Aris Katsaris

Three items:

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I have ADSL!!!

Sure, it must have taken me more than an hour trying to get ADSL support in multiple phonecalls (divided among being on hold and actual help) to tell me of the settings I ought to use in order for it to work. But all's done now, and I have ADSL.

Call this a combined birthday and graduation place.

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Hobbits have been discovered. :-)

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Lastly and most importantly this newspiece, which is as sweet as honey. I would have mentioned it atleast a week ago, if that last week hadn't been the most stressful of them all. But anyway, this is all about democracy in practice -- about elected Parliament getting the club that the people of Europe have given it and hitting appointed Barroso on the head with it until he gave in.

Barroso had shown a small hint of arrogance towards European Parliament, from the start -- when he'd resigned from his position as Prime Minister of Portugal before Parliament had yet approved his becoming President of the Commission. Later, his refusal to reshuffle his team after the wave of outrage against Buttiglione's attitude compounded that. Even more so Buttiglione's own refusal to resign after seeing all the trouble he caused and opposition towards his face, made it the more imperative that he should be taken out of his post. But now modesty seems to have been learned on Barrosso's side -- Buttiglione's still an idiot ofcourse.

Anyway, this is a day of victory for democracy, Europe-wide, the way I see it. Even more lovely than Parliament use of its mandate is the fact that it was divided across not national, but rather ideological and political lines: Socialists, Liberals and Greens on one side, Conservatives on the other. Political and ideological divisions is how democracy is supposed to work.

I don't want any idiot anymore to speak anymore about the supposedly "unelected bureaucratic elite" of the European Union, or about the "inherently undemocratic nature of the EU" or any other such crap. If you do, gonna hit you upside the head same way Parliament hit Barroso. ;-)