WANT TO BE HAPPY? MYOB

Moralizers aren't happy and that's the Gospel truth!

So who’s happy in America? Must be those sun-worshiping Floridians? Or maybe folks in the Bible Belt who go to bed snug (smug?) in their belief that God loves them. Or maybe it’s those Midwesterners holding fast to family values. Nope! Want to be happy? Try minding your own business. A new study shows that, with the exception of Utah, folks in states with an ethos of live-and-let-live are happier than the self-righteous. Education and wealth matter more than good weather or piety, and happy states don’t get uptight about gay people either. The happiest ultra-Christian state? Texas at number 21. The bottom ten are all either post-industrial (Michigan and Ohio) or notches on the Bible Belt. For what it's worth, eight of the top ten are reliably Democratic in their voting habits, while nine of the bottom ten generally vote for Republicans. All that sun in Florida only gets residents number 30. See:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20091110/sc_livescience/happieststatesarewealthyandtolerant