Happy crappy Christians

Norm has been visiting his mum. But he can't stop blogging.

Notes from the Holy Land

While I've been in Israel I haven't had time to do much blogging. Tomorrow I'm travelling back to England, so radio silence is about to set in at normblog. I hope to resume on Thursday. Meanwhile, leaving Israel, I give you a couple of Israel-related links.

1. Here's an item about some happy clappy Christians, evidently unfamiliar with some of the less salubrious aspects of the history of Christianity, teaming up with a group of Jews, evidently unfamiliar with some of the less salubrious aspects of the history of Christianity, to rewrite a few Christmas carols as attacks on Israel.

2. Then, here's a detail from Mumbai:

Asked specifically if he was talking of torture marks, he said: "It was apparent that most of the dead were tortured. What shocked me were the telltale signs showing clearly how the hostages were executed in cold blood," one doctor said.

The other doctor, who had also conducted the post-mortem of the victims, said: "Of all the bodies, the Israeli victims bore the maximum torture marks. It was clear that they were killed on the 26th itself. It was obvious that they were tied up and tortured before they were killed. It was so bad that I do not want to go over the details even in my head again," he said.

Put together a Christmas carol about that, why don't you? (Also here, here and here.)