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The Buckeye State

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the Great Lakes region of the United States. Of the 50 states, it is the 34th largest by area, the seventh most populous and the tenth most densely populated. The state's capital and largest city is Columbus. The state takes its name from the Ohio River, whose name in turn originated from the Seneca word ohiːyo', meaning "good river", "great river" or "large creek". Partitioned from the Northwest Territory, Ohio was the 17th state admitted to the United States on 1 March 1803, and the first under the Northwest Ordinance. Ohio is historically known as the "Buckeye State" after its Ohio buckeye trees, and Ohioans are also known as "Buckeyes".

Geographical type: Territory

Latitude: 40.5° N — Longitude: 82.5° W

Area: 116,096 km²

ISO 3166-2 code: US-OH

Other Places

Birthplace of

Drew Carey, Drew Allison Carey, in Cleveland, on 23 May 1958
Ulysses S. Grant, Hiram Ulysses Grant, in Point Pleasant, on 27 Apr 1822
Warren G. Harding, Warren Gamaliel Harding, in Blooming Grove, on 2 Nov 1865
Raymond C. Hoiles, in Alliance, on 24 Nov 1878
David Kelley, David Christopher Kelley, in Shaker Heights, on 23 Jun 1949
Richard J. Maybury, Richard J. Maybury, in Hamilton, on 10 Oct 1946
William McKinley, William McKinley Jr., in Niles, on 29 Jan 1843
Carl Oglesby, in Akron, on 30 Jul 1935
P. J. O'Rourke, Patrick Jake O'Rourke, in Toledo, on 14 Nov 1947
Gene Sharp, in North Baltimore, on 21 Jan 1928
Steven Spielberg, in Cincinnati, on 18 Dec 1946
Richard Timberlake, in Steubenville, on 24 Jun 1922

Home To

Libertarian Party of Ohio, Columbus

Measures of Freedom

Freedom in the 50 States 2015-2016 | Ohio | Cato Institute
2014: Overall rank: 35, fiscal policy rank: 24, regulatory policy rank: 31, personal freedom rank: 44, economic freedom rank: 33
LP State-by-State Membership Numbers [PDF], Libertarian Party News, Apr 2006
31 Dec 2005: Number of Members: 644

Articles

Booze Busting: The New Prohibition, by James Bovard, Freedom Daily, Dec 1998
Discusses various anti-alcohol laws and enforcement actions, including the law raising the minimum drinking age during the Reagan administration, and what medical research has to say about moderate alcohol consumption
Ohio has joined many states in banning any open containers of alcohol from vehicles. The Ohio law was widely ridiculed a few years ago after police nailed four women riding in a limousine to a concert ... outside of Cleveland ... The police searched the limo and found an empty champagne bottle. The women were heavily fined for violating the ban on open alcohol containers - even though the bottle was empty and none of the women was driving ... Some Ohio legislators were outraged that people who had effectively hired the ultimate "designated driver" would be hit with fines under a law meant to deter drivers from drinking.
Democracy and Government Schools, by Sheldon Richman, Freedom Daily, Jan 2007
Discusses the current state of government education, including "creative solutions" such as charter schools and vouchers, and the influence of the "religion of democracy" in achieving a free market in education
Another statement of the religious nature of the schools was ... an Ohio supreme court case upholding charter schools. The lawsuit, filed by public-school officials, teachers, and some parents, claimed in part that charter schools violate the state constitution's requirement that
the General Assembly shall make such provisions, by taxation, or otherwise, as ... will secure a thorough and efficient system of common schools throughout the state.
The majority on the court ... ruled that the so-called Thorough and Efficient Clause was not violated ... But one justice, Alice Robie Resnick, dissented ...
Drug War Dementia, by James Bovard, Freedom Daily, Nov 1996
Details various police, military and school actions and legislation in the government's war on users of certain banned substances, and the generally unrecognized side effects of these policies
In Hamilton, Ohio, a school suspended two students after a girl gave her classmate two Tylenol tablets for a headache. Shortly after ... the school system discovered that the first-aid kit that one of its elementary schools was selling as a fundraiser included two Tylenol tablets. Superintendent Jeffrey Sittson declared: "Luckily, the kids had only been taking orders one day and none had been delivered, so we canceled the project immediately." It is almost as if school officials are so frightened ... that they are attempting to turn back the clock ... and deny the wonders of modern pharmacology.
An End to Eminent Domain Abuse?, by George Leef, Freedom Daily, Apr 2005
Published just two months before the unfortunate Kelo v. City of New London U.S. Supreme Court decision, expresses hope that the court would rectify the 1954 Berman v. Parker ruling
Consider ... a distressing case ... in Lakewood, Ohio. In that Cleveland suburb, city officials decided that they would rather have a new condominium and retail shopping development in place of a quiet old residential neighborhood. To justify the legal seizure, officials declared the area "blighted" ... [The homeowners] were able to cause so much adverse publicity on the proposed seizure that the developer backed off and eventually the designation "blighted" was removed. The Lakewooders weren't forced out, but avoiding condemnation had cost them dearly in money, time, and anguish.
The Fraudulent Meaning of Elections, by James Bovard, Freedom Daily, Apr 2006
Examines the arguments raised in the debate between Democrats and Republicans in Congress over the certification of the 2005 Ohio Electoral College voters
Even though the co-chairman of the Bush reelection campaign in Ohio happened to be ... in charge of vote counting in Ohio — Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell — any suspicion of wrongdoing was scurrilous ... Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) vindicated his home state:
As a Republican from Cleveland who has been reelected as a Republican from Cleveland, elected to Federal, State, county, and municipal offices, I am living proof Ohioans know how to count ballots and, more importantly, we count fairly.
Voinovich assumed that since ... he was beyond reproach, his election victories proved that all Ohio elections are impeccable.
The NFL is Not for Libertarians, by S. M. Oliva, 26 Apr 2012
Examines various statist aspects of the National Football League
Most [stadiums] are financed primarily through taxes or government-backed bonds ... In Cleveland, for example, the city used bonds to pay for 75% of the cost of the Browns' stadium, which opened in 1999. The team only pays $250,000 per year in rent to the city. Keep in mind, the new stadium was only built after the first Cleveland Browns franchise moved to Baltimore in 1995. Why did they move? Because then-Browns owner Art Modell, after financially mismanaging the team for years, needed a government bailout, which he received from the state-run Maryland Stadium Authority ...
States' Rights vs. Monetary Monopoly, by Thomas DiLorenzo, 9 May 2003
Recounts the story of how various states and Andrew Jackson maneuvered against the second Bank of the United States (BUS) eventually causing it not to be re-chartered
After Marshall's 1819 opinion, Ohio enacted a $50,000 per year tax on the BUS. The Bank refused to pay, so the Ohio state auditor ordered a deputy ... to collect the tax. ... This would be the equivalent of today's governor of Ohio ordering state troopers to enter the Cleveland Fed and strip its vaults of over a million dollars. The BUS sued Ohio, relying on Marshall's opinion. The Ohio legislature considered such a lawsuit to be a threat to citizen sovereignty and a dangerous precedent to all Americans, not just Ohioans. ... The Ohio legislature promised to return the $100,000 if the BUS left the state.

The introductory paragraph uses material from the Wikipedia article "Ohio" as of 31 Oct 2018, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.