It's always the same: any criticism of Israeli policies brings down a ton of invective. Some of this may be justified but there's always the same poor old straw men:

There's the usual anti-semitic accusations (any criticism I might make of Israel may appear to be nothing more than that, but really, deep down, it's just my ingrained anti-semitism).

Apparently, Iran, or whoever, nuking 6 million Jews would somehow make us happy. How dare anybody suggest that.

The Jews control the banks, the media, etc, as part of some vast Zionist conspiracy. Nobody's suggested this and it would be ridiculous (and anti-semitic) to believe it.

'We' are seeking to deny Jews a home of their own. More nonsense.

I expect you could find people who DO held some of these views but they'd be on the same lunatic fringe as those who think nuking Iran is a good idea.

US agencies have for years been able to eavesdrop every phone call, e-mail and fax, sent anywhere on the planet.

Here in the UK, RAF Menwith Hill in Yorkshire is the US National Security Agency's monitoring station and is one of the 'Echelon' network of such sites throughout the world. The BBC even did a piece on it years ago (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/503224.stm).

So if the US has been able to monitor European communications, then they must also be able to monitor US communications.

If US agencies kidnap and torture, or are responsible for torturing, ANYBODY, then they should be exposed and the perpetrators punished, and if the US government won't do it then a foreign government - like Italy - can do it and that would be fine by me.

The fact that Abu Omar is an Arab and was a potentially dangerous man is irrelevant. Either you condone state sanctioned kidnapping and torture or you don't. And I don't.

And because you can point to other repressive regimes around the world, many of them Arabic, who behave worse than the US, this also is irrelevant. Is the US a liberal democracy or not? Does it believe in freedom and the rule of law? If it does, then there is no place for actions of the kind meted out to Abu Omar and they ahould be shameful to any American. But if Americans accept this behaviour, then where does that leave Americans in the eyes of the world?

I'd never heard of Anne Lamott until today but, judging from this article, I can see why she makes some people's hackles rise.

She gushes on about God - that lost me straight away. In fact, the whole article just rambles on about... what exactly?

Anne Lamott obviously inhabits a very different world to some of us - a world of comfort and privilege where your biggest worries, as you sit in the nail salon, are about your neck and growing old (53? - that's not old).

I tend to agree with some of the letter writers who object to bitter, personal attacks on authors, but they are still open to criticism so, to avoid being rude, let's just say that the likes of this article are not what I subscribe to Salon for.

Any kid who grew up playing cricket (e.g. English, Australian, Indian kids) won't know what you're talking about if you tell him (or her, these days) that the rules are complex. Neither would an American kid about baseball, I presume. It's just a question of terminology and what you grow up playing.

Cricket never caught on in America because there was no tradition of playing it. It's a 19C British Empire export and to this day the cricketing nations are all ex-British Empire.

And, yes, Shashi Tharoor's comments are a bit dim. I don't think you can say that cricket is 'better' than baseball, or vice versa - they're just different games. Although for me, cricket is a 'better' game than baseball because I understand cricket and grew up playing it (and know nothing about baseball). No surprises there.

Salon having a go at Politico is perfectly legitimate provided you accept that Salon will be held to the same standards as it holds others. If you accept that, and I'm sure you do, then I'd say it's your duty to highlight shoddy reporting in the media.

Everybody makes occasional mistakes and provided they're clearly admitted and rectified, that's not a problem. But we know that a lie is half way round the world before the truth has got its boots on so it's very important to the health of American journalism that this sort of journalistic malfeasance is outed by the likes of Tim Grieve and Glenn Greenwald.

So keep up the good work!

It's good to see that so many people are outraged at the thought of imprisoning American citizens without charge or review. But I wish Americans were as outraged at such imprisonment of non-Americans.

This has actually happened and is not just a glint in a Republican's eye.

We heard a couple of days ago that a British resident is to be released from Guantanamo Bay having been held for FIVE YEARS without charge or trial. He is an Iraqi national who has been living in Britain since 1985 when his father was arrested by Saddam Hussein's secret police. A businessman, he was arrested in Gambia in 2002.

It's understandable that Americans are primarily concerned with what's happening in their own country, and rightly protest at infringements to their liberties, but, believe me, it doesn't look good from outside to see that there's one rule for Americans and another for non-Americans.