I'm guessing Sciencetology has some explaining to do

(This is posted over at Media Chow)

Signs your religon might have some issues...

(1) It was founded by a science fiction writer.

(2) It's most famous member is considered crazy and jumps on Oprah's couch.

(3) It's convicted of fraud.

It would be safe to say that Sciencetology has some issues...

PARIS (AP) - A Paris court convicted the Church of Scientology of fraud and fined it more than euro600,000 ($900,000) on Tuesday, but stopped short of banning the group's activities.

The group's French branch said it would appeal the verdict.

The court convicted the Church of Scientology's French office, its library and six of its leaders of organized fraud. Investigators said the group pressured members into paying large sums of money for questionable financial gain and used "commercial harassment" against recruits.

The group was fined euro400,000 ($600,000) and the library euro200,000. Four of the leaders were given suspended sentences of between 10 months and two years. The other two were given fines of euro1,000 and euro2,000.
Prosecutors had urged that the group be disbanded in France and fined euro2 million. A law that was briefly on the books this year prevented the court from going so far as to disband the French branch of Scientology in Tuesday's verdict—though it could have taken the lesser step of shutting down its operations.

On the other hand, you can earn eternal salvation by paying off that fine if you choose to join the church. Woo hoo!

JustSON at the Movies: Wall-E

On the bus ride back (yes I rode the bus to Seattle) from the Sounders FC game on Saturday, I got the opportunity to watch Wall-E as the in-drive movie. So instead of seeing the fantastic Eastern Washington scenery - namely people in Wenatchee dressed like witches - I got to see Pixar work its magic again.

Basically they could make a movie about anything and it would be great. They could animate the Washington Nationals with computer graphics and it would win some sort of Oscar awards.

Anyways, one reason I really liked this movie was a key theme they touched on. One that's probably a little more big picture that previous Pixar movies.

In order to illustrate my point, my buddy Colin and I were at Panda Express the other day when he told me "You know, it's a proven fact that people in America are actually getting stupider" ... and right on cue, I got on the wrong side of the line to get food.

But it's true, people are getting more isolated, stupid and less active because of technology. We're wasteful, thoughtless and completely reliant on our machines. I couldn't live without a computer or a cell phone - I'm pretty sure I would go insane.

Wall-E shows us pretty much what happens when humans let machines automate everything. It's not a Matrix-esque disaster, but let's just say that those Discovery Channel documentaries on the 900-pound man are a reality. For everyone.

With the main robot characters being drawn out and explored so deeply - without them uttering so much as a sentence of dialogue - I've got to say that I was pretty impressed.

I give it an 8/10. The counts include: What I'm going to look like in about five years, the first robot love scene in cinema history, the only time I've rooted for a cockroach, scenery that blows "The Day After Tomorrow" away and no reference to John Travolta or Scientology.