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'Some atheists have even gone public with their own prayer-for-health's-sake practice. Sigfried Gold, (recent subject in Washington Post) is a thoughtful, articulate 50-y.o. man who lives in Takoma Park, Md., He long ago decided that there was no stuff in the universe that was not physical - no supernatural, no divine. So he joined a 12-step program to control his food addiction. One of the steps is to turn your problem over to a higher power. So Mr. Gold created a god he doesn't believe exists: a large African-American lesbian. Every day Mr. Gold dropped to his knees to pray, and every day he spent 30 minutes in meditative quiet time. These days Mr. Gold, who calls himself a "born-again atheist," doesn't smoke. He doesn't drink. And, at 5 feet 7 inches, he weighs 150 pounds. So is there a downside? There were times when people got so engrossed with prayer that they seemed almost addicted - so compelled to pray that they could not stop. Some called this "puking" prayer. Whom does this intense imaginative immersion put at risk, and when? A study of the popular Internet game World of Warcraft suggests an intriguing answer. The anthropologist Jeffrey G. Snodgrass and his colleagues set out to study this complex social world. They found people who were relaxed and soothed by their play: "Sometimes I just log on late at night and go out by myself and listen to the soothing music." Others felt addicted: "Once I start playing it's hard to tell whether or not I'll have the willpower to stop." What made the difference was whether people found their primary sense of self inside the game or in the world. When play seemed more important than the real world did, they felt addicted; when it enhanced their experience of reality outside the game, they felt soothed. Prayer works in similar ways. When people use prayer to enhance their real-word selves, they feel good. When it disconnects them from the everyday, as it did for the

Americans of both parties overwhelmingly oppose a Supreme Court ruling that allows corporations and unions to spend as much as they want on political campaigns, and most favor new limits on such spending, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

But only 1/8 very familiar with Tea Party, with favorable ratings split. Sarah Palin has lost popularity.

Republicans attack Obama for seeing US as no more (intrinsically) exceptional than other nations, & suggesting that what is exceptional is the goals citizens strive for, not a pre-ordained status.

Niece defends JFK's 1960 speech to Houston ministers as better defining 1st Amdmt's meaning & application than Sarah Palin's recent critical construction.

Bob Doherty is the main Washington lobbyist of the ACP - after the AMA, the largest organization of US doctors (representing internal medicine physicians, whether primary care or subspecialist). He's had some very interesting posts since the Massachusetts Senate upset. His blog is a finalist in the sixth annual Medical Weblog Awards for the Best Health Policies/Ethics Weblog. Doherty articulates the ACP's case for supporting the current Senate&House Health Care Reform legislation (whose failure he & many others will end up leading eventually to more draconian limits on doctors & patients, in order to control the currently unsustainable growth in US health care costs (now approaching 20% of GDP).

Ensuring the continuation of slavery was, overwhelmingly, the chief cause of Southern states' secession and the Civil War.

Excommunication of Phoenix nun, & ejection of St. Joseph's Hospital, for allowing an abortion to save a mother's life; prohibitions of tubal ligations in Texas & Oregon.