Can You Top This One?(humorous look at ease with which apologies are offered by various political bodies and persons)(Brief Article)

Sorry says it best. But only if you really mean it. Everyone from popes to presidents is offering up apologies these days, some gritting their teeth or mumble-mouthing more than others. From sorrys that never were to the sorriest sorrys we're ever to see, Peri ranks the contrition competition, 0 to 10:

For massacring hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians, abusing between 100,000 and 200,000 Korean "comfort women" and rewriting history books to suggest it never happened: Japan says, "Not sorry" for years. Finally, in 1998, Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto apologizes. Sorry, too late. 0, 0 and another 0.

For mistakenly slaughtering 500 livestock because officials misread a map reference: "Mistakes are made," quoth Britain's Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. No bowing to peer pressure here. But then, it's only animals. 2.

For midair spy-plane collisions: "We're very sorry" (for the accident, whoever was at fault) and "very sorry again" does the trick for Dubya. China is happy to interpret that as it will. 4 for effort but a 10 for perfect obfuscation.

For the massacre of more than 1,500 Polish Jews in 1941 by the Nazis: "We ...