Soul’s Code

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”

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?

Noah’s llama: Endangered fish escape doomsday on the backs of furry mammals.

Biblical proportions: Humans have an unhealthy risk tolerance for highly unlikely and highly catastrophic events like Fukushima’s imminent meltdown.

Grand Old Planet: Republicans who believe in climate change are an endangered species.

How would you survive the loss if your best friend, mentor or shrink were crucified? You’d have to awaken your own inner guru.

DAVID RICKEY — His career was short and ended with his crucifixion. It looked like failure. What had Jesus accomplished? At most a few miracles, healings and teachings. That was it. Or was it?

Like a CEO who doesn’t feel ready to retire, Jesus could at least take comfort in the succession planning of his time — his passing of the baton to a dozen floundering but well-meaning and capable followers.

Wall Street Journal: “You will feel as if you’re going to die. I guarantee that.“

Spiritual seekers who paid five-figures for a spiritual retreat are now on the stand: “Defense Works to discredit Sweat Lodge Statements”

CNN: “Choosing to go in the sweat lodge, I believe she had something to prove to James Ray.”

The Daily Beast: “Oprah has no relationship with James Arthur Ray”

FLASHBACK: Oprah still silent

The original sweat lodge: The pagan origins of the Finnish sauna

Can you inherit hate? The karmic question is tested in an HBO documentary about the most notorious public enemy alongside Bin Laden and Hitler

BY PAUL KAIHLA – A DEA agent once told me a story he heard about Pablo Escobar, the late founder and CEO of the Medellin drug cartel. Escobar saw an attractive woman in a Colombian hotel. He ordered his henchmen to do two things: kill the woman’s husband, and bring her to his room, where he raped her.

The tale may be apocryphal, and it appears in no public accounts. But what is in the public record thanks to multiple investigations and sig-int intercepts is that Mr. Escobar ordered: the assassination of 3 Colombian presidential candidates, as well as 100’s of cabinet ministers, judges, prosecutors and cops; the bombing of an Avianca jet that killed 110 passengers . . . it’s a long list of atrocities.

In other words, if you’re going to document a case study on the origins and transference of hate, violence and sin, Pablo Escobar is a cardinal candidate.

Ashes, Ashes, We All Fall Down. Ashes on your forehead can begin a reorientation of your heart.

BY DAVID RICKEY — In the Judeo-Christian tradition, ashes are a symbol of penitence and mortality. In the Old Testament, Job sits in ashes both because he has lost his children and all his livestock and because he is suffering severly from boils, apparently with God’s approval.

The demonstration of penitence was also intended to persuade God not to punish a people or an individual. In the story of Jonah, the people of Ninevah put on sackcloth and sit in ashes to demonstrate penitence in the hope that God will have a change of  mind and not destroy the city.

This Ash Wednesday millions of Christians will participate in a ritual that involves having ashes put on their foreheads to symbolize their attitude of penitence and their intention to repent.

Wikileaks and UFO cover ups; aliens disabled our nuclear missiles; Christmas wise men demystified; arsenic-loving alien life forms on Earth.

Unidentified hushed objects: Serial leaker Julian Assange says UFOs have been discussed in still unreleased WikiLeaks files…

Alien bacteria: Scientists have discovered strange, arsenic-loving life forms – at the bottom of California’s Mono Lake

Eyewitness accounts: Ex-military personnel claimed last September that since the 60s, the US government has covered up alien tampering with nuclear missiles.

Did they vanish in vain? The social media deaths of Lady Gaga, Ryan Seacrest and other celebrities have failed to raise nearly as much money for AIDS as expected.

Most persecuted religion: Christians are no longer primarily white, Western and well-fed – and at least 150,000 are killed each year for their faith.

Bright light brought visitors on Christmas Eve: There were 12 or more “wise men” – not three – and they came from China, says a book by Brent Landau, Revelation of the Magi: The Lost Tale of the Wise Men’s Journey to Bethlehem

Pro-choice vs. Buddhism; origins of Thanksgiving; forbidden Christian texts; marrying in sin

Karmic burden of killing: Despite the finding of 2,000 fetuses stored for various illegal abortion clinics, Thailand’s largely Buddhist government won’t budge on its anti-abortion laws.

Pee on a stick before taking vows: A pastor in Nigeria refuses to marry a couple until they have served their punishment for pregnancy.

A whole life in your hands: A couple in Minneapolis can’t decide whether to abort their child, so they’re letting strangers decide via Internet poll.

State of American mental health; women in politics; Bible school blunder; inhumane farming on Thanksgiving platters

Drudge discovers that 1 in 5 Americans are mentally ill: Diseases of the mind contribute to risk of unemployment, substance abuse and suicide

Soul’s Code “broke” the story two years ago: The latest research says fully one-fifth of all of us in the U.S. will suffer clinical depression at some point in our lives. Today’s cocktail of scioeconomic triggers could lead to depression in record numbers

Piety or delusion? A man who fell off a cliff in his SUV is suing his Bible school drinking buddies for praying instead of calling police.

No friends in high places: Why so few women in politics? For one thing they’re not mean enough.

Pretty Shaman: The spiritual facets of recent Hindu convert Julia Roberts.

The high cost of cheap turkey: The founder of Niman Ranch explains how inhumane farming, lax enforcement of environmental laws, and tax subsidies make the birds inexpensive.