One of my favorite H.L. Mencken aphorisms states, "Puritanism is the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy." As a nation founded by Puritans and criminals, we always seem to be trying to butt into someone else's happiness. And more often than not, it's the religious half doing the pushing.

Sometimes it just makes you want to laugh, like the recent legislation sponsored by U.S. Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) that would remove Playboy and Penthouse from the shelves of military exchange stores. Right off the bat you can tell Broun must be in high dudgeon due to the name of his bill, the "Military Honor and Decency Act." Broun, while introducing his bill April 16, said, "Our troops should not see their honor sullied so that the moguls behind magazines like Playboy and Penthouse can profit." It just makes me want to slap my cheek and exclaim, "Well, I never!"