040.5 and 042.5 (2 in 1!) Responses to Warbles

Hey Warbles (and Nargles),

Sorry this is getting out so late. I don't want you to feel like I'm ignoring you or anything, because trust me, I know how annoying it is when no one responds to your post (*cough*). Your opinion matters, and you are definitely a valuable member in this community. School's just been tough lately and the first wave of tests are getting back and with them, my anxiety.

So anyways, about the Russian 'empire'. As you said, an empire is usually a territory of greater extent than a kingdom. Two loopholes:

1) "Usually". That means there are exceptions, including possibly Russia.
2) "Kingdom". Is Russia a kingdom? Vladimir Putin isn't a king, and although it is very big, so is Canada. Is Canada a kingdom or an empire? In fact, Canada has even more reason to be a kingdom, seeing that it uses Queen Elizabeth II as its sovereign ruler. I guess we have to look further into what a kingdom is, as well.

I think that only giving a country like Russia the label of 'empire' makes it an empire. It's not one of those things that are like, if you have symptoms of this and this and this, you probably have this. It's more about the way we interpret the word 'empire', which is very ambiguous. And is a modern-day 'empire' all so bad? Sure, empire usually means war and destruction and mass killing, but as seen in the Roman Empire or the Indus Valley Civilization, empires also bring huge developments in science, literature, philosophy, and architecture. Without them, we would still be in the caveman era with fires but no s'mores.

I'm curious. Could the USA be technically an 'empire'? How did you come up with this idea? Are there recent developments in Russia's borders that I don't know about? Please let me know.

Second, about the marmosets and monkeys: THAT MONKEY VIDEO IS SO ADORABLE. I LOVE IT. I WAS LAUGHING THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE VIDEO, I LOVE IT I LOVE IT I LOVE IT. I SHOWED IT TO MY MOM AND WE HAD A HUGE BONDING SESSION OVER THE MONKEYS. But it also brought up the issue of gender inequality for me. Women and men work just as hard in the workplace, yet men often get higher wages. This is just like how both monkeys did the same job, but one got a grape and one got some cucumber. The monkey with the cucumber stood up for itself and threw the cucumber back at the worker (I still can't get over it), but when women stand up for themselves they are usually ignored.

Nargles, it's your turn. What do you think?

Ed Sheeranly yours,
Quibbles.