I was watching television the other day and the program I was watching was on a channel that had commercials. I knew that I was getting more and more annoyed at the car commercials, but I didn't really probe the reason too deeply. Then it was like a lightning bolt hit me, they were treating me like a fool. It all started a couple of years back when they started those ads that say things like you can lease a car for only $179 per month. When you read the small type you will see that is with a down payment of thousands of dollars. If you have to put down $3,000 on a 36 month lease than it is like adding $83 to each monthly payment. That would make the payment $262 per month before taxes and other expenses. It really got bad when one company advertised their lease at only $99 per month. Sure it was only $99, but that was after a healthy payment of almost $5,000. Ouch! The car companies still advertise this way, but they now also do comparisons. They will say something like their car is bigger than a (Brand), gets a better front crash rating than (Different Brand) and gets better mileage than a (still different brand). What really annoys me about this is the fact that they take the best car and say that theirs is bigger, but when they are talking about a front crash rating they don't compare their car to the same car, oh no, they compare it to a car with a lower rating. Then when they talk about gas mileage, do they compare their car to the car that they said their car was bigger than? Of course not, it was one of the highest rated on gas mileage, so they compare their car to a car that gets much lower mileage I would also like you to notice the use of the word FRONT crash test. What about the rest of the car? Man these guys are too much.

In the old days we used to call this double talk. We sort of expect it in commercials, but it is evident in many other places. Let's look at foreign countries first. Another version of double talk is when different people are told different things by the same people. In the very old days when I was a kid, we had a scientific term for this, it was called lying. In Saudi Arabia there is a crown prince that is part of the government that preaches good relations with Americans. This prince is also a highly respected judge. MSNBC claims that a tape was made of a sermon he gave in a mosque where he encouraged Saudis to go to Iraq and fight Americans. They reported his words as "If someone knows that he is capable of entering Iraq in order to join the fight, and if his intention is to raise up the word of God, then he is free to do so". Hey if these guys are our friends, I would hate to hear what our enemies have to say about us. South Korea has a constitution, no surprise there. Did you know that according to articles 2 and 3 of their constitution, North Korea is part of their country. Now that we know that, why is South Korea stopping many of those that live in North Korea from coming to South Korea? Strange isn't it? The Mexican government wants the U.S. to accept unlimited immigration, lets look at some Mexican laws:
1. To immigrate to Mexico, immigrants must speak the language.
2. No unskilled workers are allowed
3 .Mexico will not conduct bilingual programs in schools for immigrants or conduct any government business in any language other than Mexican.
I could go on, but you can see a great example of double talk here. In one instance they want us to do everything that they won't do. Are we stupid or what? It sure is beginning to look that way as far as this issue goes.

The double talk and truth bending doesn't stop with other countries, we are pretty good at it ourselves. One legislator who constantly is crying about Iran's nuclear technology and their despotic theocracy is one of the prime movers in Iran getting this technology according to a critic of his. A government official who found out that a certain South American was going to be prosecuted, extended diplomatic immunity to that individual so that he couldn't be touched. It is said the man was a member of a death squad. When the government official was asked why he did it, it is said that he answered it was on the advice of attorneys, national security required it and that the OAS asked him to do it. Now here is the rub, when anyone of these jokers gets caught doing anything which seems wrong, they shouldn't say it is because of national security. I am sorry but I think the American public deserves some facts here. I am not saying we should give away state secrets, but this is ridiculous. The politicians have found a catch phrase that allows for cover ups of everything.

The U.S. Income Tax system is a great example of bending the truth. Supposedly it is a fair way of collecting taxes to support the government, yet when we examine it and see who is paying what, we notice that many rich people pay no tax. This hardly seems very fair to me. Every time someone proposes a flat tax, that is a tax where everyone would pay a certain percentage of their income and this percentage would be the same for all, it is defeated. Sure this would mean no more tax shelters and those people who pay no tax would actually have to open up their wallets. Heaven forbid, these guys think taxes are just for us poor jerks.

One large electric company is catching fire from its customers lately and rightfully so. It must go before a panel before it can raise rates, that is the law, but the company is saying that if it charges for the cost of fuel separately, it is not raising rates. Here is the problem, the fuel cost it is charging amounts to hundreds of dollars added to some bills. What is wrong with this picture? Isn't that a rate increase or shouldn't it at least be decided by a court? The utility is run by a state and this is the problem. When they took it over, they promised it would be cheaper to buy electricity from them, than when it was privately owned. If you ask them they will be glad to tell you that electricity is much cheaper, heck forget the surcharge for fuel, that doesn't count. Yeah, sure.

There are so many examples of this bending the truth and double talk that I could write a book about it, not just an article. It seems to be getting worse. Getting straight answers seems to be harder then ever. We owe it to ourselves to reverse this trend. Recently a former big wig was tried and convicted for having contractors come to his home and remodel it for free, on the promise of getting the company some government contracts. He was in charge of a large government agency. He was heavily fined but received no jail time. When his lawyer was asked about this his reply was, it was a mistake.