Thursday, September 17, 2009

Referendum

REFERENDUM, n. A law for submission of proposed legislation to a popular vote to learn the nonsensus of public opinion.

2009 Update: A process by which a legislature abdicates the trust of the people in favor of those who misplaced it.

12 comments:

the amoeba said...

REFERENDUM, n.

1. Killer dope.

2. The very last Ice Age movie, in which all the characters, especially that damned squirrel, freeze.

3. The last days of the California Republic;

Ariel the Thief said...

Referendum, the second half of "panem et circenses".

pia said...

Referendum: here in SC nobody knows what it means as we're too busy exciting the nation with our politicians who seem to be loved no matter what they do. Except Sanford but nobody knows what to do about him anyway

Jamie Dawn said...

Referendum: something that gives the appearance of righteousness.

quilly said...

REFER, v. direct the focus of someone's thoughts or attention

END, n. the furthermost imaginable place or point

UM, n. conversational sound; a non-committal remark; an utterance signalling indecision

REFERENDUM, n. legislation drafted to deflect the voters attention from facts and encourage debates on conjure & supposition

k. riggs gardner said...

quilly, I borrowed your OED for a minute ...

Referendum, n. May be either binding or non-binding. A non-binding referendum is merely consultative or advisory.

It is left to the government or legislature to interpret the results of a non-binding referendum and it may even choose to ignore them.

A non-binding referendum is usually superficially equestrian and, in its gut, virtuously ruminant.

This is particularly the case in states which follow Westminster conventions of parliamentary sovereignty.

Jim said...

Referendum is similar
to a reefer-e-day-en-den-sum.
..

cooper said...

Eh I'm not sure. We have no initiative process just a petition process consequently referendums are usually about slot machines and horse racing.

Just keep referring until you get the answer you want.

Doug The Una said...

Amoeba, I get the third one for sure.

"Vote no on circuses!"

Pia, the rest of the country would probably vote to keep South Carolina just as it is.

Which is funny, JD, if you actually know some of the people.

Quilly, you agree with Ariel, then.

Haha, Karen. I wonder how many times I'm going to be mocked for that. Less than I deserve, no doubt.

Ha, Jim. Last year we voted three times in California.

Power to the people, Coop.

Anonymous said...

trust in government
wish it was that
easy

weirsdo said...

Good definitions. I think the word "nonsensus" should have wider currency. Especially in Dr. Weirsdo's department.

Doug The Una said...

Bear, that doesn't even sound easy.

Weirsdo, that'll probably stop all other work.