Hillary Clinton

Since this may be the only time I'm on for days or weeks, I've been trying to catch up with some previous Monkey Barn postings. Good job to you who have kept it going.

Tiff has one post (which you can read here) where she breaks down a political joke and explains why it is not funny, because it is not true.

Tiff, it's only funny because it's not true! If it were true, it wouldn't be funny, but downright scary. More to the point, looking for facts in political jokes is like looking for facts in political commercials: they are completely irrelevant to the thrust of the piece.

Anyway, bringing up when Hillary Clinton was born recalls one of Hillary's most famous lies. It was the kind of lie that her husband was famous for: given for no other reason than to look good right that moment. Everyone has told lies like these, and I'm not saying you can judge the woman solely based on lying about her name, but it is very funny (because it's true!) and somewhat indicative of the culture she comes from, the culture of politics, where you say whatever you want at that moment.

Basically, about 12 years ago Hillary Clinton ran into Sir Edmund Hillary, famous for reaching the top of Mt. Everest first (along with Tenzing Norgay). Later, Hillary told reporters she'd been named after Sir Edmund Hillary, even though Hillary didn't achieve his monumental fame until Hillary Clinton would have been six.

Now, it is conceivably possible the story is true, and it's also possible that Hillary's mother lied to her daughter, but I think we all know the most likely probability: the woman lied.

For more on this, please check out the great Snopes article (and source material, if you're still not convinced), which you can read here.

And remember this, because I guarandamntee you it will come up next year at some point during the campaign.