Soul’s Code

Ashley Judd’s wounded ego; Which pills are recession-proof; and online porn way bigger than The New York Times

Addicted in America: Skyrocketing sales of Oxy and Percocet (Associated Press)

The new book, Dosed: Introducing America’s first psychotropic generation (Salon.com excerpt)

The demand curve for drunks: Vegas anesthesiologist launches mobile IV service (Hangover Heaven)

Up to $500 per detox treatment: “As if we do not know that the proprietary blend is salt water and a few vitamins” (Science 2.0)

HBO’s Girls, E.L. James’ Fifty Shades of Grey, ‘swingles’ and more

The new rage are naughty e-books for mothers in America: The Story of O . . . 2.0 (Maureen Dowd)

HBO’s follow-up to Sex and the City: Recession-era erotica is a mess (New York Times)

They hold the whole 2012 in their hands: Introducing Swingles! (Slate)

From the archives: Where sex meets spirituality (Soul’s Code)

If we are all co-dependents now, what is America’s turn-around? *

BY DAVID RICKEY — Marriages, mortgages, and just-missed connections. In the annals of clinical psychology, the term “Co-Dependence” describes a relationship between 2 people where the well-being of one is perceived as dependent on the well-being of the other.

In other words: “I can’t be happy unless you are happy.” The subconscious subtext: “Your happiness ought to be secondary to my happiness.”

The Eckhart Tolle of Europe meditates on the U.S. Presidential election, and how a politician campaigns as a rich man in a recession

EXCLUSIVE TO SOUL’S CODE: TONY SAMARA  — A couple of days before St. Patrick’s Day, which in our contemporary spirit celebrates the luck of the Irish, U.S. Presidential candidate Mitt Romney was interviewed by Fox News television personality Megyn Kelly.

She asked the Mormon businessman about a string of statements that remind voters he is part of the One Percent of wealthiest Americans:

SOUL’S CODE — On the eve of Willard Mitt Romney’s lock on the Republican presidential nomination, a fellow Mormon and U.S. Senator from Utah (Orrin Hatch) claimed that President Obama’s campaign would use Mitt’s “religion” against him.

But is Mormonism a real religion? In fact, what makes a religion?

One common denominator of the world’s five great faiths is that each was inspired by a figure who achieved enlightenment, or some type of transcendental mental state.

Christians have Christ, Buddhists have the Buddha . . . But the father of the Mormons, Joseph Smith, seems to have simply been mental.

Disagree? See how much you know by clicking the radio buttons below:

A breakout book puts the favorite workout of celebs and the spiritual on the defensive

A disciple of B.K.S. Iyengar says that yoga teachers injure themselves as much as football players: “How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body”  (New York Times)

Recovering yogi Glenn Black: the vast majority of people should give up yoga (Daily Mail)

Five years in the making: The Science of Yoga: Risks and Rewards (Simon & Schuster)

Blowback from the yoga industry: Teachers rally to keep their students (The Daily Beast)

Will the values of our next President be made of the Mormon stuff?

What Mormon and Muslim fundamentalists share in common: Romney vs. Obama (Huffington Post)

Officially outlawed in the 19th Century when Utah joined the United States of America, polygamy makes for great ratings in award-winning 21st C  television. (LA Times)

On Broadway: Mormonism makes a blockbuster musical. (NY Observer)

Web 2.0: some of the hottest lifestyle bloggers are Mormons (Good Magazine)

Massachusetts and JFK redux:  Romney and religion. (Huffington Post)

Political activists on both the left and right project dark times ahead. We present a contrarian upside, spiritually-speaking:

 1.  You can start the year by seeing the Dalai Lama, live (Dateline: Bodh Gaya, India)

2.  The world will have more saints in 2012 (Dateline: Vatican City)

3. The Mayans, the New Agers and the movie were wrong: Why the world did not end on Dec. 21, 2012

4.  The world economy ain’t so bad, after all (Global Insight, the world’s largest economic forecaster)

Christmas politics and high-tech wealth creation

Professor Gingrich needs a history lesson about the Holy Land: “We are Palestinians” (New York Times)

300-member American journalist association: Ranks death of Bin Laden top religion story of 2011

2012 end-times and climate change? A green Christmas in  . . . Ottawa, Canada (Ottawa Citizen)

1-percenter Christmas collateral damage: Foreclosure kills California homeowner’s Peanuts holiday tradition (MSNBC)

If the Old Testament were a reality show: “The Real Housewives of the Book of Samuel”

The Republican nominee low-bridges his faith in a party of Bible-thumpers

BY PAUL KAIHLA — The Democrats have their “minority” candidate in-waiting for president — Hillary — and a minority president, through the prism of the ‘race card.’

Religously-speaking, the Republicans have a minority candidate, too. Mitt Romney (translation: Mormon).

Mitt is a Boomer begat by a baronette of American politics: George Romney, three-term governor of Michigan, a former federal cabinet secretary and a runner-up to Nixon in the 1968 Republican primary for president. But did you know that Romney senior was born in Chihauhau, Mexico?

And did you know why? His parents had fled the U.S. because the LDS — Mormon shorthand for their official church — had disavowed polygamy. Although it was officially illegal in Mexico, who back-then-there would give an Eff about such a statute in an out-of-the-way place?

Was Mitt’s father a polygamist? Hardly. But he was a true believer, and actually worked as a Mormon missionary before his political career and turn as CEO of American Motors.

Back to the future: When Mitt launched his campaign for the 2008 presidential nomination, he worked overtime to dispell “misconceptions” about Mormonism in a big interview that the New York Times splashed on its front page:

He said he shared with many Americans the bafflement over obsolete Mormon practices like polygamy — he described it as “bizarre” — and disputed the argument that his faith would require him to be loyal to his church before his country.

Holy speaking in tongues — ”bafflement”?!