Computer engineer Keith Henson has been arrested in Canada, where he had planned to file for status as a political refugee after being convicted by a California court of posting to Usenet rude things about the Church of Scientology, and joking that CoS members should be nuked. He was convicted in absentia of interfering with a religion. ...
What on earth is "interfering with a religion"? Sounds pretty sick to me. Kent, I guess if you weren't living in Norway, you should be looking out for those SWAT vans...;-)
This case is sicker than you can imagine. All he did was march in front of a Scientology building in protest. What he was arrested for were Usenet postings. He made a casual comment, in a joking sense, of bombing the building. The context made it perfectly clear he meant no such thing. The Scientologists sued and the prosecutors somehow got the court to allow them to present his "threat" without anyone being allowed to introduce the context of his words. Since that's all the jury heard, they convicted him. He then fled to Canada, rather than deal with the absurdity of the situation down here and possible go to jail for no valid reason other than the vindictiveness of of the Scientologists.
The JWs are bad, but the Scientologists are far worse.
The JWs are bad, but the Scientologists are far worse.
Indeed. But it's hard to avoid the conclusion that the American legal system is the worst.
- Jan -- Faith, n. Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel. [Ambrose Bierce, The Devil´s Dictionary, 1911]
