Republican City Councilman Dan Halloran was never a leader on the New York City Council. In fact, he was best known for making false claims about city snow plow drivers purposely slowing down their work.
Fortunately his reputation as a liar was recently superseded by revelations that he accepted bribes in an effort to get Democratic State Senator Malcom Smith on the Republican ticket for Mayor.
But now he can be best remembered for something else: Halloran was voluntarily tied to a tree and flogged 11 times with a leather belt by the leaders of his pagan sect as punishment for an "undisclosed act" against a female "thrall" (probationary servant, in non-pagan-Religion-terms).
We already penned an ode to Halloran, the, "mighty chief, and the First Atheling of New Normandy, a Theodish tribe of pagans living on Long Island."
But according to the New York Post, Halloran's involvement with the religion was deeper than we ever knew.
In addition to being flogged as punishment, the Post reveals that Halloran once tried to start his own sect of Theodism and attract followers away from the main group. In order to do that, he had to battle another member of the group, which involved throwing 7-foot-long tree spears at each other.
Halloran was also a Theo-deviant in other ways. He allegedly attempted to skip the crucial Theodic ritual of being a slave for a year, going through boot camp, "studying Nordic poetry, chopping wood and serving beer."
According to other followers, Halloran, "was building a voting block to take over the higher leadership." He thought he had enough power to skip some steps on the ladder. That didn't work. Maybe bribes would've been more effective.