To post about it.

A few days ago, Anonymous declared war on Scientology! Early wins include the crashing of some Scientology sites, jamming their phone lines, and other assorted mayhem. And, getting publicity from the offline media.

Here’s some more info: Article from someplace called Radar Online.

But much misreporting has ensued, so first of all:

The fuel for the war is NOT that Scientology censored some Tom Cruise video. That was just the match that lit the gasoline. The FUEL is that, according to several sites (which say they have documents that are supposed to be verifiable offline), Scientology is a dangerous cult that not only eats its members money like a Pac-Man on speed, brainwashes them, and abuses them…but that there are actually several deaths associated with them! And, if someone decides to leave “the org” or to mount serious opposition or attacks to it, they are said to do bad things: Harrassment, slander, libel…basically try to destroy the life of the person, usually figuratively, and sometimes literally.

One of the pretty uncontested traits of Scientology is that they are also litigious, and that they will bother with the small fish. A perfect example of the crook being the first one to beat a path to the courthouse.

So…It was already cold, and already raining–censoring the Tom Cruise video just provided that speck that allowed the hail to form.

Who’s Anonymous? LOL they wouldn’t be too “anonymous” if I knew the specifics of THAT!! All I know is that pretty much anyone can join with Anon, those who consider themselves a part of it seem to be fairly young, and they tend to hang out on a couple of forums in particular. But, the individuals don’t limit themselves to those forums. And NO it’s not all hackers.

If you do any lurking on forums which have people who are, oh…14-25 yrs old…you’ve probably heard of them and/or their favorite forums, whether in a positive way or not. And if you’ve ever seen/read things like: lolcats, the terms “lulz,” “epic win,” or the concept of “pissing off the Internet”…there has been some Anon influence, although lolcats have spread so far now that not everyone knows where the idea came from.

Back to that “whether in a positive way or not” notation. Anonymous is controversial! Probably almost as controversial as Scientology, in some circles. Why? Because, when enough of them are pissed at the same target, they’ll collectively do things like: DDoSing, tying up banks of phone lines, sending fake pizza orders, site defacements…it sounds like plain old teenage pranksterism, until you remember that the target of the wrath is getting this from 1000s of Anonymous…from all over the world!! And, it’s decentralized. Anonymous can’t be beheaded, because it’s got no head.

In a word, Anonymous is a swarm.

Anonymous is making full use of the ONE thing that’s any good about being a minor: Near-immunity to adult-centric legal maneuvers and to adult-oriented economic sanctions. They have no jobs worth caring about losing, no decent stuff to seize, and no professional reputations to protect (McDonald’s Employee of the Month?).

Scientology’s normal methods of offense will lose horribly against this.

My bets are on Anonymous for the win.

Readers may be wondering if I’ve jumped in on this. I’m avoiding any illegal activities (or as Anon would put it, I’m “too pussy” :-p ). And I’m not nearly “anonymous” enough–after all, I’m writing about it on HERE, which is about as anon as advertising in the Yellow Pages. But I’m enjoying the heck out of watching all this.

And I’ll publicize this date:
January 30, 2008, 6PM
Anon says it’s going to strike again then, and they want the “whole internet” to know! So what the heck. Although I question the strategic sense of giving advance warning when the target’s supposedly already contacted the FBI (even though the target sites are still not publicized as of the time of this writing)…

Grab your popcorn…

Current Mood: Not So Serious

I just took this American-accent quiz I came across, and…

Oh, and the answer to the “annoying question,” as they put it, is MICHIGAN! And it’s not being asked in itself that’s annoying…it’s that people from Elsewhere always pick some lame-ant *wrong* place from the region to guess.

And like my post title says: I call it “pop” because that’s what it IS dammit! :p

Current Mood: Cool

Time to get back to business. But first, a story that made my spirits lift:

Some German IT company had a problem when its 10-person team, all smokers, hired another 3 workers. These 3 were not only non-smokers, they demanded that the rest of the company kowtow to them by not smoking at work either!

The management’s response? Quite unlike what would happen in the US!

Thomas Jensen, the manager of the 10-person IT company in Buesum, told the Hamburger Morgenpost newspaper he had fired the trio because their non-smoking was causing disruptions.

Germany introduced non-smoking rules in pubs and restaurants on Jan. 1, but Germans working in small offices are still allowed to smoke.

‘I can’t be bothered with trouble-makers,’ Thomas was quoted saying.

It’s about time somebody responded sanely! What gall, to go into a company that’s all smokers, and demand that everyone have a hellacious nic fit so the couple of new jerks are more comfortable instead.

Needless to say, the gall of that type of person doesn’t just stop. So of course they are suing for “wrongful dismissal.” But, since it’s Germany and not the US, there is hope that the case will be thrown out just like it should be.