The Crazy World We Live In! Blog

The Truth about lies? Here it is. Sometimes you can get away with a lie, but when you DON?T, the repercussions are usually far WORSE than whatever you were avoiding by telling the lie in the first place. Let's talk....

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Don't believe that lying backfires. Ask Scooter Libby. The verdict is in. Guilty on 4 out of 5 counts.

To recap: this case was about the outing of CIA agent, Valerie Plame, the wife of Joe Wilson the diplomat who wrote a critical Op ED piece criticizing the Administration?s contention that Saddam Hussein was trying to buy uranium in Niger.

If only Libby had told the truth to the Grand Jury€ But that?s not why we tell lies is it? In fact, the only reason to tell a lie€ small or large € is to avoid something unpleasant by telling the truth.

Sometimes our lies seem harmless. The little white lie you tell your girlfriend when she appears with a horrendous hairstyle and you say how cute it looks. You want to avoid the truth ? and possible hurting her feelings and your relationship.

But other lies are bigger. One client I had lived in a very crowded area in the city where parking spaces were at a premium. Night after night, someone would park in the ONE assigned space for her and her husband. One day, something just snapped and her husband upon discovering the parking space was taken, went into the house, came out with a baseball bat and smashed the windshield. Stupid, surely. But what was even more interesting was when the car owner came to their apartment to find out about his smashed windshield, my client lied and said they had nothing to do with it. Like scooter Libby, she lied to protect her husband.

Now, eventually she and her husband stepped forward, told the truth, paid for the window and that was the end of that. But what if they hadn?t? Would their have been a police report filed, were there witnesses, would this couple faced a far worse fate then simply paying for the damage?

Statistically, lies don?t work. Sure, you may get away with some lies. You may even be a very good liar, but eventually you will be found out. Now known as a liar, it will be very difficult for you to achieve anything in life, whether in business or in relationships, simply because no one will trust you. Additionally, a specific lie might hold huge consequences when the lie is discovered.

The question is: why did SCOOTER LIBBY lie to the grand jury? Lies are told to cover up something else. . As juror Denis Collins said€ÐIt seems like he was the fall guy.Ó But still to LIE TO A GRAND JURY? I mean, didn?t any of these people remember WATERGATE? It?s THE COVER UP ? not the crime. Why did Libby lie? Because he thought he could get away with it.

That?s why we ALL lie. Too bad, we don?t often remember what the consequences will be for getting caught before we make the choice to lie.

So once again: the truth about lies. You may get away with it, but if you don?t, chances are the consequences will be far worse than the truth you were trying to avoid in the first place.

As the famous poet, Sir Walter Scott wrote: "O, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive."