>for some reason people like hard and fast rules, like 'Put all types of punctuation inside' rather than 'Put some types of punctuation inside'.

In that case, could someone explain "i before e except after c unless the word is weird" rule?

how about the idea that "roof" and "spoof" are not spelled "ruf" and "spuf" when "dude" is not spelled "dood" or "rude" is not "rood" or "Souffle" is neither "soofle" NOR "sufle" even though they all have the same vowel sounds? Shouldn't "You" be either Yu or Yoo, since ou is generally not pronounced "ooo," but rather "oh" as in "thorough?"

Perhaps wi shuld rit a new langwij that spels wurds lik thay sownd? Dan Quayle would be willing to help, I'm sure ;)