June 06, 2008

Anonymous Wins Again

Hey, look, Scientology can't get permits for all-day protests in order to prevent anonymous protest anymore! Our friendly Anonymous operative explains:

I got off the phone with the Managing Directors Office today. Apparently CoS is NO LONGER ALLOWED to file ANY KIND OF DAY LONG PROTEST PERMIT unless they are ACTUALLY HAVING A PROTEST. Any permit that is filed for a day long permit will be subsequently denied by the Managing Directors Office. This came after a meeting with MDO, CoS, and the Attorneys for both groups. Anonymous was not present. Anonymous just supplied the wonderful dox :).

Ha-ha :). Anyway, good show to all involved, and for making this Friday afternoon extra special.

Philadelphia - Land of The Legal Footbullet! [Enturbulation.org]

Posted by D-Mac at 03:42 PM | Comments (3)

May 15, 2008

Scientology's Lawyers Threaten Anonymous

Hey, so you all remember how Scientology scheduled a protest for last month so as to hold off a protest by Anonymous? And then they didn't protest at all? Well, for some reason the city has given the Church of Scientology yet another permit, for a June 14 protest against Xenu knows what, despite barely protesting at all during its last all-day protest.

The City of Philadelphia protesting code states that "[t]he term "Demonstration" shall not mean the casual use of City Property which does not have an intent or propensity to draw a crowd or onlookers." Scientology's last "protest" was just a few people handing out fliers for an hour or so despite the permit being requested for the entire day.

There's more: Anonymous is, well, anonymous, and is designed to stave off any legal threats from the Church of Scientology; apparently the Philadelphia group looked into the local college student who handed in the check for a previous anonymous protest (apparently) and had a lawyer hand-deliver a letter to her parents' house in Johnstown.

The greatness of Anonymous is the idea that no one can retaliate, physically or legally, against the group while it speaks out against whatever the cause is. But, of course, anyone can also claim to be Anonymous and send out anything in its name. And, as such, the letter from Scientology's lawyers recaps a bunch of bomb threats and other related hoaxes sent to Scientology from people it identifies as members of "Anonymous."

The letter then tells our fair college student that Scientology "has place[d] you on notice" -- ha! -- and tells her not to commit any illegal activities against the church. Yes, that's right, Scientology has placed a member of Philadelphia's Anonymous group who says she has done nothing wrong on notice.

Letter after the jump.

Continue reading "Scientology's Lawyers Threaten Anonymous"

Posted by D-Mac at 03:28 PM | Comments (49)

May 01, 2008

Scientology's Hilarious 'Protest'

Hey, remember how the Philly Church of Scientology -- let's call it the farm system for Clearwater -- scheduled a protest all day on the day of the latest Anonymous protest against Scientology so Anonymous couldn't protest with masks on?

Well, a dude from Anonymous (I guess) contacted me the other day and passed along some hilarious photos of the "protest" that wasn't really a protest at all.

Anyway, there's another protest on May 10, and it naturally involves Battletoads. (Seriously, I am super confused. Next time, can Anonymous reference River City Ransom? I loved that game!) Hopefully, Scientology won't be able to get a permit this time since they only protested (against drugs!) for about an hour and not for the whole day like they said they were going to. Keep on fighting the man, people.

Posted by D-Mac at 01:19 PM | Comments (32)

April 11, 2008

Scientology Protest: Sunday!

It's been a while since the last gleeful worldwide protest of Scientology -- thank you, Internet -- and turns out it's time for another one. The Alert Philadelphia email reads, inexplicably: "On Saturday, April 12, 2008, from 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM, at the Church of Scientology of Pennsylvania located at 1312-16 Chestnut Street there will be a protest against drugs."

Ahh, so let's just re-write and explain my mistake on the original post. Philadelphia's protest is actually Sunday. Scientology planned a protest against drugs in front of their headquarters on Saturday so the Anonymous people couldn't do their Operation Reconnection protest on Saturday, when all the worldwide protests are.

So, in conclusion: Scientology is worried about people protesting its nefarious deeds, so they blocked out the entire day for a "protest against drugs." To counter this, you all need to show up Sunday (around noon, I assume) at City Hall and protest Scientology on a Super Special Fight The Man's Counter-protesting Efforts Protest. There's more info here.

The original email I received a while back after the jump.

Continue reading "Scientology Protest: Sunday!"

Posted by D-Mac at 01:37 PM | Comments (12)

March 17, 2008

Fresh Princes Of Protesting

Eventually, all the people (like me, only less lazy) who had been online nonstop since the early-to-mid 1990s were going to realize they could easily use it to prank people in the real world. They did, and it was good, but eventually they realized they could use it to organize for things they cared about in the real world. And, lo and behold, we had the second real world protest of Scientology over the weekend all over the world, including right here in Philadelphia.

Intrepid reporter Alli Katz captured these Anonymous people rapping against Scientology's tax breaks. Excellent all around.

Update: There's now a full video and story up on PW's website.

Update 2: OMG is Will Smith a Scientologist?!

Anonymous battles the Church of Scientology [PW]

Posted by D-Mac at 04:28 PM | Comments (2)

July 05, 2007

Philadelphia To Soon Be Free Of Thetans (Or Whatever)

As you may have heard, the Church of Scientology recently purchased a 15-story building on Chestnut Street along with a former toy store in order to expand in the City of Brotherly Love. (One can only wait until the first Scientologist member of the Philadelphia Phillies arrives; the Phils train in Clearwater, Fla., world headquarters of Scientology.)

Just like Christians believe a Jewish carpenter 2,000 years ago was the Messiah and Jews believe they're the Chosen People of God™ and Hindus believe widows should be shunned and Muslims believe in predestination and a lack of free will, Scientologists believe Xenu came to Earth 75 million years ago with a bunch of humans, who he then blew up with hydrogen bombs, and their spirits harass humans to this day, and Scientology can get rid of them.

Fortunately for Scientology, and unfortunately for other religions, the religion has a group of high-powered lawyers. All hail Xenu! Or, uh, boooo, Xenu! Whichever one is right! Boooo psychiatry! How dare it attempt to help people through science instead of science fiction!

And, of course, this new building will cost the city money:

Property taxes for 2007 on the Chestnut Street parcels were $56,195, according to city records. But if the acquisition is deemed to be a house of worship, it will be exempted from taxes. The church does not pay tax on its headquarters at 1315 Race St., which it bought for $325,000 in 1979.

Eh, at least it's not another dollar store.

Church of Scientology buys site in Center City [Inquirer]
Shunned from society, widows flock to city to die [CNN.com]

Posted by D-Mac at 11:42 AM | Comments (23) | TrackBack (0)