NEW RESEARCH RANKS MARYLAND DEAD LAST IN PERSONAL FREEDOM ...
Friday March 13th 2009 11:42 AM
... People's Republic of Maryland?
A new research paper from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University has ranked all 50 states of the Union in terms of their economic and personal freedoms. The results are in for Maryland and it doesn’t look good. According to the research, Maryland is ranked dead last (50th) in personal freedom and 34th in economic freedom.
Maryland’s fiscal policy ranking is pretty good at 16th but it is offset by Maryland's low regulatory policy ranking at 47th.
Overall freedom in Maryland is ranked pathetically low at 46th. Maryland received such a bad ranking in personal freedom for many reasons. Maryland has the 2nd most strict gun laws in the U.S., somewhat ruthless marijuana laws, and troublesome home schooling laws.
Also adding to the lack of personal freedom in Maryland are restrictions on motorists’ freedoms, unchanged eminent domain abuse, and high arrests on victimless crimes.
There was one thing to cheer about in the research as Maryland’s “taxes on beer, wine, and spirits are fairly low, and overall Maryland has one of the least restrictive alcohol control systems in the country.”
Cheers to electing more Republicans next election in Maryland!
Friday, March 13, 2009
Friday, March 6, 2009
Serpico, Part II
Yesterday I received a comment on this blog from a reporter in Florida who was trying to reach Frank Serpico. He googled Serpico's name and apparently this blog popped up with my earlier story of speaking to Frank.Not wanting to give out Serpico's number to someone I don't know and break his trust, I decided to call Paco and give him the reporters number. It's been 4-5 years since I last spoke with him so this was a good opportunity to re-connect.
Frank answered on about the 10th ring. I reintroduced myself and he actually remembered our speaking in the past due to our mutual past contact.
Frank is busy writing his memoirs and actually read to me excerpts from 3 or 4 chapters. Many of his stories are post police department when he traveled throughout Europe. He really is a great story teller and certainly loves to tell a good story. We talked for 1 hr and 34 minutes.
I can't wait until the book is published. He read from the part where he was shot by a drug suspect and left for dead by his own back up officers. An elderly Hispanic man called an ambulance for him and stayed with him reassuring him all along. I told him that even though it sucked for him the story was fascinating. Paco says that over all his life turned out pretty great.
The Serpico movie poster for those who don't remember Serpico.
Not bad having Al Pacino play your life story.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Global Warming or an Ice Age?
The 'Old' Consensus?
INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
Posted 9/21/2007
Climate Change: Did NASA scientist James Hansen, the global warming alarmist in chief, once believe we were headed for . . . an ice age? An old Washington Post story indicates he did.
Related Topics: Global Warming
On July 9, 1971, the Post published a story headlined "U.S. Scientist Sees New Ice Age Coming." It told of a prediction by NASA and Columbia University scientist S.I. Rasool. The culprit: man's use of fossil fuels.
The Post reported that Rasool, writing in Science, argued that in "the next 50 years" fine dust that humans discharge into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuel will screen out so much of the sun's rays that the Earth's average temperature could fall by six degrees.
Sustained emissions over five to 10 years, Rasool claimed, "could be sufficient to trigger an ice age."
Aiding Rasool's research, the Post reported, was a "computer program developed by Dr. James Hansen," who was, according to his resume, a Columbia University research associate at the time.
So what about those greenhouse gases that man pumps into the skies? Weren't they worried about them causing a greenhouse effect that would heat the planet, as Hansen, Al Gore and a host of others so fervently believe today?
"They found no need to worry about the carbon dioxide fuel-burning puts in the atmosphere," the Post said in the story, which was spotted last week by Washington resident John Lockwood, who was doing research at the Library of Congress and alerted the Washington Times to his finding.
Hansen has some explaining to do. The public deserves to know how he was converted from an apparent believer in a coming ice age who had no worries about greenhouse gas emissions to a global warming fear monger.
This is a man, as Lockwood noted in his message to the Times' John McCaslin, who has called those skeptical of his global warming theory "court jesters." We wonder: What choice words did he have for those who were skeptical of the ice age theory in 1971?
People can change their positions based on new information or by taking a closer or more open-minded look at what is already known. There's nothing wrong with a reversal or modification of views as long as it is arrived at honestly.
But what about political hypocrisy? It's clear that Hansen is as much a political animal as he is a scientist. Did he switch from one approaching cataclysm to another because he thought it would be easier to sell to the public? Was it a career advancement move or an honest change of heart on science, based on empirical evidence?
If Hansen wants to change positions again, the time is now. With NASA having recently revised historical temperature data that Hansen himself compiled, the door has been opened for him to embrace the ice age projections of the early 1970s.
Could be he's feeling a little chill in the air again.
Click here for copyright permissions! Copyright 2000-2009 Investor's Business Daily, Inc.
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INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
Posted 9/21/2007
Climate Change: Did NASA scientist James Hansen, the global warming alarmist in chief, once believe we were headed for . . . an ice age? An old Washington Post story indicates he did.
Related Topics: Global Warming
On July 9, 1971, the Post published a story headlined "U.S. Scientist Sees New Ice Age Coming." It told of a prediction by NASA and Columbia University scientist S.I. Rasool. The culprit: man's use of fossil fuels.
The Post reported that Rasool, writing in Science, argued that in "the next 50 years" fine dust that humans discharge into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuel will screen out so much of the sun's rays that the Earth's average temperature could fall by six degrees.
Sustained emissions over five to 10 years, Rasool claimed, "could be sufficient to trigger an ice age."
Aiding Rasool's research, the Post reported, was a "computer program developed by Dr. James Hansen," who was, according to his resume, a Columbia University research associate at the time.
So what about those greenhouse gases that man pumps into the skies? Weren't they worried about them causing a greenhouse effect that would heat the planet, as Hansen, Al Gore and a host of others so fervently believe today?
"They found no need to worry about the carbon dioxide fuel-burning puts in the atmosphere," the Post said in the story, which was spotted last week by Washington resident John Lockwood, who was doing research at the Library of Congress and alerted the Washington Times to his finding.
Hansen has some explaining to do. The public deserves to know how he was converted from an apparent believer in a coming ice age who had no worries about greenhouse gas emissions to a global warming fear monger.
This is a man, as Lockwood noted in his message to the Times' John McCaslin, who has called those skeptical of his global warming theory "court jesters." We wonder: What choice words did he have for those who were skeptical of the ice age theory in 1971?
People can change their positions based on new information or by taking a closer or more open-minded look at what is already known. There's nothing wrong with a reversal or modification of views as long as it is arrived at honestly.
But what about political hypocrisy? It's clear that Hansen is as much a political animal as he is a scientist. Did he switch from one approaching cataclysm to another because he thought it would be easier to sell to the public? Was it a career advancement move or an honest change of heart on science, based on empirical evidence?
If Hansen wants to change positions again, the time is now. With NASA having recently revised historical temperature data that Hansen himself compiled, the door has been opened for him to embrace the ice age projections of the early 1970s.
Could be he's feeling a little chill in the air again.
Click here for copyright permissions! Copyright 2000-2009 Investor's Business Daily, Inc.
-->
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