During a 90-minute debate on whether limits should be placed on the amount of pseudoephedrine -- used to make the dangerous and addictive drug methamphetamine -- that individual Kentuckians are allowed to purchase, House Minority Whip Danny Ford, R-Mount Vernon, who's in his 15th legislative term (30 years) called the assault on our personal freedom "a no-brainer."

Actually, what's a "no-brainer" is that penalizing law-abiding citizens by limiting their purchases of Sudafed will do little to shut down meth labs or punish criminals.

"No-brainer": Too many politicians in both the House and Senate have acted like anything but defenders of Kentuckians' values on this issue -- agreeing to chip away at our individual liberties so they can go home and act like they did something while they were in Frankfort on the taxpayers' $60,000-a-day tab.

"No-brainer": Greenville Democrat Brent Yonts' amendment to Senate Bill 3 blocking 5,500 individuals already convicted of meth-related crimes from purchasing pseudoephedrine without a prescription.(Note: Senate Bill 3 passed the House with Yonts' amendment by a 60-36 vote today. It now goes back to the Senate for approval of changes.)

"No-brainer": Yonts' proposal is reasonable, while Ford's support of a big-government bill represents the type of establishment thinking that keeps the minority leadership in the House from being an effective voice for Kentuckians who believe in free markets, personal responsibility and limited government.

"No-brainer": Non-establishment Republicans sound a lot different than Ford's yammering, including Rep. David Floyd, R-Bardstown, who said SB 3 "does nothing but make us feel good about doing something, (and) will create a bigger mess."

"No-brainer": Rep. Jim DeCesare's point that the state has not been mandating that law enforcement agencies use the current Meth Check monitoring system that has proven effective in stopping 78,000 grams of illegal purchases of pseudoephedrine last year."We should require them to do so," DeCesare, R-Bowling Green, said.

Perhaps the biggest "no-brainer" of all: Rep. Stan Lee, R-Lexington, observed: “Once you start giving up a little bit of your freedom, it’s hard to stop."