Oh, mercy. Now some bright bulb in the Utah Legislature - Rep. Craig Frank, R-American Fork, to be specific - wants to tax caffeine.

As someone who ditched caffeine several years ago for health reasons, I don't really have a dog in this fight. But as someone who used to nurse a six-pack-a-day Diet Coke habit, I reserve the right to declare this a monumentally stupid and discriminatory idea.

The problem - besides the hypocrisy of all "vice" taxes, like tobacco and alcohol, that the state becomes addicted to the revenue while officials publicly decry the product - is that it is yet another example of the predominantly Mormon membership of the legislature is forcing its religious views on the rest of us.

And the fact that the Legislature refuses to raise the cigarette tax, while cutting the budget for anti-smoking education, just highlights the hypocrisy at work.

Labels: LDS, politics, Utah Legislature