Magnusson becomes helpful
Stockholm, January 22, 2001
[Previous installment: McShane compliments Zenon.] WHEN ZENON AND I ENTER the hall after the weekend, Magnusson’s aide is the first person that we meet. While he usually ignores us, he now makes a show of flashing me a big grin. He must have read my previous report, I gather, and [...]
McShane compliments Zenon
Stockholm, January 19, 2001
[Previous installment: Mangled material.] THE SCIENTOLOGY DELEGATION has changed configuration: there are two new guys. One of them is an extra interpreter. Today, McShane will be deposed and he needs a legal interpreter. Neither of the translators are Scientologists; that is apparent from the fact that they speak with us. [...]
Mangled material
Stockholm, January 18, 2001
[Previous installment: Poor guy versus multinational cult.] SWEDISH COURT CASES ARE BORING and take too long. All proceedings must be verbal; the written preparations just serve as a background and what is not said, does not officially count. That is why this court case will last five days.
Magnusson, Scientology’s attorney, opens [...]
Poor guy versus multinational cult
Stockholm, January 17, 2001
[This is a second series about Scientology v. Zenon Panoussis. Zenon dealt with a similar case as I was doing, although while I kept winning in the Netherlands, he kept losing in Sweden. The first series - from May 1998 - can be found here.]
BY THE TIME that [...]
THE DEBATE ON VIOLENCE AND FILM never focuses on westerns, detective stories or war movies. The discussion is not about James Bond, Rambo or Dumb and Dumber. It is always about horror, thrillers and SF: about Chucky and Natural Born Killers. Aren’t we made insensitive to violence by such movies, people wonder with concern. Don’t such films put the wrong ideas into people’s heads? Aren’t these movies a sign of our culture’s sick fascination with violence? Shouldn’t we protect our young people from such evil influences?
But is this all true? Have we indeed become this insensitive to violence, and if so, do movies and news programs help to desensitise us? Do people really use horror movies - films about slashers and serial killers - as scenarios? And is there really so much violence in modern movies?
[Translation kindly provided by Niels Teunis.]
Karin Spaink’s column published in the August/September edition of XL contained several inaccuracies with regard to Landmark Education and its educational program, The Landmark Forum. I would like to point out the following.
Nobody gets paid commission when he or she recruits a new participant. Those who participate in the educational [...]
[Translation kindly provided by Niels Teunis.]
The belief that one can create one’s own happiness, is the great ailment of the last few decennia. An absurd number of people seem to think that life is something that you can mold in every conceivable detail, that you can control everything - or should. Create your own future, [...]
[Brief lecture for one of the meetings during the Gay Games Amsterdam.]
DELVING INTO UNKNOWN territories and meticulously exploring them is one of the things science is about. Sometimes, unknown territories are encountered where you would least expect to find them: right under your nose. For instance, between female legs.
“The clit? Unexplored?” you may well ask, [...]
[Article refused for the Gay Games Amsterdam Memorial Book, but XL - a gay magazine - did want to publish it.]
“FRIENDSHIP THROUGH Culture and Sports” - no matter how hard I try, I simply don’t get the Gay Games motto.
For one, you’d expect a slightly more prominent place for the ’sports’ bit in a sports [...]
Final pleas, or: unprecedented legal costs
Stockholm, Wednesday, June 3 1998
[Previous installment: Questioning McShane. Note: I had had to go back to Amsterdam during the weekend. Zenon did the rest of the trial by himself and wrote this.]
True to my copyright terrorist instincts and traditions, I am happy to serve you the last UC of this [...]