Freedom in the 50 States Evaluated by Cato Institute

The 2016 report on Freedom in the 50 States by the Cato Institute evaluating the state of freedom through 2014 is now available.  The results of their evaluation of freedom based on fiscal policy, personal freedom, and regulatory policy are summarized in this map:

Cato provides the weightings they used for the evaluation of freedom and one can change those weightings to one's personal preferences to see how the rankings change.  But by Cato's weightings, the top ten freest states are ranked and graded as, with the party of the governor, the senate, and the house of the state added in order either as a D or an R in the year 2014:

1) New Hampshire, 0.3319, D, R, D
2) Alaska, 0.3265, R, R, R
3) Oklahoma, 0.2791, R, R, R
4) Indiana, 0.2778, R, R, R
5) South Dakota, 0.2754, R, R, R
6) Tennessee, 0.2646, R, R, R
7) Idaho, 0.2608, R, R, R
8) Florida, 0.2133, R, R, R
9) Iowa, 0.2048, R, D, R
10) Arizona, 0.1834, R, R, R

The 10 most authoritarian states with their negative scores are:

50) New York, -0.9763, D, D, D
49) California, -0.5026, D, D, D
48) Hawaii, -0.4904, D, D, D
47) New Jersey, -0.4285, R, D, D
46) Maryland, -0.4039, D, D, D
45) Connecticut, -0.2612, D, D, D
44) Illinois, -0.2554, D, D, D
43) Rhode Island, -0.1735, I (really D), D, D
42) Maine, -0.1500, R, D, D
41) Kentucky, -0.1489, D, R, D

It is interesting that the five most authoritarian states, New York, California, Hawaii, New Jersey, and Maryland are all more greatly deviant from the norm of freedom than is the freest of the states, New Hampshire.  If you value your freedom, it is particularly important to avoid these most negatively rated states.  New York is about three times more negative than New Hampshire is positive.  In fact, New York is almost twice as bad as either of the next two worst states, California and Hawaii.

If one were to move from New York to New Hampshire, the freedom score would increase by 1.3082.  Or if I were to move from authoritarian Maryland to where much of my family lives in Oklahoma, my score would improve by 0.6830, which is a substantial increase in freedom.  Or if you live in the Washington, DC area, living in Virginia offers a big improvement over living in Maryland by 0.5080.  If you have to live near New York City, Connecticut is substantially more free than is either New York or New Jersey.

Of the 10 most free states, all are controlled by Republicans, except two which had divided government in 2014.  Of the 10 most authoritarian governments, all were entirely controlled by Democrats in the governorship and the legislature, except the two least repressive of that set of the 10 worst, who had one of the three legs of the state government in the hands of Republicans.  It is not uncommon for libertarians to claim that the Republicans are every bit as anti-freedom as the Democrats, but these rankings make it clear that the Republicans are significantly better than the Democrats in most cases.  Indeed, one of the main reasons that the mean state freedom rankings are so much better than those of the most repressive states is because far more states are controlled by Republicans than are controlled by the more adamant deniers of individual rights found in the Democrat Party.

The Aggressive Maryland Ban on "Assault" Firearms Must Defend Itself Again

The Maryland law banning 45 types of firearms as assault weapons and high-capacity magazines was ruled constitutional in a lower court ruling, despite the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution.  The U. S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit has now ruled in a 2-1 decision written by Chief Judge William B. Traxler Jr. that the lower court ruling must be based on a more stringent legal standard.  The Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh, Democrat, helped to pass the law when he was a state senator.  He remains an ardent supporter of the arms ban.  He claims it is just common sense that the 2nd Amendment does not give people a right to own military-style assault weapons.

Assault weapons by name imply an intention to use the weapon in an offensive, rather than a defensive, manner.  Yet, in any fight for one's life, the fight will tend to oscillate back and forth between defense and offense.  Yes, one may be defending one's home and family, but to do so one cannot simply block blow after blow and expect that one will be forever successful in blocking the next blow.  At some point, one has to find an instant to move to the offensive and deliver a knock-out blow to end the contest.  The sooner this is accomplished, the less the threat to one's loved ones and values.  The Democrats never seem to understand this.

There is no clear distinction between an assault and a defensive weapon.  There is also no clear distinction between a military weapon and a defensive weapon.  The dissenting judge on the Appeals Court decision, Robert B. King, claimed the Maryland law banning assault weapons banned "exceptionally lethal weapons of war."  Now I ask you, what other kind of weapon would you want to have while defending your family and home?  A pocket knife with a 3-inch blade is not sufficient to the task of protecting one's values.  Morally, how can it be wrong to defend your family and home with the best tools available for doing so?

When the 2nd Amendment was approved by the states of the new Republic and became effective on 15 December 1791, many Americans lived on the frontier and were under frequent threat of attack by Indians or even the British who still occupied Canada and various forts in the Midwest (then the Northwest), despite the Ohio Territory having been ceded to the Americans by the 1783 Treaty of Paris ending the American Revolutionary War.  The Northwest Indian War, also called Little Turtle's War, lasted from 1785 - 1795, with the British supplying weapons to the Indians.  Not so long after, the British and their Indian allies launched a brutal attack upon the Americans in the War of 1812.  Throughout this period, it was clearly a common sense necessity that many an American must arm himself with the best weapons of war he could afford.  Those weapons were not necessarily any different than those used by the meager official armed forces of the federal government.  The common American could own the best musket and the best rifle available.  A few even owned cannons.  Some shipowners owned rather heavily armed sailing ships.  The right to do so was then protected by the 2nd Amendment.

The Maryland law banning so-called assault weapons was opposed in court by a group of gun store owners and individuals who claim the prohibited firearms are not military weapons.  I consider this a concession that should not be made.  The military and individuals use weapons, and may do so on a moral basis, to protect persons and property.  There is no rational reason to deny individuals a weapon simply because it might be used by the military.  The only reason to deny an individual the use of a weapon is if the individual has used a weapon to initiate harm to others, has threatened others with initiated force, or has shown a well-established inability to act rationally.

Yes, there are weapons that one may not be likely to need to defend one's home and family.  Bazookas and tanks are not likely to be useful, unless one lives very near the Mexican border and has to protect one's ranch from drug and human traffickers.  Some individuals may simply think it is cool to restore a WWII tank.  That seems a very reasonable hobby to me.  There is surely nothing in the 2nd Amendment, the conditions of the period when it was added to the Constitution by the people, or in basic rational morality that argues against individuals arming themselves with the best weapons they may choose to own.

There are some weapons which may be prohibited to individuals.  For instance, weaponized anthrax or corrosive nerve gases are simply be too dangerous for even well-intended people to handle and preserve without endangering others.  They are dangerous enough that anyone who did want to own them would fall into the category of being unable to behave rationally and in so doing, posing a threat to others. It is very difficult for even a large organization, such as the military, to handle such weapons safely.  In fact, the U.S. military does not even use them when they have them because they are too dangerous to use.

Representative John Sarbanes Replies About Gun Controls

Sadly, people who do not believe in the 2nd Amendment are far too common in American society.  Most of them believe in the ubiquitous use of government force to dictate value choices and to micromanage the lives of individuals unknown to them and about whom they do not care even a smidgeon.

The way of life of a criminal depends upon the ability to initiate the use of force.  Having dangerous weapons is at the center of his profession.  Most Americans are very busy with their careers in the peaceful private sector in which force is not initiated.  We have two major dangers we face.  One is the individual or small gang initiator of force.  The other is the huge gang initiator of force which is Big Government grown well-beyond the scope of its legitimate powers by the constant refusal to recognize its constitutional limits and the guiding philosophy of government expressed in the Declaration of Independence.

The way the state government of Maryland enacts the sentiments of John Sarbanes is to put up many barriers to "dangerous weapons" acquisition and ownership.  The barriers are huge for busy people living peaceful lives, but in need of protection from those who initiate the use of force.  Those barriers are manifestly ineffective in keeping "dangerous weapons" out of the hands of criminals and busybody authoritarian politicians and their government employees. 

In 2013, the murder rate in Maryland was 6.5/ 100,000 people.  In the USA as a whole, it was 4.49/ 100,000 people.  So Maryland's already onerous barriers to "dangerous weapons" are not working, at least not to protect its citizens from murder.  To be sure, this conclusion does rest on the assumption that Marylanders are not just bad people compared to other Americans.  That may be bad people can be argued because they vote pretty consistently for Democrat authoritarians!  In fact, the very time-consuming and onerous barriers to gun ownership is very likely a major contributing cause to the high murder rate in Maryland.

The Minimum Wage in Maryland

Maryland is a very progressive state with the Progressive Elitists dominating both legislative bodies.  It did just elect a Republican governor, after the last two Democrat governors with the help of the Democrat state legislature enacted 40 straight tax increases, including the tax on rain and one on high income citizens.  The last governor, Martin O'Folley, er.... O'Malley, claims to have done the people of Maryland a favor by mandating that employers will pay a higher minimum wage for their services, if employer's can find a reason to hire them any more at all.

From December 2007 to December 2014, Maryland had a 0.15% increase in the number of jobs in the state even before this state minimum wage was added to the problems of doing business in Maryland.  This wee increase in jobs vastly lagged the population growth.  This was in spite of Maryland doing better than most states in the early years of the Great Recession due to the huge, horrendous increase in federal spending.  Maryland received a much larger fraction of that windfall than did the median state.

Minimum Wage Rates for Employers
$7.25 Until 12/31/14
$8.00 Effective 1/1/15
$8.25 Effective 7/1/15
$8.75 Effective 7/1/16
$9.25 Effective 7/1/17
$10.10 Effective 7/1/18

One of the Ph.D. scientists who works in my laboratory just had jury duty.  He was paid $15 per day.  I am not sure he was in court for exactly 8 hours, but he absolutely could not be at the laboratory for 8 hours.  Effectively, the government paid him $1.875/hour for his services.

Sure, the government would say he was just expected to do his civic duty.  I might respect that argument if the government were acting legitimately to protect every citizen's equal and sovereign rights.  But the governments in Maryland are highly attuned to special interests and rob the majority of the citizens to provide advantages to many special interests and to buy the votes of many low-information and relatively unthinking citizens, the many non-citizens who vote in this state, and the many citizens that vote both in this state and in others.  I absolutely refuse to buy the argument that civic duty to this form of tyrannical government is morally superior to providing materials problem-solving services to companies that are trying to raise the American standard of living with superior goods and services in the private sector.

It is highly hypocritical for Maryland to require private sector businesses to pay a minimum wage of $8.00/hour when it is paying a minimum wage of $1.875/hour.  While my employee will receive his normal pay for those days he was on jury duty, a self-employed person might very well not be able to pay himself for the time he spent on jury duty.  For my laboratory, the loss of our scientist's billable work is a significant loss.  It would help if we could pay him the difference between his usual salary and the amount paid him by the government for that time, but since they paid him so little, making any such correction is more trouble than it is worth.

As usual, we see that Democrat government is a poser without substance at the business of justice.  It cares not the least about interfering with the individual right to earn a living, whether it be to deprive an employer or an employee of that freedom with a minimum wage law or by imposing a duty with far less than what it claims is subsistence pay when it talks to employers.

Revised State Real GDP Changes in 2013

According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, the percentage change of real GDP in 2013 was:

Now recall that real GDP is under-corrected for inflation due to the government insistence in leaving such volatile, but clearly more rapidly increasing cost, items such as food and energy are not included in the cost of living index.  Then also recall that one should really be looking at real per capita GDP since that tells us whether our standard of living is actually increasing.  If the GDP increases by less than the rate of growth of the population, then our standard of living actually falls.  The average US population growth rate was 0.9% from 2001 to 2010, so real GDP increases of 0.9% provides a stagnant standard of living.

New York state which is running ads nationally claiming to be the second best job creator state in the nation clearly underperformed in 2013 with a state GDP that grew by a mere 0.7%.  The state of Maryland, whose Governor O'Malley believes himself ready to run for the presidency, had a 0.0% growth rate.  Yes, preventing the growth of one's own state's GDP now qualifies a politician well for the Democrat Party nomination for the presidency!

Most of the high growth states in the US are in the center of the nation.  The Dakotas, the Rocky Mountain states, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, and West Virginia are the heroic states for those who wish to earn a living.

Soaking Electricity Customers with Taxes in Maryland

I just received my January electricity bill for electricity used in the 33 days from 5 December 2013 to 7 January 2014 for my laboratory.  The total BG&E bill was for $158.20, which was a very small bill compared to months when we are running air conditioning.  Our heating is with natural gas.  The bill breaks down as follows:

BG&E Distribution and Account Services = $119.92
Electricity Generation Charges = $16.08
Maryland Taxes = $22.20

My laboratory paid 1.38 times more in taxes than it paid for the actual generation of the electricity we used!  Taxes were 14.0% of my total bill.

Of these taxes, the biggest single tax is the Maryland Universal Service Program charge which is a flat monthly fee of $10.29 to provide welfare aid to the poor.  Interestingly, this fee of $10.29 is also subjected to the 6% sales tax, so this is really a charge of $10.91 each month.  Note that this is discriminatory against very small businesses, since it is a fixed fee.  It is also, as are other charges on the bill, a disincentive to reduce one's energy use since it is not proportional to energy use.

Another tax is the Francise Tax, which is proportional to the number of kWh used.  That tax is also subjected to the 6% sales tax!  The remaining tax is an Environmental Surcharge, which was the only tax not subjected to the 6% sales tax.

The 14% taxation is not the whole story.  The state of Maryland buys into the same ideas on energy that Obama does.  Gov. Martin O'Folley does everything he can to increase energy costs.  BG&E and electricity generation companies have to pay the high costs of the solar and wind generation schemes favored by the Progressive Elitists, as well as biomass fuels.  Fortunately, these increased costs have been offset by the lowered cost of natural gas and a program which allows one to buy electricity supplied by companies other than BG&E.

Extortion of Businesses Using a Safety Regulation Scam

This is a particular examination of a regulatory case which applies to relatively few people.  This makes it a more viable scam which does not generate voter ire during elections.  Some voters are actually deceived into thinking that big government is doing its job of protecting them.  This case is instructive in terms of understanding what motivates most regulatory agencies and about their competency as a regulator.  In that way, it should of interest to everyone who wants rational, ethical government and cares about the rights of the individual.

The state of Maryland under the Dept. of the Environment has a Radiological Health Program which regulates all x-ray generating equipment except the cathode ray tubes (CRT) used in the older TV and computer monitor technology.  Yes, CRTs generate x-rays.  The electron beam that causes the light to appear generates x-rays at moderately high energies such as 25 to 40 KeV energies.

My laboratory operates a scanning electron microscope whose electron beam energy is commonly in the 15 to 25 KeV range and so can generate x-rays with energies up to the electron beam energy.  But, unlike a CRT computer monitor or TV, the SEM has very thick stainless steel walls.  Just as is the case with a CRT, the x-rays are contained within a vacuum system into which no human body part can be inserted while under vacuum.  When the sample insertion door is opened, no x-rays can be generated because if the electron beam-producing filament was on, it would instantaneously burn out and the electron beam would be eliminated.

This SEM instrument and the entire class of them was ruled a couple of years ago in Maryland to be safe enough that it does not have to be listed and no x-ray tube tax is assessed on it by the state of Maryland.  I thought this meant that the only reason my laboratory still had to register as a certified radiation facility was because of our x-ray photoelectron spectrometer (XPS) system.  Apparently not quite so.  Under this belief, and knowing that there is no conceivable safety hazard in operating the XPS system and that it is actually clearly much safer even than either a CRT or an SEM, I attempted to get it exempted from regulation.

As a regulated radiation facility, I have to hire a state-licensed inspector to come to my laboratory every two years and run around with a Geiger counter looking for radiation near the SEM and the XPS system.  He sometimes thinks he can see something, but never enough radiation to warrant any health issue.  What he is actually seeing is the radiation emitted due to very energetic cosmic rays hitting the massive steel structure and generating x-rays at higher levels than does the air when he backs up a couple of feet from the instrument.  He is not seeing any radiation from the inside of the instrument due to its operation.  But, he does not know enough radiation physics to know this.

I pay the state Radiological Health Program a $215 x-ray tube charge every second year for each x-ray tube they require to be listed.  I also have to pay for radiation badges, which in 18 years of operation have never had a quarterly reading other than 0 mRem.  This is despite the fact that I leave a badge on the instrument at the most vulnerable point 100% of the time, so it collects at least 100 times more radiation than any operator possibly could.  It is a hassle to mail these back to the radiation measurement company to be read and recorded due to the unusual size of the envelope and the bulk of the badges.  The post office requires a different amount of postage almost every time.  In addition, I am supposed to have my instruments maintained by a state-licensed company, none of whom know anything about an XPS instrument.  Presumably, this is to assure that safety issues are addressed, but if there are no safety issues, I am baffled as to how they are to address them.

A couple of years ago, I had a phone conversation with one of the radiological health bureaucrats about getting the absolutely safe XPS exempted.  He flat out told me that the radiation physics and the fact of whether there was any possible danger or not was of no concern to him.  He said their purpose was to make people feel as though they were safe from radiation.  Whether there actually was any radiation or not was of no interest to them.  This time around, I thought I would write them a letter and explain why this instrument should be exempted and why my laboratory should not have to register as a radiation facility.  This letter follows:

Roland G. Fletcher

Program Manager IV

Radiological Health Program

Air & Radiation Management Administration

Maryland Dept. Of the Environment

1800 Washington Blvd.

Baltimore, MD 21230

Phone: 410-537-3000

Dear Roland Fletcher,

Anderson Materials Evaluation, Inc. does not now and never has operated any radiation machine with any safety hazard.  The only radiation producing equipment we operate produces low energy radiation completely contained by a vacuum containment vessel, which cannot be breached without the instantaneous destruction of the filament which creates the electron beam and hence the x-rays.  These instruments are:

•                    Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) Computer Monitors

•                    Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM)

•                    X-ray Photoelectron Spectrometer (XPS)

These are listed in the order of the danger posed by each.  Your agency has rightly acknowledged that the first two do not require registration as a radiation facility.  Therefore, the much less dangerous XPS system does not require registration either.

The CRTs have electron beam energies of 25 KeV and higher and therefore can generate Bremsstrahlung radiation inside their vacuum containment vessel up to an energy equal to the beam energy.  Our SEM is operated in the electron beam energy range from 15 to 25 KeV.  These are acknowledged safe instruments.

Our XPS system is operated at only 10 KeV and the radiation is only emitted into the analytical vacuum chamber after passing through an x-ray monochromator which filters out all x-ray energies except those precisely at the 1.487 KeV energy of the main aluminum Kα characteristic x-ray.  This is an incredibly low energy x-ray, which precisely suits the purpose of having as much of the x-ray absorbed in the outer 20 nanometers of a material surface as possible.  The only photoelectrons useful to us are those emitted from this depth or less.  This beam has no penetrating power!  If it were possible to enter air, its mean free path is still less than 1 millimeter.

I have raised the issue of getting this instrument exempted before and I have been ignored.  I am unable to continue spending money and my time on this pointless nonsense.  The Obama economy has sapped our resources sorely and your new requirement that only licensed x-ray maintenance companies provide the maintenance on this highly unusual system with no safety issues is not one it is possible to comply with.  They know nothing about this system and nothing they can do can possibly make the system safer than it already is.  There are no fail-safes which have any possibility of failing to work.

So, there is no reason for Anderson Materials Evaluation, Inc. to renew its Radiation Facility license # 27-0563 and there is no reason we should be taxed for having an x-ray tube.  It is high time that some semblance of rationality is applied here.

Best wishes,

Charles R. Anderson, Ph.D.

President & Principal Scientist

I would have viewed a reasonable response one in which they simply said OK the XPS instrument is exempted or we will send our radiation physics expert out to your facility to make a determination of whether it might be exempted or not, perhaps at my expense.  The response to this letter strongly suggests that it was viewed as an insurrection to be dealt with even more sternly and forcefully than King George III moved to put down the rebellion in the colonies in America.  Here is the response, not from Mr. Fletcher, but from the Queen herself:

Dr. Anderson,

Thank you for your letter dated December 6, 2013 in response to the Notice of Violation that the Department issued.  I appreciate the concerns that you have raised but each of our 5,000 regulated facilities must adhere to the Maryland regulations in order to ensure the the general public and the occupational worker are not exposed to unnecessary radiation.  

The scanning electron microscope does require the registrant to denote possession of this unit on the Radiation Machine Facility Registration Form (RX1).  Also the State licensed private inspector does inspect and perform an area survey of this unit.  

The X-ray Photoelectron Spectrometer (XPS) must undergo a state certification inspection by one of the state licensed private inspectors. This unit is not exempt from complying with the Maryland regulations.  

Failure to comply with these regulations will subject the facility to further enforcement actions.

Thanks,

Eva  

Eva S. Nair
Division Chief, Radiation Machines
Maryland Department of the Environment
Radiological Health Program
(410) 537-3179

It is interesting that all of my letters to my Congressman and my Senators and any bureaucrat of the state of Maryland start with a thank you for my letter and then an assertion of complete disagreement without any attempt to actually address the argument I gave for my viewpoint.  This is the response to be expected from Imperial Government which prefers a minimum of insurrection, but will put any insurrection down with brutal force if that proves expedient.

The violation she claims is because I had not put in for a renewal of my radiation facility registration by 16 November because they demand 45 days to process those registrations.  In reality, I am only in violation if I operate the XPS instrument after 31 December when my current registration and certification runs out.  So, I probably will not be able to operate that instrument in early January or maybe all of January.  If that condition continued longer than that, I and my employees will all be unemployed.

So, once again, I am forced to apply for a radiation facility certification when the most dangerous radiation sources in my laboratory are the CRTs we still use on a number of our computers.  Logically and rationally, any CRTs in residences and offices throughout the state should be regulated by the Radiological Health Program given that my equivalent or safer instruments are.  Imagine the insurrection if this were done.  That would be a loser at the polls, so it is not done.  But, it is always easy to extort businesses, whose owners are but a small fraction of the vote.

Now in the mind of a big government bureaucrat, no possible instance of misleading the public into believing they are being protected by that big government can be missed.  The more facilities they regulate, the bigger their income from the x-ray tube tax, the bigger their budget from the taxpayers, and the higher their inflated salaries with the least risk of unemployment.

Yes, medical and dental x-ray instruments do have real safety issues.  But, this Maryland agency does not at all care if an instrument has no safety issues by virtue of its function, design, and radiation physics.  It is only interested in setting itself up under the pretense of providing safety.  It reveals itself as having no actual radiation physics expertise, which makes one wonder how it can be doing a credible job of protecting the People from those radiation-producing instruments which can do real harm.

The Emperor has no clothes.  But the nude Emperor is vicious and brutal.  This is nearly an invariable rule with government regulatory agencies.  They are particularly a plague upon businesses, because that is where the money is and because most of them have little political clout.  They care not a fig for the legitimate function of government of protecting the sovereign rights of the individual to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness.  They get rich by violating the individual right to earn a living providing one is doing no harm to others.  The Emperor lives high on the hog pretending he is protecting the People, few of whom understand that most of those claims are fraudulent.

Maryland Health Connection Website Down

Maryland enthusiastically embraced ObamaVaporCare and set up its own health insurance exchange and website.  While some of the state-sponsored ObamaVaporCare websites work better than the federally-run websites, Maryland's website is not one of them.  It is down every day from 11 PM to 5 AM for repairs and fixes.  Except, tonight it was down at 10:05 PM already.

It is a good thing that no one in Maryland has a job and children to care for, because if they did, they sure would not have a chance to go on-line after putting the children to bed and sign up for a federally mandated health insurance plan.

Maryland Congressman Sarbanes' Vapid Energy Ideas

Having written a note to the Congressman who rules my incredibly highly gerrymandered Congressional District in the Socialist State of Maryland that I support a free oil and gas industry, I received this pablum reply:

November 21, 2013

Dear Friend:

Thank you for contacting me to express your support for the oil and gas industry. I appreciate hearing from you and welcome the opportunity to respond.

It is my hope that our energy sector will innovate and adapt to the needs and opportunities of a clean energy future. I believe that if we rise up to meet the challenge of climate change, we can solve so many complicated problems that our country is facing. By developing a long-term and sustainable energy strategy, we can address economic, national security, and environmental policy priorities in one fell swoop. We can diversify our energy portfolio and end our dependence on energy sources from volatile parts of the world. By revolutionizing our energy industry and becoming an exporter of clean energy technologies, we will be able to maintain our competitive advantage as a nation and ensure a prosperous future for our children. Just as growth in information technology served as the driving force behind the economic boom of the 1990's, the development of clean energy technology and green jobs will spur tremendous growth and offer long-term relief to the American economy.

Marylanders know that preserving and protecting our environment can go hand in hand with economic growth. The Chesapeake Bay, one of our most treasured natural assets, is at the center of our regional economy. As a member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, I will continue to support reasonable measures that give Americans more energy choices. I will be sure to keep your thoughts in mind when voting on relevant federal legislation.

Again, thank you for your input on this important issue. Please do not hesitate to contact me about any matter of importance to you in the future.

Sincerely,

John P. Sarbanes
Member of Congress

I am sure that John will not keep my thoughts in mind when he votes on issuing orders that will cause oil and gas prices to rise for entirely irrational reasons and force residential and business users of energy to pay these high prices in exchange for unreliable energy.  John is advocating the same use of so-called green energy that is causing Germany and Spain so many problems now.

He talks about a degree of energy independence which alternative energy sources such as wind, solar, and biomass have never delivered, but that the widespread use of hydraulic fracturing is substantially delivering with oil and gas today.  Maryland Gov. O'Malley has forced electric utilities to buy future wind and solar energy with the intent to pass the high costs onto Maryland users.  This is how John Sarbanes plans to address our economic problems at the national level also.

Ah, but these black and blue energy projects, called green by John, will produce jobs in Maryland!  Well, so far the only reason jobs are in Maryland is because a large fraction of the federal government employees, who suck in tax revenues from the entire nation, live in Maryland.  In addition, larger businesses in Maryland tend to be heavy government contractors in defense, medicine, and other R&D.  This is what really explains John Sarbanes' wish to have the government strongly take control of the energy sector and of energy use.  He knows that increased energy R&D funded by the government will disproportionately be contracted out to Maryland institutions and businesses.

This is badly needed in Maryland because between 2007 and 2012, there were 24 tax and fee increases in Maryland, which cost the economy $2.4 billion a year.  The Tax Foundation ranked Maryland number 41 for the worst state tax environment for businesses.  Maryland lost 6,500 small businesses with fewer than 100 employees between 2007 and 2012, while losing 40,000 jobs and 31,000 taxpaying households.  Imagine the conditions if Maryland were not so heavily funded by the federal government.

So, it is hardly surprising that a Democrat Representative is eager to damage the People of the USA in order to have Marylanders suck in their productive output through a straw from DC.

By the way John, climate change is one of the primary reasons a rational individual prizes our ability to use oil and gas.  Of course I say that understanding that it is natural forces, not man's emissions of CO2, that produced climate change in the past, does now, and will continue to in the foreseeable future.

With dumb fools like Barbara Mikulski and John Sarbanes and evil fools like Ben Cardin thinking themselves the Progressive Elite and better capable of making my life decisions for me than I am, you can see why I am an enemy of Big Government in a very concrete form.  This trio gets virtually everything wrong.  One would live a better and happier life by doing the opposite of what they want every Marylander to do in every case than one would following their preferences.  Yes, they are that wrongheaded.

Maryland Health Insurance Exchange Wants Your First-Born Child

It is difficult to actually find the entry point to start the process of finding out what the health insurance plans are and their costs under the State of Maryland Health Insurance Exchange.  It is very easy to find a great deal of propaganda claiming it is easy to sign up for, is inexpensive, and will deal effectively with all of your medical needs.

Of course, I expect this is all lies, but I wanted to try to learn much more about these issues by going through the process of checking out these claims.  After all, we are told over and over that one of the great things about this federally dictated take-over of the medical industry is that it will all be transparent.  If so, one should be able to easily examine the costs and benefits of plans for people of various ages.

But, the state of Maryland will not tell me anything about costs, benefits, and the various medical networks unless I create an account.  Good luck on figuring out how you even get to the point of being told that you have to create an account.  They say the process of creating an account takes about 5 minutes.

To create an account you have to give them permission to store information on your Internet Domain, your IP Address, your browser and operating system, the date and time of each visit, the pages you visit, and an address from which you link to their website.  Then you must provide the following information, which they inform you they intend to verify:

• Your complete name
• Your address
• Your e-mail address
• Your phone number
• Your Social Security number
• Your Date of Birth

Well I tried to use Next to skip over this, but it refused to allow that.  Without an entry to each of these demands for information, one is not allowed to move forward to see if any of the state's many claims that ObamaCare in the state of Maryland is greater than sliced bread and cheaper than water.  This suggests strongly to me that the People of the State of Maryland are to be put on a medical diet of bread and water.  The system is designed to prevent people from doing any hard investigation into the inadequacies of the system.

Clearly, this system is set up to prevent any one from making up a table on each of the few available insurance plans that provides the benefits of that plan.  It is designed to keep anyone from making up a chart of the cost for a male or female for any age.  This of course is the very thing one would expect of a transparent system, which ObamaCare falsely claims to be.  In fact, one rightfully expects that the exchange itself would present such information this way.  After all, anyone wants to know at this stage whether insurance for their adult children will break the backs of their children and what this dictated insurance might cost them in a few years time.  You will be kept in the dark, however.

Not only does the leaking of only bits of such information for one person at one age make this a murky system designed to protect the propaganda claims of the state and federal government from verification, but it is intimidating.  This intimidation is very intentional.  Big Government wants to collect a database on persons, addresses, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers, and birth dates so that those people who do not buy this mandated insurance can be hunted down and harassed easily.  Now this is not actually allowed in the law, but neither are subsidizes allowed for the federal exchanges and neither are the many exemptions and delays.  This is not a law being enforced with any of the rational requirements of good law or with any respect to the Rule of Law.  So, why should we not expect to be hunted down like dogs if we do not buy this mandated insurance.

So, unfortunately, I cannot inform myself or any readers about what the Maryland benefit plans are and what they will cost.  In the absence of any information and given the opaqueness of the state system, I assume it is as bad as anyone who believes government is mostly incompetent would suspect it to be.  It is definitely on the state to prove otherwise and the state of Maryland is determined not to offer such proof.  Indeed, reports are that the federally run exchanges for the majority of states that would not set up their own exchanges operate on the same principle.  That principle is that the People are too dumb to insist on such knowledge and unable to cope with the knowledge if they had it.

This is a thoroughly un-American take-over of our medical institutions and an extreme intrusion into our most intimate affairs.

Maryland State Health Insurance Exchange is Inoperable

At 11:40 PM the Maryland State Health Insurance Exchange, sadly collaborating with the tyrannical ObamaCare mandate that individuals do not own their own bodies and minds, is unavailable.  It claims it has heavy traffic and that one should come back later.  Apparently, it have been so informing people all day.  Apparently, later is much later.  I wonder if anyone is actually able to use it at all.

It would be great if it never works, because we should all be allowed our individual right to either buy or not buy health insurance.  If we choose to buy it, we should be able to buy a plan with the coverage we want or at least those coverages freely offered by the market.  Government dictation is totally unacceptable.  Any government that interferes so fundamentally with our right to life is illegitimate and it is our duty to replace it.  See the Declaration of Independence.

Soaking Smaller Businesses under Mandated Workers Compensation Insurance

My small laboratory operation with three employees, counting myself, is forced to pay $69 a year for Terrorism Insurance to The Hartford as part of our mandated Workers Compensation and Employers Liability Insurance.  This is a ridiculous charge for insurance for a small company located in Columbia, Maryland.  We are hardly a target for terrorists.

What is more important yet, my actual payroll was multiplied by a factor of 1.74 to arrive at the payroll basis they use for charging for all aspects of the workers compensation insurance.  It turns out that the state of Maryland requires insurers offering workers compensation insurance to treat all officers of the company as having a minimum salary even if they actually have a smaller salary.  This is a clearly discriminatory act against very small companies and is of the nature of piling onto them when times are hard.  What I would give to be able to pay myself and my partner what the state claims we must have for our insurance premium basis!

Of course, I would not be surprised if the state of Maryland does not have this discriminatory requirement in part at the insistence of the insurers.  It is a curious thing that the upper salary used for the insurance basis is also set by the state of Maryland.  An executive making more than $197,600 is only counted as $197,600 to calculate the premium.  Chalk up another advantage for larger companies to make it a bit harder for smaller companies to compete.

This piling on process is similar to the state raising the rate for unemployment insurance on a company that has kept all of its employees while other companies are letting theirs go.  When unemployment claims go up, our rate goes up to cover the state's increased costs.  No one ever worries about our increased costs in hard times.  This never-ending Great Socialist Recession sure is a one-of-a-kind such hard time.

Governments cause horrible, long-lasting recessions and then they increase taxes on those companies trying to survive the chaos and destruction caused by governments.  Of course, if you are a big company or you have pull with government, then you can gather up subsidies,
be the beneficiary of mandates, and earn exemptions.

My Response to a Democrat Politician's Wife Request on Father's Day

Karmen Walker Brown is the wife of Anthony Brown, the present Lt. Governor of the state of Maryland, who is now running for Governor.  Anthony Brown has served under the present governor of Maryland, Martin O'Malley.

O'Malley is a strong Obama supporter and has aspirations to run for the office of the President.  He has also strongly pushed applying the high state sales tax to gasoline sales, on top of the fixed cost gasoline tax now in place.  He has forced Maryland electric utilities to buy expensive alternative fuels and pass the costs on to the consumer.  He increased the sales tax by 20%, the top personal income tax rate by 16%, and the top corporate tax rate by 18%.  He pushed for and signed a gun control law that drastically infringes the right to bear arms in Maryland.  He even promoted and signed a rain tax on Marylanders that taxes them for any impervious surfaces on their property.  Before he became governor, he was mayor of Baltimore and presided over that city's horrendous public school system as it became even worse.  He headed the Democratic Governors Association from 2011 - 2013.

The Democrat Socialist Party has tight control of the Maryland state government.  It has large majorities in both houses of the legislature and it has controlled the governor's office for a long time.  The Democrats manage this dominance with a very touchy, feely approach.  Karmen Brown is playing this game now by requesting huge numbers of Marylanders to sign a Father's Day card for her husband Anthony.  Here is how this works:

If you asked Anthony what the most important thing is to him, I know what his answer would be: Family. Our kids mean the world to him.

Father’s Day is one of Anthony’s favorite days. It’s a time for our family – and families across Maryland – to come together and celebrate what’s really important.

With Father’s Day coming up this weekend, the kids and I are hoping you can help us out. We’re putting together a big card and we want you to sign it! I know he’d love hearing from his friends and supporters on such a special day.

Click here now to wish Anthony a Happy Father’s Day.

For Anthony, there’s no doubt that being a father is his most important job. You can see it in the way he helps the kids with their homework or asks about their day.

He’s as dedicated to them as he is to making life better for kids across Maryland. It’s why he works – every day – to improve schools, create jobs, and ensure that all families have access to the health care they need to thrive. He knows that this great state is only as strong as the families who call Maryland home.

That’s why the kids and I want to give Anthony a big Father’s Day surprise.

Can you take a minute to sign our card for Anthony? Click here to add your name.

Thanks and Happy Father’s Day,

Here is my response to Karmen Brown:

Karmen,

I vote on my conviction that there is no political value as great as that of the individual for his individual rights to life, liberty, property, the ownership of his own body, mind, and labor, and the pursuit of his personal happiness.  The individual has a very wide right to freedom of conscience and association, which is not to be infringed by the state.  Gov. O'Malley has been committed to almost constant infringement of individual rights, as indeed any big government advocate and user of brutal force for any purpose but the protection of individual rights must be.  Lt. Gov. Brown has been his ally in these tyrannical infringements of individual rights.  It is very unlikely that he will be able to convince me that he is the less wrongheaded and evil of the two thugs who will be running for Governor under the nomination of the two major parties.

I believe I was put on your list of favorably inclined people because I believe in marriage equality.  Yes, such a belief is implied by individual rights, but so is the belief that I own my own body and that as such I have the right to control my health care and health insurance.  ObamaCare claims that my body belongs to the government.  I reject that claim and I have no intention of selling my body to the government even at the cost of being sent to prison.  I defend all of the rights of the individual, including the right of some to say things that may hurt the feelings of others. Our right to bear arms shall not be infringed.  Bloggers and all writers have the same freedoms as are protected for newspapermen and for the same reason that we all have the right to use our minds and freely express our beliefs in speech, in writing, and in assembly.  We have the right to choose who we will hire, to choose our clients, to choose our friends, and choose our sex and domestic partners.

The rights of the individual are broad and the legitimate functions of government are narrow.  This was established in our earliest founding document, the Declaration of Independence.  The proclamation there established the basis for a People of sovereign individuals mandating the very limited powers of the Constitution and setting up a government which is not sovereign, but was only a legitimate means for sovereign individuals to protect their individual rights.  Note that the 9th and 10th Amendments of the Bill of Rights further inform us that the individual retains his sovereignty.

These issues are of such critical importance that they must be addressed by rational minds, not by feelings that seek to associate your big government thug with fatherhood and child-raising on Father's Day.  I too am a father and my greatest wish is that my three daughters will some day have federal and state governments that will protect, rather than violate, individual rights.  There is nothing else so important.  This is why many a man has fought for these rights and many have given up their lives to protect them.

In a society which protects individual rights, we are enabled to choose our own values and manage our own lives with all of the advantages of free trades in all aspects of our associations with other individuals.  Then and only then can we all pursue our dreams in a harmonious way.  Then and only then are we free to hope that the future will be good and better for us all.  Free minds are the most essential means for improving our standard of life, our security, and for achieving our happiness.

Charles

Charles R. Anderson, Ph.D.
Lab: (410) 740-8562
Mobile: (301) 830-1886
http://www.AndersonMaterials.com
http://AndersonMaterials.blogspot.com
http://ObjectivistIndividualist.blogspot.com/

Maryland Gun Control Infringement of the Right to Self-Defense

Oh, the many pleasures of corresponding with one's representatives in the state legislature and the federal government as an exercise in the right to petition one's grievances ends only in frustration.  One can always count on a Progressive Elitist standard viewpoint from these representatives, at least in the most un-free state of Maryland, known most erroneously as the Free State.  This state, long ago, provided perhaps the best unit to fight in the American Revolutionary War.  At that time, there sure was no prohibition against owning a military-style weapon.

The Progressive Elitists of Maryland are most united in the belief that while one may have a right not have one's hunting rifle prohibited, a weapon designed for self-defense is to be absolutely prohibited.  In this Progressive Elitist viewpoint, no infringement means only that any barrier an individual should have to overcome to exercise a right must not amount to an absolute prohibition, except in some cases.

This is the response I received to my letter in opposition to the latest effort of the state of Maryland to infringe the right to bear arms from my delegate Anne Kaiser in the Maryland House of Delegates:

Thank you for writing to my office and voicing your opposition to SB281:  Firearm Safety Act of 2013, introduced by Senate President Mike Miller on behalf of Governor Martin O’Malley.  This legislation provides a comprehensive plan of reforms to make people safer and reduce preventable gun violence.  It includes provisions regarding gun licensing and fingerprinting; gun safety; and mental health safeguards and services.

Specifically, the provisions of SB 281 bans the sale of military-style assault weapons; limits magazine capacity to 10 rounds (the previous limit was 20) and requires licensing, fingerprinting, and safety training to purchase a handgun.  These provisions should reduce “straw purchases” (where someone with a record gets a friend to buy a gun on their behalf) of both assault style weapons and handguns which over time should reduce the number of illegal guns on our streets while also promoting sensible, responsible gun ownership.

Further, this initiative creates safeguards to keep guns away from people who may be a danger to themselves or others due to mental illness, while also facilitating unprecedented levels of information sharing among federal and state partners for background checks.  This bill improves mental health services in Maryland by establishing a Center for Excellence on Early Intervention for serious mental illness and expands Maryland’s Crisis Intervention Teams, Crisis Response Services, and Mental Health First Aid.  Also, this bill establishes a Department of Health and Mental Hygiene led Task Force to Improve Continuity of Care for Individuals in the Community Mental Health System.

Despite characterizations of this bill and those of us who voted for it, I fully support our 2^nd amendment rights.  I place our right to bear arms right alongside our freedom of speech, of a free press and our freedom of religion.  With each of these guaranteed freedoms comes rights and with each right comes responsibility.  And with each responsibility, comes reasonable regulations.

I believe that this bill crystallizes that responsibility in important, meaningful and manageable ways.  Crucially, the new law does not do the following:  it does not prohibit lawful citizens from obtaining or owning a handgun and it does not require additional licensing procedures for hunting rifles and shotguns.  The new law does not force citizens who lawfully possessed an assault weapon prior to the bill’s passage to surrender their weapon or to register it.  Furthermore, it does not require current lawful gun owners to retroactively obtain a license.

Your views are important to me and I appreciate that you have taken the time to write to me.  Please do not hesitate to contact me during the session should any other concerns arise.

 Very truly yours,

 Anne R. Kaiser

The exercise of a right comes with only the responsibility not to violate the equal sovereign rights of other individuals.  It does not come with a responsibility to expend time and effort to prove that one has such character as may be in popular approval by the government.  I should not have to prove that I will not somehow and at some future date violate the rights of others.  As for gun safety, if I already know that (as a veteran), why should I have to take a course from some state-licensed safety instructor at great expense and at the cost of valuable time?  This is an example of the state very much infringing my right to self-defense.

The 2nd Amendment clearly says the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.  Note that no infringement means that there shall be no barriers.  It does not mean that the barriers are such that they can be overcome and are not absolute prohibitions.

Furthermore, the prohibition on military style weapons makes no sense whatever.  The most essential reason one has a right to arm oneself for is self-defense.  Both the prohibition against so-called military style weapons and the limit to 10-round magazines are fundamental infringements on the right to self-defense.  The military uses the weapons it uses for defense.  I would use any weapon I might have for defense.  The reason we have a military is simply as an extension of our individual right to self-defense and the fact we have a military does not deprive us of any part of our right to self-defense.  Note also that this is an explicit prohibition and not a barrier which can be overcome with sufficient effort.

It is noteworthy that Anne Kaiser claims that she holds the right to bear arms as dearly as freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion.  Logically this means that the exercise of these critical freedoms can also be infringed by the requirement to be fingerprinted, forced to take lessons in their safe use, and that many statements and beliefs can be prohibited so long as some are allowed with due licensing of the individual.  In fact, Kaiser explicitly claims that the state can regulate freedom of speech, press, and religion.  Perhaps initially only the mentally ill and felons will be denied the license to exercise freedom of speech, the press, and religion, but I am sure we can count on the Progressive Elitists to expand the class of people denied these rights with time.

Of course, in the eyes of the Progressive Elitist, a person of the Tea Party persuasion is mentally ill.  Many of them have said this explicitly.  Since most psychiatrists seem to be Progressive Elitists, the state will have no problem finding one who will attest that someone who challenges the power of unlimited government is suffering a mental problem.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 26.2% of the U.S. population has a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year.  Does this mean that the state of Maryland will deny licenses to 26.2% of the applicants because they are claimed to have a mental illness?  Probably not, since most such cases have not been diagnosed, but given the infringements of this bill, will one have to have extensive testing for mental illness before being licensed in the near future.  After all, a precedent will have been established.  How extreme and of what type must the mental illness be before one is denied a license?  Yes, she talks of being a threat to oneself or others, but this is pretty speculative stuff and does not the Precautionary Principle so beloved by the Progressive Elitists require a very low bound on the possibility of danger?  If one were ever diagnosed as having a mental illness, would one be forever denied a license to bear arms?  Given how dear the right to bear arms is for Anne Kaiser, how long before the same problems arise to get that license for the exercise of freedom of speech?  You must have much more faith in the goodwill of government than I do to feel at all comfortable with these issues.  Ignorance of history or total irrationality would be a precondition for such faith.

As for the new mental health bureaucracy this law will set up in the state of Maryland, I can only imagine the horrors to come.

It is comforting to know that more than half the number of votes needed to pass this bill in the Maryland House of Delegates may have been cast by the 26.2% of the delegate population with diagnosable mental illnesses.  The remainder of those for this bill may have been voted into office with most of the votes from the 26.2% of Maryland voters who are estimated by the very Progressive Elitist National Institute of Mental Health to have diagnosable mental illnesses.  To be sure, such mental illnesses may be far more common among the Maryland Delegates than among the population at large.

The violation of individual rights by the state of Maryland and by the federal government has become a habit.  There is nothing one can trade one's basic individual rights for that is worth the trade.  You should note that the Declaration of Independence informs us that the only legitimate function of government is the protection of individual rights.  Governments that violate those rights become morally illegitimate no matter how many popular votes the politicians may collect.   Evil thrives in the state of Maryland because collectivist politicians here collect hordes of votes.

The Maryland House of Delegates is coming to help us exercise our responsibilities.  Be afraid ...  no, be terrified!