Surprised the markup isn't a lot more TBH. The cost of childbirth alone should be a national disgrace.

There are only two countries in the world that allow drug advertising on TV. One of them is admired and often shown as an example of good leadership, the other is the USA.

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So wait...is it her dancing like a cute anime girl for attention that you say isn't a choice, or is it demeaning women who make different choices than yours (hers) in the name of feminism that isn't a choice, or are you saying there are no choices and all behavior is culturally driven so out of our hands?

Doing crimes is a choice, and one not monopolized by minorities. It may be your best option in your particular circumstances, but it's never the only option, it is definitely a choice.

Ppft, I say. Then why don't people all act the same in a given culture?
Culture may make certain choices socially acceptable or not, or personally beneficial or not, but you are responsible for your choices. Yes, you really choose, cultural acceptance and consequences may be part of how you form your decision, or not, but they don't make your decisions, they inform them. If culture was the only deciding factor, we would still be living in the bronze age where a girl this age would have no viable choice but to have had a few children by now and would likely be dead from complications of childbirth. Fortunately, many have chosen to ignore or contradict cultural norms so we have progressed as a society.

Sam B is carefully stepping around a more important issue than geography here---income inequality. Rural areas are more likely to have a lower incomes, and be without proper coverage in a for-profit system.

Years ago I saw 'The Business of Being Born,' and found it pretty shocking how hospitals treated childbirth as an opportunity for profit. It is a well done doc, if you're curious.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0995061

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"they were doing just fine with stones"

Were they? What was the average life expectancy? How about childbirth mortality rates? Hell, how's their dental health?

Obviously, a bit of iron isn't going to fix those problems, but it might make them more efficient hunters. Maybe their diet has improved because of this?

"Now there aren't any known pure stone age people left at all now"

Is that necessarily a bad thing? We had the stone age, we grew out of it.

I feel like it's easy for us to want to preserve their way of life, but no-one is giving them the option. If presented with a choice, most people wouldn't opt for a neolithic lifestyle. Even the so-called "paleo" adherents aren't really living that way.

I completely get where you are coming from, but part of me also feels like we are keeping humans in a zoo.

I honestly don't know what's the right answer.

That's why the joke is funny. The absurd juxtaposition of pizza delivery and childbirth with the proposition that the pizza delivery is the more difficult act is why this is comedy.

No one would laugh if someone got on stage and said, "Boy, childbirth sure is harder than pizza delivery".

Why would "grown men" need to feel the pain of childbirth in order to be sympathetic? I offer that these men haven't grown up yet.

Which is exactly when you want medical facilities around. Of course, if everything goes perfect there's no need for doctors and hospitals. Similarly, it would be theoretically easy to have a plane take off, fly to it's destination and land on instruments without a pilot, but the reason we have pilots on board is for when things go wrong.

You can't foresee the future, and you can't be certain that the birth will be normal.

I realise that the health of the mother and child is an ongoing process, but if either die in childbirth it's not going to be a very long process, is it? The fact is that there are plenty of situations that are inconveniences in a hospital, but life-threatening emergencies at home.

Anyway, as I said, my opinion here is entirely academic. I'm glad your kids came into the world safe and sound.

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Something that I don't get about Tywin (book or movie version):

He's cold, logical, practical, intelligent, cunning. His relationships with his children mostly make sense given the way he operates.

Cersei advanced his family name by marrying King Robert, which was good. But she makes stupid decisions, takes unnecessary risks, and arrogantly thinks that none of this will catch up with her. Tywin correctly identifies her key weakness being that she thinks she is much more clever than she actually is.

Jamie could be a reasonably useful chess piece in Tywin's arsenal, but by Lannister standards he isn't as cunning and "big picture" intelligent as Tywin is, or even Cersei. I'd say Jamie knows his own limitations in that regard way better than Cersei though. During the Targaryen reign, his position in the Kingsguard would have been potentially useful, but that turns for the worse when he sullies the family name by becoming the "Kingslayer", even if his actions were justified. His Kingsguard position and skillset in general become much less useful during Robert's rule, which further hurts his relationship with Tywin. All still makes sense from a cold, calculating perspective.

Then you get to Tyrion. Tywin has an antagonistic relationship with Tyrion, and seems to refuse to see that Tyrion is the best bet to take over the reins of House Lannister after Tywin himself is gone. I know that it is suggested that Tywin's bias against Tyrion comes from the combination of A) him "killing" his mother in childbirth and B) being born a "freak" dwarf. I have a hard time with that because I see Tywin as being too cold, logical, and pragmatic to let either of those issues cloud his judgement.

So Tyrion "killed" his mother (Tywin's wife). Perhaps that event had a profound effect on Tywin, but considering the way he plays his children as pawns on his chessboard, it seems more in his character for him to have viewed his wife that way also. Especially considering the normal state of noble marriages being primarily chosen to maximize political gain in the setting. Plus, mothers dying during childbirth probably wouldn't be an exceptionally uncommon thing in the setting either.

And Tyrion being a dwarf? So what -- Tywin only cares about what you can do to advance the family name. Tyrion could easily be groomed to take over as family mastermind while keeping Cersei, Jamie, or one of Cersei's children as the public face of the family. Pay no attention to the man, er, dwarf behind the curtain.

I guess I just find Tywin's relationship with Tyrion to be the one thing about his character that feels ... off, at least to me. I feel like Tywin would be more ready to give Tyrion some opportunities to prove himself, and less subjective about judging his performance in those situations.

I think this is a load of B.S. Childbirth has got to be way more painful. A ball shot is more like an intense funny bone hit, while childbirth seems like agony.