Which states are worst for personal freedom?
New Hampshire, South Dakota, Colorado rank best
By Bob Unruh
© 2009 WorldNetDaily
New York
A new study indicates the states with the most freedom are South Dakota, New Hampshire and Colorado, while Americans see the most complete government control of their personal lives in New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, California and Maryland.
"On personal freedom alone, Alaska is the clear winner, while Maryland brings up the rear. As for freedom in the different regions of the country, the Mountain and West North Central regions are the freest overall while the Middle Atlantic lags far behind on both economic and personal freedom," said the study, Freedom in the 50 States: Index of Personal and Economic Freedom.
The study was conducted by Jason Sorens of the University of Buffalo and William P. Ruger of Texas State and release through the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.
The researchers say their work "presents the first-ever comprehensive ranking of the American states on their public policies affecting individual freedoms in the economic, social, and personal spheres."
(Story continues here) and see where Maryland ranks.
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
13 comments:
I don't need to see where Maryland ranks, I know where Maryland ranks on Governement Controling our lives: #1.
Kind of ironic that Maryland is called "The Free State".
Could it be because our REPUBLICAN governor, Bob Erlich, let the State Police begin illegal spying on groups he disliked? It's scary how much of a police state we lived in for those 4 years and we never knew about it until Bobby Haircut was GONE.
duck around
This post must be a come hither / implant. A true Marylander would know that Maryland has always been run by the Democrats no matter who the Governor has been. If you don't believe this look at the Party lines in the Legislature as far back as you want to research. Tell me who passes policy, the Govenor or Legislature. If you want to be partisant know your facts and history.Your comment, along with a lot of other Democrats / Partisant people, reminds me of the one who blames their neighbor for their grass not getting cut or their car not being clean. Quit always blaming others and take responsibility and credit for your failures along with the good.
Nope, no "come hither" here. Born and bred in Wicomico County, went to this county's public schools, and am now a homeowner and tax payer right here in the land of pleasant living. The hosptial was still PGH when I was born there, me and my friends went to Skateland on Friday, not Saturday, and I rode my bike to the Golden Dome video arcade on Rte. 13. Have I sufficiently established my native-born qualifications yet?
And it WAS a Erlich appointee doing the spying on anti-war groups - Col. Thomas E. ‘‘Tim” Hutchins. Protest the Iraq War in MD, get put on the federal "no-fly" list and they spied on anti-death penalty groups. Yup, Democrats sure have a vested interested in getting members of those groups in jail.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-te.md.spy18jul18,0,3787307.story
"[T]he state police's Homeland Security and Intelligence Division sent covert agents to infiltrate the Baltimore Pledge of Resistance, a peace group; the Baltimore Coalition Against the Death Penalty; and the Committee to Save Vernon Evans, a death row inmate.
Using a fake e-mail address and an alias, an undercover agent joined the e-mail list of the death penalty group, the documents say. Agents also monitored the group's organizational meetings, public forums and events in churches, as well as rallies on Lawyers Mall in Annapolis..."
As for how to rank freedom, it all depends on what freedoms are considered important.
The largest difference between liberals and libertarians on one side and conservatives and authoritarians on the other is the view of personal freedom.
In that respect, Maryland is a healthy liberal state right up there at or near the top. It's one reason I stay in Maryland. I really like Maryland!
OTOH, if all you care about is carrying around a crappy little gun, then Maryland does indeed restrict freedoms...
Great points, Duck. Let's see how they try to spin the fact that a Republican governor felt the need to spy on citizens of the Free State.
I think the right-wingers will disregard your points, not respond to the issues, and say something like "But, Obama's a Socialist!".
Keep your fingers crossed for a coherent and thoughtful response.
12:44.....
it never ceases to amaze me that bleeding heart liberals such as yourself are OK with the govt. taking away rights as long as they don't take away the ones that YOU care about. Typically hypocritical.
"it never ceases to amaze me that bleeding heart liberals such as yourself are OK with the govt. taking away rights as long as they don't take away the ones that YOU care about. Typically hypocritical."
I'm not much on government taking away rights. On gun rights, you MAY have a point, although I have yet to see a valid reason why the District of Columbia doesn't have a vested interest in restricting the sale and ownership of semi-automatic rifles with that city's limits. Not many deer roaming the streets of Southeast D.C.
But as a Maryland resident, what guns are you not allowed to own? Saturday Night Specials? Boo hoo. Console yourself with a .3006 shotgun and cuddle with it at night, there's no waiting period to buy one of those in MD. Yeah, no waiting period on shotguns in Maryland. You can walk into Wal-Mart and fill out the paperwork and buy one tonight. What a restriction of rights, huh?
So, I will do what I always do when someone makes broad, general statements such as "they're taking our rights." I'll ask for specifics. Specifically, what right contained in the U.S. Constitution or its amendments is the Obama Administration attempting to take away? If possible, cite sources. Then we can have a discussion.
Until then, you may as well be my 12 year old yelling "Everyone else's mom is letting them go!"
I thought Delaware was the "free State"
Duck,
The constitution didn't recongnize a difference between a right to keep and bare arms in a city and the rights of those who live in the country. The second amendment didn't have one thing to do with deer or rabbits or squirrels or duck. The second amendment was recognized in the constitution because the right to defend ourselves and to defend our country front a tyrant government is a God given right. the constitution says the right shall not be infringed. What part of that don't you understand? If I want to own a "saturday night special" that's my business. No legislature has the right to interfere with that. Federal or state. It is not the job of the government to protect me eevery second of the day as I take care or my business, etc. That's a good thing because it would be yet another area in which they would fall terribly short. It is MY job to defend myself. I have a God given right to use whatever I must to do it adequately. That means carrying a gun if I want to. The state of maryland has criminalized the act of carrying a tool that could save my life.
I am truly not surprise by Maryland ranking. The people allow government to rule. You just keep voting for these fools. The State of Maryland SUCKS.
4:25 - "Typically hypocritical."
Not hypocritical, just different values. I don't expect bible thumpers to support the 1st amendment. Why are you expecting me to support your interpretation of the 2nd??
I would gladly support a constitution amendment (or a SCOTUS interpretation) to ban all private ownership of guns... and I expect it to happen someday in the future. There's nothing inconsistent between that and supporting the main activities of the ACLU.
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