So I guess y'all saw that some German kid went all -Columbine and shot about seventeen of his classmates. Am I the only one out there who breathed a sigh of relief when they heard the story and found out it wasn't in the U.S? And am I the only one who kind of enjoyed the fact that it happened in Germany, one of those snooty European countries that's spent the better part of a decade tutt-tutting about American society?

Didn't think so.

Also found this great story in the Chron today. More fun with the Catholic Church.

Since the story is funny in and of itself, I think I'll just reprint some of the better lines. It's a story about a wayward, child molesting priest who tried to blackmail the Archi-Diosece to save his own skin.

The latest round of documents released by the Roman Catholic archdiocese here shows that a priest accused of pedophilia who was shipped from Boston to California once tried to blackmail a cardinal...In a letter, Shanley threatened to go to the media with allegations of homosexuality in the archdiocesan seminary."

In rambling diary entries found in the newly released documents, Shanley describes signing up at the local venereal disease clinic whenever he moved to a new city, "for help with my VD.

Church officials in Boston approved Shanley's transfer in 1991 to San Bernardino. With another priest from Boston as his partner, Shanley also owned and operated a Palm Springs inn that was popular with a gay clientele.

But wait, it gets better. As if the VD part wasn't good enough, comes this revelation:

A first set of documents made public earlier this month established that church officials in Boston were aware of sexual abuse allegations against Shanley and knew he was present at a meeting of an organization that became the North American Man-Boy Love Association, or NAMBLA.

Umm, shouldn't the membership in NAMBLA be some sort of clue that maybe, just maybe this isn't the kind of guy who should be around little kids? Hello? Bueller?

And gotta love any story about a priest dealing with VD. Wonder how he got that, being celibate and all.

I'm so happy I'm not Catholic right now.....