From The Times [the real one in London, you’ve seen their font]:

Christians in the Middle East are being put at unprecedented risk by the Government’s “shortsighted” and “ignorant” policy in Iraq, The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, says today.

[snip]

Dr Williams, writing in today’s Times, says that one prediction that was systematically ignored was that Western military action would put the whole of the Middle East’s Christian population at risk.

[snip]

Dr Williams, who is visiting Israel with Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, Archbishop of Westminster, Bishop Nathan Hovhannisian, the Armenian Primate of Britain and David Coffey, the head of the Baptist World Alliance, returns to Britain today with a call for all British churches to take action to raise the profile of Christians in the Middle East. Dr Williams said yesterday that the Israeli-built wall around Bethlehem symbolised what was “deeply wrong in the human heart”.

The little town of Bethlehem was a majority Christian location until the last decade. After centuries surrounded by Muslims, Christian families have left because there is no longer anyway to make a living in the town. Once an important destination for pilgrims and tourists, the quest for “security” has made it extremely difficult reach.

I guess the Archbishop is another “hippie” who can’t be trusted because he was right.

Yes, today was the celebration of the very untraditional Festivus.

If you celebrate I hope all of your grievances were aired and the airing did not involve the Festivus pole being used in an inappropriate fashion.

I generally listen to The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at the chapel of King’s College, Cambridge every year, but there is no way I would wait 32 hours in line to see it in person.

It is a very nice traditional service that embodies the Christmas season, but I can’t believe someone had 32 hours available at Christmas to wait outside in a Cambridge winter.