We're entering the silly season in the General Assembly, and it will be hard to top Sen. Dennis Kruse's apparently successful effort to name, as the official state beverage -- drumroll, please! -- water:
Make water the official beverage? Yes. Make water the state beverage. And don't think you're the only ones coming up with wisecracks in response to this. Even Kruse's fellow senators found it laughable, with Sen. Mike Young declaring that "I like Coors Light." Reporters and senate staffers were equally as dismissive, coming up with their own thoughts on what Hoosiers would prefer as the favored beverage. Most of them were thinking along the lines of Miller, Bud and harder beverages. Water wasn't even mentioned (yours truly alternates between apple juice, coffee and Captain and Coke).
Despite the heckling, the senators proceeded with a voice vote, with seemingly more 'nays' than 'ayes.' Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman, however, declared that the resolution passed. With flying colors (just kidding). Kruse didn't toast the victory with a tall glass of water. And no one else broke out the bottles of Aquafina.
This is so . . . Indiana. Let's also go ahead and make dogs and cats the official pets, cumulus the official cloud, atheism the official non-religion, ants the official insect and Kruse the official clown prince. WANE-TV went above and beyond by contacting a health professional about how important water is. But the math here eludes me:
She says forget about the old adage of drinking eight cups a day. Adults need more then they think. "Adult women need nine cups a day and men need 13," said Wehrle. "Drink one cup with ever meal and a cup in between meals and you should be getting the right amount."
If I need 13 cups a day and can take care of it with a cup at every meal and a cup between meals, that means I have to eat seven meals a day. Don't think so. Oh, and petty language gripe of the day: "Adage" means a saying that has gained acceptance after long use, so "old adage" is redundant and uses too many words.
Comments
OK...so if water is now the "official" state beverage in Indiana....let's all have some "fun" with it...
Next time you're in a restaurant...ask the waiter/waitress to bring you a DIET water!!!
((BTW...I prefer MY state beverage frozen into small cubes with ample amounts of Cutty Sark poured over it.))
;)
B.G.
This brings up a sore subject. On PBS a week ago, they had Moses and Kruse answering questions from callers. Moses said they pass 1,500 bills a year. We have a problem here. Why are they passing 1,500 bills? Are there that many problems they have created in past legislations that need to be corrected or tweeked or are these new problems they are making?
The spoke about Ethanol and clean "coal". Moses said windpower he likes but at $1.5 Million per windmill it is expenses. Then two seconds later he is saying $4 Billion for clean coal is great. This guy neither understands energy nor mathematics. You can buy 2,000 windmills at $1.5 Million each and be better off than buying one coal gasification unit at $4 billion.
They spoke about property taxes being repealed and replacing them with income tax and sales tax. This makes things worse for two obvious reasons. Property tax rates keep the cost local, where as income and sales taxes make it less likely that you pay for the schools in your area. This means that spending will most likely go up faster than it would have.
The second comes down to who pays for schools and why? Most people will pay property taxes directly or indirectly (renting). The cost of education (buildings, pensions, salaries) are spread out among the property owners. If you look at the cost to the taxpayer, it takes about 60 years paying property taxes to repay your cost of YOUR EDUCATION. We are not paying for our children's education, but simply repaying the bonds. This means if we shift from property tax to income or sales, an entire generation of property owners will get a real break (those who incomes have decreased) while the rest of us will see our taxes increase (workers).
We need a clean slate here. They all have to go.