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Scientology Attacker Will Be Sentenced To Jail

OBG writes "A Nebraska native charged with taking part in a massive cyber-attack against the Scientology website will be spending the next year behind bars. 20-year-old Brian Thomas Mettenbrink will plead guilty to the charge of unauthorized access of a protected computer for his involvement in the denial of service attack, which was orchestrated by the online group 'Anonymous.' Mettenbrink's is the second successful prosecution connected to the 'Anonymous' attacks. Last year, Dmitriy Guzner of Verona, New Jersey, was sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison for attacks on Scientology sites."

1 of 354 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Seriously? by idiotnot · · Score: 0, Troll

    As long as parents have the legal "right" to force their (property) offspring into organized religion, ethical people have the RIGHT to use force to oppose such religions.

    So, taking it to the absurd, let's assume that a parent makes his/her kid eat lima beans. And then you've got a group who think that lima beans are a threat to the world.....using violence against lima bean growers by the no-lima people is justified? No, of course it's not. Parents have the legal power to force their custodial kids to do things. When they do something that truly endangers a child's safety, that's when the state gets involved. Not some unaffiliated pressure group, but a government tasked with protecting the child's fundamental rights.

    The State and Capital depend on religion to keep people focused on social wedge issues so they don't question the fundamental power structures of our society. Poor Americans vote for tax cuts for the rich, ecological policies that will make the world unlivable for future generations, and imperialistic wars, all because the candidates supporting such insanity also pander to "faith" by attacking science and LGBTQ folk.

    Um, so which religions teach tax cuts for the rich? I'm really curious about that -- citation needed, as it were. Refocusing it onto the Xenu nuts.....a lot of them would probably not fall into any of those disjointed categories you lay out.

    And you haven't been paying much attention. The largest Christian sect in the world I don't think could really be described as attacking science, anymore. Catholics acknowledge evolution. The pope talks about the environment, etc. etc.

    Unfortunately, the most victimized sectors of the working class are also the most exploited by religion. Each generation passes the meme on to the next. We can only end this vicious cycle of enforced irrationality by attacking the source.

    Again, you're just not paying attention. Religious adherence drops every damn year. Traditional religions drop, too. But for many people, there's a fundamental need to have a supernatural answer for questions that can't be easily answered. I mean, as an atheist, I'd really like to believe that I'll live forever after I die, and be rewarded for being a good person. There's not. But it's a fundamental choice that can't be answered by the state, much less another group or individual.

    Your ignorance burns brighter than the Xenu nuts', and hotter than the volcano where their souls live, yet it gets modded a five, interesting. Somehow, that doesn't surprise me, but it is disappointing. You have no understanding of why governments exist, and what powers individuals give up to the state in order to have other rights protected. Social contract theory, etc. Admittedly, the Scientologists severely abuse those protections in some countries for their own gain, but it doesn't mean the system is fundamentally flawed, and it doesn't mean that the power to harm them is then passed to an unaccountable group.

    No Gods!
    No Masters!

    Unless those masters are fighting something you, personally don't like.....then it's all good.

    The stupid, it burns, etc. etc.