A few highlights from last night’s garish media contrition ritual. If you want more, Oprah’s site has clips. What makes him any different from other liars, in or out of sports? Just the sheer doggedness of his lies, really: The third clip will take you on a quick tour of his faux indignation through the years, but it’s the second clip, where he describes suing people aggressively to get them to clam up about his doping, that shows how far he was willing to go. Read WaPo’s fact-check piece, titled “Is Lance Armstrong the world’s biggest liar?”, for other how-dare-you lowlights from his career since he was first accused of cheating. On a scale of one to four “Pinocchios,” they give him … 28.

Even this interview was something of a lie if you believe the Times. Supposedly, the reason he’s coming clean now is because he wants to compete in triathlons and running events but is barred under the World Anti-Doping Code that typically governs competitions like those. Confessing his sins to a media figure with a quasi-religious following might get his lifetime ban lifted, so here he is. From self-interested faux indignation to self-interested “remorse.” Exit quotation from David Zurawik:

Winfrey brought up the names of some of his victims, and that’s where he got an upgrade in my mind from narcissist to sociopath. He smiled at the memory of calling one woman “crazy.” And he actually seemed to be amused by the fact that one woman said he had called her a “fat, crazy bitch,” when, in fact, according to him, he had not called her “fat” — just the other two.