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FOR SEVERAL YEARS NOW, YOU MAY HAVE SEEN ADVERTS IN THE GUISE OF EDITORIAL COPY FROM A BOSTON OUTFIT STYLING THEMSELVES "NATIONAL FUELSAVER CORPORATION" promoting what they stylee as "The Platinum FuelSaver."
The which is explained (and debunked) in this recent adjudication from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in Great Britain after complaints were received about the latest specimen of American Colonial Arrogance (so to speak) from between Land's End and John O'Groats:
Ad A national press ad, for a fuel saving device, stated "U.S. Consumer Protection has confirmed the fuel saving described in this advertisement. Device may increase petrol mileage by 22% BOSTON, USA - National Fuelsaver Corporation has developed a low cost automotive accessory called the Platinum Petrol Saver which is guaranteed to increase petrol mileage by 22% while meeting all emission standards. With a simple connection to a vacuum line, the Petrol Saver adds platinum vapor [sic] economically to the air and fuel entering the engine. Since platinum enables non-burning fuel to burn, the Petrol Saver's platinum increases the percentage of fuel burning inside the engine from 68% of each gallon to 90% of each gallon, a 22% increase. Since unburnt fuel leaving an engine is pollution, this 22% of each gallon normally burns when it reaches the platinum of the catalytic converter. Unfortunately, the platinum of the catalytic converter burns this fuel outside of the engine, where the heat and energy produced from this fuel cannot give you more miles per gallon. But when the air and fuel carry the platinum into the engine, 22% more of each gallon burns inside the engine so that 22% fewer gallons are required to drive the same distance. After a five year study, the U.S. government concluded: 'Independent testing shows greater fuel savings with the Petrol Saver than the 22% claimed by the developer.' In addition to the fuel savings, the Petrol Saver has received patents for cleaning out the abrasive carbon and raising octane, making the premium fuels unnecessary for most vehicles ...".
Issue 1. Four complainants challenged whether the fuel saving claims could be substantiated.
2. Two complainants also challenged whether the ad misleadingly implied the product had been endorsed by the US Government.
Response National Fuel Saver Corp (NFS) sent US Court documents from 1984 and two tables of results from fleet tests on 42 vehicles in 1980. NFS maintained that the Court documents were US federal court credentials that showed they met the highest standards of truth in advertising. They argued that the fleet tests were determined by the US courts to meet all necessary controls to be admitted as valid test data 25 years ago.
NFS argued that the platinum in their Platinum Petrol Saver performed its function inside each combustion chamber between the moment that the spark plug ignited (approximately 30 degrees before top dead centre of the compression stroke) and the moment that the exhaust valve opened 180 crankshaft degrees later (approximately 30 degrees before bottom dead centre of the power stroke). They argued that there had been no changes to petrol engines in the last 60 years regarding that part of the petrol engine's function and believed therefore that their evidence was sufficient.
NFS said their platinum process could not be demonstrated in a laboratory because the dispensing of the platinum required road vibration. They said the US courts had therefore accepted their fleet tests, which were backed up by court testimony on the controls that were applied to the baseline and the "after platinum" testing.
NFS asserted that the US court case had not been concerned with whether platinum would improve miles per gallon, which they believed everyone agreed on, but about the percentage of the fuel that burnt inside the engine and the percentage left in the engine unburnt. They said the US Government's Federal Test Procedure had proved that the perfectly tuned petrol engine burnt only 80% of its fuel, and data from the Champion Spark Plug Company had proved that the average engine was 12% worse, burning only 68% of its fuel. The US court had therefore ruled in favour of NFS test data. NFS said, once the court had accepted that only 68% of the fuel burnt in the average gasoline engine they accepted the fleet tests were consistent with the science.
NFS believed the use of platinum in catalytic converters performed the same function as their platinum inside the combustion chambers. They said platinum's function was to enable the fuel that would not normally burn inside the engine to burn there, and it was sufficiently successful to give the 22% increase in miles per gallon that they claimed.
Assessment 1. Upheld The ASA noted the evidence sent by NFS. We also noted, however, the US court documents referred to a legal case about different NFS advertising claims in the US around 25 years ago and the test data consisted of two tables of data but did not contain any details of the methodology involved. We considered that, to substantiate the fuel saving claims in the ad, we would need to see robust documentary evidence. We considered that the evidence we had seen was not sufficient to support the fuel saving claims and concluded that the ad was therefore misleading.
On this point, the ad breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation) and 7.1 (Truthfulness).
2. Upheld We considered that the claims "U.S. Consumer Protection has confirmed the fuel saving described" and "U.S. government concluded: 'Independent testing shows greater fuel savings with the Petrol Saver than the 22% claimed by the developer.'" implied that the product had been endorsed by the US Government. We noted the US Court documents referred to a legal case about different NFS advertising but considered that we had seen no evidence to support either claim and concluded that the ad was therefore misleading.
On this point, the ad breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1 (Truthfulness) and 14.5 (Testimonials and endorsements).
Action We told NFS to withdraw the ad and advised them to consult the CAP Copy Advice team before advertising in future.
In other words: If it won't exactly make the cut between Maine and Mauna Loa, don't expect likewise between Land's End and John O'Groats.
The problem was how to keep the wheels of industry turning without increasing the real wealth of the world. Goods must be produced, but they must not be distributed. And in practice the only way of achieving this was by continuous warfare. The primary aim of modern warfare is to use up the products of the machine without raising the general standard of living. If technical progress were allowed to flourish in directions other than war and surveillance, there would be no more need for human drudgery and human inequality would disappear.
The needs of the population are always underestimated, with the result that there is a chronic shortage of half the necessities of life; but this is looked on as an advantage. It is a deliberate policy to keep even the favoured groups somewhere near the brink of hardship, because a general state of scarcity increases the importance of small privileges and thus magnifies the distinction between one group and another.
--from Nineteen Eighty Four by George Orwell
*************
EVEN IF THERE WEREN'T SIGNS OF A POSSIBLE MEXICAN STANDOFF (SO TO SPEAK) BETWEEN OIL-EXPORTING AND OIL-IMPORTING NATIONS by way of an international forum opening today in Rome discussing the energy issue, there emerges the likelihood for what amounts to wasteful and counterproductive practices being excused, tolerated--even encouraged as official policy--in the name of "energy self-sufficency" as United States public policy.
Case in point:
This morning, Mein Innkeeper Friend was recalling where, several years back, a close relative of his was employed with Halliburton drilling oil wells in the Williston Basin of North Dakota--and capping them as soon as drilling was complete.
In effect, taking such wells out of production as soon as drilling was finished; the better, so the line of thinking went, to "stabilise prices" on the crude oil markets so that oil-company profits could be all the more maximised.
Which is enough to wonder if a similar policy will be "advised" with respect to the Bakken fields in North Dakota and Montana, notwithstanding its having an estimated 500 million barrels of crude--which, @ the current spot market price of $117/bbl. (one barrel of crude oil being 55 gallons), would be worth US$58.5 billion.
And that's not counting mineral-rights payments to landowners, property taxes paid by oil companies or even royalties which Bismarck or Helena are entitled to; how they would use their share of the oil wealth is, for want of anything better, a "state's rights" matter, and whether they would likely emulate the Alaska Permanent Fund (in which proceeds from investments made using the State of Alaska's share of oil and natural gas royalties from the North Slope fields are returned to The Last Frontier's residents) is anybody's guess.
And the excuse to be given?
Officially, "to stabilise prices."
In reality, to benefit His Fraudulency's Great Within, whose investments in crude oil, natural-gas, gasoline and heating oil futures are so substantial, methinks, they could stand to lose heavily if there were but one fatal misstep in the markets--especially so the Bakken field's going into full-on production without "waiting for the proper signs" beforehand.
(Said "proper signs" coming by way of fortune-smellers with whom the Great Within, and especially its "inside of the inside," has a special relationship. Not unlike North Korean propaganda in the fall of 1997, as reported where spontaneous, out-of-season blossoming of thousands of pear and apricot trees across North Korea, as well as a fisheries crew catching a white sea cucumber, "confirmed" the formal elevation of the heretofore "Dear Leader" Kim Jong Il to "Great Leader.")
And those involved in the drilling operations being instructed to deny any and all knowledge of such "drill-and-cap" operations being carried out, especially for fear that "meddling bloggers" might expose the whole and "distort things out of proportion."
=============
FOR ITS PART, OPEC'S RELUCTANCE TO INCREASE PRODUCTION OUTPUT AHEAD OF THE SUMMER SILLY SEASON, even if to reduce prices for the benefit of the Lower Classes especially, isn't good enough for oil-consuming nations such as the "morally superior" United States.
Especially when OPEC resorts to such platitudes as suggest that demand is but one factor as controls world market prices ... and certain elements of oil-consuming nations (especially such reliant on imports) resorting to all manner of xenophobic paranoia to push for energy self-sufficency as one with national identity and cohesion.
Some specimens of xenophobic paranoia resorting to Islamophobia and anti-Semitism to make their point known for "winning of hearts and minds" (witness Pat Robertson's blatant Islamophobia packaged as "Christian Love").
In any case ... suffice it to say that there may be no royal road to energy self-sufficency.
FIRST, I SUPPOSE YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE for the sake of whom Your Correspondent addresses this memo.
In any case:
I find it rather ironic to the point of stupid your willingness to create all manner of distracting non-issues such as the "danger of homosexuals and homosexuality" upon Impressionable Children in particular ... what you would perceive as "sexual promiscuity" being the price of sex education in the public schools as is based on facts and is taught in an age-approriate context ... and the supposed "moral harm" of real or perceived "pornography or indecency" in films and television, with the obligatory dose of sugarcoated anti-Semitism for good measure.
Let alone crying that rather pathetically singsong-sounding meme of "Christian Persecution! Christian Persecution!" (in the key of "Ring around the collar!") whenever your stories are challenged as lacking factual substantiation, or are otherwise substantiated by anecdotal or otherwise discredited pseudoscience.
BUT:
It seems your ilk is amazingly silent about the revelations of enforced sexual submission among the female members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) in the recent court hearings following the removal of some 420 young women and girls, some of whom are pregnant (yes, you read that right--pregnant!) @ as young as 14 years of age. from their Texas compound.
Read carefully the following extract of an Associated Press dispatch on these same revelations (via Yahoo News):
The state argued it should be allowed to keep the children because the sect's teaching encourages girls younger than 18 to enter spiritual marriages with older men and produce as many children as possible. Its attorneys argued that the culture put all the girls at risk and potentially turned the boys into future predators.
A witness for the parents who was presented by defense lawyers as an expert on the FLDS disputed that the girls have no say in who they marry.
"I believe the girls are given a real choice," said W. John Walsh. "Girls have successfully said, 'No, this is not a good match for me,' and they remained in good standing."
But Dr. Bruce Perry, a psychiatrist who has studied children in cults, testified that the girls will not refuse marriages because they are indoctrinated to believe disobedience will lead to their damnation.
The renegade Mormon sect's belief system "is abusive. The culture is very authoritarian," he said.
Perry acknowledged that many adults at the ranch are loving parents and that the boys seemed emotionally healthy. When asked whether the belief system really endangered the older boys or young children, Perry said, "I have lost sleep over that question."
He also conceded that the children, taught from birth to believe that contact with the outside world will lead to eternal damnation, would suffer if placed in traditional foster care.
"If these children are kept in the custody of the state, there would have to be exceptional and innovative programmatic elements for these children and their families," he said. "The traditional foster care system would be destructive for these children."
CPS spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner said the department was pleased with the judge's ruling and believes that the children will now be safe.
It's not clear how quickly the children might be moved from the coliseum and fairgrounds where they are staying on cots into foster homes or other temporary housing, but they could be placed with family members if CPS determines the children will be safe, Meisner said.
Four women testified Friday, and all said they were free to make their own choices. They also said they would do whatever it took to get their children returned to them.
"We're a peaceful people," Lucille Nielson said. Life on their 1,700-acre gated ranch "is very peaceful. You can feel the peace when you are there. Very loving. We raise our children in a loving environment."
But the women also acknowledged that girls get married at ages younger than the state allows.
Equally interesting, I should like to point out, is the fact of your same ilk also being opposed to abortion, contraception and family planning ... not to mention your supporting "whatever means necessary" to "completely and finally" reverse the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade ruling, all the while (un)consciously (un)aware of the societal and socioeconomic consequences (cf. Romania under Nicolae Ceauçescu's Communist-era regime, which was about as "pro-life" as you could imagine--even if the aim was to "hasten the final onset of Pure Socialism," seen in Marxist-Leninist thought as the Final Perfection of Communism).
Which raises some interesting questions as to why you choose not to raise the "Christian Persecution!" meme vis-a-vis the FLDS compound, in particular given the revelations that:
young girls within the compound were expected to marry and have children as soon as they reached the menarche;
many such were married with older members of the sect against their will, or otherwise with reckless and utter disregard for their free will;
marriage, in practically all instances, was carried out @ an age much lower than Texas state law allows;
a bed was kept in the "temple" @ the FLDS compound for sexual liasons as were expected to follow "marriages" so consummated;
the belief that girls were expected to be, in essence, nothing less than sex machines in G-d's Service being ingrained in members from birth; and
the psychoreligious conditioning of FLDS members into believing that any contact with The Outside World would only lead and expose them to eternal damnation.
Even weirder still is your ongoing fears about issues addressed earlier, the which you are probably familiar with thanks to being thus conditioned, Pavlov-stylee, by your movement's propaganda line, in turn raising the likelihood of doublethink on your part.
So: What do you have to say now?
Are we to accept that the FLDS, moral issues notwithstanding, is indeed a victim of "Christian Persecution!" by the standards and tests you would ordinarily use in this context?
Or what sort of doublethink are you expected to subscribe to when faced with such a scenario?
MEMO TO READERS: Your Correspondent strongly encourages your sharing this item with your friends--especially such as are hard-wired as they are in their Zealotry and True Belief about the "Christian Persecution!" meme; they especially need to see this.
Remember to share it responsibly, and not as overdone "spam."
Comments would be especially appreciated as a way to discuss the issues thus raised, subject to accepted standards of good taste.
KUDOS TO THE BRAD BLOG FOR ALERTING YOUR CORRESPONDENT TO THE FOLLOWING RAW VIDEO OFF RATTUBE showing a Fox Prolefeed reporter/producer getting a dose of his own medicine for once by a priest sympathetic to Rev. Jeremiah Wright vis-a-vis Barak Obama's Presidential campaign:
As Brad Friedman (the "Brad" of BradBlog) observes:
And that's what America really looks like. Which is why you normally don't get to see it on TV. Not sure where the video actually aired, if anywhere. Though the questioner was O'Reilly's reporter/hitman, not surprisingly, I've yet to see any clips of that interview on his show (though, admittedly, I don't get to take out the trash every day.)
Echoed by this subsequent comment from someone signing himself "Doug:"
Wow that was awsome, that fox reporter got smoked like a trout! I dont think they'll be playing that interview. If they do it'll be all chopped up and of course out of context. It takes a special person to be able to hold their ground in an interview like that. These people deliver their questions and statements like a machine gun and its so hard to follow because its 90% [N4BSK]! So your standing their reeling trying to replay their comments in your head to make sense of it and if you pause to long youve lost. Hats off to the reverend.
No wonder Fox Prolefeed got what they deserved in this segment--even if it winds up in shreds on the cutting-room floor. Hence, all the more reason to share this video across the blogosphere.
The better to show Fox Prolefeed what kind of journalistic mountebanks they have become.
AS IF THE CURRENT HOMOPHOBIC PARANOIA FROM THE SO-CALLED "AMERICAN FAMILY ASSOCIATION" WASN'T AWFUL ENOUGH for "winning of hearts and minds" among Those Who Should Know Better (as in the poor, undereducated or homeschooled and easily-influenced), Media Matters for America wishes to call your timely Notice and Attention to an ongoing pattern of unhealthy and potentially dangerous homophobia from one Bill "No-Spin Zone" O'Reilly per Fox Prolefeed.
Read on, and don't come crying to meme:
"I think everybody's got to relax on all this gay stuff." -- Bill O'Reilly, The O'Reilly Factor, August 15, 2007
From his suggestion that the "secular progressive movement" would like to have "poly-amorphous" marriage ("you can marry 18 people, you can marry a duck") to his statement that it would be "insane" and "inappropriate" to "cluster" gays near children, Bill O' Reilly has never been one to "relax on all this gay stuff."
When O'Reilly isn't dishing the homophobia himself, he's giving others a platform on his show to bash the LGBT community--featuring guests like Marc Rudov, who recently advanced the bogus notion that "promoting a homosexual lifestyle" of gays and lesbians would cause "long-term consequences for children," that like a brain tumor, may take years to diagnose:
RUDOV: If there's going to be a brain tumor, it might not be discovered for 10 years--and I kind of look at this in the same way, because children do form their sexual identities from their same-sex parents. And what's going on here is basically teaching children that there's no difference between a heterosexual marriage and a homosexual marriage.
Fox News and O'Reilly use the topic of same-sex couples and their families to promote his show and incite fear of the LGBT community. Never was this practice more clear than when Fox used footage from Rosie O'Donnell's cruise for gay and lesbian couples and their families to promote an upcoming edition of the Factor. The promo raised the question: "Is the media celebrating gay culture?" You can probably guess what the answer was.
Of course, we all know this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to O'Reilly and his attacks on the LGBT community.
Last October on his nationally syndicated radio program, The Radio Factor, O'Reilly began a multi-day tirade against Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling and her popular Potter character, Dumbledore. During a promotion for his television program on his radio show, he said: "We're also gonna tell you about Harry Potter and the gay agenda. Apparently that's goin' on." That night on Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, he asked "Why have a gathering of Potter aficionados and then drop the gay bomb on them? Why do that? ... She did it to provoke. I think this is a provocateur." The next night he escalated the rhetoric even further when he said that:
"There are millions of Americans who feel that the media and the educational system is trying to indoctrinate their children to a certain way of life, and that includes parity for homosexuals with heterosexuals. And that's what this Rowling thing is all about, because she sells so many books. So many kids read it, that she comes out and says, 'Oh, Dumbledore is gay, and that's great.' And this -- it's another in the indoctrination thing. That's what the belief system is among some Americans."
After his guest, comedian Dennis Miller, pushed back by stating that children could not be indoctrinated into being gay, O'Reilly replied, "No, but tolerance. It's--you know, he's not going to be gay, but it's tolerance of it."
Media Matters has documented numerous instances in which O'Reilly has attacked the LGBT community. Here are just three, but you can see the litany of his misinformation and attacks on the LGBT community at the end of this email:
O'Reilly criticized the inclusion of a lesbian couple as 'cutest couple' in a high school yearbook, saying: "I think private behavior belongs in private settings.... I don't think it belongs in the high school yearbook." However, he said he would be OK with a heterosexual couple being cutest couple "because that is the norm of society."
O'Reilly called the San Diego Padres' decision to host a gay pride night and a children's hat giveaway promotion during the same baseball game "dumb," "almost unbelievable," and a "mistake." He said it was "insane" to "cluster" gay men and lesbians during a "hat giveaway for any kid under 12," later adding: "You're putting it in a kid's face at a baseball game." O'Reilly also said: "This is social engineering by the Padres."
It's time to tell O'Reilly and Fox News that enough is enough; if anyone should "relax on all this gay stuff," it's Bill O'Reilly. I hope you'll take a moment to contact Fox News and The O'Reilly Factor today and make sure your voice is heard.
(Purely Personal Piffle: Perhaps a more apropos theme for The O'Reilly Factor might want to be the Horst Wessel from back in Nazi Germany ... or, better yet, "Die Stem von Suid-Afrika," in Afrikaans and in a clipped, martial-stylee staccato not unlike machine gun fire used by the Suid-Afrikaansde Polisie against anti-apartheid demonstrations ... or, better yet, alternate between "The Song of Eternal Leader Kim Il Sung" and "The Song of Great Leader Kim Jong Il."
(Long-shots, no doubt--but, methinks, more apropos.)
FORGET, FOR A MOMENT, THE RATHER PARANOID BROMIDES AND PLATITUDES OF FOX NEWS ABOUT HOW SO-CALLED "SECULAR-PROGRESSIVES" pose Clear and Present Moral Danger to the "antient and pecuilar soverignty and soverign identity" of the "morally superior" United States--even if this happens to be the 13th anniversary of the Oklahoma City Incident as laid bare the clear and present danger of homegrown extremism packaged in the guise of "patriotism."
And that terrorism (and the danger thereof) can exist as much from within as from without. And that the enemy could well live next door.
Not to mention being a Joe Sixpack type.
Denmark, which gained international notoriety when the gazetta Jyllands-Posten published a series of editorial cartoons which aroused the ire of Muslims a couple of years back, could offer some invaluable lessons on which we "morally superior" Americans could learn from, Bill O'Reilly and his ilk notwithstanding.
Lessons noted recently by Rabbi Leby Burnham, writing for the Jewish spirituality portal Aish.com (after all, as they'd say in wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen, "verden er lille, herregud...."):
Why is Denmark the happiest place in the world?
Happiness. The most prized commodity of all. Some people think they will find it in marriage, some look in exotic locales halfway across the globe, while others think it is found in the driver's seat of a Maserati. Where can happiness be found?
Research seems to indicate that it can be found in Denmark.
As in previous years, Denmark emerged as the happiest country in the world. Adrian White, a psychologist at the University of Leicester's School of Psychology, publishes a "world map of happiness," using data from 80,000 questionnaires filled out world-wide, as well as information culled from a bevy of governmental reports and private foundation's databases. Somehow, Denmark, a country whose most notable invention is the herring sandwich, repeatedly makes it to the top of the list. (The US came in 23rd, Germany 35th, the UK 42nd, Israel 58th, France 62nd, and Russia 167th!)
What is the secret of that small country with dreary weather, heavy smoking and drinking, and taxes between 50-70%, that keeps the Danes so happy?
A recent episode of 60 Minutes tried to find the answer. Morley Safer spoke to Professor Kaare Christensen at the University of Southern Denmark, who published a study titled, "Why Danes Are Smug." He discovered that the key to the Danes' happiness is that they don't have high expectations. To illustrate, he claims that if the Danes ranking would drop to 20th instead of first, their response would be, "That's not bad; at least we're in the Top 25!" By having low expectations, explains Prof. Christensen, one is rarely disappointed.
The government helps this low-expectation lifestyle by taxing people highly while providing an enormous amount of social services. Health-care is free, people are paid to do well in college, and even graduate school is free. After having a child, both parents get paid leave for at least half a year, and Denmark spends more per capita on child and elder care than any country in the world. The government even helps subsidize friendships by providing funding for any group of people who want to cultivate a hobby like model airplane building or quilt croqueting. About 92% of Danes belong to at least one of these social clubs.
With high taxes limiting the earning power of the wealthy and phenomenal social services keeping people out of debt, there is very little wealth disparity in Denmark. Since the after-tax income of a banker and a carpenter are not far apart, people choose professions based on preference, not expectations of higher salary. There is very little drive to live up to the Joneses, as the Joneses are Jante-luv, just like you.
Tal Ben-Shahar, a veteran of the IDF, was the most popular lecturer at Harvard University. Last year over 1,400 students took his class in Positive Psychology--the Science of Happiness. He explains that the US has a very different dynamic than the one displayed in the Danish culture. "In America, part of the ethos, part of the American dream, is that more is better, and the more is better usually applies to the material realm. And that doesn't pan out.... It doesn't make us happier."
About 94% of college students in the US report that they already feel "stressed and overwhelmed," the result of high expectations. Wanting it all is a disease that stays with us from youth to old age--wanting a bigger house, fancier car, more stuff. But, as the Sages of the Talmud taught regarding the physical realm, "He who has 100 wants 200, he who has 200 want 400." The more you have, the more you want. This begins a vicious cycle of expectation, desires, and mounting needs.
One of the most striking results of the "American Dream" was discovered by Israeli economist and Nobel Prize winner, Daniel Kahneman. He found that, generally speaking, American women did not enjoy spending time with their children. The problem wasn't that they didn't love their children. It was simply that while spending time with their children, they were so busy doing other things such as checking email, paying bills, or shopping, that the time together became irritating and tedious to them. Playing your two favorite songs at the same time would be grating, even though when played individually they give you great pleasure. In the rush to accomplish many tasks at once, mothers are losing their ability to properly do any!
Two sources of happiness that are often overlooked are family and religion. In a poll of 1,280 American teens conducted by the Associated Press and MTV, 73% said that what makes them most happy is a good relationship with their parents. Over half said that religion and spirituality is very important to them, and that the knowledge that there is a Higher Power that watches over them and controls their world makes them feel happy and secure. Interestingly, almost no one said that money makes them happy.
All this research into the science of happiness has resulted in some suggestions for boosting happiness, and not surprisingly, you can find roots for these ideas in Torah teachings, the instruction manual for living the most happy and fulfilling life.
Let's run through some of the suggestions:
• Keep your expectations low. Simplify; don't try to achieve too much at one time. The Talmud frequently tells us "tafasta meruba lo tafasta, tafasta mu'at tafasta." If we try to grab too much we end up with nothing, but if we try to accomplish a little, we will surely achieve it. To help us with this we have a special day called Shabbat--25 hours to stop trying to grab, and instead focus on the most meaningful things in our lives: our family and friends, our spirituality, and ourselves.
• Exercise. The Torah told us 3,300 years ago that we must watch our health carefully, and recent studies confirm that it can actually increase your happiness. Exercising three times a week for 30 minutes has the same effect as some of the most powerful psychiatric drugs being prescribed today.
• Keep a gratitude diary. Every day Prof. Tal Ben-Shahar writes down five things in his diary. Some of them are big things like his happy marriage or his successful career, while others are small, such as a really good ice cream sundae or the ability to cheer up a co-worker. As Jews, we stop three times a day to thank God for the goodness in our lives, and gratitude is the focus of one of the most important blessings in every Amidah. However, a diary is a great way to add to our gratitude bank. The Jews are called Yehudim, (the word from which Jew evolved), because that word connoted thankfulness, which is one of the most fundamental traits of the Jewish people.
The Sages tell us that the current Jewish month of Adar is the happiest month in the calendar, a time for increasing our joy. And a perfect time to try out some of these tips.
