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Clearing the Browser Tabs – Oh Maryland, Stupid Maryland Thursday Edition Posted: 15 Sep 2011 03:10 AM PDT I don’t throw the phrase “batspit insane” around lightly, but it’s appropriate to describe the Maryland legislators who want to add a new 15.5 cent gasoline tax on top of its already-hefty excise tax. What shoves the idea into crazypants land is that the 15.5 cent tax is only one option. The other is a flat 5-percent tax which would, at the current average price per gallon of $3.549, jack up the price 17.75 cents. Maryland is already the sixth most expensive state in which to live and loaded the 12th highest tax burden on her residents. A huge tax hike will make the state’s precarious financial situation much worse. Yes, I know that the legislature estimates the new tax will bring in eleventy-one bazillion dollars, but it won’t. Remember that government fiscal projections never take ordinary and predictable human behavior into account. That is why states always find themselves in trouble when they raise cigarette taxes, spend the money they project they will get on expensive new school gewgaws, and learn a few months later that people either smoked less or nipped over to a state with a lower cigarette tax for their nicotine fix. I’m sure my home state will make a little bit more money from a new gas tax. However, people will adjust their behaviors. They’ll drive less; carpool more; fill up in Virginia, Delaware, or Pennsylvania; buy more economical vehicles; or, worst for the state, leave entirely. Like the millionaires who fled the state instead of coughing up a special rich Person Punishment Tax, Marylanders will simply find ways around the new tax. But don’t expect the progressives in the Maryland legislature to expect human beings to act like human beings. They have economic models that say otherwise. And now, links! So far, the story of the Obama years is the rich well-credentialed, most of whom are government employees, got richer and the poor the rest of us got poorer. The only quibble I have with the term “regulatory tsunami” is that, eventually, a tsunami will go away. What we’ve seen in the past 2 1/2 years has been more like an inexorable lavaflow from a pitiless volcano. (via Instapundit) If you’re one of those folks who, like me, are slowly learning how to use their iPads for more everyday, mundane tasks, I have a couple articles you might find useful. First, a quick list of apps that will help you be more productive, then a “how I did it” post from a writer at Ars Technica who learned to use her iPad for regular office work. The cynical part of me suspects that this study was conducted by a laboratory full of beta males. A Stormtrooper a Day? If the files are the right size, I say it’s a desktop wallpaper a day! LaVar Burton has plans to bring back Reading Rainbow, with a few technological upgrades. Good for him! Here’s the latest video from the Solar Dynamics Observatory. Have I mentioned that I’m a sucker for videos like this? You might remember Patricia Tallman from her role as Lyta on Babylon 5. She has written a book about her time on the show and added a whole bunch of videos and other extras. The price is a little high, but B5 fans should probably jump on it. J. Michael Straczynski not only penned the introduction, but pitched in on a couple of the videos as well.

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