A few days ago I posted a bit about the coming of spring. In it, I mentioned that the Junco, a bird from up north, left to go home. This morning as I looked out on the yard I spotted a Junco hopping around under the feeder picking up sunflower seeds. Damn, I exclaimed to myself. He made me a liar.
What I suspect is that the Juncos are migrating south to north, and this guy is late. Probably because he winters further south. It doesn’t matter except I wrote a bald faced lie in my last post. I don’t like to lie, telling lies is reserved for politicians on the stump, or defending their shoddy records. Politi-speak has evolved into something that is widely accepted even though we all know it is wrong. So then, why do we continue to vote for the people that live to tell untruths? A great example of this type of talk was displayed during the last election cycle when then candidate Biden stood before the country and said he would eliminate COVID. We all knew that was BS, but the Trump haters were so anxious to get rid of someone who knew how to run the country that they accepted that lie and many more.
Just as we all know that state run elections are running over with fraud, but the chiefs in charge continue to accept the lies told by state attorney generals who certify results. As long as those who oversee the election run by the laws in their state they cannot see the real fraud going on because they followed the law to the letter.
Another common form of lying, that is publicized, is when a politician makes a statement based on his knowledge of the facts at hand, and newly uncovered facts come up. On the basis of the new facts the old statements are now false, therefore the subject is telling a lie.
I wonder if America will ever get any of this stuff straightened out to correct the system. Until then, I have to rely on my own judgement of what is, and what isn’t a lie. Reading opposing viewpoints makes things worse because because often a lie is challenged with another lie. I tend to believe the people I want to believe in, and anyone else is a liar. I don’t think I’m alone on that point. In the meantime, I’ll try to correct my own lies with fresh news based on new facts about the migratory habits of my bird residents. Or, are they residents if they only stay here for the winter? That poses another question, just where does a migratory bird call home? Since he commutes between places one or the other must take precedence. I guess I’ll just go sit on my rock and strike a Rodin pose whilst pondering the issue.
Lie, lie, lie, the word is used daily in accusations by political pundits. It seems that making false statements has become standard in political conversation. Who are we to believe when a candidate makes a statement and his opposition says he is lying? To make things even worse, who are we to believe when the said candidate then responds with a counter statement that his rival is lying?
Then, there are statements made during campaigns that are interpreted as lies even though at the time a candidate made the claim he believed it to be true. For example, when Biden was campaigning to become president he stated that Trump mis-handled the COVID-19 response and because of it people died. He claimed that he would stop the pandemic and life would be good again. The instant those words left his mouth I jumped out of my chair in anger. How can anyone make such a claim when no one has yet demonstrated a single way to stop or control the virus? Biden knew what he was saying and he also knew it was intentionally false, but enough people were so sick of COVID they wanted to believe him and did. Now, of course, we all know that he was blowing smoke out of his ass. These statements fall under the Harry Reid Rule of making statements true or false to win elections. When Romney ran against Obama, Reid publicly stated that Romney did not pay his income-taxes. By the time anyone had proven otherwise the election was over and Obama won. Later when Reid was challenged on his statement his answer was “he won didn’t he?” In his demented mind that justified the lie.
Lying has become a standard way of speaking in order to win elections. Forget that “thou shalt not lie” is one of the ten commandments it only applies to someone else, and only when you are not speaking during and election campaign. I wish we could have an app to detect when someone was telling a lie and to “beep” when the lie is detected. Campaign speeches would sound a lot different with all the beeps coming after statements. For example:
“My fellow Americans (beep) I am running to be your next president because I want to lower your taxes (BEEP), and make America great again (BEEP), and I will make China and Russia behave (BEEP,BEEP,BEEP). . .”
John Q. Candidate
When did it become acceptable to condone lying in political speech? What is more surprising to me is that so many Americans are gullible enough to believe the horse hockey they are being fed. The lying does not stop with the candidates, but has permeated the reporting as well. Everyday we see examples of reporters writing and telling deliberate lies to illicit responses that support their political philosophy. A recent example is the article that cites a Liberal Supreme Court Justice making a claim that A Conservative Judge is jeopardizing her health by not wearing a mask in her presence. Two days later, after this lie has been promulgated around the world, another reporter finally asks the judges if this is correct. Both judges deny any such statement or intention. Who cares? The damage was done, and the man on the street only remembers that the Conservative Judge is a bad guy who intended to harm the Liberal Judge. Lies, lies, lies, but who cares the reporter did his job, and got his viewpoint out.
After reading history, I have learned the problem of lying in newspapers is as old as the First amendment which protects free speech even if it is damaging and incorrect. The only way to correct this is to not read the newspapers, or the websites that publish a lying reporter’s crap. The liars need to be exposed in a way that the public will not listen to their voice. A problem with this method is that there are way too many reporters involved, and new ones are being graduated every six months from a slew of liberal colleges with so called journalism programs. My personal method is to not read political essays on the internet nor listen to liberal voices on the tv or radio. Instead, I scan news sites and read headlines looking for interesting articles that I could believe and learn something from. I have also limited viewing cable news programs because they don’t contain news only opinions, and my opinion is as good as any of theirs. The worst kind of opinion program is when the moderator has a liberal and a conservative side by side. Most times the liberal will only invoke my vomit response. Why should I put up with that? I don’t.
How big and how many lies can I tell in this post? Typically, I write the truth about my life and embellish the truth with opinion. Sometimes the opinion proves to be accurate; sometimes it is not, when it is not it is a lie. With that in mind let me tell a story about my Friday night without a date night. I had spent the day by myself trying to make it productive but failing miserably. By 4:30 I was hungry and put together a supper consisting of a frozen pizza. Two nights ago I opened a thin crust sausage pizza, and decided not to let it go to waste. To stay KETO I cut the pizza in half while still frozen. Therefore, I had half of a pizza still frozen. Not wanting to cook anything special I took the easy way out. It was perfect, but here I was at six p.m. dishes done and nothing to do. I read a few chapters of a book I borrowed from the library and decided that Friday night is date night and I should not be reading a book. For me it turns out to be Friday night without a date night. Take a walk, I said to myself. It’ll be the second walk of the day, but it is free, easy, and in the dark no one will know I am walking.
The downtown area pulls me toward it nine times out of ten, and it did again. Instead of walking the sidewalks I stuck my neck out and walked the street defying drivers to miss me as they passed by. I made it to town without injury and had to decide which tavern to settle in. My latest favorite is the bowling alley. It was open. I climbed the twenty-six stairs and strolled into a crowded bar. I spotted Sam a friend, and headed toward him. He in turn walked me to the bar and introduced me to some of his acquaintances there. The people were totally friendly and made space for me to sit with them at the bar. Needless to say there was no social distancing being practiced here unless you wanted to stand away from the bar. I chose the dangerous one, and sat. A State Farm agent Ken introduced me to his wife and four of their friends. We hit if off right away. He noticed my baseball cap and said “thank You for your Service.” The hat is dark blue with an American Flag embroidered on it. Across the flag is an eagle. Many people mistake it for a service corps hat. “I was never in the service,” I told him, but I am a patriot. “That’s okay” he said “what would you like to drink?”
Mari the bar owner was tending, and took my order for a Coors light. It’s one of the beers I will occasionally drink because it is low in carbs, almost KETO I lied to myself. The conversation drifted towards people we know and then toward the election results. Election results have become the most popular topic of the week. I didn’t really want to discuss the possibility of a new president, I thanked him for the beer, excused myself and walked back to Sam who I met on the way in. He was also engaged in discussing the election, so I reversed and went back to the bar.
Ken had drifted to the end of the bar and gave his seat to his wife. She was worth getting to know. A hottie about forty, five foot eight, fabulous legs, torso, and boobs. She also had a nice face. To stay cool on her walk to the bar she wore shorts and a tank top which is why I noticed her shapely legs. Her name is Anne with an “e” at the end. She told me how grateful she was to have their business in Tinley Park a neighboring town. During the shutdown they were super helpful to us by sending business our way. She told me she graduated from Tinley Park High School. “Oh,” I said “I worked right across the street from you. That is the high school no one knows about. Most times kids will tell me they graduated from Sandburg or Andrews, but rarely do they mention Tinley.”
“I loved it there,” she said.
“Why?” I asked.
“Because it was so private being surrounded by forest preserves and there were no local hangouts for the kids to congregate at. We all got on a bus and went home, no time for shenanigans.”
I leaned in close to her face to hear her better, and just as Anne and I were getting into each other’s history, I got bumped pretty hard from the back. I turned to see who it was, and got punched in the face by a stranger. My reaction was to swivel and unload a fist full of knuckles into his jaw. He was more caught off guard than I was. He spun around falling to the floor. “Fight, fight,” Is all I heard as I lunged at him on the floor and straddled his body. I started pummeling him about the head when someone grabbed me from the back and yanked me off. His face was pretty bloody and people were helping him to get up too.
“What was that all about?” I asked him.
“I can’t stand it when an old geezer like you is hitting on my best friend’s wife.”
“Well, I can’t stand being cold cocked for nothing.”
Frankfort’s finest men in blue arrived on the scene and restrained us with hand-cuffs. Officer Darrien walked me to a squad car. A paramedic attended to my attacker’s bleeding nose before he too was locked into a squad. Eventually, we were both arrested for causing a public disturbance and transported to jail.
In the morning, I was allowed to make my phone call. I called my daughter since I didn’t know any lawyers who could help me get out. In the meantime, I served time in the solitude of a cell crowded with drunks and addicts. Interesting people, all of them. Each had a story to tell. By far I was the oldest in the lot.
“Hello Joanie, this is Dad. I’m in jail, you have to help get me out of here.”
“WHAT? WHERE? WHY?”
“Frankfort, by the high school. I was arrested for fighting in a bar.”
“Fighting, about what?”
“A guy punched me in the face for nothing, and I defended myself”
“John and I will be there as quick as we can.”
It was noon Saturday before my Friday night without a date night finally ended.
Why do I need to make a reservation to visit the Lord? He was never that busy before to not let me in. This time, however, it is not because He is busy, it is because government thinks it is safer to stay away from Church. Safer? Since when did visiting with God depend on my safety? I would rather place myself in harms way than to avoid the Almighty. Dying may not be so bad after all. Isn’t that the goal of life is to die? Dying gets us to the pearly gates, it may not get us in, but at least we may get to see the gates. Who knows perhaps I’d get a sneek peek at God Himself when the gate opens for someone to enter?
Religion is not something I normally discuss out loud and never in public. Unlike politics, which I shoot myself in the foot with all the time. Politics is different than religion, thank God for that. It would be nice, though if politicians practiced their faith more when running for office. I too often get the feeling that I am supposed to forgive all the lies and deceit spewed by politicians as political rhetoric. Somehow lies become allowed when speaking politically. I would really like politicians to tell me their personal definition of a lie.
One of the most common arguments comes from taking a statement out of context and labeling it a lie. For instance. Back in January, he said the Chinese COVID-19 Virus is harmless.” three months later after science has proved that COVID-19 is deadly, we claim the speaker told a lie. Duh! At the time he said it he based his statement on the scientific evidence of the day. It wasn’t a lie it was a statement that has been proven wrong by time. Yet, I detect false claims of lies almost daily on the news.
Polls are another form of lie. Yesterday I reported counting yard signs along the highway in Wisconsin and took an impromptu poll. I reported that Biden was ahead of Trump in Wisconsin. Did my poll really prove that? No. Polls need data, lots of data that can be statistically calculated with some degree of certainty that the prediction is correct. I venture to say that six yards signs on a short piece of highway is not statistically accurate. When I worked as an engineer, I was always placed in a situation where I needed to come up with answers immediately. Most times I was trying to determine if a new design was better, stronger, etc. than the standard. With the time I had to do the work I used a method I had developed to make the assessment. Years later After taking a course in statistics I learned that my method was one of pure guesstimating. I had a fifty fifty chance of making an accurate choice between designs. Now, when I hear reports stating that a poll shows one candidate ahead of another I laugh and dismiss it completely. The trouble is that average citizens do not look at the statistical relevancy of a poll, they merely remember the result they hear reported. To me that report constitutes a lie, but the result is touted as the truth.
When I look at candidates, I try to assess them relative to past performance. If it is a new candidate who never had a political life before, it is harder, but I then look at the candidates character and his record in his current job. If the candidate has been in office before I look at his promises and measure them against his results. Did he keep his promises. Did I believe the promises he made were in alignment with my own politics? If he kept his promises then I would be prone to vote for him. If he made promises, but absolutely no effort to fulfill them I will not vote for him, he is liar using political rhetoric only to gain my vote.
The one thing I had against Obama was his promise to “fundamentally change America.”
“Into what?” I asked, Obama never really answered that but during the course of the campaign he let out little hints that he was heading the country toward Communism. One particular hint came during a discourse with Joe the Plumber at a rally.
Another political scheme is to use the free press as your personal propaganda machine. It was no secret that the Democrats control the political message. The lazy free press buys the lies they are fed hook line and sinker and never challenge any of them. To this day, the free press that the Founder’s said was necessary to keep politicians honest has chosen to become an integral part of the machine. They constantly manufacture news by manipulating videos, photos, and interviews to lead people to their way of thinking. All of it is a giant lie. It is hard to understand which news organizations meet the Founder’s concept of reporting fairly.
My choices for political office all boil down to whose message and reporting do I trust the most. Of course that comes only after I chose the candidate that most closely agrees with my own political ideology.
In following politics I have a problem with how people from both sides use the word lie to push their agenda. To me it signals that the American public reacts to liars. We don’t like them. Consequently, we like to dub politicians as liars. The problem I have with this phenomenon is that most of the time when I hear about someone telling a lie it is far from the truth. Because of this I hold the person telling us someone is a liar as the liar.
Politicians make promises to get votes. Some of them are telling outright lies with no intention of keeping those promises after elected. Many others make the promises and set goals to achieve them, but do not succeed. For example, Trump campaigned on the promise that the first thing he would do is to repeal and replace Obama Care. When sworn in, and actually seeing the agenda before him he was most likely overwhelmed. Repealing Obama Care was not the number one thing on his agenda for a couple of reasons. One of them being that he couldn’t do the repeal, it is the job of Congress to repeal laws. That took the promise out of his control. Yet, I have some dingbat liberal friends who call him a liar because he didn’t repeal and replace. It took him a few weeks longer to make it happen, but he is branded forever as a liar because he didn’t deliver exactly as promised.
I can make a list of promises made, and then failed that are fueling the liar myth, but I won’t bore you with it, I think my analogy above makes my point. The problem is that making a big deal about these situations stamps the title of “LIAR” across a person’s forehead, and liar is one trait that liberals love to use as much as the word racist. I had a talk with a forty something young man recently who I know voted for Trump. He was beginning to question Trump’s veracity as leader. I asked him why, and he stated that he was concerned that Trump lies a lot. That is why I have stopped watching network news and cable news. The fair and balanced channel is also guilty of promoting the lie word. The media war against Trump is having an effect on the gullible.
I totally support Trump’s battle against the fake news media. Yes, the news has a First Amendment right to write what it likes, but it puts a huge onus on We the People to separate the truth from the real lies. The moral of this story is don’t believe everything you hear from the media sources, the pundits, or the opposing politicians without first researching the truth.
