I know, I know, the tea parties are an old story now.  The 24 hour news cycle certainly moves fast, doesn’t it?  As a responsible blogger, I should have written at least one post by now about the torture memos and Obama’s decision not to prosecute.  After all, Andrew Sullivan has written around 50 posts in two days on this subject.  But I’m still stuck on the tea parties.  Bad, bad, bad.

Jeff Pasley and Ben Carp of Public Occurances 2.0 have written some terrific posts this week on the tea parties, starting from a historical perspective but also going into the contemporary politics.  Jeff Pasley points out the archaic nature of many proposed libertarian solutions to modern day problems, and how usually they just don’t fit the times.  He also reminds us, with Jon Stewart, that we shouldn’t take the tea parties too seriously.  Ben posted a useful collection of links on the tea parties, one being this hilarious segment of the Daily Show’s John Oliver covering the protests.  Even though I stand by my attempt to take the tea party protests seriously, there is a lot to laugh about here.  But then again, protests from the left or the right are usually ridiculous.

By the way, Ben has written a very interesting piece in Sunday’s Washington Post opinion page about the historical parallels (or lack thereof) between the anti-Obama tea parties and the real Boston Tea Party of 1773.  He also does some great reporting of his experience attending the tea party in New York City.  Be sure to check it out.