Maryland Outlook Does Not Bode Well For Country
Nov 17, 2008 Political
The state of Maryland is nestled right up next to Washington DC and therefore it has quite a bit of money flowing into its coffers courtesy of the federal presence. The Maryland counties surrounding DC have quite a few wealthy residents who commute to the Nation’s Capital to work. DC has a population of just under 600,000 people but that number exceeds a million during the workweek as people from Maryland and Virginia go to work.
Maryland’s proximity to DC allows the small state to have a high standard of living and a pretty decent average income because the money flowing from DC does not have to travel far to enrich the state. This money is the reason that Maryland lags behind the rest of the nation when tough times hit. The feds will continue to employ and to spend.
If Maryland has a tough go of it then times will be worse for the rest of the country. Many of Maryland’s financial wounds are self inflicted by the Democrats running the state but even their malfeasance takes time to show because of the wealth surrounding DC.
The financial outlook for Maryland this Christmas season does not look good. For the first time in several decades the Maryland Retailer’s Association is predicting that the state will see no increase in Christmas shopping over the previous year. The tight economy has caught up with Maryland and that means that times will be much worse for states that do not have a cash cow next door.
Maybe Barack Hopenchange can miracle his peeps some money…
If you enjoy what you read consider signing up to receive email notification of new posts. There are several options in the sidebar and I am sure you can find one that suits you. If you prefer, consider adding this site to your favorite feed reader.
Tags: Christmas, DC, Maryland, spending forecast, wjz
MD Senator Currie Wrong On Gun Ownership
Aug 18, 2008 Political, Second Amendment
Maryland State Senator Ulysses Currie of the 25th district (who is under federal investigation for illegal activities) wrote a piece about gun control. Currie is upset that the Supreme Court reaffirmed what our founders stated by ruling that the Second Amendment is an individual right. Currie takes exception to this and indicates that no other court has ruled this way. Actually, no other court has looked at this issue. The 1939 Miller case is held by gun control advocates as a bellwether for a militia interpretation but the ruling had nothing to do with the issue at hand. It dealt with interstate commerce and a weapon, not who had the right to carry it.
Currie is very upset that the SCOTUS overturned the DC gun ban and, like Chicken Little, cries “the sky is falling.” He asserts that we will have more murders in DC and he further goes to point out that states with more lenient gun control laws have higher death by gun rates. His statistics come from The Violence Policy Center which is an anti gun organization. The raw numbers are misleading and there are many other factors that play into this. What is very interesting is that Currie fails to mention the DC gun death rate which is one of the HIGHEST in the country. How can that be if strict gun laws keep us safe?
It is important to remember that one can make any claim using numbers. It is also important to note that gun death rates encompass a lot of reasons for death like suicide, justifiable shootings (as in the police or self defense), accidental shootings and criminal acts (murder or crimes resulting in murder). Another thing to consider is the number of crimes that were committed by law abiding citizens with carry permits. This makes a big difference because if the crimes are committed by people who should not have guns then the laws forbidding their possession are not working. Currie should whittle down the numbers and point out how many crimes are committed by people who are permitted to carry.
This is important because people like Currie lamented about how Florida would see a marked increase in gun deaths after the state relaxed its gun laws and allowed more people to carry. This has never come to fruition. In Florida hundreds of thousands of permits to carry have been issued and fewer than 20 people with a permit have been involved in crimes (not necessarily involving gun use). Up through 1998 no permit holder has ever shot a police officer but several permit holders have assisted police.
If Currie wants to skew statistics let me help him out. Blacks comprise a small portion of the population and yet they account for a disproportionate number of gun deaths. Cities with the largest number of blacks in the population (like DC, LA, and New Orleans) have higher murder rates than cities with more whites. In 2007 California ranked fourth behind Pennsylvania, Louisiana and Indiana in the number of black homicides. The black homicide rate pushes the rate for each state high because the rate is about four times higher than their percentage of the population. Is it fair to say that removing blacks from the states would lower gun death rates? While we are on the subject, Hispanics account for a disproportionately high number of gun deaths as well. The statistics certainly lay out a case for lowering the death rate by removing the minorities. This approach is as legitimate as using crime statistics for illegal acts as a methodology to ban LEGAL gun ownership. Perhaps we should ban people who live in Maryland’s 25th District from running for office there because 100% of the current Senators from there are under federal investigation. Banning everyone for the acts of criminals is nonsensical. Before anyone tells me that Currie has not had his day in court so he should be presumed innocent, keep in mind that he is assuming that all gun owners commit criminal acts and should not be allowed to own them.
What Currie fails to realize is that the crimes are being committed by people who have no regard for the law. DC, Chicago and many other major cities with extremely tough gun control laws have high gun murder rates. Once again, if the gun laws work why are these places suffering gun deaths? If gun control lowers gun deaths than these places should be the safest places on earth. Unfortunately, some of them have a higher death rate than Iraq and it is in the middle of a war.
People who obey the law do not get permits to carry weapons and then go around shooting people. The facts have proven time and again that law abiding citizens do not commit murders and that law breakers do not care about gun laws because they don’t follow the rules anyway.
Currie has his panties in a wad because the Supreme Court acknowledged that gun ownership is an individual right. This is nothing new. As I have pointed out before, the founders stated that the PEOPLE will be allowed to have guns. It is an undeniable truth. Regardless of the fact that it defies logic to think that the words “The People” mean all citizens everywhere it is used except the Second Amendment, the issue is moot because of the founder’s own words. Walter E Williams has a comprehensive listing of the founder’s quotes on the subject. I defy Currie or anyone else to read them and then demonstrate how they mean anything BUT an individual right. For example:
“That the said Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms … ”
– Samuel Adams, Debates and Proceedings in the Convention of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, at 86-87 (Pierce & Hale, eds., Boston, 1850)
The people of the United States who are peaceable citizens. How can anyone misconstrue this to be anything other than an individual right?
Ulysses Currie is absolutely wrong on this issue. The places that allow citizens to own and carry weapons are the safest in the country. There are some gun control states that have low gun death rates. It would be interesting to see what the demographics of the population are because I would wager they are mostly law abiding people.
Once again, Mr. Currie, law abiding citizens do not go around killing people. Criminals account for the overwhelming majority of the gun deaths and all the laws in the world will not change their behavior.
We call them criminals for a reason.
Tags: DC, gun control, individual right, Maryland, Second Amendment, supreme court, ulysses currie
Obama is Gaining Momentum
Feb 12, 2008 Political
Hillary Clinton has all but conceded the primaries up until Texas and Ohio where she hopes to do well with the large population of Latinos in Texas and the blue collar workers in Ohio. If the exit polling from Virginia is any indication, her Texas plan might just backfire. Exit polls show Obama with a 10 point lead among Latinos, a demographic that Clinton was winning handily and one she will have to win handily in Texas if she is going to compete in the process.
It is hard to tell why the turn around. Perhaps people are getting weary of her and perhaps she has looked like a loser this past week and it turned people off. It is also possible that when she fired her campaign manager, a Latino, that she ticked off the Latino community. Several prominent Latinos (here and here) have already expressed their disgust with the move and once that shock wave starts traveling it will be hard to stop it.
Obama is already the projected winner in Virginia where exits show him winning by a 2:1 margin. He should win DC and Maryland though we will have to wait 90 minutes longer for the Maryland results. A judge ordered the polling places to remain open until 2130 because of an ice storm that caused traffic tie ups all across the state.
I wonder if Hillary is throwing ashtrays and nik naks around the place about now. She has waited all her life for this moment, it is her turn and she is the rightful heir to the thrown and this upstart newbie is ruining it for her. She might still pull out the nomination but with a sweep tonight and a win in the two primaries before 4 March, Obama will have peeled off 10 wins in a row. Sure some of them were small states but the momentum has definitely moved to his camp and Hillary is gasping for breath trying to keep up. Obama looks like a winner while Hillary looks like a confused fighter wondering where the next punch will come from. She is not even in the area any longer having departed for El Paso.
Maybe she is trying to shore up the Latino/Hispanic vote before it is too late.
Global Warming, Snow, and Maryland
Dec 4, 2007 General
The Baltimore Sun reports:
A U.S. Senate committee is scheduled for an historic vote on a global warming bill this week, perhaps as early as Wednesday. Environmental groups are planning a flurry of press conferences tomorrow (12/4/2007) to try to influence the vote.
Meanwhile, in Maryland, Gov. Martin O’Malley’s advisory Commission on Climate Change is scheduled to meet tomorrow to discuss possible steps to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions. The 22-member goup [sic], headed by state Environmental Secretary Shari T. Wilson, is looking to recommend that the state adopt laws to cut greenhouse gases by 25 percent by 2020, and then move aggressively to slash the pollutants by 90 percent by 2050, according to a draft report. To achieve these goals, the state should tighten its energy efficiency standards, strengthen building codes, require more clean energy generation, among other steps.
The Senate might vote tomorrow on global warming. Coincidentally, the DC area is expected to get an inch or so of snow. This comes on the heels of a massive winter storm that killed more than a dozen people in the Northeast and a snowstorm in Colorado that delayed the opening of a ski resort…
Martin O’Malley of Maryland is getting his global bona fides by having his commission on climate change in time to beef up his resume for a position in a Clinton administration. If Governor O’Malley wants to clean up the toxic gases in Maryland all he needs to do is keep his mouth shut and gag the Democrats in Annapolis. Speaking of Annapolis, getting rid of that cess pool of legislators would go a long way toward cleaning up Maryland.
One thing is for sure. Whatever plan these nimrods come up with will involve tax increases on top of the recent tax hikes voted for by the jackasses in the state. The largest tax increase in the history of the state and it was done by none other than the Democrats. Couple that will all the new spending and they can hardly deny the tax and spend title they often try to hide.
I guess it will be another fun filled winter with global warming discussions while we freeze our rears off. If only we had actually invaded Iraq for its oil we would all be able to afford fuel for the winter…
Tags: DC, global warming, Maryland, tax increases, winter weather
Loading ...
Loading... 
