Matters of a much more extraordinary kind are to be the subject of this history, or I should grossly mis-spend my time in writing so voluminous a work […]

One of my coke babies had retinal damage and seizures and to me that is just as severe as somebody waling on a kid, she says.

A barber shop in Yencheng, Kiangsu province, had to close down for self-examination because one impatient cadre couldn't get a haircut.…The barbers offered that arrangement could be made immediately to give the district bureau chief the haircut he wanted, but the cadre had now changed his mind. “I wouldn’t let any of you cut my hair even if all the other barbers in Yencheng were dead,” he said, then added: “You all are outrageous. None of you know how to serve customers. This place must be closed tomorrow for a thorough re-evaluation."

When I defend my pro-choice position in the debate over abortion in our country, I frequently refer to Romania, where pregnancy could be monitored on behalf of the state, and to China, where it could be forcibly terminated.