The Health Blog by Ryan Healy

You'll Love This Slogan

In case you didn't know, I'm a direct marketer. So I take an active interest in all things marketing. Anyway, I stumbled upon a slogan web site yesterday called AdSlogans.com. They have a number of services, but one of them really caught my attention because of—you guessed it—its slogan! Here it is:

Sloganalysis^®
Anal is our middle name

When to Challenge a Conviction

After I posted Aversion to Thinking, JudyW, in more or less words, told me she has to draw the line somewhere when it comes to challenging her personal convictions.

I think that's true. You can't possibly challenge every conviction or belief you have every time someone thinks or feels differently than you do. If you did, you would probably never get anything done and would be one of the most emotionally unstable people on the face of the earth.

So: when should you (and when should you not) challenge a conviction or strongly held belief? Here are my guidelines.

1. Don't wast too much time on examining or challenging your trivial beliefs. For instance, one person believes body piercing is OK and maybe you disagree. Maybe you feel it's morally or physically "wrong". But what does it really matter? In the end, no matter which way you believe, your belief about body piercing will likely have no bearing on how you live your life.

2. Don't be distracted by people you don't respect. One of the first things I ask myself when I've been asked to examine a personal belief is, "Do I respect this person?" If I don't respect the person, then I usually don't respect that person's beliefs or convictions. Therefore, I don't feel the need to respond to any challenge that person may issue.

Now, based upon the two guidelines above, I can state my case in the positive.

If you respect another person and he raises questions about a personal belief that profoundly influences how you live your life, then I believe you are duty bound to at least examine the evidence your friend presents in his effort to influence how you think.

A few more notes. JudyW also asked the question, "Shouldn't some things never change?"

Honestly, outside of God, I can't think of a single thing that shouldn't change. Maybe that's not stating it quite right. Maybe what I'm really trying to say is that I can't think of a single thing that is eternal except for God.

I bet when Copernicus distributed his Little Commentary in 1514 explaining his heliocentric theory of the universe, there were a lot of folks thinking that the current belief should never change. But change it did...

Oil Solutions

There's a great article in the August 23 issue of Fortune titled "How to Kick the Oil Habit." I personally don't care for how moderate the solutions are, but I do applaud Fortune for making them so palatable for politicians and automakers. (Translated: their strategies could really work.)

If I had absolute control (doesn't everybody want it?), I'd do a few revolutionary things right off the bat:

1. Raise the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards to a minimum of 30 miles per gallon for all personal use vehicles on the road. (Sorry you SUV and truck owners. No more gas hogs for you!)

2. I'd pin more taxes on the cost of a gallon of gas so that gas couldn't be purchased for less than $4 a gallon. (Better get that bicycle tuned up.)

3. I'd use the extra tax revenues to fund research into sources of renewable energy. (Yeah. Because I care about future generations.)

There are other things I'd do, but those are three of the most lifestyle-altering changes I'd make. If you had total control to try to solve the oil problem, what would you do?

Reason to Vote Republican

Levine Breaking News reported on 08/02/2004 that Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert will be pushing for a national sales tax that would do away with the need for the IRS. It sounds like Denny's new book Speaker: Lessons from Forty Years in Coaching and Politics may have more information about his agenda for the next Congress, including his plans for changing the tax system.

Go Denny!