re: Why would ANYBODY in their right mind live in California?

I lived in California for a time. The state has unparalleled scenic beauty. Weather is great in some places, but not all. Best weather areas are most expensive. People tend to be very physically active, so if you have an activity you enjoy you likely can find lots of people to do it with. When I lived there, having moved from the deep South, I noticed an openness to new experience much greater than where I had come from. This psychological trait actually predicts pretty accurately a liberal political orientation. So the leftist politics are predictable based upon the temperament of the people who find their way there. I also noticed Californians tended to know a whole lot less about other parts of the country than most people from other states. They seemed to feel that California was the cultural center of the World, and to a degree they have a point. As I have been back a few times since i left, I have noticed a marked degradation ot the infrastructure. Its not as nice a place as it once was, and is declining rapidly. To a Southerner, the contempt for, and lack of religion exhibited by a large number of Californians was also a bit of a shock