Are Some National Rankings Rank?

Lexington, Kentucky is the most sedentary city in the U.S. Men's Health magazine based its 2011 ranking of 100 cities on how often residents exercised, the number of households that watched 15 hours of cable television weekly and bought more than 11 video games yearly, and the DVT rate -blood clots in veins associated with inactivity. Southern cities dominated the list - Tulsa; Oklahoma City; Birmingham; Laredo; Nashville; Little Rock; and Charleston, West Virginia. Seattle, San Francisco and Oakland were the most physically active cities - the least likely to "sit out" when it came to exercise.

Fresno, California is the city with the most car thefts. That's according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau's 2011 ranking, which calculated rates of car theft per capita among 366 metropolitan areas. Seven other areas in the top 10 were also in California - Modesto, 2nd; Bakersfield-Delano, 3rd; Vallejo-Fairfield, 5th; Sacramento-Arden-Arcade-Roseville, 6th; Stockton, 7th; Visalia-Porterville, 8th; and San Francisco-Oakland-Freemont, 9th. Completing the top 10 were Spokane, Washington, 4th; and Yakima, Washington, 10th. The city with the fewest car thefts was State College, Pennsylvania. That may be one reason why the State College area is referred to as "Happy Valley".

Mississippi is the state where the highest percentage of dining-out dollars is spent on fast food. Fast food is defined as food served in restaurants without table service. Mississippi is also the state with the most overweight and obese adults. The Health Website based its 2011 ranking on the percentage of fast food restaurants and the percentage of dining-out dollars the average resident spent in them yearly. Alphabetically the other 9 states in the top 10 were Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and West Virginia. Considering Americans spent $165 billion dollars on fast food in 2010, we should all slow down.

New Hampshire and South Dakota tied as the most "free" state in the U.S. George Mason University researchers ranked states on fiscal policy, regulatory policy, economic freedom and personal freedom. New York was the least free state partly because of having the highest taxes. In between the extremes Georgia was 15th in overall freedom, 11th in economic freedom and 31st in personal freedom. Maryland's strict gun laws, automobile regulations and lack of status for same-sex partnerships contributed to its being 43rd in overall freedom and 50th in personal freedom. According to the 2010 census, people are moving to freer states. They are "freethinkers".