Re: "proportional because 20% women in the country" bit. | Hmm... It just might be proportional - the question is to what, and what of it. Consider the following scenario: in country X 4% of men are politically active, yet only 1% of women... which still adds up to millions of people on each side so nobody can tell the percentages at a glance through anegdotes or personal experiences. If then the male/female split in the ruling body were 50-50, that would mean there's an insanely strong bias towards one party rather than actual equality. The male-female proportions in the candidate pool are 80-20, so if gender weren't a biasing factor in selecting them the selection would be essentially random in regards to it and you'd expect to see a split that's about similar in the chosen candidates. Then making unvoiced but hinted at impications of sexism in the process if the split weren't 50-50 would be pretty ehhhhhhhhhhh. I don't have the relevant numbers for the US, but maybe this is what's happened.

Re: Earplugs?

That little flap that you press on your ear is called your tragus.

http://www.virtualmedicalcentre.com/uploads/VMC/TreatmentImages/2192_ear_outside_300.jpg

Speaking of bank permanence, I remember when you were talking about the cleaning of your bank's facade and they found a wonderful gold facade under all the dirt. The architect would never have guessed that some day his design would have to power washed for people to see it.

Also, regarding Karl Rove, I loved Rachael Maddow's wonderful comments about the immense conflict of interest by having Rove, the single biggest personal contributor to the Romney campaign in Ohio, trying to skew the news.