[conspire] OT (geopolitics) So much winning

[Rick Moen]

I said to Josef Grosch (jgrosch at gmail.com):

> An excellent argument can always be made that having a second passport
> around and ready to go is good insurance, especially if you're in any of
> the groups likely to be included in those lists.

Reminded myself of a story.  Circa 1988, I was living with my
then-fiancée Iris (it ultimately did not work out), who was very
bothered about the direction of US politics under George H.W. Bush, 
and she desperately wanted to come by EU citizenship.

To be clear, I didn't vote for the elder Bush, but thought he was a
pretty good President, and didn't really share Iris's perceptions much,
but that's a separate discussion.

Iris said "You should apply for Norwegian citizenship, so we can both
have EU citizenship when we marry."  (She knew that my dad had been born
in Kristiansund, Møre og Romsdal, Norway, and emigrated as a boy.)

I said, "Dear, there are three problems with that."

"One, I really doubt that the Oslo government would wish to do special
favours for the adoptive son of a Norwegian citizen who emigrated in
1930 and then surrendered his native citizenship to become a foreigner."

"Two, Norway has had what one could call a 'pick a lane' law ever since
it became independent of Sweden in 1905:  If you want to become
Norwegian, you must affirmatively surrender and disavow any other
citizenship you have, and I'm not prepared to give up my citizenship
rights as an American."  (Norway's Parliament finally changed this law
to permit dual-citizens in the recent past.)

"Three, dear, Norway isn't in the EU."

(It's in the EEA.)