Exodus 21
20: “If a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod and he dies at his hand, he shall be punished. "
21: “If, however, he survives a day or two, no vengeance shall be taken; for he is his property."

Thanks to this scrutiny I can learn from Exodus 21 that it is okay to beat the crap out of my slave as long as I do not kill him and Leviticus 12 teaches me that baby girls leave their mothers twice as dirty as baby boys do. In Leviticus 21 I see that no hunchback or a dwarf, or who has any eye defect, or who has festering or running sores or damaged testicles can approach the altar.

Where would civilization be without these priceless advices!

What you have described is Aristocracy, the government of the elite. The problem is who decides who is best ? Who decides how the tests should be ? The big thing about democracy is not the election of the best but the ability to avoid the perpetuation of the worst. But I know what your mean. Here in Brazil our Democracy is a mix of Kleptocracy (government by burglars - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleptocracy) and Kakistocracy (government of the worst - http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kakistocracy). But at least we are free to criticize and change the gang every four years.

"Studies suggest that anatomically modern humans arose in Africa approximately 150 thousand years ago (kya), expanded throughout Africa ~60–80 kya, and to most parts of Europe and Asia ~40 kya[1]–[6]. Numerous mitochondrial DNA studies support what Foster and Matsumera [5] describe as a ‘remarkable expansion’ from a small geographic region dating broadly to ~60–80 kya." see http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0044926

But in this case Microsoft is not stealing any of their stories or culture. On the contrary, the project is giving them access to more information by translating foreign material to their language.

In my opinion this lawsuit is incredibly dumb because it shuts down a door to keep their own language alive.