The Lie of the Land

I hate liars. I know, it's cliche, everyone hates liars, being lied to, etc. I am sure that's on 3/4 of the Match.com profiles - "Turnoffs: Lying, bad breath, rude people", but I think I may hate it more than usual. Someone lying, even if it's not to me or about me, just boils my blood. This came up recently because a good friend of mine is being lied about in a MySpace blog. Her ex-husband is saying completely untrue things about her (not using her real name, but still using his, so . . .) that make her sound evil and vindictive and worse of all, like a bad mother. Nothing he says is true. This doesn't really involve me in any way. I mean, I know it's all lies, the people who know her know it's all lies, the people who read and believe this idiot's lies don't know her and can't do much that effects her life, but man - I'm soooo mad. I tried to tell myself that it doesn't matter, and it's certainly not a surprise. He lies basically as a hobby and he's darn good at it. So why does it make me want to scream? Because he's lying!! I don't know if this has something to do with it, but I am an excellent liar. I learned at an early age all the little tricks to make it believable, how much truth to put in your lie, to eliminate (almost) all of my tells. I'm a great liar - I can even tell a lie and make you think I don't know that you can tell I'm lying, so when I tell a real lie, you'll believe it. I could be a really, really terrible person. And because of that, I just plain don't do it. If I tell a little teeny "white" lie, I feel sick to my stomach, because I know it's like an alcoholic taking just a little sip of scotch. It's not the size of that sip, it's what it represents. I don't want to be a liar, no matter what the cost. I will admit that I do sometimes embellish when telling a story, but even then, I have rules I don't cross, too complex to go into here. Part of my problem with blogs like the one posted about my friend is that there is no way to rebut. This vile person can paint whatever hideous picture he wants to about the woman struggling to raise his son while he cons more victims, and the best she could do is post a comment that he'd immediately delete. She could write a competing blog, but to what point? The people who read his aren't going to know to look for hers, and even still, who would they believe? They already think they know him. It's lying with no chance for the truth to come out, which just makes me madder. If you get a chance, watch the Penn and Teller TV series called Bullsh*t. It's a series exposing, well, you can guess. I can't watch it without getting all riled up and saying to the Husband "But how can they do that? They're lying!!" And that's the truth. :P