The Canadian Prime Minister has recognized Quebec as a "nation within a nation". In my mind Quebec should either become independent or be a province and that solutions like this don't really solve anything. Does anyone really think that this will convince Quebecois that they don't want to run themselves? Notably, however, nobody asked me.

Also, polls in both Scotland and English suggest that the people of both think that they should be independent and not part of a United Kingdom. I don't begrudge them their opinion, but wouldn't that leave Northern Ireland somewhat screwed? Is the peace they've found over there in the last few years stable enough to survive a transition like this?

Lastly, I read recently an article about how call centers in The Philippines are having difficulty finding English-language calltechs because of an ill-advised decision to shift away from English and more towards their historic language of Tagalog. I may be in for sensitivity training or a history lesson, but my tentative thoughts on the Philippines and Cuba is that we made a mistake leaving them with their sovereignty and that they would both be a lot better off if we had been more, rather than less, imperialistic. Maybe I'm reading too much Orrin Judd lately.

Part of me thinks that the Guadalupe-Hildalgo treaty was a mistake and we left too much of Mexico to the Mexicans, but if we'd taken over substantial parts south of the current border the Civil War quite possibly would have had a very different ending.