thewritegoddess
Patron with Honors
The Center for Inquiry-Los Angeles, at the Steve Allen Theater, was a memorable stop in the tour, at least for attendees!
Some strong anti-Scientology sentiment was stirred in LA on Sunday, when journalists and authors Tony Ortega and Paulette Cooper presented Mr. Ortega's newly published book of Ms. Cooper's amazing life and bizarre and deadly encounter with Scientology.
Paulette Cooper wrote "The Scandal of Scientology," a great book that can be found on-line through any search engine. As part of an agreement with the COS, Ms. Cooper no longer owns copyrights to the material, so it would seem sure that no new editions of her book will ever be produced. During the writing of and after the publishing of her book, Ms. Cooper endured possibly the most vicious "Fair Game" attacks any "never-in" critic has ever experienced.
Scientology went as far as to frame Ms. Cooper for federal offenses, going to extreme lengths to intrude into her life in order to manufacture evidence to convict her of crimes she never even would have thought of committing. That isn't nearly the most dramatic event of Ms. Cooper's life, as attendees learned how she was saved, as a baby, during the Holocaust, and how she was adopted and through researching for Mr. Ortega's new book, she learned more than she ever knew about her family history.
The initial presentation was fantastic, with Mr. Ortega taking the lead and directing questions to Ms. Cooper for elaboration. The question and answer session afterward was rather amusing. A bald gentleman standing in the back attempted to make a rebuttal in Scientology's favor (didn't work). An older gentleman in the second row was the most entertaining (and frustrating, and sad) questioner, as he wanted Tony Ortega to acknowledge how important Scientology was during the anti-war movement of the late 60s, early 70s. Mr. Ortega was much nicer than he could have been, and merely gently pointed out that the same thing could be said of MANY groups at that time period. As a "ha ha" for us watchers, the same gentleman bragged about his stats... to an audience of people who don't believe in Scientology. He believes sooooo hard in his old age, that he thinks wogs care about auditing stats (from fifty years ago, no less).
Many of us got our books autographed after the session, and both Mr. Ortega and Ms. Cooper were pleasant, delightful, and happy to meet so many new (and long-time) fans of their work. Another big bonus for the day was the fact that many of us already "knew" each other online through sites like this or TonyOrtega.org. Missionary Kid from the Bunker was smart enough to bring NAMETAGS, and that was helpful. Certain people didn't need name tags. We all know Tori, and now Spanky, and Karen, and Jeff, and it was so lovely to be able to thank them in person for what they do.
Here is The Unbreakable Miss Lovely in the patio of The Steven Allen Theater, where the CFI has an amazing sculpture that seems to incorporate every religious belief into its structure. No, I didn't take a picture from the side with the Scientology "S."
Loads of people have MUCH better images, I'm sure. I'm not a photo person, so I'm probably not in any except for quite a few I think I'm in the background of, trying to pretend I don't know a camera is there. Would love to see people put up their photos here or at the Underground Bunker!
Some strong anti-Scientology sentiment was stirred in LA on Sunday, when journalists and authors Tony Ortega and Paulette Cooper presented Mr. Ortega's newly published book of Ms. Cooper's amazing life and bizarre and deadly encounter with Scientology.
Paulette Cooper wrote "The Scandal of Scientology," a great book that can be found on-line through any search engine. As part of an agreement with the COS, Ms. Cooper no longer owns copyrights to the material, so it would seem sure that no new editions of her book will ever be produced. During the writing of and after the publishing of her book, Ms. Cooper endured possibly the most vicious "Fair Game" attacks any "never-in" critic has ever experienced.
Scientology went as far as to frame Ms. Cooper for federal offenses, going to extreme lengths to intrude into her life in order to manufacture evidence to convict her of crimes she never even would have thought of committing. That isn't nearly the most dramatic event of Ms. Cooper's life, as attendees learned how she was saved, as a baby, during the Holocaust, and how she was adopted and through researching for Mr. Ortega's new book, she learned more than she ever knew about her family history.
The initial presentation was fantastic, with Mr. Ortega taking the lead and directing questions to Ms. Cooper for elaboration. The question and answer session afterward was rather amusing. A bald gentleman standing in the back attempted to make a rebuttal in Scientology's favor (didn't work). An older gentleman in the second row was the most entertaining (and frustrating, and sad) questioner, as he wanted Tony Ortega to acknowledge how important Scientology was during the anti-war movement of the late 60s, early 70s. Mr. Ortega was much nicer than he could have been, and merely gently pointed out that the same thing could be said of MANY groups at that time period. As a "ha ha" for us watchers, the same gentleman bragged about his stats... to an audience of people who don't believe in Scientology. He believes sooooo hard in his old age, that he thinks wogs care about auditing stats (from fifty years ago, no less).
Many of us got our books autographed after the session, and both Mr. Ortega and Ms. Cooper were pleasant, delightful, and happy to meet so many new (and long-time) fans of their work. Another big bonus for the day was the fact that many of us already "knew" each other online through sites like this or TonyOrtega.org. Missionary Kid from the Bunker was smart enough to bring NAMETAGS, and that was helpful. Certain people didn't need name tags. We all know Tori, and now Spanky, and Karen, and Jeff, and it was so lovely to be able to thank them in person for what they do.
Here is The Unbreakable Miss Lovely in the patio of The Steven Allen Theater, where the CFI has an amazing sculpture that seems to incorporate every religious belief into its structure. No, I didn't take a picture from the side with the Scientology "S."
Loads of people have MUCH better images, I'm sure. I'm not a photo person, so I'm probably not in any except for quite a few I think I'm in the background of, trying to pretend I don't know a camera is there. Would love to see people put up their photos here or at the Underground Bunker!