Quote:
Originally Posted by DanaC
Is that so? *chuckles* It's entirely possible that the origin of the rule lay in the right to duel and that has somehow survived on the statute books. I don't know though. The two sides of the house are separated by a gap of two sword lengths :P
|
Partisan politics has occasionally turned physical with us too. The most celebrated incident was the
Brooks-Sumner affair, where one Senator beat another into brain damage with a heavy cane. Interestingly, the victim, an abolitionist, won his next reelection, and his chair stood there, empty, while the Senate debated slavery and the causes of the impending American Civil War, 1861-65.
Nowadays this seems more the arena of State Legislatures, though even the pugnacious and pugilistic Texas Legislature doesn't throw punches as often as the Taiwanese.