The R.C. church is in dire need of priests as few men (only men and celibate men at that) are interested in that particular profession. The obvious place to poach priests is the Anglican Church which is, at least in it's High Church manifestation, merely the old Roman Catholic church without the Pope. As Anglican clergy are almost all married, the celibacy requirement is waived for the conversion of Anglican priests into RC priests.

This raises the question of hypocrisy at the heart of the RC notion of priesthood. However, as an Anglican myself, I'm glad to get rid of the buggers in my church who can't choke down the idea of female priests and even gladder if they also subscribe to the Pope's Medieval nonsense about Muslims--who are, far from unreasonable, the people who saved the West by spreading (and adding to) the knowledge of the ancient world, including Greek reason and philosophy along with science, to benighted Christian Europe. And if you want to know just how lacking in reason the Medieval Christian world was, you can do so and have great fun reading Umberto Ecco's, The Name of the Rose. He captures the difference between the Medieval European (and Roman Catholic) mind better than anyone.

Your post today linking to Jane Hamsher was, alone, more than worth my modest contribution to the upkeep of this site. You make my day on a regular basis but this one was a cracker.

I wish the Brits would call their bluff and (a) pull out their personnel from Afghanistan and (b)announce that they won't be sharing any more information on terrorist threats against the USA.

Of course, as the USA has manifestly rejected all intelligence on that subject that the Brits have given them in the last 9 years (like the fallacy of Iraqi WMDs and Niger yellowcake), and as the current president seems bent on going down the same road as his predecessor, it probably wouldn't matter much to them.

I have spent most of my life in "foreign parts" as they say--many "foreign parts." Immediately after the attacks of 9/11, I got an email from an old (now ex-)friend. It said, "Please tell me. Why do they hate us?" I set out the reasons: our overthrowing democratically elected presidents, bombing people who lived in other countries, putting up our flunkeys to rule in our stead in other countries, constantly preaching the joys of democracy while encouraging the opposite and, finally, having our democratic system overturned when the presidency was handed to GWB.

This wasn't rocket science and a large number of Americans who had never been overseas could have said the same. The only contact I had with her after that was so she could sell me a car that was infinitely worse than she claimed. Revenge, I guess, but I was glad to be out of that relationship.

Sam Alito's ethnicity is fine. We Americans all love "Italians" even if we haven't ever met any actual (as opposed to more-or-less descendants of) Italians. We love the Irish, too--Irish-Americans, of course--and drink green beer every March 17.

But, damn it, this is a WOMAN and not of the privileged European immigrant descent but, rather, of Puerto-Rican descent. An actual daughter of the Americas, not of Europe; one whose first language was, perhaps, Spanish--and not the Castillian Spanish of those light-skinned European Spaniards like General Franco, either, but the Spanish of those with the skin of the Mestizo.

This post alone was worth far more than my necessarily modest contribution to Glenn's operation (I'm retired on a small pension). He is an American hero. If any of you haven't contributed to the expense of running this operation, please do.

Those stats are horrifying. As an American, I am ashamed and very glad that my globe-trotting days are over. How sad that our president thinks it's a big joke. What a pitiful excuse for a president he is.

Glenn,

I know that this is pedantic, but your writing suggests that you should know better: "To the contrary" means something like "Notwithstanding," as in "A-G Gonzales to the contrary, torture is both illegal and unconstitutional in the USA." You use the term as synonymous with "On the contrary," which introduces a contrary clause to the one already stated: "A-G Gonzales claims that torture is admissible. On the contrary, torture is forbidden in the 5th ammendment, etc." That's the expression you should be using.

Glenn,

I love your stuff and read it every day, and your language is as excellent as the content--usually. But, please, "most everything" is a really hick aberration unbefitting your usual good style. The word you want here is "almost."

Of course the Israeli government must be allowed to judge its own security needs.

Of course the Venezuelan government must be allowed to judge its own security needs.

Of course the Iranian government must be allowed to judge its own security needs.

Of course the Pakistani government must be allowed to judge its own security needs.

Of course the North Korean government must be allowed to judge its own security needs.

Some English wag in the middle of the 20th century (can't remember who) said the Americans go from juvenility to senility without ever passing through a period of maturity.

The obsession with dividing people into teams and "team loyalty" is part of the reason why Americans are sports obsessed to the point that, if they do look at politics at all, they see it as another Superbowl. Of course one could also say that an engendered school sports obsession is what colors their view of everything else in life. Chicken and egg. But it's something the American media joyfully plays into.