Nobody asked me, but…

I HAVE a wonderful idea to deal with Kentucky’s revenue shortfall: Add one per cent to the sales tax on all fast-food. It should be an easy sell to the General Assembly if we used the same convoluted logic that’s being used to promote an increase in the cigarette tax.

The medical industry supports a higher cigarette tax as a way to reduce smoking, which can cause cancer and heart disease. The theory is that higher prices will be a deterrent to lower-income smokers.

On the other hand, of course, the state has a vested interest in making sure that people keep smoking because we need the tax revenue to keep from making even more drastic cuts to vital public services.

No hypocrisy here, right?

Like smoking, eating fast food is bad for your health. It’s the single biggest contributor to obesity – and Kentucky is just as much a national leader in obesity as it is in smoking.

So, theoretically, raising the sales tax on fast food would discourage people from buying fast food and, thus, serve as a deterrent to obesity. But – wink, wink – we would really want people to keep stuffing themselves with Big Macs and Papa John’s pizza because we need the extra tax revenue.

In both cases, we are trying to discourage addictions as we take advantage of them. But just as smokers always seem to cough up money for their weeds, so will fast-food junkies always find the dough for their Krispy Kremes.

So I say let’s fight obesity (and fill up the state coffers) by taxing fast food. The folks at Papa John’s and Yum! Brands will squeal. But I’d rather tick them off than have to cut more state services.

Read About African-American placekickers and UK’s dismal record against North Carolina after the jump…

CAN ANYBODY explain to me why there aren’t any African-American place-kickers at either the NFL or NCAA Division I levels? Oh, I know the arguments about most kickers being soccer players and that blacks don’t play soccer in North America.

But they play it in Africa and South America, don’t they? And if college basketball recruiters can go to those places in search of future Olajuwons, why can’t their football counterparts go there in search of kickers?

I checked the list of history’s greatest place-kickers and the only African-American I could find was Gene Mingo, who filled the role for the Denver Broncos when the AFL was formed. In fact, the first points ever scored in Mile High Stadium came on an 18-yard field goal by Mingo against the Buffalo Bills in 1961.

I don’t believe racism is at work here, the way it was for years in the matter of black quarterbacks. So what’s the deal? How can there not be even one African-American place-kicker in a league that’s more than 60 per cent of all NFL blacks.

KUDOS TO President-Elect Barack Obama for insisting that Senator Joe Lieberman be welcomed back into the Democratic Caucus. If that’s a sign that the days of political retribution are really over, I wonder how long it will take the news to reach Frankfort.

I’M EAGERLY waiting to see how Tubby Smith’s critics will mange to blame Tubby for UK’s dismal loss to North Carolina Tuesday night. Yeah, I know. Tubby is in Minnesota now. But that doesn’t make any difference to his detractors in Big Blue Nation. When something goes wrong in the Wildcat program, it’s Tubby’s fault.

Never mind, of course, that Tubby is the only UK coach since 1930 who has a winning record against the Tar Heels. He was 4-2. Adolph Rupp was 5-6, Joe B. Hall 1-5, Eddie Sutton never faced them, Rick Pitino 0-3, and Billy Clyde Gillispie 0-2.

For those of us who can remember when Kentucky actually was competitive with Carolina, it was another jolting reminder of how wide the gap between them has become. The 19-point loss – and it come have been by a lot more – was UK’s worst in the series.

With reigning Player-of-the-Year Tyler Hansbrough and Marcus Ginyard watching from the sidelines as he recovers from an injury, the Tar Heels didn’t come close to playing their best game against the Wildcats, but they didn’t need it.

The game was over in the first 10 minutes, and then Coach Roy Williams spent the rest of the evening experimenting with various combinations and getting experience for his younger players.

After the victory, the Heels now trail the Cats by only 14 on the all-time victory list. Anybody have any ideas on how long it’s going to take them to regain the lead?

I HOPE Derrick Jasper is enjoying his new college home. He should know that he’s conspicuous by his absence in Lexington.