Missouri rule change would allow senators to challenge each other to a duel
The rule change was proposed by Senator Nick Schroer.
www.newsweek.com
Dueling is an old tradition. I think Andrew Jackson was involved in a few duels. Alexander Hamilton was killed in a duel.
Thankfully, duels have since been outlawed, but now someone wants to bring it back.
His proposed amendment was posted on X, formerly Twitter, by Missouri Senate Democrats. It read: "If a senator's honor is impugned by another senator to the point that it is beyond repair and in order for the offended senator to gain satisfaction, such senator may rectify the perceived insult to the senator's honor by challenging the offending senator to a duel.
"The trusted representative, known as the second, of the offended senator shall send a written challenge to the offending senator. The two senators shall agree to the terms of the duel, including choice of weapons, which shall be witnessed and enforced by their respective seconds. The duel shall take place in the well of the senate at the hour of high noon on the date agreed to by the parties to the duel."
So, they get to choose weapons. They could choose pillows and have a pillow fight, I suppose.
It seems there's been a bit of a row in the Missouri legislature.
In a statement, Rowden called the state's legislative session "an embarrassment."
He said: "The beginning of the 2024 legislative session in the Senate has been nothing short of an embarrassment. A chamber designed to be occupied with civil, principled statesmen and women has been overtaken by a small group of self-interested career politicians, who all too often, remind me more of my children than my colleagues."
I see this as yet another indication of the overall growing insanity, but I suppose our culture has had a certain fascination with dueling - at least as sometimes portrayed in popular culture. Like the gunfighters of the Old West or the heroic knights battling it out with swords. Being the home of Jesse James, I suppose Missouri has its own history in that regard.
Not that I have any room to talk about Missouri, since my own state has its issues. But still, this is just insane.