The American Thanksgiving meal is over. Advent will soon begin. The crawl toward Christmas has begun.
Let us clap hands to heads with this:
The Second World War Katyn massacre was committed on the direct order of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, Russia's lower house of parliament said Friday — a statement hailed by Polish officials.
The 1940 massacre of around 20,000 Polish officers and other prominent citizens in western Russia by Soviet secret police has long soured relations between the two countries. President Dmitry Medvedev will visit Poland in early December.
Soviet propaganda for decades blamed the killings on the Nazis, but post-Soviet Russia previously acknowledged they were carried out by the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs, or NKVD — Stalin's much feared secret police.
The statement passed by the State Duma appears aimed as a step toward Russia definitively breaking with its Soviet legacy.
Yes! That is what people have been saying for decades! What? It just occurred to Russia that
maybe Stalin was responsible for this atrocity? Unbelievable!
North Korea doesn't know the meaning of the word "quit":
North Korea warned Friday that U.S.-South Korean plans for military manoeuvres put the peninsula on the brink of war, and appeared to launch its own artillery drills within earshot of an island it showered with a deadly barrage this week.
The fresh artillery blasts came just after the top U.S. commander in South Korea, Gen. Walter Sharp, toured the country's Yeonpyeong Island in a show of solidarity with Seoul and to survey damage from Tuesday's hail of North Korean artillery fire that killed four people.
An official at the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said about 20 blasts were heard on Yeongpyeong coming from North Korea's mainland some 7 miles (11 kilometres) to the north, and that nothing landed on South Korean territory. The military official spoke on condition of anonymity, citing military policy.
Tensions have soared between the Koreas since the North's strike Tuesday destroyed large parts of this island, killing two civilians as well as two marines in a major escalation of their sporadic skirmishes along the sea border.
Let us assume for the moment that North Korea is serious. It would not make such a threat if China was not backing it, nor would it be making that threat if Kim Jong-Il and his fat heir didn't feel emasculated. North Korea (read: the Kim dynasty) wants its funds in the banks and rice for the military. Squeeze them a little. Who will be loyal when
they are finally starving? A Chinese-backed military still marches on its stomach.
Why we shouldn't cater to people who masquerade as adults:
A heterosexual British couple is challenging the law on civil partnerships after an application was turned down. At present, only gay couples are eligible.
Ian Goggin, 21, and Kristin Skarsholt, 22, who are Quakers and live in Bristol, western England, said they wanted the security and stability of a legal commitment without having to get married, the BBC reported.
They are among eight couples -- four heterosexual, four gay -- taking their case to the courts, arguing the law is discriminatory.
"The registrar did offer us a marriage, but that's not what we want," Mr. Goggin said.
"She was really helpful and extremely nice, but she couldn't offer us a civil partnership under [Chapter 1] Section 3 of the Civil Partnerships Act 2004.
"They formally rejected us and helpfully gave us a letter of rejection, which we can take to our legal advisor and mount a campaign against the law."
Regardless of what country you go, traditional marriages and families offer economic, social and cultural incentives that single people do not. What exactly are these people hoping to achieve? That they have every right not to get married but shack up and not be called pre-determined titles? People want to be patted on the back for waking up in the morning, they really do.
China is not just miffed; it's rude:
Only one of the 140 Chinese guests invited to this year's Nobel Peace Prize ceremony has said he will attend, as Beijing holds scores of activists under house arrest. China remains furious at the award of the prize to Liu Xiaobo, pictured, co-author of Charter 08, a petition for political reform. Mr. Liu has been in detention for almost two years, and his wife, Liu Xia, has been under house arrest and banned from outsidecontact since the prize was announced last month. Mrs. Liu drew up a list of people she would like to attend the ceremony in Oslo on the couple's behalf, but most have been placed under house arrest or surveillance. Wan Yanhai, a Chinese AIDS activist who fled to the United States in May, is the only person so far to have confirmed his attendance.
:
Churchill says he wants to take this all the way to the Supreme Court. He may be able to pull the wool over the eyes of impressionable kids but scholars and academics know what his game is and are on to him. The regents acted correctly in firing him - not for his obscene remarks about 9/11, but because he was terrible at doing his job; teaching objective truth to his students while maintaining the highest standards of scholarship in his published writings.
And now for something completely bizarre:
Police in New York City say thieves held up the owners of a pizzeria and then fled with a bag of full dough -- the kind that crusts are made of.
Police say Salvatore LaRosa was charged with robbery after surrendering to police.
According to court papers, LaRosa and an accomplice followed the owners of Brothers Pizzeria on Staten Island. After donning masks, the papers say, they pointed guns and demanded the men turn over a bag they believed held the day's proceeds.
But instead, the bag was full of pizza dough.
Truly a caper quite unlike the
Great Train Robbery!
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