More lying

Doctor fired for malpractice
after telling woman to
strip for eye examination.

Why do they do it? Keep on lying, that is. I mean, lying is one thing, but lying when it is obvious that you are lying, and it can easily be demonstrated that you are lying, seems to me to be quite different. So we have Republicans lying about things that are easily shown to be lies. George Will, for example, recently claimed that the ice fields not only are not shrinking, they are expanding, a blatant lie. Senator Inhofe, standing on the tarmac in Afghanistan, said that Obama was reducing the military budget, a blatant lie. He previously said global warming was not happening, another blatant lie. Glenn Beck (and many others) have claimed that Obama is going to ban guns, a blatant lie. Many Republicans have claimed that the Employee Free Choice Act will do away with secret ballots, a blatant lie. A headline today said “Gates slashing Pentagon budget,” still another blatant lie. Cheney claims we are less safe under Obama, a lie (or at least a claim based upon no factual evidence whatsoever). And of course we have lived through eight years of one lie after another. It is not clear to me that Bush/Cheney ever told the truth about anything. Then the whole series of lies about Obama: he is a Muslim, he is a socialist, he is a fascist, he was not really born in the U.S., he is not eligible to be President, and on and on and on. I really don’t understand it. Why lie when it can be immediately proven that you are telling a lie? Are Republicans simply unaware that modern technology does not allow them to lie so obviously? I cannot believe that they actually believe all the lies they tell. In either case they would have to be seen as incredibly stupid. I don’t know how to explain this ubiquitous lying, especially when it is so obviously shown to be completely false. I have long thought that Republicans as a group were probably pretty stupid, now I am beginning to believe they are crazy, or at the very least pathological liars. What makes this worse is that the MSM lets them get away with their lying, seldom, if ever, challenging them when they deliver one of these obviously blatant lies. I guess in one sense you might understand their lying, if only because by constantly lying there is no way anyone could possible reason with them. By lying so constantly they are basically immunizing themselves from having to engage in rational discourse (which, of course, they would lose). I cannot think of any other explanation. Some of this lying is so awful that it literally leaves one speechless. There is a restaurant here where some of the locals (all Republicans) meet for coffee and conversation virtually every morning. This can hardly be compared to the Algonquin Round Table as it is more like the wilfully ignorant discussing the problems of the day with the totally uninformed, like one dittohead to another. Today these staunch Republican pundits, who were discussing the question of the price of oil, apparently assured a relatively rare visitor that “South Dakota has more oil than Saudi Arabia.” What, pray tell, can one respond to something like that? You might as well run shrieking from the place tearing out your hair as you go. I don’t know if something like this even falls under the category of lying, insane gibberish is perhaps a more accurate description. I have a friend who used to eat breakfast at this place but had to stop because he feared the conversation might eventually drive him insane.

Whatever any of these various Republicans claim, Obama has actually increased the military budget by 4% over last year’s budget. He and Gates are getting rid of some of the stuff that we obviously do not need and shifting priorities around, but it remains an increase. Personally, I believe this is ridiculous. I still maintain we could slash our military budget by more than 25% and it would make no difference whatsoever to our security. This budget does not reflect our true needs for self-defense, but, rather, the “needs” of the military/industrial/political complex that controls our lives. The defense contractors are shrewd so they deliberately spread the largesse over many states, thus making it more difficult to do away with various projects. Today I heard, for example, that parts for one of the fighter planes are made in 46 different states. That means 46 or more Congresspersons who will fight to keep the project going whether we need it or not. It remains to be seen if the Obama/Gates budget will survive the entrenched interests that will resist it to the last gasp.

LKBIQ:
There is an evil tendency underlying all our technology - the tendency to do what is reasonable even when it isn't any good.
Robert Pirsig

TILT:
The Hippopotamus is regarded as one of the most aggressive animals in Africa.