The State of Freeman Channing is a gargantuan, environmentally stunning nation, remarkable for its compulsory military service, state-planned economy, and punitive income tax rates. The hard-nosed, democratic population of 27.546 billion Freeman Channingians are prohibited from doing almost everything except voting, which they do timidly and conservatively.

The government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, moralistic, socially-minded morass — juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Defense, and Spirituality. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Columbia Heights. The average income tax rate is 75.8%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The large but stagnant Freeman Channingian economy, worth 461 trillion betales a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is quite specialized, is led by the Door-to-door Insurance Sales industry, with significant contributions from Book Publishing, Arms Manufacturing, and Beef-Based Agriculture. Average income is 16,741 betales, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The police force is on a recruitment drive, tourists from around the world come to visit the country's famous rainforests, military spending is on the increase, and Freeman Channing has designated Columbia Heights as its capital city. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Freeman Channing's national animal is the deer, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Freeman Channing is ranked 231,338^th in the world and 1^st in Baltimore for Most Compassionate Citizens, scoring 41.43 on the Kitten Softness Rating.