Diagram of a "no-waste" composting toilet
THE ROAD TO ZERO WASTE MAY LEAD THROUGH THE FLANDERS REGION OF BELGIUM.
By both citizen action and government enforcement, this Dutch-speaking section of Belgium is converting traditional Dutch cleanliness into a program of waste prevention and re-cycling through a multi-pronged movement to encourage source separation for garbage, massive private and corporate composting operations, and even gives “eco-design” awards to school children as part of a campaign to promote manufacturers to create more environmentally-friendly products.
(Truth-Out)
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THE WAR ON CHRISTMAS: AS OLD AS OUR PURITAN ANCESTORS.
In these days, the American Family Association and the Catholic League rage against those individuals and companies that they consider as inadequately respectful of the holiday. But historian Rachel Schnepper notes that the denunciation of Christmas has a long history, extending back to our Puritan forbears who saw the winter celebrations as ungodly and noted the dating of same with the December pagan Saturnalia of displays of “merriment” and other forms of carnal pleasure. So, a little respect please, for those who reject Christmas on principled grounds and not simply the “bah, humbug!” annoyance of an Ebenezer Scrooge that all that “making merry” interferes with his commercial profit.
(New York Times)
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OH LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM IS BECOMING A JEWISH SETTLEMENT SUBURB OF JERUSALEM.
The “squeeze” created by Jewish settlements in the West Bank is felt by the Christian as well as the Palestinian residents of the area. Although East Jerusalem was to be the capital of a Palestinian state, the Israeli government considers all of Jerusalem and its surroundings as “its own,” and maintains walls and checkpoints and settlements in the area that stifle the lives of both Christians and Palestinians.
(The Guardian)
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THE FISCAL CLIFF: WE’LL THINK ABOUT THAT AFTER CHRISTMAS.
Or, more accurately, the move will continue after a brief holiday respite to solve the country’s “fiscal crisis” by cutting social security payments, making some “adjustments” that will ultimately “strengthen” the program. This, according to Rob Urie, is one of the “idiocies” that allow Barack Obama and the forces of labor, liberal, progressives and the Democratic Party who re-elected him to engage in fiscal practices to the benefit of the wealthy and the detriment of the poor. Another idiocy, part of the “debt fix” package that will be unwrapped next year, is the idea that keeping the historically lowest-ever tax rate on the incomes of the wealthy will somehow “create jobs” to the benefit of the working class. Isn’t happening now, why should this “neo-Keynesian” remedy for a weak economy help in the future?
(Counterpunch)
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WHAT DO YOU GIVE A FEMALE JAGUAR FOR CHRISTMAS? HOW ABOUT A BOTTLE OF CALVIN KLEIN OBSESSION?
A jaguar at the Palm Beach zoo gets this present as zoo keepers there operate a program of gift-giving (or maybe gift-ripping) in which the animals exercise their mental capacities in finding ways to unwrap their gifts. In the case of the jaguar, apparently other capacities were activated: it was said she “went wild in her habitat” over her gift of CK Obsession.
(Palm Beach Post)
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Quote of the day…
For the first time in 2,000 years of Christianity in our homeland, the Holy Cities of Bethlehem and Jerusalem have been completely separated by Israeli settlements, racist walls and checkpoints.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, as plans go forward for construction of another large Jewish settlement in Bethlehem.
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