dear lazywebs: help me fix the internet

Hello all, maybe you can help me fix a problem with webbrowsers on Kubuntu Hardy Heron.As far as I can remember, the trouble all started 3 days ago or so.

When I go to start Firefox, it idles (meaning that the ghosty looking firefox icon starts on the panel) but never starts. If I try to open up 12 instances of firefox, maybe one or two windows might open. But most of the time, nothing opens. When the window goes open to The Google (which is a hilarious joke for everyone counting), it freezes and i have to do a hard ‘killall firefox’ for it. Just an fyi, even if the firefox window doesn’t open the process is seen running when i check htop or run ps aux | grep firefox.

I did a sudo aptitude purge firefox, and then I tried to ‘apt-get install firefox’. This resulted in
being told that the program is already installed. Sweet!

I tried to remove firefox using Adept, but the icons still appeared on my computer. And then I tried to run them, they tried to start up, as described above, but died epicly. So i had tried apt-get install firefox and it ‘installed’. mysteriously.

When I try to run Epiphany, it tried to open up and then it crashes. Great.

any and all suggestions are welcome, I just want to use a webbrowser on my home desktop again. konqueror’s inability to handle the websites I visit is very tiring and annoying.thanks all!

Arguing about Scientology

At the mall today I had a one sided conversation with a group of Scientologist which was very striking to me. It was one sided in the regard that I don’t feel that the people I was arguing with were really informed enough to engage in the conversation at a truly deep, semantic level.

When asked about the OT levels and the higher power Xenu for example, the person quickly denied any such entitity existing, as they had done in previous conversations. Moreover, it was a vehemont and loud denial, meant to be an authorative stance. According to Jim Lewis, who is refrenced and quoted on the Xenu Wikipedia page, this is not the case however. Being one of, if not the most, authorative scholars in Alternative Religions, I find the claim by said Scientologist to be misinformed, if not an outright lie. I would like to err on the side of caution and give them the benefit of the doubt.

The conversation moved on to the influences of the church, where a more senior fellow from Scientology told me about the origins. According to him, L. Rob Hubbard traveled early in his life and learned the rituals and systems of the Easter religions, where the first religions were invented created.

Even later in the conversation, he claimed that Scientology is a technology, an understanding of the world, an ideology, science, and belief system.

Problems I have with this:

Scientology is not a science. I have seen no public works which describe their research methods, falsifiablity, and experiments. Further, a science requires independent study and hard evidence is required, none of which I’ve seen. How are advances in the science made? Moreover, full knowledge and understanding of the ’science’ is requied….

There was a claim by the Scientologist that said:

The information [re: Xenu] is doctored information that was taken and then completely altered to make everything sound spacey….if such a document exists. If there is a document out there claiming this stuff, then they[anyone with knowledge re: Xenu] would not have the acess to talk about copyrighten materials, they just simply would not have access to such files if they existed…. If they did have such documents, they’d be the biggest copyright theif alive.

I have a problem with on several levels. For one, I find the copyright claim to be dubious, although I am not familiar with the copyright law in the 1950’s, I think that the actual documents would be in the public domain. Even if I’m wrong for this one, this is not the point. All religious/scientific texts should be in the public domain. Regardless of the actual understanding of what Scientology is, this should be public. It’s knowledge and understanding of the world which should be reviewable by all.

Second, the claim of ‘largest copyright thief’ is a straw man logical fallacy.

Thirdly, this document regarding Xenu DOES exist. Further, it can be found in L. Rob Hubbard’s own writing on page 236 of the NEW OT3 chapter of The Technical Bulletins of Dianetics and Scientology this page. All of this is in the public domain. Legal issues aside, the inability to control the spreading of this document on the Internet has made this a de facto truth. Later, I was specifically told that Scientology is not about rockets, aliens, or spaceships in any regard. I guess they looked at Hubbbard’s handwriting and rejected it from the official understanding of Scientology?

Another issue I had with this conversation was the question regarding the origins of Scientology. The claim is that L. Ron Hubbard learneed from but was not influenced by the other religions. When I asked about the relationship between Jack Parsons and Hubbard, the Scientologist said that the name was new to him. This is a historical inaccuracy, seeing as Hubbard and Parsons performed ritual magick together, as well as Hubbard marrying (Betty Northup) the half sister of Parsons’ wife, after she had lived with Parsons for some time. Further, Allied Enterprises is a boating company created and owned by Hubbard, Parsons, and Betty Northup in 1946, which means that the 3 at minimum, be easily linked. Either this is a lie, an ignorance, or a mix of the two.

The last statement which caused me confusion and ire was the claim that Dianetics/Scientology can help increase abilities and other such ‘powers’. Specifically I asked him, ‘you mean like Spiderman or Superman’ to which the reply was ‘for some people, yes, that is an option’. Even for a religious person, this was a bold and redicolous statement…

I’ve tried to present this encounter in a fair and balanced manner, but we all know this is impossible. Comments, feedback, etc. are appreciated.

Stay classy San Diago,

-eddie m.