The set up: Mark Shea has a problem with the justifications offered about American soldiers lying to Iraqi generals (the story is more complicated -- a note was left that implied or said that the general's family was taken hostage).
Mark charged that an American soldier lying to the enemy might not be trusted to tell the truth to American journalists. I placed the following in his comment box:
The Great Lie
Mark has made some outstanding points about sin of lying and how the end never justifies the means.
I'm in a moral quandry. I'm not sure if I can remain silent over the great deception we play on our children every year in order to modify their behavior. I am, of course, speaking of the lies we propogate every Christmas when Santa comes to town.
Even more disappointing is my discovery that our own Mark Shea has been part of this deception (scroll down to Dec 17 2:30 am). Now that I know Mark is capable of lying to children, can I ever trust him not to lie to me?
Next week: perfidious lies about the Easter Bunny.
[Note: Mark appreciated the levity]
Posted by Bob at July 30, 2003 03:39 PMJen,
Read what I wrote again. I actually spent some time insuring that I was ambiguous about what the lie regarding Santa is (I was looking for "plausible deniability"). I didn't say that Santa wasn't real.
Thanks for letting the cat out of bag.
Sheesh!
Posted by: Bob at July 30, 2003 09:29 PM