On the Square Today

Wesley J. Smith on happy-face statism :

For the last decade, some social scientists have been arguing that “happiness measurements” should replace or supplement established economic standards to judge a society’s “success.” Many environmentalists also support the idea as a way of putting lipstick on policies that could slow down economic growth. And now, the idea is deemed ready to leave the ivory tower for implementation as government policy.

Also today, Edward T. Oakes, S.J. on plebgate :

In the February 2013 issue of T he New Criterion , James Bowman, media critic for that indispensable periodical, comments on a media scandal currently brewing in Great Britain. The trouble is, most of the panjandrums in the London press don’t regard it as a media scandal at all. To them the blow-up started off as a political scandal and transmogrified into a police scandal—but, since few people on this side of the Atlantic have ever heard of these goings-on, I must first describe the events in question.