What did you do with the real Epic Beard Man?

​Check it out: Epic Beard Man is finally hitting the big screen. But wait, Epic Beard Man, is that you?  Where is the mentally unstable San Francisco crank who was in the fateful bus fight on AC Transit that blew up on the Internet? Where is Thomas Bruso, the guy North Beach denizens know as Vietnam Tom way before he became Epic Beard Man to the Internet masses? 

Thomas Bruso is nowhere to be seen in Bad Ass, the film featuring Danny Trejo set to hit theaters in April. The only remnant of the Thomas Bruso we know is his old-man fanny pack and bushy white beard. The details of the real Bruso have been completely altered. I mean, America doesn't really want to watch a movie about a mentally ill senior citizen on social security, does it? 






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Clipper sings like a canary...

​It doesn't seem unreasonable that the Clipper Card people would send users a helpful e-mail reminder, informing commuters that their cards' autoload feature is set to expire in December. Many a commuter may be saved from deboarding a bus or train next month. In a driving rainstorm, perhaps.

So, no, the e-reminder, which was sent this morning, wasn't odd. What was odd, however, was that Clipper failed to utilize the Blind Carbon Copy (BCC) function, sending the missive to hundreds and hundreds of users, unwittingly spilling their identities and contact info for everyone else on the list to see.

This oversight was not missed by the folks on the list. Here's the most entertaining response so far:

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The Mysterious Ethicstrouble: gloating from inside the org.

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Ethicstrouble is still anonymous, but some experts say the source is legit.

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For now, ethicstrouble is playing along - and beating the e-meter

​For our final post -- for now -- from the self-proclaimed Scientologist apostate inside the San Francisco Church of Scientology, we talk to ethicstrouble about the path to deciding that Scientology was a hoax. "The reason I'm talking to you is I want this thing to fall apart," ethicstrouble told us. "I think it abuses people's faith, promises things it can't deliver, and I think it's awful."

If you'd like to catch up with our previous conversations, here are our posts to date:
Ethicstrouble releases San Francisco churches statistics
Life in the Org
Anonymous' Effect On Scientology

SF Weekly: So was this a long process or was there one "aha" moment that started you on the path to questioning Scientology?
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Are these weirdos making a difference?

​Earlier this month, Anonymous claimed their first potential defector from within San Francisco's Church of Scientology. Meanwhile, the church's president, Jeff Quiros, told SF Weekly the masked protesters' presence has only buoyed the public's interest in the org.

This week, we've posted the statistics that ethicstrouble claims to have smuggled out of the org, and we've talked with this inside source about daily life at the church. Today, we post our conversation with ethicstrouble about Anonymous.

Disclaimer: We have no confirmation that Ethicstrouble is, indeed, a San Francisco Scientologist. But two ex-Scientologists have said the graphs the source sent us look legit. Now, ethicstrouble says the leadership of the org is changing protocols to make sure such a leak doesn't happen again. "Right now, it's much greater security -- shredding them as soon as the executives see them. There's a shredder in the ED's [executive director's] office, so [the papers] will probably go straight in there."
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Ethicstrouble sounds off on life in the San Francisco org

​Yesterday, we posted documents purportedly smuggled out of a trash bin of San Francisco's Church of Scientology by ethicstrouble, a self-proclaimed church member who has decided Scientology is a money-sucking farce and wants out. Two prominent ex-Scientologists agreed the statistics looked legit, even though the San Francisco church's president claims they aren't. More >>

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Wear this to a protest in New York? Fugetaboutit.

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Are Anonymous protests making Scientology's recruits skyrocket?

​There's more intrigue surrounding the debate over who won the latest battle in the three-year war between San Francisco's Church of Scientology and Anonymous - the Internet-born movement of masked protesters outside the Columbus Street church who warn people it's a money-hungry cult.

Anonymous has been toasting "ethicstrouble," a purported Scientologist who wrote on a local Anonymous message board that the group's protests convinced him or her that "something is really wrong" with the church, and that he or she now wants to leave. Meanwhile, Jeff Quiros, the president of the San Francisco church, said in our story yesterday he believes Anonymous itself is behind the defector.

Wait, it gets better.More >>