Krampus take the Horrid Children for the Holidays

More about this guy in a second.  Happy Yule to you!  Focus around the Midwinter Solstice has only recently fallen on the infant Messiah of the Christians.  Eons before the wriggling manger monkey cooed his way into the hearts and minds of the estimated 2.1 Billion Christians on this planet, the darkest day in the Northern Hemisphere was celebrated in many ways by many peoples.

Yule, originally giuli signified a 60-day tide beginning at the lunar midwinter of the late Scandinavian Norse and Germanic tribes.  Juletid came to refer to the midwinter celebrations.

My personal favorite tradition comes from some Early Germans (500–1000 CE)  who considered the Norse goddess, Hertha or Bertha to be the goddess of light, domesticity and the home. They baked yeast cakes shaped like shoes, which were called Hertha's slippers, and filled them with gifts. . .

"During the Winter Solstice houses were decked with fir and evergreens to welcome her coming. When the family and serfs were gathered to dine, a great altar of flat stones was erected and here a fire of fir boughs was laid. Hertha descended through the smoke, guiding those who were wise in saga lore to foretell the fortunes of those persons at the feast"

But here's the really great part. Krampus.  In these legends, before the benign cocoa and smiling coming of the happy gods, the KRAMPUS came to take the horrid children away.  You have not celebrated the holiday season if you have not gone to Salzburg during the midwinter and been subject to these creatures -- hired by the city -- who come stomping into squares, bars, restaurants, ANYWHERE public, and actually flog men, women and children with their whips.  It is terrifying and hilarious.  My friend Scott Jordan was flogged in front of me while I hid another friend Melanie under my table.  She was crying.  It was unforgettable.  He had welts on the back of his legs for a week.  Brilliant.


Oh, and they were right, he HAD been bad.


Happy Holiday!!

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Heroes of PS 8 in Brooklyn!

If these tiny humans get it, why can't all the big ones?

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Cruise Ships and a Sinking Feeling

Let's start with an image.  Ten swimming pools full of human poo. In one week, the average cruise ship, er . . makes and dumps that much poo LEGALLY as close as three nautical miles from US shore!!  

TEN SWIMMING POOLS OF POOP.  (210,000 gallons)

Add to that 40 swimming pools full of grey water (showers, sinks, laundry, kitchens, bars).  

IN ONE WEEK!! 

Detergents and all! (including perchloroethylene from drycleaning, photo-processing wastes, paint waste, solvents, print shop wastes, fluorescent light bulbs, and batteries) 

50 tons of garbage, glass, paper, cardboard, aluminium and steel cans, and plastics. -- tossed right overboard.

35,000 gallons of oil-contaminated water -- these ships take in large quantities of ballast water, which is seawater pumped into the hulls of ships to ensure stability. This water is typically taken in at one port and then discharged at the ship's destination, which can introduce invasive species and serious diseases into U.S. waters. A typical release of ballast water amounts to 1,000 metric tons. 

Between 1993 and 1998, there were 87 confirmed illegal discharges from cruise ships in state waters (81 cases involving oil; 6 involving garbage or plastic). An additional 17 “other alleged incidents” were referred to the countries where the cruise ships were registered. The industry paid more than $30 million in fines for violations and three cruise lines were placed on five-year felony probation.

• Royal Caribbean admitted (in 2001) in court that they INSTALLED pipes that bypassed the pollution control devices!!  They paid 33.5 MILLION.
• In April 2002, Carnival Corporation pleaded guilty to falsifying records to cover up pollution by six ships over several years. They were assessed an $18 million fine
  

IN ADDITION to the water pollution, cruise ships are a hazard to the air we breathe.  They emit particulates that cause health problems like athsma, as well as more heat-trapping carbon dioxide per passenger mile than aircraft.  Most cruise ships burn bunker fuel, which is 1,000 times dirtier than the fuel burned in diesel trucks. While at port, the main engines are turned off, and diesel engines are revved to sustain refrigeration, electricity, pumps . . . demanding that on-board power come from port electric could instantly make a difference.

What to do?

DON'T GO ON A CRUISE.

or

If you must imprison yourself on one of these floating fecal vessels, investigate the cruise line to be sure their ships do not have a record of pollution. If you are on a cruise ship and observe any dumping of plastic or hazardous materials to sea, you should report it to the National Response Center at 1-800-424-8802. 

This is what you're protecting.

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DO NOT BUY IT!! I'm mad as hell.

Keith does it again. Amazing. Please watch in it's entirety and SHARE!!

"You have just agreed to purchase a product. If you do not, you will be breaking the law and subject to a fine. You have no control over how much you will pay for the product. The government will have virtually no control over how much the company will charge for the product. "

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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Horrible news from the Healthcare Debate

Some horrible news for the fight for logical, moral, feasible healthcare from the Senate. WHERE IS THE PUBLIC OPTION?

"Says Dean: "No, absolutely not. You can't vote for a bill like this in good conscience. It costs too much money. It isn't health care reform. It's not even insurance reform."

"You're going to be forced to buy health insurance from a company that takes, on average, 27% of your money so they can pay CEOs $20 Million a year . . . and thee's no choice about that."

Said Dean on NPR earlier: “This is essentially the collapse of health care reform in the United States Senate. Honestly the best thing to do right now is kill the Senate bill, go back to the House, start the reconciliation process, where you only need 51 votes and it would be a much simpler bill.”"

Somebody tell Joe Leiberman to quit it. This is a disaster.

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It's time for BOROUGH QUIZ! [gong!]

Sights, Blights, and Hi-lights from NYC's fantastic five.
 
New York City has miles and miles of waterfront.  Those familiar with it won't have any trouble guessing which borough is home to this landmark protected pier.  More on it's history and future and the answer at the end of the week!

Picky your borough!

Bronx
Brooklyn
Manhattan
Queens
Staten Island

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37% and rising in Copenhagen!

Under the scrutiny of the world's greenies, Copenhagen is shining brightly as a biker's paradise.

"Tens of thousands of people from nearly every nation on earth have descended on Copenhagen this month for the UN climate summit. As the delegates try to piece together a framework for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, they're also absorbing lessons from one of the world's leading cities in sustainable transportation. In Copenhagen, fully 37 percent of commute trips are made by bike, and mode share among city residents alone is even higher."

Great video HERE. Shows some cool advances like bike counters, innovative lane updates, and the SUV's of Denmark (they're bikes). 

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Senator McCain thinks my job is silly and wants me fired.

Last Wednesday, Senators John McCain and Tom Coburn released a "Stimulus Checkup" report on 100 different "silly or shortsighted" projects throughout the country.  Philadelphia's acclaimed Pig Iron Theatre Company (the very company keeping me off the dole right now) found itself at number 26 in the report for stimulus funding they received through the National Endowment for the Arts that helped to retain one staff position and seven actors' salaries.

"Describing itself as a dance-clown-theatre ensemble, the Pig Iron Theatre in Philadelphia is home to a successful and growing production company that recently landed a $25,000 stimulus grant."

How horrible.  Can you imagine?  The National Endowment for the Arts giving money to a theatre company?  This is unheard of.

I read the report.

$150,000 went to develop the next "generation of football gloves", and 1.2 MILLION was given to turn a barn into the "Museum of man's relationship with the horse."

Nice.

Of course, Fox News jumped on the opportunity to fairly spit the words PIG IRON out of it's snide mouth about four times.  VIDEO HERE.

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Borough Quiz Answer! [drum roll]

IT's QUEENS!!! About a 10 minute walk from my house in Woodside.  The temple is actually in Elmhurst, I think, and I stumbled upon it walking to Target (sigh).  I saw the shining spires above a residential three-story building and re-routed to find out what the heck was sitting atop what looks like a 1940's apartment.  What I found was pretty colorful.  The votes this week were split across all three boroughs, with a tie win for Queens and the Bronx.  So I guess everybody wins.  Sorta.  Stay tuned for next week!

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MTA faces massive cuts - where's Bloomberg?

From the NY Daily news HERE, the same sweeping cuts the MTA threatened before the wimpy bailout earlier this year are back on the schedule including the elimination of the W and Z lines, and the late-night shuttering of stations in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn along the N and R lines.

" Facing a massive budget crisis, the cash-squeezed MTA is moving to implement sweeping service cuts – again – including shutting down dozens of bus routes. Two subway lines also would be wiped off the map and four stations would be shuttered overnight under the plan expected to go before a Metropolitan Transportation Authority committee on Monday. If it sounds familiar, it is. The lineup is the same roster of reductions threatened earlier this year when the MTA was lobbying for a state bailout. The cuts never happened.

But in recent weeks the MTA has been rocked by bad news. The state – struggling with its own budget mess – slashed transit funding by $143 million. And cash from state payroll taxes is coming in about $200 million short of what the state had planned for mass transit. Even with 2010 service cuts, the MTA will have to find other ways to plug the sudden budget gap, sources said.

“We’re not going to rely on anyone else to do anything for us. We’re going to rely on ourselves,” MTA board member Mitchell Pally said."

Bloomberg, who ran on promises of salvaging and fortifying the MTA, has been silent on the topic. Hello Mike? Is this thing on?

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