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missdaredevil
Joined: 08 Dec 2004
Posts: 1670
Location: Ask me
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 Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2005 12:21 am Post subject: lousy and lame |
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What is the difference between lousy and lame when it comes to describing people?
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asterix
Joined: 26 Jan 2003
Posts: 1654
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| Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2005 6:05 am Post subject: |
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Lousy means, literally, infested with lice.
Colloquially it means, very bad, disgusting. It is also used as a general term of disparagement.
Lame means, literally, disabled, especially in the foot or leg; limping; unable to walk normally.
A lame-brain is a stupid person.
A lame duck is a disabled or weak person (or a defaulter on the stock exchange) |
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BMO
Joined: 19 Feb 2004
Posts: 705
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| Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2005 10:52 am Post subject: |
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| In the US Congress, is there a lame duck session? |
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asterix
Joined: 26 Jan 2003
Posts: 1654
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| Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2005 6:58 pm Post subject: |
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| A president (of the USA) near the end of his term is sometimes called a lame duck president. I suppose it means he can't really do much so late in his term of office. Maybe someone from the USA will confirm it. |
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Bob S.
Joined: 29 Apr 2004
Posts: 1767
Location: So. Cal
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| Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2005 9:49 am Post subject: |
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| asterix wrote: |
| A president (of the USA) near the end of his term is sometimes called a lame duck president. I suppose it means he can't really do much so late in his term of office. Maybe someone from the USA will confirm it. |
Basically right.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lame_duck
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=lame+duck
A "lame-duck" in a political sense is someone who, because he lost an election or due to term limits, will soon be leaving office permanently. Because of this, there is no constituency to support him, so he is regarded as having no real threatening political power (supposedly, all his former supporters are now supporting someone else).
On a side note, this is not always true in a practical sense. Lame duck politicians, because they have no special interest constituencies they must pander to, are often free to act as they wish with bold initiatives. During President Clinton's lame-duck months in office, he pardoned his Whitewater real estate partners (indicted under all kinds of federal fraud charges {see: http://anythingarkansas.com/arkapedia/pedia/Whitewater_Scandal/}) who might have known about any illegal activities he was involved in, and he signed the Kyoto Protocols knowing full well the U.S. congress would never ratify it. In Pres. Bush's current lame duck term, he proposed sweeping reforms to the Social Security system (the U.S. national pension system) that would have been politically infeasible before the elections. |
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bud
Joined: 09 Mar 2003
Posts: 2111
Location: New Jersey, US
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| Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2005 12:20 pm Post subject: |
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| Yes, BMO, there is a lame duck session every two years after the congressional elections. It refers to the time they meet after the election in early November until the new Congress is seated in early January. |
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