The European Union Constitution is running in to a bit of trouble. The document itself would create a very leftist group of states, though I can't say that I know any details. The funny thing is that the British, widely known to be a wild and crazy group, actually have the nerve to put approval of the Constitution to a national vote. The nerve! Chirac, President of France, is upset about this. Why the hell should the people have any choice? Ironically calls for a referendum on the issue within his own country are becoming much louder than before. The ostensible capital of the EU, Brussels, would prefer that everyone just approves the thing so they can go ahead with socializing the continent. Several of the smaller countries are having referendums, and that's not really a problem. If they reject the constitution then either they just won't be let in to the EU, or they ahve to vote again and again until they come to an answer that Brussels likes. Britain and France, however, are rich and leaving them out of the EU would hamstring the whole idea right away. You also can't force them vote again and again, because as that goes on the rest of the countries will take the cue and reject it, and suddenly you have a European Union with three or four countries in it. That, of course, is useless. What I find to be the funniest part of the whole affair is the presumption by various Europeans leaders that the people want a leftist-socialist EU. Almost every time a vote has been put to the issue in any country, it has been rejected, yet the leaders continue to say that this is what the people want. What people, I ask? I think they have the same sort of thing going on in Europe that we have here in the US. John Kerry has this idea of what the man on the street wants, and that is Bush out of office. But when someone actually asks a man on the street, over 50% disagree with Mr. Kerry. How's that phrase go, "If wishes were horses?"