Soul’s Code

Freud was raised in Vienna, Austria — and died in London.Jung was born in Switzerland three decades later, died in Switzerland two weeks after the outbreak of WWII.

Who can America claim as a founding father of modern pscyh? James Hillman is probably the best candidate: born in New Jersey, intellectually-bred by Jung — and still breathing.

Hillman is using his incredible cred to boost Obama — and carpet-bomb Hillary.

We can see and hear thousands of angry demonstrators jamming San Francisco’s financial district and waterfront along its famous bay as we write this. It’s a miraculous outpouring of support for the Dalai Lama, and his campaign to reclaim Tibetan self-rule — and his homeland’s status as a sanctuary for Buddhist practice. The heat of what’s happening outside has been ratcheted up several orders of magnitude by . . .

The subliminal message of a Hollywood CGI popcorn movie about the Battle of Thermopylae: George Bush II and Dick Cheney do not walk the talk, in terms of personal sacrifice

300 | Originally uploaded by Ghostdiver.

BY BRIAN CAULFIELD — How hungry are Americans for inspired leadership? To the point that Time Warner has made a movie about a 2500-year old Greek king who fought to the death with his soldiers. It’s the No. 1 movie in America as of this weekend. Unreal.

Imagine George W. Bush or Dick Cheney donning combat gear and personally leading our troops to war. Against impossible odds. And not for oil.

These are two men who have rarely sacrificed a thing in their lives — except for the lives of others. The truly heroic warrior is a figure who has the courage to fight but the cunning to win while avoiding battle.

You, me and (Spitzer’s) Dupree: Was Ashley Alexandra a victim?

BY PAUL KAIHLA — Alan Dershowitz, who was one of Eliot Spitzer’s law professors at Harvard, told CNN the day before the governor announced his resignation that the media and public were blowing this sex scandal way out of proportion — and that it constituted a “victimless crime”:

“Remember, the corruption (Spitzer) fought was mostly corruption with victims,” he said. “People who were corrupting Wall Street, violent crimes, organized crimes. This is the personification of a victimless crime — a 30-something-year-old prostitute making $5,000 an hour. That is not a victim.”

Well, now we know that Spitzer’s main sexcort was young enough to be his daughter: Ashley Alexandra Dupre, 22 was forced out of a “broken home” in New Jersey at 17 by abuse, then lived in five different states and suffered a drug addiction before landing a gig with a New York sex service.

Did the circumstances that the universe dealt Ashley, and the grey-matter she was born with upstairs, set her up for exploitation?

Day of atonement for Eliot Spitzer: A post-resignation spiritual recovery program for Client 9

BY PAUL KAIHLA — Why did Governor Eliot Spitzer, of all the high-minded and high-and-mighty, blow a reported $15K over the past eight months to have sex with high-priced call girls young enough to be his daughters?

Even after the one-time, law and order freak caved to demands for his resignation on March 12, people can’t get over this question. Our best depth-psychology reading . . .

Little did the New York governor know at the time but another Democrat with presidential ambitions, John Edwards, would later make this moment of public shame seem quaint

BY PAUL KAIHLA — It fits the spiritual season we’re in — the last week of Lent — that New York Governor Eliot Spitzer made a public contrition a few hours ago for cheating on his wife (woman, left) with prostitutes.

Ego-eviscerating confessions like this usually take place in private between a sinner and his or her rabbi or priest, not the national press corps: I apologize first, and most importantly, to my family. I apologize to the public, to whom I promised better.

To elaborate James Carville’s words on CNN a few moments ago, we’re here not to judge but to advance the causes of forgiveness, redemption and transformation — and that’s not just because Spitzer was listed as Client No. 9 . . .

Governor Spitzer: From Eliott Ness to Eliott Mess

BY PAUL KAIHLA — Eliott Spitzer made a national reputation as a crime-busting reformer in the mold of Prohibition-era FBI agents like Eliott Ness, a.k.a. the “Untouchables.” But today, the New York Governor was caught in a wiretap of a high-class hooker syndicate.

Spitzer is urbane, witty, and he had credible presidential aspirations. He also happens to have a wife of 21 years (woman on left), and three teenaged kids.

Still chuckling over the Pat Robertson’s leg-press press flap.

Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee figured out the grace of the Blind Side

BY PAUL KAIHLA — There is a crisis in America. That crisis is divorce. It is easier to get out of a marriage than (to get out of a) contract to buy a used car.
– Mike Huckabee

Another governor of Arkansas is always running for president — this time, a Republican. Incredibly, Mike Huckabee was even born in the same small town as Bill Clinton (Hope, Ark.). And Huckabee also has a marriage problem, although his isn’t personal. It’s policy.

WDAD? (What Did AMERICA Do?) | Originally uploaded by silki.

In a piece in this week’s New York Times Magazine headed, “With God On Our Side,” the fearless historian Gary Wills illustrates just how deeply religion has permeated the White House, for better of for worse.

Founding father James Madison and Enlightenment-devotee would be taken aback by the degree to which religion gets ”cognized” and empiricized in, say, Karl Rove’s Rolodex.

The nation’s executive mansion is currently honeycombed with prayer groups and Bible study cells, like a whited monastery. A sly dig there goes, ”Missed you at Bible study,” as David Frum, a Jewish Canadian who worked for Bush as speechwriter, reported in ”The Right Man.” A line from the book: “Bible study was, if not compulsory, not quite uncompulsory, either.”

White House etiquette tip: Friends going to intimate dinners with the Bushes should be prepared to lead grace before dining.

The question, then, is that if our government truly is filled with Christians, why, then, does it so often act with so little mercy and compassion? The White House may be religious. But is it genuinely spiritual?