“Watch what we do, not what we say,” was the famous advice of John Mitchell, when he became Nixon’s Attorney General, and before he went to federal prison. It’s honest advice from a crook, so naturally it applies to the government of Cook County, Illinois.

What they said was this tax would help address the obesity problem. Well, the tax has not been implemented as planned because it is tied up in court indefinitely in a lawsuit. But the result is not simply that the youngsters of Chicago are still guzzling caloric colas when not dodging stray bullets. No, you have to watch what Cook County did as a result.