, "Pod People Screening Exam."

Once upon a time in a far away kingdom lived a fair princess who'd been dating Bill Maher. Many days she was happy, for Bill could be charming. Other days she was sad, for when Bill was unhappy he was very insulting. These emotional ups and downs drove the poor princess crazy. So she made an appointment to see Dr. Titmouse at her nest in the woods.

"Oh Titmouse," said the princess, "my feelings were hurt. Bill was to dine at my place around 6:00. But at 7:00 he called to say he was stuck at the mall with his ex picking out appliances or something. Could I put his plate in the fridge? He would try to make it by 8:00. But the time passed. I waited, then I worried. Then I left voicemail on his cell around 10:00 Finally near midnight he was at my door. But he was so tired he didn't want to talk. He kicked off his shoes and crashed on my couch.

The next morning I asked what happened. He was grumpy. He said, "Why are you so demanding? So inflexible? You know what your problem is? You're too needy. You're pathologically jealous."

And so the weeks passed. The princess soon realized that she and Bill would have to part. But this made her so sad she couldn't think what to do.

Then for no reason at all things seemed to change for the better. The princess and Bill were together most evenings. They danced, laughed, talked, and planned. "I was a jerk," Bill confessed, and he explained why: politics at work, balloon payment on the condo, an evil ex making threats --all too much on his plate at once.

The princess wished to cut Bill some slack. "But what do you think?" she inquired of the Titmouse.

"Let me ask you this," said Titmouse, "If the shoe were on the other foot, if you were the one stuck somewhere and he were the one waiting, would you perhaps forget to call?"

"Hmm," puzzled the princess. "Knowing the guy's in love with me? And probably going crazy waiting? No, I couldn't see myself blowing off a phone call. Not in a million years."

Titmouse replied, "Well of course not. You're human. You're not a pod person."

"Pod person?" queried the princess.

"Rent Invasion of the Body Snatchers." said the Titmouse. "Some people only seem human."

"But," asked the princess, "if they seem alike, how do you tell which is which?"

The Titmouse answered, "You must ask yourself the shoe-on-the-other-foot question. If the answer is, 'not in a million years,' then what you have on your hands is a pod person. Cut your losses and move on."
* * * *

If I were in Maher's shoes, if several smart people had been telling me that I'd been talking crazy talk on national TV, would I simply keep on as before? Would I continue to contradict the CDC, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and Richard Dawkins? Would I insist I was right without a pause for self-study and reflection?

No, not in a million years.

Pediatricians, WTF?

From a comment left at Orac's blog.

Quiz: How many stoopids can YOU find in the text below?
___________________________________________

Hi--

I miss all of you.

I just saw an eight-month-old boy who got two vaccines then lost his language, motor skills, reaction to his own name and responsiveness to his 3 year old sister. This all happened three hours after a DPT/HIB combination. All previous observation and video of this little boy is normal. Lots of great video of a vibrant, talkative happy baby.

He has autism now. No proof, but the temporal proximity of the regression to his vaccines is daunting to those of us who would like more rigorous proof rather than just a collection of hundreds of pieces of anecdotal evidence. Tempting to assume causation even if only this one case/child.

Just thought you'd want to know. I usually see these kids in my office months or years after the event the parents think caused the problems. I have read hundreds of emails and spoken to thousands of parents who are certain that vaccines triggered or mightily contributed to their children's autism.

Not this time: This family came to my office just days after the vaccines, distraught that he was no longer talking,smiling, acknowledging his sister or his mom and dad and was flapping his hands a lot.

What do you think?

Jay

Posted by: Jay Gordon, MD, FAAP | April 27, 2009 3:44 AM

___________________________________________

"FAAP" means "Fellow, American Academy of Pediatrics."

Tilting at Windmills

From PartiallyClips.