choad wrote:

I giggled years ago when I read a brief history of post WWII Czechoslovakia and learned the nation's Soviet puppets habitually tossed their running dog refusenics out upper storey windows. Think reeducation during China's Great Leap Forward, only lots quicker. And more permanent.

Watching "Monsieur Lazhar" last night, a brilliant 2011 Québéc film focusing on school children, I realized there's actually a widely adopted word to describe the Czech method of dispatching dissenters and it has a far deeper history than I imagined.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defenestration

One of my favourite words since 1969 when I read the following:

Tales from the White Hart: The Defenestration of Ermintrude Inch (Arthur C. Clarke).