English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

RegDwigнt

12:00 AM

@Cerberus I'm no expert, but that looks more like a hot bitch to me.

Cerberus

@RegDwigнt Don't be modest.

I'm sure you're right.

You would know.

RegDwigнt

I need to build a LEGO dog. I only have a fox so far.

Well, I do have a tiny dog but it's tiny. Like three parts tiny.

It is to scale with the walrus.

Maybe I'll make a video on that one on April 1st.

Cerberus

12:20 AM

What's wrong with tiny dogs?

Don't discriminate.

RegDwigнt

12:32 AM

There. Just for you. 7 LEGO parts.

Cerberus

@RegDwigнt Just 7 parts, wow. I wish my life were that simple.

By the way, Lego is no initialism, so it should be Lego or possibly Le Go.

tchrist

12:52 AM

What's so bad about "Two feet in front of me were barely seen by me"? :)

It's the passive inversion of "I could barely see two feet in front of me."

Well, or "Two feet in front of me could barely be seen by me".

Cerberus

1:12 AM

What's bad is that one normally doesn't use passive + by + specific person, because it is unnecessarily complicated and there is no reason to choose it over the simpler active construction.

Occam's Razor.

tchrist

3:00 AM

I'll give you the book.
You will be given the book by me.
The book will be given you by me.

I'll give you the book next week.
You will be given the book next week by me.
The book next week will be given you by me.
Next week will be given the book to you by me.

You just can't passivize these noun phrases that are used adverbially.

Cerberus

Indeed not, they need to be complements, probably.

tchrist

I'll check next week.
Next week will be checked by me.

There are folks who are convinced those are objects. I'm convinced they aren't.

Cerberus

In Dutch and Latin, you can only passivise a direct object.

In Greek and English, you can also passivise other complements of the verb.

tchrist

Sure, but next week wouldn't be accusative, so you'd know better.

Cerberus

Which people?

@tchrist Well, Dutch doesn't have much of an accusative.

And yet it works like Latin.

tchrist

3:05 AM

I don't know remember what Latin does with time expressions.

Cerberus

Ik geef jou het boek.
Het boek wordt jou door mij gegeven.
[Not: jij wordt het boek door mij gegeven.]

tchrist

Somewhere Pullam has an essay with weird passivizations.

Cerberus

@tchrist In Latin, only direct objects can be passivised, as in Dutch.

Maybe there are borderline cases.

So tibi librum do.

Liber tibi datur a me.

tchrist

"I will see you next week." wouldn't use septimanam

Cerberus

~~Tu liber daris a me~~.

Adverbial expressions of time are various.

Some are in the accusative, mainly if they are a noun and describe a period.

Multos annos piratae nos vexabant.

tchrist

3:10 AM

So they are.

Cerberus

But it is no direct object, so you cannot passivise multos annos.

tchrist

How can you tell it's not the direct object?

Cerberus

Multos annos vexabamur a piratis.

@tchrist Well, there can only be one direct object, and it is nos.

And which noun phrase is the direct object is determined not by case alone, but also by semantic role.

This is normal with verbs in all languages I know.

tchrist

Perhaps they pirated us those years. :)

Cerberus

Aside from position, of course (which happens to matter less in Latin).

~~Multi anni vexabantur nos a piratis.~~

Interesting cases are verbs with a double accusative complement, such as doceo.

Doceo te linguam Latinam.

tchrist

3:13 AM

I was actually just now thinking of those.

Cerberus

I think passivising those is complicated; I must admit I have forgotten the rule for those.

tchrist

no worries

Cerberus

Another interesting case is verbs that have object + infinitive, rather than a full a.c.i.

Like iubeo.

Iubeo te abire.

You can passivise those as iuberis abire.

Lastly, there are some verbs with double praedicate frames, such as dono.

Dono regi honorem.

tchrist

Can Dutch do: She stared at me. I was stared at by her.

Something with a dangling preposition.

Cerberus

Dono regem honore.

(Both of those are possible and they mean the same thing, iirc.)

tchrist

3:17 AM

hm

Cerberus

@tchrist No.

tchrist

Interesting.

Cerberus

Zij staarde naar mij.

Er werd naar mij gestaard door haar.

When you make a verb passive that didn't have a direct object, all constituents (except the former subject) remain the same.

There was stared at me by her.

Which is, again, the same in Latin.

tchrist

I was trying to figure out what you were doing there with "Er".

Cerberus

It's a typically Dutch word.

tchrist

3:20 AM

I first starting reading it as the German Er :) which of course didn't work out at all.

Cerberus

Similar to English meaningless there, as in there were two people there, except that it is needed far more often.

The rules are too hard to remember.

Foreigners hate it.

tchrist

It's hard to know how to put the dummy subjects.

I don't know what that "it" there is. :)

Cerberus

It's also used like there- in thereafter, therein, but you can also separate there from after if needed.

@tchrist Right, but at least that it is pretty universal!

German and Dutch and French (il/ce) have it too.

And it is used in somewhat similar ways.

tchrist

"It's raining hard" takes the "il" in French, but not in ES/PT/IT.

> There are some peculiar restrictions on prepositional passives in English. One is that there can be a difference in acceptability according to whether the subject denotes an entity that is tangibly altered in state: This bottom bunk has been slept in is dramatically more acceptable than ??The bottom bunk has been slept above, apparently because sleeping in a bunk bed alters its state (the sheets are wrinkled and so on), while sleeping in the top bunk above it doesn't alter its state at all.

Cerberus

The bottom bunk was looked at.

tchrist

3:26 AM

I don't know that I buy Pullum's "state" argument, but it is certainly odd.

> That's a restriction on prepositional passives, because there is nothing peculiar about the active version Someone has slept above this bottom bunk. (Why would a language have a restriction like that? Who knows. I don't make or try to enforce any of the rules; I am merely trying to explain what the rules seem to be.)

Cerberus

It may simply be a matter of frequency: it's easier to parse combinations that are often found together, such as sleep in.

That would be my provisional explanation.

tchrist

That makes me more comfortable than his does.

Cerberus

I think looked at already disproves his suggestion, or at least it makes it hard to define and use.

tchrist

The #4 Democrat in the House, who had been among the contenders for Speaker if they took the chamber, has just been knocked out by a twenty-something.

Cerberus

This plate was eaten from.
This plate was eaten on.
This plate was eaten under.

tchrist

3:29 AM

"Eaten under" sounds terrible.

Cerberus

Knocked out of his position? Or knocked out of consciousness?

@tchrist Yes.

tchrist

He won't even be in the House now.

Cerberus

Because eating something under a plate is semantically uncommon bordering on nonsense, while superficially fine qua syntax.

tchrist

> Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a 28-year-old organizer for Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) presidential campaign, defeated Crowley in his deep-blue district that encompasses northwest Queens and the eastern Bronx.

No country for old men.

That's fine.

Just didn't expect it.

Cerberus

Except for Sanders.

tchrist

3:31 AM

Funny that.

I used to think he was a tad crazy. Now I'm certain that nearly everybody is completely cracked.

And he sounds reasonable compared to them.

Cerberus

Cracked?

What seemed so crazy about him?

tchrist

I thought he was pushing for things that would never see the light of day. It seemed futile.

I only said "a tad crazy".

Cerberus

Why would those things never happen: because his party would block it in parliament?

tchrist

Yes.

Cerberus

OK.

We'll see.

I wonder whether he will run two years from now.

tchrist

3:36 AM

Oh, and in Colorado we have Boulder's congressman who just won the nomination for governor. He was, at the time back whenever, the first/only openly gay candidate to be elected. But this is going to come down to a town-vs-country vote, and all the city-dwellers will vote for him due to nominative determinism: his name is Polis. :)

Cerberus

Hah.

I'm sure.

Hmm bed time is nigh.

tchrist

yeah

Cerberus

For you as well?

tchrist

gosh yes

See ya later.

Cerberus

It must be, what, past ten?

tchrist

3:37 AM

It's past my bedtime.

no

Cerberus

Nine?

tchrist

9:37

Cerberus

Ah.

Sleep well.

tchrist

I like to be in bed by now.

Cerberus

Then do so.

tchrist

3:38 AM

Was watching electoral returns.

Cerberus

Hmm.

Feeds

5:42 AM

0

Q: How to refer to employees of other businesses in a business presentation?

In a mock school activity, I'm presenting to 'shareholders', 'business mentors' (teachors) and members of other companies (fellow students). I am unsure how to address those from other companies. My current sentence is: Good morning, shareholders, mentors and ___ What is a suitable term?

single-word-requests

Feeds

8:12 AM

0

Q: Words which mean: "second largest", "second smallest"

English has the word "penultimate" meaning "second to last". Are there similar words for size, as in "second largest" and "second smallest"?

single-word-requests

RegDwigнt

8:39 AM

@tchrist it's not bad, indeed it's perfectly fine, it just doesn't mean that you can't see that far, it means that you can't see the two ends of someone's legs. English is weird like that.

Feeds

9:36 AM

1

Q: Is there a word for "someone who cancelled something"?

I have to deal with user groups. One user may ask for some IT operation from our company at one point, but any user in his group may cancel this request. I need a word to designate the user who is responsible for the request to abort the request so I can use it as a column header in our database....

single-word-requests nouns

CowperKettle

10:32 AM

Policeman: "Are you under drugs? Why do you wear swimming goggles?"

Man: "Because it's not comfortable without them, with all the photons hitting my eyes"

Policeman: "Why didn't you wear the usual sun glasses then?"

Man: "Because light is also a wave"

RegDwigнt

10:54 AM

That's a very weird mix of registers there.

student

11:27 AM

wavicle

Robusto

12:27 PM

Hey, @Cerberus, what's the deal with the Oostvaardersplassen? Looks like some kind of cruel experiment.

Feeds

1:12 PM

0

Q: word for "ability to perform action upon"

In the context of a task list, there may be tasks that cannot be worked on immediately (for example waiting on material to arrive), while other tasks can have action performed to them right away. What's a word that for "actionable" tasks which doesn't imply tasks being illegal.

single-word-requests

SmokeDetector

1:23 PM

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Email in answer: When referring to computer coding, would the correct verb spelling (in British English) be "to program" or "to programme"? by user51760 on english.SE

RegDwigнt

1:53 PM

@Robusto that's a very interesting article, thanks.

Vadim Galygin

2:06 PM

hello everyone! I am newcomer here

RegDwigнt

Вечер добрый.

Vadim Galygin

Можете ли вы подсказать как лучше назвать входящие посылки? Incoming packages/received packages

RegDwigнt

Without any additional context I would probably go with incoming.

Vadim Galygin

Context is mail forwarding

I need to name packages that are received at warehouse but not yet shipped to clients

RegDwigнt

Received suggests that the package has reached its addressee at the warehouse. Incoming just means it's arrived but hasn't necessarily been taken care of.

Vadim Galygin

2:14 PM

I don't think calling them as delivered is OK, because actual delivery step happens when they receive package in our company office forwarded from other country

RegDwigнt

Also I think incoming rolls off the tongue nicer, but that is purely subjective of course.

Vadim Galygin

I like it more too

RegDwigнt

@VadimGalygin yes, for that same reason I would avoid "received". People could misunderstand that as having been received by the end client.

Vadim Galygin

thank you! I think I'll go with incoming package

RegDwigнt

No problem.

Cerberus

4:37 PM

@Robusto Well, it's just a natural reserve.

And it was supposed to be truly natural, as in, no human interference with the natural ecosystem.

So of course many animals will die, as it happens all over the world where nature reigns.

Nature is a cruel experiment, as it always has been.

Mitch

4:55 PM

@Cerberus That's a bit callous

MetaEd

@Mitch Talk to the designer.

Mitch

Pfft. Leprechauns

MetaEd

@Mitch Pfft. Djinns

Mitch

OMG the arguments when they get together

"How's that 'I wish for more wishes' thing working out for you?"

"How's that non-existent 'end of a rainbow' working out for you?"

Druids stand on the side, saying nothing

Cerberus

@Mitch Well, some people argue that the reserve should not be considered a part of 'nature', but rather a managed park, in which case humans must interfere.

Mitch

5:00 PM

@Cerberus Well, some people argue that 4 cups of coffee are good for you.

drinks last drop of fifth cup

Cerberus

What are the arguments, and how do you judge them?

Mitch

@Cerberus More relevantly, supposedly reintroducing wolves into Yellowstone National Park led, by a chain of causes, to counter-erosion of the banks of many streams there.

MetaEd

@Mitch Pfft. World Turtle

Mitch

Or at least stopping the erosion

@Cerberus I don't know what the arguments about the mechanism are but to judge you create an randomized controlled trial

where you

Cerberus

Never mind, then.

You're judging, but then you don't care any more.

Mitch

5:03 PM

force feed... uh... force drink? buckets of coffee to poor nervous, about to be more nervous rabbits

@Cerberus I feel like you're judging me.

For the record, I don't drink coffee

I have no skim milk in the game

Cerberus

You seemed to be judging the natural reserve, but then you weren't interested any more, which is fine.

I don't find it especially interesting either.

Mitch

@Cerberus Whoa dude. I'm just talking here. It's not like I have an agenda

just reading a link, I have no idea what the scale of things is. how many animals died or whatever.

Cerberus

First you want to discuss it, then you don't, then you do?

Mitch

Sure. I'm large. I contain multitudes.

Cerberus

I only replied to Robusto because he pang me, it's not really my subject.

Mitch

5:07 PM

What I'm saying is that I've kind of eaten a lot today and am feeling a little queasy

@Cerberus Well, then, I'm totally on board with you blaming @Robusto for everything

Cerberus

Blame the animals for breeding like rabbits.

Mitch

We could switch to trolling @MetaEd about his Ringworld fetish

@Cerberus What do the rabbits breed like then?

Cerberus

Like humans.

Mitch

Ew

6th cup of coffee: done

MetaEd

5:45 PM

@Mitch Thinking of somebody else?

Mitch

@MetaEd discworld, ringworld pfft

MetaEd

@Mitch Still thinking of somebody else?

Now if you were to troll me about Middle Earth ...

Mitch

look man I don't read any of this stuff it's your pfftworld

Robusto

@Cerberus Well, the problem is it's not natural. There aren't enough predators to prevent overpopulation of species and subsequent die-offs.

Nature worked its balancing act quite well until man stuck his big stupid oar in.

Cerberus

Don't many animals die from starvation in 'nature'?

Is dying from starvation morally different from being shot or maimed or torn apart and left to die bleeding?

Mitch

5:51 PM

@MetaEd That whole epic was ghostwritten by Faramir to convince everyone that his brother Boromir was evil, when in fact Boromir was the good one an should hav married Arwen but Faramir was jealous and blah blah blha families.

@Cerberus parasites. you forgot parasites

or having the new leader of the pride killing off the current offspring of the harem

Cerberus

Or even eating his own children.

Robusto

@Cerberus Predation kills those animals swiftly. And while nature is cruel, humanity putting a thumb on the scales can amplify the cruelty.

Cerberus

I don't know, would you rather starve to death or be cut to pieces alive?

Being mauled on while you're still alive?

Robusto

Moreover, predation keeps the populations down so that in a balanced ecology wholesale starvation is not the normal outcome.

@Cerberus It's swifter than starvation.

Cerberus

But much more painful.

Robusto

6:03 PM

Says who?

Cerberus

I believe mass starvation occurs frequently in natural circumstances.

> A common way that starvation ends a person's life is by causing heart problems. Based on anecdotal accounts, it seems that cardiac arrest may be among the better ways to die, while heart attacks are more protracted and can sometimes be intensely painful.

Robusto

sciencing.com/effects-animal-overpopulation-8249633.html

Sorry, no one-box.

Cerberus

> And so, against the advice of her doctors, the patient decided to stop eating and drinking.

Over the next 40 days in 1993, Dr. Robert Sullivan of Duke University Medical Center observed the woman's gradual decline, providing one of the most detailed clinical accounts of starvation and dehydration.

Instead of feeling pain, the patient experienced the sense of euphoria that accompanies a complete lack of food and water. She was cogent for weeks, chatting with her caregivers in the nursing home and writing letters to family and friends. As her organs failed, she slipped painlessly into a c…

@Robusto Well, nature is no zoo.

This stuff happens all the time everywhere.

And yet we're not rescuing or killing off animals that we consider to be "wild" and outside managed parks.

I don't think we should romanticise our natural environment. We're lucky to have escaped it.

Or outgrown it.

So the question is, should the Oostvaardersplassen be a managed park, or true wilderness?

We have wildly different standards for managed parks.

And yet different ones for animals that we 'keep'.

Robusto

@Cerberus That's not what I'm doing. What I'm doing is being critical of human efforts to make "natural" wildlife preserves that distort ecological balances.

Cerberus

I don't think ecology is really a balance.

It is just whatever happens.

In fact, we humans are part of the ecology as well.

We are part of nature.

Robusto

6:12 PM

Have you read Flaubert's Madame Bovary? Humanity is like the character of Homais, who brightly offers a clubfooted person a "solution" to his problem, then walks blithely away when the foot turns gangrenous.

Cerberus

If we kill off most animals on the planet, then that's nature, too.

Robusto

@Cerberus We do everything we can to be apart from nature.

Cerberus

I have not had the pleasure of reading it yet.

@Robusto In a way.

Robusto

We were once a part of nature, but now we have walled ourselves off from it.

Cerberus

But an alien observing us would consider us just another species having just some impact on its environments like all species do.

Robusto

6:14 PM

@Cerberus They would see us as a species run riot, no doubt.

Cerberus

It depends on what they would prefer Earth to be like.

Whatever species of algae began mass-producing oxygen a few billion years ago no doubt killed off a far larger percent of land life!

Robusto

@Cerberus Yes. We are like that species, only in spades.

Cerberus

Their impact on the environment has been (and still is) far larger, I should say!

Robusto

Just wait.

Cerberus

Even if we nuked the entire planet, I think our impact would be less.

Of course it depends on how you define and measure impact.

I would rather say it thus: we have established certain aims for ourselves, certain ideas of what we want Earth to be like.

Polar bears fit those aims; their extinction does not.

So we try to protect them and we don't want their environment to be destroyed.

In general, we want stability.

Mitch

6:20 PM

I want a pet polar bear

to hug and cuddle and play with

Cerberus

Raising the temperature of our atmosphaere by 2+ degrees conflicts with those aims, as do sea levels rising by 50 metres.

Mitch

and dress him up and have tea parties

and sleepovers

Cerberus

And be devoured?

Robusto

Jun 14 '15 at 15:19, by Robusto

@Cerberus Like a polar bear poised above a seal's breathing hole you are.

Mitch

and wake up in the middle of the night and runaround outside and throw toilet paper through the trees

Cerberus

6:22 PM

Now, now.

CowperKettle

Word of the day: verneshot

Mitch

that's a word I've never heard before

vermishot is riddled with worms

CowperKettle

Verneshot

A verneshot (named after French author Jules Verne) is a hypothetical volcanic eruption event caused by the buildup of gas deep underneath a craton. Such an event may be forceful enough to launch an extreme amount of material from the crust and mantle into a sub-orbital trajectory. == Connection with mass extinctions == Verneshots have been proposed as a causal mechanism explaining the statistically unlikely contemporaneous occurrence of continental flood basalts, mass extinctions, and "impact signals" (such as planar deformation features, shocked quartz, and iridium anomalies) traditiona...

So be careful with your cratons

Cerberus

I think I have read that book.

Robusto

@Mitch Sounds like worm porn of some kind.

Mitch

6:24 PM

@Robusto whatever floats your boat

or shoots your worms

Robusto

Hey, sorry to get into your area, Mitch.

Mitch

haha

yeah that's my thing

which reminds me

The Cloverfield Paradox was the most idiotic movie I've seen in a while

on par with Mamma Mia

You don't often see those two in the same box

Both would have improved if you had switched their soundtracks

Robusto

The Mamma Mia soundtrack should, like everything ABBA, be destroyed with fire.

Mar 15 at 15:48, by Robusto

Oh, and for the record I disapprove of Petrarchan sonnets. The reason? The rhyme scheme begins with abba. That feels like a conspiracy to me.

Dec 7 '13 at 13:51, by Robusto

I'm fine with relegating ABBA to third- or fourth-best band out of Sweden whose name is a palindrome.

Mitch

@Robusto In the hell that is current life, ABBA plays on constant rotation at our local bookstore

Robusto

Sounds positively Sysiphean.

Mitch

6:32 PM

it was survivable when it used to be all beatles and elton john

repetition will kill any good music

Robusto

And with bad music?

Mitch

Beethoven's ninth? Overdone. It's so last century

Robusto

Well, you can always listen to the late quartets.

Mitch

@Robusto I think it was Sir Mick Jagger who opined that, when asked what was the one characteristic of songmaking that made a hit, it was just plain repetition.

whichever was played more became a hit.

@Robusto I think I did once

Robusto

So where's @JohanLarsson now that we need him. He should be punished because Sweden beat Mexico. He is personally responsible, being from Sweden himself.

CowperKettle

6:36 PM

Beethoven: String Quart Op.18-4 1/3 Amadeus (12.1969)

►

Robusto

@Mitch No repetition? Then not a hit with you, I guess.

Mitch

@Robusto I think that's a reasonable judgement.

CowperKettle

My favorite piece by Beethoven

Mitch

You could ping him. He's always lurking

Along with Jenna Sloan

Robusto

Flush him out and send him through the spanking machine.

Mitch

6:37 PM

She's never peeped one pip here

Robusto

One word: Fargo.

Well, all right, two: West Fargo.

Mitch

@CowperKettle poor viola players. never the bride always the bridesmaid

Robusto

@Mitch Viola players are the ones who stay and help clean up after the party. They also put out extra paper plates, etc.

Mitch

haha

I couldn't even barely play a viola if it was a key on a synthesizer

with autoplay

Robusto

I mean, what can you say about musicians who are forced to use the alto clef? It's a fate worse than life in Kansas.

Mitch

6:41 PM

@Robusto I know. so boring

Robusto

On the other hand, if you can play a viola there's always a job for you. Not a good one, but still a job.

Mitch

it's like the last part the composer does, and just to fill out the harmony. ends up being one note the whole way through. ooh excitement, another note!

Robusto

Violas are what keep the cellos from attacking the violins. They're like this demilitarized zone in the orchestra, a buffer state, the BeNeLux of music!

Mitch

um... WWII

it's who they crushed first before spitting France

Robusto

So you see, they do serve a purpose.

Sooner or later @RegDwigнt will wind up determining that viola is a more attainable goal than fiddle.

Mitch

6:43 PM

They make chocolate and beer?

Robusto

No. Violists eat only Bratschwurst.

C'mon, that was a pretty decent pun.

Mitch

> What's the difference between a viola and a coffin? Coffins have dead people on the inside.

Robusto

On the other hand, one of the finest chamber works I ever played in was for flute, viola and harp. The sonata by Debussy.

Claude Debussy - Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp

►

Mitch

Breaking News: Incitatus nominated and immediately confirmed to the US Supreme Court

@Robusto Hold on, I'm playing Ian Dury at the moment

Robusto

@Mitch I know @Cerb will get that joke.

Mitch

7:00 PM

@Robusto sigh

Robusto

That was my way of letting you know that I got it too. I know all about Caligula.

Mitch

I know I don't. I had to look it up based on a vague memory from seeing I Claudius in the seventies

There was another british series, on masterpiece thater in the 80's just as good but totally different, some women in Singapore before during and after WWII, mostly in a prison camp.

can't remember the name

starts with a 'T'

Tengo? Tekno? Tikkun?

RegDwigнt

@Robusto yawn. I'm subscribed to TwoSetViolin. They post 50 viola jokes a day, every day. And in the comments 50 more are posted every second. You will need to try harder.

Robusto

C'mon, though, you gotta give it up for Bratschwurst.

Feeds

1

Q: What’s the place called where the lord/ ruler of a village in the 1400s lived?

In England in the 1400s, most people had a small house but where the lord would live was different, bigger. In particular, in Skyrim the Jarls live in keeps but that's a little too big for what I’m looking for.

single-word-requests

RegDwigнt

7:05 PM

But the alto clef is kinda useless. It's just one step below the treble clef. Why they don't just use the treble clef, I've no idea.

Like tenor clef I can understand, half the orchestra uses that one occasionally.

Also my violin teacher also plays the viola. She once brought it along, which she rarely does because it costs more than my entire LEGO collection. It's also bigger than my entire LEGO collection. That thing was amazing.

It was the day before my birthday. And I just so happened to have some Bach with me, originally a lute suite that I had transcribed for violin and viola. And we played it and it was the best thing ever.

Cerberus

@Robusto Ah, the horse.

So was there some judge appointed?

Robusto

No. The swing vote on SCOTUS is retiring. So ... bye-bye justice.

RegDwigнt

I heard that before. I think we hear that like once every 8 years or so.

Cerberus

Retiring now?

Robusto

I guess at the end of the session.

The idea that that abomination will get to nominate two SC justices is just ... appalling.

Cerberus

7:18 PM

I wonder who ever thought having judges appointed by politicians was a good idea...

Robusto

Well meaning folks with a tad too much trust.

Cerberus

Had they not read Montesquieu?

Mitch

@Cerberus not having thought deeply about it all, I thought it was another 'check and balance'

every branch has some power over the other

but that's 'Schoolhouse rock' thinking

Lolly Lolly Lolly get your adverbs here

Cerberus

@Mitch Some power is unavoidable.

But this much power, to directly appoint judges?

Those who wrote that article probably could no imagine a polarised bipartisan parliament like that.

Even so, it's too much power.

I think the judges in our High Council can also be appointed by parliament or cabinet in some way, although they must probably choose from a list proposed by the Council itself.

Our last President of the High Council is now issuing warning regarding this issue.

But we don't have a polarised, bipartisan parliament, so it's not really a problem in practice.

Transcript for

English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…