Another Hillary Howler

In her interview with the _entire editorial board_ of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on Tuesday (sounds like a fair fight to me), Hillary Clinton allowed as how her harrowing tale of having dodged sniper bullets on a visit to Bosnia was based not on what actually happened, but on "sleep deprivation". Well hey, I've gone without sleep myself, and I know what it's like all of a sudden imagining that, at some past time, you were caught in a hail of bullets. But wait -- isn't this the same person whose campaign made a huge point of asking which candidate would be best able to handle a theoretical "3 A.M. phone call" regarding some world crisis? Well, now, let's see -- we have someone who suffers from false memories as a result of sleep deprivation. The phone rings at 3 A.M. A voice is heard on the other end of the line, uttering something in urgent tones. The president -- due to having been awakened at 3 A.M., i.e. "sleep deprivation" -- thinks that the North Koreans are shelling the White House, and orders all-out retaliation. I say, let's vote for someone like McCain, who really _did_ suffer sleep deprivation -- for years, at the hands of the Viet Cong -- but survived nonetheless.

What's amazing to me is that the Trib reported all this without the slightest trace of irony -- which, of course, was exactly the right approach. Just provide the rope and let her do the rest. Not only that, but not a single one of them jumped up during the interview and yelled, "Liar, liar, matronly pants suit on fire!"

Now, the rest of us are probably asking, is she totally delusional? Not for thinking she was under sniper fire but for thinking that people would actually fall for that cockabibble story -- or for the damage-control story that followed. See, the problem is that once someone gets used to lying about everything, all the time, they gradually lose track of what sorts of things can pass the credibility test and what sorts of things cannot. They experience a kind of "metaphysical drift", i.e. a morphing of the concept of what passes for reality. This, in turn, is based on their solipsistic view that they themselves are, in fact, the ultimate arbiters of what is real and what is not. What is real -- what "counts" -- is whatever increases their self-image, self-esteem, and power; the rest is just noise. So if you want someone else to define your reality for you, please -- by all means -- vote "Hillary!"