But don't they have jobs to go to?

I have thought of several possible angles from which I could write about the completely manufactured movement in America that they are calling teabag day.
From the misrepresentation and/or misunderstanding of US history to the misdirected anger, from the Fox News agitprop to all the other* meanings of "teabagging," from the Republican hijacking of a libertarian movement to the irony that these people who claim to be the backbone of the nation have nothing better to do on a workday, from the hypocrisy to the idiocy, there are so many ways to approach it.

But to assume that you need me to point any of that out would be insulting your intelligence.
So allow me to offer an international perspective,

In Scotland, they have the caber toss.
In England, they have cheese rolling.
In Spain, they have the running of the bulls and the tomato throwing festival.
In Australia, we play Aussie rules football.
In Taiwan, they have interesting ideas about parliamentary democracy.

And now, in America, it seems they have teabag parties. And it makes about as much sense as any of the other things. The Taiwanese legislature may have been engaged in a passionate debate about a really important issue, but all we outsiders see is adults behaving like children. Likewise, as seriously as the teabaggers may take themselves, to the rest of us it's just another episode of Those Ker-razy Yanks. It's the kind of thing they show on the news after the weather as a bit of light relief. But the world is watching - and perhaps wondering whether these are the people they should be doing business with.


* It's also a surfing term. A "teabagger" is one who sits out the back and never actually catches a wave.