53 beers on tap

Not feeling myself (but play ball!)

Hey, if HoCoRising can call a sick day, dammit, so can I!

Seriously, I'm not sure what's been up with me this week.  I just feel kind of off.  Going to see what I can do about this, and try again tomorrow.

At least, today is the first day of the Major League Baseball season!  I'm calling Phillies over Brewers in the NLCS,  Red Sox over Rangers in the ALCS, and the crowning of the world champion Phillies come late October (or is it early November?)

I promise I'll have something different in store for you, gentle readers, tomorrow.

Drawing the lines

As I posted last week, I jumped back into the political waters last week by attending a couple of local elected officials' fundraisers.  But, just attending something isn't enough if you didn't gain something from the experience.  And I did!  And lucky you, I want to share!

I bet you're thinking that this post is going to be about who's running for what in 2014.  No it isn't.  To be honest, I'm not exactly sure if those individuals' intentions are well-kept secrets.

More interesting to me are the redrawing of the lines for state and county legislative districts.  Of specific interest to me are the state legislative lines in Howard County-- will Howard County get a second three-member district contained entirely within it's borders, or won't it?

For those who are uninitiated, a map of the current legislative districts can be found here.  It's a cool map.  Districts 9 and 12 are split with Carroll and Baltimore Counties, respecively, and District 13 lies entirely within Howard County.  The map also shows that District 9 (especially subdistrict 9A, which lies entirely within Howard County) has enjoyed much greater population growth than District 13 or District 12.

Now let's look at this in political terms.  District 9 is solidly Republican, District 13 is solidly Democratic, District 12 is much more Democratic leaning.  All four of District 12's legislators are Democrats-- Senator Kasemeyer, Delegates Malone and Deboy in the Baltimore-Howard District 12A and Delegate Bobo in the all-HoCo 12B.

For there to be two fully-self contained Districts in Howard County, 12 would have to absorb a lot of 9, it would appear.  Perhaps so much so as to ensure the election of at least one Republican Delegate from the district?  I don't see that happening.

But here's something disturbing.  Districts in Baltimore City are losing population.  So they either need to be consolidated or expanded out into Baltimore County.  Which means Baltimore County Districts have to expand into new places.  So, without any science behind this, and assuming that Baltimore City loses a legislative district (which I think should happen, but who knows how the political widns on this one blow?)  Here's what I'd like to see:

District 13 stay more or less the same

District 12 expanded into a three-member district and include the part of 9A that lies east of 29 (Worthington. downtown Ellicott City, most of  the Mt. Hebron school District)

District 9 pushed out further into western Howard

My one uncertainty in this is what happens in the Baltimore County portion of 12-- are Delegates Malone and Deboy pushed out?  I'd prefer that not happen.  But should Baltimore City not lose a legislative District, this whole thing could get shaken up.

This is something that warrants a lot of further examination over time.  Much more on this topic in the future!

Time for the Assembly to go 4:20

I have failed to understand why medical marijuana legislation has never been passed in Maryland.  Perhaps it's one of those social issues where Maryland fakes left and goes right.  Oh, and don't give me all the stuff about marijuana getting into the wrong people's hands, with it being so addictive, etc.  It's not as addictive as tobacco and right now 15 states and DC have medical marijuana programs.

Medical marijuana legislation has already failed this year, but now legislators are trying a different approach-- making it less bad instead of fully legal.  This article talks about efforts to partially deciminalize pot, so people who are taking pot for a medical condition can't be prosecuted for it, basically, because they have a note from their doctor saying it's OK.

I don't like this approach because it's a half-measure.  As with other things, I think the General Assembly needs to move a little bit more boldly and not be so damn incremental.    We'll follow how this one progresses.

The future of Howard County wineries

Three posts about alcohol in a row.  Gee, wonder where my mind's been lately...

Anyway, this article by Kellie Woodhouse in Patuxent discusses the status of the proposed county legislation to allow wineries in Howard County.  As with so many things, this is legislation that is long overdue.  And, like so many things, it is being made incredibly difficult.

At least it looks like this bill is better than the one originally proposed.  However, some in the western part of the county are complaining that they still don't want winery patrons traveling on local roads (thank God that teleportation is now reality!) and that winery events aren't consistent with the rural character of the west.  Gee, neither's a regional park or a golf course.  Yet those seem to exist in the rural west just fine and no one seems to suffer.  For that matter, why the heck is Howard County Fairgrounds in the rural west???  Gadzooks, those people clog up our rural west county roads something fierce!

I really, really, really hope the County Council passes this bill.  As the article indicates, potential owners of Howard County wineries are already passing the county by.  It's sad when a business owner who would responsibly use the land and keep it agricultural in nature decides to go elsewhere.   And I think it would add to the experience of being a Howard Countian to take a short drive to a local winery, listen to a nice concert under the stars, and enjoy the fruits of Howard County's soil.  But, that's just me.

Home wine shipments in Maryland-- not this year?

The Maryland General Assembly fails to disappoint, I'll give it that.

I really thought that direct to home shipments of wine would be passed by the legislature this year.  After all, the state needs to expand it's opportunities to collect taxes any way it can, right?  Right???

The answer may be a resounding wrong.  This story discusses various roadblocks the legislation currently faces, in both the Maryland House of Delegates and the Maryland Senate.

What's most troubling in the story is that there appears to be dissension in the legislature as to what retailers want.  Do they want to be able to ship wine or don't they?  There seems to be agreement that wineries be allowed to ship, but what about retailers?

I think logic dictates that if wineries have the ability to ship their products directly to customers, shouldn't retailers have the same opportunity?  That obviously opens up the selection of wine available to the consumer.  Meanwhile, Maryland wineries will have the advantage of selling their wares directly to consumers at better prices.

Please, General Assembly, don't screw this one up!  But somehow, I think they're going to do precisely that.

Dime a drink tax increase moves forward

I've written posts to this blog supporting the proposed "dime a drink" increase in the Maryland alcohol tax.

Looks as if there may be progress on this front.  The Budget and Taxation Committee of the Maryland Senate, whose Chair is Howard County's own Sen. Ed Kasemeyer, has approved the tax increase.  The measure now goes to the full Senate, and if passed there, moves on to the House of Delegates.

The increase is projected to inject $85 million annually into state coffers.  And at a time when state coffers need all the injecting they can stand.

Tablet test post

Sorry if I'm wasting anyone's time with this post. Simply trying out the Typepad interface with my new tablet computer.

Gotta say, it is a pretty nice interface!!! Very fast typing, which is important since I have big fingers!

Another Marshmallow Man personal appearance

Two personal appearances in one week!  The Marshmallow Man has become a force onto himself!  The Marshmallow Man is like John Wayne!  A Saturn 5 rocket!  Marshmallow Man is like the Indy 500!

Marshmallow Man is a Real American!

Marshmallow Man will also be appearing at Courtney Watson's fundraiser tonight at Serafino's in Ellicott City.  Come over and say hello!  Marshmallow Man doesn't bite!

PS-- triple kudos if you watch the entire video!  Loving the most the trashing of the Qaddafi photo!

Promoting the National Anthem

This is a cool article, and Mary Esmond is a friend of mine (I've coached against her in basketball a number of times) and a very nice person.

I shudder when people stand, put their hands on their hearts and remove their hats when they sing "God Bless America" at some sporting event or some such place.  Or "God Bless the USA" getting the same treatment.  OK, these are great and wonderful songs, but they are not the National Anthem.  Only "The Star Spangled Banner" is worthy of such a treatment.

I appreciate the Esmonds' desire to promote the song, it's story and to educate people of all ages about  "The Star Spangled Banner."  For example, how many people knew the song had four verses?  Find them here.  I think the fourth one is pretty cool.

 

Marshmallow Man personal appearance tonight!

As longtime (maybe even shorttime) readers know, I have been active in Democratic politics, off and on (mostly on) for over 20 years.  I'll be re-entering the political world a bit, as I'll be attending Ken Ulman's fundraiser this evening at Turf Valley.

I hope to see many happy readers in attendance!  I'll even take the bitter, pissed-off ones!