Abusive and even absurd litigation is just the most visible symptom.

FORBES: At CES, Companies Large and Small Bash Broken Patent System

While no one can deny that consumption is a form of social distinction, it sounds even more absurd to think that people will pay more for an equal product.

FORBES: Wodka And A New Business Model: Cheap, Premium Vodka

To some, it even sounded absurd.

FORBES: Elliott Waves Warn Of Apple Correction

The dividend payout policy of Citigroup, Bank of America, even JPMorgan Chase is absurd.

FORBES: Magazine Article

For even more theater of the absurd, consider that the TSA screens pilots.

FORBES: Full Frontal Nudity Doesn't Make Us Safer: Abolish the TSA

This is an absurd approach that even the Obama administration does not support.

FORBES: Don't Be Swayed By Faucets On Fire And Other Anti-Fracking Propaganda

Still, it's an odd kind of a slog that manages to keep you partially engaged, even at its most esoteric or absurd, despite an endlessly excitable choir and Hans Zimmer's pitiless score.

WSJ: Plot's Knots Bedevil 'Angels & Demons'

With Cartier-Bresson even the most everyday activities look faintly absurd or tedious.

FORBES: Henri Cartier-Bresson: Aesthetic Contrarian

Even moderates such as Robert Samuelson recognize this is absurd, and here is some of what he wrote.

FORBES: To Boost Obama's Redistribution Agenda, OECD Pushes Crazy Assertion that Poverty Is Higher in the U.S. than in Greece, Hungary, Portugal, and Turkey

And even the Corporation admits that its voting arrangements are absurd.

ECONOMIST: Local government: The mayor's new friend | The

Uninformative, absurd, nonsensical commercials are standard, even expected.

ENGADGET: Editorial: BlackBerry slumps into history of Super Bowl tech ads

The movie ends with Doug and his sister in full detective mode, even though they stop, mid-stakeout, to have absurd conversations.

NEWYORKER: Cold Weather

Either we must conclude that even ants are capable of such empathic suffering, which seems absurd, or we must view the rat experiments as proving nothing about psychological motivation, leaving human beings on a pedestal.

WSJ: Matt Ridley on what a Rat Rescue Says About People | Mind & Matter

To even suggest that such lawyers should serve on the Commission is considered absurd.

FORBES: SEC Commissioners Wanted: Plaintiffs Lawyers and Consumer Advocates Need Not Apply (Sept 10,2010 )

There you have it: What seemed absurd to the point of parody a decade ago is now so plausible that no one but me even thinks to question it.

FORBES: From April Fool's Joke to Mobile Advertising Reality