Sweltering Heat Wave Continues Setting Record Highs

For residents and tourists here on the East Coast, if you thought the month of June was hot or even earlier July, then get a load out of how the heat continues to swelter the deep south.

Some of the cities setting breaking records this past weekend include:  Washington, DC 101,  Baltimore 100,  Richmond 105,  Philadelphia 97,  Newark 99,  Atlantic City 99,  New York City 97 and Raleigh 100.

Thanks to a combination of global warming and an ocean-warming El Niño event, 2010 is set to become one of the hottest years ever recorded!

Brazilian Model Arthur Sales to Go 3-D for Armani Exchange

Armani Exchange goes to another Brazilian top model, Arthur Sales (photo above right & new 3D ad below. see our previous article - Arthur Sales Our Gorgeous Boy of the Day) for their upcoming Fall Winter 2010-11 in the first image to appear on the net campaign is set to appear in 3D at the official website anytime now.

Elton John: 'So what's the fuck up with these people?'

Performing this past Thursday night in Tucson, Arizona superstar Elton John snubbed a boycott of Arizona,

"We are all very pleased to be playing in Arizona. I have read that some of the artists won't come here. They are fuckwits! Let's face it: I still play in California, and as a gay man I have no legal rights whatsoever. So what's the fuck up with these people?" - Elton John, speaking from the stage at Thursday's concert in Tucson

The 63-year-old singer-songwriter drew the ire of gay rights groups last month when he accepted a $1 million paycheck for performing at the wedding of Rush Limbaugh, who has a long track record of demeaning minorities, including the LGBT community. John entered a civil partnership in the UK with filmmaker David Furnish in 2005.

Ted Haggard: 'I Over-Repented' For My Meth-Gay Prostitute 'Crisis'

Rev. Ted Haggard has been leading his own new church for the past few months, and in a Wall Street Journal profile says he thinks he "over-repented" for an affair with a male prostitute, which he refers to as "my crisis." He also insists he's not gay -- and that his affair was just a massage gone wrong. The profile describes Haggard's new backyard barn church, which features bags of cement and a pulpit made of buckets. Haggard, who announced his new St. James Church in June, told the Journal:

"Tiger Woods needs to golf. Michael Vick needs to be playing football. Ted Haggard needs to be leading a church."

Haggard was founder and leader of the powerful evangelical New Life Church, before he was forced to resign in 2006 after he admitted to buying meth from a male prostitute, with whom he also had an affair. As recently as November 2008, Haggard's former friends in the New Life church expressed skepticism regarding Haggard's ability to lead, releasing a statement saying that "we cannot endorse his return to vocational ministry."

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Tags: Arizona, Armani, Arthur Sales., Elton John, Ted Haggard, weather

Disgraced former pastor Ted Haggard and his wife talked to Larry King Thursday night.  Haggard was the pastor of a MEGA church and admitted to “sexual immorality” with a male prostitute and to buying drugs!  Ted Haggard gave his story to Larry King in a live, primetime exclusive. Catch the complete video of the show below and we are also adding several comments from the viewers below. After you watch this 31 minute video leave your comments below, we would like to hear them.

"Larry King Live" is CNN's longest-running interview program. Premiering in June 1985 with its now-famous mix of interviews and topical discussions, the show features guests from across the gamut of business, entertainment and politics. Across the nation and around the world, viewers have made "Larry King Live" a part of their nightly television routine. Telecast each weeknight at 9 p.m. ET, the program also features phone calls, e-mails and web cam questions from viewers around the globe. CNN's "Larry King Weekend" airs every Saturday and Sunday at 9 p.m. ET.

HERE IS SEVERAL COMMENTS LEFT ON LARRY'S BLOG ABOUT THURSDAY'S INTERVIEW WITH PASTOR TED

I want to hear him apologize to gay people for making them feel like they are demons by referring to homosexuality as “darkness.” The reason he is in darkness is because he is working so hard to repress who he really is. As a gay man I never feel like I am leading a dark life; I am well-adjusted and happy with myself. Ted clearly hates himself. You can see it in the smile he plasters on his face.

Homosexuals who are true to themselves have not sinned. The sin is the lie. Homosexuals lead healthy, full lives. We are great teachers, parents and contributors to society. The myth that homosexuality is an illness serves only the narrow-mindedness of our culture. Mr. Haggard is an example of the judgement that gay culture has had to endure that is not based on the truth of our lives but on the Christian belief that we are “less than” those who are straight. We should not be judged by the limited standards of straight culture. We have much to offer to society. It is a shame that Mr. Haggard is unable to allow that side of himselt to be part of being a child of God.

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Tags: Larry King, Ted Haggard

22-year-old Grant Haas says that all he wanted out of Ted Haggard was a pastor and a friend, but that the preacher would expose himself, ask Haas to procure porn and share his fantasies about getting high on meth and getting busy with him. Haas had been kicked out of the Moody Bible Institute because of his homosexuality, and when Haas told Haggard this fact, "his whole attitude towards me changed." The church eventually paid him $180,000 to keep quiet, he told his story to Denver's News Channel 13.

"He could be the nice 50-year-old pastor who's godly, and the next minute he's this horny 16-year-old boy," he said. "I never knew what I was going to get, and part of me hoped the 16-year-old horny boy would go away and the Ted Haggard I knew -- that I started my relationship off with -- would come back."

Their alleged hotel-room encounter occurred in July 2006, in the mountain town of Cripple Creek, Colorado, during a church trip Haas said started off "comfortable at first." They went to a show, then went back to the room Haggard had rented with a single bed, Haas said.

In my own plundering of this story, Grant and I are friends on MySpace and our very own BoyShout, where he claims he is 25 years old there. I'm a little confused about this, but Grant messaged me and said his age as reported by the media is an error. So I'll take Grant's word for that. You can visit Grant on BoyShout and also on MySpace.

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Tags: Grant Haas, meth, Ted Haggard

A  megachurch paid a 20-year-old man to keep silent about a sexual relationship he had with disgraced evangelical pastor Ted Haggard, a senior church pastor said. Haggard denies the new accusation. Haggard, who was fired amid allegations that he used drugs and patronized a male prostitute in 2006, had a sexual relationship with a second man -- a 20-year-old volunteer at his megachurch, the Rev. Brady Boyd, a senior pastor at the church, said Monday.

The church agreed to pay the man in exchange for his pledges not to talk publicly about the relationship, Boyd said, referring to a settlement reached by the man's lawyer and the church's insurance company. Under the settlement, the church provided the man money to pay his college tuition, moving expenses and counseling, Boyd said.

"This was compassionate assistance. It was to help him move forward, not a settlement to keep him quiet," said Boyd, senior pastor at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Haggard denied the new accusation of a sexual relationship.

In a statement provided to CNN via HBO, Haggard said he had met with his wife, the 20-year-old and a church overseer to ask the 20-year-old's "forgiveness for our inappropriate relationship. Prior to that time, I discussed it with my wife, my therapist and our children.

"Although there was no physical contact, I have regretted my irresponsible behavior. Once again, I ask (the 20-year-old) for his forgiveness, as well as the people of the church."

The film, described as a "cautionary tale of appearance versus reality" and directed by Alexandra Pelosi (daughter of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi), is scheduled to debut on HBO and HBO Latino at 11 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 29. It will air 25 times on HBO, HBO2 and HBO Latino through March 1. See hbo.com for a complete schedule. — MC

Though HBO contends that Haggard was not paid to be in the documentary, Haggard confirmed that he is being paid to promote it. Since Jan. 9, Haggard has given dozens of media interviews; on Thursday he is scheduled to appear on "Larry King Live." - MC

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Tags: prostitute, Ted Haggard

Ted Haggard, the disgraced former pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, describes the upcoming HBO documentary about the aftermath of his 2006 sex and drug scandal as "even-handed."  "The Trials of Ted Haggard," by filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi, follows the exiled ex-minister in Arizona, moving from apartment to apartment, leafleting neighborhoods for money, trying unsuccessfully to get minimum-wage jobs and praying in the desert. Haggard and his family have been back in Colorado Springs since June.

"It is a sad story," he said. "I made myself sad; I made everybody that loves me sad."

Since Mike Jones, a male prostitute in Denver, exposed Haggard as a regular client, "my process has been very complex and very confusing." After much therapy and prayer, he does not think of himself as bisexual, Haggard said.

"I think of myself as a heterosexual but with issues," he said. "Those labels just don't work, and from the research, they don't work for most people. The boxes don't work for me," he said. "People are people. We're a mess."

Pelosi hopes viewers won't obsess about Haggard's sexuality. "I'm not that interested in Ted's sex life," she said. "This is a story about redemption and forgiveness."

Haggard said he is grateful Jones went public with his story: "If he hadn't, I could have become a hopeless drug addict."

Haggard is selling insurance and remains in significant debt. He plans to appear on "Larry King Live" on Jan. 29, the night the documentary premieres on HBO. During his worst times, he said, those who were most attentive were the filmmakers, Barbara Walters ("she wrote loving e-mails") and CNN's King. After viewing the film, "some people will conclude correctly that I deserve what I got. Others will say that's enough, move on."

Haggard said Pelosi - the daughter of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi - handled his story "journalistically." He met the filmmaker during production of 2007's "Friends of God: A Road Trip with Alexandra Pelosi," in which Haggard appeared.  Watching his life fall apart in the new documentary was embarrassing, Haggard said. "I'd never seen the news footage of the (church) overseers" discussing the scandal.  New Life's current pastor, the Rev. Brady Boyd, last month released Haggard from the contract that stipulated he could speak publicly only outside a 100-mile radius of New Life Church. Now that he's free to accept speaking invitations, Haggard said, "my guess is the church is not going to be real excited about me."

Boyd said Friday he's had two lengthy meeting with the Haggards in the past month hoping to "bring some healing and perspective to the hurt they experienced and the hurt New Life experienced.  It's early in the process, Boyd said, but perhaps badly damaged relationships can be restored. He's asked his congregation to continue praying for the Haggards.

Haggard lives a mile from the church, Boyd said, and the he doesn't rule out future church membership Haggard. However, Haggard will not be serving at New Life in any leadership capacity, Boyd said.  "I wasn't here when the decisions about Haggard were made," Boyd said, but knowing the people involved, he believes "they desired only to be gracious and generous."

The chuch trustees, elders and pastor teamand the overseers of Haggard's "spiritual restoration" commited more than $300,000 to the Haggard family, including 13 months of salary for Ted and Gayle, a pickup truck, counseling, health insurance, moving expenses and care for "special-needs" son Jonathan Haggard.

"I also believe that New Life is one of the most forgiving congregations I have every met," Boyd said in an online message to his congregation. "Our recent history is one of tragedy, but also of tremendous forgiveness and grace. You have always chosen love over hate and forgiveness over bitterness."

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Tags: HBO, Mike Jones, prostitute, Ted Haggard

Ted Haggard, the disgraced megachurch leader whose outing as a meth-snorting Big Gay embarrassed the Christian Right just prior to the 2006 midterm elections, has agreed to promote an HBO documentary about his rise and fall.  The documentary, "The Trials of Ted Haggard," was shot by Alexandra Pelosi, who earlier made an HBO documentary "Friends of God," which also featured Haggard. The film is scheduled to air on HBO next month.  

Then the 50-year-old president of the National Association of Evangelicals and a symbol of the relationship between the Christian Right and the Republican Party, Haggard was outed by the male prostitute whom he had patronized and bought drugs from over several years in Colorado. His very public fall, coming just days before the 2006 election, was preceded a month earlier by the fall of Mark Foley, and marked the beginning of the end of Republican domination of electoral politics in the U.S. for several years.

Haggard startled observers earlier this fall by appearing in the pulpit of a rural Illinois megachurch as a "Christian businessman" talking of his rise an fall as a star of the conservative Christian Evangelical movement. 

In my opinion, these actions show Haggard to be a media whore who misses the public spotlight very badly, and who, like the hapless people who appear on mock court television shows, will do anything to be on television.

RELATED READING

Haggard Breaks Silence

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Tags: christian, church, HBO, prostitute, Ted Haggard

Ted Haggard, the disgraced former evangelical leader, recently broke his silence on the second anniversary of the scandal that brought him down. He gave a pair of sermons at a small church in Illinois where the pastor is an old friend of his.

"The first thing I want you to know is I sinned," Haggard began. Haggard's comments were quite revealing. They were recorded on audiotape and put on the Internet at www.tedhaggard.com. Haggard told the congregation that a sexual incident with a man when he was 7 years old may be related to the scandal involving a male prostitute and crystal meth use that cost him his job two years ago. "My dad was pretty successful," Haggard said. "He had a lot of workers. One of those workers had a sexual experience with me. I was 7 years old." Haggard said that incident stayed with him throughout his life.

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Tags: child abuse, escorts, Ted Haggard