Investigative journalist Chuck Lewis joined Bill recently to discuss his new book, 935 Lies: The Future of Truth and the Decline of America’s Moral Integrity, that looks at the history of government officials and media pundits speaking and repeating (and repeating and repeating) untruths to shape public opinion and policy.
The title of the book refers to the number of times President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and other top administration officials made false statements in the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. But the book has a far greater scope, looking at how lies have shaped American policy over several decades.
Here are 10 notable whoppers that affected hundreds, thousands, and in some cases, millions of lives.
@ Bill Moyers
Dancing With Fools 
David B. Benson says:
January 2, 2015 at 5:51 PM
Often in the middle of the walk I stop for lunch with a beer.
You made me laugh out loud at that one.
After over a week of no beer, or maybe only one beer, I slid back into normal. Monday, going to cut back again. Need to lose some weight, dammit.
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Lie #4 about cigarettes. I don’t care about all that investigating, fining, people suing for gazillions because “they didn’t know smoking would hurt them.” ALL bull shit. I was 13 in 1958 when I picked up my first cigarette, and I knew damn well even then that they were bad. Seriously, inhaling smoke? GOTTA be bad, so hey, hand me another one.
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Lik #10 Joe McCarthy. Egads, put that mug up next to bozo senator Ted Cruz, could be brothers. Later I’ll put a composite together.
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5 mm more snow this morning.
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Carol, I got your card! Thanks!
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You JUST got it? Did I have the right address?
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Yes, I hadn’t visited my mailbox in a couple of weeks 🙂
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My husband would have a kitten if I didn’t get the mail every day.
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Fixed the video that was messed up, HTML error. Sunny and 55 here.
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Huh?
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Suddenly you’re having a heat wave. I’d love 55°.
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A small business owner, Jim Stack, really does not like Obamacare. Spent a page carrying on about it.
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I read an article in the paper yesterday about deductibles and how they’re hurting the middle class. I think where Bob (and me) worked the deductible is now up to $2,500….for 2013. Boss is negotiating the new insurance, it will probably be worse. The first half of the years we worked there, there was no deductible. Then it was $500 for quite awhile.
An insurance institute defended the deductible, saying “…when people pay for their care, they shop more intelligently.” What a ridiculous statement. Insurance doesn’t let you hop from doctor to doctor. They decided what drugs you can have, what test you can have. Kind of impossible to “shop more intelligently.”
So Obamacare is helping a lot of people out, but people that already have employer insurance are getting screwed. Getting cut off, like UPS did, cutting off the spouses of employees so they get their health care from THEIR employer. Deductibles sky high, causing people to put off going to the doctor, to rationing their pills. Of course, we already know not having a single payer system, not having a public option, the U.S. is keeping the health care in the hands of the profiteers and most of us will still have to suffer.
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I just applied for and got a Native American exemption from Obama care.
I go every six months or so to a family my health center, mainly just to refill prescriptions. I pay $105.00 a visit.
One catastophic illness, of course, will kill me 🙂
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Which tribe?
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Bought 6 bottles of wine today. The check out clerk offered me the receipt. “No, I can’t drink that.” She smiled and said “You’re full of it today, aren’t you.” “No, ” I said, looking pointedly at the bagged wine, “not yet.”
☺
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Delaware. The cutoff is 10% blood, so I just squeezed in.
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More than my proportion.
But maybe I’m 1/8th.
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Technically I’m 3/32, so you win.
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Well, I might only be 1/16th so probably you win.
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It’s good to be a Veteran, four years of brow-beating by superiors was worth it now, at the time, not so much. No Indians in my family woodpile, just WASP’s.
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Robbie Gordon, one the American entrants has a ‘show off’ moment in Buenos Aries:
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Hasn’t started snowing yet.
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“The Interview,” don’t mess with Hollywood unless you want to increase sales.
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😁
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