A Fairy Tale From Brussels
The E.U. has distributed 100,000 textbooks that celebrate the passage of the E.U. constitution, which, you may recall, did not pass. The Daily Telegraph reports:
The teaching material, entitled Europe, My Home, features two children, Lea and Thomas, who are guided through the complexities of the EU by a character called Good Father Houpette.
"You will be astonished by what I will tell you," Father Houpette tells them. "You will see that the EU is a necessity."
When they arrive at the chapter on the constitution, the children are pictured reading the rules and regulations of an indoor sports hall.
"Not long ago the European Union was given regulations such as these," Father Houpette says. "With this new constitution everything will go like clockwork, just like in your club."
Link via Nobody's Business.
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"With this new constitution everything will go like clockwork...
Ha ha ha. Like every other constitution written by mankind. 🙂
Running like clockwork, all right. Like A Clockwork Orange, as pointed out on H&R last week.
And yet, the French rejected it for being too classically liberal. Go figure.
Brussels' propaganda is the best.
MP,
They rejected it for a lot of reasons. It was a coalition effort really.
Do you guys remember the Captain Euro comic book? That was awesome.
Good Father Houpette, who comes every November to bring order and civic virtue to all of the good boys and girls.
I liked the contests for school kids about "why the EU is a good thing". and all these artifical efforts to create some sense of community.
they forget the thoughts of the japanese ambassador to germany in the late 30s who saw that the movement existed because of shared hatred.
maybe the eu will program their citizens to hate the us even further.
of course, the us behavior since 9.11 has made us seem more like that too, but that's a different issue.
Hak: do you mean a coalition of the unwilling? heh 🙂
Viking Moose,
Yeah. 🙂
What one has to do is seperate out the good goals of the E.U. from the crappy ones.
"With this new constitution everything will go like clockwork..."
"...and the trains will run on time," continued Good Father Houpette.
Good Father Houpette: "And Germany will reunify with France, then Poland, then, well, you know the rest."
Pro Libertate,
To be a pedant I'll note that Germany attacked Poland first in WWII. It then went after Denmark and Norway. It also never made all of Poland part of the Reich. A large portion of it was part of a body titled the "General Government."
peace! peace! piece!
a little piece of poland
a little bit of france
a little chunk of austria
and switzerland by chance
...
a little slice of turkey
a little spot of greece...
🙂
I didn't expect them to come up with a constitution like ours, but to come up with one so heavy handed and broad in scope to be completely unlike any in Europe; that's a little odd. That's what happens when the beaurocrats are allowed to write a constitution and not the politicians.
Hakluyt, I paused for a moment, considering whether Germany's next attempt to reunify with Europe would follow the order it took last time. I figured it wouldn't, so I didn't bother. I almost included a reunification with Great Britain--maybe that would've helped show my total disregard for a WWII parallel (Yes, "reunification" is the right word, what with the Hanoverian rule and those old days of Saxon violence).
Can anyone tell me what you need for a Good Father Houpette display? It's the holiday season, you know.
Don't mention the war. I mentioned it once but I think I got away with it.
Pro Libertate,
I dunno if Northumbria would be up for another Danish invasion. 🙂
Ha ha ha! A wonderful example of governmental, non-market response. I relish the EU's pain.
...Father Houpette...
Hmmmm... I wonder if Pope Ratzi I and the RCC plugged for the EU constitution?
Following along with the Nazi theme bubbling up here:
When and opponent says, "I will not cover to your side," I calmly say, "Your child belongs to us already ... You will pass on. Your descendents, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time they will know nothing by this new community." - Adolph Hitler
"I will not come over to your side,"
They probably kept the constitutional textbooks in storage in the same locker where the PATRIOT Act was kept until needed after 9/11. I wonder how many other authoritarian documents are just sitting on the shelf, awaiting the day that we'll need them "in a hurry." Maybe we had to put more of 'em in the locker, and had no more room for the EU textbooks!
One potential of the harm that the EU may inflict is the prospect of it giving teeth to Germany's and France's pathetic complaints about Eastern Europe's 'unfair" lower tax rates.
I bet no one would have guessed two years ago that Iraq would have a constitution before the EU.
It would be unfortunate for the Eurocrats is those Eastern Blockers would simply form their own federation of autonomous nations.
Maybe I could write a Romanian rap song about it...
Rick Barton,
Well, that assumes that other European states don't have the ability to block such, when in fact they do.
Actually, I don't know why anyone would have thought that it would be easier to draft a constitution for the EU than for Iraq.
Is the EU short of cultural/national/religious differences each with their own agendas?
The EU should just take the U.S. Constitution, find all references to "United States" and replace them with "European Union". Voila! And they can even leave out the Second Amendment (given the European aversion to guns) and all of the sillier amendments after the first fifteen. I know they hate us and everything, but our constitution has held up pretty well for a long time. And to the extent that it's cracking, well, it's cracking in ways the EU should like.
Pro Libertate,
Do they leave out the parts referring to slaves?
What one has to do is seperate out the good goals of the E.U. from the crappy ones.
That's easy.
Good goals:
Bad goals: Everything else.
🙂
Hakluyt,
But can't the EU impose trade santions or some such punish the "unfair" lower tax rates?
Hakluyt, good point. Maybe there are a few clauses that could use removal. Of course, I imagine that the Germans and the French would like to make all citizens of Eastern Europe 3/5ths of a person.
Rick Barton,
That might require a unanimous vote. People don't realize just how weak the EU bureaucrats are when its an issue of importance to a particular country.
grylliade,
Well, I know you are trying to be funny, but the goals associated with lowering barriers to trade like tariffs, etc. are good ones IMHO.
Rick Barton,
Take for example the fact that over 3/4 of those states involved with the Euro are now flouting the debt ceiling requirements.
In other words, the E.U. bureaucracy isn't quite the juggernaut that it is made out to be.
"You will be astonished by what I will tell you," Father Houpette tells them. "You will see that the EU is a necessity."
Any of the kiddies who see the EU as a necessity should be caned.
Is it just me, or is a "Good Father Houpette" character hanging out with kids just a little creepy, coming as it does in the wake of the Catholic pedophilia scandals, and originating in the famously pedophile-friendly Belgium?
What one has to do is seperate out the good goals of the E.U. from the crappy ones.
In general the world is improved by bigger trade blocks and smaller sovereignty blocks.
The good goals are those that promote freer economies, migration, and trade. The bad goals are those that move any other sovereignty up from the member states to the EU government.
Hakluyt:
That might require a unanimous vote.
"Might" huh? Hmm. Well, if it's easier than that, it's certtainly another reason to celebrate the turn down of the EU's constitution.
The bad goals are those that move any other sovereignty up from the member states to the EU government.
Yerah, and those that further curtail individual liberty.
When and opponent says, "I will not cover to your side," I calmly say, "Your child belongs to us already ... You will pass on. Your descendents, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time they will know nothing by this new community." - Adolph Hitler
Hakluyt:
I think you've been had. I believe this is the Seattle City Council in a recent statement to the local media. Just like that guy who was shot in Iran after being chased by police for 'drinking during Ramadan'- again, the city of Seattle post smoking ban.
Pro L.
I know they hate us and everything, but our constitution has held up pretty well for a long time. And to the extent that it's cracking, well, it's cracking in ways the EU should like.
You stated it very well, Pro Libertate. Where our constitution has weakened, has been in the areas of federal intevention and weakening of individual rights in favor of group rights. As I've said a million times:
Gentlemen, get over it, we're Europe.
Paul, maybe we should just merge with Europe and elect (for eternity) Good Father Houpette as our God-Emperor. Heck, maybe I would give up some civil liberties, economic freedoms, English, and reliable (if expensive) healthcare for four months of vacation, a daily siesta, and, oh, yeah, world domination.
As for a name for this super nation. . .Euromerica? Ameriope? Euro Disney?
As for a name for this super nation. . .Euromerica? Ameriope? Euro Disney?
WesterncivilizNation?
Paul,
No, the statement is indeed something Hitler said.
Roma Due? (Rome II, I think.) Best Western? The West is the Best? Middle-Earth?
Oceana?
When they arrive at the chapter on the constitution, the children are pictured reading the rules and regulations of an indoor sports hall.
I'm not sure which is worse - that the EU bureaucrats think a constitution should have anything to say about the rules and regulations of an indoor sports hall, or that the textbook makers picked that passage to open the chapter on the constitution. Couldn't the textbook authors find something even slightly more inspiring to highlight than such a trivial issue? Either way, they are both beautiful examples of the intellectual bankruptcy of those behind this entire farce.*
* That is not to say the goal of a unified Europe under a single constitution is necessarily a farce; I am not taking a position on that. There may well be good philosophical arguments on both sides, but whatever those arguments are they have nothing to do with the embarrassment that was the EU "constitution."
Hey! Let's call it Nato!
Or maybe Translantis.
How about The Federation? With the capital in San Francisco?
I'm liking Transatlantis, though the Trekker in me has a soft spot for "The Federation," too. The thing is, it would have to be the "United Federation of Planets." Yet, we haven't sent anybody "out there," and (officially and publicly, at least) none of them from "out there" has come here.
The first interplanetary ambassador we get (or send!), I'll toss "Transatlantis" into the dustbin of history: UFP all the way!
If they got back to teaching about the US costitution as their intrested in teaching revisionist history or animal rights our kids would know about what the constitution realy means and its not about washing your car in the front yard in the nude i suggest we go back to teaching the cosntitution and quit this stupid SAVE THE RAINFORESTS crap