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Castles in the sea (and the creepy kings who float them)
06.09.2010
07:20 pm
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In what seems like something out of J.G. Ballard, Scientology, and the final act of Roland Emmerich’s 2012, like, combined, a number of billionaires are taking to the high seas for their Plan B.  I can see their point.  You’ve ravaged the planet and trashed the economy, if that possibly results in pitchforks and flaming torches at your door, a thousand miles of ocean makes a better barrier than a gate or concierge.

Thus, Utopia, a floating, billion-dollar luxury liner now being built by Samsung of Korea (you can tour the ship below).  Its 200 or so cabins run anywhere from $4 million (that gets you a small condo), to $160 million (that secures you a home of 40,000 feet).  Prices aside, what kind of people would choose such a lifestyle?  A fascinating article in today’s Alternet provides the answer:

The floating castle is a longtime dream of libertarian oligarchs—a place where they can live their lives in peace free from the teeming masses of starving losers and indebted parasites and their tax demands.  Since they’ve grown so rich off of America, they have enough spare change to fund projects like the Seasteading Institute, run by Milton Friedman’s grandson, Patri Friedman, and financed by the bizarre right-wing PayPal founder, Peter Thiel.  It couldn’t have come a moment sooner for Milton Friedman’s grandson, who was best known until recently for running a grotesque advice blog for married swingers, PUA4LTR (Pick Up Advice For Long-Term Relationships).

Thiel is also the person who last year wrote, “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.”   Maybe it’s also not surprising that he does believe America’s decline started with women gaining the right to vote?  Unfortunately, Thiel and Friedman are the more benign tip of the iceberg here. 

The article continues by listing the far graver misdeeds of the other players in the flee-to-the-sea movement.  They include former Carlyle Chairman and Donald Rumsfeld crony, Frank Carlucci, as well as financier Danny Pang.

Pang, along with Carlucci, are founders of the Frontier Group (the backers of the Utopia).  Pang died, though, back in September under mysterious circumstances from possible suicide.  And perhaps not a moment too soon.  He’d recently been accused of the execution-style murder of his wife, as well as the embezzlement of hundreds of millions from his private equity firm, the PEMGroup.

 
The Really Creepy People Behind the Libertarian-Inspired Billionaire Sea Castles

Posted by Bradley Novicoff
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06.09.2010
07:20 pm
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Anderson Cooper vs. Scientology
03.28.2010
04:19 pm
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Anderson Cooper is launching a weeklong investigative series about Scientology tomorrow. Looks excellent.

Anderson Cooper is launching a weeklong series about Scientology Monday, covering many of the allegations against the controversial religion already reported by RadarOnline.com.

Anderson Cooper 360, the CNN anchor’s nightly news show, is looking at Scientology’s “history of violence,” especially allegations that leader – and Tom Cruise best friend – David Miscavige has personally physically abused his followers.

Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis, son of actress Anne Archer, is interviewed by Cooper and claims that while there has been violence committed against members in the elite Sea Organization, the guilty offenders are those very people now making allegations against Miscavige.

Scientology is increasingly coming under attack by top-ranking members who’ve left the organization.  Interestingly, none of the top Hollywood stars who support Scientology, including Cruise, John Travolta, Jenna Elfman and Kirstie Alley, have commented.

(Radar Online: Anderson Cooper tackles Scientology)

(Anderson Cooper: Dispatches from the Edge)

Posted by Jason Louv
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03.28.2010
04:19 pm
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Scientologists heal injured in Haiti using touch
01.24.2010
11:52 pm
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A wealthy donor has sent a group of 50 Haitian-American doctors and volunteers from the Church of Scientology to Haiti at the cost of $400,000. The church members are using a controversial healing technique to help relief efforts:

“We’re trained as volunteer ministers, we use a process called ‘assist’ to follow the nervous system to reconnect the main points, to bring back communication,” she said.

“When you get a sudden shock to a part of your body the energy gets stuck, so we re-establish communication within the body by touching people through their clothes, and asking people to feel the touch.”

Okay. Let’s accept this at face value. If this works, why doesn’t medical science know about it?

“One hour ago he had no sensation in his left leg, so I explained the method to him, I touched him and after a while he said ‘now I feel everything’,” said Sylvie.“Otherwise they might have had to amputate his other leg. Now his sister knows the method and she can do it.”

Asked about the method being used on him, a smiling Elweels described it as “a sort of harmony between the nerves, a kind of exercise. I couldn’t feel at all, but then I could.” Does he know Scientology? “Yes, it’s a French organization,” he said.

“All the patients are happy with the technique,” said Sylvie. “But some doctors don’t like the yellow T-shirts. It’s a color thing,” she insisted. Another group of Scientologists distributed antibiotic pills. “The doctors said give everyone with wounds antibiotics,” said Italian volunteer Marina.

Some doctors at the hospital are skeptical. One US doctor, who asked not to be named, snorted: “I didn’t know touching could heal gangrene.”

When asked what the Scientologists are doing here, another doctor said: “I don’t know.”

Do you care? “Not really,” she said, wheeling an unconscious patient out of the operating room to join hundreds of others in the hospital’s sunny courtyard.

 
Scientologists ‘heal’ Haiti quake victims using touch

Posted by Richard Metzger
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01.24.2010
11:52 pm
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Battlefield Haiti!
01.19.2010
01:45 am
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Well, that’s just what Haiti needs right now—Scientologists!

John Travolta has announced that he will fly “volunteer ministers” from the Church of Scientology to Haiti, to help victims of the country?

Posted by Bradley Novicoff
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01.19.2010
01:45 am
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Gus Van Sant To Tell The Tale Of Theresa Duncan & Jeremy Blake
10.27.2009
03:10 pm
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The twin suicides of Jeremy Blake and Theresa Duncan a few years back was the closing chapter to a story that somehow managed to combine all the darker elements of Hollywood, Scientology and the New York art world:

Duncan and Blake formed a popular couple on the downtown New York and Venice, Calif., art scenes.  She was one of the first video game designers for girls, and his “digital paintings”—kaleidoscopic images shown on plasma screens—established him as a rising star on the circuit.  The couple descended into a paranoid spiral when the artists developed a consuming belief that government and religious organizations were conspiring against them.  She killed herself in 2007.  Blake found her body on the floor of their bedroom, and walked into the Atlantic Ocean a week later, ending his life.

Well, according to today’s Variety, Gus Van Sant and Bret Easton Ellis are now teaming up to give that story, naturally, a screenplay.  For source material, Van Sant (Milk) and Ellis (Less Than Zero) plan on using The Golden Suicides, Vanity Fair’s posthumous profile of Blake and Duncan.

It’s a moving portrait of two people very much in love—as well as a harrowing depiction of how draining and hermetic the pair found the creative process.  That their spiral downward came at a time when they were both poised for greater career success makes their twin suicides as tragic as it is haunting.

For abundant evidence of Duncan’s smarts and style, you can check out her still maintained website: TheWitOfTheStaircase.  Blake is probably best known for his cover art on Beck’s Sea Change, and the “colorful undulations” used during the opening credits of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch Drunk Love.

But Blake himself was also a filmmaker.  His Winchester trilogy, inspired by the story of Sarah Winchester and her family’s “Mystery House,” was shown at the San Francisco MOMA in ‘05.  Century 21, the trilogy’s final installment, attempts to “explore the sickness—and the sexiness—of American violence.” 

Thanks to Ubu, you can watch it below:

In Variety: Scribes Make Suicide Pact

In The Guardian: Gus Van Sant and Bret Easton Ellis Join Forces On Film

In Vanity Fair: The Golden Suicides

Posted by Bradley Novicoff
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10.27.2009
03:10 pm
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Take That, Xenu!  Martin Bashir Vs. Scientology’s Tommy Davis
10.26.2009
02:45 pm
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So much Church of Scientology news to catch up on from the weekend, and it all seems to revolve around its Celebrity Centre head, Tommy Davis (see above).

First, writer-director Paul Haggis (Crash, Million Dollar Baby) with his blistering “open letter” to Davis attacking him for: A.) backing the sponsorship of the gay-rights-denying Proposition 8, and B.) downplaying the existence of the Church’s “disconnection” policy, which (strongly!) encourages its current members to severe all ties to those who dare flee resign from Scientology.

Next comes Nightline’s equally harrowing Scientology “expose.”  In the clip below (Part III of V), Martin “Ambush” Bashir, familiar to—and beloved by—many for his role as Michael Jackson’s “Grand Inquisitor,” tangles with Davis over how to best reconcile mainstreamy Church doctrine with galactic emperor, Xenu.  The fallout begins at the clip’s end, with links below to the entire Nightline special. 

Random factoid: Tommy Davis is the son of actress Anne Archer, Scientology grande dame, and co-star of that excellent ‘70s film, Lifeguard.

 
On ABC’s Nightline: Scientology Exposed Part I, II, IV, V

Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Scientology But Were Afraid To Ask

(via NY Mag)

Posted by Bradley Novicoff
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10.26.2009
02:45 pm
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What Scientologists Say About Scientology
09.18.2009
05:50 pm
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Brilliant. He gets their wide-eyed vacuousness down pat. This is the work of Daveo Mathias, the fellow with the crew cut.

Via Tina Dupuy at FishBowl LA who writes “NSFW, depending on where you work. Like the Celebrity Centre…”

Posted by Richard Metzger
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09.18.2009
05:50 pm
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