this is wrong, plane and simple!

fresh on the heels of florida-based spirit airlines announcing it will now charge its customers $20 to $45 for items they place in the overhead bins, another budget airline is considering charging them for using the lavatory.

ryanair, an irish airline that bills itself as "europe's first and largest low fares airline," is mulling a plan that would require travelers to pay either 1 euro or 1 british pound (about $1.33 or $1.52) for using the bathroom on flights lasting one hour or less. the carrier said it is working with boeing to develop a coin-operated door release so that when nature calls, passengers would need to deposit the change before being able to use the facilities. the idea is to encourage people to use restrooms in airport terminals before boarding.

as part of the plan, the airline is also considering removing two of the three lavatories on some of its planes so it could squeeze in up to six extra seats. the move would help reduce fares by at least 5 percent.

how would it fly with passengers? one hint of how americans may feel comes from an informal poll posted on tripadvisor.com last summer in which one-fifth of the respondents said they would fly on an airline that charged a fee to access the bathroom; 78 percent said they would not. the idea may be less shocking to travelers in europe, where it's not unusual to pay a small fee to use a public restroom.

my point, and i do have one...is COME ON!!!
what is your point?

$130 ransom

as we approach the end of spring break, i thought i would bring you some island news...staten island that is!

robert jemmott and his girlfriend, army reservist tamika atanda, a couple from staten island, abducted a friend's wife and held her for, believe it or not, $130 ransom. while the dollar amount of the ransom alone makes them special, these crackerjack kidnappers were caught when they stopped at a deli for food while leaving their bound and gagged victim in plain sight in the backseat of their car. that's when cops spotted them.

the couple are accused of embarking on their scheme tuesday night after jemmott grew infuriated that his friend, darryn berry, would not repay the $130 he had borrowed. jemmott and atanda, confronted berry and his wife, michelle rodriguez, outside a laundromat, where atanda allegedly punched berry in the face. jemmott then grabbed rodriguez and forced her into the backseat of his chevy lumina. as the couple sped off, jemmott called berry and threatened the hostage's safety, according to officials. "if i don't get the money by 10:30, i'm going to do something to your wife I don't want to do," jemmott warned. berry called 911 and provided a description of jemmott's car, leading cops to close in on the lumina outside the deli a short time later. jemmott was arrested as soon as he stepped outside the store.

a loaded .38-caliber handgun was found in the glove compartment and cops also discovered five zip bags of crack cocaine in atanda's purse. atanda's mother commented on the situation when she heard: "i can't believe this is happening!...it's not in her character, I don't understand this...tamika is on her own on this one!" atta girl mom!

staten island's bonnie and clyde were held without bail yesterday after they were arraigned on kidnapping, weapons and drug charges in staten island criminal court. my point, and i do have one is...just when you think that people can't get any stupider they prove us wrong. bravo!

now that's a hoot!

ahhh hooters. a "family" eating establishment that is known for two things - boobs and wings. while chatting with a friend today, it occurred to me that hooters has missed out on a prime marketing opportunity by not making ribs the piece de resistance of their menu. why you may ask? well, my point, and i do have one...is if there was ever a place to highlight a good rack, this would be it! what’s your point? is there another establishment that you thinks may have missed a marketing opportunity?

Democracy isn't broken

No matter what your take is on the recently passes health care reform bill, I think there are a few positive takeaways....

1) The first is that this is the first major legislation to be passed by congress in decades.

2) Gives us hope that our government can provide solutions.

3) And it reminds some of our government representatives who they work for. See the Michael Moore Newsletter below...

How the People in My District Got Stupak to Change His Mind -- and Thus Saved the Health Care Bill ...a letter from Michael Moore

Friends,

Well, our full court press on my congressman, Bart Stupak worked! Hundreds of my neighbors here in his Michigan district spent the weekend organizing thousands of voters to get busy and save the health care bill. We called Stupak's congressional office non-stop and we got thousands of people up here to flood his email box.

And then a rare thing happened: An elected representative did what the people told him to do. It was nothing short of amazing.

Stupak, and his seven "right to life" Democrats who had said they would vote against the bill, reversed themselves after what Stupak said Sunday afternoon was a week of his staff having "really taken a pounding." Hey, all we did here in northern Michigan was let him know that we would be unceremoniously tossing him out of Congress in this August's Democratic primary. One of our group announced she would oppose him in the Dem primary. That seemed to register with him.

All of this made Stupak look pretty worn down at his press conference yesterday, pleading with people like us to stop calling his house and waking his wife "at two or three in the morning." Hey! That's not us. We never call during Carson Daly!

Obama needed 216 votes in the House last night -- and he barely got them (219 was the final number). Had Stupak not done a 180 in the last 24 hours, the health care bill would have gone down in flames. Thank you, to all of you here in northern Michigan who did what had to be done. You and you alone saved this bill in the final moments.

Stupak stood on the floor of the House last night and, in a surreal moment, spoke against the "Stupak Amendment"! Once he got through his medieval meanderings about where babies come from, he gave one helluva speech.

And, that's when Republican congressman Randy Neugebauer of Texas shouted out: "Baby killer!" Wow. I guess the fertilized egg police felt betrayed by Bart.

Those of us here in Michigan will now decide what to do about our misguided congressman. We're a forgiving lot, but maybe not this time. We shall see.

Bart, I'm glad you discovered you didn't have a uterus. And, like the scarecrow, I'm glad you found a bit of your brain.

A good night it was -- important little steps were taken to bring our country into the civilized world.

Now, we have some real work to do if we really want to say we have universal health care. The sharks who run the insurance companies have every intention of turning this lemon into some very profitable lemonade.

Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

P.S. Someday, the Hyde Amendment is going to have to go. No Democratic president should ever agree to anything that discriminates against women.

i wanna (schoolhouse) ROCK!!

currently, the country awaits to hear whether the health care bill will pass. my point, and i do have one...is that it is important to know the process of how a bill becomes a law, so now more than ever i give you "i'm just a bill," the famous schoolhouse rock video. enjoy and share your points!

no sex for me

norrie may-welby has been a man and a woman and is now the first person legally designated neither. the genderless 48-year-old was born male in scotland, moved to austraila at the age of seven, then 21 years later underwent a sex change. even as a woman though, the fulfillment and self-identification that was so badly sought just wasn’t found. so may-welby stopped drinking the female hormones to become a “neuter” (having undeveloped or imperfectly developed sexual organs). new south wales government officials recently amended the scottish australian's birth certificate to reflect "no specific sex" after doctors were unable to make a gender determination.

may-welby said the following on her…um…his…um…blog: "the concepts of man or woman don't fit me…the simplest solution is not to have any sex identification…there is no reason for still insisting that our legal identity must include a public statement about a very private matter, our sex… many people like the idea of being genderless."

while I am happy for may-welby for finding an identity that now fits, my point, and i do have one….is that while this may be happening across the pond, obviously the dialog has already started here. we live in a country that can’t yet figure out how to handle the rights of people who are already identified as a specific sex, so one can only imagine the controversy that will surround all elements of person who isn't clearly defined. what’s your point?

An Incendiary Indiscretion

So I think Jessica Simpson is missing an opportunity here...

In case you haven't heard, a few weeks ago in Rolling Stone John Mayer described their relationship as "sexual napalm."

Now I like John Mayer's music a great deal, but apparently he's not heard of that maxim about how gentlemen aren't supposed to kiss and tell. So I think he's got some bad karma heading his way in the future...

Still, Jessica then went on Oprah and said "I don't want people to know how I am in bed." Her right, for sure, but I think she's missing a golden opportunity.

Given that you cannot buy this sort of publicity, I think she should trademark the "Sexual Napalm" phrase, and start a new line of clothing around it. On top of that, should John ever bring it up again, she could send the lawyers after him for misappropriating her trademark. The ultimate vindication, if you will...

So, gentle readers, if you were rumored to be an incredible lover, would you own it, or run away from it?