# European Union Should be Changed to Earth Union **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 25, 2014, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-union-should-be-changed-to-earth-union/682207 "2014-02-25T08:11:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Oldeb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ea666f/32.png) [@Oldeb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oldeb)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2014, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-union-should-be-changed-to-earth-union/682207/41 "2014-02-26T03:55:23Z")
It’s about time someone decided Mexico should become a US state before a US territory does and places Cuba as “more American” than Canada. My biggest concern is when would be the appropriate time to add Guam, before or after Mongolia? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2014, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-union-should-be-changed-to-earth-union/682207/42 "2014-02-26T04:01:51Z")
Why not at the same time? The great state of Guamongolia could be just one of many interesting fusions in our newly expanded nation. Mozambelgium, Austraustralia, Singaportugal. . . . the list is endless. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2014, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-union-should-be-changed-to-earth-union/682207/43 "2014-02-26T07:37:42Z")
> [@Israel\_Goldstein](#): > > I wish there was a way for me to upload my picture so people can tell me if they think I am pretty or not . . . I wish there was a way to convince people that being asked a simple, direct question is not a request for unwarranted snark. I’ll ask again: what, in your view, does four question marks accomplish that one does not? Surely you have given this some thought and decided that standard English grammar does not meet your needs. Are you unable to articulate why this is so??? ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2014, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-union-should-be-changed-to-earth-union/682207/44 "2014-02-26T09:42:39Z")
> [@Israel\_Goldstein](#): > > By the way, Turkey can’t join: their skin is a little too brown. Maybe if they bleached their skin like Michael Jackson did, bleached their hair, got colored contact lenses, and then changed their names to European ones. Er, no. The main sticking point is Greece, who will veto Turkey’s entry unless and until Turkey renounces its claim to Cyprus which Ain’t Gonna Happen. At the moment I’m inclined to think the EU would be better off accepting Turkey and kicking out Greece, but that’s just me being snarky. There is also a saddeningly large number of people who don’t want all those Mooslim types being able to move freely throughout Europe. Plus Germany, who are the heaviest hitters in the EU at the moment, would likely get an immigration bump from Turkey and thus are less than thrilled with the idea too. So politics, local economics and religious bigotry are the obstacles to overcome. But race? That’s a tiny, tiny percentage of the reason for the resistance to Turkey’s inclusion. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2014, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-union-should-be-changed-to-earth-union/682207/45 "2014-02-26T11:33:04Z")
I’m pretty sure Arya hasn’t even applied for membership yet, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2014, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-union-should-be-changed-to-earth-union/682207/46 "2014-02-26T11:52:25Z")
> [@Ximenean](#): > > I’m pretty sure Arya hasn’t even applied for membership yet, anyway. The European Economic Arya? ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2014, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-union-should-be-changed-to-earth-union/682207/47 "2014-02-26T12:25:01Z")
😃 Arya Man Unhappy About All Them Muslims ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2014, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-union-should-be-changed-to-earth-union/682207/48 "2014-02-26T13:11:39Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > The great state of Guamongolia could be just one of many interesting fusions in our newly expanded nation. I would vote to admit Guacamolia, but I’m worried about [blood avocados](http://www.vocativ.com/11-2013/avocado/). ---
**Author:** ![Grestarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grestarian/32/3227_2.png) [@Grestarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grestarian)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2014, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-union-should-be-changed-to-earth-union/682207/49 "2014-02-28T20:18:43Z")
> [@Ximenean](#): > > I’m pretty sure Arya hasn’t even applied for membership yet, anyway. Arya is lost in Westeros, trying to make her way home with the fire-fearing knight. She’ll apply once she settles down. > [@Israel\_Goldstein](#): > > Why can’t we just … become one big planet-wide country? ARE YOU CRAZY??? [I made sure I didn’t use more than four…] This was predicted over two thousand years ago. That would be like (sing with me, now) _The End of the World, As We Know It_ Once we have a one-world government, Satan will become its leader and set up a spokesmodel/figurehead and then the whole Revelations thing will begin – like a 50 ton juggernaut rolling down a Christian Slippery Slope (the opening phase of Raiders of the Lost Ark comes to mind) – with wars and horsemen (well, probably scruffy biker-types) and famine and disease and drastic weather changes (Oh, you mean like Global Warming?) and stapling numbers on people’s foreheads (like that Chase Bank commercial) and resurrections and all that garbage. [What I don’t understand is why the Christians, whose prophecy this is, don’t want this to happen. They seem especially opposed to giving the United Nations any teeth to back up its edicts. I would expect that the real believers would be arguing to do everything possible to hasten the One World Government phase of future-history so that ultimately, the prophecies will come to pass and god will revive all the good-and-proper Christians (which they believe themselves to be) and give them a new world to inhabit, free from all the horrible not-devout-enough rabble.] Oh. Sorry Mister Goldstein. Guessing from your name, I must have forgotten that those prophecies aren’t part of your version of the Scriptures (i.e. the Torah). That’s okay, they’re not part of my version either–particularly because I don’t follow a scripture at all. –G! Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. …–Jesus Christ …(as recorded by Matthew 10:34) …The Bible [New King James Version] ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2014, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-union-should-be-changed-to-earth-union/682207/50 "2014-03-01T02:23:47Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > Er, no. The main sticking point is Greece, who will veto Turkey’s entry unless and until Turkey renounces its claim to Cyprus which Ain’t Gonna Happen. Cyprus happens to be a member country: they’re happy to have the Greek veto to add to their own. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2014, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-union-should-be-changed-to-earth-union/682207/51 "2014-03-01T05:49:21Z")
The EU is showing cracks in its foundations already. Switzerland, though not in the EU is a member of the [Schengen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Area#Territories_of_Schengen_states_outside_the_Area) group which is largely co-extensive with the EU, and it has recently decided to restrict immigration from its neighbors–a thing I didn’t know Schengen members were allowed to do. The UK may vote to withdraw in a few years, and if Scotland votes to secede, then it would have to re-apply for EU membership. As an outsider, I always thought the idea of the EU and the Schengen area seemed like wonderful things, but it doesn’t seem to be holding up very well if one country can decide to raise barriers, and other countries may vote to leave. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2014, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-union-should-be-changed-to-earth-union/682207/52 "2014-03-01T13:26:55Z")
It’s the way that the EU constantly seeks to expand its remit that is the problem, “ever closer union” as the EU’s more ardent proponents put it. I’m fine with a trade area / live-&-work-anywhere sort of arrangement, as we have now. I’m against a currency union or any kind of federal EU. If the eurozone stays together that will necessarily mean close integration, and EU policy largely set for that group. In that case I think the UK would be better off in EFTA, like Norway. We’d lose what little say we have in EU affairs, but whatever. If the euro breaks up then fine, we can stay, because I imagine that will put the kibosh on ever closer union. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/european-union-should-be-changed-to-earth-union/682207.md?page=2)