Does Living in a Blue State Make People Blue?

Echoing the SL Allysia Finley in WSJ Online picks up on the association between happiness and redness. Well actually it not that hard to see if you just look at the list. Conservatives take responsibility for their own happiness. Liberals look to government and their neighbors to provide for their well-being.

Geography or State of Mind?

Last week Economists Andrew J. Oswald of the University of Warwick in England and Stephen Wu of Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., reported "happiness rankings" across the United States. The top states in terms of happiness included Louisiana, Hawaii, Florida, Tennessee and Arizona. This study was widely reported by the news agencies who tried to pass it off as having something to do with the weather. However, I see something more fundamental at work here. Red or conservative states dominate the top half of the list, whereas unhappy States tend to be Blue (no pun intended). This is certainly consistent with my years of observation and experiences living in several different States. What the study does shows is 1.) Liberals are miserable people (who unfortunately try to spread their unhappiness nationally), while conservatives tend to take responsibility for their own happiness; and 2.) Even liberals have a hard time being miserable in Hawaii.

Happiness rankings

1. Louisiana Red

2. Hawaii Blue

3. Florida Red

4. Tennessee Red

5. Arizona Red

6. South Carolina Red

7. Mississippi Red

8. Montana Red

9. Alabama Red

10. Maine Blue

11. Wyoming Red

12. Alaska Red

13. North Carolina Red

14. South Dakota Red

15. Texas Red

16. Idaho Red

17. Vermont Blue

18. Arkansas Red

19. Georgia Red

20. Utah Red

21. Oklahoma Red

22. Delaware Blue

23. Colorado Purple

24. New Mexico Purple

25. North Dakota Red

26. Minnesota Blue

27. Virginia Red

28. New Hampshire Blue

29. Wisconsin Blue

30. Oregon Blue

31. Iowa Blue

32. Kansas Red

33. Nebraska Red

34. West Virginia Red

35. Kentucky Red

36. Washington Blue

37. Washington, D.C. Blue

38. Missouri Purple

39. Nevada Red

40. Maryland Blue

41. Pennsylvania Blue

42. Rhode Island Blue

43. Ohio Red

44. Massachusetts Blue

45. Illinois Blue

46. California Blue

47. New Jersey Blue

48. Indiana Red

49. Michigan Blue

50. Connecticut Blue

51. New York Blue

Source: The Associated Press

We the Insolent People

It's has come down to desperate race between Congress and their elitist friends throughout government, academia and the "mainstream" media, and those insolent people who keep trying to fill up their voice mail and e-mail boxes. You know, those people the Constitution refers to as "We the People." The good news is the vast majority of people are now onto their game, the bad news is it might be too late. Many of us have known their statist aims for years, but we happily welcome those of you who have just come out of an Obama trance over the past 6 months to join us in this vital work. Indeed, we will need everyone to be involved and activated to put a halt to and then reverse this big government nightmare they call "healthcare", but really has little to do with health and everything to do with laying waste the American individual liberties that have so long thwarted statist objectives. It is a runaway government take-over freight train that first left the station after the 2006 midterm elections but did not reach full steam until the "Immaculation" (as Rush would say) of President Obama in 2009.

Here is the situation now. Congress is in the midst of a reckless attempt to take power from the States and the individual and consolidating it into a centralized authority. It is teetering between success and failure at this very moment, in late 2009, as most of us would prefer celebrating the holidays with family and friends. They know that "We the insolent people" are against them and against them in large numbers. However, they figure that if they can imbed the machinery of the takeover before we can respond, it will not matter. They are counting on the fact that historically all but the most dedicated patriots lose interest between the moment of their outrage and the next election. They are also counting on their "stimulus" and TARP stashes to pay off whoever necessary to allow them to eek out a Congressional majority in 2010. Even if they lose their majority, the infrastructure will be in place to finalize their push to an inevitable socialist takeover, and as Ronald Reagan famously stated "a government bureau (once established) is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth!" In other words, we need to minimize its creation and implementation as much as possible between now and the midterm election. Then, we must remove all congressmen complicit in the coup attempt and demand that those taking their place in 2010 understand one thing. It will not be enough having an R- before their name on the ballot. If they do not actively reverse the damage inflicted by the current Congress and work ceaselessly to re-establish the founding principles upon which this nation was created they will not last long either.

Addition by Subtraction

Investigators from the University of Vermont reported in the most recent issue of Archives of Internal Medicine that limiting TV viewing by 50% in adults resulted in significantly increased levels of physical activity and energy expenditure. The overweight and obese volunteers were monitored over a 6 week period. During the first 3 weeks all volunteers were monitored for baseline TV viewing. During the second 3 week period half of the participants were locked-out of their TVs once they reached 50% of their usual viewing until the beginning of the next week. The volunteers were not instructed to do anything in particular to replace television viewing. Nevertheless, the intervention resulted in an increased calorie expenditure of 119 calories per day. There was no change in energy expenditure. While this does not seem like much of a calorie differential, if maintained volunteers would lose an average of 12 lbs of fat in one year, and 60 lbs in 5 years.

Science at a Crossroads

"This isn't only about the credibility of global warming."

Daniel Henninger's opinion piece in the WSJ yesterday reminds us that it is not just the proponents of global warming that have taken a credibility hit, but all of science. Even those representing the so-called hard sciences will be less trusted going forward, because while it may be true that numbers don't lie it is also obvious that those reporting the numbers sometimes do.

As a biomedical scientist at a major university I can attest that medical and hard science academics are at least as political and opinionated as the common citizen. Moreover, they have a tendency to believe the letters after their names provide some kind of a trump card in any argument even in areas well removed from their areas of expertise. That being said, it is when their specialty intersects with public policy that they are most dangerous. At this nexus there is a tremendous conflict of interest since their ability to link their work to a "crisis" or a victim class is strongly related to the financial support they can expect from government agencies such as the National Institutes of Health.

In my field the major temptation is to milk the increase in obesity for all it is worth. While obesity is likely a significant health risk and a harbinger for other medical problems, the extent to which extra lbs or inches per se is contributing is still uncertain. Obese individuals often have other attributes that may be more important than what the scale tells them, not the least of which might be their level of physical activity.

There is no easy way around this conflict of interest except through an unfettered and transparent peer-review process, an unbiased media, and continual public engagement. As we have seen with the East Anglia Climate Research scientists these checks may be compromised and/or inadequate.

Kona Ironman World Championships
Dec 19th

You've seen it before, but it looks like time for a refresher.

You Ask What is Our Aim?

You ask, What is our policy? I will say; "It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy." You ask, What is our aim? I can answer with one word: Victory—victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival.

-Winston Churchill