Awesome - loving the Salon piece - thanks for posting. (And yes- getting at least a Site Pass is totally worth it!)
Here’s the pictorial transcript of the interview.
Bon is indeed from Dublin. He is from the Northside of Dublin (which is where I am also from) which is a fairly working-class area. It was rather rough in the 70’s and the 80’s with more than it’s fair share of crime and random violence.
Bono was, however, a protestant from a solidy middle-class background. He went to school at Mount Temple which was co-ed and had no uniforms. Fairly radical in Ireland at the time. It was seen as the closest thing to an American high-school in Ireland (on the Northside anyways). Most of the kids who went to Mount Temple were fairly well-off and were not considered that ‘hard’ (meaning it was ok to assault them if you came across them knacker drinking). I went to Joeys’ (St. Josephs) in Fairview so I was familiar enough with Mount Temple (and insanely jealous).
Anyhoo, I’ve met Bono on three seperate ocassions and he is a very nice man. That does not mean he is that bright. His secondary school math teacher lives across the road from my Mam and Dad. AS he puts it (himself a protestant), it was just as well Bono made it in music. I agree that Bono has an excellent grasp of the issues of African poverty and debt reliefe but that does no mean he has considered the implications of said reliefe or the economic realities of sub-Saharan Africa. Put another way, he has knowledge of the situation but he has never really critically analyzed it. Also, what exactly are politicians who speak to him supposed to say? I found him to be a waffly, unrealistic idiot? They’d look utterly heartless for no apparent gain.
Sorry for the hijack. Tom Cruise scares me a little and I have lost all respect for Matt lauer…not that I thought about him much before this.
Kirstie Alley also needs to eschew Krispie Kreme doughnuts.
Seems like as good a place as any to post this:
Found it linked in a CNN artical of all places. 
(If you’re wondering, ytmnd = you’re the man now dog)
Reading this thread, and other things, I’m starting to wonder if the Church isn’t getting a little pissed at Tom. His jackass like behaviour does not put Scientology in the best light. People might make the following invalid syllogism:
Tom Cruise is a jackass.
Tom Cruise is a Scientologist.
Therefore all scientologists are jackasses.
As I said it’s not a valid syllogism, but surely the church is aware that it’s one a lot of people will make.
Heretic! In one sentence you mock my two loves: big women and Krispie Kreme.
She could seriously stand to drop a few (more) pounds, though.
Slacker, what CNN article was that in? That was hilarious!
I don’t know, I think it’s pretty valid. Either you believe in the Xenu and Body Thetans crap, which is kinda jackassish, and/or you go spouting off idiotic statements about psychiatry when all your knowledge comes from Hubbard-written screeds (and all $cientologists do this, Tom is not unique), which is extremely jackassish, or you go joining cults without the slightest research into what the cult is about, which is WAY jackassish, if not just plain stupid. The only $cienologists I have compassion for are those born into it. They’re doomed from the start.
Personally, though I make fun of their beliefs, the main reason I hate $cientology is because they’re downright harmful. They screw with your head, telling you that if you leave, you’ll die. I think ex-$cienos have the highest suicide rate of any former cult members. (all cites can be found at http://www.xenu.net, I’ll do it if necessary). Their beliefs have killed people (see Lisa McPherson).
I don’t believe it’s a religion (they call it that for tax purposes) but if it’s going to be lumped in with other religions, it’s gotta be near the bottom. At least Christianity, say, has, does and will continue to produce people who love helping other people. It’s against $cientology rules to help other people (unless it’s a PR stunt). People are free to leave other religions and join another. Katie’s parents don’t yet know that you CAN’T be another religion and be a $cientologist. $cientology doesn’t believe in God. I hope someone tells them, so they can try to get Katie out of Cruise’s clutches, and when she won’t go, they’ll be declared SPs (Suppressive Persons, enemies of $cientology) so maybe they’ll go public with their story.
And in Christianity, you may or may not feel the need to pay your church/pastor/whatever money in donations, tithes, whatever, but it’s not generally required. And if you don’t, the basic premise of the religion (of every other religion) is free to anyone. You can be dirt poor and know the creation story and all about Jesus. With $cientology, they won’t even tell what their basic beliefs are (Xenu, Body Thetans) until you’ve paid them tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars and let them wash that brain right out of your head.
Jackasses…that’s pretty mild compared to what I really think, but that’ll do.
Katie’s dad is a divorce lawyer, if I’m not mistaken, so I have a feeling if she does decide to get out, it won’t be pretty for Tom. I don’t think he’ll be able to screw her over like he did with Nicole. (I still say that he, or at least the clams, were responsible for the rumors over her miscarriage being McGregor’s, because they were pissed that she wouldn’t join up.)
I believe that particular rumor. I also heard (rumor alert) that she refused when Cruise wanted to send their kids to a $cientology school. True or not, it’s logical. $cientology schools are crap of the highest magnitude, and teach little more than how wonderful Hubbard is. Anything good that they teach was stolen from other places, just like all the good things Hubbard spouted. You can pretty much bank on it: if something good came out of Hubbard’s mouth, he stole it. If something insane came out of Hubbard’s mouth, he thought it up.
Oooh, I hope that’s true about Katie’s dad!
I never could figure out Tom and Nicole. Nicole’s dad is a clinical psychologist (cite, cite, cite, too many more to list). I think Tom and Nicole really loved each other and he had to have been good at keeping a lid on his idiotic beliefs about psychiatry, otherwise they wouldn’t have stayed together so long. From everything I’ve read, Nicole is VERY close with her parents. Not that any of that is any of my business, but I love Nicole and I’m thrilled that she got away from him.
Has anyone heard a peep out of Brooke Shields since Tom’s appearance on the Today Show Friday? She should speak up (again) to reassure women who might have second thoughts about medicating for PPD after Tom’s (more public than the last time) outburst.
As a matter of fact, she has.
I think it’s pretty obvious that all his “study” of psychiatry is merely the ingestion of Scientology propaganda and not real research into the history of psychiatry.
So far as I’m concerned if it’s not set in Victorian England, then there isn’t enough of H. G. Wells in it.
The man has no clue what he’s talking about IMO. I love that he things Matt is “glib” but that he is so all-knowing.
FTR, the American Psychiatric Association called Cruise’s comment “irresponsible” yesterday in a press interview:
Also, Salon.com fans - be sure to check out today’s installment of their four part look at Scientology. Yesterday was about Cruise and his role in the “church,” today is a review of the L. Ron Hubbard book that started it all. Interesting reading for sure.
That link is about the original asinine remarks he made about her on Access Hollywood a month or two ago.
Still no peep from Ms. Shields about the more recent meltdown.
Which rumor-that her baby was the result of an affair, or that the clams made it up to smear her? If it’s the latter, I made that one up. It’s just a hunch.
Has anybody decided not to see War of the Worlds because of his recent behavior?
:Raises hand:
I might have seen it before, but not now.
Didn’t I say that earlier in this thread?