Hasta La Gadget!

Michael Brown Sr. handed out Turkeys on Saturday in the Ferguson, Missouri community where his son, Michael Brown Jr., was fatally shot by a police officer in August.

The father took part in Ferguson’s annual turkey giveaway two days before a grand jury decided against indicting Darren Wilson, the officer responsible for Michael Brown Jr.’s death.

Since the decision announcement on Monday, thousands of protesters nationwide have taken to the streets in demonstration against police brutality.

Lesley McSpadden, mother of the slain teen, expressed her deep sadness in having to spend thanksgiving without her son to Al Sharpton on Wednesday.

“I don’t even want to think about tomorrow being Thanksgiving, it’s just Thursday. I don’t even plan to celebrate because I can’t.”

Al Sharpton held a “bonding prayer” for the families of Michael Brown and Eric Garner — another unarmed black man who was killed during a police interaction this summer — at the Harlem headquarters of his non-profit organization National Action Network. The reverend and long time civil rights activist asked for prayers for the two families this holiday season.

“This will be their first Thanksgiving with an empty seat at the table,” he said. “We hope that when people pull up to their tables on Thanksgiving, they pray for these families.”

See photos of Michael Brown Sr. delivering turkeys below.

In 2005, Bill Cosby testified under oath that he gave The National Enquirer an exclusive interview in exchange for the tabloid’s promise to spike a story about a previously undisclosed sexual assault allegation from a woman named Beth Ferrier. “I would give them an exclusive story, my words,” Cosby said in the testimony. “[And in return, The Enquirer] would not print the story of — print Beth’s story.”

Cosby’s statements, obtained by The New York Times and Associated Press, came during a deposition for a civil lawsuit filed by Andrea Constand, who claimed Cosby drugged and assaulted her.

According to the Times, Cosby admitted in the previously sealed court documents that he believed if the public knew about Ferrier’s allegations, it would give more validity to Constand’s claims:

“Did you ever think that if Beth Ferrier’s story was printed in the National Enquirer, that that would make the public believe that maybe Andrea was also telling the truth?” Cosby was asked.

“Exactly,” he replied.

Robin Mizrahi, a senior reporter for The National Enquirer who was tasked with the Ferrier story, revealed last week to The Guardian that the tabloid spiked the piece under pressure from the actor’s lawyers. A new article, which featured an interview with Cosby in which he discussed allegations made against him by Constand and a woman named Tamara Green, was published instead.

According to The New York Times, the tabloid’s exclusive (“Bill Cosby Ends His Silence: My Story!”) described the comic as “furious” about the allegations. “Sometimes you try to help people and it backfires on you, and then they try to take advantage of you,” Cosby was quoted as saying in the 2005 piece. “I am not going to give in to people who try to exploit me because of my celebrity status.”

Cosby’s representative, David Brokaw, and Cosby’s lawyer, Martin Singer, did not respond to requests from The Huffington Post early Thursday morning for comment on the claims. A rep for American Media, Inc., which owns The National Enquirer, said in a statement to the AP on Wednesday that the tabloid was “unflinching” in its coverage of the allegations against the actor.

“We continue to remain aggressive in our reporting today and stand by the integrity of our coverage of this story which we have taken the lead on for more than a decade,” the representative said.

Cosby has a long history with The National Enquirer. On Monday, Page Six’s Richard Johnson relayed claims from a former Enquirer reporter who said Cosby leaked a 1989 story about his daughter’s drug problem. In exchange, the paper buried another story about Cosby allegedly “swinging with Sammy Davis Jr. and some showgirls in Las Vegas.”

In 1997, the Enquirer offered a $100,000 reward for information on the death of Cosby’s son, Ennis Cosby. According to a 1998 New York Times article about the conviction of Ennis Cosby’s killer, the tabloid received a tip from a man named Christopher So, who would go on to be one of the key witnesses in the case.

Two years later, Cosby threatened to sue the magazine for $250 million after it ran a story claiming Cosby had sexually assaulted an actress named Lachele Covington in his Manhattan townhouse.

“The story is not true. It did not happen,” Brokaw said in a statement to the New York Post. “Mr. Cosby was not contacted by the police and the first he learned about this was from the National Enquirer.”

“The Enquirer has an absolute right to report on this controversy and will not be intimidated by Mr. Cosby’s threat,” Enquirer publisher David J. Pecker said in a statement at the time. “Should Mr. Cosby bring a lawsuit, the Enquirer will seek appropriate sanctions against him.”

For more, head to the New York Times.

One person’s trash turned out to be a national treasure.

Back in 2002, a farmer leaving near East Rudham, Norfolk, in the United Kingdom, dug up a large bronze object that looked like a bent sword.

Not thinking much of it, the unnamed farmer used it as a doorstop for 12 years before deciding to throw it away, according to Dr. Tim Pestell, senior curator of archaeology at Norwich Castle.

“He was prepared to throw it in the skip when a friend told him to take it to be identified,” Pestell told BT.com. “Straight away they knew it was significant.”

The farmer’s doorstop turned out to be a 27-inch ceremonial dagger that experts believe is about 3,500 years old. Experts dubbed the dagger the Rudham Dirk and say it is of “incredible importance,” according to UPI.com.

Experts at the National Heritage Memorial Fund said the dagger is about three times the size of a normal dagger and too heavy to be used as a weapon.

Because the blade was never sharpened and there are no rivet holes for a handle, it was most likely used for ceremonial purposes, as an offering to the gods.

“This is almost certainly the reason why it was found bent in half, deliberately folded as part of the object’s ritual ‘destruction’ before its burial, a practice well known from Bronze Age metalwork,” according to a National Heritage Memorial Fund.

Only five other daggers like the Rudham Dirk have been found in Europe.

Pestell was adamant about the dagger remaining in the UK, so he has been negotiating with the farmer for nearly a year.

With the help of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, Pestell was able to offer nearly $65,000 for the dagger.

It will be permanently housed at the Norwich Castle Museum, close to where it was found.

That pleases Sophie Cabot, president of the Norfolk and Norwich Archaeological Society.

“We’re really excited — it would have been a great shame if we’d have lost it,” she said, according to EDP24.

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The opportunity to make a work hard and provide comfortably for my family is something I am especially grateful for on this day of giving thanks. As most of us prepare to feast on a cornucopia of lovingly prepared foods, I am acutely aware that the basic necessity of a living wage eludes millions here in America and billions more around the world. For those mired in wretched poverty, Thanksgiving is just another Thursday where they try to eek out just enough to survive.

The divide between rich and poor right here at home seems to have reached a crescendo. Talks of the one-percent vs. the rest of us, cries to #boycottblackfriday, and the ever-present discussion of income inequality are all around us. Yet, true equality is more elusive than ever, perhaps because this is an issue where both the left and the right are wrong.

For the left, the term income inequality has become a rallying cry. We’re surrounded by stats saying that the richest 85 people in the world control more wealth than the poorest 3.5 billion. How the disparity between CEO and average worker pay has grown staggeringly since the 1950s. And, how retailers starting “Black Friday” sales on Thanksgiving are a sacrilegious affront to working class Americans.

The left misses the point that in fact, income equality isn’t a goal, and it hasn’t ever been a reality. Not only does it reek of socialistic underpinnings, many of the left’s loudest voices on income inequality are themselves 1%ers. Additionally, it probably makes no difference to the average wager earner whether their CEO makes 50 times the salary they do, or 500 times. The most glaring example of the left’s misguidedness is their haughty derision of black Friday sales starting Thursday, because it is so disconnected from the reality facing millions of Americans.

Black Friday is named thusly because it is the first day that stores turn a profit, perhaps in the entire year. Stores turning a profit is how workers say employed. For many working class Americans, making double-time wages on Thursday is critical to making ends meet. Most importantly, what are the stores that are open? Are they high-end brands or more likely stores where middle and lower income Americans shop.

While the more affluent may be doing their holiday shopping online, that Thursday evening shopping may well be something some Americans look forward to. Additionally, the reality of the 24/7, on-demand America we live in is that we are ALL making someone work on Thanksgiving. How many of us will trek down to Starbucks to get our lattes this morning? How many will be in hotels, at tourist attractions, traveling, or having an in-home chef cook our Thanksgiving dinners? The machinery of labor that makes America “never close” means someone, somewhere, is always working. Appearing ignorant about the people working on our behalf makes us sound like the elitists the right accuses us of being.

If the left is misguided, the right is deluded entirely. Yes, the American dream is everyone working hard and raising themselves up by their bootstraps from hardscrabble beginnings to fame and fortune. But that dream can only exist if it is actually accessible equally to all. The right completely ignores the fact that millions of children are born into such poverty, through no fault of their own, that their chance of transcending their birth class is virtually zero.

Amazingly, many poor Americans have been successfully duped by the super-rich into thinking that the reason they are poor is the leftist government, and not the self-serving actions of those very super-rich. The super-wealthy that use their power to stack the deck further fracture ordinary Americans, who are not only denied opportunity, but can’t even agree why they are poor in the first place.

With some regulation and controls, capitalism works, and it is congruous with a healthy democracy. There will always be rich and poor. There will always be those who work harder, are smarter or get luckier thank others. Americans actually admire self-made fortunes. Some of the most admired people in America are the richest. Bill Gates, who has donated billions to eradicate the world of disease like polio; Howard Schultz who is using his wealth to help push employment for deserving veterans and numerous others come to mind. These are successful Americans using their massive wealth to increase opportunity and equality.

And, that is what people really want. Not income equality, but opportunity equality. That every person will be afforded the same opportunities to not go hungry, to get healthcare and a quality education, to live without fear and to know that they enter the world on a level playing field, not a stacked deck. For the American dream to work, every American has to be able to share in it, through the virtue of their hard work. The guy working for minimum wage on Thanksgiving has to be able to believe that his kids can achieve the same dreams as the kids of a billionaire. When that guy loses that belief, and thinks instead that he and his children are mired in a life of menial labor to serve “the rich,” society breaks down.

Faith in a better tomorrow is the fabric that binds any society. It is a hallmark of American progress that we all believe, regardless of our place in life, that we can give our kids a better life. That your desire and deeds determine who you are is what has separated us for decades from so many societies torn apart by classist strife. This Thanksgiving, let’s all be thankful for what we have and let’s remember to embrace the goal of opportunity equality. After all, the more likely we make it that anyone can achieve success, the more likely it is we will ourselves. Happy Thanksgiving.

Tomcat may have been the F-14’s official moniker, but its other nickname was ‘Turkey.’ Seeing as many of us will be slaving away in an attempt to cook perfect turkey today, it is only proper that we pay homage to the hard working sailors who had to the cook a perfect Turkey every time- those who maintained the crazily complex F-14 ‘Turkey.’

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