In any event, a few days ago, I came across this map on Facebook. I think it was Judge Andrew Napolitano who first posted it. Basically, the map is color coded to show freedom among the 50 states. Cooler colors indicate less freedom. Mississippi ranks #41. That's pretty damned depressing, given that I live in Mississippi and honestly believe in freedom. But hey, at least I'm not living in California or New York, eh?
Unfortunately, the site doesn't give a line-item breakdown of their analysis. They give a pretty detailed list of how the rankings are calculated, but don't list how the various states score on each line-item. I largely agree with their definitions of freedom as well, as they all seem to center around the same theme I would choose: getting the government out of the lives of the citizenry.
So why does Mississippi rank so poorly? I think a lot of it stems from the strong desire of many inhabitants to have theocracy. I.e., rather than allowing freedom and shaming what they see as sin, they prefer to wield the power of the state and enforce their religious dictates upon the people. Hence a very high incarceration rate for "crimes" like marijuana use, a ban on homosexual marriage, and requiring blood tests and a waiting period for heterosexual marriage.
Are there any silver linings beyond "we don't suck as badly as New York, California, New Jersey, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Illinois, Maryland, Vermont, or West Virginia?" Well, yes. Yes there are. To wit:
- In November 2011, Mississippi voters banned the use of eminent domain to transfer ownership of land from one private owner to another. This is huge. The only "legal" use of eminent domain under the new law is for public use. I still have a problem with this, but it's much less offensive than the typical, "hey we're going to take your land to promote gentrification and build a larger tax base." What's more, the ban passed by ballot initiative, with 73% of the vote. Why 27% of the population would vote against that, I will never understand. I guess they don't own any land, or were hoping to confiscate some through the state system.
- On the same day, Missisippi voters rejected the personhood initiative, by a vote of 57% to 43%. Mississippi houses a mostly a pro-life populace, so this is very surprising to me.
- Most recently, the state house turned Republican, and gun laws were some of the first to get some freedom loving. Apparently there was a recent court case where it was judged that although Mississippi allows openly carrying without a permit, holstering a weapon will partially conceal it. In other words, if you wanted to carry your gun without obtaining a permission slip, you would have to literally carry the gun, in your hand. Because that's safer than putting it in a holster. The effect was to completely neuter the law allowing openly carrying. The new law, which becomes effective July 1, 2013, explicitly defines the term "concealed" such that a non-permitted resident can holster a weapon on their belt or shoulder, and as long as that holster is at least partially visible, they're in the clear.
(4) For the purposes of this section, "concealed" means hidden or obscured from common observation and shall not include any weapon listed in subsection (1) of this section, including, but not limited to, a loaded or unloaded pistol carried upon the person in a sheath, belt holster or shoulder holster that is wholly or partially visible, or carried upon the person in a scabbard or case for carrying the weapon that is wholly or partially visible.Hopefully these changes help the state of Mississippi crawl from 41st to 40th and beyond. Decriminalizing sudafed would be a nice start :-)
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