Arizona in the spotlight: Training Liars Club bound for Tucson, and a call to help stop Death Ray

Oh, good Goddess. July is more than halfway done, and I have yet to publish a new post this month. Once again I've been busy with work, with tending to the comments on existing threads, and with hanging around Salty Droid's blog. So let me begin correcting this month's NPD (new post deficit) right now.

This morning I was thinking about Whirled Musings Day, the upcoming anniversary of my blog, which is July 27. I also remembered that Whirled Musings Day always falls around the same time as the semi-annual meeting of the Transformational Leadership Cartel...I mean...Council, aka the TLC, aka the Training Liars Club (thanks to my pal Duff McDuffee for coming up with that one).

In case you aren't familiar with the TLC as viewed on my Whirled, here are two posts to get you up to speed:

• http://cosmicconnie.blogspot.com/2010/08/council-or-cartel-you-decide.html
• http://cosmicconnie.blogspot.com/2009/07/it-would-be-tragic-if-they-all-got-lost.html

As it happens, the first day of the 2011 TLC summer conference is July 27, the precise day this blog turns five years old. This summer the TLC party will be in Tucson, Arizona.

This will be good news to some who may have been disappointed about the cancellation of Stompernet LIVE 11, that famous confab for IM scammers, as reported on Salty's blog. Despite the apparent demise of Stompernet (they don't frame it as a demise, of course), all is not lost in Huckster Heaven. There's still life in the TLC, a fine group of folks with a similar mission of transforming the planet into a place where hustledorks and hustledorkesses can continue to rake in millions and live in gated communities while nearly everyone else struggles for essentials.

The hype goes on forever, and the party never ends.

Now, I would love to go to the TLC conference but, alas, I am not invited. But maybe you can become a member and get invited. Or perhaps even if you don't get a coveted invitation, you can still find a way to get to the meeting venue and, you know, hang around.

I found some details about the event here, on TLC founder and Chicken Soup entrepreneur Jack Canfield's Web site.

Event Information Category: Private Events
Location: Tucson, AZ
Time: From : Wednesday, 27 July 2011 08:00
Until : Sunday, 31 July 2011 20:00 (UTC -08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada)

Seats available: Unlimited seats
Event Creator: AndreaHaefele

As of now there is a Google Map on the event announcement page, pointing to an area that appears to be east of North Country Club Road and north of East Broadway Boulevard in Tucson. Or maybe that's just a generic map of the Tucson area, and the pointer is on an area in the center of town. I imagine that the TLC event planners want to keep any more detailed information top seekrit so they won't get, you know, sign-carrying, pamphlet-distributing protesters at their event. But perhaps those of you who will be in the area around that time can figure it out, if you're interested.

The page I linked to above contains a link to follow if you actually want to be invited to attend the Transformational Leadership Council meeting. Of course you have to be a member in order to attend the exclusive meetings, and for that you have to be invited by a member in good standing. As noted above, however, there's also a link to contact event creator Andrea Haefele. Maybe she can sneak you in through the back door. If you do get invited and you happen to go, be sure to tell everyone hi from Cosmic Connie. Tell them I want to know why the TLC folks have not ever made a public statement about their ex founding member, James Arthur Ray.

And now we come to
the really important part of this post.
Speaking of Death Ray, as you probably know, the trial saga in Yavapai County, Arizona, is on hold. This coming July 25 will be two years since Colleen Conaway died at the James Ray event in San Diego. That was the day originally scheduled for the sentencing of Ray, who has been convicted of three counts of negligent homicide. But the defense has continued its usual stall tactics, such as filing a motion for a new trial, and the sentencing has now been pushed back to mid-August. (Here is a link to a PDF of the motion for a new trial.) Meanwhile, the Ray camp -- those of them that are left -- have been orchestrating a letter-writing campaign, calling for people who have been "helped" by James Ray to write letters that the defense can give to the judge to help sway his decision.

Earlier this month Salty Droid wrote about it here. Around the same time, LaVaughn also wrote a fine post on her Celestial Reflections blog. In addition, if you're on Facebook you can get updates on Connie Joy's Tragedy In Sedona page.

One focus of LaVaughn's post is a poignant piece written by a former James Ray fan, Jeanne Barkemeijer, who was, to put it mildly, shocked and disillusioned by Ray's boorish behavior and mercenary manner when she met him. Her post about this incident is here, and I urge you to read it if you haven't already.

And then I urge you to do whatever you feel drawn to do to spread the word about James Ray's character, or apparent lack thereof. Join the counter-letter-writing campaign to help ensure justice for Ray's victims. Need suggestions? In a subsequent blog post, Jeanne offers suggestions and contact information.

This is important stuff, folks. And I'm long overdue in adding my call to action about this matter.

I will say, for the record, that I generally remain opposed to handling the problem with more laws and regulations (see my long post about that here). However, I do feel that the selfish-help industry needs closer scrutiny, there should be more transparency, and existing remedies should be enforced.

I certainly believe at this point that James Arthur "Death" Ray should no longer be allowed into any position where he can manipulate people, take their money, and endanger their health or their lives. Whether he ends up in an orange jumpsuit or not, I think he should never be allowed on a stage again, unless it's to scrub it or paint it. I hope the judge makes a decision that the friends and family of James Ray's victims can live with.

That's it for now, Dear Ones; I'll be back later this week with more stuff to help make up for the July deficit.

Now get to your own writing!