The Church of Henry VIII's Divorces
Okay, I do not at all understand what the problem is here. Hyperlink. The various Anglican and Episcopal churches around the world already permit female ministers; so, what's the problem with allowing female bishops? Make no mistake, I am absolutely opposed to the ordination of women, but once you have taken the step of ordaining women as priests, how can you possibly object to making them bishops? I felt the same confusion over the election of Gene Robinson as the bishop of New Hampshire; Robinson, if you'll recall, is gay. I oppose the ordination of openly and actively gay men as priests, but once they are allowed to be men of the cloth, as in the Anglican Communion, what possible sense does it make to prohibit a homosexual from becoming a bishop? Then again, the Churfhc of England was founded on the contradiction of allowing King Henry VIII to divorce Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn; that makes about as much sense as allowing women to be priests and denying them the right to be bishops. Silly Protestants.

In Cold Blood
It is not my intention to seem a heartless monster, but when contemplating the horrific murders in London it is useful to remind oneself that al Qaeda's spectacular, high profile acts of terrorism are increasingly in their lethality. The coordination needed to launch the attack on the Underground is a far cry from the complexity of 9/11's "Planes Operation" or the disrupted "Bojinka" plot to simultaneously blow up several trans-Pacific airliners from the mid-90s.

September 11, 2001 - New York; Washington, DC; & Pennsylvania, USA - 2,986 dead

October 12, 2002 - Bali, Indonesia - 212 dead

March 11, 2004 - Madrid, Spain - 191 dead

July 7, 2005 - London, United Kingdom - approximately 52 dead

Al Qaeda is deadly and ruthless and would not hesitate to stage another massive 9/11-style attack were they able, nor would they shy away from using weapons of mass destruction were they to acquire them. But, as Prime Minister Blair reminded us, "the purpose of terrorism... is to terrorize." We must remind ourselves that liberal democracy has defeated the medieval divine right of kings, slavery, militarism, fascism, and communism. We shall defeat Islamist jihadism, as well. We need only stay the course and declare that though the terrorists can kill us, we will not allow them to frighten us.