Word: state
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...political disputes for long. But it does not note that Europe spreads beyond E.U. borders. The Council of Europe encompasses some 800 million citizens, unified by a vision of human rights. Call it soft power if you like, but it exerts a strong and fruitful influence in every member state, from Russia to Turkey, to Iceland and Italy...
Robert McIver, Edinburgh To a significant proportion of Europeans, the E.U. President and Foreign Minister are entities which have been created by the political élite of the E.U. and agreed to by Europe's governments, and are virtually irrelevant. The Lisbon Treaty was approved by E.U. heads of state, with only a small number of states holding a democratic referendum prior to signing up to the treaty. Like most countries, the British government did not hold a referendum, and the government signed up to the treaty on our behalf. Little wonder then that many Europeans remain uninterested in these...
Stefan Thiesen, Selm, Germany Need I explain to a professor from the tiny, autocratic state of Singapore, which was founded by a former European power, that yes, indeed, in the European Union we are free to demonstrate if we deem it right? We are actually free to express our opinion publicly - and noisily...
...often been said that history is written by the victors. This was never more true than on March 12, when the Texas board of education voted 10-5 in favor of curriculum standards that would promote conservative takes on controversial issues in the pages of the state's textbooks. The changes, expected to win final approval in May, include an increased emphasis on and sympathetic treatment of such Republican touchstones as the National Rifle Association and the Moral Majority. They also tout the superiority of capitalism and the role of Christianity in the nation's founding. Even Thomas Jefferson...
This is not Texas' first such skirmish. Since the 1970s, the state has tried to drop books that were seen as too liberal or anti-Christian, to omit passages on the gay-rights movement and to tone down global-warming arguments. But the nation's battle over textbooks stretches back almost half a century earlier. In 1925, Tennessee's Butler Act (which was repealed in 1967) made it illegal to teach "any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible." The Scopes "monkey trial" famously followed. In 1974, a clash erupted...