France, I was really excited for you.

France, you had so much hope glistening in your judicial eye.

France, of all the things you gave us - philosophy, Braille, the stethoscope, and the totally bitchin' gyroscope, something for republicans to project their discontent at from 2002 - 2008 - you couldn't give us the dissolution of the Church of Scientology. For shame.

France, you had such hope and now, well, I am only semi-disappointed in you because you did have a minor success with this whole bit.

On Tuesday, October 27th, France found the Church of Scientology guilty of fraud and fined it 500 million Euros.

In May, it was widely discussed that the prosecution was seeking the dissolution of the Church. While France currently does not regard Scientology as a religion, this would have meant that it's status would likely join the ranks of a "cult". In the following nations, the Church of Scientology is not regarded as a religion at all:
 
    * Belgium
    * Germany
    * France
    * Greece (though there is no formal mechanism that allows an institution to be classified as a religion in Greece)
    * Kazakhstan
    * Russia
    * Switzerland
    * United Kingdom

France's reason for not attempting to disband the Church of Scientology completely is rather lazy and appalling: "they would likely continue their activities anyway, 'outside any legal framework.'"

And while we're at it, let's all just make not paying taxes legal because, let's face it - it's going to happen anyway. This smells like bullshit to me.

Not mentioned in the MSNBC report on this case is an alleged law passed on May 12th that prevents a judge from ordering the dissolution of an organization found guilty of fraud. This measure, if it does exist, was supposedly carefully buried in a stack of other legislation that was unrelated. Sounds suspiciously like the American way, we call it "pork". I was able to find some info on this through some rather intense Googling.

The Church of Scientology is notorious for being underhanded and buying off individuals who have power. This means lawyers, celebrities, and government officials. They are so good at this because its members are everywhere and its members are a big profit generator. It's members have jobs that are beneficial to it, it's members commandeer entire industries that hold power - like Hollywood.

I'm hesitant to take this morsel of a sneaky sneak of a law from the netherregions of the internet as gospel. I realize I operate a small time blog full of complaining, cursing, and generally irreverent commentary. However, when it comes to something as serious as the dissolution of a Church that is clearly a financially greedy organization - I would like to get my facts as correct as possible.

Suppose it is true. Suppose for a moment that legislation wasn't bought and sold (as we so accustomed to in the USofA) but it was slipped in by the nearly invisible hand of a fellow CoS member? What of the legal system then? What of the judge's ruling that they'd operate as they pleased no matter what? The 500 million Euro fine is  mere slap on the hand for an organization that is 8 million strong. Each member is worth tens of thousands - if not hundreds of thousands of dollars over a lifetime of membership. Though being dissolved, that's worth much more.