|
||||
|
|
|
||
 |
 |
|
|
|
 realitybasedcommunity.net - writings on establishment clause, free exercise, free speech, free press, copyright, trademark, right of publicity, media law, defamation, new media law. about scott pilutik. The aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the reality-based community,'' which he defined as people who ''believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ''That's not the way the world really works anymore,'' he continued. ''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality.'' - Ron Suskind, Without a Doubt, NY Times, October 17, 2004
archives
July 2008 | June 2008 | May 2008 | April 2008 | March 2008 | February 2008 | January 2008 | December 2007 | October 2007 | September 2007 | August 2007 | July 2007 | June 2007 | April 2007 | March 2007 | February 2007 | December 2006 | November 2006 | September 2006 | August 2006 | July 2006 | June 2006 | May 2006 | January 2006 | December 2005 | November 2005 | October 2005 | September 2005 | August 2005 | July 2005 | June 2005 | May 2005 | April 2005 | March 2005 | February 2005 | January 2005 | December 2004 | November 2004 | October 2004 | |
|
|
|
Archives for June 2008 June 30, 2008 Ortega unearths unpublished-til-now 2002 article on Wollersheim
The excerpt below is an introduction to a long but riveting piece by veteran journalist Tony Ortega, now editor-in-chief of the Village Voice. Ortega wrote the piece 6 years ago for the New Times LA, which folded before it could be published. It largely concerns the legal travails of ex-Scientologist Lawrence Wollersheim, whose litigation against Scientology could serve as the sole basis for a 4-credit Civil Procedure course, with credits to spare for Torts and Constitutional Law. Six years ago, when I was a reporter at New Times LA, I’d written several stories about Scientology (Los Angeles is one of its headquarters), and I was about to uncork the longest one yet—a 7,000 word piece about an embarrassing, $8 million defeat Scientology had just suffered, when the weekly paper suddenly folded. posted by scott pilutik at June 30, 2008 09:55 PM
digg |
del.icio.us |
reddit Will Smith's Scientology School
The LA Times is reporting on Will Smith's New Village Academy because of its admittedly close association with Scientology. While I'm happy to at least see a 'there's a controversy' article, the author seems unable to grasp precisely why there's a controversy, other than that the school claims to be secular yet will use L Ron Hubbard's "Study Tech." The reader has to wade through a sea of fluff (ooh, the school will have karate?) before the controversy is made clear by Dave Touretzky: But critics contend that the school is not being honest about its links to Scientology. David S. Touretzky, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, created a website that dissects study technology and asserts that it is Scientology religion disguised as education. [link added]Dave Touretzky's point is that Study Tech, both in theory and as it will apply in the classroom, is indistinguishable from the religious content of Scientology. Scientology front groups often claim to be secular (largely so they can keep their hands out to receive public funding, or else such funding would violate the establishment clause), but even light scrutiny--which the LA Times appears unwilling to provide--reveals claims of secularity to be patently false. Side by side comparisons of Study Tech content and content which Scientology considers religious couldn't make the point more plain. Scientology routinely gets away with this secular/religious distinction because the religious content of Scientology does not appear to resemble religion as most people think of it. And to this end, most people have a point: Scientology does not concern itself with a supreme being, it is uncharitable (indeed, charity violates the Scientology tenet of "exchange"--meaning that people who get something for nothing are "out-exchange"), and there's no praying or Sunday worship services (although on occasion they'll occasionally resort to Sunday worship services as a recruiting tool, when they sense that implying a kinship to Christianity might help it). But regardless of where you fall on the Scientology is/isn't a religion question (I say it is, but that doesn't make it any less of a cult), the federal government considers it as such, at least in the sense that the basis upon which it receives a 501(c)(3) exemption is as a religion. Thus, when Scientology front groups begin touting secular programs that are indistinguishable from Scientology religious beliefs, such programs are violating the establishment clause (if they're receiving public funding, as is often the case), or they're just plain lying to the parents of potential students, as in the case of Will Smith's New Village Academy. posted by scott pilutik at June 30, 2008 10:46 AM
digg |
del.icio.us |
reddit June 27, 2008 Holy Joe and the Church of Doublespeak
Via Talking Points Memo; Joe Lieberman manages to talk out both sides of his mouth in the span of a single sentence: "In fairness we don't know if Rev. Wright said these inflammatory, anti-American, racial comments every Sunday, but I would not continue to go to a synagogue where that kind of rhetoric was spoken," Lieberman said, adding, "I think it did raise questions in people's minds about why did he stay in the church that long," but he said he would "take (Obama) at his word" and move on.Ned Lamont is spinning on his couch. posted by scott pilutik at June 27, 2008 10:47 AM
digg |
del.icio.us |
reddit Holy Joe and the Church of Doublespeak
Via Talking Points Memo; Joe Lieberman manages to talk out both sides of his mouth in the span of a single sentence: "In fairness we don't know if Rev. Wright said these inflammatory,Ned Lamont is spinning on his couch. posted by scott pilutik at June 27, 2008 10:46 AM
digg |
del.icio.us |
reddit June 24, 2008 Google v. Community Standards
The NY Times reports on an interesting obscenity defense tactic: In a novel approach, the defense in an obscenity trial in Florida plans to use publicly accessible Google search data to try to persuade jurors that their neighbors have broader interests than they might have thought.Obscenity convictions hinge on violating local community standards, which obviously vary from community to community, and can appear to vary greatly, at least if your gauge is the make-up of the city council or the school board's proposals. While I'm surprised (but pleased) that this evidence was allowed in (it seems as if you could argue that Google Trends proves either everything or nothing), I'll bet this tactic, should it be permitted elsewhere, ultimately demonstrates is that every community is as degenerate and deviant as the next, a realization that will hopefully collapse the entire community standard. posted by scott pilutik at June 24, 2008 08:45 AM
digg |
del.icio.us |
reddit June 20, 2008 The Cock Crows for John Freshwater
What makes Freshwater interesting is his annual tesla coil demonstration, where he would burn crosses into the arms of his students. While there did not appear to be any intent by Mr. Freshwater to cause injury to any student, he was not using the device for its intended purpose. Contrary to Mr. Freshwater’s statement he simply made an “X” not a “cross,” all of the students described the marking as a “cross” and the pictures provided depict a “cross”. There are multiple outrages here, which I'll tackle one at a time. First, just like in the Dover Intelligent Design trial,* why do Christians so often, when confronted by rather blatant evidence that they've violated the establishment clause, lie about it. Besides the fact that Freshwater's lie is insulting (see above photos), it's amusing that the lie ironically mimics Peter's denial of Jesus. It's not a cross? Is that your final answer or do you want to wait for the cock to crow thrice? More disturbing, however, is the perpetual silence of the school board, a silence that no doubt would have continued had the branding story not found national press, and thus transcend the garden variety religious intrusion into the public sphere. From the same report:: Dr. Weston [Director of Teaching and Learning for the Mount Vernon City Schools] stated that she has had to deal with internal and external complaints about his failure to follow the curriculum for much of her 11 years at Mount Vernon. It has come to her attention many times. She has reported these events to administrators and there have been some attempts to make changes and other instances where they seem to have been disregarded, particularly by one former assistant principal. She said that Mr. Freshwater cannot separate creationism/intelligent design from teaching to the science standards. The school's silence is all the more confounding in light of the fact that, whenever someone finally does blow the whistle, either the ACLU, or American United, or whomever, inevitably wins or forces a favorable settlement in these types of cases. While establishment clause jurisprudence may not be as clear as it could be, it's pretty easy to spot the violations while they're happening--Freshwater could've (and should've) been fired for any one of a few dozen violations committed during his tenure. This all inevitably leads to the conclusion that the school administrators and school boards are either entirely ignorant, or are getting bad advice, perhaps from lawyers who share the violator's agenda, such as the Thomas More Center, in the case of Dover. Of special interest too is this blog, which defends (through bombastic rhetoric and equivocation) Freshwater's conduct, and which includes pictures and other news items. * From Judge Jones' opinion: “Witnesses either testified inconsistently, or lied outright under oath on several occasions. The inescapable truth is that both [Alan] Bonsell and [William] Buckingham lied at their January 3, 2005 depositions. … Bonsell repeatedly failed to testify in a truthful manner. … Defendants have unceasingly attempted in vain to distance themselves from their own actions and statements, which culminated in repetitious, untruthful testimony.” posted by scott pilutik at June 20, 2008 11:58 AM
digg |
del.icio.us |
reddit June 17, 2008 Kill it, lion Jesus!
LIT 101 CLASS IN THREE LINES OR LESS. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe C.S. LEWIS: Finally, a utopia ruled by children and populated by talking animals. posted by scott pilutik at June 17, 2008 09:09 AM
digg |
del.icio.us |
reddit June 16, 2008 disco-boat owning church accuses san diego discrimination
I'm suddenly unpressed for time, so I think I'll turn my interbrowsing into something productive by doling out stories with accompanying thoughts, if thoughts occur. First, let's visit Chula Vista, San Diego, where the San Diego taxpayers are about to eat $313k (see here for great article by Tanya Mannes of the San Diego Union-Tribune), which represents the cost of removing a dilapidated and abandoned partyboat from the bay, where it's become a danger to everything in the vicinity. It's a somewhat convoluted story, but the crux is that the boat was owned by Jim Morgan, "a party-boat entrepreneur with a stake in Les Girls, a strip club in San Diego's Midway District." The boat was "decked out with shag carpet, disco balls, hot tubs and an underwater dance floor with observation windows." Morgan butted heads with the city in 2002, who, for reasons I'm not clear on, wanted him off the boat, where he was living at the time. Morgan apparently then had a stroke of genuis, and donated the boat to the Mindbridge Church of the Open Mind (who've strangely left zero internet footprints), whose pastor, James Ward, "also refused to remove the boat from the bay, defying the Port's order."
A lot of information just flew by so I'll recap: strip-club owner James Morgan dumped what had become a floating liability, outfitted with hot tubs and disco balls, onto a church (Unitarian-Universalist, I believe). Lacking modern techniques for proper hot-tub maintenance (amongst other more serious acts of neglect, I'd imagine), the church promptly allowed the boat to become a deathbarge, and the city was forced to eat the cost--$313k, to remove it from the harbor. Now one need no more elements necessary for a great story, but here's where it transcends and emits a stink just begging for poking around:
Anyway, I'd love to read this lawsuit in some detail, so if you the reader somehow wound up here by the same curious impulses, and you know the name of the case even (my attempts to search by all the usual routes--lexis, west, etc.--have gone for naught). UPDATE - dox have been located, and I'll write more about this in a bit. posted by scott pilutik at June 16, 2008 03:49 PM
digg |
del.icio.us |
reddit |
|
|
contact | site powered by movabletype Site content licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License |
A fairly disturbing church/state issue has been fermenting in a Columbus Ohio grade school, where a popular eighth-grade science teacher John Freshwater has been systematically injecting his religious views and discarding the science curriculum he was hired by the state to teach. Story 
From the just issued