On October 30, 1997 House Speaker Newt Gingrich released the following statement after his meeting with Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

As I said in China this spring, there is no place for abuse in what must be considered the family of man. There is no place for torture and arbitrary detention. There is no place for forced confessions. There is no place for intolerance of dissent.

…

While we walked through the Rotunda. I explained to President Jiang how the roots of American rule of law go back more than 700 years, to the signing of the Magna Carta. The foundation of American values, therefore, is not a passing priority or a temporary trend.

Follow this link to see my source for this item.

Follow this link if you want have a good laugh at the feckless Republican moderates.

Is this God’s punishment to the GOP?  The proof of their idiocy seems to be coming faster and faster after each display.

Follow this link to the article by Gretchen Rubin.

She is working on her Happiness Project, and you could have one, too! Everyone’s project will look different, but it’s the rare person who can’t benefit. Join in — no need to catch up, just jump in right now. Each Friday’s post will help you think about your own happiness project.

I see by the comments posted along with her article that many of the readers of Gretchen’s article missed an important paragraph.

Of course, this resolution applies to aspects of your past that actually were happy. You might well choose deliberately to disengage with unhappy parts of your past.

Gretchen has a couple of interesting one minute movies.

• The Years Are Short
• Secrets of Adulthood