Postscript: tea parties take a sharp right turn into absurdity

As the lead up to the Tax Day Tea Party Protests continue, the question arises: just how stupid are these people? And by "these people" I mean the rally organizers and their spokesmen. They are now enjoining people to mail tea bags to the White House and to Congress in symbolic protest. And in a particularly unfortunate turn of phrase, they are referring to this process as "teabagging." As in: "Teabag the White House!" "Teabag Obama!" And so on ...

For the sake of my more delicate readers who may be unfamiliar with the colloquial meaning of "teabagging," I direct you to a definition here. Take a moment ... we'll wait.

Yup. Sigh. It's vaguely irritating that this happens right on the heels of taking the time and thought to write out a measured and serious response to the Tea Party Protests, seeing as how this little bit of absurdity really kind of makes treating this with any degree of seriousness kind of a waste of time and energy.

Because really, the only decent way to respond is with snark, and here's Rachel Maddow doing so brilliantly. I can only imagine what kind of mileage Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert will get out of this.