No sillier than your habit of referring to former political office holders by the title they may have had decades ago.
http://en.allexperts.com/q/Social-Etiquette-Good-2570/2010/3/Retaining-political-title.htm
...It is protocol that states that if someone earns a title because they were voted into office, they retain the protocol of address after they leave...
...Senators are Senators all their lives. Governors too. Members of the House of Representatives are Mr. and Ms. while they are in office and after they leave. Presidents are Mr. President when in office and Mr. Smith when they leave. Presidents do not keep their title after leaving office. All officials who have been voted in by election will be The Honorable for the rest of their lives...
I don't agree that they're equally silly.
Well...on second thought...maybe you're right. They are both silly.
The first thing that comes to mind when I see these loooooooooooong, extraaaaaavigant titles is the looooooooooooong extraaaaaaaaaaaaavigant titles of the French nobility during the Bourbon regime. The contemporary French nobility is a tad more modest--at least in public--(and for good reason!!!). But in texts written before the (horrifying) French Revolution, the silliness of all this--and the folly--jumps right out at you! It's also annoying. And distracting. And a reminder of why the Revolution was so horrifying. And why it happened at all. And what's the good of all that? None that I can see.