You really aren't that big of a deal

1. The Sun is 864,400 miles (1,391,000 kilometers) across. This is about109 times the diameter of Earth. The Sun weighs about 333,000 times as much as Earth. It is so large that about 1,300,000 planet Earths can fit inside of it.  
2. 
   
   
3. The innermost layer of the sun is the core. With a temperature of 15 million kelvins (27 million degrees Fahrenheit)
4. The outermost layer of the sun is the corona. Only visible during eclipses, it is a low density cloud of plasma with higher transparency than the inner layers. The white corona is a million times less bright than the inner layers of the sun, but is many times larger. The corona is hotter than some of the inner layers. Its average temperature is 1 million K (2 million degrees F) but in some places it can reach 3 million K (5 million degrees F). 
5. 
   Temperatures steadily decrease as we move farther away from the core, but after the photosphere they begin to rise again. There are several theories that explain this, but none have been proven.
   
   
   In the corona, above sunspots and areas of complex magnetic field patterns, are solar flares. These sparks of energy sometimes reach the size of the Earth and can last for up to several hours. Their temperature has been recorded at 11 million K (20 million degrees F). The extreme heat produces x rays that create light when they hit the gases of the corona.
6. 
   
   
7. The sun is the source of virtually all heat for our planet.  The earth is insignificant in comparison.  
8. If you want to feel even more insignificant, this guy ran a program to prove that every human alive would fit into one 900-meter ball.  
9. 
   
   
10. And yet if our politicians are to be believed, our failure to give them more control over the energy economy is boiling the planet.  
11. Seriously, people....  It's time to get over yourselves.  It's the sun, and the occasional lack of it.  You aren't that big of a deal.  Go here for more fun details.  
12. 
    
    

The ObamaCare Poster Contest Winner

This one is beautiful, ain't it? 
Go here to see the other contestants. 
Go here to see what that photogenic idiot is likely to accomplish for medicine in California. 

On Obama's unnecessary trip to Chicago

Barack Obama is going to Chicago to talk about ending the gun violence.  Chicago has one of the nation's highest gun-crime rates.

This trip isn't necessary.  Chicago has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation.  They already have the signs in place.  Most of the potential victims are already disarmed.  

Real Men Of Genius: Calvin Coolidge

The 1920's "roared" partly because Calvin Coolidge was president. 
Calvin didn't get involved with much.  Stayed home a lot. 
Didn't preach for anything but less government involvement. 
Told the lobbyists for the first Farm Bill to shove it. 
Supported Civil Rights for blacks and immigrants. 
He cut taxes and spending to the point that by 1927, only the top two % of earners paid any income tax.  He slashed the national debt by 1/4.  

That's really all he did to create one of the most prosperous times in U.S. history. 

It was called "The Roaring Twenties".

If he'd been president at the beginning of the the stock market crash of '29, I suspect we wouldn't have seen a Great Depression. Calvin would've ignored it.

Whited's Law: A depression is a recession that the government tried to kill. 

Where's Calvin now that we really need him? 

On gasoline speculators driving up prices

This is BRILLIANT.  Don Boudreaux at his best:

Here’s a letter to the Programming Director at Washington, DC’s, WTOP Radio:

During this morning’s 8 o’clock hour I heard one of the most ironic lines that I’ve heard in some time. That this irony was unintentional makes it all the more telling.

Asked by your “pump patrol” reporter about rising gasoline prices, a motorist at a gasoline station noted that “My tank is actually way more than half full now. I’m topping it off because I’m sure the price will be even higher this weekend.” When your reporter then asked her “What do you think explains these rising prices?” she replied “Speculators.” Your reporter followed up with “Do you think they should be stopped?” The motorist responded immediately: “Of course! They’re criminal.”

Speculating that the price of gasoline will rise, this motorist took action today – buying gasoline that she otherwise wouldn’t have bought today – that puts upward pressure on the price of gasoline today.

Had your reporter pointed out that this motorist herself is speculating in gasoline, I wonder if this motorist would have persisted in regarding speculation as being criminal. I wonder, too, how she would react if government – heeding her advice to stop speculation – were to forcibly prevent motorists from topping off their tanks.

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030

And that is why I want to somehow make a lot of money and retire and go study economics at George Mason University with Don Boudreaux, Russ Roberts, Tyler Cowen and Walter Williams while they all still live and breathe and walk among us. 

The "Make The Speculators Pay" logo came from this unrelated article about the European Union trying to blame their troubles on people other than themselves.

Barack Obama - Most Effective President Ever !!!

The man says he wants to make something happen, and by golly, it happens. 
Here's The Teleprompter Jesus, in the flesh, talking about how he's going to make you pay more at the pump so you'll stop buying SUV's and become more fuel-efficient. 




Go here to read a summary of the mindset.  Back in the day, someone would come out with a new product, and if it was any good it would catch on, and the old way would slowly die. 

Contrast that approach with the one used in the Year Of Our Lord 2012, where new product-makers lobby Washington for subsidies, Washington mandates their use, Washington punishes their competitors (see LightSquared), and Obama then forces you to use the new product made by people who owe their very existence to Obama.  

It's like watching that wasp on Animal planet, the one that stings and paralyzes a caterpillar and drags it into its nest so the baby wasps can feast until they're grown.  In a way, it's beautiful. 

Republican primary preferences by age group

The Mainstream Media often seems perplexed by the college kids voting for Ron Paul. 
Why do they vote for Ron Paul?
Because he as always advocated a smaller government and a stable money supply. 
Why is that attractive to college students? 
Because they will be the true "producers" who will have to work overtime to clean up their parents' mess. 

It really is that simple. 

The cure for unemployment that we're waiting to discover

There are hundreds if not thousands of potentially devastating videos just waiting to be created about The Teleprompter Jesus and his ability to make bad situations worse.

Note the unemployment rate early on in this video, as employers defensively react to every word that this guy says.

Kinda like the way the stock market reacted during his speech on the economy.

Here's the Obama speech that employers are waiting to hear:

"Yeah, we made some mistakes.
We're not going to try to do anything else to create jobs for the rest of our lives.

Why not?

Because we suck at it.
Taking money from group A to give to group B so they will hire more people from group C ? That merely causes group A to hide their money, causes group B to create projects that Washington likes rather than consumers, and creates a nastly little political bloc out of group C.


Also, we're going to settle in on a Flat Tax system. It's going to slide between 5% and 15%. If you're homeless, you're still going to pay 5% of your "profits" to Washington. If you're Bill Gates, you're going to pay 15%. No loopholes in exchange for campaign donations. Ever.


Oh, and one other thing. ObamaCare is now over. If you hire someone, you're not expected to be his nursemaid, doctor, surgeon, or insurance agent.


I almost forgot... CardCheck is now over. If you hire someone, you don't have to worry about him banding all of your labor vendors together to force you to hire from a certain group.


I'm going to remain on vacation for the forseeable future.


Hope this helps.

Now, watch this swing....

This is what happens when the government decides to get tough on the Mexican onion-pickers who are taking American jobs

Are you irritated by people who were born outside of the lines of latitude and longitude that you think of as your own? 
If someone was born on the oppositite side of an insignificant river from you, do you support laws to keep them from working on "your" side of the river? 
Do you want to get tough on our nation's onion-pickers, blueberry harvesters (and my forklift drivers) because their mothers birthed them in places that maps paint in a different color from your place? 
Do you want to keep Mexicans from doing jobs that you personally would try to avoid? 
In short, are you an asshole? 

I believe that the governor of Georgia can answer "yes" to all of these questions.

 
Here's Jay Bookman:

After enactment of House Bill 87, a law designed to drive illegal immigrants out of Georgia, state officials appear shocked to discover that HB 87 is, well, driving a lot of illegal immigrants out of Georgia.

It might almost be funny if it wasn’t so sad.
The resulting manpower shortage has forced state farmers to leave millions of dollars’ worth of blueberries, onions and other crops unharvested and rotting in the fields. It has also put state officials into something of a panic at the damage they’ve done to Georgia’s largest industry.
Barely a month ago, you might recall, Gov. Nathan Deal welcomed the TV cameras into his office as he proudly signed HB 87 into law. Two weeks later, with farmers howling, a scrambling Deal was forced to order a hasty investigation into the impact of the law he had just signed, as if all this had come as quite a surprise to him.

Well, if the Massey-Ferguson, Case, Kubota and Ford tractor dealers ever convince some government bureaucrat to outlaw John Deere tractors, we're going to have a tractor shortage.  If the bureaucrat is surprised by the "unexpected" shortage, you shouldn't be surprised - they generally have the density of cinderblocks.

(Go here for a glorious compilation of headlines using the word "unexpected" bureaucratic misunderstandings of cause and effect.)

So what solution did Governor Deal propose for those having to deal with his crisis? 

“The agriculture industry is the number one economic engine in Georgia and it is my sincere hope to find viable and law-abiding solutions to the current problem our farmers face,” Deal said in announcing the findings. In the meantime, Deal proposes that farmers try to hire the 2,000 unemployed criminal probationers estimated to live in southwest Georgia.

I propose that Governor Deal try out a few of those 2,000 unemployed criminal probationers in his own workforce, and let us all know how that works out for him.  1,500 of them were probably locked up because of his anti-marijuana laws.  Trying to solve the farmers' labor problem with the victims of his Drug War problem is nothing but a recipe for another problem. 
If you're going to harvest crops like onions and blueberries, you have to be in incredibly good shape. 

Governor Deal would probably get better result by putting the ex-cons to work in the Georgia Department Of Motor Vehicles or the Georgia Highway Patrol.  Ex-cons, at least the ones who work for me, are usually very polite. 
Here's where Jay Bookman goes off the rails:

It’s hard to envision a way out of this. Georgia farmers could try to solve the manpower shortage by offering higher wages, but that would create an entirely different set of problems. If they raise wages by a third to a half, which is probably what it would take, they would drive up their operating costs and put themselves at a severe price disadvantage against competitors in states without such tough immigration laws. That’s one of the major disadvantages of trying to implement immigration reform state by state, rather than all at once.

Bookman is deeply and profoundly wrong.  That's not a bug, it's a feature. 

New York legalized gay'n'lesbian marriage yesterday.  Because of its Southern Baptist infestation, Georgia is unlikely to do so anytime soon.  New York companies wanting to hire talented workers who just happen to be born gay or lesbian now have an advantage over Georgia companies.  The solution is for Georgia to get rid of its handicaps, not inflict similar disadvantages over New York. 

Texas doesn't have immigration laws as "tough" as those in Georgia.  Texans wanting to hire talented Canadians or Albanians now have an advantage over their Georgia counterparts.
 
Mitch Daniels, the governor of Indiana, seems to be mentally stable.  Rick Perry, the governor of Texas, doesn't.  Indiana now has that advantage over Texas. 

Giving states the ability to try things out and experiment with different policies is a good thing.  When voters see that their policies have unintended consequences, they can change those policies. But without a "control group" in another state, they can't see the differences. 

Bookman gets back on track in his last few paragraphs.  His last sentence is brilliant:

The pain this is causing is real. People are going to lose their crops, and in some cases their farms. The small-town businesses that supply those farms with goods and services are going to suffer as well. For economically embattled rural Georgia, this could be a major blow.


In fact, with a federal court challenge filed last week, you have to wonder whether state officials aren’t secretly hoping to be rescued from this mess by the intervention of a judge. But given how the Georgia law is drafted and how the Supreme Court ruled in a recent case out of Arizona, I don’t think that’s likely.

We’re going to reap what we have sown, even if the farmers can’t.

Ok, that's all for today.  I have a crew of 30 bad-assed Mexicans to keep busy.  They are great, great people.  Georgia's loss is my gain. 

The picture of the Mexican migrant workers stealing American cucumber-picking jobs came from here.   The map showing the arbitrary lines and coastal borders where immigrants aren't welcome came from here.   The "No Deal" pic came from this Facebook page.   My boss who wants me to work on this beautiful Saturday morning came from Juarez Mexico. 

Ben Bernanke is puzzled

We've allowed the government to spend almost a trillion dollars on make-work projects to stimulate the economy. 

We've destroyed almost 3/4 of a million automobiles so we could recycle the metal and make new automobiles (see: Cash For Clunkers)

We've introduced ObamaCare, a program that has scared the living shit out of anyone foolish enough to consider hiring new employees. 

The Federal Reserve is printing new de-valued money faster than McDonald's prints Happy Meal boxes.

We've elected a president who would have to study for 5 years to rise to the level of "economic idiot".   

The National Labor Relations Board is now telling companies where they can and cannot build factories. 

The Democrat Party is floating all sorts of potential policies to raise taxes and punish success. 

And Ben Freakin' Bernanke, chair of the Federal Reserve, says he doesn't "have a precise read on why this slower pace of growth is persisting".   

I swear to God, he said it. 

In which the Fort Worth Star-Telegram fails to ask the big questions

Jim Fuquay of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has written a lengthy front page article about rising prices for food, fuel, and clothing. 

The print version explains that bad weather has driven up food prices. 

Mr. Fuquay says that  competition from China is sending fuel prices upward. 

Nowhere in the entire article does Mr. Fuquay ask the obvious questions....

"Why in the hell is the government printing so much money, and when will it stop?" 

Here's Ron Paul on the real cause of inflation:

Because no one understands that inflation is growth in the monetary supply, no one is able to combat it effectively. We hear all sorts of hand-wringing about increasing inflation, and all sorts of explanations about how rising oil and food prices will make inflation worse. At the same time, the fact that MZM, the closest approximation to total money supply that still is reported by the Fed, is still rising by almost 15% per year and that M2 is rising significantly as well is quietly ignored. The pundits have causation backwards: it is inflation that leads to rising prices of oil and food, and not vice versa.


Until the cause of inflation is understood, no effective strategy can be undertaken to combat it. The problem, however, is that the government does not want inflation to be done away with. Inflation benefits debtors and harms creditors, and the United States government is the biggest debtor of all. The United States government, the banking monopoly under the Federal Reserve System, and politically-connected firms and industries are the first entities to take advantage of new money injected into the system, before prices increase. As the increased supply of money begins to chase the same number of goods, prices rise, and the average American suffers. Poor and middle-class Americans are always the hardest hit by inflation, as the weakening dollar makes the imported goods that many Americans depend on more expensive.

Governments love to talk about "things" costing more.  They almost never talk about dollars being worth less.
Why is it that the unpaid bloggers are the ones who have to point this out? 

Why the tornadoes hit Alabama and not Canada

I knew that the Global Warmists would pile on to the tornadoes and storms that recently hit Alabama and Mississippi, but I wanted to find the perfect example before posting anything about it. 

As all right-thinking people know, Jehovah/Yahweh/Zuul/Gaia doesn't like it when we tolerate gays and lesbians.  So He/She/It sent a hurricane to New Orleans to punish the offending parties. 

If our crops fail, it's because there are witches in our midst.  After we burn a few of them, the Gods are appeased and prosperity returns. 

I'll never forget going to my uncle's house in the early 1970's and hearing a farmer question whether or not our space travel was causing an uptick in hurricanes. 

Well, guess why we had tornadoes in the South last week? 

Bad legislative karma.  Yep.  Certain regions have legislators that don't bow at the foot of Saint Albert, The Goracle of Music City, Tennessee.  The Gods sent the tornadoes to those exact places as payback. 

Here's Brad Johnson at ThinkProgress:

“Given that global warming is unequivocal,” climate scientist Kevin Trenberth cautioned the American Meteorological Society in January of this year, “the null hypothesis should be that all weather events are affected by global warming rather than the inane statements along the lines of ‘of course we cannot attribute any particular weather event to global warming.’”
The congressional delegations of these states — Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, Virginia, and Kentucky — overwhelmingly voted to reject the science that polluting the climate is dangerous. They are deliberately ignoring the warnings from scientists.

So there you have it.  If the congressional delegations of 'Bama, Tennessee, Ole Miss, Georgia, Virginny, and Ol' Kentuck had just voted to let Al Gore buy Carbon Credits from himself, if we had just started using CFL bulbs a little sooner, if we had just built a few more idiotic windmills in West Texas, if we had implemented an economy-destroying carbon tax, if we had carpooled, starved a few more brown people by using grain as ethanol, used a push mower, minimized packaging, put on a sweater, bought a bracelet, air dried our clothes, and done other things to conform to some bureaucrat's Luddite fantasy.....

If we had turned our lives over to the government, crucified the evil Koch brothers, voted Democrat, and listened to the warnings from totally disinterested scientists whose research funding and prestige doesn't depend on government funding at all....

Then the earth-goddess Gaia would have been pleased.  Alabama would have been spared.  The tornadoes would have hit Canada, where the natives are well known for violating the Christian Sabbath.  And consuming alcohol.  And wearing clothing made of blended fabrics.  And not wearing Burkhas.   

Or it's possible that ThinkProgress needs to learn that correlation is not causation.  

First Baptist Church Of Dallas, Robert Jeffress, And The Earthquake In Japan

This Sunday morning, the Reverend Doctor Robert Jeffress is going to address the congregation of First Baptist Church Of Dallas on the subject of "Earthquake Theology". 

The sermon will be centered around these blood-curdling scripturea from the book of Nahum, chapter one:

2 The LORD is a jealous and avenging God;
the LORD takes vengeance and is filled with wrath.
The LORD takes vengeance on his foes
and vents his wrath against his enemies.
3 The LORD is slow to anger but great in power;
the LORD will not leave the guilty unpunished.
His way is in the whirlwind and the storm,
and clouds are the dust of his feet.
4 He rebukes the sea and dries it up;
he makes all the rivers run dry.
Bashan and Carmel wither
and the blossoms of Lebanon fade.
5 The mountains quake before him
and the hills melt away.
The earth trembles at his presence,
the world and all who live in it.
6 Who can withstand his indignation?
Who can endure his fierce anger?
His wrath is poured out like fire;
the rocks are shattered before him.
7 The LORD is good,
a refuge in times of trouble.
He cares for those who trust in him,
8 but with an overwhelming flood
he will make an end of Nineveh;
he will pursue his foes into the realm of darkness.
9 Whatever they plot against the LORD
he will bring to an end;

And all this time I thought earthquakes were caused by plate tectonics. 

If you go here, you can see Dr. Jeffress's schedule of media-whoring.  Hit the KRLD link, and you'll hear Jeffress claim that the Japan earthquake and tsunami were either caused by God, like he caused the flood that killed everyone except Noah's family, or he "allowed" the disasters in the same way he allowed the death of Job's family. 
Seriously.  God is working his purpose out.  In the biblical examples and murders that Jeffress mentions, God was either killing off sinners or just trying to make a point during an argument with Satan.  Pick one. 
If the KRLD interview is a preview, then that will probably be the nurturing message for First Baptist Dallas this Sunday.   

That ol' Yahweh, he's quite a guy, isn't he? 

Some people and some cultures just can't comprehend that things....just....sometimes....happen.  There is no deeper meaning to them.  Hurricane Katrina wasn't caused by gays in New Orleans.  The earthquake in Haiti wasn't "allowed" to happen because Haitians practice voodoo, no matter what Pat Robertson says.  If it doesn't rain for a while, you don't need to pray harder and longer.  If your crops die, you don't need to burn a few witches.  There is never a good reason to throw virgins into the volcano. 

People want to believe that they're responsible for everything that happens to them, that they can take control of their environment, and that prayer, positive thinking, crystals, or talismans can improve their odds.  This is why some people give money to Dr. Robert Jeffress.  And this is the main reason why I've always been skeptical of the idea that the Goddess Gaia will be appeased if we'll just stop driving SUV's.and give more money and power to climate evangelists who claim they can change the weather. 

According to Dr. Robert Jeffress, God either caused or allowed the earthquake in Japan.  It makes no difference if God made it happen or was just taking the morning off. God was in control of the situation.  If the collection of books and stories that we call "Bible" is 100% true, then Jeffress is 100% correct, and I have a grudging admiration for Jeffress for having the cajones to be somewhat consistent. 

If I have a point here, it's that our ancient and holy books, and our ancient and holy concepts of gods and curses might be due for an upgrade.  Otherwise, Robert Jeffress is right. 

God decided to kill 10,000 Japanese people. 

Hit the "Taking X out of Xmas" label below to read about the Christmas campaign that First Baptist Dallas gave us last year.  Hit the "Earthquakes" label to read about what kind of bumpersticker God would put on his Cadillac. 

On the Arizona shooting

I'm not a Palin fan, but this one nails it....

Blackbirds are dying because of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal. They died because of your sins.

A few days ago I posted something about the dead blackbirds in Bebe, Arkansas.
Here's an update, from televangelist Cindy Jacobs, with a fresh coat of Whitening to Radley Balko. 

How manly is your drink???

All I'm going to say in my defense is that Michelob Ultra has only 2.5 carbs per serving, okay? 
Before I switched over to Michelob Ultra, the few things I consumed were clustered around the Keith Richards "Hair On Your Chest" axis. 
I got up to 237 pounds before I switched over to Michelob Ultra.  Now I weigh 185.  So there. 
I've never even been aware of the existence "Sophistication" scale running from left to right. 

I was never a frat boy. 
I used to be a lightweight, then I became a heavyweight, mostly from eating rice stuffed inside baked potatoes, wrapped in Texas Toast, and then deep-fried inside a pizza crust. 
That's the ONLY reason I switched to Michelob Ultra, okay?  To lower the carbs.  But it's actually pretty good stuff. 

I drive a Ford F-150 pickup.  I've stared down employees who are rapists, thieves, and convicted felons. 
Michelob Ultra is good stuff.  Especially the Pomegranate Raspberry flavor one.  I've always wondered why bartenders kinda giggle to themselves when I order that. 

I shot a 6-point buck the very first time I went deer hunting.  Top that, Justin Bieber. 

The defective, faulty, erroneous chart came from here.
I also kinda like the Barry Manilow CD where he covers Broadway show tunes, but that doesn't mean anything. 

Are we going to give Toyota the benefit of another show trial?

So are we going to have another show trial? 



Are we going to reimburse Congress's GM and Chrysler's competitors? 

Is Obama going to set up a slush fund escrow account to pay off Toyota dealers, mechanics, and salesmen because of the harm done to their business, kinda like we're doing for the victims of the BP oil spill?  Is Obama going to call Reid and Pelosi into the White House, and tell them how much they're going to set aside for their victims? 

I don't think so. 

Oh well.  You can go here for details.  Old people tend to confuse the gas pedal with the brake.  Move along, people.  Nothing to see here. 

On the harmful effects of Global Cooling

From the Los Angeles Times:

Unusually cold temperatures in Southern California continued, with Los Angeles International Airport setting a record low on Friday.

LAX got to only 67 degrees, breaking a record set in 1926, according to the National Weather Service.

Can we say "coolest summer ever" for L.A. ?  Or is it too early? 

Fort Worth's summer has been downright pleasant so far. 

I hope this isn't anything we need to start worrying about.  A lot of people have spent a lot of money and time lobbying Congress to achieve this kind of weather, lobbying for carbon emission quotas, cap and tax schemes, perpetutal motion machines, and fans blown by unseen fairy flatulence. 

Unfortunately, none of those schemes are in place.  Yet.  It would be a shame if we got the good effects before the good causes were put into place by our government.  Less-informed people might start thinking that there was no relationship between our behavior and the weather. 

For tens of thousands of years, superstitious people have believed that when we anger The Gods, it causes changes in the weather.  The spring rains don't come.  The corn harvest is puny.  It must be because of something that we did. 

Therefore we do rain dances, throw virgins into the volcano, make chicken sacrifices to The Corn God, put a carbon-trading scam in place, purchase a Prius, or pray.  They are equally effective. 

If earth continues cooling, people will stop feeling guilty and will stop making sacrifices to The Government The Weather Gods.  Well, God is not mocked. 

Senator James Inhofe will be punished for allowing his family to build this obscene structure during Washington D.C.'s Global Cooling scare last year.  (Luke 17:2  "It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin.")  You can look it up ! 

 
Pray for heat.  Pray, pray, pray.  All bad things should always be our fault.  Repent.  Sacrifice.  For we are guilty, guilty, guilty of doing things that are bad, bad, bad. 

I'm gonna go sacrifice a goat.  Have a good day !   (But don't you dare feel good about it.)

The Freedom Effect - Texas Style

Forbes has put out their list of the 10 Metropolitan areas where the recession is easing, but it's in one of those annoying formats where you have to hit "next" 10 times to see all 10 cities.  Go to this Newser summary of the rankings if you find that to be tiresome. 

Their formula takes into account projected job growth and housing prices. Here's the list:

1. (tie) Washington, DC-Arlington-Alexandria
2. (tie) Austin-Round Rock
3. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington
4. (tie) Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington
5. (tie) Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown
6. Denver-Aurora
7. San Antonio
8. Boston-Cambridge-Quincy
9. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana
10. Kansas City (Missouri and Kansas)

Skip this rant, since it doesn't really contribute to the argument in this post:  Seeing Washington D.C. ranked as the most recession-proof enclave on the planet should come as no surprise, since our system requires all the tax, stimulus, lobbying, porkulus, and kickback money to go there first so that our Lords and Masters can take their cut off the top.  Look at the huge pay increases given to Department Of Transportation employees, for instance.  The number of employees breaking the $170,000.00 per year barrier has increased by 1,680 % in just two years, while the rest of us struggle through a recession.  Nice, recession-proof work if you can get it. 

With a Statist Congress and The Teleprompter Jesus running the show, D.C.'s ranking at #1 is to be expected.  Ranking any other American cities with Washington is like comparing Chihuahua, Juarez, and Guadalajara, Mexico's financial well-being to that of the Sinaloa Drug Cartel. 

Now that we have that out of the way....

Tied for first is Austin/Round Rock, Texas. 
Next is Fort Worth/Arlington/Dallas, Texas.
Next (tied with the Minnesota Metroplex) is Houston/Baytown, Texas. 
Denver breaks up the Texas winning streak, and then you get....
San Antonio, Texas. 

Now let's hop over to Statepolicy.com, which ranks U.S. states by Fiscal Freedom, Regulatory Freedom,  and Personal Freedom.  You can hit the link to see the methodology used to rank each state. 

In the Fiscal Freedom category, which includes things like proper restraints on local government, a high ratio between private vs. public employee earnings, and low local taxes, Texas was ranked #4 in the nation. 

In the Regulatory Freedom category, which covers freedom from labor regulation, health insurance mandates, occupational licensing, eminent domain, the tort system, environmental regulation, and utilities, Texas was ranked at a shameful #27.   I suspect this is because some of our billionaires like to dabble in eminent domain schemes and monopolies via regulation.  This is a good subject for further research. 

This gives Texas an Economic Freedom score of  #7 in the nation.  

The next big category is personal freedom.  It can be summarized as the right to do what you want to do, just as long as you don't harm anyone else.  It includes everything from gambling, to alcohol regulation, bicycle helmet regulations, forfeiture laws, tobacco bans, gay marriage, fireworks regulation, gun control, and home schooling.  Texas came in at #5 on the personal freedom list. 

All of these ranking combine to give Texas a Freedom Index score of #5 in the nation. 
Colorado (home of Denver/Aurora on the list of Metro areas recovering from the recession) is  #2 on the Freedom Index. 
Missouri (home of Kansas City on the list above) is #6 on the Freedom Index. 

Boston and Los Angeles distort the curve, since Massachusetts and California are only #44 and #47 on the Freedom Index.  (I have no theory on why Boston, Massachusetts, is doing so well ; California doesn't matter since their state government will be bankrupt within two years.) 

This is still enough to show a nice, neat correlation between freedom and prosperity.  Here's one of the Heritage Foundation's graphs showing the correlation between freedom and per capita GDP.  What's good for the states is obviously good for the nations:

Note to everyone moving to Texas:  Welcome !  We're glad you're here.  But if you're a refugee from another state, trying to outrun the consequences of your votes, please repent.  We're doing well here because we're willing to leave each other alone.   

Kicker Gratitude