This is a quickie for those of you who find Europe intriguing. I don't want to be accused of being Euro-centric, but come on: these people are sort of fascinating and non-threatening (violence-wise) at the same time. That's certainly rare enough. Anyway, the EU had another draft of its constitution up for vote this year. Of the 27 member countries, only one threw the Constitution into a referendum style vote: Ireland.

And now 45% of the 3 million voters of Ireland are rejecting the Constitution. For starters, the people bitching about that being a sizable minority are right but should also shut up. Protesters of the Constitution from all 27 countries have been gathering in Ireland to make themselves heard on this. Ireland was just the only country who decided that the people should have a say on this. I understand that EU has been trying for a Constitution for years, but this one... I don't like it. It takes away the autonomy of the member nations. These are, after all, independent countries with independent peoples. These aren't states like in the US. Each of these is a COUNTRY. Reading over the cliff notes version of the treaty, they won't really be able to call themselves more then member states if this passes. I guess you can argue that if they subject themselves to it it's enough, but do they understand how much they're giving up for the sake of convenience? Clearly some people do: in addition to Ireland's very loud objection, the UK and the Czech Republic have legal objections that they want addressed before voting. And the UK and Ireland have the mother of all loopholes: they can opt in or out on any number of domestic legislative items. But the other nations can't.

Once again, my sourcing is limited to the BBC because they popped up on my news feed and I'm leaving for the airport in an hour to go to a classmate's wedding in lovely VA.