Got Funny

The tools of a politician do not regularly include bawling like a brat, but incoming Speaker John Boehner is a crying baby. It may seem difficult for one to judge if Boehner is genuinely over emotional, or if the water works constitute a bit of political theater. People may wonder if the media has gotten in touch with a new forgiving nature, or if its now accepted for a sensitive tough guy politician to weep at the drop of a hat.

A decade or so ago Bhutan said they’d start tracking Gross National Happiness. GNH, as it’s called, is an attempt to measure the summed joy of a nation’s citizens. It’s meant to be an upgrade of the concept of Gross National Product. GNP is the measure of how much value is created by citizens of a nation. In this case,, instead of measuring the economy of a nation and all the things that money can buy money (and what money can buy) GNH measures how happy nations are. At least that’s the concept. It’s not exactly used in the real world yet – and for some valid reasons.