a few weeks ago i did a roundup on the freaky lil war between the church of scientology and a global group of interneters that call themselves Anonymous

it was decided that today was the day that Anonymous was going to protest around the world. “be very wary of the 10th of February” they wrote on various web sites.

if you’ve ever been to my bachelor pad, you know that i live quite close by one of the many buildings owned by the church. and if you know me you will know that i consider them good neighbors. they have 24/7 security, they are polite, and the one time that they came knocking on my door they politely left after i asked them if they had come over to talk about the Bible.

wanna talk about Scientology? they asked. wanna talk about Jesus? i asked back.
we shook hands and went on our way.

today Anonymous came to my block and they were polite and many were well dressed, and far younger than i expected. it wouldnt surprise me, if i learned that this was many of the protesters’ first march.

because it was such a nice day today (upper 70’s), and because i heard one of the masked young men say that they were going to Hollywood Blvd., i grabbed my camera and went over there to see if things were more “heated”, because they were very mellow over by me.

for example, not even the scientologist dude who was videoing the protesters freaked out the kids

hollywood blvd is always a little trippy, which is why its my favorite street in LA. so lets see a variety of different pics of the rally:

as i said last month, although i support people’s right to protest, i also support people’s right to their own religion, no matter how wacky outsiders might think it is. because i like costumes and young people getting off their fat asses and doing Something and because i love the warm weather, i enjoyed the rallies, but i didnt like that they were protesting this church when we have far more powerful churches who are doing far more obscene things.

with that said here are the two people i enjoyed meeting the most this afternoon.

the first was a young lady with a pretty funny jacket who was kind enough to turn around when i asked for a picture.

and the other was a guy with a sign that said that he was a Scientologist and he would talk about his religion with anyone. he was super nice. very easy going.

he said that there were things about his church that he had problems with, but he still choses to be a member.

he included in the message of his sign the phrase “i do forgive” which is a polite dig at Anonymous whose motto ends with with “we do not forgive, we do not forget”. he told me that all the protesters had treated him with respect. and for the time i was there no one shouted at him and he was super mellow. he said no one from his church told him to be there, and it was pretty obvious that he was telling the truth about his experience.

then this guy tried to shove a sign in his face and sorta spoiled the mood.

whatevs, it was pretty damn interesting and im glad i got off my fat ass and took pics for you. best chants from the crowd? “boycott beck” and “save will smith”. i also liked the sign that said “xenu is my homeboy”.

from hollywood, tony p, reporting for thee

update: a video i took and some more pics here