Just for show; just a pretty face

Hó-khòaⁿ-thâu

Bîn-chìn-tóng ê hāu-pó͘ chí put kò sī hó-khòaⁿ-thâu, bô chèng-tī ê keng-giām.

The DPP’s candidate is just a pretty face, and has no political experience.

Fascist

Hoat-se-su

Mûi-thé bô liáu-kái hiān-tāi khióng-pò·-chú-gī ê Hoat-se-su pún-chit.

The media don’t understand the fascist character of modern terrorism.

Wolf in sheep’s clothing

Moa iûⁿ-á-phôe ê iá-lông

Literally: A wild wolf with a sheepskin over its shoulders

Pay lip service

Iōng chhùi-tûn-phôe ê sa-bí-suh

“Sa-bí-suh” is a Japanese loan-word.

Hypocritical behavior (especially by a religious figure or other do-gooder)

Chhùi liām keng, chhiú bong leng.

Literally: The mouth recites sutras, (while) the hand gropes a breast.

Centrist

Kiâⁿ tiong-kan lō·-sòaⁿ ê

Literally: walking the middle route

Good in theory, but not in practice

Ha̍h8 lí-lūn bô ha̍h8 si̍t8-chè

So you want to be a judge?

Copyright 2009 Tân Gī-jîn. Used with author’s permission.

Cartoons do not reflect the views of the blogger or his employer.

——–

Lí tōa-hàn beh chò Tiong-hôa Tâi-pak ê hoat-koaⁿ? Che bô kán-tan oh. Tē-it, ài chiok phah piàⁿ tha̍k-chheh, iû-kî Tiong-kok kó͘·-chheh.

Kong-sái-chîⁿ hit lūi – ê?

Tē-jī, chèng-kì bô iàu-kìn, ài gâu thui-lūn/chhui-lūn

Che góa kài gâu…

Tē-saⁿ siōng-kài tiōng-iàu, bē-sái ū sek-bông.

Siáⁿ? Bē-sái sek-bông?

Ài hun-pia̍t chheng-chhó sek-tì.

Âng, chhiⁿ-sek?

——–

When you grow up you want to be a Chinese Taipei judge? This isn’t easy to do. First of all, you have to study really hard, especially the Chinese classics.

Like the “Gongshiqian” [This is a pun on the Song Dynasty use of 公使錢 (money officials could use in the course of their business). See the note below.]

Secondly, evidence doesn’t matter, and you need to be good at making (unfounded) inferences…

Oh, I’m the best at that…

Thirdly, and most importantly, you can’t be colorblind.

What? No colorblindness?

You need to clearly differentiate colors.

Like red and green?

—

I wasn’t sure what 公屎錢 meant until I did some googling and came upon the letter below that was published on the op-ed page of the Liberty Times online edition back in 2007. Basically, it’s a pun on 公使錢, which rhymes with 公屎錢 in Taiwanese, and is an obvious swipe at Ma.

2007/8/16 自由電子報/陳君愷

公使錢不是這樣用的

馬英九特別費案判決書中引用了宋代公使錢與公用錢的例證。

將公使錢與特別費併觀，恐怕係筆者首先提出。當時筆者主要是指陳：特別費類似宋代公使錢或公用錢等名目，係傳統官僚體制的遺存，易造成公用與私用上的認知混淆，亦可能動輒得咎。因而希望台灣在由威權轉型為民主體制的過程中，不要如同皇權時代視官僚為小偷，以各種防弊措施防閒猜忌官僚；而應立足於民主觀念，肯定人的自律能力，重新界定這些首長費的使用規範。這種體制上的變革，自應由行政與立法體系著手。然而這個舉例，如今卻為司法體系濫用來為馬英九脫罪，真是令人感到啼笑皆非！

首先，宋代公使錢可以放進私人口袋，恐怕只是「實然」，不是「應然」。這也就是說：在理論上不能私入，但因為實際上大家都這麼做，也就約定俗成，甚至變為默許。筆者研究宋史，又在大學裡開授宋史課程，推測承審法官們可能沒搞懂「例」字的意思。在宋代法制史上，「例」至少有兩種涵義：一是「法例」（不成文的法規），這是必須「著為例」（登錄為行政慣例）的；一是「俗例」（不成文的陋規）。在公使錢或公用錢的場合，「例」字往往是「陋規」的意思。所謂可以「例入」，就是習慣上大家都貪污，卻心照不宣。至於一些不願同流合污的人，若非一介不取，就是把錢用在公務上。因此，把應該用於饋贈、送往迎來的公使錢放到口袋裡，原本就應該是貪污，但因為管也管不了，因而只好遷就現實，別立公用錢名目；但到了後來，連公用錢也變成可以「例入」！由此可見其貪污的嚴重性。因此，判決書中提及宋人認知公使錢、公用錢亦有所混淆，就因為那根本是一筆爛帳！

事實上，判決書中所引述學者林天蔚視公使錢為「首長特別津貼」、公用錢為「官署特別辦公費」的說法，若就學術的角度觀之，實仍未盡妥適。由於其論著並未細緻處理該制度的演變，亦未能解釋「公使庫」中的錢何以不稱為「公使錢」、而要叫做「公用錢」的疑點。因此，該說法只代表某一種學術觀點，並非定論，自不宜引入判決書中。（作者為輔仁大學歷史學系教授）

連外交零用金也Ａ

This is the headline from an editorial in today’s China Times Mandarin edition. You’ll see the letter ‘A’ used like this from time to time in Taiwanese newspapers, almost always in articles about money. ‘A’, pronounced ē in Taiwanese, means to get something for free, either as a gift or givaway, or through corruption. The latter, in this case. It must be a relatively new word, because I can’t find it in any of my dictionaries.

The whole article is below, and the original editorial is here.

熱門話題－連外交零用金也Ａ

項城／北縣新莊(文字工作者)

　高檢署特偵組在偵辦陳前總統任內出訪十一次的外交零用金去向，竟出現阿扁每次都留下三萬美元款項，挪用為其子陳致中的留學費用支出，此筆公款私用計達三十三萬美元，約台幣一千萬左右，而且還把當時的外交部高官也捲入。

　一千多萬和海角數億比起來，當然是「小汙」見「大汙」，可是對民進黨和至今仍死忠挺扁的民眾而言，那可能是一記難堪的耳光。暫且不論扁搖身一變成美國人，要越洋告美國政府的國際笑話。就以任內一再自誇的烽火外交，和突破中共打壓，為台灣生存而努力自許，竟也成了個人拚經濟的貪腐行徑。

　還有更傷國人感情的就是拿人民血汗錢的外交零用金，匯去自家兒子身上成為求學所需，這對全國那些吃不起營養午餐，那些得靠助學貸款才能讀書上學的大專院校學生，真會有別人家的孩子死不完的被剝削痛苦感。這種嚴重傷了年輕一代情感與公平競爭行為，不就是民進黨不及早切割阿扁下的自食惡果嗎？

　阿扁在競選時以陳致中當兵服役，去修理國民黨高官，那些不用為國盡義務的子女耍特權。而今日卻用人民的錢替子女鋪上黃金地毯，此種招惹全民公憤之事若也能用建國基金去包裝，那民進黨還想重返執政之路可能永遠是場夢。

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