THE MOTHER OF ALL LIES

Another day, another lunch hour, however, instead of taking a walk outside in the sudden burst of sunshine, I am compelled to write about the endless lies being spewed by the despicable duo of Cindy and Casey Anthony, grandmother and mother of the unbearably adorable and unbearably missing Caylee Marie Anthony, nearly 3 years old.

Missing, yet unreported for an entire month.

And unless you've been vacationing on Mars or in some remote location without access to newspapers or Nancy Grace, you are likely to be familiar with at least some of the details of this heartbreaking and disturbing case:

• The arrest of the mother on charges of child neglect and obstruction of justice


• The string of batty lies she told police about a nonexistent job, nonexistent babysitter and non-existent apartment where the non-existent babysitter lived


• The grandmother's wacked-out appearances on national television and her knack for inventing new details that she simply neglected to report previously


• The discovery of Casey's abandoned car with the smell of decomposing human remains, strands of the child's hair and dirt in the trunk


• The involvement of cadaver dogs sniffing on the grandparents' property


• Reports of the mother borrowing a shovel in June


• News of a new concrete slab poured in the grandparents' backyard

...and so on

This story smells from top to bottom, like the trunk of Casey's abandoned car. There are lots of mysterious and unsettling details, such as a the allegedly -- and most conveniently -- dead birthfather. There is a creepy brother who painted a thoroughly unconvincing portrait of sibling intimacy when he took the witness stand. There is a relatively silent grandfather. There are friends who brand Casey a habitual liar and who are now reporting that they witnessed her carrying on during Caylee's absence as if she didn't have a care in the world.

And there are lies that are so outlandish that they would be laughable...were there anything remotely amusing about a child gone missing and feared dead. Such as the lie that Casey neglected to approach police with reports of her child's absence because she was launching her own investigation into her daughter's disappearance. Uh huh. Yeah. So that's why she hadn't contacted them, or her own parents, for that matter. Makes perfect sense. Yet this pathetic lie is further embellished by Cindy Anthony's claim that her daughter is protecting Caylee by not divulging her whereabouts. That she knows where the child is. That she knows who has her.

Or consider Cindy's belligerent retort to the media that the smell of death in the trunk of the stolen car was actually...rotting pizza. In light of the 911 calls that have now been made public, ya know, where she screams at a police dispatcher that her call smells like there was a dead body in it, this dead-body-smell-is-really-rotten-pizza lie is especially galling.

And resting atop this pyramid of lies is Cindy's assertion of what a good mother her daughter is/was. Widening her eyes, she positively insists on the love that existed between the two when it is abundantly clear that Casey Anthony doesn't love anything but herself.

The fact that her toddler has been missing for over a month didn't cost Casey a single sleepless night or a moment's anxiety. She was out partying with friends, y'all! And still, she is curiously, spookily unconcerned.

If anything, Casey seemed bored by the court proceedings, moved to tears only by the prospect of her own imprisonment.

While her mother, Cindy, has made a travesty of caring about her grandaughter by appearing on national television to promote a phony national search for Caylee Marie, acting as if she is the star of her own reality show, or a character on an episode of Law and Order.

Every word that comes out of her mouth is so utterly false that I can barely stand to listen to her.

But no one is fooled. Harsh words have come from the judge, the DA and the local police. The media has jumped on this case like a pack of bloodhounds, ferreting out every inconsistency in the tale of the missing tot. Nancy Grace has been at her outraged best as have other broadcast journalists. Bloggers are following this story by the minute.

I am not alone in predicting a sicker-than-sick outcome, a family saga involving other crimes, secrecy and cover-ups. Incest might play a role; perhaps of the sibling variety. At this moment, the Anthony family is holding onto the ruse of their innocence and of the search for a living Caylee by their fingertips. This effort appears more bogus every second, more wasteful of public resources, time and hope. Unfortunately for this lying family, intelligence is not one of their strong suits. Their stupidity and the mounting evidence against them will ultimately do them in.

Every caring parent in the world, nay, every decent human being, recognizes the admission of guilt inherent in the failure to report a missing child for 31 minutes, let alone 31 days. Dread grips the collective heart of the nation but the hoofbeats of justice rapidly approach. The pyramid of lies is about to crumble; the truth might rest beneath a slab of concrete in the grandparents' yard, easily removed. Justice for Caylee Marie Anthony will come, shedding light on the lies of the one responsible for giving her life and taking her life away.