I’m just all about linking and not saying anything tonight. Still…Your Prozac Army:

One in six American soldiers in Afghanistan and one in eight in Iraq are taking daily doses of prescription antidepressants, sleeping pills or painkillers to help them cope with the stresses of combat, according to figures contained in a US Army mental health advisory team report seen by The Herald.

The findings mean that at least 20,000 troops are on medication such as Prozac or diamorphine while serving in the front line or on equally dangerous convoy escort or driving duties in conflicts where insurgents regularly target the supply chain.

While the vast majority would have been barred automatically from combat roles in earlier wars on medical and safety grounds, the pressure to provide up to 200,000 soldiers at any given time for the two major deployments has led to a relaxation of the rules.

Keep reading, it gets “better.”

So I’d prefer to have religion-free policy and politics, but I’m not going to get that in this country. I will never understand why it’s so difficult for people to agree: religion belongs in the home and place of worship, politics in the public square where everyone is afforded an equal say. But if “our” politicians are going to make their deep faith a Big Issue, I have a question for Obama: how often did you go to church when you were a teen, in college, and in law school?  Read more 

DEAR MISTER ROMNEY, I really appreciate your steadfast commitment to your faith. I’ve heard people choose these types of ideologies because it grounds a person in morality and integrity and human values. And of course I can admire that. With all the hate- and fear-mongering filling the public square today, I welcome men of your caliber.

I only have a small question. Given that a central tenet of Mormonism is that the Indians of the Americas are descended from the Lost Tribes of Israel, how do you reconcile your current anti-immigrant stance with the fact that Mexicans are descended, too, from these same people? How do your actions fit into the theological framework now that you are the one trying to stop them from wandering?

and furthermore—  Read more 

Via our good pal, and creator of the term 'blogtopia,' The Manly Marsupial Skippy of the Forrest, we discover this exciting blog and a project that seems to be getting a lot of attention. Attention Democratic operatives with the good sense to study history and learn from it: a lot of us out here will do this kind of work for you, for free. I too am sick and tired of bringing squirt guns to a knife fight:

Sometimes you've just had enough. I've hit that point.  Read more 

Heh. Ted appears to have a bit of an issue. Like Foley, who authored the internet pedophile laws he broke, Ted thought it a good idea to talk about blackmail and wives and “what you did last night.” I really need to see this Jesus Camp movie; thank the goddess for YouTube in the meantime.  Read more 

No, make that oh, my goodness!  Read more 

C’mon, Christianists: tell me again of how I need to be more tolerant of your voices in the public commons. I’m so sick of this:

Fallen Soldier Gets a Bronze Star but No Pagan Star
By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 4, 2006; Page A02

At the Veterans Memorial Cemetery in the small town of Fernley, Nev., there is a wall of brass plaques for local heroes. But one space is blank. There is no memorial for Sgt. Patrick D. Stewart.

That’s because Stewart was a Wiccan, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has refused to allow a symbol of the Wicca religion — a five-pointed star within a circle, called a pentacle — to be inscribed on U.S. military memorials or grave markers.

The department has approved the symbols of 38 other faiths; about half of are versions of the Christian cross. It also allows the Jewish Star of David, the Muslim crescent, the Buddhist wheel, the Mormon angel, the nine-pointed star of Bahai and something that looks like an atomic symbol for atheists.  Read more 

Channeling that scene from Princess Bride here. The alternate title for this post is, “Stupid and Ugly is no way to go through life, kids. Have sex, but hold off on the marriage thing until you get some schooling, a job, and a clue.” Facts:

The state with the lowest divorce rate in the nation is Massachusetts. At latest count it had a divorce rate of 2.4 per 1,000 population, while the rate for Texas was 4.1.

But don’t take the US government’s word for it. Take a look at the findings from the George Barna Research Group. George Barna, a born-again Christian whose company is in Ventura, Calif., found that Massachusetts does indeed have the lowest divorce rate among all 50 states. More disturbing was the finding that born-again Christians have among the highest divorce rates.

The Associated Press, using data supplied by the US Census Bureau, found that the highest divorce rates are to be found in the Bible Belt. The AP report stated that “the divorce rates in these conservative states are roughly 50 percent above the national average of 4.2 per thousand people.” The 10 Southern states with some of the highest divorce rates were Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas. By comparison nine states in the Northeast were among those with the lowest divorce rates: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont.  Read more