Teabaggers Giving Tea a Bad Name – Politics Today
The Boston Tea Party events took place on December 16, 1773. After officials in Boston refused to return three shiploads of taxed tea to Britain, a group of colonists boarded the ships and destroyed the tea by throwing it into Boston Harbor.
The Party arose from two issues confronting the British Empire that year: the financial problems of the British East India Company, and an ongoing dispute about the extent of Parliament’s sovereignty over the British American colonies. Failed attempts to resolve this issue led to the tea destruction, and eventually, the American Revolution.
After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world. Ireland has the highest per capita tea consumption of any country. There are four types of tea most commonly found on the market today: black tea, oolong tea, green tea and white tea, all of which can be made from the same bushes.
Tea leaves contain more than 700 chemicals, among which the compounds closely related to human health are flavanoides, amino acids and vitamins (C, E and K). Tea also plays an important role in providing beneficial intestinal microflora, is a digestive aid, and contains helpful antioxidants.
In short, tea is good. And good for you. A hot cup of tea is a wonderful way to start any day, especially with a scone or digestive biscuit.
Tea has been co-opted lately by a group of assclowns, though, and it’s giving one of nature’s great gifts a really bad name. These “teabaggers” have been wasting a valuable natural resource in the name of protest by crowds measuring in the “hundreds” in various venues, ostensibly protesting government spending and God knows what else.
Never mind that this time around the tea bears no connection to anything they are protesting – - at least in 1773, the tea went into the harbor because it was being taxed beyond reason. The tea these “baggers” are tossing has done nothing to them, and is not at the heart of the ostensible issues.
Where were these morons during the Bush Administration’s eight years when spending went willy nilly out of control? Where were they when the “Bushies” busted the bank and ran up the national debt a few trillion dollars? Their “bags” must have been empty for those years, it would seem.
How can anyone keep a straight face when both supporting and encouraging the tossing of tea bags into public waters? As an aside, and perhaps the only silver lining in the activity, there are some rivers and streams in this country that could stand a little improved flavor, and may be benefitting from the tea.
And, too, these hypocrites have inadvertently given us a little bit of a giggle. Go to Urban Dictionary and check out the definition of “teabagging.” If you are a little priggish, though, maybe not – - just take our word for it the word has more than one meaning, and it has nothing to do with the tossing of tea.
I’ve just had this morning’s first cup of tea, and I will have several more as the day unfolds. But, I’ll not be raising my cup to the bastardization of tea being wrought by these silly creatures.
They’re giving tea a bad name, something far more deserving of a good teabagging than their claimed causes.
Political Commentary | Harrison | April 16, 2009
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