A Southwest Airlines flight from Oakland to Las Vegas was turned around Thursday after a man allegedly exposed himself to his female seatmate, punched her when she screamed, then stripped off all of his clothes as flight attendants and passengers subdued him. The man was arrested, and the woman was taken to a hospital for treatment of her injuries, said Alameda County Sheriff's Sgt. J.D. Nelson. Her condition was not known.
Darius Chappille, 21, of Jefferson City, Mo., who also has an Oakland address, was arrested and taken to Highland Hospital in Oakland for medical clearance. He was expected to be booked into Santa Rita Jail in Dublin. Chappille had an outstanding arrest warrant on drug-related charges in Jefferson City, Nelson said.
Chappille and the female passenger apparently did not know each other, authorities said.
The incident happened aboard Southwest Flight 947, which has a scheduled departure from Oakland of 7:15 a.m. An e-mail account from a passenger on the flight, forwarded to The Chronicle, said the incident occurred about a half hour after takeoff.
Flight attendants subdued Chappille, pinning him face-down on the floor, and enlisted the help of passengers in case he tried to escape, the passenger said. About 10 sheriff's deputies boarded the plane when it touched down in Oakland at 8:15 a.m., the e-mail message said, and Chappille was arrested without incident.
Southwest officials said the plane took off for Las Vegas again at 10 a.m. It was scheduled to continue on to St. Louis.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/21/2009 00:00 ||
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Chappille had an outstanding arrest warrant on drug-related charges in Jefferson City
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/21/2009 1:47 Comments ||
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Did'nt see the above coming.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/21/2009 1:48 Comments ||
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No, no, no, my boy, what happens in Vegas may stay in Vegas, but what happens on the way to Vegas is another matter entirely.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/21/2009 9:45 Comments ||
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Flight attendants subdued Chappille, pinning him face-down on the floor
TV listings: The Prime-Time TV grid in Thursday's Calendar section mistakenly listed MTV's "Jackass" show on the MSNBC cable schedule at 7 and 10 p.m. where instead MSNBC's "Countdown With Keith Olbermann" should have been listed.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/21/2009 16:48 ||
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mistakenly. huh.
Posted by: Harry Jusolet9162 ||
08/21/2009 17:38 Comments ||
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"hat was no jackass, that was Keith Olbermann"
How could they tell the difference?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/21/2009 18:52 Comments ||
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All I can say is that the LA Times is in big trouble with the Jackass Anti-Defamation League
Posted by: Matt ||
08/21/2009 19:43 Comments ||
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The Foreign Ministry has cancelled 20,000 overnight hotel reservations meant for people attending the United Nations Climate Change Conference in December.
The move is expected to cost the hotel industry about 40 million kroner in lost revenue, calculated by each night in a hotel room costing about 2,000 kroner, reports Business.dk.
Reservations in a number of hotels across Zealand and parts of Skåne in southern Sweden have been cut from 120,000 to 100,000 overnight stays. The two-week conference in December is expected to attract between 12,000 and 15,000 participants.
The ministry described the cancellations as a natural 'adjustment'. But Thomas Færgeman, the director of environmental think tank Concito, was concerned the government had lost confidence that it could broker a ground-breaking climate and had therefore lowered expectations as to how many participants were expected.
Hotel cancellations have also been taking place in Copenhagen and Denmark's largest hotel, the Radisson SAS Scandinavia, near the conference centre, has seen 10 percent of the ministry's bookings cancelled.
The hotel's general manager, Karim Nielsen believed the cancellations were due to the Foreign Ministry lacking confirmation of attendance from participants.
'No one knows how big the Copenhagen climate conference is going to be. If the ministry doesn't cancel the surplus reserved rooms at least a month before the conference, they will be liable for 100 percent of the payment,' Nielsen said.
Svend Olling, the ministry's head of logistics for the conference, said the cancellations were not due to fears of non-attendance but rather for geographic reasons.
'It's only natural that we remove some of the hotels and rooms from the list that have not been sought after as much because of travel time and distance [from the conference centre],' Olling said.
It's a recession. People don't have -- or fear they won't have -- the discretionary income for such fripperies. So they just stay home. The American home improvement purveyors have taken to calling it a "stay-cation", and suggest we invest in expensive improvements to turn our residences into the spa-resorts we have decided to give up for the nonce. We painted the front door instead. No doubt the climate will benefit because 20,000 fewer than expected will jet in to Copenhagen and hire taxis to get around town. Certainly the oil ticks will not benefit, so that's ok. The hoteliers should be happy they aren't abetting the spread of global jihad.
#1
I guess I am not smart enough to understand the debate. One group claims that the earth is getting warmer because of mans activity. The only way to solve this prob is to tax everyone and invest that money in prgram that have nothing to do with the original premise or more likely will never be used on said programs. FYI we have had damn few 100 plus days this summer and nobody has ever told me what is the perfect temp.
#4
I guess I am not smart enough to understand the debate
Well, in the Church of Gorism the unwashed masses are guilty of sin against Gaia for expecting the live like the acolytes of the church. The only way to rid themselves of that sin is to obey and to pay indulgences which of course are used by the faithful in administering the rites and rituals of the True Church. That is why the truly faithful may live in a manner that is inconsistent with what they preach.
It's the model of numerous and most religions in man's history.
#7
I expect the government is afraid of an unseasonable blizzard, record cold, freezing rains, and the complete shutdown of Copenhagen and surrounding areas for at least a week if the conference goes as scheduled.
Twenty thousand fewer mouths to feed during that period is a good idea.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
08/21/2009 10:43 Comments ||
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Cancellation of 20,000 hotel reservations for a global warming conference? That is a good sign. It means that people are waking up to the fraud of global warming...or that the economy is too bad for people to be able to afford to attend.
The Prime-Time TV grid in Thursday's Calendar section mistakenly listed MTV's "Jackass" show on the MSNBC cable schedule at 7 and 10 p.m. where instead MSNBC's "Countdown With Keith Olbermann" should have been listed.
[Bangla Daily Star] Police and Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) will launch a joint drive soon in 10 southwestern districts amidst a rapid slide in law and order marked by unbridled killings in the recent months.
At a view exchange meeting with a cross section of people in Kushtia yesterday, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Nur Mohammad and Rab Director General (DG) Hassan Mahmood Khandker spoke of the joint drive plan without giving any timeframe.
They also urged the law enforcement agencies to take the steps necessary to bring the situation in southwestern region under control.
Khulna range of police arranged the meeting after the recent spate in killings in 10 districts of Khulna division that saw 228 people killed since January this year including 150 by the so-called outlawed parties.
Local people including public representatives, political party leaders and activists, businessmen, social workers, NGO activists, human right activists, teachers, students, leaders of community policing forum and journalists attended the meeting.
High officials of police and Rab in Khulna division were also present at the meeting held at Kushtia Municipal Auditorium.
In his speech, the IGP ordered the law enforcement agencies to arrest all those involved in crimes.
"Necessary backing in this regard will be given so that no one can create any hindrance," Nur Mohammad said.
The police chief said criminals are tarnishing the image of police. When any crime takes place anywhere, police are the first to get the blame, he said, adding that general people's faith in police force is eroding.
"Why should the police bear this blame? Policemen are friends of the people who pay tax that covers their [police's] salary. Police can never be friendly to the criminals," the IGP asserted.
He said it was important that local level political party leaders come forward in curbing the outlaw menace.
Nur Mohammad said the law enforcement agencies in the region would be provided with special logistics and other supports so that they can work properly.
In his speech, the Rab chief admitted the recent deterioration in law and order in the region and warned those who are blamed as 'godfathers' of criminals. "None will be spared this time," Khandkar added.
He recalled the Rab's success in controlling outlaw activities in the region and urged his force to go further on the same action.
Among others, Vice-Chancellor of Islamic University Prof Dr M Alauddin, Mayor of Kushtia Municipality Anwar Ali, Deputy Inspector General of police (DIG) Khulna Range Sheikh Hemayat Hossain, Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Kushtia Abdul Mannan, Commanding Officer of Rab-12 Lt Col Zillur Rahman, and Superintendent of police (SP) Kushtia Sahabuddin Khan addressed the meeting.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2009 00:00 ||
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At first I thought they were talking about OUR Southwest border....
Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Eleven Russian crewmembers of the Finnish-owned freighter Arctic Sea, hijacked off Sweden, and eight suspected attackers were questioned in Moscow nearly a month after the boat was seized.
They're just not going to be feeling so good right now ...
The crew said the hijackers, dressed in black clothes bearing the word POLICIA, boarded the Maltese-flagged freighter Arctic Sea after approaching in an inflatable speedboat, according to the Investigative Committee of the Russian Prosecutor Generals Office. Their statements corroborated a Swedish police report issued last month.
Four crewmembers remained on the Arctic Sea, owned by Helsinki-based Oy Solchart Management AB, while it was being towed to Russias Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov told President Dmitry Medvedev by telephone today, according to Natalya Timakova, Medvedevs spokeswoman.
The story is day by day becoming clearer and Russia is in the best position to make progress on the case since it has the suspects in custody, Superintendent Rabbe von Hertzen of the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation said by telephone from Vantaa, Finland. Finland, Malta, and Sweden are cooperating with Russia, von Hertzen said. As to the question of where the case will be tried, that will be discussed later on, he said.
Von Hertzen dismissed media reports of a secret cargo on the ship and a possible cover-up by Russia as speculation.
And why would we ever question otherwise?
Estonias Security Police today said six of the detainees are residents of Estonia, including two Russian citizens, one Estonian citizen and three others, spokesman Andres Kahar said by telephone in Tallinn. Most of the detainees have criminal records related to narcotics and offenses against people and property, Kahar said, adding that Russia hasnt asked for assistance.
Russia learned of the Arctic Seas location several days before the warship Ladny reached the freighter, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, the governments newspaper of record, reported this week.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization monitored the search and supplied information using its maritime tracking capabilities after receiving Russias request for assistance, a NATO official said by phone from Brussels. He declined to be identified, citing the alliances policy.
Russia is checking the nationalities of the suspected hijackers and will keep Maltese and Finnish authorities informed as the investigation proceeds, Russias Foreign Ministry said in a statement today.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/21/2009 00:00 ||
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...Just remembering that great line from Goldeneye where 007 looks at the Russian Defense Minister and says, "You know, no one ever takes the time to do a really sinister interrogation any more."
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/21/2009 1:45 Comments ||
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WEleven Russian crewmembers of the Finnish-owned freighter Arctic Sea, hijacked off Sweden, and eight suspected attackers were questioned in Moscow nearly a month after the boat was seized.
Anyone knows if Russia has presrved Soviet Union's expertise at interrogations?
The crew said the hijackers, dressed in black clothes bearing the word POLICIA
So the crew believed that the peole who, off the coasts of Swede, wore cothes bearing the word Police in Spanish were legitimate policemen? Someone is going to end in Gulag ehre.
Same family, different deal. This time on their home turf.
Mose Jefferson, the older brother of the former U.S. Rep. William Jefferson who was convicted two weeks ago of abusing his congressional office to enrich himself and his family, has been, convicted by a federal jury on four charges that he bribed an Orleans Parish School Board member. As the saying goes, justice moves with a leaden heel and strikes with an iron fist. This is the fist part.
The jury considered a seven-count indictment against Jefferson: one count that he conspired to bribe Ellenese Brooks-Simms, three counts of bribery, two obstruction of justice counts and a count of conspiring to commit money laundering.
Jefferson was found guilty on two of the three counts of bribery, and both counts of obstruction of justice. The obstruction of justice counts carry the stiffest penalties: a maximum possible sentence of 20 years in prison on each count.
Jefferson will be sentenced Dec. 9, and until then, he is free on the current bond. Jefferson and several family members in the courtroom reacted stoically to the news. They're already thinking about next year's trials.
Posted by: Matt ||
08/21/2009 19:45 ||
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They only did this because the brothers are black,of course.
/sarcasm
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
08/21/2009 21:14 Comments ||
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Folks, please sharpen your focus. A review of the individual bonuses is a valid thing to do but scatter-shot vitriol of the innocent is poor form and poor thinking. And nepotism and favoritism sucks in any organization, private or public, and should be addressed.
Hold your fire 'til you have a clear target. The previous "flames" reminds me of some liberals.
Want a preview of ObamaCare in action? Sneak a look at what has happened in Maine. In 2003, the state to great fanfare enacted its own version of universal health care. Democratic Governor John Baldacci signed the plan into law with a bevy of familiar promises. By 2009, it would cover all of Maine's approximately 128,000 uninsured citizens. System-wide controls on hospital and physician costs would hold down insurance premiums. There would be no tax increases. The program was going to provide insurance for everyone and save businesses and patients money at the same time.
After five years, fiscal realities as brutal as the waves that crash along Maine's famous coastline have hit the insurance plan. The system that was supposed to save money has cost taxpayers $155 million and is still rising.
Here's how the program was supposed to work. Two government programs would cover the uninsured. First the legislature greatly expanded MaineCare, the state's Medicaid program. Today Maine families with incomes of up to $44,000 a year are eligible; 22% of the population is now in Medicaid, roughly twice the national average.
Then the state created a "public option" known as DirigoChoice. (Dirigo is the state motto, meaning "I Lead.") This plan would compete with private plans such as Blue Cross. To entice lower income Mainers to enroll, it offered taxpayer-subsidized premiums. The plan's original funding source was $50 million of federal stimulus money the state got in 2003. Over time, the plan was to be "paid for by savings in the health-care system." This is precisely the promise of ObamaCare. Maine saved by squeezing payments to hospitals and physicians.
The program flew off track fast. At its peak in 2006, only about 15,000 people had enrolled in the DirigoChoice program. That number has dropped to below 10,000, according to the state's own reporting. About two-thirds of those who enrolled already had insurance, which they dropped in favor of the public option and its subsidies. Instead of 128,000 uninsured in the program today, the actual number is just 3,400. Despite the giant expansions in Maine's Medicaid program and the new, subsidized public choice option, the number of uninsured in the state today is only slightly lower that in 2004 when the program began.
Why did this happen? Among the biggest reasons is a severe adverse selection problem: The sickest, most expensive patients crowded into DirigoChoice, unbalancing its insurance pool and raising costs. That made it unattractive for healthier and lower-risk enrollees. And as a result, few low-income Mainers have been able to afford the premiums, even at subsidized rates.
This problem was exacerbated because since the early 1990s Maine has required insurers to adhere to community rating and guaranteed issue, which requires that insurers cover anyone who applies, regardless of their health condition and at a uniform premium. These ruleswhich are in the Obama planhave relentlessly driven up insurance costs in Maine, especially for healthy people.
The Maine Heritage Policy Center, which has tracked the plan closely, points out that largely because of these insurance rules, a healthy male in Maine who is 30 and single pays a monthly premium of $762 in the individual market; next door in New Hampshire he pays $222 a month. The Granite State doesn't have community rating and guaranteed issue.
One proposal to get people into the DirigoChoice system is to reduce the premiums, presumably to give the uninsured a larger incentive to join. But that would explode the program's costs when it already can't pay its bills. A program that was supposed to save money by reducing health-care waste and inefficiencies has seen a 74% increase in premiums. But even those inflated payments can't keep the program out of the red.
Last year, DirigoCare was so desperate for cash that the legislature broke its original promise of no tax hikes and proposed an infusion of funds through a beer, wine and soda tax, similar to what has been floated to pay for the Obama plan. Maine voters rejected these taxes by two to one. Then this year the legislature passed a 2% tax on paid health insurance claims. Taxing paid insurance claims sounds a tad churlish, but the previous funding formula was so complicated that it was costing the state $1 million a year in lawsuits.
Unlike the federal government, Maine has a balanced budget requirement. So out of fiscal necessity, the state has now capped the enrollment in the program and allowed no new entrants. Now there is a waiting list. DirigoChoice has become yet another expensive, failed experiment in government-run health care, alongside similar fiascoes in Massachusetts and Tennessee.
Not everyone sees it this way. Noting the similarities between the Maine program and the Congressional initiative, Karynlee Harrington, the executive director of the Dirigo Health Agency, boasted recently: "DirigoChoice is consistent with what we think the definition of a public health option is." It certainly is.
DENVER The death toll from a Black Hawk helicopter crash on a Colorado mountain rose to four on Thursday after an accident that highlighted the dangers of high-altitude Special Operations training exercises.
The helicopter crashed Wednesday afternoon near the summit of 14,421-foot Mount Massive, the second-highest mountain in Colorado. The crew was training in high-altitude mountainous conditions, "much like the environment they operate in Afghanistan," said Lt. Col. John Clearwater, a spokesman for the command at Fort Bragg, N.C.
Three of the soldiers were killed at the scene and a fourth died on the way to the hospital, Clearwater said. The four men were from Fort Campbell, Ky., he said. Their names haven't been released.
The helicopter was assigned to the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) at Fort Campbell. Soldiers in the 160th are known as "Night Stalkers" because they specialize in nighttime operations. The regiment's Web site says the 160th has carried out combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Wednesday's flight began at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, which is about 90 miles east of Mount Massive. The cause of the crash hasn't been released. The Black Hawk's flight recorder was recovered and an investigation team from Fort Rucker, Ala., was at the crash site Thursday, Clearwater said.
The MH-60 Black Hawk is frequently used for infiltration missions and to bring supplies to special operations forces in the field, according to the unit's Web site. The helicopter is also used for rescue and medical evacuations, and an armed version is used for escort and fire support.
Maj. Brandon A. Bissell, a spokesman for the regiment at Fort Campbell, said planning has started for a memorial for the soldiers, but no details were available yet.
Not all helicopters can fly at high altitudes. Only those with powerful engines are able to achieve the lift needed to stay airborne in the thinner air found at higher elevations. Higher temperatures can compound the problem, making it seem as if the chopper is flying at an even higher elevation than it really is, said Maj. Joshua Day, the commander of the Colorado Army National Guard's High-Altitude Army Aviation Training Site in Gypsum, which helps train pilots for missions to Afghanistan.
"The effects kind of pile on to each other," he said.
At the training site, instructors focus on what's called power management, becoming aware of how much power a chopper's engine is able to produce given conditions and how to operate accordingly. Day said coming in too fast or too slow could cause the rotor to spin slower and the chopper to sink, a big danger for aircraft flying so close to the ground.
Weather conditions reported near the site of the crash weren't unusual for the mountains temperatures in the 50s and 60s and winds gusting up to 26 mph, according to the National Weather Service. But those conditions were reported between 2,000 feet and 4,000 feet below where the helicopter crashed, and there can be significant differences in winds and temperatures as altitude increases, said Jim Pringle, a meteorologist with the agency's Grand Junction office.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/21/2009 00:00 ||
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NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and India's Chandrayaan-1 will team up on August 20 to perform a Bi-Static radar experiment to search for water ice in a crater on the Moon's north pole. Both spacecraft will be in close proximity approximately 200 km above the lunar surface, and both are equipped with radar instruments. The two instruments will look at the same location from different angles, with Chandrayaan-1's radar transmitting a signal which will be reflected off the interior of Erlanger crater, and then be picked up by LRO. Scientists will compare the signal that bounces straight back to Chandrayaan with the signal that bounces at a slight angle to LRO to garner unique information, particularly about any water ice that may be present inside the crater.
Both spacecraft are equipped with a NASA Miniature Radio Frequency (RF) instrument that functions as a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), known as Mini-SAR on Chandrayaan-1 and Mini-RF on LRO.
"The advantage of a Bi-Static experiment is that you're looking at echoes that are being reflected off the Moon at an angle other than zero," said Paul Spudis,principal investigator for Chandrayaan-1's Mini-SAR,discussing the mission on The Space Show. "Mono-static radar sends a pulse, and you are looking in the same phase or incident angle. But with Bi-Static, you can look at it from a different angle. The significance of that is ice has a very unique bi-static response."
Stewart Nozette, Mini-RF principal investigator from the Universities Space Research Associations Lunar and Planetary Institute, said, An extraordinary effort was made by the whole NASA team working with ISRO to make this happen
While this coordination sounds easy, this experiment is extremely challenging because both spacecraft are traveling at about 1.6 km per second and will be looking at an area on the ground about 18 km across. Due to the extreme speeds and the small point of interest, NASA and ISRO need to obtain and share information about the location and pointing of both spacecraft. The Bi-Static experiment requires extensive tracking by ground stations of NASAs Deep Space Network, the Applied Physics Laboratory, and ISRO.
Even with the considerable planning and coordination between the U.S. and India the two instrument beams may not overlap, or may miss the desired location. Even without hitting the exact location Scientists may still be able to use the Bi-Static information to further knowledge already received from both instruments.
The international coordination and cooperation between the two agencies for this experiment is an excellent opportunity to demonstrate future cooperation between NASA and ISRO, says Jason Crusan, program executive for the Mini-RF program, from NASAs Space Operations Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/21/2009 14:00 ||
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President Obama released a video address today marking the start of the Muslim holiday Ramadan.
"Like many people of different faiths who've seen Ramadan through our communities and families, I know this to be a festive timea time when families gather and meals are shared," Obama said. "But i also know that Ramadan is a time of intense devotion and reflection."
The rituals performed during Ramadan "remind us of the principles that we hold in common and Islam's role in advancing justice, progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings," the President said.
#7
It has been noted elsewhere that Obama is taking the first two weeks of Ramadan off for his vacation in Martha's Vineyard. Surely just coincidence. I wonder what he plans to do for the last two weeks of Ramadan?
When I was a young fellow there were homosexuals -- they were known as "queers" back then, but we seldom heard of them. There were stories of this or that fellow being arrested for bothering people in a public restroom or something, but I can't recall ever even seeing a story in the newspaper. The stories were passed by word of mouth.
The queers of yesteryear are today's gays, who refer to themselves in their own literature and conversation as queers but require that the rest of us not do so. Gay was at one time a synonym for "merry," rather than the description of the fellow glancing over from the next public urinal with an inviting look in his eyes.
There were also, back in the Paleolithic, men who were known as "bachelors," and women known as... ummm... I think they were called "women," though occasionally they were "spinsters" and sometimes they were "career women." These people would live alone sometimes, and would sometimes take rooms together to share expenses. No one really cared about what they did behind closed doors, if anything.
Not only did these folk not flaunt any sexual preferences they may have had, they went out of their way not to discuss such things. At the same time the rest of us didn't dwell on our sex lives. Not only were we not expected back then to be in a continuous state of rut, but those who were were avoided socially. Sexual braggadocio was considered demeaning outside very limited venues.
50 or 60 years later -- two generations -- it's hard to imagine a time when a person's sexual preferences and activities weren't a subject for polite conversation. I'm not fond of queers -- an attitude I developed empirically as a hitch-hiking 14-year-old -- but I have nothing against bachelors or spinsters or career women. What they do in their spare time is none of my business, as long as it doesn't become mandatory for the rest of us. I'd really rather not hear about it, and if I do, I'd rather not hear the details. Or see the pictures. Or see the acts performed in public streets or parks.
I'm pretty sure, though, that if you were to conjure up the ghost of Martin Luther and ask him what he thought of the idea of openly gay clergymen he'd nail a 96th thesis to your forehead.
Leaders of the nation's largest Lutheran denomination began a civil but tense debate here on Thursday on whether to ordain gay men and lesbians, an issue that is likely to come to a vote on Friday. Nobody's been turned into a pillar of salt yet, so it must be okay...
The denomination, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, is considering lifting a ban on noncelibate gay and lesbian pastors, permitting the ordination of people in committed same-sex relationships. As long as it's committed, y'see.
At issue is how the Bible should inform policy, how the denomination can best serve its mission, and how a vote to ordain gay men and lesbians would affect the church's relationships with the broader Christian community. Fears of a schism have been fueled by recent turmoil in the Episcopal Church, which voted in July to permit the ordination of openly gay bishops. The issue has cost the Episcopal Church about 100,000 members, who have left to join a new, more conservative entity called the Anglican Church in North America. But that can't happen to the Lutherans because they're... ummm... different.
Although an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America task force proposed a "structured flexibility" clause that ultimately would leave gay ordination up to each congregation, a sense of division looms. So as a matter of church doctrine, each congregation gets to decide if sin is permissibe. Does that apply to all sin, or only to the particular sin in question? I can see the day coming when a poor congregation in Memphis, in need of a new church roof, might sanctify armed robbery.
Some delegates here are cloaked in shawls distributed by a Lutheran organization endorsing gay ordination, while others are wearing buttons from an opposing Lutheran organization. "It feels like a high school football rivalry, where you've got two camps like that," said Chelsea Mathis, a delegate from Monroe, Mich. The vision of the kickoff is particularly painful...
The scriptural framework of the debate only feeds those divisions, Ms. Mathis said. "There are dueling Bible verses when the microphone is open to people," she said. It's been considered a sin ever since Sodom & Gomarrah, but if you look hard enough through the Bible and hold your mind at just the right angle you'll be able to find most anything you want.
Ms. Mathis said she had friends who were "at their wits' ends with the church" and might leave if it does not accept gay ministers, but she is also aware that, "for some people, it's almost too much to be able to acknowledge that there is homosexuality." Its existence would seem to be confirmed by the argument going on, wouldn't it? Perhaps her friends at their wits' end should consider leaving and setting up their own gay Lutheran church, where you'd have to prove you were gay to get in. That's a solution that doesn't seem to have occurred to anyone. It's obviously an inferior plan to making everyone else accept your particular sins.
Bridging that gap among 1,045 delegates and the 65 synods they represent can feel impossible, she said. "Unless we get our way, of course. If we do, it's God's will and the all those bigot and rubes will just have to shut up, won't they?"
Many delegates believe the future of the church -- which has 4.6 million members -- hangs in the balance. The church has taken two steps this week that make the approval of gay clergy members seem more likely. It voted Monday to lower the portion of convention votes required to pass policy from two-thirds to a simple majority. ... known as the "nuclear option." On Wednesday, it approved a social statement calling on Evangelical Lutheran Church in America congregations to "welcome, care for, and support same-gender couples." The social statement, which required a two-thirds majority, passed by one vote, stunning delegates. "I'm sick to my stomach," said the Rev. Rich Mahan from Charleston, W.Va., who opposes the policy on gay ordination and suspects it will pass. If it does, Mr. Mahan said many of his parishioners are prepared to leave the church, and he might do the same. "I do not believe that our church can condone what God has condemned," he said. "The other side has not proven it by Scripture." "But what does God know about it, after all?"
Meanwhile, Javen Swanson, a married gay man from Lauderdale, Minn., in his final year of seminary, anxiously awaits a ruling. "This decision makes or breaks things for me," Mr. Swanson said. "If it passes, I can proceed as though I were a straight person."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2009 11:27 ||
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As with all things from a "persecuted minority", it is not enough to simply coexist. The "majority" MUST unconditionally accept what is considered aberrant behavior by the "majority".
#3
On the bright side there will be all these empty Lutheran churches that they can redecorate in fabulous colors.
Posted by: ed ||
08/21/2009 12:55 Comments ||
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It passed yesterday.. I quit the elca retarded church of satan today.
One vote. It was supposed to be 2/3rds.
They stretched the convention voting hours past the planned dinner hour than changed it from 2/3rds to 1/2. It won buy one friking vote after lots of folks had left to eat.
#5
I would think now that a lot of ELCA congregations are seriously re-considering the Missouri Synod, so in other words, I don't think it will kill the Lutheran Church.
The Missouri Synod will approve of this at about the same time Satan opens an ice-skating rink in hell.
Do you mean like Father Mychal Judge, NYFD Chaplain, martyred on Sept. 11, 2001?
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
08/21/2009 21:49 Comments ||
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I am not in favor of this motion, but read your Bible before throwing stones at the ELCA. Here are two samples to consider. The first clearly envisions limitations on the role of women in the Church, which are breached every Sunday. The second concerns the wisdom of judging others for their transgressions.
1 Corinthians 14:34-35
34 Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. 35 And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church.
Romans 1:26-2:6
26 For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. 27 Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.
28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality,[c] wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, 30 backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; 32 who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.
1 Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. 2 But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. 3 And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? 4 Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? 5 But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, 6 who will render to each one according to his deeds
#13
Rammer- do want the pastor's sig other taking your boys scouts on their first camping trip.
How about if the pastor is a butch - her bimbo taking the girl scouts out.
What about those religious retreats and Sunday School.
Kiddies beware!
Somebody nearby has their whole world view centered on their crotch and is looking to score... somebody they trust.
Official government measurements show that the world's temperature has cooled a bit since reaching its most recent peak in 1998.
That's given global warming skeptics new ammunition to attack the prevailing theory of climate change. The skeptics argue that the current stretch of slightly cooler temperatures means that costly measures to limit carbon dioxide emissions are ill-founded and unnecessary.
Proposals to combat global warming are "crazy" and will "destroy more than a million good American jobs and increase the average family's annual energy bill by at least $1,500 a year," the Heartland Institute, a conservative research organization based in Chicago, declared in full-page newspaper ads earlier this summer. "High levels of carbon dioxide actually benefit wildlife and human health," the ads asserted.
Many scientists agree, however, that hotter times are ahead. A decade of level or slightly lower temperatures is only a temporary dip to be expected as a result of natural, short-term variations in the enormously complex climate system, they say.
"The preponderance of evidence is that global warming will resume," Nicholas Bond, a meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle, said in an e-mail.
"Natural variability can account for the slowing of the global mean temperature rise we have seen," said Jeff Knight, a climate expert at the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Exeter, England.
According to data from the National Space Science and Technology Center in Huntsville, Ala., the global high temperature in 1998 was 0.76 degrees Celsius (1.37 degrees Fahrenheit) above the average for the previous 20 years.
So far this year, the high has been 0.42 degrees Celsius (0.76 degrees Fahrenheit), above the 20-year average, clearly cooler than before.
However, scientists say the skeptics' argument is misleading.
"It's entirely possible to have a period as long as a decade or two of cooling superimposed on the long-term warming trend," said David Easterling, chief of scientific services at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C.
"These short term fluctuations are statistically insignificant (and) entirely due to natural internal variability," Easterling said in an essay published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters in April. "It's easy to 'cherry pick' a period to reinforce a point of view."
Climate experts say the 1998 record was partly caused by El Nino, a periodic warming of tropical Pacific Ocean waters that affects the climate worldwide.
"The temperature peak in 1998 to a large extent can be attributed to the very strong El Nino event of 1997-98," Bond said. "Temperatures for the globe as a whole tend to be higher during El Nino, and particularly events as intense as that one."
El Nino is returning this summer after a four-year absence and is expected to hang around until late next year.
"If El Nino continues to strengthen as projected, expect more (high temperature) records to fall," said Thomas Karl, who's the director of the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville.
"At least half of the years after 2009 will be warmer than 1998, the warmest year currently on record," predicted Jeff Knight, a climate variability expert at the Hadley Centre in England.
John Christy, the director of the Earth System Science Center at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, who often sides with the skeptics, agreed that the recent cooling won't last.
"The atmosphere is just now feeling the bump in tropical Pacific temperatures related to El Nino," Christy said in an e-mail. As a result, July experienced "the largest one-month jump in our 31-year record of global satellite temperatures. We should see a warmer 2009-2010 due to El Nino."
Christy added, however: "Our ignorance of the climate system is still enormous, and our policy makers need to know that . . . We really don't know much about what causes multi-year changes like this."
In addition to newspaper ads, the Heartland Institute sponsors conferences, books, papers, videos and Web sites arguing its case against the global warming threat.
The skeptics include scientists such as Richard Lindzen, a meteorologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who thinks that climate science is too uncertain to justify drastic measures to control CO2. He calls the case for action against global warming "silly" and "grotesque."
Others go further. For example, Don Easterbrook, a geologist at Western Washington University in Bellingham, thinks the world is in a 30-year cooling phase.
"The most recent global warming that began in 1977 is over, and the Earth has entered a new phase of global cooling," Easterbrook said in a talk to the American Geophysical Union's annual meeting in San Francisco in December.
Government scientists strongly disagree. "Claims that global warming is not occurring . . . ignore this natural variability and are misleading," said NOAA's Easterling.
In reality, global warming "never ceased," said Karl, the climate data center director.
#1
This data, here - this is significant. That data, over there, that's trivial.
See how simple it is, students?
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/21/2009 6:00 Comments ||
Top||
#2
"The preponderance of evidence is that global warming will resume,"
The preponderance of evidence is that the models you used to project global warming with are fatally flawed. With that FACT, the argument is solely based upon emotion not science.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Passenger takes it all off, plane turns around
DENVER The death toll from a Black Hawk helicopter crash on a Colorado mountain rose to four on Thursday after an accident that highlighted the dangers of high-altitude Special Operations training exercises.
Leaders of the nation's largest Lutheran denomination began a civil but tense debate here on Thursday on whether to ordain gay men and lesbians, an issue that is likely to come to a vote on Friday. 
On Wednesday, it approved a social statement calling on Evangelical Lutheran Church in America congregations to "welcome, care for, and support same-gender couples." The social statement, which required a two-thirds majority, passed by one vote, stunning delegates. "I'm sick to my stomach," said the Rev. Rich Mahan from Charleston, W.Va., who opposes the policy on gay ordination and suspects it will pass. If it does, Mr. Mahan said many of his parishioners are prepared to leave the church, and he might do the same. "I do not believe that our church can condone what God has condemned," he said. "The other side has not proven it by Scripture."
