Catching Up

I don't do much with this sham of a blog but I usually note milestones. This month I forgot two.  Jan 18 would have been my father's 93rd birthday. Jan 17 was the 46th anniversary of my Army discharge. While I was glad I served my time I was even happier to get out. The castle, here, is the insignia of the Corps of Engineers, of which I was a part.

Must See TV

I urge all of you to watch this documentary when it airs. Too many people think the Scientology Organized Crime Family is just a kooky but harmless cult, but in fact it is sinister and evil. Watch the show and discover what they're really about. Here's an article about it.--Cap'n Bob

THE Church of Scientology is launching a “Cruise” missile attack on a revealing new documentary about the controversial religion, The New York Post reports.

            The attack, which will include newspaper ads slated to run in the US on Friday, will claim Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney didn’t give Scientology executives a fair shot to respond to certain of his claims, sources said.

            The documentary, Going Clear, based on the 2013 book of the same name, claims the church uses its Hollywood members — like Tom Cruise and John Travolta — to advance its goals.

The book uses interviews with former church members, including Crashscreenwriter Paul Haggis, to slam the church headed by David Miscavige.

            The documentary will debut at Robert Redford’s Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

The festival kicks off January 22 and Going Clear is slated to be screened on January 25.

            But Gibney’s film is biased and one-sided, the Scientology attack will claim.

The church will use a recent story in Rolling Stone about a campus rape — which didn’t include responses from the accused rapists, who, it turned out, weren’t near the scene of the alleged attack — to tar Gibney’s HBO-backed film.

            “Twelve times Alex Gibney and HBO have refused the church’s requests for questions, assertions and statements about Scientology that will be included in the film so that it can comment on the ‘facts,’ ” the newspaper ad claims.

            The church is also expected to attack the Gibney film because it was based on Lawrence Wright’s book, a National Book Award finalist, which it claims used sources that have been discredited. Wright’s book is described by The New York Review of Books as a “horror story” and a “tribute to fact checkers.”

            Scientology executives disagree. In one of the church’s most coordinated and focused attacks in recent years, the attack campaign claims, “Mr. Gibney’s film has been in the works in secret for two years. He and HBO never bothered to tell the Church it was even being made until recently.”

Fighting back

            Gibney fired back after hearing of the church’s expected attack, telling The Post in a statement, “I requested interviews with various people — including current church members and officials — who could shed light on specific incidents discussed in the film. All those asked either declined, did not respond, or set unreasonable conditions.”

            The pay TV network also returned fire. “HBO has an extensive history of producing award-winning documentary films,” it said in a statement. “It is customary in the documentary filmmaking process to request on-camera interviews from individuals that participated in events discussed in the film. This film identifies those that were approached.”

            HBO, which will air the film March 16, has been prepping for a fight for months. In November, it had 160 lawyers looking at the film, The Hollywood Reporter said at the time.

            This story originally appeared on NYPost.com.

                                                  Xemu, strange visitor from another world

                                        who made everyone insane, especially L. Ron Hubbard.

Throwback Thursday

     Daughter Kristine playing her Fender Stratocaster (cheap clone version) when she was in high school.

Throwback Thursday

I have about ten minutes until it's Friday so I'll grab the first thing I can find...

How about Sofia as a baby? Hard to believe she turned four about six weeks ago.

Throwback Thursday

     Here's a section of a camp perimeter in Nam. I don't think it's from my base, but they were all pretty much alike. The tower in the background was where I liked to pull guard duty because it was a 24-hour post, 6 p.m. to 6 p.m. That way, when I got off I could go back to my tent and sleep for a long spell.