Total sidebar note: I hear what you're saying about the lack of real rebellion in the thing. But speaking as a treehugger, I'm very glad that they dumped neither tea nor cars into the drink as the specific form of their protest. That would be damaging an ecosystem that had nothing to do with the original protest, and ironically, (you'd hope) the government would just have to spend MORE money cleaning up the mess afterward.

That said, it's hard to find a symbol of extreme scorn that doesn't involve destroying something, which gives me new respect for King and other nonviolent protests that succeeded in getting so much press.