And they seemed so rational . . .

Rats. Sometimes, just when you think someone's going to turn out okay, they do something you can't get over.

The St. Petersburg Times is running a fascinating three-part series on the Church of Scientology based largely on interviews with four top church executives who have defected.

Among the paper's findings:

**Physical violence permeated the church's international management team. It alleges that David Miscavige, the movement's leader, routinely attacked his lieutenants, even kicking and beating some in front of their colleagues.

One of the defectors, Mike Rinder, says he was attacked some 50 times. "It had become the accepted way of doing things," Rinder tells the Times. "If COB (Miscavige) did it, it was okay for everybody else to do it, too."

**Staffers are disciplined and controlled by a multi-layered system of "ecclesiastical justice.'' It includes publicly confessing sins and crimes to a group of peers, being ordered to jump into a pool fully clothed, facing embarrassing "security checks'' or, worse, being isolated as a "suppressive person.''

**Church staffers allegedly covered up how they botched the care of Lisa McPherson, a Scientologist who died after they held her 17 days in isolation at a hotel in Clearwater, Fla., the church's world spiritual headquarters.

The newspaper quotes a church spokesman as saying the defectors are "lying."

I mean, I could overlook the whole "Xenu, Galactic Warlord, imprisoning billions of his people into volcanoes on Earth trillions of years ago and blowing them up with hydrogen bombs" story because come on, on some level that story just makes sense. Ya know? At worst it's just the embellishment of a proud religious tradition.

But hitting people? I am shocked, I tell you! Shocked!

Okay, not that shocked. Scientology is a thuggish cult so it's no surprise they use violence to intimidate and control. The world would be much better off without this stupid nonsense.

Here's the St. Petersburg Times article. It is just stunning.

And check out this interesting story about someone who accidentally interviewed for a job with them.