the voice of reason's blog

Sometimes you have to take a stand. Sometimes there is no "middle road." Sometimes, it's necessary to take the "all or nothing" stand—and then insist on the "all".

Where there are two opinions or stands on an issue, and each is at the far extreme from the other, there it sometimes possible to find a middle ground, a less harsh approach that benefits everyone. But sometimes that famed middle road is merely an illusion, and that is when it is not a middle road at all, but the avoidance of having an opinion. When you are faced with two such issues, two such important issues, and there is an important decision at hand that must be made, avoiding having an opinion the worst possible thing to do.

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In a recent discussion with my chemistry teacher about the health care issues of America, I learned some rather unpleasant facts about our food, and health issues, nutrition and taking care of ourselves. After investigating further, I’ve come to the conclusion that, although it’s not necessarily every one in the industry’s fault, health care is killing America—and some of the issues affecting us are going world wide.

Here are just a few of the issues: cannibalistic chickens, hormonal milk, toxic fish and Japanese longevity, diet lies and misleading nutrition “facts”, sunscreen and the vitamin d deficiency, mercury overdose and new factories, as well as the twin evils of too much technology: high fructose corn syrup and the margarine fraud.

Considering the depth in which I want to discuss these issues, this is going to be a two-part post, versions 1.0 and 2.0. This first one will cover everything listed above up through diet lies and misleading nutrition “facts”.

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America is a nation of liars. We can't go a day without some kind of lie, even just a "little white" one. We lie to make each other feel better, we lie to show off for others, we lie to ourselves about all kinds of things, and every day we reinforce the biggest lie of all: we tell ourselves we aren't lying.

It's like this: you can ignore the cliff up ahead all you want, enjoying the walk, refusing to think about the end result, doing whatever you please along the way, and just about the time you've really got yourself good and convinced that everything is hunky-dory and a-ok, the ground drops out from underneath your feet and you go plummeting down through the air until you hit the bottom. Even the fall may not be too bad--but you know how the saying goes. The falling can be fun--it's the sudden stop at the end that hurts.  Read More »

We've spent years learning about it in health class: self esteem. Feeling good about yourself, having self-confidence without being arrogant or cocky, "mental wellness", battling depression and inferiority complexes... and we've spent years learning a lie.

I'm not the only one to think this. A few months ago there was a speaker at at my church youth group class who mentioned something very similar to the ideas I'd already begun to formulate. From his ideas and further thinking of my own, I've come to the conclusion that we're all being fed a big lie--the self esteem myth.

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Some debates are debated so often, that to me, they just seem to get old. One such debate is about the death penalty. Maybe that's just because I don't really have any personal experience with it--it hasn't been brought home to me. But recently I have been thinking about it a little, and I thought I'd share a few of my thoughts.

When I think about the death penalty, the first thing that comes to mind is murderers. Do they deserve to die for having killed?  Read More »

"Mirror, mirror, on the wall
You show the hearts and souls of all
Mirror, mirror, of the mind
Tell us the story of humankind

Okay, so this post really isn’t about sex, drugs, rock ‘n roll, or Bush—although I’m sure those could all be very good topics, in their own way--but there is a reason you might want to read this.  This post is about the attraction of the human mind to the unusual, wild, and spectacular, and something I read in a little book entitled The Moral Sense, by James Q. Wilson.  Read More »

"We're going to have the best educated American people in the world."

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