Saturday, April 25, 2009

You keep using that word, I don't think it means what you think it means...

Well, as you've all no doubt heard, part of the Tax Day fun was a series of tea parties held around the country where people commemorated the Boston Tea Party in various ways. This was intended to be a protest about taxation. There are just, oh, a few things to say about this. First, it seems to put down the Boston Tea Party. I mean that was all about protesting taxation without representation, right? But now we have taxation with representation, right? That's, uh, kind of part of the point of the democracy, right? In fact, many of the people who are attending or sponsoring or hailing the tea parties are the representation. What does it mean when a congressman is protesting taxation without representation? Do you think they kind of forgot an important part of their job, there? Maybe they should go and represent instead of throwing tea parties? But I dunno, maybe I'm just a little off here.

What is more funny, and more definite, is that a lot of conservatives have been referring to the practice of the tea parties as "tea bagging" because the tea parties involve tea bags. Here is where our little Inigo quote from Princess Bride comes in handy. Turns out "tea bagging" doesn't mean with they think it means. I'm not sure how to explain this politely, but, uhm, it means, uhm, oral contact with someone's dangly naughty bits. Ahem. A more complete (but not pornographic) definition is here. So as conservative leaders are encouraging tea bagging, well, it has this hidden message. Knowing this, if you're up for a laugh, check out this video, which is again non-pornographic but quite amusing, if only to see the reporters, who clearly know what tea bagging means, try to talk about this with a straight face.

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