Big Big Question

What would the public reaction be like if it turned out that Ken Lay is still alive?

There are hundreds of scenarios, but here are two to get the discussion started:

- you simultaneously fall in deep, indescribable love with two people, and begin relationships with both. Could you/would you lie and attempt to work around a schedule so that you performed your relationship-building duties for both (with or without their, or one of their, knowledge)?

- you are hired by a super-secret agency, knowing full well that they are extremely vital for the security and well-being of thousands or hundreds of thousands. The thing is, as far as your friends and family know, you work as a traveling salesperson, not an agent of an agency they don’t even know exists. Could you lead that double life, knowing that you’d have to carry secrets to your grave and more-than-occasionally lie to protect that?

I was thinking of lying on my headstone. Maybe something like “Lived May 28,
1437 - October 12, 2048. Inventor of time travel and discoverer of the third
anti-gravitic effect”.

First question: can I do this legally?

Second question: what are some good things I can lie about?

(Suggested by Kickstart.)

And why the hell is he so special?  I declare him a fraud!  Who’s with me?

Here’s a premise: somehow, some organization manages to subvert the voting machines used in the US Presidential general election in November, 2008. The vote is not just fixed, it is broken — some viable candidate is handed an implausible 99% vote, or Snoopy is elected by write-in vote; something so audacious that it’s clear that the folks involved had no intention of fooling anyone.

So, it’s Wednesday morning, November 5th, and tens of millions of votes have just been mooted and the voting systems discredited. What now? What happens?

(Inspired by this deleted Ask Metafilter question; hat tip to brina.)