This story's got legs

Why are the saluting each other? They're not in the military. Stop it!

That crazy-ass Tom Cruise promotional video for Scientology keeps getting better. I don't know how long Gawker is going to have the right to air these clips, but get over there quick to view them. You will not be the same for having done so. If you thought TC and Scientology were whack before, prepare to be astonished. [Please, please, please scroll to the last video, wherein TC makes his acceptance speech at a Scientology Awards ceremony, rallies the audience to action and ends with a salute to a ginormous painting of L.Ron (who they lovingly refer to as LRH). Creepy!]

Here are some of the claims within:

[Tom Cruise] explains how he helped provide 9/11 rescue workers with detoxification therapy based upon the works of Scientologist Founder L. Ron Hubbard. "The [Environmental Protection Agency] came out and said the air was clean. Of course, as a Scientologist you go, that's a lie. Outright lie. Liar. Fine," Cruise said. "Finally you say, dammit, just go there and do it. Put it there, let's go, here's the money, let's go. Let's just get one person treated. I can't sleep another night. "[Scientologists] have tools that we can apply to ourselves and apply to others. You're gonna get improvements. Period." [us weekly]

"If a Scientologist is a street sweeper, it is his responsibility to apply Scientology to his zone, and whoever he may interact with, and no, it's not an option," Scientology head David Miscavige explains. "When you stepped on the path and had your first cognition, you also stepped on the path to carry it forth." [transcribed by Gawker]

That first clip on the Gawker page, of David Miscavige, reveals how fervent the Scientologists are in their mission. It's not only creepy, but incredibly sexist when he goes on to talk about a 'housewife's' mission. I guess that's why Tom was interviewing women for the role of his Mrs. when he got Katie. He wanted a nice, meek, subservient gal to be his 1st Lady. Ick.

Here's the scoop on why you can still watch the video online:

Efforts by the Church of Scientology to stop people seeing a video of Hollywood star Tom Cruise talking enthusiastically about his faith seem to have backfired spectacularly. Scientologists tried to use copyright law to force video-sharing site YouTube to remove the material....Mark Stephens, a media lawyer at London law firm Finers Stephens Innocent, said: "It really is futile to try and remove the Tom Cruise copyright infringement from the internet. The Scientologists, by taking action to enforce their copyrights, have made it a news story. The mistake was not to foresee that a news story has special protection in copyright law in reporting news and current events." [press assoc]