New country means learning new things. A few weeks back I heard the word filibustering on the NPR (National Public Radio, my favorite channel on the radio around here) and it didn’t make any sense whatsoever, so I looked it up and was somewhat stunned to find out what it means. For any of you that might not know what it means:

1) The use of obstructionist tactics, especially prolonged (irrelevant) speechmaking, for the purpose of delaying legislative action. 2) An instance of the use of this delaying tactic.

I did a 5 minute google search on the term to find some sort of background about this and found out that it comes from Spanish filibusterowhich originates from the Dutch word vrijbuiter (which means pirate). Anyways, long story short, early nineteenth century, John Randolph, a senator from Virginia kept giving long irrelevant talks which made the other senators ticked off, so a decision was made to stop this. 1872 though, Vice president Schuyler Colfax stopped this and once again this practice of delaying tactics started and by now as you know it’s part of everyday life of the Senate.

What is amazing to me is that when asking people about this practice of our law makers here no one even finds this particularly strange, the fact that the leaders of this country, when trying to make decisions are allowed to act as a bunch of kids and try to stall each other. Maybe I am overreacting or missing something big here, but this sounds totally out of control and childish behavior at its peak. Nevertheless it is so accepted here that when looking up the meaning in the dictionary, that is what it means.

So the question is what is the difference between filibustering in the Senate and a kid that wants ice cream in the grocery store, puts a finger in each ear and starts screaming in order not to hear his mom refuse his request.