Elective Decisions

Spokane, WA—What was once a scenic, peaceful drive along I-90 into Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, has now turned into a dangerous highway where state troopers use Gestapo-like tactics to enforce environmental laws.  Its victims have been threatened, coerced, and now tasered.

Once such man—Jon Yablonski—suffered this very fate for violating Washington law, a law passed to prohibit the sale of dishwashing detergents containing phosphates in them.  Among those detergents are Cascade and Electrasol—some of the finest detergents in use today.

Yablonski, unsatisfied with the environmental friendly detergents, made the trip after work to pick up some Cascade.  He says he made the trip because his wife was tired of hand washing the dishes.

“At first,” Yablonski says, “we tried the Trader Joe’s brand, but that didn’t work.  Then, the wife tried to wash them by hand, something she had never done before, and that was a disaster.  So, she nagged me until I went over to Coeur d’Alene to pick up the detergent that did the job.”

He tells us that after picking up the Cascade detergent, he was driving back into Washington when he noticed the flashing lights of a police car in his rearview mirror.  Yablonski glanced at his speedometer, and according to him, wasn’t speeding, but pulled over to abide by the law.

He suddenly remembered that the detergent was sitting next to him in the passenger seat of his Ford Expedition.  He grabbed the detergent when he suddenly heard, “Put down the Cascade and get out of the car, sir!”

Yablonski stepped out of the car, and before he could ask what he’d done, the voltage surged through his body as if he’d been stuck with a thousand needles until he’d blacked out.

“It was embarrassing,” Yablonski claimed.  “I woke up in the back of a police car, and I’d soiled myself.  The cop told me he was taking me to jail for smuggling Cascade across the border.  My wife bailed me out, and now I’m waiting on adjudication.  When will these Gestapo tactics stop?  We just want clean dishes!”