Banning Wine Shipments?

The legislative busybodies are at it again. A committee in the State House voted to ban all in-state and out-of-state shipments of wine. Basically, they want to make it illegal to mail wine to anyone from anywhere in or out of Michigan.

This is in response to a US Supreme Court ruling that decided that it is illegal for states to ban out-of-state wine shipments while allowing in-state wine shipments. So, what does the legislature appear to want to do? Ban all shipments across the board.

One quote from the above-linked article made us chuckle:

Rep. Chris Ward, R-Brighton, said he introduced the bill because he is worried about teenagers being able to easily buy wine on the Internet without such a ban.

Give us a break. If kids want wine, you'd better believe that there are easier ways than ordering it online. Heck, that takes a lot of time to do. It would probably take the average teenager about an hour to find a friend or a friend of a friend to buy locally.

Of course, as the state expands its reach to protect us from ourselves, real people's jobs will be affected.

"It will literally kill our business," said Ed Gerten of Pentamere Winery in Tecumseh. "What we're looking for is a fair and equitable solution, but this bill is not. This bill will crush us."

As the legislature looks to fix a problem that no one has any evidence exists, they will kill another industry in Michigan and put more people out of work. Brilliant.