Courtesy Citybizlist–The mountain natives are restless in Maryland. They want to have it their way, though they represent just 10 percent of the state’s population.

Here are a few things that annoy them:

•  A stream of tax increases (including one on rain!) from Annapolis.

•  State restrictions that devalue their land.

•  Tougher gun-control laws.

•  A bleeding-heart law that does away with the death penalty.

•  A state law legalizing gay marriages.

•  Political map-makers who deprive them of their conservative congressman.

It’s enough to make you want to secede, which is the plan put forth by a Carroll County blogger, Scott Strzelczyk of New Windsor, for the five counties often lumped together as Western Maryland.

The verb “to secede” is a curious term not to be confused with the similar-sounding verb “to succeed.”

Indeed, were the five western counties to secede from Maryland, there would be no chance for that movement to succeed.

It won’t happen

Here’s why.

•  The 51st state: Western Maryland would be the third smallest by population (less than 660,000). Only Wyoming and Vermont would have fewer residents.

Read more at Citybizlist…