Silliness At the Minnesota Legislature
PZ Myers points us to some silliness at the Minnesota legislature in the form of House Bill H0224. Just to reassure PZ and his readers I thought I’d better pass along my own experience with such shenanigans during my college days. Here’s the comment I left on PZ’s blog:
When I was a wee college lad, 40++ years ago, as part of a political science class at my alma mater we took a day trip to St. Paul to observe a session of the legislature. A neighbor and father of one of my best friends was our state senator, so I spent the majority of my time there in the gallery of that exalted chamber.
The bill under consideration that day sought to establish the loon as the Minnesota state bird. The clerk read the bill out loud in bored tones and then the sponsor stood up and spewed forth some pious platitudes on behalf of that fine species. Just as the president of the body started to call for a vote another senator asked for the floor. He stood up and in stentorian tones began “I move that in paragraph X on line Y we strike the word ‘Loon’ and insert the words ‘Old Crow’.” As titters spread through the Senate chamber floor accompanied by guffaws in the gallery, the senator extended his motion to cover every occurrence of the word ‘Loon’ in the bill. Following this he gave a short speach extolling the virtues of the whiskey, including how it was widely found in the vicinity of Hennepin and Washington Avenues in Minneapolis (at the time the city’s Skid Row) and comparable neighborhoods in St. Paul and Duluth.
When the senator was finished the Chair called for a voice vote on the amendment, and it passed overwhelmingly. Then some spoil sport called for a roll call and all the senators chickened out, so to speak.
After the session ended I called on my neighbor in his office and he was somewhat embarrassed about the proceedings, defensively asserting that it was the first such humorous episode during that term.