This calls for some strudel....and maybe a Heiny or two.

France has always baffled me. I mean, here's a country with extreme national pride. Sometimes they make Scotland look like apathetic bums and Greece a bunch of fragmented nomads with no naval war history. France has a government language board fergodsake.

Why would their leadership want to throw all that away to become another equal vote in some borg-like euro-collective?

Kudos to Germany for resisting that impulse. Well, some germans anyway.

Kadnine;

Because Paris would be leading it.

I think it proves that any time you bend over backwards in any relationship to make the other happy, you end up getting screwed. Bush came along and made it clear the US wasn't going to get pushed around as the naieve upstart by the sophisticated Europeans and they recoiled at first, but they are begining to grow up and think about engaging us on a more respectful footing.

On the other hand, I don't take the public posturing of foreign leaders towards us too seriously. Like in our own system, they have to run one way to please their core and another to please everyone else. We don't have votes over there, so I expect to be a public whipping boy every now and then, but like Bush, I also expect to be respected and have some cooperation when our interests are at stake.

The European left seems to hate the West and the idea of the sovereign nation-state generally, and hates the US with a passion as we're the 800 pound gorilla that ain't givin' up the banana for no one.

Well, let's go back to Civics 101. Actually, the U.S. is not legally a sovereign nation-state. It is an association of 50 sovereign states which have delegated (theoretically) limited powers to the federal government. The United States has no sovereignty of its own. (The Civil War settled the issueof whether the delegation was revocable, a fairly debatable question until that point.)

Our states are not the same as a province. They are not departments of the federal government. Their status is more closely analagous to Scotland's membership in the U.K. for example. Scotland has it's own courts, parliament, statutes, case law, etc. that are separate from those of England.

IMO, this is an important, and frequently overlooked, distinction in these days when many automatically assume that the answer to every problem should emanate from the District of Columbia.

Thus, the attempts to bind Europe together through the EU, military coordination, a common currency, easy movement of people and goods across borders, uniform standards, and even a constitution, really are a deliberate attempt to imitate what has been accomplished here in the U.S.

And, in case you haven't noticed, in everyday reality they have adopted a common language. English.

So, to make myself clear, it makes complete sense that the European left is pro-EU and anti-nationalism. In order to compete with the much-despised U.S., the left perceives (correctly) that European nations must surrender sovereignty to the EU. Nationalism (and parochial economic interests) are the big obstacles to making France more like California, so that Europe can compete with, or even dominate, the U.S.

Michael - how so?
By preventing the free flow of labor and capital?

Would this constitution have eased that? Was it really the thin end of the anglosaxon wedge?

Never. touch. the. banana.

Ace is on f'in' fire today.

Michael - how so?
By preventing the free flow of labor and capital?
Would this constitution have eased that? Was it really the thin end of the anglosaxon wedge?

I suspect that this particular constitution would have been a disaster for Europe, due to its stiflingly regulatory approach. I haven't read it, but any constitution that is 300 pages long has got to be a mistake.

My point is more general -- that being pro-EU and anti-nationalist is perfectly consistent with the virulently anti-American and internationalist mindset of European leftist elites. (But not, apparently, the working class socialists who want to maintain their government-supplied perks and protected jobs.)

And the corollary -- that it makes sense for conservatives to harbor nationalist sentiments, at least in part, because they are not driven by anti-American animus.

I read it. Let me tell you, it was a frightening read, too! I actually felt Orwell's dead breath on the back of my neck. Brrr! And BORING! And pathetic. The "powers that be" really hate their own people.

There is no interest in the EU for anything but an oligarchy. Preferably a monarchy. By the way, there is a shady allusion in all that dreck that will eventually make such a "king" possible.

I have now organized the damned thing into nice, neat little piles of trash can liners, bird cage liners, and kitty litter box liners.

Maranna:

My hat is off to you for actually reading it. You must have a pretty strong stomach. As for me (and most people, I suspect), we would rather spend the same amount of time watching a Nightmare on Elm Street movie marathon, or something.

Maranna:

By the way, where are you? I'm guessing you are not American because (1) Maranna is a very uncommon name here, and (2) I can't imagine anyone in the US being motivated to read through that entire draft EU consititution.

Let me guess.

Um, Ireland.

Ace,

Thanks for posting this, good news indeed.