America will now understand why we stayed out of the euro By Janet Daley World Last updated: February 11th, 2010 As the Greek crisis threatens an apocalyptic political showdown in the EU, all those bemused Americans who used to question the logic (or the sanity) of British Euroscepticism may be having second thoughts.I can remember doing an interview in the 1980s with the US cable news channel MSNBC in which my host responded to my doubts about the single Euroupean currency with patronising amusement. “But Britain”, he said with a smile, “is part of Europe.” What that meant to him I suppose was that London was generally the first stop on the traditional American Grand Tour of “Yurope” as it existed in the imagination of a US undergraduate. London, Paris, Rome, Brussels, etc were just colourful spots on the Old World map, whose variations were more quaint and decorative than substantial.And if the fifty states of the US could share a currency, he went on, why shouldn’t the “states” of Europe be able to do the same? Well, here’s why: the nations of Europe are differentiated not just by their famous tourist monuments and adorable customs but by their wildly disparate historical experiences, their financial discipline and rectitude, their atttiude to the need for following rules, etc, etc. The very different financial conditions and political cultures which arise from all these dissimilar backgrounds have been fudged and bent out of shape to make them conform to a single model – and now we are seeing the consequences. What I should have asked the man from MSNBC, of course, was how he would feel if the US was proposing to abandon the dollar and embrace a new common currency (the Americano?) which would be shared with all the countries of Latin and Central America – including those with outrageously high debts (as Brazil had at the time). This would, of course, involve the US Federal Bank being amalgamated into a Central American Bank which would have power over the interest rates of all member nations as well as depriving them of the possibility of devaluation. Somehow I suspect this might have punctured his enthusiasm for international clubs which limit the freedom of sovereign nations to act in their own interests.But I suppose even those shiny eyed liberals in the US who thought that European federalism was such a swell idea are getting the message now.\  

 Playgirl says it has what appear to be nude photos of WoodsTiger Woods' putter could be the next thing on public display.

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 Evangelical about immigrationPro-immigration activists are marching on Washington DC this weekend, and evangelical Christians play a key role in their fight Stewart J Lawrence guardian.co.uk, Friday 19 March 2010 Article historyThousands of pro-immigration activists from across the country will flock to Washington DC on 21 March to demand that President Obama and Congress pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill in 2010. Mainline Catholics and Protestants who have long defended the rights of illegal aliens plan to be front and centre, as they have been for years. But marching alongside them this year will be some fresh religious faces: evangelical Christians.Last October, the conservative-leaning National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), which represents some 30 million evangelical Christians, passed a resolution at its annual meeting in support of comprehensive immigration reform. The resolution, which received little notice outside of religious circles, produced shockwaves among US conservatives who frequently look to Christian evangelicals for political support, but who are still wary of embracing immigration reform as a conservative-led cause.Most evangelical Christians, including most NAE members, backed George W Bush for President in 2000 and 2004. Even so, when Bush pushed for comprehensive immigration reform in 2007, the NAE found itself too internally divided over the issue to take a public stand, and Bush's proposed legislation suffered a crushing defeat.What happened to change the NAE's mind? NAE leaders say that continued "theological reflection" on the Christian concept of "witness" has led its 40-member denominations, including its largest group, the 3 million member Assemblies of God, to recognise the need for greater clarity and purpose in its national policy views. A similar process has led the NAE to issue policy statements on climate change, and to announce its support for congressional legislation to limit greenhouse gas emissions.But another key factor is organisational: Hispanic evangelicals, whose ranks are steadily growing, have been actively lobbying the NAE to support immigration reform as a part of a broader campaign to make evangelical churches more attentive to the faith needs of their Hispanic members – in part, by promoting more Hispanic ministers but also by developing more culturally attuned models for worship and outreach.Leading the charge is Rev Samuel Rodriguez Jr, president of the 15 million-member National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, who, like an estimated 80% of Hispanic Christians, backed Bush for president. But in 2006, when Rodriguez tried to convince congressional Republicans that their increasingly strident attacks on illegal aliens would backfire politically, he was rebuffed.

Rodriguez's efforts to convince the NAE to adopt even a mild resolution supporting the need for immigration reform also went nowhere.But GOP failures to attract independent white voters with their harsh anti-immigration rhetoric, and their steady loss of support from moderate Latinos, is now causing religious and secular conservatives to reassess their hard-line views. Another factor is the sheer growth of the Hispanic evangelical movement, which is beginning to outpace that of its non-Hispanic counterparts, thanks to ever-increasing Hispanic immigration. With…

 The Google war: China calls US an 'information imperialist' Speech by Hillary Clinton on internet freedom provokes angry responseBy Clifford Coonan in BeijingSaturday, 23 January 2010
GETTYHillary Clinton denounced censorship after Google threatened to quit China  China responded with a fierce broadside yesterday after Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, attacked its record on internet freedom. The country labelled Washington an "information imperialist" and said accusations that China was manipulating the internet for its own ends were false. Web giant Google's threat to leave China over cyber attacks on rights activists and internet censorship, combined with Ms Clinton's strong denunciation of censorship, have caused the Google affair to escalate into a major row between Washington and Beijing. The Chinese say the tension between the two superpowers is harming diplomatic ties, and Beijing officials told Ms Clinton to "stop finger-pointing"."The US side had criticised China's policies on Internet administration, alluding that China restricts internet freedom. We firmly oppose such words and deeds, which are against the facts and harm the China-US relations," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said on the government's website.Many cyber experts suspect that the hacker attacks from China on Google and other targets were so sophisticated that official involvement was likely. The fact that human rights activists, journalists and dissidents were targeted also encouraged the suggestion that this might be the case.Chinese hackers are famously patriotic and have been blamed for attacking the website of Tokyo's Yasukuni war shrine, seen by many Asian nations as a symbol of Japan's past war-time aggression, and the website of the Melbourne International Film Festival after it said it would show a film about the Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer.It's the latest sign of strain between China and the US, with the two countries already at loggerheads over trade issues, China's currency and the sale of weapons by the US to Taiwan."We urge the US side to respect facts and stop using the so-called freedom of the internet to make unjustified accusations against China," the statement said.In her speech in Washington, Clinton cited China as among a number of countries where there has been "a spike in threats to the free flow of information" over the past year. She also named Tunisia, Uzbekistan, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam. She said: "countries or individuals that engage in cyber attacks should face consequences and international condemnation."Yesterday White House spokesman Bill Burton made clear that President Obama agreed with his secretary of state. "All we're looking for from China are some answers," he told reporters. He said that Obama "continues to be troubled by the cyber security breach".Mr Ma insisted the internet was open and free in China. But such claims are at odds with the fact that the Chinese government heavily censors online activity and keeps a tight…