Streaming Recommendations (Netflix, HBO, Amazon, etc.)

Quote: Mission146

I might check out the series, but if they're going to shut down Scientology, then they need to shut down every other religion for much the same reason---though perhaps to different degrees.

Now you are playing into the Scino propoganda
Nobody is shutting down Scientology.
Critics are not a religious hate group as Scientology would have you believe
I'm a huge critic and they have the right to exist and believe whatever they want to believe. Worship Hubbard. I could care less.
If somebody wants to join scientology, they have that right.

I'm actually ok with the freezone. Still deluded but at least they dont attack and fair game people
Freezone are scientologists outside the church that still practice Hubbard principals
Scientology of course treat these people as their enemies also and will fair game them in attacks

What Leah is doing is EXPOSING scientology
Too scientology, this is the biggest crime you can commit.

Quote: Mission146

It doesn't? When did they stop doing that?

My wife's entire family is Baptist. Her father was a Baptist minister for 50 years, her brother currently has a Baptist Church in Canada. All her siblings, all her nephew's and nieces, all her cousins and aunts and uncles, are all Baptist. I've never met nicer people. Never heard one of them talk about religion, nor ask me anything about my beliefs. Never seen a shred of evidence that the Baptist Church tries to control these people in any way. My brother-in-law the Baptist minister never talks about religion either. Been to church many times with my wife over the years, never seen anything out of the ordinary. So I have no idea what you're talking about.

Quote: Evenbob

My wife's entire family is Baptist. Her father was a Baptist minister for 50 years, her brother currently has a Baptist Church in Canada. All her siblings, all her nephew's and nieces, all her cousins and aunts and uncles, are all Baptist. I've never met nicer people. Never heard one of them talk about religion, nor ask me anything about my beliefs. Never seen a shred of evidence that the Baptist Church tries to control these people in any way. My brother-in-law the Baptist minister never talks about religion either. Been to church many times with my wife over the years, never seen anything out of the ordinary. So I have no idea what you're talking about.

Tribalism. Peer pressure to ensure conformity. The playbooks are a little different, some have a more dynamic offense than others, but they try to accomplish the same thing.

Quote: terapined

Now you are playing into the Scino propoganda
Nobody is shutting down Scientology.
Critics are not a religious hate group as Scientology would have you believe
I'm a huge critic and they have the right to exist and believe whatever they want to believe. Worship Hubbard. I could care less.
If somebody wants to join scientology, they have that right.

I'm actually ok with the freezone. Still deluded but at least they dont attack and fair game people
Freezone are scientologists outside the church that still practice Hubbard principals
Scientology of course treat these people as their enemies also and will fair game them in attacks

What Leah is doing is EXPOSING scientology
Too scientology, this is the biggest crime you can commit.

I don't have any great desire to protect and preserve Scientology. I'm just saying you're either going to give religions certain benefits and allowances, or you're not. I'd put a corporate income tax on every dollar that goes into that basket, I'll tell you that.

Actually, maybe sales tax would be more appropriate.

The point being, I'd advocate more along the lines of taking every nicety that the religions get away from them.

Quote: Mission146

I don't have any great desire to protect and preserve Scientology. I'm just saying you're either going to give religions certain benefits and allowances, or you're not. I'd put a corporate income tax on every dollar that goes into that basket, I'll tell you that.

Actually, maybe sales tax would be more appropriate.

The point being, I'd advocate more along the lines of taking every nicety that the religions get away from them.

I'm fine with anyone believing in a god of their choice, or gods, or trees or rocks. I don't care. But when a church like the Scientologists can own as much of a town like Clearwater Florida as they do, they should have to pay for municipal services that they use. Like the fire dept. If any of the giant churches catch fire, the city fire dept. will respond with every engine they have. And all the residents of Clearwater [except the church] will pay for that service.

I agree, I'm ready for all the religions to lose their tax exempt status. If anyone wants to donate, the do so. But the church should not be allowed [by power of the court] to take money away from me that I've worked for to provide services for their beliefs, [which are not my beliefs]. That makes me or us, slaves to them, when they can reach into our pockets and take the fruit of our labor.

It's quite an expose on their means of theft, with the backing of our government.

Quote: Mission146

Tribalism. Peer pressure to ensure conformity. The playbooks are a little different, some have a more dynamic offense than others, but they try to accomplish the same thing.

You really have no idea what you're talking about.

I'm having a wonderful time watching the Hemingway series on PBS. Ernest Hemingway was not a nice guy. He was a terrible father most of the time, he was an awful husband a lot of the time, especially to his last two wives. He wasn't loyal to his friends, he was a drunk, he was a blowhard. Yet we will still be reading his stuff 300 years from now. His ability the see people for who they really were, coupled with the talent to write about it in a unique way, will never be seen again. Just like we will never see Michelangelo or Picasso again. It's why new books are published every year about Hemingway's life when there are already almost so many books about him but you can't count them all. You can literally lose yourself in studying Hemingway, he's such a fascinating character.

Scientology is not a religion in that there is no deity and there is no praying. I have read Going Clear by Lawrence Wright twice now and the HBO documentary of the same name just can't possibly get into the depth that the book does.

WHERE IS SHELLY MISCAVIDGE?

I watched The Serpent (2021) on Netflix this weekend. It was extremely interesting, but not very good. By that I mean the subject matter was intriguing, but as a drama it kind of was drawn out (There are 8 episodes). And, I realize that so much about Charles Sobhraj is still not known so doing a documentary would be a challenge and it makes sense to do a drama where you can use creative license. I found the early episodes to be much more enjoyable, by the end it felt drawn out and bounced around (constantly shifting time periods and locations).

Basically its about Charles Sobhraj, who would specialize in killing travelers in the mid 1970s, especially hippies and people traveling or exploring for long periods of time in Asia (the type of people who could go missing for long periods without drawing alarm), and stealing from them to fund his lifestyle (including passports and IDs which he would then use to move around under different names and continue the cycle). He and his girlfriend would gain the trust of people while they were in a foreign area and socialize with the for some days and then either drug them or kill them in secluded areas (in some cases they would just drug and rob).

He ended up in jail in India where he got out in the 90s, and could have stayed free, but he decided to return to Nepal in 2003 to visit, which is one of the only countries with a still active warrant against him, police found him after he published some photos in the local paper while there, he was arrested while gambling at a very busy casino, and still remains in prison in Nepal today (life sentence). Why he took this bizarre risk to return to the one country that could arrest him in such a public way is unknown, I would guess it was some twisted mental flex to show that he would not actually be arrested and could continue to get away with whatever he wanted (which if that was his plan, obviously he failed).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Serpent_(TV_series)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Sobhraj

Quote: Gandler

I watched The Serpent (2021) on Netflix this weekend. It was extremely interesting, but not very good. By that I mean the subject matter was intriguing, but as a drama it kind of was drawn out (There are 8 episodes). And, I realize that so much about Charles Sobhraj is still not known so doing a documentary would be a challenge and it makes sense to do a drama where you can use creative license. I found the early episodes to be much more enjoyable, by the end it felt drawn out and bounced around (constantly shifting time periods and locations).

Basically its about Charles Sobhraj, who would specialize in killing travelers in the mid 1970s, especially hippies and people traveling or exploring for long periods of time in Asia (the type of people who could go missing for long periods without drawing alarm), and stealing from them to fund his lifestyle (including passports and IDs which he would then use to move around under different names and continue the cycle). He and his girlfriend would gain the trust of people while they were in a foreign area and socialize with the for some days and then either drug them or kill them in secluded areas (in some cases they would just drug and rob).

He ended up in jail in India where he got out in the 90s, and could have stayed free, but he decided to return to Nepal in 2003 to visit, which is one of the only countries with a still active warrant against him, police found him after he published some photos in the local paper while there, he was arrested while gambling at a very busy casino, and still remains in prison in Nepal today (life sentence). Why he took this bizarre risk to return to the one country that could arrest him in such a public way is unknown, I would guess it was some twisted mental flex to show that he would not actually be arrested and could continue to get away with whatever he wanted (which if that was his plan, obviously he failed).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Serpent_(TV_series)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Sobhraj

I read about this a long time ago
Serpentine (1979) by Thomas Thompson
I remember it was a real good book
One of those you could not put down
I'll have to get netflix again and watch this