On Women

"What's the worst lie you've told lately?" I ask a few of my female coworkers recently. None of them could think of any really bad mistruths aside from the lies they told in high school to get out of trouble with their parents or teachers. One of my colleagues said she used a photocopied ticket for a school dance and didn't step forward when students were initially asked if they had fake tickets. After her dishonesty gnawed away at her, she later went to the principal to confess. All of them told me, though, that they feel comfortable telling those you-don't-look-fat-at-all white lies to please people and make them feel good. But downright dirty dishonesty? They feel too guilty to engage in it. (I'll take them at their word.)

Our society certainly frowns upon lying. Witness the brouhaha over former White House press secretary Scott McClellan's new book, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception, where he accuses his former boss of a "lack of candor." McClellan says he's most upset about the damage to his own reputation after he "unknowingly passed along false information" from administration officials.

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