Lawrence, I was thinking of your use of the word, "cult." I don't think they like that. In our country, anyone can call his/her group a religion. And many do, for financial reasons. And anyone can call himself a reverend. I saw one of these guys on TV claiming that we are a "harlot" society. And who is the leader of this horrid society? None other than Oprah. I would laugh if I didn't find this whole thing so frightening. I am opposed to tax exemptions for religion. And faith based anything financed by taxes. I think maybe you will be OK Lawrence. Too many other law suits against ex-members exposes. In the meanwhile, let Robert take the load of your mind. I think he really is paranoid in chief. Or, maybe it's me. And keep the pictures coming. Veronica Caley Milford, MI ----- Original Message ----- From: Lawrence Helm To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Thursday, August 18, 2011 10:05 PM Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Paranoid with my Pentax in the morning Veronica, I haven't called them anything on my SmugMug site. I recall mentioning them on my blog in regard to the fellow living under the bridge who said a "scientific organization" had bought up all the land around the river. I later ran across a newspaper article indicating that Scientology bought out the land adjacent to their golf course in order to enlarge it -- I can't recall whether I mentioned that on my blog. Prior to that I may have mentioned them but I wouldn't have said much because I didn't know much - and wasn't interested. It wouldn't be hard for them to find my blog site but I didn't give it to Sal. I only have him my SmugMug site. As to the comments made on Lit-Ideas . . . they couldn't get those . . . could they? Lawrence (whose paranoia hasn't be alleviated by Veronica) From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Veronica Caley Sent: Thursday, August 18, 2011 6:27 PM To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Paranoid with my Pentax in the morning Lawrence, Your paranoia is well placed. My family's experience with this group is not good. I have two brothers-in-law, or had, very hard to know. They ran away from home when they were 14 and 18. This was about 50 years ago and joined up. They have been heard from twice. Once when the older one called my mother-in-law to tell her he got married and could he borrow $300. She told him it was a wedding gift but she would like to meet his wife. About five years later, he called my husband and asked to borrow $75. They had, of course, joined this group when they ran to CA. They said they were recruiting in England, were in NY and did not have enough money to return to CA. My husband gave it to them, with my advice. It was worth it to me to see if they would ever give it back. This was around 1967/68. Of course they never gave it back. No one ever heard from them again. They broke my mother-in-law's heart. For decades. Notice that I refer to them as a "group." They like to sue people. They are paranoid, not you. But now that you called them another name than "group," I would start inquiring re a good lawyer. But it's too soon to hire one. See what happens when they look on your site. Veronica ----- Original Message ----- From: Lawrence Helm To: Lit-Ideas Sent: Thursday, August 18, 2011 2:18 PM Subject: [lit-ideas] Paranoid with my Pentax in the morning I forget who is in charge of paranoia on Lit-Ideas. If the position is vacant, I will be applying for it. Here is how I spent my morning: I received a new lens for my Pentax K20d yesterday, a 28-300mm Sigma; so I drove to a spot at the river where I could check how well it did at longer ranges. I intended to go south of the river by the squash and watermelon fields, but workers were busily loading watermelons onto trucks so I decided to walk along the levy adjacent to "Golden Era Productions," the Scientology property where some of the top people are purported to hang out. A Scientology Security Guard wheeled up adjacent to me on the other side of the fence (in a dapper little uniform and on a brand new Yamaha motorcycle) and asked, in perhaps an Eastern-European accent, "Can I help you?" "Help me?" I responded. "What sort of help did you have in mind?" There was a bit of hemming and hawing, but in short he wanted to know why I was taking photos of Scientology property. I told him I was an "amateur photographer" and took no photos of people (in case that was what he was worried about) but of such things as trees, my dogs, and the light coming over the mountain. He questioned me about my dogs, where my Jeep was parked and what I did with my photos. I told him I had just set up a new internet site and he could go to it if the liked to see what sort of photos I posted there. Eventually he waved and drove off. We walked on a little further but soon turned back. The Security Guard caught up with us again, told me his name was Sal and he needed my phone number. "Why do you need that," I asked? "Our Public Affairs person wants to talk to you." "About what?" "Well, you are taking photos of our property and posting them on the Internet. She wants to talk to you about it." "Okay," I said and gave him my cell number. "Do you have another number," he asked? "Why?" "Do you have a business number?" "Nope. No business number. I'm retired. I was an Engineer at Boeing, and now in retirement I've taken up photography." He wished me a nice day and drove off. So the girls and I walked on, but then I noticed a Four-Wheel Drive vehicle up ahead with a box on top, the sort of box the police use to flash lights at speeders to get them to pull over. This Security Vehicle drove slowly ahead of me for a while and then went on to park by the place where the dirt road I had to use went out onto Soboba Road. When I drove by him it looked as though he was taking down my license number. I had asked Sal the name of the Public Affairs person who would be calling me. He said it would be Muriel. When I got home I got on the internet to see what I could find out about Muriel and this location that I had been hiking near for years. Muriel, would seem to be Muriel Dufresne. This was the site that came up first: http://angrygaypope.com/gold/gold_base_people.htm The portion about Muriel reads as follows: MURIEL DUFRESNE - "Gold Base Public Relations. Been at her post a long time. She is the cult's local face and is on familiar terms with even the children of Riverside County Supervisors. She makes donations to local politicians in the cult's name, often changing her title on each donation. In 2009 donations to various Supers her title is listed variously as: Partner, Golden Era Productions, Producer, Golden Springs Productions, Public Relations Agent, Golden Era Productions. Riverside County has a terrible problem with corruption and, like the rest of America, has suffered from a crash in income. They need Muriel's "Green Grease" now more than ever! Thank goodness she can be counted on to dole out the cash. But watch out when she comes to demand a "favor." You don't get something for nothing. Her last name is pronounced 'Doo-fran'." Yes we do have all those problems in Riverside County; so if Muriel wanted to I'm sure she could get the police to tell her where I lived and even get them to lean on me a bit to keep me from taking photos of Scientology trees and bushes. I've always said that if the time ever came when I was prevented from hiking on the river, then I would want to move. Scientology doesn't own the entire river as far as I know, but they do own some of it. Muriel hasn't called yet, but just in case, does anyone know any nice places I might move to, places like the ones in my photos where my girls can run off leash, places where no spiffy little security guards on Yamahas will ask if they can help me? Lawrence