Of course 'the best qualified individuals' should rule. But when it comes to 'ruling', who decides who are the best qualified individuals? Who decides who decides?

Sometimes I get the feeling that they don't exactly "field test" all of their suggestions.

Absolutely. I read the Pervocracy 50 Shades summaries in lieu of reading the actual book - shorter, way funnier, and smarter (well, I guess I can't be absolutely sure of those, but given the quoted passages, sure seems like it). She did a real public service with that one.

Loved Cosmocking. Though that portmanteau is so easy to misread.

You're thinking of "Toothless People". That's Weird Al's version of "Ruthless People" by Mick Jagger.

I noted that as well. At what point does it stop being a symbol and just become a depiction of the thing?

Thanks!

Heels like that are great for when you're riding horses with stirrups and the increase in height probably didn't hurt. They're not that hard to walk in. Stilettos are what'll kill you.

My wife and I literally tried out each other's last names and chose the one with the most mellifluous results. I was a little bummed that mine ended up the winner, but really, her last name kind of sucked.

Oh, you get used to it all right…
My mom was a public school teacher for about 35 years. She wore heels pretty much every day she taught, and she was up walking around the whole time. By the time she retired, she couldn't wear flat-soled shoes because they made her feet hurt, and eventually she had to have surgery…

We do?

The assertion is (and this is me remembering something anthropological that I read a while ago) that this was the original way that human beings socially constructed the meaning of family. Of course it's a social construct - mom and dad are equally related to the kids and both more so than an uncle or whatever - but…

I'll have to check that out. But I'm getting at more of a bizarro version of our own society, where the societies that have had the biggest impact on the planet and on other societies have been patriarchal.

Hey, you went to Bovine University too?

That is the current consensus among the scientists who study these things, but unfortunately apes have genders too.

I could be totally wrong about this, but I also heard that the original system, before people figured out that babies came from sex between one particular man and one particular woman, was that the kids were mom's and considered part of her family, and dad didn't have any part of it. The kid's closest male relative…

Psst…it's not because people thought it through carefully and thought that they came to a fair and rational conclusion.

Very good reason. I say this as someone who used to be that dude.

^^^Can't tell if lying

My dad's side of the family is Catholic, and this is definitely true. Which kind of amazes me - what's the point of religion if not to tell you all the things that are wrong that you wouldn't have figured out yourself?