As we approach this holiday season, it seems we have little to be thankful about. Still topping the news are stories of death and dire.

• Abraham Biggs, a Florida teenager blogs that he will commit suicide and then webcasts a video of the event, live, while viewers on the Internet wonder if it's a hoax. His family is despondent and livid, and his father "is now calling for more [government] regulation of chatrooms," even though his use of the term "chatroom" clearly shows he understands neither the technology or the psychology involved.

• Ashley Dupre reveals on national TV the "details" of her involvement with former New York governor Eliot Spitzer, whose political career was destroyed in a scandal of such magnitude that when people talk about the "details," they still can’t bring themselves to say what really happened.

• Al Qaeda is still in the news, and we’re still apparently terrified by terrorists, meanwhile Palestinian militants fire a rocket at Israel, which lands in an industrial zone in the town of Ashkelon.

• Rights activists are livid that California Proposition 8 passed, and they have stepped up their campaign to have it rejected. Whichever side eventually wins, this will turn out to be a ruthless and bloody fight.

These are just some of the stories I pulled out of the “top stories” at Google News last week. Meanwhile, the financial markets continue to ride a roller coaster. We aren’t officially in a recession yet, but analysts are predicting one with such certainty that everyone accepts it as a fait accompli. President-elect Obama in a radio address claimed “we are facing an economic crisis of historic proportions,” and he proposed massive, long-term federal hiring, spending, and hand-outs to compensate for the flailing economy.