I wasn't expecting to blog again until next week. These last few days at the office are going to be busy.

But then I saw this. First off, for all of you who think it is relevant to remind Europeans more or less in perpetuity that they are free because of the United States, stick a cork in it. If not for France, we'd still be a nation of tea drinkers, and have to stand up every time some snot nosed kid wants to yell, "Ladies and Gentleman: I give you THE QUEEN!"

Henry Kissinger once said "Countries don't have friends, they have interests." That is certainly true of most of the countries of Western Europe, and we should not expect loyalty from people who have never shown it before. But Kissinger was a European, on the other hand, and the United States does in fact have friends, most particularly Great Britain. I also think there is a real possibility that some of the loyalty presently shown by East European countries may last a very long time. I count those nations as our friends, not merely our interests.

But France and Germany should really shut up too. The governments of those two countries have spent the last decade resenting us because our protection was necessary to keep the Soviets away, and taking every opportunity to lecture us for our arrogance (ironically enough, when you consider it for just a moment).

How many lectures do you expect us to take before we start ignoring you? Let's all just acknowledge that (at least at the intellectual elite level, as opposed to the level of general populaces) that we find one another useful, but like married people having affairs with each other, we don't in fact like one another very much. Sure the sex is good, and the adventure is kind of fun, but we must never pretend to have a real emotional connection.

Then we can go on without all the melodrama. Very European, don't you think?