What's the point of a blog anyway?

That was the question I had a few years back.
I was baffled that people would want to read perfect stranger's take on things. After all, most bloggers are not celebrities, some might be experts in their fields, but not all.

Image Wikipedia

Then my brother got a blog and introduced me to a whole new world. In his blog he chronicles his life: the good, the bad and everything in between.
It seemed like such an easy way to keep the family informed. Although we are separated by thousands of miles, it seems like I have a window to his life.
What intrigued me the most is that people from all over the world browsed his blog and left comment. Like a form of social voyeurism. Fascinating.
Following his footsteps I set up my own blog. I believe it has brought us closer together.
Then I started a Beauty Blog: totally different animal than the "My Life" blogs. This one is pretty and full of pictures of things I've tried and loved (or tried and hated)
I pour research into it and try to offer good tips. It's a form of scapism.
A form of therapy, if you will.
While one blog is intimate and personal, the other is always colorful and shiny.
Now it is evident to me why blogs are important. They are an outlet, a form of expression. This decade's version of a diary or air mail letter written in cursive.

Only this journal is open for all in the world to see.

The president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy has recently proposed a ban on the burka in France.
Sarkozy equates the burka with opression of woman and claims t

Image via Wikipedia

hat the garment deprives women of identity.
This morning, NPR aired a show segment which interviewed Muslims living in France and their reaction to the president's announcement.
Some women said that they prefered to wear the garment because it protected them from innapropriate comments from the opposite side. Men said that they prefered their wives to wear them because the face and beauty of a woman should be reserved only for their husband's eyes.
Although I do not oposse women wearing garments that cover their arms and legs and wear a traditional hair scarf, I do think that the Burka takes things to unnecessary extreme.
I mean, I don't think women should be forced to flaunt their bodies in a manner that is considered immoral. But I do think that the psycological repercussions of social isolation can have a negative effect of women living in Western countries.
Sarkozy has been widely critized for his stand on the matter: he wants to imposse dress restrictions in the country he leads. Yet countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have decreed the Abaya as their national dress for all women. And this isn't a suggestion, it's a strict law enforced by the religious police (whether or not you are Muslim)
So why is the French President being critized for his stance?