“All,” “any” and “every” are the three words that kill objectivity in most (if not “all”) situations.

Last week: I’m driving in my car and the radio is tuned to a conservative talk show.

Somebody calls in and shares his opinion with the hyperventilating host that “ALL radio programs out there are controlled by Liberal media.” The irony that he’s making the comment to a conservative host apparently escapes his deadened sense of balance and justice.

Then I ponder: whenever I use the above three words I commit the same kind of mistake as well. It’s as though an “error generator” is built into those three simple but deadly qualifiers.

A long time ago I learned to guard myself against using “very” in my writing. “Very” is like white refined sugar. We really can do without it with a little discipline and our writing would be way better off for it.

But it’s much harder to talk without saying “everybody does this…” or “all conservatives are...” and so on.

We use “all,” “any” and “every” to join a group, to gather like-minded support around us. It’s an easy cop-out for registering more people to our fan club in a hurry. That's why we sometimes end up preaching to our own choir.

Going back to that radio talk show -- imagine the same caller saying “37% of American talk shows are conservative and 63% are liberal"?

Would that have the same visceral impact? No. Why? Because that kind of information forces us to THINK rather than to REACT with a knee-jerk.

I think we need to think more. The issues we are facing in the world today require more data and a more cool-headed discussion of issues that impact us all.

I wish we could reserve one day of the year for National Hyperbole Abstinence Day to purge our collective consciousness from mental contamination.

Try talking for one day without a single “all,” “any” or “every” in your speech and see what happens.