Published by
Dick Schaefer, Part-time Contributing Writer and Special Investigative Reporter
In my 6/17 article about this week's County Commission Meeting, I used the terms "fogging", "spinning" and "obfuscating" to describe practices or tricks often used in the Commission Meetings by Gasconade County Presiding Commissioner
Ron Jost and Southern District Associate Commissioner
Jerry Lairmore. These practices or tricks need to be understood by the citizens of Gasconade County.
Jost and
Lairmore need to cease and desist from employing these political tricks. There is no place in honest county government for these cheap, cowardly, time-wasting political practices.
Hermann Hearsay is pledged to calling out politicians every time these practices are used.
fog 1 (fôg, fg)
n.
1. Condensed water vapor in cloudlike masses lying close to the ground and limiting visibility.
2.
a. An obscuring haze, as of atmospheric dust or smoke.
b. A mist or film clouding a surface, as of a window, lens, or mirror.
3. A cloud of vaporized liquid, especially a chemical spray used in fighting fires.
4.
a. A state of mental vagueness or bewilderment.
b. Something that obscures or conceals; a haze: shrouded their actions in a fog of disinformation.
5. A blur on a developed photographic image.
v. fogged,
fog·ging, fogs
v.tr.
1. To cover or envelop with or as if with fog.
2. To cause to be obscured; cloud.
3. To make vague, hazy, or confused: a memory that had been fogged by time.
4. To obscure or dim (a photographic image).
v.intr.
1. To be covered with or as if with fog.
2. To be blurred, clouded, or obscured: My glasses fogged in the warm air.
3. To be dimmed or obscured. Used of a photographic image.
spin (spn)
v. spun (spn),
spin·ning, spins
v.tr.
1.
a. To draw out and twist (fibers) into thread.
b. To form (thread or yarn) in this manner.
2. To form (a web or cocoon, for example) by extruding viscous filaments.
3. To make or produce by or as if by drawing out and twisting.
4.
a. To relate or create: spun tales for the children.
b. To prolong or extend: spin out a visit with an old friend.
5. To cause to rotate swiftly; twirl.
6. To shape or manufacture by a twirling or rotating process.
7. To provide an interpretation of (a statement or event, for example), especially in a way meant to sway public opinion: "a messenger who spins bogus research into a vile theology of hatred" (William A. Henry III).
8. Slang To play (a phonograph record or records), especially as a disc jockey.
v.intr.
1. To make thread or yarn by drawing out and twisting fibers.
2. To extrude viscous filaments, forming a web or cocoon.
3. To rotate rapidly; whirl. See Synonyms at turn.
4. To seem to be whirling, as from dizziness; reel: My head spun after doing a cartwheel.
5. To ride or drive rapidly.
6. To fish with a light rod, lure, and line and a reel with a stationary spool.
n.
1. The act of spinning.
2. A swift whirling motion.
3. A state of mental confusion.
4. Informal A short drive in a vehicle: took a spin in the new car.
5. The flight condition of an aircraft in a nose-down, spiraling, stalled descent.
6.
a. A distinctive point of view, emphasis, or interpretation: "Dryden . . . was adept at putting spin on an apparently neutral recital of facts" (Robert M. Adams).
b. A distinctive character or style: an innovative chef who puts a new spin on traditional fare.
7. Physics
a. The intrinsic angular momentum of a subatomic particle. Also called spin angular momentum.
b. The total angular momentum of an atomic nucleus.
c. A quantum number expressing spin angular momentum.
ob·fus·cate (bf-skt, b-fskt)
tr.v. ob·fus·cat·ed,
ob·fus·cat·ing, ob·fus·cates
1. To make so confused or opaque as to be difficult to perceive or understand: "A great effort was made . . . to obscure or obfuscate the truth" (Robert Conquest).
2. To render indistinct or dim; darken: The fog obfuscated the shore.
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[Latin obfuscre, obfusct-, to darken : ob-, over; see ob- + fuscre, to darken (from fuscus, dark).]
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obfus·cation n.
ob·fusca·tory (b-fsk-tôr, -tr, b-) adj.
