Michael I am very impressed with your knowledge of our country but don't think the analogy quite fits. The U.S. went from the Articles of Confederation to the federal system in a very short period of time. We were not dealing with, in some cases, hundreds of years of customs, language differences, etc., even with the relative homogeneity of those 13 original colonies the system was unworkable. Even with some sovereignty and independence being given up it was still to OUR government. I know an argument can be made that it is YOUR (Europe's) government, but remember France is one of the players here.

With the European Union I just see so much control being voluntarily handed over to a supranational organization and that would scare the hell out of me. I would be fighting it the whole way if it were announced that we were combining with Canada and Mexico to form a North American Union. I hope never to see that day. I suppose since this process has been ongoing for 50 years it is not such a big deal over there (and public apathy regarding the EU does seem to be high in Europe), is inevitable, and a break has to be made somewhere. This reminds of the anecdote about the frog in the pot of water. It just seems to me that there could be more inter-European cooperation without giving up quite so much nationally.

Now this is probably a uniquely American outlook (we tend, as I'm sure you've noticed, to wear our patriotism on our shirtsleeves) because we are somewhat isolated (and Britain as you mentioned) and have seen no major conflicts on our soil in quite some time. Howell didn't label Flanders the "cockpit of Europe" for nothing - and that was before Napoleon and the World Wars! I can understand the desire for integration based on military history, but hasn't NATO effectively neutralized that?

Well that's enough of that for now, I'm sure we'll discuss this issue much more in the coming years.

Oh yes Michael regarding Texas, you are quite right. God bless Texas!