Just arrived from France and I had a chance to read lots of newspapers on the way. ..
Finally, someone besides a blogger said it. Not just someone, an airline exec, namely the CEO of Ryanair, has threatened to sue British Aviation if they don’t stop with the excessively useless restrictions.
Obviously I’ve expressed my feelings on this issue enough in the past, but I’m a radical, so you should expect nothing less. This, on the other hand, is a very mainstream guy who’s airline I don’t even care for very much. But to read his quotes that say things like “Toiletries are not going to destroy the world” .. can’t remember where I read that one. But at the end of that particular article, he also says the classic line which I think holds alot of value: “The best way to make a statement against terrorism, is to go about your life and do things as you would normally”. It may sound lame to some, but I very much believe in that statement.
So Michael O’Leary, I don’t know much about you, but in a world full of alarmists and yes-men, here’s to you!
As we sat back laughing about old songs from yeast radio and the crap you find on youtube, Madame and I returned to a familiar theme… life in the US. We spoke about friends and family and what situations they are in; as in housepayments, mortgages, insurance payments, loans, credit card debt, etc etc. All these things may be part of your normal day dear reader, but what we were discussing is how we don’t have these things. Beyond that, how when some friends talk to us, they say “you’ll so lucky, you get to live in europe and you don’t have to deal with this.” This statement, of course, has many holes. Not the least of which is that you can actually have lots of these things in Europe just as you do anywhere else. However, the idea that we are somehow lucky for having chosen to live where we live, that’s the strange thing. 
Those are only a few of the arguements I most frequently hear in the comments of this blog and elsewhere. And while I sometimes feel there is an excessive focus on Bush and his cronies, when I read about some of the administration’s actions and attempts at changing national and international law, it becomes very clear that no matter who’s fault it is, the current government in the whitehouse stands head and shoulders above any previous administration when it comes to criminal intent and attempting to ignore or abuse law. 
I mention this because I hadn’t thought about it in awhile until I was riding through Portugal reading my favorite newspaper – O Público. Their magazine pullout section had a special article on feminism and blogging. Many of the blogs were in Portuguese, which of course didn’t surprise me. But to my surprise, right there on the first page of the article in big letters, a link and a description of BitchPhD’s blog. Instant smile on my face to see the good doctor getting recognized, even in Portugal.
I’m stating what might be the obvious because the concept of citizen journalist is often abused, overlooked, ignored, or simply unkown to many people out there. They still see the big, well funded, household name media outlets as the official reference points for information and those are the only people who get the sacred title of “journalist”.