Soil, as in dirt

It's amazing what some New Jersey legislators will do for their core constituents. Take, for example, Assemblymen Douglas Fisher, D-Salem, and Ronald Dancer, R-Ocean, sponsors of a bill to name Downer soil the official state soil. And their notion isn't even unique. Twenty other states have official soils. Twenty!

You'd think our legislators must have more pressing items on their agenda. But Fisher defended the bill as promoting agriculture, the state's third largest industry. When it came to a vote Monday, the Assembly vote was 75-0. Not one legislator had enough gumption to say that although agriculture is important, our state doesn't need to honor it by naming a state soil. They sure know how to waste time.