Beware of Captain Kirk

Greetings.

Jewish date:  10 Siwan 5769.

Today’s holidays:

Today’s quasi-holidays:

Worthy cause of the day: “Silence Is The Enemy” (with some detail of the problem in “After Wars, Mass Rapes Persist”), “224,900% increase in Solar Energy by 2020?”, and “Support Health Research That Fuels Hope”.

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:

1. “Scientology CEO Outraged About Wikipedia ”:  This is a delusional rant from the Church of Scientology’s CEO David Miscavige, who is very upset that Wikipedia will not allow Scientologists to edit articles about themselves to show them only in a positive light.  The level of paranoia should be an indication that Mr. Miscavige is probably not the right person to be editing anything in a public forum.  E.g.:
   
   

   "The goal of Scientology is a sane world, without criminals, without psychiatric terror, without war. Ultimately, the goal of Scientology is sanity itself. Only the insane would attempt to stop Scientology. With this brutal decision, not only is Wikipedia criminally attacking the world's most ethical people, members of the Scientology religion, but it is preventing Scientologists from presenting our religion in the most positive and truthful light. There is so much nonsense on the internet about Scientology, all of which was written by anti-religion extremists in the employ of the Psychiatric-Pharmaceutical industry. Many are also being paid by certain depraved, degenerate factions within the German government. You can't believe any of it. If these scumbags had their way, all children would be psych-drugged into oblivion, most eventually becoming high school gunmen; vicious de-programmers would constantly be leaping out from shadowy corners; there would be all-night electroshock parlors on the high street of every village, town and city; and anyone who tried to live an ethical life would quickly receive an icepick lobotomy. This is why it is necessary for Scientologists to try to present a balanced perspective, by showcasing all the good things about the Scientology religion, and removing all the lies."

   Please note the delusion that Scientology is ethical (which is only true if one assumes that the people in charge of the religion are better than everyone else and are entitled to exploit everyone else, including their own membership), the delusion that Scientologists should have a monopoly on how Scientology is depicted (freedom of speech violation), the delusion that everyone speaking up against anti-Scientology on the Internet is an “anti-religion extremist” working for psychiatrists and drug companies and the German government, and the delusion that the Church of Scientology is the only thing preventing the planet from going to Hell.  My favorite line in the whole rant is:
   
   

   As members of a minority religion, Scientologists deserve to be treated fairly, which means that we should be allowed to do things that other groups may not do.

   This, of course, is the opposite of what “fairly” actually means.  Thank you, Mr. Miscavige, for giving the good folks of Anonymous a very easy target.
2. Considering the bad behavior that Mr. Miscavige and other Scientologists try to cover up, stories like this one should be no surprise:  “Norwegian government considers prosecuting Scientology”.
3. “We’re not rebels, Catholic splinter group says”:  Here we have in Kenya a breakaway group from the Roman Catholic Church, not following all the rules of the Roman Catholic Church, but demanding recognition and respect from the Roman Catholic Church.  This is a group under the delusion that acceptance is a right, not a privilege.  Bad idea.
   
4. “Would Jesus oppose gays and be silent on porn?”:  Rabbi Boteach is right; there is a lot more to Christianity than just opposition to homosexuality.  If Christians really want to save heterosexual marriage, they have to do something which helps marriages in trouble rather than attack people who are not part of the problem.  The fact that there is more to Christianity than opposition to homosexual marriages is rightly recognized by Christians themselves in “Standstill Continues at Liberty University Over Ouster of College Democrats”.
   

Today’s news and commentary:

• “How Trivial DNA Changes Can Hurt Health”
  
• “Everglades swamped with invading pythons”:  This would be funny if it were not such a series situation.
  
• “Brazen NZ parrot steals passport, heads into bush”:  Submitted by Barry.
  
• “Swiss cleaning bug reaches new peaks”
  

Today’s weird thing is Punch Captain Kirk, which was recommended (or at least noted as weird) by William Shatner himself in his book Get a Life.  I suspect the person who created this pointless exercise was more of a Captain Picard fan.  Enjoy, share the weirdness, and don’t be too hard on Captain Kirk.

Aaron