I just found out that the Talossan word for a lost-and-found bureau is büreu d'anfladă. Curious about where the second element comes from, Google could only tell me (in German) that it's a Rumantsch word which means "finding", but only in the religious sense of the Discovery of the True Cross.

KR1 was pretty abstruse at times. Anyone got any funnier stories of Talossan etymology?

Is there any objection to continuing to use Hool's grammar as the official grammar endorsed by SIGN - after we bring its spelling up to date, of course? Or do we need to make changes to it?

(Me, I'm going to continue to use KR1's Scurzniă Gramatică from 1996-7 until such point as Hool makes his version available in digital format, but then I'm old-fashioned. Are there any serious differences?)

On OldWitt, the Senator from Florencia said:

QuoteI reiterate my earlier concerns. As much as this bill has good intentions, and as much as I support the principle which it tries to achieve, if it became law today then our OrgLaw and process would be a mess. This needs a rewrite, and it needs to come with simultaneous and complimentary changes to other sections of the OrgLaw and El Lexhatx.

Time to put up or shut up, Açafat: please let me know what amendments you require to the below.

===

WHEREAS the current Government agreed to submit various Organic Law reforms to the current Ziu, including a provision for the Seneschál to be nominated by the Cosa prior to appointment by the King;

AND WHEREAS the following seems the most likely procedure to enable this to happen;

BE IT ENACTED by the King, Cosa and Senäts of Talossa in Ziu assembled as follows

1. Organic Law VI.2, which currently reads:

QuoteThe King appoints the Seneschal. If a single party occupies a majority of the seats in the Cosa, the King shall choose as PM whichever individual shall be designated by that party. If no single party has a majority, the King shall appoint a Seneschal after consulting party leaders with the objective of finding a PM who can be sustained in subsequent Votes of Confidence by a majority of seats in the Cosa. The King must appoint a new Seneschal or announce the continuation of the incumbent in office within one month of the end of elections, or, if after one month no candidate can be appointed with the support of a Cosa majority, dissolve the Cosa after the first Clark and call for new elections.

shall be amended to read as follows:

QuoteThe King shall, on the nomination of the Cosa, appoint the Seneschál, before the beginning of the next Clark subsequent to their nomination.

The Cosa must nominate a Seneschál by the end of the first Clark of each Cosa, and by the end of the next Clark (if any) of each Cosa after the office of Seneschál shall become vacant as in VI.7 below. If this fails to happen, the King shall dissolve the Cosa and call for new elections.

2. The following new section shall be added to El Lexhatx, at the beginning of Title D, with following sections to be renumbered accordingly::

QuoteThe Cosa shall nominate the Seneschál under Organic Law VI.2 as follows.

1. At any time between the Election Deadline and the following Dissolution of the Cosa, any Member of the Cosa shall be empowered to publish and open for signatures a petition nominating an eligible person for the office of Seneschal.

2. Once a petition is published, any eligible Member of the Cosa shall be empowered to second the nomination by countersigning the petition in public.

3. Members may not second multiple nominations concurrently; if a Member wishes to support a different petition, he/she shall first publicly retract the earlier countersignature.

4. Following any number of petitions supporting the same candidate, being signed or counter-signed by members currently representing an absolute majority of seats in the Cosa, the candidate named in the petition(s) shall be presented to the King as the Cosa's nomination for Seneschál.

5. Petitions may not be carried over from one vacancy in the office of Seneschal to another. Once a Seneschal is nominated, all petitions shall be made moot.

Speech of the Seneschál, Miestra A. Schiva, in her capacity as President of the Free Democrats of Talossa to the Free Democrat Convention, March 2020/XVL

a) Who do we talk to to get a big banner on OldWitt saying "THIS FORUM IS NOW BEING CLOSED DOWN, PLEASE GO TO NEWWITT PLZ THNX"?

b) You could post to OldWitt on phones using Tapatalk. Any chance we can get some app to do that for NewWitt?

This is for the Cultural Development Secretary who's also our Talossaware guy: a guy in Wisconsin has written to me to ask to buy a flag. I've sent Iason Taiwos the details on Facebook because I don't have his email.

There has been a lot of stink raised by various people (usually people who were leaders of the defunct Moderate Radical Party, for some interesting reason) around members of Government parties deciding to Clark various bills that the first group of people have objections to. There seems to be an idea that they are not being "properly Hoppered" and it is somehow inappropriate to Clark them while certain people (some of whom aren't even members of the Ziu?) still have problems with them.

A couple of points:

1) I don't think that people who, in some cases, made a conscious withdrawal from Talossa's legislative politics have a real right to complain when those who have been elected make a note of their objections, and plough on anyway. For me, I welcome concerns and comments, especially polite ones, and I hope you've all seen that I do deal with them rather ignore them. But the questions I ask myself when Clarking a bill  are as follows:

- am I satisfied with it, given the comments of others?
- will it get the necessary majority?

Pleasing everybody with my bills is not a priority. Pleasing people who have strong objections with which I disagree, and who do not have a vote or political influence in the Ziu, is quite frankly "nice but inessential". If you are drawing the conclusion that if the people who have objections with the Government parties' agreed legislative project should make damn sure there is an effective party which represents their views in the next Cosa (and on lobbying Senators in the meantime), then damn right.

2) While we're speaking on influence and politeness the other day, several of my critics don't seem to have gotten the memo that comments which are phrased in aggressive, pugnacious and condescending manners are far less likely to be taken heed of. Or, to put it another way - I'm not REALLY predisposed to listen to your suggestions on legislation if you just called me an "asshat" in the OldWitt Shoutbox.

3) Current law on the Hopper states:

Quote from: el Lexhatx H.6No bill may be published in a Clark unless it has spent at least ten days in the Hopper as a legislative proposal, except according to H.6.1.

Some criticism has taken the form of criticising the proposers of bills for amending them quite soon before Clarking them - even if that amendment has come in response to criticism! Would these people prefer we change the law to read:

QuoteNo bill may be published in a Clark unless it has spent at least ten days unamended in the Hopper as a legislative proposal, except according to H.6.1.

Can I suggest that the following citizens be made moderators of the following NewWitt boards:

• Immigration: @The Interior Minister
• The Hopper and the Cosa: @The Túischac'h
• Fiova: @The Fiova SoS
• El Glheþ Talossan: @The provisional head of SIGN

Reposting the thread from Old Witt's Hopper to make sure it doesn't get lost

Reposting the thread from OldWitt's Hopper to make sure it doesn't get lost

Presiding Judge Nordselva comments:

QuoteI don't know what it is about this case that draws such dramatic reactions from both sides.

At a guess:
1) both sides have picked somewhat "dramatic" personalities as their advocates;
2) this is the first actual criminal case in Talossa for a long time. High stakes.

So, er... is there anything we can do about this?

And that includes the possibility of paying for better service from DeRoyal.

Miestrâ Schivâ (right), in her role as keyboardist, ukelele player and contralto vocalist of VOSTOK LAKE desperately needs your help.

Vostok Lake is running a kickstarter to finish their first album in 10 years.

Please contribute generously - although even $1 (a few lousy bence) will be appreciated.
!ESPUNETZ MÚSIQEU TALOSSÁN!

Because I can't believe no-one has done it before, I have collected all the "new" words in the Talossan language which were endorsed by the CÚG between 2007 and 2014, and put them in an alphabetised spreadsheet. I have done my best to update them to our new "provisional rules" spelling, I'm sure the SIGN Overlord can let me know any necessary corrections.

There are two issues ahead of us now:
1) adding these words to l'Överstéir (as well as updating the latter to ProvRules speling);
2) figuring out a formal process for adding new words to the language (shall we go with the tradition on a yearly Pienamaintsch on Llimbaziua?)

This one seems pretty egregious, but I am sure there are several others:

Ián P said something on OldWitt about memorable Talossan judicial precedent. My favourite one would have to be from the 1992 case recorded in Ár Päts, where KR1 was actually convicted of treason (for attempting to secede Vuode), but was given no punishment as a "first offence".

Pienamaintschen were the "updates" to our national vocabulary, El Tresiour, necessitated by the CÚG's various reforms issued as Arestadas.

I wonder whether @El Duceu dàl SIGN could possibly provide a Pienamaintsch to get us from either KR1-era Talossan, or from the Talossan last updated by the CÚG, to the spelling envisaged by the Provisional Rules? Or give others a hint so we could write it ourselves? To give an example, what would be the rules by which I could transform this (written in KR1-era Talossan) into Provisional Rules Talossan, or Talossan 4.0 as I call it?

QuoteEls Tütschen füvent casâ mhe
Me zirevent: resighnetz-te
Mas non tignhoveu pör
Reprendeveu va rifal

Teu cambiat cînt fäts va nômina
Teu pierdat fieux és femina
Mas teu cetantis d'amici
Teu la Francâ entieir

Dîn 'n ceatarasi, 'n senesch
Noi ascunçeva për el nich't
El Tütschen lo tent anflat;
Morteva sînc supriça

El vînt, el vînt eißala
Trans els graveux, el eißala
La livertà ischà;
És noi surxharhent dàls umbrâs.

I'm travelling with my family until Friday and my Witt browsing may be reduced. For urgent matters in that time, @the Distáin, Ián Plätschisch has full authority.

WHEREAS the Magistrate's Cort was abolished by 47RZ39;

and WHEREAS the main reference in El Lexhatx to the Magistrate's Cort was removed by 48RZ26;

and WHEREAS I can't believe no-one noticed until now that there are all manner of other references to this defunct Cort floating around in El Lexhatx

and WHEREAS this bill replaces all of them I can find, with the exception of provisions relating to the privileges of former Magistrates:


BE IT ENACTED by the King, Cosâ and Senäts of Talossa in Ziu assembled that El Lexhatx be amended as follows:

1. El Lexhatx A.9.5 shall be amended by the DELETION of the words indicated below:

QuoteAll members of the Ziu, the Cabinet, the Uppermost Court, the Magistrate's Courts, the Chancery, or the Royal Treasury must report the following information to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs within 15 days of assuming the aforementioned office or of a change in micronational status, whichever is later:

2. El Lexhatx A.17 shall be REMOVED entirely.

3. El Lexhatx D.2.5.1.7 shall be amended by the DELETION of the words indicated below:

QuoteThe Ministry of Justice shall not engage in post-hoc review of prior convictions before a magistrate unless the interests of justice are represented in the form of an independent counsel, appointed by the Avocat-Xheneral, who shall be responsible for vigorously contesting this review.

4. El Lexhatx G.4 shall be amended by the DELETION of the words indicated:

QuoteAll appeals, as with other court actions, shall be filed with the Clerk of Courts. Upon official judicial assignment, the Justice(s) , Judge or Magistrate may either dismiss the case, by declining to hear it, or begin hearing opening arguments in the matter as presented by all relevant parties.

5. El Lexhatx G.5.2 shall be amended by the DELETION of the words indicated:

QuoteThe clerk shall then assign the case to a Judge, Magistrate or Justice in the lowest court holding jurisdiction over the matter.

6. El Lexhatx G.5.8 shall be amended by the DELETION of the words indicated:

QuoteThe individual holding the office of Clerk of Courts shall enjoy immunity from civil or criminal suit for any actions performed in the course of his or her official duties while holding this office. This immunity shall be lost upon leaving office. Due to the nature of the Clerk's responsibilities, an individual may not hold the office of Clerk of Courts, or any deputy thereunder, while simultaneously holding office as a Justice , Judge or Magistrate of the Uppermost Cort or any national inferior court.

Estimadâs és estimats membreux dàl Cosâ!

In accordance with El Lexhátx H.20, I am pleased to hereby recommend to His Majesty @King John that @Brenéir Itravilatx MC be nominated as Túischac'h for the 54th Cosâ.