Misrepresentation

I have mentioned before that I am involved in electronics training. Recently, a young woman trainee was having a lot of trouble staying awake before the lunch break, but then came back from lunch wide-awake and jittery. She insisted that she had only had one soda during lunch. This puzzled me at first--particularly since she began making these claims before I said anything to her about the marked difference in her demeanor--but it finally dawned on me that she might not have been talking about a twelve-ounce Coca-Cola. Upon further questioning, she admitted that her 'one soda' was a twenty-ounce Mountain Dew. Mountain Dew is considerably more potent than Coke, and the extra eight ounces resulted in much more caffeine than 'one soda.' She didn't lie--she probably didn't even intentionally misrepresent herself, but she definitely created a somewhat different impression than what was actually the truth.
When I was in the Navy, I was once on duty when someone's car was broken into on the base, and a stereo was taken. As it happened, base security quickly apprehended two suspects and brought them to my post. One insisted that he didn't break into anybody's car, and the other insisted that he hadn't stolen anything. That was a fairly obvious (and futile) attempt to mislead.
There are some times when misrepresentation would seem to be a good thing. In 'Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country,' Spock, who never lies, tells a subordinate to transmit a message to Star Fleet Command, misrepresenting their situation. The subordinate asks, "A lie, Commander?" Spock responds, "An omission." Of course, it is in Star Fleet's best interest not to know what Spock is planning. In 'The Rainmaker,' Rudy Baylor, played by Matt Damon, discovers that his landlady inherited a considerable amount of money from her late husband, but estate taxes, legal fees, and bad financial planning have eaten up almost all of it. Not only that, but she wants him to rewrite his will disowning her son and giving all of the money to a televangelist. When the son finds out that she is rewriting her will, he shows up, and it quickly becomes evident why she doesn't want to leave him any money. Baylor has already expressed his opinion that the televangelist doesn't need the money, and he doesn't like family being cut out. What to do? He lets it slip to the son that she inherited a sizable sum, and suddenly Del starts acting much nicer towards his mother.
I was taught, as a child, that intentionally misleading someone was no different than lying. I have to admit, that there have been a few times (well, maybe more than just a few) in my life where omitting certain details was convenient, and I told myself that I wasn't lying. In retrospect, I wish I could say that I've never done it, but that would be just misleading, that would be lying. The fact that I admit having done it should not be taken as evidence that i approve of it. I don't, and neither should you.