The State of the Fireworks Industry Is Strong

Let's not beat around the bush here: America has been in better shape. Our economy is threatening to nosedive into a depression any minute. The unemployment rate remains depressingly junkish. And now we've got "ObamaTax" on our backs, thanks to Chief Justice Traitor McJerkface.

Thankfully, there is one bit of good news to give us all a sparkling thrillingly-cacophonous respite from the flat blackness of our modern worries…

The American Pyrotechnics Association is proud to tell you that 1998-2011 have been great years for the U.S. fireworks industry, with even the Great Recession doing little to dent America's enthusiam for explosions.

As a nation, we really do excel at explodin' shit up.

Photo by Katherine Frey/The Washington Post/Getty Images