Who Cares About Joining the EU?

Sun Times And now we have a third inspirational story from little Austria. One day, a few years after the Trapps skedaddled out of there, a young man was born near Graz. His name was Arnold and he worked out every day and he went to America and became governor of California and one morning he had to make a decision on whether or not to commute the death sentence of a multiple murderer called Tookie Williams. And he decided instead to let Tookie's execution go ahead. And back in his old stomping grounds of Graz the politicians went bananas. In the old days, when some local lad made good and became fuhrer of another state and started killing people, the hometown crowd couldn't wait to have a big ol' Anschluss with him. But times change and contemplating Arnold's reign of terror his fellow Grazis decided they wanted to disAnschluss themselves from him. Outraged by Tookie's demise, Social Democratic and Green councilors and members of parliament immediately took action. Or what passes for "action" in European politics these days. They demanded that Arnold's name be removed from the Arnold Schwarzenegger football stadium. They proposed that it should be renamed the Tookie Williams football stadium. And Arnold's response. "The use of my name to advertise or promote the city of Graz in any way is no longer allowed," continued Arnold. "Graz will not have any problems in the future with my decisions as governor of California, because officially nothing connects us any more." And just for good measure he returned the "Ring of Honor" he was given in 1999 for the "pride and recognition" he brought Graz. As for the reference to my title: They launched moves to strip Arnold of his Austrian citizenship on the grounds that the death penalty is illegal in Europe, which is why a barbaric nation like the United States is ineligible for membership of the EU. ("What a tragedy," as Americans always say when this is pointed out to them.)