50 State overall Freedom Ranking...

[Zeb_Carter]

Read an article today and it referenced Mercatus Center at George Mason University so I went and found the report the article mentioned.

The Mercatus Center of George Mason University has released a study ranking the states compared to their level of personal freedom. The results?

The full study here.

Where does your state rank? My current state is in Green my birth state in red.

Overall Freedom Ranking

1. New Hampshire
2. Colorado
3. South Dakota
4. Idaho
5. Texas
6. Missouri
7. Tennessee
8. Arizona
9. Virginia
10. North Dakota
11. Utah
12. Kansas
13. Indiana
14. Michigan
15. Wyoming
16. Iowa
17. Georgia
18. Oklahoma
19. Montana
20. Pennsylvania
21. Alabama
22. Florida
23. North Carolina
24. Nevada
25. Mississippi
26. Delaware
27. Oregon
28. Nebraska
29. Arkansas
30. South Carolina
31. Alaska
32. Kentucky
33. West Virginia
34. Louisiana
35. Minnesota
36. New Mexico
37. Wisconsin
38. Ohio
39. Maine
40. Vermont
41. Connecticut
42. Illinois
43. Massachusetts
44. Washington
45. Hawaii
46. Maryland
47. California
48. Rhode Island
49. New Jersey
50. New York

 

[slyc_willie]

Yet more reasons why I never stayed in either New York or California . . . and why I love Texas.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Yet more reasons why I never stayed in either New York or California . . . and why I love Texas.

Yup.

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

Number 8! We're in the top 10.....hurrah. So, let's legalize pot and gay marriage, and it will push us further up. Legalize polygamy and prostitution, and we might go even higher.

 

[TE999]

Florida's #22... below Pennsy and Utah? My adopted home state of Georgia's #17...that's what I get for returning home.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

So how does one go about shaming one's legislative parasites into getting the fuck out of people's lives?

 

[LocaChica]

Yet more reasons why I never stayed in either New York or California . . . and why I love Texas. [/QUOT


I lived in New York all my life until last year and now live in Texas and I'm

loving it!!

 

[WRJames]

I'm not surprised New York ranks at the bottom. We try to protect people from themselves to an extent that is mind boggling.

On the other hand, some of the "free" states are only free because the Supreme Court overturned their legislated morality laws.

 

[rgraham666]

Define 'freedom'.

 

[cloudy]

Say what you will about the south, but most of the southern states are in the top half.

Alabama's at #21, but the state I went to college in is #7, Tennessee.

No wonder I had such a good time in school.

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

Define 'freedom'.

The right to live your life unobstructed, as long as you respect the rights of others.

The betrayal of this is a crime and the present leadership will have to answer for it.

As Thomas Jefferson said, "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

In any case, Arizona is doing well, but could do better.

 

[cloudy]

The right to live your life unobstructed, as long as you respect the rights of others.

The betrayal of this is a crime and the present leadership will have to answer for it.

Um...what?

We just went through eight years of a president who tore the Constitution to shreds, but present leadership has to "answer for it"?

WTF?

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

Um...what?

We just went through eight years of a president who tore the Constitution to shreds, but present leadership has to "answer for it"?

WTF?

Oh, he won't get away with murder, either. Or treason, in this case. But I'm watching the present regime closely because only the top tier has changed hands. Presidents come and go. Bureaucrats are here to stay...or will be until I get my way.

 

[rgraham666]

The right to live your life unobstructed, as long as you respect the rights of others.

The betrayal of this is a crime and the present leadership will have to answer for it.

As Thomas Jefferson said, "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

In any case, Arizona is doing well, but could do better.

*blink*

If you think things are so bad that a revolution is required, with all the attendant death and horror, I have to question your perspective.

Personally, I think you're just pissed that you don't get your own way all the time.

 

[WRJames]

Define 'freedom'.

The page at the end of the link this definition

We develop and justify our ratings and aggregation procedure on explicitly normative criteria, defining individual freedom as the ability to dispose of one’s own life, liberty, and justly acquired property however one sees fit, so long as one does not coercively infringe on another individual’s ability to do the same.

This might include the freedom to starve to death, to not educate your children, etc.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Uh, this was a rating of the states, not the federal government. The current administration has nothing to do with it. Neither did the last one, for that matter, not at the state level.

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

*blink*

If you think things are so bad that a revolution is required, with all the attendant death and horror, I have to question your perspective.

Personally, I think you're just pissed that you don't get your own way all the time.

Well, getting my way would just be a matter of being free.....that's my way, as you put it. So, hell yeah, I'm pissed.

Revolutions are sometimes necessary, even if unpleasant. Thomas Jefferson said, and I tend to agree, that we should have a revolution every generation. By that standard, we're overdue. And it shows in the arrogance of our leaders.

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

Uh, this was a rating of the states, not the federal government. The current administration has nothing to do with it. Neither did the last one, for that matter, not at the state level.

Yes, but the states can't sneeze without permission from Uncle Sam these days. The Civil War was the death knell for the federal republic....well that and the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.

And the states sometimes follow Uncle Sam's bad example in terms of tyrannizing over private citizens. Instead of pushing upwards to regain powers lost to the Feds, they have pushed downwards to crush the People.

 

[rgraham666]

Well, getting my way would just be a matter of being free.....that's my way, as you put it. So, hell yeah, I'm pissed.

Revolutions are sometimes necessary, even if unpleasant. Thomas Jefferson said, and I tend to agree, that we should have a revolution every generation. By that standard, we're overdue. And it shows in the arrogance of our leaders.

I think Thomas Jefferson would be sickened by your appropriating his words to destroy your own nation.

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

I think Thomas Jefferson would be sickened by your appropriating his words to destroy your own nation.

Not trying to destroy. To reclaim. To save from itself. And again, I already commuted the prospective sentences to life in exile from the USA. They don't deserve to be Americans.

 

[rgraham666]

Not trying to destroy. To reclaim. To save from itself. And again, I already commuted the prospective sentences to life in exile from the USA. They don't deserve to be Americans.

Ah. you have to destroy it in order to save it.

Where have I heard that before?

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

Ah. you have to destroy it in order to save it.

Where have I heard that before?

No destruction necessary. Dispossession and a comfortable exile with some liquid assets. Like Mobutu got when they kicked him out.

 

[cloudy]

Sev, you realize how ridiculous and ignorant you sound, right?

 

[Dragonlipz]

Sev, you realize how ridiculous and ignorant you sound, right?

I doubt it

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

Sev, you realize how ridiculous and ignorant you sound, right?

Only to you. Revolutionaries are rarely welcome. I'm used to it by now. But that doesn't make revolution any less necessary.

I'm sure that someone called the Founders ignorant and ridiculous, too.