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<ul class="summary-list"><li>Celsius, the suddenly-ubiquitous energy drink, is a favorite of Gen Z — and Capitol Hill.</li><li>It has twice as much caffeine as a cup of coffee, which is pretty much all you need to know about its appeal.</li></ul>When Washington, D.C. lobbyist Matthew Hoekstra wants to have a quick meeting with a Congressional staffer, he heads for a special spot in the basement of the Rayburn House Office Building, a sprawling complex on the Hill."I love to take meetings in front of the Celsius vending machine," he told Business Insider. "I'll recognize people who go there every day."You read that right. Celsius — the suddenly-ubiquitous energy drink that comes in flavors like "Kiwi Guava" and "Arctic Vibe" and is fervently beloved by Gen Z — is fueling Capitol Hill lobbyists, staffers, the press corps, and even some members of Congress."It's everywhere," said Brent Robertson, chief-of-staff for Republican Kansas Senator Roger Marshall and self-identified "afternoon Celli man."According to Axios reporter Victoria Knight, who covers health policy from the Hill, "many of our discussions while we're standing around in the hallway or sitting in the press gallery revolve around when we should get our Celsius for the day." Knight said she's noticed many staffers and Congressional members partaking."Congress would probably go into a government shutdown without Celsius," she added.Over the last <a target="_blank" href="https://www.marketingbrew.com/stories/2023/09/22/celsius-keeps-bulking-up-its-big-name-influencer-partners">three years</a>, the slender white cans — fancifully emblazoned with various fruits, despite containing no juice — have taken over college campuses, corner stores, and gyms. Though the drink first hit the market in 2005, it struggled to gain a foothold until a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/hanktucker/2021/04/07/florida-octogenarian-becomes-a-billionaire-after-investing-in-celsius-energy-drink/?sh=5a4789152b62">vitamin entrepreneur</a> pumped millions into marketing and advertising. Now, thanks in large part to a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/01/pepsico-takes-550-million-stake-in-energy-drink-maker-celsius-.html">2022 distribution deal</a> with PepsiCo, as well as overall growth in the energy drink market since the pandemic, Celsius's valuation has skyrocketed to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.gq.com/story/gq-clout-john-fieldly">$13.4 billion</a>, up from $280 million in 2018.It's easy to see the appeal. The original 12 oz can clocks in at 200 milligrams of caffeine, about double that of a cup of coffee and a little more than a standard 16 oz can of Monster. It goes down easy, with a synthetic, vaguely fruity taste that's more reminiscent of a Propel Water than a Red Bull."Celli" fans on the Hill see the drink as a cleaner way to optimize their caffeine intake. "It's a way better alternative to coffee, honestly," Robertson told Business Insider. "It doesn't stain your teeth, and is less expensive with twice the punch."Hoekstra — who loves Celsius so much he even dressed up as the drink for Halloween, complete with a necklace made out of old cans — views it as an antidote to the unhealthy lobbyist lifestyle."Everyone's glued to their phones, and even if you're disciplined, you go to lunches and dinners where you're eating bread and steak and drinking," he said. Unlike other sugary energy drinks, with Celsius, "there are some health aspects, including the metabolism boost." (Speculation has swirled on social media about the drink containing everything from <a target="_blank" href="https://nypost.com/2023/06/09/celsius-fitness-drinks-are-like-ozempic-fans-say-just-cheaper/">Ozempic</a> to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/@quensadillareturns/video/7239461649353215278?lang=en">methamphetamine</a>.)<div type="image" title="man dressed as celsius for halloween" height="1141" width="642" msid="105513982" hostid="261" sizebytes="41834"></div>Florida representative Anna Paulina Luna, a member of the hard-right Freedom Caucus, told Business Insider she was drawn to Celsius's advertised health benefits during her 2022 campaign. "I needed to get my daily dose of vitamins while door knocking," she said. Now, she "usually has one a day unless we're in late-night votes, in which case I usually have two."Eric Garcia, the Washington bureau chief for The Independent, decided to try Celsius because it seemed like "a decent replacement" for his Coca-Cola addiction. He started drinking it "somewhere between the debt limit fight and the Speaker dumpster fire because I saw my fellow Hill reporters drinking it," he said. (He mentioned the drink <a target="_blank" href="https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/house-speaker-mike-johnson-vote-b2436500.html">several times</a> in a report about the Republican House Speaker fight in October.)Over the last six months, Celsius-only vending machines have popped up on the Hill, which is in line with the company's recent focus on <a target="_blank" href="https://www.modernretail.co/marketing/through-partnerships-with-dunkin-donuts-and-jersey-mikes-celsius-expands-its-food-service-channel/">food service distribution</a>. The machines have appeared in Rayburn, the basement of the Cannon House Office Building, and even the basement of the House of Representatives. Celsius is also available at dining facilities like the Capitol Refectory and the Dirksen Senate Office building cafeteria.It seems Celsius has become enough of a phenomenon on the Hill that, in the frantic November week before the passage of the latest stopgap funding bill, a shortage prompted worried tweets from staffers and press, and even a mention in POLITICO's Huddle newsletter.You wouldn't know that by talking to official channels, however. When reached by email with questions about Celsius-specific vending machines, the House of Representatives <a target="_blank" href="https://cao.house.gov/about">Chief Administrative Officer,</a> which manages the House's day-to-day operations, offered a curt "no comment."To Duane Stanford, editor and publisher of the trade publication Beverage Digest, the popularity is obvious."Capitol Hill is full of young, energetic career-oriented people who by and large care about fitness," he told Business Insider. "It used to be that the big driver of energy drinks was blue-collar workers who really needed the energy to keep pushing through what they were doing. Now, it's much more acceptable in white collar fields to use these kinds of drinks." Stanford said these young workers are part of a new consumer group that's helping drive the overall growth of the energy drink market.Celsius, with its emphasis on a blend of seven vitamins and claims that it can "accelerate metabolism," uses its branding to communicate that "it can help you have a better life," Stanford said."I feel like D.C. culture has really contributed to it, because these staffers and reporters have incredibly intense jobs," Hoekstra said. "It helps you manage your professional schedule."<div type="image" title="celsius cans" height="3250" width="4875" msid="105513984" hostid="261" sizebytes="829168"></div>The company itself emphasized this point in a statement to Business Insider. "Not only is Celsius used by athletes preparing for competition, for fueling workouts, and celebrating life's best moments, Celsius also plays an important role in providing our nation's lawmakers with Essential Energy to carry out critical work for our nation."Garcia sees a clear connection between recent Congressional chaos and Celsius's rising popularity. "I think more than anything, given the long hours covering Congress… you need something to stay awake," he said. "In a perfect world, if House Republicans could find a speaker or pass a spending bill on time, we wouldn't need to rely on Celsius."In the last few weeks of this year's session, perhaps Congress would be wise to heed the mantra emblazoned on the <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/victoriaregisk/status/1707835068486475965">Celsius vending machine</a> in the House basement: "Don't wish for it, work for it."

Washington's secret weapon is a beloved Gen Z energy drink with more caffeine than God

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The New York Times journalist <keyword id="11287926" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="nikole-hannah-jones">Nikole Hannah-Jones</keyword> had a <keyword id="6418603" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="tenure">tenure</keyword> offer revoked at UNC-Chapel Hill, <a href="http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2021/05/19/pw-special-report-after-conservative-criticism-unc-backs-down-from-offering-acclaimed-journalist-a-tenured-position/">according to NC Policy Watch</a>.</li><li>Hannah-Jones was set to teach at the school as a Knight Chair in Race and Investigative <keyword id="58267" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Journalism">Journalism</keyword>.</li><li>She is the creator of the <keyword id="9651786" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="1619-project">1619 Project</keyword>, which has drawn a wave of criticism from conservatives.</li></ul>According to NC Policy Watch, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill reversed its plans to offer a tenured teaching position to Nikole Hannah-Jones, the New York Times Magazine journalist and creator of the 1619 Project.Last month, the university offered Hannah-Jones a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/race-and-ethnicity-susan-king-nikole-hannah-jones-media-north-carolina-96606808a7a6d4ef033793e90a632326">position</a> as the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism. However, after Hannah-Jones went through an extensive tenure process with the backing of faculty and the tenure committee, her application hit a roadblock with the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees, according to NC Policy Watch.The board of trustees is tasked with reviewing and approving tenure applications, and it declined to move forward with authorizing tenure for Hannah-Jones, who earned a master's degree in journalism and mass communications from the university.Instead, the school has altered its offer from a tenured position to a "fixed-term position," which would afford her the chance to be considered for tenure after five years."It was a work-around," a UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees member informed NC Policy Watch this week.After the news broke of the university hiring Hannah-Jones last month, conservative critics, who have slammed the 1619 Project as "<a href="https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/education/2021/02/09/iowa-lawmaker-claims-1619-project-leftist-political-propaganda-should-banned/4355885001/">propaganda</a>" in its examination of race and racism in the United States, blasted <a href="http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2021/05/13/unc-hire-of-acclaimed-journalist-sparks-conservative-ire/">the move</a>.Susan King, the dean of the University of North Carolina Hussman School of Journalism and Media, told NC Policy Watch of her dismay with the board's decision."It's disappointing, it's not what we wanted, and I am afraid it will have a chilling effect," she said.She added: "Investigative journalists always are involved in controversies. They dig deep, and they raise questions that demand answers. Part of what they do is raise uncomfortable questions for people, institutions and systems."Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/white-house-press-corps-biden-reporting-covid-masks-2021-05">We joined the White House press corps the day masks came off. Here's what a 'hard pass' and fewer restrictions mean for us - and our reporting.</a>Following today's news, over 20 faculty members of the journalism school have signed a <a href="https://hussmanfaculty.medium.com/stunned-unc-hussman-schfaculty-statement-on-nikole-hannah-jones-6333c5f5d072">public statement</a> asking for the university to reconsider its decision."We call on the university's leadership to reaffirm its commitment to the university, its faculty, and time-honored norms and procedures, and its endorsed values of diversity, equity, and inclusion," the statement read. "The university must tenure Nikole Hannah-Jones as the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism."Through the <a href="https://idabwellssociety.org/">Ida B. Wells Society for Investigate Reporting</a>, Hannah-Jones has sought to cultivate and retain reporters and editors of color in the field of investigative reporting, which has long had a <a href="https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2020/investigative-journalism-long-criticized-for-a-lack-of-diversity-has-made-significant-developments-since-march/">dearth</a> of minority journalists in its ranks in major American newsrooms.She has garnered widespread recognition for the 1619 Project - <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html">published</a> by The New York Times Magazine in 2019.The project examines the legacy of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans throughout the nation's history. It drew the <a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/8/19/20812238/1619-project-slavery-conservatives">ire</a> of Republicans who have <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/1619-project-creator-responds-mcconnell-republican-criticism-education-2021-5">objected to the </a>project's historical context and have sought to ban the body of work from being taught in schools. The 1619 Project is also said to have inspired former President Donald Trump's push for the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackbrewster/2021/01/18/trumps-1776-commission-created-to-challenge-controversial-1619-project--releases-report-on-mlk-day/?sh=2c0431f056fc">1776 commission</a>, which was established to promote "patriotic <keyword id="6355445" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="education">education</keyword>."In 2017, Hannah-Jones received the highly-coveted MacArthur Fellowship, and in 2020, she won <a href="https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/nikole-hannah-jones-new-york-times">the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary</a> for the 1619 Project, among other awards.

1619 Project creator Nikole Hannah-Jones has tenure offer revoked by UNC: report

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>Since 2013, the CIA has been training and equipping various moderate rebel elements in the Syrian civil war in an effort to undermine the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and force him to the negotiating table.&#xa0;Among the range of munitions and supplies that the CIA has funneled to the various brigades of the Free Syrian Army and other moderate groups through Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Turkey are TOW anti-tank missiles.Such anti-tank weaponry has also functioned as a game changer for the rebels, who generally lack the same sort of heavy weaponry, air support, and armor that the regime can muster.&#xa0;TOWs are&#xa0;guided missiles that are capable of&#xa0;thoroughly damaging or destroying tanks, armored carriers, and other vehicles that the Assad regime might send into the field. And, unlike other projectiles used against armored targets, such as RPGs, TOW missiles can be used from a considerable distance.These weapons have helped decimate Syrian armor and pushed a recent regime offensive against rebel-held territory to a standstill in reported "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tank-massacre-rebels-hit-syrian-forces-hard-after-initial-offensive-2015-10">tank massacres</a>."For instance, on October 8, a Syrian armored offensive suffered massive casualties as, rebels&#xa0;armed&#xa0;"with US-made TOW missiles … [and] other guided rockets ... caused the destruction … of over 15 armored cars, vehicles, and tanks,"&#xa0;<a href="http://www.syriahr.com/2015/10/%D8%A5%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%AF%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%82%D8%A7%D8%AA%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%86-%D9%88%D8%B5%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%AE-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AA%D8%A7%D9%88-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D9%85%D8%B1%D9%8A/">according</a> to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>What is striking is just how many CIA-vetted groups now exist throughout Syria receiving TOWs.<a href="https://hasanmustafas.wordpress.com/2015/05/08/the-moderate-rebels-a-complete-and-growing-list-of-vetted-groups-fielding-tow-missiles/">According</a> to Syrian observer Hasan Mustafas, no fewer than 42 vetted groups now receive TOWs from a Saudi supply originally provided by the US. These weapons are funneled into Syria through Military Operations Command (MOC) posts in Turkey and Jordan that are co-operated by Western and local intelligence agencies.The various groups are well documented due to the nature of TOW provisions. Saudi Arabia can not deliver the US-supplied TOWs without prior CIA approval. Additionally, Mustafas <a href="https://hasanmustafas.wordpress.com/2015/05/08/the-moderate-rebels-a-complete-and-growing-list-of-vetted-groups-fielding-tow-missiles/">notes</a>, the various vetted groups must apply to receive the TOWs. They are then provided with small batches of arms.&#xa0;&#xa0;&#xa0;<div></div>To continue receiving supplies, the vetted rebel groups must also record their use and return spent shells to the closest MOC to prove that they have not sold or shared arms with non-vetted rebel groups.&#xa0;<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>This arrangement ensures that the TOWs, unless seized by rival rebel groups, stay in the hands of CIA-approved militias. The groups that the CIA currently allows munitions to be shared with are:&#xa0;13th Division (Forqat 13)101st Division Infantry (Forqat 101 Masha'a)Knights of Justice Brigade (Liwa' Fursan al-Haqq)Falcons of the Mountain Brigade (Liwa' Suqour al-Jabal)Grouping of the Falcons of Al-Ghab (Tajamuu Suqour al-Ghab)1st Coastal Division (Forqat Awwal al-Sahli)Gathering of Dignity (Tajammu al-Izza')Central Division (Al-Forqat al-Wasti)46th Division (Forqat 46)Sultan Murad Brigade (Liwa' Sultan Murad)Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement, (Harakat Nour al-Din al-Zenki)Mujahideen Army/Army of Holy Warriors (Jaish al-Mujahideen)Revolutionaries of al-Sham Brigades (Kata'eb Thuwar al-Sham)1st Regiment (Al-Fauj al-Awwal)Ahmed al-Abdo Martyrs' Force (Quwwat al-Shaheed Ahmad al-Abdo)Al-Rahman Legion (Faylaq al-Rahman)Martyrs of Islam Brigade (Liwa' Shuhadah al-Islam)Yarmouk Army (Jaish al-Yarmouk)Lions of Sunnah Division (Forqat Usood al-Sunnah)the 18th March&#xa0;Division (Forqat 18 Adhar)Southern Tawhid Brigade (Liwa' Tawhid al-Junoub)Hamza Division (Forqat al-Hamza)1st Artillery Regiment (Al-Fauj al-Awwal Madfa'a)Syria Revolutionaries Front - Southern Sector (Jabhat Thuwar Souriya)The First Corps (Faylaq al-Awwal)The Dawn of Unity Division (Forqat Fajr al-Tawhid)Salah al-Din Division (Forqat Salah al-Din)Omari Brigades (Tajammu Alwiyat al-Omari)Unity Battalions of Horan Brigade (Liwa' Tawhid Kata'eb Horan)Youth of Sunnah Brigade (Liwa' Shabbab al-Sunnah)Moataz Billah Brigade (Liwa' Moataz Billah)Sword of al-Sham Brigades (Alwiyat Saif al-Sham)Dawn of Islam Division (Forqat Fajr al-Islam)Supporters of Sunnah Brigade (Liwa' Ansar al-Sunnah)Horan Column Division (Forqat Amoud Horan)Emigrants and Supporters Brigade (Liwa' Muhajireen wal Ansar)Military Council in Quneitra and the GolanUnited Sham Front (Jabhat al-Sham Muwahidda)69th Special Forces Division (Forqat 69 Quwwat al-Khassa)11th Special Forces Division (Forqat 11 Quwwat al-Khassa)Partisans of Islam Front (Jabhat Ansar al-Islam)Al-Furqan Brigades (Alwiyat al-Furqan)<h3><a href="https://hasanmustafas.wordpress.com/2015/05/08/the-moderate-rebels-a-complete-and-growing-list-of-vetted-groups-fielding-tow-missiles/">Hasan Mustafas describes each group in detail here»</a></h3><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>In response to the proliferation of TOW missiles, Russia has <a href="http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/2015/10/10/officials-cia-backed-syrian-rebels-under-russian-blitz/73725046/%27">stepped up</a> its bombing campaigns against the rebels. In particular, Moscow has targeted weapon caches and rebel positions in an effort to stem their ability to destroy Assad's armor.&#xa0;&#xa0;"My conclusion is that the timing of [the Russian]&#xa0;intervention was driven by Assad really going critical," Rep. Jim Himes (D), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, <a href="http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/2015/10/10/officials-cia-backed-syrian-rebels-under-russian-blitz/73725046/%27">told</a> the Associated Press.&#xa0;Overall, the supply of TOWs is not a complete game changer in the Syrian civil war as weapons will not allow the rebls to completely overrun the Assad regime. However, they will help stall any push by Assad into rebel territory.&#xa0;"Five hundred TOWs is not an inconsequential number," Jeffrey White, a <keyword id="6354810" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Defense">defense</keyword> fellow at The Washington Institute, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/syria-rebels-and-tow-missiles-2015-10">told Business Insider recently</a>."I don't think it will be a revolutionary event, but it will increase the attrition of regime armor, which will make it harder for the regime to conduct offensive operations." <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/army-veteran-was-shot-protecting-students-from-oregon-gunman-2015-10">An Army veteran was shot multiple times protecting others students from the Oregon gunman</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="twc2R4dzr0Kfv_F4bIqQtU4yceCbTBfg" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

These CIA-vetted Syrian rebel groups fighting Assad are Russia's primary targets

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="http://pictures.reuters.com/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&amp;VBID=2C0BXZ31X2UDB&amp;SMLS=1&amp;RW=1653&amp;RH=958#/SearchResult&amp;VBID=2C0BXZ31X2UDB&amp;SMLS=1&amp;RW=1653&amp;RH=958&amp;POPUPPN=6&amp;POPUPIID=2C0BF1FZ6XFOT">REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst</a></div></div></div>And now for some bad news for billionaire Bill Ackman, founder of hedge fund Pershing Square.Valeant Pharmaceuticals, the drug company whose 90% stock-price disaster has been dragging down Ackman's portfolio since October, <a href="http://ir.valeant.com/tools/viewpdf.aspx?page={D93B4589-2A36-4978-9624-6A38968F0431}">announced on Monday that three executives would leave</a>.The departing executives were of no small importance at Valeant. Pavel Mirovsky was the head of the company's Europe business, Laurie Little was the head of media relations, and finally Robert Chai-Onn was the company's General Counsel.It's also not very common for a company to announce the exit of such integral players the day before a quarterly earnings report.But a standard earnings report is not all that's been happening in the land of Valeant and Ackman. And the removal of Chai-Onn and Little is a good time to review the allegations leveled in a lawsuit that everyone seems to have forgotten about.You may recall that investors in Botox-maker Allergan are suing Valeant and Ackman over their 2014 attempt to buy Allergan in a hostile takeover. On Friday a California Judge denied Ackman and Valeant's motion to dismiss the investors' claims (<a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-11-11/valeant-ackman-loses-bid-to-dismiss-suit-over-allergan-offer">again</a>).In short: This isn't over. <h2>Words mean things </h2>You'll recall that Valeant and Ackman's attempt to purchase Allergan was somewhat novel. Instead of buying the company outright, Valeant teamed up with Ackman, who purchased a large chunk of Allergan shares. Ackman's stake was disclosed along side Valeant's hostile takeover offer, and - surprise! - the billionaire said he would vote his newly acquired Allergan shares in support of the sale to Valeant.Ackman then pulled out the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ackman-letter-to-allergan-2014-9">activist-investors' playbook</a> to pressure Allergan to accept an offer from Valeant, writing nasty letters describing Allergan's "incredibly inappropriate" behavior as it sought to fend off the takeover by a company that was known for slashing research and development spending and jacking up drug prices. You'll also recall that this didn't work. Allergan was eventually rescued by a white knight and Ackman - still an Allergan shareholder - made a bundle (about <a href="http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/11/17/no-allergan-deal-but-a-2-6-billion-profit-for-ackman/">$2.6 billion</a> by one count). Valeant profited a great deal too because, as part of its deal with Ackman it would <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/850693/000119312514150906/d711603dex993.htm">get a portion</a> of his profits. Is this even legal, you might ask? Well you aren't alone - though both Valeant and Ackman have said they are sure that it was. Shareholders in Allergan including the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio sued Ackman and Valeant on the basis of SEC Rule 14 e-3. It says that basically, if company A is planning to take over company B, anyone with knowledge of that takeover can't trade in company B once company A has started to make moves to bid for the company.Ackman and Valeant say they never really intended to make an offer. What they were doing was... something different. At least, that's what it was after some language was changed around by Chai-Onn, who was General Counsel at the time.From the complaint:A February 23, 2014 draft of the Relationship Agreement circulated among Ackman and Valeant general counsel Robert Chai-Onn likewise states that if "a Company Transaction is being pursued by [Valeant] through a tender offer . . . each of the Company, [Pershing] and the Co-Bidder Entity will be identified as co-bidders."Then Chai-Onn changed that language, according to the complaint:A February 24, 2015 draft of the Relationship Agreement noted that the "consent of both [Pershing] and the [Valeant] shall be required for either party to launch a tender offer or an exchange offer" and if the "Transaction is being pursued by [Valeant] through a tender offer…each of [Valeant], [Pershing] and the Co-Bidder Entity will be identified as co-bidders or soliciting persons, respectively." Thus, drafts of the very document establishing the mechanism through which Ackman would acquire Allergan shares, on their face, evidence that Valeant was contemplating a hostile tender offer all along. In fact, it was only very late in the drafting process, on February 24, that Defendants inserted a self-serving and misleading disclaimer into the Relationship Agreement stating that the parties "acknowledge that no steps have been taken towards a tender or exchange offer for securities of Allergan." Ackman echoed that same language when he was deposed in the case, saying: "This litigation is a complete waste of time, OK? I'm happy to stay here for five hours, OK, I'm going to do it, I know it's your job; um, but if I can deliver a message to the Board, OK, it's a complete waste of time. We did not stake one step, not one step for doing a tender offer, nor did Valeant, OK? Not one."<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Thomson ReutersPearson testifies about price spikes in decades-old pharmaceuticals before a hearing of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S. He has also been named as a defendant in this case.</div></div></div><h2>I award you no points</h2>Basically the litigants are arguing that simply saying that "no steps have been taken" doesn't make it true. Actions, in this event, are supposed to speak louder than words written in legalese. More from the complaint:As reflected in a February 16, 2014 email among Valeant General Counsel Robert Chai-Onn and Valeant's counsel, Defendants' attempt to affix the "co-bidder" label to their relationship appears to have been motivated by their lawyers' concern that regulators might be "offended by a party other than a bidder benefitting from a toehold."Little is only mentioned once in the complaint, when the defendants point out that press materials about the attempted takeover were prepared in advance of Valeant and Ackman's announcement that they were doing the deal in April of 2014.From the complaint:Specifically, a draft "Q&amp;A" emailed by Valeant's public relations consultant to Valeant's head of Investor Relations, Laurie Little, on April 17, 2014, asked: Question: Are you willing to launch a tender offer to get this deal done? Answer: We would prefer to negotiate with [Allergan] on a friendly basis. However, we are firmly committed to completing this transaction.This is part of why California Judge David Carter agreed with the plaintiffs and denied Ackman and Valeant's motion to dismiss this complaint. He called some of the defendants' arguments "unpersuasive.""Defendants point to the decision in In re JDS Uniphase Corp. Sec. Litig., No. C 02-1486 CW, 2003 WL 26615705 (C.D. Cal. Nov. 3, 2003), which provides no meaningful analysis on this issue," he wrote. "Defendants have pointed to no other convincing authority that addresses this issue."Brutal.On the same day the Court also addressed Ackman and Valeant's motion to compel the plaintiffs to comply with a subpoena and give further interrogatories. That motion was denied.Double brutal. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/millionaire-mistakes-grant-cardone-student-debt-saving-investing-2016-8">A self-made millionaire describes the financial mistakes to avoid if you want to get rich by 30</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="R1b3M1NTE6TZj7hhfLUHuxqb_ZPPO0PB" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

The Bill Ackman problem everyone forgot about is coming back to bite him and Valeant

Photographer <a href="http://www.anthonykaren.com/" target="_blank">Anthony Karen’s</a> use of the word sir in emails might stem from his service in the Marine Corps. It could also be indicative of his humanitarian side and his affiliations with charities including <a href="http://www.friendsindeed.org/" target="_blank">Friends in Deed</a>, <a href="http://www.smiletrain.org/" target="_blank">Smile Train</a>, and the <a href="http://www.humanesociety.org/" target="_blank">Humane Society.</a>
That simple level of politeness is also a small window into how he has been able to document as a photojournalist many of the most feared, secretive, and marginalized pockets of society around the world. <div class="image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><a href="http://www.anthonykaren.com/">Anthony S. Karen</a>Carl, an imperial wizard of a Southern-based <keyword id="93329" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Ku-Klux-Klan">Ku Klux Klan</keyword> realm (or state-level group), takes aim with a pellet gun at a large cockroach (on the piece of paper just below the clock), while his wife and goddaughter try to avoid getting struck by a possible ricochet. </div></div></div>
On his website, Karen writes that his passion for photography began during a trip to Haiti, where he documented <a href="http://www.mipj.org/lwa-mountain.html" target="_blank">Vodou rituals</a> around the country. From there he has created series about <a href="http://www.anthonykaren.com/?page_id=271" target="_blank">Skinheads</a>, the <a href="http://www.anthonykaren.com/?page_id=290" target="_blank">Westboro Baptist Church</a>, and the <a href="http://www.anthonykaren.com/?page_id=282" target="_blank">Ku Klux Klan</a>.
Gaining access to secretive pockets of society is based upon trust, something Karen doesn’t take lightly and that he sees as a foundation of photojournalism. “It’s a moment that’s constantly validated, the wordless acceptance into someone’s personal space with a camera,” Karen wrote via email.
<div class="image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><a href="http://www.anthonykaren.com/">Anthony S. Karen</a>Members of a Louisiana-based Ku Klux Klan realm joke around at the home of one of their imperial officers. </div></div></div> <div class="image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><a href="http://www.anthonykaren.com/">Anthony S. Karen</a>"Little Charlie" of the Louisiana-based Dixie Rangers of the Ku Klux Klan displays her custom-made wedding veil as her fiancé looks on.</div></div></div>
To gain access into the Klan, Karen initially reached out to members through contact information on websites via phone calls and emails. His began photographing a Klan event in 2005, and after earning the trust of the members, he was allowed to photograph without restriction.
During an interview with <a href="http://www.fotoevidence.com/anthony-karen" target="_blank">FotoEvidence</a>, which published his book <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/white-pride/id635330490?ls=1" target="_blank">White Pride</a>, Karen spoke about his level of access to one of the least-understood organizations. “I think a lot of the credibility I’ve earned also stems from my basic philosophy that you need to give some of yourself in order to receive anything back. I spend time with people, I listen to what they have to say, and I treat each person as an individual. I don’t have to believe what they believe, but whenever I’m in someone’s space, I feel I’m obliged to observe without judgment.That's not to say I wouldn't intervene if I felt a situation called for it, but I choose to observe moment to moment and simply take in what I see and experience without presumption or pretext,” he said.
He also isn’t in a rush once he begins a project and is always looking to go deeper into a story while attempting to maintain a level of neutrality. “I have a keen interest in religious ideology and marginalized subject matter. I prefer documenting long-term stories, because I feel a story can always be improved upon; there’s always some nuance that you’ll discover with subsequent trips. This methodology has proven helpful as I develop as a photojournalist,” Karen said. “The more time and experience I amass, the deeper my self-criticism has become, even in editing, but hopefully always for the better of a project. I find I challenge myself more and always strive to go even deeper.” <div class="image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><a href="http://www.anthonykaren.com/">Anthony S. Karen</a>Candidates wishing to become initiated into the Ku Klos Knights of the Ku Klux Klan take their oaths as part of a naturalization ritual. Candidates are blindfolded are led through the woods at a sometimes vigorous pace. They are questioned about Klan craft and history, and they swear certain oaths. They are then "knighted" through anointing with sacred waters, a sword touch on both shoulders, and a benediction. The new members are greeted and welcomed by the officiating officers. </div></div></div> 
<div class="image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><a href="http://www.anthonykaren.com/">Anthony S. Karen</a>Klan members gather at the site of a Civil War battleground for a traditional Ku Klux Klan wedding ceremony. </div></div></div>
Karen’s ability to gain access into the KKK led to a collaboration with the Discovery Channel on a documentary about the Klan titled <a href="http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/kkk-beneath-the-hood" target="_blank">KKK: Beneath the Hood</a>.
“Whenever you’re granted access into a person’s intimate space, you’re establishing a relationship based on trust,” he said. “In my opinion, trust is trust. That doesn’t suggest I become complacent with my situation to the point of exploitation, nor does it mean I’m selectively disregarding certain moments to depict something that is not. I do admit I try to offer a balanced perspective as to my experiences within marginalized organizations. ... [T]o consciously distance myself will in effect (or could) create bias.” <div class="image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><a href="http://www.anthonykaren.com/">Anthony S. Karen</a>The son of an imperial wizard of a North Carolina-based Klan realm. </div></div></div> <div class="image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><a href="http://www.anthonykaren.com/">Anthony S. Karen</a>A Klansman during a unity gathering on his property in Virginia.</div></div></div> <div class="image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><a href="http://www.anthonykaren.com/">Anthony S. Karen</a>An imperial officer (right) from a Midwestern-based Ku Klux Klan realm at the home of his imperial wizard and wife (left), shortly before departing for a Christmas party held for members at a local church.</div></div></div> <div class="image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><a href="http://www.anthonykaren.com/">Anthony S. Karen</a>The granddaughter of an imperial wizard of a Southern-based Klan realm.</div></div></div> <div class="image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><a href="http://www.anthonykaren.com/">Anthony S. Karen</a>Members from a Midwestern-based Klan realm on a flyer drive.</div></div></div>

A Day In The Life Of The Ku Klux Klan, Uncensored

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) this morning <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/300-companies-including-pepsi-and-aig-are-securing-secret-deals-to-slash-taxes-2014-11">revealed the details of hundreds of secret tax deals</a> hundreds of world companies and the government of Luxembourg. 
The private deals, which appear to have saved more than 300 companies millions of dollars in tax, are completely legal in Luxembourg.
Here are the 310 companies - which include Pepsi and AIG - <a href="http://www.icij.org/project/luxembourg-leaks/explore-documents-luxembourg-leaks-database">named by the ICIJ in their database of leaked documents,</a> which includes 548 private tax rulings and corporation tax returns. We suggest heading over to the database for more context - it's a fantastic resource. 
Here's the full list (twenty-seven more company names are expected come over the next month):
2PCT 3i Abbott Laboratories ABN Amro Group Abris Capital Partners Abry Partners ABS - CBN Broadcasting Corporation Abu Dhabi Investment Authority Accenture ACE Group Acergy Group (now Subsea 7) Advent International Corporation AEA Investors AHW Capital Management AIG Alexander Eriksen Alfa Group Consortium Allco Finance Group Amazon AMB Property Corporation Amcon Allied Equity Holdings Ameriprise Financial AMP Capital Investors de Spoelberch Family Aozora Bank Apax Partners Guardian Media Group Apex Capital Management Apollo Global Management Apple Arcapita Arch Capital Group Archangel Diamond Corporation Arison Group Artal Group Ärztekammer Westfalen Lippe Atomico Audley Capital Advisors Avenue Capital Group Avery Dennison Corporation AVIVA AXA Group Babcock &amp; Brown Balderton Capital Ball Corporation Baloise Group Banca Delle Marche Group Banca Popolare Dell'Emilia Romagna Banco Bradesco Banco Itaú (now Itaú Unibanco) Banque Martin Maurel Baring Private Equity Asia Bayerische Landesbank BAYTEX Energy Corp BC Partners Belfor Bjarne Borg Blackstone Group Bluebay (now Royal Bank Of Canada) BNP Paribas / Crédit Agricole Boston Consulting Group Bridgepoint Brookfield Asset Management Bucher Industries Group Burberry Group Cargill Carlyle Group Catalyst Investment Managers CB Richard Ellis Group Centerbridge Partners Charterhouse Capital Partners Chateau De Berne Cheyne Capital Management China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec) China Yunnan Metallurgical Group CIRCOR CITCO Citigroup Cliffs Natural Resources CNP Assurances Coach Commerzbank AG Companhia Brasileira De Distribuição COMPASS Group Cordea Savills Covidien Group Credit Suisse Damovo Group Dawnay, Day &amp; Co. Dean Foods Delff Management Developers Diversified Realty Corporation DNB Nor Group Doughty Hanson Draper Fisher Jurvetson DST Systems State Street Group Dubai International Capital DUET Group Dyson EFG Group EMULEX Encore Consumer Capital Englefield Capital (now Bregal Capital) EQT Equity Trust (now Doughty Hanson) ESO Capital Group Eurohold European Property Investors EUSA Pharma (now Jazz Pharmaceuticals) EVRAZ Group Experian Fairfax Financial Holdings FedEx Corp Fidelity Field Point Group Financière Lafayette Finmeccanica Group Fonciere Inea Foresight Group Foster Wheeler Foyer Group FREO Group Friends Provident Fung Group Future Fund G.J. Hannink Gategroup Gazprom GE Group Government Of The Emirate Of Abu Dhabi Gigamedia Limited Group Gildemeister Group Glanbia GlaxoSmithKline Golden Gate Capital Golding Capital Partners Goodman Group Graymont Group Great Atlantic &amp; Pacific Tea Company Groupe Caisse D'Epargne / Groupe Banque Populaire Groupe LCF Rothschild (now Groupe Edmond De Rothschild) Groupe Rothschild Gruppo Banca Sella Harbinger Group Hauck &amp; Aufhauser Health Alliance Group Heinz Henderson Group HG Capital Hideal Partners Highland Capital Partners Hines HNA Group Home Credit Group HSBC Hutchison Group Hypo Real Estate Group IAM ICAP Iceberg Qapital IK Investment Partners IKEA Informa Intelsat Intergenia International Flavors &amp; Fragrances Intesa Sanpaolo Group Investcorp / Barclays IVG Immobilien J Chahine Capital J.C. Flowers Jardine Matheson Group JER Partners Jones Lang Lasalle J.P. Morgan Julius Baer Group Kaupthing Bank (now Arion Banki) KBL Lombard International Assurance King Street Capital Management Knight Business Kohler Landesbank Baden-Württemberg Langres Investment Limited Lehman Brothers Li Family Trusts Lion Capital Livingstone Brothers Lombard Odier Lubrizol (now Berkshire Hathaway) LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton Macquarie Group Mark IV Industries Maus Freres McGraw-Gill Companies Mercapital (now N+1 Group) Merrill Lynch SATPO Group METTLER-TOLEDO Meyer Bergman Millipore Montagu Moorfield Group MYLAN Navistar / Caterpillar New Gulf Engineering Nikko Cordial Securities (now SMBC Nikko Securities) Nippon Sheet Glass Nordic Capital Nordson Northern &amp; Shell Oaktree Capital Management Office Depot Olayan Investments Company Establishment Olympus Capital Asia Pacific Century Group PALA Investments Palamon Capital Partners Paloma Industries Panorama Capital Paul Capital Pepsi Bottling Group Permira Perry Capital Procter &amp; Gamble Prospector Offshore Drilling Providence Equity Partners Prudential Public Sector Pension Investment Board QUAD-C Partners Quilvest Ramius Reckitt Benckiser Reso RMK Timberland Group Rockspring Rosebud Real Estate ROWAN Companies Rubus International Sanpaolo Group (now Intesa Sanpaolo Group) SBERBANK SCHAWK Schroders Ship Trust / Tree Trust Shire Signa SISK Group Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken SOCFIN Société D'administration Et De Gestion Atlantas SAGA Sportfive Group SR Technics Stabilus STAPLES STAR Capital Partners Starwood Capital Sun Capital Swire Group SYKES Enterprises TDR Capital Tele Columbus Tele2 Group Temenos Group TEVA Pharmaceutical Industries The Heesen Family Tiger Global Management Tiger Partners Timberland TINICUM TITAN International TMD Friction Tower 2008 Charitable Trust Towerbrook Capital Partners Trafalgar Overseas Tyco Group UBI Banca UBM Group UBS Unibanco Brazil (now Itaú Unibanco) Unicorn Investment Bank Unicredit Group United America Indemnity (now Global Indemnity) United Technologies Corporation UPLINE Group Value-Call Vastned Offices / Industrial NV Verizon Vermilion Energy Trust Veronis Suhler Stevenson Vers.Werk Der Zahnärztekammer Westf. Lippe Vistec Electronic Beam Lithography Group Vitec Group Vitruvian Partners Viva Group VKGP Vodafone Volkswagen Group VTS Group Warner Chilcott (now Actavis) WE Group Weather Investments Weatherford International Wendel Group WGZ Bank White Mountains Insurance Group Wolseley Wynnchurch Capital X-rite Yamana Gold York Capital Management

Here's A Full List Of Companies Named In The Luxembourg Secret Tax Deal Database

<div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image on-image">Business Insider/Melia RobinsonMarceline the Vampire Queen, of "Adventure Time," and Hal Jordan, Green Lantern's alias, find common ground at <keyword id="1899024" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="New-York-Comic-Con">New York Comic Con</keyword>'s Sci-Fi Speed <keyword id="6367193" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Dating">Dating</keyword>.</div></div>With sweaty palms and hearts racing, fanboys and fangirls stood in hour-long lines for autograph signings and panels at <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/new-york-comic-con-2013" target="_blank">New York Comic Con</a>, gripped by the chance to meet their favorite actors, comic book authors, and androids.
Others came to the annual convention to fulfill a different fantasy: meeting the geek of their dreams.
In a basement room of the Javits Center, where <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/new-york-comic-con-2013" target="_blank">NYCC</a> was held Oct. 10 - 13, a banner depicted two stick figures holding hands - one dressed as a knight, the other wearing antennae. They're sandwiched between the words <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SciFiSpeedDating" target="_blank">"Sci-Fi Speed Dating"</a> and "Let Your Geek Flag Fly." It sounded promising for the 82 singletons mingling inside.
A costumed Jedi Master standing at the front echoed into the mic, "Three, two, one, aaaand switch."
John Kelleher, a 33-year-old from the Bronx, was there on a whim. He volunteered to go with a friend as "karma payback." His outfit - rectangular glasses, a black button-down shirt, and a pinstripe vest - wasn't a costume, although it was unsafe to assume that in a room filled with Captain America, Snow White, Dr. Who, Poison Ivy, and more obscure, casually dressed heroes and villains. Many Comic Con attendees dress like their favorite comic book, video game, anime, sci-fi, movies, and TV characters to celebrate their fandom - a ritual called <keyword id="1609400" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Cosplay">cosplay</keyword>. (<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-cosplay-2013-10" target="_blank">Click here for further explanation.</a>)
<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_left"><div class="image">Business Insider/Melia RobinsonJohn Kelleher, left, chats up a young woman dressed as TARDIS, Doctor Who's time machine and spacecraft.</div></div>An attractive young woman with a wide smile and brown hair cut above the neckline took a seat in front of Kelleher. Her dress's burgundy color, pin over her heart, and black collar suggested that she belonged to the Starfleet Corps of Engineers, of the "Star Trek" universe. Kelleher, who works as an IT engineer at a power plant company, immediately recognized this and saw an opportunity for some flirtatious banter.
"My personal philosophy is those who can make something out of nothing are always rich," Kelleher later told Business Insider. "So I mentioned that she was 'too cute to be expendable'" - the inside joke being that most red shirts on "Star Trek" wind up dead. He joked that they should visit a power plant on their first date.
Part-time Jedi Master, part-time matchmaker Ryan Glitch <a href="http://www.newyorkcomiccon.com/Whats-Happening/Events-R-Z/" target="_blank">hosted eight Sci-Fi Speed Dating sessions</a> (two of which were LGBT-only events) at <keyword id="1899022" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="NYCC">NYCC</keyword>. Glitch founded the company four years ago after attending a similar, but poorly run speed dating event. He now travels across the country to comic book and sci-fi conventions to help fans find love.
<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image">Business Insider/Melia RobinsonRyan Glitch created Sci-Fi Speed Dating four years ago, inspired by his own dating experience.</div></div>Here's how it works. Participants wear numbered badges and carry index cards so they can jot down the IDs of the partners they click with. You chat with someone for three minutes before moving to the next costumed, self-proclaimed geek in the queue. At the end of the session, you write your contact information and an identifier (i.e. "Dressed as Snow White," or, "Bonded over love of 'Star Wars'") on the sheets labeled with the numbers of the <keyword id="6360040" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="people">people</keyword> with whom you'd like to continue the conversation.
These chance encounters get results. Sci-Fi Speed Dating has spawned five marriages, two babies, 19 engagements, and more than 100 couples dating seriously, according to Glitch. He's received invitations to all the weddings and keeps tabs on the success stories via his personal Facebook account.
Glitch's company has a few competitors, including <a href="http://nyc.nerdnite.com/" target="_blank">Nerd Nite NYC</a>, but Sci-Fi Speed Dating's appearance on the 2011 two-part special <a href="http://www.tlc.com/tv-shows/geek-love" target="_blank">"Geek Love" on TLC</a> and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL99PCYdTX-vcCIJx4McZceyvt0I1WScfO" target="_blank">spinoff YouTube series</a> launched it as the go-to speed dating service for conventions nationwide.
Glitch credited his success to the unique clientele. The typical Comic Con-goer tends to be a little quirky and maybe a little accustomed to being an outcast. Here, they break out of their shells and find they're not alone, even in a room of single people.
<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_left"><div class="image">Business Insider/Melia RobinsonEighty-two singletons participated in Sci-Fi Speed Dating, representing an array of interests in geek culture.</div></div>
"This works because this community doesn't judge," he explained. "In 'real' speed dating, you can be stuck in a room with 50 people who just don't give a s---. In this speed dating, everyone's like, 'Hey, you're a fan! Wahoo!'"
Many participants noted that it was easy to find people who shared their interests, and the relaxed atmosphere took the pressure off making a strong first impression.
Kelleher added that the costumes are often revealing of partners' personalities.
"People are more than just the characters they dress up as," he said. "You get to see who they are on the inside."
Kelleher was disappointed time ran out before he could speak to all the women, and that the Starfleet engineer gave her digits to his friend instead.
"But I got eight numbers," Kelleher said, waving his sheet in his hands. He smiled. "I guess that's not too bad."

Here's How Geeks Find Love At New York Comic Con

How A High-School Dropout Became The Most Dangerous Man In Financial News

<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image"></div></div>Paul Haggis was twenty-one years old in 1975.He was walking toward a record store in downtown London when he encountered a fast-talking, long-haired young man with piercing eyes standing on the corner of Dundas and Waterloo Streets. There was something keen and strangely adamant in his manner.His name was Jim Logan. He pressed a book into Haggis's hands. "You have a mind," Logan said. "This is the owner's manual." Then he demanded, "Give me two dollars."The book was Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, by L. Ron Hubbard, which was published in 1950. By the time Logan pushed it on Haggis, the book had sold more than two million copies throughout the world. Haggis opened the book and saw a page stamped with the words "Church of Scientology.""Take me there," he said to Logan.At the time, there were only a handful of Scientologists in the entire province of Ontario. By coincidence, Haggis had heard about the organization a couple of months earlier, from a friend who had called it a cult. That interested Haggis; he considered the possibility of doing a documentary ?lm about it.When he arrived at the church's quarters in London, it certainly didn't look like a cult-two young men occupying a hole-in-the-wall office above Woolworth's ?ve-and-dime.As an atheist, Haggis was wary of being dragged into a formal belief system. In response to his skepticism, Logan showed him a passage by Hubbard that read: "What is true is what is true for you. No one has any right to force data on you and command you to believe it or else."If it is not true for you, it isn't true. Think your own way through things, accept what is true for you, discard the rest. There is nothing unhappier than one who tries to live in a chaos of lies." These words resonated with Haggis.Although he didn't realize it, Haggis was being drawn into the church through a classic, four-step "dissemination drill" that recruiters are carefully trained to follow. The first step is to make contact, as Jim Logan did with Haggis in 1975.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>The second step is to disarm any antagonism the individual may display toward Scientology. Once that's done, the task is to "find the ruin"-that is, the problem most on the mind of the potential recruit. For Paul, it was a turbulent romance.The fourth step is to convince the subject that Scientology has the answer. "Once the person is aware of the ruin, you bring about an understanding that Scientology can handle the condition," Hubbard writes. "It's at the right moment on this step that one . . . directs him to the service that will best handle what he needs handled." At that point, the potential recruit has officially been transformed into a Scientologist.Paul responded to every step in an almost ideal manner. He and his girlfriend took a course together and, shortly thereafter, became Hubbard Qualified Scientologists, one of the first levels in what the church calls the Bridge to Total Freedom.Haggis was born in 1953, the oldest of three children. His father, Ted, ran a construction company specializing in roadwork-mostly laying asphalt and pouring sidewalks, curbs, and gutters. He called his company Global, because he was serving both London and Paris- another Ontario community fifty miles to the east.As Ted was getting his business started, the family lived in a small house in the predominantly white town. The Haggises were one of the few Catholic families in a Protestant neighborhood, which led to occasional confrontations, including a schoolyard fistfight that left Paul with a broken nose.Although he didn't really think of himself as religious, he identified with being a minority; however, his mother, Mary, insisted on sending Paul and his two younger sisters, Kathy and Jo, to Mass every Sunday. One day, she spotted their priest driving an expensive car.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>"God wants me to have a Cadillac," the priest explained. Mary responded, "Then God doesn't want us in your church anymore." Paul admired his mother's stand; he knew how much her religion meant to her. After that, the family stopped going to Mass, but the children continued in Catholic schools.Ted's construction business prospered to the point that he was able to buy a much larger house on eighteen acres of rolling land outside of town. There were a couple of horses in the stable, a Chrysler station wagon in the garage, and giant construction vehicles parked in the yard, like grazing dinosaurs.Paul spent a lot of time alone. He could walk the mile to catch the school bus and not see anyone along the way. His chores were to clean the horse stalls and the dog runs (Ted raised spaniels for ?eld trials). At home, Paul made himself the center of attention-"the apple of his mother's eye," his father recalled-but he was mischievous and full of pranks. "He got the strap when he was five years old," Ted said.When Paul was about thirteen, he was taken to say farewell to his grandfather on his deathbed. The old man had been a janitor in a bowling alley, having fled England because of some mysterious scandal.He seemed to recognize a similar dangerous quality in Paul. His parting words to him were, "I've wasted my life. Don't waste yours."<div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image on-image"></div></div>In high school, Paul began steering toward trouble. His worried parents sent him to Ridley College, a boarding school in St. Catharines, Ontario, near Niagara Falls, where he was required to be a part of the cadet corps of the Royal Canadian Army. He despised marching or any regulated behavior, and soon began skipping the compulsory drills.He would sit in his room reading Ramparts, the radical magazine that chronicled the social revolutions then unfolding in America, where he longed to be. He was constantly getting punished for his infractions, until he taught himself to pick locks; then he could sneak into the prefect's office and mark off his demerits. The experience sharpened an incipient talent for subversion.After a year of this, his parents transferred him to a progressive boys' school, called Muskoka Lakes College, in northern Ontario, where there was very little system to subvert. Although it was called a college, it was basically a preparatory school. Students were encouraged to study whatever they wanted. Paul discovered a mentor in his art teacher, Max Allen, who was gay and politically radical. Allen produced a show for the Canadian Broadcasting Company called As It Happens.In 1973, while the Watergate hearings were going on in Washington, DC, Allen let Paul sit beside him in his cubicle at CBC while he edited John Dean's testimony for broadcast. Later, Allen opened a small theater in Toronto to show movies that had been banned under Ontario's draconian censorship laws, and Paul volunteered at the box office. They showed Ken Russell's The Devils and Bernardo Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris. In Ted's mind, his son was working in a porno theater. "I just shut my eyes," Ted said.Paul left school after he was caught forging a check. He attended art school brie?y, and took some ?lm classes at a community college, but he dropped out of that as well. He grew his curly blond hair to his shoulders. He began working in construction full-time for Ted, but he was drifting toward a precipice. In the 1970s, London acquired the nickname "Speed City," because of the methamphetamine labs that sprang up to serve its blossoming underworld. Hard drugs were easy to obtain. Two of Haggis's friends died from overdoses, and he had a gun pointed in his face a couple of times. "I was a bad kid," he admitted. "I didn't kill anybody. Not that I didn't try."He also acted as a stage manager in the ninety-nine-seat theater his father created in an abandoned church for one of his stagestruck daughters. On Saturday nights, Paul would strike the set of whatever show was under way and put up a movie screen. In that way he introduced himself and the small community of ?lm buffs in London to the works of Bergman, Hitchcock, and the French New Wave.<div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image on-image"></div></div>He was so affected by Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow- Up that in 1974 he decided to become a fashion photographer in England, like the hero of that movie. That lasted less than a year, but when he returned he still carried a Leica over his shoulder.Back in London, Ontario, he fell in love with a nursing student named Diane Gettas. They began sharing a one-bedroom apartment filled with Paul's books on ?lm.He thought of himself then as "a loner and an artist and an iconoclast." His grades were too poor to get into college. He could see that he was going nowhere. He was ready to change, but he wasn't sure how.Such was Paul Haggis's state of mind when he joined the Church of Scientology.Like every scientologist, when Haggis entered the church, he took his first steps into the mind of L. Ron Hubbard. He read about Hubbard's adventurous life: how he wandered the world, led dangerous expeditions, and healed himself of crippling war injuries through the techniques that he developed into Dianetics. He was not a prophet, like Mohammed, or divine, like Jesus. He had not been visited by an angel bearing tablets of revelation, like Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism. Scientologists believe that Hubbard discovered the existential truths that form their doctrine through extensive research-in that way, it is "science."The apparent rationalism appealed to Haggis. He had long since walked away from the religion of his upbringing, but he was still looking for a way to express his idealism. It was important to him that Scientology didn't demand belief in a god. But the figure of L. Ron Hubbard did hover over the religion in suggestive ways. He wasn't worshipped, exactly, but his visage and name were everywhere, like the absolute ruler of a small kingdom.There seemed to be two Hubbards within the church: the godlike authority whose every word was regarded as scripture, and the avuncular figure that Haggis saw on the training videos, who came across as wry and self-deprecating. Those were qualities that Haggis shared to a marked degree, and they inspired trust in the man he had come to accept as his spiritual guide.<div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image on-image"></div></div>Still, Haggis felt a little stranded by the lack of irony among his fellow Scientologists. Their inability to laugh at themselves seemed at odds with the character of Hubbard himself. He didn't seem self-important or pious; he was like the dashing, wisecracking hero of a B movie who had seen everything and somehow had it all figured out. When Haggis experienced doubts about the religion, he reflected on the 16 mm films of Hubbard's lectures from the 1950s and 1960s, which were part of the church's indoctrination process. Hubbard was always chuckling to himself, marveling over some random observation that had just occurred to him, with a little wink to the audience suggesting that they not take him too seriously.He would just open his mouth and a mob of new thoughts would burst forth, elbowing each other in the race to make themselves known to the world. They were often trivial and disjointed but also full of obscure, learned references and charged with a sense of originality and purpose. "You walked in one day and you said, 'I'm a seneschal,' " Hubbard observed in a characteristic aside:"And this knight with eight-inch spurs, standing there-humph- and say, 'I'm supposed to open the doors to this castle, I've been doing this for a long time, and I'm a very trusted retainer'. . . He's insisting he's the seneschal but nobody will pay him his wages, and so forth. . . . He was somebody before he became the seneschal.Now, as a seneschal, he became nobody-until he finally went out and got a begging pan on the highway and began to hold it out for fish and chips as people came along, you know. . . . Now he says, 'I am something, I am a beggar,' but that's still something. Then the New York state police come along, or somebody, and they say to him-I'm a little mixed up in my periods here, but they say to him-'Do you realize you cannot beg upon the public road without license Number 603-F?' . . . So he starves to death and kicks the bucket and there he lies. . . . Now he's somebody, he's a corpse, but he's not dead, he's merely a corpse. . . . Got the idea? But he goes through sequences of becoming nobody, somebody, nobody, somebody, nobody, somebody, nobody, not necessarily on a dwindling spiral.Some people get up to the point of being a happy man. You know the old story of a happy man-I won't tell it-he didn't have a shirt. . . ."Just as this fuzzy parable begins to ramble into incoherence, Hubbard comes to the point, which is that a being is not his occupation or even the body he presently inhabits. The central insight of Scientology is that the being is eternal, what Hubbard terms a "thetan." "This chap, in other words, was somebody until he began to identify his beingness with a thing. . . . None of these beingnesses are the person. The person is the thetan."<div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image on-image"></div></div>"He had this amazing buoyancy," Haggis recalled. "He had a deadpan sense of humor and this sense of himself that seemed to say, 'Yes, I am fully aware that I might be mad, but I also might be on to something.' "The zealotry that empowered so many members of the church came from the belief that they were the vanguard of the struggle to save humanity. "A civilization without insanity, without criminals and without war, where the able can prosper and honest beings can have rights, and where Man is free to rise to greater heights, are the aims of Scientology," Hubbard writes. Those breathless aims drew young idealists, like Haggis, to the church's banner.To advance such lofty goals, Hubbard developed a "technology" to attain spiritual freedom and discover oneself as an immortal being. "Scientology works 100 percent of the time when it is properly applied to a person who sincerely desires to improve his life," a church publication declares. This guarantee rests on the assumption that through rigorous research, Hubbard had uncovered a perfect understanding of human nature. One must not stray from the path he has laid down or question his methods.Scientology is exact. Scientology is certain. Step by step one can ascend toward clarity and power, becoming more oneself-but, paradoxically, also more like Hubbard. Scientology is the geography of his mind. Perhaps no individual in history has taken such copious internal soundings and described with so much logic and minute detail the inner workings of his own mentality.The method Hubbard put forward created a road map toward his own ideal self. Hubbard's habits, his imagination, his goals and wishes-his character, in other words-became both the basis and the destination of Scientology.<div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image on-image"></div></div>Secretly, Haggis didn't really respect Hubbard as a writer. He hadn't been able to get through Dianetics, for instance. He read about thirty pages, then put it down. Much of the Scientology coursework, however, gave him a feeling of accomplishment. In 1976, he traveled to Los Angeles, the center of the Scientology universe, checking in at the old Château Élysée, on Franklin Avenue.Clark Gable and Katharine Hepburn had once stayed there, along with many other stars, but when Haggis arrived it was a run-down church retreat called the Manor Hotel. (It has since been spectacularly renovated and turned into Scientology's premier Celebrity Centre.) He had a little apartment with a kitchen where he could write.There were about 30,000 Scientologists in America at the time. Most of them were white, urban, and middle class; they were predominantly in their twenties, and many of them, especially in Los Angeles, were involved in graphic or performing arts. In other words, they were a lot like Paul Haggis.He immediately became a part of a community in a city that can otherwise be quite isolating. For the first time in his life, he experienced a feeling of kinship and camaraderie with people who had a lot in common-"all these atheists looking for something to believe in, and all these wanderers looking for a club to join."In 1977, Haggis returned to Canada to continue working for his father, who could see that his son was struggling. Ted Haggis asked him what he wanted to do with his life. Haggis said he wanted to be a writer. His father said, "Well, there are only two places to do that, New York and Los Angeles. Pick one, and I'll keep you on the payroll for a year." Paul chose LA because it was the heart of the ? lm world.Soon after this conversation with his father, Haggis and Diane Gettas got married. Two months later, they loaded up his brown Ranchero and drove to Los Angeles, moving into an apartment with Diane's brother, Gregg, and three other people. Paul got a job moving furniture. On the weekends he took photographs for yearbooks. At night he wrote scripts on spec at a secondhand drafting table. The following year, Diane gave birth to their first child, Alissa. Excerpted from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307745309/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0307745309&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=thebusiinsi-20&amp;linkId=THW4VIR5KGK2QVWP">Going Clear</a> by Lawrence Wright. Copyright © 2013 by Lawrence Wright. Excerpted by permission of Vintage, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved.

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