You can’t make this stuff up. As I read State Senator Tom Reynolds recent rant against ethanol I was struck by how utterly uninspiring Reynolds is. Yes, the right loves how he votes and they love that he sucks up to evangelicals, but c’mon people, this guy can’t write a good paragraph to save his life. And he’s home schooling his kids? eeeeewww.

Now we’re not in the habit of bringing you editorials from the quirky Senator but we just know that his buddy, Bob Dohnal, at Wisconsin Conservative Digest would remove it from his website if he took the time to read it. Not only does the Senator get a D for grammar, he gets an F for inspiration.

Reynolds laments that the legislature (which by the way is controlled in both the State Assembly and the State Senate by Republicans) is passing legislation that encroaches “on the freedom of Wisconsinites”. And this next part, and I’m not making this up (I swear) is rich. That encroachment, according to Reynolds, is the mandates that force people into “wearing a seat belt, a motorcycle helmet, or a life jacket in a boat (a recently passed mandate).”

Now I’m no brain surgeon, but it seems that if you’re going to ride a motorcycle, a helmet makes sense. If you’re going to be driving a car, it makes sense to wear a seat belt. If you’re going to be speeding along in a lake, a life jacket makes sense. Besides, the coast guard already requires personal floatation devices.

If we all decided we weren’t going to do any of these things, and there was a horrible accident, wouldn’t it be the taxpayers who end up picking up the tab by way of Medicare and Medicaid once your insurance runs out? When you’re sitting there as a drooling, brain dead mass of flesh, wouldn’t it be the taxpayers who pick up the tab? The public also picks up the tab for this through higher premiums for private insurance.

So let me figure this one out. Somebody like Tom Reynolds decides that his freedom is being curtailed so I as a taxpayer would have to pick up the tab for his medical bills when his Schaivo-like body hits the pavement at 70 mph?

When I think of freedom, I’m thinking about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. My happiness would definately be curtailed if I get stuck paying for the medical bills of someone who became road pizza after bouncing off the pavement.

Consider the following: Reynolds says no on using ethanol (a corn base fuel) for dairy state voters but he says “yes” to government interference in our bedrooms?

You’ve got to love the Senator in a glazed eye, no one home, sort of way. In his column, he said:

According to the definition from Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary, a “mandate” is “an authoritative command; especially: a formal order from a superior court or official to an inferior one”.
In holding to that definition, a mandate for ethanol-blended gas is an authoritative command from a superior court — the legislature, to an inferior one — the motorists of Wisconsin.
We can debate the merits of ethanol as an additive in gasoline ‘til the cows come home — and we will.

Please Senator, give me another cliché… please?

I wouldn’t be shocked if Dohnal removes the post but if he does, we’ll just repost it here. For now, you can read it online.

Source material: Wisconsin Conservative Digest: In the ethanol debate, it’s the “Mandate” by Sen. Tom Reynolds