My son Stuart sent me the followung bit of wisdom.

“Not all falsehoods are lies.  When the weatherman gets a forecast wrong, only the most jaded among us would accuse the weather bureau of lying.  

“When George W. Bush ordered the U.S. military into Baghdad based on the mistaken belief, based on faulty intelligence, that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, that doesn’t mean Bush lied.  Yet many parroted, without any evidence, “Bush lied, thousands died.”  “Some say, without evidence, that Donald Trump lied – knowing full well he had lost the election, he tried to overturn the results.  I disagree.  Evidence (or lack thereof) to the contrary, I believe Trump still thinks the election was stolen from him.  A mistaken belief is not a lie.  Nor is acting on that belief.

“Others say that James Comey and Christopher Wray lied, and the intelligence officials who believed that the Hunter Biden laptop had all the characteristics of Russian disinformation were lying.  Many of the same individuals indicate that Anthony Fauci lied about the efficacy of facemasks and shutdown orders,  Again, without evidence.  

“Poor or mistaken judgment is not the same as lying.

“The other day, I heard a TV pundit say, “he told a lie, and he knew it was a lie when he said it.” News flash to that pundit – there is no way to unknowingly or ignorantly tell a lie.  If it is a lie, the teller knows it.  Otherwise, it is merely a mistaken belief. 

“I wish people would stop calling everyone who they disagree with “liars.”  Both sides do it, and it really bothers me.  Unless I have a window into a person’s heart, I find it best on my part to assume noble intent even if I feel the individual is mistaken.”

I agree wth my son. However, I do have one quibble. I believe those intelligence officials used extremely poor judgement in labeling Hunter’s laptop as Russian disinformation without examining the evidence. Their dislike and possible fear of Trump probably caused them to do this, and if it wasn’t lying it was certainly skirting on the very edges of truth.