Leon County Commissioner Tony Grippa has a lot on his little mind of late, and none of it has to do with making Tallahassee a little safer in the wake of a high category hurricane.

Nope. Bad Ass Coffee, a brand owned by Bad Ass Coffee Co. stands to be victim of a new ordinance to be proposed by Grippa that will amend local ordinances to ban “off-color signs and billboards.”

Jeff Burlew, a staff writer for the Tallahassee Democrat reports that the owners of Bad Ass Coffee, Co., John and Kelly Bagnardi, claim that the ass refers to donkeys that used to haul loads of coffee up and down the mountains in Kona, Hawaii, where the beans still are cultivated.

Although Bad Ass Coffee, Co. is headquartered in Salt Lake City, the “offensive” sign is located in the Cross Creek shopping center in Tallahassee where, according to Burlew, the locals appear more put out by Grippa’s lack of humor than by the sign.

From a legal standpoint, this is a slam dunk. The First Amendment protects this kind of speech, even if it’s commercial. Hooters, the restaurant chain, being a prime example.

Steve Gey, a constitutional-law professor at Florida State University is quoted as follows:

In general, government has no authority to regulate dirty words in public discourse…They're protected under the First Amendment. But there's less protection when they're used in commercial speech.

While naked ladies (or men) can be prohibited from signage, the notion of banning a sign containing the word ass borders the ridiculous. Would Commissioner Grippa cope if Bangkok Airways took out a billboard (or worse, aired a radio commercial)?

What if Dick Cheney decided to run for President and Leon County was plastered with “We Love Dick” signs?

Grippa said he became concerned about the name of the coffeehouse after his young daughter saw it and asked him what it meant. He said children shouldn't be subjected to such words.

Actually, what he should have done, was gently shown his daughter a picture of a mule or a donkey, so she knew what that meant. And then he should have picked her up and pointed to himself in a mirror so she could learn the distinction between an ass and an asshole.