'A truth that's told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent.' William Blake

Writers:
James Frey: Frey wrote a biography, 'A Million Little Pieces', chronicling his harrowing journey into alcohol and drugs, and the book became a best seller largely due to Oprah Winfrey selecting it for her book club which is an even better boost for sales that Richard and Judy choosing a book for their club. Endorsements like this are priceless in terms of sales and Oprah always enjoys a 'harrowing journey, and/or abused child' tale. However it was later discovered that large parts of the book was fiction. After this discovery Frey appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show for the second time and claimed that the 'demons' that had driven him to abuse alcohol and drugs were the same ones that had led him to invent events in his autobiography. Now this is a great example of working with what you have got and typical behaviour for an accomplished liar. Or storyteller. Another writer, a journalist, Janet Cooke, won a Pulitzer Prize for a piece of work called 'Jimmy's World' about an 8 year old heroin addict. It was later discovered that Cooke had made the whole story up. Cooke resigned and returned the Pulitzer. Cooke had also lied about her education claiming to have a degree from Vassar College and to have studied at the Sorbonne in Paris. But hey, the story must have been a good one as it is now being made into a film. You would have thought that the readership of 'Jimmy's World' would have be relieved to discover the story of an 8 year old heroin addict was a work of fiction. '

'A lie with a purpose is one of the worst kind, and the most profitable.' Josh Billings


Politicians:

Richard Nixon: Nixon lied about his involvement in illegal activities. A burglary at an office complex called Watergate led to the discovery of these illegal activities and has resulted in political cover ups having 'gate' tagged on to them. In fact even non political cover ups have been 'gated'. For instance, Camillagate, which involved the release of an intimate telephone conversation between Camilla and Prince Charles (while both still married to other people) was secretly recorded and the transcripts published in the tabloids.

'There's one way to find out if a man is honest - ask him. If he says, "Yes," you know he is a crook.' ~Groucho Marx

Bill Clinton: More secret tapes, threats of impeachment and in this case DNA evidence. In many respects the scandal surrounding Clinton echoes the Watergate scandal, which brought down Nixon twenty years earlier. Clinton went as far as to lie under oath about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. He was adamant that he 'did not have sex with this woman' and sparked much debate about what exactly constituted 'having sex'. Clinton eventually admitted 'misleading' the American people. And Mrs Clinton.

'A half-truth is a whole lie'. Yiddish Proverb

Weapons of Mass Destruction:

President Bush: Bush made 935 false statements (lies) about the security risk posed by Iraq in the two years following September 11, 2001, according to a study released by two journalism groups. 'In short, the Bush administration led the nation to war on the basis of erroneous information that it methodically propagated and that culminated in military action against Iraq on March 19, 2003,' reads an overview of the examination, conducted by the Center for Public Integrity and its affiliated group, the Fund for Independence in Journalism.'

'Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it' Adolf Hitler

Tony Blair: Blair has a website dedicated to his lies www.blairfacedlies.com

Blair says 'I have never told a lie. No. I don't intend to go telling lies to people. I did not lie over Iraq'.

The Government's case for going to war in Iraq has been torn apart by the publication of previously suppressed evidence that Tony Blair lied over Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. A devastating attack on Mr Blair's justification for military action by Carne Ross, Britain's key negotiator at the UN, has been kept under wraps until now because he was threatened with being charged with breaching the Official Secrets Act. In the testimony revealed today Mr Ross, 40, who helped negotiate several UN security resolutions on Iraq, makes it clear that Mr Blair must have known Saddam Hussein possessed no weapons of mass destruction. He said that during his posting to the UN, 'at no time did HMG [Her Majesty's Government] assess that Iraq's WMD (or any other capability) posed a threat to the UK or its interests.'

'I would never lie. I willfully participate in a campaign of misinformation.' Fox Mulder


Truth or Lie?

Climate Change:

Rise of sea levels is 'the greatest lie ever told'

But if there is one scientist who knows more about sea levels than anyone else in the world it is the Swedish geologist and physicist Nils-Axel Mörner, formerly chairman of the INQUA International Commission on Sea Level Change. And the uncompromising verdict of Dr Mörner, who for 35 years has been using every known scientific method to study sea levels all over the globe, is that all this talk about the sea rising is nothing but a colossal scare story.

Homeopathy:

HOMEOPATHIC medicine should no longer be funded by the NHS, because there is no evidence the treatment is effective, MPs said yesterday. The Commons Science and Technology Committee said there is a lack of proof that the drugs are any more effective than a placebo.

'Truth fears no questions.' Unknown


Wo/Man Lies:
According to a study of 2000 Britons men tell twice as many lies as women. They tell,on average, six lies a day to their partner, boss and work colleagues.

'Nothings wrong, I'm fine.' is the number one lie of both sexes.

Top ten lies men tell:

1. Nothings wrong, I'm fine
2. This will be my last pint
3. No, your bum doesn't look big in that
4. I had no signal
5. My battery died
6. Sorry, I missed your call
7. I didn't have that much to drink
8. I'm on my way
9. It wasn't that expensive
10. I'm stuck in traffic

Women on the other hand tell a mere average of three lies a day and these include:

1. Nothings wrong, I'm fine
2. Oh, this isn't new, I've had it ages
3. It wasn't that expensive
4. It was in the sale
5. I'm on my way
6. I don't know where it is, I haven't touched it
7. I didn't have that much to drink
8. I've got a headache
9. No, I didn't throw it away
10. Sorry, I missed your call

'The worst lies are the lies we tell ourselves. We live in denial of what we do, even what we think. We do this because we're afraid. We fear we will not find love, and when we find it we fear we'll lose it. We fear that if we do not have love we will be unhappy.' Richard Bach