Chippshots: Old hatreds - and "Deciders"

Friday, March 21, 2008

Old hatreds - and "Deciders" - persist

In this holy season - and in the 21st century - it's very distressing (to put it mildly) to read that the medieval "blood libel" is alive and well (perhaps that's not the best way of expressing it) and that, just as they did in the 19th century, rival orders of monks are fighting it out for custodianship of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Lovely.

Mr. Bush, meanwhile, with his accustomed sense of nuance and conciliation, extends New Year's greetings to the people of Iran by ratcheting up the rhetoric - and the tension - over Iran's nuclear program. The picture of diplomacy, that man.