Alabama's senate fistfight

Remember when French soccer star Zinedine Zidane shoved his head against Italian half-forward Marco Materazzi at last year's World Cup soccer finals? European and Latin American soccer fans certainly do, but Americans may have missed it.

Not to worry: Alabama state Senators Charles Bishop and Lowell Barron just staged a replay of that fight, and their dust-up was caught on camera. In stereotypical "hawks vs doves" fashion, Republican Bishop hit Democrat Barron in the head before bystanders pulled them apart.

"He called me a son of a b****," explained Jasper when the fistfight was over. "I responded to this comment with my right hand," he added. That follows the Zidane-Materazzi script, wherein Zidane accused Materazzi of provoking him by insulting his sister.

News of the Alabama Senate's fisticuffs has already been joyfully picked up by foreign news outlets. For once, the rest of the world gets a chance to lecture the United States on good democratic practice.

(If you enjoy stories about legislative rumbles as much as we do, check out this Passport post on Taiwan's rowdy parliament.)