Lying isn’t what it used to be

PowerLineBlog.com ^ | 2/7/15 | Paul Mirengoff

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Lying used to be an offense that caused people to stop trusting and believing you. Now, it’s a “mistake” that’s to be weighed against the liar’s virtues before deciding if he is to be trusted.

I noticed this in my law practice. When I first started out, you hit the litigation jackpot if you could show that the opposing party had lied about any semi-material fact. If you showed this in the pre-trial stages, opposing counsel usually would settle the case for peanuts. If you showed it during trial, the judge or the jury would slam the lying party.

As time went on, I noticed that judges and juries were less impressed by a showing that a party lied. To take but one example, in my last trial, a case I handled for a friend last year, the judge (who was generally excellent and who decided the merits in our favor) was dismissive of evidence that demonstrated dishonesty by the opposing party.

The turning point, I think, was the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky matter. President Clinton was revealed to have lied under oath in a legal proceeding. But most people considered him a good president and the lie was about a private, sensitive matter, his sex life. Thus, Clinton was able to ride out the storm (though he later lost his law license).

It was understandable that people who liked the Clinton presidency didn’t want it terminated over a lie, even one made under oath. But the forgiving of Clinton seems to have had a spillover effect.

In 2001, the rabbi of our synagogue was accused of misappropriating funds. Arguing in favor of retaining the rabbi, Dennis Ross, then a member of the congregation, noted that the rabbi had been delivering great, passionate sermons ever since the allegations of wrongdoing surfaced.

Whatever may be true of a U.S. president, dishonest behavior, one would have thought, trumps quality sermons in a spiritual leader. One would also think that making up events trumps all other qualities in a television news presenter.

But righteous behavior may not be central to the true job description of a “spiritual leader” in ultra-liberal Bethesda, Maryland (though in fairness, this particular rabbi lost his job). Saying the right things and putting on a good show may count for more.

Similarly, honest reporting of events may not be central to the true job description of a network news anchor. In the view of the networks that employ them, the anchorman’s job may have more to do with being a calming presence, someone you want to invite into your home.

Bill O’Reilly tells us that Brian Williams “is not a bad guy.” Jonah Goldberg says that if Williams were his friend, he wouldn’t end the friendship just because Williams falsely claimed he came under attack in Iraq.

I have no reason to disagree with O’Reilly and I tend to agree with Goldberg. But their statements have no bearing on whether Williams should retain his job as presenter of the news.

Lying isn’t what it used to be. And if Williams keeps his job, lying isn’t much of anything at all.

[VerySadAmerican]

Bingo! He’s paid to READ the “news”. He reads what someone else writes and puts on the teleprompter. Even when he lied about himself someone loaded it into the teleprompter and everyone at NBC knew it was a lie.

[Rembrandt]

Now “lying” is what Hilarious calls “misspoke.”

As in, “when I said I ran thru a hail of bullets, well, I, uh, misspoke because I was tired.” Meaning, I lied because I thought I could get away with it.

[bandleader]

Don’t think of it as”Lying”;think of it as”Creativity”!!!!!

[Stanwood_Dave]

My argument is lying now equates to having Truth Deficit Disorder.

William Jefferson Blythe (Not a misprint) Clinton suffers from Truth Deficit Disorder.

Why is it, that nobody will ask "Where are the Golden Clinton KNEE PADS," and will your wife / girl friend / daughter etc., fight for there turn under the desk @ 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Wash. D.C., or in Chappaqua New York!

[Bon mots]

What I want to know is why Hillary gets a pass?

She is a far worse pathological liar than Lyin' Williams.

Hillary Clinton's List of Lies

Admitted Lies

• Chelsea was jogging around the Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. (She was in bed watching it on TV.)
• Hillary was named after Sir Edmund Hillary. (She admitted she was wrong. He climbed Mt. Everest five years after her birth.)
• She was under sniper fire in Bosnia. (A girl presented her with flowers at the foot of the ramp.)
• She learned in The Wall Street Journal how to make a killing in the futures market. (It didn't cover the market back then.)

Whoppers She Won't Confess To

• She didn't know about the FALN pardons.
• She didn't know that her brothers were being paid to get pardons that Clinton granted.
• Taking the White House gifts was a clerical error.
• She didn't know that her staff would fire the travel office staff after she told them to do so.
• She didn't know that the Peter Paul fundraiser in Hollywood in 2000 cost $700,000 more than she reported it had.
• She opposed NAFTA at the time.
• She was instrumental in the Irish peace process.
• She urged Bill to intervene in Rwanda.
• She played a role in the '90s economic recovery.
• The billing records showed up on their own.
• She thought Bill was innocent when the Monica scandal broke.
• She was always a Yankees fan.
• She had nothing to do with the New Square Hasidic pardons (after they voted for her 1,400-12 and she attended a meeting at the White House about the pardons).
• She negotiated for the release of refugees in Macedonia (who were released the day before she got there).

[Gen.Blather]

“What do you have if your word means nothing?”

The presidency?

[USS Alaska]

I noticed this in my law practice.

Who believes anything that a lawyer says or writes?

They lie for a living.
Any lawyer can argue either side of any dispute with equal vigor because truth means nothing to a lawyer, winning is the only measurement.

And then there is the good ole' standby of the defense lawyer...everyone deserves the BEST defense possible.

If Seal Team Six had brought osama obama back to the USA, thousands of scum-sucking lawyers would have been crawling over each over like the maggots they are, to defend his sorry ass.

OK, all you righteous lawyers out there in FReeper land, tell me I'm wrong.

[eyeamok]

They lie for a living. “

Lawyering and Lying is a distinction, not a difference.
Couple that with Laws written in such a manner, that the average citizen can neither read nor comprehend, and you understand why the Original 13th Amendment was written.

http://freedom-school.com/truth/10/missing13th.htm