“There are lies, there are dammed lies, and then there are statistics.”

Mark Twain popularized this phrase in the United States, using it to critique the persuasive power of statistics, even when used inappropriately. I actually know quite a bit about that. For 28 years I was a graphic artist for the local newspaper. Almost every day there was an opportunity to use statistics in a news story. Everything from rainfall totals to traffic accidents during the summer to numbers of people unemployed, there was always something that could be graphed, charted or aligned, I must have made a few thousand of them over those many years working at the paper. I often added artistic or cartoon elements to make it easier or more entertaining to look at. On occasion, the trend of the information did not match the direction of the written story. If the reporter said that auto accidents were up a great deal, but the line of the chart showed only a small increase, I could slightly exaggerate the scale. But this was always a point of contention with me and the editors.

The newspaper was a bit more careful about lies. Generally, two separate news sources were needed to verify the accuracy of any story. Often it was obvious when there were discrepancies, but when arguing for a point there are many opportunities for misinformation. In these degenerate times, it is apparently okay to outright lie when trying to put over your point. The leader of this country cannot open his mouth without telling the most outrageous lies and expects to be believed without question. (The phrase, dammed lies, come to mind). When most of the media services these days feel too threatened to actually waste time verifying the accuracy of things said, we are in perilous times indeed. Of course that is the idea, when we cannot believe anything at all, whether it is true or false, you can steal an entire country.

There are a huge number of lies being told about the departments and institutions of this country in order to create a excuse to disable or close them down, and it is succeeding. Just last week we lost the Department of Education. For Gods sake! The Department of Education! This will have a long term effect on the level of education and knowledge of the citizens of this country, and not a good effect. Programs in the arts, museums and libraries, programs in science, medicine and technology are being slashed to death. It is an attack on anything intellectual, protective or useful to help the citizens of this country. It is just the beginning of a massive, suffocating wave of fascism threatening to drown us and all our freedoms.

“Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, but your government only when it deserves it.” Mark Twain was the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens. He was an American writer, humorist, and essayist, one of the best and most perceptive this country has ever produced.