I'm hoping someone can provide some insight as to what's fundamentally different about the Java Virtual Machine that allows it to implement threads nicely without the need for a Global Interpreter Lock (GIL), while Python necessitates such an evil.
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Python (the language) doesn't need a GIL (which is why it can perfectly be implemented on JVM [Jython] and .NET [IronPython], and those implementations multithread freely). CPython (the popular implementation) has always used a GIL for ease of coding (esp. the coding of the garbage collection mechanisms) and of integration of non-thread-safe C-coded libraries (there used to be a ton of those around;-).
The Unladen Swallow project, among other ambitious goals, does plan a GIL-free virtual machine for Python -- to quote that site, "In addition, we intend to remove the GIL and fix the state of multithreading in Python. We believe this is possible through the implementation of a more sophisticated GC system, something like IBM's Recycler (Bacon et al, 2001)."