OC Hillbillies

"Oh, that's a homeless man," we answered.

"No, not him. That ugly thing right there."

"Oh, that's an offshore oil platform."

"No, no. That ugly thing right there. With the smokestacks."

Miss Iowa was talking about the AES Huntington Beach Power Plant—something we bring up because the Times Orange County edition reported on Dec. 1 that the plant's owners have sued to delete nearly all the ballot language favoring a measure that would force AES to pay a city-imposed, $2.3 million utility tax. The words "the AES plant is ugly" are what really seem to have pissed off the company, with officials decrying any notion of paying an "ugly tax."

Note to Huntington Beach: use truth as a defense.