City Councilman Resigns Using Klingon 135
Virtucon writes "A city councilman in Indian Trail Town, North Carolina has resigned and opted to write his letter of resignation in Klingon. David Waddell is obviously a fan of Star Trek. I wonder if the other council members know what the hell he wrote? I'm sure a nice Qu'vatlh would have sufficed."
Good luck to him... (Score:5, Funny)
Or should I say Kapla?
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Qapla'
Captcha: trilled
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I watched an episode of the Star Trek animated series during the lunch break I just got back from. No Trills in it, but it did feature giant tribbles.
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Cf. http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Trill [memory-alpha.org] vs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trill_consonant [wikipedia.org]. Does Klingon have trills? Or is that not a sufficiently testosterone-fueled guttural sound?
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No clue, I'm afraid. And sorry for any confusion. I had hoped that capitalizing it would make it clear I was speaking of the race and not the sound.
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Yeah, I was kind of responding to both you and the original post. No snark inherent in it.
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None taken. I really just thought I had left people confused by my reference. :)
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
More informative article (Score:5, Informative)
This NY Daily article has much more info [nydailynews.com], including the resignation letter.
My favorite part is the mayor's response: "I wish him the best, live long and prosper. I don't know what else to say."
Qapla'! (Score:1)
"Today is a good day to resign!"
Wrong tradition (Score:2)
Someone resigning after being entrusted with power by the people should definitely go for seppuku instead.
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Okay, technically he had power, but it was just a *little* power, equivalent to the magical ability to pull a rabbit... out of a rabbit hutch.
Not news. Getting elected with Klingon would be. (Score:4, Interesting)
>> David Waddell is obviously a (nutjob)
OK, so the guy resigned in Klingon - probably before his local constituency voted him out. However, if he'd run and won using Klingon, that would be news.
Seriously, if you're going to learn a language, why not Spanish or Chinese something else you can use to communicate with and represent real people with real problems. (If you're a politician, that's really your only job.)
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if you're going to learn a language, why not Spanish or Chinese something else you can use to communicate with and represent real people with real problems. (If you're a politician, that's really your only job.)
Because, politician? I dunno, it seems like politicians haven't been interested in public service for a couple hundred years now. Maybe longer.
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Seriously, if you're going to learn a language, why not Spanish or Chinese
As someone who speaks Spanish and Chinese, I respect anyone who learns a language, for whatever reason.
Most likely he just used an online translator though, he can't actually speak it.
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Seriously, if you're going to learn a language, why not Spanish or Chinese something else you can use to communicate with and represent real people with real problems.
It would surprise me not-at-all if this is a setup.
"See?", some other nutjob politician says, "English should be the official language, just to prevent this sort of stuff from happening."
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I know nothing about this particular guy, but from what I learned about J.R.R. Tolkien, serious linguistics freaks often use invented languages to study patterns in language in a clearer form than available on living languages. Basically, it's a sandbox environment to play around with.
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or finding continuity errors in star wars novels.
Novels?
What about the continuity errors in the Star Wars films!
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A wookie? That doesn't even make sense!
penciled-in (Score:2)
If I remember correctly, write-ins in NC are not automatically counted ( http://www.ibiblio.org/prism/Feb97/write.html [ibiblio.org] ). Maybe he can get the few hundred who voted him onto the council to petition for his name to be counted in his race against Hagan. If he's serious about getting some attention, he should get billboards with his photo and a quote in Klingon written underneath. Otherwise, he might as well borrow a cloaking device, because he's going to be invisible anyhow.
Doesn't "inside joke" imply that so
Klingons do not resign (Score:2)
Klingons simply announce that they are leaving, and fight to the death anyone who objects.
He did it wrong (Score:1)
When you resign in Klingon it only works if you go all-out Klingon: Either kill your opponent or kill yourself. ... unless ...
Should Sen. Kay Hagan be worried?
What a petaQ! (Score:3)
As the subject says, he's a petaQ! However, it would have been more interesting if he had stood up in the council chambers, said "taH pagh taHbe' " (to be or not to be), and then disemboweled himself with a handy d'k tagh dagger was carrying. It would have been even better if appeared in Klingon warrior's armor.
not a legal language of government (Score:2)
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Thank God the US Constitution doesnt prescribe a legal language or there was a good chance it could have been German at that time.
Well, maybe. The belief is that if the constitution had stated what the official languages would be, German might have been one of them. I don't think anyone doubted that English would remain the language of government given that English was the language of government and business then which is perhaps the reason one was not specified. But there were so many German speakers in the United States at the time, including one ancestor of mine, that if an official language or languages were specified, German w
He shamed the entire race (Score:2)
Klingons do not resign. They may be forced to accept discommendation, but they never, ever give up and 'resign'.
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Would have been first except my bat'leth got caught on my cat again. Off to find another cat...
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Hey, at least slashdot got it right for once. This truly was "news for nerds".
And nobody else.
Re:I'm guessing.. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I'm guessing.. (Score:5, Informative)
It looks like he was a buffoon. He voted no on everything including adjournment of the meetings. To top it off, it looks like the only reason he resigned was because he got bored and wanted to perform one last stunt. No one was forcing him to resign.
The icing on the cake being that the idiot still plans to attend the meetings.
Why not Congress? (Score:5, Funny)
It looks like he was a buffoon. He voted no on everything including adjournment of the meetings. To top it off, it looks like the only reason he resigned was because he got bored and wanted to perform one last stunt. No one was forcing him to resign.
Nope. He's a conservative politician in a primarily progressive area whose main shtick (as you mentioned) was to simply vote "No" on everything regardless of sense or reason. So, naturally, he's resigning to campaign for the U.S. Senate where his skills are clearly in high demand right now.
Re:Why not Congress? (Score:5, Interesting)
He's not republican.
This guy is "constitution party" which is, essentially, a group of people who think the following:
A. The republican party isn't "conservative enough"
B. Why haven't we established a theocracy that forbids everything but evangelical Christianity yet?
C. B is the true meaning of the constitution.
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Oh well, at least they know there's a Constitution, and that it governs a Republic (not a democracy) unlike Republicans and Democrats.
Kinda sad all around.
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Please. Playing ignorant(or willfully disdainful) lip service to the constitution as if it's magical is #2 on standard politician processes, after pandering to the individual groups you are talking to today.
Re:Why not Congress? (Score:5, Funny)
Please. Playing ignorant(or willfully disdainful) lip service to the constitution as if it's magical is #2 on standard politician processes, after pandering to the individual groups you are talking to today.
Besides, the Constitution is better in the original Klingon.
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Oh well, at least they know there's a Constitution, and that it governs a Republic (not a democracy) unlike Republicans and Democrats.
What do you think that means, and what do you think isn't being respected about that right now?
I'm always curious when people trot out that whole "Republic v. Democracy" bit, because it seems to be one of those commonly said phrases that means something completely different to most everyone who utters it.
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You did hear about the people who have a project to re-write the bible because it isn't conservative enough?
http://www.alternet.org/belief/right-wing-group-seeks-help-rewriting-bible-because-its-not-conservative-enough
Re: Why not Congress? (Score:3)
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Re:Why not Congress? (Score:4, Insightful)
Wow. Really? When was the last time you saw someone user the word 'libertarian' without adding some colorful adjectives to it? Let alone how Slashdot's increasingly leftist audience routinely refers to Republicans...
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Wow. Really? When was the last time you saw someone user the word 'libertarian' without adding some colorful adjectives to it? Let alone how Slashdot's increasingly leftist audience routinely refers to Republicans...
I'm a socialist, I refer to Republicans the same as Democrats: Fucking twats that are working for the corporations.
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I have the same view of the two major political parties. I also abhor socialism. I consider myself more of a libertarian or minarchist. Perhaps we have more that we agree upon than disagree upon.
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..Slashdot's increasingly leftist audience..
I've actually moved quite a bit from the left to the center over the years.
And if asked, I say I'm a Libertarian Socialist. Keeps the scratching their heads for a moment while I run away from another useless political argument.
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I've actually moved quite a bit from the left to the center over the years.
And if asked, I say I'm a Libertarian Socialist. Keeps the scratching their heads for a moment while I run away from another useless political argument.
I don't undestand. What's so strange about being a Libertarian Socialist? It's a perfectly understandable position, and a lot closer to the original sense of "libertarian" than the normal American usage, which is what most people in the world describe as "liberal".
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See, I know what I'm saying.. but I live in 'merica. I really don't want to have to explain my view to most of the wingers around me. Like John Kerry's 2000 run, the message is just to nuanced for them.
Libertarian Socialist? (Score:2)
I don't undestand. What's so strange about being a Libertarian Socialist?
I'm about to paint with a very broad brush. I mean no insult to anybody.
Socialist generally try to create a utopia through targeted policies of taxation and welfare spending. In other words, they are for redistributing wealth and government intervention.
Libertarians, on the other hand, generally believe they can create a utopia despite government intrusion... and the less of it, the better.
These seem quite contradictory. To answer your question, this is why it seems strange. Ultimately, though, it depen
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Your problem comes from your rather limited definition of "Socialism".
Libertarian Socialism existed long before the current American misunderstanding of "Libertarianism", which is closer to what the rest of the world calls "Liberalism".
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Wouldn't a libertarian socialist basically just be an anarcho-syndicalyst?
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcho-syndicalism
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Intersecting sets.
(Notice that the Wikipedia article on anarcho-syndicalism says "Part of a series on Libertarian socialism").
Political philosophies commonly described as libertarian socialist include most varieties of anarchism (especially anarchist communism, anarchist collectivism, anarcho-syndicalism, and mutualism) as well as autonomism, Communalism, participism, libertarian Marxist philosophies such as council communism and Luxemburgism(*), and some versions of "utopian socialism" and individualist anarchism.
(* After Rosa Luxemburg and not the smug little Duchy)
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No, that is not "my problem". I haven't "defined" anything. I've described the general behavior and some of the beliefs of people who typically fly those banners in the US.
You're overreacting. Why don't you tell me what you mean?
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Well that's a joke.
Who defines themselves as "socialist" in the US?
What do I "mean"?
I mean get an clue about what the origins of these ideas before pontificating.
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What is your problem? You're acting like I insulted your mother.
Dude, this is why people frequently don't want to talk about politics. I'd rather have a conversation about where I'm wrong, than exchange insults. It's not healthy. This is the Internet. You're going to be smarter than somebody here. Don't take it as a personal insult when we're not.
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What is your problem? You're acting like I insulted your mother.
You're still alive? I guess I don't think you insulted my mother.
Dude, this is why people frequently don't want to talk about politics. I'd rather have a conversation about where I'm wrong, than exchange insults. It's not healthy. This is the Internet. You're going to be smarter than somebody here. Don't take it as a personal insult when we're not.
What insults? You're too dumb to use google and wikipedia. You're immune to insults.
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Socialist is the original - and still global - meaning of the term Libertarian, before american anarcho-capitalists co-opted the term. Until the internet spread american right-wing libertarianism far and wide, 'lefty socialist anarchist' was how most of the world understood the term. Now there's confusion and you either have to avoid the term entirely or preface it with a qualifier like "US" or "right-wing"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarian_socialism [wikipedia.org]
one of the huge differences (compared to US liber
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one of the huge differences (compared to US libertarianism) is that libertarian socialists don't fetishise or worship private property as THE single most important foundational doctrine, transcending *everything* else.
Of course not. Guns come first! Then God and Gay bashing.
Kidding aside, you understand why in the US the term confuses people. It's the using of two terms they think they understand are opposites and joining them together to make what they think is an oxymoron. It's also useful as a tool to
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That can work.
Live your life, help others where you can, don't be a dick.
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I wouldn't have taxes manditory. If you don't want to use civilized things like roads, fire response, police protection, and what not, feel free to move off-grid and live as you wish without paying for those services. Or you can buy them ala cart at an reasonably inflated price. There are some things groups can do better than single providers. I could build up power, water, sewage for my home but I find it better to pay a collective (a really good PUD in my case (snopud.org)), and not having to clear my
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Well dear me. That kind of ends the discussion.
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Interesting. In common with most people, I've moved to the right as I got older, and saw the errors of left wing proposals. This, however, has not blinded me to the errors of right wing proposals.
FWIW, I consider BOTH the Republicans AND the Democrats to posture in favor of the right wing. And I also consider them both to be liars, merely after increasing centralization of power. In ways that nobody would accept if they understood what was happening.
FWIW, I do support national healthcare. I don't accep
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Hillary championed a national healthcare system during Bill's first term and has been hated by the right ever since. The private insurance requirement was the only way to get it passed.
Highways were almost entirely state and local until Eisenhower (R) created the Interstates, ostensibly to support military maneuvers. The cost has been enormous, but well worthwhile for travel and commerce.
Federal contribution to primary education is around 8% of the total (and growing), the rest is local and state. The pu
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One thing to consider is that states are more able to defend their rights against the feds than are individual citizens. So if the right is held by the state, it's less likely to be infringed by the feds.
Maybe. States have some power from unified action, with advantages such as most state attny. generals being pretty damned good lawyers and having support teams already lined up for the specialty areas.
I could make a counter-argument however: As you yourself put it "It's not clea
Re:Why not Congress? (Score:5, Insightful)
Slashdot's increasingly leftist audience
Slashdot (which is overwhelmingly comprised of the comments made by its members) appears to have remained approximately static in terms of its politics, preferring to value people who can make a coherent argument backed by proper facts to favouring any particular party or political theory. If you're interpreting this as "increasingly leftist", that's probably due to your politics lurching rightwards far more rapidly than you think.
Is this just the normal drift right that usually (but not always) comes with age? Or is someone in your environment encouraging this attitudinal shift for their own ends? (If the latter, are you sure they've got your best interests at heart? Chances are not, assuming my thesis [wikipedia.org] has some weight...)
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Re:I'm guessing.. (Score:5, Insightful)
That's hardly professional or mature for an elected official, inside joke or not.
This is a mentality I just can't get down with.
OK, so maybe resigning in Klingon wasn't the best decision he could have made; but, when you start pointing out a certain expectation for the 'professional or mature' attitude of elected officials, you're pretty much assuring that the only people who will fit the bill are the same kind of career politicians that have been fucking things up for your entire life.
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This guy hasn't contributed anything of value in his entire career(seriously zilch), and seems to only have gotten his office on account of the fact that the people of Indian Trail don't actually know what the Constitution Party is.
Re:I'm guessing.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Again, I'm not saying this particular guy isn't a moron.
What I'm saying is that when you state such a lofty expectation for behavior in politicians, you pretty much ensure that the only people who will ever qualify for said positions are people who spend their lives being groomed for it. Which leads to political dynasties. Which, IMO, generally suck for the people who aren't part of the aforementioned powerful families.
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Well, it's a contributing factor, but you'll never displace winner take all elections for causes of "2 terrible choices" situations.
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I'm sorry, we are FAR past expecting our elected officials to be either professional or mature.
Have you seen any broadcast from Congress or the Senate? We had more reasoned debate in kindergarten school.
Re:I'm guessing.. (Score:5, Funny)
Come on, this is Klingon - they should execute him.
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The main issue is resigning in the middle of your term, which he basically committed to doing when he got elected. As someone else said, "Klingons don't resign."
Re:I wouldn't want him working for me. (Score:5, Insightful)
Context is important to whether a joke is funny, or just stupid. If this were a conscientious councilman who was forced by circumstance to resign, this story would be cute. But this is an egotistical blowhard who used his position as a platform for obstructive ass-hattery (e.g., voting "no" on everything, including motions to adjourn), quitting because even he'd got tired of the stupid game. See MrEricSir's link above.
This guy was a disgrace to his office, and now he's brought disgrace on fan-dom.
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Surely he's the first to disgrace fandom?
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You have insulted my councilman's honor, I challenge you to a death duel!
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If people can conduct public business in Spanish, he can do it in Klingon. If you don't like it, I urge you to support measures to make English the only legal language for official use in the country.
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The "Preview" button is not a command, but it is a very strong suggestion.
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In handing in his resignation, he was doing business with the government. Furthermore, Klingon is as real a language as any. People can write and converse in it, and some classics have even been translated to it. I recognize it is a stunt, but it is no more wrong than doing business with the government in any other non-English language.
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No one speaks Klingon natively. Ergo literally any other language is more useful.
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Wrong!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/19/darmond-speers-dad-spoke_n_363477.html [huffingtonpost.com]
Try again.
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1) The guy's wife was speaking to the kid in English so evidently this would be considered bilingualism.
2) Obviously of the 2, English was the vastly more useful one to communicate with *literally anyone.*
3) That's a horrible thing to do to your kid. Don't do experiments with extremely young children. Just don't.
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That's a horrible thing to do to your kid. Don't do experiments with extremely young children. Just don't.
A lot of our understanding on how people learn is through experiments on extremely young children. Without it, rather than using the scientific method to figure out the best ways of teaching new things, we are left with randomly trying untested things out on large groups (ie: public school policy).
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Albert_experiment [wikipedia.org]
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It is a fake language - the first cases of it were isolated words made up for a Star Trek movie (by James Doohan!), and it later was extended, but it's a fabricated language, no one depends on it as their fir
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I agree, English only, except in cases where we need to deal with foreign citizens and such.
There is no such thing as a fake language. It is a constructed language, like many before it throughout history. You can think of French as partially constructed, since it has had an official group determining its vocabulary and evolution for over 300 years.
Doohan made some first bits of Klingon, but after that it was completely created as a whole language by a known
Re:Klingons do not resign. (Score:4, Funny)
Since when does a Klingon resign from anything? This must be a hoax. The only reason the word "resign" would be in the Klingon language is to describe other weakling species. Doh!
Sure, if they were signing a deed for a new ship, and then spilt bloodwine over the signature, they're have to re-sign it.
Re:Klingons do not resign. (Score:5, Funny)
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I wondered about that. How can the Klingons have an economy if everyone is a soldier? Soldiers need to eat too. Don't they have farmers? Soldiers need weapons. Don't they have armorers? A spacefaring race would need engineers, navigators, mechanics, pilots, even more mundane things like meteorologists. You'd look real stupid as a spaceship captain if your ship crashed because you didn't go around a hurricane on your descent through the atmosphere.
I thought the same thing about the Spartans after watc
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I'm guessing a Klingon would've chosen to just walk into the council chambers and slaughter all the other members.
Re:Klingons do not resign. (Score:5, Informative)
You're right! From the nydailynews article [nydailynews.com]:
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It make me strangely happy to realize that there is a Klingon Language Institute.
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It make me strangely happy to realize that there is a Klingon Language Institute.
Yes, it means that Klingon is like French, a language defined by a committee.
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I have a feeling a real Klingon would kill you where you stand for that statement.
Exactly (Score:3, Funny)
"Resign" in Klingon would have to be a polite way of saying "took a Bat'leth to the skull".
He is definitely no Klingon.