Here is a much better one:

http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/the_nonexpert/how_to_say_i_love_you.php

Could I just mention that condoms (bow bow scrape scrape, how great they art and yes everybody should use one all the time) actually suck?

Birth control actually sucks in pretty much all versions, one way or another, and it is too bad that most of the expense (physical & financial) for most forms falls on women, but the fact remains: condoms, which is the one place men can actually take some of the responsibility, really really suck.

Just sayin. Cuz you aren't supposed to. Say it out loud that is.

If the RC tradition is that authority rests not in text, but in the body of the church, authenticated by the laying on of hands, those women have authority and are authentic priests, by every catholic yardstick, except that of gender.

I would say more power to them, except that, theoretically anyway, they don't need any more power, holding the keys as they do now and all that.

Jesus appointed the 12, and every Catholic priest can claim legitimacy from the laying on of hands of the successors. If one of the successors chooses, in their apostolic wisdom, to lay hands on a woman (yes I know how that sounds) and make her a priest, she is, by all Catholic standards, a priest. You can't argue with an apostle after all.

So yes, if you are catholic, those women do indeed hold the Keys, you can Confess to them, and yes, they can excommunicate you and send you to hell unshriven. I would suggest you not argue with them, just in case.

I would hesitate to offer my opinion on String Theory, heck I've been out of the Anthro academic field except as a casual reader for about 20 years and I would hesitate to offer much of a strong opinion myself, but everybody seems free to opine. (It has been nice to see some knowledgeable folks on this thread correcting some of the more egregious errors.)

But the theory in the article does sound extraordinarily stupid, revealing a total non-understanding of evolution (who knows if it is the Globe reporters or the researchers being stupid, I have better things to waste my time on): behaviours that counteract successful reproduction are rather their own cure, selecting themselves out of the population. It's called the Darwin Awards for a reason.

Ah well, they got to write a "Man Bites Dog" headline after all, I bet they all went home slapping each others' backs. (BTW, has anyone else enjoyed the Slate XX Factor ladies laying into EvPsych these last few days? Yes, BroadSheet was there first of course, but it has been great fun to watch.)

H. Neanderthalensis had a rather good run of it, both temporally and geographically, I rather doubt that there is any single simple smoking gun solution to their (protracted) decline, and certainly nothing as stupid as women hunting and getting hurt. (From what I remember, there is pretty good evidence of both Neanderthal females hunting, and Neanderthals hunting Really Big & Dangerous Game, but the two do not necessarily intersect. Someone has been reading too much Jean Auel I suspect.)

That being said, if you believe in a human/animal dichotomy, it seems pretty likely that H. Neanderthalensis would fall on the hominid side of that divide.

Incidentally, you want a good example of animal feminism/matriarchy vs patriarchy, baboons are pretty interesting-- in some areas they have matriarchal social/power structures (Savannah Baboons), in others they are patriarchal (Hamadryas). While (contrary to various parties' claims) I am not in fact a baboon, both versions of baboon society seem kinda repressive and unpleasant from human eyes. (Interestingly enough, the Savannah matriarchal baboons are alot more promiscuous, take that DimBulb et al, feminism does not always lead to less sex for low status men, quite probably the contrary, cf. the bonobonos too.) Anyway, it is the only species I can think of that demonstrates that range of behaviour, and a primate too no less.

I can remember in anthro class watching a film of some researchers doing the "experiment" of taking an adult leader from one type of society and introducing it to the other. Of course, it was a savanna female the (duh, male) "researchers" dumped into a Hamadryas society: she got beat up and raped into submission in pretty short order, much to their satisfaction. It of course never crossed their minds to introduce a patriarchal male into a matriarchal baboon society. Fucking bastards. I date my feminist activism from that moment actually.

Anyway, to return to the original arch BroadSheet article: do you troglodyte dudes not realize when your leg is being twisted just a little bit? If you are too stupid or obsessed to figure it out, I won't help you, but it is pretty funny. I actually did lol Laugh Out Loud.