Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un's uncle was a "traitor for all ages," a "trickster," "an anti-party, counter-revolutionary factional element," a "despicable political careerist," and "despicable human scum... who was worse than a dog." And now Jang Song Thaek, once the second-most powerful figure in North Korea, is dead at the order of his nephew. Jang was executed days after a public arrest on account of crimes including tepid applause at a party gathering where Kim was honored. The speed and ruthlessness of Kim's purge is bad news for anyone who hoped a reasonable voice might one day emerge in the secretive, cultish country.

Thanks, Obama! An American drone operator murdered 15 Yemeni civilians—adding to the pile of people killed in our extrajudicial anti-terror strikes—somehow mistaking a wedding party for an Al-Qaida hangout.

An FBI agent lost in Iran for several years may actually have been working for the CIA, but on a "rogue" mission authorized by "analysts who had no authority to run operations overseas." The CIA says it fired people over the incident, although no word if that discipline was really just because the agency's fingerprints were uncovered.

And, of course, we've already loused up our fragile deal with Iran over its nuclear program. An expanded bit of sanctions by the White House, seemingly an effort to head off something even more punitive by Congress, has driven Tehran from the bargaining table.

Ukraine protesters who see the soul of their 22-year-old nation up for grabs—they're angry at their government for buckling under Russian pressure and backing away from a deal with the European Union—have defiantly weathered a bloody police crackdown and are now preparing an even bigger weekend of demonstrations.

China's first moon rover, the Jade Rabbit, is expected to gently set itself on the dusty lunar surface sometime tomorrow. I feel like, with that name, I should make a joke about marital aids. I won't.

John Boehner actually did it. Taking more shots at the Tea Party, he squeezed an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote on an admittedly austere and flawed $1 trillion federal budget from the usually fractious House of Representatives.

Now it's the Senate that's come undone. Dissent and mayhem over Harry Reid and Jeff Merkley's necessary move to kill filibusters for most presidential nominees has now sent the chamber into a second all-night session full of pissy and huffy recriminations.

Using cell phones on planes really might be a thing. But it won't be as loathed as you might expect. New federal rules would allow you only to draw down your monthly data allotment—NOT actually make annoying calls.

Now Pope Pinko is trading skullcaps with commoners bumming around St. Peter's Square. It's almost getting boring, how refreshing and unpretentious and sensible Francis is (by way of comparison to his fussy and doctrinaire predecessors, that is).

HERE'S MY JAM FOR THE MORNING. WHILE WE'RE ON THE SUBJECT OF HATS AND RELIGION AND RIGHTEOUSNESS.