Does anybody else think it’s kind of strange that in the USA, we behave like prissy throne-sniffers regarding a President’s address to Congress, while the British Parliament is alive with boisterous repartee and heckling? Witness this 2007 feud between Prime Minister Gordon Brown and David Cameron–

(And please do not cite procedural esoterica. I am aware that differences exist, but that’s not the point.)

UPDATE: From Slate:

In the United Kingdom, prime ministers expect less decorum from representatives. Every Wednesday while the House of Commons is in session, the prime minister spends half an hour answering questions—and enduring boos and snide remarks—from Members of Parliament.

UPDATE: I guess the answer to my question is “yes.” Alex Massie from The Daily Beast in praise of hecklers.

A perfect example of how much less thinking is required when you are permitted to repeatedly cry “racist!” without challenge.

UPDATE: More nuanced, trenchant commentary from the Sultan of Smug and the Kabuki Kid, via Hot Air.

The Sultan: “The line of racist attacks against the President, sometimes poorly disguised as birthers or deathers or whatever, is that what’s in play here, principally?”

I don’t think he’s right about the birthers, but I can at least understand how somebody seeking the specter of racism might find it in the claim that Obama was born abroad. But “deathers”– which I am guessing refers to people talking about “death panels?”– really? Was the Sultan so enchanted by the parallelism of “birthers and deathers” that he didn’t even bother to think through what the words actually mean? An accusation of racism is a powerful and destructive thing, even if it’s just a shortcut to thinking. It’s kind of disgusting how arbitrarily and recklessly Keith Olbermann brandishes it.

Then again, I guess it doesn’t really matter– I mean, not even Keith Olbermann watches Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

In one segment of “Countdown with Keith Olbermann,” the host struggles mightily to formulate a single coherent question or statement when he is not spinning off on bizarre, impertinent tangents.

Sublimate is a great word, but he clearly doesn’t know what it means so he probably shouldn’t use it.