• The Stephen Colbert-Ann Coulter Challenge
• Republicans blame Democrats for Foley scandal

I recently finished reading Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us by Robert Hare. As the title suggests, psychopaths are qualitatively different from other people, literally having no conscience. The book (and another on the subject, The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout) convinced me that this difference really exists. Before that, I assumed that all people who behaved differently from me just had different values or loyalties.

According to Hare, psychopaths have no difficult lying or even contradicting themselves in the same conversation. He gives the following beyond satire examples (pp. 125-127):

When asked if he had ever committed a violent offense, a man serving time for theft answered, "No, but I once had to kill someone."

A woman with a staggering record of fraud, deceit, lies, and broken promises concluded a letter to the parole board with, "I've let a lot of people down....One is only as good as her reputation and name. My word is as good as gold."

A man serving time for armed robbery replied to the testimony of an eyewitness, "He's lying. I wasn't there. I should have blown his fucking head off."

When asked, "Did you actually carry around in your briefcase blank power-of-attorney forms?" his reply was, "No, I didn't carry them around, but I had them in my briefcase, yes."

[Convicted serial killer Elmer Wayne Henley answers an interviewer by saying]: "I'm not a serial killer." The interviewer than says, "You're saying you're not a serial killer now, but you've serially killed." Henley replies, with some exasperation and condescension, "Well, yeah, that's semantics."

Editor and Publisher reports on the "'tribute' to President Bush" by "faux talk show host Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondent Dinner". Some of my favorite excerpts from the article:

Colbert, who spoke in the guise of his talk show character, who ostensibly supports the president strongly, urged the Bush to ignore his low approval ratings, saying they were based on reality, “and reality has a well-known liberal bias.”

He attacked those in the press who claim that the shake-up at the White House was merely re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. “This administration is soaring, not sinking,” he said. “If anything, they are re-arranging the deck chairs on the Hindenburg.”....

Observing that Bush sticks to his principles, he said, "When the president decides something on Monday, he still believes it on Wednesday - no matter what happened Tuesday."....

Addressing the reporters, he said, "Let's review the rules. Here's how it works. The president makes decisions, he’s the decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Put them through a spell check and go home. Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration. You know--fiction."

Apparently, Bush "stopped smiling about halfway through Colbert".

Update (5/6/2006): You can view an authorized copy at Google Video.

Sources: Crooks and Liars via boingboing via Google Blogoscoped. I found the photo at http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3460/2269/320/r3282836043.jpg via Main St. USA with the caption "Pay no attention to that little man in the corner".

Ron Avitzur pointed me to this item from Bob Park:

The American Association of Petroleum Geologists is presenting its annual journalism award to novelist Michael Crichton for "State of Fear," a fictional story in which global warming is not for real. AAPG was presumably unable to find a journalist sufficiently divorced from reality to meet oil company standards.

From a New York Times article:

"It is fiction," conceded Larry Nation, communications director for the association. "But it has the absolute ring of truth."

I've added a new category: truthiness. I think this qualifies.