Five of the Biggest Liars of 2013

Every year brings it own share of amazing lies and liars ... each one accompanied by a flurry of news stories that quickly fade away.  Some of them make national news; others only receive attention in one region of the country.

It's actually wise of us to go back from time to time and recognize the lies that many people fell for ... in the hopes that the public won't be so easily fooled in the future.

If you know of a situation that occurred in 2013 that you think should have made this list, feel free to include it in the comments section below.  I'll even allow links to articles on the topic, as long as the links are not promoting more potential scams.  (Believe it or not, I frequently have to delete comments containing links with obviously dishonest exaggerations such as "lazy way to make $50,000 a month."  I'm always amazed that people believe I will leave these types of comments on this site!)

Here are my picks for the biggest liars of 2013, based on the amount of interest shown on my blog over the past year.  Click on the title of the stories that interest you and you will discover that it is a link to the full article.  Beneath each title I've included a line or two from each of the articles to give you a better idea of the information they contain:

Clayton County Sheriff Elected Despite Felony Charges

"It seems beyond belief that Sheriff Victor Hill was elected to oversee law enforcement and the Clayton County jail in Georgia while he had 32 pending felony charges against him, including accusations of racketeering and theft." Learn more about this outrageous sheriff.

What is Catfishing and Could You Be Victimized?

"The latest person to be damaged by catfishing is Manti Te'O, a Notre Dame football player and Heisman Trophy contender".  Read more about his embarrassing story.

The Jodi Arias Lies

"Few recent trials have captured the attention of the American public more than the Jodi Arias murder trial.  She was accused of murdering her former boyfriend, Travis Alexander, on June 4, 2008 at his house in Mesa, Arizona by slitting his throat, stabbing him 29 times and then shooting him in the face.  After a televised four month trial, the jury convicted Ms. Arias of first-degree murder on May 8, 2013."  Read about the lies she told that convinced the jury that they should convict her.

How to Avoid Phony Online Product Reviews

"The website business2community.com recently posted an article about online reviews in which they reported that a research company named Gartner has discovered that approximately 15% of online product reviews are fake!"  Learn how to recognize a phony review!

Oops!  Anthony Weiner Did it Again!

"This week Mr. Weiner revealed that he actually had sexually explicit online relationships, via text, Twitter and Facebook, with approximately six to ten women while he served in Congress."  This is in addition to the scandal from 2012.  Is this going to become an annual event?

I'm sure we'll have more interesting scandals to read about in 2014.  I wonder if Anthony Weiner will make the list again!

You are reading from the blog:  http://lies-and-liars.blogspot.com

Photo of Anthony Weiner is is official Congressional photo and is courtesy of www.wikipedia.org/commons

Oops! Anthony Weiner Did It Again!

Just when we thought that Anthony Weiner might have rehabilitated himself after his resignation from Congress last year, and could now be a viable candidate for public office again, it turns out that nothing really changed at all.

 When Representative Weiner (a Democrat from New York State) resigned from Congress in 2011, it was because of the revelation that he had Tweeted nude photos of his private parts to a young woman who was following him on Twitter.  Of course, at that time we did not find out the truth that she was just one of many women who were receiving these types of messages.  In fact, initially he spent weeks lying about the photos and insisting that his Twitter account had been hacked. He repeatedly claimed that he did not send the embarrassing Tweets at all ... until experts were able to prove that his account had not been hacked.  Now we are discovering that the Tweet that caused him to resign was just the tip of the iceberg.

This week Mr. Weiner revealed that he actually had sexually explicit online relationships, via text, Twitter and Facebook, with approximately six to ten women while he served in Congress.  The reason he gave for the range in numbers is because he said he couldn't "tell you absolutely what someone else is going to consider appropriate or not."  In other words, this married husband and father sent explicit messages to about ten women ... he just doesn't know if all of the women thought that the messages were inappropriate. 

What about the voters? Do they think it is appropriate for a married man and elected official to send nude photos and sexually explicit messages to women other than his wife?

Surprisingly, despite the fact that he was sexting with other women during the time that he was dating his wife, Huma Abedin, as well as during their engagement, while she was pregnant, and after she gave birth to their son,  Huma vigorously defended him during a recent press conference.  Does she really believe that his behavior is acceptable and that voters should ignore it?

In past posts, I have always expressed the opinion that a man who cannot be trusted by his wife probably should not be trusted by voters.  I certainly wouldn't want one of my daughters to be in a position where she was working alone with him ... or receiving messages from him!

Unfortunately, despite the fallout from his first batch of Twitter messages, and a sincere interview in People Magazine with his wife Huma Abedin, in which he proclaimed that he was a changed man, apparently Anthony Weiner had not actually changed at all.   In fact, Mr. Weiner recently admitted that after his resignation he continued to regularly engage in sexually explicit online relationships with young women that he did not know!!

In interviews over the past few days, Mr. Weiner confessed that he continued sending messages to at least three more women after his resignation and People Magazine interview.  In order to disguise his identity, he used the online pseudonym of Carlos Danger.  Among the messages that he sent these women were more nude photos of his private parts, as well as embarrassingly explicit descriptions of his sexual desires.  Some of these photos and messages were released by a woman named Sydney Leathers, a 23 year old from from Indiana who says she had an online relationship with him for six months in 2012 ... a claim he does not deny. 

So far, most of the other women involved have not come forward.  Perhaps they are just waiting until their books are ready!  I wouldn't be surprise to see additional revelations in the coming months.  Hopefully, the voters of New York City will be wise enough to not election him to office as their next city mayor.


Sources for Sexting Details:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/anthony-weiner-details-how-many-women-hes-had-online-relationships-with/2013/07/25/c185ad5a-f572-11e2-9434-60440856fadf_story.html

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/07/26/anthony-weiner-huma-abedin-what-normal-about-this-relationship/

You are reading from the blog:  http://lies-and-liars.blogspot.com

Official Congressional photo of Anthony Weiner courtesy of www.en.wikipedia.org/commons