Oh, for Pete's sake.

"Oh, for Pete's sake!" That's what my Minnesota auntie would say if she clicked on the link to this Los Angeles Times article on the shenanigans that occasionally erupt in South Korea's National Assembly (and she'd call them "shenanigans"). 

That my aunt sounds almost exactly like Police Chief Marge Gunderson in the Coen Brothers' dark-comedy-based-on-a-truish-story Fargo is the subject for another post. For now, let's deal with the intransigent ignorami in Republic of Korea National Assembly. 

Really, what is there to say? The two sides have spent the past few decades or so utterly demonizing the other and drinking way too much of their own Kool-Aid. That's a sure recipe for an impasse, which is a polite way of saying, "There's no way in hell that I'm ever going to do anything you want." 

So what other choice is there than to come to blows, swing sledgehammers into doors when the ruling party locks you out of a session that you had promised to illegally disrupt, blow fire extinguishers into a room to smoke people out, etc. 

Geez, can't they just boo the politicians they don't like? Anything beyond throwing eggs at a motorcade is beyond the pale. It's just so... Taiwanish. (Don't get me wrong, I love Taiwan; they show what the People's Republic of China could be like if they weren't the People's Republic. Plus, the violence in their parliament tends to distract from the idiocy happening in Seoul.)

I'd like to chalk this up to democratic growing pains rather than some inveterate tendency toward violence among Korea's ruling class, so that's what I'm going to do. South Korea has had only a handful of free elections, dating back to the late 1980s or the early 1990s, depending on who's doing the counting. Ditto with Taiwan. 

But unlike Russia, which appears to be sinking back into autocracy or dictatorship, Korea (and Taiwan) are trudging forward. If history is any indication, they'll get to wear "mature democracies" are, like Japan and the United States. Sure, there may have to be a few stabbings or a fatal duel along the way, but we'll get there. 

[above photos, from top: shenanigans, mischief, high-spirited behavior, manipulative maneuver, roguishness, monkey business, legislative misconduct, The Foul King. To get some idea how Kushibo amuses himself, roll over the pictures to see what I named them.]