This is a blog about thinking.  Not just any kind of thinking, but thinking of a very rare and valuable sort.  That is, this is a blog about Right Thinking.  It is my firm belief that public discussions and debates today are stuck in eternal bickering and petty rhetorical gamesmanship because there is a gaping hole -- a shocking, jaw-dropping, drive-a-semi-through-it sized hole -- in the ability of the average American to think clearly and critically.  To state it a different way, Americans don't know what to think because Americans don't know how to think.

There are a million columns and blogs that provide a daily forum for discussion focused on "the issues":  energy, Iraq, the economy, ad infinitum.  But even the best of these will never achieve their aim -- to break the deadlock of opinion and move America toward better solutions -- as long as their readers do not truly and deeply understand how to read and watch media sources critically, how to think soundly, and how to clearly define the set of values upon which they form their opinions and base their actions.

What we need, and what this blog intends to present, is a discussion focused not on the issues, but on the process of thinking about the issues.  It will construct and pursue a tripartite definition of "right thinking":

1. Truth -- Get the facts right, and get the right facts.
2. Sound reasoning -- Meticulous analysis of what can and cannot be concluded from an argument.
3. Values -- Planning for action based on a conscious examination and choice of worldview and set of values.

We will examine many of the same topics being discussed in issue-based forums -- but we will use the back-and-forth discussion going on in the media as examples for illuminating the concepts of right thinking... both good examples, and probably more often than not, bad examples.

So if this sounds interesting to you, bookmark this blog and come back again to see more in-depth analysis, techniques, and tools to put yourself on the road to RIGHT THINKING.