When Orange County Register columnist David Whiting wrote solely about the outdoors, he was entertaining, informative, and offered a valuable perspective to county readers. But as the Reg's main columnist, he's what Moxley accurately, hilariously refers to as The Bootlicker–and he's being nice as to what part of the human anatomy Whiting likes to drag his tongue and hands across in the effort to please (or maim) his subjects.
His most infamous apologias center around the Fullerton police officers who beat Kelly Thomas to death (and the now-recalled councilmembers who loved them), but Whiting was more than happy to offer sloppy seconds yesterday to the Orange County Church of Scientology and their new Ideal Org in SanTana.
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“While researching Scientology, I read allegations about heavy handed and controlling officials,” Whiting said early in his review. “Perhaps. But consider…” and then went on to say how welcome he felt when visiting the Ideal Org, noting “even the lobby was pretty amazing.”
“Perhaps”? That's like saying the Catholic Diocese of Orange might've allowed a bunch of child rapists minister in OC for decades, but look at the original retablo where Father Serra prayed!
Whiting's research for his article? A tour guide, a visit to Scientology's website, and a quick mention of the Los Angeles Times' masterful 1990 series which further exposed Xenu to mainstream America–which Whiting distorts by implying that the series stated humans are descended from aliens, which allows him to quickly cite the Scientology website that states “these scurrilous statements, issued by the 'Internet fringe,' are not
only patently untrue, they are intentionally designed to ridicule
Scientologists and denigrate their actual religious beliefs.”
Slurp slurp! Actually, Davy, the story goes that Xenu bombed Earth, unleashing a mass killing whose souls (thetans) are now attached to us, and we need to get rid of them by enrolling in Scientology. Nowhere do critics say humans are descended from aliens–it's Scientology 100, pendejo. Hell, that's remedial Scientology for Dummies.
The column goes on like this–Whiting visits a “Purification Center” (a glorified gym), attends a service, and that's that. No mention of Josh's getting banned from the Ideal Org's grand opening. No mention of the many defectors and controversies over the years, many documented by my fellow wab, Village Voice editor Tony Ortega. Nope. Just a boring, meandering waste of time that, of course, was immediately praised by Scientologists in the Reg's comment section. A new generation of bootlickers for you to promote, Davy!
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