In case anyone failed to notice with all the attention on today's primaries and the start of NFL free agency, the Tea Party announced yesterday that they are officially switching to the exclusive use of Roman numerals.
"It seemed a natural fit for us given their biblical usage. It gives a sort of solenmity to our signage," remarked one Tea Party official who was willing to speak to this liberal blogger only on the condition of "unanimity." "It took a little while for the complication to show up, but a minor revision to the tax plank of our platform should take care of it."
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The switch was made quickly once it was brought to the attention of leading Tea Party figures that the numerals they had been using in all of their signage and literature were Arabic numerals. A small group wanted to continue using the familiar numerals to avoid any confusion and simply start referring to them as "Freedom Numerals," but concerns about unwanted hidden messages infiltrating their printed material ran too deep.
Local sign showing recent switch to Roman numerals
The Tea Party is also advocating that the switch to Roman numerals be embraced more widely - ultimately they hope to make them the official numerals of all U.S. government publications.
Think about it. Those Arabic numerals were created thousands of years ago. Who knows what nefarious purposes may have been built in. And think about how many of them there are - those basic numerals can be combined to name a million different numbers, maybe more. We just don't feel safe surrounded by that many Arabic anythings.
The switch to Roman numerals has not been without problems however. "When we wanted to publicize our push to lower the tax rate on capital gains, we found that there was no Roman numeral for zero. A I% tax on capital gains, however, seems a small price to pay for the added piece of mind."