Here in Pennsylvania, we hold these truths to be self-evident: That we have America's largest full-time and most expensive state Legislature, that there are more potholes in the spring than you can shake a jack at, and that the liquor laws are so screwed up you can't buy a six-pack of beer in a convenience store or supermarket like most other Americans can.

Wait, hold that last one. It's a bit out of date. In Altoona yesterday, a Sheetz convenience store began to sell beer legally under existing law. Who knew this could happen? One of the great common understandings about Pennsylvania just came tumbling down -- and it is very unlikely that civilization as we know it will end.

It turns out that if a convenience store operates a separate section that is segregated from the other part of the business, has its own cash register, sells food and has seats for at least 30 people, then it can sell two six-packs per customer. The Sheetz store in Altoona is not even the first to sell beer in a setting where the gasoline part of the business was separate but on the same site as a convenience store.

Under the law, convenience stores can be granted a "retail dispenser eating place license" if they meet the conditions and can get a license transferred from another establishment. Supermarkets can do the same thing if they have a separate cafe, and one in the Poconos already does.

None of this sits well with the usual suspects who fear competition and/or moral decay if Pennsylvanians can conveniently buy beer the way grown-ups do in most other states.

At a meeting of the state Senate Law and Justice Committee this week, it was clear that competition and progress would soon be attacked. The committee chairman, Sen. John Rafferty, a Republican from Montgomery County, said he'll introduce a bill to change the law that permits supermarkets to sell beer under certain conditions. The committee will hold a public hearing in March on beer sales in supermarkets and gas stations in response to numerous applications for licenses.

Opponents of a more rational policy fear that cashiers in such places won't be 18 and might sell to minors -- but that could easily be taken care of with strict enforcement. Nobody suggests that private distributors should no longer sell beer for that reason (and they sell it by the case, which, of course, is another absurdity; only bars and delis -- or deli-like places, as it turns out -- can sell six-packs).

Why can't Pennsylvanians be treated like adults? Why can't lawmakers help overturn another self-evident truth: that America's largest full-time Legislature is better at looking out for special interests than for the majority of people it represents?