Political differences defined

Apparently former First Lady Michelle Obama has characterized her husband as the "good parent" in contrast to the current President.  Now apart from who I voted for, I've got to note that I object to this for a very simple reason; government is not my parent, nor does any sane person want government as a parent.  Anyone who reads this history of the 20th Century would conclude that this would be child abuse, after all. 


Along other notes, apparently my high school sport of choice, distance running, has joined weightlifting as a sport where the inherent differences between men and women aren't significant enough to prohibit transgender individuals from running the Boston Marathon as "women."  Now granted, not too many guys are going to get mutilated just to score better in the age groups after Heartbreak Hill, and the East Germans and Czechoslovakia made a farce of sprint and middle distance running in the 1970s and 1980s with their steroid programs (along probably with the Chinese in the 1990s in the 3000 meters), but the fact does remain that being male does correlate with narrower hips, tighter ligaments, and higher bone density, all of which are very helpful in distance running. 


Again, people have been cheating on these things for millennia, so this comes as no surprise, but it's still disheartening when it's made official.