Lobbyists and company owners must be high-fiving this morning over the risible quotes they cooked up to argue why Maryland shouldn't enter the 21st century by levying a sales tax on service products as well as goods. Bereano, of course, is the king, but there are other beuts in Laura Smitherman's story this morning.

Gym owner Lynne Brick, on the proposal to tax health clubs: "People are trying to save their own lives, and we want to tax them for it?"

Bereano called a potential tax on tattoo parlors "a culture tax" and said that "in the time of Adam and Eve" there were tattoos, or body piercings, or something.

Bereano on taxing dating services: "How can you put a tax on love?" (Wasn't that a song by the Knack?)

Bereano on taxing junk food (snacks): "People eat it. You can't just take a segment of food and tax it."

A postcard sent to the legislature: "Dear Elected Officials: If taxing cigarettes deters smoking, what does taxing health club memberships do?" (It PROMOTES smoking, of course.)

Thomas Hucker, a Montgomery County Democrat, wants to tax car rentals. "No one is going to say, 'Sorry, kids, we can't go to Grandma's this year because they raised the sales tax on car rentals.'" No, Del. Hucker, but don't put it past the lobbyists to raise this as a possibility.