MISSISSIPPI!

Having been forced to largely abandon racial segregation decades ago, Mississippi is now embarking on weight segregation with a completely stupid bill introduced by a completely stupid Republican state legislator W. T. Mayhall Jr.  Luckily, no one is expecting it to get much support -- but you never know.

The bill (House Bill No. 282) would effectively ban restaurants from serving obese people:

Any food establishment to which this section applies shall not be allowed to serve food to any person who is obese, based on criteria prescribed by the State Department of Health after consultation with the Mississippi Council on Obesity Prevention and Management established under Section 41-101-1 or its successor. The State Department of Health shall prepare written materials that describe and explain the criteria for determining whether a person is obese, and shall provide those materials to all food establishments to which this section applies. A food establishment shall be entitled to rely on the criteria for obesity in those written materials when determining whether or not it is allowed to serve food to any person.

You go, Mississippi.  Will we start burning crosses on fat people's lawns next?  Perhaps there can be a sequel to "Mississippi Burning" called "Mississippi Feasting".  Instead of guys in white hoods, we can have svelte rednecks in muscle-T's beating up poor fat people.

What will be interesting is how this bill collides with the Americans With Disabilities Act, which covers obesity as a disability.

It will also be intersting to see how restaurant owners feel about having to discriminate against customers under the color of law.

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Two bills have been introduced -- one in the House of Delegates and one in the Senate -- too purpotedly combat the rash inflation of college textbook costs by increasing transparency of the costs of textbooks.  Neither one -- House Bill 3 (Textbook Fairness Act) or Senate Bill 81 (TextBook Fairness Act) will do a whole hell of a lot, because the sponsors don't understand the problems.

Since I worked in the Towson State* University Bookstore for a semester and then some, I have some unique insight.  Things haven't changed much in seventeen years, so what I have to say still applies.

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Since Maryland is now in the throes of its statewide ban on smoking in any workplace, including bars, I think it is right and proper to disclose how I will oppose this move:

I am going to screw the little guy.  That's right.  Restaraunt owners didn't want to fight for their smoking patrons, so I will not fight for them.  From now on, I will not purchase alcohol from you.  And mind you-- I am not some beer guzzling redneck.  I am a top-shelf alcohol drinker.  No more Glenlivet or Wild Turkey or Maker's Mark on the rocks anymore.  No Belvedere straight up.  I won't buy it.  Which means your check amount just dropped precipitously, and with it, the tip for your bar staff and wait staff.

If I can't enjoy a nice cigar with my alcohol, I won't drink at all.  I've got a pretty good selection here at the house-- including some of the Eastern Shore's finest.  I don't need to spend my money where I am not welcome.

You can take your alcohol and shove it.

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Well, it's day 33 of O'Misery in O'Maryland, and we have O'Guvnah continuing to use his Dark Servants in the Hosue of Delegates and the State Senate -- with an assist from the MSM and Drive By Media -- continue to besmirch the reputation and accomplishments of State Schools Superintendent Nancy Grasmick.

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Arlen Spector, so-called Republican Senator from the State of Pennsylvania, has decided to inject the government of the United States into the "Spygate" Scandal in the NFL.

Proving that he is nothing more than a pure media whore trying to gain attention during Super Bowl week, Specter said:

"That requires an explanation," [Sen. Arlen] Specter told The Times. "The NFL has a very preferred status in our country with their antitrust exemption. The American people are entitled to be sure about the integrity of the game. It's analogous to the CIA destruction of tapes, or any time you have records destroyed."

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The Maryland General Assembly is moving ahead with plans to introduce that "oldie but a goodie" from the days of East Germany -- the Stasi -- to a neighborhood near you.

That's right... under the Liberal Facist regime in Maryland, the speed cameras are coming.

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O’Guvnah is Maryland’s latest perfect example of the Peter Principle: that in a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to the level of his incompetence. 

If you thought we were done with this after former Governor Parris “Tomcat” Glendenning and Lt Governor KKT, you were wrong. Time and the Democrats march on.

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Hillary Rodham Clinton is gasping for air tonight.  Yes, her flooding the zone strategy worked perfectly in South Carolina, and could have helped her capture the white Democrat vote across the rest of the Old Confederacy.  Her Hispanic vote was solid, and she was getting a lot more traction with the unionized base than John "Ambo Chasing" Edwards.

And then the white elephant entered the room.

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O'Guvnah is a HUGE supporter of Hillary Rodham Clinton.  So is Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the only Democrat candidate for Governor to lose to a Republican in 40 years.  But O'Guvnah is also governor of the state which is home to the NAACP, and some pretty powerful black politicians like his Lt. Governor Anthony Brown, Congressman Elijah Cummings, and others.

So what does it say when YOUR candidate suddenly allows her husband to carry the water on a racial attack on another presidential candidate for your party's nomination?

For O'Guvnah and the rest of the Maryland Democrat Party, it says little.

<insert sound of crickets chirping here>

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A lot has been made of what will happen to the so-called "Reagan Coalition" if certain candidates become the Republican nominee.  If Rudy wins (highly unlikely at this point), will Conservative Christians bolt?  If McCain wins (ugh), will Conservatives bolt?  If Huckabee wins, will economic conservatives bolt?  If Romney wins, will national security conservatives bolt?

And it is true-- there is GREAT risk in the Republican process, but there ALWAYS is, because the Republican Party is not nearly as homogeneous as the Drive By Media wants people to think.  The different factions in the Party are constantly at each other's throats, working out the tensions between varying degrees of right-of-center policies and politics. 

But I think the more interesting debate is over in the Democrat Party, which has built its own coalition of special interests not based on policy prescriptions and ideas, but on identity politics: who you are, what you are, and what you do.  And that "who you are" focus, based largely on race, has the potential to really rip the Dems apart this year.

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