Gee, ya think? Bashar al-Assad says he regrets shooting down the Turkish jet. No. Really? In other news, Anderson Cooper is gay, and the sun rises in the east. And of course, the Dorktator says he really wishes his air force had shot down an Israeli plane.

Statehood by any other means: The PA continues its UN push for statehood by trying to insinuate itself into a conference that only UN member states can attend. It was blocked by the US, the EU, and Israel. But the US did not stop the anti-Israel hatefes at the UN yesterday. The Obama administration did not block the attempt by the UNHCR to vilify Israel. It agreed to it as a quid-pro-quo for taking up the Syrian cause. Read it all, and remember how often Obama pretends to be Israel’s greatest friend. Yeah, with friends like him, Israel could be facing an existential war on her own.

That unity agreement’s not looking so good these days: Hamas has stopped voter registration in Gaza, meaning, of course, that there will be no new elections. All those surprised, please take three steps backwards.

This is why I won’t put Facebook on my phone: I don’t use my main email address for my FB account, and I won’t use my phone because it’s simply not that important to me (plus I’m too cheap to get the intertubes on my phone). Because FB took over your email contacts and switched them all over to its own email system. Awesome, FB. Way to make people believe you’re interested in their privacy concerns. Hey, I have a tablet without 4G because I don’t need it yet. I bought the tablet so I can write in the waiting rooms of doctors’ offices. And it’s worked. I probably wrote about 2000 words of my novel that way. Between that and my work laptop, all my smartphone does is text.

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 $600,000 and the library $300,000. Four of the leaders were given suspended sentences of between 10 months and two years. The other two were given fines of $1,480 and $2,960.

If only we could see the same thing happen here. But the masks are starting to fall. It could happen.

BRUSSELS, Belgium — A Belgian prosecutor on Tuesday recommended that the U.S.-based Church of Scientology stand trial for fraud and extortion, following a 10-year investigation that concluded the group should be labeled a criminal organization.

Scientology said it would fight the criminal charges recommended by investigating prosecutor Jean-Claude Van Espen, who said that up to 12 unidentified people should face charges.

Van Espen’s probe also concluded that Scientology’s Brussels-based Europe office and its Belgian missions conducted unlawful practices in medicine, violated privacy laws and used illegal business contracts, said Lieve Pellens, a spokeswoman at the Federal Prosecutors Office.

“They also face charges of being … a criminal organization,” Pellens said in a telephone interview.

An administrative court will decide whether to press charges against the Scientologists.

Of course, the scientologists are screaming bias.

In a statement, Scientology’s Europe office accused the prosecutor of hounding the organization and said it would contest the charges.

“For the last 10 years, the prosecutor has been using the media, trying to damage the reputation of the Church of Scientology and not being able to put a case in court,” Scientology said. “As a consequence, this created a climate of intolerance and discrimination” in Belgium.

It added that the prosecutor’s recommendations suggested Scientology was guilty even before a court could hear the charges, making it “difficult for the Church of Scientology to recover and properly defend (itself) before the court.”

That didn’t surprise me. But this did:

Belgium, Germany and other European countries have been criticized by the State Department for labeling Scientology as a cult or sect and enacting laws to restrict its operations.

There is something wrong with the American State Department. Anti-Israel and pro-scientology? You’ve got to be kidding me.

And oh, yeah—this post will bring the usual scientology stooge emails to my inbox. They think I can’t tell that these random strangers defending the Cult of Ron are cultists themselves.

Keith Henson was arrested and convicted in California of a heinous “hate crime” law: “Interfering with a religion.” He was picketing scientology. In fear of what would happen to him if he went to jail, he fled to Canada instead, but left Canada some time ago (which explains why I could never find an update beyond his arrest in Canada).

The police in Arizona caught him a few days ago, and he was arrested and is now out on bond. He is fighting extradition to California, but it seems the scientologists have already caught up with him in Arizona: He was mistreated by the police while in prison.

There is a Keith Henson Legal Support Fund to which you can donate. But please, click those links above and read up on the history of this “church.”

Every so often, particularly after I write something about scientology, one of their lemmings writes me an email pretending not to be from the group, asking me about scientology and what I’m writing. They are the most paranoid people this side of Kim Jung Il. They are schooled in deception and misrepresentation (let us never forget Tom Cruise’s little appearance on the Today Show, where he opined that he is more knowledgeable about antidepressants than the entire medical industry). They shout down all criticism as “bigotry” (count the number of times “bigot” comes out of Cruise’s mouth when talking about scientology). Germany refuses to recognize them as a church. Our country should take another look at this cult that masquerades as a church, and strip it of its tax-free status.

Free Keith Henson, the blog devoted to news of his fight against the cult, is now a permalink on this blog. It’s going to remain there until Keith goes free for good.