Hillary Rodham Clinton: She never met a war against Muslims she didn't like, and you all better believe that

Agence-Vleeptron Presse begs your forgiveness for inviting you to read the entire sleep-inducing text of the Resolution about Iran which the US Senate passed on 26 September.

But whatever it says and whatever it means has turned into a big, nasty, loud fight and controversy, particularly between Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.

A-VP has an opinion about what the Resolution means. But we thought we'd take the astonishing step of actually republishing the text of the Senate Resolution, so you could read this Senatorial Sleep Aid for yourself.

First, we note Obama's position on the Resolution: Elsewhere. When the vote was taken, he wasn't present in the Senate and didn't vote. HOWEVER, he has since stated that IF HE HAD BEEN THERE, and IF HE HAD VOTED, he would have voted AGAINST the Resolution.

And that's important because Senator Clinton WAS there and DID vote. She voted FOR the Resolution.

Equally every bit as important as the vote Obama forgot to show up to cast is how I say I would have voted if I had been a United States Senator who showed up for work that day: I would have voted AGAINST the Resolution.

So if you are thinking: Who the fuck cares how Bob would have voted, he wasn't there and didn't vote? -- well, please do me the courtesy of thinking the same thing about Obama. Who the fuck cares how he now says he would have voted?

So in the controversy he subsequently cooked up,

"What he may say you needn't mind
From bias free of every kind ..."

(-- Gilbert & Sullivan, "Trial by Jury")

That leaves Hillary Rodham Clinton -- and a little gold star on her Permanent Record for showing up for work that day. She actually has a notorious penchant for avoiding and hiding from potential controversies, so this vote ran counter to her instincts.

Though it's quite possible she didn't realize when she voted that her vote could be an opponent's ammunition against her. It's quite possible she thought this Resolution -- a way of wasting the Senate's time that has utterly no legal authority or significance whatever -- was a public demonstration to show that she likes to wave the Red, White and Blue, eat a slice of apple pie, sing a few bars of "God Bless America," and say positive things about the institution of Motherhood.

It was also an opportunity to sign her name to a pretty fierce condemnation of the government of Iran. To someone who quite frequently seems to have No Brain, that would also have seemed like a No-Brainer. Iran this year is the member of the Axis of Evil all good, tough, patriotic Americans love to hate. Voting for this Resolution would have been a rare chance for Hillary Rodham Clinton to get a public pat on the head from the screaming mouths (their version of talking heads) at Fox News.

Clinton is under a lot of pressure right now to demonstrate to American voters how tough she'll be if she's elected president. This isn't a moment to show off her Mothering skills, this isn't a moment to Take a Village to Raise a Child.

This is the moment to show that the Democrats have a candidate as mean and tough and warlike as Rudy Giuliani, and that mean, tough, warlike candidate is mean, tough, warlike Hillary Rodham Clinton. She needs to show undecided voters that she can be as hair-trigger as Bush, she can be as hair-trigger as Giuliani, and most of all, she can be as reckless, bellicose and dangerous a Commander-in-Chief as any man; she may wear lipstick, but she can pick up the phone and order a military attack against Iran just as easily as Giuliani, Romney, Edwards, Obama, Fred Dalton Thompson, or McCain.

So how could she screw up by voting for a non-binding, meaningless Senate Resolution that says lots of vile, angry, saber-rattling things about the Islamic Republic of Iran?

Because there's a tsunami of voters -- Democrats and undecided voters -- who want to end the fucking Iraq War immediately, and demonstrated their wishes by voting, in November 2006, to end Republican control of both houses of Congress and transfer control to Democrats.

And her YEA vote for this Resolution signs her name to the political fast track toward a NEW WAR against Iran.

Hillary Rodham Clinton steps into this nasty mess with a Big Negative -- she voted to give President Bush authorization -- a blank check -- to invade Iraq in 2003. She's awfully sorry about that vote now. She's had to defend it many times in press conferences and public meetings. She blames it on the lies and misinformation from the Bush administration, and says she would have voted against the Iraq War authorization "if I'd known then what I know now."

She knew something very important about that Iraq War vote. She knew that, in the national hysteria that followed the 9-11 terrorism attacks, it would have been political suicide to make a public stand against Bush's war against Iraq. A very few lonely members of Congress voted against authorizing Bush's Iraq War, and paid for it by losing their jobs at the next election.

What she knows NOW about Iran, as the lame duck Bush White House blunders and rattles its way toward military action against Iran, comes from the same source as what she knew when she voted for Bush's Iraq War: The Bush White House, and a crowd of Bush flunkies and sycophants who are whipping the Fox News crowd into a War Froth against Iran. Once again, Hillary Rodham Clinton has caught Jingo Fever, and isn't smart enough or brave enough to step back from it and question the fuzzy cloud of White House accusations against the Axis of Evil, Islamic Iranian Branch.

This is not a moment for Hillary Rodham Clinton to ask tough questions about the sources of our intelligence about the government of Iran's actions in and affecting Iraq. Not if she wants to prove to the world that she can start a war as well as any man in Congress, as well as any man on the campaign trail, and as well as any man in the White House.

As Halloween nears, off goes the smiling, nurturing Child-Raising Motherhood Costume, and on goes the fierce glare of anti-Islam hate and the gleaming Amazon Armor and Sword. On goes the Margaret Thatcher mask. If America elects its first woman president, this is the moment on the campaign trail for Hillary Rodham Clinton to prove to voters she can be violent and reckless, to prove that she has the Fire in the Belly to order the deaths of thousands of foreign heathen devils -- and the deaths of thousands of American men and women in our military uniform.

Never mind Obama's critique of her vote. He forgot to show up that day.

What is extremely telling about the controversy is an on-camera public moment in Iowa last week when Hillary Rodham Clinton was incautious enough to let a few ordinary voters ask her some questions, and an Iowa man, Randall Rolph, asked her about her Senate Resolution Vote. Clinton was the only Democratic Senator running for president to vote YEA.

CLINTON: "[the question] you read to me, that somebody obviously sent to you."

ROLPH: "I take exception. This is my own research."

CLINTON: "Well then, let me finish."

ROLPH interrupted again and said that no one had sent him the question.

CLINTON: "Well, then, I apologize. It's just that I've been asked the very same question in three other places."

That's the Old Hillary, too, from the days of her husband's presidency and impeachment, when she blamed all his woes on a secret anti-Clinton right-wing conspiracy. She finds it unimaginable that ordinary voters might ask her tough questions about her War Talk and her War Votes. She finds it unimaginable that ordinary voters might not want her to be the next president. She recognizes that she faces opposition, of course -- but it's all professional and highly organized, it's all inspired by her Democratic opponents (like Obama), and if she gets the nomination, Resistance to Hillary will all be traceable to her Republican foe's well-financed Dirty Tricksters.

What ordinary American, what Jane or Joe, wouldn't love Hillary?

Well ... here's what she voted FOR in the U.S. Senate. It's written (by Joe Lieberman, among others) in a style of the English language that's both coma-inducing and incomprehensible.

But read it if you're tough. Is it Fast Track Authorization for Bush, in his final months, to order a military attack on "The Islamic Republic of Iran"?

Because if he does, when he does, and when he gets on television to explain his new War Against Iran to the American people, he'll certainly point to this Senate Resolution -- and to Hillary Rodham Clinton's YEA signature on it -- as proof that this was what Congress wanted him to do -- to open up a new military front against the Axis of Evil. He'll tell America he has Hillary Rodham Clinton's blessing -- just as he had it for the War on Iraq.

~ ~ ~

from The Congressional Record for the U.S. Senate

Offered: Sep 20, 2007
Sponsor: Sen. Jon Kyl [Republican, Arizona]

{co-Sponsor: Sen. Joseph Lieberman [Independent, Connecticut]}

September 26, 2007: Amendment SA 3017 as modified agreed to in Senate by Yea-Nay Vote. 76 - 22. Record Vote Number: 349.

Text of amendment

SEC. 1535. SENSE OF SENATE ON IRAN.

(a) Findings. -- The Senate makes the following findings:

(1) General David Petraeus, commander of the Multi-National Force Iraq, stated in testimony before a joint session of the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives on September 10, 2007, that "[i]t is increasingly apparent to both coalition and Iraqi leaders that Iran, through the use of the Iranian Republican Guard Corps Qods Force, seeks to turn the Shi'a militia extremists into a Hezbollah-like force to serve its interests and fight a proxy war against the Iraqi state and coalition forces in Iraq."

(2) Ambassador Ryan Crocker, United States Ambassador to Iraq, stated in testimony before a joint session of the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives on September 10, 2007, that "Iran plays a harmful role in Iraq. While claiming to support Iraq in its transition, Iran has actively undermined it by providing lethal capabilities to the enemies of the Iraqi state."

(3) The most recent National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, published in August 2007, states that "Iran has been intensifying aspects of its lethal support for select groups of Iraqi Shia militants, particularly the JAM [Jaysh al-Mahdi], since at least the beginning of 2006. Explosively formed penetrator (EFP) attacks have risen dramatically."

(4) The Report of the Independent Commission on the Security Forces of Iraq, released on September 6, 2007, states that "[t]he Commission concludes that the evidence of Iran's increasing activism in the southeastern part of the country, including Basra and Diyala provinces, is compelling. ..... It is an accepted fact that most of the sophisticated weapons being used to `defeat' our armor protection comes across the border from Iran with relative impunity."

(5) General (Ret.) James Jones, chairman of the Independent Commission on the Security Forces of Iraq, stated in testimony before the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate on September 6, 2007, that "[w]e judge that the goings-on across the Iranian border in particular are of extreme severity and have the potential of at least delaying our efforts inside the country. Many of the arms and weapons that kill and maim our soldiers are coming from across the Iranian border."

(6) General Petraeus said of Iranian support for extremist activity in Iraq on April 26, 2007, that "[w]e know that it goes as high as [Brig. Gen. Qassem] Suleimani, who is the head of the Qods Force. ..... We believe that he works directly for the supreme leader of the country."

(7) Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, the president of Iran, stated on August 28, 2007, with respect to the United States presence in Iraq, that "[t]he political power of the occupiers is collapsing rapidly. Soon we will see a huge power vacuum in the region. Of course we are prepared to fill the gap."

(8) Ambassador Crocker testified to Congress, with respect to President Ahmedinejad's statement, on September 11, 2007, that "[t]he Iranian involvement in Iraq -- its support for extremist militias, training, connections to Lebanese Hezbollah, provision of munitions that are used against our force as well as the Iraqis -- are all, in my view, a pretty clear demonstration that Ahmedinejad means what he says, and is already trying to implement it to the best of his ability."

(9) General Petraeus stated on September 12, 2007, with respect to evidence of the complicity of Iran in the murder of members of the Armed Forces of the United States in Iraq, that "[t]he evidence is very, very clear. We captured it when we captured Qais Khazali, the Lebanese Hezbollah deputy commander, and others, and it's in black and white. ..... We interrogated these individuals. We have on tape. ..... Qais Khazali himself. When asked, could you have done what you have done without Iranian support, he literally throws up his hands and laughs and says, of course not. ..... So they told us about the amounts of money that they have received. They told us about the training that they received. They told us about the ammunition and sophisticated weaponry and all of that that they received."

(10) General Petraeus further stated on September 14, 2007, that "[w]hat we have got is evidence. This is not intelligence. This is evidence, off computers that we captured, documents and so forth. ..... In one case, a 22-page document that lays out the planning, reconnaissance, rehearsal, conduct, and aftermath of the operation conducted that resulted in the death of five of our soldiers in Karbala back in January."

(11) The Department of Defense report to Congress entitled "Measuring Stability and Security in Iraq" and released on September 18, 2007, consistent with section 9010 of Public Law 109-289, states that "[t]here has been no decrease in Iranian training and funding of illegal Shi'a militias in Iraq that attack Iraqi and Coalition forces and civilians..... Tehran's support for these groups is one of the greatest impediments to progress on reconciliation."

(12) The Department of Defense report further states, with respect to Iranian support for Shi'a extremist groups in Iraq, that "[m]ost of the explosives and ammunition used by these groups are provided by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force..... For the period of June through the end of August, [explosively formed penetrator] events are projected to rise by 39 percent over the period of March through May."

(13) Since May 2007, Ambassador Crocker has held three rounds of talks in Baghdad on Iraq security with representatives of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

(14) Ambassador Crocker testified before Congress on September 10, 2007, with respect to these talks, stating that "I laid out the concerns we had over Iranian activity that was damaging to Iraq's security, but found no readiness on Iranians' side at all to engage seriously on these issues. The impression I came with after a couple rounds is that the Iranians were interested simply in the appearance of discussions, of being seen to be at the table with the U.S. as an arbiter of Iraq's present and future, rather than actually doing serious business ..... Right now, I haven't seen any sign of earnest or seriousness on the Iranian side."

(15) Ambassador Crocker testified before Congress on September 11, 2007, stating that "[w]e have seen nothing on the ground that would suggest that the Iranians are altering what they're doing in support of extremist elements that are going after our forces as well as the Iraqis."

(b) Sense of Senate. -- It is the sense of the Senate --

(1) that the manner in which the United States transitions and structures its military presence in Iraq will have critical long-term consequences for the future of the Persian Gulf and the Middle East, in particular with regard to the capability of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to pose a threat to the security of the region, the prospects for democracy for the people of the region, and the health of the global economy;

(2) that it is a vital national interest of the United States to prevent the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran from turning Shi'a militia extremists in Iraq into a Hezbollah-like force that could serve its interests inside Iraq, including by overwhelming, subverting, or co-opting institutions of the legitimate Government of Iraq;

(3) that it should be the policy of the United States to combat, contain, and roll back the violent activities and destabilizing influence inside Iraq of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, its foreign facilitators such as Lebanese Hezbollah, and its indigenous Iraqi proxies;

(4) to support the prudent and calibrated use of all instruments of United States national power in Iraq, including diplomatic, economic, intelligence, and military instruments, in support of the policy described in paragraph (3) with respect to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxies;

(5) that the United States should designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a foreign terrorist organization under section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act and place the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps on the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists, as established under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and initiated under Executive Order 13224; and

(6) that the Department of the Treasury should act with all possible expediency to complete the listing of those entities targeted under United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1737 and 1747 adopted unanimously on December 23, 2006 and March 24, 2007, respectively.

[endit]

6 Ramadan No-Nos

Vleeptron tends to approach matters of religion with timid anxiety because of the certainty -- proven on several occasions -- that we will get important details Wrong. So Vleeptron thanks Abbas for Lightening Up our understanding of and our annual good wishes for Ramadan.

I knew there was a bunch of stuff you weren't supposed to do during Ramadan, but Vleeptron is grateful for this clarification.

I'm guessing the pills don't refer to authorized prescription medicines (because they're usually not much Fun anyway). Everybody keep taking your meds.

Falkirk Wheel {v.2} -- i sincerely hope this wiggles for you

Click top image for larger.

The Falkirk Wheel in operation. If this swell wiggle_gif actually works, I'll get around to explaining what the heck the Falkirk Wheel is and does.

But first, credit, and Copyright, and All Rights Reserved, for this amazing time-lapse photo to Duncan Smith. More of his remarkable photographs, most of them of Scotland, are HERE.

But -- in very small words -- the water at the bottom is an 18th century canal that leads to Glasgow, and the aqueduct at the top connects to a higher old canal that leads to Edinburgh.

The vertical difference in canal water levels is 24 meters = 79 feet = about an 8-storey building.

Scotland, right? You got that? The Vleeptron Ministry of Pizza paid 1 Slice to Abbas to verify that Scotland is somewhere in Europe. And Phrost won the whole pizza for identifying the Falkirk Wheel.

During the old Age of Canals, canal boats could get back and forth from Edinburgh to Glasgow by sailing through 11 locks (each lock typically raising/lowering the boat by about 3 or 4 feet = 1+ meter), but after trains displaced the canals (around 1830), the canals and locks went into decline and disrepair. Canal boats haven't been able to get from one canal to the other in a very long time.

The Falkirk Wheel was designed and built as a Millennium waterway restoration project. Queen Elizabeth II and her family cut the ribbon!

So now you can go to Scotland and buy a very inexpensive ticket to ride on a canal boat until you get to the Falkirk Wheel, and then, in this amazing 5-minute vertical transfer, you and your canal boat will be transferred from Low Canal to High Canal, while another boat and its passengers are lowered from High to Low.

Yes, look closely -- there's a canal boat (filled with people) in the bottom circle, and there's a boat and people in the top circle, and then the Wheel turns 180 degrees (or pi radians, if you prefer), and the high boat and people descend to the low canal, and the low boat and people rise to the high canal -- but boat and people always stay level, and don't get turned upside-down!

And then you continue your gentle canal trip. The amazing gizmo is so perfectly balanced that it uses an astonishingly tiny amount of electricity, and it also wastes an astonishingly small amount of water.

From Wikipedia: Architectural services were supplied by Scotland-based RMJM, from initial designs by Nicoll Russell Studios and engineers Binnie Black and Veatch.

The Magic Trick that makes it all work is Archimedes' Bouyancy Principle, which, when he discovered it, made him leap out of the public bath and run naked through the streets of Syracuse screaming "I'm naked! I'm wet and naked!"

Okay, 1 slice if you know what the naked old boffin really screamed, 2 slices if you can type it in Doric.

Look -- so far Vleeptron and its Commenters have managed to master Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Farsi, Cyrillic and Hebrew. SOMEBODY ought to be able to master Doric. (And DON'T SAY: "It's all Greek to me.")

assorted deities and spiritual beliefs in and near the Milky Way and on Teegeeack

Agence-Vleeptron Presse
Rules of Media Ethics and Standards

1. Vleeptron never makes fun and is never disrespectful of any religion, faith, or spiritual belief system.

2. In posting news items, Vleeptron always carefully selects reportage from media agencies renowned for the highest journalistic standards and reliability.

So like ... what am I supposed to do with this? Ignore it? Pretend I didn't see it? What am I supposed to do while I'm waiting at the supermarket checkout counter? Wear a blindfold?

=============

This is London
entertainment supplement of The Evening Standard
(London UK)

Hollywood star Tom Cruise is planning to build a bunker at his Colorado home to protect his family in the event of an intergalactic alien attack, according to new reports.

The Mission Impossible actor, who is a dedicated follower of Scientology, is reportedly fearful that deposed galactic ruler Xenu is plotting an evil revenge attack on Earth.

According to American magazine Star, a source said: "Tom is planning to build a U$10,000,000 bunker under his Telluride estate."

"It's a self-contained underground shelter with a high tech air purifying shelter."

The facility is said to have enough room for ten people -- including wife Katie Holmes, 17-month-old daughter Suri and his adopted children Isabella, 14, and Connor, 12.

A spokesperson for the actor has denied the reports, saying: "This is completely untrue. He is not building on his property at all."

The 45-year-old is currently filming World War II movie Rubicon (formerly known as Valkyrie) in Germany, where he is regularly joined on set by Katie and Suri.

Tom plays German hero Colonel Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg in the wartime thriller surrounding a failed plot by high-ranking military officers to blow up Hitler and has come under attack for his decision to do so as well as his religious beliefs.

The controversial film depicts the ill-fated plan to blow up the dictator on July 20, 1944, which he survived, with the plotters subsequently paying with their lives.

Tom's spokesperson has denied plans for the underground facility

- 30 -

London's Weather
Tonight
Clear Night
9°c
Morning
Sunny spells
16°c

Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday, Evening Standard & Metro Media Group
© 2007 Associated Newspapers Limited

============

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Xenu

[image] Xenu, as depicted by BBC Panorama

Xenu (also Xemu), pronounced ['zi.nu:], according to Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, was the dictator of the "Galactic Confederacy" who, 75,000,000 years ago, brought billions[1] of his people to Earth in DC-8-like spacecraft, stacked them around volcanoes and killed them using hydrogen bombs. Scientology holds that their essences remained, and that they form around people in modern times, causing them spiritual harm.[2][3]

These events are known to Scientologists as "Incident II", and the traumatic memories associated with them as The Wall of Fire. The story of Xenu is part of Scientologist teachings on extraterrestrial civilizations and alien interventions in Earthly events, collectively described as space opera by Hubbard. Hubbard detailed the story in Operating Thetan level III (OT III) in 1967, warning that this material was "calculated to kill (by pneumonia etc) anyone who attempts to solve it."[sic]

Criticism of the Church of Scientology often includes details of the Xenu story. The Church has tried to keep Xenu confidential[4] and critics say that revealing the story is in the public interest, given the high prices charged for OT III, part of Scientology's secret "Advanced Technology" doctrines taught only to members who have already contributed large amounts of money to the organization.[5]

The Church avoids making mention of Xenu in public statements and has gone to considerable effort to maintain the story's confidentiality, including legal action on the grounds of both copyright and trade secrecy. Despite this, much material on Xenu has leaked to the public, largely via the Internet.

Summary

The story of Xenu is covered in OT III, part of Scientology's secret "Advanced Technology" doctrines taught only to advanced members. It is described in more detail in the accompanying confidential "Assists" lecture of 3 October 1968 and is dramatized in Revolt in the Stars (an unpublished screenplay written by L Ron Hubbard during the late 1970s). Direct quotations in this section are from these sources. (See also Scientology beliefs and practices)

Seventy-five million years ago, Xenu was the ruler of a Galactic Confederacy which consisted of 26 stars and 76 planets including Earth, which was then known as Teegeeack. The planets were overpopulated, each having an average population of 178 billion.[1][2][3] The Galactic Confederacy's civilization was comparable to our own, with aliens "walking around in clothes which looked very remarkably like the clothes they wear this very minute" and using cars, trains and boats looking exactly the same as those "circa 1950, 1960" on Earth.

Xenu was about to be deposed from power, so he devised a plot to eliminate the excess population from his dominions. With the assistance of "renegades", he defeated the populace and the "Loyal Officers", a force for good that was opposed to Xenu. Then, with the assistance of psychiatrists, he summoned billions[1] of his citizens together to paralyze them with injections of alcohol and glycol, under the pretense that they were being called for "income tax inspections". The kidnapped populace was loaded into space crafts for transport to the site of extermination, the planet of Teegeeack (Earth). The space craft were identical to the Douglas DC-8 with the exception of having different engines.

When they had reached Teegeeack/Earth, the paralyzed citizens were unloaded around the bases of volcanoes across the planet. Hydrogen bombs were then lowered into the volcanoes and detonated simultaneously. Only a few aliens' physical bodies survived. Hubbard described the scene in his film script, Revolt in the Stars:

Simultaneously, the planted charges erupted. Atomic blasts ballooned from the craters of Loa, Vesuvius, Shasta, Washington, Fujiyama, Etna, and many, many others. Arching higher and higher, up and outwards, towering clouds mushroomed, shot through with flashes of flame, waste and fission. Great winds raced tumultuously across the face of Earth, spreading tales of destruction. Debris-studded, and sickly yellow, the atomic clouds followed close on the heels of the winds. Their bow-shaped fronts encroached inexorably upon forest, city and mankind, they delivered their gifts of death and radiation. A skyscraper, tall and arrow-straight, bent over to form a question mark to the very idea of humanity before crumbling into the screaming city below ...

The now-disembodied victims' souls, which Hubbard called thetans, were blown into the air by the blast. They were captured by Xenu's forces using an "electronic ribbon" ("which also was a type of standing wave") and sucked into "vacuum zones" around the world. The hundreds of billions[6] of captured thetans were taken to a type of cinema, where they were forced to watch a "three-D, super colossal motion picture" for thirty-six days. This implanted what Hubbard termed "various misleading data"' (collectively termed the R6 implant) into the memories of the hapless thetans, "which has to do with God, the Devil, space opera, et cetera". This included all world religions, with Hubbard specifically attributing Roman Catholicism and the image of the Crucifixion to the influence of Xenu. The interior decoration of "all modern theaters" is also said by Hubbard to be due to an unconscious recollection of Xenu's implants. The two "implant stations" cited by Hubbard were said to have been located on Hawaii and Las Palmas in the Canary Islands.

In addition to implanting new beliefs in the thetans, the images deprived them of their sense of personal identity. When the thetans left the projection areas, they started to cluster together in groups of a few thousand, having lost the ability to differentiate between each other. Each cluster of thetans gathered into one of the few remaining bodies that survived the explosion. These became what are known as body thetans, which are said to be still clinging to and adversely affecting everyone except those Scientologists who have performed the necessary steps to remove them.

The Loyal Officers finally overthrew Xenu and locked him away in a mountain, where he was imprisoned forever by a force field powered by an eternal battery (Some have suggested that Xenu is imprisoned on Earth in the Pyrenees, but Hubbard merely refers to "one of these planets" (of the Galactic Confederacy). He does, however, refer to the Pyrenees as being the site of the last operating "Martian report station", which is probably the source of this particular confusion.[7] Teegeeack/Earth was subsequently abandoned by the Galactic Confederacy and remains a pariah "prison planet" to this day, although it has suffered repeatedly from incursions by alien "Invader Forces" since that time.

Xenu's volcanoes

In OT III, Hubbard names the locations around the world where Xenu's mass murder took place, in addition to the two implant stations located at Hawaii and Las Palmas.[8] In Revolt in the Stars, the volcanoes named differ somewhat from those in OT III; for instance, Etna and Vesuvius are named in Revolt but not in OT III.[9] The volcanoes which Xenu blew up were said to have been situated at:

* The Americas
o "Mount Washington" (unclear which of the fifteen Mount Washingtons in North America is meant, but Mount Washington, Oregon is a major shield volcano)
o Mount Rainier, Washington
o Mount Hood, Oregon
o Mount Shasta, Northern California
o Mount San Gorgonio, Southern California
o Canada
o Andes, South America

* Atlantic and Africa
o Tangier, Morocco
o Saint Helena
o "Kolomonjero" (non-existent location, possibly a misspelling of Kilimanjaro, Tanzania)
o Las Palmas, Canary Islands

* Asia and Pacific
o North Japan
o South Japan
o "Krakajawia" (non-existent location, possibly a misspelling of Krakatau)
o Philippines
o Himalayas
o Hawaii

Xenu is said to have dumped his surplus population around volcanoes, like this one on Hawaii, and blown them up with hydrogen bombs.

Xenu in Scientology doctrine

Within Scientology, the Xenu story is referred to as "The Wall of Fire" or "Incident II". Hubbard attached tremendous importance to it, saying that it constituted "the secrets of a disaster which resulted in the decay of life as we know it in this sector of the galaxy".[10] The broad outlines of the story — that 75,000,000 years ago a great catastrophe happened in this sector of the galaxy which caused profoundly negative effects for everyone since then — are publicly admitted to lower-level Scientologists. However, the details are kept strictly confidential, at least within the Church.

Hubbard said that he was the first to map a precise route through the Wall of Fire, "probably the only one ever to do so in 75,000,000 years". He first publicly announced his "breakthrough" in Ron's Journal 67 (RJ67), a tape Hubbard recorded on 20 September 1967 to be sent to all members of the Church. According to Hubbard, his research was achieved at the cost of a broken back, knee and arm. OT III contains a warning that the R6 implant is "calculated to kill (by pneumonia etc) anyone who attempts to solve it." In RJ67, Hubbard then alludes to the devastating effect of Xenu's genocide:

"And it is very true that a great catastrophe occurred on this planet and in the other 75 planets which formed this [Galactic] Confederacy 75 million years ago. It has since that time been a desert, and it has been the lot of just a handful to try to push its technology up to a level where someone might adventure forward, penetrate the catastrophe, and undo it. We're well on our way to making this occur."

OT III also deals with Incident I, set four quadrillion[11] years ago (roughly 300,000 times longer than current scientific consensus holds the age of the universe to be). In Incident I, the unsuspecting thetan was subjected to a loud snapping noise followed by a flood of luminescence, then saw a chariot followed by a trumpeting cherub. After a loud set of snaps, the thetan was overwhelmed by darkness. This is described as the implant offering the gateway to this universe, meaning that these traumatic memories are what separate thetans from their static (natural, godlike) state.

Hubbard uses the existence of body thetans to explain many of the physical and mental ailments of humanity which, he says, prevent people from achieving their highest spiritual levels. OT III tells the student to remove the body thetans by bringing them to awareness of themselves as individual beings: "One has to clean them off by running incident II and Incident I." The student is directed to find a cluster of body thetans, address it telepathically as a cluster and take first the cluster then each individual member of the cluster through Incident II, then Incident I if needed. Hubbard warns that this is a painstaking procedure, and OT levels IV to VII continue the long process of dealing with one's body thetans.

The Church has objected to the Xenu story being used to paint Scientology as a mere science fiction fantasy.[12] However, it strongly illustrates the crossover between Scientology doctrine and the world of science fiction, visible throughout the organization's history. See: Space opera in Scientology doctrine.

Hubbard's statements concerning the R6 implant have been a source of contention. Critics and some Christians state that Hubbard's statements regarding R6 prove that Scientology doctrine is incompatible with Christianity,[13][14][15][16] despite the Church's statements to the contrary.[17] In "Assists", Hubbard says:

"Everyman is then shown to have been crucified so don't think that it's an accident that this crucifixion, they found out that this applied. Somebody somewhere on this planet, back about 600 BC, found some pieces of R6, and I don't know how they found it, either by watching madmen or something, but since that time they have used it and it became what is known as Christianity. The man on the Cross. There was no Christ. But the man on the cross is shown as Everyman."

Origins of the Xenu story

[image] Fireball of a nuclear explosion, like the ones said to have been set off by Xenu.

Hubbard wrote OT III in late 1966 and early 1967 in North Africa while on his way to Las Palmas to join the Enchanter, the first vessel of his private Scientology fleet (the "Sea Org").[18] (OT III says "In December 1967 I knew someone had to take the plunge", but the material was publicised well before this.) He emphasized later that OT III was his own personal discovery.

Critics of Scientology have suggested that other factors may have been at work. In a letter of the time to his wife Mary Sue,[19] Hubbard said that, in order to assist his research, he was drinking alcohol and taking stimulants and depressants ("I'm drinking lots of rum and popping pinks and greys"). His assistant at the time, Virginia Downsborough, said that he "was existing almost totally on a diet of drugs."[20] Miller (p290) speculates that it was important for Hubbard to be found in a debilitated condition, so as to present OT III as "a research accomplishment of immense magnitude".

Elements of the Xenu story appeared in Scientology before OT III. Hubbard's descriptions of extraterrestrial conflicts were put forward as early as 1952 and were enthusiastically endorsed by Scientologists, who documented their past lives on other planets (published in 1960 as Have You Lived Before This Life).

OT III may not even have been Hubbard's first mention of Xenu, albeit in a different form. In an obscure lecture of 25 July 1958, "The Rock: Putting The PC At Cause", he refers to "Mount Zenu". Xenu, Hubbard says, was imprisoned under a mountain.

The idea that Earth is a prison planet, maintained by "entheta" [evil] beings or Targs who dumped their enemies on Earth, was first publicly put forward in an obscure taped demonstration of Scientology auditing recorded in April 1952 and released as "Electropsychometric Scouting: Battle of the Universes".[21] In many respects, OT III is virtually a retelling of this early tape, delivered in the first month of Scientology's existence. Hubbard describes how entheta beings defeat mutinous "theta" [good] beings and decided that "the battleground is too rough and these things have mutinied so let's put 'em all in one place and lock 'em on to Earth." The entheta beings were "controlled over by religion"; Mary Sue Hubbard asks "Is that when Christianity came into being?" to which Hubbard replies, "That's an entheta operation." Communism is also apparently "their great success" — "anybody who thinks in this society is immediately attacked, you're surrounded by Targs." A steady flow of flying saucers is still dropping off more entheta beings. The "Battle of the Universes" tape is no longer available from the Church of Scientology, presumably because of its considerable overlap with OT III.

The influence of OT III on Scientology

The volcano on the cover of Dianetics refers to the Xenu story, according to court statements by Church of Scientology representatives.[citation needed]

In the wake of Hubbard's revelation of the Wall of Fire, aspects of OT III and reflections of the Xenu story were adopted as symbols by the Church of Scientology. Hubbard is reported to have ordered that Scientology books be reissued with covers based on images from OT III.[22] The 1968 and subsequent reprints of Dianetics have had covers depicting an exploding volcano, apparently alluding to the volcanoes in the Xenu story — "Man responds to an exploding volcano" (Hubbard, "Assists"). Other cover images may reference Xenu as well: the cover of the 1972 edition of Dianetics: The Evolution of a Science shows pictures of uniformed men in white helmets carrying boxes in and out of a spaceship, which may refer to the transportation of Xenu's victims. Some of the cover images are more obscure but are conjectured to refer to other elements of OT III:

"A special 'Book Mission' was sent out to promote these books, now empowered and made irresistible by the addition of these overwhelming symbols or images. Organization staff were assured that if they simply held up one of the books, revealing its cover, that any bookstore owner would immediately order crateloads of them. A customs officer, seeing any of the book covers in one's luggage, would immediately pass one on through."

Since the 1980s, the volcano has also been depicted in television commercials advertising Dianetics.

Scientology's "Sea Org", an elite group within the church that originated with Hubbard's personal staff aboard his fleet of ships, takes many of its symbols from the story of Xenu and OT III. It is explicitly intended to be a revival of the "Loyal Officers" who overthrew Xenu. Its logo, a wreath with 26 leaves, represents the 26 stars of Xenu's Galactic Confederacy.[23] According to the Dianetics and Scientology Technical Dictionary, "the Sea Org symbol, adopted and used as the symbol of a Galactic Confederacy far back in the history of this sector, derives much of its power and authority from that association."

In the Advanced Orgs in Edinburgh and Los Angeles, Scientology staff were at one time ordered to wear all-white uniforms with silver boots, to mimic Xenu's Galactic Patrol as depicted on the cover of Dianetics: The Evolution of a Science. This was reportedly done on the basis of Hubbard's declaration in his Flag Order 652 that mankind would accept regulation from that group which had last betrayed it — hence the imitation of Xenu's henchmen. (This was almost certainly a misinterpretation of what Hubbard meant — he was most likely referring to psychiatrists, whom he believed had played a key role in Xenu's crimes.) In Los Angeles, a nightwatch was ordered to watch for returning spaceships.[24] These measures were discarded after a time. "Captain" Bill Robertson, who instigated these measures, claimed to be second in command to L. Ron Hubbard and for a two month period in 1972 he indeed held a very high rank in the Sea Org. Over the next 10 years his behavior became very erratic. He became obsessed with remembering the words to a galactic marching song and felt the church had been infiltrated with spies.

Then, in 1982 he announced that he was not just Bill Robertson, a normal earthling, but was in fact called Astar Paramejgian, one of three beings who were in reality controlling the lives of trillions of inhabitants of "Sector 9", a collection of thousands of stars and planets in this sector of the galaxy. He was expelled from the Church; he continued to campaign until 1991 against the malign influence of the alien "Markabians".

He formed the Galactic Patrol, the FreeZoners and Ron's Org, all squirrel groups. The problem with these groups was that they were altering (or making up) technology. Astar Paramejgian (aka Bill Robertson) ultimately developed a malignant throat cancer which led to his death.

A more lasting legacy of OT III was Scientology's organizational structure. The current "org board" is "a refined board of an old galactic civilization [the Galactic Confederacy]. We applied Scientology to it and found why it eventually failed. It lacked a couple of departments and that was enough to mess it all up. They lasted 80 trillion[25] [years]."[26]

"Xenu" or "Xemu"?

[image] The manuscript of OT III contains the only known example of Xenu's name in Hubbard's handwriting.

The name has been spelled both as Xenu and Xemu. The Class VIII course material includes a three-page text, handwritten by Hubbard, headed "Data", in which the Xenu story is given in detail. Hubbard's indistinct handwriting makes either spelling possible, particularly as the use of the name on the first page of OT III is the only known example of the name in his handwriting. In the "Assists" lecture, Hubbard speaks of "Xenu, ahhh, could be spelled X-E-M-U" and clearly says "Xemu" several times on the recording. The treatment of Revolt In The Stars, which is typewritten (presumably by Hubbard), uses Xenu exclusively. Ex-Scientologists have reported that Xenu is the more commonly used form (Touretzky). Hubbard may have two separate names for the "Xenu" figure.

The Church of Scientology's position on Xenu

In its public statements, the Church of Scientology has been notably reluctant to admit the existence of writings on Xenu and even to mention Xenu's name; court filings and legal correspondence issued by the Church of Scientology in the 1990s frequently struck out the name "Xenu" and replaced it with "Xxxx",[27] a treatment given to no other term. In the relatively few instances in which it has acknowledged Xenu, the Church has stated the story is a religious writing that can be seen as the equivalent of the Old Testament, in which miraculous events are described that are unlikely to have occurred in real life, and assumes true meaning only after years of study. They complain of critics using it to paint the religion as a science fiction fantasy.[12]

Senior members of the Church of Scientology have several times publicly denied or minimized the importance of the Xenu story, but others have admitted its existence. In a BBC Panorama program that aired on May 14, 2007, senior Scientologist Tommy Davis interrupted when celebrity members are asked about Xenu, saying: "None of us know what you're talking about. It's loony. It's weird." When John Carmichael, the president of the Church of Scientology of New York, was asked about the Xenu story in the September 9, 2007 edition of the Daily Telegraph, he said "That's not what we believe."[28]

In "A Conversation with David Miscavige", Nightline episode aired February 14, 1992, Koppel directly asked Miscavige about the Xenu Story, David immediately said that this was not a part of current or modern Scientology.[29]

However, in a 2006 interview with Rolling Stone, Mike Rinder, the director of the church's Office of Special Affairs, said that "It is not a story, it is an auditing level," when asked about the validity of the Xenu story.[30]

Scientology has many graduated levels through which one can progress. Many who remain at lower levels in the church are unaware of much of the space-opera doctrines, which mostly begin at Operating Thetan level three, or "OT III".[31] Because the information imparted to members is to be kept secret from others who have not attained that level, the member must publicly deny its existence when asked. OT III recipients must sign an agreement promising never to reveal its contents before they are given the manila envelope containing the Xenu knowledge.[30] It is knowledge so dangerous, members are told, that anyone learning this material before he is ready could die.

Despite the Church's efforts to keep the story secret, details have been leaked over the years. OT III was first revealed in Robert Kaufman's 1972 book Inside Scientology: Or How I Found Scientology and Became Super Human, in which Kaufman detailed his own experiences of OT III. It was later described in a 1981 Clearwater Sun article by Richard Leiby, and came to greater public fame in a 1985 court case brought against the Church by Lawrence A. Wollersheim. The Church attempted to keep the case file checked out by a reader at all times, but the story was summarized in the Los Angeles Times, November 5, 1985 and detailed in William Poundstone's Bigger Secrets (1986) from information presented in the Wollersheim case.

Church lawyer Warren McShane claimed in a 1995 court case that the story had never been secret,[32] although maintaining there were nevertheless trade secrets contained in OT III. Notably, McShane discussed the details of the story at some length and specifically attributed the authorship of the story to Hubbard.[33]

On December 24, 1994, the text of OT III was published on the Internet for the first time in a posting to the Usenet newsgroup alt.religion.scientology, through an anonymous remailer.[34] This subsequently brought on the actions of Scientology lawyers, leading to the online battle described as Scientology versus the Internet. Older versions of OT levels I to VII were brought as exhibits attached to a declaration by Steven Fishman on 9 April 1993 as part of Church of Scientology International v. Fishman and Geertz. The text of this declaration and its exhibits, collectively known as the Fishman Affidavit, were posted to the alt.religion.scientology in August 1995 by Arnie Lerma and on the World Wide Web by David S. Touretzky. This was a subject of great controversy and legal battles for several years, notably a copyright raid on Lerma's house (leading to massive mirroring of the documents) and a suit against Dutch writer Karin Spaink — the Church bringing suit on copyright violation grounds for reproducing the source material, and also claiming rewordings would reveal a trade secret.

The Church's attempts to keep Xenu under wraps have been cited in court findings against it. In September 2003, a Dutch court, in a ruling in the case against Karin Spaink, stated that one objective in keeping OT II and OT III secret was to wield power over members of the Church and prevent discussion about the Church's teachings and practices:[35] "The texts previously quoted show that in its teachings and its structure, Scientology c.s. do not shun the rejection of democratic values. From these texts it is also apparent that one of the objectives of keeping OT II and OT III secret is to wield power over members of the Scientology organization and to prevent discussion about the teachings and practices of the Scientology organization."

Xenu is also widely cited by "Scientology critics": activists and debunkers who accuse the Church of being a scam. The price of the OT III auditing level (US$19500 in 1997) is given as evidence that Scientology peddles bad science fiction for a high price.Heldal-Lund, Andreas (30 November 1997). FWD: Re: Another part of the "Bait and Switch" (TXT). alt.religion.scientology. Retrieved on 2006-10-05.

Operation Clambake, the most popular critical Web site concerning Scientology, uses the Internet domain name xenu.net . Geoffrey Filbert, a Free Zone (non-CoS) Scientologist, wrote a book, Excalibur Revisited, in 1982, containing his own version of OT III. This was the first of several versions available in the Free Zone. Roland Rashleigh-Berry, an ex-Scientologist, wrote a "Xenu leaflet", popular with critics, that summarizes the story of OT III. The leaflet includes part of the first page of OT III in Hubbard's handwriting, mentioning Xenu.

After the Xenu story received considerable mainstream media attention from mid-2005, upper-level Scientologists involved in recent debates with critics have acknowledged the legitimacy of the story.[36] Recent public statements by the Church tend to position the tale as a very small part of the religion.

Xenu in popular culture

L. Ron Hubbard had apparently intended to publicize the Xenu story to the wider world under the title of Revolt in the Stars, an extended version of the story of OT III, which he wrote in the late 1970s. It has not been officially published, although the treatment was circulated around Hollywood in the early 1980s (Young). Copies of the treatment leaked, and Scientology critic Grady Ward published a summary.[37]

Although the Xenu story first leaked in 1972 and was widely publicized on the Internet and in news stories from 1995 onwards, it only achieved currency in popular culture in mid-2005, when Tom Cruise changed publicists and actively promoted Scientology while doing publicity for War of the Worlds; the press responded by citing the Xenu story in numerous articles.

South Park

[image] Xenu as depicted in South Park.

In November 2005, "Trapped in the Closet", an episode of the animated television series South Park, satirized Scientology, including an animated retelling of the Xenu story, with the words "THIS IS WHAT SCIENTOLOGISTS ACTUALLY BELIEVE" superimposed on-screen for most of it. In the South Park version of the story, the aliens are directly dropped into the volcanoes, and the thetans rise in an effort to return but are then captured. The episode had been scheduled to be rebroadcast on 15 March 2006, but Comedy Central instead ran "Chef's Chocolate Salty Balls." According to Comedy Central, the substitution was intended to pay tribute to Isaac Hayes. According to the creators of South Park (Matt Stone and Trey Parker), Viacom (who own Comedy Central) replaced the episode because Scientology intervened and, more specifically, because Tom Cruise (who is himself lampooned in the episode) threatened distributor Paramount (also a Viacom property) with refusal to cooperate with the promotional campaign on the upcoming film Mission Impossible 3. This was denied by Cruise's representative. Parker and Stone issued a press release, published in the entertainment newspaper, Daily Variety:[38]

"So, Scientology, you may have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for Earth has just begun! Temporarily anozinizing our episode will NOT stop us from keeping Thetans forever trapped in your pitiful man-bodies. Curses and drat! You have obstructed us for now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will fail! Hail Xenu!!!"

-- Trey Parker and Matt Stone, Daily Variety

Comedy Central did eventually rebroadcast the episode on 19 July 2006.

Nip/Tuck

[image] Xenu appearing with Kimber Henry (Kelly Carlson) in a dream sequence in Nip/Tuck.

Xenu appeared in "Willy Ward", the penultimate episode of season 4 of the FX show Nip/Tuck (first broadcast December 5, 2006). In a dream sequence, Scientologist character Kimber Henry (Kelly Carlson) has a vision of Xenu while experiencing hallucinations and doubts about Scientology. Xenu is depicted as a cross between Ming the Merciless and a stereotypical grey alien.

See also

* Space opera in Scientology scripture
* Incident (Scientology)
* Implant (Scientology)

References

Notes

Note: HCOB refers to "Hubbard Communications Office Bulletins", HCOPL refers to "Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letters", and SHSBC refers to "Saint Hill Special Briefing Courses". All have been made publicly available by the Church of Scientology in the past, both as individual documents or in bound volumes.

1. ^ a b c Thousands of millions in Long Scale
2. ^ a b Scott, Michael Dennis (2004) "Internet And Technology Law Desk Reference", Aspen Publishers, ISBN 0735547432
3. ^ a b Lewis James R (2003) "The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements", Oxford University Press, ISBN 0195149866
4. ^ Summary proceedings. Ruling Scientology vs. providers and Karin Spaink (March 12 1996). Retrieved on 2006-08-09.
5. ^ Sappell, Joel; Robert W. Welkos (24 June 1990). "The Scientology Story". Los Angeles Times: page A36:1. Retrieved on 2006-08-09. Additional convenience link.
6. ^ A billion in Short Scale is a thousand million in Long Scale.
7. ^ Hubbard, Scientology: A History of Man
8. ^ Operation Clambake presents: A Scientific scrutiny of OT 3 (June 7 1996). Retrieved on 2007-04-26.
9. ^ The Forbidden Story of Xenu. Retrieved on 2007-04-26.
10. ^ Hubbard, Mission into Time
11. ^ Four thousand billion in Long Scale.
12. ^ a b Doward, Jamie. "Lure of the celebrity sect", The Observer, May 16, 2004. Retrieved on 2006-10-05.
13. ^ Gerry Armstrong--HCOB 05-11-1963 Routine 3 Heaven. Retrieved on 2006-10-05.
14. ^ Veenker, Jody. "Why Christians Object to Scientology", Christianity Today, 9/8/00. Retrieved on 2006-10-05.
15. ^ Branch, Craig (1996). "Hubbard's Religion". The Watchman Expositor 13 (2). Retrieved on 2006-10-05.
16. ^ Scientology and Christianity Examined. Retrieved on 2006-10-05.
17. ^ Scientology and Other Practices. Church of Scientology of Michigan. Retrieved on 2006-10-05.
18. ^ Miller, ch. 16, p. 266, "Launching the Sea Org"
19. ^ Corydon, pp58–59, 332–333; letter filed as evidence in Church of Scientology v. Gerald Armstrong, 1984, Los Angeles Superior Court, Case No. C420153
20. ^ Atack, part 4, ch. 1, "Scientology at Sea"
21. ^ Complete List of LRH Lectures: Tapes of 1952. Retrieved on 2006-10-05.
22. ^ Atack, Jon. References. Hubbard and the Occult. Retrieved on 2006-10-05.
23. ^ Hubbard, "Ron's Talk to Pubs Org World Wide", tape of April 1968
24. ^ Atack, p. 190
25. ^ Billion in Long Scale
26. ^ Hubbard, SHSBC 57, "Org Board and Livingness", 6 April 1965
27. ^ Unsorted harassment reports. Retrieved on 2006-10-05.
28. ^ Friends, thetans, countrymen. Seven. The Daily Telegraph (2007-09-09). Retrieved on 2007-09-22.
29. ^ ABC News, Nightline: A Conversation with David Miscavige" (February 14, 1992). Retrieved on 2007-07-30.
30. ^ a b Reitman, Janet (2006-02-23). Inside Scientology. Rolling Stone. Retrieved on 2007-09-22.
31. ^ Operation Clambake Presents: OT Levels. Retrieved on 2006-10-05.
32. ^ O'Connor, Mike (28 August 1998). Re: Ron's Journal 67 (TXT). alt.religion.scientology. Retrieved on 2006-10-05. (testimony under oath by Warren McShane of the Church of Scientology in RTC v. FactNet, Civil Action No. 95B2143, United States Courthouse, Denver, Colorado, 11 September 1995)
33. ^ Trade Secrets?. Retrieved on 2006-10-05.
34. ^ Affidavit of Dennis Erlich (TXT) (16 November 1995). Retrieved on 2007-04-26.
35. ^ "Uit de hiervoor onder 8.3 vermelde teksten blijkt dat Scientology c.s. met hun leer en organisatie de verwerping van democratische waarden niet schuwen. Uit die teksten volgt tevens dat met de geheimhouding van OT II en OT III mede wordt beoogd macht uit te oefenen over leden van de Scientology-organisatie en discussie over de leer en praktijken van de Scientology-organisatie te verhinderen."Translation by Spaink[citation needed]
36. ^ The Humanist Society of San Diego Meeting (2/20/05). Retrieved on 2006-10-05.
37. ^ Revolt In The Stars by L. Ron Hubbard, Summarized by Grady Ward. Retrieved on 2006-10-05.
38. ^ "South Park' Cooks Up Plan For Chef In Season Premiere", MTV News, 2006-03-21. Retrieved on 2006-10-05.

Sources

* Jon Atack, A Piece Of Blue Sky (Kensington Publishing Corporation, New York, 1990; ISBN 0-8184-0499-X)
* Bent Corydon and L. Ron Hubbard Jr., L. Ron Hubbard: Messiah Or Madman? (Lyle Stuart, New Jersey, 1987; ISBN 0-8184-0444-2)
* L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology: A History of Man (American Saint Hill Organization, 1968; current edition Bridge Publications ISBN 0-88404-306-1)
* L. Ron Hubbard, Mission into Time (American Saint Hill Organization, 1973; current edition Bridge Publications ISBN 0-88404-023-2)
* L. Ron Hubbard, Have You Lived Before This Life? (1958; current edition Bridge Publications ISBN 0-88404-447-5)
* Russell Miller, Bare-Faced Messiah: The True Story Of L. Ron Hubbard (Henry Holt, New York, 1988; ISBN 1-55013-027-7)
* FACTnet report: Hubbard and the Occult (Jon Atack)
* Robert Kaufman, Inside Scientology: Or How I Found Scientology and Became Super Human, (Olympia Press ISBN 0-7004-0110-5, 1972; (1995 edition published on Web)
* Sect courses resemble science fiction (Richard Leiby, Clearwater Sun, vol. 68 no. 118, 30 August 1981)
* Scientologists Block Access To Secret Documents: 1,500 crowd into courthouse to protect materials on fundamental beliefs (Joel Sappell and Robert Welkos, Los Angeles Times, 5 November 1985)
* Testimony under oath (pp274–275) from Robert Vaughn Young in RTC v. FactNet, Civil Action No. 95B2143, United States Courthouse, Denver, Colorado, 11 September 1995
* Audio extracts from Class VIII "Assists" lecture (3 October 1968)
* Excalibur Revisited: The Akashic Book of Truth (Geoffrey Filbert)

Other references

* Dawson, Lorne L.; Douglas E. Cowan (2004-04-01). Religion Online. Routledge (UK), 261 et. seq.. ISBN 0-415-97022-9.
* Grünschloß, Andreas (2003-12-01), "Waiting for the "Big Beam," UFO Religions and "UFOlogical" Themes in New Religious Movements", in James R. Lewis, The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements, Oxford University Press US, ISBN 0-19-514786-6

External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Xenu

* What is Scientology: OT III Released
* Xenu TV
* Scientology.org: OT Level Successes
* OT III Scholarship Page (David S. Touretzky; includes page scans, commentary, audio files)
* Revolt In The Stars summary (Grady Ward)
* Xenu Leaflet (Roland Rashleigh-Berry)
* The Fishman Affidavit: OT III (extracts and synopsis by Karin Spaink)
* A Scientific scrutiny of OT III (Peter Forde, June 1996)
* The Story of OTIII: A RealPlayer animation that takes a humorous yet accurate look at the Xenu doctrine. From the BBC Panorama documentary "The Road to Total Freedom?"
* Operation Clambake - The Inner Secrets Of Scientology
* Research essay describing OT 3 as a drug induced hallucination posted to alt.religion.scientology on 3/29/96 by Prignillius

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PizzaQ: What is it? What's its name? Where is it?

Click image to enlarge.

I've erased a bit of text that might have been a clue.

I feel sort of stupid that I never knew this Thing existed before tonight. Because it clearly must have been designed just for me. I fell in love with it instantly, and now I'm scheming to go see it.

It's very possible you're less stupid or comatose than I am and you know about this thing. If so -- you win 1 whole Pizza with your choice of 3 toppings.

What is it? (What's its name?)

Where is it?

What does it do?

Ethical considerations of zapping rodents with X-rays in the basement for YouTube

Remember these? Well, these home X-rayed mice were indeed dead mice. (I don't know how they got dead. Maybe old age, natural causes, or suicides.)

But Basement & Garage Science marches on:

============

Farewell, farewell! but this I tell
To thee, thou Wedding-Guest!
He prayeth well, who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.

He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.

-- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"

============

t**** a***** wrote:

I was thinking about doing a live mouse or rat next for youtube, Whats your opinion on live animal subjects with xray illumination? I can only do 15 second exposures.

=================

I haven't accidentally bumbled into a hot-button controversy here in ... gosh, months. Maybe I'm losing my edge. So ...

Amateur rocketry faces the question of sending live animals on violent half-mile vertical round trips, and when the question is discussed openly (e.g., by scouting adults rather than by a flock of unsupervised 10-year-old boys), has evolved two generally accepted answers.

* First, limit the passenger candidates to insects (ants and cockroaches) or to vertebrates not more advanced than frogs or lizards.

* Second, to get a live animal "license," a rocketeer must first launch and successfully recover a raw egg without cracking it and making a gooey mess. (The payload nose cone of one rocket kit is specifically designed for this challenge.) Only after recovering an unscrambled egg or two is the rocketeer permitted to move on to live passengers.

Who cares about zapping live mice or rats with x-rays? At first glance, seemingly nobody. After all, any pet store that caters to snake owners sells live mice specifically for feeding snakes.

But any basement or garage lab with a rack of gizmos and flashing lights will naturally attract the curiosity and attention of kids. So animal experiments have two contexts: What it means to a fully-formed adult, and what it means to the developing personality of a child. The adult and child can walk away from the same experiment with two very different sets of lessons.

The more thorough stories about the Michael Vick scandal occasionally mentioned a side (or central) issue little known by the general public, but well known to police officers and criminal-justice professionals. There's a strong and common correlation between violent acts/crimes against people and an earlier childhood history of abuse of and cruelty to animals.

Children aren't born with empathy toward others; their relationships with and attitudes toward animals play a large role in their later attitudes toward others of their own species. So one big question about zapping live mice and rats is: Are any kids watching? The adult gets nifty images, but what will the kid get?

And the YouTube thing ... the niftier the videos, the more likely they'll generate lots of "try this at home" clones. Thoughtful precautions and restraints you take for granted might not carry over to the 300 clones your videos inspire.

Pro or amateur, I don't think scientists are "better" scientists by desensitizing themselves to the complicated issues regarding the treatment of live animals. And I should be heavily biased toward the fullest range of live animal experiments; a series of intentionally fatal dog experiments from the 1920s keeps me (and millions of other people) alive and healthy year after year. Without the dead dogs, I'd be a dead guy.

But the smartest and best educated among us have a heavy, even disproportionate responsibility for setting and shaping the commonly accepted standards for the whole human community. Arguably, zapping a few live mice and rats does no harm and adds to our scientific knowledge.

But there's another worrisome argument that it desensitizes the community away from our best and most appropriate relationship with all living things, which in turn desensitizes and degrades our relationships with each other.

Bob
Massachusetts USA

===========

Gee I really miss Heathkits beep boop blink beep beep hummmm beep blink

Click on image, good happens.

Boy I really miss Heathkits.

For a couple of years by accident, I lived a mile from one of the rare Heathkit retail stores -- a paradise just around the corner filled with aisles of the most amazing gizmos that beeped and blinked and did such astonishing things. Over the years I must have bought and built a dozen Heathkits, and of course I still have all of them.

Need a sine wave or a square wave at a precise frequency? Contact me, I got the Gizmo. I had to buy and build the sine-square-wave generator to do the final calibration steps for my Heathkit audio oscilloscope. (A Mad Scientist can't possibly Rule The World without an oscilloscope.)

Eventually my kit-building addiction worsened and I drifted into the equally amazing kit stereo equipment built by Dynaco and its audio design genius David Hafler. I'm still running a Hafler solid-state power amp that I built all by myself. (Check out the price$$$$$$$ the ancient Dynaco vacuum-tube/valve power amps are fetching on the Internet.)

And then eventually the addiction to kit-building REALLY got bad and I built my first computer from a kit -- an IMSAI kit computer built around an 8080 microprocessor. (You can see my computer in the kid's bedroom in the movie "War Games.")

Now everybody wants their gizmos ready to plug in straight out of the box. Yawn. That is soooo pathetic. It's the End Of Civilization As We Know It. It's all downhill from here.

If you're a faithful Vleeptroid, you've noticed occasional references to some of my imaginary Heathkits -- the Heathkit TM-16 Time Machine, for example, which I use to travel forward in time to buy tickets to Cher's Absolutely Final Farewell Concert.

Or backwards to a time when my super-precise Atomic Wall Clock won't work, and I can't figure out why. It works in the Present, it works in the Future (I tried it out at a Cher Farewell Concert), but it doesn't work in the Past, at least not before around 1920.

And I know I've bragged about and shown images of a REAL Heathkit that's just my very favorite gizmo of all: The Heathkit Vacuum-Tube ANALOG computer.

I didn't build it. The old guy who did, in 1960, sold it to me because he was terrified that after he died, his family would sell it at a tag sale for $3. Or use it as a garden planter. Now it has a new, loving home for another few decades. With someone who loves and understands it.

And the damn thing still works like a champ! The tubes/valves light up like a Christmas tree! (If one of them ever burns out, I can buy replacements from the Peoples Republic of China, the same place I get my Badger Hair from for my Shaving Brush.) I need an adapter for the plug, which is ungrounded, just like the plug on grandma's lamp.

I made the elder gentleman a bid for it by e-mail, and he very politely laughed at me. The guy knew what it was worth. Of course he knew what it was worth. He built the damned thing. So I raised my bid.

Fortunately I wasn't married to S.W.M.B.O. yet, so I didn't have to explain to anybody why I needed (yes, needed) to spend $550 for a 1960 vacuum-tube Analog Computer.

It is just possible she might not have understood. I could be wrong about that.

It don't need no steenkin' algorithms or iterations. It don't need no steenkin' software. It don't need no steenkin' zeroes and ones. And it gives me all my answers INSTANTLY! I ask the Question, the Heathkit Analog Computer spews back the Answer. It adds, subtracts, multiplies, divides, differentiates and integrates, and more -- INSTANTLY! It computes the movements of the planets and moons, it computes the time displacement of massive objects falling in gravity fields.

And if my ship is being attacked by enemy fighter planes, it will automatically direct my antiaircraft guns and aim the shells to where the enemy plane WILL BE by the time the shell reaches that part of space, no matter how wildly and cleverly the enemy pilot zigs and zags and wiggles to get out of the way.

It's an incredibly difficult problem in statistics and probability. You want to shoot down the enemy plane. While your antiaircraft shells are taking a second or two to fly, the enemy pilot can zig and zag and dive and climb, and he very much does NOT want you to shoot him out of the sky. Norbert Weiner -- nicknamed the Father of Cybernetics -- apparently solved the problem of automatic antiaircraft fire control, and it played a huge part in winning the war in the Pacific.

The Navy STILL uses ANALOG COMPUTERS to direct antiaircraft and anti-missile fire. Because while an enemy Exocet missile is heading straight at you, an Analog Computer never displays

... working ... please wait ...
... working ... please wait ...
... working ... please wait ...

There are Heathkit Homage and Worship Sites all over the Web. Maybe I should send this to one of them, see if the dude has a sense of humor. He may as well display my imaginary Heathkit, 'cause Heathkit is long dead and gone and will not be selling any more real kits.

Oh, one time I was on Internet Chat, and I typed something, and I got this reply:

SCUMMO: HEY! YOU BROKE
MY NEW SARCASMOMETER!!!

Hmmmm ... the only thing missing from my Heathkit Sarcasmometer is the unit that Sarcasm is measured in. What metric (or English) unit do they use to measure Sarcasm and Sincerity?