Soul’s Code

Answer: We are as addicted as ever

Starbucks profits: Up 44% in last quarter (CBS)

Flower-power Boomers still drink too much booze: Over 60 (Geffen foundation)

1 in 5 educated geeks still, like, smoke: A creative-class confession (Guardian)

Post-Michael Jackson, we-are-the-world is still hooked on big pharma: $1 trillion (Forbes)

From the anti-false witness clause in the 10 Commandments to Bill Clinton, lying is as old as our genetic code

Psychologist Abraham Maslow on survival: The Hierarchy of Needs

Born Liars: “How to spot a liar?” (Toronto Globe and Mail)

Online dis-inhibition: Group-think and de-individuation

Not surviving, or winning: Movie star Matt Damon pulls out of June 20 fundraiser for Congressman Weiner (New York Daily News)

Socially (unconscious) media: “When does online fantasy become infidelity?” (Salon.com)

Euro Group prez says it’s his job to lie: “I’m not going to go to confession because of a false denial. God understands more about the financial markets than many who write about them.” – Dr. Jean-Claude Juncker in Der Spiegel

There’s no “girl power” in mobs. Men have a history of seeing war, revolution and disasters as foreplay for rape.

War creeps: Who put the “rape” in “rape and pillage?”

Where not to strut: In a mob, safety should trump defiance for the Lara Logans of the world.

Raging stats: Husbands are as bad as soldiers in the Congo.

Two new movies, Seal Team 6, and Catherine Bigelow’s next hit, invite us to look in a mirror.

BY DAVID RICKEY — Yes, Bin Laden was a very evil individual who masterminded much and mentored many. However, his death will stop neither the consciousness that breeds terrorism nor the historic causes that feed that consciousness.

The decision to bury Bin Laden’s body at sea within hours of his death demonstrates, it seems to me, a level of sensitivity that counters much of the insensitivity that lies at the root of the present pandemic of terrorism (although already there is conflicting opinion and criticism for this action).

While there will always be people who express their selfish anger in acts of aggression against others, the “West” — that over-encompassing term describing what we might describe as the “more enlightened” people in Europe and America — would do well to reflect on our own actions over the past 3+ centuries that have contributed to the anger in Africa, the “Middle East” and southest Asia that underpin the terrorist argument.

The pscyhe of the world’s solo superpower not only boasts a ‘Morning in America’ ethos but a persistent streak of pessimism.

May 21, 2011 doomsday mania: A fundamentalist chain of bible-thumping radio stations taps into fears of the Apocalypse and the Big One

Doomsday church rolling in dough: Oakland, CA-based “Family Radio has received $80 million in donations

Moral of U.S. Marines plummets: According to a U.S. Army report released this week, 1 in 5 troops in Afghanistan suffer from acute stress, depression or other psychological disorder

Joseph S. Nye on American power after bin Laden: “Cultural pessimism is very American, extending back to the country’s Puritan roots.”

Post-mortems on Oprah’s 25-year run

It’s O-ver: Wednesday is doomsday for Oprah fans.

Blow-back from her hometown paper, Chicago Tribune: Way too much of a good thing?

Sin no more: Catholics blame Oprah for decline in sacramental confession.

Soul’s Code piles on: 9 Aha moments that blow Oprah off the screen!

Confused morals: Is it wrong and barbaric to be glad someone – even Osama Bin Laden – is dead?

Murder could save top job: The US President receives praise, including from ex-presidents, for the death of the Al Qaeda leader.

In hindsight: Should the world have turned the other cheek?

Hey big spender: Researchers conclude size (of wallet) does matter.

Buried treasure: Six reasons why financial infidelity kills intimacy.

Survey says: Fool around, fine – but don’t lie to me about money.

Tokin’ Messiah: Did Jesus smoke pot?

‘I saw the aztek sun’: Accounts from users of LSD and other stairways to heaven

Necessary buzz: While some of us need sobriety, others insist only a substance can open the door to enlightenment

Relationship lessons from the royals: If William and Kate can make it work, so can you.

‘Like something Disney would write’: Why Americans care about the Royal Wedding.

Life in the limelight: Don’t let them crucify Kate.