Tuesday, January 18, 2011

QUOTES ON LYING (POLITICAL AND OTHERWISE)




OK, you got your extended Bush tax cuts for the rich, and you have established control over the House of Representatives, and you've been Speaker of the House for 14 days. NOW, WHERE ARE THE JOBS, MR. BOEHNER?
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Over the past decade or so, we have seen a massive amount of lying coming from our public officials. From Saddam has WMD so we must invade Iraq, to massive tax cuts for the rich will stimulate the economy and create millions of new, good-paying jobs, to the glut of outright lies ("death panels", "throwing grandma under the bus") about the President's health care plan, to the President is a secret socialist/fascist and wants to sell us down the river - you name it, we've just about heard it all. I thought I would dedicate this particular post to the subject of lying, something our right-wing friends seem to have mastered nearly to perfection and practice shamelessly, nonstop. Below, then, are a series of quotes on and about the subject of lying. I hope they'll provide you (and our right-wing friends) with some good food for thought.


"THOU SHALT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS AGAINST THY NEIGHBOR!"
- GOD (told to Moses in the eighth of the Ten Commandments) -
Hmmmm---wonder if Sarah Palin, John McCain, the Koch Brothers, Dick Armey, or Michele Bachmann ever heard of this?


"The trust of the innocent is the liar's most useful tool."
- Stephen King -


"When a liar became too skilled at deception, he could lose the ability to discern truth, and could himself be more easily deceived."
- Dean Koontz -
Hmmmm---that explains how conservatives really believe cutting taxes for the rich will create jobs and lessen our deficit. NOW I get it!


"Falsehood is often rocked by truth, but she soon outgrows her cradle and discards her nurse."
- Charles Caleb Colton -


"A good memory is needed once we have lied."
- Pierre Corneille -


"Clever liars give details, but the cleverest don't."
- Source Unknown -
Hmmmm---so THAT'S Rush Limbaugh's and Glenn Beck's secret!


"He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and a third time till at length it becomes habitual."
- Thomas Jefferson -


"I never encourage deceit, and falsehood, especially if you have got a bad memory, is the worst enemy a fellow can have. The fact is truth is your truest friend, no matter what the circumstances are."
- Abraham Lincoln -
Spoken like a TRUE Republican, back in the days TRUE Republicans actually ran their own party!


"If you wish to strengthen a lie, mix a little truth in with it."
- Zohar -


"Lies were like acid, corrosive: They could dissolve trust in a heartbeat."
- Rob Thurman -


"A half-truth does more mischief than a whole lie."
- Ivan Panin
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"ADVERTISING IS LEGALIZED LYING."
- H. G. Wells -


"It's not a matter of what is true that counts but a matter of what is perceived to be true."
- Henry Kissinger -
A brilliant observation from one of the biggest liars of our time.


"The men that American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest the most violently are those who try to tell them the truth."
- H L Mencken (attributed: source unknown) -


"Lying is a terrible vice, it testifies that one despises God, but fears men."
- Michel Eyquem De Montaigne -


"Lying and stealing are next door neighbors."
- Arabian Proverb -


"The liar's punishment is not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else."
- George Bernard Shaw -
Ain't THAT the truth!


“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
- Joseph Goebbels -
REMEMBER WHERE THAT CAME FROM, FOX "NEWS"!


"Lying rides upon debt's back."
- Benjamin Franklin -


“All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach.”
- Adolf Hitler -
Fox "News";s secret exposed at last!


“Through clever and constant application of propaganda, people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way round, to consider the most wretched sort of life as paradise.”
- Adolf Hitler -
Successfully adopted and put into practice by today's far-right Republican Party. A real shame. WAKE UP, PEOPLE!

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COMING SOON: MY JOURNEY TO CUBA!

20 comments:

Oso said...

Nice compendium of lies, liars and methods of lying!
This really addresses a pet peeve of mine,Jack. I don't know how many times I've reacted to this type of thing - TV or radio or in print - by saying "How can they lie like that!"

I can't do it, I know you can't too. Decent people don't have it in us, to spread lies. We'd be humiliated if caught in one, so we research and tell the truth as best we can.
Some people just lack moral fiber I guess!
Later Jack

Jack Jodell said...

Oso,
Thanks for your comment. I think you've summed it all up pretty nicely. Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Dick Armey, the Koch brothers, Rush Limbaugh, and Glenn Beck, among others, simply do not belong under the heading of "decent people." As Mr. De Montaigne so eloquently observes, "Lying is a terrible vice, it testifies that one despises God, but fears men."

mud_rake said...

Oso says, Decent people don't have it in us, to spread lies.

So the question arises, do those who enter politics have a predisposition to lying or is there a lying-virus within the walls of Congress akin to black mold?

Leslie Parsley said...

Lying isn't limited to those in Congress.

This morning I nearly spit out my first cup of coffee as I watched Beck being interviewed - along with his shrink/co-author - re his new book, "Seven Wonders - Guide to Defeat Anger and Find Compassion." Oh my, oh my.

Great collection, Jack.

Jack Jodell said...

mud_rake,
I think it's the natural desire to please others (or keep from offwending them) which leads some politicians from being fully truthful. That takes care of the white lies or exaggerations. But when it comes to out and out whoppers (like many we've seen emanating from the far right), I think it's more indicative of their philosophy of "me first" or their methodology of doing or saying virtually anything to get ahead or gain ground on their opponent. And that I regard as a real major flaw in character!

Jack Jodell said...

tnlib,
I agree---Beck is nauseating and fully delusional, too. Boy, if I got up and saw Beck on TV first thing, I'd have to go back to bed for the whole day! :-)

Shaw Kenawe said...

It's interesting to note that last year Politifact awarded the biggest lie of the year to Sarah Palin for her "Death Panels" lie, and this year it goes to Republican pols for the lie that the ACA is a "government takeover of health care."

Two years in a row the biggest lie goes to Republicans.

Do I see a pattern here?

Vigilante said...

If all you were about was saving a few $10,000's-$100,000's of your patrons' taxes? That would make you sound too crass if you didn't lie, right? That's why politicians in the Greedy Ol' Party lie. As for my Republican friends? Those who I tend to think they're well-intended? I have to assume they're just pinching their noses when the vote? Now, is Oso going to tell me I'm lying to myself and practicing denial?

Jack Jodell said...

Shaw Kenawe,
The Republicans have been lying for decades. Remember FDR referring to them as the "Republican fiction writers" and Adlai Stevenson making reference to their lying back in the 1950s? Almost their entire platform is based on lies, too. If they don't win the next award, I'll be amazed! :-)
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Vigilante,

Good hearing from you again---it's been awhile. I think we all know why Republicans lie. It's as you say "greed." They know if they told the truth on much of their plank voters would throw them overboard!

Shaw Kenawe said...

"Adlai Stevenson making reference to their lying back in the 1950s?"

It a very clever quote that I've heard contemporary Democrats repeat to their Republican opponents:

"Stop lying about my record, and I'll stop telling the truth about yours."

Jack Jodell said...

Shaw Kenawe,
Exactly!

Vigilante said...

Democrats also lie, or sort of lie. That's when they photoshop swastikas over the heads of Republicans. Not funny and not true.

Jack Jodell said...

Vigilante,
They too do lie, but as a general rule, their lies tend to be less offensive and less cutting, with, of course, the exception you list here.

Engineer of Knowledge said...

Hello Jack,
Great Quotes!! One of my favorite along this line is from Thomas Jefferson:

“He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.”

Another is, “Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.”

The success of a Democracy is based in the art of truth….and this fact has not been mastered by the current Ultra Conservative leaders or the lemmings that follow them within my Republican Party.

Have you heard the latest on Todd Palin’s Sex Scandal?
It appears that Mr. Sarah Palin (also known as Todd Palin) has been dipping his wick into the lamp of a “Shailey Tripp,” who is a massage therapist and arrested for prostitution. According to the tenants in the building of her offices, they saw Todd come and go often and heard noises that sounded like someone was having sex.

To paraphrase the line in from the song, “Sunshine,” in the 1970’s goes, “She can’t even run her own life….I’ll be damned if she’ll run mine.” The Teabaggers need to WAKEUP to their con job scam.

Jack Jodell said...

Engineer of Knowledge,
Great quotes you added, and I agree fully with your assessment of the teabagger con job scam!

Cletis said...

Jack, Boehner and crew, like all good Republicans of recent time. are simply lying through their tusks. Cletis

Unknown said...

Go tell it Jack!
Why I wouldn't kiss that Blarney stone?.... it would be redundant.
A privilege of life is in making the mundane exciting or the plain beautiful with well meant or chosen words.
Honesty is subjective ... unless you hold political office, eh? Honesty is dangerous, then. I liked your facts Jack.

Jack Jodell said...

Cletis,
Regretfully, that is very true.
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Gwendolyn,
And fact is what I will always try to present here. Life is too short for willdul bullshit...

Engineer of Knowledge said...

Hello Jack,
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor: I Believe President Obama Is A U.S. Citizen!

Well once again we see the Republican Leadership throw the “Ultra Conservative Wing Nuts” under the bus even after whipping them into a frenzy by their own propaganda machine. Yes once the “NUT JOBS” have served their purpose for every election, the Republican Party Leaders tosses them aside with distain and as much compassion of used toilet paper.

Jack Jodell said...

Great point, Engineer of Knowledge! This current crop of overly ambitious and cutthroat Republicans will say or do virtually ANYTHING to attain power, and that is why they must NOT capture the White House in 2012!