We're #45!

Out of 51 - we've never understood why they include the District of Columbia in these surveys:

• Unhappy?

  You're not alone. A new happiness survey ranks all 50 states and the District of Columbia -- and Illinois comes in at a miserable 45th.

  People in sunny, outdoorsy states -- Louisiana, Hawaii, Florida -- say they're the happiest, and researchers think they know why.

• Economists Andrew J. Oswald and Stephen Wu compared the happiness ranking with studies that rated states on criteria including availability of public land, commuting time, taxes, climate, crime rates, air quality and schools.

Let's see...land, commute, taxes, crime and schools. Yup, that'd do it. If they included political overlords, we'd have beat out New York for the bottom ranking.