Empresses And Clothes

A reader writes:

Most people cannot grasp that a specific person is a pathological liar until a) it bites them in the ass and b) there isn't a shadow of another explanation for the bite marks.  If only a) is true, they will come up with endless excuses. If only b) is true, they will rationalize away why the bite wasn't so harsh or wasn't even a bite at all given the context.

Those of us who observe that pathological lying is both possible and more common than generally assumed frequently get ourselves into your situation: people can't handle being faced with this sad fact and blame us for pointing it out.

Like Will Ferrell's character Mugatu in Zoolander, who was frustrated because no one else realized Blue Steel was the same as all Zoolander's other expressions, we start to feel like we're taking crazy pills.

I don't care one way or another about Sarah Palin as a person, but anyone who "gets" pathological lying can see there's way, way too much about what she says that's demonstrably false to be explained any other way.