China has arguably the best privacy laws. In China the state really will go the extra mile to protect the privacy of all government agencies that have access to your emails.

You must be referring to this: http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1149. Well you might be able to block them with deep pigeon inspection. If not a man on the firewall with a shotgun ("Media Sentry") will do the job easily.

Well you have to admit Microsoft has done more for nuclear disarmament than anyone else...

"The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people." - Adolph Hitler (Mein Kampf)

was quoted out of context by Rabbi Daniel Lapin in his letter to Julius Streicher and the continuation:

"As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation."

is attributable to him. (complete text: http://www.aapsonline.org/brochures/lapin.htm) The original passage from Mein Kampf was :"The folkish state 1 must make up for what everyone else today has neglected in this field. It must set race in the center of all life. It must take care to keep it pure. It must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. It must see to it that only the healthy beget children; that there is only one disgrace: despite one's own sickness and deficiencies, to bring children into the world, and one highest honor: to renounce doing so."

You might want it but the US arms industry doesn't : If you want a sample of what is going on read the story of the Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty and who managed to convince the electorate to vote No (see Libertas and Declan Ganley http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declan_Ganley and his connection with the US arms industry). Of course it is our fault as Europeans that we let ourselves to be taken in by charlatans and fear mongers... :-)

The European Parliament gets elected directly by the people whereas the other bodies get assigned by the national governments. In regards to whether it is half-arsed or not you will find that the US does not want a united Europe because it will not be able to sell as many weapons / interfere as easily in domestic politics like the various US government bribing groups dictate (see political party donations in the US). If you want a sample of what is going on read the story of the Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty and who managed to convince the electorate to vote No (see Libertas and Declan Ganley http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declan_Ganley and his connection with the US arms industries). Of course it is our fault as Europeans that we let ourselves to be taken in by charlatans and fear mongers.

The European Parliament gets elected directly by the people whereas the other bodies get assigned by the national governments. In regards to whether it is half-arsed or not you will find that the US does not want a united Europe because it will not be able to sell as many weapons / interfere as easily in domestic politics like the various US government bribing groups dictate (see political party donations in the US). If you want a sample of what is going on read the story of the Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty and who managed to convince the electorate to vote No (see Libertas and Declan Ganley http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declan_Ganley and his connection with the US arms industries). Of course it is our fault as Europeans that we let ourselves to be taken in by charlatans and fear mongers.