cc` !DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> My Dragon's Lair Sharing is the reason for my being...: August 2007

My Dragon's Lair Sharing is the reason for my being...

Altered and added new content 10-4-07 Important 5-4-07 No longer Child safe because of the links inside sites included here. Adult Humor is posted here. Template errors still. E shows wrong, and Netscape shows mostly correct. Activly learning HTML to correct and improve. Be it fun or serious I hope you enjoy and take away with you what I find to share. LI

Thursday, August 30, 2007

[circletimes] President Bush Apologizes to Roberta Stewart



Veteran Pentacle Quest
It took nearly a decade and the combined efforts of many, including Americans United for Separation of Church and State, but at last the Pentacle, symbol of the Wiccan religion, has been added to the US Department of Veterans Affairs list of emblems of belief that can be included on government-issued markers, headstones, and plaques honoring deceased veterans.

Images of VA-provided markers with pentacles inscribed
To read more about his Life, Dreams, Service, & Sacrafice... About Sgt. Patrick Stewart and His Plaque Meet Sgt. Patrick Stewart and his widow, Roberta

Sgt. Patrick Stewart
Circle Cemetery

Circle Times <circletimes@circlesanctuary.org> wrote:
At midday today, President George W. Bush met by phone with Roberta Stewart, a Wiccan from Nevada and member of Circle Sanctuary. The president apologized to Roberta for her not being invited to the meeting he held in Reno, Nevada on Tuesday with families of Nevada soldiers killed in action.

Reports about Roberta not being invited to this meeting began appearing in the media yesterday and have continued today:
http://www.lahontanvalleynews.com/article/20070830/News/108300034
In the press articles, both Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and Rev. Selena Fox, senior minister of Circle Sanctuary, called for the president to apologize to Roberta Stewart, and to give equal respect to soldiers and their families regardless of their religious orientation.
During the phone call, the president said that he admired Roberta for her spirit and thanked her for accepting his apology. He also offered his condolences for the loss of her husband, Sgt. Patrick Stewart, who was killed in action in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan on September 25, 2005.
Following her phone meeting with the president, Roberta told Selena: "I am thankful that President Bush offered his condolences and his apology. This has helped bring some much needed closure for me regarding this recent issue as well as the struggles I have endured in the Veteran Pentacle Quest seeking to have my husband properly honored."
Both Rev. Fox and Rev. Lynn have expressed their appreciation for the president's phone meeting with Roberta:
Rev. Fox: "I am glad that President Bush provided this support to Roberta -- it has helped remedy this recent problem as well as helped heal the stress that Roberta has endured since her husband was killed in action.
It also is a positive development for Wiccans and other Pagans who are serving and who have served in the US military and their families in the quest for equal respect and equal rights in society."
Rev. Lynn: "The president has done the right thing, and his apology to Stewart should be commended. All veterans of war, regardless of their faith, should be honored and treated with the utmost respect, especially from their commander-in-chief. We are pleased the president recognized his slight of Stewart was wrong."
Americans United for Separation of Church and State has issued a press release commending President Bush for apologizing to Roberta: http://www.au.org
Rev. Lynn interviewed Roberta for his Culture Shocks show shortly after the President apologized to her. The show will broadcast today on radio and on the internet at 5:50 pm Eastern, and will be archived on-line tomorrow -- tune in: http://www.cultureshocks.com
Thanks to everyone who responded to yesterday's Circle Times and sent healing blessings to Roberta and networked on this issue!
Circle Times: Thursday, August 30, 2007

About Sgt. Stewart is found at Circle Sanctary Veteran Pentacle Success (above) http://www.circlesanctuary.org/liberty/veteranpentacle/
Click the upper left link for: Sgt. Patrick Stewart Circle Cemetery
And read his touching story of honor and patiotism.
Life, Dreams, Service, & Sacrafice Of Sgt. Patrick D. Stewart
http://www.circlesanctuary.org/liberty/veteranpentacle/AboutSgtStewart.htm

First Press Release [circletimes] Wiccan War Hero's Widow Snubbed by President Bush
Circle Times: Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Please send healing support to Roberta Stewart.
Please pass this press release below on to others. Thanks!
Wiccan War Hero's Widow Excluded From President Bush's Meeting With Veterans' Families
Rev. Barry Lynn Demands Presidential Apology
On Tuesday, August 28, following an address to the American Legion's national convention in Reno, Nevada, President George W. Bush met with northern Nevada family members of soldiers who have perished in combat.
Roberta Stewart, a Wiccan whose husband, Sgt. Patrick Stewart, was killed in combat in the war in Afghanistan, was not invited.
"I'm upset that I wasn't invited," Roberta said of the meeting. "I think it is because of my faith. I feel like I've been discriminated against again."
In 2006, Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU) sued the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in federal court representing Roberta Stewart; her church, Circle Sanctuary; and others. AU argued that the VA's refusal to recognize the pentacle as a symbol of faith violated the religious liberty rights of Wiccan service members and their families and subverted the separation of church and state.
Earlier this year, the VA settled the lawsuit and finally added the pentacle to its list of religious symbols that are permitted on the gravestones it issues to honor deceased veterans.
"I had hoped that with this settlement, that finally the Executive branch of the federal government was giving equal treatment to Wiccan veterans and their families. However, it seems that the White House is still not doing this, and I find the exclusion of Roberta Stewart from this meeting appalling," said Rev. Selena Fox, senior minister of Circle Sanctuary.
Sgt. Stewart's VA-issued gravestone with pentacle was dedicated on Memorial Day at the church's national cemetery near Barneveld, Wisconsin.
The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United, also condemned Bush's snub of Stewart. "The president should issue an apology to Roberta Stewart," Lynn said. "She stood courageously for religious freedom for all soldiers, and the president was wrong to treat her so shabbily."
During the litigation, AU attorneys unearthed evidence that the VA's refusal to recognize the pentacle may have been motivated by bias toward the Wiccan faith.
It appeared that the VA did not want to recognize the faith, which President Bush has publicly derided in the past.
Lynn said the president's snub of Roberta Stewart smacked of retaliation for her public and successful stand against the administration policy.
"President Bush seems to be continuing a pattern of hostility toward the Wiccan faith," he said. "That's an outrage. America is a nation of great religious diversity, and all public officials, especially the president, have an obligation to serve all of the people. Our Constitution mandates equal treatment of all faiths."
See also these other reports released August 29, 2007:
Las Vegas Review Journal: Wiccan Practitioner's Widow not invited to Bush meeting http://www.lvrj.com/news/9441071.html
KTVN Television: Wiccan Widow Says Wasn't Invited to Meet Pres. Bush http://www.ktvn.com/Global/story.asp?S=7000560
Americans United Protests Presidential Snub of Wiccan War Widow: http://www.au.org/
For further information and interviews contact: (Removed phone #'s)
Roberta Stewart, Rev. Selena Fox, Senior Minister, Circle Sanctuary
Paula Johnson, Media Relations Coordinator, Lady Liberty League
More information about the Veteran Pentacle Quest victory:
http://www.circlesanctuary.org/liberty/veteranpentacle

posted by LadyIrene @ 8/30/2007 08:35:00 PM 0 comments

Study predicts more severe U.S. storms

WASHINGTON - As the world warms, the United States will face more severe thunderstorms with deadly lightning, damaging hail and the potential for tornadoes, a trailblazing study by NASA scientists suggests.

While other research has warned of broad weather changes on a large scale, like more extreme hurricanes and droughts, the new study predicts even smaller events like thunderstorms will be more dangerous because of global warming.

The basic ingredients for whopper U.S. inland storms are likely to be more plentiful in a warmer, moister world, said lead author Tony Del Genio, a NASA research scientist.

And when that happens, watch out.

"The strongest thunderstorms, the strongest severe storms and tornadoes are likely to happen more often and be stronger," Del Genio said in an interview Thursday from his office at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. The paper he co-authored was published online this month in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

Other scientists caution that this area of climate research is too difficult and new for this study to be definitive. But some upcoming studies also point in the same direction.

With a computer model, Del Genio explores an area that most climate scientists have avoided. Simple thunderstorms are too small for their massive models of the world's climate. So Del Genio looked at the forces that combine to make thunderstorms.

A unique combination of geography and weather patterns already makes the United States the world's hottest spot for tornadoes and severe storms in spring and summer. The large land mass that warms on hot days, the contours of the atmosphere's jet stream, the wind coming off the Rocky Mountains and warm moist air coming up from the Gulf of Mexico all combine.

Del Genio's computer model shows global warming will mean more strong updrafts, when the wind moves up and down instead of sideways.

"The consequences of stronger updrafts are more lightning and bigger hail," he said.

On a normal sunny day, updrafts are less than 1 mile per hour. In a big rainstorm that is not severe, it's about 2 mph. In a severe storm they could be 20 to 30 mph. The faster that updraft, the worse the storms.

The Southeast and Midwest lie in the path of most of the most dangerous of these storms.

However, the new study also forecasts danger for the Western United States. It predicts lightning will increase about 6 percent as the amount of carbon dioxide — the chief global warming gas — doubles.

Previous studies have shown that the West will get drier, making it a tinderbox for more wildfires. This study shows that there will be more matches in the form of lightning strikes to start those fires, Del Genio said.

One general benefit of global warming is decreased wind shear, which is the speed of side-to-side wind as the altitude rises, Del Genio said. That would moderate the effects of updrafts.

However, during certain times of the year and under the right conditions in the Midwest and Southeast, wind shear will increase. Combine wind shear and updrafts, and damaging winds result, the scientist said.

Other pending and recent research, especially from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, point in the same general direction, said several scientists who weren't involved in Del Genio's study. But they said research in this area is so new that the NASA study is not the final word.

"It's certainly a plausible result," said Leo Donner, a climate modeling scientist at NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Lab in Princeton, N.J. Donner earlier this year came out with a study predicting more heavy rain as temperatures rise.

Harold Brooks, a top scientist at NOAA's severe storms laboratory in Norman, Okla., has soon-to-be-published studies finding results similar to the new NASA study, especially when it comes to hail. Some of the severe hail that should be increasing could be baseball-sized and come down at 100 mph, "falling like a major league fastball," he said.

He said it's not possible to predict more tornadoes will result from climate change, however.

Jerry Mahlman, who used to be NOAA's top climate model expert, said that a decade ago then-Vice President Al Gore asked if global warming could cause more tornadoes. Then as now, Mahlman said that's something that's just too detailed to derive from complex climate models.

Mahlman, a scientist who has long warned about the dire consequences of global warming, cautions against going overboard on climate change links: "I'm beginning to suspect that global warming is dynamically much less sexy than people want it to be."

By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer 1 hour, 27 minutes ago

On the Net: NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies:

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2007/moist_convection.html

posted by LadyIrene @ 8/30/2007 08:30:00 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Burning Man torched early; artist held

By LISA LEFF, Associated Press Writer Tue Aug 28, 9:27 PM ET

SAN FRANCISCO - Burning Man became Burnt Man four days early on Tuesday, and a San Francisco performance artist was arrested on suspicion of igniting the signature figure of the counterculture festival in the remote Nevada desert. Photo

The early morning fire scorched about 85 percent of the structure, Burning Man spokeswoman Andie Grace said. Event engineers decided it would be best to dismantle it and rebuild a less elaborate version, accomplishing in two days what normally takes weeks so the figure would be finished in time for Saturday night's scheduled burning, she said.

The approximately 40-foot-tall wood and neon structure was supposed to go up in flames in the ceremonial climax of the weeklong annual event. Burning Man, an art, music and performance festival that draws thousands of people, began in San Francisco in 1986 and moved to Nevada's Black Rock Desert in 1990.

Many festival-goers who were awake watching Tuesday's lunar eclipse said they saw a man deliberately ignite the figure at about 3 a.m., Grace said.

"It was in plain sight of many people," she said. "Everyone is looking at it this morning, this big black figure in the sky and that wasn't supposed to burn, saying, 'Now what do we do?'"

No injuries were reported, and the festival's in-house fire department, the Black Rock City Emergency Services Department, extinguished the fire in less than half an hour, Grace said. The fire also damaged part of the Green Man Pavilion, the exhibition space on which the figure was perched, Grace said.

Paul Addis, 35, of San Francisco, was booked into the Pershing County, Nev., jail on suspicion of arson, illegal possession of fireworks, destruction of property and resisting a public officer, according to the sheriff's department. He posted a $25,632 bond, a sheriff's dispatcher said.

Sheriff's officials did not know whether he had a lawyer. No one answered at two phone numbers listed in his name.

Addis is an actor and writer who is active in the San Francisco arts scene and recently portrayed Hunter S. Thompson in a play about the late journalist known for his drug-fueled lifestyle, according to entertainment listings posted on the Internet.

Grace said she assumed the early burn was timed to coincide with the eclipse.

"It's obviously a pretty selfish act, and people are disappointed about that, but spirits overall are pretty high," she said.

On the Net: http://www.burningman.com

posted by LadyIrene @ 8/29/2007 12:53:00 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show

Offered by Weather.com
This event takes place beyond our 10 day forecast period. Use these historical averages to plan for this event.
Daily AverageHighLow
October 2585 °F70 °F
Monthly AverageHighLow
Oct. Precip. 6.44in.86 °F72 °F
SunriseSunset
7:25 AM6:44 PM
From: Thu., Oct. 25, 2007
To: Mon., Oct. 29, 2007
Hours: Thurs.-Sun. 10am-7pm, Mon. 10am-6pm

Broward County Convention Center
1950 Eisenhower Boulevard
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316
(954) 765-5900

Attendance: 100000

Description: Since 1960, the annual boat show is one of the world's largest in-water boat shows featuring over 1,400 boats from around the globe ranging from inflatables to mega yachts over 150 feet in length, specialty tents with engines, electronics and more. Show also takes place at Bahia Mar Yachting Center, Hyatt Regency Pier 66, Swimming Hall of Fame, Marriott Portside Marina and Las Olas Marina.

Featuring: Commercial Vendors, Designated Parking, Handicapped Access, Gate Admission, Public Transportation

Categories: Lifestyle, Outdoor, Hobby/Special Interest, Indoor, Family, Boat

For more information: (954) 764-7642, (800) 940-7642 Fax: (954) 462-4140

posted by LadyIrene @ 8/28/2007 10:58:00 PM 0 comments