2003-01-30T22:54:06Z2003-01-30T22:54:06ZWeasel/Non-Weasel Scoring2003-02-05T13:39:43Z<p>As a service to the Blogosphere, I will keep a tally of declared Weasels and Non-Weasels. <a href="http://www.instapundit.com/archives/007152.php#007152">Glenn Reynolds</a> adds Albania and Slovakia, two current non-members of the EU, to the list of declared Non-Weasels, and <a href="http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2003/01/31012003203339.asp">this <cite>Radio Free Europe</cite> story</a> adds 3 more, which makes the current list as follows:</p>
<h4>Weasels</h4>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Belgium (vassal Weasel #1)</p></li>
<li>
<p>France (or, West Weaseldom)</p></li>
<li>
<p>Germany (or, East Weaseldom)</p></li>
<li>
<p>Luxembourg (vassal Weasel #2)</p></li></ul>
<h4>Non-Weasels</h4>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Albania</p></li>
<li>
<p>The Czech Republic</p></li>
<li>
<p>Denmark</p></li>
<li>
<p>Hungary</p></li>
<li>
<p>Italy</p></li>
<li>
<p><ins>Latvia</ins></p></li>
<li>
<p>Poland</p></li>
<li>
<p>Portugal</p></li>
<li>
<p><ins>Romania</ins></p></li>
<li>
<p><ins>Slovenia</ins></p></li>
<li>
<p>Slovakia</p></li>
<li>
<p>Spain</p></li>
<li>
<p>United Kingdom</p></li></ul>
<p>For those keeping score at home, that's <strong>Weasels 4, Non-Weasels 13</strong>. Here's the tale of the tape for the Weasels and Non-Weasels (from the 2002 CIA World Factbook):</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Population — Weasels: 154 million, Non-Weasels: 268 million.</p></li>
<li>
<p>Gross Domestic Product — Weasels: $3.97 trillion, Non-Weasels: $4.84 trillion.</p></li>
<li>
<p>Land Area — Weasels: 937,147 sq km, Non-Weasels: 2,070,853 sq km.</p></li>
<li>
<p>Military Expenditures — Weasels: $88.5 billion, Non-Weasels: $71.9 billion.</p></li>
<li>
<p>EU Council of Ministers Votes — Weasels: 74, Non-Weasels: 104</p></li></ul>
<p>Now, <em>exactly</em> which countries speak for Europe again? The Non-Weasels out-muscle the Weasels in every major category except miltary spending. (Of course, this begs the question: why are the Weasels so unwilling to use their military power to support their fellow Europeans?)</p>
<p>The bottom line here isn't really about Europe versus America. Rather, as <a href="http://denbeste.nu/cd_log_entries/2003/01/Trendwatching.shtml">Steven Den Beste points out</a>, the primary difference between “old” Europe and “new” Europe is that the latter has moved beyond the use of knee-jerk anti-Americanism as a substitute for establishing a thoughtful and responsible foreign policy.</p>
<p class="update"><a href="http://www.agonist.org/archives/000493.html#000493">Sean-Paul Kelley has a map</a> which distinguishes the “real Weasels” from the temporary ones; if accurate, Jacques “the human weather vane” Chirac and Gerhard Schröder aren't going to be sharing tea and crumpets anytime soon.</p>
<p class="update">I've updated the post to include three additional allies reported by <cite>Radio Free Europe</cite>.</p>
<p class="update"><a href="http://www.instapundit.com/archives/007292.php#007292">Glenn Reynolds</a> links to <a href="http://www.techcentralstation.com/1051/techwrapper.jsp?PID=1051-250&CID=1051-020503D">this <cite>TechCentralStation</cite> piece making a similar argument</a>.</p>
http://blog.lordsutch.com/archives/215
http://blog.lordsutch.com/atom.cgi/entryid=215