Link roundup for 1 January 2008

Here's a fun nativity scene (click to enlarge) and holiday greeting.

Christians in the Holy Land celebrate the season in their own way.

Check out these ice sculptures.

Nosferatu!

Sadly No has been doing a whole series of postings about Jonah Goldberg's book Liberal Fascism (which sounds preposterous, though I can't say for sure since I haven't read it). Here's the best one, addressing the perennial myth that Nazism was somehow an expression of homosexuality.

Exit Zero presents the wedding photo of the year.

Here's something very rare: an opinion poll of Saudi Arabian citizens. The most prominent result is also the least surprising -- Saudi Arabians really, really don't like Jews. The most surprising -- until you think about it a bit -- is that almost 40% of Saudi citizens favor military action to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons.

Months ago I linked to the great video of the song "Open Season" by Stuck Mojo. Here's an extended remix, with plenty of arresting and didactic visuals added. Stuck Mojo's original video is here.

Christopher Hitchens assesses Benazir Bhutto, and Phyllis Chesler puts her murder in the context of the war on women in Pakistan.

More Hitchens: he's scathing about the undemocratic character of the Iowa caucus process, and he appears with Bill Maher here.

Oderint dum metuant: according to Gallup, Hillary Clinton is the Democrat whom Republicans most fear. E. J. Dionne looks at the looming "civil war" among Republicans.

This article says that the Anglican Church has lost its dominant position in Britain to the Catholic Church, in the sense that the average attendance at Anglican religious services has now fallen slightly lower than at Catholic ones. But clearly the real story here is how low the figures are in absolute terms. Average attendance at Catholic Sunday Mass was 861,000, while that at Anglican services was 852,000 -- in a nation of sixty million. (The figures may be for England rather than the whole of Britain, but even England has over fifty million people.) I don't know how many British people are self-acknowledged atheists, but true believers are clearly a small minority now.

You Made Me Say It blog has plenty to say about this "creepy archbishop" and about some Christians' Christmas spirit.

Deeply Blasphemous debunks the delusion that science and religion are not in conflict.

Orcinus views the poisoned fruits of "free-trade fundamentalism".

Arizona's tough new employer-sanctions law to discourage illegal immigration has been upheld. And it's working.

Scientists at MIT have taken an important step toward artificial capillaries.