On 15-Feb-2005, Scott Weiser wrote:

Well, let's see...the "countries" in the EU are now pretty much "states"
like those in the US, aren't they?

Different languages, different cultures, different governments... I'd
say they're not. By comparison, the US states are a union with weak
state rights.

You do know that an alternative term for
an independent nation is "state," don't you?

Semantic triviality. Nothing to do with the US use of "state".

Where do you think the EU got
the idea? From us.

Yes of course, without the US nothing would exist. This might come
as a surprise to you, but the idea of an association of states goes
back a long, long, long time before 1776.

Total bull****, seen from my position as a person living in a country with
government provided health care.

Uh huh. Do you have heart disease? Diabetes? Cancer?

No but members of my family do and are receiving fine treatment. Timely and
quite effective. You have no idea what medical care is like in other countries,
so why waste your time writing the drivel that you do?

Mike