So, what do you think about the Anonymous Scientology protests coming up?

See, I read an article like this and somewhere in the back of my mind, I'm thinking - this is all going to end horribly, isn't it?

Sure, you find the Craigslist posts, wade through the promotional poster, check out the downloadable "Protrest (typo alert) resource packet, glance at the Partyvan raid guidelines and worry about the "Check a Pig" info.

It's all very nice and an interesting idea or whatever. The map is particularly impressive. We haven't had mass rallies of interest that I can remember since, well, who knows. The general idea - of drawing a more critical examination of Scientology and some of the unfortunate individuals associated with it - is to be applauded. But then I see lots and lots of posts popping up on forums such as this...

(Click to Enlarge)

......and my spidey sense starts to tingle. Let me get this straight - you're going down to London for the weekend, and you just happen to need to get a hold of a police style whacking stick...completely coincidentally?

....oh-kaaaay.

Also, you might not want to sign your posts with your name and make it all a bit more Anonymous. Thanks.

I'll likely have a man on the ground at the London rally who's going to send me pics of all the action going down. I really hope I get a bunch of pictures of about ten people standing round in V for Vendetta masks looking bored, but the very anonymity that's freaking out Scientologists is also the thing that's going to put ideas into the heads of random nutcases.

How can the main people behind Anonymous hope to control a co-ordinated, worldwide set of protests where anybody can effectively turn up in a mask and randomly start punching people in the head? Good luck with that, because you're going to need it.

From what I've seen on a few forums, it sounds less likely to be the peaceful protest we're all hoping for and more likely to be me posting up live shots of "Hands Across America becomes pitched gunbattle" but we'll have to wait and see. I totally haven't seen lots of posts like the above on forums asking where people can obtain sticks / poles / ninja swords of doom for "some thing in London / New York / wherever" this weekend, honest.

Don't worry about the safety of my guys, though. They take part in this rally annually: